Category Archives: modernity & modernization

May 14, 2024 · 9:08 pm

The Pros & Cons of T20 Cricket Today …. Six-hitting Sleepiness?

Ian Chappell, in  ESPNcricinfo, 5 May 2024 where the title reads “Will T20 get to the point where it becomes wearisome?”

Over the years I’ve learnt that for every upside in an idea – no matter how good – it’s guaranteed there’ll also be a downside. Consequently there’s some disillusionment with the growing amount of six-hitting involved in the T20 game and particularly in the highly successful IPL tournament.

Travis Head hammers a six — AFP/Getty

…. Take this and multiply it some. Still a spectacle? 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, Indian Premier League cricket, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, travelogue, world events & processes

May 8, 2024 · 3:18 am

SSC: The Studies in Society & Culture Project, 1992 et seq

SSC PAMPHLET PROJECT

Some of you may remember this project in Sri Lanka in the 1990s directed towards making selected academic articles on the history & politics of Sri Lanka available to the English-reading public at affordable rates. My unreliable memory indicates that the personnel behind this enterprise were myself, Ananda Chittampalam, Willa Wickramasinghe and our engine, so to speak, was the press operated by Haris Hulugalla.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, education policy, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, racist thinking, religious nationalism, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry

May 2, 2024 · 2:27 am

The Global Contest for Influence/Power

Fair Dinkum

What is astonishing is that while China and Europe are doing trade to the tune of 783 billion, the US and NATO  are waging war to the combined tune of 500 billion. One is about construction,  the other destruction. One is about peaceful cooperation,  the other is about perpetual war.

The 500 billion from the US/NATO has all gone up in smoke with 500,000 dead Ukrainians and about 100,000 dead Russians (rough estimates), and the loss of Ukraine looming on the horizon.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, China and Chinese influences, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, modernity & modernization, Pacific Ocean politics, politIcal discourse, power politics, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

May 2, 2024 · 12:57 am

Amiable Academic Reciprocities: Peebles & Roberts, 1970

Michael Roberts

The academic world and its scholarship is marked by cooperative work as well as animosities and rivalry – whether personal or based on political affiliations. The Sri Lankan scenario was/is no different. As I participated in this environment as a lecturer in History at Peradeniya University,[1] I was extremely fortunate in: (A) benefitting from a salubrious physical setting and a favourable arrangement of buildings and a super library; and (B) a bunch of dons who were as inspiring as amiable –so that the “Senior Common Room’ in the Faculty of Arts was not only a spot for invigorating tea, but also a site for the exchange of ideas.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, transport and communications

April 23, 2024 · 7:20 pm

The Royal-Thomian: Yesterday & Today

Uditha Devapriya & Uthpala Wijesuriya, in https://scroll.in/where the title reads thus: “Cricket, class and baila: The many layers of Sri Lanka’s celebrated Royal Thomian sports encounter”

With an unbroken 145-year streak, the face-off between two of the island-nation’s oldest schools has become a cultural rite of passage for the nation’s elite.

Prefects leading a cheer at the 144th Royal Thomian, 2023. |

Uthpala & Uditha … in match fervour

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, Colombo and Its Spaces, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, propaganda, Royal College, S. Thomas College, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, tolerance

April 17, 2024 · 9:50 pm

Sri Lanka in Cavernous Economic Chasm

Ahilan Kadirgamar in Q and A with Hans Dembowski …. in Q and A at https://www.dandc.eu/en/contributors/ahilan-kadirgamar

 

Sri Lanka’s government defaulted in April 2022. How is the economy doing today?
The situation is dire. Sri Lanka’s GDP contracted by 7.8 % last year and is contracting this year as well. Some 500,000 formal-sector jobs have been lost. Another 1 million informal jobs were lost in the construction sector. Cost of living has risen by over 70 % with the crisis. According to the World Bank, the poverty rate doubled to 25 % last year, and the UNDP reckons that multidimensional poverty now affects over half of our people. Multidimensional poverty takes account of things like child mortality, nutrition, school attendance and consumption patterns.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan scoiety, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

April 6, 2024 · 3:43 am

Pictorials: Roman Szechowycz in the Dry Zone in the 1950s

Michael Roberts

Dr Roman Szechowycz and  his brother served the newly independent island of Ceylon in its hydraulic agriculture projects in the Dry Zone in the period 1950 to 1961 …. mostly from a base at Inginiyagala in the Eastern Province where the Gal Oya Tank was constructed. We are fortunate to have some photographic ‘asides’ of a “personnel nature” — so to speak — associated with this work  The detailed descriptions presented elsewhere in TPS: viz.; …..

Experiences: Working on the Gal Oya Project in Ceylon, 1950-61

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, commoditification, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, population, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

March 29, 2024 · 1:39 pm

For Ceylon. Roman Szechowycz in Gal Oya, 1950-61

Andreas Szechowycz … detailing his father’s dedicated work in the Gal Oya Project in the 1950s and in communication with  Michael Roberts in ways that mark his deep attachment to the island

Group Photo – Dr. Roman Szechowycz in middle.

L-R: Mr. (not legible), Mr. P. W. Richards, Mr. Coel Menai North Wales UK, Dr. Roman Szechowycz, Dr. A. J. Kostreamaks Bongor, Mr.. Anwari Dilmy Indonesia, Mr. B. A. Abeyvickram Colombo, Mr. R. A. DeRosaryro Colombo

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, population, rehabilitation, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes

March 29, 2024 · 10:16 am

Differentiation in the Foundations of Criticism in Recent Struggles in Sri Lanka

Abeysekara, Ananda …. presenting a synopsis of an article with the same title presented in the web journal Academia  …………………. https://www.academia.edu/116523255/Buddhism_Politics_and_Criticism_in_a_Time_of_Struggle_in_Sri_Lanka

As I have argued elsewhere (Abeysekara 2002), the relation between religion and politics changes in historical debates. Debates themselves are forms of “criticism” in that debates change the questions of who and what constitute the parameters of religion and politics.[1] In that sense, I want to think about how the relation between religion, politics, and the state became the subject of debate during postwar Sri Lanka and ask what such a debate may say about our postcolonial politics and democracy itself.

The Sandahiru Saya under construction Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

March 21, 2024 · 6:14 pm

Experiences: Working on the Gal Oya Project in Ceylon, 1950-61

Andreas Szechowycz, presenting a Memoir-cum-Report entitled “Gal Oya Project (1950-1960): Dr. Roman W. Szechowycz & the Gal Oya Development Board”

Dr. Roman W. Szechowycz was employed by the Gal Oya Development Board from 18 July 1950 to 1961. He arrived in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) with his wife Sabina (nee Czekan) Szechowycz and their 3-year-old daughter Maria. I was born in October 1951 in Colombo. During the time in Sri Lanka, we lived in Inginiyagala next to the post office.

My parents were displaced people who after World War II ended were in Hanover Germany in the British Sector. My father’s home was in northwest Ukraine and my mother’s home was in southwest Poland. These areas were occupied by Russians after the conclusion of World War II.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, elephant tales, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, plural society, refugees, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes