Tony Donaldson
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, coronavirus, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
Chandre Dharmawardana, whose thoughts should be ruminated on in the light of the preceding item = https://thuppahis.com/2020/03/30/justice-decimated-with-gotas-ominous-step-military-murderer-rathnayake-pardoned/
When the family of the Czar Nicholas, children and women included, were brutally killed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries, that was justified by a throng of intellectuals who were ready to defend anything done in the name of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. Clever dialectical arguments were presented as to why even the children had to be killed. More sensitive souls presented excuses rather than justifications. A favorite one was that “it is inevitable” that some bourgeois sentiments will be upset when a little extra blood is let – but all that is justified in the quest to reach the coveted end.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, Buddhism, charitable outreach, communal relations, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian traditions, JVP, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, trauma, war crimes, world events & processes
Jonathon Riley, reviewing Michael Naseby: Sri Lanka. Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained, 2020, London, Unicorn
Sri Lanka, Ceylon – geographically so close to the Indian sub-continent and yet with a culture and history that has been for many centuries distinct. What a difference a few miles of water make – as we in England know well. I recall visiting Sri Lanka in 1993 and, on the anniversary of independence in 1948, and reading a leader in the newspaper that suggested maybe it would have been a good idea to have stayed with Britain a few years longer. A brave sentiment indeed and one which, after more than twenty years, makes much more sense having read Michael Naseby’s book.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, prabhakaran, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
Fair Dinkum in Email Memo
Scott Morrison’s handling of the crisis is causing terrible confusion in Australia. He is telling Australians to stay at home, but people are free to go out, but stay at home. Many of his statements are in that spirit…. The man of democracy making the health crisis a matter of personal choice rather that what is best for the country. This shows alarming signs of an inability to act decisively and so the virus can continue to spread easily causing many more infections.
Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, trauma, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Royston Ellis, in Sunday Times UK in March 2020 where the title of his review reads “For anyone interested in Sri Lanka, its politics and human nature”
Lord Naseby (right) with Royston Ellis outside the House of Lords
This book by Lord Naseby, who lived in Sri Lanka from 1963 to 1964 when he was Michael Morris and an eager South Asian Marketing Manager for Reckitt & Colman, has a cover with an eye-catching red spine proclaiming “Sri Lanka in large type. It is clearly designed to attract bookshop browsers and to ensure that it becomes a prominent addition to an enthusiast’s collection of contemporary literature about Sri Lanka. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Sunday March 15, 2020, 2.15pm will be marked in the diaries of Australian airline executives as a pivotal moment. It was the moment when the Australian government dropped the bombshell that all international travellers landing on our shores would be subject to a 14-day quarantine. It was the moment the music stopped and brought our travel industry to its knees.
The music has stopped for Australia’s big airlines – and for the rest of the international aviation industry…Pix by Wolter PeetersThe major airlines’ chief executives, Qantas’ Alan Joyce and Virgin Australia’s Paul Scurrah, had been tipped off by Transport Minister Michael McCormack that something big was coming. On Saturday night, their respective management teams worked furiously to formulate plans to get customers and their own crews back from international destinations.
From a very large glass room in Qantas’ Mascot headquarters, the carrier’s crisis management team, composed of representatives from each of the airline’s critical divisions, was in overdrive.
This article, entitled “Two State Hypocrites—The Indo-Pacific Humbugs” – written by one “Pettibandige” in Asian Tribune annoyed me greatly when I glanced at it first: in part because it is a slashing hack job steeped in bile and excess; and in part because of its glossing over of the Japanese imperial expansionist programme in the first half of the 20th century via its assertion “Possibly Pearl Harbour was a result.”
However, the stream of stridency adopted in the essay seems to be a literary device that is (A) in step with its play on the Sinhala ge name “Patabändige” – modified here to “Petti” as in box; and (B) in line with its continuous mockery of the two leading actors, namely Trump and Modi. I have therefore inserted my own imprint by marking those points I question in black and those jibes that have some foundation in red ….. Michael Roberts
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, coronavirus, disparagement, economic processes, European history, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, pulling the leg, religious nationalism, taking the piss, unusual people, world events & processes
Herman Tiu Laurel, in Phillipine News Agency, 4 March 2020,where the title runs “Covid-19 should unify the world”
AS the Covid-19 virus jumps vast distances and oceans to other continents, we see how other countries are adopting lessons from China’s responses, including mass “lockdowns” and other preemptive moves. The effectiveness of China’s response has resulted in a reduction of the Covid-19 crisis after just three short months, unlike past epidemics that took almost a year before subsiding.
Michael Naseby’s Sri Lanka. Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained is on the market was originally due to be launched in Colombo in early April — an event knocked on the solar plexus by the Corona-virus pandemic. We will need time to acquire reviews of this large book; but let me spark interests among lap-dogs as well as cynics by presenting a election of its illustrations.
Michael Morris with family friend Mrs Veena Talwatte … & iron cages used by the LTTE for their prisoners.
Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, modernity & modernization, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, travelogue, UN reports, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
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