Category Archives: disparagement

August 5, 2024 · 7:12 pm

Of All Places! Lankan Asylum Seekers stranded in Diego Garcia

News Item in The Island , 23 July 2024 … where the title reads “Urgent request to relocate Lankan asylum seekers from Diego Garcia amid escalating crisis”

Facing an urgent and escalating threat of harm to migrant children detained on Diego Garcia, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy requested their relocation to the UK on July 16th, as reported in the Solicitors Journal. This request to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper follows a warning from the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Commissioner, who reported severe living conditions and recent suicide attempts among the detainees....visit The Island web-ref for  photo of  this cluster of refugee boat people

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July 31, 2024 · 4:27 pm

 The National Endowment for Democracy exposed as a CIA Branch

C. K. Watt

 The National Endowment for Democracy has been exposed today in a cache of silly letters and emails released today.  If you want to better understand what a nefarious illegal corrupt outfit the NED is and the weird people working for them, and the extent they will go to conceal the fact that it is a CIA cutout, then it is worth spending a little time reading the emails and letters released today.
Read a collection of the NED files exclusively obtained by The Grayzone here, ……………………………………………………………………………..

SOME OTHER ASIDES:

* the Dalai Lama is a long time CIA asset. He’s on the CIA payroll.
* The NED headquarters is just a few blocks from the White House.

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July 29, 2024 · 11:59 am

USA kow-tows to Natanyahu: ‘Ehemai Hamu’ on the World Stage

John Whitbeck in COUNTERPUNCH where the title reads “American Obeisance” … & the highlighting emphasis is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

 I have just witnessed the most pathetic and humiliating hour which I, as an American, have experienced in my lifetime.

Netanyahu sketches vague outline for post-war Gaza _ Reuters

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July 27, 2024 · 6:57 pm

Horrendous Situation, Stark Choices ….at Looming Sri Lankan Elections

Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda, in Polity.lk, 7 July 2024 … where the title reads “Uncertainty or Turmoil? Sri Lanka’s Pre-Presidential Election Politics”

The coming few months have the potential to produce major political changes in Sri Lanka. The presidential election is constitutionally due to be held on a date decided by the Election Commission between 17 September and 16 October. It will certainly mark a crucial moment that will decide who governs the country and in what direction, amidst a continuing economic and social crisis of massive proportions.

Photo by Sena Vidanagama

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July 23, 2024 · 12:42 am

Jocular Readings of US Presidential Race from Within

A Sri Lankan American Jester: “The US Presidential Election: Trump vs Harris”

The Prosecutor vs the Felon?

What if Harris choice for VP is Pete Buttigieg?

What theater!

… cliff me !

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July 17, 2024 · 1:48 pm

Senaka Weeraratna presses His Claims as Inventor of the DRS in Cricket

Michael Roberts

Senaka Weeraratna of Royal College and Sri Lanka has been persistent in his campaign for recognition being accorded to his role in conceiving the revolutonary DECISION REVIEW SYSTEM in cricket matches. On one occasion he even visited me at my sister’s house in Hampden Lane,Wellawatte, Colombo, in order to persuade me about the validity of his cause. I never had any objection to his position; but I have no clout within the ICC and limited capacities in investigating such an issue. All I can say is that SENAKA reminds me of one Anagarika Dharmapala — one of Senaka’s relatives — in the zealousness and persistence devoted to a cause. 

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July 14, 2024 · 8:32 pm

Trump’s Demagogic March leaps further ….

Mayura Botejue in USA

Trump’s marketing instincts are sharp and he seized the moment!

This image will circulate widely. It will draw more adulation from his voter base and help to sway undecided others who admire courage, toughness, defiance, etc. Especially powerful when his campaign casts his opponent Biden as frail and senile.

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June 26, 2024 · 3:52 pm

Kenya: An IMF Lapdog in Serious Strife

A. K. L.  Steinbeck, …. with title and underlining imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

WATCH =  https://x.com/DOmowale/status/1805701195366822364 …& … https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/6/25/kenya-protests-live-deadly-anti-tax-protests-after-finance-bill-approved

ONE = Here, Kenyan protestors wreck Kenya’s parliament, setting fire to the building. About 20 protestors have been killed by police at a time when Biden refers to Kenya as “a major non-NATO ally,” after Kenya surrendered its sovereignty over to the IMF, World Bank, Western creditors, bankers, NATO and the CIA. 

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June 26, 2024 · 1:36 am

Adopting Mongrel Colourings & Becoming Thuppahi

Michael Roberts, presenting an old essay prnted in the Lanka Monthly Digest in 2002 that was entitled “Sri Lankan-ness …. and Being Mongrel” **

The impending peace negotiations and the demand for self-determination by the LTTE and most (?) Tamils residing in Sri Lanka raise the issue of Sri Lankan identity in critical ways. Is there space for “internal self-determination” within both the territory and the idea called “Sri Lanka”? What does the concept of “self-determination” mean and does it allow for a “Tamil nation” to exist within the Sri Lankan nation in ways that will allow for “the dignity and self-respect” of those Tamils who wish to be part of this Tamil entity?

Pirapaharan, Anton Balasinghma & Thamil Chelvam on the podium at Kilinochchi before an international mix of media-personnel 10 April 2002 …. where the state of THAMILILAM  was effectively proclaimed ………………..

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June 24, 2024 · 8:13 pm

For Muralidhar Reddy: Thoughts on Eelam War IV in late 2009

ONE: Preamble by Michael Roberts

I was in Colombo from mid-April 2009 to early June and observed the local coverage of Eelam War IV at its bitter end. I was invited by Muralidhar Reddy[i] to write articles for Frontline on aspects of the politics surrounding the war. Though Frontline is a magazine produced by The Hindu consortium, I was not a regular follower of that newspaper on web — even though I had once been introduced to its owner and chief executive, N. Ram, way back in time by Chandra Schafter and had also had an extended chat with him in Delhi in 1995.[ii]

 

 

Thus, the receipt of a Hindu report on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s thoughts in mid-2009, expressed in an extended session with him conducted by N. Ram serves up new material from my position. In step with my policy of raising significant episodes in the course of Eelam War IV to public notice,[iii] I  hasten to present this exchange in the public domain.

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