On the 31st of July, this beautiful time-lapse rise of the Full Blue Moon was captured 2 ½ miles away from Cape Byron Lighthouse, on Belongil Beach, Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. The head land and lighthouse at Byron Bay is the most easterly point of the Australian Mainland and therefor is the first place in Australia to watch the full moon rise. This video is made up of 1038 frames and slowed down to as close to real time as possible. The photographer has been working on perfecting this type of time lapse for over a year now after seeing the work of his favorite photographer Mark Gee.
Don’t forget to breathe watching this majestic time-lapse; everything about it is just perfect, and it’s a photography clinic for anyone interested in taking time-lapse. See this stunning moonrise and appreciate just how beautiful God’s work can be.
► Probably The Most Beautiful Moonrise Time-Lapse You’ll Ever See
Once in a Blue Moon over Byron Bay in Australia
Geoffrey Bawa: An Inspirational Icon in the Architectural Field
Carly Minsky, 27 January 2016, where the title is “: The Father of Sri Lankan Architecture”
Geoffrey Bawa–Courtesy of Geoffrey Bawa Trust
In a country that has been colonized by the Dutch and the British, ravaged by civil war and devastated by natural disaster, one man has had the single greatest impact on independent Sri Lanka’s landscape: Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s most prolific and important architect. Carly Minsky explores his life and work. Continue reading
Sri Lanka as Eye-Supplier: Its Story
Ross Velton, BBC news, 1 February 2016, at … where the title is “The country that supplies eyes”
To restore sight to damaged eyes, doctors often need to transplant the cornea – the transparent covering of the iris and the pupil – from a donor’s dead body. There is a worldwide shortage, but one country, Sri Lanka, is doing its best to satisfy demand, without seeking any reward – at least in this life. Bandages cover Paramon Malingam’s right eye. A tear appears in the left one. It is the relief of a very lucky man. “I thought I was going to live the rest of my life with one eye,” he says. Thirteen years ago, Malingam, a shop owner from central Sri Lanka, cut his eye with steel wire. Last year, he injured the same eye with a piece of wood. After both accidents, a new cornea from a donor saved his sight. 
Continue reading
A Denunciation of American Aggression against China
Christopher Black , courtesy of New Eastern Outlook, 7 February 2016, .where the title is “American Aggression against China,” …. http://journal-neo.org/2016/02/07/american-aggression-against-china/… **
On January 30th the United States committed a deliberate act of aggression against China when it sent the guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur within the 12 nautical mile territorial limit of one of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. The islands are claimed historically by China, though Vietnam also has filed claims to the islands under the Law of the Sea Convention. The Americans state that Taiwan also claims the islands but since Taiwan is just a province of China I will ignore that claim here.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, foreign policy, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Crunched In-Between the Sinha-Le Activists and the Self-Righteous International Cabal
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 9 February 2016, where the title is “Near and Explosive Danger. The Sinha-Lē Campaign and Those Crusading Righteous” … and where the Footnotes could not be inserted for technical reasons … and where you will find the usual array of caustic comments**
I recently received (unsolicited) a series of images presenting striking scenes of the Sinha-Lē protests against the denigration of Sri Lanka and the threats (imagined and real) looming over the island from the pressures of the (so-called) “international community.” These demonstrations intertwine with the emergence of a front dedicated to “the defence of the motherland,” namely the mawbima suräkīmu organization, which has its very own web site where an evocative line from a poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller is deployed to back this clarion call: “it does not matter as to what race, creed, color or religion you belong to — it is your bounden duty to protect our Motherland with all the sinews in your body.”
Filed under american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, Buddhism, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, language policies, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, NGOs, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Ramifications of War Crimes Pursuits in Sri Lanka
Ram Manikkalingam, in The Island 9 February 2016, with the title “The politics of punishing war crimes in Sri Lanka”
Two days ago the national anthem was sung in Tamil for the first time at the official celebration of independence day since independence in 1948. Six years ago the government’s own regional director for education in the Tamil north, Markandu Sivalingam, was assassinated by “unidentified”gunmen for disagreeing with President Rajapaksa’s directive to ban the singing of the national anthem in Tamil at official functions.United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid, who is in Sri Lankatoday, must welcome the transformation this signals in Sri Lanka’s politics in just over a year with President Sirisena’s election. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, economic processes, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, law of armed conflict, life stories, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes
OHCHR: An UN Bureaucratic Arm that is USA’s Sword
Tamara Kunanayakam, in The Island, 8 February 2016, where the title is “Sri Lanka, not Sri Lankans, the OHCHR agenda“
It should by now be obvious to any keen observer of events in Geneva and vacillations of Sri Lanka’s ruling class that the ‘human rights’ game being played out has little to do with the Sri Lankan people and everything to do with the island’s strategic location on the Indian Ocean as vital maritime link between a declining West and a rising East, with China at its centre, and strategic observation post, and with Washington’s fundamental commitment to maintaining a unipolar world in which it has no peer competitor. Sri Lankans matter only insofar as they constitute obstacles to that goal, or would-be collaborators, or opportune victims to be used and abused as and when strategy requires. Continue reading
Filed under american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, doctoring evidence, economic processes, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, law of armed conflict, military strategy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, propaganda, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Elmo Jayawardena’s Searing Criticism of Mega-Projects and Political Currents
Capt Elmo Jayawardena
Recently I read in the Sunday Times that four Domestic Airports currently under the Airforce management will be handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL.) This prompted me to write something about airports. The intention is to share what little I know about these matters with my fellow Sri Lankans whose money is what pays for all the decisions that are made, airports and otherwise. Like the time when all roads led to Rome, nowadays all decisions come down from Diyawanna Oya. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, growth pole, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, working class conditions, world events & processes
The Melders One and All … Still Chugging and In Service
The descendants of the Melder family – Randolph Joseph Churchill Melder & Phyllis Dagmar Bulner, celebrated the Golden Jubilee of their arrival in Australia, in December 1965, with a gathering of the clan at Woodlands Park, Essendon, on Sunday, December 6, 2015.
The first two members of the family (the second and third), Tony & Hilton, arrived in Melbourne, Australia on board the SS Orsova, on September 23, 1965. On arrival they lived with a paternal Aunt, Mrs Tera Phillips, at Thornbury. Both Tony & Hilton who were employed by the Ceylon Government Railway, obtained employment with the Victorian Railways.
Taken at Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, mid July 1965, prior to departing for Australia. Back Row: L to R – Tony, Kevin, Patrick, Derrick, Hilton. Middle Row: L to R – Victor, Mum (Phyllis), Gerard (standing), Dad (Rando) and Sharlie. Front Row: L to R – Trudy, Philomena (Phil) and Geralyn. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
New Ceylon Writing to emerge Anew
NEW CEYLON WRITING is a literary magazine that was started in 1970 to provide an outlet for new creative and critical writing/ thinking. During its 15-year existence (1970-1985), NCW published some of the best and most significant creative and critical writing in English to appear in post-Independence Sri Lanka…http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17769261?selectedversion=NBD4066178
Yasmine Gooneratne
Seeking sponsorship from no university, literary group or other institution, the journal was maintained by the interest of those who read it and contributed to it. Donations were not solicited, but they came anyway, and some came in unconventional forms. The quixotic spirit of the enterprise seems to have captured the imagination of many people who did not usually involve themselves in literary matters. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
