An Item in Anadolu Agency, 20 November 2023 ….
The former head of Israel’s National Security Council said the spread of epidemics and humanitarian disasters in the Gaza Strip would help Israel reach victory faster. “The way to win the war faster and at a lower cost for us requires a system collapse on the other side and not the mere killing of more Hamas fighters,” Major General Giora Eiland wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
Michael Roberts
A FEW DAYS BACK, on 28th November 2023, I circulated this item among Lankan aficianado…. [ Let me add, here, that I was prompted to do this by the burgeoning world debate on the Palestinian-Israeli War that has been raging since August]. ………………………………………………………………….. https://thuppahis.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic and -illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda
ROHANTHA GUNARATNA in Canada responded in critical fashion. …. So I circulated his Memo to some personnel with this NOTE: “I encourage responses [to his Memo] from interested personnel – here, quite deliberately, reaching out beyond Lankans to Indians and Brits familiar with the Lankan scene in that period past.”
Filed under american imperialism, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, refugees, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Rohini Hensman: “The Political and Legal Underpinnings of the Palestine-Israel Conflict,” in New Politics, 2023 …. ……………………… https://www.academia.edu/110094670/The_Political_and_Legal_Underpinnings_of_the_Palestine_Israel_Conflict?email_work_card=view-paper
On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive attack on Israeli territory, killing 1405 people including over 300 soldiers according to the Israeli state, although a month later the death toll miraculously came down to 1200. The Israeli state has responded by bombing the Gaza Strip, in which Hamas has its headquarters and over 2.3 million civilians have their homes, starving inhabitants of food, water, medicines and fuel. But why did this happen? And what can be done about it? On these questions, there is no agreement whatsoever.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, demography, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
A NOTE from Michael Roberts, 27 November 2023
This file is among the documentary material under my name in the Special Collections, Barr Smith Library, Adelaide University and Samantha Farnsworth, its chief, sent me a pdf copy I cannot recall how the original Mss came into my hands. Its pdf format has been converted to Word File by my friend KKS Perera in Lanka. The spacing is erratic and difficult to change. I have resisted the temptation to highlight important details because I do not have adequate background knowledge of the situation in 1972 to 1974 (even though I conducted one or two lectures to JVPers held in the prison camp at Katugastota …… including Gamini Keerawella …… one of my previous History Honours students).
The photographs are my insertions …. and perhaps hit ‘n miss in character .
Wijeweera in rousing flow on platform … & on way to court with his lawyer
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, conspiracies, governance, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry
A FORECAST by Errol FERNANDO, …. A Piano Player from the Heavens, 19 November 2023
After a long tournament, we reach the final that we all predicted many weeks ago, Lorenz – India vs Australia – with the obvious prediction that India will win. Millions will back India,of course.
Let me take a different path by predicting a win for the Aussies, especially if they bat first. Head, Marsh and Maxwell are dangerous players who can take the game away from India.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, de-mining, disparagement, doctoring evidence, hatan kavi, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, pulling the leg, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, wild life, world events & processes, zealotry
Scott Ritter of Global Research, 14 November 2023, whose chosen title is “The October 7 Hamas Assault on Israel: The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century” …. with highlighting emphasis in purple being that of the Author; while other highlights in blue or red are those imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … who thanks Jayantha Somasundaram of Canberra for leading him to this important essay
There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Islamic fundamentalism, Jews in Asia, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, Palestine, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections, by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra
[This book is a pioneering monograph that brings a rich array of early and previously unpublished images of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) into the global discourse of photography, pairing a striking lens of visual appreciation with distinctly humanizing perspectives.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, Buddhism, commoditification, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, heritage, Hinduism, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, photography, photography & its history, plantations, Portuguese imperialism, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tourism, transport and communications, unusual people, wild life, working class conditions
Michael Patrick O’Leary
I do not do much new writing these days but I do a lot of remembering. I have been reading a book about Forgetting by Gabriel Josipovici, but I have forgotten where I put it. Also have Ivan Illich’s H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness and Lewis Hyde’s A Primer for Forgetting and A Sivanandan’s (met him in 1968) When Memory Dies and Forgetting by Scott A Small.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, pulling the leg, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
“Bertrand Russell’s Last Message“…. January 1970 — presented at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egfCTz-ZuZU .… & now sent to me by “A Sri Lankan in Brisbane” who reiterates the stance he took a few days back with An APPRAISAL that I present for readers to appraise after listening to the You Tube presentation marked above and is attached Blogging Theology MEMO below.
Portrait of British philosopher and social activist Bertrand Russell smoking his pipe as he looks out to sea, circa 1960….. Photo by Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, arab regimes, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, citizen journalism, demography, disparagement, ethnicity, European history, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, refugees, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, social justice, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Piero Perondi, whose chosen title was “THE SPLENDID TAPROBANE ALIAS SRI LANKA””
The main ancient source on Taprobane is the Roman historian Plinio the Old, in his manuscript “Natural History”, which does not fail to briefly retrace the testimonies of previous authors. He states that only in the time of Alexander the Great was it made clear that Taprobane was an island; before it was considered almost another world, the “land of the Antichthone ” (i.e. the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere).
Filed under ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world affairs
thuppahi
