November 13, 2014 · 2:39 am

Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne interviewed about his researches

Roshan De Silva Wijeyeratne as AUTHOR OF THE MONTH for ROUTLEDGE

Nation plus ROSHAN DE S-W

1. How did you become interested in teaching Law? (Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne is a Lecturer in Law at the Griffith Law School in Australia)

I planned on practicing law initially via a history degree (my real passion) but in the end I studied for an undergraduate law degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). SOAS provided an environment which quickly set me on another path – that of teaching and research. I took a keen interest in comparative law and soon abandoned the idea of legal practice. I was introduced to anthropology during my Masters at the LSE and this has informed my approach to both thinking about law and teaching law, be it property law or the more esoteric subjects that I teach such as legal history and law and culture. Continue reading →

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November 12, 2014 · 12:33 pm

Explaining the World to the World

Alan Huffman reflects on the Life and Legacy of war photo journalist Tim Hetherington …… First published in Oxford Today, Volume 27 No 1. Reproduced with kind permission of the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford.

In Mohammed al-Zawwam’s memory of that day, there were so many badly injured people around him, crying out for help, bleeding onto the gurneys, that he almost didn’t want to film. Yet he did film. He didn’t stop until his battery died.

A dozen or so wounded people had arrived in the triage tent at al-Hekma hospital in Misrata, Libya, on 20 April 2011, following a mortar attack on the city’s embattled Tripoli Street. Some days had brought more injured to the tent during Misrata’s three- month siege, but 20 April was extraordinary in other ways, as is painfully clear in al-Zawwam’s almost unwatchable video. Continue reading →

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November 10, 2014 · 1:44 pm

Photographs of Colonial Ceylon: A Treasure Trove straddling the Globe

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

As long-time readers of this blog may remember, I came to Sri Lanka in 2013 as part of my research on the photography of Ceylon. Finally, the results of my work are available on the website of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS). In the document that I produced as a result of my work, A Guide to Locating Photographs of Colonial Ceylon, I have tried to locate all the individuals and institutions around the world that have collections and are willing to share them with the public, based on individual considerations. For access to the guide, see: http://www.aisls.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Ceylon-photograph-guide-2014-edition.pdf

Roberts bridge of boats The Bridge of Boats across the Kelani Ganga   Continue reading →

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November 10, 2014 · 1:11 pm

Wigneswaran urges India to secure Internal Self-Determination for the Tamils of Sri Lanka

B. Kollappan, in The Hindu, 10 November 2014, where the title reads: “Reverse militarisation, Wigneswaran urges India”

Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran on Sunday made a fervent appeal to India to prevail upon his country to reverse the ongoing militarisation of the Tamil-majority region and stop what he called harassment and abuse of minorities there. Mr. Wigneswaran, on his first visit since being elected, alleged that militarisation was taking place “not due to any real security threat, but to maintain a stranglehold over the populace; subjugate them and make them compliant; and to stifle any form of democratic or political dissent.”

Wigneswaran-islandCV Wigneswaran

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November 10, 2014 · 12:54 pm

C.V.Wigneswaran’s KG Kannabiran Memorial Lecture at Chennai, 9 November 2009: Extracts

Courtesy of Iqbal … See note ** at end

CV Wigneswaran --AP Justice CV Wigneswaran, Chief Minister Northern Province — Pic from AP

* In Sri Lanka, when the Presidential elections were announced in late 2009, shortly after the Attorney General’s officers waxed eloquent on the perils of releasing the hundreds of thousands of hapless Tamils, nearly 250,000 were suddenly released. Those who were perilous to the entire nation as potential bloodthirsty terrorists were now safe voters! In one of its most cowardly acts, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka is yet to make order on whether leave to proceed should be granted or not in this case even though five years have passed. To give this dastardly act some context, leave to proceed is usually granted or refused by Bench Orders of single sentences and reasons seldom given. To reserve order and not pronounce it for 5 years is an act of unforgiveable cowardice. Continue reading →

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November 9, 2014 · 12:39 pm

Appreciating Tim Hetherington: Q and A with Alan Huffman

Joanna Scutts, in Biographile, 30 April 2013 …. http://www.biographile.com/beyond-the-bang-bang-club-a-qa-with-alan-huffman-author-of-here-i-am-the-story-of-tim-hetherington-war-photographer/17193/

Tim Hetherington, the British-born photographer, filmmaker, and writer who was killed by a mortar blast in Misrata, Libya, in April 2011, had worked in many of the world’s bloodiest and bleakest war zones. Driven by his desire to understand the people involved — especially the young men drawn irresistibly into violence — Hetherington created intimate portraits amid scenes of mayhem from Liberia to Afghanistan. We spoke with his biographer, Alan Huffman, author of Here I Am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, War Photographer, about Hetherington’s life, work, and legacy.

tim-hetherington

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November 9, 2014 · 12:28 pm

Alan Huffman’s “Here I Am. The Story of Tim Hetherington, War Photographer”

Steve Weinberg in http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2013/03/alan_huffmans_here_i_am_the_st.html

Tim Hetherington, the award-winning war photographer who died in Libya in 2011 at the age of 40, understood his profession might lead to an early death. All journalists who decide to carry cameras into war zones for up-close photographs know the risks. Sometimes that understanding can be so emotionally paralyzing, the photographer retreats before it is too late. At the other extreme, some photographers are driven to take risks beyond the norm, believing that if they fail to capture the visual drama of war, nobody else will document the truth.

03bHuffman.jpg

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November 9, 2014 · 7:18 am

Yal Devi is generating more than Smoke

 S. Rubatheesan, in the Sunday Times, 9 November 2014, where the title reads: “Yal Devi runaway success, more trains on track”

Raking in Rs. 10 million since its launch on October 13, the northern-bound Yal Devi has become the highest revenue earner for the Railways Department, which now wants to put on more trains.About 10,000 people are using the train for day-to-day activities, earning the department Rs. 600,000 daily.

Given the increase of passengers travelling to the north, the department has decided to launch a second night mail train as well as local train services between Jaffna and Kilinochchi, said Sri Lanka Railways General Manager V. Amaratunga. “We have decided to start a weekend service from December,” he said. Mr. Amaratunga said people preferred to use the train over other modes of transport because of comfort, affordability and time-saving. The department expects to launch the train services up to Kankesanturai (KKS) by the end of this year.

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November 9, 2014 · 2:40 am

The Sirima Shastri Pact of 1964 in Retrospect Today: An Indian Origin Tamil Viewpoint

PK Balachandran, courtesy of the New Indian Express, where the title reads: “Indo-Lanka pact on Indian Origin Tamils looks good in retrospect”

SS PACT Fifty years after the signing of the controversial India-Sri Lanka Agreement on the citizenship of nearly one million Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) in Sri Lanka, the community is seeing it as a blessing in disguise and not as a tragedy. The pact, signed by Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1964, unjustly apportioned the IOT (mostly ill-paid workers in the island’s tea and rubber plantations) between the two countries without consulting them. Continue reading →

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November 9, 2014 · 1:31 am

A Message for Today and Tomorrow in 2015-and-Thereafter

anti racism 1--Pics by Ravindra Dharmathilake

NOTA BENE: this advice during a poignant moment one July 24th cuts several ways: it must be directed not only at the pukka Sinhalayo, but also at the pukka Tamils, pukka Muslims and the remnant pukka Burghers (if any of the latter still remain in Sri Lanka). Continue reading →

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