Category Archives: Indian Ocean politics

March 29, 2025 · 12:07 am

Nationalisms in Sri Lanka: A Bibliography Cast in 2014..

bull-mascot-team-logo-design-longhorn-133746227 Presented here at ……………………………………………………….. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/nationalism-the-past-and-the-present-the-case-of-sri-lanka/…. & thus in need of updating.; while being dedicated to a Peradeniya University buddy -alas deceased– with whom I shared notes and thoughts during undergraduate days and thereafter in the 1970s & 1980s in Chicago: namely, Ananda Wickremeratne …

Amunugama, Sarath 1979 ‘Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Siris­ena’s novels: the new image of the “Sinhala Buddhist” nationalist’ in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo:: Marga Institute, pp 314-36

Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of Nationalism.  London: Verso

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March 26, 2025 · 1:34 pm

Deeply Lankika: John De Silva

Responding to a Request from An Aloysian Schoolmate and Friend named Roberts, John de Silva, aka “Johnny,” provided these fascinating genealogical details…… Michael Roberts

 UNIQUE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

I am not too sure if I had sent you details of where I came from! In other words, who were my parents and who were their parents. This is often a mundane Family Tree exercise and bears not much significance in the scheme of things. However, I feel that my family connections are unique when it comes to the Island of Sri Lanka.

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March 23, 2025 · 4:14 pm

Revisiting ‘Noble Death’ via the Tamil Tigers

Michael Roberts 

An ‘outfit’ named ACADEMIA.COM has sent me digital links to old articles from my ‘pen’ on web that have attracted HITS. This is a flattering nudge to my weakening memory bank. As new generations of ‘students’ of the Sri Lankan scene may be interested in these old engagements, I place the A1 generated summaries here.

ONE …. “Empowering the Body and Noble Death,” By Michael W Roberts  in Social Analysis, 2006

AI-generated Abstract: The paper “Empowering the Body and ‘Noble Death'” explores how specific cultural practices in Asia, particularly those associated with martial arts, facilitate a sense of empowerment in the face of death. It discusses the interplay of mind and body in rituals and practices that foster a unity with cosmic forces, enabling practitioners to confront death fearlessly. Through a comparative analysis of various contributions in this domain, the authors reflect on the complexity of participant observation in ethnographic studies and the challenges faced by researchers in fully engaging with the cultural contexts they study.

TPS Pictorial — Thuppahi

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March 9, 2025 · 12:33 am

Ranil’s Responses to Al-Jazeera’s Hostile Questions

Darshanie Ratnawalli 

 

 

 

 

So, have you read Ranil’s Al Jazeera interview?

Has anyone who is expressing an opinion on Ranil’s performance at his interview with Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan ingested the full content of this media circus? Even people like Himal Kotelawala (sympathetic to RW), Lakshan Wickrema (derisive of RW) and Crystal Koelmeyer (sympathetic to RW), whom I have so far read on this subject had not.

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March 8, 2025 · 10:29 pm

Mehdi Hasan’s U-Tube Interview with Ranil Wickremasinghe

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa, in Groundviews, …. https://groundviews.org/2025/03/07/sentiment-analysis-of-ranil-wickremesinghes-al-jazeera-interview-with-mehdi-hasan/

Renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed the former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on a programme of Head to Head, produced by Al Jazeera. The programme was released to YouTube and first broadcast on March 6.

At the time I studied 5,144 comments in response to it, the video had been watched over 218,620 times and liked over 8,000 times. Comments, views and likes are increasing at pace, which means that by the time this is read, the sentiments, trends and patterns analysed are not going to fully or accurately capture additional sentiment. What follows must be read as a study of the sentiments in the comments published at the time of writing this post.

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March 8, 2025 · 4:56 pm

Developing Hambantota Port: The Controversy in 2019

Michael Roberts

An aerial drone photo taken on March 28, 2024 shows the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka. Located in the south of Sri Lanka, the Hambantota Port is one of the signature projects of Belt and Road cooperation between China and Sri Lanka. (Photo by Xu Qin/Xinhua via Getty Images)

My Set of Bibliographical References

An Insider: “The Internal Tussles & Vagaries and Scheming that hindered the Development of the Hambantota Port Project,” 15 September 2021, https://thuppahis.com/2021/09/15/the-internal-tussles-vagaries-and-scheming-that-hindered-the-development-of-the-hambantoa-port-project/#more-55017

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March 4, 2025 · 12:52 am

A Searching Dissection of Ranil Wickremasinghe’s Political Career & Its Times

Avishka Mario Senewiratne, reviewing the book by Rajiva Wijesinghe that assesses Ranil Wickremasinghe’s recent political career

Last December, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha released a new book titled Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Emasculation of the United National Party. As the title suggests, the book tackles a contentious and provocative topic and may not be an easy read for everyone. Nevertheless, it presents a highly engaging and insightful narrative that warrants close attention.

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February 26, 2025 · 12:24 am

A Looming ‘Death Threat’ Over the Nicobar Islands

A Frontline News Item & Protective Project ….

Great Nicobar and its companion islands are home to pristine forests that return to the beginning of time. They house flora and fauna that are rare and endemic. The islands are home to indigenous tribes who were there long before “civilisation” as we define it was born. These are important factors. They must weigh with any government before it launches a plan that threatens to wipe out life on the island as we knew it.

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February 25, 2025 · 11:57 pm

Vale: In Appreciation of Dr. Sisira Jayasuriya, A Committed Scholar

Sarath Rajapatirana  & Premachandra Athukorala, whose appraisal is entitled “In Memoriam:   Sisira Jayasuriya, 1946-2025″

The distinguished economist Professor Sisira Kumara Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka-born and a scholar who spent much of his professional life in Australia, passed away on 18 February 2025, after a prolonged battle with cancer.  Sisira was a remarkable man: a highly respected economist whose intellectual contributions ranged far and wide; an influential public intellectual; a wonderful teacher, mentor, and institution-builder; and a deeply loved friend to many people across cultures and all over the world. Continue reading →

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February 15, 2025 · 12:38 am

The LTTE: Its Initial Founding and Funding

Dr Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam, in LankaWeb, 10 February 2o25, with this title “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Funding and Training of the Organization”

 The LTTE got their training and funding from the PLO, which is the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the arms they gained or got from Pakistan. This is why the Indian Central Government was very much against the LTTE and its leadership group.

In fact, the LTTE was an organization which diversified their businesses and even sold things like oils and soups to more dangerous items such as drugs and weapons. It is true that Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in overseas countries funded LTTE. The real fact was most of the Sri Lankan Tamils did ordinary jobs in the Western Countries and if the LTTE did not have diverse business interests and support from overseas countries, especially Palestine for tanning (sic) and Pakistan for military equipment, they would not have been able to carry out a civil war against the army of Sri Lanka for more than thirty odd years.  This is why if Kittu Master who was in the LTTE leadership group was able to smuggle the arms the government of Pakistan loaded in the ship he came on outside the port of Madras it would have been very hard to defeat and bring the LTTE down.

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