Category Archives: self-reflexivity

May 6, 2018 · 6:06 am

KM de Silva’s Short History of Lanka reviewed critically by Charles Sarvan

Charles Sarvan aka Ponnadurai, in Colombo Telegraph,  reviewing K. M de Silva’s The Island Story: A Short History of Sri Lanka, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 2017

EPIGRAPH: “Sri Lanka in the first few centuries after the early settlement was a multi-racial, multi-ethnic society: a conception which emphasises harmony and a spirit of live and let live” (K. M. de Silva, op. cit., page 13)

It’s said that fools rush in where the wise fear even to walk. I tiptoe hesitantly, conscious that I am no historian (my discipline was Literature) while the author is perhaps the most eminent of Sri Lankan historians writing in English. The hope is that what I write will be taken as a layman’s perspective and contribution to discussion. Continue reading →

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May 6, 2018 · 5:12 am

Lester Peries immortalized in the NY Times

Richard Sandomir, in New York Times, 4 May 2018, with this title “Lester James Peries Visionary Sri Lankan Filmmaker”

Lester James Peries, a visionary director whose films about the dynamics of family life in Sri Lanka brought world recognition to that island nation’s movie industry, diedon Sunday in Colombo, the capital. He was 99.

Starting with “Rekava” (“The Line of Destiny”) in 1956, Mr. Peries’s films offered a significant shift from formulaic Indian-influenced dance and fantasy movies that had been standard fare in Sri Lanka, which was known as Ceylon at the time. He wanted his pictures to accurately reflect the lives of the Sinhalese people, who constitute most of the country’s population. Continue reading →

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May 4, 2018 · 10:36 am

Vale Lester James Peiris: Pathfinder for Sinhala Cinema

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 30 April 2018, where the title reads  “Sri Lankan filmmaker Lester James Peiris provided a realistic portrayal of rural Sinhalese”

Renowned Sri Lankan film maker and a national icon Lester James Peiris, credited with revolutionalising Sinhala cinema in the 1950s with a strong local flavour and indigenous style, passed away in Colombo on Sunday. He was 99.

A contemporary of Satyajit Ray, Peiris is regarded the “father of Sinhala cinema”. He won critical acclaim in the island and outside for his work that spanned five decades. His debut Rekava (Line of Destiny), made in 1956, is considered pathbreaking for its realistic portrayal of the ethos of the rural Sinhalese, in a newly-independent Ceylon. Continue reading →

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May 3, 2018 · 11:06 am

Hai Hoyi … Baila Natamu! Sri Lankan Baila

Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, in The Island, 2 May 2014

The extraordinary love of the Portuguese for music is epitomised at El Ksar el Kabir in Morocco, 1578, where 10,000 guitars lay on the battlefield, near the dead Portuguese soldiers. The Portuguese took guns and guitars to battlefields! Is it surprising that the Portuguese presence is vibrant through Sri Lankan popular music – Baila?

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May 3, 2018 · 10:20 am

When Nature Swallows Settlement: Ross Island in the Indian Ocean

Neelima Vallangi, 18 March 2018, “http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180308-a-ghost-island-in-the-middle-of-the-indian-ocean … where the original title is “A Ghost Island in the Middle of the Indian Ocean”

Situated in the Bay of Bengal, India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands are an isolated group of 572 tropical islands, of which only 38 are currently inhabited. Nautically located closer to South East Asia than India, they are known for stunning beaches, thriving marine life, rich coral reefs and largely undisturbed primary forests. But beyond the idyllic views lie a dark past. (Credit: Neelima Vallangi)

Eerie remains of a colonial settlement

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May 2, 2018 · 3:20 am

Piercing the LTTE’s Last Redoubt: THE HINDU Reportage, 21-30 April 2009

Michael Roberts

When the LTTE persuaded and/or forced their civilian population in Thamilīlam to retreat ahead of their defensive retreat in 2008, the grand strategy was to build up picture of “a humanitarian catastrophe” that would draw the Western nations and the HR lobbies in West and the island into the fray as active participant voices who would save the LTTE from total defeat – as I have argued from way back [i]

A Scene from Pokkanai in the Last redoubt , 9th March 2009 — Pic from TamilNet  SL Army Special Forces

  Schematic Map– from ICG

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April 29, 2018 · 6:41 am

Reflections: Interpreting the Gash Files IV

Michael Roberts

I proceed, here, to extract motifs from the details on the happenings in 2009 within the principle theatre of war that have been summarized in Gash IV. This arena has been aptly identified as “the Vanni Pocket” by Serge de Silva-Ranasinghe[1] and is in the north western corner of the island. My comments will be marked A, B, C, etc for ease of reference.

  Situation Map, 2 February 2009

A= The Grand Strategy of the LTTE

In his secret situation report of the 28th January, Lt. Col. Gash notes: “The LTTE appear to have no options left, and the language on TamilNet and other similar platforms is clearly striving for international intervention to force a ceasefire on the GoSL. Further civilian casualties are now inevitable as they no longer have options to move away from the combat zone. Without the presence of the IDPs the LTTE would be subjected to unrestricted air and artillery strikes, so have no incentive to release them. The SLA is exercising restraint but, without a change in political mood, will not hold back entirely.”

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April 27, 2018 · 2:40 am

A Slashing Critique of Hillary Clinton and the HR Lobby in April-May 2009: Realities of War

Michael Roberts: reproducing an article drafted in late April 2009 and appearing in FRONTLINE Volume 26 – Issue 10 :: May. 09-22, 2009 **


 Frontline
Volume 26 – Issue 10 :: May. 09-22, 2009
INDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU		 • Contents
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COVER STORY

Realities of war

MICHAEL ROBERTS

A response challenging the calls for ceasefire as a solution to the hard realities around the LTTE’s endgame.

SRI LANKA NAVY HANDOUT/REUTERS 

IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH released by the Sri Lanka Navy on April 21, people flee a beach controlled by the LTTE in the north-east of the island nation.

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April 26, 2018 · 3:21 am

Immaculate Follies: The Contradictions within Wars of Humanitarian Intervention

George Friedman, in STRATfor Worldview, 5 April 2011, where the title is “Immaculate Intervention: Wars of Humanitarianism,” …. Note that the highlighting and break-up into paragraphs are the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

There are wars in pursuit of interest. In these wars, nations pursue economic or strategic ends to protect the nation or expand its power. There are also wars of ideology, designed to spread some idea of “the good,” whether this good is religious or secular. The two obviously can be intertwined, such that a war designed to spread an ideology also strengthens the interests of the nation spreading the ideology. Since Word War II, a new class of war has emerged that we might call humanitarian wars — wars in which the combatants claim to be fighting neither for their national interest nor to impose any ideology, but rather to prevent inordinate human suffering.

Devil selling angel wings.

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April 26, 2018 · 2:22 am

Achtung: New Waves of Anti-Semitism in Germany

Soeren Kern, courtesy of The Gatestone Institute , 21 April 2018, where the title reads thus:  “New waves of Anti-Semitism in Germany: A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Germany: March 2018,”

  A far-right rally in Berlin commemorates the 30th anniversary of the death of leading Nazi figure Rudolf Hess, on Aug. 19, 2017. (Photo: Frank Jordans, AP)

  • Anti-Semitism is running rampant at German primary schools, according to Heinz-Peter Meidinger, president of the President of the German Teachers’ Association (Deutschen Lehrerverbandes, DL). He also said that videos of beheadings are commonplace at German schools, and that female pupils are being threatened with murder. “In chat forums like WhatsApp, movies such as ISIS beheading videos are spreading like wildfire.”
  • “It is unacceptable that non-Muslim and above all Jewish children have to be afraid of going to school in this country because they are being labeled as ‘unbelievers’ and even threatened with death…. Since autumn… Kuwait Airways is allowed to discriminate against Jews at Frankfurt Airport, and the Federal Government does not object.  Let us not fool ourselves: it is the Federal Government, which, for inexplicable reasons, allows Jews in Germany to be treated like this.” — Julian Reichelt, Editor-in-Chief of Bild.

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