The Taieri Gorge railway run is presented as one of the the world’s “great train trips” and apart from the striking ‘gorgic’ scenery one meets several little railway stations of yesteryear that are as charming as extraordinary. For Sri Lankans with a penchant for awkward phonetic connotaiiosns when one crosses language divides, of course, Pukey-Ran-Gi will draw a laugh.
This is one of the other stations:
Filed under cultural transmission, heritage, life stories, pulling the leg
Rasika Somarathna, in the Daily News, 12 March 2013
The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) which has been issuing the Halal certification to businesses, said yesterday it decided to withdraw the Halal logo from all local products. However, companies may continue to obtain the Halal certification for their products on a voluntary basis to facilitate exports etc, and such certifiction will be issued free of charge by the ACJU, according to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). Continue reading
Compiled by Michael Roberts to assist present-day debates on Sinhala -Muslim tensions …with RED identifying contemporary material
Abdul Rahiman, W. M. 1915 Letter from WM Abdul Rahiman to Sir Robert Chalmers [Governor], 1 July 1915, in Colonial Office 54/782.
Ameer Ali, A. C. L. 1981 “The 1915 racial riots in Ceylon (Sri Lanka): a reappraisaof its causes,” South Asia 4: 1-20.
Amunugama, Sarath 1978 “John de Silva and the Sinhala nationalist theatre,” Ceylon Historical Journal 25: 285-304. Continue reading
Dominic Davies as Symposium Facilitator
This Day Symposium, hosted by the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford, marked and celebrated the centenary of the publication of Leonard Woolf’s path-breaking first novel, set in then Ceylon, The Village in the Jungle (1913). It explored the novel from a number of different critical and informed angles, all of which addressed and emphasized its richness, complexity and importance as a piece of literature. The Symposium was well attended, with over 60 delegates engaging with the various presentations, lectures and papers in the rich discussions that followed them.
Michael Roberts hijacking Dhaneshi Yatawara
I: Preamble by Michael Roberts
Dhaneshi Yatawara is a Sri Lankan reporter whom I do not know and have no contact with. I happened to be in Sri Lanka in April-June 2009 and collected news clippings, which now guide me to items on web. Among the latter are a series of striking photographs provided by Dhaneshi Yatawara on the 10th and 17th May 2009 respectively. The first lot were obviously (though not so stated) snapped on the foreshores in the Pulmoddai or Trinco area as Tamil IDPs injured and “carers” were disembarked from ICRC ships guided by the SL Navy. Parenthetically I note here between the 10th February and 15th May 2009 the ICRC ships “Green Ocean” and “Seruvila” escorted by the SL Navy made several trips and evacuated “over 13,500 sick and wounded people and their caretakers” (http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/ documents/ update/sri-lanka-update-090609.htm).[1]
This Pic is not from Yatawara Continue reading
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, economic processes, historical interpretation, IDP camps, life stories, LTTE, military expenditure, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Camelia Nathaniel reporting from Kilinochchi in The Sunday Leader, 18 February 2013
The Civil Security Department (CSD) has recently recruited 3,500 former LTTE cadres despite requests by the TNA that rehabilitated cadres should be given a chance to lead normal lives as civilians and not be recruited into any military or paramilitary organizations.
While in the LTTE they had caused so much destruction to this country, but today having realized their mistake they have joined hands with the Civil Security Department (CSD) to rebuild the nation, said Ramalingam Kumar an ex-LTTE cadre who had joined the CSD after undergoing the government’s rehabilitation programme. Continue reading
Rohan de Soysa
Calverley House, built in 1868, was the residence of a famous barrister, Frederick Dornhorst KC (1849 to 1926), in whose memory there is a much coveted prize given each year at Royal College to the most popular student. It was situated in what was then Turner Road, later re-named Turret Road, and now called Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha. It was a substantial colonial style mansion typical of such late 19th century/early 20th century houses, well-suited for such an eminent person. Continue reading
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews, where it appeared a few days back with one difference in the title
In a significant act of outreach the Independence Day ceremonies were held in Trincomalee, a provincial city with a pronounced ethnic mix; while President Rajapaksa presented one part of his message in Tamil, repeating what he had said earlier (in English?) and then reiterating the same points in Sinhala. In keeping with the occasion and location, he referred to the Dutch and British interests in Trincomalee during the imperialist past as a prelude to his argument that Sri Lankans “have had to face continued challenges to protect the freedom and independence of our motherland.” In line with this emphasis, he also reminded the UN and the West of the obligations within the UN Charter which enjoin member nations to refrain from “interven[ing] in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.” Continue reading
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, democratic measures, economic processes, historical interpretation, language policies, legal issues, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, religious nationalism, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy
Type of Publication: Edited Collection…..Publisher(s): The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF)
Place Publication: Colombo, Sri Lanka ….. Date of Publication: 21st December 2012…….
Size of Publication: 1168 pages in two volumes (Vol. I: pp.1-660; Vol. II: pp.661-1168)
ISBN: 978-955-1655-93-8 ………..Bar Code: 9 789551 655938
Editor: Asanga Welikala
Website: http://republicat40.org (entire contents downloadable in complete volumes or as individual chapters)
Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu of CPA
Purpose and Scope of the Publication: In 2012, Sri Lanka marks the fortieth anniversary of the founding of its republic. With the promulgation of the first republican constitution on 22nd May 1972, Ceylon severed its remaining constitutional links with Britain that had survived the grant of independence as a dominion in 1948. Both the process adopted in the making of that constitution as well as its substance were historic – a decisive ‘constitutional moment’ – reflecting dramatic political currents that had dominated the late-colonial and post-independence period, and establishing a constitutional order that has, despite being replaced by a second republican constitution in 1978, retained its essential substantive character as a highly centralised unitary state to the present. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, democratic measures, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, LTTE, nationalism, NGOs, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, tolerance, women in ethnic conflcits
thuppahi
