Michael Roberts
I have a large stock of books and an even larger stock of typed up paper material in my messy study. Looking over some of the books I came across some that I had not read or even glanced at. I present a selection of a half-dozen that aroused my interest …. arranged in chronological order.
I invite commentary on any of these books by personnel who happen to have read them or had some friendship with the authors.
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Jayantha Somasundaram in The Island 9 August 2024, …….. presenting a review COUNTING & CRACKING written for the stage by Sivanathan Shakthidharan and Directed by Eamon Flack …. and has this title “COUNTING & CRACKING: THE SUNTHARALINGAM SAGA”
Already staged in cities in the United Kingdom and Australia, Shakthidharan’s poignant drama directed by Eamon Flack, is a fictionalised version of a Sri Lanka family’s story; but not just any family. It is the Suntharalingam saga. It movingly recounts a biography that spans four generations; and in doing so it captures and critiques not just Sri Lanka’s social and cultural history, but its political tragedy as well.
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Chandra Schaffter, whose original essay in 2018 can be found in web-site CRICKETIQUE … That essay is entitled “How the Scheduled Tour of England in the 1960s was blown apart from Within” ... NB: highlighting emphasis has been imposed by The Editor, Michael Roberts
[This account is a riposte to a public statement from] Dhanasiri Weerasinghe Weerasinghe, in regard to the aborted English tour in 1968. Since my name has been mentioned in a not too complimentary manner, I thought I would state my side of the story in order to put the record straight.
Sometime around 1964 or 65 a new set of selectors were appointed by the Board. They were D.D. Jayasinghe (Douggie Chairman),[1] Bobby Schoorman, K.M.T. Perera and myself.[2] We functioned for about three years I think, and at the risk of being accused of conceit, I would say this was among the best set of selectors Sri Lanka ever had.
Ceylon squad that beat India in one Test [at Ahmedabad in January 1965] … after losing the first two
Theodore K
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Danny Byrne Circular Report …. with title imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Arriving in Belfast for the Ireland vs Zimbabwe Test Match ……….
If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?
To lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again ………………………………………………… Astral Weeks – Van Morrison
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Hallo to Those Attached to “CEYLONIANA” and Valuable Lankan Artefacts & Books
…………… Way back I took steps to catalogue and transport my Oral History tapes and other valuable material to Sri Lanka with the assistance of Jitto Arulampalam in Melbourne, several Adelaidians and VERITE RESEARCH in Colombo (a prolonged and massive set of operations). That stock in now available to the public at the National Library Services Board in Torrington Avenue, Colombo.[1]
Now: as my wife and I age and enter the last phase of our lives, we face the issue of the stock in my study. This includes:
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Observer in a Black Sea Port, …. with highlighting mpasis imposed by Thuppahi
Broadly speaking, today, there are three types of Russians as follows,
1) Pro-Western Russians. This group love the West, want Russia to be fully integrated in the West, and believe that can only happen if Putin is killed or removed. They use words like “fascist”, “tyrant”, “bloodthirsty”, “war criminal”, and “genocidal maniac” to describe Putin. All of this is dangerous hyperbole because they don’t appreciate that if Putin were removed, a hardcore nationalist would likely replace him — which will be far worse than Mr. Putin. Continue reading
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This item was sent to me by Dr. Firazeth Hussein of Wellawatte & Galle
Yaakov Shapiro is an international speaker, author, and pulpit rabbi for over 30 years, now emeritus. He has attained an enviable place in the arena of anti-Zionist public intellectuals, having constructed a unique oeuvre on the ideology of Zionism and its relationship to Judaism. After graduating high school at age 16, Rabbi Shapiro dedicated himself to full-time study of religion, becoming the protégé of some of the most well-regarded rabbinic scholars in Orthodoxy. Among his areas of research are religious philosophy, analytic theology, Talmud, Halachah, and Biblical exegesis. At age 19 he published his first book, משפטי הבירורים, a collection of original expositions on rabbinic principles of tort adjudication. His other books include חלקת השדה, a commentary on Judaic laws governing land disputes (2000); צדה לדרך, a commentary on Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato’s exposition of God as the Necessary Being (2009); and שופריה דיעקב, a compendium of original Biblical exegeses (2017).
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Item in The Economist, 30 May 2024 …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Bob Fagan was a 21-year-old private from Texas when he plunged from his assault craft into the cold sea off Utah Beach in Normandy, under the rattle of Nazi machinegun fire and air bombardment. “The water was red with blood,” he later recalled. “There were bodies floating all around us.” A fellow member of the 299th combat battalion landing on Omaha Beach had a simpler description: “Hell.”
A beach landing by the Royal Marines of 47 Commando and civilians at Asnelles before their annual ‘yomp’ to Port-en-Bessin, in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Picture date: Thursday June 6, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story MEMORIAL DDay. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire
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Thuppahi invited its Limited Circle of Readers to Interpret the Brushwork Reading of the Awful Act of a Buddhist Monk a named Somarama Thero on 29th September 1959 …. who pulled out a revolver as the Prime Minister bowed in the customary worship of a Buddhist religiosi…. and killed him.[1]
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thuppahi
