Category Archives: disaster relief team

December 26, 2014 · 3:06 pm

Out of Tragedy, Fortune for Sri Lankan Seenigama Village via FOG and Worldwide Waves of Compassion

Shihar Aneez, 24 December 2014, at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-tsunami-anniversary-srilanka-idUSKBN0K219J20141224

As towering waves came crashing into the southern coast of Sri Lanka on Dec. 26, 2004, Kushil Gunasekera gathered up his children and they ran for their lives to a nearby temple, the highest point they could find. Returning later to his village in Seenigama district, he found a heart-breaking scene of death and devastation: one in four had been killed by the Boxing Day tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean.

A decade on, Seenigama has risen from the ashes and is now a model of prosperity, thanks in large part to the efforts of Gunasekera who led a relief drive from the ruins of his ancestral home and later gave up his lucrative sugar business to devote himself to a charity he had founded in 1999.   Continue reading →

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December 25, 2014 · 2:18 pm

Harrowing Memories! Profound Gestures! Harrow, Tsunami, Galle, Cricket and Vidyaloka College … Two Tales

I= Peter Foster: “Harrovian cricketers return to tsunami scene,” in The Telegraph, 24 December 2014.

A group of Old Harrovian cricketers has marked a symbolic moment on Sri Lanka’s slow road to recovery three years after the island was hit by the Boxing Day tsunami. Charlie Pelham, now 20, was with a team from Harrow School warming up for a match at the cricket ground in the fishing town of Galle when the wave swept in, lifting up their team bus and depositing it on the outfield.

HARROVIANS AT GALLE Julian Ayer’s widow, Harriet, and her son, Spencer Crawley, at the ground in Galle 

The boys and their coaches took refuge on the balcony of the ground’s pavilion and watched in horror as the bus-stand behind was engulfed by a 30ft surge of seawater, killing several thousand people. Continue reading →

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December 24, 2014 · 11:44 pm

Tsunami !! A Survival Celebration at Wijaya in Southern Lanka for the Hill Family from Adelaide

Meredith Booth in The Australian, 22 December 2014,

the HILLs-news corp the Hill family today in Adelaide-Pic News Corp

ADELAIDE survivors Emily Sharp and Michael Hill will mark the tsunami’s anniversary in the same Sri Lankan beach guesthouse, owned by the same couple, from which they miraculously swam on Boxing Day 2004. They’ll be sharing the “humbling experience” of their survival and put a landscape to the story for their sons Finnley, 9, and ­Orlando, 5.

Ms Sharp was six months pregnant with Finn when she and her partner managed eventually to escape to hills behind the village of Wijaya, south of Galle. “We were running through the courtyard while the bar was being ripped and chairs and tables were flying everywhere. Our first instinct was just to run upstairs,’’ she said at the time. Continue reading →

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October 30, 2014 · 11:45 pm

Stark Scenario: Meeriyabedde Landslide

MEERAYABEDDA LANDSLIDE Courtesy of Daily Mirror

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September 15, 2014 · 2:04 am

Tamil Person and State: Pictorial … Images Listed

Michael Roberts

     Contents

Acknowledgements v

Preface vii

List of Pictorial Items xvii

Abbreviations xxxiii

Prologue xxxv

Visual Imagery within Political Struggles and Manoeuvres …. pp. 1-44

Photographs …. pp. 45-208

Postface: BBC Blind …. pp. 209-29

Bibliography …. pp. 230-51

List of Appendices … pp. 252-92

Appendix I: Media Personnel transported to battlefront by Min-of Defence … pp. 252-63

Appendix II: Estimates of the Death Toll among the Fighting Forces of the LTTE and Government of Sri Lanka …. pp. 264-66

Appendix III: NGOs providing Relief at the Mānik Farm Detention Centres …. pp. 267-70

Appendix IV: US Ambassador Robert Blake’s Secret Despatch, 19 March 2009…. pp. 271-72

Appendices V: Inaugural Meeting of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, Colombo, 18 December 1949 … with Presidential Address by SJV Chelvanayagam …. pp. 273

List of Pictorial Items

Illustrations for introductory chapter

  1. Ecstasy and a karate kick before the kill, 24/25 July 1983
  2. A killing victim at Varanāsi, 23 December 1992
  3. A Muslim shot by police during Seelampur riots, Delhi, 1992
  4. Hindu mob assembled at night during Bhagalpur pogrom, 28 October 1990
  5. Massive crowd of White Americans assembles to watch thelynching of a Black American, Henry Smith, at Paris, Texas, 1 February 1896
  6. A case of torturing: two interpretations

F1: The image and its tale in The Cage

F2. The unmodified image discovered by GSL sources … with tell-tale slippers suggestive of Tiger troops

  1. DiManno’s slanted pictorial pick: a weak attempt to fool the public about the scenario of the Last Redoubt

H1, 2. LTTE video of auxiliary mobilisation for belligerent activity

  1. David Cameron’s visit to Jaffna draws world attention to the anguish of kin seeking the “missing”
  2. Tamils greet Cameron with demonstration depicting photographs of missing kin
  3. Tamil women seeking their kin in public expressions of grief and anger
  4. Tamils abandon Thamilīlam and walk through jungle at night to safety of Army terrain, February 2009

M1, 2. Mobilisation in search of the “disappeared” kin, 2012 and 2013

PONNA CHELVA  GG Ponnambalam, SJV Chelvanayakam and C Vanniasingham, of the Tamil Congress in 1947

2b-Chelva hustings  Chelvanayakam campaigning 13c--Prabha with pistol-2 the talaivar Pirapaharan with automatic handgun … probably a Glock Continue reading →

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September 11, 2014 · 9:27 am

Advertising TAMIL PERSON AND STATE by Michael Roberts

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TAMIL PERSON AND STATE – ESSAYS = Rs. 3500/-

TAMIL PERSON AND STATE – PICTORIAL = Rs. 4000/-

This set of books is the latest anthology from Michael Roberts that caters to the reading public in Lanka and elsewhere by collecting his essaying interventions in the public realm, usually on web, within one cover. These articles were written between 2009 and 2012. Two long articles, however, are new products drafted in 2012. One explores the significance of a Karaiyar caste coterie within the LTTE, while clarifying the ideological currents that inspired their opposition to the Sinhala-dominated state. The other clarifies the circumstances of the Tamil peoples within the de facto to state of Thamilīlam from 2002 onwards and especially within the crucible of war in “the Vanni Pocket” in 2009 and thence to the detention centres at Mänik Farm. Continue reading →

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March 31, 2014 · 5:54 pm

MH 370: Surveying the Possibilities, as Dim as Distant

Vanessa Barford, courtesy of BBC News Magazine, 26 March 2014, where the title is “Malaysia plane: 10 questions that are still unresolved”

_MH 370-- 73726611_air-traffic-controlAs the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues in the southern Indian Ocean, some key questions remain unanswered. Here are 10 questions about what happened to the Boeing 777 that disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on 8 March, with 239 people on board.

1. Why did the plane make a sharp left turn?

Military radar logs show flight MH370 turned unexpectedly west when it diverted from its planned flight path, by which time the plane’s transponder had already been switched off, and its last ACARS data link transmission sent. Sudden turns like this are “extremely rare”, according to Dr Guy Gratton of Brunel University’s Flight Safety Lab. He says the only real reason pilots are likely to make such a manoeuvre is if there’s a serious problem on the plane which makes them decide to divert to a different destination, to get the aircraft on the ground. Continue reading →

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January 8, 2014 · 3:16 pm

Dedicated Medical Work Amidst the Heat of War, Death and Propaganda: In the Vanni Pocket, 2009

Michael Roberts, …… courtesy of Groundviews where the essay carried a different title. In presenting the article here I have embellished it with images, maps.  It also has a few more hyperlinks.

Amidst the obfuscations and cumulus clouds of propaganda that have subsumed reviews of the last stages of Eelam War IV, it has taken time for some remarkable feats to emerge. The affidavit provided by Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah on 10th May 2012 with assistance from a British solicitor reveals astounding medical relief work by a body of doctors, nurses, attendants and administrative aides during the Tamil peoples’ enforced retreat and crucible of battle in 2009. This statement has been deployed by a collective named ENGAGE SRI LANKA in the course of its criticism of Channel Four’s video reportage and the claims of “Vany Kumar” (Gnanakumar Thamilvani in name,[i] who also presented herself under such aliases as “Damilvany” and “Vany Kumar”). As such, it is an element in the ongoing propaganda war – one which no public document can rise beyond. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2014 · 1:16 pm

Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah’s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel Four

Dr.-V.-Shanmugarajah-s - times[1]This item is taken from Engage Sri Lanka: Corrupted Journalism,  2013, Appendix 2, pp. 203-14. The pictorial illustrations are the Editor’s additions.

I, Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, Medical Superintendent , Mullaitivu General Hospital, being a Hindu, honestly , sincerely and solemnly swear and MAKE OATH as follows:

1. I  am Dr.Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, presently Medical Superintendent ,Mullaitivu.  I was born on 11 June 1968 and am presently 44 years old. I am a graduate of Jaffna University’s faculty of Medicine, and hold the qualification of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. I have had additional training in obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthesia. I have worked as a Medical Officer at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the District General Hospital in Killinochi and the Mullaitivu General Hospital. I was the Medical Superintendent at Mullaitivu General Hospital and the acting Medical Superintendent in charge of the obstetrics ward at the hospital. I am married, and have three children aged 13, 10 and 4. Continue reading →

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November 1, 2013 · 2:21 am

Australian Humour faces some innocents abroad

Bless the Australians and their sense of humour………………………………….. 

Untitled attachment 00010 Continue reading →

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