Category Archives: ethnicity

Confronting Vicious Vituperation……

A RESPONSE From Thiru Kandiah in Perth – to – A Vituperative Verbal Assault on Michael Roberts From A Person who Signed Himself as “N W Goonewardena” **

My horror of involving myself in exchanges in public fora (to participate in which, I recognise, I am in any case ill-equipped) has been increasing considerably across the decades, and this has led me to send my response to your messages mentioned above via your private email rather than through your blog (is that what it is termed?).

The responses made to those messages on your blog are absolutely consistent in their complete rejection/censure of the appalling attack on you by Goonewardene that you forwarded to us in them, even while mentioning a range of reasons for the position they have adopted on it.  Perhaps C.R.’s characteristically considered and dispassionate response clearly and succinctly (and without getting on your nerves as I am doing!) sums up the basic issues that underpin the consensus they together all reveal.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, disparagement, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, racism, sri lankan society, world events & processes, zealotry

Indigenous ‘Touches’ within the British Colonial Era of Capitalist Expansion

Vinod Moonesinghe, IN  Factum Perspectives March 3, 2025, where the title runs thus: “Tindals, Dhonis, and Sampans – The interconnectedness of historical Indian Ocean commerce” ….  NB: the two photos &  the map are insertions by The Editor, Thuppahi

 In the days of the British Raj, bullock carts were used to transport goods inland and to bring coffee beans (and later tea) from the montane plantations down to Colombo, for shipment overseas.

The distance from the coffee plantations to the main seaport of Galle caused the colonial government to override the wishes of the British Admiralty and of the steamship lines (who all wished to operate from Galle, which was closer to the main sea route to the Orient) and to develop Colombo harbour at a considerable cost.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, export issues, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, plantations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, working class conditions

Two Reviews in 2010 of Copeman’s Book on Blood Donations in India

https://sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/jacob-copeman_veins-of-devotion/

 ONE …. REVIEW OF Jacob Copeman: Veins of Devotion: Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009, 233 pp)………….by Ron Barrett of Macalester College …. Taken from the American Ethnologist May 2010, vol. 37/2, pp. 380-81.

Recent years have seen an emerging literature on the sociopolitical dynamics of human tissue exchange. Most of these studies are of a critical nature, focusing on the exploitative aspects of organ trade and other high-profile controversies. Yet few studies have closely examined the apparently mundane forms of biological exchange and the remarkable contexts in which these everyday activities can occur. Jacob Copeman addresses this important gap with Veins of Devotion, a well-researched ethnography about the contributions of several North Indian devotional movements to voluntary blood donation campaigns. Critical in the classical sense, this volume traces the flows of blood, spirit, and power through expanding domains of kinship, asceticism, nationalism, purification, and gift exchange in the urban heart of neoliberal India.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, medical puzzles, psychological urges, religiosity, self-reflexivity, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

A Cricketer Who Survived ……..

From FACEBOOK Entry by Lankan Lions,  Sept 2025

He made a brilliant century, which set up Zimbabwe’s first ever Test win when they beat Pakistan in 1995. Two years later, scoring 203 against New Zealand, he became the youngest Zimbabwean batsman to score a Test double century. He has represented Zimbabwe in three World Cups (1996), 1999, and 2003, and during his 10-year career, he took 139 international wickets in addition to 4912 international runs.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under animal world, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, ethnicity, leopards in the wild, life stories, performance, the imaginary and the real, trauma, travelogue, unusual people

Mahbubani’s Insightful Reading of Today’s World Order

Watch    https://youtu.be/0HsAtrd8bNE?si=nUjZVm05W-67JStS

This is the lecture Australians should listen too, not the psychotic rubbish that the army of elite propaganda journalists publish each day in Australian newspapers and on TV.  The lecture was given in Hong Kong. The speaker is the well known former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani who examines the changes taking place in the world today, and the implications from it.
He says “geopolitics is the most cruel game in the world”. Being a nice country is not enough. You need to be shrewd and cunning if you are going to survive.  He affirms that “we live in amazing times of amazing changes around the world, and that we have an obligation to keep up with the changes and learn how to adapt to it.”

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, democratic measures, economic processes, education, ethnicity, historical interpretation, modernity & modernization, Pacific Ocean issues, Pacific Ocean politics, politIcal discourse, power politics, transport and communications, world affairs, world events & processes

Vale … Lareef Idroos: A Gathering in Los Angeles

Dr Mohamed Lareef Idroos of La Canada, Ca. passed away on September 1st, 2025.

Beloved husband of Nabila and father of Shireen, Sabrina and Samira

Funeral will be on Thursday, September 4th …..at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3900 Workman Mill Road, Whittier, Ca……………..at 10 am

—————————————————

Dr Lareef Idroos, was a past pupil of St Thomas College……….. He headed the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hollywood, Ca……………….A highly respected and loved doctor to all his patients.

Lareef Idroos was a successful leg-spin and googly bowler for S. Thomas’ College in the late 1950s; entered the Medical Faculty circa 1960 and was a member of the University of Ceylon cricket team under Carlyle Perera which secured the Sara Trophy during a spectacular season 1962/63. After he migrated to USA in the 1970s, he played for USA in the ODI tournaments conducted by the ICC in the late 1970s.

“Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un”

                                               ****************

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, life stories, patriotism, performance, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people

Transforming Gaza …… “The Great Trust”

Outback Aussie

The Great Trust is a 38-page document setting out plans to turn Gaza into a grand American Riveria by constructing over the bones and bodies of Palestinians — hotels, casinos, bordellos, condominiums, golf courses, and million-dollar seaside properties.  America has no legal basis for taking control of Gaza but they want to do it anyway which is why the US and the West support the genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing, and if need be the extermination of all Palestinians in Gaza.

VISIT https://www.madamasr.com/en/2025/09/01/news/u/the-38-page-displacement-framework-for-a-tourist-hub-atop-the-rubble-of-gaza/

Palestine and Israel news today on map – Jerusalem today – Israel News today – Palestine News today – israelpalestine.liveuamap.com

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, arab regimes, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, Fascism, foreign policy, historical interpretation, human rights, Jews in Asia, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, world events & processes

Fascist Aussies on the March in Melbourne & ….

An Observer, 31 August 2025

The Fascists in Australia have risen up and taken to the streets in capital cities across Australia demanding migrants (meaning coloured people, especially Indians and like folk) be kicked out of Australia, and no more let in, in the name of freedom and democracy.

This movement seeks to “reclaim Australia” for White Australians. Meanwhile, pro Palestinian marches take place every Sunday, so naturally the two protests clashed today showing the diversity of Australian society.

1 Comment

Filed under anti-racism, Australian culture, australian media, chauvinism, communal relations, ethnicity, Fascism, fundamentalism, immigration, life stories, migrant experiences, politIcal discourse, racism, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes

A Candle for GAZA in Colombo……Supporting the SUMUD Flotilla

Message from  Manel  Fonseka 

Join us to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the Sumud Flotilla as they set sail to break the siege on Gaza.

Starting on August 31st, 150 ships will set sail with crew from more than 40 counties, in the biggest global effort to break Israel’s 18year siege of Gaza. As famine spreads in Gaza and Israel continues with complete impunity to murder, rape and starve the population of 2 million people living there, the people of the world are banding together to step up where international law has failed.

Join us this Sunday, 31st of August, at 4.30pm under the Nuga tree at the Chapel of Christ the Living Saviour on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07, to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the fleet, the safety of its crew, and the salvation of the people of Gaza from Israel’s unrelenting genocide.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disaster relief team, education, ethnicity, human rights, Jews in Asia, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry

YEMEN: Yesterday & Today

Compilation by Group Captain Kumar Kirinde,  SLAF retd … with some illustrationsin the  original missing

A historical nation that was divided between two empires in the 19th century that became two independent nations in the 20th century which united as one nation in the  21st century.

Intoduction

Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Owing to its geographic location, Yemen has been at the crossroads of many civilisations for over 7,000 years. In 1200 BCE, the Sabaeans formed a thriving commercial kingdom that colonized parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 CE, it was succeeded by the Himyarite Kingdom, which spanned much of Yemen’s present-day territory and was heavily influenced by Judaism. Christianity arrived in the fourth century AD, followed by the rapid spread of Islam in the seventh century. From its conversion to Islam, Yemen became a center of Islamic learning, and Yemenite troops played a crucial role in early Islamic conquests. During the 19th century, the country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires. After World War I, the part controlled by the Ottoman Turks became the Kingdom of Yemen which in 1962 became the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) following a coup. In 1967, the part controlled by the British, the British Aden Protectorate became the independent People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). In 1990, the two Yemeni states united to form the modern Republic of Yemen.  Sana’a is its constitutional capital and largest city.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, authoritarian regimes, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, politIcal discourse, travelogue, world events & processes