Telling It Like It Is …. is a compilation of a few of the journalistic writings of Anne Abayasekara.
She was born Annette Aurelia Ameresekere in April 1925. In the field of journalism, she was a Sri Lankan pioneer, entering what was a male dominated profession in the early 1940s. At Lake House, before reaching 22 years of age, she was appointed Editress of the Women’s Pages in the Ceylon Daily News and Sunday Observer, being the only female in the Editorial Department.
Filed under charitable outreach, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, education, female empowerment, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Jehan Perera, in The Island, 3 August 2021, with this title “Restoring reconciliation process cannot be piecemeal”
The government is making a resolute effort to turn Sri Lanka around and put it in the direction of rapid economic development. The systematic manner in which it has been conducting the Covid vaccinations has earned recognition by WHO as well as the international community. The value of the military in getting things done on a large scale with minimum of delay has been manifested in the partnership that they have struck with the health authorities. The memory is fading of how some of the government leaders dabbled in alchemy and the spirit world to find an antidote to the COVID virus, despite being vested with the responsibility to strengthen the health of the country’s people. There is also increased space being given to civil society to engage in protests, such as the protracted teachers’ strike and the agitation against the expanding mandate of the Kotelawala Defence University.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, rehabilitation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Text of the final Pastoral Letter written by the Anglican Bishop of Kurunegala, Rt. Rev. L Wickremasinghe, in September 1983 after the July 1983 Violence …… [Bishop Lakshman passed away some weeks after this on October 23rd 1983] ………….. from http://dbsjeyaraj.com 28 July 2021, 9:28 pm
“The Tragedy is that it is Becoming Harder in 1983 for Sinhala Christians to Acknowledge that what was done is a GREATER Moral Crime than in 1958” …………….. Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe
Filed under atrocities, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, economic processes, education, Eelam, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, Uncategorized, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
In dealing today with the outrageous prejudices displayed by the American political analyst Robert Kaplan in mid-2009, I realised that I should reaffirm the essays devoted to the services to mankind provided by a doctor indomitable and discerning.[1] That medico was Dr. Susiri Weerasekera, who, alas, had deteriorated to a state non compos mentis when I made inquiries at his home in Nugegoda a few years back.
Susiri [with tie] is standing on the extreme left from the viewer’s eyes — this Pix being the Board of Management of the Friend-in-Need Society
Susiri Weerasekera was a person you would want to have alongside you in adversity: a person pragmatic, observant, down-to-earth and relatively unprejudiced. I got to know him when I dropped in on the Friend-in-Need Society in Colombo in 2010 to look into their work in support of the disabled and their speciality in assisting personnel who had lost a limb to obtain and then utilize a prosthetic leg.[2] When I embarked on journeys to the northern reaches Susiri provided me with names and introductions to key personnel in Vavuniya and Jaffna as well as an introduction to Dr Hemantha Herath who was in charge of medical relief for the IDP camps. These recommendations were invaluable.
Filed under centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, democratic measures, disaster relief team, education, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, IDP camps, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, medical marvels, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Music Outback Foundation had its beginnings in late 2001 when Founding Director Steve Berry took an opportunity to conduct a week long music workshop at M’bunghara, a small Indigenous community in remote Central Australia.
Steve’s time there left him inspired to return to the Northern Territory and pursue the possibility of providing regular music education opportunities to remote Indigenous schools. In September 2002 he visited four more schools conducting workshops at each location, and the success of these visits resulted in an invitation to expand the developing program to 12 remote schools in Central Australia.
Filed under Aboriginality, ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, life stories, patriotism, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
ONE: from Victor Rebikoff OAM, and Former FECCA Chair 1992-96
I am deeply honored to have been asked by the Alwis family to provide this personal eulogy on my close friend Randolph Alwis AM whom I have known for over 35 years since we became the Presidents of our respective State and Territory Multicultural Communities Councils in the early 1980’s and as a consequence Deputy Chairs of Australia’s peak community body FECCA – viz, -the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia. At that time both of us were the ‘young guns’ at the forefront of Australia’s multicultural movement and became closely involved in working with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments in the initial introduction of culturally and linguistically appropriate services for migrants and refugees Australia wide.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, language policies, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Rajan Philips, in Colombo Telegraph, 14 February 2021, where his chosen ttitle is “Geneva Odyssey: More Confrontation Or New Approach?”
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who made the surprising call for the government cancelling the ECT deal with India and Japan, has made another surprising and really a gallant announcement giving the green light for allowing burials for Muslim and Christian victims of Covid-19. If the Ministry of Health has been caught unawares by the PM’s statement in parliament, well, they had better get used to it. But no sooner had the government appeared to have cremated the burial issue than Cardinal Malcom Ranjith raised a new headache for the government – threatening to take his case for justice for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks to international courts, if there is no assurance of justice through domestic investigations. That is a shocker even though it is no more than a threat for now.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, democratic measures, doctoring evidence, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Sri Lanka’s Neutral Foreign Policy
LANKA COURIER FEB 08, 2021
The following article has been adapted from the address by the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the general debate of the 75th Session of the United…
Features ….. Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, electoral structures, female empowerment, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, tourism, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Nayomini Weerasooriya, AT https://nayominiweerasooriya.com/2021/01/18/one-young-girl-who-united-all-sri-lankans-and-she-wears-a-head-scarf/amp/?__twitter_impression=true) WITH THIS TITLE “One young girl who united all Sri Lankans.. and she wears a head scarf…
“When Shukra Munawwar excelled in the Sri Lankan version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ on a local TV channel, the 17 year old schoolgirl from the South of Sri Lanka, brought all Sri Lankans together in one joyous celebration.BIt was not just her sincerity, her candid and cheerful demeanor that captured the hearts across religious and ethnic divides. It was her story, her talent, her skill and her determination.
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thuppahi
