Category Archives: meditations

Lankan Cricketers Mauled by Travel-Toss Decision-Safs

Sidarth Monga, in ESPNcricinfo, 3 June 2024 where the title reads thus: “So unfair – Sri Lanka, given a raw scheduling deal, struggle to find their bearings”

Delayed flights, matches at different venues, hotels far from the game venues have made life difficult for Hasaranga’s team. Sri Lanka’s players were in a hurry to complete the media commitments after their first match of this T20 World Cup. That’s because immediately after the match, they had to rush to their hotel in Brooklyn, an hour-and-a-half away, pack, check out, and then make their 6pm flight to Dallas where they will be playing what is now a must-win match against Bangladesh. This after they had to wait for seven hours at the Miami airport to take their delayed flight to New York to play this match.

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The Schaffters: Ceylonese serving Sri Lanka down the Generations

Michael Roberts

A major error by a Sri Lankan lady re Tamil representatives in Ceylon/Sri Lankan cricket in the exchanges in LINKED IN drives me to compose an item in TPS on the Tamil cricketers who played cricket for the island at the highest level in the 20th and 21st centuries (this is in process and will take time).

The Janashakthi Book on cricket sponsored by the Schaffters, which places SS Perera’s wonderful archive of work on the bookshelves, is an example of Sinhala Tamil cooperation that places  all manner of information on the island’s rich cricket history within our reach. While I will be scouring this work for data, I reach out here to aficionado seeking data (and photographs) displaying information on Tamils who represented Ceylon/Sri Lanka at the highest level in the years stretching from 1901 to 2024.

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For Lanka. Achievers Past. But NOT Forgotten …..

A Thuppahi Item composed on 25th May 2024 ….. …… One inspired by visits to the TPS  Web Presentations in Memory of These Contributors to Our Heritage

https://thuppahis.com/2019/11/23/edmund-leach-biographical-studies-from-tambiah-and-others/ Continue reading

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Touche! An Old Ladies Riposte …..

A Message circulated by Vernon Davidson, Keith Bennett and friends in Australia

Here is a wonderful little story.

A young MALE cashier told an older woman that she should bring her grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my day.”

The young clerk said, “Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

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Dharmasoka College in Ambalangoda and Its Founder

Jagath De Silva, in The Island, 19 May 2024, where the title runs thus “A valuäble publication on the history of Dharmasoka College, ambalangoda”

This is a remarkable testament to the history and legacy of Dharmasoka College, meticulously compiled by a distinguished alumnus and former principal of the college who delves deep into the origins of the school, shedding light on its inception and the challenges faced by its founder, Mudaliyar Santiago Thomas de Silva.

 

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POIGNANT MOMENTS …. Remembering the Dead in War

 

In SRI LANKA 12 May 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ANZAC DAY Commemorations Today … 25 April 2024

The Ceremonial “Markings” in Turkey and Elsewhere: Momentous & Indelible Recollections

GALLIPOLI, TURKEY – APRIL 25: New Zealand Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae speaks at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at ANZAC Cove on April 25, 2010 in Gallipoli, Turkey. Today commemorates the 95th anniversary of ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) Day, when First World War troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey early April 25, 1915. Today April 25 is commemorated with ceremonies of remembrance for those who fought and died in all wars ….. Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images   

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Ironies in the Metaphors of Anzac Cove in Australian Lore

Richard Koenigsberg plus ….

Addressing the practices of remembrance in Australia, Richard Koenigsberg has noted the irony that a battlefield defeat at Gallipoli in World War One, 1915, served a people as an emblem of nationhood: the “Australian nation, came into being on the foundations provided by the slaughter of its young men.”

There is more irony. The commemoration of Australian courage, sacrifice and manliness at Gallipoli (and subsequently on the Somme) was threaded by tropes of youthful innocence that drew on classical Hellenic motifs; while the monuments and epitaphs that were crafted in Australia to mark this event were manifestly Greek in form. The gendered masculine metaphor, in turn, was often embodied in the seminal image of a full-bodied blonde young man. “Archie Hamilton” in Peter Weir’s classic film Gallipoli was/is one such trope (and he died of course).

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From “Tribalism” to “Fascist Nationalism”: Ethical Musings

Brian Victoria* … in Informed Comment  … https://www.juancole.com/2024/02/judaism-tribalism-universalism.html…. where the title read thus: “The Battle for the Soul of Judaism: Tribalism, Amalek and the Axial Age Universalism of Isaiah”

 

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A Matador in Repentence …. & A Forgiving

Michael Roberts

The Bullfights staged in custom-built arenas in Spain and Latin America are spectacular  pageants that are said to have held watchers spellbound (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting). Presumably they still do. But someone sent me a striking still-shot that immediately held me spellbound.

This picture reveals an experienced matador in wailing repentence …. with a forgiving bull facing him calmly in stoic sadness.

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