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A Bharatha in Arizona
Monday, 11 January 2010 13:50
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Aaron Fernando Wrote to blink.lk after reading the story on the 'Bharatha Christmas bash'. He is born to parents of Sri Lankan origin and presently studies at the University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. Aaron was in Sri Lanka last year for six weeks during his Summer holidays.
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The US has finally relaxed the Sri Lanka Travel Advisory which says that the stability of the Southern and Western areas of the country has improved.
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blink.lk may be just 4 ½ months old but we are about to celebrate our first 1000 hits for a story.Our most popular story, ‘Trading Insults on Facebook’ ... is now on its 993rd hit.
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It's raining heavily in Colombo, some roads are closed and traffic is down to a crawl. This picture was captured early Wednesday morning by Chrishantha Jayasinghe.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:40 )
Kittens found home
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 14:56
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After nearly a week of looking to be adopted, Patches and Pebbles are doing fine in their new home.
They had grown so attached to each other it was decided that they couldn't be seperated, so they got to keep each other as well...
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There is always a fear when experimenting with a new style that one may get more brickbats than boquets. And that’s a risk we at blink.lk take. Since our stories do not fit into the framework that people are generally used to when consuming news.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 September 2009 17:47 )
Will Immigrants in the UK be forced back Home
Friday, 07 August 2009 14:04
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Immigrants in the UK are facing tough times as the British Home Office makes it clear that the Government is giving skilled-job preference to resident workers over overseas workers, Sean Stephens a Sri Lankan immigrant who completed his degree in Journalism at a London University writes to blink.lk.
Author of “The Burghers” J.B. Muller writes to blink.lk
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 08:46
He says the second book he has embarked upon ‘Journeys from the West’is a social and cultural history: A book in four volumes that explores the European origins and previous circumstances of the virile and energetic Burgher Community on the Island of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.
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The first Europeans to arrive on the Island to trade, convert, marry and settle down were from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries, led by intrepid Portuguese pioneer explorers. The first book is the Portuguese Period from 1505 to 1658, which explores the compelling reasons that the human trash in the cities, destitute and pitiable rural peasants, and despised minorities such as the Sephardic Jews, ‘volunteered’ to man the caravels, galleons and other vessels for the perilous journeys to the then strange and mysterious Orient
Into the Unknown
Viewed in the context of the first decade of the 21st century, embarking upon these journeys was tantamount to volunteering in this day and age for a manned mission to the planet Mars and even more dangerous because no captain or steersman knew for certain wither the currents and winds of the oceans would take them, where they would land, when that would be, and whether the inhabitants would be friendly or hostile. It was a journey into the great and frightening unknown by people who were ignorant, illiterate, terrified and superstitious and who had undergone bitter oppression and fearful persecution, extreme want and deprivation, and many who faced the prospect of a painful death on the fiery pyre as many before them had been burned alive.
This book, all four volumes, is about the indelible social and cultural contributions made by the Burghers to their homeland and the example set by their European progenitors to enrich this Island in innumerable ways, many of which are listed alphabetically for convenience, such as, for example: Attire, Buildings, Cuisine, Dance, Education, Furniture, Language, Names and surnames, Religion, Town Planning, and so on. The most eminent authorities have been cited to substantiate statements. Perhaps there are many other areas that escaped the author’s attention for which sincere apologies are tendered the discerning readers.
Close encounters of the 443 Kind
Those who reached the shores of the Island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) were survivors par excellence and here they found safe haven: A sanctuary of eternal summer, refreshing breezes, and an incomparable hospitality that welcomed this motley crowd with unfeigned honesty. In that encounter, all of 443 years, was born a vigorous hybrid people that reflected the best of the East and the West in a joyfully harmonious blend that is truly unique and that’s why this story is told lest we forget for: “The heritage of the past IS the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.”
The appellation ‘Burgher’ was given this people of European origin and of mixed descent by the British after they took over the Maritime Provinces of the Island of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) from the Dutch authorities of the United East India Company [Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie] in 1796 as the English East India Company treated these people as a ‘political community’ distinct from the indigenous inhabitants.
Blink People 
Aaron Fernando Wrote to blink.lk after reading the story on the 'Bharatha Christmas bash'. He is born to parents of Sri Lankan origin and presently studies at the University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. Aaron was in Sri Lanka last year for six weeks during his Summer holidays. 
