Category Archives: centre-periphery relations

AI Looms Over Our Future …. Look-Out!

ITEM in LUMEN, Adelaide University Magazine, September 2025 or sono date specified clearly & bearing this title: “The  Future and  AI” …. Authorship unclear: maybe Carolyn Semmler, maybe Isaac Freeman

Whether we like it, or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle. Its rapid evolution has been embraced by some, and met with raised eyebrows by others.

  In our earlier issue of Lumen this year, we asked readers to describe their hopes and fears for the future. AI was an overwhelmingly present theme.

We shared some of these letters with academics from both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia to help clarify and respond to concerns on four broad themes: impact on jobs; global security; wellbeing; and the potential for cognitive decline.

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Transforming Gaza …… “The Great Trust”

Outback Aussie

The Great Trust is a 38-page document setting out plans to turn Gaza into a grand American Riveria by constructing over the bones and bodies of Palestinians — hotels, casinos, bordellos, condominiums, golf courses, and million-dollar seaside properties.  America has no legal basis for taking control of Gaza but they want to do it anyway which is why the US and the West support the genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing, and if need be the extermination of all Palestinians in Gaza.

VISIT https://www.madamasr.com/en/2025/09/01/news/u/the-38-page-displacement-framework-for-a-tourist-hub-atop-the-rubble-of-gaza/

Palestine and Israel news today on map – Jerusalem today – Israel News today – Palestine News today – israelpalestine.liveuamap.com

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China and Lanka Today

Item in The Island, 22 August 2025,  with this title: “China, SL promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation-Ambassador Zhenhong” .… with highlights  imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Declaring that China and Sri Lanka share a time-honoured friendship, and the ancient Silk Road has long bound the two countries together, Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong has said they are now working hand in hand to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

 The Chinese envoy said so at a reception held in Colombo to mark the 80th anniversary of their victory over Japan in WW Two..

Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said: “From the progress of the Hambantota Port to the rise of the Colombo Port City, and from infrastructure connectivity to the deepening of cultural exchanges, we are jointly writing a vivid chapter in the building of a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future through concrete actions. This epic new chapter of cooperation is the most vibrant tribute to history, the most solid foundation for peace, and will surely paint an even brighter picture for the future of Sri Lanka.”

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Sri Lanka’s Maritime Legacy: A Discerning Study … Many Revelations

Avishka Mario  Senewiratne in The Island, 24 August 2025, where the title is “A Mirror to the Sea: Revisiting Sri Lanka’s Forgotten Maritime Legacy” …. Review of “Sri Lanka, Serendib & the Silk Road of the Sea” by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha …. with the highlighting here being impositions  by The Editor, Thuppahi

It is not often that a slim volume quietly arrives on the literary shore, only to awaken something dormant and forgotten within the national consciousness. Sri Lanka, Serendib & the Silk Road of the Sea, the latest work by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, is just such a book—a timely voyage through history’s less-traversed sea lanes, executed with scholarly rigour, personal charm, and a deep-rooted love for this resplendent isle.

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The Insidious Power-Brokers Aligned behind Israel in Today’s World

APOYI-APOYI 

The title and the highlights in this presentation have been  imposed by the Editor of Thuppahi –who receives The AUSTRALIAN and is aware of its heavy bias. Apoyi-Apoyi, incidentally, is a  White man

SEE …. https://youtu.be/dpkD0uGAE90?si=HroPfWPxaM3K1-1t…… Here, Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim describes Netanyahu as “truly insane and inhumane” and “sick.” He said he is 73 years old and in his lifetime has never seen such appalling inhumanity as is now occuring by Israel in Gaza. Very young children are killed as Netanyahu claims they too are Hamas.

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Horrors Faced by Lankan Female Labour in Middle East

Aanya Wipulasena in Ceylon Today, August 2025

The decision to work overseas wasn’t easy. Burdened by debt, 25-year-old Nelum Niroshani, a mother of one from Anuradhapura, felt she had no choice. Her plan was simple: Take a job as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia, earn enough to support her family, repay her loans and then return home to her seven-year-old child. But her time in the Middle East quickly turned into a nightmare.

 

 

 

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Bob Carr Reveals: Power of the Israel Lobby in Australia

VISIT FACEBOOK …https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=24703724925930545

My attempt to  place the digital  Reference  here was defeated [initiall] by the engines of the digital world. It seems that the Israel Jewish  maesros can  reach  far …. wide  …. and DEEP !!@!!

…aah …problem circumvented  -God knows how.

My thanks to Dulip Karunaratne  in Queensland for this item …. That old Aloysian lobby does some fruitful work eh! … the Green & the Gold esto perpetua!

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Reviving Australia’s Convict Past via AI

Tomos Morgan, BBC News, 19 August 2025, where  the title runs thus: “Faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia recreated by AI” ++

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped researchers generate what they believe could have been the faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia in the 19th century. The lives of 60 criminals deported from Anglesey for crimes as small as stealing a handkerchief have been traced by a team of volunteers and researchers.

 They have used detailed prisoner records from the time, historical sketches and, where possible, photos of the prisoners’ modern day descendants to create a profile of what they may have looked like.

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 Yasodhara Kumaratunga: “A Butterfly’s Wise Words”

YASODHARA’s Handwritten Inscription on the Cover Page of the  pamphlet in my hands …. courtesy of the copy held by my  late departed sister, Estelle Fernando 

To ….My dearest Aunty Estelle,

Thank you for starting me off on my long trek” through the world of learning.

With Love

Yasodhara XX

EDITORIAL NOTE: The collection of  short poems in this  loose-leaf pamphlet is NOT presented below in either chronological order or paginated  order [since  the  pamphlet is NOT numbered].

A Butterfly’s

Wise Words

&

Other Poems.

                                         Yasodhara Kumaratunga

                                                with Cover Design by Yasodhara Kumaratunga

 

To my beloved thaththi with love

in the hope that the blood which

flowed so vainly from your beautiful

face would mingle with the earth

of my land, to give forth

the blossoms of Peace & Brotherhood

for which you fought so passionately.

And to my ammi for

all that you have been to me

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War Crimes Issue Develops in Sri Lanka: Chemmani & Beyond

N.  Sathiya Moorthy, in Ceylon Today, 22 August  2025, where the  title reads  “How Historic is the Opportunity” ... with highlighting being  the intervention of The Editor Thuppahi

 In what has become the ritualistic report of the UN Human Rights Commissioner to the UNHRC Council of 48-member nations, elected by rotation, incumbent Volker Türk seems to have settled for a credible, independent mechanism to probe Sri Lanka’s war crimes and other allegations of human rights violations. This is in contrast to the decade-plus-long attempts by the ‘international community’ (read: West) to impose an ‘independent, international mechanism’ for the purpose.

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