The role of the home, the domestic sphere and the intimate, ethno-cultural identities that are cultivated within it, are critical to understanding the polemical constructions of country and city; tradition and modernity; and regionalism and cosmopolitanism. The home is fundamental to ideas of the homeland that give nationalism its imaginative form and its political trajectory.
Filed under cultural transmission, economic processes, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, plural society, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
One of Deloraine Brohier’s most vivid and fearful memories was living in snake infested circuit bungalows- the transit homes for the wandering Brohier family headed by Ceylon’s first Ceylonese Surveyor. “My father, Dr R.L Brohier joined the exclusively British run Survey Department in 1910 and retired in 1949. The youngest in a family of three, I spent my early childhood travelling with my parents to wherever my father was sent. My first memory is Ratnapura when I was about five. Like all the circuit bungalows we lived in, it was beautifully landscaped and overlooking the Kalu Ganga. Unfortunately, it was snake infested”, she recalls, still shuddering at the memory. One encounter in particular stands out, if only because it was so terrifying. ” I was just four, and liked rolling on the carpet. One day, I sat on what looked like a big bump under the carpet. Thinking it was a cushion, I began riding on top of it like an imaginary car. Then, my father noticed the bump moving. After instructing that I be carried away without frightening me, he hit it hard with a club. And a huge snake slithered away!” Continue reading
Where will our space be? SHOUTING AND SCREAMING INTO THE NEXT REVOLUTION WE GO ………………………
In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years – and most people don’t see it coming.
Did you ever think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on paper film again??? Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975. The problem was that the first ones only had 10,000 pixels and it took time to develop more definition in photos. So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and became mainstream in only a few short years thereafter. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Penetrating vital organs of state
ALSO SEE
Chandre Dharmawardana, of Canada
Brixit – a one-night stand in political decision making? Complex political questions cannot be solved using referenda.
The Brixit vote once again demonstrates the well understood but rarely acknowledged fact that referenda do NOT constitute a valid instrument of democracy when it comes to resolving complex questions. Most countries end up deeply divided, as also happened in Canadian French Separatist referenda. There was potential for great anguish and violence, but fortunately this was avoided due to the leadership of French-Canadian politicians like Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretian who firmly backed unity. Their politics should be contrasted with the “state-terror” approach of the 1977-1983 period in Sri Lanka.
Reuter’s Pic from with caption: “Turmoil: Everyone’s talking about ‘Grexit’ – a Greek exit from the eurozone. But what about a ‘Brixit’ from the EU?… … http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2163244/Bring-Brixit-EU-withdrawal-bring-benefits-Britain-US.html
Filed under landscape wondrous, the imaginary and the real, tourism, travelogue
Elmo de Silva, in The Island, June 23, 2016, where the title reads “Sinhala Only Act and its Fallout”
I refer to the article on the above subject appearing in The Sunday Island Newspaper of 5/6/16 by Mr. Rajan Philip (RP). I thought it proper to comment on this subject as he has alluded to the fact that very few would know the consequences of the Sinhala only act (SOA). I am past 80 years of age and I think it is my duty to state my point of view. I was just completing my degree course at the Peradeniya University (1953-1957), when this Act had become law. This Act in my view is and will be the most disastrous piece of legislation ever promulgated in this country, because it ruined the amity between the different peoples in the country. That was accompanied with the unleashing of the forces of indiscipline and lawlessness. It also rekindled the embers of federalism, which was to placate the Tamil community and a betrayal of the Sinhalese. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike (SWRDB) agreed to federalism without a mandate from the electorate.
Federal Freedom Party satyagraha at Galle Face Green
Filed under communal relations, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, life stories, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, world affairs
Rohana R. Wasala, in The Island, 22 & 24 June 2016, with title “A glance at PRCR report in the context of drive for federalism”
The armed struggle for creating a separate state in Sri Lanka was decisively defeated in 2009. But, the separatist ideology is still very much alive and shows signs of flourishing again. According to the US State Department the LTTE fronts active in that country continued their collection of funds for their activities through 2015, though the outfit still remains on its list of banned foreign terrorist organizations, so designated since August 10, 1997. Yet the Americans support the demand by expatriate Tamils, the TNA, and Tamil Nadu politicians that the government ‘demilitarise’ the north. Despite this, the Sri Lankan government lifted its ban on a few of these fronts in September last year. Chief minister Jayalalitha of TN has pledged to make one of her priorities the creation of Eelam in Sri Lanka that the terror leader Prabhakaran envisioned. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, Eelam, historical interpretation, island economy, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, world events & processes
Padraig Colman, in https://pcolman.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/can-it-happen-there-part-two/where the title is “Can It Happen There? Part Two”.
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published his dystopian satire It Can’t Happen Here! The novel imagines a charismatic leader winning the presidency and establishing a Fascist dictatorship in the US. Influential American journalist Josh Marshall wrote of Donald Trump: “His public appearances are like a fugue of impulse and aggression, overlapped with charisma and humour and a searching for the spirit of the crowd, a sometimes frantic, sometimes slow mix of neediness, divination and dominance.”
Evan N. Resnick, Courtesy of Eurasia Review … at http://www.eurasiareview.com/22062016-hillary-clintons-foreign-policy-paradox-analysis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29, where the title runs thus: “Hilary Clinton’s Foreign Policy Dilemmas”
DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, Wikipedia Commons.
Paradoxically, although US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is relying on her extensive foreign policy experience to bolster her electoral appeal, her actual track record as a foreign policy decision maker is worrisome. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama waded into the rough and tumble 2016 US presidential contest by endorsing Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. In his videotaped announcement, Obama declared: “I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.” Continue reading
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, doctoring evidence, economic processes, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, religiosity, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, suicide bombing, Taliban, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
thuppahi
