February 26, 2016 · 2:23 am

The Peter Carter behind the Roger Federer

carter 11- Carter & young Federer —Pic www.menstennisforums.com

Every year, at the Australian Tennis Open, behind Roger Federer’s coach (earlier Edberg and now Ljubicic), sits an elderly couple. There is a story to this couple, and it shows what a human being Federer is. The couple, as Federer’s die-hard fans would know, are Bob and Diana Carter, the parents of the tennis great’s first international coach, the Australian Peter Carter. Federer was just nine when Carter took him under his wing. In 2002, in a terrible tragedy, Carter died in a car accident in South Africa during a vacation with his wife. Continue reading →

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February 25, 2016 · 8:40 am

Wayside Shelters for Travellers in Sihaladipa in Past Times

Keith Bennett

Several centuries ago, only footpaths connected Sri Lanka’s villages, so there was a need for wayside shelters where wayfarers could rest on long journeys. The solution was a classic example of indigenous architecture: the ambalama.

aa=waldemar “The last Rest-house [ambalama] on the way to Adam’s Peak” by Prince Waldemar from Early Prints of Ceylon (De Silva 1985)

 In the days when travel by foot was the custom (unless you were privileged enough to be transported in the box-like palanquin), different types of people frequented the paths that traversed the plains, pierced the jungle and climbed into the mountains. There were people going to and from the capital of Kandy; officials on tour accompanied by an entourage; king’s messengers; traders of various descriptions; mendicants; and pilgrims, mainly travelling to Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak). Men and women were able to walk long distances but required a wayside shelter to rest, eat, wash in a local stream, and possibly stay overnight. Thus the mellifluous-sounding ambalama evolved and became a classic of Sri Lanka’s architecture alongside, for example, the pirivena (monastic college) and the padhanaghara (meditation unit).

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February 24, 2016 · 1:56 pm

DBS Jeyaraj’s Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Political History

DBS Jeyaraj, courtesy of his Facebook posting, 4 February 2016, where the title is “68 Years of Independence, Nation Building and the Future of Tamils in Sri Lanka”

DBSSri Lanka will celebrate its Sixty-eighth Anniversary of Independence from the United Kingdom this Thursday. The country then known as Ceylon obtained full freedom from the British on February 4th 1948.Independent Ceylon/Sri Lanka / has faced many challenges and problems in the past 68 years. We have had military coup attempts, communal riots, pogroms, armed revolts, external military intervention, assassinations of heads of state, terrorist violence and above all a long secessionist war that threatened to tear apart the country. What Sri Lanka can be proud of as Asia’s oldest democracy is the fact that despite many formidable challenges and crises the country continues to be democratic. Flawed but Democratic! On January 8th last year the Sri Lankan people did the nation proud by voting out the incumbent executive president and bringing about effective regime change through the ballot amidst extremely difficult circumstances Continue reading →

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February 24, 2016 · 5:03 am

Soulbury to Suntha on Sinhala Stupidity in April 1964

With thanks to COLOMBO TELEGRAPH, May 2013 … yes 2013, https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sinhala-stupidity-i-feel-sorry-for-the-tamil-community/ … note lively body of blog comments in that site

soulbury Lord Soulbury BANDA ++ Bandaranaike, Soulbury & Dudley Senanayake in earnest conversation —Pic from www.flickr.com

Dear Mr. Suntharalingham,
I have read the dozen documents in the folder which I now return to you – with much interest and also much sorrow. During my tenure of the office as Governor-General of Ceylon I never expected that there would be such a bitter cleavage between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities – and you are quite right when you say that the cause must be laid at the door of Sir John Kotalawala and his government. But if he chastised the Tamils with the whips, the late Mr. Bandaranaike chastised them with scorpions. The Sinhalese behaviour to the Tamils has been excessively short-sighted and foolish. When as Chairman of the Commission on the reform of the Constitution of Ceylon in 1945 I studied the relations of the two communities. I was much impressed by the important contribution  that the Tamils had made and were making to the economy of Ceylon – and I was aware that the Ceylon Tamils were better educated and more industrious than the Sinhalese – in many ways they were playing the part of the Scots had played and still play in the economy of England. In fact during 18th and part of 19th century – the English were rather jealous of the Scots – who were getting a greater share of the jobs going in England than their population warranted. The reason, I Think, was that the Scots were better educated and more industrious – Northern folk often work harder than Southerners; the climate and soil compel them to do so. But the English were never so stupid as to antagonise the Scots.  Had they behaved like Sinhalese to the Tamils, Britain would never have achieved a tittle of her prosperity at home or overseas in the Empire.

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February 24, 2016 · 4:32 am

Ven. Madulwawe Sobitha honoured by Pinkama at Berlin Vihara

A PINKAMA A News Item 20 February 2016

A Pinkama was held at the Berlin Buddhist Vihara (Das Buddhistische Haus) on Sunday February 14, to bestow merit and gratefully remember the altruistic and undying services rendered to the Buddha Sasana by Ven. Madulwawe Sobitha Thera, Dr. Paul Dahlke (founder of Das Buddhistische Haus), Asoka Weeraratna (later Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thera), founder of the German Dharmaduta Society,  Berlin Vihara and Mitirigala Nissarana and all other former resident monks at the Berlin Vihara  who  are no longer among the living. Continue reading →

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February 24, 2016 · 3:45 am

The Diamond Triangle of Ancient Buddhist Sites in Odisha, India

 Tina Edward Gunawardhana … courtesy of http://www.life.lk/article/14905/The-Diamond-Triangle

While several Buddhists know about Nalanda as an ancient seat of higher learning and Bodhgaya as a Buddhist site where Lord Buddha is said to have to have attained enlightenment, very few know about the Buddhist sites of Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udayagiri in the Jajpur district of Odisha.  The East Indian state of Odisha formerly known as Orissa plays host to a high concentration of Buddhist sites. Excavations which began relatively recently have unearthed more than 200 Buddhist sites scattered across the state. Odisha’s “Diamond Triangle” containing the Buddhist sites of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitagiri show the prominence of Buddhism in Odisha from the 6th century BC to at least the 15th-16th century AD. It is believed that Buddhist teachings from Hanayana, Mahayana and Tantayana sects and its offshoots such as Vajrayana, Kalacakrayana and Sahajayana were conducted in Odisha making it a state rich in Buddhist heritage. Continue reading →

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February 24, 2016 · 3:35 am

A Marvellous Medical Breakthrough: A 3D Printed Vertebrae inserted in Australia

Conor Duffy,  courtesy of ABC News, 22 February 2016, with title “Australian surgeon inserts 3D-printed vertebrae in world-first”

X-ray shows Drage Josevski's top two vertebrae
PHOTO Drage Josevski’s top two vertebrae have been successfully replaced by a 3D-printed body part.

An Australian neurosurgeon has completed a world-first marathon surgery removing cancer-riddled vertebrae and successfully replacing them with a 3D-printed body part. Ralph Mobbs conducted the mammoth 15-hour operation in December and 7.30 has been tracking his patient Drage Josevski’s progress since then. At the time of the operation it was not known if Mr Josevski would survive the procedure.

 

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February 23, 2016 · 1:45 pm

A Tour de Force by Tamara Kunanayakam in Reviewing THE RAJAPAKSA YEARS

Tamara Kunanayakam, reviewing Triumph and Disaster: the Rajapaksa Years. Part I. Success in War: My time at the Peace Secretariat, 2007-2009 ... Book by Rajiva Wijesinha[1] ……………On the occasion of the Launch, 18 February 2015 … also presented in The Island, 22 & 23 February 2016. I have taken the liberty of highlighting particular passages in colour so as to guide readers, but, of course, I anticipate that readers will use their own judgements in evaluating the arguments in this important essay. Michael Roberts 

Rajiva’s latest book Triumph and Disaster: the Rajapaksa Years is a remarkable documentary of the first Rajapaksa years that constituted a turning point in Sri Lanka’s recent history. The book celebrates the victory over LTTE terror, which had determined almost every aspect of our lives for a quarter of a century.

17876-trivmph and-rajive-D-1-8It provides exceptional insight into the work of a State institution that played a central role, even as it had to adapt to changing circumstances when the LTTE forced a radical shift from talks across the negotiating table to a brutal war in which it transformed civilians into cannon fodder. It is a profound personal account of the events as they unfolded between June 2007, when Rajiva was appointed Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, and the end of the war in May 2009. In June 2008, he was also appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, and his account, therefore, also includes insights gained while he was there. Apart from providing fascinating reading, painting as it does a vivid image of the characters and events, the duplicity and the intrigues, substantiated by a wealth of documentation, I found in his book pieces of the puzzle that were missing in my own analysis, from my Geneva vantage point.   Continue reading →

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February 23, 2016 · 2:07 am

Achtung! Achtung! The Drones are coming!

Vegas Tenold, 18 February 2018 courtesy of http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-untold-casualties-of-the-drone-war-20160218?page=2 where the title is “The Untold Casualties of the Drone War”

Early one evening in November, Brandon Bryant, a former Air Force officer and perhaps the world’s most famous drone program whistleblower, sits on the sofa in a Manhattan hotel suite, writing a letter to President Obama. A grey hoodie is pulled over his baseball cap, the sleeves half-covering a red dragon and Nordic tribal tattoos on his arms and hands. For three years, he’s spoken critically about his time flying drone missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — where he helped kill 1,626 people, according to his own performance review — but now he can’t seem to find the right words. Between sips of water and occasional requests for feedback, Bryant furiously crosses out lines in the notebook he typically uses to write poetry. “I don’t want it to sound too formal,” he says. “It needs to read like it’s coming from us and not from our lawyers.”

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February 21, 2016 · 2:21 pm

Google’s ‘Loon’ Balloon is over Sri Lanka

AFP and Daily Mail, Australia, 17 February 2016, where the title is “Google’s ‘Project Loon’ takes off: Giant internet-beaming balloons begin first tests with cellphone firm in Sri Lanka”

Google’s balloon-powered high-speed Internet service known as ‘Project Loon’ began its first tests in Sri Lanka Monday ahead of a planned joint venture with Colombo, the country’s top IT official said. One of three balloons that will be used in the trials entered Sri Lankan airspace Monday, the Information and Communication Technology Agency chief Muhunthan Canagey said.

LOON Continue reading →

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