Category Archives: life stories

September 21, 2018 · 3:20 pm

Booker Prize Short-List: Michael Ondaatje excluded

AP Item, in Dawn, September 2018 with this heading “ Man Booker Prize 2018 finalists announced”

A novel in verse and a story about trees and the people who love them are among six finalists announced Thursday for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction. U.K. poet Robin Robertson’s verse novel about violence and social division in contemporary America, “The Long Take,” and U.S. novelist Richard Powers’ eco-saga “The Overstory” — whose characters are both human and arboreal — are on a list that includes three U.K. authors, two Americans and a Canadian.

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September 20, 2018 · 10:54 am

Brits and Romanians in Ardent Heritage Work in Romania: The Mihai Eminescu Trust

THE ORIGINS OF THE TRUST  …. http://www.mihaieminescutrust.org/home

The past and the future
Are two sides of one page;
He who learns them will discover
A beginning’s found at the end of an age.
Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)

The Mihai Eminescu Trust was formed during Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, to help persecuted dissident academics by smuggling in books and journals so that they could keep abreast with the civilisation they had once shared. Our clandestine contacts took us to strange places. In 1987 I visited the lonely mountain hut of Constantin Noica, a much-revered sage who told me the ancient villages around him were facing the imminent threat of “systematisation”—obliteration by bulldozing—to make room for factories and concrete apartment blocks.

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September 19, 2018 · 3:08 pm

Preserving Heritage in Romania: The Hand of Prince Charles

During a recent holiday with a touring group by bus in Romania Shona and I came across several  interesting facets of Romanian history. Among these were (A) the imprint of medieval German Saxon settlements in particular localities dating back to the 12th century and thereafter; (B) the imprint of French architectural and town planning patterns in the capital city of Bucharest -dating back to the mid 19th century and the friendship between the respective rulers of the two countries: and (C) the deep interest shown by Prince Charles in preserving the architectural heritage and life-style of specific Romanian villages and localities, notably Viscri and Valea Zalnului.(information conveyed by our guide Adrian Buracu). SO: here we go with illustrated items on

A = The Prince of Wales’s Foundation Romania …. &

B = The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation (PWCF) 

 

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September 19, 2018 · 9:40 am

Anagārika Dharmapala’s Anti-Colonial Mission

Kamal Wickremasinghe, in Island, 19 September 2018, with this title “Anagarika Dharmapala needs no rescuing” … reproduced here with highlights by The Editor, Thuppahi

Social scientific study, for better or for worse, is the only available method of gaining insights into social structures including aspects of social organisation, governance and rituals, as an aid to solving problems in social relations. Social science, however, often yields erroneous results originating from prejudices associated with the frame of embedded cultural assumptions within which evaluations take place.

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September 18, 2018 · 5:49 am

Visvakarma’s Celestial Manifestatations in Asia and Sri Lanka

Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai, in newsin.asia, 17 September 2018, where the title reads “Vishwakarma, the celestial architect who built Sri Lanka”

The Vishwakarma puja, which was observed on September 17, is not restricted to India but is observed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The puja closely follows the celebration of the Ganapati festival. In some places, it is performed the day after Diwali in October or November.

Vishwakarma puja or Kanya Sankranti is celebrated in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand in North India; Karnataka in the south; and Assam, West Bengal Odisha and Tripura in the east, in honour of Vishwakarma – the celestial architect.

Vishwakarma idols of Bengal made of clay

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September 17, 2018 · 2:18 pm

DEMONS IN PARADISE renders filmmaker Ratnam as a Tamil Traitor

Item in MSN.COM, 17 September 2018, with this title  “I wanted ‘my side’ to lose the war”

By his own admission filmmaker Jude Ratnam is a “traitor”. A Tamil himself, he blames the Tamil Tigers for many of the atrocities carried out in Sri Lanka’s civil war. The director told the BBC’s Nalini Sivathasan why feels the way he does.”When the war was coming to an end, I wanted the [Tamil] Tigers to lose the fight. I wanted it to end, even if my own people had to be killed,” Ratnam says.

Warning: This story contains graphic details that some readers may find upsetting.

© Getty Images Formed in 1976, the Tamil Tigers said they were fighting for a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka

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September 17, 2018 · 12:19 am

Umpire Ramos was on the Mark — A Consummate Professional Umpire

Steve Flink, in Tennis.Com, 12 September 2018 in  where the title reads “Carlos Ramos was Correct– and A Consummate Professional at the US Open

Lost in the swirl of controversy surrounding Serena Williams and her altercations with umpire Carlos Ramos during her final-round loss at the US Open to Naomi Osaka is this: despite the fact that Williams felt so aggrieved by the way Ramos applied the rules in penalizing her, he is an outstanding umpire. He was well within his rights to make hard decisions that did not meet with the approval of Serena or the multitude of fans who wanted so fervently to see her tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles, as well as break a tie for the women’s US Open singles title record she shares with Chrissie Evert. Both Williams and Evert have garnered six crowns.

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September 16, 2018 · 2:18 pm

Rejuvenating Lanka: A Good Governance Plan for 2020

SWR de “Sam” Samarasinghe, in Sunday Island, 16 September 2018, where the title reads “A strategy and programme for Yaha Paalanaya 2020″”

Many Sri Lankans are frustrated with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for having failed to deliver good governance (Yaha Paalanaya – YP) and competent economic management. But lack of success with YP2015 is not a reason to abandon the concept of Yaha Paalanaya. We need a YP2020 to make a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka.

  196f06652faecd1245738c009b28844a

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September 14, 2018 · 2:19 pm

Fervent Feminism and Victimology in Indefensible Rage …. and A Cartoonist ‘set on fire’

The strident reactions of a number of women, as well as men, including Billie Jean King and JK Rawling, in defense of Serena Williams and in criticism of Umpire Carlos Ramos (whose history has been exemplary), displays  a form of extremism which is indefensible ,,, and yet another sign of the currents of “secular fundamentalism” in the Western world. It indicates that “victimology” can service extremism. Its absurdity is displayed in the rabid criticism of the cartoonist Mark Knight for pursuing his satirical craft in the pattern of satire  … See some of the news reportage, Michael Roberts

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September 12, 2018 · 1:19 pm

Modi Government in Balancing Act with Mahinda Rajapaksa

Padma Rao Sundarji, in AsianAge, 12 September 2018, where the title is “At Last Delhi asks Mr Rajapaksa for a Dance”

A 10-member parliamentary delegation from Sri Lanka has begun an official visit to India, but another group under the man it fears the most has quietly checked into a five-star hotel in central Delhi at the same time. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, current leader of the Joint Opposition (JO), and the near-certain winner of Sri Lanka’s next election in January 2020, is in the Indian capital on a three-day visit.

Mr Rajapaksa is the man widely credited with ending the country’s 30-year-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). His newly-formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has won provincial elections and is on a roll. Mr Rajapaksa is slated to return as PM, an office now endowed with greater powers than the presidency and with a President of his own choice. Continue reading →

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