July 30, 2023 · 9:12 pm

Canadian Double Standards ….. Both At Home & In Lanka

Professor Chandre Dharmawardena

According to The Island newspaper, 25 of July 2023 [1], the Canadian High Commissioner Eric Walsh in Colombo has barged into the controversy on the Kurundi archeological site. The Canadian HC had met T. Raviharan, a politician who spearheads the protests at the Kurundi site. HC Walsh’s explanation is that “Meeting people in different parts of the country, to better understand their priorities and perspectives, is a normal part of a High Commissioner’s role.”  These words ring hollow if he does NOT meet anyone from the “other side”, or the Archaeological Commissioner and other technical people.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, Canadian politics, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, propaganda, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, trauma, travelogue, world affairs

July 29, 2023 · 10:30 am

Perfection: The Centipede as Helpmate Pet

From Mervyn Weerasooriya, my old Aloysian Mate

A man goes into a pet shop and tells the owner he wants to buy a pet that can do everything. The shop owner suggests a faithful dog. The man replies, “Come on, a dog?” The owner says, “How about a cat?” The man replies, “No way! A cat certainly can’t do everything. I want a pet that can do everything!” The shop owner thinks for a minute, then says, “I’ve got it! A centipede!” The man says, “A centipede? I can’t imagine a centipede doing anything, but okay… I’ll try a centipede.” He gets the centipede home and says to the centipede, “Clean the kitchen.” Thirty minutes later, he walks into the kitchen and… it’s immaculate! All the dishes and silverware have been washed, dried, and put away. The counter-tops have been cleaned and the appliances are sparkling. Even the floor was waxed. He’s absolutely amazed.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, landscape wondrous, nature's wonders, performance, taking the piss, trauma, travelogue, wikileaks, wild life

July 28, 2023 · 11:35 pm

The DRS in Cricket: Weeraratna’s Claim as “Inventor”

Senaka Weeraratna, whose preferred title is “My short encounters with Peter Roebuck and Haroon Lorgat in Colombo (Sept. 18 -20, 2011)”

Roebuck & Lorgat

I wish to record my two short meetings with Mr. Peter Roebuck at the SSC Grounds (Sept. 18 -20, 2011) and my subsequent meeting with Mr. Haroon Lorgat on Sept. 20, 2011, at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

It happened in the last three days of the Third and Final Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia played at the SSC Grounds in Colombo (Sept. 18 – 20, 2011).

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, discrimination, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, Sri Lankan cricket, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes

July 28, 2023 · 8:31 pm

Hindu Zealots of the RSS target Sri Lanka

PK Balachandran in Email Note to Roberts, late July 2023, … with highlighting being my imposition

The RSS  has begun exploiting the Tamil issue to spread its Hindutwa ideology. The idea is to win over the Lankan Tamils to its side by discrediting the secular Tamil identity in SL. None of the speakers listed has any knowledge of the Lankan Tamil issue. Tamil Nadu BJP leader K.Annamalai has already visited Sri Lanka and is trying to put up an RSS-BJP unit here. Very dangerous development. The Sri Lankan government should make certain that Sarath Weerasekara and the monks don’t do anything anti-Hindu. It is sad that this ís happening when India-Lankan relations are improving thanks to the correct policies of Modi and Ranil. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, ethnicity, Indian Ocean politics, Indian religions, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, psychological urges, religiosity, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, world affairs

July 26, 2023 · 12:32 am

Reflections: My Engagement with the Pogrom of July 1983 in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

The attacks on Tamils living and/or working in the southern and central parts of island Sri Lanka by elements of the Sinhala population were indefensible, horrible and disastrous for the country.  It is not adequate to depict them as “riots.” They constituted a “pogrom” – with all the pejorative colourings attached to that concept.[1]

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry

July 25, 2023 · 8:22 pm

Death of a Trotskyist … In Memory of Nathan Sivasambu

Jane Russell … presenting “a fictional short story in warm testimony fo Nathan Sivasambu who was a one-off: a convinced Trotskyist, his greatest gift was in bringing people together to celebrate the era of ‘British Ceylon’ of which he was a true patriot.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was October 23rd, two days before the Centenary of the Revolution. The black and white photo of Leon Davidov Trotsky looked down from his ebony frame on the sitting room cum study wall. This version of Trotsky was unsmiling: stern – very much Creator of the Red Army, Hero of the Revolution. The photo had been taken in the early 1920’s, in St. Petersburg, when it was still called Petrograd.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, politIcal discourse, Russian history, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, unusual people

July 24, 2023 · 2:27 pm

The Agony and Ecstasy of A Pogrom: Southern Lanka, July 1983

Michael Roberts … reproducing an article that appeared initially in a collection of my essays in 1994 under the title above in EXPLORING CONFRONTATION, Readng, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994,  pp. 317-27. It was subsequently reproduced in Nethra, vol. 6, 199-213.  …. and then placed on web  in Groundviews (without its footnotes) .… https://ground views.org/2019/03/28/the-case-for-foreign-judges-in-a-judicial-mechanism-in-sri-lanka-countering-falsehoods/. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bystanders after the burning and assaulting: also at Borella Junction area, 24-25th July 1983, picture by Chandragupta Amarasinghe. There is a suggestion here that popular participation in attacks were also initiated and/or facilitated by state functionaries. It is also likely that some of those described as ‘bystanders’ were perpetrators of some of the destruction, burning and killing. I had not discovered whom the photographer was when Exploring Confrontation went to press in 1994. Let me use this occasion to record my greatest respect for the bravery and ingenuity revealed by Chandragupta Amarasinghe in extremely dangerous and trying circumstances. 

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, fundamentalism, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry

July 23, 2023 · 5:32 pm

Rhodes Island is Burning!

Tourists and residents are being evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes due to severe forest fires. The fires began after a prolonged heat wave, and temperatures are expected to rise further in the coming days, and winds are also expected to increase.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, climate change issues, landscape wondrous, life stories, the imaginary and the real, tourism, trauma, travelogue

July 19, 2023 · 8:03 pm

Traversing the Port of Colombo: ‘Fridaying’ and All That

David Sansoni **

Despite my pedagogic heritage, I never considered teaching as a career. I was surprised to receive a message (verbal, or a note… don’t remember…nor from whom…) to teach ‘Citizenship’ to an Upper IV class (12 year olds) at S. Thomas’, whence I had just graduated. Term 1, 1972. Jackson Karunaratne Esq did the Sinhala speakers, next door. He was a great help. He gave me a copy of a compilation – a ‘Civics/Social Studies equivalent of Literature’s “Choice Reading”. Just two subjects remain in my memory. A piece about the importance of History, and Gandhi. It was a fun time… a fun term…for me! I can but hope it was for the shishyas.

 

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, life stories, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people

July 18, 2023 · 11:50 am

The Temple Wall Paintings at Karandeniya

Uditha Devapriya, in the Sunday Observer, 16 July 2023, where the title reads “Interesting Temple Murals at Karandeniya” … with photos by Manusha Gunarathna

The Buddhist temples of the Southern Province, in particular those going back to the late 19th century, display a uniquely fascinating style. They cannot be viewed in isolation from the Kandyan temples, though as Senake Bandaranayake has noted, it is difficult to ascertain or conclude whether they were an offshoot of the Kandyan Period, or whether they were merely influenced by it. This debate does not concern us at present: what should concern us is that the murals of these temples reflected their times, and that no two temples, even in the same locality, were ever the same, a point I gathered when I travelled some 50 km from the Sunandaramaya in Ambalangoda to Kataluva in Ahangama a year ago.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, paintings, patriotism, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue