Author Archives: thuppahi

About thuppahi

Sri Lankan and Australian nationality; student of Sri Lankan society and politics; sociology of cricket;
August 21, 2021 · 8:37 pm

USA Falls on Its Own Sword in Afghanistan

A friend in the Antipodes whom I shall call “A Modern Anzac” has provided a long-term appraisal of Western intervention in Afghanistan which questions the interpretation from Clive Williams as well as those voiced by former PM, John Howard, and by Greg Sheridan and others in The Australian newspaper [i]  In doing so, I have imposed by own highlighting…. Michael Roberts 

 A Modern Anzac

A = Frontal Challenge One

This kind of narrative belongs to a 1800s mindset of military thinking: it is outmoded and irrelevant to the 21st Century.

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August 21, 2021 · 12:21 am

Afghanistan Withdrawal: Trump Initiated, Biden Followed, Pentagon Unhappy ….

   Clive Williams in Email Note to Michael Roberts, 18 August 2021 *&*

President Trump made the political decision to withdraw and committed the US to a withdrawal schedule in 2020. President Biden followed through on that commitment. It was not a military decision. The US military could have stayed indefinitely. They had no fatalities this year and only nine in 2020, so it was a sustainable deployment. There was no prospect of defeating the Taliban militarily though without the cooperation of Pakistan.
State [i.e. the State Department] accepted President Trump’s decision, but the Pentagon was not happy about it, particularly because so much equipment had to be abandoned due to the accelerated withdrawal schedule.  The biggest mistake the Americans made was supporting corrupt Afghan political leaders who lacked popular support. The second biggest was not adequately monitoring and mentoring the ANSF. [i.e. = Afghan National sEcurity Force].
Clive
 Taliban fighters in Kabul on Monday. Picture: Reuters

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August 20, 2021 · 12:54 am

Horror and Terror in Kabul: Pictorials

No words  required!!

   

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August 19, 2021 · 2:00 pm

Walter J. May: A Marvellous Richmondite and Ceylonese

The Richmond Sixty Club & Others

Richmond 60 Club Wishes Walter J. May Happy Birthday, 8th January 2021 

A Sixty Club Publication 

MESSAGE OF THE 6O CLUB PRESIDENT

As the President of the Richmond 60 Club, I am happy to write a few words for the special supplement issued to coincide with the 92nd birthday of Walter J. May on 08th January 2021. 

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August 19, 2021 · 1:26 am

From Empiricist Conflation to Distortion: Caste in South Asia

Michael Roberts, responding in 1985 to a Review Essay by Susan Bayly of Cambridge University  on his book on Caste Conflcist and Elite Formation, CUP 1982

Susan Bayly** has done me the honour of reviewing the book on Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500-1931 at considerable length.’ Her essay is appropriately entitled ‘The History of Caste in South Asia’. This title provides a clue to the interpretative pathways which have led her systematically to misunderstand the arguments within the book. No less problematical is her implicit belief in the possibility of constructing a composite picture of the caste system qua system on the basis of empirical data drawn from different regions, regions as widely different as Sri Lanka, southern India and western India. Let me elaborate this charge, and in doing so reiterate the arguments which I presented.

Susan Bayly

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August 17, 2021 · 8:55 pm

Anecdotal Tit Bits: Making “The Bridge on the River Kwai”

Michael Roberts

ONE: The Theme Tune and George Siegertsz

The mainline tale about the production process in Ceylon in the composition of the outstanding film The Bridge on the River Kwai – a film based on an actual wartime commando operation involving the destruction of a bridge being built with POW labour by the Japanese war machine in Thailand – can be read at https://thuppahis.com/2021/08/02/kitulgala-and-the-classic-movie-bridge-on-the-river-kwai/

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August 17, 2021 · 11:56 am

Afghanistan’s Turmoil Replayed at Lords Cricket Ground

Michael Roberts

In my reading, the spirit of cricket was spiked and shattered at its iconic home-ground of Lords yesterday. Not only yesterday –the fifth day. IThe “spiking” occurred throughout the match  with (A) tailenders’ bombarded with headhigh short-pitched bowling by both sides; (B) verbal badinage and assualts — camouflaged as “badinage” and presented with smiles — from both parties; and (C) the spiking of the ball by Jimmy Anderson [according to one report] among the events on the ground.

Kumar Oh Kumar …. what future for “The Spirit of Cricket” talk you delivered during the famous COWDREY LECTURE some years back!

… https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/kumar-sangakkara-s-mcc-spirit-of-cricket-lecture-522183

….. https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/kumar-sangakkaras-spirit-of-cricket-speech-tugs-the-heart-3891

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August 15, 2021 · 1:48 pm

Dr. Cyril Paranavitana: An Appreciation from Many Hearts & Hands

Piyasiri Wickramasekara, Chandrasena Maliyadde and HMG Palihakkara ++

It is with profound sorrow that we, the class of 1968 in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Peradeniya, came to know of the untimely departure of our great friend Dr. Cyril Paranavithana (Parane), just two days prior to his 75th birthday (28 July 2021) in New York, USA. The warm
greetings intended for this landmark birthday event had to be hurriedly turned into heartfelt condolences.

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August 15, 2021 · 1:13 am

Sanga Rules at the Lords’ Cricket Establishment

News Item in The Island, 14 August 2021, with this headline “Kumar Sangakkara opens new Compton and Edrich stands at Lord’s”

MCC President and Sri Lankan cricket great, Kumar Sangakkara, officially opened the new £53 million Compton and Edrich stands at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Thursday (12), in front of the first full crowds for a Test match at Lord’s since 2019.

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August 14, 2021 · 12:58 am

Portuguese Nomenclature in Sri Lanka

Unknown Author** … in https://www.elanka.com.au/portuguese-sri-lankan-surnames-and-their-meanings-2/

The Portuguese arrived in Ceylon, or Ceilão, as they called it, by chance. In 1505, a fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida—the son of Francisco de Almeida, the first viceroy of Portuguese India—was blown into Galle by adverse winds. It was thirteen years later, in 1518, that the Portuguese established formal contact with the Kingdom of Kotte, ruled by Vira Parakrama Bahu, and were permitted to build a fort in Colombo.

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