Category Archives: ethnicity

Meirsheimer’s Forecast in 2009 — Seeking to ”Save Israel From Itself”

John Meirsheimer, in The American Conservative, 18 May 2009….. article entitled “Saving Israel From Itself” …. with highlighting emphasis imposed by Tthe editor, Thuppahi

The two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the Jewish state’s long-term security—and our own.

Israel and Palestine in Middle East on contour map. Palestinian territories of Gaza and West Bank. Jerusalem and Jordan River on outline map. Theme of Israel, war, conflict.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The United States and Israel fundamentally disagree about the need to establish a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. President Obama is committed to a two-state solution, while Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is opposed and has been for many years. To avoid a direct confrontation with Washington, Netanyahu will probably change his rhetoric and talk favorably about two states. But that will not affect Israel’s actions. The never-ending peace process will go on, Israel will continue building settlements, and the Palestinians will remain locked up in a handful of impoverished enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza. Anticipating this outcome, Obama has told Congress to expect a clash with Israel.

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Kamindu Mendis Leaps Unto The World Cricket Stage

Nick Brookes, writing at MURALI END where the title runs ”How Kamindu set the world alight”

It’s been quite the year for Kamindu Mendis.

Cast your mind back to January. Kamindu was on the outside looking in – yet to make a mark in any form of international cricket. For years, he’d been ‘the next cab off the rank’, yet that tag is misleading. Kamindu was more like a tuk-tuk driver searching for passengers in the wilderness; waiting for a fare which increasingly looked like it may never arrive.

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Hendrik Ambrosius Johnson: A Tale of Survival Across Three Continents

Nick Van Der Hoeven … with the highlights being the work of the Editor, Thuppahi

Before I discuss the incredible life of Hendrik Ambrosius Johnson, I just wanted to state that my interest in my Ceylonese genealogy was not deliberate, nor has it been a long -time passion. Quite the opposite. It was thrust upon me in fairly strange circumstances. Sitting at my work desk close to 20 years ago, then in my early 30’s with a young family, I decided to google ‘Sri Lankan Genealogy’.

Within 20 minutes I had met a second cousin (Kyle Joustra) and within 4 hours he had given me a 152-page Bloodline report outlining a staggering 22 generations dating back to medieval Brugge to a direct descendant born around 1270. Staggering. Not only did a line go back that far, the document contained pretty much all my direct grandparents going back at least 7 generations (or about 250 years). Again staggering. In that document, which I let sit in a filing cabinet for 15 years, there are over 1,800 relatives either direct or great uncles or aunts by blood or marriage.

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Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sri Lanka Conference held at Gannoruwa in August 1974 — PROGRAMME Circulated Then

AGRICULTURE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA’ … conference organised by the Ceylon Studies Seminar ……16th – 19th August, 1974 …… at the In Service Training Centre, Gannoruwa

** The times of the mid-morning and afternoon tea-breaks will be announced each day.

** The names of the chairman and the discussant for each session will be indicated in a list which will be circulated later.

** The two papers marked with an asterisk may not be available for discussion.

A symbolic natural phenomenon from the Peradeniya University campus …. anticipaing potential prospects from the intellectual flowerings generated within its portals

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Nationalist Studies and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya, 1968-1970s

Michael Roberts …. repeating an old TPS item [with highlighting added] because of the implications of the recent TPS item  by Bedgar Perera re Prof Rex Clements.

The years 1966 to 1975 were heady days in Ceylon. Especially so for some of us in Peradeniya Univeristy where the CEYLON STUDIES SEMINAR was launched in November 1968 by a few members of the Arts Faculty assisted by the facilities provided by Professor Gananath Obeyesekera at the Sociology Departmentlocated then on Lower Hantane Road away from the centre of teaching. Not least among these facilities was the service provided by the Sociology Department peon Sathiah[1] who cyclostyled the written seminar papers beforehand for circulation so that those who were keen could read any presentation beforehand if they so wished – a procedure that also maximized discussion time. This background service was seconded by the typing services of Mrs Hettiarachchi in the History Department and Mr Kumaraswamy in the Sociology Department.

   Sathiah — an essential servicing hand …

  & Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe, who perceived the depth of the festering ethnic split early on

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Vale — Rex Clements, A Sri Lankan Virtuoso in Many Arts

Bedgar Perera

DR. REX CLEMENTS ..… Sept. 8, 2023 was a very sad day for the 1964-68 batch of the Faculty of Agriculture of the then University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, as that was the day on which Dr. Rex Clements, our batchmate and friend passed away in Australia owing to a lung infection he was suffering from, for some time.

 

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Ashley Chandrasinghe in Victoria’s Cricket Sights

 “Victoria name 14-player squad for Second XI clash against NSW,”  September 29, 2024  ……….

Casey South Melbourne’s Ash Chandrasinghe and Melbourne’s Campbell Kellaway have been selected with the Blues’ Xavier Crone to Captain the side, while first-year players Austin Anlezark and Tyler Pearson will also travel.

Cricket Victoria’s Talent Development Manager – Male, Tom Evans, Men’s Assistant Coach, Ben Rohrer, and current Victorian bowler, Peter Siddle, will make up the coaching group for the game.

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Kumar Sangakkara’s Ecumenical Patriotic Outreach

Michael Roberts

Kumar Sangakkara’s recent step as a front-personage for tourism in Sri Lanka (see https://thuppahis.com/2024/09/29/kumar-sangakkara-for-tourist-trips-to-sri-lanka/) calls to mind his bold steps on behalf of ethnic compromise and reconciliation in Sri Lanka in the 200os. In these efforts he was joined at diferent moments by Murali and Mahela [tsunami relief tours) and his wife Yehali (visit to St Patricks College in Jaffna, 2009).

These instances underline the weight of the messages in an article from my pen which was presented in GROUNDVIEWS by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Co towards the end of THE YEAR 2012.

Standing now in the year 2024 this essays  — as well as the comments it attracted — may serve as useful points of departure for meaningful commentary.

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The Personnel Behind THE CEYLON JOURNAL

Thuppahi is pleased to present a photo of the key personnel located in Sri Lanka who were involved in launching the new cutting/edge academic venture known as THE CEYLON JOURNAL this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ceylonese Migrants to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s

Earlson Forbes, whose title in THE CEYLANKAN, vol 27/2, May 2024 is Fortress White Australia: What early Ceylonese migrants [1949 t0 1969] were up against” now placed in TPS in a revised form to accomodate illustrations that proved recalcitrant

The Six Australian Colonies came together on the 1st  of January 1901 to form the independent Nation of the Commonwealth of Australia.  From 1788 (First Fleet arrival at Sydney Cove) to the time of Federation, Australia was populated by convict and free settlers almost exclusively from Britain.  The 1901 census put the population at 3.7 million.   Aboriginals were not counted in this census. A small percentage of the population was made up of Pacific Islanders and Chinese.  The Chinese entered Australia in the second half of the 19th century at the time of the Gold Rush in Australia (mid-19th century) and in the years following. Between 1851 and 1870 about 50,000 Chinese were estimated to have entered Australia. Pacific Islanders had been brought to Australia in the second half of the 19th century as labourers.

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