Thuppahi's Blog

International Crisis Group: An Assessment …. https://www.crisisgroup.org/rpt/asia-pacific/sri-lanka/356-sri-lankas-bumpy-road-political-reset

What’s new? Almost eighteen months into its term in office, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) government has kept Sri Lanka’s economic recovery on track and made notable efforts to fight corruption. But it faces growing questions about its ability and commitment to achieve its bold promises of “system change”.

  Why does it matter? Dissanayake’s election in September 2024 and the NPP’s subsequent parliamentary majority created a rare opening to address the country’s most important and intractable governance problems. Failure to achieve a substantial portion of their ambitious agenda threatens to open the way to a return to ethnic tensions and political authoritarianism.

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Sumanta Sen, Pasit Kongkunakornkul, Sam Li, Lewis Jackson and Colleen Howe, in article in Reuters.com entitled  “How China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz,” 

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Item in The Island Newspaper, 18 April 2026

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Darini Rajasingham Senanayake, whose article is entitled  “America’s Waterloo in the Indian Ocean? Imperial Overstretch and Energy Colonialism in the Fog of War” ++

The United States Armada seems stranded halfway around the world in the Indian Ocean whose energy trade routes it seeks to blockade to stymie Asian economies amid the fog of war on Iran. In the western reach of the vast Indian Ocean (IO), far from home bases in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the American Armada assembled against Iran is spilling blood and treasure that the US can ill afford.

South and Southeast Asia, and China, the workshop of the world, are global growth hubs at this time. Perhaps President Trump reckons that by starving these economies of fuel and fertilizer from West Asia he may “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), and shore up the exorbitantly privileged Petrodollar? The oil backed US greenback’s global reserve currency status is under pressure given America’s whopping 39 trillion deficit and the rise of the Chinese Petro Yuan.

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Report from Alagappen Muttu in  ESPN, 19  April 2026,…with  this headline “Malinga, Reddy sink CSK chase to defend under-par 194 in Hyderabad”

Overton 3-37) beat Chennai Super Kings 184 for 8 (Mhatre 34, Malinga 3-29, Reddy 2-31) by 10 runs

Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled a victory out of nowhere thanks to four unheralded bowlers taking the smallest chance given to them. Three of Chennai Super Kings‘ own unheralded bowlers might have been their inspiration. In an IPL season full of runs, the oppressed finally became oppressors.

After the first powerplay, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster had the first innings total reaching 237. Jamie Overton, Anshul Kamboj and Gurjapneet Singh prevented such nonsense. CSK were given a target of 194 and needed 84 off 60 balls with seven wickets in hand. They should have pulled off their first 190-plus chase in eight years.

Second-half Malinga is the best-kept secret at SRH

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Avishka Mario Senevratne in Facebook, April 2026, where the title runs thus: “When an imposter took the UN by storm as Sri Lanka’s “Foreign Minister.”

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A Lankan Reefcomber … provoked by Brig Ranjan De Silva’s Article in TPS dated 18 April 2026

The debate surrounding global governance is frequently reduced to a sharp, binary contrast between Western “democracy” and Eastern “autocracy.” However, these categorisations often rely on outdated tropes that overlook the nuanced ways in which power and dissent actually function. While critics frequently claim the United States offers a superior model of freedom compared to Russia or China, a closer inspection reveals that this “freedom” is often a refined facade. Furthermore, when applied to nations like Sri Lanka, these arguments frequently descend into chronological fallacies, driven by a diaspora perspective that is frozen in time.

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Brigadier Ranjan De Silva in USA now  …. responding to QUESTIONS raised & POSITIONS  taken in an Item within this SITE from  Jonathan Manz dated  April 18th, 2026 which is entitled  “Is the World Moving Towards a ‘One-World’ Dictatorship of the Oligarchs?” ... with highlighting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

Is Trump’s conduct demented, as portrayed? ………Neither demented nor portrayed. Trump is trying to remove once and for all the  existential threat to the rest of the world from the ideological designs of the Ayatollahs.

Or, are the Republicans, and the Democrats playing out a charade to hoodwink the world and the American people by working towards a ‘One-World’ Dictatorship’ of the Oligarchs as was planned at Bretton Woods in 1944?…. Pure conjecture of the author.

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Dash De Soysa

The controversy at Panadura or the Panadura Vadaya, which had its beginnings in 1873, may be considered a cornerstone of the modern society in which we live today. It is not a symbol of fanaticism but a landmark in the social transition which this island has undergone. 

The western engagement with Sri Lanka moved from curiosity and trading in the sixteenth century to dominance and exploitation in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries before autonomy and independence in the twentieth century. Portuguese, Dutch and British colonialists brought various forms of Christianity of which Roman Catholicism has proved the most enduring. Inadvertently they revived Buddhism and helped create the religious foundation for the modern state of Sri Lanka.

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