Category Archives: sri lankan society

July 10, 2016 · 4:15 pm

Rugby Maul ends with Indrajit holding the Central Bank Governorship Aloft

DBS Jeyaraj, courtesy of the Daily Mirror, 10 July 2016, where the title is “Inside story about Indrajit Coomaraswamy becoming Central Bank Governor”

“All changed, changed utterly” – The memorable lines from Irish poet Yeats came true on the morning of July 2, 2016 for Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy after he received a telephone call at 6. 30 am. The early caller was none other than Malik Samarawickrama, the Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade. The former was functioning as a senior adviser to the ministry. However it was not a ministry-related matter that the minister was calling about. It was a far more serious and important issue affecting the welfare of the nation.  Samarawickrama, the Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade then officially informed President Sirisena that he was releasing Indrajit as his senior adviser. President Sirisena then stunned everyone by tweeting that he had appointed top economist Indrajit Coomaraswamy as the new Central Bank Governor

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July 10, 2016 · 4:12 am

Pictorial Highlights from the 1940s and 1950s

Stray Moments!

NQ plus 1956 NQ Dias with tea rather than gin

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July 9, 2016 · 12:31 pm

Peregrinations and Hallucinations in the Kumana Wild

DAVID GDavid Graham … a Comment which the Editor considers worthy of Individuated Airing

Interesting post — [that by Stefan d’Silva on  “Legend and Mystery in Kumana National Park”  ]. Didn’t hear about the nittaewo until one of the wildlife trackers told me about them on a trip in Kumana in 2014. My dad took my brother and me on big game hunts for wild boar in Okande in August 1963 and April 1964. Dad’s friend Dr. Guy Paranavitharne and his three sons were among the hunting party. Also along were my dad’s childhood friend Dr. Rajah Beddewela and Dr. Guy’s cousin Claude Abeywardena and his two sons.

47424388.cached editors’ addition from www.thedailybeast.com

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July 9, 2016 · 8:30 am

Friday Forum questions the Present Government’s Record on Good Governance

Friday Forum, courtesy of The Island, 9 July 2016

In January 2015 the majority of voters responded to the call for a return to good governance,  accountability and integrity in the public sphere that we had been denied for a good part of a decade, and voted for a President who promised to achieve these goals and remedy mistakes of the past. The public expectations of the regime that was voted into office in January, received further endorsement at the general election of August the same year. Despite disappointment on the slow progress on many solemn promises, the public was prepared to accept the need for measured and responsible action towards fulfilling them. However this trust has gradually given way to a growing concern that the promised action is being held back for reasons based on the all too familiar ground of political opportunism and that the country is slowly but surely moving towards the mal-governance of the past.AA=Friday-Forum-www.sundaytimes.lk Continue reading →

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July 9, 2016 · 6:17 am

Family, Friends and Food in the Sri Lankan Eid

Adilah Ismail, courtesy of The Sunday Times and http://scroll.in/article/811296/a-sri-lankan-eid-time-to-connect-with-ones-spirituality-family-and-friends

EID in SLThe Lankan Eid table is a confluence of the historical and cultural elements that have influenced the island’s palate.

Every year unfailingly during Ramadan, I remember an incident which occurred a few years ago in Delhi. It was my first Ramadan away from family and the comforts of home and the experience of a new country and fasting alone brought with it a heavy sense of solitude.Suhur, the meal eaten in the morning to fortify yourself before a full day’s fast, was often leftovers from dinner or a bowl of Maggi. By the time classes at university were over and the sun set, I was too tired to have anything other than dates and water to break fast. Sometimes, few of us would meet to break fast together – but this was peak summer, our class schedule was a heavy one laden with assignments and these meetings were rare.

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July 9, 2016 · 5:41 am

Malik Samarawickrama on ETCA and Blossoming Developments

Malik Samarawickrama ………….Text of address by  Malik Samarawickrama M.P., Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade at the interaction with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian companies, June 5 in New Delhi

The multifaceted relationship between Sri Lanka and India is rooted in deep civilizational links, which stretch back many millennia. Today, India is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner; ranked first in terms of the source of imports and the third largest export market. It is also ranked fifth in terms of FDI, which averaged only USD 54 Million in 2013-15. For India, Sri Lanka is the largest trading partner in SAARC, as well as, the largest export market in the South Asian region.

MALIK-www.ft.lkI believe we can do far better in terms of attracting investment from India. In my view, I am confident we are creating conditions, which will be conducive for leveraging the trade – investment nexus in a positive way. This is also the best way to address our large bilateral trade deficit with India. It is my firm conviction that the time is very opportune to explore very aggressively the ways and means of elevating bilateral economic relations between our two countries to a much higher level. There have been a number of developments, which have improved the overall landscape for strengthening bilateral economic links. Continue reading →

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July 6, 2016 · 5:40 pm

Legend and Mystery in Kumana National Park

Stefan d’Silva … an original piece responding to ATW Guneratne’s “The Call of the Remote Wild: Kumana in SE Lanka” in …………………………………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2016/01/11/the-call-of-the-remote-wild-kumana-in-se-lanka/

Kumana: Originally demarcated as Yala East National Park, Kumana was declared a national park with its own borders in 1969. Kumana is well known for birdwatching and its wonderful variety of birds and nesting colonies. Leopard, bear, smaller mammals, reptiles and elephant also roam the park. Off the coast line of Kumana good fishing grounds prevail and attract keen sportsmen with rod and reel. The Bagura plains within Kumana NP is the setting for many a tale from hunters of old, who hunted leopard and bear or merely shot animals ‘for sport’. Kumana was also one place where animals were trapped for the Dehiwela Zoo (in the mid to late 1950’s). The ‘trappers’ travelled by jeep and mainly by bullock cart, carrying nets and camping necessities. Every year in July/August Kumana plays ‘host’ to the Pada Yatra, a most amazing foot pilgrimage undertaken by Kataragama devotees as they trek many miles along the east coast, eventually reaching Kumana and then walking through the Kumana jungles and Yala NP to Kataragama.

IMG_2059 Cave paintings of elephants. Thought to be done by Veddahs. Bowatagala cave complex. This particular cave is used by a leopard as a resting up place during the day (according to the Game Warden)

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July 5, 2016 · 4:41 pm

David Miliband’s Imperious Intervention in Lanka left in Tatters

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, where the title is different

The manner in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa withstood and totally deflated the imperialistic moves by Miliband and Kouchner, respective Foreign Ministers for Britain and France, in late April 2009 has been the stuff of salacious gossip in pro-Rajapaksa and Sri Lankan patriot circles. Any re-telling of this tale in solid detail on the foundations of direct witness will cast me into the same mould in the minds of those beyond that circle — whether sanctimonious, liberal and/or snooty. No matter: historical recording must trump popular polling and moral posturing. Meeting Lalith Weeratunga[1] enables me to present the story in vivid detail.

In this handout picture released by The Sri Lankan Presidential Office, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (L) looks on as his British counterpart David Miliband (C) shakes hands with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (R) as they arrive for a meeting at Ambilipitiyasits on April 29, 2009. British foreign minister David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner who are in Sri Lanka for a one-day visit have failed to secure an agreement from Sri Lanka to end an offensive against Tamil rebels and allow humanitarian access to civilians trapped by the fighting. AFP PHOTO/HO/Sri Lankan Presidential office RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE GETTY OUT (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images)

In this handout picture released by The Sri Lankan Presidential Office, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (L) looks on as his British counterpart David Miliband (C) shakes hands with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (R) as they arrive for a meeting at Ambilipitiya  Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images

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July 5, 2016 · 4:32 pm

My Peradeniya Days: Labrooy, Pinto and Jennings as Touchstones –KM de Silva

Kingsley de Silva, being a section from Chapter V entitled “Academic Life” which is part of his Memoirs [in process]

The academic and intellectual life of the campus I have left as the last part of the collage, in reverse order of importance. At the end of my first year I had a choice of reading for a special degree in Economics or History. Given that choice most of my peer group would have chosen Economics because of the career prospects a degree in that discipline would offer. In my first two tutorials in Economics, F R jayasuriya, , a senior and controversial teacher, gave me an alpha; any pleasure 1 derived’ from that was completely lost when I discovered that every one in my group had also got an alpha. I decided that there was no intellectual challenge in getting an alpha on such easy terms and so the option of Economics was voluntarily closed, I had no doubt that it would be History, and 1 have had no regrets in making that choice.

L 6ah -Justin & Ford Popular 1952. WJF LabrooyPERA 33 www.ft.lk

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July 4, 2016 · 11:06 am

Ballhatchet on the Colebrooke-Cameron Papers

Kenneth Ballhatchet, from Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies, [??] pp 407-08  reviewing G. C. MENDIS (ed.): The Colebrooke Cameron Papers: Documents on British Colonial Policy in Ceylon, 1796 -1833. 2 vols: lxv, 404 pp.; ix.116pp. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, Indian Branch,1956.

Though all history may not be the history of ideas, even the closest followers of the Namier tradition in historical writing would hardly deny that there have been movements of thought which have strongly influenced the world of action. But unless philosophers are kings, or at least civil servants, historians will often find it a difficult if also a challenging task to establish connections between philosophies of life and policies of governments.

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