Category Archives: disparagement

Caste & Politics in the Sri Lankan Tamil World

Robert Siddharthan Perinpanayagam, in Groundviews, 22 August 2011, where the title reads “Caste And Politics” …. An article that drew 19 comments including some responses from “Sid”… reproduced here with highlighting imposed by The Editor in circumstances where my friend “Sid” from Peradeniya  days is no longer around to dispute matters … as he surely would have.

Over the years, the claims of the Tamil people for justice, equalty and dignity have been rejected with a variety of specious arguments. It is not necessary to go into these exercises here again. However, the latest attempt in this direction is to raise the issue of caste in Jaffna society. Former civil servants, who spent three or four years being de facto kings of the North, have sought to comment on this issue in many recent hero-stories that they have published in the newspapers. In these hero-stories they report not only how they defeated one departmental head or another or humiliated a hapless village headman, but how they vanquished the evil designs of the Tamils as well. Indeed everything seems to become grist to the mill of Tamil-bashing. Even a casual remark made in a cricket match is used by a famous historian to claim that the Tamils of Jaffna are cravenly caste-conscious. Off-the-cuff social commentators as well as the tribalist pundits in the newspapers have also got into this act. The implication of these commentaries is that the Sinhalese do not have the problem of castism and only Tamils do. One recent commentator is so ignorant of the political history of the island as to invoke Ponnambalam Ramanathan’s castism! It was indeed the fear of Karava ascendancy by the Goigamas that elevated Ramanathan to high stature by making him the representative of the “Educated Ceylonese” in the Legislative Council.

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Gross & Oversimplfied Propaganda Lines in the Australian Press Today

X … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In the Western world, we are taught to believe there are two worlds – a good world and a bad world. There is no in-between. The West is always on the side of good because, we are told, it has “values”, though we are never told what those values are. The word “values” could well relate to the values of colonialism, neocolonialism, liberalism, and exploitation of non-Western societies.  
Analyse this article by Matthew Knott in The Age

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Aussie Reporters Shooting at the Moon

A Canary Club Reader  .… with highlighting emphasis inserted by The Editor, Thuppahi

Does Peter Hartcher understand anything? …..

Here, he begins by stating:  “In the time it takes to read this article, two more Russian soldiers will be killed”, without providing a shred of evidence to substantiate his claim. Based on leaked US military documents in April this year, the reality is that in the time it takes to read this article, 14 Ukrainian soldiers would have been killed. You’d have to read the article many times before a Russian is killed.

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BBC rendered impotent by Azerbaijan President

An Observer from the Black Sea

This interview is why the BBC stands for British Bullshit Corporation. The journalist from that ‘august’ agency claims the higher moral ground – just read it in her facial gestures; but she can’t provide a single source and is then speechless when the President of Azerbaijan asks her a question.

The BBC do the same on China,  HK, Iran, Russia and any country that chooses their own destiny independent of Anglo-Saxon control.

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The Anzac Story: Rushing into the Fields of Slaughter?

Binoy Kampmark, in Countercurrents, 26 April 2023, where the title reads “Politicians and the Anzac Tradition: A Story of Manipulation and Mythology”

While the mass slaughtering of, and slaughter by, soldiers, is always a touchy subject of commemoration, a tension has existed between those who did the fighting, and those who ordered it.  Comfortably secure in furnished rooms and battle props, planners would, as they still do, draw up the blueprints, concoct the strategy, and give the orders.

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Australia is Now a Lapdog of USA & UK

Graham Hryce, in RTcom.news, 20 March 2023 where the title runs thus “The AUKUS deal confirms Australia’s complete dependence on the US and the UK” ….  Canberra is once again serving, and paying for, Washington and London’s regional ambitions.

Last week, amidst a great deal of pomp and ceremony at a San Diego, California naval base, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed off on the AUKUS submarine deal with the United States and the UK.

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Escalation of Attacks on Hindu Shrines in Northern Lanka

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 23 April 2023, whee the title reads thus: Tamils flag escalating attacks on temples in northern Sri Lanka” … with highlighting added by The Editor, Thuppahi

Several Tamil parties have called for a protest on April 25 against the recent Temple attacksTamils in Sri Lanka have witnessed an escalation in the attack on Hindu temples in recent weeks, a trend that they note is part of the State’s “ongoing Sinhalisation project” in the island’s north.

 

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Revisiting FIRE & STORM

Michael Roberts

In presenting a Zoom Lecture relating to the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka in April 2021 for Dr. Geethika Dharmasinghe’s class at Colgate University in USA a month or so back,  I deplyed the work that went into one of books: that entitled FIRE & STORM.

I now atempt to schock people around the world with pictorial illustrations of some — note “Some” (with all its partialities) — photographs of the political and Eelam War scenarios in Sri Lanka displayed in Fire & Storm.

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The Bumbling-Rambling JVP Insurgency of 1971

Janaka Perera, in The Daily News, 5 April 2023, entitled “Oh What A Lovely War for the Colonels of CeylonRemembering the April 1971 insurgency – a reporter’s experience,”   …. With this qualifying Note: This however is not meant to be a reflection on JVP’s present-day politics but only a brief recording of history.”

April 5th marks the 52nd anniversary of JVP’s April insurgency of 1971. It saw the first armed insurrection in post-independence Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). All legally recognized political parties at the time cooperated with the then Government in suppressing the insurgency since they did not consider it a people’s uprising.

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Right Royal Pillage in British India! Now on Display!

David Page & Manisha Ganguly, in The Guardian, 6 April 2023, with this title “India archive reveals extent of ‘colonial loot’ in royal jewellery collection”

File from India Office archive details how priceless items were extracted from colony as trophies of conquest. Five years ago, Buckingham Palace marked its summer opening with an exhibition celebrating the then Prince Charles’s 70th birthday with a display of his favourite pieces from the royal collection, Britain’s official trove of items connected to the monarchy. “The prince had a very, very strong hand in the selection,” the senior curator said.

Among the sculptures, paintings and other exhibits was a long gold girdle inlaid with 19 large emeralds once used by an Indian maharajah to decorate his horses. It was a curious choice to put into the exhibition in light of the violent means by which it had come into the hands of the royal family.

Emerald girdle of Maharaja Sher Singh, c 1840. Photograph: Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023

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