Category Archives: politIcal discourse

Contrasting Cricketing Tours Abroad: UK in 1975 vs Australia in 2022

IN Response to the News Item by Callistus Davy on the Profligate Tamasha enjoyed by SL’s cricketing officials during the recent World Cup in Australia ………… EMAIL NOTE: Mevan Pieris of [S. Thomas’ College] to Prabodh Kariyawasam [Richmond College], 19 January 2023

Dear Kari,

I read your mail and thought of the past when cricketers were amateurs. We went to the Oval in our own vehicles at our own cost and remember getting Rs 15/= per day during a 4 day test match, which was probably enough to clean the boots. I also remember how we went to England to play in the first World Cup in 1975, carrying with us just 3 pounds of foreign exchange, and how we had to  lodge in the Student Centre in difficult conditions. Yet for all no one grumbled and derived happiness from our love for the game which exceeded love for money. It was nice reading the long list of VIPs who seem to have made merry down under [in 2022]. Socrates is said to have told Hercules that God helps those who help themselves. We certainly have a damn good lot of believers in Socrates.
Good night Kari, ……………….. Mevan

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Cartooned! Western Leaders Skewered by Cartoon!

 

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Danger! Danger! Read All About IT !!! Ye Australians

A good friend of Malaysia and Indonesia currently on the Black Sea … with a title and highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

A:  Paul Keating released this statement today saying the AUKUS arrangements represent “the worst international decision by a Labor government” since Billy Hughes introduced conscription.  Very strong words here, highly critical of his own party – a betrayal in fact.

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Paul Keating Eviscerates AUKUS Pact and Aussie Warmongers

Former prime minister Paul Keating examines the merits of the AUKUS submarine deal and its implications for China-Australia relations and regional stability.

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War with China!!! Moronic Demands from Powerful Sydney Newpaper Chiefs

Paul Keating

The Sydney Morning Herald’s prominent series of provocations, urging Australia into a war with China, concluded its third instalment today.

At Item 20 of its presentation, apart from its advocacy of the reintroduction of compulsory national service, it wantonly urges that Australia should further consider ‘basing US long-range missiles armed with nuclear weapons on Australian territory’ and goes on to say ‘if the US were interested in doing so’.

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Resisting the British Imperial Forces: Tales Today in Uva Wellassa

Chandani Kirinde, in Sunday Times, March 2023. where the title runs thus: “Pride and tears of Uva Wellassa”

200 years after what is considered one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of colonial rule here, Chandani Kirinde visits the area that saw an uprising by its people that was brutally crushed by the British

A British cannon recovered from Wellassa. Pix by Indika Handuwala

The awe-inspiring cloud covered mountains, lush forests, formidable waterfalls and clear streams of Uva Wellassa bear little testimony today to the darkest and bloodiest chapter in the country’s history under British rule.  There is little sign of the burnt hamlets, scorched paddy fields, broken tank bunds, felled trees and the skeletons of the thousands of men, women and children killed or starved to death when the military might of the coloniser was turned on the population of the Kandyan provinces to put down a rebellion against British rule.

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The “Truth Tigers” Documentary of May 2002

Truth Tigers – Sri Lanka  ….. Journeyman Pictures

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27 May 2002 Blood drips off the deck; a torrent of rapid gunfire sores through the air. We are in the midst of a savage sea battle, fought by the Sea Tigers — the maritime arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Produced by ABC Australia Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

 

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Confronting Sacrificial Devotion Worldwide, 2004-2012

Michael Roberts

Within the contemporary (2020) context of a few killings in European cities by Islamic jihadists on a journey to martyrdom at the feet of Allah, I happened to see Stephen Sackur’s grilling of a French politician in one of his “Hard Talk” presentations on Channel Four. I was critical of his narrow focus and my reflections led me on a comparative journey where I indicated that the cry of “Allahu Akbar” indicated a sense of self-fulfilment in this their final journey on earth for the perpetrators of such attacks.[1]

 

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Louis F. Obeyesekere: An Empire Loyalist who went down when the “Ciotat” was sunk by an U-Boat

This article was originally written and published by Louis Frederick Obeyesekere’s great grandnephew, Sheannal Anthony Obeyesekere at: https://medium.com/@serendibrising/  …..  Item taken from SerendibRising, 3 March 2023, entitled  “Louis Frederick Obeyesekere: Lost out at sea on Christmas Eve” … sent to Thuppahi by Quintus Andradi

Louis Frederick (Freddy) J. Wijeratne Obeyesekere was born in the early 1890s. He was the forth and youngest child of Mudaliyar Henry Ferdinandus Wijeratne Obeyesekere and Henrietta Isabel (Ellen) Perera Wijesinha Goonetillaka¹ who had married in 1881 at All Saints ChurchGalle.

                                                            F Obeyesekere’s name is engraved on the Cenotaph War Memorial at Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo. Photo credits: Mithila Gunathilake and Quintus Andradi

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Confronting Transgender Issues in Sri Lanka

Michael Patrick O’Leary, in The Island, 12 March 2023, where the title reads  “Time to Think Part One”

Transgender Issues in Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka’s first president, JR Jayewardene, famously boasted that the newly-created executive presidency gave him the power, “to do anything, except make a man a woman, or a woman a man”. Today, there is much conflict in many countries about making a man a woman or a woman a man. The issue recently contributed to the downfall of Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who had seemed unassailable. In Ireland, the government is under attack because the Equalities Minister, Roderic O’Gorman, has been siphoning money off to trans activist groups that had been earmarked for the Traveller and Roma communities, migrant integration and redress for children who had been abused by the state and the church. There are some who believe that if a man says he is woman – “self-identifies” as a woman – then he is, indeed, a woman. Wishing makes it so. Those who dispute this are labeled “transphobic” and are brutally attacked in the trans wars. JK Rowling has been vilified simply for saying a man cannot be a woman.

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