Nick van der Hoeven
I wanted to write about a very complex man, one of my grandfathers …. George Frederick van der Hoeven. The main reason for doing so is because history has not been kind to him, especially the unwritten verbal history within our family. Born in 1901 in Colombo Ceylon — then under British rule — Grandpa (as we called him) died here in Melbourne in 1978. I was 6 years old.
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Sumanasiri Liyanage, … His Prologue to An Academic Appreciation of Professor HA De S Gunasekera
Prologue …. Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Head, Department of Economics, Members of Prof. H A De S Gunasekera family, colleagues, Friends and students.
It is indeed a pleasure to be in Peradeniya once again, and I felt honored and privileged when I was asked to deliver the Prof H. A. De S. Gunasekera memorial oration 2025 for which I thank Prof Sri Ranjith, Head/Economics and members of the H.A. De S. Gunasekera Memorial Committee.
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Rajpal Abeynayake, in The Daily News, 20 January 2025
This week marked the passing of a public figure who was controversial by any measure, and the forgettable passing of another that most Sri Lankans would for very good reason, rather forget. The controversial figure would in most people’s estimation be regarded as a good man, though flawed. He was Victor Ivan the journalist, or rebel and insurgent turned activist.
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WIKIPEDIA Item: … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittu_(Tamil_militant)
Colonel Kittu (Tamil militant)
| Born | S. Krishnakumar
2 January 1960 |
| Died | 16 January 1993 (aged 33) |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
| Years active | 1978 –1993 |
| Organization | Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam |
Sathasivam Krishnakumar (Tamil: சதாசிவம் கிருஸ்ணகுமார்; 2 January 1960 – 16 January 1993; commonly known by the nom de guerre Kittu) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and leading member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.
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Michael Roberts,
I got to know Victor at a convivial session at Ananda Chittambalam’s house in Bambalapitiya in 1989. Our common interests in the island’s history and its tempestuous present meant that we kept in sporadic touch. I have his illustrated book PARADISE IN TEARS …. and I will present a Vale as well as items referring to his articles and work in Thuppahi. His demise at a relatively early age is a blow to all Sri Lankan patriots.
WIKIPEDIA
Majuwana Kankanamage Victor Ivan (Sinhala: මාජුවානා කන්කානම්ගේ වික්ටර් අයිවන්; 26 June 1949 – 19 January 2025) was a Sri Lankan journalist. He was a Marxist rebel in his youth and later became the Editor of the controversial Sinhalese newspaper Ravaya. He served as the Editor of Ravaya for 25 years consecutively from its inception. Victor was an investigative journalist, political critic, a theorist, social activist and also an author of several books.
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Mario Arulthas, in Al-Jazeera, 9 January 2025 …. with highlightinging emphasia imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The Maaveerar Dead as A Perpetual Inspiration For Eelam
The nationwide electoral success of the anti-establishment NPP does not mean Tamil nationalism is on the decline.
An election official holding a ballot box gets off the bus outside a vote counting centre after the voting ended for the parliamentary election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 14, 2024 [Thilina Kaluthotage/Reuters]
“They’re trampling on our graves with their boots,” said Kavitha, a Tamil woman, as the torrential rain lashing our faces washed away her tears. Standing barefoot and ankle-deep in mud at the site of a former cemetery in Visuvamadu, Sri Lanka, she was lamenting the adjacent military base built on the graves of fallen Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters, including that of her brother.
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Michael Roberts
Just today I came across an old political essay of mine, one entitled “Prejudice and Hate in Pluralist Settings: The Kingdom of Kandy.” While the essay is of continued relevance today for Sri Lankan as well as world politics, let me bring readers face-to-face with several insights reposing within two of the COMMENTS which the article attracted, one from Dr Jane Russell and the other from Professor Chandre Dharmawardena.
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Introduction by Mithran Tiruchelvam …. a son of Neelan Tiruchelvam of the ICES [who was tragically assassinated by the LTTE in front of the ICES offices one year later]
The present collection of essays arose out of a symposium held at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo from 13-15 March 1997, where researchers and scholars presented some of their recent research interests. This volume seeks to gather the threads of a hybrid collection of essays and weave them together in their shared historical moment. An anthology of this nature seeks organizational cohesion based on the papers’ common origins at the symposium, thereby sacrificing some degree of thematic or disciplinary unity. It is intended that such a collection make available to the general reader and to the scholar alike, a sense of the variety of social science pursuits being undertaken in Sri Lanka today. As such its purpose is to flavour as much as to nourish the reader’s palate, providing a sampling of the eclectic diversity of topics, methodologies and critical perspectives. engaging the social scientist today.
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Richard Simon to Michael Roberts, Editor, Thuppahi
Thomia, as you know, is a comprehensive history of S. Thomas’ College presented in the wider context of Lankan history and focusing on the influences between the two. In this sense it resembles my previous history of the Ceylon tea industry, which you were kind enough to praise when it was published in 2017. It is very different from a typical school history and its appeal is certainly not confined to Old Thomians.
Now on sale: Thomia is available for advance purchase from today, 25 November 2024. I hope to finance printing of the book partly through advance sales; I am happy to say I have already received a number of pledges.
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These are but some of his publications over a career spanning the 1950s to 2020s — with eyesight deterioration blighting his last platform of life. No more table tennis, but much to remember. So, here. let me doff my cap to thee, Gerry Machang, …. Mike
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thuppahi
