Category Archives: discrimination
Reading Roberts on Sri Lanka’s Socio-Political Ailments: A Letter to Roberts
Drawlight, 10 June 2020
Sir: I have read through and consider this an excellent summary of the key issues,[1] particularly for those who are not very knowledgeable about history and of the sort who are busier protesting matters that have no relevance to them (the current trend among especially the youth in Sri Lanka on social media bandwagoning on BLM issues in the US simultaneously ignoring the more immediate realities of fellow Sri Lankans engaged in modern day slavery in the Middle East and other countries).
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Challenging Michael Roberts … with Straight Left and Right Hook
Gerald Peiris ... in the spirit of vigorous debate which we used to pursue in the Arts Faculty and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya University in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Gerry Peiris has responded with two sharply critical notes of some significance to my critical review of Sri Lankan society and politics, an essay that is directed by an optimistic eye …. Ha! Ha! … towards a major overhaul.
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Honeycombed with Societal and Political Fissures: Sri Lanka Now & Ever Before
Michael Roberts, reiterating the original draft sent to a few on 10 June 2020
Recent forum discussions on the topic of “Reconciliation” and correspondence with concerned friends have prompted me to essay an analysis of Sri Lanka’s societal problems over the last 150 years. This is a tendentious quest.
This Map showing districts served by Regional Malaria Officers happens to suit the metaphor “Riddled” and/or “Honeycombed” in my title
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The Neck Smothering WE Males Desire
…. and the Lambada on the Sands that paves the way
A Chilling and Terrifying Word-Picture of USA Today
David Kilcullen, in The Inquirer, 30 May 2020 and the Australian, 4 June 2020, with this title “Home of the hateful, fearful, heavily armed” …..
Coronavirus is threatening to ignite a tinderbox of grievances in the US. The growing parallels with Iraq, Lebanon and Somalia are real and disturbing.
The rise of militias and armed protesters across the US is sometimes seen as a fringe right-wing issue, but it is much broader. Armed groups have formed across the political spectrum, worsening divisions the coronavirus has exposed in American society.
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The Web Site on “Sacrificial Devotion” …. Its Short Run
Recent Thuppahi entries have highlighted the Workshop on “Sacrificial Devotion” held in Adelaide University in late 2005, one framed within the concept fashioned by Michael Roberts to study and comprehend suicidal commitments to political cause. Note the ITEM
Thilipan on Fast unto death in 1987
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The Black-White Divide in USA: Covid’s Exposure/Disclosure
Daya Gamage
The lack of healthcare facilities, less economic opportunities, sub-standard educational facilities, extremely low-paying jobs, inadequate housing availability, widespread racism and discrimination, long-standing economic and health disparities between white people and the minority blacks have directly contributed to 35 percent of the Black community being affected by the Covid-19 despite the Blacks in the U.S. make-up just 13 percent of the overall population, the Asian Tribune survey found.
Even though African Americans make up 13 percent of the US population, they account for 30 percent of the country’s COVID-19 patients
Justin Trudeau Rapped on Knuckles for Statement on Victims of Eelam War
When Justin Trudeau issued a brief statement on the 18th May 2020 expressing sympathy for all the victims of Eelam War IV in the course of his request for an accountability purpose, he was clever. There was no slant towards Tamil victims. But there was a reference to “the last phase of the war at Mullivaikal” …. and this, together with the focus on accountability, implied that he was supporting Sri Lankan Tamil and HR claims alleging mass killings.
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‘Covidiot Specialists’ as Another Menace
Dr Upul Wijayawardhana, in Island, 4 May 2020, where the title is “Which is more dangerous, Covid or Covidiot?”
“Where knowledge is sparse, experts proliferate” is, perhaps, the most important lesson I have learned during this troubled time we all are going through. At times, I wished Sir Tim Berners-Lee patented his invention – the World Wide Web – rather than gifting it to humanity. That would have prevented so many of my friends, and relatives, from forwarding many frivolous items, by e-mail and WhatsApp, as I am a Facebook shunner. Had they been obliged to pay, even the tiniest amount, they would have thought twice before forwarding most of these which, at best, are silly and, at worst, laden with darned lies. Had Sir Tim been selfish, he would have been a multi-billionaire, the richest man in the world, perhaps, and could then be a ‘philanthropist’, like some Americans, doling out millions to help the fight against the unseen-enemy. But that is another story.
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