Category Archives: island economy

May 12, 2017 · 7:14 am

Empowered Women rise from the Ashes of Sri Lanka’s War

Avani Dias,  courtesy of ABC Net, May 14 May 2017, where the title runs  “Border Girls: Women in Sri Lanka take on male roles to help recovery from brutal civil war,” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-07/border-girls-help-sri-lanka-recover-from-civil-war/8499728

Women and girls whose male relatives were killed in Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war are now helping the country recover, taking on roles formerly reserved for men and heading to schools and universities to complete their education. The so-called “Border Girls” mostly come from towns and villages which formed a human buffer zone between the opposing sides during the 27-year conflict, which ended in 2009 and left tens of thousands of civilians dead, many of them killed in the war’s bloody final phase. The majority of border girls, who are from the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim ethnic groups, lost their partners, fathers, and brothers in the war, which pitted government troops against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas, also known as the Tamil Tigers. Now these resilient women want to independently lead a change in Sri Lanka by pursuing their education and altering community attitudes so women have a leadership role in the traditionally male-led society.

Saroja Dilrukshi, 16, lost most of her family during the Sri Lankan civil war

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May 7, 2017 · 2:13 pm

Kandy’s Landscape under Sunday Observer’s Eagle Eye

Sunday Observer Team, 17 May 2017

The Sunday Observer has launched “Cityscape” where our intrepid reporters will visit cities around the country, probing the shortcomings and asking the questions no one dared to ask before. In this segment of Cityscape, our staff journalists, Maneshka Borham and Husna Inayathullah are visiting the Hill Capital Kandy, the country’s second largest city, seeking answers to a host of issues including, but not limited to, garbage, air pollution and the lack of parking spaces.

 Kandy – mid 19th century overview    Kandy Today

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May 3, 2017 · 4:43 am

In Appreciation of Geoffrey Bawa amidst an Architectural Rift of Seismic Scale

David Robson  ….. re-printing an old essay in The Daily News, 24 December 2013, in an article entitled “Remembering Bawa”

In this article, originally published in Indian Architect & Builder,  architect and writer David Robson pens an intimate and personal account of the life and work of Geoffrey Bawa – an incredible architect with an unparalleled legacy in Sri Lanka and south-east India.

Ten years have rolled by since Geoffrey Bawa’s death and fifteen since ill-health forced him to hang up his tee-square. It’s time to take stock: what was his legacy? How were his ideas disseminated? What influence has he had? What were his qualities? Who was Geoffrey Bawa?

 Bawa at Lunuganga in the 1990s Continue reading →

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April 5, 2017 · 2:50 pm

The JVP and Rajapaksa in Vidyodaya Politics, 1970s: Recollections

Chandre Dharmawardana …. [1] … [2]

Some of what I remember from the period that Mahinda Rajapaksa was at Vidyodaya University as a library assistant is as follows.  S. B. Dissanayake[3] was the leader of the Communist Party in the Campus at Vidyodaya University, now known as Jayawardenapura University. He asserted his power as soon as he became the student leader by launching a strike at the Hostel on a food issue. It was just a show of power because in fact the food was quite up to par.  Mahinda Wijesekera,[4] his brother and a Buddhist Monk were JVP leaders who were trying to flex their muscles. Mahinda Wijesekera was in the science faculty while S. B. Dissanayake was a student in the Business Administration Department.

Mahinda in his Vidyodaya days with friend Anura Dias B  at a pirit ceremony Continue reading →

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April 5, 2017 · 1:56 pm

Bloody Memories: The JVP Insurrection 1971

Zahrah Imtiaz,  courtesy of Daily News, 5 April 2017, where the title reads “Sanguinary Memories: JVP Insurgence of 1971”

“The decision taken by the nine senior members of the JVP when they met at the Sangaramaya Temple of the Vidyodaya University on April 2, 1971, was to capture State power by attacking all the police stations in the country on the night of April 5, 1971.”– “Rohan Gunaratna: Sri Lanka: A Lost Revolution? The Inside story of the JVP”

 From Prasad Premarathne… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKN82MSCutg

The plan was simple, the orders had come and all they had to do was to execute it. Rohana Wijeweera, the charismatic leader of the JVP was in prison in Jaffna, and via a message sent through Lal Somasiri, he had asked that, “Posters should be published and leaflets distributed calling for his release, and in the case of an attack, 500 comrades should be sent to Jaffna to secure his release.” He had also stated, “If you cannot obtain my release legally, you may create an island-wide struggle throughout the country and then send 500 men”. Continue reading →

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April 2, 2017 · 11:46 am

The Historian’s Craft via Lakshman Perera’s Deciphering of Lanka’s Ancient Inscriptions

Sudharshan Seneviratne, reviewing Lakshman S. Perera: The Institutions of Ancient Ceylon from Inscriptions, (from 3rd Century BC to 830 AD) Volume I ….. with Introduction and supplementary notes by Sirima Kiribamunne and Piyatissa Senanayake, ICES, Kandy 2001, … 322 pages … reviewed in http://www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/cult/45.htm

 

The Antecedents: My first encounter with the historian was in 1974 when I visited the University library at Peradeniya as a postgraduate student. It was never a formal introduction – not even a personal meeting. Yet, it was close enough for me to admire the man and his work. The silent space afforded by the Ceylon Room at Peradeniya was ideally suited for a dialogue with the past. I reached out to the past through the volumes of a doctoral thesis – so immaculately completed a year before I was born! Page after page three volumes of information unfolded a dimension hitherto less known in the history of Sri Lanka. This study I thought, will always remain as a testimony to the ‘historian’s craft’ (apologies to Marc Bloch) so purposefully executed by a scholar with a sober perception to the study of history. Continue reading →

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March 17, 2017 · 3:56 am

Being an ex-Tiger Today. Where have all the roads gone, long time passing!

Arthur Wamanan & Ruwan Laknath Jayakody,  courtesy of The Nation, 11 March 2017, where the title is “The battle after the war”

Life continues to be a struggle for 45-year-old Kathir, a former Tamil Tiger combatant, and his family. Kathir was one of the 12,000 Tiger cadres who underwent a rehabilitation process soon after the end of the war. Kathir was lucky to be released after a year of rehabilitation. “I was disabled due to the war and therefore my time at rehabilitation centres was just one year,” he said.

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March 5, 2017 · 1:29 pm

Indian Ocean GeoPolitics

When we gaily plunge in to the warm blue waters of the Indian Ocean, we never think of the seductive surf as part of the world’s most conflict ridden ocean. Indeed, we are proud to call our island – war-torn and corruption plagued, though it has been – the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’ as we invite the world’s holiday makers to visit.

050315-N-3241H-001 Indian Ocean (Mar. 15, 2005) - The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) underway in the Indian Ocean prior to flight operations. The Carl Vinson Strike Group is currently on deployment to promote peace and stability and respond to emergent events overseas. USS Carl Vinson will end its deployment with a homeport shift to Norfolk, Va., and will conduct a three-year refuel and complex overhaul. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Dusty Howell (RELEASED)

 The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) underway in the Indian Ocean prior to flight operations. –– pic by Dusty Howell ……………………….. so a  sample of American carrier Might

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February 23, 2017 · 1:05 pm

Nishan De Mel on Rupee Depreciation Implications

Hiran H.Senewiratne, in Island, 23 February 2017, where the title is “It is the speed of rupee depreciation or appreciation against the dollar that matters’

aansihanThe US dollar depreciation/appreciation against the rupee is nether a barometer to determine the strength of the economy nor the strength of the currency/rupee. The most important matter is to look at how and at what speed the rupee depreciated or appreciated against the dollar, a top economist said. “Currently, the US dollar has touched Rs 153.44 but this is not a parameter to determine the strength of the economy or the currency. When one looks at a developed economy like South Korea, as an example, they pay more “Won” for dollars, compared to the Sri Lankan rupee, which is an indication that appreciation of the dollar is not a parameter to determine the strength of the economy, Executive Director, Verite Research Dr Nishan de Mel told The Island Financial Review.  aa-bank-notes

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February 18, 2017 · 9:36 am

James Taylor and the Ceylon Tea Industry

Ceylon Tea Board on the occasion when the James Taylor Monument wa sunveiled n 29th January 2017

The commercial cultivation of tea in Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known, is acknowledged to have commenced in 1867 at Loolecondera Estate, Hewaheta, in the Kandy District, by an enterprising young agriculturalist, James Taylor, a redoubtable Scotsman, of which extraction were most of the  pioneers of the Industry.

james-taylor Taylor in the 1870s

james-taylor-11

Taylor, the son of Michael Taylor and Margaret Moir, was born on March 29, 1835, in a cottage called “Moss Park” on the Monbodde Estate, near Laurencekirk in Kincardineshire. On being recruited as a Coffee Planter on Narenghena Estate, he arrived in Ceylon on February 20, 1852. Following a brief posting there, he was transferred to Loolecondera Estate, where he spent the rest of his life and eventually expired on May 2, 1892, at the age of 57 years, of dysentery, while still in service. Continue reading →

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