Category Archives: modernity &amp; modernization

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, revenue registers, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society

September 15, 2025 · 9:29 pm

Pursuing World-Class Creative Writing in Sri Lanka

Dr Sasanka Perera, in The Island, 15 September 2025, with this title “Writing with passion and conviction”

My intention [here] is to reflect on writing with passion at a time Sri Lanka is producing writing, at least in the Sinhala language, that is worthy of being introduced to the world. When I say this, I am thinking of creative writing. There is no such promise by and large when it comes to academic writing. And it does not seem to me that the idea of promoting our writing, ways of writing, and reaching to the world, are issues seriously addressed by our universities, despite their focus in training young people in language and literatures. Unfortunately, however, the idea of writing, though central to all disciplines in social sciences and humanities, has been under-emphasised to the extent of being made almost invisible in academic, professional and popular discourses today in our country.

A Set of Pix of Martin wickremasinghe, Sarachchandra, Tambiah, Obeyesekera. Sir-Gurusinghe THAT was not amenable to easy reproduction]

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September 13, 2025 · 9:46 pm

Cartesian Commonalities: New Amsterdam & Galle Fort, II

Bunchy Rahuman, whose preferred title is “Galle Fort, New York City and the Cartesian Legacy” ** … with the highlights being impositions by the Editor, who also had the privilege of being a resident within the Fort for twenty or so years from 1938-1960

ESSAY TWO

Do I exceed myself? Cartesian? The Big Apple? – surely not! But I insist, I am here, not to tweak the truth. In Essay One, I said, the street I lived [most of] my Galle, Fort life in was Lighthouse Street. Discerning readers [for a moment I thought to add if any – but my life insurance policy has lapsed!] would note that I said Lighthouse Street formed a ‘Y’ axis line for the [Galle] Fort. Now even math allergic types, have heard of X axis and Y axis as [perpendicular] lines that cross at right angles and sit in the middle of paper sheets populated by tiny squares arranged 10 x 10, within larger squares, all sitting above, below and at each other’s sides in sheets known as graph paper.

Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, architectural innovation, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, travelogue, world events & processes

September 13, 2025 · 1:46 am

Peter Mayer: Straddling USA-India-Australia via Academia

Michael Roberts

The world of university lecturers is quite varied and cannot be easily distilled. My experience is mostly based on my years teaching at Peradeniya University n Sri Lanka (1960-62 & 1966-76) and Adelaide University from 1978-2004—besides exposures to the environments in Oxford, Chicago, Heidelberg & Bielefeldt.

I have decided to introduce my TPS readership to some personnel from this highly-variegated field. My first choice has been an easy one: PETER MAYER is an easy man – personable, talented, multi-skilled and well-travelled. As vitally, he is an American who has married an equally personable lady named “Latha” who is from India.

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September 10, 2025 · 4:19 pm

East & West: Cross-fertilisation in Sri Lanka, 1940s et seq

Michael Roberts

An EMAIL Exchange with Vinod Moonesinghe recently prompted me to search for relevant literature and I came across this text from my hand in People Inbetween (1989, Sarasavi Publications, page 111).

“In brief, in the 1900s and 1910s the literati who engaged themselves in English drama developed no synthesizing link with the Sinhala theatre which was flourishing at the same time in and around the Tower Hall in Maradana, Colombo. The latter, as we know, had some awareness of the Western theatrical traditions [81]. Our speculative point is that the fertilizing influence, such as it was, moved in one direction only. Pathiraja

Sarathchandra

Ludo
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September 7, 2025 · 2:57 pm

Indigenous ‘Touches’ within the British Colonial Era of Capitalist Expansion

Vinod Moonesinghe, IN Factum Perspectives March 3, 2025, where the title runs thus: “Tindals, Dhonis, and Sampans – The interconnectedness of historical Indian Ocean commerce” …. NB: the two photos & the map are insertions by The Editor, Thuppahi

In the days of the British Raj, bullock carts were used to transport goods inland and to bring coffee beans (and later tea) from the montane plantations down to Colombo, for shipment overseas.

The distance from the coffee plantations to the main seaport of Galle caused the colonial government to override the wishes of the British Admiralty and of the steamship lines (who all wished to operate from Galle, which was closer to the main sea route to the Orient) and to develop Colombo harbour at a considerable cost.

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September 5, 2025 · 1:04 pm

Mahbubani’s Insightful Reading of Today’s World Order

Watch https://youtu.be/0HsAtrd8bNE?si=nUjZVm05W-67JStS

This is the lecture Australians should listen too, not the psychotic rubbish that the army of elite propaganda journalists publish each day in Australian newspapers and on TV. The lecture was given in Hong Kong. The speaker is the well known former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani who examines the changes taking place in the world today, and the implications from it.

He says “geopolitics is the most cruel game in the world”. Being a nice country is not enough. You need to be shrewd and cunning if you are going to survive. He affirms that “we live in amazing times of amazing changes around the world, and that we have an obligation to keep up with the changes and learn how to adapt to it.”

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September 3, 2025 · 4:11 pm

AI Looms Over Our Future …. Look-Out!

ITEM in LUMEN, Adelaide University Magazine, September 2025 or so … no date specified clearly & bearing this title: “The Future and AI” …. Authorship unclear: maybe Carolyn Semmler, maybe Isaac Freeman

Whether we like it, or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle. Its rapid evolution has been embraced by some, and met with raised eyebrows by others.

In our earlier issue of Lumen this year, we asked readers to describe their hopes and fears for the future. AI was an overwhelmingly present theme.

We shared some of these letters with academics from both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia to help clarify and respond to concerns on four broad themes: impact on jobs; global security; wellbeing; and the potential for cognitive decline.

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September 1, 2025 · 11:50 am

High Rise Overkill in Colombo City Centre

Sanjiva Wijesinha, in Facebook, where the title runs “The loss of habitat and heritage”

Last Sunday morning I went for my usual walk to Galle Face Green.

It is a habit I have cultivated over the years – an early morning walk before the sun gets too hot, when I can inhale the fresh ozone-laden air coming in from the Indian Ocean and invigorate my physical body while refreshing my mind. My custom used to be to start where the Galle Face Hotel stands, walk out towards Galle Buck and the old light house or even as far as the Port Maritime Museum and then walk back, which would take me about an hour. In recent times, I have changed my route from time to time – turning round at the roundabout opposite the old Parliament (now the Presidential Secreta-riat) and walking along the road that passes behind the Shangri-La, the ITC Ratnadipa and the Taj Samudra hotels back to my starting point. As I return along this road I can see on my left across the Beira Lake the Cinnamon City of Dreams hotel.

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August 29, 2025 · 5:14 pm

China and Lanka Today

Item in The Island, 22 August 2025, with this title: “China, SL promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation-Ambassador Zhenhong” .… with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Declaring that China and Sri Lanka share a time-honoured friendship, and the ancient Silk Road has long bound the two countries together, Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong has said they are now working hand in hand to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

The Chinese envoy said so at a reception held in Colombo to mark the 80th anniversary of their victory over Japan in WW Two..

Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said: “From the progress of the Hambantota Port to the rise of the Colombo Port City, and from infrastructure connectivity to the deepening of cultural exchanges, we are jointly writing a vivid chapter in the building of a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future through concrete actions. This epic new chapter of cooperation is the most vibrant tribute to history, the most solid foundation for peace, and will surely paint an even brighter picture for the future of Sri Lanka.”