Thuppahi's Blog

Chaminda Wariyagoda, presenting an item in FACEBOOK by Withanage Don  Gunaratne

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Desert Wanderer, responding to the  Facebook item ……. https://www.facebook.com/reel/995471963451341

Talks with President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian • President of Russia

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Item in  the DAILY Mirror, 25 June 2026

Buddhist monks from the Gangaramaya Temple clean the banks of Beira Lake during a joint environmental cleanup campaign organised by the Gangaramaya Temple, the Colombo Municipal Council, the Urban Development Authority and the Jinarathana Technical College in Colombo on June 25, 2026. The cleanup of Beira Lake and its surroundings was carried out under the supervision of the Chief Incumbent of the Gangaramaya Temple, Dr. Kirinde Assaji……  Pix by Pradeep Pathirana

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Truth is King

 The Australian’s 25 June editorial, titled ‘Deal and the despair of the Iranians’, offers a delusional critique of the recent MoU signed between the US and Iran. It pushes a rigid ideological agenda by amplifying the deal’s flaws while completely burying the geopolitical context that necessitated it.

By evaluating the ceasefire purely through the lens of human rights and domestic Iranian politics, the editorial frames the 14-point MoU as a “betrayal” simply because it lacks democratic mandates. It weaponizes emotional rhetoric—such as the “despair of Iranians,” “morally wrong,” and “strategically misguided”—to indoctrinate Australian readers rather than inform them. Their goal is to funnel readers into an ideological echo chamber.

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Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 26 June 2026,  where the title is different and no highlights occur

Dhananjaya de Silva‘s 120 off 168 deliveries formed the centrepiece of Sri Lanka‘s fighting batting efforts on day one of the Test series against West Indies. Sri Lanka lost three wickets in the first hour, Kemar Roach breaking through in the first over of the game, before Alzarri Joseph struck twice in three balls in the 10th over.

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        Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo,com … 24 June  2026, where the title runs thus: “Athapaththu ton revives SL’s semi-final hopes” 

Chamari Athapaththu celebrates her 58-ball century  •  ICC/Getty Images

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Anonymous participant in the Sri Lankan Planters (SLP) Official FB page, 8 June 2026 , where the title reads : “The Untold Story of Mahaiyawa Cemetery”

A silent colonial history resting beside the busy streets of Kandy …For anyone entering the city of Kandy, Mahaiyawa is more than just a name or a location. It is a bustling area known for heavy traffic, a railway crossing, and constant activity. However, just a few steps away from the busy road lies one of the most significant chapters of Kandy’s history, resting quietly and largely forgotten. This is the story of the Mahaiyawa Public Cemetery and the history buried within it.

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Michael Roberts

An EMAIL Exchange with Vinod Moonesinghe recently prompted me to search for relevant literature and I came across this text from my hand in People Inbetween (1989, Sarasavi Publications, page 111).

“In brief, in the 1900s and 1910s the literati who engaged themselves in English drama developed no synthesizing link with the Sinhala theatre which was flourishing at the same time in and around the Tower Hall in Maradana, Colombo. The latter, as we know, had some awareness of the Western theatrical traditions [81]. Our speculative point is that the fertilizing influence, such as it was, moved in one direction only.

Gananath Obeyesekere & Haig Karunaratne …. & Haig at Talk Podium

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VAIBHAV SOIRIYAVANSHI smashes  94 runs from 29 balls as India A maul Sri Lanka A at Dambulla …

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Vox Populi

Wow Michael, what a fascinating set of reflections relating to the definitions of genocide and pogrom…. referring here to the TPS essay, viz https://thuppahis.com/2023/07/26/reflections-my-engagement-with-the-pogrom-of-july-1983-in-sri lank/#:~:text=Reflections%3A%20My%20Engagement%20with%20the,living%20and%2For%20working%20in%20the

I find myself in complete agreement with you. We live in an age of genocide inflation or concept creep, where the definition of a word expands so broadly it loses its original meaning. To call the July 1983 violence a genocide is inappropriate; if left unchecked, we would indeed be forced to “invent another concept” just to describe much more extreme, systematic atrocities.

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