Michael Roberts
In venturing into reflections on VE Day commemorations, by pure chance I stumbled on You Tube reviews of the ways in which German POWs were dealt with in Britain during and after the war. This data base also provides partial information on the enormous loss of life on the various moments in the Western front as the Allied forces advanced on Germany after D Day in June 1944.
Hitler Germany’s greatest reach 1942
Filed under accountability, European history, Fascism, historical interpretation, Hitler, human rights, life stories, military expenditure, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II
DBS Jeyaraj, in Daily FT, 13 May 2020, where the title is “Tale of a Tiger: Facets of LTTE Chief Prabhakaran’s life” ++
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed 11 years ago in combat with the armed forces of Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009. The longest war in South Asia came to an end after the military debacle of the LTTE on the shores of Nandikadal Lagoon in the Mullaitivu District of northern Sri Lanka.
Filed under accountability, chauvinism, communal relations, education, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 15 December 2018, where the title is different
Email Note from Bill Deutrom in Lanka to Michael Roberts, 8 Dec 2018
Thank you, Michael for your amazing collection of articles on the Eelam War and its aftermath as well as the present political impasse. Alas, they will not convince people who have already made up their mind based on emotion, ethnicity or with a hatred for Rajapaksa. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, devolution, disparagement, ethnicity, Fascism, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Presidential elections, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
Tisaranee Gunasekara, in Sunday Observer, 12 August 2018, where the title is “On Doctors and Kings. An authoritarian wind is sweeping across Sri Lanka”
The current yearning for the heavy hand of a strong leader is in tune with the Zeitgeist. Across the globe, people, disillusioned with democracy, are opening their ears to the siren song of authoritarianism. As Barrack Obama pointed out in his Mandela Centenary Lecture, “We now stand at a crossroads – a moment in time at which two very different versions of humanity’s future compete for the hearts and minds of citizens around the world.”
In Sri Lanka, the less immoderate, less illiberal government is in a state of semi-paralysis. The extremist and anti-democratic opposition is surging ahead. The myth that democracy is part of ‘The Problem’ (or even ‘The Problem’) rather than the least bad form of governance is ascendant. If democracy is the problem, then the solution, by definition has to be anti-democratic. This is the dangerous place to which Sri Lanka is careening. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts … being an expanded and illustrated version of an article that has been presented in the Daily Mirror = http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Understanding-Velupillai-Pirapaharan-s-mindset-153407.html ...where it has received 1878 hits thus far
Recent revelations on the detailed course of Eelam War IV in its last phase in 2009 made possible by Lord Michael Naseby’s extraction of the contemporary readings of the battle theatre provided by the British Military Attache in Colombo, namely Lt. Col. Gash, permits one to chart specific strands of deceit and conspiratorial design perpetuated by the Western states led by USA and Norway[1] with the implicit or explicit participation of a host of humanitarian agencies, such as ICG, AI and HRW together with several agencies in Colombo.[2]
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, anton balasingham, atrocities, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, Rajiv Gandhi, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes
Ragavan, being a reprint from The Sunday Leader, 24 May 2009, where the title runs “Memories of a much-mythologised rebel leader by a former LTTE fighter ” …. with the highlighting being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi
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Filed under accountability, conspiracies, Eelam, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, refugees, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Tisaranee Gunasekara, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 15 July 2018, where the title reads “Clowns Or Murderers: Our Hobson’s Choice” …. with emphasis being the hand of The Editor, Thuppahi
The news was sensational, yet it was downplayed. The chief incumbent of a temple in Ratnapura strangled a police sergeant to death. The monk has been absconding after being charged with sexual abuse. The sergeant went to the temple to hand over the summons. He went alone and unarmed; after all, he was going to a temple to meet a monk. The sergeant’s screams alerted the neighbours who called 119. When a police team rushed to the temple, the monk greeted them with a hand grenade.
Filed under atrocities, authoritarian regimes, disparagement, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, life stories, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, working class conditions, world events & processes
Sasanka Perera. in Island, 25 June 2018, where the title is “Pining for Hitler”
Ven. Endaruwe Upali, Deputy Chief Priest of the Asgiriya Chapter in the Buddhist ecclesiastical order, is in the news. But it is not for his knowledge of the Dhamma or for the erudite delivery of a sermon worthy of Buddhism’s timeless appeal or for his strict adherence to vinaya, the set of disciplinary rules, which is expected to embellish the moral and ethical character of the Buddhist clergy. In fact, he is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Filed under Buddhism, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne …. http://www.jhc.org.au/museum/collections/survivor-testimonies.html
The JHC has over 1300 video testimonies as well as over 200 audio testimonies in its collection. These provide eyewitness accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as glimpses into the vibrancy of pre-war Jewish life in Europe. The collection is widely used by researchers and students of oral history, the Holocaust and a variety of other disciplines. The testimonies’ project began in the 1980s as the Melbourne Oral History Project, established by Sandra Cowan and Jenny Wajsenberg and later co-ordinated by the late Anne Bernhaut. They conducted over 200 audio recordings of Holocaust survivors.
thuppahi
