Item presented in FACEBOOK by Peradeniya University Friends with this title: 160th Birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala**
Anagarika Dharmapala a noble son of Sri Lanka who made immense sacrifices towards Buddhist revival and national upliftment in the 19th century was born at Matara on 17 Sept 1864.
He worked and campaigned with unswerving loyalty to the nationalist cause in an era when Buddhism and the national culture had reached their lowest ebb.
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Matt Goodwin, in The Sunday Times, 1 September 2024 where the title reads “Left-wing groupthink is strangling universities, so count me out”
Having watched free speech being marginalised by a narrow monoculture over two decades, Matt Goodwin is stepping down from teaching students
This summer, after more than 20 years of teaching and researching in Britain’s universities, I decided to quit my full professorship. While I remain an honorary professor I will no longer teach students or carry out my usual academic duties. This is the first September in two decades that I will not be welcoming first-year students on to campus.
Why?
Universities are weighed down by financial problems, an ideological monoculture and a shift in focus to “student satisfaction”
ILLUSTRATION BY RUSSEL HERNEMAN
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The History of the Middle Finger
Well, now ….. here’s something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn’t history more fun when you know something about it? Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future.
Battle of Agincourt
Michael Roberts
Ashan de Alwis’s article in The Ceylon Journal Volume 1/1 published in mid-2024 is as readable and excellent an essay as anyone can wish for.[i] It focuses on the 50-over one-day cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka played at Adelaide Oval on the 23rd January 1999 and specifically on the no-balling of Muralitharan for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson and captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s unprecedented actions in challenging the umpire.[1] This account is supported by a graphic picture – as iconic as world-famous unusual. It does not fail to note that the Sri Lankan batsmen, batting second, did not let Murali or the fans down: led by a Mahela Jayawardene century, they reached the massive England total of 303 in the last over with the last man Murali at the crease.
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Daniel Nasaw, BBC News Magazine, Washington, on the 6th February 2012 with this title “When did the middle finger become offensive? …. an item which quickly generated 138 comments [thus ‘gestures’ of sorts]
“Up Yours”– gestures MIA
Whether or not M.I.A. was aware, the gesture originally referred to a phallus ….. [is in question]
An American television network has apologised after pop star M.I.A. extended her middle finger during Sunday night’s Super Bowl halftime show. What does the gesture mean, and when did it become offensive?
A public intellectual, expressing his contempt for a gas-bag politician, reaches for a familiar gesture. He extends his middle finger and declares: “This is the great demagogue.”
The Wikipedia Reading
The middle finger, long finger, second finger,[1][2] third finger,[3] toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is also called the third finger, digitus medius, digitus tertius or digitus III.
A CIRCULAR from Kumar Kirinde ... … with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Dear RAFOA member,
Now that another presidential election is due in a few weeks’ time in our beloved country … Sri Lanka. I thought that the attached document will be of interest to you. The finer points with my take on the matter is given below mainly for the benefit of those who cannot spend much time reading documents running into a few pages.
A statue Niccol
The brief is on Machiavelli’s thinking on political power and ruling a nation.
Machiavelli was a diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived over 500 years ago in Florentine, a part of present day Italy. He served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs.
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Fair Dinkum
Golly gosh! What a turn around! The UK government condemning Israel for killing large numbers of Palestinians sheltering in 17 schools! Why has it taken the UK government two years to wake up to Israel’s goal to wilfully slaughter all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
Observer in a Black Sea Port
At 6:02 Judge Napolitano asks Crooke “Is a wider war in the Middle East inevitable?” ….. Crooke answers this question and then explains why.
He articulates the change that has taken place in Western politics, particularly in the democratic area which has become a “control room” that we don’t see, that is behind it. Even the President or the leader of any Western nation is just a figurehead and is not important any longer. One figurehead can be removed and then another figurehead is elevated by the media and becomes the new figurehead. But behind it lies “the control room” which is operating this in a new form of politics which Crooke calls “the whole of state politics” which means there has to be ideological alignment, not just across the party, but among NGOs, the financial world, all of the state apparatus, the media — all of this has to be the same.
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Chandra Schaffter, whose original essay in 2018 can be found in web-site CRICKETIQUE … That essay is entitled “How the Scheduled Tour of England in the 1960s was blown apart from Within” ... NB: highlighting emphasis has been imposed by The Editor, Michael Roberts
[This account is a riposte to a public statement from] Dhanasiri Weerasinghe Weerasinghe, in regard to the aborted English tour in 1968. Since my name has been mentioned in a not too complimentary manner, I thought I would state my side of the story in order to put the record straight.
Sometime around 1964 or 65 a new set of selectors were appointed by the Board. They were D.D. Jayasinghe (Douggie Chairman),[1] Bobby Schoorman, K.M.T. Perera and myself.[2] We functioned for about three years I think, and at the risk of being accused of conceit, I would say this was among the best set of selectors Sri Lanka ever had.
Ceylon squad that beat India in one Test [at Ahmedabad in January 1965] … after losing the first two
thuppahi
