Category Archives: the imaginary and the real

January 25, 2022 · 9:25 am

Britain and Canberra accused of Misreading China

Daniel Hurst, in The Guardian, 24 January 2022, with this title  “Former Australian PM Paul Keating criticises Liz Truss over ‘demented’ China comments”

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused Liz Truss of making “demented” comments about Chinese military aggression and urged the British foreign secretary to hurry “back to her collapsing, disreputable government”.  Keating, in a blistering op-ed, also said Britain “suffers delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation” and its tilt to the Indo-Pacific lacks credibility.

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January 22, 2022 · 8:28 pm

Serbia, Rio Tinto, Novak Djokovic and Australia’s Rancid Hypocrisy  

Fair Dinkum

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has announced her country is expelling Rio Tinto as it pulls out of the Jadar lithium project, costing Australia $3.6 billion. Brnabić told reporters: “All decisions (linked to the lithium project) and all licences have been annulled.” She went on to conclude: “As far as project Jadar is concerned, this is an end.”

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić speaks during a news conference after a Serbian government session about Rio Tinto, in Belgrade, Serbia, January 20, 2022.

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January 20, 2022 · 12:08 pm

Greater Flamingoes in Mannar and Sri Lanka

The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is an uncommon migrant bird species found in Sri Lanka, and is a major attraction among avitourists. Jaffna Peninsula, Mannar Island, and the southeastern coastal areas are the known strongholds of this species in Sri Lanka.

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January 19, 2022 · 8:06 pm

Receiving Semen with One’s Milk: A World Record in San Diego

News item in DailyNewsReported, January 2022, with this title “DNA Testing Reveals Milkman Fathered Over 800 Children Between 1951 and 1964”

Randall (Randy) Jeffries was a Milk Delivery man in the 1950’s and 60’s in Southern California. His route was in the San Diego area. Back in those days milk delivery was how we got our milk. No quick runs to the store or jaunts to the nearest Walmart. Week in and week out, Randy pounded the pavement from truck to doorstep.

Over the years he began to form relationships with his customers and in those times the vast majority of his interactions were with housewives. He was quite a handsome man back in his time and many were the customer who would request him. Frequently pies and casseroles were made for him.

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January 16, 2022 · 11:29 am

US Power and Sri Lanka’s Debt Crisis

Professor Tissa Vitarana, in The Island, 9 Jaauary 2022, with this title “The international plot to force Sri Lanka into the USA’s trap is thickening”

With the dawn of the Year 2022 I wish you all happiness, good health, and fulfillment of your needs and targets. But I cannot wish you prosperity, because only the rich are enjoying that privilege. The maximum tax on the rich including multi billionaires still remains at 14%. The average maximum in Europe is 40% while that in Scandinavian country is over 50%. Thus it is clear that the burden of the present economic crisis is being placed on all the people including the poor, but not on the rich.

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January 16, 2022 · 11:02 am

Paul McNamee steps into the Djokovic Courtside Drama

Paul McNamee in The Age, 15 January 2022, where the title reads “Djokovic an easy target in anti-vaxxer witch hunt”

Clearly, the outcome of the Federal Court case on Sunday has implications for Novak Djokovic. How about for the Australian Open?

The Australian Open is far and away Australia’s biggest international sporting event. Hosting all the world’s best tennis players in arguably the best sporting precinct in the world, it generates close to one billion dollars in economic impact for the state of Victoria. It puts Melbourne front and centre on the world stage for two weeks but, this year, for all the wrong reasons.

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January 11, 2022 · 10:49 am

Behind the Scenes: Radio-Plays in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 1980s

David Graham

I’m still getting used to thinking of Chris Greet as an Anglo-Indian.** I’d always assumed he’d been born in Ceylon and was a Burgher. Christopher Arthur Greet was my boss at Intasel Advertising from April 10, 1978 to September 30, 1978. He was the account director at Intasel, the startup founded by Mil Sansoni and Gareth Jayawardena after they left Grant Advertising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 9, 2022 · 1:32 pm

The Covid Phenomenon deciphered by a Committed Worker in Mannar Island

Jeremy Liyanage

Hi Michael,  Thanks for asking these important questions. I live with some frustration over what the mainstream media reports and what my almost daily research of the Covid phenomenon world-wide since March 2020 is telling me.

For us in Mannar, our experience tells us that the Covid ‘crisis’ is a real case of smoke and mirrors here in Sri Lanka. There is little accuracy regarding anything Covid-relatedof because the data is significantly corrupted or not kept at all. As for us it is good to have a grounded vantage point here in Mannar with ‘whistle-blowers’ within the system who report what is really going on and the fudging of figures. Directives from higher up to report many non-Covid related deaths as Covid ones also skewes the numbers. Also at the Mannar hospital all pneumonia and influenza cases – which historically are considerable in number – are now classified as Covid.

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January 9, 2022 · 11:35 am

Djokovic and the “Secretary-Bird”

Michael Roberts

When my wife and I went on a Safari tour in Zimbabwe in the 1990s I was fascinated by sightings of a “Secretary Bird” through my binoculars. The official identity of this strange figure  was “Sagittarius serpentarius.”   But, in my reading and juxtaposition, its upright walking stance simply indicated a prim and proper secretary persona.           

When I first saw Novak Djokovic on the tennis court, I immediately associated the two figures.  Maybe a strange leap; but it is a fixed asociation im my mind –one which did not, and does not, degrade my admiration for Djokovic’s tennis. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 6, 2022 · 12:59 am

A Helluva Christmas Partty in Welikade Prison. A “Coup” by Those whose Coup Failed in 1962

Tony Anghie, whoe original title reads as “Welikada MEMORIES. The Famous 1963 Coup Organisers Christmas Party”

 In 1962, the Magazine Prison was converted to hold the defendants in the Coup Case. The whole complex was occupied by 24 prisoners.

DIG C.C (Jungle) Dissanayake was in a barred enclosure by himself, which was meant to hold about 20 persons. The rest of us were distributed among the other blocks in groups of five or six in a block, in cells three apart so we could not see each other, and held in solitary confinement. We had no contact with the outside world except a 15 minute weekly family visit, and no access to lawyers for about the first six months; until indictments were filed.

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