Category Archives: ethnicity

August 29, 2025 · 5:14 pm

China and Lanka Today

Item in The Island, 22 August 2025,  with this title: “China, SL promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation-Ambassador Zhenhong” .… with highlights  imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Declaring that China and Sri Lanka share a time-honoured friendship, and the ancient Silk Road has long bound the two countries together, Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong has said they are now working hand in hand to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

 The Chinese envoy said so at a reception held in Colombo to mark the 80th anniversary of their victory over Japan in WW Two..

Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said: “From the progress of the Hambantota Port to the rise of the Colombo Port City, and from infrastructure connectivity to the deepening of cultural exchanges, we are jointly writing a vivid chapter in the building of a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future through concrete actions. This epic new chapter of cooperation is the most vibrant tribute to history, the most solid foundation for peace, and will surely paint an even brighter picture for the future of Sri Lanka.”

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, historical interpretation, island economy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes

August 29, 2025 · 1:30 pm

Sri Lanka’s Maritime Legacy: A Discerning Study … Many Revelations

Avishka Mario  Senewiratne in The Island, 24 August 2025, where the title is “A Mirror to the Sea: Revisiting Sri Lanka’s Forgotten Maritime Legacy” …. Review of “Sri Lanka, Serendib & the Silk Road of the Sea” by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha …. with the highlighting here being impositions  by The Editor, Thuppahi

It is not often that a slim volume quietly arrives on the literary shore, only to awaken something dormant and forgotten within the national consciousness. Sri Lanka, Serendib & the Silk Road of the Sea, the latest work by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, is just such a book—a timely voyage through history’s less-traversed sea lanes, executed with scholarly rigour, personal charm, and a deep-rooted love for this resplendent isle.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian religions, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, migrant experiences, Muslims in Lanka, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, world events & processes

August 26, 2025 · 3:00 pm

Travels & Travails: Cycling Along Australia’s Ocean Roads

An Editor’s Apologetic Note, August 2025

I got to know Eardley because his anthropological fieldwork and dissertation in Uva in Sri Lanka came to m attention way back, maybe in the 1980s when I was teaching in Adelaide. I think we met once or twice in Sydney. That is how Eardley’s subsequent “adventure” … presented below … came into my files.

…. and THEN got swallowed up somewhere.  But fortune has favoured the arduous and I can tell the world WHAT no other migrant Sri Lankan Aussie has done …... A BUGGER OF A JOURNEY

Eardley Lieversz

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, education, ethnicity, heritage, life stories, meditations, nature's wonders, performance, pilgrimages, self-reflexivity, tourism & travel, travelogue

August 24, 2025 · 9:18 pm

Horrors Faced by Lankan Female Labour in Middle East

Aanya Wipulasena in Ceylon Today, August 2025

The decision to work overseas wasn’t easy. Burdened by debt, 25-year-old Nelum Niroshani, a mother of one from Anuradhapura, felt she had no choice. Her plan was simple: Take a job as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia, earn enough to support her family, repay her loans and then return home to her seven-year-old child. But her time in the Middle East quickly turned into a nightmare.

 

 

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, human rights, island economy, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, migrant experiences, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes

August 24, 2025 · 3:08 pm

Bob Carr Reveals: Power of the Israel Lobby in Australia

VISIT FACEBOOK …https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=24703724925930545

My attempt to  place the digital  Reference  here was defeated [initiall] by the engines of the digital world. It seems that the Israel Jewish  maesros can  reach  far …. wide  …. and DEEP !!@!!

…aah …problem circumvented  -God knows how.

My thanks to Dulip Karunaratne  in Queensland for this item …. That old Aloysian lobby does some fruitful work eh! … the Green & the Gold esto perpetua!

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, religious nationalism, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes, zealotry

August 24, 2025 · 2:03 pm

Reviving Australia’s Convict Past via AI

Tomos Morgan, BBC News, 19 August 2025, where  the title runs thus: “Faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia recreated by AI” ++

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped researchers generate what they believe could have been the faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia in the 19th century. The lives of 60 criminals deported from Anglesey for crimes as small as stealing a handkerchief have been traced by a team of volunteers and researchers.

 They have used detailed prisoner records from the time, historical sketches and, where possible, photos of the prisoners’ modern day descendants to create a profile of what they may have looked like.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, life stories, migrant experiences, photography, politIcal discourse, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, world events & processes

August 22, 2025 · 7:28 pm

War Crimes Issue Develops in Sri Lanka: Chemmani & Beyond

N.  Sathiya Moorthy, in Ceylon Today, 22 August  2025, where the  title reads  “How Historic is the Opportunity” ... with highlighting being  the intervention of The Editor Thuppahi

 In what has become the ritualistic report of the UN Human Rights Commissioner to the UNHRC Council of 48-member nations, elected by rotation, incumbent Volker Türk seems to have settled for a credible, independent mechanism to probe Sri Lanka’s war crimes and other allegations of human rights violations. This is in contrast to the decade-plus-long attempts by the ‘international community’ (read: West) to impose an ‘independent, international mechanism’ for the purpose.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage

August 22, 2025 · 1:10 am

Vijaya Kumaratunga in Wikipedia

FROM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijaya_Kumaratunga

Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga (Sinhala: කොවිලගේ ඇන්ටන් විජය කුමාරණතුංග; Tamil: விஜய குமாரணதுங்க; 9 October 1945 – 16 February 1988), popularly known as Vijaya Kumaratunga, was a Sri Lankan film actor, playback singer and politician[1] regarded as one of the most popular icons in Sri Lankan cinema of all time. He was married to former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunga from 1978 until his assassination in 1988. He was the founder of Sri Lanka Mahajana Party.[1]

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, insurrections, JVP, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, terrorism, theatre world, trauma, unusual people

August 21, 2025 · 9:41 pm

The Ethnic Abyss in Sri Lanka Still Remains

Dr S.  I. Keethaponcalan,in where  the title reads “Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict: From Reconciliation To Reescalation – Analysis,” … pubd on 21 September 2023 at EURASIA REVIEW ++

The national discourse in Sri Lanka moved from conflict termination to reconciliation with the end of the war in 2009. This essay argues that the concerned parties should shift the discourse from reconciliation to de-escalation because (1) the reconciliation project failed, and (2) the ethnic conflict shows signs of reescalation. It also argues that the possibility of anti-Tamil riots in the future cannot be dismissed.

               Reconciliation Failed

When the war ended in 2009, domestically, none of the parties were interested in reconciliation. The Tamils had more severe problems to deal with. For example, mourning their dead, finding disappeared members of their families, and resettling the internally displaced community members were some of the immediate issues the Tamil community encountered. Reconciling with the Sinhalese was the last thought in their minds. Therefore, they were not concerned about postwar reconciliation. None of the Tamil leaders discussed the need to promote reconciliation.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, doctoring evidence, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, IDP camps, life stories, LTTE, NGOs, politIcal discourse, propaganda, refugees, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes

August 21, 2025 · 5:15 pm

Remembering Vijaya Kumaratunga Today

Michael Roberts

 SEE David Jeyaraj’s Vale ….. https://thuppahis.com/2025/08/10/in-memoriam-vijaya-kumaratunga/ … FOR the original Thuppahi version, which does not have the highlighting emphases from my hand that can be seen NOW.

A NOTE:  David Jeyaraj provides readers with a wide-ranging and incisive account – one which I recommend strongly. Sri Lanka’s political circles lost a visionary political figure when the JVP assassinated  Vijaya Kumaratunga  on the 16th February 1988. For Chandrika, Yasodhara and Vimukthi, of course, it was a tragedy.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, communal relations, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, martyrdom, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, vengeance