Category Archives: patriotism

October 28, 2024 · 4:50 pm

Sustaining Vanni Hope with A New Website

Ranjan Sivagurunathan

Introducing Vanni Hope’s New Website!

Hello Everyone!

I am excited to share that Vanni Hope’s brand-new website is officially live! You can now explore it at vannihope.org.

This new platform marks an important step forward as we continue to grow and serve impoverished communities across the island. Our updated website will feature the latest project updates, announcements, and a chance to meet our dedicated team. It offers new ways to stay connected and discover how you can contribute to our mission.

A key highlight is our new donation platform, offering exciting new features including:

  • Recurring Donations – Schedule contributions automatically at your convenience.

  • Donation Management Portal – Track and manage your giving history with ease.

  • Tribute Donations – Donate in honour or memory of someone special.

  • Project Category Selection – Choose which cause your donation will directly support.

  • Automated Receipts – Receive receipts immediately to your email inbox after donating, along with an annual receipt providing a summary of your donations at the end of each financial year for your tax purposes.

A special thank you goes to our young director Valluvan Thillairajah who developed this entire website during his medical school break. His hard work has provided us with a platform that truly reflects our mission and makes it easier for supporters like you to engage with the work we do.

I encourage you to explore the site, learn about our initiatives, and consider making a donation to be the reason someone smiles today.

Thank you for your continued support. Together, we are building brighter futures and stronger communities across Sri Lanka.

Warm Regards

Ranjan Sivagnanasundaram
Chairman / Public Officer

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Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, human rights, island economy, life stories, patriotism, performance, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, working class conditions, world events & processes

October 28, 2024 · 12:42 am

Not all Issues are Black or White: Some Voices from the Offspring of Cross-Cultural Marriages

Audrey Maxwell [nee Roberts] …  a chapter in Rosemary Breger and Rosana Hill (eds). Cross-Cultural Marriage. Identity and Choice, Oxford, Berg, 1998, …. ISBN 1 85973 968 7 paper … with this reproduction being rendered possible by our nephew-in-law Tissa Abeywardena

Although this volume focuses on intermarriage, it seems appropriate to include some voices of children of such marriages – which are becoming more numerous because of the expansion of worldwide contacts within the ‘global village’. This chapter is not an in-depth study of a representative sample, but rather intends to recognize that cross-cultural marriages produce consequences for their progeny. Such children face ambiguous loyalties and difficult choices in their life encounters. Nevertheless, though media coverage tends to highlight their problems rather than their advantages, the offspring who spoke to me indicated clearly that they felt there are many rewarding features deriving from their cultural inheritances. It is encouraging that, though having no claim to representativeness, these accounts at least all end on a positive note.

In 1995 I interviewed eight such ‘children’ (aged between eighteen and thirty­ four), reached through networking among people connected, in one way or another, with the University of Oxford. The respondents are middle class, well educated and articulate. I encouraged them to talk of their life histories using open-ended, unstructured, tape-recorded interviews. The accent was on their own thoughts and how they see their world.

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October 27, 2024 · 9:51 am

The Gunasekara Lineage in Ceylon Cricket

Alston Mahadevan is with Johann Gunasekara …. In FACEBOOK …………… https://www.facebook.com/groups/277933739075780/?multi_permalinks=923211474548000&ref=share ……………………..  Cricketing dynasties of Ceylon Part 1 – The Gunasekaras

When Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, cricket was nurtured by many outstanding cricketers and administrators including the three cricketing families, the Gunasekaras, the De Sarams and the Kelaarts. They had a significant impact from the turn of the twentieth century to the 1960s.

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October 26, 2024 · 11:53 pm

The Political ‘Surroundings’ of the Gal Oya Programme in the 1950s-to-1970s – Fundamental Issue

A Spark from The Editor, Thuppahi, 26 October 2024, by resurrecting a TPS Comment from 2017

Perchance I recently came across an old comment from Professor Chandre Dharmawardena [based in Canada] which raises explosive questions about the dry zone irrigation projects in Sri Lanka launched in the mid-20th century  — questions which engage the political currents of that period and thereby invole such figures as DS Senanayake, LH Mettananda, GG Ponnambalam, SWRD Bandaranaike.

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October 25, 2024 · 5:38 pm

Magnifique ….. Ahmed Didi aids Trinity Chapel Restoration

Item in The Island, 25 October 2024... with a different title

The distinguished old boy of Trinity College, Kandy, Ahmed Mahir Didi, recently donated Rs. 5 million for the College Chapel Restoration Project. He is a Maldivian national, now based in the Seychelles and is a well-known businessman engaged in tourism.

Trinity College Kandy _ We extend our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Ahmed Mahir Didi [Old Boy 1968-75] for his incredibly generous donation to the Trinity College Chapel… _ Instagram

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October 20, 2024 · 11:36 am

Vale Kumar David — Scholar, Critic and Activist

Rajan Philips, in Colombo Telegraph, 19 October 2024, where the title reads thus = ”Kumar David: An Accomplished Academic & A Broadminded Marxist”  … with highlights imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

Professor Kumar David (1941-2024)

One by one the lights go out. In a span of seven months, Sri Lanka’s Engineering fraternity and the country’s progressive political fraternity have lost three of their kinds, one after another. Chris Rodrigo was the first to go in March, then it was Bahu in July, and now it is Kumar David, the oldest of the three. Professor Kumar David passed away in Los Angeles, on Monday, October 14. He was 83 years old.

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October 18, 2024 · 11:12 am

Sri Lankan Cricketers fashion a Solid Win in Third ODI at Dambulla

Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor Thuppahi

Sri Lanka 166 for 1 (Kusal Mendis 68*, Kusal Perera 55*) beat West Indies 162 for 8 (Powell 37, Motie 32, Theekshana 2-19) by nine wickets

Pathum Nissanka came out of the blocks firing•Getty

 

 

Pathum Nissanka sent Sri Lanka’s chase screaming out of the blocks, before Kusal Mendis and Kusal Perera put on a clinical and unbeaten 106-run stand for the second wicket. For a team that had never before beaten West Indies in a T20I series, this chase was almost too effortless to believe. Each of the top three produced sparkling innings, as the hosts galloped to the target of 163 with 12 balls remaining, in front of a packed Poya-day crowd in Dambulla.

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October 18, 2024 · 12:32 am

A “City of Dreams” in the Centre of Colombo

A = Item in Booking.com

Set in Colombo, 700 metres from Galle Face Beach, Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams offers accommodation with a restaurant, free private parking and a bar. The property is around 2.5 km from Bambalapitiya Beach, 2.3 km from Khan Clock Tower and 4.7 km from Bambalapitiya Railway Station. The accommodation provides a 24-hour front desk, airport transfers, room service and free WiFi throughout the property. All guest rooms at the hotel feature air conditioning and a safety deposit box. A buffet, continental or Italian breakfast is available every morning at the property. Popular points of interest near Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams include Kollupitiya Beach, One Galle Face and Colombo City Centre Shopping Mall.

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October 16, 2024 · 1:23 am

Ranjan Madugalle: For Cricket. In Cricket

ITEM in ???

Played 21 Tests and 63 ODI games for Sri Lanka. Became an ICC Match Referee in December 1993. Officiated the ICC CWC final in 1999 and 2003. He was one of the five match-referees at ICC CWC 2011.

 

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October 13, 2024 · 3:43 pm

Tekwani’s Analysis of “Transnational Security and Postinsurgency Issues” in Sri Lanka

Shyam Tekwani ... taken from …Alas the date of pubn is not indicated clearly… it is probably circa 2010 

  • Sri Lanka’s quarter-century civil war may be over, but many of the underlying causes of the war continue to linger.
  • The international network of the defeated Tamil Tigers continues to control immense financial and logistical resources and is supported by the nearly one million Tamil diaspora. Meanwhile, the victorious Rajapaksa government has been slow in implementing its promise of political settlement and integrating the minorities into the political and socioeconomic life of the country. These realities may contribute to the radicalization of a new generation of Tamils, both on the island and in the diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Continue reading →

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