Breaking News: Rajapaksa Signs Proclamation
( November 20, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a proclamation a short while ago, calling for a presidential election next year.
The Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, is due to issue an official statement on this within the hour.
Meanwhil; the Jathika Hela Urumaya’s (JHU) Ven Aturaliye Rathana Thera’s temple in Gothami Road, Rajagiriya came under attack a short while ago today,Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said.
“It has been reported that an unidentified group have thrown stones at Jathika Hela Urumaya’s (JHU) Ven Aturaliye Rathana Thera’s temple in Gothami Road, Rajagiriya. Police have dispatched a number of mobile units to the site to provide security,” Executive Director, CaFFE Mr Keerthi Tennakoon said.
“Rathana Thera was one of the leading figures attempting to field a common opposition candidate for the coming presidential election and in recent weeks has emerged as one of the most important and impactful critic of the government,” he added. “We believe that this attack on Rathana Thera’s temple is an attempt to intimidate opponents of the government and an attempt to thwart the fielding of a common opposition candidate,” he added.
CaFFE has urged the law enforcement authorities to take immediate action to arrest those responsible for the attack and take measures to assure the safety of opposition party leaders and supporters.
Exile: Sharing Some Aspects
Charles Sarvan
Exile is here, at home, and not abroad.
I will shape my life in a new country.
(Freely adapted from the words of Kent in King Lear, Act 1, Sc. 1)
In recent times, more so than in years past, many Sri Lankans have left the Paradise Isle with relief or regret, or a mixture of both, and there are now communities of Burghers and Tamils; of Sinhalese Buddhists, in various countries and continents. In turn, it means that many within the Island are likely to have close relations and friends settled permanently away from them. Given the above, I share a few, by no means comprehensive, perspectives on exile. They arise from reading an article on the subject kindly shared with me by a contact in Colombo.
The German word elend which translates as “misery” has the same root as “alien”, thus associating exile, foreignness and deep unhappiness, and suggesting that to be an alien is to be in misery, as in the poem by Ovid (born BCE 43) titled Sorrows of an Exile. The experience of exile has led to the writing of several works in various languages, and I have drawn on the publications of, among others, Salman Rushdie and Edward Said in writing two essays, ‘The imperial and post-imperial experience of “home” in two Sri Lankan works’ and in ‘Lecce: an encounter’, both included in my Sri Lanka: Literary Essays & Sketches.
