Category Archives: nationalism

August 1, 2024 · 6:41 pm

That Gathering at Trinco towards Setting Up the ICES ….in Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neelan is standing on the extreme right, with CR de Silva on his right and Sam Samarasinghe nex to him

This NOTE is part of Professor KM de Silva’s Account of the Process leading to the Formation of the ICES: ” The Taita Hills conference [in Kenya] was followed by a second cross-national workshop held on 7 March 1982; this time at the then Hotel Club Oceanic in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.”

“The photographs attest the considerable cross-national support for this enterprise, albeit wholly weighted towards  the West in the context of world political alignment then. …” Michael Roberts (while anticipating a Memo or essay from Professor Donald Horowitz which will provide other threads in the processes leading to the setting up the ICES).

Robert Goldmann

 

 Myron Weiner  

the web photos of Donald Horowitz resisted copying

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July 29, 2024 · 8:44 pm

The Flawed Foundations of the West’s War Programme in the Ukraine

“Uatu” — A Nostradamus Today

When war for profit meets war for strategic defense! “Precision beats mass” and “one shot, one kill” vs precision, mass and industrial scale warfare. The U.S. military industrial complex is profit oriented; they manufacture what sells. Russia’s MIC is not; they manufacture what the military says it needs in accord with Russian military doctrine. What they manufacture must work.

 SEE THIS ITEM:  “Lesson from Ukraine: Our fighting doctrine is fatally flawed because our “precision” weapons fail,” 11 July 2024 …… https://youtube.com/watch?v=2NDxmIkBcpo&si=dGT7kdICd3_FlwER

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July 29, 2024 · 1:32 am

A Meeting of Cultures: The Unique Vernacular Chapel at Trinity College, Kandy

Ranil Bibile … reproducing an old essay without all its pictorial  embellishments because the author does not have the original photos in his computer “as .jpegs as the articles were composed 20+ years ago and there have been many computer changes since then.” 

 Kandy! The very name is redolent of history, culture, festivals, dances, caparisoned elephants, and historic rituals. Ancient temples nestle in remote corners of this Cande Udarata – the old Kandyan Kingdom. The architecture, hipped roofs, frescoes, wood carvings and antiquities of these places of worship provide a veritable feast for the eyes, vying for attention with the surrounding vistas of cloud-capped mountains, rivers, waterfalls and verdant plateaus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 25, 2024 · 9:49 pm

Vale: An Appreciation of Malathi De Alwis … Researcher & Writer

Geethika Dharmasinghe, in Colombo Telegraph, 23 January 2021, where the title reads as “Our Malathi”… presented here with emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

She was the first woman in Sri Lankan politics after Kumari Jayawardena to build an awareness on the role of woman and of her ‘traditional’ position, uniting academic work and politics. She is an anthropologist, and a feminist activist. Her activism and scholarly interests were in understanding militarization, motherhood, and the role of memories in the context of nationalist histories.

 Dr. Malathi de Alwis

Dr. Kumari Jayawardena

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July 24, 2024 · 10:02 pm

China as Mediator in Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Observer at a Black Sea Port

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has told China’s Foreign Minister that “Ukraine is ready and willing to engage in dialogue and negotiations with Russia” that leads to a permanent settlement. 

Kukeba is in China to secure their help in future negotiations with Russia. Kuleba said the negotiations should be rational and lead to a permanent end to the war.

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July 24, 2024 · 9:22 pm

Michael Roberts Mss stored at Adelaide University

Michael Roberts

The library at Adelaide Univeristy is known as the BARR-SMITH LIBRARY.  The staff in the “Special Collections” within the library over the years have been especially helpful over a long period and were hands-on central in organising the Roberts Oral History Project from the 1980s and subsequently (see https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/).

But it is by pure chance that I came across a document penned in my hand detailing the stock of manuscripts and photocopied material that I had placed within the Special Collections –maybe because our home is adjacent to a National Park and within a high fire-risk arena.

Let me assure all ye readers that I have been stunned by some of the items that I have collected –some of them original Mss items; with the others being copies. but the main point is that some of these copies reproduce very rare items.  Moreover, I find that the range and type of items placed within the realm of the Barr-Smith are quite astonishing. It remains to be seen whether readers and investigators of the past accept that evaluation. I should add that I will be among the personnel delving into some of the data within this stock; but I do not have long to live…..and this stock is there for posterity.

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July 21, 2024 · 8:16 pm

Rare CEYLONIANA in the Roberts Study: Issues for the Future

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:

  1. many-many-many off-prints of articles on Sri Lanka and world politics;
  2. books under my name;
  3. books on Sri Lanka and/or world politics (including Marxist fare);
  4. Sessional Papers and Census publications from official stock in Sri Lanka …in largish foolscap size bound copies ….;

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July 14, 2024 · 8:12 pm

NATO’s Global Ambitions on the Path to Imperial Conquest

Observer in a Black Sea Port

This You Tube item serves up an excellent discussion and critical analysis of some of the key clauses of the recent NATO communique. It is entertaining too. There is a vast gap between the intellectual rigour applied in this discussion, compared to NATO’s communique which is a distortion of reality and historical truth, and is sheer propaganda.

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June 30, 2024 · 3:13 pm

Appreciating Kumari Jayawardena’s Scholarship

Uditha Devapriya … in The Island, 28 June 2024, where the title reads:  “A Tribute to Kumari Jayawardena” … while the presentation here includes highlights imposed by The Editor

Last month the Collective for Historical Dialogue & Memory (CHDM) organised a screening of Conversations with Kumari, a documentary on Kumari Jayawardena. Last week Jayawardena turned 93. Yesterday I reflected on her and the generation she represented. That generation is leaving us, but it remains as influential as ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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June 28, 2024 · 9:07 pm

A World Coalition of Pro-Israeli Right-Wing Forces?

A Sri Lankan American

  • Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli praised a speech given by France’s far-right National Rally president, Jordan Bardella, in which he declared a two-state solution ‘obsolete’
  • Israel’s Diaspora Minister praises Spain’s far-right Vox for ‘aligning with Israel’
  • Israeli minister courts Canada’s Christian far right
  • Top members of far-right Swedish party with neo-Nazi roots meet Israeli minister Bardella

SEE https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-26/ty-article/.premium/minister-praises-frances-far-right-party-president-breaking-israels-official-boycott/00000190-53c3-d31c-afb9-dfd39a180000

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