January 21, 2018 · 2:29 pm

Wedding Bells in Galle Fort

The Galle Fort is apparently seen as an ideal foil for young couples who have tied the knot or are about to do so ….

 January 2018

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, doctoring evidence, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society

January 21, 2018 · 2:22 pm

Galle Fort in Better Light

Images from a Professional: Juliet Coombe

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under British colonialism, cultural transmission, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, world affairs

January 21, 2018 · 10:25 am

Galle Fort awaits the Galle Literary Festival, 2018

SCENES from Early January at Twilight …. an Amateur’s Camera

The Hall de Galle

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, pilgrimages, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, world events & processes

January 21, 2018 · 9:41 am

Can Anyone match the Weaver Bird’s Skills?

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/16116e07eb04f265?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, heritage, wild life

January 15, 2018 · 3:19 am

Indians and Aussies gather for a Youth Forum on Democracy

Item in Indian Sun, 14 January 2018 … with title AIYD 2018 to focus on democracy in the age of digital disruption”

Some of India and Australia’s brightest talent and emerging young leaders will converge in New Delhi and Mumbai, this month, for the 2018 Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD 2018). The annual dialogue provides a platform for the best and brightest, from both countries, to meet, engage, and harness the vision of youth to collaborate and build enduring partnerships between India and Australia.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

Link

Darshanie Ratnawalli, in Daily Mirror, 11 January 2017 the title runs  “The poor little handicrafts of Laksala”

Alias, an Assistant Merchandising Director, tells me that Laksala is changing. Not for the better. If we are to talk in analogies for the benefit of tourists, he is claiming a slide down the scale from a Tiffany’s to a K-Mart. “I went to the Thummulla outlet today. They are going to shift the exclusive Batik collection to a less prominent place and put some t-shirts in the vacant place,” Alias told me in November.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

January 14, 2018 · 5:40 pm
January 14, 2018 · 5:12 pm

Indo-Lanka Projects and Mangala’s Visit to new Delhi

Editor, News-in-Asia, 14 January 2017, where the title is Lankan Minister discusses implementation of Indian projects in meetings at New Delhi

Lankan Minister discusses implementation of Indian projects in meetings at New Delhi

New Delhi, January 14 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera on Saturday called on the Minister of External Affairs of India, Sushma Swaraj at the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan in New Delhi, and discussed issues relating to development cooperation between the two countries. Samaraweera also called on the Indian Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley and reviewed the present status of Indian aided projects in Sri Lanka. India would like Sri Lanka to speed up the implementation of the many projects which had been approved by the two sides.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under centre-periphery relations, foreign policy, governance, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, world events & processes

January 14, 2018 · 5:37 am

Revisiting the Story of the IDP Camps, 2009 et seq: ONE

Michael Roberts

As with Eelam War IV the Western media juggernaut, primed and fed by the extensive LTTE networks abroad, mounted an effective disinformation campaign on this topic. One illustration was when Jeremy Page of the BBC reported in June 2009 that 1400 persons were dying per week in the Manik Farm camps.

Coping with the influx of internal Tamil IDPS from late 2008 onwards was in fact a huge administrative and humanitarian problem with security implications. The task was faced by the Government of Sri Lanka and a collection of INGOS and NGOs with the support of monetary aid provided by the Western governments and UN agencies and with a Coordinating Committee chaired by Mahinda Samarasinghe keeping an eye on proceedings.

Annet Royce (standing) and Sewalanak Cooking team at Omanthai transit camp in mid-May 2009 preparing food packets for IDPS bussed in from war front on way to Manik Farm Camps Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, australian media, charitable outreach, communal relations, disaster relief team, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, voluntary workers, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes

January 12, 2018 · 12:05 pm

Rising! Rising! In Sydney. Vertical Families

Colin Lee, in The Indian Sun, 11 January 2018, with the title “The rise of the vertical families

A report by demography company McCrindle predicts that detached dwellings will be in the minority by 2024, citing trends over the past 25 years that show the share of detached homes in the major cities having fallen from 68% to 55%. Sydney’s once traditional standalone homes with a backyard will be outnumbered by apartments, townhouses and terrace houses within seven years—terrace /townhouses at 17%; detached houses at 34%, and apartments at 49%.

 Data shows that Sydney has a bigger proportion of apartments, terrace houses and townhouses than any other Australian state capital

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under architects & architecture, Australian culture, australian media, economic processes, modernity & modernization, self-reflexivity, world events & processes

January 11, 2018 · 6:39 pm

Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds in Colombo

Island Report, 11 January 2018

Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade opened a two day Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in Colombo yesterday under the patronage of the Prime Minister.

The Roundtable was an initiative by the minister following his visit to the Global Investment Forum in Dubai during November 2017 and is jointly hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Board of Investment. He met several of these Funds in Dubai and they were enthused by the potential of Sri Lanka as an investment destination. The fact that so many SWFs accepted the invitation to participate in the Roundtable at short notice was a validation of our nation’s value proposition and its increasing attractiveness due to the current economic policies under adoption, a press release said. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, performance, sri lankan society, world events & processes