Category Archives: life stories
Kumar Sangakkara’s House in Galle Fort: The Game-Changer
Juliet Coombe, on “Kumar Sangakkara, Professional Cricketer, Part-Time Philosopher” and The Game-Changer. at 76 Leyn Baan Street, Galle Fort …. in her illustrated book, Around the Galle Fort in 80 lives, (2017) …ISBN 978-955-0000-005
“I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan.” … Kumar Sangakkara deeply moved everyone at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London in July of 2011, in his speech in which he explored the nature of Sri Lanka. It is this rich mix of religions and nationalities that attracted Kumar to Galle Fort, which has been a part of his life for almost as long as cricket has, a place that captured his father just as powerfully as it has entranced him. It was his father who, he says, “told me one day, if you’re ever thinking of buying property, the Fort is one place you should look at. He had a great appreciation for the Fort and the life of the Fort and the old families living in the Fort and ever since that day it’s stayed with me.”
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, commoditification, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Exquisite Camera Timing in the Sports Arena
Pow! Wham! How! … COURTESY OF http://www.thebrofessional.net/perfectly-timed-sports-photos/
Anguish!! Reading Mike
Image from http://sangam.org/sachis-files-chapter-4-2/ by Sachi Sri Kantha, 16 October 2015,
When the essay “Anguish as Empowerment …A Path to Retribution” was presented on the 22nd March 2017, I received several private email comments from good friends. My recent little essay on Ëxtremist Cricket Fans” has led me to look over this set of remarks and a tirade of sorts directed at me by an embittered Tamil nationalist named Kathiravan espousing the cause of Eelam in February 2011 in the Blog Comments within Colombo Telegraph (and rehashed by me in Thuppahi = see ……………………….……………. https://thuppahis.com/2012/02/27/an-angry-tamil-kathiravan-confronts-roberts/).
The unsolicited readings are too valuable to lie in the cupboards and I am waxing bold by presenting them to the world without the permission of my friends within the present reflections on EXTREMISM. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, Buddhism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, devolution, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, reconciliation, religiosity, religious nationalism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Extremist Cricket Fans: Where Anguish spawns Violence
Michael Roberts
The recent outbursts of abuse and riotous act on the cricket grounds at Pallekele and Rangiri when our cricketers were defeated after some poor cricket are significant in the wider scheme of local culture and ethics. Such reactions reveal the reverberations that can be generated by a small body of extremists. It is ironic that some of these very same extremists, some among these abusive fans, would have been among those who indulged in effusive cheering an adulation of the cricket team when they triumphed.
The India vs Sri Lanka ODI in Pallekele was marred by crowd trouble as Sri Lankan fans threw bottles on the outfield, which stopped play for 30 minutes.(AP)… NOTE: in 1996 a Eden Gardens Calcutta Indian fans reacted in similar fashion when they were losing –to Sri Lanka as it hapens
Filed under accountability, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
A Classic British Farce on Stage via Indu Dharmasena
Item in Sunday Times Online = http://www.sundaytimes.lk/article/1021966/indu-dharmasenas-take-on-a-ray-cooney-classic-it-runs-in-the-family
Director Indu Dharmasena returns with another Ray Cooney comedy. This time it’s ‘It Runs in the Family’, a classic British farce, a laughter-filled cocktail of mistaken identities, fabricated deaths and even a few cross-dressing antics.
Probing Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s Background and Attainments
Darshanie Ratnawalli, courtesy of the Sunday Island, 27 August 2017, where the title runs “Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe –The man Vs the hero”
“Salagama? Certainly not”, Sumangala Thera of the Sugatha-Dakshinaramaya temple in Skelton Road refutes my speculation about Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s caste as authoritatively as only a Buddhist monk hailing from Kanumuldeniya, just two kilometres from Rajapakshe’s original village of Horewala in Walasmulla, and somebody who went to school with him, can. As political issues hotted up and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe became flavour of the month, the first public reference to Rajapakshe’s caste was made on 13 August by Badulla District MP Dilan Perera, couched as an admonition not to rely on the caste-ridden as well as chauvinistic Joint Opposition which, whichever Rajapaksa it welcomes, will not accept a Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.
The Special Task Force as an Arm of the Police
Merril Gunaratne, in The Island, 27 August 2017, with the title “Pioneers of the STF”
The Special Task Force (STF) is actually a police organisation, but in scope and structure is flavoured by military features. It is therefore a blend of both disciplines and as a product has been a blessing to the police since it’s inception in the mid 1980’s because of it’s proven record against terrorism and lawlessness. It is now the pride of the police. They owe a debt of deep gratitude to late Ravi Jayewardene for he was it’s founder and author.
Orientations to Knowledge in the World of the Sinhala
G. Usvatte-Aratchi, Courtesy of the National Trust, where the title of his talk was “Sinhala Attitudes to Knowledge” …….. http://www.thenationaltrust.lk/resources/images/Sinhala-Attitude-to-Knowledge.pdf
Some of you may have noticed that I have been a frequent though not a regular part of this audience. I have learnt much and found these lectures full of wit and wisdom. I have often felt guilty that I drank from this seemingly horn of plenty and did not care to refill it. One evening, about two years ago, as my wife and I waited for the lift to go down, someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me whether I would talk at one of the monthly meetings. I promised Mr. Wickremaratne that I would try to find a theme on which to talk. And there was the nub. I had no theme on which to speak on. I avoided him in those little clever ways we have learnt to dodge people to whom we have promised to deliver but failed. Continue reading
Sri Lanka in 2016: Professor CR de Silva’s Capsule Review
Chandra R. de Silva reviews the achievements of Sri Lanka’s new regime led by President Maitripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2016 for ASIAN SURVEY. He also assesses the challenges that lie ahead in 2017, as political divisions are likely to intensify over local and regional government elections, and foreign loans and inefficient state enterprises could disrupt the country’s positive economic outlook.
Two years after the defeat of the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the emergence of a coalition government consisting of the two major political alliances, Sri Lanka has made some progress but faces major challenges in 2017.The current government led by President Maitripala Sirisena, leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe leader of the United National Party (UNP) has an overwhelming majority in Parliament. Although they lead groups which had long standing political rivalries, the two leaders have planned for a long-term alliance. One of their signal political achievements was the approval of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 2015. This provision circumscribed the power of the President by restricting the hitherto virtually unfettered power of the president to appoint a number of officers (such as judges of the Supreme Court) and also limited presidents to a maximum of two terms. In addition, the amendment prohibited the President from dissolving Parliament without its consent for four and a half years after the date of the last parliamentary election.
