Category Archives: landscape wondrous

Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, atrocities, Australian culture, coronavirus, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disaster relief team, education, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, medical marvels, performance, psychological urges, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, trauma, unusual people, wild life

March 23, 2020 · 7:15 am

Census Categorization and the Bharathas and Colombo Chetties

A Note from Fabian D. K. Schokman of Moratuwa, 22 March 2020

Dear Michael, Thank you for this. I believe, as with most of the “lesser minorities,” the Bharatha community did not have its own classification until the 2001 census, when there was a breakthrough mostly on account of the Chetties and their successful fight to be classed as a distinct ethnicity. Throughout census history, one can see the Chetties demanding to be classed as distinct from the Tamils. The term “race” in SL, must always be seen as a synonym for “ethnicity” and not with the same connotation it derives in the West.

Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, paintings, photography, population, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

March 22, 2020 · 5:03 pm

Australian Bombshell ….!! Airlines ‘Quarantined’

Elizabeth Knight and Rob Harris, in The Age, 21 March 2020, with this title ‘Constant shock syndrome’: How the crisis plays out in Qantas and Virgin’s situation rooms’

Sunday March 15, 2020, 2.15pm will be marked in the diaries of Australian airline executives as a pivotal moment. It was the moment when the Australian government dropped the bombshell that all international travellers landing on our shores would be subject to a 14-day quarantine. It was the moment the music stopped and brought our travel industry to its knees.

The music has stopped for Australia's big airlines - and for the rest of the international aviation industry.

The major airlines’ chief executives, Qantas’ Alan Joyce and Virgin Australia’s Paul Scurrah, had been tipped off by Transport Minister Michael McCormack that something big was coming. On Saturday night, their respective management teams worked furiously to formulate plans to get customers and their own crews back from international destinations.

From a very large glass room in Qantas’ Mascot headquarters, the carrier’s crisis management team, composed of representatives from each of the airline’s critical divisions, was in overdrive.

Filed under accountability, australian media, coronavirus, economic processes, governance, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, tourism, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, world events & processes

March 22, 2020 · 2:40 pm

When Moses paved the Way for Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1986

Elmo Jayawardena, whose original title runs thus “First Time in the African Sky”

The year was 1986, the month, September to be precise. The Non-Aligned conference was being held in Harare under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. 120 countries sent their leaders or their representatives to take part in the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). All the details of NAM can be found in Google and I shall not waste your time as to who started it and where and when. The story I have for you is about flying the African Sky and the background is the conference in Harare.

Harare, Zimbabwe. Sheraton hotel, where the 8th Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement is held. TASS …. Photo by TASS via Getty Images

Filed under accountability, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, unusual people, world events & processes

March 22, 2020 · 1:23 pm

The Trump-and-Modi Fandango: Imperial Arms in the Indo-Pacificic

This article, entitled “Two State Hypocrites—The Indo-Pacific Humbugs” – written by one “Pettibandige” in Asian Tribune annoyed me greatly when I glanced at it first: in part because it is a slashing hack job steeped in bile and excess; and in part because of its glossing over of the Japanese imperial expansionist programme in the first half of the 20^th century via its assertion “Possibly Pearl Harbour was a result.”

However, the stream of stridency adopted in the essay seems to be a literary device that is (A) in step with its play on the Sinhala ge name “Patabändige” – modified here to “Petti” as in box; and (B) in line with its continuous mockery of the two leading actors, namely Trump and Modi. I have therefore inserted my own imprint by marking those points I question in black and those jibes that have some foundation in red ….. Michael Roberts

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, coronavirus, disparagement, economic processes, European history, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, pulling the leg, religious nationalism, taking the piss, unusual people, world events & processes

March 21, 2020 · 5:39 pm

Covid as Equalizer and Unifier: A Filipino Sage

Herman Tiu Laurel, in Phillipine News Agency, 4 March 2020,where the title runs “Covid-19 should unify the world”

AS the Covid-19 virus jumps vast distances and oceans to other continents, we see how other countries are adopting lessons from China’s responses, including mass “lockdowns” and other preemptive moves. The effectiveness of China’s response has resulted in a reduction of the Covid-19 crisis after just three short months, unlike past epidemics that took almost a year before subsiding.

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Filed under accountability, biotechnology, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, coronavirus, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, governance, landscape wondrous, life stories, medical marvels, unusual people, world events & processes

March 21, 2020 · 5:23 am

Tracee’s Corona-Curtailed Wildlife Encounters in Lanka

Tracee Fullum from USA

Filed under art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, landscape wondrous, life stories, tourism, travelogue, wild life

March 19, 2020 · 6:20 pm

Pictorial Angles in Michael Naseby’s Tale of His Engagements with Sri Lanka, 1963-to-today

Michael Naseby’s Sri Lanka. Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained is on the market was originally due to be launched in Colombo in early April — an event knocked on the solar plexus by the Corona-virus pandemic. We will need time to acquire reviews of this large book; but let me spark interests among lap-dogs as well as cynics by presenting a election of its illustrations.

Michael Morris with family friend Mrs Veena Talwatte … & iron cages used by the LTTE for their prisoners. Continue reading →

Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, modernity & modernization, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, travelogue, UN reports, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

March 18, 2020 · 6:57 pm

Beating the Corona Bug: All Your Own Work

How you can self-check about the Corona infection: Taiwanese experts suggest doing a simple check that we can do on our own every morning:

* Take a deep breath and hold your breath for more than 10 seconds. If you successfully complete it without coughing, without discomfort, a sense of oppression, etc., this shows that there is no fibrosis in the lungs, indicating essentially no infection.

In such critical times, do this check every morning in a clean air environment!
Also ensure that you disinfect the PC keyboard and mobile phones.