Iconic Chitrasena set against the Iconic Sydney Skyline
Courtesy of http://ccc-canberracriticscircle.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/dancing-for-gods-chitrasena-dance.html
Filed under cultural transmission, performance
A Rave Review of the Chitrasena Performance from the High Priests of Canberra
Bill Stephens, 16 January 2015 for the Canberra Critics Circle, at http://ccc-canberracriticscircle.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/dancing-for-gods-chitrasena-dance.html
It’s been a long time between visits. The Chitrasena Dance Company from Sri Lanka, last performed in Canberra in 1972, headed then by the charismatic founder of the company, Chitrasena and his wife, Vajira. After a week performing at the Sydney Festival the company returned to Canberra for just one performance, this time with Chitrasena’s grand-daughters, choreographer Heshma Wignaraja, and principal dancer, Thaji Dias, at the helm.
Chitrasena Dance Company Drummers
The Chitrasena Dance Company specialise in Kandyan dance, a 2,500 year old ritual-dance tradition which only evolved into a performance art in the 20th Century with the emergence of virtuoso dancer Chitrasena who is credited with bringing the traditional dances from the village rituals to the modern stage. Over the years his children and grand-children have continued his tradition, evolving, adapting and refining the ancient art form to suit the modern stage. Continue reading
Homilies for Lanka’s Immediate Future — Friday Forum
In the Sunday Island, 25 January 2015. with title as ““Friday Forum on Independence Day and other urgent concerns
The Presidential election of January 8, 2015 saw a resurgence of the democratic process in Sri Lanka, driven by an electorate which, in unprecedented numbers, exercised its franchise to choose not merely a President, but the future it wanted for the country, the Friday Forum said in a statement issued last week.
“The election showed us that Sri Lankans in all parts of the country, irrespective of ethnic or religious differences, united in their resolve to restore good governance and the rule of law and to resist authoritarianism. This provides a foundation on which the newly elected administration must build a new framework of democratic governance that promotes inclusivity, diversity and pluralism. While many issues need attention we concentrate for the moment on the following,” it said.
Professor Savithri Goonesekere, nee Ellepola
Independence Day: “We urge that the celebrations be kept simple and dignified without major military and military hardware demonstrating parades, floats, and the use of school children. The occasion should promote new standards of simple and disciplined lifestyles. Most important is to use the opportunity to remember the victims of the civil conflicts which Sri Lanka has endured since independence, to pledge our collective commitment to peace and reconciliation, and to resolve that there should never be such violence in our country again. We call upon the government, as a sign of our commitment to national unity, to ensure that the national anthem is sung in both Sinhala and Tamil, and that this practice be continued. Continue reading
Evaluating the Prospects of Terrorism in Australia in 2015
Clive Williams, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald, 2 January 2015
The good news is that in 2015 Australia will probably be a less dangerous place, with areduced likelihood of us being killed in an act of mass terrorism – but the bad news is that the world outside is a more dangerous place, with a greater likelihood of Australians becoming terrorism victims overseas.
In the recent past, under the medium-level threat, the worst-case concerns in Australia had been multiple-bombings of the kind favoured by al-Qaeda (AQ), or an active shooter attack like the ones conducted in Mumbai in 2008 and by Anders Bering Breivik in Norway in 2011. Continue reading
Reflections on the Outcomes of the Presidential Election
Izeth Hussain, in The Island, 24 January 2015, where the title is “Making Sense of the Presidential Election”
After the Presidential elections which are widely regarded as having been “stunning”, most Sri Lankans are now engaged in trying to appraise their significance. We have to begin by trying to establish why exactly Mahinda Rajapakse lost. In my article “After the elections”, published on January 10 but sent to the Editor well before the election results were announced, I wrote, “If Maithripala Sirisena squeaks through, or wins with a substantial majority as I have been confidently expecting, the prospects will be much brighter for a restoration of a fully functioning democracy”. The underlying reason for my confident expectation was something that has been well-known since people began living under the State, by which I mean among other things a centralized body holding exclusive coercive power. It has been established beyond dispute that power tends to go to the head, an excess of power tends to go excessively to the head, from which follows folly and hubris, the pride that goes before nemesis, the fall. It seemed to me that MR particularly by his participation in the creation of an utterly egregious Muslim ethnic problem showed folly and hubris of an order that had to lead to his nemesis. Continue reading
EPW reviews Lanka’s Economic Situation
Economic and Political Weekly as presented in Daily News, 23 January 2015
While the election victory for President Maithripala Sirisena was due to a unique political moment that united minorities and many in the Sinhala electorate to vote out an authoritarian regime, expectations of major change in economic policy need to be tempered. The momentum gained from overthrowing an authoritarian regime should now be channelled into a radical democratic agenda for social justice through mobilisation and struggle in which the leftist forces in Sri Lanka have to play an important role.
The Collective for Economic Democratisation (ahilan.kadirgamar@gmail.com) is an organisation in Sri Lanka that focuses on historically grounded analysis of political and economic issues.The people of Sri Lanka have stood their ground for democracy, defeating a well-entrenched regime and a seemingly invincible leader. One of the strongest messages emerging from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat in the elections is that change is possible – change that is sparked by the common citizenry through democratic means.
