Tamil and Sinhala versions attached
Sri Lanka has opportunity to break from past – Türk
GENEVA (13 August 2025) – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses committed in the past, including international crimes.
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Keith Conlon in a Genealogical Society of Queensland – GSQ’s post =deospnoStrg8 r42uti9lf3m8pgff0il26tl5f1tag2f57flti74h033aA5t · … entitled “From Prussa to Hahndorf in South Australia. Thanks to Keith Conlon”
The end of an epic pioneer voyage: it began in Silesia, Prussia, for the ‘Old Lutheran’ religious refugees who founded Hahndorf in South Australia in August 1839.
John Ford waterccolour
Monument Australia Continue reading
Filed under architects & architecture, Australian culture, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, European history, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, migrant experiences, outmigration, refugees, religiosity, transport and communications, travelogue, world events & processes
GV NOTE INTRODUCING THE AUTHOR : In 2001 Duleep De Chickera was ordained the 14th Anglican Bishop of Colombo. Educated at Royal College, Colombo and representing the college at 1st XV Rugby, he gained his training for the ministry at the Theological College of Lanka in Pilimathalawa, earning a B.Th thereafter earning a M.Sc. from Keble College, Oxford. He has served as chaplain and then as the sub-warden of S. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia. And in 2008 was accorded the honour of preaching a key sermon at the Lambeth Conference in the presence of 650 Bishops from around the world.
When US President Donald Trump arrogantly suggested that the neighbouring Arab States should absorb the Gaza population as a solution to Israel’s decimation of Gaza, he announced what discerning persons the world over had already perceived – the earliest Zionist Israeli arrivals, courtesy Lord Balfour, had come to take it all.
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Kagusthan Ariaratnam in Groundviews, 8 August 2025, where the title reads “Neelan Unsilenced …” while highlights here have been added by The Editor, Thuppahi
Photo courtesy of Pitasanna Shanmugathas
NEELAN: UNSILENCED is a compelling and vital documentary that successfully situates the life of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam within the turbulent history of the Sri Lankan conflict. Its greatest achievement is providing a nuanced entry point into the war by focusing on the non-violent, intellectual and pluralistic dimensions of Tamil resistance – a perspective often eclipsed by the narrative of armed struggle. By foregrounding Neelan’s journey, the film illuminates a leader who dedicated his life to constitutional reform and reconciliation.
Photo courtesy of Pitasanna Shanmugathas
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, education, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, NGOs, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people
Rohan Gunaratna in FACEBOOK, August 2025
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Congratulations to Sri Lankan-born American Anthropologist, Prof. Sharika Thiranagama, on winning the Davidson Prize at Cambridge University, where she was appointed a Scholar of St Johns.
Winner of Stanford University’s “Lifetime award for Academic achievement in Archaeology and Anthropology”, Sharika wrote “In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka” published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2011.
…Rajini Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, life stories, literary achievements, performance, politIcal discourse, refugees, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, teaching profession, trauma, unusual people, war crimes, world events & processes, zealotry
Courtesy of Sunil Thenabadu & Keith Bennett
The Sri Lankan diaspora consists of approximately three million Sri Lankans living abroad, significantly contributing to their host countries and maintaining ties with Sri Lanka.
Demographics and Distribution
The Sri Lankan diaspora includes emigrants and expatriates from Sri Lanka residing in various countries, with significant populations in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia, and North America. An estimate from 2013 indicated that around three million Sri Lankans live outside their home country, with about one million permanently settled abroad. This diaspora is characterized by a diverse mix of ethnicities, including Tamils, Sinhalese, and Burghers, each contributing uniquely to the cultural landscape of their host nations.
DBS Jeyaraj in 2022 at https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=67620 where the title reads “Vijaya Kumaratunga: Charismatic Actor-Politician May Have Changed Nation’s Destiny” …… Posted by Administrator on 21 February 2022, 1:11 am
The political landscape of Sri Lanka seems gloomy and desolate. Most of the actors who strut about the political stage posing as visionaries and leaders are in actuality empty vessels devoid of substance. Proverbial wisdom tells us that empty vessels make most sound. This is most apparent in the cacophony of voices currently prevalent in the polity. In the words of William Butler Yeats “ The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.” The positive dream of Sri Lanka evolving into an inclusive, plural nation is slowly turning into a numerical majoritarian hegemonic nightmare.
Vijaya Kumaratunga in Jaffna
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, insurrections, JVP, language policies, Left politics, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, vengeance, zealotry
Item circulated by Sunil Thenabadu, Keith Bennett and one Dee de Silva
The Sri Lankan diaspora consists of approximately three million Sri Lankans living abroad, significantly contributing to their host countries and maintaining ties with Sri Lanka.
Demographics and Distribution
The Sri Lankan diaspora includes emigrants and expatriates from Sri Lanka residing in various countries, with significant populations in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia, and North America. An estimate from 2013 indicated that around three million Sri Lankans live outside their home country, with about one million permanently settled abroad. This diaspora is characterized by a diverse mix of ethnicities, including Tamils, Sinhalese, and Burghers, each contributing uniquely to the cultural landscape of their host nations.
Shenali D. Waduge, whose slashing sarcastic essay is entitled “Let’s Celebrate Prabakaran & the LTTE’s Glorious Achievements!” ... with the highlighting being that in the original item
A tribute to the world’s most misunderstood mass murderer and his liberation-through-terror campaign.
They say greatness demands sacrifice—and Velupillai Prabakaran understood this better than most. He wasn’t content with speeches; he offered the world a blueprint: to build a homeland, first destroy the present; to claim justice, first silence every voice—especially your own people’s; to prove your worth, leave no witness behind. For over three decades, he led with unmatched precision: dismantling democracy, eliminating dissent, recruiting children, and bleeding civilians dry—all while demanding the world call it liberation. Some build nations through unity; he built his with bunkers, landmines, cyanide, and the bones of the innocent. And still, they light candles for him. They hold commemorations in universities. UN officials attend. Foreign parliamentarians give speeches. So, in the spirit of glorifying terror, let’s not just mourn Velupillai Prabakaran—let’s celebrate the man who redefined cruelty and called it Eelam, by honoring every child stolen, every right violated, and every drop of blood shed in his name.
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A Web Item sent by one Ramsay and one Eric
They met on the courts, forged in fire and fame. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf were more than tennis royalty — they were survivors of pressure-packed childhoods, two athletes who’d once been treated more like machines than children. So when they became parents, something shifted. Not just in their lives, but in their hearts. There was a quiet vow between them — a promise not to repeat the past, not to push, not to mold. They wouldn’t raise champions. They’d raise *children.*
thuppahi
