August 2, 2021 · 2:03 am

Kitulgala and the Classic Movie “Bridge on the River Kwai”

Michael Roberts

Nihal Rajapaksa has sent me three video clips[1] pertaining to that classic film “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” starring actors William Holden (American), Alex Guinness (British) and Jack Hawkins (British) – a film that was directed by David Lean and was shot in Ceylon in 1957  — with local links aided by the collaboration of Chandran Rutnam among other locals. Whatever your age, these clips are a “Must See” category (three specific web-references afe served up below in RED).

Chandran Rutnam and William Holden while shooting The Bridge on the River Kwai.

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August 1, 2021 · 3:21 pm

A Death-Bed Declamation in Grief from Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe in September 1983

Text of the final Pastoral Letter written by the Anglican Bishop of Kurunegala, Rt. Rev. L Wickremasinghe, in September 1983 after the July 1983 Violence ……  [Bishop Lakshman passed away some weeks after this on October 23rd 1983] ………….. from http://dbsjeyaraj.com 28 July 2021, 9:28 pm

“The Tragedy is that it is Becoming Harder in 1983 for Sinhala Christians to Acknowledge that what was done is a GREATER Moral Crime than in 1958” …………….. Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe

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August 1, 2021 · 1:23 am

Old England Cricketing Mates farewell Mike Hendricks

Courtesy of Dr Sarath Gamani De Silva, a Richmondite

Mike Hendrick, former England and Derbyshire bowler, died at the age of 72. Hendricks was suffering from bowl cancer and was in his last stages. What a farewell.  This get together was taken just ten days ago ………………@ Derby CCC.

John Lever, Ian Botham, Mike Hendrick, Bob Taylor, Geoff Miller. Derek Randall. John Emburey and Geoff Boycott, all gathered to say farewells to Hendrick..

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July 31, 2021 · 3:11 pm

The Taliban Campaign. The West in Deep Shit in Afghanistan

David Kilcullen, in The Australian, 31 July 2021,.  [and  The Inquirer, 31 July ]where the title reads  “Making sense of the Afghan fiasco, and how to fix it” … 2021 and with this byline : “there are four moves that could stabilise the situation long enough to get talks back on track.”

If a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth, US President Joe Biden committed one a few weeks ago, answering a question about Afghanistan, when he said “the mission hasn’t failed, yet”. That “yet” contains multitudes: a tangle of military and humanitarian factors refracted through political spin and a hyper-partisan US media.

 Afghan militia gather with their weapons to support Afghanistan security forces against the Taliban, in Afghan warlord and former Mujahideen Ismail Khan’s house in Herat on July 9. Picture: AFP

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July 31, 2021 · 2:43 am

President Premadasa’s Gross Failures on the Warfront in the North in 1989/90

 Shamindra Ferdinando, in The Island, 21 July 2021, where the title is “How Premadasa paved the way for first Parama Weera Vibushanaya, posthumously”

One-time Army Commander Gen. Daya Ratnayake (2013-2015) recently joined a special event on Zoom in honour of those who made the supreme sacrifice at Kokavil, 31 years ago. Prof. Raj Somadeva and writer Charith Kiriella delivered special lectures on the occasion. Those who defended the isolated Kokavil base – Officer Commanding, Kokavil transmission complex, Saliya Aladeniya, an old Trinitian who was posthumously promoted Captain of 3 Battalion, Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (3 SLSR), and his men, perished in the battle. The LTTE didn’t hand over their bodies.

  Aladeniya

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July 31, 2021 · 1:35 am

Three Cricketers lined up for Hefty Punishments

Rex Clementine in Island, 29 June 2021, where the title is “Banned”

Sri Lanka Cricket’s Disciplinary Committee has recommended lengthy suspensions for three players who breached a bio-secure bubble in England last month that resulted in them being sent home halfway through the tour. Accordingly, Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis with previous offences have been banned for two years while Niroshan Dickwella has been handed a suspension of 18 months. Each player also has been fined 25,000 USD for their offence.

A NOTE …the photo of the three players alienated the computer which rejected that shot !@#!$ … so this is shot of one… Dhanushka Gunatilleka

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July 31, 2021 · 1:11 am

Sri Lanka’s Olympic Contingent in Tokyo

Reemus Fernando, in The Island,  24 July 2021, …  “Sri Lanka’s contingent prior to the opening ceremony”

When Sri Lanka’s Olympic contingent were entering the stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo yesterday, Nimali Liyanarachchi who could have easily become the country’s flag bearer was taking a seat in the business class for the first time in a long career to take wing from Colombo to Tokyo. On the same flight, Sujith Abeysekara, who identified the talent at a very young age and helped her blossom into one of the country’s most successful middle distance runners, was seated in the economy class.

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July 30, 2021 · 8:55 pm

Introducing Alan Strathern’s Work to Sri Lankan Aficianados

Alan Strathern’s first major work was Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka: Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land. …. published in 2008 and since then he has extended his reach. Though in far too belated manner, Thuppahi here introduces his work to a Sri Lankan audience …. Begiining with a citation leading to CR De Silva’s review of his book on Sri Lanka….. and ending with his own introduction of self to the world in the Oxford University web site.

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July 30, 2021 · 8:07 pm

Guns Trained on China

A Dinkum Far Eastern Hand**

ONE INSTANCE:  As this story illustrates, the once respected Reuters news agency has succumbed to being another outlet of propaganda aimed at smearing China. … ……………………………………. https://www.mintpressnews.com/corporate-media-pushes-vaccine-hesitancy-china-russia/278052/ 

The BBC is also undermining its own professional standards when it comes to reporting on China, Hong Kong and Xinjiang as it succumbs to manifesting propaganda on China, and in China the acronym for BBC now stands for the Badmouthing Broadcasting Corporation. 

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July 30, 2021 · 7:28 pm

The Skeins of Class bearing on the Threads of Sinhala Cultural Revival under the British

Uditha Devapriya, in The Island, 24 July 2021, where the title reads “Colonial Bourgeoisie and Sinhala Cultural Revival”

The colonial bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka did not form a monolithic class. They were divided horizontally as well as vertically: horizontally on the basis of income and inheritance, and vertically on the basis of primordial attachments, such as caste ideology. Various factors, mainly economic, conspired as much to unify the bourgeoisie as they did to divide them, distinguishing them by their homogeneity as much as by their heterogeneity.

Panadura Vaadaya

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