Category Archives: landscape wondrous

June 14, 2022 · 12:40 pm

US Conspiratorial Hands Underdpinning the Political Turmoil in Sri Lanka?

Jonathan Manz, in an article circulated by “The Sri Lankan Study Circle” whose background & politics is not known to Thuppahi…. with the title they have imposed being “Pivot-to-Asai: America executes a Lightning coup to take control of a Strategic Island in the Indian Ocean” 

Bewildered, reeling and confused, Sri Lankans are just beginning to pick up the pieces of the jigsaw to decipher the events of Black-Monday, 09 May 22, when America, with its all-too-familiar ‘false-flag’ operations, executed a lightning Coup, to take control of the strategic Island in the Indian Ocean.

Taking control of the Island-Nation was critical to the Americans to implement their re-chartered game-plan for the Indian-Ocean region; this plan, they were compelled to develop following the unexpected defeat of their proxy mercenaries in Sri Lanka.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes

June 13, 2022 · 9:12 pm

Gamini Goonetilleke’s Medical Services Across Battle Zones during the Eelam Wars

Vijitha Yapa, reviewing The Extra Mile …. with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor Thuppahi

The ‘ethnic conflict’ in Sri Lanka had another side to it: writers in uniform whose existence was known only by a name in some instances have come forward to record their memoirs. General Kamal Gunaratne, now Secretary of Defence, led the way with his classic Road to Nandikadal. The book estab­lished records and remains a bestseller as he wrote not only about victories, but also mistakes made – and what really went on in the army.

However, the book authored by Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke explains how he didn’t fight the same war with guns, but syringes and a surgeon’s skills instead.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under authoritarian regimes, charitable outreach, Eelam, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, medical marvels, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, unusual people

June 13, 2022 · 12:34 am

China at Cutting Edge in Sea Warfare? A Drone Ship

Item at https://youtu.be/KkQrTjcqWNc …. 12 June 2022 with headline  = “Chinese AI-operated drone ship completes maiden sea voyage (VIDEO)”

Beijing’s unmanned stealth combat vessel has successfully completed its three-hour maiden sea voyage off Panzhi Island in the East China Sea, Chinese media reported on Saturday. The state-run newspaper Global Times reported that the 200-ton ship can be sent into “dangerous combat zones” on reconnaissance missions and to fight aircraft, submarines and other surface vessels without the risk of casualties aboard.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under China and Chinese influences, foreign policy, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, transport and communications, world events & processes

June 10, 2022 · 8:41 pm

Leonard Woolf’s Remarkable Novel

Nick Rankin, in BBCnews, 23 May 2014, where the title runs thus: “Leonard Woolf’s forgotten Sri Lankan novel” …… The Bloomsbury Group and Sri Lanka are rarely spoken of in the same breath, but that is partly because Leonard Woolf’s groundbreaking first novel, The Village in the Jungle, is unjustly ignored, argues writer and broadcaster Nick Rankin.

She was born Virginia Stephen, daughter of the Victorian bookman Sir Leslie Stephen, but when she married in 1912, her name changed to Virginia Woolf, and she went on to become the best-known woman writer of the 20th Century.

 

Her lesser-known husband, Leonard Woolf, however, wrote and published a novel first. That almost forgotten book, first published in 1913, is called The Village in the Jungle and it is a remarkable work because it is the first novel in English literature to be written from the indigenous point of view rather than the coloniser’s.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, population, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions

June 10, 2022 · 1:39 pm

Roadside Scenery: British Ceylon in the Early 20th Century

Several of these old photographs cropped up in the course of my work on Leonard Woolf for presentation in Thuppahi. They give us some understanding of the contexts serving as backdrop to daily life in the daytime. …. since nightitme life is more veiled and obdurate in a world without mobile telephone cameras.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, British colonialism, commoditification, demography, economic processes, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, photography, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue

June 9, 2022 · 8:37 pm

Ashton Agar’s Sri Lankan Lineages

Michael Roberts

Ashton Agar may play cricket now for Western Australia, but he is the eldest of three boys schooled at the De La Salle College in Melbourne. Our investigations indicate that his father John Agar is from a cricketing family associated with the Prahran Cricket Club in Melbourne – a happy coincidence because Prahran had several Burgher migrants active within its portals—notably Owen Mottau and Dav Whatmore.[1] As vitally, his mother Sonia is a Sinhalese Sri Lankan, being the daughter of Nala Hewawisa[2] from a marriage with Sheila Plunkett,[3] who is described in one source as a “Burgher of British descent.”

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under anti-racism, Australian culture, australian media, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, plantations, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

June 9, 2022 · 3:35 pm

Contrasts in Lanka: The Sturdy Medieval vs The Fluid Tempestuous Present

This photograph sent to Thuppahi by KEITH BENNETT of Australia & Lanka .…. says it all

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, nature's wonders, photography, security, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

June 5, 2022 · 6:37 pm

Asitha Fernando’s Star-turn as Pace Bowler at Dhaka

Rex Clementine, in The Island, 5 June 2022, where the title runs “From Beach Boy to recordbreaker” …. while emphasis via highlighting here is an intervention from The Editor, Thuppahi

Arjuna Ranatunga’s mantra for turning the fortunes of a cricket team was backing outstation talents. Colombo ceased to own the exclusive rights for cricket and as a result, the game thrived. Three decades on the outstations are still producing match winners. There are still unearthed and untapped talents in far-off areas. One such created history last week by bowling Sri Lanka to a series win in Dhaka. From a beach boy of far off Katuneriya, Asitha Fernando went on to become the first Sri Lankan right-arm quick to claim a match bag of ten wickets.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, cricket selections, cultural transmission, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, Sri Lankan cricket, unusual people

June 4, 2022 · 8:21 pm

Leonard Woolf’s Humanist Empathy & Discernment

The Sivasambu Colloquium on 29th April 2012 entitled “Woolf the humanist who empathized with the vulnerable” …. with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi

Jane Russell and Ruth Allaun continued their account of the Seminar on Leonard Woolf organised by Nathan Sivasambu, Coordinator of the Ceylon Bloomsbury Group, convenors of the seminar, with the assistance of Dr. Shamil Wanigasekera and Dulmini Wimalasekera at University of London Union, Malet St, Bloomsbury, London on May 24, 2011.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, working class conditions, world events & processes

June 4, 2022 · 7:28 pm

Lessons from Woolf for a Latter-Day American

Joe Kovacs, in Literary Traveller, 23 June 2005, where the title reads as “The Accidental British Servant: Leonard Woolf in Ceylon”

When I joined the Peace Corps and went to Sri Lanka in 1997, I took a leave of absence from a graduate program in English literature at Fordham University. I was unhappy with academia as an aspiring creative writer; I wanted to make literature, not analyze it. I had no idea how international development work in Asia could help, but at least it would provide a long-overdue vacation from education. I’d never left the United States before, and after an exhausting trip west from New York through San Francisco, Tokyo and Bangkok, the third flight of my trans-global journey arrived in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo at two in the morning. I spent the rest of those benighted, pre-dawn hours in a retreat center in the jungle, trying to sleep. But the dense heat drenched me in sweat, even as I lay still in bed, the uncompromising mattress made my back sore and a swooping blue mosquito net left me entombed. Had I just made a mistake? From the jungle outside came a sudden high-pitched screech, convincing me that I’d come to a land of monsters.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people