Category Archives: performance

January 19, 2019 · 2:24 pm

Brexit Explained the British Way — with Humour

John Bull

David Cameron made a promise he didn’t think he’d have to keep to have a referendum he didn’t think he would lose.

Boris Johnson decided to back the side he didn’t believe in because he didn’t think it would win. Then Gove, who said he wouldn’t run, did, and Boris who said he would run, said he wouldn’t, and Theresa May who didn’t vote for Brexit got the job of making it happen.

She called the election she said she wouldn’t and lost the majority David Cameron hadn’t expected to win in the first place. She triggered Article 50 when we didn’t need to and said we would talk about trade at the same time as the divorce deal and the EU said they wouldn’t so we didn’t. People thought she wouldn’t get the divorce settled but she did, but only by agreeing to separate arrangements for Northern Ireland when she had promised the DUP she wouldn’t. Continue reading →

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January 17, 2019 · 2:29 am

Cracking Impact! The Suntharalingam Saga’s Theatrical Tour de Force

Cassie Tongue in Time-Out, 16 January 2019, where the title is “Counting and Cracking review” ….. with Brett Boardman’s PICs …. and highlighting added

It’s only January, but we have an early contender for the best play of the year in Counting and Cracking. And we certainly won’t see another play like it any time soon. Set in a recursion of town halls – a Sri Lankan-style one built inside Sydney’s landmark Town Hall – Counting and Cracking takes place in both Colombo and Sydney, in the 1970s and 2004, and always keeps one foot in each world; as we are about to see, the past and present are not so easily separated.

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January 14, 2019 · 10:41 am

The Dressing Down of the Century: President Sirisena’s Scathing Sermon to his Captive Cabinet

Darshanie Ratnawalli’s Pithy Translation of President Sirisena’s Speech to His Present Cabinet … with some asides on the reception among his captive audience

Associated with our victory in 2015 there were many aspirations, hopes, wishes of the people. During the past three and half, almost four years, there were many victories and positive achievements we engendered as a government. At the same time there were harmful, inauspicious, undisciplined, wretched and lawless things that happened as well (Ranil W shrugs shoulders with impatient look of hauteur on face). While we can celebrate the good things, we must also join the people in bemoaning the lost opportunities. The pledges of our manifesto started getting violated from the moment the first Cabinet was appointed after the victory. The manifesto said the subjects and ministries should be assigned on a scientific basis, and a board of experts were appointed for that purpose. However, I don’t know if that file was even glanced at in making appointments. (Champika smiles contemptuously, like a civilised and noble leader forced to listen to driveling of an uncouth cur, who doesn’t maintain the decencies of polite society.)

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January 11, 2019 · 1:16 pm

About Mahinda’s Failure and A Mahinda Pronouncement

I = NA deS Amaratunga: “Can Mahinda Rajapaksa reform himself?” in Island, 10 January 2019

Mahinda Rajapaksa is currently the most popular politician. He earned his popularity by saving the country from certain destruction and then launching a gigantic development drive throughout the country including war ravaged North and East. Yet many were the mistakes and misdeeds which resulted in his unexpected defeat at the presidential election in 2015.

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January 10, 2019 · 2:47 am

The Suntharalingam Family’s Journey: Sri Lanka to Australia

Matthew Westwood, in The Weekend Australian Review, 5-6 January 2019, where the title is “Counting and Cracking: a family’s journey” … with some snaps and a partial bibliography added by The Editor, Thuppahi

In the complicated and at times bitterly divided history of Sri Lanka in the 20th century, one man’s story may be emblematic of the nation’s changing fortunes. C. Suntharalingam was born in 1895 into a Tamil family, the son of a poor farmer. The boy was a whiz at maths. Sent to a boarding school in Jaffna, he went on to study at the universities of London and Oxford.

Chellappah Suntharalingam

Belvoir’s Eamon Flack and playwright S. Shakthidaran –Pic Hollie adams

Like other educated Tamils he sought “trousered employment” in the colonial public service. He was called to the bar to practise law and later entered politics, serving a term as minister for trade and commerce in what was then the colonial Ceylonese government. He built a beautiful house in the heart of Colombo on a street with views down to the ocean, and held court on the porch where he discussed politics and affairs of the day. Continue reading →

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January 9, 2019 · 12:50 pm

The Rajapaksa Family’s Symbolic Modalities

Michel Nugawela, in Daily Mirror, 9 January 2019, where the title is “Symbolic power of Rajapaksa brand” …

5 =Pope and King’ ideal-leader type worships Sri Lankan ground

7= Father’s masculine virility and generative capacity

In 1996, a punishing drought crippled hydroelectricity generation and impacted households and industry with gruelling eight-hour blackouts. Thousands of farmers faced crop failure and bankruptcy as Chandrika Kumaratunga limped along without plan or purpose. “Her goals are impeccable but her execution seems faulty,” said the roving American journalist Ron Gluckman, observing that the weather had even turned against “Sri Lanka’s bad-luck president”.

When rains failed

In contrast to Kumaratunga’s lacklustre response, consider Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reaction to the drought of 2012, with his prompt request to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fly the Kapilvastu Relics, believed to be the bone fragments of the Buddha, from India’s National Museum in Delhi to Colombo. The relics, conferred with the status of a head of state according to diplomatic convention, were revered as holy objects of awe by the thousands of faithful Buddhists who lined the streets to view, venerate and seek their intercessory powers for increased rainfall and bountiful harvests.

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January 9, 2019 · 3:14 am

Devanesan Nesiah Chastises President Sirisena by returning his Deshamanya Award

ONE = Yohan Perera and Sheain Fernandopulle: Daily Mirror, 3 January 2019, where the ttite is

Former civil servant Devanesan Nesiah officially returned the “Deshamanya” award conferred to him by President Maithripala Sirisena today.Dr. Nesiah and his daughter handed it over to the Presidential Secretariat last evening. Talking to journalists, Dr. Nesiah said he decided to return the award as he was disappointed with the recent actions of the President which created chaos in the country. Dr Nesiah received the Deshamanya in 2017 at a ceremony held to confer national honours. As per the letter he sent to the President earlier, he said his decision isn’t one that he had taken lightly, or in haste.

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January 8, 2019 · 10:17 am

Roger Federer’s Profound Grief in Recollection of Peter Carter’s Guiding Hand … Today

ABC News Item, 8 January 2019

Roger Federer has broken down while paying tribute to the deceased Australian coach who he credits with forging the playing technique that took him to 20 grand slam titles.

Key points:

Roger Federer says deceased Australian coach Peter Carter played an important role in his younger days
Carter died in a car accident while on his honeymoon, a year before Federer won his first major title at Wimbledon
Federer, who now has 20 grand slam titles, is looking to win a third-straight Australian Open title in 2019

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January 7, 2019 · 11:13 pm

“Putting The World To Write” …. in Galle

An INVITATION to a Writing Event with a Title that is Right

Talk, Tea & Book Launch Wednesday January 16th …. 3- 5 pm Jetwing Lighthouse

The first Galle Literary Festival was launched in 2007 amid the chaos of the Civil War. Despite the bitterness of that war, the festival projected the country onto the arts stage as a serious global literary force and attracted many big literary heroes from around the world, which it continues to do, up to this day, where the tenth anniversary is going to be the most exciting festival yet. There is no better location for it to be held in and around the Galle Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site and modern bastion of protection, both physically as in the tsunami of 2004 and ideologically, for all kinds of people from all kinds of religious backgrounds, all working together for the good of the fort, its people and its visitors.

Donald Trump and …