Where a Drunken Binge generates a Beach Hotel in Tangalle

News Item in Daily News, 10 October 2018, with this title “Newlyweds on honeymoon in Tangalle buy their own hotel”

Gina Lyons and Mark Lee from London, decided to purchase a rustic hotel after drinking rum on the beach while on holiday – and have renamed it ‘Lucky Beach Tangalle’ A pair of newlyweds got so drunk on their honeymoon they bought their own hotel.

Gina 33 and Lee, 35, wed in June 2017 and went on a three week backpacking honeymoon to Sri Lanka in December.During their trip, the London-based couple checked into a rustic hotel on the beach and immediately hit it off with some of the staff members there. On their first night, they took to the beach with several bottles of rum and drank with one of the hotel’s bartenders, where they were told the current lease on the hotel was almost up.

Jayasekera’s Study of British Colonialism in Ceylon reviewed

Chandra R De Silva, in Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences 41(1) 2018, pp 65-68, with highlighting emphasis being the Work of The Editor, Thuppahi

reviewing Confrontations with Colonialism: Resistance, Revivalism and Reform under British Rule in Sri Lanka 1796- 1920, Vol. I, by P. V. J. Jayasekera (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa, 2017), Rs. 1500.

In one of the most challenging and thought-provoking history books published in Sri Lanka in the last decade, P. V. J. Jayasekera has used a wide variety of sources to challenge a number of existing interpretations relating to Sri Lanka under British colonial rule in the nineteenth century. While the book is based partly on his own doctoral dissertation completed in 1970, in Jayasekera’s own words “The scope and the foci of the original study have been substantially changed (p. ix)” in view of new theoretical approaches in the study of colonial history and the debates on history arising out of the recent ethnic conflict. Jayasekera has also carefully taken into account historical research on Sri Lanka published in the long period since he completed his dissertation. Readers should note that despite the title, Jayasekera has consciously avoided any attempt “to cover the confrontations of the Sri Lankan Tamil society with colonialism (p. xxvii)” and that, with the exception of brief references in the concluding section, information on Muslim-Buddhist relations will come to us only in the forthcoming second volume.

Rejuvenating Lanka: A Good Governance Plan for 2020

SWR de “Sam” Samarasinghe, in Sunday Island, 16 September 2018, where the title reads “A strategy and programme for Yaha Paalanaya 2020″”

Many Sri Lankans are frustrated with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for having failed to deliver good governance (Yaha Paalanaya – YP) and competent economic management. But lack of success with YP2015 is not a reason to abandon the concept of Yaha Paalanaya. We need a YP2020 to make a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka.

  

Anagārika Dharmapāla: In Search of a Rounded Evaluation

Michael Roberts, courtesy of The Sunday Island 16 September 2018

Recently an anonymous hand writing as “A Dharmapala Devotee” presented a sarcastic opinion piece in the Island of the 5^th September targeting myself, Gananath Obeyesekere and HL Seneviratne. My immediate response was short and rushed. This essay is a more considered set of comments.

Modi Government in Balancing Act with Mahinda Rajapaksa

Padma Rao Sundarji, in AsianAge, 12 September 2018, where the title is “At Last Delhi asks Mr Rajapaksa for a Dance”

A 10-member parliamentary delegation from Sri Lanka has begun an official visit to India, but another group under the man it fears the most has quietly checked into a five-star hotel in central Delhi at the same time. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, current leader of the Joint Opposition (JO), and the near-certain winner of Sri Lanka’s next election in January 2020, is in the Indian capital on a three-day visit.

Mr Rajapaksa is the man widely credited with ending the country’s 30-year-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). His newly-formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has won provincial elections and is on a roll. Mr Rajapaksa is slated to return as PM, an office now endowed with greater powers than the presidency and with a President of his own choice.

Tourism in East to receive A Boost

Item in Daily  News. 3 September 2018

Batticaloa and the adjoining areas which were devastated by war and the tsunami will gain a major economic transformation when internal air flights are started soon linking Colombo Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Sigiriya and Palali. “This will be a major boost to the tourist industry in particular, which will provide ample job opportunities and income avenues to the people,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

More Investments in the North Envisaged

Editor, News-in-Asia, 3 September 2018, with the title is as fololws  “Sri Lanka to set up more investments in north to create more jobs”

Colombo, Sept 3 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s  state run Board of Investment (BOI), that oversees all foreign direct investment into the country, on Monday said 14 new projects would be implemented in the island’s former war torn north in order to strengthen the island’s economy and boost employment.