This article was originally written and published by Louis Frederick Obeyesekere’s great grandnephew, Sheannal Anthony Obeyesekere at: https://medium.com/@
Louis Frederick (Freddy) J. Wijeratne Obeyesekere was born in the early 1890s. He was the forth and youngest child of Mudaliyar Henry Ferdinandus Wijeratne Obeyesekere and Henrietta Isabel (Ellen) Perera Wijesinha Goonetillaka¹ who had married in 1881 at All Saints Church, Galle.
F Obeyesekere’s name is engraved on the Cenotaph War Memorial at Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo. Photo credits: Mithila Gunathilake and Quintus Andradi
Filed under British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes, World War One
Muttukrishna Sarvanandan,** whose preferred title reads thus: “Chinese Lending to Sri Lanka: A Factual cum “Reality” Check. A Rejoinder to Umesh Moramudali and Thilina Panduwawala”
Abstract: This is a response to the Briefing Paper entitled Evolution of Chinese Lending to Sri Lanka since the mid-2000s – Separating Myth from Reality, written by Umesh Moramudali and Thilina Panduwawala published by the China-Africa Research Initiative of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the John Hopkins University, USA. This response identifies a few factual errors (both quantitative and qualitative) and provides alternative data, and contests the interpretations of the data and conclusion drawn therefrom by Moramudali and Panduwawala by providing concrete examples to the contrary. We characterise Chinese lending to Sri Lanka between 2007 and 2022 as quasi-predatory lending, having defined the characteristics of predatory lending………….Keywords – China, Hambantota Port, Predatory Lending, Sovereign Default, Sri Lanka
Introduction: This is a response to a Briefing Paper (No.8 dated November 2022) written by Umesh Moramudali and Thilina Panduwawala entitled Evolution of Chinese Lending to Sri Lanka since the mid-2000s – Separating Myth from Reality published by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the John Hopkins University (JHU) in the United States of America (USA).
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Abstract: Sri Lanka’s civil war lasted almost 26 years and cost tens of thousands of lives. Since the end of the war in 2009, several thousand asylum seekers from Sri Lanka have sought protection in Australia, but both Labor and Liberal/National Coalition governments have taken a restrictive approach to their arrival and have expressed support for the Sri Lankan government. This article explores Australia’s response to the protection needs of Sri Lankans during an earlier era, at the outbreak of the war in 1983, when a Labor government processed Tamils ‘in-country’ under Australia’s Special Humanitarian Program.
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A = Temma Berg’s Initial Query via Email, early December 2022
I write in response to your blog about Leonard Woolf. I am working on Leonard and Virginia and exploring how much they might owe to one another. I have read her novels, diaries, letters, and short stories and his autobiographies and novels and many articles (including yours) and have become fascinated with how much husband and wife influenced one another.
I write to you to ask if you have ever wondered where Virginia’s emphasis on 500 pounds a year came from? I have been trying to find out how much Leonard might have earned while in Ceylon and have been unable to come up with any figures. Do you have any idea how much he might have earned per year?
Temma Berg
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Michael Roberts in the DEDICATION presented on the first page of the book Tamil Person and State: Essays, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2014, … ISBN 978-955- 665-230-7
The essays that make up this anthology would not have been possible without the assistance of numerous individuals who provided me with information during face-to-face conversations, Skype and telephone chats or through responses by email. This will be only too evident if readers take note of my citations and footnotes. For this reason, it is entirely appropriate that I dedicate this work to all those who have assisted me in my researches over the last few years. Not all of them will agree with my thrusts. Indeed, there are a few of them in Colombo, such as Ananda Chittambalam, who have disputed some of my arguments, while yet encouraging me in my researches and publication programmes.
Ana Chittambalam: ex-Royal College, raconteur, promoter of causes and a staunch ally and dangerous foe
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Vinodh Wickremeratne, whose preferred ttile is “Historical Outline of Transport in Lanka” …. while the highlighting emphasis and the photos are additions by Thuppahi
The Island has experienced all types of Transportation at one time or another. The Ancient ports opened the country to Cholas, Arabs, Chinese and Europeans. Subsequently the slashing of jungles created rudimentary paths to link villages, anyhow the need to travel had been only for Emergencies, looking for matrimonial partners, special medications etc.
With Colonisation, the Need for Internal transportation was felt for Military strategies, Plantation core and peripheral needs and to keep the Administration smooth. 
Bullock cart transport in the 1840s … & the Bridge of Boats across the Kelani River in 1820s
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Paul Garvey, in The Australian Newpaper, 11 January 2023, where the title is “Road trains navigate inland sea to deliver vital supplies”
Extraordinary steps are being taken to ensure food and medical supplies make it into the communities cut off by floodwaters across Western Australia’s Kimberley region. Road trains have been photographed seemingly being driven over water as they made their way towards Broome with crucial food supplies.
News Item in Sri Lanka Mirror, early January 2023:
Arrangements have been made to distribute 6.98 million liters of diesel donated by the Chinese Government for agricultural activities in Sri Lanka to paddy farmers from today (09).
thuppahi
