Category Archives: life stories

Duncan White wins 440 Hurdles in Record-time at Empire Games 1950

Courtesy of Lance Fernando and Victor Melder ….. SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iHJI0eoq9A&feature=em-share_video_user

Sri Lanka’s First Ever Track Gold: Duncan White- 440Yds.Hurdles,1950 Empire Games, Auckland, NZ

Published on Jun 11, 2013

White, who had won the silver medal for the 400m.hurdles at the 1948 Olympics, here won the newly independent Sri Lanka’s (at this time still called Ceylon)first ever track gold medal hurdling this time over the old Imperial distance of 440 yards. His time was 52.5,just 0.3 seconds outside the WR. In second place was John Holland(NZ)in 52.7 and in third Geoff Goodacre (Aus), in 53.1.

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, unusual people

A Poetic Appreciation of GK Haththotuwegama … five years after

Chandra Wickremasinghe

GK DE S

Child of unconventionality Of the Peradeniya fifties, When burgeoning creativity, Made avant- garde waves, With the path breaking Maname And Sophocles’ Theban plays, Under such renowned Gurus non-pareil, Of the ilk of Sarathchandra and Ludowyke.

What a wonderfully esoteric world it was! With idyllic evenings Spent languorously, dreamily, Watching the human tragedies As they unfolded on the stage, To the accompaniment of the wailing flute, The muffled drum note and the sad choral voices, In the grassy amphitheatre Which juxtaposed symmetrically, With the sharply curving ‘oscular bend’, On the familiar Galaha road. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under cultural transmission, heritage, life stories, performance, sri lankan society, unusual people

How “The Gathering” branded the Mass Elephant Congress at Minneriya … Annual and Mid-Year

Srilal Miththapala, in The Island, 28 October 2014, with title ” ‘The Gathering’ — The Unknown Story”

Elephants at Minneriya

‘The Gathering’ (of elephants) at Minneriya National Park takes place from around June to October each year and has today become a well-known phenomena in the world today. During the drought in the central province of Sri Lanka, some 150-250 wild elephants gather around this ancient man-made reservoir, covering approximately 8,900 hectares, which was constructed by King Mahasen in the 3rd century AD. This large reservoir fills up during the north-east monsoon around November to April each year. When the rain ceases, and the dry season begins, and the drought takes its toll, the water in the reservoir starts to dry up. Although the reservoir shrinks quite dramatically, it never really runs dry, and as the water recedes, it leaves behind fertile, moist soil where lush grass quickly sprouts. The entire reservoir is surrounded by scrub jungle, which opens out in the vast plains of the Minneriya tank. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under communal relations, elephant tales, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, sri lankan society, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

Brigitte Gabriel’s Devastating Criticism of Simple-Minded Political Correctness

Brigitte-Gabriel-665x385SEE her response to the Question from law student Saba Ahmad at http://ozziesaffa.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-bet-she-regrets-asking-her-question.html ,,,

….. a question which replicated the simplistic, seemingly deep but quite obtuse and totally impractical point-of-view that was ALSO embodied in the question from Ursula — another law student — selected by TONY JONES of Q and A on Australian Broadcasting Channel’s popular Monday night show yesterday 27th October. This question was taken seriously by Geoffrey Robertson, HR Lawyer, and given a a partial nod of  approval.

Brigitte Gabriel also took it seriously … and then tore it to shreds. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Al Qaeda, democratic measures, historical interpretation, Hitler, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, law of armed conflict, Left politics, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, violence of language, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes, zealotry

Buddhist Extremists in Sri Lanka and Burma on the Warpath

Latheef Farook, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 11 October 2014, where the title is “BBS – Wirathu Agreement: Declaration Of War On Muslims In Sri Lanka And South Asia”

Anti Muslim Sinhala racist outfit Bodu Bala Sena(BBS), which does not represent the mainstream Sinhala Buddhists, but had done considerable damage to pit Sinhalese against Muslims in the name of Sinhalese and Buddhism, together with Myanmar’s convicted criminal Ashin Wirathu, have declared war on Islam and Muslims in Sri Lanka and in South Asia. As part of this program the two sides, BBS and 969, also signed a special agreement aimed at creating South Asia free of what they described as (Islamic) terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

bhikkhus listen to Wirathuv-AFP Bhikkhus listen to Wirathu at Sugathadasa stadium, Colombo — Pic AFP

Addressing the Sangha Council meeting, organized with pomp and pageantry by the BBS costing millions of rupees on Sunday 28 September 2014 at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Ashin Wirathu, the dreaded leader of the 969 movement, the architect of the massacre of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and described by TIME magazine as the “face of the Buddhist terror” told, that his organization 969 would work with the BBS to fight so called Islamic terrorism. Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhism, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, propaganda, psychological urges, racist thinking, religious nationalism, riots and pogroms, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, world affairs, zealotry

Reconciliation via Cricket: Murali Harmony Cup 2014 sprouts more buds

SEE http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/murali-harmony-cup-2014-sprouts-more-buds/

ALSO SEE http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/series/680743.html

Sanga rules the north……As Sri Lanka recovers from a devastating civil war, Kumar Sangakkara does his bit to help with reconciliation in the LTTE’s former stronghold

Botham, Jayawardene open Murali Cup……Ian Botham and Mahela Jayawardene opened the 2013 Murali Cup in Kilinochchi on Friday, as the five-day tournament began in five venues across Sri Lanka’s northern province

Leave a comment

Filed under cricket for amity, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy

An Arsehole of a Motor Cyclist !!

ARSEHOL E MOTOR CYCLIST 

AND WHAT YOU NEED TO MEET THIS CHALLENGE Continue reading

Leave a comment

October 26, 2014 · 2:43 am

Saving Talaivar Prabhākaran, 2009: Fr. Gaspar Raj’s Revelations in 2010

Saving private ryan The title for this item is inspired by that riveting film from 1998 entitled Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks in the lead role.

 KEY QUOTATION: “It is said that the LTTE was agreeable to USA’s direct involvement, but they were not agreeable to locking the weapons. The USA had also started preparing for the Mullivaikal operation. Accordingly, PACOM’s Naval unit, Marine Expediency Brigade, will land at the Mullaithivu shores; and the Navy and the Air Force of PACOM will also join in this operation” … being just one stick of dynamite in “Mullivaikal Last Stages: Facts Unknown to the Tamil-Speaking World,” by Fr. Gaspar Raj, an essay in Tamil translated by one “ M N” for Nakeeran and then presented to the world by Sri Lanka Guardian on 23rd June 2010.

 Jegath Fr. Gaspar Raj prabha-tiger Talaivar Pirapāharan in his guerrilla days

This essay was re-discovered by accident when I went through my computer files recently and becomes extremely important in the light of (A) the recent review article by Daya Gamage; (B) the startling facts and manoeuvres that are displayed in the raw within the US Embassy despatches of 2009 made available by Wikileaks;[1] and (C) by the veteran journalist[2] PK Balachandran’s information on Revd. Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj’s role in 2009 and his endorsement of key facts in the Gaspar Raj essay…….inserted here at the end of the article by Gaspar Raj.[3] Michael Roberts.

Continue reading

9 Comments

Filed under american imperialism, atrocities, Eelam, historical interpretation, Indian General Elections, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power sharing, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, truth as casualty of war, wikileaks, world events & processes

Absorbing Lanka’s Variety by Rail

Anthony Dennis whose original title reads “Sri Lanka’s charmingly colonial era railway”

A journey on one of the most charming railway systems in the world reinforces the maxim that all great travel involves a modicum of discomfort. At Colombo’s Fort Station, the trapped tropical humidity inside the building’s interior, a tangle of silver-coated wrought and corrugated iron straight out of the early 20th-century British colonial era, is intense. I feel like a chicken inside a pressure cooker, and probably look like one, as I await my train for the two-and-a-half-hour ride to Kandy.

RAIL Lanka 1 I’m at the beginning of a 10-day journey around Sri Lanka. Such is the antiquated nature of the Sri Lankan railway network that here, in my perspired state, I wouldn’t be surprised if a locomotive, spewing steam and nostalgia, drew into the platform. Soon enough my train, pulled by a diesel loco, arrives and I identify the carriage – the last –with the words “Observation Saloon” written on it. Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under australian media, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, sri lankan society, tourism

War Magic and Warrior Religion. Q and A with DS Farrer

Berghahn Q & A for War Magic & Warrior Religion: Sorcery, Cognition & Embodiment

berg DOUG Farrer Douglas Farrer

What drew you to the study of War Magic & Warrior Religion?

Initially I was drawn to the study of war magic through my doctoral research into a Sufi warrior cult, where the Malay martial art (silat) was employed as a means to attract and secure local and international followers and converts. A wise informant, Dato Penggawa Tua Zaharah Mokhtar, recommended that I start with Winstedt [1925] (1993), Shaw (1976), and Skeat’s [1900] (1993) books on Malay magic to begin my research on silat.  At the time I was lecturing on Weber at the National University of Singapore, so the chiasmus between warrior religion and war magic came naturally: of course, the connection also appears in Deleuze and Guattari’s [1987] (2004) Treatise on Nomadology—The War Machine, among other sources. Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under cultural transmission, fundamentalism, heritage, historical interpretation, immolation, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, meditations, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry