Category Archives: anti-racism

In Appreciation of James T. Rutnam

Sachi Sri Kantha, whose preferred title is James T Rutnam (1905-1988): Noted Bibliophile and a Valued Mentor” with the highlighting in colour being impositions from The Editor Thuppahi

Introduction

My destiny to meet and interact with James T Rutnam came in the aftermath of the August 1977 anti-Tamil riots. Previously, I had written a little about the anti-Tamil riots that engulfed the island then, and my initial attempts to make a grade as a writer in English. [Please check this link. https://sangam.org/s-p-amarasingam-1977-anti-tamil-pogrom/].

I wrote to Mr. S.P. Amarasingam, the editor of the Tribune (Colombo). At that time, I was unaware that James Rutnam was an influential contributor to the Tribune, since its inception in 1954.

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Fermenting Divisions, Favouring the Mighty … in the North & the East of Lanka

Tisaranee Gunasekara in Financial Times 2 April 2025 …. where the title reads “Cauldron-stirring time, again?” … while the highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi [with a caveat noted at the end of this presentation]

 “Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble…

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.” – Shakespeare in Macbeth

In the run up to the 2019 Presidential election, there was Muhudu Maha Viharaya. While Candidate Gotabaya, reassuring in his moderate mask, did the kovil and mosque rounds, his official and unofficial surrogates busied themselves stirring the extremist cauldron. In the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya, Muslim extremists are destroying statues depicting the Buddha’s eighty great disciples, social media posts claimed. These statues, built by the Rajapaksa administration in 2013, are being razed to the ground under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration in 2019. If that Government is re-elected, the same horrendous fate will befall the Samadhi statue, the Tholuwila statue and the statues in Gal Viharaya.

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A Jewish American Lass Condemns Israel

Sent to me by my Peradeniya Uni Mate, Gamini Seneviratne …. HANNAH EINBINDER’S Passionate Protest & Her Condemnation of ISRAEL’S Genocidal Warfare ….. & …….. SHE is Jewish American

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Gananath’s Manifold Reach: Many Voices in Vale

IT is a testament to Gananath’s openness and skills that personnel from so many walks of life have stepped up to record his influence on their thinking and lives. May he dwell comfortably in his after-life. ….. Michael Roberts

A Female Voice in Facebook, March 2025

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Prof Gananath Obeyesekere. Much will be written about Prof Obeyesekere’s contribution to academia in the coming days. He was a giant in the field and one of the most well-known and respected Sri Lankan intellectuals.

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Slaughter of Palestinians …. Again

A Sri Lankan American, in an Item entitled “Slaughter of Palestinians”

As the world wakes up to the harrowing images of children slain by Israeli bombs across the entire Gaza Strip AGAIN, we cannot bear witness to global leaders JUST… DOING…. NOTHING. This is an acceleration of the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people as a whole. We already failed to prevent it and our Governments have an even greater obligation to stop it now.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) – March 18, 2025

https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1901964025950310842

   

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ALSO SEE

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/23/senior-hamas-leader-among-23-killed-in-israeli-strikes-in-southern-gaza

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Christina A. Bejan: Multi-Talented Authoress, Performative Artist, ….

A NOTE From the RHODES TRUST Secretariat, 24 March 2025

Cristina A. Bejan is a Romanian-American theatre artist, poet, and historian. A prolific playwright, Bejan has written nineteen plays, with productions in the United States, United Kingdom, Romania, and Vanuatu. Her hit play “Districtland” was bought for TV development, and Next Stage Press has released three of her scripts. She writes creatively in five languages and has published countless poems, plays, and poetry translations in literary journals and anthologies.

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ACADEMIA’s Wide Outreach in Presentation of Academic Research

Academia.edu – Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers …. https://www.academia.edu

Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.
David G Lewis, University of Exeter
My new book Occupation: Russian Rule in South-eastern Ukraine provides a comprehensive examination of Russia’s strategies to dominate occupied Ukrainian territories through violence, political manipulation, and economic pressure. It explores the harsh realities faced by those living under occupation and reflects on the broader implications for the ongoing conflict and European geopolitics.
see more

Occupation: Russian Rule in South-eastern Ukraine

by David G Lewis, 2025

 

Improving Forest-Based Livelihoods through Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Planning

by Pratima Shrestha

2014 • Crossing the Border: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

John Braithwaite, The Australian National University

The Pluralism of Restorative Justice in Greater China: an Introduction

by John Braithwaite,  Asian Journal of Criminology

Johns Hopkins University

“The Serendipity of Anthropological Practice,” by Francisco Martínez

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Valentine Daniel Colombia University

Peirce, Pragmatism, and the Logic of Scripture,” by Peter W . Ochs, 1998

Ethnicity and Violence in Sri Lanka: An Ethnohistorical Narrative

By Premakumara de Silva, 2019, The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity

Abstract: The ethnicity and violence in Sri Lanka have many root causes and consequences that are closely interconnected. Given the nature and the complexity of root causes and consequences of these highly contested concepts, it should not be treated as a part of linear historical processes where one event led to another. Sri Lanka presents case of how intersecting not only ethnicity and violence but also religion, caste, class, linguistic, and cultural mosaics have been and might be billeted within the borders of a nation-state. However, state building in Sri Lanka has been riddled with paradoxes. The curious notion of numerically dominant ethnic group, Sinhala manifesting a “minority complex” or anxieties about minority groups, Tamil and Muslims, is evident in the rise of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism during the nineteenth and the twentieth century of the country. Since state building has often meant ……….

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Biographical Inspirations in Life: Examples within This Site

An EDITORIAL NOTE, 27 February 2025

Items within this site have drawn over 780 hits each day of this week, ranging from 986  on Wednesday 26th February to 000 on the Monday 24th……  A fair sprinkling of visitors looked at biographical tales honing in on individuals — in some cases on what we call “Vales”. Readers may derive insights from a listing of these items: …. after all, friends matter and many famous personalities evoke tales of achievement that inspire.

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“Paraya” & “Parayo” as Vicious Epithets in the Sri Lankan ‘Circuit’

Michael Roberts

I came across an old article of mine entitled “Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying The Context Of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets In Sri Lanka Over The Last 180 Years.” Charlie happens to be a batchmate at Ramanathan Hall in Peradeniya University in 1957, but we had not encountered each other for decades before this verbal contretemps occurred in the year  2013.  SEE ………………………………………………… https://thuppahis.com/2013/08/18/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years/. 

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Offensive Racist Place-Names face Offensive

A News Item in Australia, Today, February 2025

Black Gin Creek and Little Uncle Tom mountain are among the 43 place names in Queensland containing racial slurs with a traumatic history.

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