Ravi Deraniyagala, in Island, 12 June 2020, where the title reads “Dr. Chris Uragoda, a medical luminary and Erudite Scholar”
Dr. Chris Uragoda was a medical luminary, a distinguished literati, an eudite scholar and above all unassuming gentleman par excellence. He was blessed with an unparalled richness of precious human qualities.
Rohan Wijeyaratna, in Island, 13 June 2020, where the title reads “Goonesena’s Match”
Among the hordes of inconsequential trivia received via WhatsApp during the lockdown days, a picture of the 1957 Cambridge team caught my eye. There was Gamini Goonesena seated in the middle of the front row with Ian Pieris (already a Ceylon ‘cap’) standing at the back. There was also Ossie Wheatley, Bob Barber and Ted Dexter – all players of no mean repute and consequence. That photograph served as the catalyst for this essay through which I will attempt to recount the Varsity match of 1957, whilst dwelling on its central figure– Gamini Goonesena, of whom too little has been mentioned in print.
Gerald Peiris ... in the spirit of vigorous debate which we used to pursue in the Arts Faculty and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya University in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Gerry Peiris has responded with two sharply critical notes of some significance to my critical review of Sri Lankan society and politics, an essay that is directed by an optimistic eye …. Ha! Ha! … towards a major overhaul.
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Michael Roberts, reiterating the original draft sent to a few on 10 June 2020
Recent forum discussions on the topic of “Reconciliation” and correspondence with concerned friends have prompted me to essay an analysis of Sri Lanka’s societal problems over the last 150 years. This is a tendentious quest.
This Map showing districts served by Regional Malaria Officers happens to suit the metaphor “Riddled” and/or “Honeycombed” in my title
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“Battle for Harmony” in Sri Lanka was a Zoom Discussion organized by the Youth Rotary of Colombo East on the evening of 28th May 2020 … https://www.facebook.com/RotaractColomboEast
Opening Statement by Michael Roberts
Let me begin with the closing statement voiced by Kumar Sangakkara in his Cowdrey Lecture at the MCC in 2011: “My loyalty will be to the ordinary Sri Lankan fan, their twenty million hearts beating collectively. They are my foundation. They are my family. I will play cricket for them….. With me are all my people. I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim,[1] Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am, today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan.” Continue reading
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…. and the Lambada on the Sands that paves the way
Gananath Obeyesekere: “Sorcery and Premeditated Murder: The Canalization of Aggression”[1]
In this paper I want to deal with a series of interrelated problems beginning with the following specific questions and propositions. First: how far can we make inferences about the human psyche and social structure from official statistics computed by government agencies, in this case statistics on homicide and crimes of violence? Criminology as a discipline is especially concerned with this problem, and criminological studies in Sri Lanka have made social structural, cultural and psychological inferences from the statistical data.[2] At the outset, let me emphasize that I am not concerned with the conventional debate about the accuracy of governmental statistics. Criminologist who have dealt with this issue are agreed that Sri Lanka’s official statistics on homicide and violent crimes are reasonably accurate, and on the face of it there is perfect justification for using these data for social analysis.
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David Kilcullen, in The Inquirer, 30 May 2020 and the Australian, 4 June 2020, with this title “Home of the hateful, fearful, heavily armed” …..
Coronavirus is threatening to ignite a tinderbox of grievances in the US. The growing parallels with Iraq, Lebanon and Somalia are real and disturbing.
The rise of militias and armed protesters across the US is sometimes seen as a fringe right-wing issue, but it is much broader. Armed groups have formed across the political spectrum, worsening divisions the coronavirus has exposed in American society.
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Recent Thuppahi entries have highlighted the Workshop on “Sacrificial Devotion” held in Adelaide University in late 2005, one framed within the concept fashioned by Michael Roberts to study and comprehend suicidal commitments to political cause. Note the ITEM
Thilipan on Fast unto death in 1987
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Jane Russell ... with highlights imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
These are the scratched graffiti of Sinhalese soldiers and policemen abandoned by their government [1991]. They are uncertain of their future. Some believe they will be airlifted to safety. Others have realised that they are about to be overrun by Tamil Tigers camped outside the perimeter walls of the Fort in Jaffna which they have been tasked to defend, and that no-one will come to save them. Whatever their hopes and fears, they are all doomed to die. These graffiti are etched into the rock walls of the entrance to the Dutch built Fort (photo top right). They were carved not so long ago. 1991, 29 years, just a generation since. Continue reading
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thuppahi
