Category Archives: the imaginary and the real

March 11, 2022 · 2:01 pm

Galle Fort Renovations Completed ….. Volaare! Cantaare!

Item in The Daily Financial Times, 19 March 2022, bearing this title “UDA completes Rs. 210 m beautification of Galle Fort area”

The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing has carried out renovations in Galle Fort on the instruction of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the minister in charge of the subject. The Urban Development Authority which carried out the renovations has done so in a manner that would preserve the antiquities and heritage of Galle Fort. This was done with the assistance of the Department of Archaeology and the Galle Heritage Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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March 9, 2022 · 9:05 pm

Fashioning History in Sri Lanka: Controversies

Michael Roberts

Computer generated 3D illustration with a Portuguese Caravel of the Fifteenth Century

Abstract of the article below: Two arrival stories in the long span of the island’s history will provide the foundations for reflections on history-making in the modern era. Episode One will pursue my own intellectual trail in the 1980s in fashioning an interpretation of the story of the arrival of the Portuguese and my subsequent confrontations in print with KM de Silva on this issue in the 1990s. Episode Two essays an interpretation of the advent of Vijaya retailed in the Pali & Sinhala chronicles as a genesis story of the same order as the tale of Adam and Eve: contending that it is not a tale with any factual basis, but one that conveys a mythic truth for its authors and ‘faithful’ listeners. It is, thus, a morality-tale about the magical implantation of civilised culture and state-forms within the island. This interpretation, however, has shortcomings and will benefit from the correctives imposed by Godfrey Gunatilleke’s exposition of the multi-faceted symbolism associated with this myth.

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March 8, 2022 · 10:02 pm

Evaluating Shane Warne: A Maestro as Vivid as Complex

Mark Nicholas, in a review entitled “Shane Warne gave us so much and he had so much more to give” …. He was cricket and he was rock ‘n roll too; he was the best of sport and he was the stuff dreams are made of.

 

 

 

 

I lay my penny down on the rails

As the summer wind sings its last song
One minute you’re here
Next minute you’re gone

Footsteps cracklin’ on a gravel road
Stars vanish in a sky as black as stone
One minute you’re here
Next minute you’re gone

– Bruce Springsteen, “One Minute You’re Here”, from Letter to You

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March 7, 2022 · 2:32 pm

Russian Corner: Three Options Now

Ivan Timofeev of the Valdai Club, deploying this title “Russia now has just three options left on Ukraine” … with highlighting imposed by Thuppahi

With Washington rejecting many of Moscow’s security concerns, the prospect of escalation is rising. The US has handed Russia a written response to its proposed security guarantees. While Washington refuses to accept Moscow’s demands for a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand further towards its borders, it has indicated it is ready to discuss certain issues, including arms control and strategic stability.

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March 7, 2022 · 1:01 am

The Extraordinary Alagu Subramaniam

A Tribute penned by his grandniece Premila Thurairatnam: one initially published  in THE CEYLANKAN  magazine Nov 2020 issue …………….. while an abbreviated version appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper (21 Nov 2020) – Revised and published in ‘Closing Time’ book…. while some highlighting has been added here by The Editor, Thuppahi

Alagu Subramaniam (1910–1971) was a barrister-at-law, short story, radio script writer and playwright who hailed from Jaffna. His father was a judge and his grandfather a literary personage. Alagu had successfully combined in himself, his father’s legal career and his grandfather’s literary genius.

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March 6, 2022 · 5:08 pm

Shane Warne’s Magnanimity

Quintus de Zylva

Shane Warne reached the magical figure of 700 wickets before he retired from cricket. Murali went past him and then retired. Shane always acknowledged the fact that Murali took more wickets . They were close friends.

 

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March 3, 2022 · 8:37 pm

Germany Transformed: Steps Out as an European Powerhouse

Ed Turner,  using this title “Germany’s €100-billion army fund: a remarkable change in post-war policy in response to the Ukraine crisis” 2 March 2022, …………………………………………………….. ……….. https://theconversation.com/germanys-100-billion-army-fund-a-remarkable-change-in-post-war-policy-in-response-to-the-ukraine-crisis-178202?

If you’d asked experts just a fortnight ago what the key features of Germany’s approach to foreign and defence policy were, there would have been several strands. Alignment with the west, and of course membership of the EU and Nato would have been a feature. Striving for strong transatlantic links would be another, not least because the country was bruised by its regular, public and bellicose criticism from former president Donald Trump.

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March 3, 2022 · 12:13 am

Putin’s Aggressive Adventurism dents Jayatilleka’s Readings of the Ukraine Maelstrom

Padraig Colman, … at https://pcolman.wordpress.com/2022/03/02/ukraine-part-one/

Apparently the invasion of Ukraine is a defensive measure. It beggars belief to even contemplate Ukraine as a genocidal terrorist state and Russia as a liberal human rights defender.

Little Victims

Many years ago, I set out to write a short poem about my father on the Normandy beaches on D-Day. It developed into a longer meditation on the malignant forces of ideologies and systems of terror that crush common people and sweep them away. The great tides of history, of isms and empires, buffet little people, maim them, kill them, uproot them and inflict damage that lasts for years or generations. I noted that all over the globe vicious wars, disintegrating nations and dying empires still today produce a flotsam of refugees. Great men discount little people. On the TV, I see ordinary Ukrainians in drab winter clothes calmly queuing at the supermarket. Most are masked against Covid but they wave at the camera. What are these people being punished for?

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March 2, 2022 · 2:29 pm

Lankan Cricketers in the Eye of A Terrorist Storm: Pictorials

The Islamic terrorist attack of March 2009 near Gaddafi Stadium at Lahore was a traumatic event which endangered the Sri Lankan cricket team as well as a mini-bus bearing cricketing officials. The team were extremely fortunate to survive withonly aa few minor injuries. Photogaphs can only provide a smidgeon of the impact.

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March 1, 2022 · 10:27 pm

The Terrorist Assault on Cricketers in March 2009: Pictorial Reminders

As News Items displayed pictures and stroies of beeming Aussie cricketers arriving in Pakistan for cricket, we need to cast our mind back to that fateful day on the 3rd March 2009 when the entourage bearing the Sri Lankan team and the officiating personnel were subject to an assault by some Pakistani “terrorists.” The most effective manner of reminding readers of the horrendous events that unfolded in and around the last roundabout before Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore is to present some of the photographs taken immediately afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That only a few Pakistani policemen and the driver of the minibus bearing the team officials lost their lives was due to Allah’s grace and the presence of mind shown by Khallil, the driver of the coach and Tuan Tillekeratne Dilshan as the bus sped away from botched efforts to (a) block it and (b) hit it with a shoulder-fired rocket.

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