Category Archives: sri lankan society

July 22, 2021 · 9:15 pm

Dissecting Robert Kaplan’s Jaundiced Reportage: “Orientalism” Savaging Lanka

Michael Roberts 

Robert Kaplan is a well-connected Jewish American author and journalist. As one he travels widely and chose to visit Sri Lanka as a newshound in mid-2009 just after the Sri Lankan government forces had vanquished the Tamil Tiger forces and rescued about 280-290,000 Tamil ‘civilians’[1] who had been deployed as a defensive barrier and bargaining chip for about 15-17 months by the LTTE as they, the Tigers, were forced into a west-to-east retreat in the northern Vanni.

Situation Map on 23rd December 2008 & then on  8th March 2009 

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July 20, 2021 · 1:01 am

Sri Lankan, US and Japanese Naval Units in Joint Operations

Asiri Fernando, in Ft.lk, 16 July 2021.… … with this title “Sri Lanka, Japan and US partner to better respond to future maritime challenge”

Sri Lanka’s maritime trade hub ambitions and future economic success depend on sound economic strategies and a robust foreign policy as well as on her ability to work in partnership with regional and global actors to ensure the safe navigation and security of the maritime domain around the Island.

 

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July 18, 2021 · 12:21 pm

Universal Franchise for Ceylon in 1931: The Complexities of Governance and Policy

Jane Russell

I am greatly honoured to be asked by the Awarelogue Initiative to speak at their Lecture Forum in this year of 2021, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the advent of universal franchise in Sri Lanka. In my lecture, I shall touch on some of the complex problems of governance and policy faced by a small multi-ethnic island, flanked as it is and always has been, by economic and political superpowers.

Dr. Thomas Drummond-Shiels: Donoughmore Commissioner 1927/28: Labour MP for Edinburgh 1924 -31; Under Secretary of State for the Colonies 1929-31

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July 17, 2021 · 1:24 am

For Lanka: Lessons from the Past and Lee Kwan Yew

Somasundaram Skandakumar’s Address to the Rotary Club in Colombo, July 2021 … as presented in The Sunday Island, 11 July 2021... with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi …. with this title “Where we went wrong and the possible course correction”

Mr President, let me congratulate you and all members on the inauguration of Rotary Club of Colombo Port City and wish you every success in your noble endeavours ! I was born barely two weeks before Independance and like some of you listening in, lived through it all in my land of birth. What has transpired over those 73 years is common knowledge so let me share why I love my country as I do.

At a very young age in a geography class I looked at the world map to see where our country was positioned. I marvelled at the sheer beauty of its outline and location, unmatched by any other country or continent on that map. I reflected on its priceless resources as tea,rubber,coconut, and cinnamon, graphite and gems, and our climate, scenery, and arable fertile land with ready access to water, spread over a mere 65,000 kms and said to myself that it had to be a gift from above.

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July 16, 2021 · 8:11 pm

SOFA: America’s Trojan Horse in Sri Lanka?

 Lindsay Hughes** on 17 July 2019 where the article is entitled thus  “The United States, Sri Lanka and the SoFA: A Matter of Balancing China?”

Background

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his proposed visit to Sri Lanka on his tour of the Indo-Pacific region towards the end of June, during which he visited three countries. The US Embassy in Colombo stated that the cancellation was due to “unavoidable scheduling conflicts” and that Secretary Pompeo regretted that he could not visit Colombo at that time. On the face of it that was plausible enough – diplomatic visits across the globe are frequently cancelled or re-scheduled for many reasons – but rumours swirled in Colombo that Secretary Pompeo was showing his annoyance at not being able to formally forge a Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) with Colombo.

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July 15, 2021 · 9:03 pm

Out Out British Spot: Gladstone Expelled from Sri Lanka

Chandani Kirinde, in Financial Times, 30 June 2021, where the title is “The Gladstone Affair: ‘A Sri Lankan Tempest’,”

Just 18 hours after landing in the country in June 1987, David Gladstone had an audience with President J.R. Jayewardene. All too soon, the President had taken him into his confidence.

Retired diplomats spending their days penning down their memoirs recounting their heyday of holding fort among the rich and powerful in foreign lands is not unusual. But then how many among them have had the dubious honour of being declared ‘persona non grata’ by a host nation and given marching orders after being accused of crossing the line into territory that is out of bounds for diplomats?

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July 9, 2021 · 8:02 pm

Duncan White: Trinitian, Hurdler and Trailblazer for Ceylon

KLF Wijedasa**

During this Olympic year it is pertinent to remember one of our country’s greatest athletes Major Duncan White on his 23rd death anniversary (July 3). On his way to success, he had to glide over 10 barriers and not break them!

14th August 1948: Duncan White of Ceylon fixes his starting blocks to the track at the 1948 London Olympics. Original Publication: Picture Post – 4582 – Fastest Men On Earth – pub. 1948 (Photo by Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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July 9, 2021 · 1:27 pm

Vanni Hope’s Educational Charity Work

VANNI HOPE – It’s Motto: “Be the reason someone smiles today”

 MESSAGE: Dear Friends, Relatives and Wellwishers

Once Again many thanks for helping us to serve indivduals and famlies in the poorest comunties in Sri Lanka. We indicate BELOW some of the enterprises in educational support for students in the face of the current covid pandemic — deploying brief You Tube Presentations.

ONE: HARSHINI – LAW DEGREE – LAPTOP – ONLINE CLASSES …. https://youtu.be/ixXniHBs96E

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July 9, 2021 · 12:45 am

The Conquista: A Book on Sri Lanka’s Portuguese Period

Avishka Mario Senewiratne

Fr SG Perera who translated the work of Queiros

In an island nation which has more than two thousand five hundred years of written history, no book has provided a more detailed account of any period of Sri Lanka’s history than the Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon[1] authored by the Jesuit Father Fernaó de Queyroz.[2] This work covered the 150 years of Portuguese involvement in Ceylon. Ironically, this 17th century Jesuit Priest, had never visited the island of which he was researching and writing in the final two decades of life. This brief essay gives an overview of Queyroz the Historian, his cause and objective, the long and eventful delay of his work in reaching its readers, the controversy around it in the early 20th Century and its splendid translation by Fr. Simon Gregory Perera of the same Society.

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July 8, 2021 · 9:34 pm

Hobson’s Choice in Lanka …. The Same Again Manikey! Kota Uda!

Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, whose preferred ttile is “Hobson’s or “Homben Yana” Choice?” 

Way back in the 16th century there lived a man in Cambridge by the name of Thomas Hobson.

He rented and sold horses and was the proud owner of a stable that had 40 stallions of all colours and breeds. Anyone who wanted to rent a horse from him to ride the paddock or journey into the far horizon, paid money and got a horse. There was one condition, the renter was not allowed to select the horse. The ‘wanna be’ rider had only one choice. He had to take the horse that was in the stall nearest to the door. It was a simple matter of either ‘take it or leave it.’  When the word spread about this, it became known among possible horse renters that what they got was ‘Hobson’s Choice’.

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