Scrutinize his left hand …..
David Warner ‘Enflowered’ and Empowered at Katunayake Airport
Filed under cricket for amity, cultural transmission, life stories
FRONTLINE on Tamil Leaders’ Response to the Financial Crisis
INTERVIEW: M.A. SUMANTHIRAN ……‘They kept denying that there was a crisis’
R.K. RADHAKRISHNANIN COLOMBO Print edition : April 22, 202
M.A. Sumanthiran: “… the triggering of this crisis seems to be the heavy tax cuts that were introduced soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President…. As much as 33 per cent of the people fell outside the tax net as a result…. Once it starts sliding, you can’t pull it back.” Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
Filed under Uncategorized
Asitha Fernando’s Star-turn as Pace Bowler at Dhaka
Rex Clementine, in The Island, 5 June 2022, where the title runs “From Beach Boy to recordbreaker” …. while emphasis via highlighting here is an intervention from The Editor, Thuppahi
Arjuna Ranatunga’s mantra for turning the fortunes of a cricket team was backing outstation talents. Colombo ceased to own the exclusive rights for cricket and as a result, the game thrived. Three decades on the outstations are still producing match winners. There are still unearthed and untapped talents in far-off areas. One such created history last week by bowling Sri Lanka to a series win in Dhaka. From a beach boy of far off Katuneriya, Asitha Fernando went on to become the first Sri Lankan right-arm quick to claim a match bag of ten wickets.
Leonard Woolf’s Humanist Empathy & Discernment
The Sivasambu Colloquium on 29th April 2012 entitled “Woolf the humanist who empathized with the vulnerable” …. with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi
Jane Russell and Ruth Allaun continued their account of the Seminar on Leonard Woolf organised by Nathan Sivasambu, Coordinator of the Ceylon Bloomsbury Group, convenors of the seminar, with the assistance of Dr. Shamil Wanigasekera and Dulmini Wimalasekera at University of London Union, Malet St, Bloomsbury, London on May 24, 2011.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, working class conditions, world events & processes
Lessons from Woolf for a Latter-Day American
Joe Kovacs, in Literary Traveller, 23 June 2005, where the title reads as “The Accidental British Servant: Leonard Woolf in Ceylon”
When I joined the Peace Corps and went to Sri Lanka in 1997, I took a leave of absence from a graduate program in English literature at Fordham University. I was unhappy with academia as an aspiring creative writer; I wanted to make literature, not analyze it. I had no idea how international development work in Asia could help, but at least it would provide a long-overdue vacation from education. I’d never left the United States before, and after an exhausting trip west from New York through San Francisco, Tokyo and Bangkok, the third flight of my trans-global journey arrived in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo at two in the morning. I spent the rest of those benighted, pre-dawn hours in a retreat center in the jungle, trying to sleep. But the dense heat drenched me in sweat, even as I lay still in bed, the uncompromising mattress made my back sore and a swooping blue mosquito net left me entombed. Had I just made a mistake? From the jungle outside came a sudden high-pitched screech, convincing me that I’d come to a land of monsters.
Leonard Woolf in Ceylon: A Pictorial Excursion
A Collection derived from Digital internet sources and with special thanks to Hugh Karunanayake in Melbourne for some great finds, including the shot of the New Oriental Hotel in Galle Fort in the 1910s, the dhony and the coastal steamers plying the island’s coasts.
Young Leonard Woolf …. & then a mustachioed Woolf
Woolf and his dogs in Jaffna
Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
The Lonely Cadet and the Maiden: Leonard Woolf in Jaffna …..
Philip Sansoni
In “Growing”, the second volume of his autobiography, Leonard Woolf tells us how he lost his virginity. According to him, he was riding down the main street of Jaffna, one evening in 1905, an apprentice representative of the British Empire, when he happened to look into a verandah and saw a burgher girl sitting there. It was a fleeting glance over some blinds but she smiled at him and he smiled at her. A short time later, with a “minute” boy who had chased after him acting as intermediary, she had arranged to sleep with him that night and she did. She is subsequently revealed to have been the mistress of a Jaffna lawyer and is convicted of using indecent and abusive language outside the lawyer’s house. As Woolf tells the story, Dutton, the police magistrate, naively took the young woman’s side and paid the fine, much to the amusement of the people of Jaffna.Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan scoiety, Tamil civilians, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Population Trends Directing Democracy in Europe Today
Giulio Meotti, in Item in Gatestone Institute, 29 May 2022, where the title runs thus: “Europe: Demography Governs Democracy”
There is a replacement of civilization and the media is not even covering it. “By 2050, 50 percent of the French population will be mixed.” — Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Radio Classique, May 17, 2021.”The mayor of Grenoble adopts the arguments and rhetorical formulas of the Muslim Brotherhood: talking about freedom to impose sexism”. — Céline Pina, Le Figaro, May 4, 2022.
. (Image source: iStock)
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, demography, doctoring evidence, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, European history, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, world events & processes
Sri Lanka Cricket Rankings ICC … Down the Pallang
ICC listing in ESPNcricinfo, 27 May 2022
ICC Test Rankings
| Pos | Team | Matches | Points | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 19 | 2439 | 128 |
| 2 | India | 23 | 2736 | 119 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 23 | 2552 | 111 |
| 4 | South Africa | 21 | 2306 | 110 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 20 | 1865 | 93 |
| 6 | England | 29 | 2551 | 88 |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | 20 | 1637 | 82 |
| 8 | West Indies | 22 | 1685 | 77 |
| 9 | Bangladesh | 19 | 966 | 51 |
| 10 | Zimbabwe | 6 | 148 | 25 |
*Afghanistan and Ireland have Test status but have not played enough matches to figure on the rankings table
