Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, conspiracies, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, historical interpretation, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, violence of language, world events & processes
Sam Roggeveen, in Sydney Morning Herald, 16 June 2021, with this Headline: “The West is not coming to Australia’s rescue. We need new alliances”
The summits of the G7 group and the NATO alliance over the past few days have produced an avalanche of headlines about a growing anti-China mood among Western nations and an appetite to stand up to Beijing’s assertiveness.
Let’s hope the Australian government is not taking these headlines too seriously, because the harsh truth is that there will be no Western alliance to contain China, and no united democratic front against Beijing’s authoritarianism. The sooner we realise this and build it into our foreign and defence policies, the safer we will be.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, foreign policy, historical interpretation, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
Two Peradeniya colleagues from yesteryear, Professor Kingsley de Silva and Michael Roberts, took sharply different positions on facets of the island history in British colonial and post-1948 times in hardhitting essays in local journals and newspapers in the period 1986 to 1991. The series began with Michael Roberts’s article-length review of KM De Silva: Managing Ethnic Tensions in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Sri Lanka, 1880-1985 (Lanham, University Press of America) ….. and continued with KM De Silva’s hard-hitting review of the book, People Inbetween (Colombo, Sarvodaya, 1989) where Roberts was the principal author in a triumvirate that included Percy-Colin-Thome and Ismeth Raheem.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, British colonialism, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Rajiva Wijesinha, reviewing the book People Inbetween in the Sunday Observer of 24 March 1991 **
“In this review of the book by three Sri Lankans – Michael Roberts, Percy Colin-Thome and Ismeth Raheem, Rajiva Wijesinha discusses some interesting aspects that go to make People In Between a ‘fascinating social history’.” — The Observer’s Introduction
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes
Dr, D. Chandraratna in The Island, 11 June 2021, where the title reads “An Appreciation: Rajeewa Jayaweera: A Void Hard to fill” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
On 11 June, 2020, when we heard the distressing news of Rajeewa Jayaweera’s untimely death, I wrote an appreciation from afar that he was a public intellectual who had contributed immensely to public debate, mostly on our relations with India and to a lesser extent with the Western countries. Coming from a fortunate background, and immersed in the diplomatic life of his father he took a scholarly interest in foreign affairs. Few in Sri Lanka has contributed so much to the subject recently as much as Rajeewa, to bring into public discussion our relations with the world community. His accounts were a ‘learned and incisive appraisal of events’ particularly during the turbulent times of the threat posed by separatism. In this article on the first death anniversary I wish to justify my assertion about Rajeewa by way of an appreciation with a difference.
Filed under accountability, constitutional amendments, devolution, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan, in The Island, 9 June 2021, where the title runs: “Mandarin and Tamil — A Historical Perspective.”
The recent discovery of name-boards in public institutions which have omitted one of the national languages, namely Tamil, only to replace it with Mandarin Chinese has caused a furor with Tamil members of Parliament and other politicians voicing their protests. Certainly, this is most unfortunate but rather than blame the Chinese it is the government Authorities in charge of the implementation of the Official Languages policy who should be blamed. That they have been remiss in this instance is only a small part of the general malaise in respect of the implementation of the official languages policy.
Filed under authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, transport and communications, world events & processes
Sugath Kulatunga
At independence we had a stable democracy, a sound economy, and an effective public service and external assets equal to 100 percent of annual import value. We were second to Japan on almost all social indicators and above South Korea as late as in the mid-sixties. Singapore’s per capita income was just a little bit higher than Sri Lanka at that time. It is now over USD 64,000 whereas ours is USD 3852. The immediate looming question is why Sri Lanka with better physical resources failed to advance like Singapore.
Filed under accountability, colonisation schemes, commoditification, communal relations, economic processes, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, language policies, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Qadri Ismail, in Groundviews, 5 May 2019 after the 21/4 Atrocities
Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post
We hadn’t seen him in years, ever since he left to work abroad. So, on the day of his return, his mother invited the extended family to lunch. As he walked through the door we reacted collectively, gasped audibly. He wore a sharp suit but sported one of those long, unkempt, rowdy beards. Perhaps, I thought, there are no barbers in Saudi Arabia. (You never know, it’s a weird place).
Filed under accountability, arab regimes, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, disparagement, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
From the Department of English, with this heading “In Memoriam: Professor Qadri Ismail: Brilliant thinker, inspiring teacher, loyal friend”
With deep sorrow, we note the death of our esteemed colleague Professor Qadri Ismail, who died in May at home of natural causes. He was 59. A noted scholar of cultural studies, postcolonial literature, literary theory, and gender and sexuality, Ismail joined English at Minnesota as Assistant Professor in 1997 and served the department in numerous capacities, including Chair of the department’s first Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and Director of Graduate Studies.
Filed under art & allure bewitching, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, discrimination, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
thuppahi
