Michael Roberts presenting an Arbitrary Collection of the pioneer camerawoman and de facto female ‘suffragette’ … Julia Margaret Cameron nee Pattle (1815-1879)
Julia in her prime
Julia in 1870
Category Archives: the imaginary and the real
In Memoriam. The War Dead … within “A Clear Blue Sky”
Elmo Jayawardena, in The Island, 4 March 2021, where the title reads “A Clear Blue Sky” … bearing this ’emphasis’…. I publish this article just so that we can remember how sad the times were during the war for both sides. Let us hope and pray such will never happen again)
The one unforgettable memory that Selva always carried within himself was the colour of the vast Jaffna sky, spotless and shimmering in brilliant blue. It appeared as if the Gods had decided to spread a sheet and tucked it taut to the corners of the horizon as if to show off how perfectly they could do things. Off and on there would be fluffy white clouds, being sheep-dogged by winds aloft, harmless cartoons scattered in the sky, men and dogs, trees and castles or whatever a child wanted to imagine them to be. The clouds were seldom grey and laden with rain. That’s how the dry climate came about to roast the soil where Selva’s family toiled under the merciless sun, for generations, to grow chilli on. The kochika as they called it, were the thin and long kind, blood red, extremely hot and mouth-burning. Selva’s people sold the chilli harvest at the week-end market in the closest town. That was Vaddukodai, located an hour’s distance away, by bullock cart, from their nameless village of nowhere and no one; just blood red kochika and blue skies.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, mass conscription, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, working class conditions
Collective Selves and the Promise of Buddhaland in Nationalism
Brian Victoria, in Buddhistdoor.net … where the title reads as “Nationalism: Collective Selves and the Promise of Buddhaland”
Introduction
In a recent lecture on the war in the Ukraine, John Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, noted that nationalism is the strongest ideology in the world today. I was somewhat surprised by his comment because, having lived through the Cold War era, anything having to do with Russia was framed in the ideological context of “the struggle of the Free World or democracies against Communist dictatorship,” and so on. Yet, on reflection, I realized that with the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia had reverted to a capitalist state, even if now authoritarian or autocratic. Thus, Mearsheimer’s identification of nationalism as a key factor behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not as surprising as it initially seemed.
Buddhist monks protest against aid for Rakhine’s Rohingya Muslims. Photo by Soe Zeya Tun. From reuters.com
Mearsheimer’s insight led to a new line of enquiry on my part. As a Buddhist, I had long asked myself, without finding a satisfactory answer, what is the relationship, if any, of the Buddhadharma with nationalism?
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, martyrdom, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
An Exposure: “Human Rights” as A Tool of US Intervention in Sri Lanka
Natasha Gooneratne, an item entitled “Under the Guise of Protecting Human Rights and Establishing Democracy: US Intervention in Sri Lanka,” …. presented in 2015 or 2016 (?)
Introduction
The discourse regarding Sri Lanka within international media has intensified since 2009, when the then government of president Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that it had defeated terrorism in the form of the armed non-state group known as the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) [recognized as an international terrorist organisation by the US in 1997], that Sri Lanka had been in armed conflict with since the early 80s. Sri Lanka’s announcement prompted widespread reports of humanitarian law violations, and human rights abuses by both sides. A week after the announcement, on May 26th, the UN Human Rights Council held a special two-day session on the situation in Sri Lanka, concluding in the adoption of a resolution commending the state for the policies it had adopted. The resolution passed with 29 votes in favor, 12 against, and 6 abstentions.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, demography, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, world events & processes
Sustaining Cultural Performance Practices across the Indian Ocean
Shihan De Silva Jayasuriya et al
PREFACE to her new book entitled “Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage” (ICH)
Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) continues the conversations on cultural heritage which commenced at a virtual conference held on August 3, 2020, at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. The conference was spurred by the screening of my film – “Indian Ocean Memories and African Migrants” – at the Social Scientists Association, Colombo. The interest shown by UNESCO Global Network Facilitators, Dr Bilinda Nandadeva and Dr Gamini Wijesuriya, who attended the screening, was a catalyst to convening the conference. The Covid-19 pandemic further exposed the significance of heritage and the vulnerability of intangible culture. The book is a call to value ICH and an inspiration for academics, researchers, stakeholders, civil society, cultural practitioners and policymakers to understand the threats to sustaining heritage.
Filed under Aboriginality, Africans in Asia, ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, performance, population, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
From The Sublime to The Ridiculous: “Little Akio’s” Breadth of Quotable quotes
Item sent by Dulip Karunaratne of St. Aloysius in Galle then & Queensland now
The teacher said, “Let’s begin by reviewing some History.” Who said *’Give me Liberty, or give me Death?”* ………………….. She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Little Akio, a bright foreign exchange student from Japan, who had his hand up: *”Patrick Henry, 1775,”* he said.
“Very good! — Who said, *’Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth’ ?“* ………….Again, no response except from Little Akio: *”Abraham Lincoln, 1863.”*
Rare Items marking Queen Elizabeth’s Visit to Ceylon in 1954
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, cultural transmission, Empire loyalism, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
An Irish Voice of Balanced Dissent reaffirms the Republican Ideal
Fintan O’Toole, in Irish Times, 20 September 2022, with this title “Monarchy is a bad habit. Up the Republic” …. with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … and caricatures added
In the General Post Office, during the rising of Easter 1916, Joseph Mary Plunkett explained what would happen when the British were defeated. The new Irish government would invite the youngest son of the Kaiser, prince Joachim of Prussia, to come and be crowned as king of Ireland.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
Multi-faceted Campaign against the SL Government Crackdown on the Aragalaya
HRW …. 31 August 2022 …………. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/31/sri-lanka-end-use-terrorism-law-against-protesters
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, human rights, IMF, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Riaz Hassan: Straddling the World …. An Ecumenical Scholar for All Ages
Michael Roberts
I met Riaz Hassan for the first time as one of the keynote speakers at a conference organised by Neelan Tiruchelvam in Sri Lanka circa 1974 (details forgotten) when I was teaching in the History Department at Peradeniya University and Riaz was at an university in Singapore. It was the best of serendipity (a word deriving perhaps from Serendib aka Sri Lanka) that I found him attached to Flinders University when I moved to the Anthropology Department at University in 1977.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, ethnicity, female empowerment, foreign policy, heritage, historical interpretation, immolation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
