Category Archives: citizen journalism

September 21, 2022 · 7:34 pm

Escalation! On the Cusp of World War III?

Fair Dinkum

Putin announces partial mobilisation to boost the forces in Ukraine, as the two Donbass republics and two regions of Ukraine go to a referendum to join the Russian Federation.  If the referendums support joining Russia, then the four areas must formally apply to join Russia. It then goes to the Duma for approval, and if they do, it goes to Putin to sign into law. Perhaps the mobilisation is timed to coincide with these 4 areas joining Russia which would mean Ukraine is at war with Russia, no longer against the two republics in the Donbass. 

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September 9, 2022 · 6:09 pm

An Ukrainian General Speaks His Mind

  Scott Ritter, interviewing Commander Khodakovsky, September 2022 ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOl7Yy7ljwo

On episode 3 of the show we are joined by Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s «Vostok» Battalion. Former commander of Ukraine’s Alpha special unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

A COMMENT from Fair Dinkum …. who sent me this reference, 8 September 2022 

Interview with Alexander Khodakovsky, Commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic Battalion giving an update on what is currently occurring on the battlefield. It is not a voice found anywhere in the Western world. In the West, we only get Sir Winston Zelensky and the Ukrainian cheerleaders.  Khodakovsky comes across as rationale, honest, straightforward, professional, and with a curious mixture of humility and a fighting spirit.
Alexander Khodokovsky

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August 24, 2022 · 1:51 pm

Miracles Amidst the Horrendous Holocaust

Cameron Stewart in The Australian, 24 August 2022, where the title reads “Holocaust Twin Phillip Maisel leaves behind a life of miracles,” .… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Just weeks ago, after he turned 100 with his twin sister Bella, holocaust survivor Phillip Maisel shared his secret of his miraculous life: “Just be positive,’ he said with a grin. “Always be positive.”

 

 

 

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August 4, 2022 · 1:36 am

“Be the Change” — An Appraissal of THE ARAGALAYA

Anonymous Pen **

Most people that I know, came to Galle Face on a weekend, waved the National Flag and shouted a few catchy slogans to cleanse their souls, took selfies and went home for a warm shower, had dinner and went to sleep, thinking that they had taken part in some heroic and historic act of Aragalaya.

 

 

 

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July 29, 2022 · 8:24 pm

From Banda to Gota

Laleen Jayamanne, in The Island, 20 & 27 July 2022 where the title runs thus: “Teargas cinema and Rukmani Devi”

“I have never found anything to excite the people in quite the way this language issue does”–– Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike to a journalist.

If true, this observation attributed to Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike, is quite chilling in its cynicism. ‘Excitement’ is a political emotion here and SWRD appears to take a distance from it, observing somewhat clinically, how ‘this language issue’ stirs up ‘the people’. Politicians are especially crafty, cunning, when they know how to excite people with ideas that they themselves may or may not truly believe in.

A protester covering the eyes of the Bandaranaike statue at Galle Face

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July 29, 2022 · 1:53 am

The US Ambassador’s Enthusiasm for the Aragalaya

Malinda Seneviratne … whose title runs thus “Ambassador Chung and Xeroxable Change” …. with highlighting emphasis being impositions by The Editor Thuppahi

Aragalaya. Translatable as revolt, uprising, protest, agitation, struggle or even insurrection. Aragalaya is singular, but considering statements and actions it was certainly not marked by concert, ideological agreement, unity of purpose etc.

Julie CHUNG, US Ambassador in Colombo

Eclecticism was the signature of the rumbling. There was mumbling, nothing more, about system-change, but a revolution it certainly was not. So, aragalaya: singular; aragala: plural. The latter is the better descriptive. And perhaps it is exactly this eclectic and disjointed character that forced the agitators to dilute whatever revolutionary fervour there may have been to a project that targeted an individual and once that ouster was obtained shift focus to another individual.
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July 23, 2022 · 8:45 pm

An Expat’s Bitter Interpretation of the Progress from Ceylon in 1948 … till Today

Charles Seevali Abeysekera ++

Sri Lanka is officially bankrupt and a failed state in all but name. How did a country of 22 million people with a level of literacy on par with most of the developed world end up in such a dire position where the state coffers did not have the measly sum of 20 million dollars to purchase fuel to keep the country functioning beyond the next working day?

Whilst the vast majority of the population have concluded that the blame for this economic armageddon is due to the gluttony of corruption and greed, instigated and enabled by the Rajapaksa family , its acolytes and sycophantic nodding dogs, my own assessment is different.

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July 22, 2022 · 5:20 pm

Gotabaya’s Getaway: His Devious Routes amidst Many Pressures

Kapila Punchihewa, in Mawbima, July 22 2022, where the title runs thus:  “The story of the running man Gotabaya unfolded. Exclusive”

  • President Pleads for safety with Sajith whom he sidelined a few weeks ago.
    ⦁ All powerful President is shaken and runs for safety from place to place. 18 million for a luxury hotel in Malé 
    ⦁ Indian USA and European Nations show the “cold shoulder’.
  • No place to go at home or the world

President Gotabaya Rajapakse was elected with 69,lacks of the votes. He was only in office for 969 days before abruptly leaving the country last Monday afternoon, amidst massive public opposition he had to face. No one knew until that fateful Monday afternoon that he hAD left the country. Nobody even knew where the president was.

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July 21, 2022 · 5:52 pm

The American & IMF Bear in Sri Lanka’s Drawing Room

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in InDepthNow,  July 2022 ….. https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/opinion/5466-the-elephant-in-the-room-geopolitics-and-the-great-reset-in-sri-lanka …. where the title is “The  Elephant in the Room: …”

“But to watch cricket, there has to be a country left for us to watch it in, no?” A fan at the Galle Test Match that ended with an innings victory for Sri Lanka. July 11, 2022.

Spirits were high on July 11 when the Sri Lankan cricket team beat the visiting Aussies by an innings even though the country was in its worst economic crisis ever due to a lack of Dollars to buy fuel caused by an International Sovereign Bond (ISB), debt trap and Staged Default.

The cricket victory followed a magical weekend in which the Aragalaya, or peoples’ struggle, exceeded all expectations, staging multiple coups to peacefully claim both the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister’s official residence. Massive waves of protestors unseated the island’s President and PM without a single person killed in the gunfire. Later the protestors cooled off in the Presidential pool and had impromptu concerts celebrating what appeared to be a successful regime change operation.

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July 16, 2022 · 3:17 pm

Propaganda Battles re Sri Lanka: Russia & The West

Fair Dinkum

As further evidence that the West are still pushing the China debt trap narrative and that it did not stop in 2017, but has continued with even greater vigour than before, and is not being pushed by a few interests, but is part of a major Western propaganda campaign that stretches across the globe, here is another great example.

The item is of particular interest because it shows how the US uses back channels, in this case a purported academic in India, to push the China debt narrative on Russian television. This item aired on RT on 30 May 2022, so it is very recent. [RT = Russian Television …. https://www.rt.com/] Here, RT brought in Suvrokamal Dutta (described by RT as a “Political and Foreign Policy Expert ” but who knows nothing about Sri Lanka) to talk about the causes of the crisis in Sri Lanka.

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