Vibeke Venema of BBC News, 6 May 2021, where the title reads “The ‘smart and cheeky’ Aboriginal boy teaching Australia a lesson”
A documentary about a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy’s experience in school, In My Blood It Runs, has reignited a debate about Australia’s failure to give indigenous children a good education and a fair start in life.
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Thuppahi’s recent presentation of a striking photograph unearthed by Gerald Peiris which depicts world-famous dignitaries on their way to formally declare the University of Peradeniya open for the business of study and play has attracted pleasure as well as information on the hands that may have been at work on this design. The debate on the choice of site for a new University branch is a separate and complicated issue. The focus here is on the architectural and landscaping designs. As I indicated, Shirley De Alwis [also spelt D’Alwis?] was the principal architect (and we require bio-data on this man). But, what else can we gather? Here are some preliminary responses. The Editor, Thuppahi
Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, education, education policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Suri Ratnapala, in The Australian, 2 February 2021, where the title reads thus “Proof of life on social media to screen out evils” …. with highlighting emphahsis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The suspension of Donald Trump’s accounts by Twitter and Facebook and the shutdown of Parler by Amazon following the events of January 6 heighten concerns about the power of the Big Tech firms to censor political information and debate.
First, a full disclosure. I am a critic of Trump of a classical liberal disposition. I am a social network recluse with only an email account. I believe the silencing of Trump by Facebook and Twitter may have served the immediate public interest but has troubling consequences for liberal democratic government.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education policy, governance, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, self-reflexivity, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
The unexamined life is not worth living.’ – Socrates.
Rarely has so much been written both in the West and in the East about the work of a ‘revivalist,’ that one would conclude there is nothing left to be revealed of the man or his work. That is until you read Bhadrajee Hewage’s “Anagarika Dharmapala and Ceylonese Buddhist Revivalism.”
Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, education, education policy, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
Michael Roberts
The presence of Lahiru Madushanka in Sri Lanka’s Squad for South Africa[1] has also highlighted his origins in the deep southeast of Sri Lanka after Chaminda Vaas spotted his prospects.[2] In seeking more information about his roots within Facebook I chanced upon another vein of ‘gold’ on the manner in which personnel from indigent circumstances in distant rural areas within Sri Lanka – whether north, south, east or central highland – have circumvented the tyranny of distance and poverty to improve their circumstances.
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A. S. Wirasinha
It was an important day in 1914 when two brothers E.A. and E.R. de Silva left the Wesleyan Mission Boys’ High School at Ambalangoda and enrolled as pupils at Richmond College. Galle. Arthur, the older brother, proved a quiet and steady worker and later worked his way to posts of high responsibility in the postal department of Sri Lanka. It was the younger brother, Richard, who was to make a vital contribution to the school.
... with DS Senanayake
Ronan McGreevey, in Irish Times, November 2020, .…https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/covid-19-world-in-for-a-hell-of-a-ride-in-coming-months-dr-mike-ryan-says-1.4370626
Covid-19: World in ‘for a hell of a ride’ in coming months, Dr Mike Ryan says … WHO official estimates that 750m people globally have likely had coronavirus to date
An estimated 750 million, or 10 per cent of the world’s population, have been infected by Covid-19, World Health Organisation (WHO) official Dr Mike Ryan has said. The Irish-born executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme said he was worried for the fate of the 90 per cent of people who have not had the disease.
Daya Lelwela, in Sunday Island, 2 May 2010
Having lived past the biblical span of three score years and ten, I thought it opportune now for me to make this reminiscent journey back in time to my days in school [viz. S. Aloysius College] before my fading, patchy memory were to rob me completely of those golden moments that I have cherished all my life and wish to share with you.
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Echo Hui, ABC Investigations, and Hagar Cohen
The Federal Government’s foundation that was meant to “turbocharge” relations with China is beset by dysfunction, a lack of purpose and possible conflicts of interest, say senior insiders.
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Prabhath de Silva, in Island, 11 July 2020, where the title is “Unsung And Forgotten Heroes of Free Education and Sri Lanka’s Missed Opportunities”
Much has been said and written about Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara for his role in the introduction of the Free Education Bill in the State Council (Sri Lanka’s legislature under the Donoughmore Constitution from 1931 to 1947) and implementation of the free education policy here. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to him but there are other unsung and forgotten heroes behind this story.
thuppahi
