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.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under economic processes, politIcal discourse, propaganda, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, transport and communications

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 →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, communal relations, constitutional amendments, discrimination, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, working class conditions

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 →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, Bodu Bala Sena, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, meditations, Muslims in Lanka, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people

November 8, 2014 · 1:17 pm

Yaaaaamu Devi to Gampaha?

Train for Gampaha at Maradana Railway Station in ColomboMARADANA to gampaha railwaystrike

Rest easy. This was some time back during a railway strike !

 

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue

November 7, 2014 · 10:43 am

From Journalism to Photo Essays and Blogging

DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai talks about the experience of being a Sri Lankan woman blogger. Check out the latest issue of Options on women bloggers at http://options.womenandmedia.org/

DUSHI K

Read Dushi’s blog at http://passionparade.blogspot.com/

SEE  http://humanityashore.com/ Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under citizen journalism, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, photography, politIcal discourse, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, women in ethnic conflcits

November 7, 2014 · 2:12 am

A Return Visit to Jaffna and Thoughtful Reflections on Rifts and Reconciliation TODAY

Somapala Gunadheera, courtesy of The Island, 4 November 2014, where the title is “On my third return from Jaffna”

My first return from Jaffna was in 1958, when I finished my cadetship in the Kachcheri there. I felt happy to have worked among a friendly and accommodating people, with my 1 ‘Sri’ car unscathed, despite the ongoing anti- ‘Sri’ campaign. Back in Colombo, I walked into a communal riot on the ‘Sinhala Only’ issue. The second return was when I was suddenly recalled in 1998 to save the Southern Development Authority, while I was engaged in rehabilitating the North after ‘Riviresa’. I was the first Chairman of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority of the North. I returned from Jaffna for the third time last week, after a three day tour organized by Travel Eye for senior citizens. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under authoritarian regimes, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, language policies, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, rehabilitation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world affairs

November 5, 2014 · 3:00 pm

Truth Journalism? Marie Colvin hoist on her own Petard

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph where the title is “Marie Colvin as a Mouthpiece of the LTTE” and where you will find all manner of comments. Also note the hyperlnks within this article HERE.in thuppahi.

Having come across Tammita-Delgoda’s 2009 article “Reading between the Lines” for the first time in 2014, I reproduced it in Thuppahi for several reasons. His essay reveals how significant figures in the Western media world participated actively in the highly effective propaganda war sustained by the LTTE networks abroad working in coordination with the Tiger directorate in the Vanni, armed as the Tigers were with modern satellite technology.

Marie C -beaut TAMM ITA 11 Marie-Colvin-1024_285081k-- ST

As Tammita-Delgoda’s news account indicates, Marie Colvin, an intrepid war correspondent who ultimately paid a price of death for her boldness when she was caught in crossfire in Syria in 2012, was one of those partial to the LTTE camp. Eight years earlier, in March-April 2001, she had used her Tamil connections to slip beyond the Government of Sri Lanka’s (GSL) frontlines into the territory of Thamilīlam, the de facto state of the LTTE, and was injured when returning. The details surrounding this incident are highly relevant to our examination of journalistic ethics and are addressed at length below. It is adequate for the moment to note Colvin’s well-known “empathy for the underdog” and her devotion to the plight of civilians in war-torn arenas (DBS Jeyaraj 2012) Continue reading →

27 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, Eelam, Fascism, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, wikileaks, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes

November 5, 2014 · 2:26 am

Brits on Christmas Breaks 2013: short stories in competition

Sri Lanka tops exotic Christmas breaks contest

Telegraph, UK readers share their thoughts on recently published stories (October 11-19, 2014)
The winning entry: SRI LANKA
The fortress at Sigiriya Rock Sigiriya

Sri Lanka: The children woke to the screeches of wild peacocks to find that Father Christmas had filled their hammocks with a few well-travelled gifts – this was a Christmas Day like no other in the Mud House Hotel in central Sri Lanka. On this joy of a break, with neither electricity nor internet, we cycled to the nearby Buddhist temple and went canoeing and swimming at the local lake where fish nibbled our toes. Afterwards we enjoyed a feast overlooking a lily-filled buffalo meadow – and then the activities began: a cricket match against the staff, and lessons in rounding up buffalo by tuk-tuk.

Boxing Day was spent birdwatching at dawn followed by a cookery lesson over open fires learning to prepare the perfect dal and to shred our first coconuts. Our Sri Lanka tour continued with safaris and hiking high up on Sigiriya Rock and it seemed rude not to pop to the Maldives for New Year.

Sally York, from East Sussex, wins a voucher with DialAFlight

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under cultural transmission, landscape wondrous, the imaginary and the real, tourism

November 4, 2014 · 2:18 pm

Marie Colvin’s Encounter with the Sri Lankan Army, 16th April 2001

Marie Colvin

The eye-patch worn by the redoubtable journalist Marie Colvin from late 2001 onwards probably enhanced her presence and impact in the world at large. But it was a heavy price and undoubtedly involved a traumatic journey of recovery from the injuries received from grenade shrapnel fired by a Sri Lankan Army patrol on 16th April 2001.

COLVIN IN vAVUNIYA HOSPITAL -AP+ Govt info dept

“In this Tuesday, April 17, 2001 file photo Sri Lankan army medical staff examine journalist Marie Colvin at a field hospital in Vavuniya (AP Photo/Government Information Department, File)” — Caption in Jeyaraj 2012

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under accountability, Eelam, female empowerment, life stories, LTTE, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world affairs

November 4, 2014 · 10:28 am

The JVP Insurgency in the late 1980s and its Death Toll

Dharman Wickremaratne, in the Daily News, where the title is “JVP uprising II killed 396 undergrads, while 227 students disappeared”… http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/jvp-uprising-ii-killed-396-undergrads-while-227-students-disappeared

JVP-02 DJV Slogans calling for the death of President Jayewardene (“Let’s kill J.R.”) written on walls

The second JVP insurgency began in 1986. Two were killed on May 1, 1987 when the banned May Day was commemorated. The insurrection was baptized near the Bo Tree, Pettah on July 28, 1987. The first to die there was Moratuwa University Engineering student Clifford Perera. The writer saw him lying on the ground with fatal gunshot injuries. The two of us studied in the same school. A brilliant student in the engineering field he was drawn to the JVP by Sudath, a second year student of the Colombo University’s Medical Faculty. I remember in the same group were Hiranya, Asiri, and Godagampola among several others.

Clifford was dying. His last words were: “Motherland or death.” No one dared to rush to the spot because gunfire was heard from all directions. When I appealed to Pathegama Mathupala, the caretaker of the pro-JVP Samastha Lanka Trade Union Federation, he responded promptly. He carried Clifford with the help of another. The next moment a bullet struck Mathupala’s hand. As soon as our photographer Chandrasiri Weerasinghe took a photo of the scene, we left the place. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under authoritarian regimes, education policy, governance, JVP, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, working class conditions