Thuppahi's Blog

A News Item circulated by Victor Melder, one entiled “An enduring commitment to patient care”

Also recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours, is NSW Health Pathology immunologist, Professor Suran Fernando, who has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to medicine in the field of immunology.

As the inaugural Head of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Royal North Shore Hospital, Professor Fernando has helped build and shape services that directly improve patient care for people living with complex immune conditions including autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiencies, and drug allergies.

Professor Suran Fernando, Immunologist at the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy Royal North Shore Hospital.

Continue reading →

Uditha H. Palihakkara, whose original title in the Colombo Telegraph item runs thus:“The Flame That Shook A Nation: When Conscience Challenged Power”

Uditha H. Palihakkara

On 11 June 1963, an elderly Buddhist monk sat quietly at a busy intersection in Saigon and altered the course of history. More than six decades later, the anniversary of that event invites reflection on a question that extends far beyond Vietnam: “What happens when political power loses moral legitimacy?”

Vietnam on the Brink

History is often shaped by presidents, generals, armies, and revolutions. Occasionally, however, a single individual alters the course of events in a manner that no military campaign or political strategy could achieve. Such a moment occurred in Saigon on 11 June 1963.

The original inspiration by Thích Quang Duc in Saigon in June 1963 …. Imported from  https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/the-burning-monk-1963/

Continue reading →

Capt Gihan A Fernando …. an  article entitled “Mattala Airport: Wildlife and Posssible Solution” … with the highlighting here being the work of the author Gihan Fernando.

The Island of 20 May 2026 revealed the possible Indian investment in the ‘loneliest Airport In the world’.  Will the proverbial camel put its head inside the tent? This effort could be compared to flogging a dead horse!

That front page article by S Venkat Narayen mentions Mattala Airport being an ideal place for a flying school. The sad fact is that no wind pattern and turbulence studies have been carried out in the area. The turbulence is so great that even large passenger aircraft find the approach to land extremely turbulent.

Continue reading →

YES, Shehan … not Sanath ! … to be more precise I am referring to  Gampalage Shehan Naveendra De Fonseka Gunawarna Jayasuriya, a left-hand batsmen from Prince of Wales moratuwa wgo also bowls right arm off spin,…Michael Roberts

A Facebook Item …. ……………….source reference misplaced …maybe https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c802e7jk458o …. with highlighting being the hand of The Editor, Thuppahi

French Villagers just called Pete Hegseth “persona non grata” and demanded he stay home from D-Day ceremonies.

Pete Hegseth made the trip to Normandy, France for the D-Day anniversary — but residents of Langrune-sur-Mer made clear he was not welcome. Locals and civic groups in the small coastal town publicly declared him unwanted before he even landed, releasing a pointed statement demanding his visit be canceled outright.

http://www.rarehistoricalphotos.com

Continue reading →

Niyas Raskin in Facebook

The Alumni Association of University of Colombo organized a felicitation ceremony today (June 2nd) to honor Dr. Kumari Jayawardena, who has made an incomparable contribution to the transformative development of the social, political, intellectual, and academic fields of our country. Dr. Kumari Jayawardena was one of the pioneers of Sri Lanka’s feminist movement and her role as a public intellectual, as an academic and her political journey have contributed to revolutionize the labor and women’s movements in the country.

Continue reading →

Michael Roberts

The Nowak Killing and the seeming police failures in its immediate aftermath is cause for reflection. A violent black man was believed and a dying, voiceless white man left to whither away. To what extent one can generalise beyond  this tale to trends in the police establishment in Britain is amoot point.

However, as I lived in Britain for four years in the early 1960s and had sisters who resided in the Brixton-Streatham areas of London …..and visited them every now and then in  subsequent decades — I can tell the younger generations in the world today that this kind of police failure would have been unthinkable THEN. For a Blackie –whether West Indian, African or Asian — to be taken at vocal face value in such a scenario was extremely unlikely. The coloured man who was assailant, Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh migrant from India, is now under arrest. But it is the initial Police failure that I am marking here.

Continue reading →

Greg Sheridan in THE AUSTRALIAN, 6-7 June 2026 via ………………………………. https://wentworthreport.com/2026/06/06/henry-nowak-death-the-left-is-to-blame/ … where the title reads: “Henry Nowak death: The left is to blame”

The death of 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak is as terrible as anything you’ll ever see. … Nowak is not even given the dignity of being hated or abused. There is just utter indifference to him, the cold, bureaucratic hand of identity politics, which has delivered us not into a land of racial justice, but into Dante’s Inferno, the fourth circle of hell. …

An accusation of racism was more important than murder, and the desperate need for first aid. …

Continue reading →

Michael Roberts 

The British  Empire was carved out over the centuries by intrepid adventurers aided by the weaponry developed in the British Isles and anability to organize their power to maximum effect. When pursuing my interest in cricket and taking in a Sri Lankan cricket match in my beloved home town of Galle on …., I met two intrepid Brits of the modern era, Nick White and Danny Byrne (see photo at Galle taken by me).

Yes …………..  two dinky-die Brits; both cricket nuts. But Danny outdoes Nick. He has invested a good part of his time in recent years travelling on local transport (and a few readers know full well what this means) and watching cricket in all manner of sites in India and Sri Lanka. His latest remarkable move has been to the match played at Dharamsala where a new venue was christened at Chandigarh in Mohali District in the Punjab (see ……………………….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja_Yadavindra_Singh_International_Cricket_Stadium).

Continue reading →

Arthur Saniotis & Michael Roberts:  “Empowering the Body and ‘Noble Death’,” .… a reprint of an article pubd in Social Analysis, Volume 50, Issue 1, Spring 2005, 7–24 © Berghahn Journals

Facing death with equanimity and with a honed, trained body is an expression of sheer power.1 When a group of like-minded individuals confronts an oppositional force with equal mental and bodily capacities, whether on a sports field or in a warring conflict, the result is power compounded. Each article in this special section ‘confronts’ such powers. Together they explore several regionally specific projects in Asia in which dying for a cause is seen as a virtue.

There are several parts of Asia where social practices and cultural traditions have consciously nourished bodily empowerment. In these select yet dynamic traditions, mind and body are conceived as a unity. Attentiveness to cosmic powers is an integral aspect of disciplined ascetic practices that seek to harness bodily energy in maximal ways. These practices confront death. They are directed toward transcending the fear of death—and death itself. When they are inserted into a moment of violent conflict involving interpersonal combat, they encourage a steely, terrifying fearlessness as well as deadly striking power.

Continue reading →