An Irate Aussie — As DINKY-DIE as EVER
Absolutely brilliant Aussie Passport Application AUSTRALIAN LETTER – I think the sender mighthave been upset! This is an actual letter sent to the DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) Immigration Minister. The Government tried desperately to censure the author, but got nowhere because every legal person who read it couldn’t stop laughing !
Australian Bushman in an Akubra hat in the wild outback
Jolly Somasundaram
“Truth is like the Sun, one can shut it off for sometime, but it will not go away.” …. Elvis Presley
Afghanistan has done it again! A country, where her geography was her destiny, made her push towards repeated trysts with history- Alexander’s Greeks, Mongols, Mughals, the Brits, Russians, Americans. She, redoubtable to foreign invaders, specialised in making her country, micro- Kanattestans for these invading hordes. These done-in foreign forces now out-done, were not small fry but superpowers.
Troops from Britain- the Rotweiller in her time slot of Empire building- were decimated three times, bleaching this arid landscape. Undaunted, Sysyphean Britain ventured on the fourth, though now a metamorphosed American poodle: same wipe-out. Russia, in her own time slot of imperial hope, was similarly sent scurrying home. Smaller European countries- Australia, Germany, France Italy, Canada, wishing to taste Petite Gloire but lacking oomph, hitch hiked on the NATO bandwagon: the same degrading exit.
Filed under accountability, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, conspiracies, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military strategy, power politics, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
Fire and smoke billows from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/David Karp)
A person falls from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center as another clings to the outside, left, while smoke and fire billow from the building, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, atrocities, conspiracies, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, immolation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes
Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, voluntary workers, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
I present several comments from Sri Lankans in New Zealand and Sri Lanka
A NOTE from SM in Colombo, 7 Sept 2021
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, press freedom & censorship, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, historical interpretation, human rights, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, transport and communications, trauma, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Lynn Ockersz, in The Island, 2 September 2021, where the title is “Power and sovereignty issues come to the fore in Afghanistan”
“More and more strength to those women and other vulnerable groups that are mustering for their rights in Afghanistan right now.” This is likely to be the wish of progressives everywhere. The enormity of their courage could be gauged from the fact that they are in direct confrontation with the Taliban who are no champions of fundamental rights. Now more than ever before, women’s organizations the world over and international progressive opinion need to rally round these protesting sections in Afghanistan.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, military expenditure, military strategy, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, taking the piss, transport and communications, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
David Von Drehle, in Washington Post, 8 August 2021, with this title … “Sherlock holmes & Winston Churchill: Cautionary tales on Afghanistan”
I learned of a place called Afghanistan as many Americans used to do: by reading one of the most famous opening chapters in literary history. I was 11 years old, and my new book introduced a young English doctor. Sent to an outpost of the Empire, he was hurried ahead to the front lines of a persistent war. He united with his assigned unit in Kandahar, and nearly died in combat when his shoulder was shattered by a bullet. Recuperating back in London, seeking an affordable apartment, he met a potential roommate — a strange fellow among whose first words to him were:
“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
Thus Dr. Watson met Sherlock Holmes.
Filed under accountability, Afghanistan, american imperialism, British imperialism, economic processes, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, taking the piss, Taliban, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
thuppahi
