Tony Abbott: The Quintessential Australian Windbag on the Global Stage

Desert Wanderer

SEE https://youtu.be/iUeics0Au2E?si=BIHHyRTYhJFA8DyT

Talking about Palki Sharma: why is she interviewing a rat like Tony Abbott?
This program is described as a ‘rational thinker,’ but it is irrational, bad thinking that wouldn’t pass a stage 1 critical thinking course.  Abbott reveals himself here for the clown he truly is. He forcefully declared Donald Trump is “doing some very important things that absolutely need to be done,” such as starting an unnecessary, illegal war that shut down the Strait of Hormuz,  and destroying the global economy.

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 25:

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S.J.V. Chelvanayakam’s Career reviewed by GL Peiris

Professor GL Peiris  … at https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/opinion/S-J-V-Chelvanayakam-Visionary-and-statesman/172-338795 …. with this title: S.J.V. Chelvanayakam: Visionary and Statesman”


 He consistently showed courage and capacity for endurance
Chelvanayakam first contested the parliamentary election of 1947
He never flinched when taking tough decisions
During the disturbances in March and April 1958, Chelvanayakam was charged in the Magistrate’s Court in Batticaloa and sentenced to a week’s imprisonment. He was also subject to house arrest, but he never resorted to violence and used satyagraha to make his voice heard
When, in 1961, he was medically advised to travel to the United Kingdom for surgical treatment, he had to be escorted to the airport by the police because he was still under detention. Although ailing during his final years, he lost none of the indomitable spirit which typified his entire life

S.J.V. Chelvanayakam KC Memorial Lecture Delivered at Jaffna Central Collage on Sunday 26 April  2026 .…. by Professor G. L. Peiris D. Phil. Peiris is  an(Oxford), Ph. D. (Sri Lanka); Rhodes Scholar,Quondam Visiting Fellow of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London; Former Vice-Chancellor and Emeritus Professor of Law of the University of Colombo.

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An Assessment of Palki Sharma’s Wide-Ranging Review of Today’s Political Economy …..

Lanka Reefcomber, …. with highlights subect to the Editor’s iinterventions ….

Watching PALKI SHARMA’s You Tube Presentation was of absorbing interest. I remember this journalist from her time at WION, primarily for her long-standing promotion of the ‘China debt trap’ narrative in Sri Lanka—claims that have since been debunked. This history suggests a clear bias against China. Furthermore, while she is described here as ‘calm,’ calmness is not a virtue in itself; even figures like Donald Trump can appear calm, but look at what that calm demeanour has produced. It is the underlying intention and content of character that truly matter.

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Gunapala Malalasekera in Impressive Speech in USA in 1963

From FACEBOOK …. reference disappeared in FB F…g mnner

On April 27, 1963, Professor Gunapala Piyasena Malalasekara/මහාචාර්ය ගුණපාල පියසේන මලලසේකර (1899-1973), who was then Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, delivered a speech to approximately 200 invited guests gathered at the LBJ Ranch—the private residence of then-Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson.⁣⁣

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. ⁣⁣

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Sharma’s Discerning Analysis of CURRENTS IN TODAY’s WORLD

A speech from Ms PALKI SHARMA sent to me by Asoka Kuruppu of Queensland ………. 

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Hong Kong’s Cutting Edge in the World of AI Power

Brian S. Wong, whose preferred title is thus: “Hong Kong can advance AI beyond the confines of geopolitical rivalry”

As emerging markets chart their own destinies regarding artificial intelligence, the city can serve as a nexus for responsible governance

There is a tendency to portray the global artificial intelligence (AI) landscape as consisting of two bitter rivals – China and the United States. The remaining 80 per cent of the world’s population, by virtue of their supposed dearth of scale, research and other critical overheads, are purportedly followers with no agency.
The reality is more complex. The emerging global AI order is neither unipolar nor strictly bipolar. Instead, it is characterised by a swathe of middle powers hedging their options and optimising their interests against the backdrop of dominant players on either side of the Pacific. That was my primary takeaway from the inaugural Hong Kong Global AI Governance Conference.
In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Malaysia and Singapore are positioning themselves as critical hubs for data centres and semiconductor manufacturing, engaging with industry leaders in China and the US. Europe has ploughed ahead in imposing guard rails against the immensely powerful nascent technology.

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Scholars For LANKA

Michael Roberts

 Dear Scholars for Lanka

 Coming across a few copies of the pamphlet series SSC PAMPHLETS, that is Studies in Society and culture, printed tin the early 1990s by Hari Hulugalle at 85 Ward Place in Colombo in league with Willa Wickramasinghe and myself, I have been stirred to move beyond tales of that endeavour to embrace the contributions of several venerable scholars who have passed away after providing us with a BODY of KNOWLEDGE.

Willa

Such outstanding scholars as Ralph Peiris, Howard Wriggins, SJ Tambiah, Gananath Obeyesekera, S. Arasaratnam, Karl Goonewardena, AJ Wilson and James Jupp are no longer with us, but their work remains as a body of testimony. And as something more: foundations for continuing endeavours to unravel facts and trends in societal transformation.

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Deconstructing the Australian Bias in the Hartcher-Selinger-Morris Analysis

Cameleer, reviewing the YOU TUBE propaganda video https://youtu.be/vEaIo190GmI?si=DEj4kgipnJcd0Xj- ….. with Highlights being the intervention of the Thuppahi hand

The recent analysis provided by Peter Hartcher and Samantha Selinger-Morris regarding West Asia and the conflict in Ukraine is less a balanced geopolitical assessment and more a curated Western narrative. Their commentary relies on historical omissions, linguistic framing, and a selective application of “moral outrage” that undermines their credibility.

An a vector illustration of mouse eating cheese.

In the Framing of the “CRINK” myth, Hartcher employs the derogatory acronym “CRINK” (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea) to personify an “Axis of Upheaval.” This framing suggests these nations are the sole agitators in global instability while positioning the US and Israel as passive, innocent actors. In reality, a realist geopolitical perspective suggests that these nations are forming a strategic counterweight to decades of Western interventionism. To claim this “axis” is the cause of upheaval ignores the documented history of US-led regime changes and regional destabilisation.

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A Review of the Book ‘Forces and Strands in Sri Lanka’s Cricket History’

Binoda K. Mishra, … reviewing the booklet Forces and Strands in Sri Lanka’s Cricket History, by Michael Roberts, Colombo, Social Scientists’ Association, 2006, 64 pp., 21 photographs, bibliography, Rs. 300 (paperback), ISBN 9559102826 ++

Cricket brought to Sri Lanka the reputation of, and a genuine recognition as, a nation. The rationale for such an observation is the infamous reputation Sri Lanka has earned due to decade-old ethnic rivalry and insurgency that has threatened the concept of nationhood in the country. The World Cup triumph in 1996 and the heroic performances before and after that event have put Sri Lanka prominently not only on the sports map but also on the political map of the world in a positive sense. But the story of the rise of Sri Lankan cricket is not a normal rags-to-riches story but is filled with events that in some sense correspond to its political history. Michael Roberts’ work presents this interesting story of Sri Lankan cricket. Written in the year 2004, the booklet recapitulates, albeit briefly, the entire history of the game on this country. It is a vivid description of the evolution of cricket in the former colony of Britain. Throughout the evolutionary history of cricket, the author finds a clear reflection of the socio-political situation of Sri Lanka.

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Longing for Home

Nihal D Amerasekera **

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

 Be it ever so humble,

there’s no place like home!”

by John Howard Payne (1823)

Deep within each of us is a longing for home. Soon after I arrived in the UK in the early 1970’s I experienced the gnawing pain of homesickness. After several months the grief, sadness and distress of homesickness gradually waned and disappeared. I was left with an occasional yearning to return to my roots either physically or mentally.  The latter being just a daydream or a nocturnal dream in my sleep. Longing for home, or homesickness, is a universal and wistful yearning for a familiar place we belong. Homesickness is defined as a feeling of longing for one’s home during a period of absence from it. If there is no anxiety or unhappiness it is not a sickness. It is just a longing for home which is a normal phenomenon. Perhaps it is a feeling common to all emigres living in exile. They all have the freedom to return home if they so wish.

 

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