SEE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls
Choice of Death or Degradation for Afghan Refugees in Pakistan
AFP Item in DAWN, 10 February 2018, where the title runs “For refugees, it’s a choice between death in Afghanistan or bitter life in Pakistan
Death awaits you in Afghanistan, says refugee Mohammad Wali, insisting he prefers to endure a grim existence in a Pakistani camp than return home and be killed. Islamabad has increasingly put Afghan refugees in the crosshairs in recent weeks, saying that militants hide in Pakistani camps and calling for refugees to be repatriated as part of a campaign to eliminate extremism.
Filed under accountability, Afghanistan, asylum-seekers, atrocities, charitable outreach, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, immigration, Indian Ocean politics, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, refugees, self-reflexivity, travelogue, world events & processes, zealotry
Eternal Tigers. Tamil Demonstration in London on Symbolic Day
க்கிட்டான்டா சிங்களவன் | Sri lanka Independence Day | Tamilar Black Day
Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s first gesture — preceding the throat cutting signal [SO it is said … below]
Sujeeva Nivunhella in London reporting in Sunday Island, 11 February 2018, under title “Brig. Fernando says his action meant to portray ‘LTTE leader was dead’ ,”
In the backdrop of pro-LTTE activists demanding the expulsion of Brig. Priyanka Fernando, Sri Lanka’s Minister Counsellor in London, the veteran army officer defended his action saying it was meant to portray that the LTTE leader was dead, when demonstrators continued to shout “our leader is Prabakaran”.Brigadier Fernando is accused of making a “throat slitting gesture” when pro-LTTE Tamil demonstrators protested during Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day celebrations at the High Commission in London. He was promptly recalled by the Foreign Ministry, but the order was later revoked by the President.
He said that he showed the Lion Flag on his uniform to indicate he is ready to give his life for his motherland. “I made the ‘throat sign’ for the second time to convey the message that everything was now over”.
LTTE sympathizers continue to lobby for the expulsion of the Defence Attache, but the move has seen Sri Lankans domiciled in London and other parts of Europe rallying in support of the military officer.
Meanwhile, two members of the Global Sri Lanka Forum who were waving Lion flags to counter Friday’s protest by LTTE activists, were hospitalized after they came under attack.
Questions have been raised by concerned Sinhala groups on how LTTE supporters were permitted to wave Tamil Eelam flags and display a big cut-out of Prabakaran during the protest when the LTTE remains a proscribed terrorist group in the UK.
The British government turned a blind eye to this brazen violation of the law, they pointed out, while querying whether Britain would allow Al-Qaeda or ISIS sympathizers to protest carrying their terror outfit’s flags and cut-outs of their leaders.
With UK-Sri Lanka relations on an upward trajectory over the past three years, political observers believe the pro-LTTE diaspora is trying to capitalize on the Feb. 4 incident to jeopardize the close rapport between the two countries by calling for the expulsion of Sri Lanka’s Defence Attache.
One observer noted that with the dawn of peace, Tamils can now live anywhere in Sri Lanka. As a result, many Tamils who applied for political asylum are no longer granted visas to remain in the UK.
“That’s why they are trying desperately to cash in on any incident to push their asylum applications to stay in the UK”, he said.
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Filed under cultural transmission, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, LTTE, unusual people, vengeance, zealotry
Our Seventieth Year: Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Independence
Jehan Perera, in Island 5 Feb 2018, where the title is”How to celebrate 71st year of our independence with national unity”
This year’s Independence Day celebration was marked by a strong effort of the government to represent the diversity of the country’s people in the cultural expressions during the official events at Galle Face. In keeping with the new tradition set by the government in 2015, the national anthem was sung in both Sinhala and Tamil. But more than on previous occasions, the traditional dances and other cultural items that were conducted represented all the communities in their diversities. At the level of the people, this cultural expression represented the reality of the capital city, and also other parts, in which there is a strong representation of all the ethnic and religious communities who coexist in friendship and harmony for the most part. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, anton balasingham, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, devolution, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, legal issues, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, propaganda, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Dance, Song, Word and Dress: Melburnian Lankans Celebrate 70th YEAR of Independence
Tony Donaldson, whose preferred title is “A Time of Celebration and Reflection. Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day in Melbourne”
Many Sri Lankans have made the journey to Australia and now call it home and Melbourne continues to be a popular destination with the number of Sri Lankans living in this multicultural city estimated to be approximately 35,000. It is a diverse community and so it was pleasing to see that the emphasis of Sri Lanka’s 70th National Independence Day celebrations held on 4 February 2018 in the Kingston City Hall, Moorabbin, was placed on recognizing the plurality of Sri Lanka as a nation of many ethnic and religious groups. Organized by the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Melbourne, the celebrations were like a gift of treasures but it was also a time to reflect on the postcolonial history of Sri Lanka and its future.
Kandyan dance performed by the Sri Lankan Cultural Ensemble of Australia
At Hambantota: Symbolism and Political Weightage in Flags
A Sunday Times News item, 7 January 2018, entitled “Hambantota: The Story in Flags”
If flags can tell stories, see what these pictures show
Amidst criticism of Chinese domination at Hambantota, these secret pictures obtained by the Sunday Times show a symbolic side of the issue. Till last week (top), there were five flag poles and the Sri Lanka flag pole at the centre stood taller than the rest. But this week, the flag pole flying the Lion flag was cut to the size of the rest (middle) and a Chinese national flag and the Chinese company and SLPA flags (bottom) were raised to be on par with the Lankan flag.
Three Clowns at Election Corral! Sri Lankan Politics in a Nutshell
Rajan Philips, in Island, 3 February 2018, where the title runs thus “Lanka at 70: Political circus interrupts the country’s constitutional odyssey”…. with highlighting here being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi
As the country marks the seventieth anniversary of independence, its principal political leaders are out-clowning one another and turning the whole political system into a circus of clowns. There is no other charitable way to describe what the President, the Prime Minister and the former President are doing in a desperate three-way shootout – to either produce the best scorecard or avoid the worst scorecard for their respective parties and alliances in the local government elections next Saturday. The scorecard that will be used for political bragging and the commentaries that will go with it will have two lines: the national tally of votes and the number of local bodies won, with special mention for trophy municipalities – Colombo being the big one.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Colombo’s Wetlands: IWMI”s Concerns and Explorations
Darshanie Ratnawalli, in Sunday Island, 4 February 2018, where the title runs “Understanding Colombo’s wetlands with IWMI
According to historians the very position of Kotte in the middle of a marsh attests to peril. It was to arrest peril emanating from the North that a city was built in the middle of a marsh. For what except the most dire necessity would induce anyone to locate a capital city in a marsh? Given any other choice what self-respecting feudal overlord would opt for a marsh as a location of a capital? Continue reading
Filed under cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, meditations, modernity & modernization, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, world events & processes
Channa Wickremesekera’s Military History on Eelam War One
A Tough Apprentiecship: Sri Lanka’s Military against the Tamil Militants 1979 -1987… by Channa Wickremesekera
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, doctoring evidence, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajiv Gandhi, riots and pogroms, security, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
A Mountain to Die For: Nanga Parbat
AFP Item in DAWN, 1 February 2018, where the title is “Tomasz Mackiewicz: the free spirit in love with ‘killer mountain’ Nanga Parbat”
Polish mountaineer Tomasz Mackiewicz, whom France’s Elisabeth Revol was forced to leave behind weak and bleeding on a Himalayan peak in Pakistan to save her own life, made a name for himself as a free spirit. “We’ve lost one of the most free and independent men out there,” Polish mountaineer Wojciech Kurtyka said.
Revol was facing death on Nanga Parbat, nicknamed “killer mountain”, when Polish elite climbers Adam Bielecki and Denis Urubko scaled part of the 8,125-metre (26,660-foot) mountain in darkness last month to rescue her. But they were unable to save Mackiewicz.
