Item in Newsfirst: “Experts say only debt cancellation offers Sri Lanka a chance of recovery”
DEBT JUSTICE speaks out …….
Category Archives: foreign policy
Experts Urge Debt Cancellation as Essential Road for Sri Lanka’s Survival
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, debt restructuring, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, IMF as monster, island economy, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Ranil’s Moves to Resolve Ethnic Issues in Rapid-Action Measures
DBS Jeyaraj, in Daily Mirror, 24 December 2022, where the title runs thus: “President Ranil’s initiative to resolve Tamil national question” …. & a kind-of sub-heading read “The All Party conference was a success of sorts with all participants agreeing on the need for a power-sharing solution”
The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader and Colombo District MP, Mano Ganesan received a telephone call from Ranil Wickremesinghe on 19 July 2022
It was a day before the Presidential election where the MPs were scheduled to vote and elect a new executive President to fill the vacancy created by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was the then Prime Minister and acting as the interim President, was a candidate for the Presidential election.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, debt restructuring, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, parliamentary elections, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes
Re-ordering Sri Lanka’s Debt: The China-Lanka Relations Now
China’s President Xi Jinping, left, waves as he walks with then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa upon arrival at the airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 16, 2014 ….. Credit: AP Photo/Eranga JayawardenaFiled under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, debt restructuring, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes
Nationalist Excess as Spark for Warfare
Uditha Devapriya, in The Island, 9 December 2022, where the title runs thus: “Some reflections on nationalism, extremism, and warfare”
“Ethnonationalism was not a chance detour in European history: it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit that are heightened by the process of modern state creation. It is a crucial source of both solidarity and enmity, and in one form or another, it will remain for many generations to come. One can only profit from facing it directly.” …. Jerry Muller, “Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism”, Foreign Affairs (Council on Foreign Relations), March 2008 The first Human Security Report, published by the Human Security Centre, released in 2005, and subtitled “War and Peace in the 21st century”, strikes a dissonant chord in a world still reeling from the horrors of the September 11 attacks. Noting a decline in armed warfare since the end of the Cold War, its authors dismiss worries of increasing conflict in a section tellingly titled “Myths and misunderstandings.”
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, European history, foreign policy, historical interpretation, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
The House of Lords’ Recent Debate on Sri Lanka, 2022
The Debate in the House of Lords in the UK on “The Truth and Recpncilaition Commission in Sri Lanka”
A topical question on Sri Lanka was raised by Conservative peer Lord Daniel Moylan in the House of Lords on Thursday, December 1st which was followed by additional supplementary questions that were answered by Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office (Middle East, North Africa, South Asia & the UN).
Filed under accountability, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, foreign policy, historical interpretation, human rights, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Ukridge of Uxbridge, Ukridge of Ukraine
Michael Patrick O’Leary, aka Padraig Colman, presenting an essay that did not make the top grade
To help me through these troubled times, this sordid age, I have been bingeing on the oeuvre of the Divine Plum, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.
The Age of Aquarius has long departed. We are now living in the Age of Ukridge, a time of fact-free posturing. This is the Age of Systemic Deceit, the post-truth era. Once a lie finds a sympathetic ear, rebuttals, facts, will not persuade people that it is not true. To believe anything else would create a sense of cognitive dissonance. Memories of corrections fade rapidly, but the memory of the original lie remains. Goebbels had something to say on this subject. Media scholar Caroline Jack coined the phrase “unintentional amplification”, which in turn leads to another phenomenon which she identifies as “inadvertent legitimisation” – the act of giving credibility to “strategic lies” simply by repeating them. In Truth and Truthfulness, his last published book, philosopher Bernard Williams focused on what he identified as the “virtues” of truthfulness, Accuracy and Sincerity. We can’t get along without trust (human flourishing creates a “need for cooperation” (b) but trust requires truthfulness, and (c) truthfulness presupposes that there are (at least some) truths. For Williams, lies are pernicious for at least two reasons: (1) the liar betrays the trust of the dupe; and (2) the liar exerts power over the dupe, manipulating his or her beliefs and thus (potentially) his or her choices. Today, all citizens are taken for dupes and patsies, marks in the great political confidence trick.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, war reportage, world events & processes
The Hypocrisy of Democracy
Fair Dinkum, in an EMAIL COMMENT which Thuppahi has presented to the world with his okay … with highlighting added
Here the UK’s 800 millionaire PM Rishi Sunak declares that the UK police have his full support to clamp down on illegal protests, and that he plans to introduce new laws to give police greater powers to clamp down on protestors. Meanwhile, at the same time , he calls on China to respect the right of Chinese people to protest as a fundamental human right, as evidence emerges of direct British interference into China to provoke protestors into fermenting chaos.
Filed under accountability, australian media, authoritarian regimes, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Pacific Ocean issues, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Ukraine & Western Europe in Deep Shit …. Col. Douglas Macgregor
Colonel Douglas Macgregor in Interview with Andrew Napolitano…. recorded on 29 November 2022 …. and already ‘mounting’ 77,877 views …
... so LISTEN TO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3MkvWxdJrU
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, war reportage, world events & processes
Punishing Rajiv Gandhi: Two Moments
Michael Roberts
The Thuppahi items on the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi have recently attracted a range of “Hits” …. that is, visitors/viewers. I am puzzled as to why; but list them below – with added reference to the first hit on Rajiv on 30th April 1987 when a Sinhala nationalist seaman from Ratgama attempted to assail him for imposing what is known as the “Indo-Lanka Pact” on Sri Lanka in a conscious move to assist the Tamil liberation movement. Wijemuni De Silva’s blow in fact hit Rajiv’s shoulder in a glancing blow because of the Prime Minister’s quick reaction. It could have been fatal (see “Clobbering …….…,” at https://thuppahis.com/2019/08/08/clobbering-rajiv-gandhi-as-chastisement-in-1987-a-guti-dheema/).
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, Eelam, foreign policy, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Uncategorized, vengeance, world events & processes
Engaging the Politics of Conflict in Sri Lanka: Padraig Michael Colman
Michael Roberts
Padraig Michael Colman is an experienced journalist and writer who pursued his trade in England and Europe before moving to Sri Lanka with his vivacious Sri Lankan wife Tiny and a coterie of dogs. They settled down awhile in Uva district; but have moved to the outskirts of Colombo in more recent times…. and have since moved back to Great Britain.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
