SELKIRK, CRUSOE N KNOX

MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE
The 50th Law by 50 Cent & Robert Greene
nihil timendum est: fear nothing

Alexander Selkirk, Juan Fernández Above image is by kind courtesy of  Vicente Coz :panoramio.com/photo/38149331

In 1704, a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk found himself marooned on a deserted island some four hundred miles off the coast of Chile. All he had with him was a rifle, some gunpowder, a knife, some carpenter’s tools and a Bible. In exploring the interior, he see nothing but a bunch of goats, cats, rats and some unfamiliar animals that made strange noises at night. It was a shelter less environment. Selkirk decided to keep to shoreline, slept in a cave, found enough to eat by catching fish, and slowly gave way to a deep depression. He knew he would run out of gunpowder, his knife would get rusty, and his clothes would rot on his back. He could not survive on just fish. He did not have enough supplies to get by and loneliness was crushing. If only he had brought over more materials from his ship.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64933790@N00/5524254099/The image of Isla Alejandro Selkirk is reproduced by the kind courtesy of Pato Novoa

  

Then suddenly the shoreline was invaded by sea lions; it was their mating season. Now Selkirk as forced to move inland. There, he could not simply harpoon fish and sit in a cave brooding. He quickly discovered that this dark forest contained everything he needed. He built a series of huts out of the native woods. He cultivated various fruit trees. He taught himself to hunt goats.

 Above image is by kind courtesy by Michael Faulkner The farmed goats in the picture above, from a neighbouring island, are as close to feral as you are likely to find in this country.:
//thebluecabin.blogspot.com/2010/05/feral-goats.html

Selkirk domesticated dozens of feral cats-they protected him against the rats and provided him with much needed companionship. He took apart his useless rifle and fashioned tools out o fit. Recalling what he learned from his father, who had been a shoe maker, he made his own clothes out of animal hides. It was as if he had suddenly come to life and his depression disappeared. He was finally rescued from the island, but the experience completely altered his way of thinking. Years later he would recall his time there as the happiest in his life.

The image of the Statue in memory to Alexander Selkirk in Lower Largo is reproduced by courtesy of James Denham http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1368919

Most of us are like Selkirk when he first found himself stranded- we look at our material resources and wish we had more. But a different possibility exists for us as well-the realization that more resources are not necessarily coming from the outside and that we must use what we already have to better effect. What we have in hand could be research material for a particular book, or people who work within our organization. If we look for more-information, outside people to help us-it won’t necessarily lead to anything better; in fact the waiting and the dependence makes us less creative. When we go to work with what is there, we find new ways to employ this s material. We solve problems, develop skills we can use again and again, and build up our confidence. If we become wealthy and dependent on money and technology, our minds waste away and that wealth will not last.
Above is a gleaning from a positive psychology book titled “The 50th Law” written by 50 Cent & Robert Greene.

Above image by kind courtesy of jchatoff.wordpress.com/tag/alexander-selkirk

This is Isla Más a Tierra (known today as Robinson Crusoe), the largest of the three islands that constitute the Juan Fernández group. 

Above map is reproduced by kind courtesy of 

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/literary-classics/literary-classics.html

Marginal Comments by bunpeiris
Alexander SelkirkAlexander Selkirk (1676 – 1721) was the Sailing Master of the Cinque Ports (a sixteen gun, ninety ton privateer), a companion ship of St. Geroge (26 guns, 120 men), commanded by buccaneer William Dampier (1651-1715) sent to plunder Spanish ships and ports along the coast of South America in 1703. Following a few sea battles with the Spanish, in a disastrous expedition, Cinque Ports and St. George had parted ways in October 1704. Selkirk fearing the seaworthiness of battered Cinque Ports, whose hull was infested with worms that were eating her away at the hull, tried to persuade some of his crewmates to desert with him, and remain on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe island) in the archipelago of Juan Fernández off the coast of Chile, where they arrived for a mid-expedition restocking of fresh water and supplies. No seaman dared. And 21-year-old lieutenant Stradling, who took command of Cinque Ports following the death of its captain and 48 men of its crew as a result of an outbreak of scurvy, in his black humor declared that the rebel would be granted his wish: Selkirk was left behind in the island. Selkirk regretting his decision chased and called after the boat. Captain Stradling was unforgiving.

Above 2 images are by kind courtesy of  http://www.gochile.cl/en/national-parks/parks/juan-fernandez.html

Selkirk was right : one month later the Cinque Ports sunk. The seven survivors, including Captain Stradling  were captured by the Spanish, tortured, and thrown into South American forced labor camps. Indeed that had no bearing on the life of Selkirk.
Selkirk was wrong on  a matter of life & death: the calculation of the arrival of a ship. In the beginning he  lost all his bearings and was in rudderless despair. Then he made most of what he had. He lived the next four years and four months devoid of human interaction in the wilderness till his rescue by on February 1 in 1709, he was rescued by an English privateer -  piloted by none other than Selkirk's former commander William Dampier.  It was captained by Woodes Rogers,
All that Selkirk had in his possession was a little clothing, bedding, a musket and gunpowder, some tools, some tobacco a Bible.

“Alexander Selkirk Makes His Cats and Kids Dance before Captain Edmund Cooke, one of the officers on the Woodes Rogers/William Dampier ships that rescued Selkirk and His Company.” From vol. 2 of David Henry’s An Historical Account of All the Voyages Round the World, Performed by English Navigators . . . (London, 1774) [Cotsen Collection]

 libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/literary-classics/literary-classics.html

Captain Woodes Rogers and the journalist Richard Steele, who engaged Alexander Selkirk in serious conversation on his days of wilderness, after his rescue, were impressed by the tranquility of mind and vigor of the body that Selkirk had attained while on the island. Woodes Rogers stated that "one may see that Solitude and Retirement from the World is not such an insufferable State of Life as most Men imagine especially when People are fairly called or thrown into it unavoidably, as this Man was". Richard Steele noted that "This plain Man's Story is a memorable example, that he is happiest who confines his Wants to natural Necessities; and he that goes further in his Desires, increases his Wants in Proportion to his Acquisitions".

Robinson Crusoe Island of Juan Fernandez archipelago is a thriving tourist destination blessed with nature; in the backdrop of splendid flora and fauna, it was declares a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1977. Above 2  images are by kind courtesy of  http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/literary-classics/literary-classics.html

As part of the Reconstruction Cities Plan, launched by the Chilean government in the aftermath of the tsunami in February 2010, the local authorities wanted an aesthetic yet robust luminaire that could withstand the harsh coastal environment. It was also important to have a very precise light distribution to avoid disturbing the shearwater nesting birds that live in the archipelago, an aspect which was highly valued by conservationists who inhabit the area.

Above 2 images & linked text are by the kind courtesy of  www.schreder.com/its-en/Projects/Pages/Juan-Fernandez-Islands.aspx

Alexander Selkirk: the source of Robinson Crusoe

Alexander Selkirk is widely believed to be the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the world's first true narrative novel. In the Year 1719, the publication of “the life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” a fictional book by Daniel Defoe (1659–1731)  on a castaway marooned in an uninhabited island took the literary world by storm: in an era true stories of seafaring adventures, run-ins in pirates, encounters with unknown quantities of humanity in the far away land were abound, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was touted as a true-life tale.

The above image is reproduced by kind courtesy of cartoonstock.com/vintage/directory/r/robinson_crusoe.asp

The other possible sources of Robinson Crusoe
Though  Alexander Selkirk is widely believed to be the source of Robinson Crusoe, in reality Daniel Defoe had access to a much wider and more plausible range of potential sources of inspiration. Among them is a castaway surgeon named Henry Pitman who narrated about his escape from a Caribbean penal colony and being shipwrecked and marooned for three months in an uninhabited island named Salt Tortuga off Venezuela. It is interesting to note Henry Pitman’s book was published by J. Taylor of Paternoster Row, London, whose son William Taylor was to publish Robinson Crusoe. In the circumstances, the possibility of Daniel Defoe meeting Henry Pitaman isn’t too far. The other possible sources are Latin or English translations of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibn.

The above image is reproduced by kind courtesy of cartoonstock.com/vintage/directory/r/robinson_crusoe.asp

The latest book on the possible candidates for the source of Robinson Crusoe
In the latest book on the possible candidates for the source of Robinson Crusoe, an American biographer, now living in England named Katherine Frank has set her sights upon Robert Knox (1641 –1720) and his acclaimed true-life narrative titled “An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon” published in the year 1681. It contained the author’s account of his capture, captivity in the kingdom of Kandy in then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka and eventual escape, at a time when such adventures were fashionable among the reading public. The book also provided the British colonialists with the first detailed account of Ceylon that was to become a colony of theirs in the year 1816, its inhabitants in the kingdom of Kandy, and their way of life. Indeed, Robert Knox’s An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon has proved to be an invaluable source of information of the Kingdom of Kandy of Sri Lanka.
Frank elucidates that the tale of Robinson Crusoe allows the humanity to see him in a score of avatars:

“a hero of Romantic individualism, of Victorian Empire or the 20th century capitalism, an explorer, an inventor, the embodiment of radical or conservative ideologies, an evangelist, and a prophet of positive psychology and the gospel of prosperity, even an antihero. You name it and someone has probably thought and said Robinson Crusoe has been it. That’s his secret. Crusoe is Anyone and Everyone. He is you and he is me."

Robert Knox in Ceylon

In November 1659, the same year Defoe’s Crusoe washed up ashore onto the island of Más a Tierra, 19 year old Robert Knox Jr., his father Robert Knox Snr and fourteen others, landed at Cottiar Bay in the great bay of Trincomalee, one of the finest natural harbors in the world. frigate Ann of London in the service of East India Company was ordered by the agent of East India Company to sail to Cotiar Bay (Koddiyar Bay) at the great bay of Trincomalee in the north-eastern coast of Indian Ocean island of Ceylon and have its mainmast replaced. While sailing to Matlipatn (Masulipatan), caught in a mighty storm, frigate Ann was damaged.

Above map is reproduced by the  kind courtesy of http://www.annahar.sch.lk/Web/index_about_mutur.htm

Though the Dutch in Ceylon (1640-1796) held sway in considerable areas of the coastal belts, King Rajasinghe (Sinhala: The King of Lions) the second (1634-1684 AD, Senkadagala Nuwara, Kandy) had the crew of frigate Ann commanded by Robert Knox Snr captured at Muttur, Trincomalee, brought to the kingdom of Kandy, a natural fortress looped in by River Mahaweli Ganga and surrounded by rings of mountains, and had them held in open air-closed kingdom captivity (1660-1680), till he escaped with a fellow British captive Stephen Rutland to England where he published An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon.

Captain Robert Knox (1642-1720) of the East India Company 

Above image is by kind courtesy of collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/14298.html

The prophets of positive psychology: Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crouse & Robert Knox made the most of what he had
Since its publication, the fictional narrative of Robinson Crusoe has been interpreted as on a score of concepts: as an allegory for the development of civilization; as a manifesto of economic individualism; as an expression of European colonial desires; sin, repentance and forgiveness in Christianity.
While all of these interpretations are serious subject matters to the men of letters, the man in the street, in all possibility, would see Robinson Crusoe as a survivor, a die-hard fighter, who made most of what he had. Robinson Crusoe lands in an inhospitable uninhabited island and makes it his home: he overcomes the obstacles; makes use of the environment; saved a life of another human being; found sustenance in the wilderness.
Most of all, the fictional character of Robinson Crusoe found moral succor in the Bible in the same vein true-life characters had done. As Alexander Selkirk read from the Bible frequently, finding it a comfort to him in his condition and a mainstay for his English, so did Robert Knox. Of the 1000 strong menagerie of Europeans held captive in the open-air closed kingdom captivity in the natural fortress of Kandy, Robert Knox and his companion, the fellow British captive Stephen Rutland were the only captives ever to have escaped.

In the same vein Alexander Selkirk made most of what he had, so did the fictional character of Robinson Crusoe. And so did Robert Knox too. During his open air-closed kingdom captivity in Kandy, Sri Lanka then called Ceylon, Robert Knox held his faith fast; learned the industries and crafts of the natives; gathered information all the time all round; survived for 19 years; escaped from king’s sentries and watchman surrounding the fortress kingdom of Kandy; found his way to Dutch stronghold of Manner, north-western Sri Lanka; returned to England to write an acclaimed historical narration on an exotic island in the orient that was to become an European best-seller.

An Historical Relation of Ceylon written by Robert Knox & published in 1681

Although a considerable number of enlightening historical narrations of Ceylon during the colonial era had been published by Europeans [Dutchman Fr.Philip Baldaues in 1672- Description of the Great & Most Famous Isle of Ceylon; Portuguese Captain Joao Ribeiro in 1685-The Historic tragedy of Ceila; Portuguese Fr. Fernando Queroz in 1688- The Conquest of Ceylon; Robert Perceval in 1803- The Island Of Ceylon; James Cordiner in 1807-  A description of Ceylon; Anthony Bertolacci in 1817- Agricultural, Commercial & Financial Interests of Ceylon; John Davy in 1821-Interior of Ceylon; Major Forbes in 1840 - Eleven Years In Ceylon; Charles Pridham in 1849-An historical, political, and statistical account of Ceylon and its dependencies ; Henry Charles Sirr in 1850- Ceylon & the Cingalese; L.F. Liesching in 1861- A brief Account of Ceylon; Sir James Emerson Tennent in 1859- Ceylon; Sir Samuel W. Baker in 1890- Eight years in Ceylon; Major Thomas Skinner in 1891- Fifty Years in Ceylon, Robert Knox’s book too has still been held in high esteem.
However Knox had no knowledge of the island of Ceylon outside of the Kingdom of Kandy. Nevertheless, while escaping from Kandy, to Arrepa Fort at Manner, where the Dutch were in the business of Ceylon Pearl fishing, revenue of which was second only to that was brought in by export of Ceylon Cinnamon. Robert Knox, though in great haste on the run, hadn’t failed to narrate, during his voyage back to England, what he came across in a buried city of Ceylon in the lowlands: Anuradhapura, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on the bank of River Malwatu Oya.
Robert Knox writes-

“Here and there by the side of this river is a world of hewn stone pillars standing upright, and other heaps of hewn stones, which I suppose formerly were buildings; and in three or four places are the ruins of bridges built of stone, some remains of them yet standing upon stone pillars. In many places are points built out into the river like wharfs, all of hewn stone, which I suppose have been built for kings to sit upon for pleasure, for I cannot think they ever were employed for traffic by water, the river being so full of rocks that boats could never come up into it.”

Then again, it is specially interesting to note the description (it cannot get any better) of climatic seasons of the tropical island of Sri Lanka as narrated by Robert Knox;

“The one part of this island differs very much from the other, both in respect of the seasons and the soil, for when the westwardly winds blow, then it rains on the west side of the island, and that is season for them to till their ground; and at the same time, on the east side is very fair & dry weather, and the time of their harvest.
On the contrary, when the east winds blow it is tilling time for those that inhabit the east parts and harvest to those on the west, so that harvest is here in one part or other all the year around.
These rains and this dry weather do part themselves about the middle of the land, as oftentimes I have seen, -being o the one side of a mountain called Canragashing, rainy and wet weather, and as soon as I came on the other, dry and so exceeding hot that I could scarcely walk on the ground, being as the manner there is, barefoot.”

Robert Knox writes of the east side and the west side while he was still in the confinement of the Sri Lanka Holidays Central Highlands. He sounds more like a modern day Sri Lanka Holidays Tour Operator promoting the tropical island of Sri Lanka as an all season, all year round world class tourist destination. Reading above passage of Knox, I was taken aback by surprise. Marginal Comments by My Sri Lanka Holidays bunpeiris

Marginal Comments series by bunpeiris
Robert Knox & the Bible

Further Reading
w.badassoftheweek.com/selkirk.html
/libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/literary-classics/literary-classics.html
TRAVEL www.kurantour.cl/eng/index.php?contenido=robinson-crusoe
woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2010/02/18th-century-survival-alexander-selkirk.html

Read more »

DEATH OF A GENTLE GIANT

A gleaning from "Fifty years in Ceylon" by  Major Thomas Skinner:

Elephants are strange animals. I have seen many little traits of which I have never read any account in the books of natural history. One thing I noticed, that the larger and more powerful they are when fist captured and brought to the stables, the quieter and more docile they appear. The largest captured elephant I have ever seen was one of in the possession of Mr. Cripps, the Government Agent of the Seven Korales [1]; he was a full-sized animal, and yet he fed from our hands the evening he was brought in. He was very docile in his training until the day he was first put in harness, when he could not stand the indignity of being expected to draw a wagon. He dropped the shafts and died-the natives [2] declared of a broken heart. This was by no means a solitary instance of casualties from a like cause. I have had several animals in my own department [3] who have died when first put into harness, and who, apparently, had nothing the matter with them before.

Images: Ceylon Elephants transporting a boiler to a Ceylon Tea factory in the Central Highlands

Kandy to Colombo by a cart drawn by an elephant

Above images are by kind courtesy of  Lankapura 

http://lankapura.com/2008/06/elephant-transporting-boiler-tea/

Footnotes by bunpeiris
[1] One of the 21 divisions of the province of Kandy
[2] Sinhalese
[3] Public Works Department of British Ceylon
Major Thomas Skinner, CMB (1804 – 1877), upon his arrival at Trincomalee  by the  H. M. S. Liverpool in 1818, at the age of 14, was commissioned a second lieutenant in Ceylon Rifle Regiment and was ordered to take command of of detachment of the 73rd, 83rd and Ceylon Rifles to march from Tricomalee across the island, through Kandy To Colombo. There weren't roads in the sense as we call today; there were foot paths in the forests and wooded hills. Skinner, the British Child Soldier was destined to build roads in Ceylon.
Following the completion of Colombo –Kandy Road in the year 1832, Thomas Skinner had his name immortalized in the colonial history of Ceylon. In 1825 Major Thomas Skinner was appointed as head of the Colombo defense guard, in 1833 Lieutenant Quartermaster General and Surveyor General. In 1841, Skinner was promoted to Commissioner of Highways. “Fifty year in Ceylon” is Thomas Skinner’s autobiography published in the year 1891 by W. H. Allen & Co., London, U.K.

Read more »

SRI LANKA MAPS 1

Sri Lanka Map

SRI LANKA  IN A NUT SHELL TODAY by bunpeiris

Is there anybody in the island that can bring evidence from modern politcal history of ours that politicans have delivered what they promised? The only exception is Don Percy Mahendra Rajapakse: wiping out terrorism; end to the war. And Tamils wanted his head for that-gon rela joined them; USA wanted head his for aligning Sri Lanka with China- gon rela joined them and had the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka defeated on 8th January 2015 in the presidential race.

Who was the only man who stood against west; who was the only man who refused to be bullied by India, who was the only man who had a working relationship with India; who was the only man who had courage, tenacity, strategy, aggression and diplomacy to overcome all local and international oppositions and obstacles?
Who was the only man who renewed the friendship originated with Rubber-Rice pact that was carried out  half a century ago? Who was the only man who took the tigers head on?
He is the only LION of Modern Sri Lanka. He is the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka; he is the Prince Diyasena whose arrival was prophesied centuries ago and reminded in "Revolt in the Temple" by D. R. Wijewardena [Don Charles Wijewardene]. bunpeiris 21 December 2014

To the hell with Cost of Living, damn the corruption and wastage, blast the neopotism, I will still vote for him; he saved the island and nation from three decades of terrorism and war; he saved the island nation from Asia's Second Pol Pot.When the regimes that preceded couldn't have even a pond built, he had so much built and and goes on.It is zillion times better to be aligned with China than become a dog of the Western Countries hell bent to tear the island apart. bunpeiris 20 November 2014

See in an international perspective: weaker regime, stronger Tamil diaspora and western countries hell bent in breaking up Sri Lanka. Or you can see in the local perspective: has any of the regimes/party since those of D.S. and S.W. R. D. tried to solve the issue of cost of living; had any of the regimes/parties been free of corruption, wastage, malpractise and neoptism?
bunpeiris 15 December 2014

දේශපාලනය අමතක කරමු.. පක්ශ පාට වලට නොබෙදී එකාමෙන් එක් සිත් ඇතිව කුරගල මුදාගැන්මට දායක වෙමු....... එය අපේය...... අපගේ අභිමානය රෑකගනිමු.... පෙළගැසෙමු......
bunpeiris 22 February 2015 Now, you are talking.
Aren't you, who voted them ? Haven't you voted in the patriots devoid of racism? Haven't you voted in the saints free of corrupton? You will talk more and more like hell, cry like hell! By the way, how is Panui, Coriander Kottamli curry hodda, nagela yanwade?  Ane gon rale. USA, CANADA  UK, FRANCE, NORWAY, SWITZERLAND, TNA , TAMILS, T DISPORA WANTED THE HEAD OF RAJAPAKSE AND YOU GON RELA JOINED THEM.
Who betrayed King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe?
Who betrayed Weera Kappetipola?
Who betrayed Weerahennadige Francisco Fernanado Puran Appu?
Who betrayed Don Percy Mahendra Rajapakse THE HERO OF MODERN SRI LANKA?
You.

“Ah, what an age it is! When to speak of trees is almost crime. For it is a kind of silence against injustice."
To Posterity: Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Right, while we are talking about cricket, sanctions will be enforced by USA & UK against Sri Lanka for aligning with China (Yes, it has done) and exports to west will be dealt a deadly blow below the belt. Sri Lanka is bound to suffer an economic crunch. Meanwhile in spite of the INCOMING CASIONS THAT WOULD TEAR APART THE WHOLE SOCIAL FABRIC OF THE ANCIENT ISLAND NATION, heroin containers & alcohol containers caught red handed, corruption, bribery, malpractice, wastage, skimming the wealth of the nation on the Top Lombargini Gear, Mahinda Rajapkse will still remain the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka for saving the nation & island from 30 years of terrorism & war, 30 years of suffering at the hands of Pol Pot the Second, 30 years of suicide bombs & blood, 30 years of not knowing your son, daughter, father, mother would come back home alive after work. 

  The World Over Today

Such is the pathetic situation, the poet has no business with nature: time has come for him to speak of the ground reality of the humanity.

Such is the suppression, the novelist has nothing in common with love: time has come for him to speak of injustice.

Sri Lanka's banks have no shame

In front of the posh banks- national, international & state- are cheap banners calling the public to pawn their jewelry at the bank each one claiming higher advance for each gram of gold; claiming theirs are the lowest interest rate upon the loan given on pawned jewelry.

Once upon a time, banks used to extend pawning facilities only as an additional service to its clients in need. Today, the banks have taken up the role of pawn brokers too over and above the business of leasing motor vehicles.

The suppressed class is in such dire straits, survival depends on the remainder of its jewelry. People who once had decent living-economical conditions have now started to scrape the barrel. Meanwhile the hoard of buffaloes by the stream where Vidiya Bandara drowned Samudra Devi enjoy their pork barrel to the hilt.

  Perversion of Just Rule & Law

Quote the newspaper "The Island" of Sri Lanka, 5th December 2012: Financial Review
Since the mid 1980s Sri Lanka has given
completely tax free cars to elected rulers
tax slashed cars to state workers

while taxing ordinary citizens to a very high levels, in a perversion of just rule of law.

Unquote "The Island"

Local Transportation in Sri Lanka
The pathetic state of the government transportation has resulted in the increase of continued import of Indian Bajaj three wheelers -[used for  taxis]  in Sri Lanka creating chaos, creating  unbearably congested traffic in the main streets. The uncalled for factor of taxi fares has added further burden to the cost of living chaos of the suppressed class.Over and above all those, three wheeler taxis have made matters easier for hired criminals and drug pushers.

Tourism in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Holidays is on the rise. Yet industry needs to be improved in leaps and bounds.
Listen to the sexpertsCompared to Malaysia and Indonesia, Sri Lanka is currently 30-40 per cent higher in terms of the latter’s hotel charges, Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Mahen Kariyawasan said in an interview with the Business Times on Wednesday at his Nawala office.He noted that while Sigiriya would charge US$30 as entrance fees from visitors, Dambulla costs $25 and likewise for Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. But he pointed out that in comparison entrance to the Taj Mahal would cost only $15.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/130428/business-times/sri-lanka-costs-more-to-holiday-41974.html

Judiciary in Sri Lanka

Like most of the MIGHTY in Sri Lanka, the majority of Judiciary too choose and select what is BEST for them, not what is RIGHT. When the HIGH & MIGHTY says to those who got favors it's payback time, they cry Foul Play.

People are attracted to issues that concern them-not those that attract the fiefdom of a President or Minister or Parliamentarian or Judge or Lawyer. Experience has taught that dignitaries struggle to preserve their habitat of power and make it look, as if, it is for a cause...a cause, they try to make out, is for the people. Let's not fool ourselves; their cause is primarily intended in looking after them-selves!

Gomin Dayasiri, son of Neil Quintus Dias: The Island, Sri Lanka, 22 December 2012

Several lawyers who spoke to Colombo Telegraph stated that while they deplored interference with the judiciary, Kariyawasam should not have accepted a political appointment in the first place. He was first appointed as Chairman of Sri Lanka Insurance and later as Chairman of the National Savings Bank. Never in the history of Sri Lanka’s judiciary had a spouse of a judge of a superior Court accepted a political appointment, they stated.

“when you sleep with dogs, you have to get up with fleas” a former judicial high up stated.

 "It is not the masses who have to be held in check, but the parliamentarians and lawyers, so that they do not betray the masses"  

Rosa Luxemburg (1871- 1919) 

In Sri Lanka- parliamentarians, lawyers, politicians, media, judiciary and INGOs.

Sri Lanka's Skills, Wiles & Guile Honest Overwhelm India

6th April 2012. Sri Lankan Cricket Team, which has consistently been losing finalists in One day International World Cups & T20 World Cups, since winning the One day International Champions in 1996 under the captaincy of indomitable Arjuna Ranatunge at Lahore, finally triumphed  over India, with great death over bowling skills coupled with wiles & laced with guile honest to win T20 World Cup at Dhaka, in a fitting tribute to Kumar Sangakkara & Mahela Jayawardene, who retires from T20.

SEPTEMBER 2012 Sri Lanka lost to West indies in the T20 Cricket World Cup Final in Colombo.unlike to 1996 World Cup Wining team of Sri Lanka, the present cricket team of Sri Lanka cannot finish the job. Cricket is a game, but then loosing finals in a row, will not bode well for the game.

Perhaps the Sri Lanka Army can dish out a winning formula.

The south-western and southern coastal belts are teaming with with softball cricketers [natural stroke makers] who  lift the ball straight up overhead or six after six. All Sri Lanka has to do it get them into play the leather ball with gloves and pads. They don't need helmets and other battle armour.

Politics:
the world's most fearsome violator of human rights, the bomber of nuclear bombs, preach human rights to Sri Lanka. Foul play, to say the least.

On Russia Today television channel's interview Engdahl stated that the 2011 Egyptian Revolution was orchestrated by the Pentagon to facilitate Barack Obama's Middle East foreign policy and Egypt had turned to a worse situation after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. According to Engdahl "The ultimate goal of the US is to take the resources of Africa and Middle East under military control to block economic growth in China and Russia, thus taking the whole of Eurasia under control."He believes that the Arab Spring is a plan "(...) first announced by George W. Bush at a G8 meeting in 2003 and it was called "The Greater Middle East Project"."

Double Standards in US Foreign Policy vs Sri Lanka 

Ranking member of US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega on Tuesday (Feb 26,2013) expressed his deep concerns over the double standards applied in the US foreign policy toward Sri Lanka. 

SRI LANKA ASKS THE WORLD TO REFRAIN FROM BEING UNFAIR

Canada helping ‘evil forces’ with threat to boycott Commonwealth meeting, Sri Lankan envoy says

Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada said Sri Lanka needed support after facing “separatist terrorism for nearly three decades,” and ongoing post-conflict challenges.

“Notably certain separatist elements within the diaspora including in Canada, still continue to relentlessly disseminate anti-Sri Lanka propaganda and lobby political leaders and other decision makers,” said Wagiswara. “Hostile criticism and unfair targeting of Sri Lanka by Canada only serves to further strengthen the evil forces working against Sri Lanka and does not contribute in any manner to the ongoing rebuilding and reconciliation process in the multicultural society of the country.”
Wagiswara added that his country was looking to all members of the Commonwealth to “uphold principles of objectivity, understanding, mutual respect and the equality of sovereign states.”

May 2, 2013,

Education: commotion in higher education system
Local Railway Transportation System: unsastifactory.
Local Public Road Transportation System: Mihin Air needs to be closed down so that those funds can be to diverted for revival of local road transportation. Our country cannot afford more than Sri Lankan Airlines already in red.
Health Services: government hospitals being overcrowded, business makes it their day

Cost of Living: talk to the people -they are desperate.

Corruption: that began in the regime of Srima Bandaranayake had no intervals since then to this month.

At the helm in Sri Lanka:-
A nationalist leader with no fear. He loves his people of all races and loved by the majority of people of all races in spite of  the major deficiencies of the government. He is an unknown quantity to the west.

Development of the country: on, mostly in terms of cultivation and road construction.

Suicide in Sri Lanka

New official data shows that Sri Lanka still has one of highest suicide rates in the world, with almost 4,000 people killing themselves per year, or about 11 per day. Dr. Neil Fernando, who heads the country’s National Institute of Mental Health Promotion, released the figures in a Suicide Prevention Day seminar on September 10. The majority of victims, he reported, were aged 15 to 44.

Poverty, joblessness, high debt burdens and other social problems—the main factors behind the high suicide rate—are rampant throughout the country.

Ethnic harmony in Sri Lanka

Who tour in Jaffna? Sinhalese

Who visit the Tamil Sivar Restaurants most? Sinhalese

Who work with the Tamils side by side in Colombo? Us

Who buy from Tamil Gold shops in Colombo most? Sinhalese

Who are the main traders & sellers in Colombo: Tamils. Who are the buyers? Sinhalese

Who call Tamil school boys "Mallie" (Sinhala: younger brother)? soldiers of Sri Lanka Army

Civil Inequality in Sri Lanka
Different segments of the citizens are treated in such a way, those who have been fortunate to receive right royal treatment, demands for more; those who have been suppressed are given to shoulder more burdens. The government do change, modify, repeal, introduce new rules and new policies on taxes to suit its great mass of politician businessmen so that they could exploit the openings to get richer at the expense of the wealth of the country, the taxes on the masses, upon the sweat, tears & blood of the suppressed.
The rich get richer and richer; the poor get poorer & poorer. The poorer pawn everything they have so that they could buy bread without butter for the day. The banks have taken up the mass scale opening of pawn shops in every little bazaar. The gap between the have and have not go on widening as had been with the previous governments since regime of Sirima Bandaranayake.
In this context the current government is no better than any of the previous. And an incoming government, if any, would be worse.
Having said all these, as at present, given the western pressure on Sri Lanka and American plots to bring Sri Lanka to its knees, the patriots of the nation have no alternative but to support the president who saved the nation and its faith.
All you can do is work within the system, and suffer the system, though no one has the right to ask you that. bunpeiris

Law for the Rich Ends Up In Injustice to the Poor

 The law protects the rich and makes sure no justice is done to the poor.

SATURDAY, 09 FEBRUARY 2013 Justice Ministry Secretary Kamalini De Silva faulted the police and the acting Magistrate with regard to the unfortunate incident where a 13 year old school girl was produced in court by the Horana Police on charges of having stolen eight coconuts.Ms. De Silva said that in the first place the girl should have been referred to the Mediation Board instead of being produced in Court.
Meanwhile, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said according to section 367 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the case could not be referred to the Mediation Board as the girl had committed an offence for which police bail could not be given.
Mr. Jayakody blamed the media for giving “out of proportion publicity” to the incident.  EH!

FINANCE COMPANIES HAS BEEN PLUNDERING THE NATION SINCE 1988

The Central Bank fails to recover billions from 13 default finance companies 

Well documented evidence indicates that the CB has failed to recover the refinance facilities provided to 13 default finance companies during the period 1988 to 1994. While the total advances made to these companies amounted to Rs. 2.7 billion, the total outstanding balance as at December 31, 2004 amounts to Rs. 7.3 billion. 

By Wilson Gnanadass @ The nation / 02 July 2006

http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2621

Then there was the imposter racketter Sakviti [Sinhala: KING OF THE COSMOS] and then landed the

EMPEROR

Deshmanya Jeewaka Lalith Bhupendra Kotelawala [Honorary Degree as Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Sri Jayewardenepura]

In a hearing for bail at the Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate's court on March 27, 2009 Kotelawala was accused by Deputy Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanna of running a Ponzi scheme.

HERE LANDS THE KICKER: GOLDEN KEY: The misappropriation of 26 billion rupees of investments from the failed Golden Key Credit Company

Depositors of Golden Key at  the BMICH following the run-on and collapse of the so called financial institution.

It had been recommended that affairs of Golden Key Credit Card Company should be halted and further investigations should be carried out. However, the recommendations were not implemented under the present Governor Ajith Nivad Cabraal. In October, 2009 the company collapsed.
 As a result about 9000 depositors of the company lost more than Rs.26000 million.

The statement made by Ms. Shirani Thilekewardene reveals that had recommendations given by Mr. Sunil Mendis’ committee been implemented the loss to depositors could have been minimized.

lankatruth.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4405:central-bank-governors-role-in-golden-key-collapse-exposed-&catid=42:smartphones&Itemid=74

SRI LANKA MAP: CEYLON TEA GROWING ZONES The Finest Black Tea In the World, Ceylon Tea is produced in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA MAP: RIVERS, RESERVOIRS, RAMSAR WETLANDS, WILDLIFE PARKS

SRI LANKA MAP: ADMINISTRATIVE ZONES

SRI LANKA MAP: ROADS AND RAILWAYS

SRI LANKA MAP CLIMATIC ZONES

Read more »

bunpeiris

bunpeiris Google ID Card

http://www.mysrilankaholidays.com/

http://www.bunpeiris.com/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/110569678687165774561/110569678687165774561/about

http://www.my-srilankaholidays.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MySriLankaHolidays

https://www.facebook.com/bunpeiris

Read more »

Robert Knox & The Bible

Colonialists in British Ceylon; Robert Knox & The Bible; Joseph Stalin & The American church

I

IMAGE: Warrior King Rajasinghe the Second, (1629 – 1687), the third king of the kingdom of Kandy, Sri Lanka, who held a melange of Europeans captive (open air -closed kingdom prisoners) within the natural fortress of Kandy surrounded by hills and looped by River Mahawel Ganga; no way out.

I have never ceased to be amazed at the acute observation, precise analysis and sheer brilliance in writing brought to us by the multitude of British colonialists in British Ceylon (1796-1948). They weren’t professional writers: they were professionals from all walks of life: planters to soldiers; irrigation engineers to road builders. The descriptions of Ceylon, travel narratives, hunter’s stories, planter’s tales, biographical & semi autobiographical books narrated by the British in Ceylon and the Ceylonese British have now become colonial classics of Sri Lanka. Among the numerous publications, at the forefront are: An Account Of The Island Of Ceylon by Robert Percival, London, 1803; An Account of Interior of Ceylon by John Davy, London,1821; Eleven Years In Ceylon by Major Forbes, London,1840; Ceylon by James Emerson Tennent, London, 1859; The Wild Elephant by James Emerson Tennent, London, 1867 (dedicated to Major Thomas Skinner, the builder of Kandy Road); Ceylon by An Officer, Late of Ceylon Rifles,1876, London; Fifty years in Ceylon by Major Thomas Skinner, London, 1891; The Buried Cities of Ceylon by S. M. Burrows, London, 1905; Ancient Ceylon by H. Parker, London, 1909.

The serious students of English Language in Sri Lanka would do a world of good to themselves should they opt to read these classics since much could be derived from those works of prose in English Language. Furthermore it would open up opportunities to gain a wealth of knowledge of Colonial Sri Lanka.

Then again, In terms of learning English, one of the most fascinating lessons that can be learned by students of English in Sri Lanka comes not from those British colonialists, but from Robert Knox Jr.(1641 – 1720), who had been an open air captive in Kandy, Sri Lanka since 19 November 1659 for 19 years till his escape to England with Stephen Rutland, one of his companions in Kandy. Knox’s celebrated book “An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon”, was written during the voyage back to England in 1680 and was published in the following year. Robert Knox Jr. was only 14 years of age in the beginning of his captivity in Ceylon. From where did his proficiency of English Language come from?

IMAGE: Katherine Frank has a theory, whichhas sent her foraging across oceans in quest of wild geese and red herrings.She believes that Daniel Defoe based Robinson Crusoe not on the lonely ordealof Alexander Selkirk, a cantankerous buccaneer dumped by his shipmates on anisland off Valparaiso in 1704, but on the mishaps of Robert Knox, a tradertaken captive by a native chieftain in Ceylon in 1660. Following Knox's trail,Frank even travelled to St Helena, where during the 1680s the accident-proneKnox was again captured (for a few days only, which hardly makes his experiencecomparable with the 28 years Crusoe spends on his island) while attempting tobuy a cargo of slaves.

IMAGE:A Sinhalese translation of Knox's Ceylon by Premachandra Alwishttp://www.lakehousebookshop.com/pdesc.php?id=88

Of course, there were other British captives in Kandy, the gateway to the Central Highlands and all of them were allowed to communicate and interact with one another. Hence Knox wouldn’t have lost fluency in English at all. But then Knox’s fascinating narration, in no way plays second fiddle to a literary work of an erudite man of letters. It is true, that historian and biographer John Strype, Knox's cousin, helped him to prepare the book for publication. But then again, John Strype wasn’t a co-author at all. In the circumstances we can only deduce that Knox must have been reading the centuries old Bible in English, left behind by the Portuguese (1505-1640)  when they lost Fort of Colombo to the Dutch (1640-1796), that he laid his hands on soon after being taken captive, day after day for 19 years in Sri Lanka then called Ceylon.

http://www.lakehousebookshop.com/pdesc.php?id=1259

 Above is a historical novel written by a Sinhalese in Sri Lanka based on Knox's historical narrative.

IMAGE:  White langur (not albinos).leaping in the canopy of UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sinharaja Forest, was discovered by Wildlife Conservation Society, Galle (WCSG). Robert Knox as well as James Emerson Tennent have made reference to White langur in Ceylon in their literary works.

IMAGE: A gentlewoman in Ceylon  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14346/14346-h/14346-h.htm

An Historical Relation Of the Island CEYLON, IN THE EAST-INDIES: TOGETHER,With an ACCOUNT of the Detaining in Captivity the AUTHOR and divers other Englishmen now Living there, and of the AUTHOR’S Miraculous ESCAPE. Illustratedwith Figures, and a Map of the ISLAND. By ROBERT KNOX, a Captive there near Twenty Years.LONDON, Printed by Richard Chiswell,Printer to the ROYAL SOCIETY, at the Rose and Crown inSt. Paul’s Church-yard,1681.

Had Knox developed a habit of reading the bible daily during his captive years in Sri Lanka Holidays Kandy? The answer could perhaps be found in the appreciation expressed by Knox at the sight of Bible. It must be given in his own words:-

“The sight indeed of this Bible so overjoyed me, as if an angel had spoken to me heaven; to see that my most gracious God had prepared such an extraordinary blessing for me, which I did, and ever shall, look upon as miraculous; to bring unto me a Bible in my own native language, and that in such a remote part of the world-where His name was not so much as known, and where any Englishman was never known to have been before. I looked upon it as somewhat of the nature with the ten Commandments He had given the Israelites out of heaven; it being the thing for what whereof I had so often mourned-nay, and shed tears too-and than the enjoyment whereof there could be no greater joy in the world to me.

Joseph Stalin (1878 -1953), the dictator of Soviet Russia (1922-1952), who discouraged practice of religions in his land, in the year 1943, while dispatching Andrei Gromyko (1909 – 1989) to the post of second-in-command at Soviet Embassy in U. S. A., advised him to attend the Sunday Service at Church during his tenor so that he could make rapid progress in learning English language further.
"Comrade Gromyko you should pay a visit or two to an American church and listen to their sermons. Priests usually speak correct English with good accents. Do you know that the Russian revolutionaries when they were abroad, always followed this practice to improve their skills in foreign languages?"

Gromyko never did. But then, the serious students of English Language in Sri Lanka ought to heed the advice of late Stalin to late Gromyko. After all, Christian sermons are free of charge.
Marginal Comments are written by bunpeiris.

Read more »