A Deadly Blow: Andrew Symonds dies in Car Crash

ESPN News Item, 15 May 2022

Andrew Symonds, the former Australian allrounder who played in 26 Tests and 198 ODIs in an international career spanning from 1998 through 2009, has died in a car accident in Queensland.
Symonds was 46 and was involved in an accident outside Townsville where he lived in retirement.

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Hambantota: Multi-Purpose Port of the Year for 2021

The Hambantota International Port was named “Multi-Purpose Port /Terminal of The Year 2021 & Port Infrastructure Development of the Year 2021,” at the recently concluded Global Port Forum (GPF) awards earlier this week.The Awards ceremony, held at the Shangri-La, Dubai, brought together organisations and professionals from across the world’s Ports & Terminals industry, to a gala event, where the highest contributors of 2021 were recognised.

HIP won two of the most coveted awards, ‘Multi-Purpose Port / Terminal of The Year 2021’ and ‘Port Infrastructure Development of the Year 2021,’ after a stringent process conducted by the forum to select the most deserving in each of the categories. Global Ports Customers and Senior Port Experts from the Global Ports Council made up the prestigious panel of judges who were involved in the shortlisting and selection process.

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Alagu Subramaniam ….The Unfolding of a Ceylonese Author

Premila Thurairatnam,  an essay that will appear in THE CEYLANKAN of May 2022 ….. with highlghting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

Further to my article in the November 2020 issue of The CEYLANKAN  entitled The Extraordinary Alagu Subramaniam, I present the findings from my research into how this short story writer formulated some of his stories almost a century ago.  He was commended in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English as an exemplar of professionalism in the short story and that he wrote fiction of merit1. So, I think my effort on his work is worthwhile.

Alagu in 1947 aged 37 when he returned to Ceylon from England

 

 

 

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A Requiem For Barbara Sansoni: From 1962 ….

Somasiri Devendra, ** whose chosen title is “A wooden bridge, an iron house, and Barbara then ….”

.………… of such are memories made, writes Somasiri Devendra

So, Barbara has ridden off into the sunset, on her white horse, after “a hard day’s night” leaving behind memories of the times when she was a person, not an icon, and very good company indeed. Those memories reach back 60 years.

 Barbara and Hildon Sansoni in 1958

 

 

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A Kookaburra: As Amiable as Fearless

A Shot taken by Siraj Timothy A Joseph in Belair National Park

Indeed, the Kookaburra was seated on the picnic table alongside a family group of three persons near Playford Lake when we arrived by car …. the picture above was taken at the next stage

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A Sri Lankan Arthur C. Clarke: Nigel Kerner

Michael Roberts

Arthur C. Clarke came out to Ceylon in the 1950s and went adventuring in the jungles and seas of the island with the Brit, Mike Wilson and a local Burgher named  Rodney Jonklaas. He took to the island and its peoples – aided no doubt by its easy-going lifestyle and the widespread scope for homosexual relations. He settled down in Colombo and became a member of the Otters Club where he could swim and indulge in table tennis. His commitment to the island was such that he deployed his international links to ensure that a satellite was placed in the skies to service Sri Lanka among its many capacities.

 

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A Citizen’s Declamation: Reform and Theatrics

Fabian Schokman

Over the course of this last week, what Sri Lanka has witnessed is a teledrama, not too different from the teledramas that your grandmother, mother and maids watch. An elaborate script designed to draw the gullible into a daily melodrama to take their attention away from the base of the struggle unfolding all around them.

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Transformation, 9 April 2022: The Game Plan for Sri Lanka NOW

From a seemingly Reliable Set of Sources…. one Gallian and another US Galilean

As per the meeting held at Presidents House a little while ago, following has been agreed.

1- JVP & Sajith’s party had vehemently opposed to teaming under the Presidency of Gota.

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Nigel Kerner: An Unique Note on Web well before he passed away

Studied at Saint Aloysius College during 1950/1960s.

Nigel Kerner is an author and freelance journalist. He was born in Sri Lanka, his mother from a British planting family and his father an officer in the British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm.

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Introducing the Ceylon National Congress: Its Agitation & Its Context

Michael Roberts

The four-volume edition of DOCUMENTS OF THE CEYLON NATIONAL CONGRESS was presented by the Department of National Archives in 1977 and has been out of stock for some time now.

Haris De Silva — Deputy Director, DNA in the 1970s

Volume ONE contains a book within a book written by me and entitled ELITES, NATIONALISMS and the NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN BRITISH CEYLON – in seven chapters and running to ccxxii pages.

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