March 13, 2015 · 8:12 am

Sangakkara in Superlatives: Beyond the Boundary

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 13 March 2015 – where there may be blog comments eventually: see https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/superlatives-for-sangakkara/

Kumar Sangakkara has rightfully received measured accolades as well as superlative praise from many a quarter for his unprecedented batting mastery marked through four World cup centuries in a row. Perhaps the most meaningful comments came during the early part of his innings at Bellerive Oval, Hobart when Mark Nicholas and Tom Moody referred to (1) his meticulous preparation and batting practice at the nets, (2) his Colin Cowdrey lecture and (3) his library of books and (4) an abiding interest in cultural artefacts which leads him to visit antique stores and bookshops in every which place.

This breadth of vision and acumen makes his sporadic, but not infrequent errors[1] in calling for runs all the more stark and unusual: not only because these errors signal a failure in assessment , but also because each error can make a difference between victory and defeat for his side.[2] Continue reading →

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March 13, 2015 · 1:55 am

Photographs of Ceylon and the American Circus: The Oriental India Poster

Benita Stambler, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA, benita.stambler@ringling.org

ORIENTAL INDIAOriental India, 1896, Strobridge Lithographing Company, Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Ringling Museum, Tibbals Collection, ht2004820.

My research on the photographs of Sri Lanka has taken an interesting turn lately that has provided new information about the American circus. For the last several years I have been trying to learn about the photographic record of Ceylon in the late nineteenth century. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, where I work has, besides a growing collection of Asian art and its famous European Baroque art, a fabulous collection of posters, photographs and ephemera on the circus, important to the museum because of the Ringling family’s connection with the American circus. Continue reading →

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March 12, 2015 · 10:35 am

Channel 4 and Jonathan Miller on “This Septic Isle” as he reports Sirisena’s Meeting with Cameron

See “Sri Lanka and Sirisena: is the country really changing?” …  Channel 4 News – YouTube anchored by Jonathan Miller ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOczh1ZV1c&app=desktop

” A black car convoy swept into Downing Street at 3.15 sharp. On board a new face …. ”

MS and DC Pic from www.zimbio.com Continue reading →

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March 12, 2015 · 12:29 am

Sunil Santha: A Search for Sinhala Music

Tony Donaldson

From 1946 to the end of his life in 1981, the composer Sunil Santha pioneered a modern Sinhala song style and form which the film director, actor, and scriptwriter Tissa Abeysekera describes as ‘the most atavistic of all art forms’ in Sri Lanka. To commemorate the centenary of Sunil Santha’s 100th birth anniversary in April 2015, this article examines his search for a music language and defines some fundamental characteristics of his music. Readers should note that the version posted earlier on the 23rd February 2015 was an initial draft (generated by a computer quirk) which is now superseded by this version — so copies of the former should be replaced.  The initial print version can be found in The Ceylankan 2015.

In an essay published in 1906 in the Journal of the Ceylon University Association, the art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy made a plea for the teaching of Indian music in Ceylon. Along with his contemporaries, he complained that Western music was invading indigenous music and based on the assumption that Sinhala music did not exist, he attempted to segregate Western from indigenous music by arguing that the best method for reviving indigenous music was through Indian music. In his view, the notion that Sinhala music could be independent of India was unthinkable and impossible. But what was thought impossible in 1906 was made possible forty years later, when the composer and recording artist Sunil Santha began to search for a music language independent of Indian music for his songs. Continue reading →

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March 11, 2015 · 2:38 pm

Gota grounded because of Avant Garde Weaponry & Circuit of Rumours

Amanda Hodge in The Australian, 11 March 2015, where the title reads “Sri Lanka grounds ex-president’s brother over impounded arsenal”

SRI Lanka’s once-powerful defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been grounded and his passport seized while police investigate a floating armoury of 3000 weapons linked to the former president’s brother. The boatload of weapons, ­including machineguns, was registered to the Avant-Garde Security Service, a company that entered into a joint venture with the Defence Ministry in 2011 to provide private security to merchant ships. The passports of three others, including two retired high-ranking military officers, have also been seized.

AMANDA HODGE ““Sri Lankan asylum-seekers moored at Indonesia’s Merak port in October 2009 after they were stopped by local authorities on their way to Australia” — Source: News Corp Australia ++ see COMMENT BELOW

The arsenal was impounded soon after Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in January 8 presidential polls by former health minister Maithripala Sirisena and a coalition of about 40 parties. Continue reading →

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March 8, 2015 · 12:56 pm

Reshaping Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy after Mahinda’s Fall

Rajan Philips, courtesy of The Island, 8 March 2015, where the title is “The fall of Mahinda and the remaking of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy”

The more egregious of the blunders of the Rajapaksa regime were in the area of foreign policy. Without doubt Sri Lanka’s global reputation suffered badly under the former president. It might be an exaggeration to say that Sri Lanka’s stock has started rising after the fall of Mahinda Rajapakksa, but it is fair to say that after the change in government the slide in reputation has been stemmed and the trend is being reversed. To wit, the six-month deferral of the UNHRC report that was due this month, the speeches by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State at the 28th UNHRC Sessions now underway in Geneva, and the statement in Colombo by the UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs following his recent visit to the island and the Northern Province. These developments are a sea change from the foreign policy confusions, tantrums and setbacks that Sri Lanka suffered under Mahinda Rajapaksa every year, during the UNHRC sessions in Geneva, over the last three years. It is not difficult to imagine the diplomatic meltdown Sri Lanka would be having in Geneva at this very present time, if Rajapaksa had won the January 8 election and the UNHRC report on Sri Lanka was also released in March as originally scheduled. Continue reading →

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March 8, 2015 · 1:55 am

A Patchy Tale says an Aussie Reporter reviewing the New Sri Lankan Government’s Performance

Amanda Hodge, in The Weekend Australian, 7/8 March 2015, where the title runs “Sri Lanka’s uneven road to reconciliation and harmony”

ONLY the hardiest soul could sleep through the train ride from Jaffna to Colombo — a curiously bone-jarring new track connecting the once divided north and south of Sri Lanka. Yet the Intercity Express is full of slumbering passengers, lightly snoring their way past Kilinochchi fields once littered with the bodies of warring Sri Lankans, and houses whose roofs still bear the Red Cross signs their residents hoped would protect them from shelling in the last infernal months of the civil war.

 

A3--RANIL - Graham Couch Ranil Wickramsainghe of the UNP, Prime Minister  now and one of the kingmakers, cast n this presentation in lily-white background —Pic by Graham Couch

Sri Lankans are sleeping easier than they have in years since a coalition of political parties with little in common beyond a unifying distaste for the country’s former ruling Rajapaksa family convinced the health minister to challenge for the presidency. Continue reading →

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March 6, 2015 · 4:47 am

General Daya Rathnayake in Forthright Q and A with Hafeel Farisz

HAFEELHafeel Farisz in Daily Mirror, 4 March 2015, where the title is: “The Army was never politicized.”

General Daya Rathnayake, the former Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, is the most decorated military officer in the history of the security forces, speaks to the Daily mirror on a wide range of topics in a candid, no holds barred interview.

Q — As the former Commander of the Army whose career within the military spanned three decades, what does it feel like to have finally hung your boots? I feel very happy and content. To have joined the army as an officer cadet 36 years ago and to have risen up the ranks to the position of Army Commander is an achievement in itself. The experience and exposure I gained during the years as a soldier and an officer only make me proud. When you leave the Army, there is of course a sense of nostalgia that takes over, it is only natural that you feel that, and I’m sure that I will get over that. Today, I am a very proud man who has realized self- actualization.
DAYA RATH 22 Continue reading →

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March 6, 2015 · 4:27 am

The Ceylonese Origins of Sri Lankan Cricket

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Himal Southasian where it appeared in Vol. 20, No. 7 in 2007

Modernity took firm root in Ceylon under the imperial aegis of Britain. British rule ushered a considerable transformation in the political economy of the island, a revolution in the communication system, the administrative unification of the country and the emergence of new (capitalist) class forces. English became the administrative language, leading to the development of an indigenous socio-political elite – referred to locally as the “middle class” – whose mode of domination included a facility in both the English language and lifestyle.

palm frond cricket 22 … Pic from John Ferguson, Ceylon in 1903, between pp. 132 & 133 

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March 5, 2015 · 1:08 pm

Nanda Godage castigates the Abuse of Diplomatic Passports in Recent Past

K. Godage, courtesy of the Daily News, … http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/scandalous-abuse-diplomatic-passports

There has been a shocking and absolutely scandalous abuse of this privilege by the last government, surely persons such as then Secretary to the President at least should have known better; or was it that even he merely carried out orders; whatever it be they have brought down our image and no wonder that we have been referred to as a ‘Banana Republic’. The Karuna Amman case cited in an article in a Sunday Paper by a respected senior journalist is quite unbelievable. There is said to be one thousand eight hundred and forty five (1,845) Diplomatic Passport holders in the country today; it has been stated in Parliament that no less than two thousand eight hundred and seventy two (2,872) Dip Passports had been issued in the past ten years!!

PASSPORTS

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