Somasundaram Skandakumar to Cricketing Friends, speaking from the Heights of Uva, 15 June 2025
Dear All, An amazing final indeed and I too watched all of it.
A Country once banned by the ICC for its extreme apartheid policies and readmitted in July 1991, stands tall today on the world stag…….. having annexed two prestigious sports championships led by the very people it discriminated against for decades.
Rex Clementine in The Island, June 2025
One of the most heartwarming sights at Monday’s SLC Cricket Awards was the image of two titans of yesteryear – Mr. Chandra Schaffter and Mr. Stanley Jayasinghe – seated side by side, deep in conversation, reminiscing about their golden days in flannels. It was a picture worth a thousand runs, capturing the essence of an era when cricket was more character than cash.
Stanley batting for Leicestershire in the 1950s
Chandra at ease today
Filed under historical interpretation, life stories, self-reflexivity, unusual people
LISTEN to SCOTT RITTER … Scott Ritter is a former US Marine, Intelligence Officer & UN Weapons Inspector. Ritter outlines the extent of Israels surprise attack on Iran and what will likely be the consequences. Follow Prof. Glenn Diesen: Substack: https://glenndiesen.substack.com/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/Glenn_DiesenPatreon: 
/ glenndiesen Support the channel: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/glenn… Buy me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/gdieseng Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/09ea012f
Asia Progress Forum Statement on the Illegal Detention of Humanitarian Activists by Israel
Filed under accountability, life stories, self-reflexivity, unusual people
Zakir Hussain Played Tabla in Indian Classical Music and Beyond …
Written and photographed by Banning Eyre, April 30, 2025
The sounds of Indian classical music flowed into jazz, American folk and popular music, modern dance and percussive virtuosity worthy of the man being honored, the late tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. In San Francisco, California’s Grace Cathedral, a parade of musicians took the stage wielding guitars, sitar, violin, banjo, saxophones and all manner of drums and other percussion instruments, summoning a mesmerizing flow of deeply felt music that lasted over four hours.
Factum EPIGS Summit, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 11–12 June 2025**
THE PANELISTS
o Rohana Hettiarachchi (Sri Lanka) – Executive Director of People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL)
o Che De Los Reyes (The Philippines) – Journalist and Media Development Specialist
o Aishath Adnan (The Maldives) – Co-Founder of Women in Tech Maldives
o Harindra Dassanayake (Sri Lanka) Co-Founder of Muragala
o Dulanjaya Mahagamage (Sri Lanka) – Manager – Social Media and Research at Hashtag Generation
o Usama Khilji (Pakistan) – Co-Founder and Director of Bolo Bhi and the Vice Chair of the Global Network Initiative
• Moderator – Rajni Gamage (Sri Lanka) – Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS).
Saroj Pathirana in FACEBOOK, June 2025
A large group of top-level leaders, ministers, princes, and top-level leaders have gathered in France’s port Nice (Nice) to attend the United Nations Third World Ocean Conference.
As several leaders approached Nice city by ship, a massive ship from the Greenpeace Environmental Organization named Arctic Sunrise was also approaching the city to protest against cannings happening at the bottom.
Samoa State, which made the first announcement to start the conference, announced 9 new sea regions fully insured, protecting 30% of its own seaside. Accordingly, fishing of 36,000 square kilometers is strictly prohibited. And the Samoa Island State’s warning is to fully start its ocean zone into a sustainable management system by 2030.
We will bring further details about this week-long conference, courtesy of Ocean Reporting Network at Pulitzer Centre.
Rex Clementine
Exactly 50 years ago to this day, Sri Lanka played their first ever international cricket match. It was the 1975 World Cup and it indeed was a baptism by fire; bowled out for 86 by West Indies.
Anura Tennekoon and Clive Lloyd at the toss.
Filed under life stories, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people
Prefatory Note by Michael Roberts in Adelaide, 7 June 2025
Brian Victoria was a colleague teaching Japanese in the Asian Studies Department when I moved to Adelaide Univerisity Anthropology in 1977; and we got to know each other at seminars and in faculty corridors. He moved abroad subsequently. While his expertise probably lies in political issues in the Pacific theatre, one of my brainwaves — rare nowadays — led me to seek his appraisal of the deadly, devastating and unholy conflicts occurring in recent years in Gaza, Palestine, Israel,and their surrounds (an issue piercing TPS because of a sharp division of opinion between two of my friends, David Schokman and Arlen van Der Wall).
thuppahi
