Category Archives: education

October 2, 2022 · 7:55 pm

Udantha Abeyratne & Queensland University Team in Major Breakthrough

News Item at ABCNet …. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-28/qld-pfizer-buys-uq-start-upresapp-health-covid/101478832

A Brisbane-based company that invented a smartphone app it says can diagnose COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses by listening to someone cough has been purchased by Pfizer for nearly $180 million. ResApp Health Limited uses diagnostic technology developed by Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne and his research team at the University of Queensland (UQ) to record and analyse a patient’s coughs on a smartphone.

 

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September 30, 2022 · 2:07 am

Orphaned. Abandoned. Illegitimate. Children cared for by the Evelyn Nurseries of Kandy, 1920 et seq

Michael Roberts

 The tale of the lifeworld of Charles Braine (1877-1944) in British Ceylon presented by one of his descendants https://thuppahis.com/2022/09/21/charles-s-braine-a-rajah-of-a-planter-in-british-ceylon/ generated a side-issue: sex and/or marriage between the British personnel managing the tea, rubber and coconut plantations in British Ceylon and the labour force they commanded. The inequalities in power placed unequal sexual advantages for the planter periya dorais …. and illicit children were one outcome in some instances – a process that probably continued into the second third of the 20th century when Sri Lankans of upper-crust status with an educational background in the best local schools began to gain entry to planter-jobs.

Unlike some of his compatriots, the Englishman Charles Braine kept house with his common-law Sinhalese wife, Engracia Nona: together they fostered and educated a lively family of nine children.

Interest in this tale and comments from Joe Paiva and Errol Fernando led me to two topics of some consequence: (A) the presence in the island of an ethnic category identified as “Eurasians” as distinct from the Burghers;** and (B) the endearing and enduring work of an orphanage known as the Evelyn Nursery that had been launched by a British lady with a large heart that was matched by her architectural and organisational skill: Ms Lena Chapman ( ….).

 

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September 28, 2022 · 1:40 am

Sri Lankans in Australia: 2016 Census Data …… The Demographic Profile

Item sent to Thuppahi by Victor Melder ….  at https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2016/7107_0 …. presented here with some selective highlights from the Thuppahi pen

People 109,853
Male 57,280
Female 52,573
Australian citizen 60.3%
Not an Australian citizen 38.3%

Families 43,816
Couples with children 26,914
Couples without children 13,326
One parent families 2,972
Other families 592

All private dwellings 52,548
Median monthly mortgage repayment $2,100
Median weekly rent paid $351

 

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September 25, 2022 · 1:48 pm

Dr Carlyle Perera, 1938-2022: A Warm Appreciation

Trevor Denver de Rozairo

Dr Carlyle Perera

A famous Sri Lankan doctor passed away peacefully at his home in Melbourne, Australia … At the age of 84.

Perera PSM. Dr. Carlyle was born in Kotahena, Colombo. His parents Wilton and Winifred thought they would educate their eldest son at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo the leading Catholic institution, where he completed his entire scholastic education. He was an exemplary student and during this period he excelled in sport as well. He participated in College Cricket captaining a successful First Eleven team in 1958 — an unique collective becuase his brother Travis was part of that team.

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September 23, 2022 · 2:26 pm

Refinement of Cricket Playing Conditions effected by ICC

An ISLAND News Item, 22 September 2022, News Item with this heading “ICC makes changes to Playing Conditions”

A host of changes have been announced by the ICC to the Playing Conditions, which will come into effect on October 1 2022. The Men’s Cricket Committee led by former India captain Sourav Ganguly recommended changes to the Playing Conditions in MCC’s updated 3rd Edition of the 2017 Code of the Laws of Cricket.

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September 21, 2022 · 9:52 pm

Charles S. Braine: A Rajah of a Planter in British Ceylon

One of the Braine Progeny presenting an Item in the History of Ceylon Tea website, entitled “Charles Stanley Braine (1874-1944) – The Rajah of Mawatte”…. https://www.historyofceylontea.com/ceylon-publications/feature-

Charles Stanley was born in Ceylon on 25 December 1874. He was the eldest son of Charles Frederick Braine and Adeline Mary Becher, who had married in London earlier that year.

   

  Charles Stanley Braine: rajah-of-mawatte.html

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September 20, 2022 · 6:36 pm

Seven Lankans Survive Awful Ordeal in Ukraine

Sofia Bettiza, in BBC News Item, 19 September 2022, with the title “Sri Lankans freed from Russian brutality in Ukraine” .… the highighting here being impositions by the Editor, Thuppahi

Ukraine’s recapture of the city of Izyum has brought multiple allegations of atrocities under Russian occupation. Among the accounts emerging is that of a group of Sri Lankans held captive for months. Here, they tell their story.

The liberated Sri Lankans with Ukrainian police in Kharkiv

“We thought we would never get out alive,” says Dilujan Paththinajakan. Dilujan was one of seven Sri Lankans captured by Russian forces in May. The group had just set out on a huge walk to safety from their homes in Kupiansk, north-eastern Ukraine, to the relative safety of Kharkiv, some 120km (75 miles) away.

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September 20, 2022 · 2:16 am

The Measured Funeral March: Poignant Power

Michael Roberts

At 9.00 pm this day of 18th September 2022 I ventured back from my study to our living room to have dinner.  The TV was on and my Scottish wife was watching the serried ranks of the British military and royalty accompanying the hearse bearing the body Queen Elizabeth on its last earthly journey towards Windsor Castle.

I stood and watched. The seepage of “Empire loyalism” in my upbringing [1] must have kicked in: I was saddened and a tear or two emeged. I remained standing.

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September 17, 2022 · 3:13 pm

“Ceylonese” Fighting for Britain during the Two World Wars

Michael Roberts

Following the recent publication of the book Volunteers from Ceylon who served in the British and Commonwealth Forces during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) …. I asked the assiduous compilers of this work to provide a convenient statistical summary of the number of personnel from Ceylon who decided to serve the British Empire in its hour of need (with all the political and cultural implications of these decisions in my ‘compass’).

So, Thuppahi can now present the statistics courtesy of Kumar Kirinde (ex-Trinity College and SL Air Force).

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September 16, 2022 · 2:01 am

In Appreciation of Sam Popham & His “Popham Method in Forest Regeneration”

Risidra Mendis in Ceylon Today, 4 June 2022, where the title runs thus: “The Popham legacy lives on”

Rows of large and valuable trees, lush greenery in abundance, a cool atmosphere, and plenty of interesting things to see are what the iconic Francis Home Popham, (better known as Sam Popham) – the creator of the world-renowned Popham Method in Forest Regeneration, and founder of the Popham Arboretum in Dambulla – left behind when he passed away on 28 May 2022 at an Assisted-Living facility in England.

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