January 12, 2014 · 1:54 pm

Maritime Heritage of Lanka

Sudharshan Seneviratne, reviewing Sarala Fernando’s edited work: Maritime Heritage of Lanka

“We islanders are all children of the sea, travellers since ancient times, unafraid of outward migration and the search for new horizons….”(Sarala Fernando. Editor)

It is long since I sifted through pages of articles crafted by specialists and non specialists, an amalgam of history, archaeology, nautical traditions and technology, brilliant photographic images of ancient material, culture and nature, historical and modern cartography, ethnography, international trade and contacts among a wide range of searching topics covered in a single book. This also is the oceanic connectivity.

Maritime heritage 11It is a story how this island came to evolve its unique personality due to the convergence of multiple streams of people, cultures, languages, religions, ethnicities and technologies. The historical saga of Sri Lanka, an island situated in a pivotal position in the Indian Ocean rim, could not be inscribed otherwise in the annals of history and most certainly not without the story of the sea – a story of nurtured reciprocity as one of the most valued “ports of call” in antiquity. The title, Maritime Heritage of Lanka: Ancient Ports and Harbours, is indeed a reflection of that historical reality. Continue reading →

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January 8, 2014 · 3:16 pm

Dedicated Medical Work Amidst the Heat of War, Death and Propaganda: In the Vanni Pocket, 2009

Michael Roberts, …… courtesy of Groundviews where the essay carried a different title. In presenting the article here I have embellished it with images, maps.  It also has a few more hyperlinks.

Amidst the obfuscations and cumulus clouds of propaganda that have subsumed reviews of the last stages of Eelam War IV, it has taken time for some remarkable feats to emerge. The affidavit provided by Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah on 10th May 2012 with assistance from a British solicitor reveals astounding medical relief work by a body of doctors, nurses, attendants and administrative aides during the Tamil peoples’ enforced retreat and crucible of battle in 2009. This statement has been deployed by a collective named ENGAGE SRI LANKA in the course of its criticism of Channel Four’s video reportage and the claims of “Vany Kumar” (Gnanakumar Thamilvani in name,[i] who also presented herself under such aliases as “Damilvany” and “Vany Kumar”). As such, it is an element in the ongoing propaganda war – one which no public document can rise beyond. Continue reading →

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January 6, 2014 · 7:09 am

Laksiri Jayasuriya explores the transformation of White Australia

James Jupp, in  Journal of Population Research, 2013, vol. 30: 387-88 — reviewing Laksiri Jayasuriya: Transforming a ‘White Australia’: Issues of Racism and Immigration, SSS Publications, New Delhi, 2012, 180 pp., ISBN 81-902282-9-3

James-Jupp-web This short study by an eminent Australian scholar covers the entire period from the initiation of the White Australia policy in 1901 until the asylum seeker controversies of John Howard’s government in 2001. It will be of considerable value to those outside Australia who have only a limited knowledge of the radical changes during this century of organised mass immigration.  They include many Asians who still believe that Australia implements a “whites only” admission policy, which is far from being the case. It will also be of value to the many Australians who have only a distorted and populist view of recent developments. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2014 · 1:16 pm

Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah’s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel Four

Dr.-V.-Shanmugarajah-s - times[1]This item is taken from Engage Sri Lanka: Corrupted Journalism,  2013, Appendix 2, pp. 203-14. The pictorial illustrations are the Editor’s additions.

I, Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, Medical Superintendent , Mullaitivu General Hospital, being a Hindu, honestly , sincerely and solemnly swear and MAKE OATH as follows:

1. I  am Dr.Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, presently Medical Superintendent ,Mullaitivu.  I was born on 11 June 1968 and am presently 44 years old. I am a graduate of Jaffna University’s faculty of Medicine, and hold the qualification of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. I have had additional training in obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthesia. I have worked as a Medical Officer at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the District General Hospital in Killinochi and the Mullaitivu General Hospital. I was the Medical Superintendent at Mullaitivu General Hospital and the acting Medical Superintendent in charge of the obstetrics ward at the hospital. I am married, and have three children aged 13, 10 and 4. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2014 · 9:47 am

Recognising Victor Melder, an Extraordinary Sri Lankan

Archivist and Sri Lankan Patriot  and  a Railwayman Extraordinary

VICTOR MELDER + ESTHER Victor Melder and ESTHER — who has sustained him through hard times and good and without whom his labours would not have been feasible. … an appreciation by lovers of Ceylonese and Sri Lankan lore … Victor’s ‘travels’ began with the Rhythm of the Wheels and he is still on the move –with benefits to so many of us.

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January 2, 2014 · 2:14 am

Kate Adie of BBC: reporting on war & women at war

ADIE KATE ADIE 22 Kate Adie recently presented a talk at the National Press Club in Australia which was featured on ABC television where there was a riveting Q and A session as well. It is highly recommended viewing not least because ADIE is a formidable personality.

A summary here can do no justice to the spread of her talk. The contentions that have been imprinted on my mind are the following HOT SPOTS.

  • Today’s TV and news coverage is oriented towards the “live spot” and featured by “live instant journalism” organised by “whizzy technology.”
  • So it is “headline led.”
  • The coverage is controlled by the media barons, mostly men and men are, unlike the past, are personnel who have not  cut their teeth as young reporters.
  • In USA coverage of war is subject to informal governmental control and subject to the strict “accreditation” process exercised by their armed forces.
  • In all Western countries certain motifs are edited out because they are deemed unsuitable: for instance, captured enemy POWs and corpses.
  •  There is difference when reporters (and their d editors) are covering “our war” and “our troops” – as distinct for wars between two forces that are not in alliance with one’s own country. Continue reading →

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December 30, 2013 · 1:48 pm

Witnesses to “the War without Witnesses” … Voiceless? Buried Foreign Reporters?

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, where there will be interesting blog-commentary

I commence here with the whole lot of close-up images snapped by Kanchan Prasad of Prasar Bharati at the Last Redoubt in mid-May and passed on to me at some point in 2010 or so. Picture 103--Survivor 1 Picture 106

Picture 105--Survivor 2  Picture 104 Picture 107--Survivor 3

Survivors: There may be others but these are the close-ups in my stock – where they are part of other photographs with more sweeping views of the flotsam and jetsam of the Last Redoubt between Nandikadal Lagoon and the sea. As far as I can work out the women and children photographed above Continue reading →

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December 30, 2013 · 12:30 pm

Service to humankind: Venkateswaran father & son

I: N. Venkateswaran, 1900-1973

My Father  N Venkateswaran was a graduate of St Thomas’ College in Kerala, a Jesuit institution & it was not surprising that he found his niche as a teacher in another Jesuit institution, St Aloysius’ College in Galle, Ceylon. Pedagogy was his love and geography was his mistress. Though many a colleague tutored privately for money, he was very firm and stated time and again that he will not prostitute his profession. His values were all passed onto his children and they have done well, all of them Aloysians and students of Sacred Heart Convent. Continue reading →

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December 28, 2013 · 1:32 am

A Kerala Catholic who served Sri Lanka in general and Aloysians in particular: Fr. Kuriacose s.j.

Carl Fernando in The Aloysian, December 2013 hwere the ttile is “Fr. Thomas Chingamparampil Kuriacose S.J.”

SIMGP8183 (1) Son of C. T and Elizabeth Kuriacose, Thomas was born in Quilon, Kerala on the 20th of December 1920 to a devout Catholic family. His father, a teacher of mathematics, came to Ceylon in 1927 in search of better prospects and joined St. Servatius’ College, Matara. In 1928, he brought his family, – wife Elizabeth and Children, Anna (later, Sr. Felicitas of the Holy Cross Sisters and worked in Sri Lanka), Mariam (later, Sr. Mary Agnes of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery and worked in India), Theresa (later Mrs. Theresa Chandy of Vaniamparampil, Alleppey, Kerala), Thomas, Cherian (died in 1930), Two members Joseph and Mary Agnes (later Mrs. Mary Agnes Kuriacose of Pathupally, Kerala) were born in Ceylon. Continue reading →

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December 27, 2013 · 3:06 am

The “fog of war” envelopes the last phase of Eelam War IV

Michael Roberts and Padraig Colman … in what is a summary of the former’s “BBC Blind” — courtesy of Transconflict and Colombo Telegraph. Readers are advised to visit the Colombo Telegraph version for illuminating evidence of rabid extremism and name-calling from Tamils and Sinhalese who hate the Sri Lankan dispensation. The occasional counter-blog from Sinhala apologists further evidences the ongoing propaganda war and indicates how difficult it will be to move towards reconciliation. Indeed, it supports Izeth Hussain’s argument that “accountability” and “reconciliation” are not compatible. The point is that the goal of “Accountability” is grounded in rather simplistic notions of “Truth” and Justice” — simplistic when some testimonies are emotionally-driven and/or calculated half-truths or lies.

Although Western media have been critical of both sides in the conflict between the Sinhala-dominated government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), they tend to see Tamils (and thus the LTTE) as underdogs. Sri Lankan Tamils have been emigrating since the fifties. There is a substantial body of intelligent and prosperous Tamils abroad alienated from Sri Lankan politics and governments. The patriotism of expatriate Tamils increased when the government defeated the LTTE in 2009. They are receptive to the propaganda of Tiger activists. Continue reading →

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