Capt Elmo Jayawardena
President gets ousted, Prime Minister gives a ‘walk over’ and Ministers join the soul-selling market to hang in there. Where? Of course, in Diyawanna Oya.** Though my senses overflow with the desire to write these stories, I, being a coward, feel ‘discretion is the better part of valor’ and will leave politics and politicians alone. What to write anyway? Things change so fast that by the time I get published the whole fairytale may change.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, disparagement, economic processes, governance, island economy, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Anonymous Pen **
Most people that I know, came to Galle Face on a weekend, waved the National Flag and shouted a few catchy slogans to cleanse their souls, took selfies and went home for a warm shower, had dinner and went to sleep, thinking that they had taken part in some heroic and historic act of Aragalaya.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, meditations, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions
Karan Thapar, in article headed “ “If Ranil Doesn’t Take Tough Steps, Sri Lanka Economy Could Fall into Abyss: Former Central Bank Head”
Indrajit Coomaraswamy identified four critical steps that the government must immediately start to implement as the first stage of restoring the economy to better health.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, IMF, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Group Captain Kumar Kirinde, Retd. SLAF whose preferred title is indicated at the end together with detials from one inspiration, that from Richard Boyle.
Introduction: HMS Ceylon was a Fiji-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was of the Ceylon sub class, named after the island and British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The cruiser saw service in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres during the Second World War. In the postwar era, she participated in actions in Egypt and the Korean War. In 1960 she transferred to the navy of Peru and was renamed Coronel Bolognesi. The cruiser was scrapped in 1985.
Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, military expenditure, military strategy, Pacific Ocean issues, performance, power politics, sea warfare, security, transport and communications, war reportage, World War II and Ceylon
Channa Wickremesekera’s Publications
Channa Wickremesekera is the son of the late Percy Wickremesekera, an acquaintance of mine from Peradeniya Campus days and a ‘Trot’ activist who migrated to Australia. Channa lives in Melbourne. I got to know him when I was working on my book on Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period¸1590’s-1815 (which came out in 2003 …………………… https://www.amazon.com/Sinhala-Consciousness-Kandyan-Period-1590s/dp/9558095311).
Filed under art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, hatan kavi, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, insurrections, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, working class conditions, world events & processes
https://thuppahis.com/2022/07/30/jayati-ghosh-exposes-the-imf-role-in-the-crisis-in-sri-lanka-and-elsewhere/ …… Doctor Jayati-Ghosh exposes the IMF role in the crisis in Sri Lanka and elsewhereFiled under accountability
Charles Schokman
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,”
It was in the early 1950s that I met Lylie, and it didn’t take us long to build a friendship that grew into a warm and deep rooted affection for each other. Lylie, with his parents, brother and sister lived in a modest home at Kotahena and I often visited him on my bicycle for a friendly chat. I lived at Dematagoda and although it was quite a distance to ride, it was worth the effort.
Item in The Island, 1 August 2022, where the title runs thus “Dons Condemn Suppression of Aragalaya”
“Tyrannical governments and illegitimate leaders throughout history have led their societies to destruction”
The Federation of University Teachers (FUTA) says that the Wickremasinghe-Rajapaksa government lacks any legitimacy and it should stop taking cover behind the Constitution.In a statement condemning what it termed as “repression of aragalaya activists by the current regime” the university teachers have said that “the tyrannical governments and illegitimate leaders throughout history have led their societies to destruction.”
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, disparagement, education policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people
Bernard Salt in THE AUSTRALIAN, 30/31 July 2022 where the title reads “Celebrating Our Migration Nation”
It is a single demographic metric that encapsulates modern Australia. It is often the subject of heated debate. It rises and falls over time, but generally over the longer term it has kept an upward trajectory. It is the proportion of the locally based population born overseas. It includes immigrants but it also includes foreign students, backpackers and so-called guest workers based here for 12 months or more.
Asian migrant children tuck into vegemite sandwiches.
Australian Sudanese Peter Bol of Team Australia competes in the Men’s 800m Final on day nine of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon this month. Picture: Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletic
Filed under Australian culture, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, evolution of languages(s), governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, refugees, self-reflexivity, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
With a curtsey to Keith Bennett (in Melbourne I think?) for presenting this TALE:
It’s been snowing all night. So 8:00 I made a snowman.
8:10 A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn’t make a snow woman.
Filed under accountability, landscape wondrous, life stories
thuppahi
