Category Archives: world events & processes

December 17, 2021 · 7:25 pm

Cross-Cultural Amity: Sri Lankan Canadians Reach Across Difference

To Canada with Love from Sri Lanka …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ9QjZLhavQ …. in  2021

“In 1864 Leonard Tilley was instrumental in naming Canada as Dominion of Canada. He was inspired by Psalm 72:8 of The Bible. This song is composed with the inspiration of the entire psalm which calls for justice and righteous ruling by the king and prayer for it. This is a tribute song for Canada by the Sri Lankan Christians living in Ontario and whole of Canada. Sung in all three languages of English Sinhala and Tamil. A Sri Lankan original in Canada.” ………… JOHN PERERA Continue reading →

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December 15, 2021 · 11:55 pm

VERITE in Concise Review of Public Finance in Recent Past

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As we approach the end of the year, there is much to look back on and reflect upon. I am glad to share with you some of the highlights of the recent month in this Verité Bulletin.

We have long felt that democracy is not meaningful when citizens are not critically cognizant of the information in relation to public finance. This is why Verité Research strategically expanded its work on Public Finance. The platform that we built, PublicFinance.lk, is probably the pre-eminent locus for information and analysis on the state of Sri Lanka’s public finance.

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December 13, 2021 · 11:54 pm

Tamara Kunanayakam: Some Career Highlights

Michael Roberts

I got to know Tamara Kunanayakam and her partner, Jean-Pierre Page, and their dog Umberto[1] when staying overnight with them at their rented house in Battaramulla around 2016[2] during the course of my inquiries into Sri Lankan political affairs on the diplomatic circuit and the UNHRC in particular. Since Tamara was our Ambassador at the UNHRC in Geneva in the years 2011-12, this was a logical step.

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December 13, 2021 · 5:55 pm

Being Sri Lankan. Here, There, Everywhere

Capt Elmo Jayawardena, whose title for this tale is “Sri Lankans, for better or for worse”

I wrote some articles to the newspapers mainly about Sri Lankan matters and the political climate after Nandikadal. It was just to share my humble thoughts on where we should be heading in search of peace. Many acknowledged my line of thinking, and some asked me why I do not write something about aviation? Not a bad idea, considering I have been around aeroplanes for more than fifty years. But I did wonder who would want to know how I landed through a snow- laden sky in Alaska or how I flew over the Golden Gate Bridge on my way from San Francisco to Hong Kong? At best, it could all be a bit on the boring side. Yes, I do have some unbelievable fairy tales to relate of times I flew VVIPs for Air Lanka, but such involve names and names are a dangerous game. One never knows how far the freedom of expression extends. I like to let discretion be the better part of valour. Let me then change track and tell you some stories I have in connection with aviation and meeting fellow Sri Lankans all over the world. These are true stories, in black and white and not drawn with colourful crayons.

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December 12, 2021 · 12:37 pm

Struggles in Geneva … with Yakku within the Rajapaksa Officialdom

Uditha Devapriya, in The  Island, 11 December 2021,reviewing Rajiva Wijesinha’s Representing Sri Lanka  (S. Godage & Brothers, 2021, 189 pp. Rs. 750) …. where the title is “Downhill All The Way”

I met Rajiva Wijesinha for the first time four years ago, at the Organisation of Professional Associations in Colombo. At a seminar on English language learning and teaching there, he handed me a book he had published a few days earlier. Titled Endgames and Excursions, it was an account of his official travels, friendships, and associations. I remember promising to review it, reading it, and then laying it aside. It was an unforgivable lapse, but one I now feel was justified: I was simply not qualified for the task.

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December 8, 2021 · 10:47 pm

Pressures on Lanka: Machinations in Washington

Fair Dinkum, responding to developments in Washington involving the US State Department and SL Tamil representatives outlined by Daya Gamage recently

Michael,  I read Daya Gamage’s article published in the Colombo Telegraph (4/12/2021) with considerable interest. It raises red flags for Sri Lanka, and I’ll touch on three in this short memo.

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/u-s-congress-state-department-to-bring-fresh-pressure-on-sri-lanka-for-devolution-accountability/

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December 7, 2021 · 10:46 pm

Rulership: Modalities of Superiority and Domination in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

When viewing the Tamil or Sinhala-majority arenas in pre-colonial times in Sri Lanka one can perceive manifest symbols of lordship and hierarchy existing amidst layers of caste and class differentiation. The penetration of Portuguese and Dutch colonial powers in certain coastal areas from the 16th century onwards merely complicated, amplified and strengthened these practices of superordination and subordination. Fortunately, the English prisoner Robert Knox observed these modalities of hierarchical power and provided us with classic ‘engravings’ of King Rajasinha the II’s imposing regality and autocracy in the mid-seventeenth century.

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December 6, 2021 · 6:45 pm

On the Table: The Nuclear War Option! God Almighty!

Brian Victoria, in Countercurrents, 5 December 2021, where the title is “An Option Taken Off the Table”

As most readers know, whenever the US seeks to force a nation to accede to its wishes, a spokesperson will say, “All options are on the table,” meaning the use of military force is at least a possibility if not likely. Seldom, however, will one ever hear a US spokesperson say, “The use of military force has been taken off the table.” Instead, one is left to ponder when military action doesn’t occur if it might have been called off because the offending country acceded to American demands. Thus, the mere threat of military action is sometimes sufficient to bring about the desired result.

 

 

 

 

Test Firing of the Hwasong Missile North Korea

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December 6, 2021 · 1:18 pm

Yogini. Stolen Artefacts and Sotheby’s Shame

Dalya Alberge, in The Guardian  5 December 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/04/looted-and-left-in-an-english-garden-the-goat-goddess-can-return-to-india

Looted and left in an English garden, the goat goddess can return to India. The statue, once on sale at Sotheby’s, was recovered amid claims it was part of a precious trove of stolen.

 

For more than 20 years, those who lived in and around the village of Lokhari in Uttar Pradesh, India, have prayed for the return of an important statue of a goddess that was stolen from a local temple. Now those prayers have been answered. The 8th-century goat-headed deity has been discovered thousands of miles away – in an English country garden, covered in moss.

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December 5, 2021 · 4:50 pm

Cricket Teams on the Road: Ship. Rail. Air. Road

Deepti Unni, in The Cricket Monthly, 1 November 2021, where the title is “Long way round. Will travel for cricket”

Bio bubbles, pandemics, extended quarantines, months away from family – cricketers have spent more time away from home this last year and a half than at any time in the recent past. It’s almost a throwback to the early years of the game, when Test tours would run six months and longer, including the time spent getting there and back by ship.

Well-wishers wave goodbye to Douglas Jardine and the other members of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) as they set sail from Tilbury to Australia on the Orient liner Orontes….Photo by Davis/Getty Images

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