John De Silva
I am very surprised to hear people talk about the near riot that occurred at the end of the World Cup Semi Final match between India and Sri Lanka, 13 March 1996. Why are people so quick to jump to conclusions? Why are people not more understanding? Here is what ACTUALLY happened.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, charitable outreach, communal relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, disparagement, doctoring evidence, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, insurrections, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, patriotism, performance, power politics, religiosity, riots and pogroms, security, Sri Lankan cricket, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
I have recently presented the list of items placed in this site during April 2019 immediately after the shocking events and now commence to present the itmes that appeared in May 2019. I can hardly claim to have provided a comprehensive coverage, but readers will find a wide variety of personnel from different ethnic groups within this list. That it should evoke such wide interest is not surprising: it was a kind of 9/11 in Sri Lankan and Indian Ocean history.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, security, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, violence of language, world events & processes
Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd]: “A global counter-terrorism military campaign initiated by the U.S. in 2001” ……….. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror, https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/on-the-front-lines-cia-in-afghanistan/, ChatGPT, and Google Images … [with only some photographs
Introduction: …… The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism”” (GWOT), is a global counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is also the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign were militant Islamist and Salafi jihadist armed organisations such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their international affiliates, which were waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim-majority countries. Other major targets included the Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed during an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency
Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, counter-insurgency, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, insurrections, jihadists, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, photography, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people
Ranga Jayasuriya, in The Daily Mirror, 13 September 2023, where the title reads “Real victims and real danger of Channel 4’s fact-less documentary” …. with highlighting imposed by Th Editor, Thuppahi
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, counter-insurgency, disparagement, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes
VARIED…. IMMEDIATE – APRIL 2019
Filed under accountability, atrocities, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes, zealotry
Michael Roberts
On the 27th of January 1985 The lsland newspaper presented a cartoon sketch of a lion being confronted by a cockroach possessing the same physical scale as the lion under the caption “Hoisting the Flag for Lansi Eelam.” The lion denoted the Sinhala people, that is, the Sinhala nation in all its deep history and majesty. The cockroach signified the Burgher people of Sri Lanka, namely the “lansi.” The cartoon was supported by a letter attributed to a “Sharm De Alwis.”
Voila! So, it has come, but sooner than I expected: the call for a unified Lansieelam.
When I anticipated such a move I did tell a friend that were I the President I’d give the Burghers the Bambalapitiya Flats with the sea frontage thrown in for good measure. They would then be free to harness their intrinsic but long-forgotten skills in reclaiming the sea and build derricks to Mozambique or even Rotterdam.
But what bugged me was when my friend took me at my word and produced the next day the visual of the Lansieelam map. Not that I would have any objections to the apt depiction of the cockroach but that the pest had assumed the same proportions of the Sinhala Lion.
My friend re-assures me that what she has in mind is not a separate state but an isolated plot fully integrated with the Sinhala state and the cockroach, large as it now is, gives ample muscle aid to the Lion to combat other opposing factors.
Sharm de Alwis, 82/1, Kandy Road,, Kiribathgoda
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, devolution, discrimination, disparagement, education policy, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, religiosity, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, working class conditions, world events & processes, zealotry
SOME IMMEDIATE RESPONSES
“Amazing that Irene also had a premonition that the Matildas would lose 3-1” ….. Ralph Shlomowitz caressing his partner
“Poor Roberts he was asking for it. Shall I organize some Pretzels 
for the Spectators ?” …. Herbert Perera from Deep in Germany
The Investigation launched by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has in accordance with its terms of reference probed the period of time from the 2002 February ceasefire until the end of the war in May 2009 to ascertain whether war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations occurred in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the war as alleged. The focus on these particular years has naturally led to the overlooking of many other terrible incidents which happened in the years preceding 2002. Notable among these horrors is the mass expulsion of Muslims from the North by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, discrimination, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, welfare & philanthophy
Michael Roberts
The attacks on Tamils living and/or working in the southern and central parts of island Sri Lanka by elements of the Sinhala population were indefensible, horrible and disastrous for the country. It is not adequate to depict them as “riots.” They constituted a “pogrom” – with all the pejorative colourings attached to that concept.[1]
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
thuppahi
