Colonel Douglas Macgregor in Interview with Andrew Napolitano…. recorded on 29 November 2022 …. and already ‘mounting’ 77,877 views …
... so LISTEN TO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3MkvWxdJrU
Colonel Douglas Macgregor in Interview with Andrew Napolitano…. recorded on 29 November 2022 …. and already ‘mounting’ 77,877 views …
... so LISTEN TO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3MkvWxdJrU
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, war reportage, world events & processes
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, whose favoured title runs thus: “Lanka’s Vanishing Fish: Corporate Capture and Import Dependency Deepen the Debt Trap” .… and has been presented at
A great transformation in food culture and nutrition is taking place in Sri Lanka following various exogenous economic shocks: The traditional, nutritious ‘rice and fish’ diet, common throughout coastal Asia is increasingly substituted with imported maize or corn-fed chicken, white wheat flour breads, instant noodles and processed food.
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
The ‘discovery’ of the Lorenz Cabinet in the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s led me to combine with Percy Colin-Thome[1] and Ismeth Raheem in working up this material into a plan envisaging a set of books (four volumes).[2] The first in this projected series was drafted by me and came out in 1989 courtesy of Sarvodaya Publishing Services (within the limitations of book production in that period).[3] This book, People Inbetween, has been out of print for quite a while.
Filed under anti-racism, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, commoditification, cultural transmission, demography, disparagement, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, photography, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
A NOTE from Wikipedia: “The Second Boer War (Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, lit. ’Second Freedom War’, 11 October 1899–31 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire’s influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902″ … with the collage below.
Filed under Africans in Asia, British colonialism, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
ICOMOS NOTICE
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2022, the book titled “Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage” addresses the vulnerability and fragility of sustaining intangible heritage during prolonged shocks, such as the Covid – 19 Pandemic. In addition, the book offers insights into how heritage facilitators and practitioners deal with and safeguard intangible heritage locally and showcases the implications of ecological changes concerning livelihoods to the practice of heritage and education on sustainability.
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, photography, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
Rather out of the blue, Avishka Mario Seneviratne approached me seeking access to my first academic work , viz., the D. Phil. dissertation in History that I had secured in Oxford in mid-1965. I have a copy and it is possible there is one at Peradeniya University Library, but it is not widely available.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, teaching profession, transport and communications, unusual people, world events & processes
Ahilan Kadirgamar, in Daily Mirror, 21 November 2022, where the title reads “Hill-country Tamils and Crisis Times” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

When our country collapses before our own eyes with one of the deepest crises in historical memory, from what vantage point should we analyse our predicament? Sri Lanka’s political economy over the last two centuries is anchored in the travails and strivings of Hill Country Tamils. Their sweat and blood, that began with the horrifying journey from South India two centuries ago as indentured labour to work in the coffee and later tea plantations, were central to building the country’s modern economy under British colonialism. However, their position in society, and for that matter even the writing of their history, was marginalised. And despite the great democratic and social welfare advances in Sri Lanka with universal suffrage in 1931 and a powerful legacy of free healthcare and education, the social, economic and political life of the Hill Country Tamil community is characterised by struggle amidst persistent crisis times.
‘Ceylon tea’ gave Sri Lanka the recognition in the world map, but the plantation workers are still languishing in their ages-old abode, known as line rooms and continue to be marginalised in education, community wellbeing and healthcare.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, economic processes, education policy, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Hugh Karunanayake, in The Ceylankan, Journal of the Ceylon Society of Australia, No 100, vol 25/4, November 2022, where the title reads “Two Acclaimed Lawyers who migrated from Ceylon During the Days of the ‘White Australia’ Immigration Policies” … with the highlighting here being an imposition by The Editor, Thuppahi
The names Leslie de Saram and Aubrey Martensz are not likely to evoke sentiment of any kind from contemporary Sri Lankans. They were two outstanding lawyers who not only dominated legal practice and legal education, but also were very influential members of the profession and of Colombo’s social scene. Both de Saram and Martensz were at various times partners of the well-known legal firm FJ and G De Saram, founded by Leslie de Saram’s grandfather, FJ de Saram Senior, in 1841.
FJ De Saram (Snr) was the grandson of Maha Mudaliyar Christtofel de Saram the son of Johan Henriques de Saram who was only 14 years old when taken to England by Governor Maitland, handpicked from among the leading “native” families as suitable for higher studies. That headstart created a dynasty of lawyers.
Leslie De Saram
JA Martensz
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, growth pole, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, Royal College, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Letter from Ray & Chris Czajko of Kensington, Victoria (November 2022)
The Czajkos would have been even happier, or become ecstatic, if they had accompanied Thivanka Perera on his leoaprd filming ‘safaris; or chanced upon leopards in fornication in the full ‘glare’ of a jungle track (which Thuppahi is pleased to present in another item today). This is the Circular Note sent by Thivanka:
Dear Family & Friends,
Despite all the negative reports we get every day in the press and on TV, it was heartening to read this letter from recently returned Aussie tourists to SL. It augurs well for the poor tour operators and hotels that seem to be struggling because of the lack of tourists from all the bad press.
I thought it worth sharing this with you. I hope you like it.” Continue reading →
Dennis B. McGilvray, in India Review 5(2-3) November 2006, special issue on public anthropology, …. where the title reads “Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka: An Anthropologist Confronts the Real World” …. with highlighting in different colours imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
Recent calls for a new “public anthropology” to promote greater visibility for ethnographic research in the eyes of the press and the general public, and to bolster the courage of anthropologists to address urgent issues of the day, are laudable although probably too hopeful as well. Yet, while public anthropology could certainly be more salient in American life, it already exists in parts of the world such as Sri Lanka where social change, ethnic conflict, and natural catastrophe have unavoidably altered the local context of ethnographic fieldwork. Much of the anthropology of Sri Lanka in the last three decades would have to count as “public” scholarship, because it has been forced to address the contemporary realities of labor migration, religious politics, the global economy, and the rise of violent ethno-nationalist movements. As a long-term observer of the Tamil-speaking Hindu and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka’s eastern coastal region, I have always been attracted to the classic anthropological issues of caste, popular religion, and matrilineal kinship. However, in the wake of the civil wars for Tamil Eelam and the 2004 tsunami disaster, I have been forced to confront (somewhat uneasily) a fundamentally altered fieldwork situation. This gives my current work a stronger flavor of public anthropology, while providing an opportunity for me to trace older matrilocal family patterns and Hindu-Muslim religious traditions under radically changed conditions.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, disaster relief team, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, meditations, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, nature's wonders, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, security, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes