November 7, 2018 · 3:23 pm

Sinhalese War Poems and the Portuguese

Rohini Paranavitana … a reprint of an article from Jorge Flores (ed.) Re-exploring the links. History and Constructed History=ies between Portugal and Sri Lanka, Wiesbaden, Harassowitz Verlag , 2007, pp. 49-62.

Sri Lankan classical literature enriched with Buddhist thought did not promote any war or violence up to about the 16th century. Even though war is involved in these writings, the classical writers took the North Indian legendary war as a model. The European model of war was experienced in Sri Lanka only after the arrival of the Portuguese on the island. It was quite a new experience to the Sinhala king and his army to retaliate against Europeans as invaders. The Portuguese engaged in ruthless war with a nation which had a great poetic tradition that made use of this new experience to generate a new area of literary expression within the tradition, referred to as “war poems”.

 

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November 7, 2018 · 1:24 am

The Situation of the Tamils in the Present Saga — Guruparan

Kumaravadivel Guruparan in Scroll, 5 November 2011, where the title is “Sri Lanka’s political crisis explained, and what it means for the island nation’s Tamil community”

In November 2014, Maithripala Sirisena, who was then a cabinet minister and member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, broke ranks with his leader, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and agreed to be the common presidential candidate of the Opposition, led by the United National Party. Sirisena won the election in what was then hailed as a “democratic revolution”.

He undid that “revolution” on October 26 this year when he sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed Rajapaksa in his place. He did so ignoring the constitutional amendment he had helped pass after coming to power in 2015, which had done away with the president’s power to remove the prime minister. He thus triggered what is being called Sri Lanka’s first unconstitutional transfer of power – a coup.

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November 7, 2018 · 12:26 am

Sri Lanka: Lord Naseby canes Lord Swire for Overstepping Limits

Item in DAILY MIRROR…http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/SL-s-Political-crisis-Lord-Naseby-unhappy-over-Sir-Hugo-Swire-s-statement-157970.html

Commenting on the political situation in Sri Lanka, British Parliamentarian Lord Naseby has said he was unhappy that former British junior minister put down a question suggesting what happened in Sri Lanka was unconstitutional. “That is not the law, I believe, of the UK Parliamentarian. You have your own Constitution. I have been very careful in my fifty years of service. I have never been supporting any one party nor doing any business. I would suggest my colleague that they should do exactly the same,” he said.

Former Foreign Secretary Sir Hugo Swire in the House of Commons earlier drawing attention to the political crisis in Sri Lanka asked the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to point out to the Sri Lankan President that the international community recognizes Ranil Wickremesinghe as the legitimate Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and only a vote in parliament can change his status.

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November 6, 2018 · 9:23 am

A Misleading Picture of Crisis in Lanka pressed by Western Agencies

Palitha Kohona** … in IDN-InDepthNew , 06 November 2018, where the title is “The ‘Crisis in Lanka’ –Invented by the Western Media”

The change of Government in Sri Lanka, following the unceremonious sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasingha by President Maithripala Sirisena, has given rise to a crescendo of alarmist commentary in the Western media, which is slowly seeping in to the non-Western media as well. One after the other, the Western media outlets have taken a critical approach to the change and have begun to characterize the replacement of the Prime Minister as a “Crisis”.

 see https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/tens-of-thousands-march-to-support-new-sri-lanka-government/2018/11/05/56d2c90e-e160-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?utm_term=.b226344616f7

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November 6, 2018 · 8:31 am

Imran Khan on Why China is Important for Pakistan

IMRAN KHAN

  • Money-laundering & corruption as a bane for poorer countries — promoting the widening of the gap between poor & rich countries
  •  How a cricketer became a politician
  • Admiration for China for its alleviation of poverty over the course of  several decades … and its targeting of white-collar criminals
  • Special investment zones as boost for our growth — with Chinese aid
  • Multi-dimensional strands in Chinese Developement and its Aid for Pakistan

 

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxvzLXBndkQPZmlQVDNKvdnMsWXt?projector=1

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November 5, 2018 · 4:25 am

Constitutional Melee: Dayan vs Rajan, Sanjana, Asanga and the Ethical Hosts

Both lawyers and political scientists have essayed interpretations of the present constitution: a BATTLE  rages in front of a yawning GOALMOUTH.  I present some samples here 

A = Rajan Philips … vs the President’s treacherous coup so to speak

B = Dayan Jayatilleka  — for the political legality of the act

C = Sanjana Hattotuwa — versus the goals spurring the act and despondent about the populist anti-democratic weight of popular opinion within the social media in Sinhala favouring the Presidential coup

ALL  adding to the plethora of views on the political struggle for power ….. and thereby  expanding the numbers in the MELEE in front of the wide-open GOAL ……….

….. while the principals are no doubt visiting the kattadiyas and other facilitators  of shrines of Mahason, Kannagi, et cetera in notorious/beloved spots in various parts of the island

Pic by Juliet Coombe

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November 4, 2018 · 3:33 pm

Sorcery, Premeditated Murder, and the Canalization of Aggression in Sri Lanka

Gananath Obeyesekere, being an academic article [1] published initially in 1975 in the American Ethnologist, Vol. 14,  pp.1-23 …. and is also available in pamphlet form as No. 11 in the Studies in Society and Culture Series organised by the late Ananda Chittambalam and Michael Roberts … ISBN 955-9195-10-7 … while the illustrative snaps are impositions by the Editor, Thuppahi  and are intended to suggest the atmosphere called into being by the supplicants seeking support and/rt vengeance at the shrines

It is my intention in this paper to deal with a series of interrelated problems. First, we will consider the following specific questions and propositions: (a) How far can we make inferences about personality and social structure from official statistics computed by government agencies, in this case statistics on homicide and crimes of violence ?

Criminology as a discipline is especially concerned with this problem, and recent criminological studies in Sri Lanka have made social structural, cultural, and personality inferences from the statistical data (Wood 1961; Bloch 1960; Jayewardene and Ranasinghe 1963). At the outset, let me emphasize that I am not concerned with the conventional debate about the accuracy of governmental statistics. I agree with the criminologists who have worked on this problem that Sri Lanka’s official statistics on homicide and violent crimes are reasonably accurate, and on the face of it there is perfect justification for using these data for social analysis (see Wood 1961). Continue reading →

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November 3, 2018 · 9:41 am

A Naked Display of Double Standards by the West in Sri Lanka

Tamara Kunanayakam, in Island, 3 November 2018, where the title is Tamara: Why was West silent on wrongdoings of former regime”   ………..Note: the highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

Tamara Kunanayakam, Economist, Expert on international affairs, Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN at Geneva, Former Cha”irperson/Rapporteur of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development yesterday asked why West had been silent on some grave wrongdoings of the ousted Premier Wickremesinghe.  Kunanayakam, speaking at a briefing organized by Eliya Organization said: “What is the explanation for the West’s silence on the postponement of local government elections for some three years and delays in holding Provincial Council elections, all under the Premiership of Ranil Wickremesinghe?

 

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November 1, 2018 · 3:18 pm

Regulating Sabda Pujā: Did British Regulation of “Noise Worship” Trigger the 1915 Riots in Ceylon?’

Shamara Wettimuny, a reprint of an article in the LSE International History Blog, in May 2018, where the title is Regulating Religious Rites: Did British Regulation of “Noise Worship” Trigger the 1915 Riots in Ceylon?’

Violence targeting the Muslim community has recently increased in Sri Lanka. Yet the scale of the violence is relatively small compared to events that took place a hundred years ago. In 1915, a dispute over a Buddhist procession near a mosque led to island-wide communal riots in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka). This article revisits this historical event. It explores how the rise of ethno-religious nationalist ideologies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries converged with British regulation of ‘noise worship’ to trigger the most destructive episode of violence between Sinhala-Buddhists and Muslims to date.

Kandy in early 20th century

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November 1, 2018 · 3:15 pm

Young Tamara Kunanayakam in Central Europe, 1970s-to-1980s

Michael Roberts

 With Tamara Kunanayakam what you see and hear is what you get: no subterfuges, straight-talking without frills or obscurantisms. Seeking to explore the events in Geneva from 2011 when she was our Permanent Representative there for a short spell, I met her in her rented home in Battaramulla in June 2016 in the convivial presence of her French husband and their dog Hombrito.[1]

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