Category Archives: transport and communications

Mareeba: An Albanian Muslim Community in Outback Queensland

VISIT … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ZvzG1WtlM

756,306 views Mar 13, 2024

OnePath Network travelled all the way over to North Queensland to meet with the Muslim Community of Mareeba. They are a small rural community of Albanian farmers that have been here for over 100 years. Their story is nothing short of inspirational for Muslims around the world. We uncovered how they not only were able to blend in so flawlessly into Australian culture but also the secret behind their ability to survive for so many generations. Enjoy their story! Read more real stories from right here in Australia of how local Zakat has transformed peoples lives, empowering generations to come:

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Filed under Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, religiosity, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

Western Imperial Dominance: Aggressive Intervention from Kosovo then to Kienen Island now

 Mr X ... with the title as well as highlights being imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi 

 In the West, a narrative has been built up that China is an “aggressor” – an important word in international law because if Country A can frame a narrative that convinces the world Country B is “an aggressor” then Country A is well on the way to providing justification for war or even toppling Country B’s government, which is precisely what US Government has been doing for the past seven decades. The illegal wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yugoslavia are recent examples.

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Palaly Airport as Site for SLAF Exhibition

Ananth Palakidnar in Daily News, 10 March 2024 … with highlighting emphasis being the work of the Editor Thuppahi

The Sri Lanka Air Force has chosen the city of Jaffna to include in its 73rd-anniversary celebration by organising an exhibition of the SLAF at the historic Muttraveli area around the Dutch Fort of Jaffna.

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Filed under centre-periphery relations, communal relations, counter-insurgency, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, terrorism, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

The Roberts Mss at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts

Recent Email Exchanges with Jane Russell of UK, who has one foot in England and two feet in island Sri Lanka, and a revived focus on  George E De Silva (1870-1950) reminded me of the George E. Mss Memoirs in typescript which Jane had given me long ago. This led me to a long list which amounts to a treasure trove for those addressing a variety of topics in the history of Sri Lanka. I present the details before. Those wishing to pursue specifics must write to the Head of the Special Collections at the Barr Smith Library Adelaide University, not to me: samantha.farnsworth@adelaide.edu.au

It is my conjecture that the same corpus of material (or parts thereof) will also be part of the Roberts Collection at the National Library Services Board along Torrington Rd (beside the National Archives) in Colombo. They could initially seek specifics from Mr Welimuni Sunil who heads the institution: viz …

Welimuni Sunil … sunilnldsb@gmail.com

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Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, caste issues, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, colonisation schemes, commoditification, communal relations, counter-insurgency, cultural transmission, demography, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, irrigation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, life stories, literary achievements, LTTE, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, pilgrimages, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, riots and pogroms, Royal College, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil migration, terrorism, transport and communications, unusual people, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II and Ceylon

The “Butterfly Bridge” in Galle

Michael Roberts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dulip Karunaratne of St. Aloysius (as a boarder) sent this to me. As a resident of Galle Fort and a frequent visitor to the playing fields in front of the Fort, this bridge over a canal leading to the Municipal Park was a familiar sight. Perhaps so familiar as to be taken for granted.

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When Upali Wijewardene & His Learjet Disappeared …. in February 1983

Ajith Samaranayake, in The Island in 1983 … now presented again on the aniversary when the plane carrying Wijewardene and others from KL to Sri Lanka simply disappeared

Between Sri Lanka’s 35th independence anniversary and his birthday Upali Wijewardene boarded his executive Lear Jet at Kuala Lumpur and in a single fateful flash became solidified into an enigma and a legend. The flamboyant tycoon who had left with five others never arrived in Colombo. Somewhere over the Straits of Malacca the plane disappeared with not a clue or a trace.

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Captain Cook, the First Fleet & Australia Day: Relevant Facts

Earlson Forbes in Sydney in Email Memo to Michael Roberts, 9 February 2024** as a Comment on this TPS Item viz https://thuppahis.com/2024/02/08/anzac-day-outdoes-australia-day-in-the–scales-of-dinky-die-australian-nationalism/ ……….. Note that the highlights in black are those by Earlson, while the other coloured segments are those of Editor Roberts.

Whilst the author of this email has made many interesting observations, I think clarification is due on some aspects of the contents. The email in question states. ‘The first fleet arrived in Botany Bay on 18th January. The 26th was chosen as Australia Day for a very different and important reason.  The 26th of January 1949 is the day Australians received their independence from British Rule’.

The comment regarding the arrival of Captain James Cook is correct. James Cook did not bring the First Fleet to Australia. Many years before the First Fleet arrived in Australia Captain Cook was on a voyage to the mid Pacific.  Cook’s voyage took him to Hawaii where there was a fierce encounter with the Hawaiians and Cook was killed in the skirmish on 14 February 1779.

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Sri Lanka in IMF-Western Stranglehold

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake in The Sunday Island, 4 February 2024, where the title runs thus: “Of Elections, Bond scams, and Money Politics:  The IMF and the Anatomy of Default @ 75 …. Default as Hybrid Economic Warfare” … with the highlights in purple being impositions by The Editor of Thuppahi and those in red Darini’s very own.**

With the wisdom of hindsight, the Root Causes of Sri Lanka’s first ever Sovereign Default, staged three years ago on the eve of 75 years of ‘Independence’ from the British Raj are clearly discernible.

Political cartoon _ Satire, Humor, Criticism _ Britannica

Ancient tree roots wrapped around a large boulder in the French alps Stock Photo – Alamy

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Another Time, Another World: Social Science in Postwar Sri Lanka

Uditha Devapriya & Uthpala Wijesuriya, … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Background:  In Sri Lanka, social science research witnessed an expansion in the 1950s. Various scholars, including Stanley Tambiah and Gananath Obeyesekere, found their calling in anthropology, and went on to introduce and popularise the subject in local universities. This period also witnessed an increasing interest in Sri Lankan and specifically Sinhala society from Western scholars, including Edmund Leach, James Brow, and Richard Gombrich. While many local scholars active in that period have commented on how social science research evolved at Sri Lankan universities, no proper study of this has been done yet.

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Pictorial Colombo in its Prime: Hodi-Heleyi Helleyi-aaahhhh

An Advertisement …. with highlights imposed by Thuppahi

The Great Days of Colombo is by far the most comprehensive work on the City of Colombo. This profusely illustrated work running to over 800 pages tells the story of how Colombo originated from very humble beginnings as a simple Moorish port to become what it is today, a bustling city full of life and colour.

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