October 5, 2015 · 12:39 pm

Ordinary Perera, Nadarajah and Bandara: Hands, Feet and Donations across the Length and Breadth of Sri Lanka

I = SEE & Listen to https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XGaos9NO5jE&sns=tw

TRAILS WALKHow A Walk Healed A Nation | Nathan Sivagananathan & Sarinda Unamboowe | TEDxColombo….TEDx Talks……2,912,917……14,688

Published on Sep 21, 2015

Sarinda and Nathan relate their story of how a drunken promise can create social cohesion between the two ends of Sri Lanka. The war drove communities apart but their project proved that with a cause as big as cancer – miracles can happen and people can come together to drive change.

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October 4, 2015 · 2:23 pm

Enjoy Sri Lanka with Romesh Ranganathan

Romesh Ranganathan, 30 Septmber 2015, courtey of http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/sep/30/asian-provocateur-romesh-ranganathan-in-sri-lanka?CMP=share_btn_tw

Cockney Lanka: Romesh Ranganathan in Asian Provocateur.
Cockney Lanka: Romesh Ranganathan in Asian Provocateur. Photograph: Benjamin Green/BBC/Rumpus Media

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October 4, 2015 · 2:09 pm

A Starry Guide to Ribbon Urban Development in South-Western Lanka

Rohan Gunasekera, 1 October 2015, from http://www.economynext.com/New_urban_agglomeration_emerging_in_southern_Sri_Lanka-3-3136.html, where the title is “New urban agglomeration emerging in southern Sri Lanka”

NIGHT-TIME LIGHTS   Satellite image of night-time lights showing how urbanisation has spread (Source-World Bank)

 ECONOMY NEXT – Sri Lankan cities are more liveable than others in south Asia but it has the fastest urbanisation rate with new agglomerations emerging in southern Galle – Matara in addition to the existing one around Colombo, the World Bank said. “We begin to see in Sri Lanka not only the growth of individual cities but multi-city agglomerations,” said Ede Jorge Ijjasz-Vasquez, senior director of the World Bank.
Cities are being connected with ‘ribbon growth’ along road connections between cities, he told a forum where the World Bank’s new report on urbanisation was launched. There is rapid growth of urbanisation along the periphery of cities like Colombo and other regional cities and their transport arteries.

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October 4, 2015 · 6:48 am

Power Plays: Putin humiliates Obama

Greg Sheridan, in The Weekend Australian, 2/3 October 2015 , where the title is “Vladimir Putin’s muscular military play could prove decisive in ending the Syrian conflict,”

Putin-and-Obama Pic from www.interpretermag.com

There is every chance the Russian intervention will prod Obama into some belated action, in a way that the slaughter of 250,000 innocent Syrian civilians and the exodus of millions of people from Syria, many of them now streaming into Europe, did not.

Australian diplomatic engagement has been led by Bishop, who has performed very well. It is not something affected by the change from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull. Rather, Canberra policy has had continuity and evolution, with Bishop providing important nuance and diplomatic energy. Her long-held position that political talks must involve Iran was cleared with Abbott, as her more recent comments this week on both Iran and Russia were canvassed in conversations with Turnbull and with new Defence Minister Marise Payne. Continue reading →

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October 3, 2015 · 1:57 pm

Sri Lanka’s Balancing Act between the Powers

Dániel Balázs and Patrick Mendis, in Daily News, 2 October 2015, where the title is “Colombo Consensus”

Modi and MS Modi and Sirisena

The new Sri Lankan government is re-balancing its foreign policy, drifting away from China’s orbit toward a more equidistant engagement with India and the United States. With the growing economic importance of the Indian Ocean, the geo-strategically located Sri Lanka is becoming crucial within the strategic trajectory of the key regional power players: the United States, India and China. The island nation has therefore sought to reap the benefits of the great power competition, and the three nations have had to adjust their engagement accordingly. Continue reading →

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October 2, 2015 · 3:37 pm

Refining and Reforming Lanka’s Electoral System: A Fairer Scheme

An “Optimistic Psephologist,” in The Island, 26 September 2015 …… A Mixed Electoral System for Sri Lanka

The results of General Election 2015 by percentage of votes and seats were as follows –

article_image

It would appear that there is a discrepancy in the proportion of votes against seats, particularly between the JVP and the TNA. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2015 · 10:59 am

One-Eyed Zealousness: Extremist Australians For and Against the Tamil Cause in Lanka

Michael Roberts

The 60 year-old Tasmanian lady, Dianah Paramour’s campaign (Fig. 01) against specific activities of personnel in Australia, both Tamil Australian and Anglo-Australian, who have been vigorously advocating the claims of the Tamils and/ the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka is a story of zealousness. Zealotry in its many forms has been one of my major areas of study (see “Understanding Zealotry,” 2006).[1] That is why I have highlighted it by presenting details of a specific public confrontation arising from her intervention (Roberts, “Diannah,” 2015).

DP 2- Fig. 1-–Paramour

Paramour’s intervention on the side of the Sri Lankan state (and implicitly its Sinhalese majority) via the deployment of a Sri Lankan flag at a pro-LTTE gathering can be deemed eccentric and maverick. The handful of Australians who have actively spoken out about events in Sri Lanka have generally been staunch supporters of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority. They have usually been of liberal, radical and/or Left persuasion. These few have also been well-credentialed members of the professions and included university academics, legal advocates and journalists – some of considerable eminence. John Dodd, Jake Lynch,[2] Geoffrey Robertson, Gordon Weiss, Sarah Hanson, Senator Lee Rhiannon, Antony Loewenstein,[3] Bruce Haigh,[4] Christine Milne, Damien Kingsbury, Trevor Grant and Tim Goodman are among those who have revealed zealousness in their advocacy of the plight of the Sri Lanka Tamils. Continue reading →

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September 27, 2015 · 3:03 pm

The Shortcomings of Zeid’s OHCHR Report

Neville Ladduwahetty, whose chosen title in The Island is different: “An analysis of OHCHR report on Sri Lanka”

Scales of justiceIn 2014 the UN Human Rights Council by resolution A/HRC/25/L.1/Rev.1 authorized the High Commissioner for Human Rights “To undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka during the period covered by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and to establish the facts and circumstances of such alleged violations and of the crimes perpetrated with a view to avoiding impunity and ensuring accountability…” (Clause 10b of Resolution). In pursuance of this resolution, a Report titled “OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka” was made public. The following analysis relates to this report. Continue reading →

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September 25, 2015 · 3:11 pm

A System Change and Trojan Horse accepted by Ranil-Sirisena Combo, says Tamara Kunanayakam

Tamara Kunanayakam, whose preferred title is “What the Ranil – Sirisena Government will not tell you!US draft resolution : a ‘system change’,”

 A US-sponsored draft resolution against Sri Lanka is back on the Human Rights Council agenda, this time with a vengeance and despite the Ranil – Sirisena government’s conciliatory and obsequious pro-Washington, pro-Western stance! There is no more Mahinda Rajapaksa to blame, no more pro-Beijing foreign policy, no more Non-Alignment, no more ‘megaphone diplomacy’ or ‘megaphone diplomats’, no more corruption. History dawned in Sri Lanka only on 8 January, before that, there was only darkness, violence and obscurantism. Today, enlightened leaders have flooded the land with newness, goodness, transparency, and unity, along with privileged relations with a much-maligned West.

tamara 11 So, what went wrong? A generous response would be our new, enlightened leaders read all the signs wrong. An accurate response would be they have something to gain from subservience to Washington’s interests. Continue reading →

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September 21, 2015 · 11:45 am

Killing with Clean Hands in the War on ISIS?

Brendan Nicholson, courtesy of The Australian, 18 September 2015, where the title is “Mortality meets Morality.  Bomb accuracy is undermined when terrorists hide amid civilians”

Kilometres above the ancient landscapes of Iraq and Syria, RAAF fighter-bomber crews are linked to surveillance equipment so sophisticated they can tell if someone below is likely to be adult or child, male or female, or a member of Islamic State. That’s why almost all of the nearly 1000 bombs they’ve dropped so far have hit their targets precisely. It’s also why the US-led ­coalition’s aircrews bring their bombs home on about 75 per cent of missions — as Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets did after their first sortie over Syria.

ISIS arena

The RAAF carried out its first “effective” airstrike against Islamic State in Syria several days after it was cleared to operate there, on Monday destroying an armoured personnel carrier near Al-Hasakah in the country’s northeast. Australian crews spotted the armoured vehicle in a compound. They passed the information back to the coalition’s Combined Air Operations Centre via the RAAF’s Wedgetail command and control aircraft, which was part of the mission along with a RAAF air-to-air refueller. Continue reading →

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