News Item: Six Honorary Degrees at ENCAENIA in Oxford University, JUNE 2024 ….
Six distinguished individuals representing the fields of science, business, academia, music and entertainment received honorary degrees at the University’s annual Encaenia ceremony last week. The honorands were: Warren East, Sir Demis Hassabis, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sir Michael Palin, Anoushka Shankar and Professor Salim Yusuf.
Observer in a Black Sea Resort
Wonderful to see the great Eric Clapton, now aged 79, talking about Russia, Gaza, Roger Waters and being anti-Western, while giving concerts each night at the Royal Albert Hall.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, European history, foreign policy, historical interpretation, life stories, nationalism, Palestine, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, unusual people, world events & processes
Richard Koenigsberg plus ….
Addressing the practices of remembrance in Australia, Richard Koenigsberg has noted the irony that a battlefield defeat at Gallipoli in World War One, 1915, served a people as an emblem of nationhood: the “Australian nation, came into being on the foundations provided by the slaughter of its young men.”
There is more irony. The commemoration of Australian courage, sacrifice and manliness at Gallipoli (and subsequently on the Somme) was threaded by tropes of youthful innocence that drew on classical Hellenic motifs; while the monuments and epitaphs that were crafted in Australia to mark this event were manifestly Greek in form. The gendered masculine metaphor, in turn, was often embodied in the seminal image of a full-bodied blonde young man. “Archie Hamilton” in Peter Weir’s classic film Gallipoli was/is one such trope (and he died of course).
Filed under art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, mass conscription, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, World War One
An Observer in a Black Sea Town, .… with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The FSB (Russian intelligence) have gathered documentary evidence plus statements from recent persons complicit in the terrorist attacks in Moscow that conclusively prove that the explosives and weapons used in the Crocus terrorist attack (which were also to be used in other attacks inside Russia) went by road 2,000 miles starting in Kiev, then moving by truck across the Romanian, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia borders into Russia.
See below for the journey taken to move weapons and explosives from Ukraine into Russia to be used in multiple terrorist attacks (with ISIS to take the blame).
Filed under accountability, atrocities, Britain's politics, citizen journalism, conspiracies, foreign policy, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, security, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
Mr X ... with the title as well as highlights being imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In the West, a narrative has been built up that China is an “aggressor” – an important word in international law because if Country A can frame a narrative that convinces the world Country B is “an aggressor” then Country A is well on the way to providing justification for war or even toppling Country B’s government, which is precisely what US Government has been doing for the past seven decades. The illegal wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yugoslavia are recent examples.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, conspiracies, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, nuclear strikes & war, Pacific Ocean issues, politIcal discourse, power politics, sea warfare, security, self-reflexivity, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes, zealotry
Fair Dinkum
Maloof strongly believes Mossad and Netanyahu knew Hamas would attack Israel, but allowed this to take place so it would give Israel the excuse to ethnically cleanse Gaza, level the entire city to the ground, including apartment blocks, hospitals, schools, universities, UN buildings, aid trucks, as well as convoys of civilians leaving their homes in compliance with Israeli demands. All this so that Israel can annex Gaza and begin to build up new Israeli settlements in Gaza which were the same policies adopted by Hitler in WW2.
Michael Maloof, Former Pentagon Senior Security Policy Analyst and a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense of the US Government.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, British imperialism, disparagement, doctoring evidence, ethnicity, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religious nationalism, slanted reportage, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
USA’s AUKUS programme today[i] in the midst of the war raging in the Ukraine demands reflections upon the death-toll and horrors of trench warfare during World War One.
“Every nation was profligate of its manpower and conducted the war as if there were no limit to the number of men who were fit to be thrown into the furnace to feed the flames of war.” …. David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister on the First World War
Filed under accountability, australian media, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Phil Miller, in Declassified UK, March 14, 2023
A former SAS commander whose mercenary business in Sri Lanka is under investigation for war crimes has left millions of pounds in his will.
Attached photo of Colonel Johnson leading an SAS parade in 1960. (Image: Imperial War Museum)
One of Britain’s most rapacious mercenaries amassed a fortune worth £4m before his death in 2008, an investigation by Declassified UK has found. The soldier of fortune, Colonel Henry ‘Jim’ Johnson, was once described by a senior British diplomat as having “political ideas [that] are probably to the right of Genghis Khan” – a reference to the infamously brutal Mongol emperor.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
thuppahi
