Category Archives: taking the piss

August 13, 2023 · 1:40 pm

Surviving the Aging: Transforming Oneself

An Email Circular from Lorenz Pereira in Melbourne, 13 August 2023 …. with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The surprise has arrived! The Director of the George Washington University School of Medicine maintains that the brain of an elderly person is much more practical than is commonly believed. At this age, the interaction of the left and right hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands our creative possibilities. That is why among people over the age of 60 you can find many personalities who have just started their creative activities.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, asylum-seekers, Australian culture, australian media, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, pulling the leg, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, world events & processes

July 29, 2023 · 10:30 am

Perfection: The Centipede as Helpmate Pet

From Mervyn Weerasooriya, my old Aloysian Mate

A man goes into a pet shop and tells the owner he wants to buy a pet that can do everything. The shop owner suggests a faithful dog. The man replies, “Come on, a dog?” The owner says, “How about a cat?” The man replies, “No way! A cat certainly can’t do everything. I want a pet that can do everything!” The shop owner thinks for a minute, then says, “I’ve got it! A centipede!” The man says, “A centipede? I can’t imagine a centipede doing anything, but okay… I’ll try a centipede.” He gets the centipede home and says to the centipede, “Clean the kitchen.” Thirty minutes later, he walks into the kitchen and… it’s immaculate! All the dishes and silverware have been washed, dried, and put away. The counter-tops have been cleaned and the appliances are sparkling. Even the floor was waxed. He’s absolutely amazed.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, landscape wondrous, nature's wonders, performance, taking the piss, trauma, travelogue, wikileaks, wild life

July 1, 2023 · 9:09 pm

Cricket Pitch Invasions: Contrasting Reactions in Different Times

Michael Roberts 

If memory serves me right Terry Alderman injured himself when he tackled a lone Aussie pitch-invader on one occasion. Johnny Baisow isa sturdy Yorkshireman and he had no problems carting off …..yes “carting off” …. a slim intruder at the holy-of-holies ground known as “The Lords.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

June 12, 2023 · 12:19 pm

Nuclear Disarmament! Farcical Face at G7 Summit

 Kanwal Singh, in RT News, 6 June 2023, where the title runs: “The G7’s nuсlear-weapon-free world ‘vision’ is a farce” …. with the highlights in black being those within the digital version

The choice of Hiroshima as the venue of May’s G7 meeting implied that the issue of nuclear disarmament would be highlighted in the summit documents. Not surprisingly, the G7 leaders issued the “Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament” to mark the occasion.

 

 

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, military expenditure, Pacific Ocean issues, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, security, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

May 30, 2023 · 1:05 pm

Beauties … & Their Prances, Calls & Love-Life in the Wild

Courtesy of Mahinda Gunasekera

 

1 Comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, elephant tales, landscape wondrous, performance, photography, taking the piss

May 9, 2023 · 4:18 pm

BBC rendered impotent by Azerbaijan President

An Observer from the Black Sea

This interview is why the BBC stands for British Bullshit Corporation. The journalist from that ‘august’ agency claims the higher moral ground – just read it in her facial gestures; but she can’t provide a single source and is then speechless when the President of Azerbaijan asks her a question.

The BBC do the same on China,  HK, Iran, Russia and any country that chooses their own destiny independent of Anglo-Saxon control.

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, education, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, truth as casualty of war, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, violence of language, world events & processes

May 3, 2023 · 10:40 pm

The Tale of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, 1987–1990  

Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd] …. from ………… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Peace_Keeping_Force and Google Images

Introduction

The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military.

The main task of the IPKF was to disarm the different militant groups, not just the LTTE. It was to be quickly followed by the formation of an Interim Administrative Council. These were the tasks as per the terms of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, signed at the behest of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Given the escalation of the conflict in Sri Lanka, and with the pouring of refugees into India, Rajiv Gandhi took the decisive step to push this accord through. The IPKF was inducted into Sri Lanka on the request of Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene under the terms of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, counter-insurgency, foreign policy, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

March 30, 2023 · 1:14 pm

Guns Blazing! Obama on the American Warpath

X

Obama has been in Sydney and Melbourne this week wearing his dark cool shades, dazzling his many female followers, and giving speeches which earned him a couple of million dollars just enough to pay for breakfast at Tiffany’s. He was in Melbourne yesterday, picking up another million, while dazzling his audience with his analysis of the world. Yep, you got it. It was one of those “China is the bad boy – the US is the good boy” speeches.
 A NOTE from Thuppahi:
The highlightonh emphasis is my ntervntion …nad let me note that “X” resides in the ANZAC world of Australia-New Zealand and therefore has to secure (hopefully) his security.

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, american imperialism, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, disparagement, economic processes, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, Pacific Ocean politics, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes

March 24, 2023 · 10:48 pm

Keenie Meenie Mercenary Operations in Lanka in UK Gunsights

Phil Miller, in Declassified UK, March 14, 2023

A former SAS commander whose mercenary business in Sri Lanka is under investigation for war crimes has left millions of pounds in his will.

     Attached photo of Colonel Johnson leading an SAS parade in 1960. (Image: Imperial War Museum)

One of Britain’s most rapacious mercenaries amassed a fortune worth £4m before his death in 2008, an investigation by Declassified UK has found. The soldier of fortune, Colonel Henry ‘Jim’ Johnson, was once described by a senior British diplomat as having “political ideas [that] are probably to the right of Genghis Khan” – a reference to the infamously brutal Mongol emperor.

Continue reading →

7 Comments

Filed under accountability, atrocities, Britain's politics, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

March 18, 2023 · 9:29 pm

People Inbetween: Ethnic & Class Prejudices in British Ceylon

Michael Roberts … Content of His Talk on this topic at the National Trust in Colombo in June 2018 

The National Trust’s brief was for me to present motifs from the book People Inbetween. The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformations within Sri Lanka, 1790-1960s, (Ratmalana, Sarvodaya Book Publishing Services, 1989) and more specifically its first chapter viz. “Pejorative Phrases: the Anti-colonial Response and Sinhala Perceptions of the Self through Images of the Burghers” 

Many think People Inbetween is a history of the Burghers. Not so. It is multi-faceted. It describes (a) the rise of the middle class in British times, an influential force within which the Burghers were a critical element and a vanguard in the questioning of British rule; (b) the initial strands in the development of Ceylonese nationalism and (c) the development of Colombo into a metropolitan hub that became the island’s hegemonic centre.

 

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, commoditification, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, disparagement, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, unusual people, world events & processes