Category Archives: the imaginary and the real

Bodies upon Bodies: The Horrors of War! When Will We Ever Learn ….

USA’s AUKUS programme today[i] in the midst of the war raging in the Ukraine demands reflections upon the death-toll and horrors of trench warfare during World War One.

“Every nation was profligate of its manpower and conducted the war as if there were no limit to the number of men who were fit to be thrown into the furnace to feed the flames of war.” …. David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister on the First World War

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AUKUS becomes QuadAukus … and alarms “Raucous-Aucous”

NOTES from “Raucous-Aucous”

ONE: Aukus wins the Marx/Goebbels  Award for propaganda campaign of 2023…………..

Note.  A recent news item in The Australian revealed that plans are being made with Japan, India, UK, US and Australia to combine Quad and Aukus into one alliance – probably to be called QuadAukus.
There is also talk of NZ and the Philippines joining, or at least considering joining.

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The Origins of Burgher & Malay Surnames in Colonial Ceylon

Author Unknown … sent to Thuppahi by Kodi Kodituwakku of Chandos St, Fort, Galle

The Ceylon Burgher Community is the finest exponent of this European onoma-tology in Sri Lanka, as the members of the community carry some of the world’s rarest surnames which at present verge on extinction. The ancestors of the Dutch Burghers were not necessaril.y Dutch by ethnic origin as the Dutch East India Company [recruited] hundreds of mercenaries from all parts of Europe who later reached the shores of Lanka to strengthen the Dutch garrisons on the Island. These Europeans later espoused local women and paved the way for the Lankan Eurasian Community, which later came to be known as ‘Dutch Burghers’ meaning ‘Town Dwellers’.

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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.

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Sri Lanka Crunched within Cold War Manouevres?

TPI Media, “The Hidden Hand of US Influence in Sri Lanka: Cold War Strategies Revisited | CIA,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUuMZiDSXg

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Ceylonese Volunteers in the Midst of Trench Warfare Carnage – World War One

Suren Ratwatte, whose chosen title reads as Battle of the Somme and the Trinitians at the frontlines” …. while his text has had Highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Suren Ratwatte writes about the bloodiest chapter in the history of the British Army in WW II, where his grandfather Sir Richard Aluwihare and three other schoolmates faced the brunt of enemy fire.

What remains today: The trenches in France where the 29th Division (among whom were the young soldiers from Ceylon), fought in 1916. Pix by Suren Ratwatte

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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.

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The Insidious Work of American Soft-Power Agencies


 An Observer in a Georgian Black Sea Resort Town

The NED/CIA have been using soft power to target the youth and media institutions in countries around the world. Take Georgia and Hong Kong as case studies.

Protestors rally against the draft law outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi.

In the last few weeks, the Georgian parliament, the elected representatives of the country, tried to introduce a Foreign Agent’s Register Act just like the one Australia introduced in 2018. The Georgian version used very similar language to the US foreign agent’s registration law which was passed in the 1930s.  Suddenly, the Georgian youth came out on to street demanding the government reject this draft law. EU leaders labelled the proposed Georgian foreign register law as being “against EU values”, even though almost all EU countries have the same law.  This is a repeat performance of what happened in Hong Kong in 2018-2019.

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Sri Lankan Armed Forces vs the Tamil Tigers: The Last Phase

Serge De Silva Ranasinghe, in The Diplomat, 20 May 2010,*** where the title runs thus “Reflections on the Tigers”

A year after the LTTE’s defeat, evidence shows criticism of Sri Lanka’s army is misplaced, says Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe.

Tamil civilians reach safety across Nandhikadal Lagoon —Pix by SL army

 

 

A year ago this week, the Sri Lankan government officially declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in one of the most extraordinary counter-insurgency campaigns in recent times.

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Cartooned! Western Leaders Skewered by Cartoon!

 

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