Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Iranganie Serasinghe
08 Sunday Nov 2015
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in08 Sunday Nov 2015
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in28 Wednesday Oct 2015
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The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Lionel Pieris is the son of Harold Pieris, who lived at the famous Alfred House and turned it into a centre for drama and other cultural activities. He was the brother in law of George Keyt and the confidante of the photographer Lionel Wendt, in whose memory he built the Lionel Wendt Theatre. His son Lionel describes the commitment of Lionel Wendt, as well as his father, to cultural activities that promoted a Sri Lankan identity.
28 Wednesday Oct 2015
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The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Laki Senanayake is the son of Florence Senanayake, one of Sri Lanka’s first women legislators, and the brother of the distinguished lawyer Nimal Senanayake. Laki however was an artist, who collaborated for many years with Geoffrey Bawa, and designed some of the most remarkable features of Bawa Hotels. He was also a partner of Ena de Silva, and describes working with her to develop distinctive Sri Lankan designs in the sixties and seventies. The interview is conducted at Diyabubula, his idyllic rural retreat near Dambulla.
28 Wednesday Oct 2015
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in
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Tamara Kunanayagam was born of Tamil parents from two different communities, who were both radical in their outlook. Educated in the Sinhala medium at Ladies College, she also studied for a while in Jaffna when radicalism was developing there during the sixties. Having travelled overland to Europe in her teens, she studied there and worked in Human Rights in Geneva, before being appointed by the present government as Sri Lankan ambassador in Cuba and then in Geneva.
02 Thursday Jul 2015
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in≈ Comments Off on Speech as delivered by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha as Chief Guest At the Launch of Reflections in Loneliness
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Advanced Technical Education Institution, Affiliated University Colleges, Arjuna Aluwihare, British Council, C W W Kannangara, Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti, Education, English, English Association, Galle, General English Language Training Programme, Jaffna, Kandy, Kurunagala, Labuduwa, Matara, Ministry of Education, National Education Commissio, Oranee Jansz, Reflections in Loneliness, Sanghamitta College, Tara de Mel, University Grants Commission, University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Speech as delivered by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha as Chief Guest
At the Launch of Reflections in Loneliness
By Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti
I am both pleased and proud to be here as Chief Guest at the launch of Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti’s ‘Reflections in Loneliness’, a collection of poems and prose. I am pleased because the book is a fine example of creativity. It covers a range of emotions through poetry, while the prose recreates a lost world which reminds us how swiftly the fabric of society is changing.
My pride however is perhaps the greater feeling on this occasion, for Chandana is one of the first pupils in a new programe I started, which will remain perhaps my most enduring contribution to this country. He was also one of the best, and amply justified the faith we had in our rural youngsters, when we offered them an opportunity that had been zealously guarded before by the privileged.
I refer to the opening up of tertiary level qualifications in English, which commenced at the Affiliated University Colleges in 1992. I had long been complaining of the fact that English continued to be the preserve of an elite, but those in charge of educational policy thought this was only proper. However President Premadasa appointed a visionary University Grants Commission Chairman in the form of Arjuna Aluwihare, and he embarked on a brilliant initiative to expand opportunities in this sector. Having met him by chance at a social event at the British Council at which I was then working, I was drawn into his orbit, and ended up leaving the Council to take charge of all his new English initiatives.
09 Sunday Nov 2014
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in≈ Comments Off on Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Derrick Nugawela
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Derrick Nugawela’s parents belonged to the Nugawela and Panabokke families, distinguished landowners in Kandy and successful politicians in Colombo during the State Council period, and thereafter in the early years after independence. He himself however, after the early death of his father, had to make his own way, and became a planter, where he had to work himself up in a profession dominated by British expatriates. By the sixties he ran one of the best plantations in Sri Lanka, while also being a Volunteer Officer who was put in charge of Hambantota during the 1971 insurgency. Having later emigrated to Australia, he had to again make his own way there, before returning to Sri Lanka for Citibank, and later becoming a Director of the Board of Investment.
05 Sunday Oct 2014
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in≈ Comments Off on Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Ismeth Raheem
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Ismeth Raheem is an architect who worked with Geoffrey Bawa for many years, and was then responsible for a number of interesting buildings hotels combining traditional Sri Lankan concepts with modern developments. He is also a polymath, who has studied and written about the manner in which Sri Lanka has been seen and presented in pictures and photographs and writings during the colonial period. His knowledge of ancient irrigations systems is also perhaps unrivalled.
21 Sunday Sep 2014
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in≈ Comments Off on Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane Jean Arasanayagam
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Jaffna, Jean Arasanayagam, Penideniya Teacher Training College, Tamil, The Past is Another Country
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Jean Arasanayagam is a poet and writer who has chronicled both her heritage as a member of the Burgher community, and the traumas of racial violence which she suffered from, because of her marriage to a Tamil. A teacher, and lecturer at the Penideniya Teacher Training College, she also describes the clash of cultures experienced through her marriage into a conservative Jaffna family.
13 Saturday Sep 2014
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in≈ Comments Off on Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Anne Ranasinghe
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Anne Ranasinghe is a German of Jewish origin, whose entire family was killed by the Nazi regime. She escaped by being sent on her own to England as a child. Having then married Prof D A Ranasinghe, she brought up a family in Sri Lanka, where she has lived for over 60 years. A distinguished poet, she has also been an inspiration to young writers through her stewardship for many years of the English Writers Cooperative.
06 Saturday Sep 2014
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in≈ Comments Off on Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Sam Wijesinha.
The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.
Sam Wijesinha was Secretary General of Parliament and later Sri Lanka’s first Ombudsman. Though neither a Civil Servant nor active in politics himself, he married into the family of C L Wickremesinghe, the first Sri Lankan to be appointed a Government Agent, and was the brother-law of Esmond Wickremesinghe who has been described as the eminence grise of Sri Lankan politics, in view of his work behind the scenes with the United National Party.