January 18, 2022 · 11:25 am

Covid Immunity: Issues ….. Growing Experiences

Maani Truu, in ABC Net, 17 January 2022, where the title reads “Can you catch COVID twice? Or does it give you greater immunity?”

Central Coast resident Mitch Rogers has just come out of two weeks of complete isolation, which he says was “pretty tough”. After contracting COVID early this year, the 32-year-old, who lives by himself, retreated to his Umina Beach home to ride out the symptoms. They ended up taking 14 days to subside, double the mandated seven-day isolation period.

 

More and more Australians have now had COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean they’ll never catch it again. (Pexels: Pixabay) Continue reading →

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January 18, 2022 · 10:26 am

Mirigama-Kurunegala Highway now Operational

Mirigama to Kurunegalle 40k Highway opened to public 15/1/22T

The highway goes through the  central lowlands of Sri Lanka. This 40.91 km sector from Mirigama to Kurunegala of the Central Highway has cost Rs.149 Billion.

 

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January 16, 2022 · 11:29 am

US Power and Sri Lanka’s Debt Crisis

Professor Tissa Vitarana, in The Island, 9 Jaauary 2022, with this title “The international plot to force Sri Lanka into the USA’s trap is thickening”

With the dawn of the Year 2022 I wish you all happiness, good health, and fulfillment of your needs and targets. But I cannot wish you prosperity, because only the rich are enjoying that privilege. The maximum tax on the rich including multi billionaires still remains at 14%. The average maximum in Europe is 40% while that in Scandinavian country is over 50%. Thus it is clear that the burden of the present economic crisis is being placed on all the people including the poor, but not on the rich.

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January 16, 2022 · 11:02 am

Paul McNamee steps into the Djokovic Courtside Drama

Paul McNamee in The Age, 15 January 2022, where the title reads “Djokovic an easy target in anti-vaxxer witch hunt”

Clearly, the outcome of the Federal Court case on Sunday has implications for Novak Djokovic. How about for the Australian Open?

The Australian Open is far and away Australia’s biggest international sporting event. Hosting all the world’s best tennis players in arguably the best sporting precinct in the world, it generates close to one billion dollars in economic impact for the state of Victoria. It puts Melbourne front and centre on the world stage for two weeks but, this year, for all the wrong reasons.

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January 16, 2022 · 12:25 am

Reviewing Educational Reform and the Study of History in British Ceylon

Uditha Devapriya with Uthpala Wijesuriya, in The Island, 15 January 2022, where the title reads “Cultural revival, education reform, and the study of history”

Most accounts of education reform in British Ceylon focus on officials and administrators, rather than the people on the ground and the historical forces they had to contend with. Very little effort, indeed next to no effort, is made to situate reforms in a broader historical context. Works like Ranjit Ruberu’s Education in Colonial Ceylon (1962) and the Education and Cultural Affairs Ministry’s Education in Ceylon: A Centenary Volume (1969) do explore these areas, but these remain more the exception than the norm..

  G. C. Mendis, 

Red A. G Fraser

 

 

 

 

Hartley

 

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January 14, 2022 · 11:14 pm

Warden Stone’s School-leaving Endorsement of Young DS Senanayake

Michael Roberts

Chandra Schaffter discovered a short note of commendation provided as a school leaving certificate in 1902 by Warden Stone[i] of S. Thomas College at Mutwal to young DS Senanayake. Apparently, DS had been “irreproachable” in his schooldays and had even been a dormitory prefect. Such a school-leaving certificate[ii] would not have been unique; but it is one of those historical artefacts that is so common that they merge into the wastelands of mundane taken-for-granted facts ………….. and then disappear from sight.

 

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January 14, 2022 · 11:41 am

Warden Billimoria’s Letter to Old Thomians, 3 July 2021

 

Dear Fellow Thomians,

Fraternal greetings from the School by the Sea.

As we start the second half of 2021 still in a situation where S. Thomas’, together with all schools in Sri Lanka, remains closed, I thought I should write to you to keep you informed of how things are going at the moment, so you will have accurate and up to date information about the state of things for your various alumni groups.

Sad Realities of 2020 …. tcmloba.com/newsroom/news/Wardens-Letter-to-Old-Boys—July-2021.dz

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January 14, 2022 · 12:32 am

Colombo-KKS Luxury Train Launched

News Item in DailyFT, Janaury 2022

A luxury train service with all facilities was launched this morning (09) for passengers traveling from the capital Colombo to Kankasanthurai in the North. The train will leave Mt. Lavinia at 5.10 am daily and reach Kankesanthurai at 12.17 pm the same day. It will leave Kankesanthurai at 1.15 pm and reach Mt. Lavinia at 8.25 pm. The Daily FT is Sri Lanka’s first and only national daily business paper. With its value proposition “Be Empowered”, the Daily FT caters to the new economy of post-war Sri Lanka, with a sectoral focus as well as local and global politics, business, social issues, sports and lifestyle.

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January 14, 2022 · 12:11 am

Issues: Machinations in Selecting Cricket Teams in Ceylon & Lanka

“A Cricket Lover from an Old School”

My dear Michael, This refers to your mail of 6th January regarding machinations in the selection of Sri Lankan cricket teams in the past. This dimension of cricket/lifeways has always been there in varied forms. In the old days [namely, the 1940s and 1950s], such wheeler-dealer operations were the imprint of the big clubs like the SSC, NCC, and possibly BRC. So, members of these clubs probably had an edge on others. Outstation cricketers hardly had a look in.

 

 Chandra Schaffter

KMT Perera as Manager of a subssequent touring team, 1975 Continue reading →

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January 11, 2022 · 5:58 pm

Cricketing Stars who stimulated Ceylon Cricket

A. C. de S., in Sunday Observer, 30 May 2004, where the tiltle is “Ceylon privileged to be coached by cricketing knights”

Sri Lanka has had the good fortune of witnessing six great cricketing knights play in the country and indulge in coaching for the Sri Lanka benefit of the younger generation. The six cricketers all knighted for their splendid deeds for their country of birth, had a liking to Sri Lanka (Ceylon as we were then known) and besides playing in matches, have also indulged in coaching in Colombo and in the outstation towns as well.

The cricketing knights – Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Learie Constantine, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Len Hutton and Sir Garfield Sobers were a big draw for the young cricketers then and the enthusiasm to forge ahead in cricket seemed to be uppermost in the minds of the local cricketers and the administrators as well.

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