Category Archives: life stories

December 21, 2014 · 12:41 pm

Mastermind of Attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team has just been judicially executed

Courtesy of Sunday Times, … http://www.sundaytimes.lk/141221/news/hanged-kingpin-in-attack-at-lahore-on-lankan-cricket-team-128194.html, where the title is “Hanged: Kingpin in attack at Lahore on Lankan cricket team”

Aqeel Ahmad alias Dr. UsmanAqeel Ahmad alias Dr. Usman–Pic from Dawn

The suspected mastermind behind the bloody attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore in 2009 was hanged on Friday along with another terrorist suspect, foreign media reported. Aqeel Ahmad alias Dr. Usman was captured at a location in Lahore in October 2009 after he was injured while trying to blow himself up, the reports said. Continue reading →

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Filed under atrocities, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, Taliban, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, world affairs, zealotry

December 20, 2014 · 1:14 pm

MARGA Institute presents itself

MARGA has refurbished its web site at http://www.margasrilanka.org/…. OR http://www.margastorehouse.org/ And several useful reviews of events and literature are now available for downloading as pdf via drop box pathways. Listed below are incisive documents on the last stages of Eelam War IV and its turbulent aftermath. One must go teach title and click on the links.

MARGA MYRTLE-

                                       TRUTH AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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Filed under cultural transmission, economic processes, education, historical interpretation, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy

December 20, 2014 · 12:17 am

To use “Cultured Reason” against jihadist martyrdom is to piss into the wind

Chris Kenny , in The Australian, 18 December 2014, where it is entitled “Cultured reason meaningless response in face of death cult” …. while I would also suggest yet another heading, viz., “Idealist civil libertarians are no match for jihadists seeking blood on the path to martyrdom”

THE brutal nihilism of Islamist terrorism is a difficult concept for most of us to understand, but comprehend it we must.  This is an evil that can shoot a teenage girl because she dares to go to school. When Malala ­Yousafzai survived and was rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize her Islamist extremist ­enemies were not chastened; ­rather, they have marched into a Pakistani school and slaughtered more than 100 children.

Pak school attack 1 Pic from AP ….http://mic.com/articles/106664/heartbreaking-photos-show-the-aftermath-of-the-taliban-s-brutal-school-attack

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Filed under accountability, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, law of armed conflict, life stories, martyrdom, politIcal discourse, the imaginary and the real, trauma, world events & processes

December 17, 2014 · 11:00 am

The Sydney Gunman Monis: Many Faces & Many Phases

“Greg Bearup, in The Australian 17 December 2014, with the heading “A Convert from Malcontent to Murderer”

ON the afternoon of the September terrorism raids in Sydney and Brisbane, a group of Muslims gathered to protest in Lakemba. One of them was the Martin Place gunman, Man Haron Monis; a man who saw himself as a peace activist. He stood out that day as the only visible Shia in a crowd of Sunni Muslims.

Monis’s gripes against the West were those common to many Muslims around the world, including many moderates. “You don’t feel our pain. Your ­remote-controlled bombs kill our children and no one is ever held ­responsible. Why are the deaths of your innocents atrocities, while the death of our innocents are collateral damage?” MONIS 2 Continue reading →

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December 16, 2014 · 2:48 pm

Marginalisation in Britain as Path to Islamic Fervour and/or Cricketing Fervour

Michael Roberts, reprint of an article written in May 2003 and published in the International Journal of The History of Sport , 2004, vol. 21, no. 3-4, pp. 650-663. This article remains substantially the same as the original draft in May 2003, but has been embellished by additions in April 2004.[1] …. It is further embellished with hyperlinks that embrace subsequent processes and events, including the ISIS phenomenon and its repercussions. Insofar as lone wolf or lone cell extremism has embraced Australia as well (e.g. Man Haron Monis and Numan Haider) our reflections can be guided by the thoughts penned recently by Alan Dupont (2014) and yours truly (2014 and 2013).

Moeen+Ali- Moeen Ali  Omar Khan Sharif Omar Khan Sharif 

Kabir_Ali_ - WIKI Kabir Ali of Lancashire -elder brother of Moeen

LEE RIGBY KILLERS  Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale – killers of Lee Rigby, 22 May 2013

killer--_1733665a Adebolajo’s declamation after the assassination

Man Monis 11 Man Haron Monis  NUMAN HAIDER NumanHaider–www.adelaidenow.com.au

In interpreting the reasons that induce a handful of Sri Lankan cricket fans within the migrant diaspora to indulge in confrontational abuse that extends even to members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, I suggested recently that a condition of marginalisation and alienation may be one of the factors promoting such excesses.[2] This analysis was informed by my experience in the Australian setting. Here, however, I focus on Britain and England. This land now hosts a number of migrant peoples, each internally diverse, but present in sufficient numbers to provide voice. As such, Britain is a sociological laboratory for comparative studies. Within this terrain I extend my hypothesis to link migrant marginalisation and alienation not only to cricketing fervour, but also to Islamic fervour of the sort recently expressed by the suicide bombers Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif. This thesis is speculative and does not have the support of substantial empirical research on my own part.

Hanif and sharif Sharif & Hanif in A Gaza lat before their suicide operations in 2003- from Hamas release later – see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3543269.stm Continue reading →

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December 16, 2014 · 2:29 am

Man Haron Monis and Lessons from Sydney

brendan_nicholsonBrendan Nicholson, in The Australian, 16 December 2014, where the title is “Sydney siege: Lessons in new extremism.”

FOR police and security ­officials responsible for stopping extremist attacks before they happen, events in the heart of Sydney yesterday were a reminder of the worst possible scenario.  The use in the CBD siege of techniques used by lone-wolf operators was a ­chilling lesson in the risks faced by modern societies. Whatever the intention behind the siege, it triggered the extensive and complex response that authorities have ­developed to deal with terrorist operations.

SS-Armed police-Getty Armed police outside the Lindt Café–Pic -Gettywounded -AP  An injured hostage is wheeled to an ambulance after shots were fired during a cafe siege at Martin Place in the central business district of Sydney- Pic- AP photo. Continue reading →

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December 15, 2014 · 1:45 am

Michael Clarke became Indispensable God in the second week of December

Michael Roberts

From the tragic moment of Phil Hughes’s death by cricket ball bouncer, Michael Clarke became GOD. He dutifully, manfully and quite profoundly served as a grieving suffering god in the mourning ceremonies at Macksville, poignant moments that were beamed around the world. No quarrel here.

clarkedeliverseulogy Clarke delivers eulogy for Hughes at Macksville

But he then deemed himself indispensable captain for the Australian team on the cricket field despite his lack of match practice and severe doubts about the capacity of his back (and its related extensions) to withstand the strains of the field. True, he had experienced this problem for years and managed it somehow; but doubts hung over his body’s capacity to overcome the problem. Continue reading →

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December 14, 2014 · 1:12 pm

Verbal Assault, Bouncer Assault and Hypocrisy in the Green Fields of Cricket

Mark Reason in STUFF, 8 December 2014 – http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/63759297/Reason-Hughes-death-highlights-crickets-hypocrisy where the title is “Phillip Hughes death highlights cricket’s hypocrisy”

The best way for cricket to respect the sad death of Phillip Hughes may be not a minute’s silence, but a lifetime’s silence. By all accounts Hughes was a quiet country lad, who did not brag. On the day of Hughes’ funeral, cricket’s sledgers, and that includes Australian captain Michael Clarke, may like to reflect on the vile abuse that they have used to ram home bowling that often bordered on assault.

Clark at anderson Michael Clarke unleashed an expletive sledge at Jimmy Anderson before Australia wrapped up the first Test.

A friend dropped me a line the other day to say how he was sickened by the hypocrisy swirling around cricket. An international sportsman himself in hockey and one of New Zealand’s great all-rounder achievers, Brian Turner wrote of how bowlers tried to hit him and of the puerile vitriol that accompanied it. It was bad then, it is worse now. Continue reading →

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Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, disparagement, fundamentalism, heritage, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, wild life, world affairs, zealotry

December 8, 2014 · 12:01 pm

Daredevil Divers dazzle with ‘Flights’ from Galle Fort’s lighthouse site

Courtesy of Daily News, 14 November 2014,  http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/galle-forts-high-flyers

GALLE FLYER 33

They start out like oversized spindly bats with splayed arms and fingers like hooking pegs for ends meant for latching on, bouncing their absorbed cosmic and soaked karmic energy sonar waves right off of the face of the orange sun, fixed like dark matter for a fleeting moment lodged in the glistening york, only to then nosedive like a kamikaze bomber just been hit, before careening head-on towards a seductive pool of blue water surrounded by crashing white froth and dangerously jutting rock faces. Continue reading →

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December 8, 2014 · 11:16 am

The Presidential Contest and Tamil Concerns… and the TNA’s Dilemma

Jehan Perera

The political campaign for the presidential elections will begin in earnest after nominations close on December 8. With a close contest
expected the ethnic minority vote can be decisive.  However, the main Tamil and Muslim parties have yet to make formal decisions regarding which candidate they will support.  They have said that they await the respective political programmes of the rival candidates before making their choice.  Those parties that have been in the government coalition would hesitate to make their choice in favour of the opposition.  Not only would it lead to an immediate loss of their positions in the government.  The sense of betrayal on the part of the government could lead to retaliation especially in the aftermath of a victory. Continue reading →

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