Item in Newsfirst: “Experts say only debt cancellation offers Sri Lanka a chance of recovery”
DEBT JUSTICE speaks out …….
Category Archives: welfare & philanthophy
Experts Urge Debt Cancellation as Essential Road for Sri Lanka’s Survival
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, debt restructuring, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, IMF as monster, island economy, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
China Donates Diesel to Sri Lankan Farmers
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).
While Lanka Sinks … Two Ministers at Loggerheads
Sanjeewa Jayaweera, in The Island, 8 January 2023, with this title “IS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA A HERO OR VILLAIN?”
Currently there is an ongoing tussle between the Power & Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera (KW) in one corner and Janaka Ratnayake (JR), the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), in the other. As a result, the Minister is on his own, whilst JR is supported by the CEB Engineers Union, CEB Trade Union Alliance, Electricity Consumers Association and pretty much the rest of the country!
The Power of Privilege: Illegitimate Progeny in the Plantations of Ceylon and Beyond
An EMAIL MEMO from RICHARD HERMON to His Good Friend ERROL FERNANDO, Circa 9 December 2022*++*
Dear Errol,
As a Eurasian myself on both sides, since both my Grandfathers were Brits and both my Grandmothers were Sinhalese: one Kandyan from Welimada, and one Low-Country from Baddegama to whom both my grandfathers were married.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, plantations, politIcal discourse, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Life. Love. Career: Learning the Hard Way … with Pramuk Manchanyake
Nandasiri Jasentuliyana,** reviewing Lessons Learnt The Hard Way: A Conversation About Life Love And Career, by Pramuk Manchanayake
Love, heartache, and euphoria wrapped in a treasure trove of the author’s life experiences narrated within these pages depict the lonely abyss and the dizzy heights of glory that people experience.
In Lessons Learnt, Pramuk Manchanayaka has brought forth a brilliant publication interweaving the rich and varied experiences of his life and times. It is a well written, captivating publication that affirms the depth of humanity’s relationships.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Medicoes in Society: For Sri Lanka
Dr. Sarath Gamini De Silva: Plenary lecture delivered at the Colombo Medical Congress. 24th Nov 2022, where his chosen title was “The Doctor in the Society: A Sri Lankan Perspective”
I thank the organizers for inviting me to talk on a very relevant topic at a time when the role of the educated in society is becoming the focus of the people as well as the members of our own profession. I am known to be somewhat blunt calling a spade a spade in expressing my opinion as I strongly believe that diplomacy often fails to achieve desired results. As such I can only hope that, at the end of my presentation, the organisers of the Colombo Medical Congress 22 will not regret ever asking me to speak.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, medical puzzles, meditations, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Sri Lanka’s Debt Dependency Deepens with Changing Food Combinations
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, whose favoured title runs thus: “Lanka’s Vanishing Fish: Corporate Capture and Import Dependency Deepen the Debt Trap” .… and has been presented at
A great transformation in food culture and nutrition is taking place in Sri Lanka following various exogenous economic shocks: The traditional, nutritious ‘rice and fish’ diet, common throughout coastal Asia is increasingly substituted with imported maize or corn-fed chicken, white wheat flour breads, instant noodles and processed food.
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
The Hill-Country Tamils: Their Shitty-Situation Then … and NOW
Ahilan Kadirgamar, in Daily Mirror, 21 November 2022, where the title reads “Hill-country Tamils and Crisis Times” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
When our country collapses before our own eyes with one of the deepest crises in historical memory, from what vantage point should we analyse our predicament? Sri Lanka’s political economy over the last two centuries is anchored in the travails and strivings of Hill Country Tamils. Their sweat and blood, that began with the horrifying journey from South India two centuries ago as indentured labour to work in the coffee and later tea plantations, were central to building the country’s modern economy under British colonialism. However, their position in society, and for that matter even the writing of their history, was marginalised. And despite the great democratic and social welfare advances in Sri Lanka with universal suffrage in 1931 and a powerful legacy of free healthcare and education, the social, economic and political life of the Hill Country Tamil community is characterised by struggle amidst persistent crisis times.
‘Ceylon tea’ gave Sri Lanka the recognition in the world map, but the plantation workers are still languishing in their ages-old abode, known as line rooms and continue to be marginalised in education, community wellbeing and healthcare.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, economic processes, education policy, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Mid-Pitch Tea for Don Bradman … & 12 Others
A Rare Interlude in 1938
…. recovered thanks to Helene De Rosayro … & …. Dushy Perera in separate streams
Confronting Two Calamities in Eastern Sri Lanka in 2005
Dennis B. McGilvray, in India Review 5(2-3) November 2006, special issue on public anthropology, …. where the title reads “Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka: An Anthropologist Confronts the Real World” …. with highlighting in different colours imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
Recent calls for a new “public anthropology” to promote greater visibility for ethnographic research in the eyes of the press and the general public, and to bolster the courage of anthropologists to address urgent issues of the day, are laudable although probably too hopeful as well. Yet, while public anthropology could certainly be more salient in American life, it already exists in parts of the world such as Sri Lanka where social change, ethnic conflict, and natural catastrophe have unavoidably altered the local context of ethnographic fieldwork. Much of the anthropology of Sri Lanka in the last three decades would have to count as “public” scholarship, because it has been forced to address the contemporary realities of labor migration, religious politics, the global economy, and the rise of violent ethno-nationalist movements. As a long-term observer of the Tamil-speaking Hindu and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka’s eastern coastal region, I have always been attracted to the classic anthropological issues of caste, popular religion, and matrilineal kinship. However, in the wake of the civil wars for Tamil Eelam and the 2004 tsunami disaster, I have been forced to confront (somewhat uneasily) a fundamentally altered fieldwork situation. This gives my current work a stronger flavor of public anthropology, while providing an opportunity for me to trace older matrilocal family patterns and Hindu-Muslim religious traditions under radically changed conditions.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, disaster relief team, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, meditations, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, nature's wonders, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, security, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
