October 3, 2021 · 5:06 pm

Reflections on the Commentary on “Sinhala Mindset”

Michael Roberts

When I set up the THUPPAHI WEBSITE in late 2009 I imprinted two project statements: one entitled “WHY THUPPAHI”;[1] the other bearing the heading ‘SINHALA MINDSET.” Readers can access these two items via the sub-headings within the website – so I will not reiterate the latter here.

This set of project statements was crafted after the LTTE-led drive to create an independent SL Tamil nation state had been defeated over the course of Eelam War IV. I had been in Colombo from April-mid-June 2009, so I had vivid experiences of the last stages of this ‘encounter’ and the triumphant sentiments expressed in the Colombo area when the war was won. More vitally, I had been commissioned by Muralidhar Reddy,[2] the correspondent from the Hindu newspaper chain based in Colombo to present analytic essays for their magazine FRONTLINE.

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October 3, 2021 · 1:06 pm

Soaring Thoughts at Ratmalana Airport

Roger Thiedeman

This article is adapted from the original published in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times on November 23, 1997 (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/971123/plus10.html) under the title [listed at the end of this presentation]. The title initially submitted, ‘Reminiscing at Ratmalana’, was changed at the whim of an anonymous Sunday Times sub-editor.

In August this year I stood outside the Ratmalana airbase and watched a Sri Lanka Air Force Antonov An-32B take off. As the transport aircraft soared aloft in a climbing turn towards the north, my memories and imagination also took flight.

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October 3, 2021 · 1:07 am

The Primitive Ancients Arrowhead Innovations in Sri Lanka Way-Way Back

Michelle Langley et al, in The Conversation, 13 June 2020, with this title “48,000-year-old arrowheads reveal early human innovation in the Sri Lankan rainforest”

Archaeological excavations deep within the rainforests of Sri Lanka have unearthed the earliest evidence for hunting with bows and arrows outside Africa.At Fa-Hien Lena, a cave in the heart of Sri Lanka’s wet zone forests, we discovered numerous tools made of stone, bone, and tooth – including a number of small arrow points carved from bone which are about 48,000 years old.

One of the small bone points discovered at Fa-Hien Lena. M

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October 3, 2021 · 12:14 am

Pablo Neruda in British Ceylon: Literary and Sexual Flowerings in Wellawatte and Beyond

  Jamie James, initially presented in Literary Hub, 3 June 2019, with this title “Pablo Neruda’s Life as a Struggling Poet in Sri Lanka: A Young Poet’s Adventures in the Foreign Service”

At 22, Pablo Neruda was an international literary celebrity—and desperately poor. His second book, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, had been a sensational success and would eventually become one of the bestselling books of poetry in the 20th century (more than 20 million copies to date), but he was paid almost nothing for it. He was a student at the Universidad de Santiago in Chile, and hunger was an issue; he wore a billowing cape to conceal his emaciated physique and a wide-brimmed hat that hoped for an air of mystery.

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October 2, 2021 · 12:07 pm

Deciphering Sri Lanka’s Relations with the IMF

Premachandra Athukorala, an article taken from Daily FT, where t has appeared on the 30th September  2021 in three parts, under this title  “Sri Lanka and the IMF: Myth and reality”

The decision to go to the IMF for assistance rests entirely with the IMF members. However, the relationship between the IMF and its developing-country members under stabilisation programmes has not always been smooth.

Sri Lanka’s first attempt to borrow from the IMF under an SBA was by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) Coalition Government in 1964. By that time import restriction and capital controls had been carried out to the maximum and it was becoming increasingly difficult to introduce further restrictions without damaging the economy. Because of the nationalisation of the foreign-owned gas and petroleum outlets in 1961, Sri Lanka became the first country against which the US Government invoked the Hickenlooper Amendment requiring the suspension of US aid to countries expropriating US property without compensation. Following this, the international aid community virtually isolated Sri Lanka

“We cannot brush aside and completely ignore these international institutions; we can repudiate their terms only if we are prepared to face the far-reaching distortions”

“The Government’s effort to put its own house in order is not the result of IMF advice but is the obvious thing to do in the national interest”

– Dr. N.M. Perera, Finance Minister of the United Front Government, 1970-’75 –

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October 1, 2021 · 8:51 pm

WA Premier lauds China and thumbs Nose at Morrison et al

 ABC News Item, 1 October 2021 ….  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/perth-china-mcgowan-consul-general-forrest-trade-aukus-business/100502212

Key points:

  • Tensions between China and Australia rated little mention at an event in Perth
  • The WA Premier said eastern states fail to appreciate China’s importance
  • The Chinese Consul General in Perth considers the bilateral relationship strongP

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October 1, 2021 · 7:06 pm

Evanjelin Elchmanar, a Sri Lankan Lass, becomes “Miss International UK”

Upali Obeyesekere

Evanjelin Elchmanar from Birmingham, U.K., has won the crown of “Miss International U.K. 2021/ 2022” defeating, more than 50 other British girls. She will compete in the “Miss World International” to be held in Japan in October 2021. According to reports, she is a lovely girl with a sweet, engaging personality, and is a strong contender to win that competition too.

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October 1, 2021 · 4:35 pm

Yohani De Silva sails into the World Stage as Singer

ISLAND Feature Article, 28 October 2021, with this title “Mega Scene for Lanka’s Singing Sensation Yohani “

UPDATE: Yohani, we are told, has been signed by an Indian company, Wingman Talent Management, and will be managed by Sonu Lakhwani, who has also had Jacqueline Fernandez under his wings.

Undoubtedly, Yohani de Silva is Sri Lanka’s singing sensation, global ambassadress and whatever more tags that she may add to her singing career, in the near future. I can’t think of a single present day local artiste who has achieved the kind of glory, and fame, that has come Yohani’s way, through her music or, let’s say, singing.

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September 29, 2021 · 5:24 pm

Facing Anosognosia …. Discounting Altzheimers

Bruno Dor

Anosognosia  =   temporary forgetfulness_, by French Professor, Bruno Dor, of the Institute of Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease (IMMA),
La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Hospital, Paris. He addresses the subject in a rather reassuring way:

“If anyone is aware of his memory problems, he does not have Alzheimer’s.”

1. I forget the names of families …
2. I do not remember where I put some things …

It often happens in people 60 years and older that they complain that they lack memory.

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September 29, 2021 · 9:46 am

Entering Underworld Hell at Hierapolis in Turkey

Louise Callaghan in The Australian  27 Septmber & The Times 26 September

In the gentle light of the autumn sun, Grazia Semeraro slipped around a guard rail in the ancient city of Hierapolis and descended stone steps towards the Gate of Hell. For 37 years, the Italian archaeologist has worked to uncover the secrets of this site in southwestern Turkey, home to what its inhabitants once believed to be the entrance to the underworld: a 5ft high stone arch that only the eunuch priests of the mother goddess Cybele could pass through alive.

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