May 2, 2022 · 2:39 pm

Delving into the Artistic Mind via Reflections on Barbara Sansoni’s Oeuvre

ARTRA in conversation with Dominic Sansoni, 12 August 2021 …. https://www.artra.lk/visual-art/barbara-sansoni-edition-delving-into-the-artistic-mind

Barbara Sansoni’s dynamic creative pursuits across her drawings from her beautiful buildings to the rhapsody enveloped upon facial features of geometric finesse are fascinating. She presents a truly enchanting introspection to the omnipresence of beauty and vitality, which inevitably reflect the ingenious aptitude of her artistic quests. In unearthing the artist’s esoteric for the special edition of ARTRA Magazine, we conversed with Dominic Sansoni, revered artist and Barbara’s son, to understand the nature of the artist’s mind, and the scope of her multifaceted works.

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May 2, 2022 · 2:43 am

Beware of Quack Internet Articles on Medical and Agricultural Issues

Chandre Dharmawardana

An article that begins with a scientifically false statement, viz.,
“They talk of how our bodies run on carbohydrates (sugar) but can also run on fat: we are dual fuel energy burners. Medical researchers call this our “metabolic flexibility.” is being circulated in the internet and the email circuit.

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May 2, 2022 · 2:29 am

“Must Change the Government” says P. Saravanamuttu of CPA

   P. Saravanamuttu, in Financial Times, 30 April 2022, where the title is “Governance in Sri Lanka: We must not miss this opportunity”

The situation in the country is one of dynamism as well as stalemate.  Dynamism on account of the determination, creativity and resilience of the Gotagogama demonstrators, the extension of their efforts to the Mainagogama demonstration outside Temple Trees to the sheer celebration of Sri Lanka’s diversity and the unity of its peoples, to the presentation of the 21st Amendment in Parliament by the SJB Opposition and their mammoth march from Kandy, culminating in Colombo on May Day as well as the Hartal; stalemate because the Rajapaksas show no sense of shame and indeed self-respect to heed the call of the people and GO.

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May 2, 2022 · 1:04 am

Some Sources on the Ceylon National Congress, 1919-50

Thuppahi’s ‘Gift’ to Assiduous Students Today

 

 

 

Ponnambalam Arunachalam

EW Perera

CWW Kannangara

 

 

 

 

1. Ariyaratne, R. A. 1977. “Communal Conflict and the Formation of the Ceylon National Congress”. The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 1977 Vol. VII No. 1 , pp. 57-82. http://dlib.pdn.ac.lk/handle/1/3639 (PDF available) …….

An  extensive 26-page paper providing a detailed overview on Ceylon National Association, CNC, and places it within the context of territorial and communal division. Also talks about the CAN and CNC as “open” reform societies, and outlines how they consisted of a cross-section of westernized elites.

  • Excerpt: A rift with the Government having thus already been created, and without a European go-between the reform leaders convened the first session of the Ceylon National Congress on 11 December 1919. Its principal architect, Arunachalam, was elected the first President. Recalling his uphill task, he wrote in 1923 “Only those who have been in the inner councils of the reform movement can know how difficult it was to bring the various communities together on a common platform, what toil and tact were needed to educate the people in their rights and duties to remove ancient prejudices and jealousies, to harmonies differences and dissensions and create the indispensable basis of mutual trust and co-operation”.

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May 1, 2022 · 11:57 pm

Video: Launch of Lord Naseby’s Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained

Amal Abeyawardene

March 29, 2022 Colombo at the BMICH (Bandaranaike International Conference Hall) Lord Michael Naseby launches his book, Sri Lanka: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained.

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May 1, 2022 · 10:50 am

Appreciations of Nigel Kerner from Old Aloysians

 Vale Nigel Kerner …..An Appreciation from Harry Solomons

Indeed, Today is a sad day for many of Nigel’s mates such as Mubarak Jawath, Niranjan Vithanage and myself and thousands of poor Sri Lankans who have benefited from his generosity. Nigel Kerner, St.Aloyssius College Old Boy, famous English Author, Singer, Actor, and Generous Philanthropist, sadly passed away in England. He visited and lived in Sri Lanka each year during the English winter and was famous for his creation of a “Free Hospital” in the Laxapana/Maskeliya region for treatment of the poorest of villagers and plantation workers in those areas. Generous to the core, he entertained and boarded hundreds of Sri Lankan visitors, cricket teams, entertainers, politicians visiting England. I don’t think l have met a more generous human being! Rest In Peace my good friend. My love and Condolences to your beautiful and equally generous wife Denise, Family and close group of friends, who I have had the good fortune to meet and socialise with.

 

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April 30, 2022 · 6:40 pm

Nationalisms in Ceylon: Origins, Stimulants and Ingredients

Michael Roberts, … reproducing Chapter III in Volume I of Documents of the Ceylon National Congress and Nationalist Politics in Ceylon, 1929-1950, Vol I, 1977, Department of National Archives, 1977 , pp. lxviii–lxxviii **

While the political activists of the first half of the twentieth century were drawn from both the national and the local elites, the political leadership (at significant island-wide levels) was largely composed of individuals who could be ranked among the national elite. As indicated earlier, the national elite was a small segment of the Ceylonese population. Its levels of wealth, power and status, its lifestyle, and its value-system marked it off from the rest of the population.

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April 28, 2022 · 1:03 am

Anzac Day, 25th April. Dying for Country ….. Sacrificial Devotion

Michael Roberts

On the 25th of April, ANZAC DAY, Australia honoured its war dead in ceremonies large and small throughout the country. This moment has been marked every year –beginning with a ceremony in London in 1916 which recognised the deadly toll and the bravery shown on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey where so many colonial Aussies fought … and died … on behalf of the British state (their “mother-country” to many Aussies then).

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April 27, 2022 · 6:50 pm

Sharpshooters front-up for Sri Lanka in Crucial Negotiations with IMF

Nandasiri Jasentuliyana,** in Sunday Observer, 24 April 2021,whose preferred title is “Steller team of advisors to help seek IMF bailout”

To rescue the country from its march towards a certain disaster, Sri Lanka has appointed a stellar team of world-renowned fiscal and monetary experts to assist in the critical negotiations with the International Monitory Fund (IMF) on the outcome of which may hang the immediate fate of Sri Lanka.

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April 27, 2022 · 1:38 am

The Yahapaalana Legacy and Three Major International Events/Processes driving Sri Lanka to Bankruptcy

I sent Mr TRUTHSEEKER Two Questions, prefaced by a general statement: namely: “I am no good in economic assessments

Q-11 = I have no doubt that some or all of the Rajapaksas have accumulated monies …. AND that corruption at many levels of government had some draining impact, BUT has all that been a major factor?

Q 22 … Has’nt the USA induced IMF programme dating from 2009 or so –as payback for Sri Lanka’s temerity in rejecting Hilary Clinton’s programme** — been a MAJOR FACTOR in the present situation [after the pro-US Sirisena govt fell from power]?

…. with Lanka’s China-leanings being a further inducement towards this payback pressure?

 Michael

 

 

 

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