Category Archives: life stories

May 9, 2017 · 2:29 am

The Full Monty: Sri Lankan Stars in Aussie Life

Courtesy of DFAT and cameraman Nathan Fulton and with thanks to Kristopher Maslin of  the Department of Foreign Affairs

 Arun Abey of Sydney  Jitto Arulampalam of Melbourne

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Filed under art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, cultural transmission, economic processes, female empowerment, heritage, life stories, literary achievements, slanted reportage, unusual people, world affairs

May 8, 2017 · 3:06 pm

Has Assad been Tarred with a Sarin Brush? A False Flag Stratagem at Play?

 in Daily Mirror, 8 May 2017,  with title   “False-flag chemical weapons attack: Re-play of an old US ploy to smash Syria? – See more at:

As the fallout of the April 4th chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun in Syria continues to unfold, contradictory reports on the incident have produced more questions than answers as to what really happened.  The only certainty seems to be that sarin or a similar poison was used. This was confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons according to Reuters, but OPCW was not mandated to assign blame.

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Filed under accountability, american imperialism, arab regimes, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, news fabrication, photography, politIcal discourse, propaganda, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes

May 8, 2017 · 2:46 pm

In Veneration of All Mothers

Diogenes

Mother is the wind, the earth and the sky,

 The serenity of the flower and the leaf,

The softness of a child’s sigh,

The steadfastness of the mountain and the star,

 The love of a Buddha

Mother, that’s what you are! Continue reading →

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Filed under heritage, life stories, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people

May 7, 2017 · 2:13 pm

Kandy’s Landscape under Sunday Observer’s Eagle Eye

Sunday Observer Team, 17 May 2017

The Sunday Observer has launched “Cityscape” where our intrepid reporters will visit cities around the country, probing the shortcomings and asking the questions no one dared to ask before. In this segment of Cityscape, our staff journalists, Maneshka Borham and Husna Inayathullah are visiting the Hill Capital Kandy, the country’s second largest city, seeking answers to a host of issues including, but not limited to, garbage, air pollution and the lack of parking spaces.

 Kandy – mid 19th century overview    Kandy Today

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Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, governance, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions

May 7, 2017 · 1:51 pm

Sinhala at Cornell under Threat of Guillotine! A Protest

Malinda Seneviratne, in The Island, 7 May 2017, where the title reads “Save the Sinhala Program at Cornell University”

Deepthi Kumara Gunaratne once alleged that I never studied at Harvard University.  He said that I might have been eating hoppers in some boutique somewhere near Harvard, at best.  He was essentially claiming that I had learned nothing at Harvard.  Someone else asked me once what I had brought back from Harvard and I said ‘Harvard was too big to carry back to Sri Lanka,’ and, after a pause, added, ‘Harvard was too small too.’  Not true, strictly speaking, but I was using a broad brush and alluding to alleged superiority of certain knowledge systems, just like Deepthi.  Big or small the institution, big or small the individual, we leave something behind and we take away something too.  True of Harvard and true of Cornell University.

 Jim Gair at work  Cornell Uni Continue reading →

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Filed under economic processes, education, heritage, language policies, life stories, meditations, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world affairs

May 5, 2017 · 10:24 am

Nicobar Pigeon penetrates Australia

Victoria Laurie,  in the Australian, 5 May 2017, where the title presented is “The dodo’s gorgeous island-hopping relative finds its way to our shores”

A Nicobar pigeon has been found in the Kimberley.

A gorgeously plumed pigeon ­described as the closest living descenda­nt of the now extinct dodo has been found by Aborig­inal rangers in the Kimberley.The Nicobar pigeon has never before been found on the Australian mainland, but was spotted by Bardi Jawi rangers walking across a road near monsoon vine thickets at Chile Creek on the Dampier Peninsula last month.

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Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, economic processes, heritage, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, world events & processes

May 5, 2017 · 5:01 am

Malaravan’s War Journey for Tiger Tamils, 1990s

War Journey, being translation of  Por Ulaa reviewed  here by three Indian intellectuals

ONE > R.K. Radhakrishnan: “A Heroic Life after Death,” 8 July 2013, The Hindu

Just as political parties in India used music, theatre and cinema with stunning results, the LTTE relied on the written word, and folklore, with the help of platform speakers in Tamil. Heroes are created long after their death. The embellished folklores, the sexed-up citations, even made-up stories of courage, valour and sacrifice — all contribute to the creation of a hero from an ordinary human being, who is often left without a choice of how, why and if he/she will be remembered or celebrated. Institutions and movements seek to capitalise on the emotional appeal of the ‘supreme sacrifice’ to further ‘The Cause.’ Continue reading →

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Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, female empowerment, historical interpretation, Indian religions, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, LTTE, meditations, military strategy, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes, zealotry

May 5, 2017 · 4:05 am

A Martyr for Allah — Jabar, the Assassin, in Sydney

  Rhiam Deutrom, in The Australian, 5 May 2017, where the title runs “Cheng killer Farhad Jabar feted as ‘martyr’ by accused co-plotters”

Farhad Jabar was celebrated as a “warrior” and a “martyr” in the days after the teenager shot unarmed NSW police finance employee Curtis Cheng in the back of the head, outside the Parramatta Police Headquarters, a court has heard. Farhad, killed by special constables during the attack in 2015, was allegedly given an illegal pistol by the men at the centre of a committal hearing this week in the Downing Centre Local Court. Talal Alameddine, 24, Mustafa Dirani, 23, Milad Atai, 21 and Raban Alou, 19, are facing charges relating to planning a terrorist act and supplying the .38 calibre pistol to Farhad. All but Mr Alou were present at court this week, dressed in prison-issued green tracksuits and seated together in the dock.

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Filed under australian media, cultural transmission, female empowerment, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, Middle Eastern Politics, politIcal discourse, power politics, psychological urges, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, terrorism, world events & processes, zealotry

May 4, 2017 · 10:18 am

Perinpanayagam’s Study of the LTTE Strand of Tamil Nationalism

Anushka Perinpanayagam, paperback, 2010 …

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a nationalist organisation which has been a key player in Sri Lanka’s ethnic war. Like the early Tamil nationalist groups in Sri Lanka, the LTTE professes to be a secularist organisation. This tradition of secularism distinguishes Tamil nationalism from its Sinhalese counterpart. A small group of academics, however, has debated whether the LTTE is truly secularist. The debate focuses on the LTTE’s ritual calendar and commemorative events which draw on religious symbols and which, according to some critics, have the character and quality of religious events. This project intervenes in this debate by analysing how scholars use the terms ‘religion’ and ‘secular’ when discussing the LTTE and Sri Lankan politics. In addition, this book investigates how the LTTE’s claim to be secular impacts upon its narration of history and its discourse around death and dying. This work is useful not only for those interested in the Sri Lankan situation but also for those who wish to explore nationalism, modernisation and the categories of religion and the secular.

 https://www.facebook.com/anushka.perinpanayagam

The book can be purchased via AMAZON = http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/handle/10063/1784… with illustrations below being from the Thuppahi stock associated with my work on the “sacrificial devotion” of the Tamil Tigers — work which is considered intelligently by Perinpanayagam in association with the writings of Peter schalk Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam and others.  Continue reading →

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Filed under cultural transmission, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, religiosity, Saivism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

May 3, 2017 · 3:05 pm

Self-Inflicted Torture by Proxy Discerned by British Court of Appeal in rejecting a Tamil’s Claim

Stephen Wright, in The Daily Mail, 22 April 2017, with the tile reading as “Asylum seeker from Sri Lanka let himself be tortured with hot iron bars to support his bid to stay in Britain”

* The man, 35, said they showed how he was badly treated in his native country 

* The Court of Appeal ruled it was a ruse called ‘self-infliction by proxy’ or SIBP

 * Lord Justice Sales also raised doubts over his relationship with the Tamil Tigers 

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Filed under accountability, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes