Category Archives: sri lankan society

September 22, 2021 · 12:49 am

Addressing Hostility to China from Sri Lankan Commentators

A Memo from “Fair Dinkum” to Michael Roberts, 21 September 2021 ….with highlighting imposed by The Editor, ThppHI Nmwly, Michael

Michael,

I was glancing at some of the comments on the latest Hambantota piece. I am mystified as to why some Sri Lankans are so hostile to Chinese investment.

To touch on one specific point:  One person who posted a message could only highlight three instances of Chinese interventions. In truth, two of those were not intervention; namely, the 1962 India conflict and China-Vietnam conflict. India had provoked China in 1962. China decided to send a message to India. They crossed the border into Indian territory and seized 45,000 sq km of land, but then suddenly withdrew. In other words, China never intended to take control but simply wanted to show India they could do so if provoked. It’s a Chinese strategy. These two were small conflicts and were not about taking control of India or Vietnam. So, I’m afraid these are not good examples to use against China.  By contrast the US has overthrown over 72 governments, were implicated in the deaths of millions in Indonesia in the 1960s, as one example, but similar patterns can be found in the other 72.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

September 21, 2021 · 1:29 am

The Hambantota Port Debate: Common Sense from the Sideline

The momentous issues arising from the development of Hambantota port and its associated ancillaries has now generated some commentary from Sri Lankan patriots on the sidelines …. And, in some cases, far afield in UK and Australia. It is a measure of the common sense and intelligence reposing in personnel we could frame as “Citizens Perera or Silva” that these comments have been deemed worthy of airing in the pages of Thuppahi. While Michael Obeyesekere happens to be related to one of my brothers-in-law (now deceased), Gus Mathews is a recent email contact (via the brothers Rajeewa — alas no more with us–and Sanjeewa Jayaweera) and Prithi Perera is a total stranger…. A Note from The Editor, Thuppahi, 20 Septmber 2021

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes

September 21, 2021 · 12:12 am

A Momentous Issue: The Hambantota Port Project under Scrutiny in Thuppahi

Thuppahi is pleased to mark its intense interest in the Hambantota Port Project by listing its recent entries from a wide spectrum of authors located in Australia, England, USA and Sri Lanka. The bibliographies within these essays will also serve up further material.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, demography, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes

September 19, 2021 · 1:48 pm

Hambantota Port inks in New Prospects

NEWS ITEM ….http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-08/10/c_1310119624.htm

Sri Lanka’s Hambantota International Port (HIP) signed a 58-million-U.S. dollar deal with Maldivian company Sea Horse Yachts on Monday to assemble and export yachts from HIP’s industrial park.

Mr Jayampathy, Secy, Ministry of Ports i signing the document, with Parakrama Dissanayake seated on his right

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, commoditification, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, working class conditions, world events & processes

September 17, 2021 · 3:33 pm

Pointers from Singapore towards the Appraisal of the Hambantota Port Scheme

Fair Dinkum

When Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819, the British set about creating the Port of Singapore. In time, with much hard work, the port became successful. In the 1960s, the Singapore government set about further expansions of its ports along the south of the island, with five additional gateways operating by the 1990s. It is now one of the biggest and busiest collection of ports in the world. Having visited these ports over the years, the scale of operations is extraordinary. The success of Singapore Ports was built up over time. It didn’t come easily or immediately. The same with the Piraeus Port in Greece, although it became successful and profitable quickly.

  Hambantota — a Pix and a Sketch

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, export issues, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes

September 17, 2021 · 1:18 pm

A Versatile Beauty, Yvonne Gulamhusein nee Toussaint

Information sent by Harry De Sayrah, September 2021 …. supplemented by Notes from David Sansoni and Others

El Patio Yveony, Bambalapitiya: The beautiful home and mansion, “El Patio Yveony”, owned and lived in by Onally Gulamhussein and his celebrity wife Yvonne Toussaint starts off the next block of land adjoining Station Road. Onally, nicknamed “Jutehessian” and his wife the socialite Yvonne Gulamhussian, nee Toussaint, was refereed to as Mrs. Ooh La Jute Hessian.

Yvonne weds Onally: Extracted from HI Magazine Online – http://www.hi.lk

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

September 16, 2021 · 2:02 am

Map Illustrating the Hegemony secured by Colombo within Island Lanka in the Twentieth Century

Map composed by the geographers Percy Silva and Kusuma Gunawardena in consultation with Michael Roberts …. and presented on page 329 of the book People Inbetween. The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformatrions witihin Sri Lanka, 1790s-1960s, Ratmalana, Sarvodaya Publishers, 1989, p. 325. The Map depicts migration flows.

copy provided by Dushy Perera

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under British colonialism, economic processes, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, transport and communications, world events & processes

September 15, 2021 · 5:47 pm

The Internal Tussles, Vagaries and Scheming that Hindered the Development of the Hambantota Port Project

An Insider

Jonathan E. Hillman, 26 August 2021, whose title runs thus: “The Secret History of Hambantota” …. Starts his write up “If Chinese loans were cigarettes, Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port would be the cancerous lung on the warning label. Some observers have pointed to the underperforming port and alleged that China is using “debt trap diplomacy,” This statement reflects Hillman’s intention of using Hambantota port to discredit China. Taking a similar line Fair Dinkum in his “American Schemes of Global Bifurcation behind Hillman’s story on Hambantota Port” is critical of the messenger rather than being responsive to the message.+++

Continue reading →

9 Comments

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, governance, growth pole, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

September 13, 2021 · 11:59 pm

No Debt Trap at Hambantota: False Picture on China’s Role

Deborah Brautigam & Meg Rithmire,  in The Atlantic, 6 February 2021, where the title is “The Chinese ‘Debt Trap’ Is a Myth “

The narrative wrongfully portrays both Beijing and the developing countries it deals with. China, we are told, inveigles poorer countries into taking out loan after loan to build expensive infrastructure that they can’t afford and that will yield few benefits, all with the end goal of Beijing eventually taking control of these assets from its struggling borrowers. As states around the world pile on debt to combat the coronavirus pandemic and bolster flagging economies, fears of such possible seizures have only amplified.

Ben Shmulevitch

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

September 13, 2021 · 2:43 pm

Yvonne Between Richard Nixon and Sir John

This striking photo was proably snapped before Sir John Kotelawela led the UNP to Debacle in the 1956 General Elections. [on 23 November 1953 — as kindly pointed out by Sachi Sri Kantha…. see below]

Lord Soulbury is seated on the extreme left –so this snap has been taken before he left Ceylon. It would be useful if other “personalities’ could be identified. The lady looking pensive in her pensive middle postion betwen Kohn Kotelawela and Richard Nixon is Yvonne Gulam Hussein nee Tousaint — a prominent socialite in Colombo.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under art & allure bewitching, commoditification, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes