Ever since he addressed the failed coup of 1962 in a book-length stud,y Donald L. Horowitz has kept an eye on Sri Lankan affairs and has now unveiled a new book tackling central issues in the democratic process on a worldwide scale –with one chapter devoted to the problems TODAY in Sri Lanka ….. Editor, Thuppahi
Donald L. Horowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus, Duke University
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, conspiracies, democratic measures, demography, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, European history, Fascism, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, Uncategorized, vengeance, world events & processes
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.
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
Daya Wickramatunga to Jayantha Somasundaram, 14 July 2024, in Response to Jayantha’s Circulation of the DAILY MIRROR Item on the 1958 Riots: viz. …………………………. https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Black-July-facing-the-moment-of-truth/231-287106
The ‘Sinhala Only Bill’ by SWRD was ridiculous. SWRD could hardly speak Sinhala when he returned to Sri Lanka from Oxford. That [the Sinhaal Only campaign] was obviously a political move by SWRD.
Photo shows Tamils being ridiculed and assaulted on Galle Roadin Colombo by Sinhala çitizens’…but check if this is from 1983
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan scoiety, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, terrorism, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
A Sri Lankan American
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, ethnicity, Fascism, fundamentalism, life stories, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry
Thuppahi is delighted to present a new research venture in keeping with its own spirit — with TUDOR SILVA in Lanka and MARK BALMFORTH in Canada in command.
Deadlines for Submissions: ….. Abstract: June 15, 2024 …… Full Paper: September 30, 2024Compared to the expanding body of literature on caste in the Indian subcontinent, caste in Sri Lanka has received only sporadic academic attention and has been largely ignored in policy debates and social development interventions on the island. This can partially be explained by a widespread, public belief in Sri Lanka that despite its past importance, caste is no longer a vital social institution. While open discussion on the topic is largely absent, this does not mean that caste is dead or dying. Rather, caste remains hidden in much of Sri Lankan social life (Jiggins 1979; Silva, Sivapragasam, & Thanges 2009a). Reports from the north and east of the country indicate a certain resurgence of caste issues in post-war society, and new research findings suggest that caste plays a role in social, economic, and political dynamics that affect access to limited resources such as land, drinking water, employment, and political power (Thanges 2015; Hashmi and Kuganathan 2017; Kadirgamar 2019; Silva 2020; Tiruchandran 2021). Caste also continues to play an important role in the social life of south and central Sri Lanka through marriage partner selection, land tenure, temple rituals, politics, economic relations, and the performing arts (Silva, Sivapragasam, & Thanges 2009b; Reed 2010). Recent dissertation work, particularly in overseas universities, suggests that a body of new Sri Lankan caste-related evidence is just on the horizon (Räsänen 2015; Aimee 2017; Thanges 2018; Balmforth 2020; Esler 2020; Pathmanesan 2020).
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, commoditification, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, discrimination, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education policy, electoral structures, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tolerance, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
A Message circulated by Vernon Davidson, Keith Bennett and friends in Australia
Here is a wonderful little story.
A young MALE cashier told an older woman that she should bring her grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my day.”
The young clerk said, “Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
Richard Koenigsberg and the LSS, aka Library of Social Science, located in New York
Totalitarianism: the psychopathology is the identification, refusal or inability to conceive of a self in separation from society; of a self that does not exist in a symbiotic tie to the nation. “Symbiosis” is not an “infantile phase of development,” rather It’s the ground of our being the fantasy we are connected to something “out there” (and cell phones represent the apotheosis of merger of self with society).
GERMANY – MAY: Adolf Hitler, winner of the Prussian and Bavarian elections, giving a speech, in May 1928, in Germany…Photo by Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.
Listen to Hitler: “Our Nation is not just an idea in which you have no part; you yourself support the nation; to it you belong; you cannot separate yourself from it; your life is bound up with the life of your whole people; the nation is not merely the root of your strength, it is the root of your very life.”
Filed under accountability, atrocities, chauvinism, disparagement, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, Hitler, life stories, nationalism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, psychological urges, racism, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Shenali D. Waduge, in Lankaweb, 9 May 2024, ….where the title reads “UN/UNHRC/US & Allies hypocrisy – comparison of Sri Lanka & the Gaza Conflict” ….
[My title and this article does not seek] to present a notion that Israel is right or wrong, or that Sri Lanka is right or wrong, but [seeks] to question UN’s treatment of Member states & the applicability of the UN Charter & the principles of equality & non-discrimination to Member states. UNGA has condemned Israel over 120 times. UNHRC has condemned Israel over 40 times. US has vetoed over 40 Resolutions against Israel but is spearheading resolutions against Sri Lanka in connivance with the UN. How fair is this to Sri Lanka?
Filed under accountability, arab regimes, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, disparagement, Eelam, foreign policy, historical interpretation, IDP camps, insurrections, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, power politics, refugees, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
SSC PAMPHLET PROJECT
Some of you may remember this project in Sri Lanka in the 1990s directed towards making selected academic articles on the history & politics of Sri Lanka available to the English-reading public at affordable rates. My unreliable memory indicates that the personnel behind this enterprise were myself, Ananda Chittampalam, Willa Wickramasinghe and our engine, so to speak, was the press operated by Haris Hulugalla.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, education policy, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, racist thinking, religious nationalism, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
thuppahi
