Pope Leo XIV was born as Robert Prevost in USA. He made a shocking decision in 1975: he rejected acceptance into Harvard Law School by choosing to serve Peru’s poorest villages.
Now, he’s the 267th Pope ….. 
Category Archives: self-reflexivity
Pahalgam Atrocity: Brink of Indo-Pak War?
Lakshman Gunasekara, in the Sunday Observer, 4 May 2025 where the title is more temperate: “South Asia tense as India sanctions Pakistan over Kashmir attack” … with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi **
A bloody attack on an otherwise sleepy, picturesque, resort town in Kashmir has added to the war fears of South Asians even as they worry over their migrant worker kin in war-battered neighbouring West Asia.
As Exhuberant As Sharp: Dewmi Vihanga for Lanka
SEE the Pix in ESPNcricnfo ….………………………….. https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/dewmi-vihanga-1352456/photos
Filed under life stories, self-reflexivity, Uncategorized, unusual people
World War I Memorial Facing Galle Fort
Michael Roberts
Born and bred within the Fort of Galle, I passed the War Memorial on the way to St Aloysius college in Kaluwella every day and thence in the evening for sport at the Galle Esplanade in front of this huge edifice. Therefore, I passed the war memorial umpteen times…. and never gave it a thought [even though I was absorbing the history of World War Two in the Illustrated News magazines in the Aloysian library and seeing many a war film in the late 1940s and the 1950s]. It has fallen on Captain Kumar Kirinde’s initiative for my awakening to a monument of significance in world history — one that is also significant for my own research and Thuppahi-publishing activities.
It is also notworthy that one of the dead heores marked within this moument is a member of the Kale lineage. That is a name familiar to anyone born and bred in the Fort and its environs in the mid-twentieth century. Thus a “Miss Rita Kale” features aomn those captured in a 1928 photograph of the personnel racing the Burgher Tennis Club within the fort — see https://thuppahis.com/2017/06/29/burgher-tennis-club-in-galle-circa.
Roberts on Nationalist Strands & Struggles in Sri Lanka
Responding to requsts from two different friends, I provide a list of the articles penned on the various currents of nationalism in Sri Lanka — studies spanning the colonial period and post-1948 politics. The list is not comprehensive. I may well have touched on pertinent political currents in some other essays. But this listing should foster a critical … and even slashing …. review of my engagments in this field in ways that could promote future scholarship.
Tamils assembled en masse at Sudumalai Amman Kovil grounds to hear Pirapaharan speak, 4 August 1987
Samantha Rutnam: Her Profile and Life’s Journey
Samantha Shantini Ratnam (Tamil: சமந்தா இரத்தினம்; born 1977) is a British-Australian social worker and politician. She was the leader of the Victorian Greens between 2017 and 2024, serving as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council in the Northern Metropolitan Region. Prior to this she was a councillor and mayor for the City of Moreland.
Filed under life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, unusual people
Rabada Drops Out: Failed Drugs Test
Item in The Indian Express, 3 May 2025
South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, who returned home from the Indian Premier League last month, admitted failing a drug test and apologised for his actions on Saturday
Rabada, second in the world test bowling rankings, said he was serving a “provisional suspension” but gave no other details.
Filed under accountability, life stories, self-reflexivity, unusual people
Cassandra Fernando Secures Spot in Australian Parliament
WIKIPEDIA … Cassandra Fernando (born 18 September 1987) is a Sri Lankan-born Australian politician and trade unionist who has been serving as the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of Holt since 2022. She is a member of the Labor Party (ALP).
Julian Assange Highlights Albanese’s Sturdy Support in Assange’s Darkest Days
EMAIL Note from Gabriel Shipton to Asoka Kuruppu in Queensland, 2 May 2025
Hello Asoka, I just spoke to Julian who is in Rome after attending the Popes funeral last week. He wanted me to share this important message with you ahead of tomorrow’s Australian federal election.
“With the federal election fast approaching, many Australians have asked me: What role did Prime Minister Anthony Albanese truly play in bringing you home to Australia? Haven’t Albo supporters overstated his involvement? And does Albo really have the backbone to stand up for Australians on other tough issues?
Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History
https://uclpress.co.uk/book/sri-lanka-at-the-crossroads-of-history/
» Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History, Pub. date: 7 June 2017 Zoltán Biedermann & Alan Strathern (Eds) pages: 354, illustrations 34 …. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911307822
zZOTAN BEIDERMANN PHOTO – Google Search
The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.
