Sometimes, even an ordinary camera in an ordinary amateur hand can strike pictorial gold. I present here some striking photos taken on spec with an ‘everyday camera,’ that is, an “Olympus Digital camera”,while vacationing in Sri Lanka and elsewhere over the years.
Twilight Catch? Fishermen casting net at sealine near Negombo …. I was at the prow of a hired boat which had travelled along one of the canals towards the sea and took this snap as our boat landed on the beach
Michael Roberts presenting an Arbitrary Collection of the pioneer camerawoman and de facto female ‘suffragette’ … Julia Margaret Cameron nee Pattle (1815-1879)
Julia in her prime
Julia in 1870
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Brian Victoria, in Countercurrents, 9 October 2022, where the title runs thus: “Japan: Fooling all the People!”
Many if not most readers will be familiar with the following saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” While this saying may hold true in most situations it’s most definitely mistaken in today’s Japan, for the government, with the enthusiastic support of the media, has found a way, ever since the Korean War of 1950-53, to convince the Japanese people that North Korea and China are Japan’s implacable enemies, ever ready to strike Japan should it remove itself from the “nuclear umbrella” so generously provided by the United States.
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George Braine, in The Island, 10 October 2022, where the title reads thus: “Irrepressible Julia Margaret Cameron at peace in Bogawantalawa” … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Some years ago, my sister, BIL, and I drove to the Dimbula area, visiting Anglican churches and graveyards looking for evidence of our ancestors. At the quaint St. Mary’s Church, Bogawantalawa, we found the grave of my grand uncle, Frank Wyndham Becher Braine, who died on March 9, 1879, at only 11 months. We may have been the first family members to visit his grave in more than a 100 years.
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Fair Dinkum, an original essay, with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In August 2022, under coercion from India, the Sri Lankan authorities denied a Chinese research vessel entry into Hambantota port for provisions and refuelling. India falsely accused the vessel of being a spy ship without a shred of evidence. China requested the Sri Lankan authorities reverse its decision and in good faith, China disclosed the activities of the ship to the Sri Lankan authorities, reassuring them the ship was not a spy ship tracking India’s intercontinental missile. Sri Lanka quickly reversed its decision, and a grand ceremony was organized to welcome the Chinese vessel and its crew with Presential staff attending, speeches, and performances of low-country dances, almost like it was the first moon-landing.
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Elmo Jayawardena, in The Island, 4 March 2021, where the title reads “A Clear Blue Sky” … bearing this ’emphasis’…. I publish this article just so that we can remember how sad the times were during the war for both sides. Let us hope and pray such will never happen again)
The one unforgettable memory that Selva always carried within himself was the colour of the vast Jaffna sky, spotless and shimmering in brilliant blue. It appeared as if the Gods had decided to spread a sheet and tucked it taut to the corners of the horizon as if to show off how perfectly they could do things. Off and on there would be fluffy white clouds, being sheep-dogged by winds aloft, harmless cartoons scattered in the sky, men and dogs, trees and castles or whatever a child wanted to imagine them to be. The clouds were seldom grey and laden with rain. That’s how the dry climate came about to roast the soil where Selva’s family toiled under the merciless sun, for generations, to grow chilli on. The kochika as they called it, were the thin and long kind, blood red, extremely hot and mouth-burning. Selva’s people sold the chilli harvest at the week-end market in the closest town. That was Vaddukodai, located an hour’s distance away, by bullock cart, from their nameless village of nowhere and no one; just blood red kochika and blue skies.
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NEWS ITEM in Sunday Times, 9 October 2022 …
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Michael Powell: article published in 2007 and entitled “Fragile Identities: The Colonial Consequences of CJR Le Mesurier in Ceylon”
ABSTRACT of Article: In the many layered life of CJR Le Mesurier in Ceylon are themes that repeat and recur throughout the British colonial world, touching on marriage and morals, religion and race, archival retention and colonial employment.
Cecil Le Mesurier in Western Australia c 1920s …. Courtesy of Rod Cantley
In particular, his strenuous litigious attack on assumptions of Crown title challenged the philosophic and legal framework of colonial land policy, revealing its ideological foundation, and illuminating the pattern and impulse of land policy throughout Empire.
The increasing effrontery of his actions induces an equally escalating reaction from colonial authority that pares away the preferred patina of civilizing mission to reveal a far more base intent – a colonial impulse more discernible and the actions of authority more disclosing – contributing to a much richer comparative understanding of the dynamics of colonial land dealings.
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Circa 7th October 2022, I inserted Natasha Gooneratne’s Memo in Thuppahi on Facebook: “An Exposure: Human Rights as a Tool of US Intervention”. …. ………………………………..So, readers should focus initially on this MEMO = https://thuppahis.com/2022/10/04/an-exposure-human-rights-as-a-tool-of-us-intervention-
THAT Item drew the following two comments in Facebook which I then circulated to Natasha and a select few others by EMAIL.
Comment in FACEBOOK by Arun Devan, October 2022: “If you don’t like USA, then don’t go with the begging bowl to US and West. Sri Lanka can choose to stave or be slave. Little choices – thanks to the brutal war and useless spending on military now.”
Comment in FACEBOOK by Richard Simon, October 2022:“Why does the US want to intervene in Sri Lanka? Serious question.”
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Directors: Dr. SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, Hiranya Malwatta
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