A Flourishing Bibliographical Tree: Tamil Migration, Asylum-Seekers and Australia
Alex Kuhendrarajah of Merak notoriety –courtesy of Australian courtesy of aus.com.au Continue reading
Coffee Mills Tokens in British Ceylon in the 19th Century
Srilal Fernando
Shunned by numismatists for many years, collection of coffee mills tokens has received a boost in the last decade. Collection of items used as currency when actual money was not easily available even has a label of its own, Exomania.
To understand the use of coffee mills tokens, it is useful to trace briefly the development of the coffee industry in Ceylon. Though coffee had been grown in Ceylon for many years, it did not become a major export till the latter half of the 1830’s. During the period of the Dutch occupation, coffee grown in the interior was brought to Colombo by traders and exported in very small quantities. In early British times, the import duty in England favoured coffee grown in the West Indies. The abolition of slavery in the West Indies and the refusal of the freed labourers to work on the estates saw a reduction of production there. As a result, coffee prices in London rose. The duty on coffee was reduced and favourable tariffs for West Indian coffee were revoked. Duty was set at six pence per pound. These factors provided the impetus for coffee plantation to open up in Ceylon. With the opening up of the roads to the interior, transport difficulties were overcome. Crown land was sold at five shillings an acre. Officials of the Government took this opportunity to both open up areas for cultivation and engage in land speculation. Continue reading
Dhanapala clarifies 19A and Present Presidential Programmes for the Diplomatic Corps
Jayantha Dhanapala, courtesy Sunday Island, 21 June 2015, –conveying TEXT of Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala’s keynote address at “19 A: Landmark of Democratic Revival” a panel discussion and Q & A for the diplomatic community of Sri Lanka on the 19th Amendment on June 16, 2015, at Jaic Hilton –with the Speech transcript being provided by the President’s Media Division. Dhanapala was accompanied by Savithri Goonesekera and Mohan Munasinghe. he is presently probono adviser to President Maithripala Sirisena. For his credentials and career see www.jayanthadhanapala.com>
Distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies & Gentlemen,
On behalf of His Excellency Maitripala Sirisena and my colleagues in the Presidential Secretariat, I have great pleasure in warmly welcoming you to this afternoon’s briefing on the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. It is just over a month since this important Constitutional amendment was formally certified by the Speaker of our Parliament although it was passed on 28 April. In a 225-member legislature this revolutionary piece of reform was adopted with 212 voting in favor, one against, one abstaining and 10 being absent. We undertake this task out of a conviction that the significance of the amendment should be conveyed to you in the context of the revitalization of democracy in Sri Lanka since the Presidential Election of January 8th this year.
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LTTE still active, warns USA
Robert Blake of the US Dept of N. Sathiyamoorthy *courtesy of Eurasia Review and South Asia Monitor where the title is “US Report On LTTE A Caution For India, Too”
The American acknowledgement and confirmation of the continued existence of LTTE’s global network of sympathisers and finances should be a cause for concern as much for neighbouring India as much for Sri Lanka. In ways, it should also be a source of concern and embarrassment for Western nations, including the US. “The LTTE used its international contacts and the large Tamil diaspora in North America, Europe, and Asia to procure weapons, communications, funding, and other needed supplies,” the 2014 annual report of the US State Department’s Counter-terrorism Bureau said. Whoever rules from Colombo – and administers Jaffna – and whatever the domestic political conditions and electoral compulsions, Sri Lanka cannot be silent after the US has referred to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) procuring weapons.
Chandrika in Lively Q and A with Lakshman Gunasekara
Lakshman Gunasekara in Sunday Observer, 28 June 2015: “I am now an activist for my country …[and] I’m ready to take to the streets [if the need arises]” says CBK
Celebrating her 70th birthday, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga reminisces about the past, and looks ahead to the future with a promise she will take to the streets to push through reforms: At 70 years age, she is still chubby-cheeked and grins mischievously or, scowls expressively as she recalls some politico’s annoying action. Press photographers loved her for her animated face that rendered her photogenic, like her equally famous mother.And it was by no means just photographers. Millions loved her while some either were disillusioned or even hated her – often because she did not live up to their expectations or ambitions or desires. After all, who wouldn’t glamorize her for her meteoric rise to political power and fame? ‘Meteoric’ because, after years in exile during the ‘terror’ of the second JVP insurgency and equally ferocious counter-insurgency, with her husband assassinated, she returned to re-build her mother’s party and successively defeat the government at provincial, parliamentary and, presidential levels. 
At her husband’s funeral Continue reading
Filed under authoritarian regimes, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, JVP, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, working class conditions, world affairs
Ferdinando releases a cat among the pigeons and Mangala’s flights of fancy
Shamindra Ferdinando, in The Island, 23 June 2015, with continuation due on 1 July
After having consulted, either the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), or UN headquarters, in New York, or both, the UN mission, in Colombo, in April, last year, said that the issue of confidentiality of sources/eyewitnesses needed to be considered at a later stage. The Colombo mission was responding to a query by The Island whether the UN would review UNSG Ban ki moon’s Panel of Experts (PoE) recommendation, pertaining to confidentiality of sources/eyewitnesses for a 20-year period, with effect from the date of the release of the report. The recommendation was made in PoE’s report, released on March 31, 2011.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, British imperialism, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, reconciliation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Izeth Hussain meets the Tamil Extremists and the Resurgent Tigers head-on
Izeth Hussain, from The Island, 27 June 2015, where the title is “LTTE and Tamil lunatic fringe anti-Muslim racism” … readers should also visit Colombo Telegraph for a sense of the commentary that IZETH’s essays have attracted.**
This article is really an addendum to my three-part article on Tamil lunatic fringe anti-Muslim racism in the Island of April 28, May 2 and May 9. I feel impelled to write this article because the political context has changed radically since I wrote the last one. At that time the LTTE was seen by me and practically everyone else as the rump LTTE, just a vestigial presence without much bite and vigour to it. We were mistaken. It has become clear that for quite some time there has been a resurgent LTTE without the limiting epithet of rump, an LTTE with plenty of bite and vigour to it, though it may not be identical with the pre-2009 LTTE. Consequently I now have to reassess Tamil lunatic fringe anti-Muslim racism taking count of the LTTE.
Negotiating Ethnic Diversity in Lanka: Neville & Jeevan deploy Comparative Perspectives
I. Neville Laduwahetty: “Managing Multi-Culturalism in Sri Lanka,” from Island, 23 June 2015
Very few countries can claim to be homogeneous. Most countries are made up of diverse communities often based on factors of birth, such as race, ethnicity, religion, language and caste or a combination of any of them. Consequently, state formations are made up of a multiplicity of cultural communities. The net result is that groups within states, whether majorities or minorities, see themselves as “us” and “them”, and “we” vs. the “other”. The inability to manage the demands and aspirations of cultural communities within states has become the primary cause for conflicts in the world. This has led most countries to explore strategies to ‘manage’ multiple cultural communities within their states in order to develop inclusive and stable societies.
Stable democracies, particularly in the West had managed to evolve inclusive and stable societal states until the arrival of immigrants from various parts of the world to meet labour shortages in these countries following the conclusion of World War II. Newly independent countries too that had been stable prior to and during colonization were affected by issues of multiculturalism and its problems. Faced with the common problem of dealing with cultural diversity, many countries began to label themselves as multicultural states, going to the extent of calling themselves multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious etc. Continue reading
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Sri Lanka balances Military Relations with China and USA
Shamindra Ferdinando, in The Island, 24 June 2015, where the title is “SL in simultaneous joint exercises with US SEALs and Chinese Army”
The Sri Lankan military is taking part in joint exercises with both US and Chinese armed forces, simultaneously. Authoritative military sources told The Island that the US had resumed joint naval exercises with the navy after a lapse of several years. The US suspended exercises during the previous administration. The US included Sri Lanka in a project called Extended Relations Programme (ERP) during then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s administration.
The exercise involving the elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and Fast Attack Craft (FAC) flotilla got underway on June 19 in the seas off Trincomalee. The FAC flotilla comprises primarily of Israeli-built craft as well as some acquired from the US. Navy headquarters confirmed the resumption of US-SL cooperation. The exercise will continue till July 2. The US Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Forces – commonly known as SEALs – are taking part in the exercise. The elite SEALS are experts in direct action warfare, special reconnaissance and counter terrorism. It was a SEAL team that took out elusive Al Qaeda Leader Osama Bin Laden hiding in a safe house at Abbottabad, Pakistan a few years ago. Continue reading
