History’s Many Shades

History, as espoused by governments may be quite different to what is told in private, Shyam Selvadurai, the curator of the HSBC Galle Literary Festival (GLF) told reporters on the eve of the festival opening on Tuesday.
Selvadurai a Sri Lankan Tamil who studied at Royal College, Colombo, left the country to Canada in 1983, the year in which the riots targeting Tamils broke out.
He said that GLF was a learning experience for budding authors and lamented the fact that there was no such festival in his youth.
Among a few authors who will be at GLF of whom he spoke of was Ms. Aminatta Forna, whose mother was Scotch and father from Sierra Leone. Forna’s father a politician was hanged for exposing corruption in Sierra Leone, said Selvadurai.
GLF which got underway on Wednesday concluded today.
In a bid to make it more broadbased, to allow the indigent and the deprived too to enjoy GLF, a select number of students from the north and south (including teachers from the north) were allowed to participate at the festival, with the authors attending GLF which is being held in Galle, been flown over to Jaffna during the tenure of the festival, to speak to their Northern audience.
Entrance to GLF is by ticket. It’s being held for the sixth consecutive year.
HSBC CEO Sri Lanka and Maldives Nick A. Nicolaou in his speech said that HSBC is also the chief sponsor of the Oxford Literary Festival. He said that the 146 year old Bank has 7,400 offices in 87 countries and territories.
Netherlands Embassy’s First Secretary Jaco Beerends in his speech said that GLF is becoming more business like, like their country’s relations with Sri Lanka. He forewarned that Netherlands will soon withdraw their sponsorship as GLF was becoming more self sustaining.
“We don’t have any development budgets for Sri Lanka, I take it as a compliment,” he said.
British Council’s (BC’s) Country Director Tony Reilly said that with 24,000 members, the island was BC’s single largest global network. BC too is a GLF partner. Norwegian Embassy’s Counsellor/Development Head Ms. Dagny Mjos was of the opinion that GLF was another tool towards reconciliation.
In the previous festivals the audience numbered some 3,000; but this year they expect more with the Southern Expressway being on stream.