Fire and smoke billows from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/David Karp)
A person falls from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center as another clings to the outside, left, while smoke and fire billow from the building, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, atrocities, conspiracies, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, immolation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes
Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, voluntary workers, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
I present several comments from Sri Lankans in New Zealand and Sri Lanka
A NOTE from SM in Colombo, 7 Sept 2021
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Lynn Ockersz, in The Island, 2 September 2021, where the title is “Power and sovereignty issues come to the fore in Afghanistan”
“More and more strength to those women and other vulnerable groups that are mustering for their rights in Afghanistan right now.” This is likely to be the wish of progressives everywhere. The enormity of their courage could be gauged from the fact that they are in direct confrontation with the Taliban who are no champions of fundamental rights. Now more than ever before, women’s organizations the world over and international progressive opinion need to rally round these protesting sections in Afghanistan.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Palitha Kohona ,in The Sunday Observer, 28 June 2020, with this title “Managing the media on the road to Nandikadal – Part 1″ ….http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2020/06/28/news-features/managing-media-road-nandikadal-part-1
The conflict with the terrorist LTTE dragged on for over two decades causing widespread death and destruction with no obvious end in sight. The Government, after the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, recognised, perhaps for the first time, that carefully managing the media, both domestic and international, was an important factor if this endless struggle were to be ended successfully. President Rajapaksa, a consummate politician, accepted the profound value of a non-antagonistic media and carefully orchestrated initiatives to secure this objective. As the world knows, the bloody conflict was eventually ended on the banks of the Nanthikadal Lagoon on May 18, 2009, through the colossal efforts and sacrifices of the security forces.
Tony Birtley of Al Jazeera at the warfront in late 2008 and Ranil Wijayapala in ??
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, island economy, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Liyanage Amarakeerthi, whose chosen title is “A Fatal Intersection: Three Small Shops in North Western Sri Lanka that No Longer Exist” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor Thuppahi
I was born and raised in a little community in Kuliyapitiya, a typical agricultural area with three small tanks (wewa), which watered paddy fields, within walking distance on three sides of my house. Of course, there were also three Buddhist temples, almost within walking distance from each other. It was a typical village in the North-Western province, a part of which is known as bath kooralee or ‘rice province’. Where there were no tanks or paddy fields there were coconut plantations, big and small. Not surprisingly, much of the ‘coconut triangle’ is also in this province.
Stephen Champion’s cover photo has been deployed here by Thuppahi as an external intervention to highlight the scenario of the 1980s
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, conspiracies, economic processes, ethnicity, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, JVP, life stories, meditations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, vengeance, working class conditions, world events & processes
ONE: Scott Atran: “The Devoted Actor Unconditional Commitment and Intractable Conflict across Cultures,” ... as introduced to Thuppahi by The Library of Social Science,in New York, … with this abstract at journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/685495
Uncompromising wars, revolution, rights movements, and today’s global terrorism are in part driven by “devoted actors” who adhere to sacred, transcendent values that generate actions dissociated from rationally expected risks and rewards. Studies in real-world conflicts show ways that devoted actors, who are unconditionally committed to sacred causes and whose personal identities are fused within a unique collective identity, willingly make costly sacrifices. This enables low-power groups to endure and often prevail against materially stronger foes. Explaining how devoted actors come to sacrifice for cause and comrades not only is a scientific goal but a practical imperative to address intergroup disputes that can spiral out of control in a rapidly interconnecting world of collapsing and conflicting cultural traditions. From the recent massive media-driven global political awakening, horizontal peer-to-peer transcultural niches, geographically disconnected, are emerging to replace vertical generation-to-generation territorial traditions. Devoted actors of the global jihadi archipelago militate within such a novel transcultural niche, which is socially tight, ideationally narrow, and globe spanning. Nevertheless, its evolutionary maintenance depends on costly commitments to transcendental values, rituals and sacrifices, and parochial altruism, which may have deep roots even in the earliest and most traditional human societies. Fieldwork results from the Kurdish battlefront with the Islamic State are highlighted.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, Fascism, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Fair Dinkum
For telling the truth about Wuhan as she knew it, this Australian virologist Dr Danielle Anderson has been attacked, smeared and had her life threatened because her statement did not align with American Australian narratives about the origins of covid19. She was sent a threatening email that read, “Eat a bat and die, bitch.” The threatening emails continue and the Singapore police are taking it seriously The anti-China campaign has become hysterical, insane and extremely dangerous as it spreads around the world, with the help of Western governments.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, australian media, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, coronavirus, disparagement, doctoring evidence, economic processes, historical interpretation, life stories, news fabrication, power politics, propaganda, slanted reportage, taking the piss, terrorism, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Basil Fernando: A Short Abstract re the book Body, Mind, Soul, Society: An Autobiographical Account
This book (176 pages) is an attempt to contribute towards an understanding of the impact of violence on human persons and the society. It is based on the direct experience of living and working in Sri Lanka and Cambodia. However, references are also made to several more developing countries in Asia with which I have been engaged in working after the experiences in Sri Lanka and Cambodia. The book is written from the perspective of a victim who is also an observer.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian traditions, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, psychological urges, racist thinking, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, working class conditions, world events & processes
Qadri Ismail, in Groundviews, 5 May 2019 after the 21/4 Atrocities
Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post
We hadn’t seen him in years, ever since he left to work abroad. So, on the day of his return, his mother invited the extended family to lunch. As he walked through the door we reacted collectively, gasped audibly. He wore a sharp suit but sported one of those long, unkempt, rowdy beards. Perhaps, I thought, there are no barbers in Saudi Arabia. (You never know, it’s a weird place).
Filed under accountability, arab regimes, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, disparagement, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
thuppahi
