Rajiva Wijesinha, presenting his new book unders the imprint of Godage & Bros, Colombo
In 2006 the United Kingdom, as now 15 years later, was in the forefront of bringing Sri Lanka before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The resolution was not taken up but kept on the table, and in September 2007 the UK proposed discussing the text with the recently appointed Sri Lankan Representative Dayan Jayatilleka.
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The Great Escape Tunnel
Untouched for almost seven decades, the tunnel used in the Great Escape has finally been unearthed. The 111-yard passage nicknamed ‘Harry’ by Allied prisoners was sealed by the Germans after the audacious break-out from the POW camp Stalag Luft III in western Poland. Despite huge interest in the subject, encouraged by the film starring Steve McQueen, the tunnel undisturbed over the decades because it was behind the Iron Curtain and the Soviet had no interest in its significance.
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Errol the Fernando to Gavin, 6 August 2021
Jimmy Anderson’s reactions on taking a wicket are quite fascinating, Gavin, because they are so different. When he dismissed Captain Kohli for a first ball duck he was far more than over the top and off the planet. He was a combination of hysterical, delirious, deranged, bonkers and nuts. He was then completely different when he dismissed Rahul. He was not at all happy about it. Instead he was furious, apoplectic, foaming at the mouth and ready to cause death and destruction. Whom was he so angry with? His bloody slip fielders, of course ! He had to dismiss Rahul THREE times before someone finally took a catch. I can quite understand that he wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth! The kindest thing that can be said about them is that they are pathetic, hopeless, atrocious and completely useless. Jimmy will say a lot more than that!
The slip cordon of Zak Crawley, Dom Sibley, Rory Burns and Joe Root can’t quite believe that yet another chance has gone down Getty Images
Sri Lanka’s finances are in a precarious state, but the economy was already in trouble before the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2005 and 2015, Colombo borrowed billions from China, accumulating a mountain of debt. It was forced to hand over a port to a Chinese company after failing to keep up with payments. But Beijing is making more loans. Asia Frontier Capital’s Ruchir Desai explains why China and India are keen to help Colombo out. Elsewhere, crisis-hit Lebanon has its third prime minister in 12 months. Diana Menhem, managing director of civic organisation Kulluna Irada, tells us little will change with the same politicians in power. – Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe – Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish – Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera – Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
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Patrick Ranasinghe, at elanka 2 August 2021, where the title runs thus: “Could This Be The Legendary “Magic Bridge” Connecting India And Sri Lanka? “
Location The bridge starts as a chain of shoals from the Dhanushkodi tip of India’s Pamban Island. It ends at Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island. Pamban Island is accessed from the Indian mainland by the 2-km-long Pamban Bridge. Mannar Island is connected to mainland Sri Lanka by a causeway.
This item was located by Thuppahi in the web-site Colombo Telegraph on 26 December 2012 (see https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-royal-we-sinhala-identity-in-the-dynastic-state/). However, it appeared initially in 2005 in the prestigious journal Modern Asian Studies, 39: 1013–1026.
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE by Michael Roberts, 7 August 2021
This item is a review essay not a standard review. Alan Strathern is an accomplished historian who happens to be the son of a leading social anthropologist, viz., Marilyn Strathern of ANU and Cambridge University. You will find that his prose is as refined and clear-cut as demanding. After some hesitation, I decided to adhere to my normal policy of highlighting some parts of the text with blue colour – for the benefit of readers facing the difficulties posed by complex issues in historical sociology. On occasions I have also imposed a break in extra-long paragraphs. The illustrations too are my impositions intended to promote reader interest.
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Michael Roberts
Nihal Rajapaksa has sent me three video clips[1] pertaining to that classic film “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” starring actors William Holden (American), Alex Guinness (British) and Jack Hawkins (British) – a film that was directed by David Lean and was shot in Ceylon in 1957 — with local links aided by the collaboration of Chandran Rutnam among other locals. Whatever your age, these clips are a “Must See” category (three specific web-references afe served up below in RED).
Chandran Rutnam and William Holden while shooting The Bridge on the River Kwai.
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Text of the final Pastoral Letter written by the Anglican Bishop of Kurunegala, Rt. Rev. L Wickremasinghe, in September 1983 after the July 1983 Violence …… [Bishop Lakshman passed away some weeks after this on October 23rd 1983] ………….. from http://dbsjeyaraj.com 28 July 2021, 9:28 pm
“The Tragedy is that it is Becoming Harder in 1983 for Sinhala Christians to Acknowledge that what was done is a GREATER Moral Crime than in 1958” …………….. Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe
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David Kilcullen, in The Australian, 31 July 2021,. [and The Inquirer, 31 July ]where the title reads “Making sense of the Afghan fiasco, and how to fix it” … 2021 and with this byline : “there are four moves that could stabilise the situation long enough to get talks back on track.”
If a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth, US President Joe Biden committed one a few weeks ago, answering a question about Afghanistan, when he said “the mission hasn’t failed, yet”. That “yet” contains multitudes: a tangle of military and humanitarian factors refracted through political spin and a hyper-partisan US media.
Afghan militia gather with their weapons to support Afghanistan security forces against the Taliban, in Afghan warlord and former Mujahideen Ismail Khan’s house in Herat on July 9. Picture: AFP
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Shamindra Ferdinando, in The Island, 21 July 2021, where the title is “How Premadasa paved the way for first Parama Weera Vibushanaya, posthumously”
One-time Army Commander Gen. Daya Ratnayake (2013-2015) recently joined a special event on Zoom in honour of those who made the supreme sacrifice at Kokavil, 31 years ago. Prof. Raj Somadeva and writer Charith Kiriella delivered special lectures on the occasion. Those who defended the isolated Kokavil base – Officer Commanding, Kokavil transmission complex, Saliya Aladeniya, an old Trinitian who was posthumously promoted Captain of 3 Battalion, Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (3 SLSR), and his men, perished in the battle. The LTTE didn’t hand over their bodies.
Aladeniya
thuppahi
