Sri Lanka
The “Race” goes on!
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009Now that the open battle between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE Terrorist group is over, a few have questioned me about my stand in the whole issue. The past few years I lived in Australia has given me opportunities to evaluate and formulate my thoughts on many issues including the future of my [...]
A battle is over, but not the war!
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Sri Lanka recently celebrated a much awaited military victory over it’s war with the much dreaded Terrorist organization - LTTE. I was 22 years old when this war began and have seen the many effects it had on the country and its people over the past 26 years. However many questions remain unanswered. What is [...]
Lest we forget
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Today we commemorate ANZAC day. Anzac Day is a national public holiday in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I and also to commemorate [...]
Teenage affluenza
Friday, March 13th, 2009Of our four children, two are teenagers. Even though they were born and spent much of their early childhood in a so called “third-world-country”, today I find them to be quite “westernised”. This while being quite acceptable to us as parents, has it’s inherent attributes which we need to be aware of as seen in [...]
SRI LANKA: War and the Humanitarian Crisis in Vanni
Saturday, January 31st, 2009The ongoing war in Sri Lanka is one that neither side can win. It’s the type of war which even if you win, you lose. It’s not a war between the good and the evil as much as it is a tussle between the iniquitous and the peccant at the cost of civilians. The [...]
Lanka Faith Centre
Sunday, November 30th, 2008Just thought I’d post some history (from the Godage family). This video is from 1999 when we were in Sri Lanka establishing a church as a part of Christian City Church International.
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CHRONOLOGY: Sri Lanka — 25 years of civil war
Monday, September 8th, 2008The following article… via Reuters Foundation
Sept 7 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s advance into the rebel Tamil Tigers’ heartland has unleashed the bloodiest combat in a decade and opened a new phase of the 25-year-old conflict.
Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island and tens of thousands [...]
An ignorant war!
Thursday, June 5th, 2008The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict stretches way beyond the history of the LTTE. In fact, the study of history shows that it existed in 500 BC.
The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa tells of Tamils from South India in conflict with the Sinhalese. However, the root of modern conflict goes back to British colonial rule when [...]
The troublesome mix: religion and politics
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Doesn’t really matter if it’s Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, megalomaniacal religious leaders will not save the world. This can be clearly witnessed in the Sri Lankan political arena as recorded in this report by the International Peace Research Institute, records (click) here, although a prevalent situation in many other parts of [...]
New year for Sri Lanka
Monday, January 28th, 2008This thought-evoking image of a Sri Lankan child behind a wire fence caught my attention and made me wonder what the new year may hold for my land of birth. Unfortunately, all accounts relate a very grim future even as the following article from bbc.com portrays.
Violence is a daily occurrence in Sri Lanka
It had [...]
Sir Arthur
Saturday, December 15th, 2007Back in 1979 I was a year twelve student at Trinity College in Kandy Sri Lanka, which incidentally boasts of being the only school to own an international cricket stadium and have produced one of the greatest cricketers this generation has known - Kumar Sangakkara. That same year was when I was voted in as [...]
Bend it like Murali
Monday, December 3rd, 2007“It is for his dignity as much as his wizardry that we should salute the Tamil’s historic feat”
Michael Marqusee
Monday December 3, 2007
The Guardian
By the time you read this, Muttiah Muralitharan is likely to have become the highest Test wicket taker in cricket’s long history. It’s an extraordinary, heartwarming achievement that will be celebrated at length [...]
Of Lions and Tigers
Saturday, September 1st, 2007Consequent to hearing of my Sri Lankan heritage, some ask me about the history and background of the unfortunate ethnic conflict which has plagued that land. Due to the sensitive and emotive nature of the issue, it is not easy to find a fairly balanced, unbiased and relatively accurate account of the situation. However, I [...]
Priorities…
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Just read the following article on the Colombopage site.
* MOU to protect the elephant population of Sri Lanka
Wednesday, August 29, 2007, 5:25 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Aug 29, Colombo: Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Department and the All Lanka Tamed Elephant Owners’ Association are planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to the [...]
A very religious nation.
Sunday, August 26th, 2007In the midst of religious diversity in Sri Lanka, it is not uncommon to find some who may be confused as to what religion they follow. Perhaps a contributing factor for the following statistic from the Department of Census and Statistics (adding to a total of 107%).
Distribution of the four major denominations in Sri Lanka.
Buddhism [...]
Human rights in Sri Lanka…
Saturday, August 25th, 2007An article I picked up (incidentally written by a fellow Lankan) states thus.
“Sri Lanka’s Deputy Solicitor General Savindra Fernando has been quoted in the local press stating that Sri Lanka has often been bullied into signing United Nations’ conventions. He was speaking during celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Additional Protocol [...]
Religious chauvinism
Saturday, August 18th, 2007One of the constant complaints I grew up hearing my elders and mentors gripe about was regarding the development of the motherland. How they wished leaders would learn from others’ mistakes etc. At least we can rest assured that there are others who seem to learn from Sri Lanka’s mistakes. Here’s one….
“………….Thai monk Mettanando Bhikkhu [...]
Democracy
Monday, August 13th, 2007I remember this fake obituary which appeared in the government-controlled Ceylon Daily News (Sri Lanka) in April 1974 when the then SLFP government banned political rallies by the opposition, sealed the Davasa Group of Newspapers and imposed other emergency measures.
The obituary read something like this :
“O’CRACY - The death occurred under tragic circumstances of D.E.M.O’CRACY, [...]
Buddhism according to Buddha
Saturday, February 18th, 2006In my childhood and adolescence growing up in the “buddhist capital” of Sri Lanka, many were the opportunities to note and study the popular teachings of the Buddha. This site has several articles (by Sri Swami Sivananda) which I since have found to be quite informative.
Interestingly, he also goes on to say here that “……..Buddha [...]
“Sri Lanka has so much, and stands to lose it all”
Saturday, February 18th, 2006Sri Lanka’s cricket team may seem to be doing quite well (…although somewhat inconsistently) despite the challenges. However, the same cannot be said of the rest of the country - seemingly losing the matches. The following article posted on “The Japan Times” sums it all up.
”— If there is one country in Asia that can [...]