Gus Mathews
This is a very incisive interview with Tamara Kunanayakam, a former ambassador to the UNHRC in Geneva. In a no-nonsense manner she unravels why the pursuit of Sri Lanka by the Western nations is taking place.
Category Archives: taking the piss
Tamara Kunanayakam in Dialogue with Faraz on the UNHRC Vote at Geneva, March 2021
UN GENEVA: HOW WILL IT IMPACT SRI LANKANS? – Tamara Kunanayakam on #NewslineSL – 29th March 2021
2,404 views
•Streamed live on Mar 30, 2021
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Rise in Anti-Chinese Sentiments in Australia
Naaman Zhou, in The Guardian, 4 March 2021, with this title “How Anti-Chinese Seniment in Australia seeped into the Mainstream”
Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images
Community members say current levels of anti-Chinese sentiment have been fanned by the pandemic, Donald Trump’s rhetoric, souring trade relationship and a political atmosphere that encourages a ‘creeping distrust’ of Australians of Chinese heritage.
Threatening letters sent to Asian councillors and a surge in race hate attacks during the pandemic has renewed calls for a centralised hate tracker.
Councillor Kun Huang received [a hate] letter on a Monday. Among the insults about his name, the threats of death, the blame for the Covid-19 pandemic, the accusation that he had been stealing all the milk powder, buying up all the houses and bringing disease to Australia “for centuries”, the staff at the Cumberland Council noticed a name and an address. This was a race hate letter signed by its supposed perpetrator.
Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, taking the piss, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes
Economic Warriors welcomed by Bio-Warriors …. Today
Priya Cooray
Notwithstanding the fact that it could have been done much earlier, it is still commendable on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka to recently approve a limited number (50) of overseas workers to return in every Srilankan Airlines Cargo flight. Sri Lankan Foreign Missions and the Expatriate Associations in the Middle Eastern countries had relentlessly pursued the Government for approval. Even though it is only for those who pay to be quarantined in hotels, it significantly reduces the pressure on queued up demand to facilitate special repatriation flights.
Filed under accountability, coronavirus, discrimination, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, medical puzzles, meditations, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Ethnic Categories in Sri Lanka: Issues
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, world events & processes
Looming Struggles in Sri Lanka and Geneva Today
Rajan Philips, in Colombo Telegraph, 14 February 2021, where his chosen ttitle is “Geneva Odyssey: More Confrontation Or New Approach?”
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who made the surprising call for the government cancelling the ECT deal with India and Japan, has made another surprising and really a gallant announcement giving the green light for allowing burials for Muslim and Christian victims of Covid-19. If the Ministry of Health has been caught unawares by the PM’s statement in parliament, well, they had better get used to it. But no sooner had the government appeared to have cremated the burial issue than Cardinal Malcom Ranjith raised a new headache for the government – threatening to take his case for justice for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks to international courts, if there is no assurance of justice through domestic investigations. That is a shocker even though it is no more than a threat for now.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, democratic measures, doctoring evidence, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Snippets on the Fort of Galle … and Ashley’s Dire Warnings
A Question from one Sanjay Gunawardena, 12 February 2021:
“Thank you for this great article Dr Roberts.[i] Has anyone got a picture or a painting of the Old Windmill which has been in the Galle Fort. This has been mentioned E.F.C Ludowyk’s book Long Afternoons in Colonial Ceylon. If you can please share an image, it will be much appreciated. Thank you.
A Response from Hemantha Situge: “Lyn Ludo says the windmill was one of the five landmarks that crowned the Fort. It was erected during British times. I have seen two photographs which I have not copied.”[ii]
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, British colonialism, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Trauma and Joy in Cricket …. and Abusive Lankan Aussies
Ajit Jayasekera — Email Memo to Michael Roberts, 15 February 2021
When we went to Australia for the Tri Nations tournament with England and Australia in December 2002/January 2003, the team was captained by Sanath Jayasuriya and the Coach was Dav Whatmore. We were after a rather disastrous tour of South Africa, where we were roundly beaten in both formats of the game and started this tournament in similar disastrous manner getting smashed by both England and Australia in the opening games.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, disparagement, ethnicity, fundamentalism, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, taking the piss, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
When we make a blood test, we don’t specify all the items found in blood. Depending on the objective, we may list sugar, triglycerides, Heavy cholesterol and light cholesterol. If our objectives were different, we may list ALT, ALP, AST, bilirubin, albumin and total protein. So, what one lists is based on the purpose.