Andrew
Fidel Fernando, in The Cricket Monthly at ESPN, in 2014, where the title is “The lost boys of Jaffna” … [with two ‘contemporary’ Pix added by the Editor, and some highlighting of the text imposed ….. Thuppahi]
Tiger “boys’ guarding the shoreline …maybe early 1990s 
Kids play on the St John’s cricket ground in Jaffna, 2014
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, meditations, military strategy, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry
VISIT https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/83263 ………………. Michael Roberts. Oral History Project : 303
154 interviews by Michael Roberts of retired public servants who had served in Sri Lanka (mainly in the Ceylon Civil Service), politicians and other notables.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
In re-establishing communication with two old Mertonians of the early 1960s generation at my College in Oxford, viz, Tony Roberton and Keith Shuttleworth, I have been induced to reflect upon my unusual circumstances as a postgraduate at Merton and Oxford. Apart from being one of the few Sri Lankans in that University,[1] I happened to be (A) engaged in postgraduate work which demanded research at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane in London, and (B) a colonial visitor with the asset of two sisters domiciled in London.[2] This meant that, every now and then, I spent part of my term-time in London on research-work by hitchhiking directly to White City and its tube station on the Monday and returning on the Friday.
Merton Rugger Squad circa 1964 with Tony kneeling on the right and Keith on my right in the last row standing
Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Filed under accountability, communal relations, cultural transmission, fundamentalism, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry
Muttukrishna Sarvananthan completed his postgrad studies in Wales and was attached to the ICES in Colombo when I met him for the first time. When subsequently coming to grips with the contentious political issues associated with the ‘liberation war’ pursued by the fascist organisarion known as the LTTE, I found that ‘Sarvi’ sustained his indepenedence. At thatstage he had one foot in Point Pedro and another in Wellawatte (the later being my home base arena) … so I did meet him off and on. When in late 2011 I decided to question Rohan Gunaratne’s absurdly low figures on civilian Tamil deaths (at a talk at the British Council). it was to such personnel as Saravananthan, Narendran Rajasingham and Noel Nadesan that I turned to for alternative estimates in this nebulous arena…. See “The Tamil Death Toll in Early 2009: A Misleading Count by Rohan Gunaratna,” 23 November 2011, http: transcurrents.com/news-viewa/archives/6285 …. Michael Roberts
Filed under island economy, life stories, literary achievements, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Tuley de Silva
Raj de Silva has been a very successful civil engineer, who has earned several international accolades for his contribution to some landmark civil engineering projects overseas. Lost in Retirement and Other Stories is his first contribution to the literary world.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Jolly Somasundram, whose chosen title is “The Banana Republican: A Churl’s Last Stand”
Nothing made him so despicable, as his manner of not conceding.
To concede or not to concede, that is the question.
Whether, ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows
Of a stolen, outrageous electoral scam or, take proactive action against
Big media, Big tech, Big pharma, deep state, trying, by opposing them,
Finally to end their hegemony. Then sleep in the entitled White House
For the next four years, to enjoy pubic governance, heart aches,
And delicious thousand thrills that the flesh is heir to;
‘Tis a consummation devotedly to be wished.
Rail, Rail against egregiously cast of hora votes and the jilmaat.
For who, except I, could attend to the whips and scorns of our times
Oppressors rights, my predecessor’s contumely- he thinks
A Nobel Prize (which I disdained) is everything- the pangs of unrequited love,
The insolence of office. Who would better bear the whips and scorns of these times,
The impudence of NATO, WTO, WHO, living on US subventions but abusing the US?
Show all of them the finger! Only I have the guts to do so.
I am the Greatest, better than Alexander in military matters, superior to Shakespeare,
A more elevated thinker than Plato, by far the better speaker than Lincoln.
I am a stable genius. Why should I concede to a stolen election won by fraud?
Apologies “Hamlet”
Letter from Errol Fernando to Michael Wille, 28 November 2020
Dear Michael, ….. Your letter reminds me of one of my most life-changing experiences–the day my father took me to the P Saravanamuttu Oval to see Bradman ! Dad had been talking for months about the traditional one-day match against Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles and my 8-year-old heart was pounding as we entered the stadium and found our seats. There was a roar when we heard that Australia would be batting and we settled in our seats when Barnes and Brown walked out to bat.All this,of course, was simply going through the motions and all we wanted was for one of them to get out. Eventually the umpire co-operated by giving Brown out LBW– a shocking decision because the sharp in-swinger from Sathi Coomaraswamy was missing the leg stump by miles! Nobody cared because this was the instant we were all waiting for.
Coomaraswamy beats Bradman
Filed under art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, British colonialism, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, performance, pilgrimages, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
A chance finding during my sojourn with Moninna and Ranjit Goonewardena in Galle Fort in July/August 2015 introduced me to the visit of Tony Blair’s family to Sri Lanka in August 2015 ….. See https://thuppahis.com/2020/11/22/tony-blair-and-family-in-galle-mid-august-2015/ As we all know, in 2015 the Yahapālana govt indulged in an about/turn (with US backing) and joined the HR lobbies by saying ‘mea culpa’ at the UNHRC Sessions in Geneva in March/April that year. This programme overturned the presentations pursued earlier by Dayan Jayatilleke and Tamara Kunanayakam under the Mahinda Rajapakse dispensation. Kunanayakam’s competent representations in 2011 earned the undiluted ire of Eileen Donahue (the American ambassador at the UNHCR) who even threatened Kunanayakam verbally on the phone: “we will get you!”.[1] Internal machinations within the Rajapaksa camp, apparently involving Sajjin Vaas Gunawardena and a Ministry staffer Kshenuka Seneviratne, led to Kunanayakam’s displacement a little later.
Donahoe 
Samaraweera at UNHCR sessions in 2015
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Stephen Wertheim
Reproduced here is a sub-section from Wertheim’s review article in the 4th quarter edition[1] of the Journal of Genocide Research in 2010 (without re-deploying his footnotes). This section focuses on the Pullitzer Prize winning book by Samantha Power (2002) and argues that its programme resembles shades of the “civilizing mission” associated with European and Evangelical agencies during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Here, with and within Samantha Power, the mission of “humanitarian intervention” was vested solely in US arms and feet ……..…. thus, not in the UN or any other agencies.
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thuppahi
