Category Archives: governance

November 27, 2023 · 7:05 pm

DIG Jingle Dissanayake’s Report on the JVP in Lanka, 4th November 1974

A NOTE from Michael Roberts, 27 November 2023

This file is among the documentary material under my name in the Special Collections, Barr Smith Library, Adelaide University and Samantha Farnsworth, its chief, sent me a pdf copy  I cannot recall how the original Mss came into my hands. Its pdf format has been converted to Word File by my friend KKS Perera in Lanka. The spacing is erratic and difficult to change. I have resisted the temptation to highlight important details because I do not have adequate background knowledge of the situation in 1972 to 1974 (even though I conducted one or two lectures to JVPers held in the prison camp at Katugastota …… including Gamini Keerawella …… one of my previous History Honours students).

The photographs are my insertions …. and perhaps hit ‘n miss in character .

Wijeweera in rousing flow on platform … & on way to court with his lawyer

 

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November 22, 2023 · 3:35 pm

Michael Roberts Papers at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts Papers, mainly on Sri Lanka ……MSS 0031 …. AT = University of Adelaide Library………………………………………………. https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/transcripts%20list

Philip Gunawardena

Edmund R Leach

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November 18, 2023 · 7:53 pm

The Logic behind the Hamas Raid of October 7th 2023

Scott Ritter of Global Research, 14 November 2023, whose chosen title is  “The October 7 Hamas Assault on Israel: The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century” …. with highlighting emphasis in purple being that of the Author; while other highlights in blue  or red are those imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … who thanks Jayantha Somasundaram of Canberra for leading him to this important essay

There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.

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November 18, 2023 · 6:11 pm

Revelations within Colonial Photographs of Ceylon: “Veins of Influence”

Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections, by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra

 [This book is a pioneering monograph that brings a rich array of early and previously unpublished images of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) into the global discourse of photography, pairing a striking lens of visual appreciation with distinctly humanizing perspectives.

 

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November 15, 2023 · 1:23 pm

King Abdullah Speaks Out: A “Two-State Solution” for Palestine Arena

Item in Washington Post, 14 November 2023

King Abdullah of Jordan penned an op ed for the Washington Post yesterday. It can be found at, …. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/14/king-abdullah-jordan-two-state-solution/
 
 Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is king of Jordan. 

For more than a month now, the war in Gaza has been dividing the world, with the deepening split aggravated by intense emotions. Two narratives, Palestinian and Israeli, have pitted demonstrators, media outlets, religions, peoples and regions against each other. In the process, the moral clarity that we should and must share about basic human values has turned into moral confusion.

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November 13, 2023 · 1:29 am

Sinhala Monarchical Imagery in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Past Political Pitch

Michael Roberts .… reproducing an article presented earlier in the COLOMBO TELEGRAPH in the year 2012…. an article bearing a different title: viz. “Populism And Sinhala-Kingship in the Rajapaksa Regime’s Political Pitch” … an article that also appeared under a differeTn title in GROUNDVIEWS in January that year

On 4th December 2011 the Sunday Island carried a headline: “Mahinda ready to meet General Fonseka’s family over pardon” — with a picture alongside showing President Mahinda Rajapaksa seated in an armchair perusing an official document – a document in royal red and marked by a recognisable state seal. It is the juxtaposition of the headline and image that drew my interest. In my reading as an analyst attentive to indigenous cultural threads, this combination suggested several interrelated motifs, namely, that

  1. President Rajapaksa is the epitome of sovereign power, vested with the rights of clemency on high, just like Sinhalese kings of the past who could be supplicated by condemned subjects who crawled on their knees to the palace gates (mahāvāsala) and begged for pardon for their evil-doings or crimes;[i]
  2. President Rajapaksa is akin to a manorial lord of the past, a patrimonial figure who is readily accessible on his verandah to subordinate officials, tenants and other people seeking favours from this font of noblesse oblige;
  3. President Rajapaksa is a son of the soil, native to core. After all, what can be more native than a hansi putuva? He is, therefore, as personable as approachable.

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November 12, 2023 · 3:12 pm

The Cenotaph in Colombo: A British Imperial War Memorial

Suren Ratwatte, whose chosen title is “A Fitting Memorial” ... in tracing the history of Colombo’s War Cenotaph built a hundred years ago ... presented on 28th May 2023  … while the highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

 In 1923 Ceylon was a different place to the Sri Lanka of today. The land was ruled by the Empire’s masters, ensconced in their ‘Britishers Only’ Colombo Club near Galle Face Green. The Ceylonese had, however, formed their own rival Orient Club located near the racecourse.

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November 12, 2023 · 12:18 am

Israel”s Pursuit of “The Final Solution” vis a vis the Palestinians

Gamini Seneviratne** whose chosen title is “The US, ISRAEL & WMD”…. with the highlighting being the author’s emphasis

 It was just twenty years ago that George W Bush of the USA declared that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that threatened the security of The Free World. Today we are presented with a whole range of similar – and much worse – fictions by and on behalf of Israel. It is impossible to find words in this language to describe those usurpers to the land of Palestine and their atrocities, now freshly renewed, against her people. And they receive the continuing, totally indefensible, support of the western media which exerts itself to obfuscate what should be clear to the whole world: the intention of “Israel” to achieve its Final Solution, a la that of Hitler and of Nazis everywhere, through genocide.

 

 

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November 11, 2023 · 6:59 pm

Gideon Levy in 2015: A Reading Doubly Pertinent Today

VISIT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnaacT4eBrA

An old video featuring Israeli journalist Gideon Levy discussing the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict has gone viral on social media. The journalist Gideon Levy’s insights on the situation have proven to be prophetic, given the current state of affairs in the region. Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas and the resulting devastation has raised concerns worldwide. Gideon Levy is an award winning journalist.

ADDENDUM from Thuppahi:  ………….. “WHERE the mainstream Western Press, for the most part, emphasizes this message ad nauseum.”

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November 8, 2023 · 11:55 pm

Cricket Dirty Cricket

Michael Roberts, reproducing an article written in early December 2003 and presented with the same title in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publishers, 2006, pp 107-111 …. with the title inspired by Lord Superior aka Andrew Marcano’s famous calypso line in praise of the marvellous West Indian spin-twins Ramadhin and Valentine: viz, “Cricket Luv’ly Cricket” 

In stressing the antithesis to that ditty, I am directed by two awful acts of sportmanshp recently: namely, (A) Mohammed Siraj’s verbal intimidation of Charitha Asalanka with implicit support from skipper Sharma; and (B) skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s position in sticking to the technicalities so as to dismiss Angelo Matthews.

     

 

 

 

 

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