Category Archives: nationalism

Meaningful Moments at the National War Memorial in Battaramulla, Colombo

Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd] …. with his title being  “National War Memorial,Colombo and the National War Heroes Day Commemoration”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National War Memorial in front of the Parliament complex at Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo is dedicated to all military personnel killed since World War I and police personal killed due to militancy. An annual ceremony to commemorate the velour and gallantry of War Heroes is held at the site on the Remembrance Day unique to Sri Lanka, which is 20th May. This day in 2009 the country’s civil war which went on for 26 years came to an end.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes

How The War Memorial in Colombo came into Being

Dr. Narme F. Wickremesinghe, in the Sunday Times …………….. https://www.sundaytimes.lk/071111/Plus/plus00012.html  …….. where the  title is  “The Genesis of the National Remembrance Park”

The red poppy which s”ymbolizes the blood of war heroes is from the poppy that grows in Flanders, France, a Remembrance Park for the war dead. It was at 11 a.m. on November 11 (- the 11th month) 1918 that the Armistice was signed, bringing to an end the First World War. The war heroes are remembered on the Sunday closest to November 11th at 11 a.m. with two minutes silence and all life comes to a standstill including electronic channels and vehicular movement. In this article I will give you an account of how Sri Lanka’s Flanders – the Remembrance Park at Mailapitiya, off Kandy, came into being.

 

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, nationalism, patriotism, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, world events & processes

The Anzac Story: Rushing into the Fields of Slaughter?

Binoy Kampmark, in Countercurrents, 26 April 2023, where the title reads “Politicians and the Anzac Tradition: A Story of Manipulation and Mythology”

While the mass slaughtering of, and slaughter by, soldiers, is always a touchy subject of commemoration, a tension has existed between those who did the fighting, and those who ordered it.  Comfortably secure in furnished rooms and battle props, planners would, as they still do, draw up the blueprints, concoct the strategy, and give the orders.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, European history, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

USA’s Double Standards: A Payback Today for Sri Lanka’s Refusal to Kow-Tow in 2009

Item in the DAILY MIRROR, 28 April 2023… with this title “Designating Karannagoda; Russia hits back at US: Says West should not interfere in other countries affairs”

 The United States has designated former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, for his alleged involvement in gross violations of human rights. The US State Department said that Karannagoda has been designated pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, due to his involvement in a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as a Naval Commander. As a result of today’s action, Karannagoda and his wife, Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda, are ineligible for entry into the United States.

Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, Eelam, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, news fabrication, patriotism, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, sea warfare, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes

Escalation of Attacks on Hindu Shrines in Northern Lanka

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 23 April 2023, whee the title reads thus: Tamils flag escalating attacks on temples in northern Sri Lanka” … with highlighting added by The Editor, Thuppahi

Several Tamil parties have called for a protest on April 25 against the recent Temple attacksTamils in Sri Lanka have witnessed an escalation in the attack on Hindu temples in recent weeks, a trend that they note is part of the State’s “ongoing Sinhalisation project” in the island’s north.

 

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, world events & processes, zealotry

Revisiting FIRE & STORM

Michael Roberts

In presenting a Zoom Lecture relating to the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka in April 2021 for Dr. Geethika Dharmasinghe’s class at Colgate University in USA a month or so back,  I deplyed the work that went into one of books: that entitled FIRE & STORM.

I now atempt to schock people around the world with pictorial illustrations of some — note “Some” (with all its partialities) — photographs of the political and Eelam War scenarios in Sri Lanka displayed in Fire & Storm.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, jihadists, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, meditations, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes

For Reflection: Sir John Kotelawala’s Speech at STC Prizegiving in 1954

Mt. Lavinia 1954 Prize Giving-Address by the Right Honourable Sir John Kotelawala, K.B.E., M.P. — with thanks to Harry De Sayrah of Sydney, who added this little preface “When politicians were literate and articulate …………………..” with a few highlights and an arbitrary  selection of photographs inserted by The Editor, Thuppahi 

1954  PRIZE  GIVING.  Presided  by  The  Warden, Canon  R.S.de Saram, MA , OBE.,St. Thomas’  College,  Mt. Lavinia. ……………. *Prime Minister of Ceylon, at the Distribution of Prizes,* …………. *S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, Saturday, 31 st July,1954*

When I played for Royal against S. Thomas’ many years ago my intention, which was shared by my team-mates, was to give the Thomians a good drubbing, and, if that was not possible, at least to give them a test of endurance. Much as I value the opportunity which I now have of presiding at your Prize Distribution, I shall endeavour to do neither this afternoon. I mist congratulate the Warden on his Report, which illustrates what opportunities schools like S. Thomas’ have of continuing to play a leading part in the training of our youth and the moulding of their character.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, demography, economic processes, education, education policy, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, life stories, nationalism, parliamentary elections, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, unusual people, world events & processes

A Cricketing Saga Extraordinary

Chandra Schaffter ... responding to an earnest request from Michael Roberts**

I started playing cricket from the age of five.  My father who was also a good cricketer in his time, gave me great encouragement.  Unfortunately, he died in 1941 when I was 11 years old.  Thereafter I had nobody ever interested in my cricketing career.

 

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, communal relations, cricket selections, cultural transmission, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, teaching profession, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, vengeance

Guns Blazing! Obama on the American Warpath

X

Obama has been in Sydney and Melbourne this week wearing his dark cool shades, dazzling his many female followers, and giving speeches which earned him a couple of million dollars just enough to pay for breakfast at Tiffany’s. He was in Melbourne yesterday, picking up another million, while dazzling his audience with his analysis of the world. Yep, you got it. It was one of those “China is the bad boy – the US is the good boy” speeches.
 A NOTE from Thuppahi:
The highlightonh emphasis is my ntervntion …nad let me note that “X” resides in the ANZAC world of Australia-New Zealand and therefore has to secure (hopefully) his security.

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, Pacific Ocean politics, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes

Sri Lankan Military in Judicial Gunsights Over May 2009 Incidents

Groundviews, 14 March 2023, where the title reads “Military to Face a Day of Reckoning Over the Disappeared”

In a landmark case last month, the Vavuniya High Court ordered the army to produce three LTTE members who had surrendered to the military in May 2019 and have been missing ever since, in response to a habeas corpus case filed by their wives.

 

 

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, Eelam, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes, zealotry