Category Archives: photography

Savouring Sri Lanka Today, 2023: A Glorious Ride

Paddy Hintz in The Weekend Australian, 25 October 2023, bearing this title “Jungles, curries and wild elephants: why Sri Lanka is a ride”

We’re just in time to climb into Kandalama’s beautiful infinity pool and be” mesmerised by fireflies as monkeys sift through the trees beside us.

The morning tour is spectacular. Sigiriya Rock Fortress features cascading water gardens, a vertigo-inducing climb to find the remnants of a paranoid and murderous king’s domain (complete with ancient swimming pool) and a cliff-face cave full of frescoes of scantily clad concubines.

Sigiriya rock fortress, Sri Lanka. Photo: Dylan Shaw

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, elephant tales, landscape wondrous, life stories, photography, sri lankan society, tourism, world events & processes

Palestine & the Propaganda War by Video: Issues

ISSUE:  Question from A British-Lankan Friend, 16 October 2023

Hi Michael, I would like to give this video much wider circulation, but I need a link…can’t find one!”  ….  …

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, THE REFERENCE BEING = video of Egyptians walking across desert with backpacks of assistance for Palestinians in Gaza …. SEE …. https://thuppahis.com/2023/10/16/support-for-palestine-on-different-scales-in-london-from-egypt/#more-76263

Is this verifiable? There’s lots of fake news being put around by both sides. I would love to give this video wider coverage.

ANSWER from “A Middle Eastern Specialist”

The source for this is Kurdistan24 — a news source based in Iraq with a bureau office in Washington DC.  This video is circulating on many telegram sites, for instance, this one ……………… https://t.me/llordofwar/216918

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, arab regimes, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, discrimination, doctoring evidence, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, Jews in Asia, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, martyrdom, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, news fabrication, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, racism, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

Vengeance Unrestrained in Palestine: Pictorials Awesome, Atrocious, Awful

This graphic video-item was sent to me by a venerable Burgher-Lankan friend in Melbourne. It is NOT for viewing by the fainthearted ……  because it is a deliberate circulation of a graphic example of HAMAS ‘justice’. 

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, human rights, Jews in Asia, jihad, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, Middle Eastern Politics, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religiosity, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes

Mass NUDE Assembly at River in Aid of Cancer Project

Tayla Coucaud in The Australian, 11 October 2023

A New York-based artist has put out a call to thousands of Queenslanders to strip down and possibly enter the Brisbane city river for a series of nude images. American photographer Spencer Tunick will be collab­orating with Brisbane Powerhouse to stage a series of nude photographs along Brisbane River later in November.

Sydneysiders naked at Bondi each in 2022

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, asylum-seekers, charitable outreach, commoditification, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, heritage, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, performance, photography, psychological urges, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, terrorism, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes

East Berlin & Check-Point Charlie, 1976 …. The Depth of the Cold War

Michael Roberts

My good friend Lam Seneviratne in Colombo has chosen to insert this comment in response to one of the Thuppahi Items: “In 1972 I had the opportunity to go through Checkpoint Charlie at Freidrichstrase to East Berlin. The contrast was stark, everything was drab and depressing.” … see https://thuppahis.com/2023/10/09/the-berlin-wall-dividing-west-east-berlin-epitome-of-the-cold-war/.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, travelogue, world events & processes

Danushka Gunathilake as A Conquering Hero & Gentleman

Devika Brendon, in GROUNDVIEWS, 29 September 2023, where the title runs thus: The Conquering Hero: ‘Success’ in Danushka Gunathilaka’s Sexual Assault Case” **

In the 11 months just past, several media reports were busy portraying the events in the trial of Danushka Gunathilaka, the Sri Lankan cricketer charged with sexual assault and violence against a woman in Australia last November, in a very upbeat way. It was a “positive update” they say, and “a win for him” that his strict bail conditions were relaxed, in the lead up to the judge’s decision.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, ethnicity, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, unusual people

Chamari Atapaththu: Outstanding Sri Lankan Cricketer

Chamari Athapaththu …. stood Out once again for Sri Lanka in England this summer …. armed with a Kingsgrove Sports Cricket Bat                                                                                     

In the light of her outstanding record, Take a close look at her cricket bat: it bears the name of “Kingsports.”This is whee the ALOYSIAN connection fits into the narrative. Kingsporss is the com[any owned by HARRY SOLOMONS who is a great supporter of Sri Lankan cricket and sponsors Chamari among other cricketers.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, cricket for amity, cricket selections, female empowerment, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes

EA Hornell’s Photographs Revealed & Scrutinised

Antonia Laurence Allen

EA Hornell 

 

 

The National Trust Sri Lanka is holding its 154th session of its Monthly Lecture Series on Reversing cultural erasure: looking again at the photographs of E. A. Hornel” by Antonia Laurence Allen, ….. The lecture will be held via ZOOM this Wednesday  at 6.00 PM

Zoom Link  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87283573525

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, photography, photography & its history, pilgrimages, self-reflexivity, tourism, travelogue, unusual people

Asoka Handagama’s “Alborada” penetrates Chile

Eda Cleary, in Sunday Observer, 24 September 2023.…  with highlighting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

The film Alborada by director Asoka Handagama was premiered in Chile recently with the Director of the Film School of the University of Valparaiso, film professor Rodrigo Cepeda, inviting academics, students and interested people to see the film.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, theatre world, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes

USA’s “Global War on Terror” Following 9/11

Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd]: “A global counter-terrorism military campaign initiated by the U.S. in 2001”  ……….. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror, https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/on-the-front-lines-cia-in-afghanistan/, ChatGPT, and Google Images … [with only some photographs 

Introduction:  ……  The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism”” (GWOT), is a global counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is also the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign were militant Islamist and Salafi jihadist armed organisations such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their international affiliates, which were waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim-majority countries. Other major targets included the Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed during an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, counter-insurgency, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, insurrections, jihadists, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, photography, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people