Velupillai Pirapäharan in his halcyon days with young Bala around swimming pool
April 5, 2014 · 1:44 pm
Australian patrol vessel gifted to Sri Lankan Navy
Sandasen Marasinghe in the Daily News, 4 April 2014
The Australian Government according to their pledge, granted the first fully furbished Bay Class Patrol Vessel to Sri Lanka. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to provide vessels valued at US$ 2 million to the Sri Lankan Navy as the Australian government was confident of the Sri Lankan government’s effort to prevent illegal migration to Australia. Continue reading
Filed under asylum-seekers, australian media, governance, security, Tamil migration, world affairs
Sri Lankan Navy is being re-shaped says Vice-Admiral Columbage
Tim Fish for Jane’s Defence Weekly
After more than two decades of fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at sea, the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) is being reshaped to prioritize maritime security for the nation. This new phase of development, which will enhance the Navy’s blue-water capabilities as well as maintain its existing expertise in brown water counter-insurgency operations, is being led by Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage. Continue reading
Flights of Fancy with MH 370: A Conspiracy Theory beyond the Stratosphere
Cadet Abdullah Rohe
Do you want to know about MH-370 airplane true story…READ THIS….As the Americans are withdrawing from the Afghanistan, one of their command and control systems (used for controlling the pilotless drones) was hijacked by the Taleban’s when the American transport convoy was moving down from one of the hill top bases. The Taleban’s ambushed the convoy and killed 2 American Seal personnel, seized the equipment/weapons, including the command and control system which weighed about 20 tons and was packed into 6 crates. This happened about a month ago in Feb 2014.
MH 370: Surveying the Possibilities, as Dim as Distant
Vanessa Barford, courtesy of BBC News Magazine, 26 March 2014, where the title is “Malaysia plane: 10 questions that are still unresolved”
As the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues in the southern Indian Ocean, some key questions remain unanswered. Here are 10 questions about what happened to the Boeing 777 that disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on 8 March, with 239 people on board.
1. Why did the plane make a sharp left turn?
Military radar logs show flight MH370 turned unexpectedly west when it diverted from its planned flight path, by which time the plane’s transponder had already been switched off, and its last ACARS data link transmission sent. Sudden turns like this are “extremely rare”, according to Dr Guy Gratton of Brunel University’s Flight Safety Lab. He says the only real reason pilots are likely to make such a manoeuvre is if there’s a serious problem on the plane which makes them decide to divert to a different destination, to get the aircraft on the ground. Continue reading
MH 370: Cut the Conspiracy Crap and Leave the Pilots Alone
Captain Elmo Jayawardena
MH 370 is missing. That we all know. The rest are only theories and while some have reasonable arguments most others seem to be pure nonsense. I am not writing this to sling mud at anyone who had come up with an explanation as to what happened to MH370. But as an Airline Captain who had flown a considerable number of years and who has been in the pilot training business for a long time, I need to say something in defence of Captain Shah as he and I both belong to the same fraternity of aviators.
Leave that Captain alone – I say again. A man is innocent until proven guilty. Shah has not been found guilty and he should be treated as an innocent man until the wreckage is found and the black box is read and all the investigations are complete. The truth needs to be established as to what happened to MH370. Then and only then should the blame game begin. Continue reading
Chris Panabokke, exemplary soil scientist, turns 88
Ranjit Mulleriyawa, in The Nation, 3 March 2014
Mention the name CR Panabokke, and the first thing that comes to one’s mind is soil science. Indeed, he is unquestionably the foremost soil scientist produced by our country to date, as well as one of Asia’s most renowned soil scientists. He has authored many books and published over 30 research papers in reputed International journals in addition to presenting 35 scientific papers at national and international workshops/conferences on: Soils of Sri Lanka and fertilizer use, groundwater conditions in Sri Lanka, small village tank systems, and agro-ecological environments of Sri Lanka. Continue reading
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s Drama crosses divides and inspires exchanges
Asoka Randeniye, in Daily News, 26 March 20i4
Pix by Roshan Pilipana
Roshan Pitipana
No theatre- lover worth his salt would need an introduction to the great actor/director Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka. Ever the voice who questions the accepted, the safe and the prescribed, Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka is the director of five thought- provoking, discussion- inducing political plays: Ekadipathi (The Dictator) in 1976, Makarakshaya (The Dragon) in 1985, Dhawala Beeshana (Men Without Shadows) in 1988, Yakshagamanaya (Resistible Rise of Arturo) in 1994 and Trojan Kanthavo (Trojan Women) in 1999.
In January, Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka and the cast and crew of Trojan Kanthavo participated in the Bharat Rang Mahotsav (International Theatre Festival) in New Delhi for the third year running. Previously, he applied for and was selected by the festival committee to perform Makarakshaya in 2012 and Dhawala Beeshana in 2013. This year, he was among the six countries which were represented at the festival. Daily News caught up with the maestro at the Trikone Cultural Foundation in Rajagiriya, which documents for posterity the Sinhala and Tamil dramas and other art forms hidden within our country.
Ancient Lanka and its surrounds through numismatics: insights from Osmund Bopearachchi
Osmund Bopearachchi in Q and A with Saman Indrajit, courtesy of the Island, 18 March 2014
A leading authority on Central Asian, Indian and Sri Lankan numismatics and art history, Prof. Osmund Bopearachchi drew heavy flak over his recent lecture at the Post-Graduate Institute of Archaeological Research, where he referred to instances of counterfeiting of foreign coins, especially of punch-marked coins in Lanka, when the country was a centre of international commerce in the then known world.
Alexander the Great in coin — fr smritidaniel.wordpress.com
While not denying what was reported, the French trained and educated academic says that the media did not do justice to his in-depth lecture and had somewhat misled the public by cherry picking sections thereof out of context. Having graduated in 1978 with a degree in Sinhala, French and Western Classical Culture from the Kelaniya University he first worked as a French teacher because there was no opportunity to study Archaeology at the time. “I studied French with the intention of going to France for further studies, but the French government did not offer long-term scholarships to Sri Lankans. Thereafter I worked as a French-speaking tour guide. I left Sri Lanka with my return ticket and 1,000 Francs. I worked hard and had to start from my BA in Archaeology in Paris as I then had no archaeological background.” Continue reading
