Alfred Sexwale** … responding to Indian News Item on Digital Video re Chinese Ship = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lImNIn9P1qg … which is a WION news item with a Indian woman fronting the story
Sri Lanka shouldn’t prevent a ship from docking for fuel and replenishing. It’s a significant inconvenience for those on-board the ship. India is needlessly stirring up trouble by using Sri Lanka to needle China. India is emulating the US in its attempts to dominate the Indian Ocean.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Introduction by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde [retd], SLAF … & crafted by Chamara Sumanapala, …. & presented in The Nation Sunday Print Edition, date not specified
Below is an article on roads and bridges in ancient Sri Lanka (Anuradhapura era). The article also talks about the major roads linking Anuradhapura with the ports of Dambakola Patuna (in Jaffna Peninsula), Mahatitta (near Mannar) and Gokanna (Trincomalee) and the road linking Anuradhapura with Magama (present day Tissamaharama) in Ruhuna.
Stone Bridge close to Mahakanadarawa Reservoir (Mihintale)
Continue reading
Item in Sunday Times, 7 August 2022 …/ taken from AFP and sent to me by Jayantha Somasundaram of Canbera
It is no secret that these days Sri Lankans are trying all sorts of ways to leave the country whether legally or illegally as the economic crisis drags on. The latest is a group of nine Navy sailors who reportedly jumped ship in the US.
The 50-member crew was to join the world’s largest international naval exercise — RIMPAC 2022. Following the exercise, they were scheduled to organise return passage home in a new Sri Lankan Navy vessel, the former USCGC Douglas Munro, which was recently decommissioned and transferred to Sri Lanka under a foreign military aid agreement.
Ben Packham in The Australian, Monday 8 August 2022, where the title reads “Secret Sri Lankan Fuel Deal keeps Patrol Boats on Water” .. . with highlighting emphasia being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi
Sri Lankan patrol boats are back on the water deterring would-be people smuggling voyages following a secret deal with Australia to supply the country’s navy with tens of millions of dollars worth of fuel.
The Republic of Sri Lanka Navy Ship “Oshadi”
Filed under accountability, australian media, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, legal issues, life stories, people smugglers, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Tea mogul Merrill J. Fernando: ‘I owe everything to Australian consumers’.” …. SEE “Straight Lefs from the Dilmah Tea Missionary” by Benjamin Law, in The Age, 13 June 2020, https://thuppahis.com/2020/06/17/straight-lefts-from-the-dilmah-tea-missionary-merrill-fernando/
ALSO
ALSO 
Continue reading
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Gerald H. Peiris, whose chosen title was “The Corona Pandemic in Kandy District: A Critique of Responses”
This article presents a grass-roots perspective, empirical in content, on the efforts to counteract the Covid-19 in the highland District of Kandy, set against information extracted from several published sources. As a guide to the sequence in this narrative I should explain that it begins with some introductory notes on the Corona pandemic and on Kandy District, proceeds to sketch the edifying experiences such as the guidance bestowed on people by their religious leadership, the priority accorded by the government on the management of affairs from perspectives of health-care, the selfless commitment of those on whom arduous responsibilities of implementing policy decisions and prescribed strategies, and, in general, the commendable level of successes achieved through the related efforts. Thereafter I focus on the disappointments and the occasional errors of judgement, the sporadic scenarios of prejudice and confusion, and the looming uncertainties. There are significant lessons that could be drawn from both these sets of experiences.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, coronavirus, demography, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, trauma, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Capt Elmo Jayawardena
President gets ousted, Prime Minister gives a ‘walk over’ and Ministers join the soul-selling market to hang in there. Where? Of course, in Diyawanna Oya.** Though my senses overflow with the desire to write these stories, I, being a coward, feel ‘discretion is the better part of valor’ and will leave politics and politicians alone. What to write anyway? Things change so fast that by the time I get published the whole fairytale may change.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, disparagement, economic processes, governance, island economy, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Karan Thapar, in article headed “ “If Ranil Doesn’t Take Tough Steps, Sri Lanka Economy Could Fall into Abyss: Former Central Bank Head”
Indrajit Coomaraswamy identified four critical steps that the government must immediately start to implement as the first stage of restoring the economy to better health.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, IMF, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Channa Wickremesekera’s Publications
Channa Wickremesekera is the son of the late Percy Wickremesekera, an acquaintance of mine from Peradeniya Campus days and a ‘Trot’ activist who migrated to Australia. Channa lives in Melbourne. I got to know him when I was working on my book on Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period¸1590’s-1815 (which came out in 2003 …………………… https://www.amazon.com/Sinhala-Consciousness-Kandyan-Period-1590s/dp/9558095311).
Filed under art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, hatan kavi, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, insurrections, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, working class conditions, world events & processes
Ivan Amarasinghe, presenting “A Proposal for Non-Traditional Resources Exploitation within the UN Allocated EEZ and the Ocean University of Sri Lanka”
Map-of-the-Sri-Lankan-Exclusive-Economic-Zone-EEZ-Source-Maritime-Boundaries_fig1_313525677
Executive Summary of the Proposal
The Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka contains vast, precious minerals which have so far not been explored or exploited by Sri Lanka. A review of recent scientific literature indicates that powerful States and Corporate sectors are active within the area. The support of the United Nations [UN] is sought to legally delineate the national Extended Economic Zone [EEZ] in keeping with the UN Convention on Law of the Sea [UNCLOS]. Sri Lanka must urgently guard its ocean resources before they are exploited to exhaustion by others. Sri Lanka must ensure forex earnings through a new policy on sustainable exploitation of ou ocean resources.
Filed under accountability, biotechnology, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, education, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, modernity & modernization, nature's wonders, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, transport and communications, world events & processes
thuppahi
