Item in Colombo Telegraph, 28 April 2019, entitled
At a time when our motherland, Sri Lanka, is grieving at the tragic deaths of our Christian brothers and sisters, and also other innocents from this country and abroad, who have fallen victims to the atrocities of terrorists in certain parts of this country, we release this communiqué with a heavy heart, while expressing our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and those suffering at hospitals.
Sajitha Prematunge, in Island. 4 February 2019, with Pics by Jude Denzil Pathiraja and title reading “Swarnamali recounts reading solidarity message at first Independence commemoration”
The day was February 4, 1949, the first commemoration of Independence at the Torrington Square. With synchronised grace, four athletes – Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher – handed over scrolls of solidarity from the four corners of Ceylon to four charming and self-conscious young ladies. Swarnamali Amarasuriya, Sirimani Ramachandran, Ayesha Zally and Phyllis de Kretser read those messages in their respective languages and handed them over to Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake to be enshrined with the foundation stone.
Michael Roberts
Having been forced to accept an UNP government by a Supreme Court decision in December 2018 after he had attempted to ditch them in a coup from above in late October, President Maithripala Sirisena utilised the opportunity provided by the swearing in of a new UNP Cabinet under Ranil Wickremasinghe on 16th December 2018 to deliver a sermon to a captive audience of ‘enemies’ who were, ironically, about to enjoy the fruits of victory and destined to assume state power.[1] Sirisena’s Address was delivered in Sinhala and is marked by pathos, recrimination and selective biographical tales from the past that illuminate aspects of Sri Lankan politics.
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Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta in The Hindu, 8 December 2018, where the title is “In Sri Lanka, Life imitates Art”
As we travel through Sri Lanka, its strong literary voices come crashing in like waves, and life seems to imitate art
I sit in the huge living room of the old governor’s home in Jaffna. The walls, painted… a warm rose-red, stretch awesome distances away to my left, to my right and up towards a white ceiling. When the Dutch first built this house egg white was used to paint the walls. The doors are twenty feet high, as if awaiting the day when a family of acrobats will walk from room to room, sideways, without dismantling themselves from each other’s shoulders. —Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
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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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Item in the Indian Sun, http://www.theindiansun.com.au/new-multicultural-commissioners-
Victoria’s multicultural communities will have new voices advocating for their interests, with the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) welcoming three new Commissioners, and the reappointment of three more. VMC Chairperson Helen Kapalos said each Commissioner brings a wealth of experience and insight to their role.“The role of a Commissioner requires compassion to listen to people and understand their challenges and aspirations; it requires innovative thinking to find lasting, meaningful solutions; and it requires the courage to provide frank and fearless advice to the Victorian Government,” said Ms Kapalos.
Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa
Carles Puigdemont 
Chelva & Amir
Michael Roberts
The demand for independence from a segment of the Catalan Spanish peoples has the potential for a domino effect not only within Spain but also in Europe where the EU already faces the complications arising from the Brexit vote. Apart from the potential inspiration to other provincial dialects within Spain, The French Republic may have to keep a weather eye on their Occitan-speakers in the south –with their well-developed sense of being Occitan and a claim to the region known as Langue D’Oc.
Any such move could then spark the provinciality of the Breton peoples! That is just one potential instance of what is called “The Domino Effect.” Listen to Joseph Borell at http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/31/europe/catalonia-independence-spain/index.html
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ONE = Editor, NewsIin Asia: “Political posturing unlikely to hamper Lanka’s constitution making process,” 12 Sept 2017
Forces which are eager to give the country a new constitution as per the pre-election promise solemnly made by Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, are confident that the competing parties would sink their differences and agree to the Steering Committee’s Interim Report which is to be submitted to the Constitutional Assembly (CA) on September 21. writes P.K.Balachandran in South Asian Monitor.
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Trent Dalton, in The Australian, 6 Septmber 2017, where the title is “Cook Rediscovered . Miracle on The Reef,”
She can hear the cannon blasting. She can see the worn, callused hands of Captain Cook’s men touching it. She can see where it sat on the Endeavour before it was desperately heaved overboard into the night-time waters of Endeavour Reef to be found 200 years later by researchers from the American Academy of Natural Sciences. Cook historian Michelle Hetherington draws a long breath. There’s no story she can tell more thrilling than the story of the black iron cannon she stares at now in a soft-lit room inside the National Museum of Australia. “This is our actual history sitting in front of us,” she says. “Who touched it? They may have all touched it! This is our link to that voyage in the 18th century.”
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Rose Brennan, in the Daily Telegraph
AUSTRALIA’S greatest city is now more Chinese than British — with yesterday’s Census data revealing how much the incredible boom in Asian migration has changed the face of Sydney. In the past 25 years, the percentage of overseas born migrants in Sydney residents from China has risen an incredible 500 per cent. And for the first time ever, the greatest proportion of migrants in the Harbour City are from China rather than England.
Paul Wong was just 18 when his family came to Sydney from Hong Kong
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thuppahi
