Category Archives: the imaginary and the real

February 28, 2022 · 5:03 pm

Germany and “Nord Stream” at the Core of the Struggle in Ukraine

Michael Whitney, in Global Research, 15 February 2022, … with highlighting in the original article which is entitled “The Crisis Is Not About Ukraine. It’s About Germany”

“The primordial interest of the United States, over which for centuries we have fought wars– the First, the Second and Cold Wars– has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united there, they’re the only force that could threaten us. And to make sure that that doesn’t happen.” George Friedman, STRATFOR CEO at The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs

The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream. 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

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February 27, 2022 · 6:54 pm

World Powers Head-to-Head

Ross Douthat, in New York Times, 26 February 2022, with this title “Vladimir Putin’s Clash of CIvilizations”

When the United States, in its hour of hubris, went to war to remake the Middle East in 2003, Vladimir Putin was a critic of American ambition, a defender of international institutions and multilateralism and national sovereignty.

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February 27, 2022 · 5:12 pm

Tulsi Gabbard’s Revelations: The Industrial-Military Combo profiting from the Ukraine Crisis

This frightening set of revelations has just been sent to THUPPAHI by MYRNA SETUNGA** in Colombo ….

How come the “liberal” western media does not give coverage to views like this? Is Fox News against the Military Industrial Complex?

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February 25, 2022 · 7:37 pm

Ukraine: Pertinent Media Literature

Michael Padraig O’Leary, responding to my request about two days back before the Russian invasion of Ukraine

“Here are some articles about current events which you might like to read as a balance to Dayan’s views. Unlike Colombo Telegraph, the Guardian comment thread is worth reading.

SEE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine Continue reading →

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February 25, 2022 · 5:40 pm

Robert Knox’s Journeys: Producing His Book …. Two

Thiru Arumugam, in The Ceylankan, Vol 25/1, Feb. 2022, where the title reads “A Three Hundred and Forty-Year Book-about-Ceylon”

Captain Robert Knox (1642-1720) of the East India Company
*oil on canvas
*126 x 102.8 cm
*1711
*inscribed b.l.: AEtat: 66
*inscribed b.l.: P: Trampon : Pinx (on the chair)
*inscribed c.r.: R: Knox: (on the quadrant)
*inscribed c.r.: Memoires of my owne Life: 1708 (on the notebook)

 

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February 23, 2022 · 1:34 pm

Jesse Owens: For People of Colour vs Fascism and White Racism

Sarah Fling, in The White House Historical Association, 28 June 2021, where the title reads “Running Against the World: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympics”

The 1936 Summer Olympics were unlike any other. In Berlin, Germany, under the shadow of Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, an African-American track and field athlete rose to stardom: Jesse Owens.1

Owens’s record-breaking athleticism carried him from the cotton fields of the South to the White House and made him one of the most famous athletes in American history.

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February 22, 2022 · 11:24 pm

Robert Knox’s Journeys in Ceylon and the World in the 17th Century: One

Thiru Arumugam, in The Ceylankan, vol 25/1, February 2022 , where the title reads thus “A three-hundred-and-forty-year-old book about Ceylon – Part 1″

There exists a three hundred-and-forty-year old book about Ceylon which was published in 1681. Although there are other books about Ceylon in other European languages written in the 17th century, this is the oldest book about Ceylon in English. Other books of this genre include the manuscript of Fernao de Queyroz’s book in Portuguese titled “The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon” which was completed in 1687 but the author died a few months later in Goa and the book was never published until Father SG Perera translated it into English and published it in 1930. Another book is by Phillippus Baldeus titled “A true and exact Description of the Great Island of Ceylon” which was published in 1672, but this was in the Dutch language.

An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, Continue reading →

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February 20, 2022 · 12:59 pm

Tales from A Japanese Civilian interned in Australia during World War Two

Miles Kemp

Bank worker Miyakatsu Koike was minding his own business, working quietly in the Surabaya Java branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank, but events on one December day in 1941 turned his life upside down. He had no connections with the military. But his homeland had staged a daring, amoral and unprovoked attack on the US pacific fleet in Hawaii, dragging both countries immediately into World War II. Mr Koike, then 36, was arrested by Dutch colonial authorities immediately and in January the next year became one of South Australia’s most reluctant residents. In harsh conditions, he spent more than four years at the Loveday internment camp located near Barmera.

 Loveday POW camp

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February 16, 2022 · 9:47 pm

Wild Boar Invasions! From Rome to the Cane Fields of Australia

ONE: ABC News item, 27 September 2021, with this title = “Calls for cull as scavenging wild boars trot across Italy and into Rome”

Rome has been invaded by Gauls, Visigoths and Vandals over the centuries, but the Eternal City is now grappling with a rampaging force of an entirely different sort: rubbish-seeking wild boars.

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February 16, 2022 · 12:30 pm

Chandrahasan broaches ‘Pragmatic Amendments’ in Sri Lanka’s Political Framework

Dr Nirmala Chandrahasan,  in The Island, 11 February 2022 , with this title “13th Amendment and Tamil polity: A pragmatic approach”  …… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

There is much speculation in the Tamil political circles as to the usefulness or otherwise of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and whether the Provincial Council system set up under its aegis gives a measure of power sharing or devolution of powers to the Tamil speaking provinces, or whether it is an ineffective institution which blocks out any greater devolution under the exercise of internal self- determination. This debate has been sparked by the decision of Tamil speaking parties including the TNA, to send a letter to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, requesting him to use his good offices to induce the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment fully, in the context that the 13th Amendment arose out of the provisions of the Indo -Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987, to which treaty India and Sir Lanka are signatories.

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