August 26, 2019 · 9:10 am

Sri Lanka’s Prejudiced and Petty Rulers

Rifat Halim in LankaWeb, 22 August 2019, in http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/08/22/three-idiots-and-a-blind-woman/

Three Idiots is a classic Hindi movie that features a group of morons. Sri Lanka has gone one step further by producing three modayas and a blind woman in real life. Future historians would be hard-pressed to explain Sri Lanka’s civil conflict (1983–2009). How could a small section of a microscopic minority terrorise the country for so long? In 1983, Sri Lankan Tamils were barely 10% of the populations and the LTTE (also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a minuscule group

The answer lies in the stupid rivalry of the politicians. Every time the Tigers committed an atrocity, the politicians blamed someone else. They were so transfixed by their petty quarrels that they were blind to the big beast.

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August 25, 2019 · 7:20 am

Sri Lankan Pageant in Los Angeles

Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana, in Sunday Times, 24 August 2019 …. with pictorial illustrations due to Moran Perera

When the annual Sri Lanka Day was celebrated in the historic city of Pasadena this year, Sri Lanka took its rightful place among the ethnic festivals held in America. The featured event of the day was the ‘Pageant of Lanka’, a miniature Kandy Perahera. It took the breath away of the onlookers who filed along the historic route of the annual New Year’s Day Rose Parade, the most prestigious parade in America.

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August 25, 2019 · 6:53 am

Sri Lankan Astronomers at the Cutting Edge of Space research

Meera Srinivasan, of The Hindu, 24 August 2019,, with this title ” Sri Lanka on an astronomical high”

In Sri Lanka’s political terrain, national security and the presidential race are the main talking points this season, both bringing a measure of anxiety for many. Almost lost in that buzz is the quiet achievement of a team of Sri Lankan scientists in outer space.

Astronomers from the country have sighted two new ‘exoplanets’, or planets outside the solar system, a rare feat in the study of stars and galaxies that puts Sri Lanka in a special league. The effort involved mining through several thousand files of data captured by the NASA Kepler/K2 mission over the last decade. “It was both effort and chance,” says Mahesh Herath, the 28-year-old scientist who led the team.

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August 25, 2019 · 6:17 am

Decline in Tourism and the Blame Game: Where Sinhala Buddhist Extremism is a Major Ingredient?

Hilal Suhail in Facebook

If you have invested in Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality industry, then it would serve you well to keep up with the international media coverage of Sri Lanka in recent weeks. The island nation’s reputation has taken a massive beating and it’s unlikely tourism will pick up any time soon. There is no point blaming the foreign media and claiming there is some conspiracy against Sri Lanka, and puff pieces promoting tourism by the Ministry of Tourism and other social media campaigns are pointless and won’t convince many outsiders to take the risk in visiting.

The international media is highlighting the terrible actions of some in the Sinhalese majority, and the violence and discrimination unleashed by Buddhist extremists for decades. The Easter bombings aren’t being solely blamed on Muslim extremists by the international media, they are focusing on the incompetent Sri Lankan police and military who failed to prevent the attacks, despite possessing intelligence beforehand to do so, and also for having caused a situation in Sri Lanka where religious and ethnic minorities are not protected.

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August 24, 2019 · 5:37 pm

Colombo in the 1970s on Video Courtesy of Asela Atukorala

Looking Back at 1970s Colombo

Last year, a nearly three minute video shot on 16 millimetre film featuring aerial videography of 1970s Colombo, Sri Lanka was released on the Kinolibrary YouTube channel. The video is called “1970s Colombo Aerials, HD from 16mm”. I’m embedding the video below which you can watch if you wish. Following that, I will give my thoughts on this footage. ,,,, https://aselaatukorala.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-look-back-at-1970s-colombo.html

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August 23, 2019 · 6:32 pm

Shavendra Silva Appointment in USA’s Gunsights

Rajeewa Jayaweera, in Island, 23 August 2019, with this title “Howls against Gen. Silva’s appointment”

The appointment of Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as the 23rd Commander of the Sri Lankan Army by President Sirisena has resulted in howls of protests from leading members of the so-called international community including the UNHRC Chief. In the home front, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has condemned war time Divisional Commander Gen. Silva’s appointment. Nevertheless, they wholeheartedly supported wartime army commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka’s bid for the Presidency in 2010. TNA spokesperson MA Sumanthiran MP tweeted, the appointment “was a serious affront to the Tamil people.” Sumanthiran forgets the election of his leader who recognized LTTE Supremo Prabhakaran as the sole representative of Tamil people, as Leader of Opposition in the Parliament. It was an equally serious affront to the Sinhalese people. People refrain from giving voice to their feelings on the subject due to the charade called reconciliation.

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August 22, 2019 · 2:52 pm

The US Embassy in Colombo: Its Internal Structures and Lines of Responsibility

An article entitled “Ambassadors don’t make policy. They just carry out orders from their administrations” has drawn useful clarifications from two Sri Lankan ‘Insiders’ who worked within the US Embassy in Colombo in the late 20th century and more recently during Eelam War IV, namely, Daya Gamage and Brig. Sri Mudannayake.

 

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August 22, 2019 · 6:28 am

The Peradeniya Theatre Set in the Mid-1950s

When vising Francis Pietersz and his daughter Coralie about two years back I was given access to his photo album containing old photographs of play presented at one of the residence halls at Peradeniya Campus in the mid-1950s. I believe that one can identify Revd Fr. Pinto in the front row of the audience.

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August 20, 2019 · 5:34 pm

UN Aid Workers in the Crucible of War, 1989-92: William Clarance’s Fascinating Account

Michael Roberts, in SOUTH ASIA¸ Sept 2008, 31: 394-96 reviewing Ethnic Warfare in Sri Lanka and the UN Crisis (London: Pluto Press, and Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2007), 296 pp.

This is an unusual book and essential reading for those interested in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. William Clarance was head of UNHCR’s relief mission in Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1992. He kept a diary and has waited until he had left the arena of international administration before recounting his riveting experiences in the field. 

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August 20, 2019 · 3:29 pm

Michel Nugawela’s Brand Strategy via the Pathways of Outstanding Innovators

STAGE TWO IN 2019: “ANAMCHARA” at the HILTON, 19 August 2019

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