Category Archives: historical interpretation

September 24, 2020 · 9:31 am

Chinese Ambassador Hu Wei in Q nd A with Kelum Bandara

Acting Chinese Ambassador Hu Wei speaks to Daily Mirror about the present status of bilateral relations. He responds to questions about controversial issues involving China with India and the United States at the moment…. 14 September 2020

  • Debt moratorium from China to Sri Lanka might only solve a small percentage of existing problems but with huge prices.
  • Some subsidiary companies of China Communications Construction Company are blacklisted
  • China never says China First and force Sri Lanka to choose sides
  • Legacy of “Rubber-Rice Pact” Safeguards China and Sri Lanka’s Cooperation against Foreign Threats
  • China provided  a loan of  US $ 500 million in March when  Sri Lanka needed some urgent loans to settle external borrowings and fight the pandemic 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

September 23, 2020 · 12:58 pm

Caste, Ur and Tamilness among the Tamils in Metropolitan London

Jane Russell. reviewing article by Thanges Paramsothy entitled  “Caste Within the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora” in Anthropology Matters Journal, Vol.18 No 1 (2018)

I usually avoid reviewing academic articles. Many are derivative and ones that employ original research can be turgid and dull. But that is not the case with this article by Thanges Paramsothy, currently South Asia Program Scholar at Cornell. While replete with sociological and anthropological information about Sri Lankan Tamil caste groupings, both past and present, it is also full of revealing insights into a social system that has been a veiled inner sanctum to many outsiders.

a toddy tapper

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under asylum-seekers, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, refugees, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes

September 23, 2020 · 8:51 am

Language of Governmentality: An Incisive Comparison

Chandre Dharmawardana, in a COMMENT directed at the moderate voice of Daya Wickramatunga in Thuppahi Commentary, 5 August 2020  …. here raised in status because of its salience and wisdom

Daya Wickrematunga is said quoted to say:  “Our Constitution should include that amendment. The 13th amendment that prescribed equal powers to the provinces, with equal status to the Sinhalese and Tamil languages, was aimed at that. It went to show that the ‘Sinhala Only’ policy of SWRD was wrong.”

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, education, electoral structures, evolution of languages(s), governance, historical interpretation, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes

September 22, 2020 · 1:05 pm

A Poignant Farewell at Vishvamadu in 2018: Rathnapriya Banda’s Work of Reconciliation

Shenali Waduge. in an article presented in June 2018 and entitled  “LTTE village & a Sri Lankan Military Officer show the world what Reconciliation & Peaceful Coexistence is all about” …. ith highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi

It was a farewell that has shocked & left plenty of critics speechless. It has put to rest & completely nullified the lies that have been spread against Sri Lanka’s Army. The culprits include foreign governments/envoys, INGOs/NGOs, UN & even the present government in particular the Tamil leadership & the LTTE diaspora who must be startled at the pictures emerging of an entire village weeping as they bid farewell to a military officer who had played the role of their mentor, their father, their brother, their advisor & virtually their leader. Col. Rathnapriya Bandu has done what Prabakaran, Wigneswaran, Sivajilingam, Sumbanthiran, Sambanthan or even Tamil Nadu politicians could not do & do not want to do. In a world that plays divisive politics of divide & rule he has shown that it takes a hero to unite & Col. Bandu is one hero that we must all salute. No former LTTE village would ever carry a Sri Lankan Military officer on their shoulders & weep as he bid goodbye if he was no hero in their eyes.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, ethnicity, gender norms, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, meditations, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, rehabilitation, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions

September 22, 2020 · 10:00 am

Epitaphs in Memory of Elmo de Alwis of Kalahe

Nihal De Alwis

Elmo was born on the 29th Of November 1935 in Galle to my loving parents FELIX DE ALWIS and ENID BERYL DE ALWIS. He was the seventh in our family of eleven He was my closest brother and friend throughout my schooling career until he left Sri Lanka with his family to Germany. But he never distanced himself from me and my family though he did not come very often to Sri Lanka having ensured that he was in Sri Lanka at least once a year especially in February. He was the most intelligent out of our family except for Fidelia our eldest sister, who had passed the senior matriculation in the early forties and my other eldest brother Chandra, who excelled as an entrepreneur being the managing Director of Lankem and Lanka wall tiles and becoming Founder Chairman of Royal Ceramics.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

September 22, 2020 · 2:01 am

Vale Rajeewa Jayaweera: Mate as well as Renaissance Man

Sanjeewa Jayaweera, whose choice of title is  “Rajeewa Jayaweera: beloved brother, friend, confidant, mentor, and comrade in arms”

“No Chutta, I don’t need your help today. I will let you know when I need it.”  were the last words that Aiya spoke to me. Usually, his tone was brusque and matter of fact.  That day it was soft and endearing. I was a bit surprised but happy. I often wish I had the intuition to guess something was amiss.

Rajeewa (on the left facing) with his younger brother Sanjeewa … in Halong Bay Vietnam

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under cultural transmission, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes

September 21, 2020 · 8:29 pm

The Carpentry Trade in the Rise of the Karāva in British Ceylon

Professor Sanath Lamabadusuriya

The Dutch period opened up several new economic opportunities for the locals, and the British period that followed opened up even more. Carpentry was one of them. Colonial economic activity in the maritime provinces required large buildings with extensive woodwork, Carts, boats and ships for transport, barrels for storage and European style furniture. These demands created a new and thriving carpentry industry.

A Coopering Factory …. Such products as arrack and coffee (and later graphite) were packed into barrels for transhipment. The demand would have been considerable so that entrepreneurs who set up coopering concerns would have been among those who became scions of the indigenous capitalist class.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes

September 21, 2020 · 8:05 am

A Long Life … Without a Car

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News.  In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.  It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed. 
 My Father
My father never drove a car.  Well, that’s not quite right.  I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.
Overland Whippett 1926

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, historical interpretation, life stories, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

September 20, 2020 · 12:22 pm

Medieval Scenarios amidst Metropolitan Hustle-Bustle

Uditha Devapriya, in Daily Mirror, 19 September 2020, where the title is “Madapatha has hardly changed”

Every morning at 5.20, I wake up to the sound of distant drums followed by the chanting of pirith. I literally begin my day with a reminder of the impermanence of life. But then dawn breaks 10 minutes later, and by 5.45, what with the tooting of horns and the chirping of birds heralding the coming day, I can no longer hear the pirith as clearly.Kolamuna Walauwwa
 Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, cultural transmission, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

September 18, 2020 · 1:45 pm

Colombo Port City via Chinese Alliance

News Item in Colombo Times, 18 September 2020, with this title “Colombo Port City … has attrcted 16 billion dollar investment ….”

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the Colombo Port City Project will become the main source of income for the country and the project will generate more than 83,000 employment opportunities.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes