Category Archives: authoritarian regimes

September 1, 2024 · 2:37 pm

Machiavelli on The Vicious ‘Skeletons’ Inherent Within Politics

A CIRCULAR from Kumar Kirinde ... … with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Dear RAFOA member,

Now that another presidential election is due in a few weeks’ time in our beloved country … Sri Lanka. I thought that the attached document will be of interest to you.  The finer points with my take on the matter is given below mainly for the benefit of those who cannot spend much time reading documents running into a few pages.

A statue Niccol

The brief is on Machiavelli’s thinking on political power and ruling a nation.

Machiavelli was a diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived over 500 years ago in Florentine, a part of present day Italy. He served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, discrimination, disparagement, Fascism, foreign policy, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, propaganda, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world affairs, zealotry

August 25, 2024 · 9:38 pm

Articles by Michael Roberts presented in Edited Books

ITEM presented in reverse chronological order by Sophia Corfield …  a postgrad at Adelaide University when this list was compiled, circa 2012

  1. Sri Lanka: The power of cricket and the power in cricket. In S. Wagg (Ed.), Cricket and National Identity in the Post-Colonial Age: Following On (pp. 132-158). London: Routledge.

  1. Submerging the People? Post-Orientalism and the Construction of Communalism. In G. Berkemer (Ed.), Explorations in South Asian History. Festschrift for Dietmar Rothermund on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (pp. 311-323). New Delhi: Manohar.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, demography, devolution, economic processes, ethnicity, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

August 24, 2024 · 5:20 pm

The Siege of Jaffna Fort by the LTTE in 1990

Gamini Goonetilleke, … with a few photographs awaiting insertion later

I had volunteered my services to the Sri Lanka Army and it was my turn of duty at the Palali Base Hospital when the Jaffna Fort came under Tiger attack. Thus I was a witness to a major battle for supremacy in the North. For the State the Jaffna Fort was of symbolic importance to demonstrate its sovereignty over the Jaffna population and as such the Sri Lanka Army was occupying the Jaffna Fort. For the Tigers, dislodging the troops from the Fort was of importance to pave the way for ‘liberation’. Therefore it became an important battle for both sides.

Image  1 – A view of the Jaffna Fort          

Jaffna Fort – main entrance

 

 

 

 

The siege of Jaffna Fort

The Tigers had surrounded not only the Fort but also the Palali Air Base to prevent the mobility of the troops and also to cut off supplies. They positioned anti-aircraft guns in the Fort area. This threatened the helicopter borne supplies to the stranded troops and the battle for the Fort turned out to be fierce and intense.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, insurrections, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, performance, power sharing, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, unusual people, war reportage

August 15, 2024 · 1:09 pm

A Turn-Around! UK slashes Israel at the UN

Fair Dinkum

Golly gosh!  What a turn around! The UK government condemning Israel for killing large numbers of Palestinians sheltering in 17 schools! Why has it taken the UK government two years to wake up to Israel’s goal to wilfully slaughter all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, disparagement, foreign policy, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes

August 13, 2024 · 2:14 am

Totalizing “Control Rooms” in Every Western State …. Skewing ‘Democracy’

Observer in a Black Sea Port

At 6:02 Judge Napolitano asks Crooke “Is a wider war in the Middle East inevitable?”  ….. Crooke answers this question and then explains why.

He articulates the change that has taken place in Western politics, particularly in the democratic area which has become a “control room” that we don’t see, that is behind it. Even the President or the leader of any Western nation is just a figurehead and is not important any longer.  One figurehead can be removed and then another figurehead is elevated by the media and becomes the new figurehead.  But behind it lies “the control room” which is operating this in a new form of politics which Crooke calls “the whole of state politics” which means there has to be ideological alignment, not just across the party, but among NGOs, the financial world, all of the state apparatus,  the media — all of this has to be the same.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, European history, foreign policy, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

August 12, 2024 · 3:43 pm

Polyandry, Hierarchy & Rumours Today in a ‘Traditional’ Kandyan Sinhala Village

Jayantha Perera, whose chosen title is “ekagei kaema (polyandry) – a way of life in the Kandyan highlands”  … in The Island, 11 August 2024 

Hingula is a small bazaar 60 miles from Colombo on the Colombo-Kandy Road. A narrow, tarred road starts from there, and a signboard says, ‘To Aluth Nuwara Devalayala.’ The logo of the Archaeological Department on the signboard indicates the devalaya (temple) is a state-protected archaeological site.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, female empowerment, gender norms, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, working class conditions

August 12, 2024 · 1:49 am

Heightened Action in Ukraine-Russia War

Observer in a Black Sea Port

The techniques and extent of Ukraine’s push into the regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod, which borders on to Ukraine shows the West is deeply involved in this invasion of Russia. Public statements from EU and US leaders giving their wholehearted support for the invasion indicates the West are behind it. The US has satellite imagery over Russia providing real-time intelligence to Ukrainian forces. Ukraine is getting help.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, ethnicity, law of armed conflict, life stories, military expenditure, military strategy, nationalism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

August 4, 2024 · 1:00 am

Huge Casualties in the Ukraine-Russia War

Observer from A Black Sea Port …. with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

ONE:  “God is with us” …. watch the new Russian Army recruitment video. The clip promotes military service while focusing on religious diversity and national unity.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has released this promotional video designed to encourage citizens to enlist in the military, placing strong emphasis on different ethnicities and religious denominations coming together to face a common enemy.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, ethnicity, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, power politics, the imaginary and the real, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, world events & processes, zealotry

August 3, 2024 · 7:39 pm

Mearsheimer on Israel’s International Crimes

Theodore K

20230125 UC Political Science Website Photo. Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at Cobb, Cummings, Harper, Pick, Rosenwald, Saieh, and SSRB . (Photo by Joe Sterbenc)

John Mearsheimer has provided the world with an insightful analysis on Israel, Netanyahu, and the US Rules Based Order.

SEE …. LISTEN … to Prof. John J. Mearsheimer: “Netanyahu’s Grave Mistakes” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4opzJiXAz0
Thus inspired …. THEODORE K’s THOUGHTS:  “Netanyahu has no interest in peace. His goal is genocide of the Palestinians, to make Gaza uninhabitable,  to expand Israel into Gaza and the West Bank, as the US cheer him on to the tune of the Rules Based Order – the “Rules Based International Order” Australia supports and keeps ranting on about.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, human rights, Jews in Asia, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power sharing, racism, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

July 30, 2024 · 1:44 am

Let’s Remove the Colonial Tropes in the Writings on Sri Lanka

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, whose preferred title is  “Decolonizing July 1983’s Fiction and History for a Post-Ethnic Sri Lanka: Tropes of Violence and Cold War at the end of the American Century”

 “Fair is foul and foul is fair”— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

 !@#$!!!! …. The Editor’s efforts to insert appealing cartoons and/or pictures of Macbeth were defeated by the digital world’s capitalist principles & demands for payment

Why are there no Booker Prize-winning novels about mundane multicultural families that inter-married for generations, shared religion/s, language/s and co-existed for centuries, while living in relative harmony in Ceylon/ Sri Lanka? Is the trope of dark natives engaged in endless chaotic violence an international literature prize-winning bestseller that masks white mischief, including sanitized, techno-scientific AI guided drone warfare? Susan William’s brilliant and brave book “White Malice” is subtitled, “The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa’.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, parliamentary elections, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, world events & processes