Thuppahi's Blog

Shreshth Shah in ESPNcricinfo, 14 May  2026

Fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana lasted just eight balls on his debut for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2026, leaving the field after some discomfort to his hamstring during the second innings against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Kolkata.

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An ITEM in eLANKA Web Page, 14 May 2026, entitled “Sri Lankan Australians: The Strategic Business Bridge Connecting Australia and Asia”  ….8 Min Read   … Views: 180

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A NOTE From THE EDITOR, THUPPAHI

From unknown reasons and/or my incompetence, I cannot locate the Web-Reference for this item or the date. However this is the first in a seres of posts which will feature Bruce KAPFERER who I interacted with closely from the early 1970s; and who was the ‘force’ that gave me a job in the Dept of Anthropology, Adelaide University in 1978. I have taken the liberty of highlighting ‘key’ elements in this reveiw. I willalso be adding other WEB Items and a personal tale on this dynamic figure in the world of scocial science.

Details

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Lorenz Pereira

The population of Earth is around 7.8 billion. For most people, it is a significant figure. However, if you condensed 7.8 billion into 100 persons, and then into various percentage statistics, the resulting analysis is relatively much easier to comprehend. Out of 100: 11 are in Europe. 5 are in North America 9 are in South America 15 are in Africa. 60 are in Asia.

49 live in the countryside 51 live in cities

70 have mobile phones. 30 do not

30 have internet access. 70 do not have the availability to go online.

83 can read. 17 are illiterate.

34 are Christians. 23 are Muslims. 12 are Hindus. 7 are Buddhists. 12 are other religions. 12 have no religious beliefs.

26 live less than 14 years Wow! 66 died between 15 – 64 years of age. 8 are over 65 years old.

If you have your own home, Eat full meals & drink clean water, Have a mobile phone, Can surf the internet, and have gone to college, You are in the minuscule privileged lot.

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Sandee Oster, presenting an article entitled “Northern Sri Lanka’s oldest confirmed settlement reshapes what archaeologists thought about early island life” .…at ………..  https://phys.org/news/2026-05-northern-sri-lanka-oldest-settlement.html…. 

A study published in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology has identified the earliest evidence of prehistoric occupation by island dwellers of northern Sri Lanka. Long thought to be unsuitable for human occupation due to its scarce stone resources and semi-arid landscape, the findings at Velanai Island challenge this long-held belief and offer insights into early raw-material exploitation, seafaring capabilities, and subsistence behavior.

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Michael Roberts …. reproducing an Article in ELANKA dated 16 December 2022 and entitled “Disappearing Burgher Surnames in Island Lanka-by Michael Roberts”

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Michael  Roberts  conveying Senaka Weeraratna’s Latest Protest concerning  DRS

SENAKA is not backward in  presenting his demand again and again. Here he deploys one “Roberts” in his support. However let me stress that I am NOT an authority on the topic and that my decliining memories at this stage in my life renders me an unreliable foundation for this topic. I suspect that this will NOT prevent Senaka from beating this drum ….. over and over again …. maybe even to the  point of self-defeating repetition!

SENAKA’s POST

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Michael Roberts, venturing into the STATS in his Website to ascertain items that received HITS  one day in May ….. and discovering Items he did know to exist!

• The Parsi’s of Sri Lanka: A Small but Vibrant Community
• Beyond Imagination – Chandra Schaffter’s Life of Servi

• Eduard Hempel Flourishes in Galle and Lanka

• The “Colombo Bharathas”: A Merchant Community

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Rohan Gunaratna’s recent security analysis presented in Thuppahi represents a deeply biased, methodologically flawed interpretation of contemporary global conflict. In pulling back the layers of a self-proclaimed independent academic, we can see his deep ties to the Singaporean university establishment and, by extension, the state security apparatus. Rather than offering an objective exercise in counterterrorism, his work functions as a calculated piece of state-aligned propaganda designed to advance a specific pro-Israeli and pro-Western ideological agenda. Gunaratna frames a new “third stream of terrorism”—allegedly driven by Iranian state-sponsored propaganda—by weaponizing isolated incidents, such as the 1 March 2026 mass shooting in Austin, Texas, perpetrated by Ndiaga Diagne. His proposed solution relies on heavy-handed state surveillance and the aggressive censorship of social media platforms by tech conglomerates. However, this thesis fundamentally misreads history, utilizes language as a weapon of propaganda, and operates within a closed geopolitical vacuum that ignores the structural architectures under which Gunaratna himself operates.

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Hiran Hewavisenti in FB

The rumour mill is busy at work with DDS expected to retain the test captaincy and Kusal Mendis all but appointed to lead the two white ball squads – and lately, news that Kamindu Mendis is being considered as vice captain of the test and T20 sides. Which leaves the job of deputy of the ODI team pending, with Charith or Pathum being frontrunners to fill it?

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