Dishan Joseph, in Daily News, 20 February 2021, with this title “A slice of Africa in Puttalam”
Most Sri Lankans in Colombo city would have caught a glimpse of robust women, of African descent dancing to pulsating drumbeats. We have applauded the performances of the African Manja group. But have we truly understood their origins, displacement and hardships hidden behind their smiles. I firmly believe that after their generations have lived here for 500 years, they too are very much Sri Lankan.
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Nira Wickramasinghe: reviewing Sarojini Jayawickrama’s Writing that conquers. Re-reading Knox’s Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, (Social Scientists Association, Colombo 2004)
Among academic historians in many parts of the world there exists an almost pathological fear of contamination by literary studies via the linguistic turn which manifests itself in the display of fierce criticism of authors of postmodern or cultural studies especially those interested in ‘discourse’ or textual analysis. This is an indication of how centred professional historians still are in the historicist and implicitly empiricist models which are responsible for their material and political hegemony in academia as well as in the public sphere.
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Nishan De Mel,
Dear Friends and Colleagues, As we approach the end of the year, there is much to look back on and reflect upon. I am glad to share with you some of the highlights of the recent month in this Verité Bulletin.
We have long felt that democracy is not meaningful when citizens are not critically cognizant of the information in relation to public finance. This is why Verité Research strategically expanded its work on Public Finance. The platform that we built, PublicFinance.lk, is probably the pre-eminent locus for information and analysis on the state of Sri Lanka’s public finance.
Osman Faruqi, in The Age, 27 January 2022, with this title ‘Yahoos’ have as much right to be at tennis as cucumber sandwich set”
Australia loves telling myths about itself. One of my favourites is the idea that Australians are laid-back and distrustful of authority, with an abiding fondness for larrikinism. It’s a favourite because of how stubbornly it continues to persist, even in the face of regular evidence to the contrary.
An Editorial Note from Michael Roberts, 27 January 2022
Recent items on the Senanayake family and on DS Senanayake (Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister) in Thuppahi touched on his work in promoting peasant agriculture . One of Sri Lanka’s foremost researchers in this field is my friend and colleague from undergraduate days in Ramanathan Hall and Peradeniya University in the late 1950s, namely, Gerald H Peiris. As it would be of wider benefit, I asked him to present Thuppahi with a list of his research work on agriculture and the island economy.
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The Sri Lanka Cricket today announced the 20-member squad for the ‘Sri Lanka Tour of Australia 2022.’ The matches will be played at three venues namley the SCG, Manuka Oval, and MCG, starting from February 11, 2022. Sri Lanka National Team will play 05 T20Is during the tour.
Lord Tariq Ahmad
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From the Department of English, University of Minnesota, 5 November 2021
It’s been amazing reading the tributes to Qadri, reading about his impact and his generosity. Our family was able to keep up with his exploits during his early career in Sri Lanka, when he was a reporter, but his scholarly career was a bit harder to keep up with. I read some of his early writings, but most of them were above my head. But reading the articles about his impact and reach has been very helpful and valuable to us.
A Searing Wide-Ranging Critique from Qadri Ismail after 21/4 in 2019 ……. Now a Requiem
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From KM. De Silva: DS. The Life of DS Senanayake, (1884-1952)
A NOTE from Thuppahi: printed in 2016 this book of 135 pages is clearly meant to provide a distilled assessment of DS Senanayake’s career. Our readings of this work by Kingsley De Silva must take note of this precising intent on the author’s part — though we must also be aware of Professor De Silva”s conservative UNP affiliations….. and be grateful to Iranga Silva of the ICES in Kandy for making the text of the whole book available to us in a convenient form.
DS Senanayake on a field trip … at Gal Oya
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Daniel Hurst, in The Guardian, 24 January 2022, with this title “Former Australian PM Paul Keating criticises Liz Truss over ‘demented’ China comments”
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused Liz Truss of making “demented” comments about Chinese military aggression and urged the British foreign secretary to hurry “back to her collapsing, disreputable government”. Keating, in a blistering op-ed, also said Britain “suffers delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation” and its tilt to the Indo-Pacific lacks credibility.
thuppahi
