September 25, 2014 · 12:16 am

Bradman Weerakoon questions Jayaweera’s Account of Language Policy in the 1960s

Bradman Weerakoon Jaffna_fort_entrance NEVILLE 11

 “The Making and Un-Making of History – Neville Jayaweera’s ‘Exorcising the Past and Holding the Vision’. … reviewed by Bradman Weerakoon, in The Sunday Island,  7 September 2014

Neville Jayaweera’s Memoir on his period of service as Government Agent Jaffna between August 1963 and 1966 is as Michael Roberts says in his Foreword a veritable feast of information to be mined. This was a defining phase of our history. It saw the Tamil resentment in the North on account of the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act (1956) grow into a full – blown civil disobedience movement. That spun into the 30 year war we were all caught up in until recently. Neville Jayaweera (NJ) in Jaffna was at the epi – centre of the storm as it developed.

NJ’s detailed recall of incidents of many years ago, assisted by the daily diary he kept, should help fill many of the gaps in the history of those times. Only a few of us are yet around to bear personal witness to what really happened and it makes such memoirs of history as it happened, invaluable. Continue reading →

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September 24, 2014 · 9:26 am

Reviewing Neville Jayaweera’s Account of a Critical Phase in the Sinhala Tamil Conflict

Jaffna- “Exorcising the Past and Holding the Vision” An autobiographical reflection by Neville Jayaweera

I> REVIEW ONE by R. M. B Senanayake, courtesy of The Island,  24th September 2014

We may ask the question what it is that Neville Jayaweera wants to convey to the public and to posterity through his autobiographical reflections? Direct or first-hand experiences of events impart a special depth as opposed to the third hand reports of the same events. Those of us who were Jayaweera’s contemporaries in the CCS in the 1960s, such as I, can confirm that his narration of those experiences in Reflections is generally a correct portrayal of the history of those times. One might not share all of his views, but his work is a sparkling revelation, full of spiritual substance, candour and intellectual depth.

What impressed me most in Neville Jayaweera’s (NJ hereafter) Reflections was his inherent sense of justice and fair play and, as Susil Sirivardena says in his Preface, his granite-hard commitment to conscience and humanistic values, He was influenced entirely by the Buddhist concepts of avijja (ignorance of things as they are) the yatharthaya and maya (illusions) and concludes that “within Buddha’s epistemology there is no room for ethnic divisions, for nationalisms or even for patriotism.” Continue reading →

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September 23, 2014 · 4:01 pm

Absorbing Informative Wild Life Ethnography

SEE https://www.youtube.com/embed/-X-XvNRShd0

Wildest Islands Sri Lanka

Coolshan10

Published on Oct 4, 2013

Preview YouTube video Wildest Islands Sri Lanka

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September 21, 2014 · 10:55 pm

Crossing the Lines: Tamil Escapees from the Last Redoubt meet the Army

SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, an essay written in April 2009 while embedded with the SL Army … with an abbreviated version  published in The Independent in UK on 16th April 2009 under the heading “Casualties of War” … with images added by Editor, Thuppahi. .** 

PART I:

From Paranthan, the road to Vallipuram is rich and green. Great expanses of paddy stretch out before you, clumps of palmyrah dot the land and little streams of water trickle by. As we near the fighting paddy fields give way to broken buildings and blasted vehicles. Twisted trees and uprooted trunks line the way. Everything is covered with a layer of brown dust. An occasional boat lies stranded on either side of the road, reminders of a last desperate attempt by the Tamil Tigers to hold back the tide. Blasting a reservoir in the path of the advancing Sri Lanka army, Tiger cadres counterattacked in boats, riding upon a wall of water. The water however, has receded and the Tigers have retreated.

10-- 103a-out of NKL SRILANKA/  Continue reading →

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September 21, 2014 · 9:12 pm

Marga and CHA provide a Third Narrative of Eelam War IV

Jeevan-e1411036663379Jeevan Thiagarajah in Q and A with BricsPost

On September 14, a delegation of Sri Lankan NGOs submitted to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) a report titled Issues of Truth and Reconciliation: Narrative III – the Last Stages of the War in Sri Lanka. The UNOHCHR, and the Sri Lankan government, have recently began separate probes into alleged human rights abuses committed during the period 2006-2009, one of the bloodiest in Sri Lanka’s 26 year civil war.

The Narrative III report states that there are a number of different accounts of the last phase of the civil war – including documented data from the Sri Lankan military, international NGOs such as Human Rights watch – among others, and eyewitness accounts collected by the Jaffna University Teachers for Human Rights.

Narrative III was published in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, New Delhi, and Geneva and is expected to be taken to New York, DC, Brussels, London and, Pretoria. Continue reading →

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September 21, 2014 · 8:38 pm

Revisiting Eelam War IV

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMichael Roberts

It is a cliché to say that the study of Eelam War IV is a complex topic. But such a truism has to be reiterated over and over again in the face of the propaganda war that has prevailed from the outset in 2006 to this day — given the plethora of half-truths, fabrications and slipshod assessments that have beset the topic.

The literature in print, internet and visual (videos, photographs) media is as enormous as complex. For a single person to master the data is well-nigh impossible. Though I have engaged in this work from early 2009, I find that “new data” enters my compass every week. By “new” I mean material that I was not aware of or have not had time to digest. Continue reading →

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September 19, 2014 · 2:30 pm

Gamini Samarasinghe’s Gentle Warning to the YES Voters in Scotland

alex-salmond-celebrates-the-scottish-election-results-with-nicola-sturgeon-image-2-400303675

An OPEN LETTER to the Scottish National Party from a Non-Political Scientist

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am an energy scientist having in some ways more information about coming developments which are not directly available in Europe, regarding the state of the world’s future energy supplies. Let me in all humility and responsibility tell you that predictions by your scientists and professors regarding the value of Scotland’s off shore oil supplies may not hold true, once these coming developments (which I cannot reveal due to patent restrictions) will be shown to the world very soon.

SCOTLAND FLAG

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September 19, 2014 · 11:12 am

TERROR AUSTRALIS !

Headline above in The Advertiser, 19 September 2014

‘TERROR RAIDS News Corp Australia Courtesy of News Corp

Headline Elsewhere: “Australian terror raids uncover plot to attack Parliament House”

TONY Abbott has confirmed a specific instruction came from a senior Australian ISIL operative in Syria, as security in Canberra is being beefed up after intelligence suggested an attack on Parliament House was imminent. Tony Abbott confirmed the “chatter” about a possible attack on Parliament House came directly from conversations between Australian ISIL supporters overseas and on home soil. “The chatter involving Parliament House was chatter between Australians in Syria and Iraq and their supporters here in Australia,” he told reporters in Sydney. I’m not aware that specific individuals have been named as part of this chatter, but certainly Government, Government people and parliament have been referred to as part of this chatter,” the Prime Minister said. Continue reading →

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September 18, 2014 · 10:38 pm

Media Tsunami in Australia over Islamic Terror WITHIN … and Beyond

Headlines rom THE AUSTRALIAN 19 September 2014

Islamic State horror hits home: plot to abduct and behead Australians

Paul Maley, National Security Correspondent, Sydney …. https://plus.google.com/114281934612203133760

THE threat of Islamic State has spread from the war-torn Middle East to the other side of the world, after police claimed to have smashed an imminent plot to abduct and behead an Australian civilian as part of the terror group’s global propaganda campaign. Police will allege a senior Australian working overseas with ­Islamic State, Mohammad Ali Baryalei, helped recruit and inspire a Sydney man to plan the ­attacks, in the most dramatic ­example of the organisation’s ­expanding global reach.

***** Continue reading →

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September 18, 2014 · 10:36 am

More MARCEL … Wild Life Lanka Here and There

ahuh! ahuh! uhuh! uhuh!

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