Category Archives: landscape wondrous

July 19, 2022 · 8:33 pm

The Northways in British Ceylon …. and Beyond

Fred David Graham, responding to a Query in Thuppahi from Debbie Northway**

There are quite a few mentions of people named Northway living in Ceylon in the 19th century and early 20th century in pamphlets and books like Lewis J. Penry’s List of Inscriptions on Tombstones and Monuments in Ceylon, of Historical or Local Interest, With an Obituary of Persons Uncommemorated. Also Harry Storey’s A Ceylon Sportsman’s Diary, William Sabonadière’s The Coffee Planter of Ceylon (1866), The Ceylon Almanac and Annual Register for the Year of Our Lord 1855 (p.345), Herbert Wright’s Hevea Brasiliensis or Para Rubber: Its Botany, Cultivation, Chemistry and Diseases (1908) and Charles Edmond Akers’s The Rubber Industry in Brazil and the Orient.

British planters at a tasting of Ceylon tea at the tea estate Continue reading →

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July 18, 2022 · 2:35 am

Facing Ranjan De Silva Foursquare: A Demolition Job

Fair Dinkum**

On Saturday 16 July I received two emails from Michael Roberts which contained emails from two of his friends. The first email came from someone Michael describes as “An old schoolmate from Galle now in Canada”, while the second email came from someone described by Michael as “a Burgher pal with a sharp mind and pen”. The two emails from these Sri Lankans contain highly erroneous claims that cannot go by unchallenged and hence this refutation.

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July 18, 2022 · 12:57 am

Thuppahi Accused of Partiality to China: Full Frontal Assault

Thuppahi Note

Writing from Canada (where he has been resident for a while),  Retd Brigadier Ranjan  De Silva, an Aloysian like me and a Peradeniya graduate from my time in the late 1950s, has sent me a Note with explicit criticisms of the positions adopted in some items within Thuppahi and with (as you will find out) contentious claims about the political economy associated with the programmes of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administrations in the recent past.

I place his series of charges in the public domain. I will respond in due course because I am inundated with email demands and Thuppahi tasks at the moment. But I place his readings of the past in the public realm NOW because I am confident that some of his assessments are horrendous and will attract  a host or replies which will provide pertinent information about the economic processes and political manoeuvres that are buffeting the island nation of Sri Lanka.

Moreover, I reckon that Ranjan has drunk water and whisky at some American bar and been overwhelmed by the ambience of that world….. Michael Roberts 

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July 17, 2022 · 8:11 pm

Kumar Gunaratnam: JVP & Aragalaya Leader Extraordinary

  DBS Jeyaraj in Daily Mirror, 17 July 2022

A remarkably significant outcome of the Aragalaya has been the emergence of the “Peratugami Samajavadi Pakshaya” (Frontline Socialist Party) as an influential player in Sri Lankan politics.

The Peratugami Samajavadi Pakshaya is composed of the members who defected from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). It can be considered as a party that was born in the political womb of the JVP and competes with it.

 Kumar Gunaratnam Continue reading →

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July 17, 2022 · 3:14 pm

The ARAGALAYA’s Demands in English

Courtesy of my Aloysian Friend KK De Silva …………with a PIX from his schoolboy days at St Aloysius, Galle

Transcript of the Programme spelt out in Sinhala: viz https://fb.watch/eaarPjDUCc/?fs=e&s=cl

Yesterday we took part in the aragalaya. It was good. Now there is talk about a caretaker government. This is something new to the people & us.

First I must say that we got together irrespective of ethnic differences. Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils were together as Sri Lankans. In future no one can act differently. I am saying this to those actors. They should listen carefully. There is a set of actors, like the yellow group. There is another set called artistes (kalaakaruwo). There is a fellow wearing a sheet (?) There are others like Bhatiya & Santush. Are they not ashamed? Where were they yesterday. Then there is Iraj. Dont come wearing a cloth. Don’t come this way for shows. You all have been rejected,

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July 16, 2022 · 3:17 pm

Propaganda Battles re Sri Lanka: Russia & The West

Fair Dinkum

As further evidence that the West are still pushing the China debt trap narrative and that it did not stop in 2017, but has continued with even greater vigour than before, and is not being pushed by a few interests, but is part of a major Western propaganda campaign that stretches across the globe, here is another great example.

The item is of particular interest because it shows how the US uses back channels, in this case a purported academic in India, to push the China debt narrative on Russian television. This item aired on RT on 30 May 2022, so it is very recent. [RT = Russian Television …. https://www.rt.com/] Here, RT brought in Suvrokamal Dutta (described by RT as a “Political and Foreign Policy Expert ” but who knows nothing about Sri Lanka) to talk about the causes of the crisis in Sri Lanka.

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July 15, 2022 · 9:55 pm

Pathum Kerner’s Critical Hand in the Aragalaya

A Conerned Citizen ... ** see Note at Bottom

Thank you Pathum Kerner. Now I understand who you are, and what your intention, your wavs and issues.
You will go down in history as the architect and the leader who systematically guided and led this nation from the beginning towards this epic non-violent ARAGALAYA.
.🙏

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July 15, 2022 · 2:39 pm

Bhavani Fonseka & Sumanthiran in Q and A with Indian Media Outfit

THE PRINT: Jothi Malhotra in Q and A with Bhavani fonseka & MA Sumanthiran …………..  “Why Gotabaya Rajpaksa fled & next steps for Sri Lanka : MA Sumanthiran and Bhavani Fonseka”

#SriLankaCrisis #GotabayaRajpaksa In this edition of #ThePrintDebates, ThePrint’s Senior Consulting Editor Jyoti Malhotra spoke to M. A. Sumanthiran, MP from Jaffna district in Sri Lanka and a member of the Tamil National Alliance and Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and political analyst on the volatile situation in Sri Lanka, the flight of Gotabaya Rajpaksa to the Maldives, the future of the country and whether the people are relieved. Watch #ThePrintDebates

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July 15, 2022 · 2:24 pm

USA Machinations Behind Aragalaya?

ANI Video Revelation

Evidence is emerging that at least some segments of the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka are funded and backed by the US, serving US interests. A “digital strategist” […. viz Chameera Dedduwage ….. ] given credit by the Western media for the successful toppling of the Sri Lankan government was a “volunteer” at a US National Endowment for Democracy-funded “election” organization. His group’s involvement in the current protests are a carbon copy of events that unfolded during the 2011 US-engineered “Arab Spring.”

 

Dedduwage Continue reading →

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July 14, 2022 · 11:22 pm

Spectacular! The Moon “in Orbit” … in the Arctic Circle

Presented by Gerda Branwhite of “The Explorers” in Adelaide

The moon, seen from the Arctic Circle, between Russia and Canada. It only lasts a few seconds, but it’s worth seeing.

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