Category Archives: riots and pogroms

July 26, 2022 · 1:35 am

An American Reading of the Populist Aragalaya in Sri Lanka

German Lopez in The Morning, 24 July 2022

Good morning. Today, we explain what led to Sri Lanka’s recent protests.

Storming the Palace

Sri Lanka’s recent upheaval offers an extreme example of the world’s recent problems. Covid disrupted the country’s major industries, particularly tourism, and then leaders failed to adapt — setting off a chain of economic calamities, including food and fuel shortages. The crisis prompted protests, culminating in the president’s resignation and the installation of a new president on Wednesday.

  Protesters overtaking the prime minister’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka….. Atul Loke for The New York Times

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July 22, 2022 · 1:45 pm

The ISLAND Editorial …. Before the Military Assault at Galle Face Green

Editorial in THE ISLAND, 22 July 2022  …… before the Storming of the ARAGALAYA camp on Galle Face Green by security forses on that day viz TODAY 22 July 2022

TITLE = “An honourable defeat”

Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the President yesterday. Amidst a host of paeans to him, we believe that a word about the unsuccessful candidates in Wednesday’s contest in Parliament is in order. Dissident SLPP MP Dullas Alahapperuma, who was expected to be a dark horse, lost Wednesday’s vote in the House, but he certainly won the hearts of all Sri Lankans who desire an early end to the corrupt Rajapaksa rule, which has become a curse to all citizens save those who are benefiting therefrom. His was an honourable defeat. A beleaguered regime fighting for survival strikes back ferociously and is guided by Rafferty’s rules. Alahapperuma’s courageous attempt to put the brakes on the Rajapaksa juggernaut is to be commended.

Crowds at Galle Face

   This photo was presented on NEWS RADIO with article by Hazari Mohamed on Day 17 of the Protest

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July 21, 2022 · 2:11 pm

An Unimaginable Outcome from the ARAGALA Revolt: Ranil As President

Malinda Seneviratne, in his web column https://malindawords.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-aragalaya-postscript.html

Ranil Wickremesinghe is no longer president in an acting capacity. He is the president, period. Did someone say ‘I don’t know whether to laugh or cry?’ I am pretty sure someone did. Did someone say, ’who wudda thunk?’ Well, if two or three years ago, if anyone suggested that in July 2023 Ranil Wickremesinghe would be the president of this country, there would have been laughter and tears, if at all, would have been of mirth.

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July 13, 2022 · 7:13 pm

Malinda’s Inside View from within the Colombo Cauldron

Malinda Seneviratne, at …. https://malindawords.blogspot.com/2022/07/when-centre-cannot-hold.html  …. with this title “When the centre cannot hold…”

I write (it is 12.09 pm, on Wednesday) at a time when there’s a remarkable and unprecedented lack of political clarity in the country. As I write, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has left the country. As per the Constitution, if indeed Rajapaksa did resign, or, as reported, Rajapaksa citing Article 37.1 of the constitution , Ranil Wickremesinghe has assumed the presidency in an acting capacity. There’s ‘fighting’ within parliament with parties and politicians unable to decide on Rajapaksa’s successor and of course who the next premier should be. There’s fighting among ‘aragalists’ over representational legitimacy, ideological and political thrust, and preferred endgames.

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May 10, 2022 · 8:15 pm

Mayhem in Sri Lanka: Violence ….. in Colombo …

SEE https://www.newsfirst.lk/2022/05/10/pictures-aftermath-of-colombo-violence/

…. AND ….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April 3, 2022 · 11:06 am

Remembering Professor Sinnappah Arasaratnam

ONE: A Valedictory Vale from Don Beer of the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, in 1998

  Emeritus Professor S. Arasaratnam died suddenly in Sydney on 4 October, aged 68.

Sinnappah Arasaratnam was born in Navaly, Ceylon, on 20 March 1930. After taking his BA with First Class Honours at the University of Ceylon in 1951, he began the first of two stints lecturing in history at that university, before undertaking doctoral research at the University of London in 1954. Arasa, as he asked to be called, graduated PhD in 1956, returned to the University of Ceylon as a lecturer, and in 1961 took up a lectureship in Indian Studies at the University of Malaya. By 1968 he had risen to the rank of Professor of History there.

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March 31, 2022 · 6:59 pm

Conflict: Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils and Others

Muralidhar Reddy, in FRONTLINE, 26/20, Sep. 26-Oct. 09, 2009 ….. reviewing  CONFRONTATIONS IN SRI LANKA,  Colombo, Yapa, 2009

Michael Roberts’ collection of essays on Sri Lankan identity is a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere polluted by callous accounts.

 

Pirapaharan honouring Miller on Black Friday Day, Continue reading →

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March 11, 2022 · 7:12 pm

Sri Lanka as A Paradise blighted by Extraordinary Political Violence

Razeen Sally, in an article presented in November 2020 at NIKKEI ASIA, with the title “Rediscovering Sri Lanka through a travel memoir”  …. & with highlighting superimposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The Island paradise mixes beguiling charm with an astonishing record of violence.  Foreign visitors have for centuries rhapsodized about Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was called until 1972: its seashores and landscapes, its governing religion, Buddhism, and its majority ethnicity, the Sinhalese.

Colombo’s Mount Lavinia Hotel in the 1960s. One of Asia’s legendary colonial hotels, it was managed by the author’s father through the political upheaval of the 1970s. “It was a turbulent time, much of which my father spent in remand and jail.” ……  Photo courtesy of Razeen Sally Continue reading →

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January 31, 2022 · 1:07 pm

Conflicts in Sri Lanka reviewed in 2009 by Muralidhar Reddy

Muralidhar Reddy, in Frontline, vol. 26/20, Sept 26-Oct 09, 2009 where the title reads “Analytical Anthropology”

Michael Roberts’ collection of essays on Sri Lankan identity is a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere polluted by callous accounts.

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January 24, 2022 · 12:18 pm

Anarchy via Modern Media: Belgium Erupts ….

HOT NEWS ITEM …………“Clashes erupt in Brussels as tens of thousands protest Covid rules” …………. rance24.com/en/europe/20220123-clashes-erupt-in-brussels-as-tens-of-thousands-protest-covid-rules

NEWS WIRES

Police fired water cannon and tear gas Sunday at stone-throwing protesters after tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Brussels against Covid-19 rules.

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