Category Archives: cultural transmission

November 26, 2019 · 8:40 am

China’s BRI is a Multi-Polar Win-Win Trading Network

Peter Koenig, in Information Clearing House where the title reads “China–The Belt and road Initiative = The Bridge that spans the world” … at https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-belt-road-initiative-bridge-spans-world/5695727

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also called the New Silk Road, is based on a 2,100-year-old trade route between the Middle East and Eastern Asia, called the Silk Road. It wound its ways across the huge landmass Eurasia to the most eastern parts of China. It favored trading based on the Taoist philosophy of harmony and peaceful coexistence – trading in the original sense of the term, an exchange with “win-win” outcomes, both partners benefitting equally. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Afghanistan, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, energy resources, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

November 26, 2019 · 3:31 am

Assessing Modern China Today

Charles Edel, writing on “Four Theories of Modern China” on 21 November 2019  at https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/11/21/four-theories-of-modern-china/?utm-access=rcw ….. with this striking opening pitch: “What really drives China today—is it Xi Jinping himself, the Belt & Road Initiative, old habits of statecraft, or the regime’s authoritarian nature? Four recent books help us sort through the morass.”

There is no easy way to understand China,” the preeminent China historian Jonathan Spence wrote in 1990. Opening his comprehensive work, The Search for Modern China, Spence observed that “for a long time China was a completely unknown quantity to those living in the West.” That had changed, he suggested, but there were still enough questions to “keep us in a state of bewilderment as to China’s real nature.”

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, China and Chinese influences, cultural transmission, economic processes, foreign policy, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

November 23, 2019 · 10:12 am

The Aussie Jihadist Terrorist Mind Today

Rodger Shanahan,  in the Lowy Institute Website, mid-November 2019, = https://www.lowyinstitute.org/news-and-media/multimedia/audio/rodger-shanahan-australian-terrorists-views-world …. where the title is

In order to better understand what motivates Australian radical islamists to join or support a terrorist group it is first necessary to get a better understanding of who they are.  This working paper examines data sets from 173 Australian citizens and residents to paint a picture of our own cohort of radical Islamist terrorists, including how likely they are to be rehabilitated. For the accompanying infographic feature accompanying this report, click here.

Since 2012 several hundred Australians have travelled to Syria and Iraq to undertake jihad with Islamic State, al-Qaeda or other radical Islamist groups.[1]  Dozens more provided financial support to them or other jihadis, or planned, conducted or supported terrorist attacks in Australia on behalf of Islamic State.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, fundamentalism, heritage, historical interpretation, jihad, life stories, martyrdom, Middle Eastern Politics, pilgrimages, psychological urges, religiosity, religious nationalism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes

November 23, 2019 · 9:27 am

Edmund Leach: Biographical Studies from Tambiah and Others

Adam Kuper  in London Review of Books Vol. 24 No. 10 · 23 May 2002

  • Edmund Leach: An Anthropological Life by Stanley Tambiah
    Cambridge, 517 pp, £60.00, February 2002, ISBN 0 521 52102 5
  • The Essential Edmund Leach: Vol. I: Anthropology and Society by Stephen Hugh-Jones and James Laidlaw
    Yale, 406 pp, £30.00, February 2001, ISBN 0 300 08124 3
  • The Essential Edmund Leach: Vol. II: Culture and Human Nature by Stephen Hugh-Jones and James Laidlaw
    Yale, 420 pp, £30.00, February 2001, ISBN 0 300 08508 7

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes, World War II

November 22, 2019 · 2:33 pm

Facing Overt and Covert Pressure from USA

Asoka Bandarage in the  CovertAction Magazine, 19 November 2019, where the title reads “U.S. military presence and popular resistance in Sri Lanka”

The Indian Ocean is one of the most contested regions in the world today. China, the United States, India, and also Japan, Saudi Arabia and other rich and powerful states are struggling for influence over Sri Lanka, located in the geographical heart of the Indian Ocean. The sea lanes of the Indian Ocean are considered to be the busiest in the world with more than 80% of global seaborne oil trade estimated to be passing through them.

  Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka and the joint UK/U.S. Diego Garcia Naval and Military Base

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Islamic fundamentalism, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, world events & processes

November 22, 2019 · 10:16 am

Superstition meets Science in Early Modern Europe: Ulinka Rublack’s Path-breaking Studies

Lilo Berg, in Humboldt Kosmos  2019, pp.3033 ** where the title reads as “Witches, Fashion Fiends and Cabinet Curiosities”

Ulinka Rublack’s book about the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who defended his mother in a witchcraft trial, caused a stir. Drawing on old sources, the historian reconstructs a fascinating image of the Early Modern Era in which superstition meets science

The Historian Ulinka Rublack at work in Wolfenbüttel
The Historian Ulinka Rublack at work in Wolfenbüttel (Photo: Humboldt Foundation / Jörg Scheibe)

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, European history, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, medical marvels, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, Uncategorized, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes

November 21, 2019 · 3:32 am

A Medley of Races by T.W. Roberts

“A Medley of Races” … being an article in the Times of Ceylon Christmas Number 1935

A land where five empires have met and clashed and left remnants of themselves behind. Here and there a monument, a temple, a church, a road, a plant and everywhere the most vivid remnant of all, chunks of humanity. And so you often stumble on Sinhalese endowed with features that seemed to have stepped out of a picture by Velasquez. Similarly, most of the Sinhalese of one district (Negombo) talk not Sinhalese but Tamil, while the intelligentsia of all Ceylon know English better than they know their own languages.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under British colonialism, Buddhism, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, plural society, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people

November 20, 2019 · 3:00 am

Keenan and ICG are Handmaidens for US Interests

Jean-Pierre Page[1]

You know off course that Keenan is a mercenary and his Crisis Group are a cover of the CIA dealing with strong US interests in Sri Lanka? The Crisis group is one of the richest and most powerful of the so-called NGOs. It is supported financially and officially by all western governments, various institutions and people like Soros (a well-known international crook, strong supporter and organiser of colour revolutions), the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundation, the NED, and several transnational corporations among them BP, etc.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, electoral structures, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry

November 19, 2019 · 3:15 pm

Alan Keenan of the ICG comments on the Presidential Election Results in Sri Lanka

Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group, ….  deploying this title “Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election Brings Back a Polarising Wartime Figure”

Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decisive victory in Sri Lanka’s presidential election reflects voters’ concerns over security, poor economic prospects and ineffective governance – but also indicates the country’s dangerous ethnic polarisation. Many worry that Rajapaksa, a Sinhalese nationalist, will energise anti-Muslim campaigning and further alienate the Tamil community.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, NGOs, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

November 19, 2019 · 7:27 am

Vale Rajpal De Silva: Doctor, Historian, Art Collector and A Treasure House for Ceyloniana

Srilal Fernando … in The Ceylankan, November 2019

I write this as a personal appreciation of a dear friend Dr R.K. (Rajpal) de Silva. I shall leave it to others more qualified than me to write about his contribution  to recording the history of paintings in Sri Lanka mainly during the Colonial period.  His life at the Royal College, Colombo and his lifelong association with his schoolmates are aspects that I only know of in passing.  He has written about his life as a medical student and as a doctor which makes interesting reading.

Pix by  Athula Devapriya

When Mano rang to say that Rajpal passed away that day, I was full of grief. I had had a telephone conversation with him a few days before.   Though infirm, he was at that time full of good cheer.  It confirms the adage that “death comes like a thief in the night”.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, paintings, photography, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes