Observer in a Black Sea Town … writing on 7/8th May 2024 after Israel’s devastating assault began the day before.
Category Archives: nationalism
Devastating Israeli Assaults on Rafah
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, Jews in Asia, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, nationalism, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religious nationalism, truth as casualty of war, unusual people
POIGNANT MOMENTS …. Remembering the Dead in War
In SRI LANKA 12 May 2024
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, Eelam, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, performance, pilgrimages, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, trauma, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Blatant Double Standards towards Israel & Sri Lanka pursued by UN Watchdogs
Shenali D. Waduge, in Lankaweb, 9 May 2024, ….where the title reads “UN/UNHRC/US & Allies hypocrisy – comparison of Sri Lanka & the Gaza Conflict” ….
[My title and this article does not seek] to present a notion that Israel is right or wrong, or that Sri Lanka is right or wrong, but [seeks] to question UN’s treatment of Member states & the applicability of the UN Charter & the principles of equality & non-discrimination to Member states. UNGA has condemned Israel over 120 times. UNHRC has condemned Israel over 40 times. US has vetoed over 40 Resolutions against Israel but is spearheading resolutions against Sri Lanka in connivance with the UN. How fair is this to Sri Lanka?
Filed under accountability, arab regimes, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, disparagement, Eelam, foreign policy, historical interpretation, IDP camps, insurrections, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, power politics, refugees, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
SSC: The Studies in Society & Culture Project, 1992 et seq
SSC PAMPHLET PROJECT
Some of you may remember this project in Sri Lanka in the 1990s directed towards making selected academic articles on the history & politics of Sri Lanka available to the English-reading public at affordable rates. My unreliable memory indicates that the personnel behind this enterprise were myself, Ananda Chittampalam, Willa Wickramasinghe and our engine, so to speak, was the press operated by Haris Hulugalla.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, education policy, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, racist thinking, religious nationalism, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Amiable Academic Reciprocities: Peebles & Roberts, 1970
Michael Roberts
The academic world and its scholarship is marked by cooperative work as well as animosities and rivalry – whether personal or based on political affiliations. The Sri Lankan scenario was/is no different. As I participated in this environment as a lecturer in History at Peradeniya University,[1] I was extremely fortunate in: (A) benefitting from a salubrious physical setting and a favourable arrangement of buildings and a super library; and (B) a bunch of dons who were as inspiring as amiable –so that the “Senior Common Room’ in the Faculty of Arts was not only a spot for invigorating tea, but also a site for the exchange of ideas.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, transport and communications
Jewish Nazis of Today in Powerful Places
JW
Shai Davidai, a Jewish researcher, is demonizing the students protesting at universities across the US against the genocide taking place in Gaza. He calls them “Terrorists”.
Students protest at an encampment supporting Palestinians on the Columbia University campus in New York City, April 25 [Caitlin Ochs/Reuters]
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, anti-racism, arab regimes, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, democratic measures, disparagement, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, nationalism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Journalistic Articles from my Pen: A Bibliography, 1996-2009
Michael Roberts
Articles that appear in academic journals are subject to a refereeing process before they, so to speak, scale the heights and enter the academic world. But there are numerous forums at the cutting edge which serve up essays on hot topics. These are not necessarily run-of-the-mill mundane pieces. They can be spin-offs presented by writers in the academic field. As I look to the future when my mortal steps in this world will no longer generate any sound, I present here a listing of some of these ‘pop-articles’ produced in the period 1996-2009. Many of them relate to the Eelam wars and the Tamil Tiger commitment to “sacrificial devotion” (a term I deploy in lieu of “suicide missions”).
Filed under accountability, atrocities, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people
ANZAC DAY Commemorations Today … 25 April 2024
The Ceremonial “Markings” in Turkey and Elsewhere: Momentous & Indelible Recollections
Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, Empire loyalism, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, trauma, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Ironies in the Metaphors of Anzac Cove in Australian Lore
Richard Koenigsberg plus ….
Addressing the practices of remembrance in Australia, Richard Koenigsberg has noted the irony that a battlefield defeat at Gallipoli in World War One, 1915, served a people as an emblem of nationhood: the “Australian nation, came into being on the foundations provided by the slaughter of its young men.”
There is more irony. The commemoration of Australian courage, sacrifice and manliness at Gallipoli (and subsequently on the Somme) was threaded by tropes of youthful innocence that drew on classical Hellenic motifs; while the monuments and epitaphs that were crafted in Australia to mark this event were manifestly Greek in form. The gendered masculine metaphor, in turn, was often embodied in the seminal image of a full-bodied blonde young man. “Archie Hamilton” in Peter Weir’s classic film Gallipoli was/is one such trope (and he died of course).
Filed under art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, mass conscription, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, World War One
Epitome of British Perfidy: Piers Morgan Laid Bare
Camel Rider **
Listen//See https://youtu.be/aelzcw0Q3QE?si=GyB80oZknUfG71Fk
When you see the level of stupidity, arrogance and incompetence, as part of a massive disinformation campaign coming from the British mainstream media today (as illustrated in this interview by Piers Morgan) we can have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in anything the Western mainstream media says. In this interview, Professor Marandi’s explanations were correct. His analysis of Iran’s response to Israel’s destruction of the Iranian Embassy was correct. Iran responded by mounting three interrelated operations.
Piers Morgan
The first was a Psychological Warfare operation. Here, Iran delayed their retaliatory strike by two weeks in order to sow fear among the Israeli population and to undermine confidence in the Israeli Government.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, doctoring evidence, ethnicity, European history, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, nationalism, Palestine, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, racism, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes, World War Three?, zealotry