A Cricketing Friend with Senior Mercantile Firm Experience, 21 May 2021
If the powers that be sought the advice of these professionals the country would not be in the situation we are in. The army cannot decide what is best on medical matters…… https://thuppahis.com/2021/05/21/for-lanka-a-science-based-strategy-to-control-the-present-covid-situation/
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, coronavirus, disparagement, economic processes, education, island economy, life stories, medical puzzles, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, trauma, working class conditions, world events & processes
House of Lords: The Rt Hon Lord Michael Naseby spoke in the Queen’s Speech Debate on Wednesday May 19, 2021 …. [with highlighting emphais here being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi]
My Lords, I welcome the gracious Speech. My comments will be on global Britain, specifically the Indo-Pacific tilt. My own background is that I have lived and worked in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and I know the rest of ASEAN quite well. I will specifically address Sri Lanka, and I declare an interest as joint chair of the All-Party Group (on Sri Lanka).
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, discrimination, foreign policy, gordon weiss, historical interpretation, human rights, IDP camps, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, NGOs, Paranagama Report, politIcal discourse, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
“Merkel advises graduates: Break the walls that hem you in” 
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, democratic measures, economic processes, education, European history, female empowerment, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, unusual people, world events & processes
Sri Lanka’s Neutral Foreign Policy
LANKA COURIER FEB 08, 2021
The following article has been adapted from the address by the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the general debate of the 75th Session of the United…
Features ….. Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, electoral structures, female empowerment, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, tourism, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Admiral Columbage’s Interview in his capacity as Secretary for Foreign Affairs has drawn a Sharp Critique from Daya Gamage and an Interpretative ‘Dogfight’ between Gamage and Chandre Dharmawardena ….. so this presentation of the FULL COLUMBAGE INTERVIEW is food for thought ….and perhaps more sabre rattling. .… Editor, Thuppahi
Core-group working on SL seeks consensual resolution at UNHRC – Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage: The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will have its 46th session between February 22 and March 19. Sri Lanka is on the agenda this time and will come under review based on the resolutions 30/1 adopted in 2015 and two other subsequent rollover resolutions. Sri Lanka co-sponsored these resolutions under the previous government. However, the new government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa withdrew from co-sponsorship in March, last year. Against the backdrop, Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage shares his views with Daily Mirror on the preparation for it. Excerpts of the interview with him:
Continue reading
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, communal relations, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, UN reports, unusual people, world events & processes
Gerald Peiris in Kandy, in Email Note dated 25th January 2021:**
“Yes, Michael, ……………… I agree. There is a lot of overlap between what I have been trying to convey [in public and/or govt forums] and what young Shukra is supposed to have said (though I didn’t see her perform).
You are probably aware that downtown Kandy has a fairly large Muslim presence. I got to know some of them in the course of my fieldwork for ‘Planning for the Future of Kandy’ (2019). They were very cordial and cooperative, and fluent in Sinhala. A few of them are grandchildren (now in middle age) of my contemporaries at Kingswood in the ‘50s. Their clientele consists almost entirely of Sinhalese.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, island economy, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, working class conditions, world events & processes
Neville Weeraratne, being Chapter IX in his opus, entitled “Collette’s Cullings. The satirist’s fine line”
COLLETTE: Cartoon comment in the Observer following a ‘43 Group exhibition.
Everybody enjoyed Aubrey Collette’s work though he would not have satisfied every political aspiration. You turned to him for your reading of the day, originally in the Times of Ceylon, later in the Observer, and then as ‘Spur’ in a series he did for the Daily News as well. He gave a sharp edge to his drawing which, indeed, was capable of cutting deeply but never maliciously. Collette had the rare and splendid gift of observation: to remember a foible, to swiftly size up a characteristic, and enjoy having summed up the hapless one who had fortuitously wandered into his sights. To have been noticed by Collette was itself honour enough, and those who had been so distinguished by a portrait, as in Collette’s 1954 FACES – a collection of seventy-three pastel studies – soon bought them up, more for the immortality it conferred on them than for the fear of what their enemies might make of the caricatures. Collette very simply had the gift of showing some how others saw them, bestowing upon them the poet’s wish. You might have rejected these insights as subjective had you not yourself been drawn inevitably into the process of assessing the subject.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, disparagement, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, press freedom, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes
A gutted building that is near the beach on Mount Lavinia has been an eyesore for the last 33 years. It was once the Tilly’s Beach Hotel, which was owned by a Tamil businessman. The hotel was a favourite among residents of Colombo as well as German and Russian tourists. Colomboites would enjoy the Sunday Lunch Table Buffet, while many tourists had a mad crush on the handsome head chef, a culinary genius who understood Russian and German besides his native Tamil, Sinhalese and English.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, chauvinism, citizen journalism, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, reconciliation, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Uditha Devapriya who notes that the article that followw here was published in two parts by “The Island” in its “Midweek Review” of December 2 and December 9, 2020. It has since been edited to incorporate information which at the time of writing the author was not able to add.
Napoleone di Buonaparte
I: Viewed in retrospect, the yahapalanaya regime seems almost a bad memory now, best forgotten. This is not to underrate its achievements, for the UNP-SLFP Unity Government did achieve certain things, like the Right to Information Act. It soon found out, however, that it couldn’t shield itself from its own reforms; that’s how 2015 led to 2019. Despite its laudable commitment to democratic rule, the yahapalanists reckoned without the popularity of the man they ousted at the ballot box. November 2019, in that sense, was a classic example of a populist resurrection unparalleled in South Asia, though not in Asia: a government touting a neoliberal line giving way to a centre-right populist-personalist.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, constitutional amendments, electoral structures, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
thuppahi
