In 2016, few graduates passed out from Jaffna thought of starting a WhatsApp group for moral and social support. This was for those who passed out from Jaffna University who were actively involved in the FOCUS ministry during the 1990 period.
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(Chapter 2 of Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission (1996; Rev.Ed. Wipf & Stock, 2016))
“What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?”
- Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time 1
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Uploaded by : Amalan Premkumar
In 2010, a learned professor at the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania cross-examined the case for global warming argued by what he called ‘the climate establishment’ led by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He charged that the IPCC and ‘the climate establishment’ showed ‘a systematic tendency … to oversell what is actually known about climate change while concealing fundamental uncertainties and open questions regarding many of the key processes involved in climate change’.
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About my father : George Perera
George Perera was an Arts graduate from University of Peradeniya. He and his wife Aruni were active members in GCF in the 80’s and 90’s . George passed away in 2013. This article was written by his daughter who was a FOCUS student at that time and published in the FOCUS student magazine.
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Sharmila Benedict Thayalan [1961-1990]
Sharmila Benedict, a Bio Science graduate from Peradeniya, graduated in 1985. She married Thayalan, an Engineer, also from Peradeniya, in 1989. She died on 5th December, 1990, a few days after giving birth to their child, who also died within a few days of being born. At the time of her death, Sharmila was a teacher at Bishop’s College.
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Uploaded by : Sharmini Wickramaratne
Sudharshini Gunaratnam (1975-2000)
Sudharshini Gunaratnam, President of University of Colombo Christian Fellowship (UCCF) in 2000, and a young member of the Graduates Student Fellowship (GCF) died in a road accident on August 10th, 2000, just one day after her twenty-fifth birthday. ‘Sudha’ as she was affectionately known, had a great influence on many people of her generation in Focus.
Jasmine Obeysekere describes her as someone who had a zest for life, loved laughing, prayed and planned and worked hard as a student leader.
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Remembering Uthum Herat who when he died in 2009 after a brief illness was Deputy Governor, Central Bank
Sermon preached at Uthum’s funeral service by Priyan Dias (schoolmate and friend) Sunday 25 October in the Chapel of the Transfiguration at St. Thomas’ College
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth
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Unfortunately we measure the value of life by quantity and not quality,’ said the priest at the remembrance service of a dearly loved friend of ours. She was thirty one years old, had a 2 year old child and had recently moved into a newly built house with her beloved husband. She suddenly fell ill and in three days, she was dead. Died in her husband’s arms.
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Vettivelu Ratnarajah (1962 – 1997)
Ratnarajah was a Pera DC member who was working as a Civil Engineer in Trinco in the 1990’s. He was killed in 1997 in a bomb blast at the opening of a new school building in Trincomalee that he had helped to build.
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