Category Archives: teaching profession

September 18, 2024 · 2:40 am

Left-wing Groupthink is strangling UK’s Universities

Matt Goodwin, in The Sunday Times, 1 September 2024 where the title reads “Left-wing groupthink is strangling universities, so count me out”

Having watched free speech being marginalised by a narrow monoculture over two decades, Matt Goodwin is stepping down from teaching students

This summer, after more than 20 years of teaching and researching in Britain’s universities, I decided to quit my full professorship. While I remain an honorary professor I will no longer teach students or carry out my usual academic duties. This is the first September in two decades that I will not be welcoming first-year students on to campus.

Why?

Universities are weighed down by financial problems, an ideological monoculture and a shift in focus to “student satisfaction”

   ILLUSTRATION BY RUSSEL HERNEMAN

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September 12, 2024 · 8:01 pm

The Roberts Oral History Project, 1964-1969: Its Conception, Inception & Outcomes

Michael Roberts

In re-establishing communication with two old Mertonians of the early 1960s generation at my College in Oxford, viz, Tony Roberton and Keith Shuttleworth, I have been induced to reflect upon my unusual circumstances as a postgraduate at Merton and Oxford. Apart from being one of the few Sri Lankans in that University,[i] I happened to be (A) engaged in postgraduate work which demanded research at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane in London, and (B) a colonial visitor with the asset of two sisters domiciled in London.[ii]

 Tony is kneeling on the left upfront; while Keith is on my rght– Merton rugger team c. 1964/65

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September 12, 2024 · 5:44 pm

Up Yours! The English Middle Finger INSULT Directed at the French

The History of the Middle Finger

Well, now ….. here’s something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn’t history more fun when you know something about it? Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future.


Battle of Agincourt

 

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September 12, 2024 · 12:19 am

Professor EOE Pereira’s Central Role in Fostering Engineering Education

Dr. Damayanthi Herath, in DailyFT, …. https://www.ft.lk/news/In-retrospect-Pera-EFac-pays-tribute-to-Prof-E-O-E-Pereira-celebrating-legacy-of-75-years/56-766595 …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

As the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Peradeniya (affectionately known as Pera EFac) proudly celebrates its Diamond Jubilee, a series of events is being organised to mark this milestone, culminating in 2025 with emphasis on its rich history and its vision for the future. Among the planned events, a significant one was the commemoration of its founder, Vidya Jyothi Eng. Prof. E.O.E. Pereira (13 September 1907–22 May 1988), a visionary leader who not only established the faculty, but also laid the foundation for engineering education in Sri Lanka. This commemorative event took place on 21 August 2024 at the faculty premises.

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August 14, 2024 · 4:55 pm

Helping Disabled Children in Sri Lanka: VACD’s Philanthropic Outreach from Australia

An Item circulated by Felix Stephen of Melbourne, with the heading “Their Future in Our Hands” …. being the VACD Australia & Sri Lanka July & August 2024 Newsletter …… “When we give alms with our hearts, we give well”

Dear friends, colleagues, supporters, and collaborative partners,

Greetings to you, your families, loved ones, and colleagues from all of us at VACD……Annual Report: My Annual Report for FY 2023/24 to the VACD Australia Board and Fellows can be found on the following hyperlink: https://www.vacd.org.au/2024/08/14/vacd-australia-chairmanss-fy-2023-2024-annual-report-to-the-vacd-australia-board-fellows/

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August 7, 2024 · 12:37 am

THE CEYLON JOURNAL is launched: Seeking to Elucidate the Past & the Present

The Ceylon Journal is finally out

On August 2, 2024, the inaugural volume of The Ceylon Journal was launched at the Sri Lanka Medical Association Auditorium. This new publication by Heritage Publications is spearheaded by young historian Avishka Mario Senewiratne, features 15 articles exploring various facets of Sri Lankan history, including politics, architecture, folklore, and more. Inspired by Charles Ambrose Lorenz’s Young Ceylon, the journal aims to deepen understanding of Sri Lanka’s heritage and inspire progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 29, 2024 · 1:32 am

A Meeting of Cultures: The Unique Vernacular Chapel at Trinity College, Kandy

Ranil Bibile … reproducing an old essay without all its pictorial  embellishments because the author does not have the original photos in his computer “as .jpegs as the articles were composed 20+ years ago and there have been many computer changes since then.” 

 Kandy! The very name is redolent of history, culture, festivals, dances, caparisoned elephants, and historic rituals. Ancient temples nestle in remote corners of this Cande Udarata – the old Kandyan Kingdom. The architecture, hipped roofs, frescoes, wood carvings and antiquities of these places of worship provide a veritable feast for the eyes, vying for attention with the surrounding vistas of cloud-capped mountains, rivers, waterfalls and verdant plateaus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 28, 2024 · 7:52 pm

Vale PVJ Jayasekera — Historian … Richmondite

An Appreciation within Richmond Viththi in Facebook, 11 July 2024

Renowned Richmondite Professor P V J Jaysekara passed away. He is the one and only History professor produced by Richmond College, Galle. He Supervised Mr Ananda Dias-Jayasinha to write the book titled “Forgotten History of Richmond College”
Professor Jayasekara joined Richmond College in 1944. He was a Prefect of the school and won the most prestigeous award at Richmond, the Darrell Medal in 1954. He obtained an Honours Degree in Arts from the University of Peradeniya in 1959. He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to Canada where he obtained his Masters degree in History from the University of Manitoba. In 1970, he was awarded the PhD by the SOAS, University of London.

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July 21, 2024 · 8:16 pm

Rare CEYLONIANA in the Roberts Study: Issues for the Future

Hallo to Those Attached to “CEYLONIANA” and Valuable Lankan Artefacts & Books

…………… Way back I took steps to catalogue and transport my Oral History tapes and other valuable material to Sri Lanka with the assistance of Jitto Arulampalam in Melbourne, several Adelaidians and VERITE RESEARCH in Colombo (a prolonged and massive set of operations). That stock in now available to the public at the National Library Services Board in Torrington Avenue, Colombo.[1]

Now: as my wife and I age and enter the last phase of our lives, we face the issue of the stock in my study. This includes:

  1. many-many-many off-prints of articles on Sri Lanka and world politics;
  2. books under my name;
  3. books on Sri Lanka and/or world politics (including Marxist fare);
  4. Sessional Papers and Census publications from official stock in Sri Lanka …in largish foolscap size bound copies ….;

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July 21, 2024 · 8:30 am

The International Centre of Ethnic Studies in Sri Lanka: Its Genesis in 1981-83

Kingsley M. De Silva …. a summary memo drafted way back by Professor Kingsley M. De Silva and sent to me in July 2024 by Iranga Silva of the ICES in Kandy[1]

Early in 1981, I had two American visitors, one of whom, Professor Donald Horowitz, I had known since the late 1960s when he visited the island for research on the abortive coup d’état of 1962 in the island. The other was Robert Goldmann, a programme officer of the Ford Foundation in New York. They had come to Kandy to invite me to a Ford Foundation-sponsored conference to be held in August 1981 at the Taita Hills Game Park about 200 km from Nairobi, Kenya, where a group of scholars and administrators—from governments and the private sector—from many parts of the world would discuss the theme of ‘Ethnic Problems in the Developing and Developed Worlds’. A record of the proceedings of this conference—including most of the papers presented—is available in the library of the ICES in Kandy.

Prof. Goldmann

to be presented one of Prof. Horowitz

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