Category Archives: life stories

March 22, 2018 · 1:27 am

Collette on EFC Ludowyk … and More

Incidental Gains from An Item on Richmond College, and Its Apollo Club  = http://richmondcollege.org/drama

Prof. E.F.C. Ludowyk

html css templatesProf. Evelyn Frederick Charles Ludowyk (1906-1985) a Sri Lankan Burgher Shakespearean scholar, author, playwright and critic, the first Professor of English of the University of Ceylon is the son of E. F. C. Ludowyk (Snr) who was an English teacher at Richmond from 1908 to 1935. Prof. Ludowyk was born on the 16th of October 1906 in Galle and died in 1985 in England.

In 1913 he passed the Junior Cambridge Examination with First Class Honours, with four distinctions. He also had the unparalleled distinction of being the youngest King’s Scout in the British Empire at the tender age of thirteen. Continue reading →

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March 21, 2018 · 11:24 pm

British House of Commons press for Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sri Lanka, March 2018

HOUSE OF COMMONS HANSARD, 20 March 2018, 

Paul Scully MP (Conservative, Sutton & Cheam), Chair of UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils called a short debate in Westminster Hall on the establishment of a Truth & Reconciliation Commission in Sri Lanka. FCO Minister, Rt Hon Mark Field responded on behalf of HMG

    • Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)

      I beg to move,

      That this House has considered the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission in Sri Lanka.

      It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Paisley. I am delighted to be joined by fellow members of the all-party parliamentary group for Tamils. The turnout represents the depth of feeling, particularly among the Tamil diaspora, in our constituencies. Yesterday, I led a debate in this Chamber on cystic fibrosis, which was the first time I have seen it with standing room only. The fact that there are fewer Members here for this debate does not negate its importance. Every Member in this Chamber represents many thousand members of the Tamil diaspora, who remain concerned about what is happening in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Government’s slow progress in meeting the terms of UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, which the Sri Lankan Government co-sponsored.

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March 19, 2018 · 10:33 pm

White ‘Jihadist’ terrorises White House!

So says CLEMENT in The Australian

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March 19, 2018 · 2:02 am

Alan Strathern on The Vijaya Story as A Variant of the Romulus Tale … and Stranger Kings

Alan Strathern of Brasenose College, Oxford, with emphasis in colour being an imposition by The Editor Thuppahi

ABSTRACT: The story of Vijaya, has long been central to the Sinhalese idea of themselves as a distinct ethnic group of Aryan origin with ancient roots in the island of Lanka. The ‘national’ chronicle of the Sinhalese, the Mahāvaṃsa (circa fifth century ce) presents Vijaya, an exiled prince from India descended from a lion, as the founder hero of Sinhala civilisation. In a companion article to this, I argued that the narrative of Vijaya and other founder-heroes in the Mahāvaṃsa revolves around the theme of transgression, and that this puzzling fact can only be explained by a consideration of the symbolic logic of the ‘stranger-king’ in origin stories and kingship rituals worldwide.

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March 18, 2018 · 1:38 am

Tales of an Infertility Pill are effectively dismissed by Sri Lankan Medical Specialists

If EVER there was a tale of gullibility and chicanery combining to spread violent killing and havoc among the populace, it is the manner in which some elements in the Sinhalese population accepted the validity of rumours that Muslim traders were dispersing infertility pills among the Sinhala peoples. Such rumours seem to have peaked immediately after the Digane-Teldeniya violence and may have been a factor inspiring the attacks. They are certainly part of the vicious propaganda being wrought by elements of the BBS type as well as gullible ordinary citizens.

From my studies of ethnic violence in the past, I note that this arena is where the voices and incitement of women contribute to the retributory actions we know as “riots” and/or “pogroms.” Michael Roberts ***

The featured picture shows Sri Lankan police commandos guarding a riot hit market place.

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March 17, 2018 · 6:03 pm

Kemper in London on Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World

Listen to PODCAST by Steven E. Kemper introducing his book Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World (U of Chicago Press, 2015) from New Books in Buddhist Studies … in London ….. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/new-books-in-buddhist-studies/id458210899?mt=2&i=1000345817559

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March 16, 2018 · 8:40 pm

High Commissioner Skandakumar’s Speech to the Muslim Community in Melbourne, March 2018

High Commissioner Speaks to Muslim Diaspora in Melbourne,

Published on Mar 14, 2018 ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRAF0jAq6bw&feature=share

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March 15, 2018 · 10:42 pm

1983 and 2018: Kunanayakam’s Warnings suggest US-UNHCR-Yahapālana Machinations

Tamara Kunanayakam, in The Island, 15 March 2018, where the title reads thus: “Former PR in Geneva warns Lanka at the mercy of UN-US project” …. with the highlighting here being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

Given that we find ourselves today standing at a pivotal crossroads in our nation’s history, I would like to begin and end by addressing an appeal to the Sri Lankan people – irrespective of the community they belong to – not to be swayed by events imposed upon them by others, but to keep their focus on the issues that concern them directly – the real issues, the issues that affect their daily lives, their working and living conditions, the issues that determined their vote and political choice at the recent Local Government elections.

TAMARA -SLeaderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_Kunanayakam

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March 13, 2018 · 3:20 pm

A Spectacular Message in a Bottle

I =Jonathan Pearlman, in The Telegraph, 6 March 2018, with title “Oldest message in a bottle found after 132 years”

The world’s oldest known message in a bottle – thrown off a German ship on June 12, 1886 – has been found by a family on a remote beach  in Australia after their car became stuck in the sand. The message was written in German on paper which was bound and tied with a string and kept in a nineteenth-century Dutch gin bottle. The note stated it was thrown off the sailing barque Paula, about 600 miles off coast of Western Australia.

 The bottle was found on a remote beach 100 miles north of Perth CREDIT: KYMILLMAN.COM

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March 13, 2018 · 10:27 am

Sinhala-Muslim Violence in Lanka: An Appeal and Allegations from a Muslim Professional

M. M. Zuhair, in the Island, 13 March 2018, where the title is “Who is trying to destroy our unity and why?”

The mob violence that erupted at Ampara town on Monday February 26, a day after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the stop-gap Minister of Law and Order and followed by violence in Digana, Teldeniya and several other parts of Kandy, independently of the Ampara events, will soon be forgotten, notwithstanding evidence that the extremist attacks in both places appear to be well organised following prior concert.

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