Category Archives: disparagement

More Revelations re the Crocus Concert Hall Attack

Observer in a Black Sea Resort

After a lengthy and detailed investigation,  the Director of the Russian Security Service, Aleksandr Bortnikov, has confirmed that Ukrainian military intelligence had direct involvement in the Crocus terrorist attack.
 Thus, Russia has gathered evidence that confirms the preparation,  financing and escape from the crime scene was coordinated by members of Wailayat Khorasan or ISIS-K. Twenty people have now been arrested. Not all are members of ISIS-K.
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov attends a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Board in Moscow, Russia. ©  Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov

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Touche! An Old Ladies Riposte …..

A Message circulated by Vernon Davidson, Keith Bennett and friends in Australia

Here is a wonderful little story.

A young MALE cashier told an older woman that she should bring her grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my day.”

The young clerk said, “Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

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Filed under accountability, chauvinism, cultural transmission, disparagement, education, governance, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, tolerance

“Walk Like An Elephant” …. Being Laleen Jayamanne’s Engagement with the “Aragalaya”

Walk Like an Elephant: The Island Essays 2022-2023′
These are 22 essays written by Laleen Jayamanne during the time of the Aragalaya/Struggle/Paroattam in 2022 and in the aftermath. These writings  work at the intersection of art and politics within the context of Sinhala Buddhist Ethno-Nationalism as it affected the Arts and Fine Arts Education policy since 1958. I use theoretical and philosophical ideas from Critical Theory familiar to left intellectuals at least since May ’68 in Paris. It is written for a Lankan Left intelligentsia; but as its for a daily paper I have crafted an accessible prose.

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Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, disparagement, economic processes, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes

A Lifetime Addressing Nationalist Political Currents & Zealotry

Michael Roberts

As I attend a friend’s funeral every now and then in Adelaide or receive mail conveying sad tidings re good friends and other acquaintances, I am reminded that I will disappear into the dust in due course relatively soon. So be it.

However there has been a lifetime of endeavour in various fields. One range of activity has been in the academic realm investigating socio-political events and processes in the world …. with particular attention directed towards my home-country Sri Lanka’s affairs.

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Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, hatan kavi, historical interpretation, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

Totalitarianism Defined …. With Hitler as the Epitome of the Phenomenon

Richard Koenigsberg and the LSS, aka Library of Social Science, located in New York

Totalitarianism: the psychopathology is the identification, refusal or inability to conceive of a self in separation from society; of a self that does not exist in a symbiotic tie to the nation. “Symbiosis” is not an “infantile phase of development,” rather It’s the ground of our being the fantasy we are connected to something “out there” (and cell phones represent the apotheosis of merger of self with society).

HITLER 22

 

 

GERMANY – MAY: Adolf Hitler, winner of the Prussian and Bavarian elections, giving a speech, in May 1928, in Germany…Photo by Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

Listen to Hitler: “Our Nation is not just an idea in which you have no part; you yourself support the nation; to it you belong; you cannot separate yourself from it; your life is bound up with the life of your whole people; the nation is not merely the root of your strength, it is the root of your very life.”

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Be Tamil Bibliography…….For Sri Lanka 2003/04

Michael Roberts

 About the time that I retired from my teaching duties at the Anthropology Department at Adelaide University in 2003/04, the topic of “suicide terrorism” was attracting a lot of attention in academic circles through books and articles. As I dwelt on this topic within the alternative title of “Sacrificial Devotion,” I also had, perforce, to dwell on the grievances espoused by the Sri Lanka Tamils.

Through happenchance, today, I came across an old Word File entitled “Be Tamil Bibliography.” Its entries suggest that it was drafted circa 2003/04so the temporal sweep is restricted. It lists academic books and articles on the ethnic contretemps in Sri Lanka as well as the Tamil world of Sri Lanka and India. Thus, the authors marked include such personnel as Zvelebil, Schalk, Kenneth David and Hellmann-Rajanayagam as well as the local Tamils Chelliah Manogaran, Valentine Daniel, Sivathamby, Somasundaram and Sivaram …. to name a few.

Tamil demonstrators invade the pitch during a Cricket World Cup, Group B, match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Oval, London, 11th June 1975. Australian opening batsman Alan Turner (foreground) turns his back on the protest while his teammate Rick McCosker looks on. Australia won the match by 52 runs..Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

 

 

 

 

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An Insane World: Fico shot …. Blinken in Discoland

An Observer in a Black Sea Town  … with highlights being impositions by Thuppahi

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been shot and is in hospital. His condition is serious. Interestingly, Sky News, without any evidence, suggested the assassination attempt on Fico was because he was good friends with Putin,  and because he was opposed to sending weapons to Ukraine, and was therefore “supporting autocracies against democracies”.

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Devastating Israeli Assaults on Rafah

  Observer in a Black Sea Town … writing on 7/8th May 2024 after Israel’s devastating assault began the day before.

Israel has just launched its devastating attack on the densely populated city of Rafah promising to use extreme force against 1.4 million Palestinian citizens. The Wankers of the White House, may shed crocodile tears for the slaughtering of Palestinans and they will wank on about it not being a good idea, but the fact remains that the US did absolutely nothing to prevent it, which means they condone it.
Smoke billows from n Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza, May 6, 2024 ©  AFP

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The UIGHURS: Their Political Backers Revealed ….

Theodore K

Why has the “Uygher genocide” narrative fizzled out? … …………..  AND why is it that  when a real genocide takes place in Gaza, the majority in the West is in denial?  It’s a fair question. These two guys discuss Xinjiang with regard to this line of questioning……………
A good point is made about the small band of Uyghers that are propped up by the US, who have come out in support of Israel: a bit strange, even amazing, given that the Uyghers are supposed to be Muslims.
It enables alternative narratives on what is happening in Gaza to be heard. These narratives undermine the official US government propaganda line on Gaza.

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US Republican Senators Threaten the ICC … [and we are not talking cricket!]

Hot Press: Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz are among a dozen Republicans that signed a letter that threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) if they arrest Israeli leaders for war crimes.

Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. Your Support is Crucial to the Show: https://tyt.com/team Get the Progressive battle plan: https://go.tyt.com/book-description Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live Read more HERE: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4… “A dozen GOP senators threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) with sanctions if the body moves forward with an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other Israeli leaders. The ICC has reportedly considered a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest for weeks as accusations rise of war crimes in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “

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