Chandre Dhamawardana … with highlighting emphasis added by the Editor, Thuppahi
It is a common belief that the Moor population, nearly 99% Muslim in faith, have high demographic rates and also have to capacity to have high birth rates because of Islamic laws that provide for the possibility of having several wives. Hence it is of interest to examine these contentions in the context of demographic data available from the Dept. of Census and statistics, Sri Lanka.
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Chula Rajapaksa’s Impassioned Dedication to the Ranaviru: New Zealand Internet Live Streaming 6.30pm NZ Time ….. Ranaviru Commomeration 19/5/20 …… https://www.facebook.com/srilankans.nz
Thank you for affording me the privilege of being able to reinforce for the 11th consecutive year, our deep debt of gratitude to the Ranaviru for having liberated Sri Lanka from three decades of Tiger terror and even more for the life and limb that some lost in the process.
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Bevis Bawa ... writing way back in an article entitled “And the “Brook” overflowed” .… a wonderful erudite title that I should perhaps have retained
A person I have wanted to write about for quite a while is our effervescent Daha known to some as “The Voice”. And to others, long ago, as the “Bibile Brook” and now Doctor of Literature [Honoris Causa”].
Last week I ran him down to earth in the corridors of the House. “Hullo Bawa”, he boomed in his rasping voice which sounds like gravel being thrown on a windowpane. “So now you are a journalist!”.
He led me to the dining saloon of the ship- I mean the restaurant of the House, so like a ship’s saloon [pale blue, grey, and concealed lights in the ceiling]. He ordered tea. Continue reading
Helen Pitt, in Sydney Morning Herald, May 2020, where the title runs “Professor of Lankan descent now one of world’s top infectious disease specialists”
Professor Raina MacIntyre, one of the world’s leading emerging infectious diseases experts, has barely budged from the bedroom of her Wahroonga home since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia.
Raina MacIntyre as a medical student in 1984
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Michael Roberts
In venturing into reflections on VE Day commemorations, by pure chance I stumbled on You Tube reviews of the ways in which German POWs were dealt with in Britain during and after the war. This data base also provides partial information on the enormous loss of life on the various moments in the Western front as the Allied forces advanced on Germany after D Day in June 1944.
Hitler Germany’s greatest reach 1942
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ONE: ‘Varman’ = “Jennings and the Old Galaha Road”
In 1952 we lived on Old Galaha Road. That was the last year we lived there. The government of the day compulsorily acquired our house and the land for the campus of the new University of Ceylon at Peradeniya. Much against our wishes, we were on orders to quit our home. The order to vacate, after the property was compulsorily acquired by the government, came from the Vice Chancellor’s office, the new owner of what was our beloved property.
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Sarath Gamani De Silva
Human beings exploring the entire universe
Exploiting at will, planet’s land, trees, rivers
To many warnings of danger we were averse
Never thought we’ll have to pause and reverse
DBS Jeyaraj, in Daily FT, 13 May 2020, where the title is “Tale of a Tiger: Facets of LTTE Chief Prabhakaran’s life” ++
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed 11 years ago in combat with the armed forces of Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009. The longest war in South Asia came to an end after the military debacle of the LTTE on the shores of Nandikadal Lagoon in the Mullaitivu District of northern Sri Lanka.
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Brian Victoria …… Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. John Donne
Introduction: Is religion a force for peace or war? Or to borrow a phrase from the title of Christopher Hitchen’s book, God Is Not Great, does religion really poison everything, including the possibility of living in a peaceful world?
The answer is much like posing the question of whether the glass is half full or half empty. That is to say, for every example cited to prove that religion has supported warfare and violence, other examples can be presented to show ways in which religion has contributed to peace and the avoidance of war, reconciliation between bitter enemies and the general betterment of humanity and the world. When the question is posed in this way, the debate is as endless as it is futile unless the “winner” is the side that amasses the greatest number of examples.
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thuppahi
