from one Tony Donaldson
Stunning Snaps
Filed under landscape wondrous, unusual people
Kishani’s “Danno Budunge” in 2016: Further Vibes and Reverberations
An INTRODUCTORY NOTE
In February 2016 I borrowed an article by Sasanka Perera in Groundviews and placed it in Thuppahi When I recently advertised this article in FACEBOOK it drew a critical comment from Vinod Moonesinghe of Sri Lanka and then a spate of comments. Several of these thoughts provide food for thought …and debate. So, let fruitful reflections flow –beginning here with my original note and then deploying the critical line penned by VINOD MOONESINGHE to encourage more sparks to kindle flames.
Vinod Moonesinghe 
Tony Donaldson 
Darshanie Ratnawalli
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, disparagement, education, female empowerment, heritage, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
A Caustic Satire on Sri Lanka’s Cricketing Ailments
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, September 2018, bearing the title “Sack captain, sack coach but don’t talk about real changes”
Right. Okay. This is pathetic, isn’t it? Knocked out of the Asia Cup basically before it has even begun. A big 91-run loss to Afghanistan, following an even bigger 137-run pasting by Bangladesh. Appalling. Someone needs to be held accountable for this garbage. How far Sri Lankan cricket has fallen. This is beyond embarrassing. Contracts must be torn up. Changes must be made. Heads surely have to roll.
Angelo Mathews and Chandika Hathurusingha in discussion AFP
Hares In and Around … with A Cricketing Excursion
A Snowshoe Hare = The snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), also called the varying hare, or snowshoe rabbit, is a species of hare found in North America. It has the name “snowshoe” because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal’s feet prevent it from sinking into the snow when it hops and walks. Its feet also have fur on the soles to protect it from freezing temperatures….. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshoe_hare]
Filed under conspiracies, discrimination, landscape wondrous, life stories, wild life
Jayasekera’s Study of British Colonialism in Ceylon reviewed
Chandra R De Silva, in Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences 41(1) 2018, pp 65-68, with highlighting emphasis being the Work of The Editor, Thuppahi
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reviewing Confrontations with Colonialism: Resistance, Revivalism and Reform under British Rule in Sri Lanka 1796- 1920, Vol. I, by P. V. J. Jayasekera (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa, 2017), Rs. 1500.
In one of the most challenging and thought-provoking history books published in Sri Lanka in the last decade, P. V. J. Jayasekera has used a wide variety of sources to challenge a number of existing interpretations relating to Sri Lanka under British colonial rule in the nineteenth century. While the book is based partly on his own doctoral dissertation completed in 1970, in Jayasekera’s own words “The scope and the foci of the original study have been substantially changed (p. ix)” in view of new theoretical approaches in the study of colonial history and the debates on history arising out of the recent ethnic conflict. Jayasekera has also carefully taken into account historical research on Sri Lanka published in the long period since he completed his dissertation. Readers should note that despite the title, Jayasekera has consciously avoided any attempt “to cover the confrontations of the Sri Lankan Tamil society with colonialism (p. xxvii)” and that, with the exception of brief references in the concluding section, information on Muslim-Buddhist relations will come to us only in the forthcoming second volume.
Filed under British colonialism, Buddhism, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, insurrections, island economy, language policies, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Booker Prize Short-List: Michael Ondaatje excluded
AP Item, in Dawn, September 2018 with this heading “ Man Booker Prize 2018 finalists announced”
A novel in verse and a story about trees and the people who love them are among six finalists announced Thursday for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction. U.K. poet Robin Robertson’s verse novel about violence and social division in contemporary America, “The Long Take,” and U.S. novelist Richard Powers’ eco-saga “The Overstory” — whose characters are both human and arboreal — are on a list that includes three U.K. authors, two Americans and a Canadian.
Brits and Romanians in Ardent Heritage Work in Romania: The Mihai Eminescu Trust
THE ORIGINS OF THE TRUST …. http://www.mihaieminescutrust.org/home
The past and the future
Are two sides of one page;
He who learns them will discover
A beginning’s found at the end of an age.
Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)
The Mihai Eminescu Trust was formed during Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, to help persecuted dissident academics by smuggling in books and journals so that they could keep abreast with the civilisation they had once shared. Our clandestine contacts took us to strange places. In 1987 I visited the lonely mountain hut of Constantin Noica, a much-revered sage who told me the ancient villages around him were facing the imminent threat of “systematisation”—obliteration by bulldozing—to make room for factories and concrete apartment blocks.
Preserving Heritage in Romania: The Hand of Prince Charles
During a recent holiday with a touring group by bus in Romania Shona and I came across several interesting facets of Romanian history. Among these were (A) the imprint of medieval German Saxon settlements in particular localities dating back to the 12th century and thereafter; (B) the imprint of French architectural and town planning patterns in the capital city of Bucharest -dating back to the mid 19th century and the friendship between the respective rulers of the two countries: and (C) the deep interest shown by Prince Charles in preserving the architectural heritage and life-style of specific Romanian villages and localities, notably Viscri and Valea Zalnului.(information conveyed by our guide Adrian Buracu). SO: here we go with illustrated items on
A = The Prince of Wales’s Foundation Romania …. &
B = The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation (PWCF)
The Lion Symbol in British World War Two Propaganda in Ceylon
This item was discovered in REDDIT by a friend of mine with roots in Uva, England and Germany –who sent me this note: “Another interesting WW2 poster I found on Reddit. Amazing to see the Brits using the Lion symbol!
Note, too, the deployment of the term LANKA.
