Andrew Fidel Fernando, in The Indian Express, 18 August 2022, where the title reads thus “New Sri Lankan president is focused on protecting upper-class interests” … with highlighting here being impositions from The editor Thuppahi
As if acting out the first half-page of a “How to be a Despot” pocketbook, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has spent his first weeks in Sri Lanka’s highest office beating down and rounding up protesters, while the nation continues to gasp for its barest necessities.
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Fair Dinkum, … an original set of thoughts … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
It’s good to see Australia providing aid to SL though its peanuts compared to the aid provided by India and China. This article is a good example of an Anglo-Saxon reading of an Asian situation.
Some flawed claims by the Anglo-Saxons at The Age in this article are,
– The claim China was “flexing its muscles” by “insisting on docking a giant scientific research ship despite concerns raised by India”. There is no mention that India had earlier flexed its muscles by insisting Sri Lanka deny entry to the vessel. And no analysis as to whether India had genuine security concerns or were simply politically posturing. There was also no mention of India’s interference into Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
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ONE = From The ECONOMIST magazine, Summer Issue, 30 July – 12th August … & the Mid-August Issue The Economist
On the evening of July 21st, a relaxed mood prevailed in Sri Lanka’s presidential secretariat on the seafront of Colombo, the capital. A handful of protesters milled about in the entrance hall, which they had occupied on July 9th and turned into a library full of donated books. They said they were planning to return the premises to the state the following day, having succeeded in driving from office Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the disgraced former president.
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Fair Dinkum, with the highlighting being her/his emphasis not The Editor’s
Captain Zhang Hogwang of China’s research and survey vessel, the Yuan Wang 5, waves after disembarking from the ship upon arrival at Hambantota port on August 16, 2022. Photo: VCG
The docking of the Chinese research vessel Yuan Wang 5 at Hambantota port was a momentous occasion in the history of Sri Lanka, having gained global attention like it was the first moon landing. All of this attention is due to the unnecessary meddling into Sri Lanka’s internal affairs by India and the United States.
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Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in Colombo Telegarph, August 2022, where the title reads “Ripples In The Indian Ocean: Yuan Wang 5 & Easter Sunday 2019”The alarm bells had been ringing for some time in Sri Lanka. The island nation is strategically located at the center of the Indian Ocean on the busiest trade and Undersea Data Cables routes in the world and hence perpetually in the cross-hairs of big power rivalry.For those who missed the signs if not the red flags; ripples caused by the US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s Pivot to Asia last week announced loud and clear that colonialism and Cold War are back, big time in the mythical “Free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Mike Pompeo with Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena in October 2020
INDIAN OCEAN (June 27, 2021) An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21, assigned to Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18), flies with cargo during a vertical replenishment exercise with Sri Lanka Navy Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS Gajabahu (P-626), left, as a part of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Sri Lanka, June 27. In its 27th year, the CARAT series is comprised of multinational exercises, designed to enhance U.S. and partner navies’ abilities to operate together in response to traditional and non-traditional maritime security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. (Sri Lanka Navy Media courtesy photo)
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Zhang Huyi, in Global Times, 15 August 2022, where the title reads …. “Exclusive: Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka to launch welcoming ceremony for arrival of Chinese research vessel: source”
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Ranjan Abaysekara
How do we form our friendships? Is it a matter of chance? Does it depend on who sat next to you in class? Or does it spring out of an act of kindness? Or a crisis shared? In modern times friendships and connections are much publicized matters, but in our youth friendships happened quietly. You went to school, you met others your age, you played, you talked, you enjoyed fun times, you became friends….
Earl Forbes, whose chosen title in The Ceylankan is “Ceylon/Sri Lanka to Australia: Arrivals and Survival”
Ceylonese/Sri Lankans have entered Australia for a variety of reasons during the past one and a half centuries. The far greater number of these arrivals occurred in the second half of the twentieth century and first two decades of the 21st century. Early arrivals go as far back as the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
Figure 3 Queensland sugarcane plantation workers. … [placed as frontispiece because of its striking character
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Uditha Devapriya, in The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, August 2022, a refereed article with this title “The Crisis in Sri Lanka: Economic and Political Dimensions”
This article seeks to chart the trajectory of the Sri Lankan protests that began in early March. The first section will examine the causes of the crisis and how the government contributed to it. Economists, policy makers, and commentators cite different reasons for the economic crisis. This article classifies these reasons under two headings: orthodox and heterodox. The orthodox camp generally criticizes the government’s fiscal and monetary policies, including a series of tax cuts in 2019. The heterodox camp traces the crisis to longer-term structural causes, like Sri Lanka’s failure to industrialize and to diversify into manufacturing. The article concludes that we cannot view these two sets of causes in isolation from each other, and that whatever side one takes, we must consider the political dimensions of the crisis as well.
Aragalaya Six Demands-! 2 July Thuppahi 
Protesters at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on 9 July 2022. (Photo by Dhananjaya Samarakoon)
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thuppahi
