Images from a Professional: Juliet Coombe
Category Archives: life stories
The Hall de GalleRevisiting the Story of the IDP Camps, 2009 et seq: ONE
Michael Roberts
As with Eelam War IV the Western media juggernaut, primed and fed by the extensive LTTE networks abroad, mounted an effective disinformation campaign on this topic. One illustration was when Jeremy Page of the BBC reported in June 2009 that 1400 persons were dying per week in the Manik Farm camps.
Coping with the influx of internal Tamil IDPS from late 2008 onwards was in fact a huge administrative and humanitarian problem with security implications. The task was faced by the Government of Sri Lanka and a collection of INGOS and NGOs with the support of monetary aid provided by the Western governments and UN agencies and with a Coordinating Committee chaired by Mahinda Samarasinghe keeping an eye on proceedings.
Annet Royce (standing) and Sewalanak Cooking team at Omanthai transit camp in mid-May 2009 preparing food packets for IDPS bussed in from war front on way to Manik Farm Camps Continue reading
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, australian media, charitable outreach, communal relations, disaster relief team, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, voluntary workers, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Neville Weereratne passes Away after a Full Life
Vale in The Island, 7 January 2018
Neville Weereratne could be considered as a polymath; a person of wide knowledge or learning which included among other things literature, music, art and writing. It is in painting though that he is most known and revered.
Neville married Sybil Keyt on 6 June 1959.
LTTE Financiers under Legal Gun in Switzerland … At Last!
News Item Times Online, 5 January 2018
Thirteen financiers accused of funnelling more than $15.3 million to the separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) will stand trial before a Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Monday, foreign media reported. According to a report in Swissinfo the accused are from Switzerland, Germany and Sri Lanka. Some are former members of the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), which represented the LTTE in Switzerland until 2009, and include its founder, his deputy and the person in charge of finances.
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, economic processes, Eelam, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, military expenditure, power politics, refugees, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Appreciating the Lake House Building
Ishara Jayawardane in conversation with Professor Manawadu, 3 Janaury 2018, where the title is
The physical presence of the Lake House building is enough to awaken a sense of awe in all those who behold it. The building commissioned by D.R. Wijewardena, is a white colossal monument that has dominated the landscape, housing some of the most revered newspapers in the world.
Celebrating DR Wijewardene and the DAILY NEWS
Lakdev Liyanagama, in Daily News, 3 January 2018, with the title A century’s fruition
The centenary that the Ceylon Daily News celebrates this year is also a hundred years where this newspaper, newspapers in Sri Lanka and indeed the media, in general, have metamorphosed several times over, serving different roles depending on the needs of the day.
“DR’–a classic photograph by Lionel Wendt
A hundred years ago, in 1917, the Ceylon Daily News was born when Don Richard Wijewardene (known as ‘DR’ to all), took ownership of The Ceylonese and re-christened it the Ceylon Daily News. Wijewardene was involved in the movement to gain Independence from Britain and was not shy to use his newspaper for that purpose. In that sense, the Ceylon Daily News had an enmeshed roe in the country’s politics from its very inception. Continue reading
Filed under cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, press freedom, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, world affairs
The Colombo Port City: Basic Details
Editor, News-in-Asia, 2 January 2018, where the title is Sri Lankan PM undertakes inspection tour of China funded Port City project””
Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Tuesday made an inspection tour of a 1.4 billion dollar mega port city which is being constructed close to the Colombo Harbour in the island’s capital.
The Colombo Port City, which will be the first of its kind in South Asia, is being constructed by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). Wickremesinghe, who was accompanied by several ministers, was briefed by the Port City management on the overall project and the present stage of construction. “This project which will also be a financial center will convert Sri Lanka into a global hub in the Indian Ocean region,” Wickremesinghe told reporters at the site of construction.
Terrorism within Pakistan Today
Zahid Hussain, in Dawn, 1 January 2017, where the title is “The Missing Element
The attack on a Quetta church on Christmas Eve, days after the carnage at a Peshawar college, is a grim reminder of terrorism far from being contained despite the government’s claim of success in counter-terrorism drive branded as Raddul Fasaad, or ‘elimination of discord’. While the security officials describe it as the next phase of the ongoing campaign, there are some serious flaws in the approach as witnessed during 2017.
Terror outfit ISIS have claimed the Quetta bomb blast which killed 15 and wounded 40 (Reuters)
About Hathuru …. before Q and A with Hathuru
Rex Clementine in Island, 31 December 2017, where the title runs Hathurusingha harps on No Dickheads policy”….. with emphasis in highlights added by Editor, Thuppahi
Not many Asian teams go to South Africa and excel. Sri Lanka in particular have a disastrous record over there. Yet, one man conquered the last frontier. Chandika Hathurusingha took a young Sri Lanka ‘A’ side to South Africa in 2009 comprising the likes of Angelo Mathews, Tharanga Paranavithana and Suranga Lakmal and they recorded a 4-1 series win against a strong opposition.
