Category Archives: discrimination

April 20, 2020 · 8:09 am

Champion’s Photographic Lens on Sri Lanka’s Travails, 1988-2008

Saroj Pathirana, in bbc.com, where the title reads “History ‘repeats’ through lens” … an EVENT in July 2008 in London  = https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/highlights/story/2008/07/080716_champion_photos.shtml

While traveling around Sri Lanka for over 22 years I always expected someday the situation would change for the better”, says the veteran British photographer Stephen Champion. However, after nearly two decades since he first set his foot on the island the country is still battling, he says. “We are still looking at the very similar scenario. History seems to be repeating itself,” Mr. Champion told BBC Sandeshaya at the launch of his latest book on Sri Lanka.

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April 18, 2020 · 5:01 am

Anti-Chinese Racism flares up in Australia

ONE: A Note from Fair Dinkum in Melbourne, 17 April 2020

There have been over 178 attacks on Chinese people and anyone of Asian appearance in the last weeks in Australia which began after the Australian government launched a vicious attack on China, for political reasons. Note that the New South Wales govt has been anti- China for quite a while.

If you follow the Australian media, they simply replicate the government’s discourse on China. The government and the media work together.  So, it is right to blame the government.

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March 8, 2020 · 1:50 pm

Defeating the Coronavirus at the Individual Level: Simple Steps

ONE: Peter Lee Goodchild’s Advice …… IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – CORONAVIRUS

Last evening dining out with friends, one of their uncles, who’s graduated with a master’s degree and who worked in Shenzhen Hospital (Guangdong Province, China) sent him the following notes on Coronavirus for guidance.

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February 17, 2020 · 3:20 pm

Yogaraja sparks Protest against Caste Disabilities in the Tamil Regions

Ahilan Kadirgamar. in Daily Mirror, on 17 February 2020, where the title is “Breaking the Silence on Caste”

Caste is all present in Jaffna, but a silence prevails about caste oppression. Such silence and invisibility were not always the case, where vibrant struggles against caste oppression shook Jaffna some five decades ago.

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February 5, 2020 · 11:26 pm

For the Singing of the National Anthem in Sinhala Only: Two Adamant Voices

On the 21st January 2020 two personnel who are part of an “Email Collective” in which I am a member (mostly as a recipient) raised challenges by a comment within the Thuppahi route (Perera) and by an Email Note to the Collective (Hewapathirane) — arguing for the singing of the national anthem in Sinhala Only. Expecting the issue to arise on February 4th and overwhelmed with work on my two websites and other pursuits, I did not respond immediately. Janaka Perera is nothing if not persistent and has tapped me on the shoulder again.

Let me place their theses in the public domain first so that other voices can chip in. My answer will appear in a day or so as a separate entity.

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January 19, 2020 · 6:28 am

Sampanthan’s Devious Reasoning and Twisted Historical Review

Rajeewa Jayweera, in Island, 18 January 2020, where the title runs “President’s policy statement and Sampanthan’s amnesia” … with underlining emphasis being i positions by The Editor, Thuppahi

During the two-day adjournment debate on the policy statement delivered by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan’s outburst had more holes than a target sheet in a firing range (and Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock’s charge of the abduction, molestation, and interrogation by unknown persons of embassy minor employee Garnier Banister Francis aka Sriyalatha Perera).

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January 17, 2020 · 8:18 am

Familial Togetherness!

…. in Contrast

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January 10, 2020 · 1:48 pm

Becoming and Being Sri Lankan: The National Anthem in Our Mother Tongues

Eranda Ginige, on in Lanka News Web, 6 January 2020, where the title is “The Language of the National Anthem”

The Dominion of Ceylon was formed on 4 February 1948 with the singing of Britain’s national anthem “God Save the King” and it continued to be the anthem for another four years

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December 11, 2019 · 2:07 pm

Alan Keenan challenged in Verbal War

  

A = Preamble from Michael Roberts, 11 December 2009

When I fashioned an article entitled “The Western World’s Cumulous Clouds of Deception: Blanketing the Sharp Realities of Eelam War IV” in October 2018, its Colombo Telegraph version[1] drew an adverse comment from my friend Rajan Hoole. I chose to address Hoole at length through another article in Thuppahi entitled “A Response to Rajan Hoole re Reviews of Eelam War IV and Western Deceit.”[2]

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October 25, 2019 · 1:31 am

In Memory of Tony Greig: A Sturdy Friend of Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

As the Sri Lankan cricket team embarks on a short tour of Australia, I remind one and all of a sturdy supporter from within the ranks of the cricketing world in Australia whose premature death in December 2012 was a loss to one and all.  A South African who played cricket for England, Tony became Kerry Packer’s right-hand man during the revolutionary World Series cricket[1] on the 1970s (which new generations must study) ….. and made Sydney his home.

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