Photo courtesy of my old student pal Piyasiri Wickramasekara ….more details below
Category Archives: political demonstrations
Foregone Conclusions from the UNHRC’s Forthcoming Charade in Geneva
Chandre Dharma-wardana – responding to a vibrant EMAIL DISCUSSION among Sri Lankans re what should be done at the forthcoming human rights charade at the UNHRC in Geneva
I personally think it doesn’t matter who Sri Lanka sends to Geneva. This whole thing is NOT based on facts. It is NOT based on what was said, is said or will be said. They KNOW the facts. The UNHRC’s commissioner is not a fool, but a seasoned politician. If she wants, she can get at the facts.
Filed under accountability, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, doctoring evidence, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, news fabrication, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, propaganda, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, world events & processes
From Trump to Hitler …. and Populist Mahinda Rajapakse
Richard A. Koenigsberg
Abstract: All the nonsense about “diagnosing” Donald Trump: calling him a “malignant narcissist,” for example: The delusion that giving identifying or naming Trump’s pathology–somehow constitutes an “explanation.”
I understand 70 million people voted for Trump in the recent election. The question is WHAT WAS TRUMP SAYING AND/OR DOING THAT APPEALED TO SO MANY PEOPLE?
I’ve analyzed Hitler for years. There are things one might say about Hitler’s “personality.” However, the central question is: What was Hitler saying–that the German people found so appealing?
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, European history, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes
Maaveerar Homage in London: Virtual Reality
Filed under accountability, communal relations, cultural transmission, fundamentalism, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry
Kamikaze, Mujahid, Tamil Tiger: Sacrificial Devotion in Comparative Lens
Michael Roberts, reprinting an essay drafted in 2007 and since presented in Fire & Storm in 2010 (chapter 19: 131-38)
- “Gandhi tried for years to reduce himself to zero” (Dennis Hudson 2002: 132).
- Hitler: “You are nothing, your nation is everything” (quoted in Koenigsberg 2009: 13).
- LTTE: “the martyr sacrifices himself for the whole by destroying the I…” (Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam’s interpretation of a Tamil Tiger supporter’s poem; 2005: 134).
- Spokesman for Al Qaida after the Madrid bombing: “You love life and we love death”
- Col. Karuna, ex-LTTE: “Death means nothing to me….”
- The Hagakure is “a living philosophy that holds that life and death [are] the two sides of the same shield” (Yoshio Mishima in his The Way of the Samurai, quoted in Moeren 1986: 109-10).
- “Bushido means to die” (Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney 2002: 117).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVpbl0azdFM …. Kamikaze strike
Filed under accountability, arab regimes, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, European history, female empowerment, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, immolation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, meditations, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power sharing, propaganda, psychological urges, religiosity, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan scoiety, suicide bombing, Taliban, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes, Zen at war
Combatting Terrorism Today: Three Imperatives
John Richardson
For what they are worth, here are three “imperatives for preventing conflict and terrorism” (from the 10 that conclude Paradise Poisoned) that seem particularly relevant to this discussion. These are excerpted from “elevator talk” I gave to Board members of the US Association for the Club of Rome a year or so ago.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, immolation, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, refugees, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Eelamist Movement Rises Again in the North?
Dinasena Ratugamage, in Island, 15 August 2020, where the title is “Wiggy makes vow before LTTE memorial”
Newly elected TMTK (Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani) MP C.V. Wigneswaran, on Thursday (13), vowed before the LTTE memorial at Mullivaikkal that he would fulfill the aspirations of the Tamil people.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, performance, photography, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, religiosity, Saivism, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes, zealotry
Canadian Tamil Agitation against Sri Lanka and Canadian Sinhalese
Chandre Dharmawardene, in Island, 26 July 2020, with this title “Ontario’s Bill on Alleged Genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils”
It was interesting to read Lynn Ockersz’ posting in The Island titled “UN Genocide Convention and Social Peace”. What should rise to the top of the minds of most Sri Lankan readers when the word “genocide” is mentioned, is the allegation against the Sri Lankan state. The columnist states that “As is known, some sections have been flinging the allegation of genocide against the Sri Lankan state in matters arising from its 30-year war against the LTTE, but it is clear that, going by the UN definition, the Lankan state has not committed genocide“.
C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka, addresses members of the Tamil community in Markham, Ontario, Canada, on January 15, 2017. During his trip to formalize a friendship agreement between the City of Markham and district of Mullaitivu, Northern Province in Sri Lanka Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran spoke about the importance of issues of transitional justice and post-war development to diaspora Tamils in Canada……..Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
Filed under accountability, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, conspiracies, devolution, disparagement, doctoring evidence, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, news fabrication, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, racist thinking, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, world events & processes
An Epitaph for Martin Luther King and Memphis Today –when Black Lives Matter
Jane Russell, reviewing Stuart Cosgrove “Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul,” Polygon Press Oct. 2017
This book is the middle section of a critically acclaimed sixties ‘soul’ trilogy by Australian-Scot Stuart Cosgrove, award winning broadcaster for Channel 4 and long-time writer for UK music media, Echoes and New Musical Express. It follows on from Detroit 67: The Year that Changed Soul and anticipates the forthcoming Harlem 69: The Future of Soul (October 2018).
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, democratic measures, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, social justice, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Smashing Statues: Issues of Sense and Sensibility … and Nonsence
Rihaab Mowlana, in Lifelk, 19 June 2020, where the title runs thus “Are We Erasing History?”
The statue of Thomas Jefferson, the founding father who also enslaved more than 600 people, was toppled in Oregon, while the statue of navigator and coloniser Christopher Columbus was ‘spray-painted, set on fire and thrown into a lake’. In England, the Statue of Edward Colston suffered a similar fate, resulting in ‘the boarding up of the Cenotaph in Whitehall and Winston Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square’. In many parts of the world, the predicament will befall many such monuments.
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, meditations, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, psychological urges, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes
