Thuppahi's Blog

Michael Roberts 

Happenchance helps does it Not? A chance remark on web led me to one of my books entitled FIRE AND Storm. Essays in Sri Lankan Politics …. which was published by Vijitha Yapa Publications in December 2010. This step led me to another of my essays  that was presented in the SRI LANKA GUARDIAN on the 15th August 2010 … with this title:  “Ethnic Identity in Sri Lanka’s Pre-Capitalist Past: Shanie, Darshanie and Roberts.”

This old venture … in my biased view ,,,, provides good foundations for REFLECTION and DEBATE today. So, let me generate a reprint.

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Larry Marshall in Dialogue with Revd  Ven. Galkande Dhammananda ...in Item presented by PANSHU on July 2026 with this title “Where Does One Belong? The Burghers Who Carried Sri Lanka With Them” 

Harendra Alwis, presenting the “Speech Dr Martin Wickramasinghe as Chief Guest at the Trinity College Kandy Prize Giving of 1971″

On the seventh of February 1971, Trinity College, Kandy held its ninety-ninth Prize Giving. Lakshman Wickremesinghe, Bishop of Kurunegala, took the chair. The chief guest was an eighty-year-old man from Koggala who had had less than five years of village schooling, who had left home at fourteen to look for work, and who had taught himself English well enough to read Darwin, Freud, Malinowski and Berriedale Keith — and well enough, more remarkably, to leave the language alone when he came to write. He had by then written Gamperaliya and Viragaya. He was the moral centre of Sinhala imagination. He had come to the great missionary school in the hills to defend the memory of a ScMMartin Wickremasngheottish missionary who had died eight years earlier in 1963.

Martin Wickremasinghe

  Fraser and his wife

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Nick Beake at BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wyv383j2xo.... with aid from Chris Graham

HEADLINE =“Spain battles to contain one of its deadliest wildfires as at least 12 killed”

Hundreds of firefighters in Spain are still battling to contain pockets of flames in the south east after one of the country’s worst-ever wildfires. Emergency services have been deployed around the village of Bedar where 12 people have been killed – among them four Britons, according to Spanish authorities. Another 23 people are still missing.  Local officials in the Los Gallardos area of Almería have warned the number of dead could rise, with fears that more Britons are among those killed. A sustained heatwave with temperatures of around 40C (104F) has caused wildfires across Southern Europe this summer, particularly in France, Portugal and Spain.

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Matt Roller in ESPNcricinfo, 11 July 2026

Its status globally may have diminished but Test cricket still reigns supreme in England. After a wretched few weeks on and off the field which culminated in Ben Stokes’ retirement and a 2-1 home defeat to New Zealand, even a comprehensive T20 series win over world champions India is hardly likely to convince the average fan that everything is suddenly rosy.

But as Harry Brook put it on Thursday, after cracking an outrageous 79 not out off 35 balls to put England 3-0 up: “It might have changed the mood a little bit.” It was barely ten days ago that Brook was roundly chastised after his harebrained, nine-ball 21 at Trent Bridge; now, his successful leadership of England’s T20 side looks like an ideal pitch for the Test captaincy.

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Reprinting a FOOTNOTE MEMO presented in 2022 ……………………. ………… https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/12/michael-roberts-a-partial-bibliography-1965-1999/

Thank You, MURALI. May I return the compliments IV by telling the world about your honesty in reportage, your bravery in difficult conditions in 2008/09 during the Eelam War in its last stages. It was fortunate for me that we had met briefly at a luncheon in the academic Sanjay Srivastava’s house in New Delhi in 1995. I presume that initial interaction encouraged you to approach me for articles when I arrived in Colombo in mid-April 2009? …. Though the invitation may also have been facilitated by the fact that your boss in THE HINDU and FRONTLINE, the redoubtable N. Ram, had met me briefly then in Delhi and earlier at the ICES in Colombo.

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Michael  Roberts 

The information  and  Thoughts  presented here  have been  prompted by PHILIP  SANSONI’s excellent book THE LAST  STAND  (2025,Case ID 1-14944717771)  presented earlier in this website: namely, ….. https://thuppahis.com/2026/06/11/philip-sansonis-last-stand-in-kandy-reaches-the-world/ …. & ….. …. https://thuppahis.com/2026/06/12/reflections-on-sansonis-last-stand-in-kandy/

Quite remarkably AI provides a Capsule Sketch  of this work

AI Overview

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Ruki Fernando: “Refugees and Asylum Seekers Face Intolerance and Hostility in Sri Lanka” in https://groundviews.org/author/ruki/

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 Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd]

The land locked country that maintained ‘nuetrality’ inspite of being  surrounded by the Axis powers and Axis annexed / occupied territotries during the war

Switzerland during WWII (1)

Introduction

During the war, under the pan-Germanist Neuordnung doctrine**, detailed plans were drawn up by the German military command to invade Switzerland (and Liechtenstein); Operation Tannenbaum, on two occasions, one in 1940 and the other in 1944.   Switzerland during WWII (1)                                

German plans for the invasion, occupation, and/or annexation of Switzerland & Liechtenstein, dated 1940 and March 1944

  In August 1939, sensing Hitler’s intention to go to war in Europe,  the Parliament quickly selected the 61-year-old career soldier General Henri Guisan to be General (commander in chief) of the Swiss Armed Forces. He was given the directive to safeguard the independence of the country and to maintain the integrity of Swiss territory.

PIX ….. Guisan sworn in as general before the Federal Assembly, in the chamber of the National Council at the Federal Palace, in Bern, 30 August 1939

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ICC Test Rankings ….. https://www.cricinfo.com/rankings/icc-team-ranking

Last updated on 07 Jul 2026

Position	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	Australia	24	3138	131
2	South Africa	19	2256	119
3	New Zealand	22	2336	106
4	India	26	2714	104
5	England	32	3158	99
6	Sri Lanka	16	1222	76
7	Pakistan	16	1205	75
8	West Indies	24	1783	74
9	Bangladesh	21	1539	73
10	Zimbabwe	13	217	17

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