Category Archives: life stories
Riddled with Deceit and Fallacy: The Western World’s Appraisal of Eelam War IV
“Deceit Magnified: The Western World’s Appraisal of Eelam War IV” by Michael Roberts in FAULTLINES The K.P.S. Gill Journal of Conflict & Resolution Volume 24 September 2019 ……………… https://www.satp.org/Docs/Faultline/24.pdf– with some minor tweaking and the use of highlights to emphasize points of particular value
The last stage of Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka in 2008/09 has generated a large volume of literature. In addressing the issues arising from this work, it is possible to proceed by assertions founded upon previous articles with their supporting evidence.[1] The focus here is on the pursuits of the US State Department through its point man in Colombo, US Ambassador Blake, as well as its ‘auxiliaries’ in the UN and European Union.[2] The arguments here are deliberately provocative. They commence with eleven assertions that highlight a worldwide ignorance of alarming proportions in 2009, a shortcoming that persists today.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, disparagement, doctoring evidence, Eelam, ethnicity, Fascism, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, mass conscription, military strategy, news fabrication, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
The Political Machinations of the Deep State and Their Imprint on 21/4
Rajan Hoole
Our history of impunity, especially since the ascent to power of J.R. Jayewardene in 1977, brings us to the strange and largely un-mourned disappearance of the law. The Easter eruption, the evidence suggests, was a gamble the protagonists stumbled into in confronting the arithmetical realities of the coming presidential election. Their expectations appear to have gone awry. What transpired was in effect, a second attempt at disenfranchisement, this time of the Muslims. The Plantation Tamils were disenfranchised in 1949, as a follow up to the 1948 Citizenship Act.
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, conspiracies, disparagement, doctoring evidence, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes, zealotry
Juliet Coombe joins Sanga in showcasing Sri Lanka to the Brits
As Kumar Sangakkara takes on the majestic chair of President MCC. Juliet Coombe will showcase Sri Lanka’s special delights and demand sustainable paths in a hard-hitting critique of past policies at a leading venue in London on 15th October 2019
Juliet Coombe: “Sustainable Sri Lanka: An Island Dream?”
at The Linnean Society (Meeting Room, at The Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J OBF………………… From 2pm – 3.30pm, Tuesday 15th October 2019
Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, education, female empowerment, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, wild life, world affairs
PK Balachandran’s Evaluation of Presidential Stakes: Sajith vs Gota and the Implications
PK Balachandran, in Sunday Island, 20 September 2019, with this title “What’s in store for Lankans with Sajith and Gotabaya vying for the Presidency?”
On Thursday, after a month-long bitter inner-party struggle, Sajith Premadasa was nominated as the ruling United National Party’s candidate for the November 16 Sri Lankan Presidential election. The entrenched faction led by party Leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had to bite the dust eventually, and grant Deputy Leader and Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa the party nomination “unconditionally.”
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, China and Chinese influences, communal relations, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
When Solar-Light reaches the Disadvantaged … Udagaldebokka Hasalaka
Chandra Fernando informed Thuppahi that on the 21st September 2019 “30 Solar Powered Lighting Packages were distributed at Udagaldebokka. The first two photos show the packages being carried to village and the trail….
Thuppahi Comment: The pictures are not only significant in displaying some facets of the terrain; but also in underling the cultural practices within (in this instance) Sinhala society inclusive of class differentiation. This set of illustrations should be treated as an essential appendage of the item by SWR de Samarasinghe entitled “The Variation in the Diffusion of Electrical Power” …… https://thuppahis.com/2019/09/27/the-variation-in-the-diffusion-of-electrical-power/
Click to view MAP prepared by Gerald Peiris = Udagaldebokka environs (1)
Filed under centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, unusual people, voluntary workers, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
The Variation in the Diffusion of Electrical Power
SWR de Samarasinghe[1]
Thanks for sharing the very informative map — in your piece “Dark Nights in Sri Lanka: The Incidence and Spread of Electricity.”[2] The relative deprivation of north outside the Jaffna Peninsula is striking but not surprising. Sparse population, poverty and the war are key explanatory factors. Economics plays a role to the extent that the overhead cost of supplying a single dwelling or a business in these areas will be higher than in more densely populated areas and the expected income for the CEB lower. The solution is a government subsidy for the CEB. My understanding is that such a subsidization has been government policy for a long time. The social benefits are substantial and in the long term it pays off economically as well.
Filed under accountability, economic processes, energy resources, ethnicity, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, population, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
“We will get You ….” American Threat at the UNHRC in Geneva in September 2011 .
Tamara Kunanayakam, in Email Memo dated 26th September 2019 responding to my two-fold query: “When precisely was it that Eileen O’Donahue (?) spat out “WE WILL GET YOU” when you passed each other in the Geneva corridors …. date? which building? etc….. and the impending circumstances? AND “who were the local niggers in the woodpile who got you transferred out of Geneva? …. Michael Roberts
It was at the September 2011 18th session of the Human Rights Council. At the time, the US was not a member of the HRC and Washington had asked Canada to sponsor a draft resolution on Sri Lanka that would place the country on the agenda of the Council’s 19th session, in March 2012. The draft resolution called for an interactive dialogue on Sri Lanka at the session.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, conspiracies, foreign policy, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
The Gash Files and Beyond
Michael Roberts
Shamindra Ferdinando’s rambling presentation of an Interview with Lord the Michael Naseby has produced some vital information about the creaking inner workings of the British government as well as the circumstances surrounding Lord Naseby’s interventions on behalf of Sri Lanka. Naseby’s assiduous effort to extract the reports sent by the British Defence Attache in Colombo in the year 2009, one Lt. Col. Gash, did not commence till November 2013 when David Cameron, the British PM, was about to head to Sri Lanka for the CHOGM conference – a visit where Cameron played the hero for the British public, the world HR lobbies and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, disparagement, foreign policy, historical interpretation, human rights, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, sri lankan society, TNA, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes
The Crushing Sway of the English Language in 20th Century Ceylon
Vinod Moonesinghe, ….. responding to a passing ethnographic note by Chandra Fernando which ran thus “Unfortunately, Mr Bandaranaike, who had Oxford Education, was not intelligent enough to know the value of English to Ceylonese. When we received telegrams, the postman could not read them, so we had to go to Mabole 3 miles walk either way where Wattala Post Office was to get it read from Postmaster.”
In reply to Chandra Fernando’s statements about English, it is not SWRD Banadaranaike he should blame, but the British imperial power. The British created a tiny circle of elite schools, to create a stratum of English-speaking civil servants and compradores, to serve their needs. The vast bulk of the population were left uneducated. Vernacular schools did not teach above the 8th grade, and you needed to go to an English-language school to get your SSC. By 1956, only 5% of the population could speak English.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, education, education policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, Left politics, life stories, meditations, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
