COURTESY of A Concerned Sri Lankan in UK
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Author Archives: thuppahi
Economic Warriors welcomed by Bio-Warriors …. Today
Priya Cooray
Notwithstanding the fact that it could have been done much earlier, it is still commendable on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka to recently approve a limited number (50) of overseas workers to return in every Srilankan Airlines Cargo flight. Sri Lankan Foreign Missions and the Expatriate Associations in the Middle Eastern countries had relentlessly pursued the Government for approval. Even though it is only for those who pay to be quarantined in hotels, it significantly reduces the pressure on queued up demand to facilitate special repatriation flights.
Filed under accountability, coronavirus, discrimination, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, medical puzzles, meditations, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
A Medical Duo’s Forensic Study of Death in War
“Mortality associated with use of weapons in armed conflicts, wartime atrocities, and civilian mass shootings: literature review,”
9 Aug 14;31999(7207):407-10.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7207.407.
- PMID: 10445920
- PMCID: PMC28193
- DOI: 10.1136/bmj.319.7207.407
Free PMC article
Fidel Castro’s Visit to Harlem New York: The Political Ramfications Deciphered
Thomas Meaney, in London Review of Books, Vol. 43 No. 3 · 4 February 2021: reviewing book by Simon Hall entitled Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s, September 2020,
Faber, 276 pp., £17.99, 978 0 571 35306 4
It would hardly be possible, Eric Hobsbawm once said, to imagine rebels better designed to appeal to the New Left than Castro and his comrades. Despite occasional sneers from Third World elders (Nasser dismissed them as ‘a bunch of Errol Flynns’), Western liberals were just as infatuated as radicals. The New York Times published an admiring three-part profile of Castro from his hideout in the Sierra Maestra in 1957, when he was still a revolutionary newt. Two years later, after his forces swept through the lowland cities, triggering a series of popularly assisted uprisings that shattered the sclerotic regime of Fulgencio Batista, adulation came from all quarters: letters of congratulation from US congressmen, rights requests from Hollywood, invitations to ‘Dr Castro’ to address Ivy League undergraduates. ‘My staff and I were all Fidelistas,’ the Cuba desk officer of the CIA recalled.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, foreign policy, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, Left politics, life stories, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Sink Holes. That Sinking Feeling! Cave Diving
Natsumi Penberthy, in Australian Geographic, 28 April 2010, where the title runs thus: “The new extreme: Underwater cave diving”
CAVE DIVERS BRAVE TIGHT spaces, confusing tunnels and all the inherent dangers of taking a mammalian body underwater – just to float through some of the last lost worlds.
The Murder of Lional Silva by the JVP in 1984
Sanjeewa Karunaratne, whose favoured title is “Stories from Sri Lanka’s Civil War – Lional Silva“
During 1984-89, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (“JVP”) or People’s Liberation Front launched a clandestine attack against the Government of Sri Lanka. Since its fighters were mingling among the public, the military and its militia groups were struggling to cope with this invisible enemy. As a result, spies were everywhere—one wrong word, move or contact may bestow a gruesome death on top of a burning tire. It may be an “in-kind” response to the JVP, whose piece of paper was enough to close down an entire city; and who did not hesitate to execute a school principal, government servant, singer, politician, or an ordinary person who disobeyed their orders, in front of their loved ones. It was a crisis of epic proportions and a very uncertain time in the country.
Filed under atrocities, authoritarian regimes, education, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, Left politics, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
A Lament: The Geneva ‘Games’ and Lanka’s Failures
Sarath Gamani De Silva, in The Sunday Island, 26 February 2021, where the title runs “Problems in Geneva: Facts that brought us here””
The annual patriotic taunts and the laments of the majority are heard as the day of reckoning approaches in Geneva. We are shouting ourselves hoarse, complaining that the whole world is ganging up against the brave Sri Lankans, to punish them for eliminating the most brutal terrorist outfit the world has ever seen. It is true that what was achieved in 2009 is something that no other country could do in eliminating terrorism. But does that guarantee peace when the basic grievances that led to civil unrest over the years have not been addressed?
This article is not an attempt to justify violence, untruth or deplorable and unprincipled activities of other countries. Nor is it to devalue the achievements up to 2009. The intention is to open the eyes of my own countrymen to the reality of the hopeless situation facing the nation.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, language policies, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Three Aeroplanes. Two Crashes. One Escape via Native ‘Ingenuity’
Capt. Elmo Jayawardena
The present-day sky is crowded. Airways crisscross above continents and oceans and are severely congested with all kinds of aeroplanes carrying passengers and cargo. Then someone crashes, people die, and we say “What a shame!” The manufacturers start defending their aeroplane, the insurance companies look for loopholes to creep through and save their bacon. Of course, there is always the ever-present ‘pilot error’ verdict to take the final blame. That is what happens in air crashes and crash causes. The dying or the surviving is seldom man-made. It is all done upstairs and has little to do with what we deduce from what we know or hear. I’ve seen enough of the sky and what happens in it to figure that out.
The UNHRC and US Agenda in Critical Perspective
Raj Gonsalkorale in Daily FT, 25 February 2021, where the title runs thus: “UNHRC What is the real agenda?”
The US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken seems to give an indication as to what the real agenda behind his and his country’s support for this resolution. [the UNHRC one]. He speaks of “lack of accountability for past atrocities”. This statement implies that atrocities were committed if there is to be accountability for them.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, doctoring evidence, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, prabhakaran, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, world events & processes
