Category Archives: performance

February 18, 2018 · 3:53 am

Encountering Prejudice in Lanka as a Person of Mixed Descent

Krystle Reid, from Groundviews, http://groundviews.org/author/krystle-reid/  where the title is “A Welcoming Nation”

The following is a list of things I’m often asked or told, revealing of Sri Lankan perceptions about the Burgher community.

  1. Are you Sri Lankan?
  2. Can you speak in Sinhalese?
  3. ‘You’re a Burgher? You sure don’t look like one’
  4. ‘Sounds like a Las Vegas stripper name’
  5. ‘They get drunk every Saturday and go to church the next day, no shame’
  6. ‘Burghers? Parents must be divorced then.’
  7. ‘Lansi no? Probably got the job because of her English and the mini skirt’
  8. ‘Burgher…. like a hamburger?’

I could continue but the real point I was trying to make is that 70 years after independence, our ethnicity is still misunderstood. Continue reading →

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February 17, 2018 · 9:45 am

Neville Weereratne: the Artist and his Distant Homeland

Tony Donaldson

This essay on the life and art of Neville Weereratne is based on interviews recorded in Melbourne in July 2014 and from material collected during fieldwork in Australia and Sri Lanka.

 Neville Weereratne.

The artist and author Neville Weereratne died in Melbourne on 3 January 2018 at the age of 86. He was born in Colombo on 3 December 1931. A Sinhalese by descent and the youngest of five siblings, he began drawing at about the age of six. He grew up in a Roman Catholic family in Hulftsdorp, near to the Supreme and Magistrate courts, but their home was requisitioned by the civil authorities in World War 2 and so the family moved into a house in Dehiwela owned by the Peries family (Ivan and Lester).

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January 27, 2018 · 10:23 am

Queen Elizabeth at Trinity in 1954

Sheshan Abeysekara in Trinity College web site, where the title is “Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Trinity in 1954”

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II must have fond memories of her first visit to Sri Lanka in 1954.  As well as visiting Colombo during the ten days she spent here, she also visited Kandy to watch the Perahera, and while there, she was felicitated at the grounds of Trinity College Kandy before she was escorted to the historical “Magul Maduwa” to be welcomed by a delegation of Kandyan Chiefs.

QUEEN_AT_TRINITY_1954_-2_

Picture: “The Mayor of Kandy welcoming the Queen at  the Trinity College main entrance drive.” | Picture Credits: GettyIma

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January 21, 2018 · 3:40 pm

Two Reflections on the Galle Literary Fest of 2008

Michael Roberts, on 9th February 2008

ONE: GALLE LIT UP: FROM THE RIGHT FLANK

As a moderator and panelist participating in the Galle Literary Festival held between the 15th and 20th January 2008, my commentary is biased. It is doubly biased. I was born and nourished within the walls of the Fort in Galle, a site that cast a magic spell on the literary fare all and sundry encountered during these heady days.

 with my sister at Girl’s Bathing Place … and as Little bum Mike on the way home

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January 21, 2018 · 2:39 pm

Seth, Vidal et al at the Galle Lit-Fest in 2008

Vikram Seth in demand …

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January 11, 2018 · 6:39 pm

Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds in Colombo

Island Report, 11 January 2018

Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade opened a two day Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in Colombo yesterday under the patronage of the Prime Minister.

The Roundtable was an initiative by the minister following his visit to the Global Investment Forum in Dubai during November 2017 and is jointly hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Board of Investment. He met several of these Funds in Dubai and they were enthused by the potential of Sri Lanka as an investment destination. The fact that so many SWFs accepted the invitation to participate in the Roundtable at short notice was a validation of our nation’s value proposition and its increasing attractiveness due to the current economic policies under adoption, a press release said. Continue reading →

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January 7, 2018 · 5:00 am

Neville Weereratne passes Away after a Full Life

Vale in The Island, 7 January 2018

Neville Weereratne could be considered as a polymath; a person of wide knowledge or learning which included among other things literature, music, art and writing. It is in painting though that he is most known and revered.

Neville married Sybil Keyt on 6 June 1959.

  photo 2 by Dominic Sansoni

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January 3, 2018 · 3:32 pm

Appreciating the Lake House Building

Ishara Jayawardane in conversation with Professor Manawadu, 3 Janaury 2018, where the title is

The physical presence of the Lake House building is enough to awaken a sense of awe in all those who behold it. The building commissioned by D.R. Wijewardena, is a white colossal monument that has dominated the landscape, housing some of the most revered newspapers in the world.

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December 31, 2017 · 6:57 am

About Hathuru …. before Q and A with Hathuru

Rex Clementine in Island, 31 December 2017, where the title runs Hathurusingha harps on No Dickheads policy”….. with emphasis in highlights added by Editor, Thuppahi

Not many Asian teams go to South Africa and excel. Sri Lanka in particular have a disastrous record over there. Yet, one man conquered the last frontier. Chandika Hathurusingha took a young Sri Lanka ‘A’ side to South Africa in 2009 comprising the likes of Angelo Mathews, Tharanga Paranavithana and Suranga Lakmal and they recorded a 4-1 series win against a strong opposition.

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December 26, 2017 · 5:52 pm

About Choosing a School. Royalist Sons of Thomian Fathers

Rajakeeya

The perennial debate that sparks off  when old Royalists  and old Thomians meet  often centres around the claim over which  of the two schools had a better record in producing successful men. There is no doubt that both schools have produced men of eminence whether it be national leaders, academics, professionals, sportsmen, businessmen or those immersed in the fine arts. One unfailing test of the claim of superiority is to ascertain what eminent old boys themselves  look for when choosing an educational institution for their own sons.

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