Category Archives: authoritarian regimes

December 20, 2024 · 4:04 pm

UN Agencies That Deployed False Death Figures re Eelam War

Palitha Senanayake, in The Island, 20 December 2024 …… ‘UN fudged Lankan casualty figures’ – Lord Naseby

The United Nations Human Rights Council at its 57th session adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Project on Sri Lanka Accountability by one year. Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, has commented extensively on this resolution.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (L) arrives at a hotel for a joint press conference with Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama in Kandy on May 23, 2009, after Ban visited Menik Farm camp, home to thousands of civilians who fled the war zone. UN chief Ban Ki-moon came face-to-face with the despair of Sri Lanka’s war-hit civilians as he toured the main refugee camp and flew over the devastated war zone. AFP PHOTO/ROSLAN RAHMAN (Photo credit should read ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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December 10, 2024 · 12:31 am

Revelations: USA’s Powermongering in the Middle-East Exposed

LISTEN to these Tirades on YOU-TUBE from Two American Spokesmen

A = https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cWlY75gm0wU ..….. General Wesley Clark lashes out

B = https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mnqcqDokCw8 .…… Richard Woolf insists that Israel is a form of settler colonialism

 

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December 9, 2024 · 4:46 pm

Facing A Corpse: Asia vs The West …. A Fundamental Difference & Its Political Implications

  Michael Roberts    

The sharp warring conflict in Syria today amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine and that in Gaza underlines stories and ‘pictures’ of battlefield dead (both civilians and soldiers). These in their turn highlight the fundamental differences in the manner in which some Asian countries conduct funerals and face the issue of death embodied in a corpse (in some cases that of a loved one or kinsperson).

This fundamental difference has equally fundamental political consequences. For this reason, I take my Thuppahi-readers (no offence meant) to a segment in one of my past presentations when I presented thoughts relating to the official display of Velupillai Pirapaharan as a corpse in May 2009.

THIS from https://thuppahis.com/2011/06/29/death-and-eternal-life-contrasting-sensibilities-in-the-face-of-corpses/ Continue reading →

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December 4, 2024 · 12:34 pm

The Giant Nations in the World Today in 2024

Desiree Bowie, whose chosen title for this article presented on web on 27 November 2024 is “Most Powerful Countries in the World: 2024 Rankings”

The most powerful countries in the world command the global stage with a unique mix of economic strength, military power, cutting-edge technology and cultural reach. These nations influence international policy and hold significant sway over global affairs, using their resources, strategic positions and diplomatic skills to maintain dominance.

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December 2, 2024 · 5:36 pm

Politics of Identity in Lanka: Mithran Tiruchelvam’s Introduction in 1997 to his Book

Introduction by Mithran Tiruchelvam …. a son of Neelan Tiruchelvam of the ICES [who was tragically assassinated by the LTTE in front of the ICES offices one year later]

The present collection of essays arose out of a symposium held at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo from 13-15 March 1997, where researchers and scholars presented some of their recent research interests. This volume seeks to gather the threads of a hybrid collection of essays and weave them together in their shared historical moment. An anthology of this nature seeks organizational cohesion based on the papers’ common origins at the symposium, thereby sacrificing some degree of thematic or disciplinary unity. It is intended that such a collection make available to the general reader and to the scholar alike, a sense of the variety of social science pursuits being undertaken in Sri Lanka today. As such its purpose is to flavour as much as to nourish the reader’s palate, providing a sampling of the eclectic diversity of topics, methodologies and critical perspectives. engaging the social scientist today.

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November 26, 2024 · 10:05 am

Bishop Chickera’s Incisive Warning re Israeli Inroads at Arugam Bay

Bishop Chickera in Groundviews, 23 November 2024, where the title reads “Arugam Bay: Hidden Currents” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

There has been growing public concern over the recent weeks about happenings in Arugam Bay. This analysis adds to the discourse. Democratic states are obliged to protect all people within its borders whether citizens or non-citizens. Non-citizens include tourists on short stays subject to the law of the land they visit.

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November 22, 2024 · 5:55 pm

USA’s Terrible Overreach in This Our World From Biden’s Time

Ameen Izzadeen, in The Daily Mirror in Sri Lanka, 22 November 2024 …… where the title reads “Biden’s legacy: Gaza genocide and now possible nuclear war in Europe” **

US Alternate Ambassador Robert Wood raises his hand to veto a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Wednesday. AFP

Never has the world been so precariously on pins and needles as it is now, with Europe exposed to the threat of nuclear war, the West Asian region facing genocide, and the rest of the world uncertain about what to expect from the leadership change in the United States—a nation teetering on the brink of moral bankruptcy.

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November 14, 2024 · 11:59 pm

Guta Goldstein’s Holocaust Songs: A Spirit Undying

Jane Albert, in The Australian, 8 November 2024 …. where the title runs thus: “The Song that kept Guta alive during the Holocaust ….,”

It is often said that music has the power to heal and nourish, but for Guta Goldstein there were times in her childhood when music and singing were her only nourishment.

Guta Goldstein with her longtime friend and music scholar of the Holocaust, Joseph Toltz. Aaron Francis / The Australian

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November 13, 2024 · 8:20 pm

British Colonial Socio-Political Distinctions via Stace’s Revelation of Life in Galle, 1910 et seq

Michael Roberts

Walter Terence STACE was a British man born in Ireland in 1886 who entered the British colonial service after a university education and was assigned to Sri Lanka in 1910. He married a Burgher lady, MM Beven in 1928 – is second marriage this – and then resigned in 1932 and moved on to USA where he pursued a successful university teaching career in Philosophy. Following his retirement, he composed an autobiography in 1964 with the intriguing title FOOTPRINTS ON WATER.   

This work has been edited by Bernd Pflug with an excellent and readable “Critique” at the end of the autobiography and presented in Sri Lanka in a slim volume of 218 pages by the Perera Hussein Publishing House.

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November 12, 2024 · 12:46 am

Rajiv Gandhi’s Reasoning behind the IPKF Operation

Madhur Sharma, in Outlook.com, 28 November 2022, where the title runs thus “Why Rajiv Gandhi Sent IPKF To Sri Lanka And How LTTE Played Both Sides” .… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayawardene in 1987. Under the pact, the Indian military was deployed as the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka. Soon after the deployment, the circumstances changed and IPKF was engaged in combat by the Tamil armed group LTTE.

Rajiv Gandhi with Anton Balasingham, Pirapaharan & AN Other in India ….. and Pirapahrana & MGR chat in South India

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