Category Archives: discrimination

December 3, 2023 · 12:36 pm

Debating the Value of Tangential Historical Forays

Michael Roberts

 A FEW DAYS BACK, on 28th November 2023, I circulated this item among Lankan aficianado…. [ Let me add, here, that I was prompted to do this by the burgeoning world debate on the Palestinian-Israeli War that has been raging since August]. ………………………………………………………………….. https://thuppahis.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic and -illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda

ROHANTHA GUNARATNA in Canada responded in critical fashion. …. So I circulated his Memo to some personnel  with this NOTE: “I encourage responses [to his Memo] from interested personnel – here, quite deliberately, reaching out beyond Lankans to Indians and Brits familiar with the Lankan scene in that period past.”

 

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November 30, 2023 · 7:58 pm

The Indian Tamils in British Ceylon & Sri Lanka: Pursuing Their Equality TODAY

International Conference focusing on  the topic “MOVING TOWARDS EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH.”….  200 years of People of Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) in Sri Lanka” …. BCIS Auditorium (The Olympus), BMICH, Colombo,  11th December 2023

Welcome & Opening Address: Dr. Mario Gomez
Executive Director
International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo …

 Inaugural Address:  Dr. Yasodara Kathirgamathamby
Conference Chair, Department of Legal Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
The Open University of Sri Lanka

Special Address: Prof. Gamini Keerawella, 
Executive Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Colombo

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November 12, 2023 · 12:18 am

Israel”s Pursuit of “The Final Solution” vis a vis the Palestinians

Gamini Seneviratne** whose chosen title is “The US, ISRAEL & WMD”…. with the highlighting being the author’s emphasis

 It was just twenty years ago that George W Bush of the USA declared that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that threatened the security of The Free World. Today we are presented with a whole range of similar – and much worse – fictions by and on behalf of Israel. It is impossible to find words in this language to describe those usurpers to the land of Palestine and their atrocities, now freshly renewed, against her people. And they receive the continuing, totally indefensible, support of the western media which exerts itself to obfuscate what should be clear to the whole world: the intention of “Israel” to achieve its Final Solution, a la that of Hitler and of Nazis everywhere, through genocide.

 

 

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November 11, 2023 · 6:59 pm

Gideon Levy in 2015: A Reading Doubly Pertinent Today

VISIT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnaacT4eBrA

An old video featuring Israeli journalist Gideon Levy discussing the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict has gone viral on social media. The journalist Gideon Levy’s insights on the situation have proven to be prophetic, given the current state of affairs in the region. Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas and the resulting devastation has raised concerns worldwide. Gideon Levy is an award winning journalist.

ADDENDUM from Thuppahi:  ………….. “WHERE the mainstream Western Press, for the most part, emphasizes this message ad nauseum.”

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November 8, 2023 · 11:55 pm

Cricket Dirty Cricket

Michael Roberts, reproducing an article written in early December 2003 and presented with the same title in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publishers, 2006, pp 107-111 …. with the title inspired by Lord Superior aka Andrew Marcano’s famous calypso line in praise of the marvellous West Indian spin-twins Ramadhin and Valentine: viz, “Cricket Luv’ly Cricket” 

In stressing the antithesis to that ditty, I am directed by two awful acts of sportmanshp recently: namely, (A) Mohammed Siraj’s verbal intimidation of Charitha Asalanka with implicit support from skipper Sharma; and (B) skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s position in sticking to the technicalities so as to dismiss Angelo Matthews.

     

 

 

 

 

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October 25, 2023 · 11:35 pm

Israeli PM’s Message imitates Goebbels’ Programme

Camel Rider …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Attached is a video clip of a statement made by Yair Lapid on 24 October which (thank God) was broadcast on RUSSIA TODAY. You won’t find it in the Western media. It serves as a reminder that people do need to watch RT because that’s where you can find all the juicy news the West ignores. 

Yair Lapid stated,

“If the international media is objective, it serves Hamas. If it just shows both sides, it serves Hamas. My argument is that the media can’t just claim to bring both sides of the story. If you do that, you are only bringing one, Hamas’ side. That’s cowardly and it’s lazy. It’s an insult, insult to the victims including the Palestinian victims. It is also an insult to the core idea of what journalism is. Believe me, I know, I was a journalist for 31 years. — Yair Lapid, Israeli Prime Minister, July- December 2022.  

This is an extremely irrational and fallacious argument, very much in the spirit of the propaganda rhetoric that once came from Joseph Goebbels.   

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October 17, 2023 · 10:58 am

Palestine & the Propaganda War by Video: Issues

ISSUE:  Question from A British-Lankan Friend, 16 October 2023

Hi Michael, I would like to give this video much wider circulation, but I need a link…can’t find one!”  ….  …

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, THE REFERENCE BEING = video of Egyptians walking across desert with backpacks of assistance for Palestinians in Gaza …. SEE …. https://thuppahis.com/2023/10/16/support-for-palestine-on-different-scales-in-london-from-egypt/#more-76263

Is this verifiable? There’s lots of fake news being put around by both sides. I would love to give this video wider coverage.

ANSWER from “A Middle Eastern Specialist”

The source for this is Kurdistan24 — a news source based in Iraq with a bureau office in Washington DC.  This video is circulating on many telegram sites, for instance, this one ……………… https://t.me/llordofwar/216918

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October 13, 2023 · 11:11 pm

Gaza: Glaring Double Standards in the West

Fair Dinkum

It is easy to beat up on a small nation like Sri Lanka. As [Padma Rao Sundarji contends in her article on  Canada’s pro-Tamil Tiger policies], the way the West [did] this [was] to use the threat of sanctions to meddle into the conflict [that prevailed] in Sri Lanka, to undermine the efforts of the Sri Lankan military, and to prolong [Etelam War IV] for as long as possible. Perhaps Canada doesn’t like peace. It is only when you stand up to them, that countries in the West back off.

Pause for a moment to compare the West’s response to Sri Lanka [in the first decade of this century] with what is now happening in the latest war in the Middle East. The West is not calling for sanctions to be imposed on Israel in response to Israel threatening to wipe Gaza off the map, and to cut off food, water and electricity supplies to all three million residents of Gaza. Nor have sanctions been called for after Israel bombed a UN building in Gaza killing 15 UN representatives. That was fine with some Canadian commentators.

Some graphic shots of the scenarios in Gaza after Israel strikes  .… Pix from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-satellite-images-reveal-gaza-strip-devastation-hamas-attack/ … & note Map at end of this TPS Item

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October 12, 2023 · 7:37 pm

Canada’s Muddled Pro-Tamil & Pro-Tamil Tiger Policies Remain

 Padma Rao Sundarji, in Asian Age, 29 September 2023 where the title reads “Two-faced Canada is on a re-run of its LTTE policy”

https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/280923/padma-rao-sundarji-two-faced-canada-is-on-a-re-run-of-its-ltte-policy.html

Is India guilty of assassinating a terrorist in Canada? At least to one of India’s neighbours, Ottawa’s accusation will come as a boring re-run of Ottawa’s inglorious policies, of which it has long been a victim.

For 30 years, one of the world’s bloodiest civil wars had raged in Sri Lanka. What began as a separatist movement in the north and east, quickly escalated into a full-blown armed conflict led by the terror group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Thousands of frightened Tamils sought asylum in the affluent countries of the West.

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October 11, 2023 · 12:38 pm

Putin shreds the Canadian Parliament’s Idiotic Charade

An Observer from a Black Sea Town ……. in an Original Set of Comments … where the highlightS are interventions from The Editor, Thuppahi

A fair comment by Putin here.  The speaker of the Canadian Parliament introduced a 95 year old Ukrainian to the parliament as “a soldier who bravely fought Russia in WW2. “ This led to 3 standing ovations in the parliament for this brave Ukrainian.

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