Aubrey Joachim

Down musical memory lane … on Alive 90.5 FM Reminiscing the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s music scene in Colombo. – By Aubrey Joachim “You can take the Sri Lankan out of Sri Lanka, but you cannot take Sri Lanka out of the Sri Lankan”. So said Pam Rajapaksa – host of Lankan Fusion an interesting radio show on Alive 90.5 FM when she and I sat to reminisce the music scene of Ceylon in the bygone years. Reminiscing the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s conjures in every Sri Lankan of that era the halcyon days when life was a breeze in a country that offered so much. Many Lankans who now live in countries across the globe can only pine over those days and refer to Ceylon as a one-time paradise on earth over a drink or a meal. While that era is a kaleidoscope of memories, what stands out most ...

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A Christmas Evening. A night to remember! – By Aubrey Joachim Last Sunday evening a full house of some 225 people were enthralled when they were taken back 2,000 years to re-live the story of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Sri Lankan New South Wales Catholic Association’s annual Christmas event was held at the Polish Church and hall in Marayong. The evening commenced with Holy Mass after which the statue of the Baby Jesus was processed from the church to the hall to commence the Nativity enactment on what is – this year, the 800th anniversary of the Nativity scene. St. Francis of Assisi had the first nativity scene in a cave near Greccio in Italy. The Nativity scene was created by St. Francis to re-create the landscape of Bethlehem – where Jesus was born some 1,200 years prior. Ever since, the Nativity has become a part ...

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Taking lessons from the colonies ……… A failed British PM is parachuted into a plum role. Sounds familiar? – By Aubrey Joachim The game of cricket originated in South East England and became the established sport in the country in the 18th century. The English foray into foreign lands saw the spread of the game globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. The English took their beloved game to all their colonies and lauded their skill at the game over their colonist subjects. They were the masters of the game they invented. Fast forward to the 21st century and the very same English are being given a lesson in the game they were once invincible at. How things have changed. Colonists being given lessons by their colonies! Cricket however does not seem to be the only game where the English are taking lessons from their colonies. The craft of politics ...

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A half century of Sri Lankan prominence… fast fading? – By Aubrey Joachim Last evening the Sri Lanka Association of New South Wales (SLA) held its Annual Winter Ball at the plush Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney. It was also the formal celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Association. The premier black-tie Sri Lankan event in Sydney saw some 300 attendees including a number of past presidents and their ladies grace the occasion. The SLA was formed in 1973 when a small group of Sri Lankan professionals came up with the idea of forming a community of interest to foster and promote togetherness among Lankan diaspora in Australia. While Ceylonese had been migrating to Australia in reasonable numbers from the 1950’s –  even greater numbers chose to do so in the 1960’s following the socio-political changes and language / ethnic upheavals that ostracized some groups that made up the rich ...

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Seeds – dying to live. – By Aubrey Joachim An International Class Sri Lankan movie portraying true incidents from 475 years ago bearing close resemblance to the current times. Martyrdom has been a part of Christian history from very early years since inception of the Christian faith. A martyr is a person who is willing to sacrifice their life for a particular belief or for spreading their faith against specific sentiment. The first recorded martyrs were Christians murdered by Emperor Nero in AD 64 for their firm Christian beliefs and teachings. Since then, over the years many thousand Christians are killed each year across the world for the same reason. Martyrdom is almost always a very gruesome form of death. In recent years, various terrorist groups have carried out publicly portrayed gruesome murders of mainly followers of the Christian faith. Christianity is the only religion where its followers believe that ...

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As Holy Week begins Christianity is hijacked by false prophets. – By Aubrey Joachim With 2.4 Billion followers on the planet – 31% of the global population, Christianity is the most populous religion in the world. Of this number 50% – 1.2 Billion, are Roman Catholic which by itself would be the third largest religious group equal with Hinduism. The foundation of the Christian Faith is that God sent his only son Jesus Christ to earth, taking a human form to save humanity from the consequences of sin. While Christianity itself is just over 2,000 years old with the formal establishment of the Church, the historical lineage of Jesus Christ goes back a further 1,000 years to King David and several other Biblical figures and prophets who preceded Him. Christianity originated in the Middle East from where it spread across the whole planet. Jesus Christ was a Jew having been ...

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Will the elation be short lived ? – By Aubrey Joachim There was dancing and jubilation in the streets. Firecrackers were lit in the suburbs. It was reminiscent of 1996 – when Sri Lanka’s national cricket team won the World Cup. Actually it was March 20th 2023 the day the ‘lender of last resort’, the International Monetary Fund – IMF – finally approved its life-line to the country a year after it defaulted on its loans and bonds. The 3 Billion Dollar loan is merely a trickle of what is needed and will just about keep the patient alive on life support. It is being drip fed in 9 tranches over 4 years, subject to strict conditions that the IMF will closely audit and scrutinise every 6 months. This is the 17th time that Sri Lanka has obtained an IMF rescue package – most of the previous have been aborted. ...

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Mind your language. It divides! – By Aubrey Joachim Nineteen Fifty-Six was a watershed moment in the history of Ceylon – now Sri Lanka, when the government of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike passed the Sinhala Only Bill as the first act of the new government of a leader who at the time could hardly speak the Sinhalese language. The Christian educated ‘silver-tongued-orator’ of Oxford had passed his senior Cambridge examinations with distinctions in English, Latin, Greek and French. No Sinhalese for this aristocratic son of Ceylon. However, at an election rally in Polonnaruwa in late 1955 Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (SWRD) Bandaranaike promised the masses ‘Sinhala – in twenty-four hours’. Thus the division began and the domino effect still goes on – wherever in the world Sri Lankans congregate. Language is defined as a means of communication between humans by way of speech, writing or gesture. It is ironic that while language ...

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With India on the rise Sri Lanka can only rue the lost opportunities! By Aubrey Joachim Another Indian – Ajay Banga, former CEO of Mastercard has been nominated by President Joe Biden to head the World Bank. This gentleman joins a cabal of Indians who lead the world’s most prestigious organisations from Microsoft to Google, IBM to Cognizant. In fact, 27 of the world’s most successful companies are headed by Indians. This is only the top tier. Thousands more are waiting in the wings. Some of these foreign educated young professional types are also running India Inc. Most of India’s States are run and managed by foreign educated, experienced middle aged technocrats. The cabinets of some of the States reads like a who’s who of Harvard, Stanford or Wharton. It is not therefore a surprise that today India has emerged at the top of the changing world order. It is ...

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Sri Lanka’s entertainment scene comes of age …… By: Aubrey Joachim Despite the economic doom and gloom, power cuts, political uncertainties and external creditors playing hard ball the resilience of Sri Lankans is on full display. Not only do the hotels seem thriving with partying and dining clientele but even world class water parks are being opened in the outskirts of the capital. Such fanfare would not be on display in other countries languishing the similar credit rating index as Sri Lanka. What is most heartening to see is how the country’s arts and entertainment sector is literally taking centre stage with seemingly not a care in the world. In recent years the boom in reality shows has resulted in an entirely new generation of Lankan talent emerging from every corner of the island. In addition, the digital platforms have seen such talent flaunting their capabilities across the world and ...

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