Category Archives: sri lankan society

April 6, 2024 · 3:43 am

Pictorials: Roman Szechowycz in the Dry Zone in the 1950s

Michael Roberts

Dr Roman Szechowycz and  his brother served the newly independent island of Ceylon in its hydraulic agriculture projects in the Dry Zone in the period 1950 to 1961 …. mostly from a base at Inginiyagala in the Eastern Province where the Gal Oya Tank was constructed. We are fortunate to have some photographic ‘asides’ of a “personnel nature” — so to speak — associated with this work  The detailed descriptions presented elsewhere in TPS: viz.; …..

Experiences: Working on the Gal Oya Project in Ceylon, 1950-61

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April 6, 2024 · 12:58 am

Undermining the Australians at the Colombo Oval in 1948?

Hugh Karunanayake, in The Island, 2023 …. with his preferred title running thus: “Did Ceylon Try a Fast One on Don Bradman’s Team?”

Bradman struggles against Sathi Coomaraswamy

 

The Ceylon Team walks out to field

The last cricketing appearance by Don Bradman in Sri Lanka was at the Colombo Oval on March 31, 1948, before a capacity crowd of 20,000. The Australian Team was on their way to England for the Ashes series and stopped over in Colombo to play a one-day game against what was then called the All Ceylon XI – captained by M. Sathasivam. The game was characterized by two major controversies. The first was on the captaincy of the Ceylon team which many thought should have gone to the more experienced and accomplished F.C. de Saram. T. B. Marambe in his book “Pen sketches of our cricketers” thought that “de Saram clearly had not had sufficient contact with the common man” and the selectors preferred the popular Sathasivam instead.

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April 5, 2024 · 8:01 pm

THAT Monday 25th July 1983 in Colombo: Organized Violence within the Pogrom

Sugath Kulatunga .…. in item entitled “Black July Monday 25th” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In my last post on the 4th of March, I mentioned that the time I served under Lalith [Athulathmudali] was the golden era of my public service. But it did not occur to me that I had deliberately suppressed in my mind the ugliest and nastiest week in my life as well as of the nation. That was the week of Black July of the ghastliest communal riots. Let me recall my experience of that week.

 

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April 1, 2024 · 6:19 pm

Campaign to Promote “Malaiyaha Thamilar” Identity

Diana Joseph in Groundviews, 25 March 2024 ….where the title runs thus :  “Identity Crisis of the Malaiyaha Thamilar Community” … reproduced here with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

People of Tamil descent raised on plantations have endured a long history of discrimination, exploitation and violence tracing back to the era of colonization. The younger generation, both men and women, expresses a preference for employment opportunities in urban areas or Middle Eastern countries as labourers rather than on plantations. Unfortunately, this pursuit often results in their exploitation and entrapment in modern day slavery, a cyclical pattern that has persisted for over two centuries.

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April 1, 2024 · 12:03 pm

Boom! Boom! The Central Bank Collapses in Front of Our Eyes!

Somasundaram Skandakumar, in essay entitled “A former chairman of George Steuarts remembers”

As the clock moved towards 10.50 a.m. on January 31, 2021,  my mind went back 25 years to that fateful day. It was a Wednesday, and having finished our weekly meeting  of the Parent Board of Directors in the Board Room  on the eighth floor of Steuart House around 10.30 am, we sat around to exchange views on matters of a non-official nature as was customary, before returning to our rooms.

Enjoying the view of the sea beyond  the Central Bank that faced us from the opposite  side of Janadipathi Mawatha, was a favourite pastime of ours on such occasions.

Janadipathi  Mawatha on that last  day  of January was as  busy as always as people flocked  into the banks, business offices and hotels that stood imposingly along it . Yes, the human traffic on this busy street was as heavy as the vehicular.

At 10.45 a.m.,  we heard what sounded like gun shots  and sensed trouble.Moving to the large french windows that were the hallmark of “Steuart House,” we observed a lorrylike the ones that used to bring down tea from the plantations to Colombo, attempting to scale the pavement bordering the Central Bank.

The intention to enter the lobby of the Bank seemed obvious. An alert and courageous security guard shut off the access only to pay for his noble deed with his life as the occupants in the vehicle shot him dead.

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March 31, 2024 · 2:30 am

Elephant Orphanage & Elephant Lore: Dilmah Initiative at Uda Walawe

Kamanthi Wickramasinghe, in Daily Mirror, 25 March 2024, where the title reads thus: “Üda Walawe ETH: A home away from home for baby elephants”

Spectators witnessing another busy feeding hour at the Uda Walawe ETH —Pix courtesy: Dilmah Conservationh

Inauguration of ‘Elephant Knowledge Walk’ 

In a bid to spread more awareness among visitors to the Uda Walawe ETH, Dilmah Conservation in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation renovated the ‘Elephant Knowledge Walk’ to educate local and international visitors on why the Asian elephant needs to be protected. Apart from that a souvenir shop was also opened to support local communities.

The Uda Walawe ETH was set up to rehabilitate elephants that were orphaned due to various reasons including the Human-Elephant Conflict. At the ETH, elephant calves have very little contact with humans which is vital to boost their chances of survival in the wild. Here, human interaction is only limited to feeding hours. The calves are being fed every three hours with infant milk but also encouraged to develop natural foraging habits including grazing.

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March 29, 2024 · 8:14 pm

The LTTE Bomb Attack on the Central Bank Building in the Heart of Colombo, 31 January 1996

Michael Roberts

Colombo in the 1990s was a rather different world from the city today because its heartland centred around the Fort with its venerable shops (Cargills, Millers) leading mercantile offices, three premier hotels and the huge Central Bank building looming on the horizon. The expansion and transformation of the Port of Colombo and many other developments have transformed the city since then and the ‘weight of the Fort’ has diminished considerably since then.

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March 29, 2024 · 1:39 pm

For Ceylon. Roman Szechowycz in Gal Oya, 1950-61

Andreas Szechowycz … detailing his father’s dedicated work in the Gal Oya Project in the 1950s and in communication with  Michael Roberts in ways that mark his deep attachment to the island

Group Photo – Dr. Roman Szechowycz in middle.

L-R: Mr. (not legible), Mr. P. W. Richards, Mr. Coel Menai North Wales UK, Dr. Roman Szechowycz, Dr. A. J. Kostreamaks Bongor, Mr.. Anwari Dilmy Indonesia, Mr. B. A. Abeyvickram Colombo, Mr. R. A. DeRosaryro Colombo

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March 29, 2024 · 10:16 am

Differentiation in the Foundations of Criticism in Recent Struggles in Sri Lanka

Abeysekara, Ananda …. presenting a synopsis of an article with the same title presented in the web journal Academia  …………………. https://www.academia.edu/116523255/Buddhism_Politics_and_Criticism_in_a_Time_of_Struggle_in_Sri_Lanka

As I have argued elsewhere (Abeysekara 2002), the relation between religion and politics changes in historical debates. Debates themselves are forms of “criticism” in that debates change the questions of who and what constitute the parameters of religion and politics.[1] In that sense, I want to think about how the relation between religion, politics, and the state became the subject of debate during postwar Sri Lanka and ask what such a debate may say about our postcolonial politics and democracy itself.

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March 27, 2024 · 1:17 pm

Bala reviews Upali Wickremeratne’s Book on Colonial Rule

P. Balakrishnan, reviewing Upali Wickremeratne’s Book on Colonial European Rule in Sri Lanka, in Daily Mirror, 26 March 2024, in item entitled “Sri Lanka’s European rulers doggedly retained traditional structures”

In his book “The Conservative nature of the British rule of Sri Lanka”  (Vijitha Yapa 2014), Dr. Wickremeratne says that even conversion to  Catholicism under the Portuguese or the Dutch Reformed Church under the  Dutch did not alter the culture, values, thought and social structure of  the Sinhalese and the Tamils.

“There would otherwise only be a very remote possibility of finding out  everything that was happening and of which it was also important to be  aware.” …. Ryckloff van Goens

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