Category Archives: trauma

December 5, 2023 · 1:23 am

Volcanic Eruption in Sumatra claims Lives of Some Hikers

Jerome Wirawa & Joel Guinton, in BBC News, December 2023, reporting from Jakarta and Singapore & deploying this title:  “Mount Marapi: Eleven hikers killed as volcano erupts in Indonesia”

Eleven hikers have been found dead near the crater of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano after it erupted over the weekend, rescuers say. Twelve others are missing and the search was suspended on Monday after another, smaller eruption.

There were 75 hikers in the area during the main eruption on Sunday but most were safely evacuated.

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December 3, 2023 · 12:36 pm

Debating the Value of Tangential Historical Forays

Michael Roberts

 A FEW DAYS BACK, on 28th November 2023, I circulated this item among Lankan aficianado…. [ Let me add, here, that I was prompted to do this by the burgeoning world debate on the Palestinian-Israeli War that has been raging since August]. ………………………………………………………………….. https://thuppahis.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic and -illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda

ROHANTHA GUNARATNA in Canada responded in critical fashion. …. So I circulated his Memo to some personnel  with this NOTE: “I encourage responses [to his Memo] from interested personnel – here, quite deliberately, reaching out beyond Lankans to Indians and Brits familiar with the Lankan scene in that period past.”

 

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December 1, 2023 · 6:33 pm

Where have All the Windies Cricketers Gone ….

Where have All the Flowers Gone, Long Time Passing ….

Where have All the Windies Cricketers Gone,

Caribbean Death-knell Looming ………………….

                                                                     A Ditty from One Thuppahi ….

Pete Seeger 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

The West Indies in their heyday of the early 1980s. Picture: staff photographer…. Continue reading →

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November 29, 2023 · 11:54 pm

The Palestine-Israel Conflict: Its Political and Legal Underpinnings

Rohini Hensman:  “The Political and Legal Underpinnings of the Palestine-Israel Conflict,” in New Politics, 2023 …. ……………………… https://www.academia.edu/110094670/The_Political_and_Legal_Underpinnings_of_the_Palestine_Israel_Conflict?email_work_card=view-paper

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive attack on Israeli territory, killing 1405 people including over 300 soldiers according to the Israeli state, although a month later the death toll miraculously came down to 1200. The Israeli state has responded by bombing the Gaza Strip, in which Hamas has its headquarters and over 2.3 million civilians have their homes, starving inhabitants of food, water, medicines and fuel. But why did this happen? And what can be done about it? On these questions, there is no agreement whatsoever.

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November 27, 2023 · 7:05 pm

DIG Jingle Dissanayake’s Report on the JVP in Lanka, 4th November 1974

A NOTE from Michael Roberts, 27 November 2023

This file is among the documentary material under my name in the Special Collections, Barr Smith Library, Adelaide University and Samantha Farnsworth, its chief, sent me a pdf copy  I cannot recall how the original Mss came into my hands. Its pdf format has been converted to Word File by my friend KKS Perera in Lanka. The spacing is erratic and difficult to change. I have resisted the temptation to highlight important details because I do not have adequate background knowledge of the situation in 1972 to 1974 (even though I conducted one or two lectures to JVPers held in the prison camp at Katugastota …… including Gamini Keerawella …… one of my previous History Honours students).

The photographs are my insertions …. and perhaps hit ‘n miss in character .

Wijeweera in rousing flow on platform … & on way to court with his lawyer

 

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November 23, 2023 · 9:57 am

The Humanitarian Social Commitment of Lakshman Wickremesinghe

Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, item taken from Daily News, 24 October 2023, ….. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

 Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe died on October 23 forty years ago. He was my uncle, and I had a special affinity with him with regard to both intellect and emotions. When I came back from Oxford, where he had studied a couple of decades before me, he was the family member who was most supportive of my resignation on the issue of the deprivation of Mrs. Bandaranaike’s Civic Rights, for unlike most members of the elite he understood early on what that meant for the future of democracy, a blight that has never left us since it was followed by a premature Presidential election, the ghastly referendum, and then the attacks first on Supreme Court Judges and then on Tamils.

one moment during Black July 1983

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November 22, 2023 · 8:47 pm

Al-Jazeera Hand Dissects India’s World-Cup Defeat

Kevin Hand, in Al-Jazeera,  19 November 2023, where the where the title runs thus “ICC Cricket World Cu p 2023 final: Five things that went wrong for India”

India were favourites to win a home Cricket World Cup – so how did it all go wrong for them in the all-important final?

 

Hosts India won all 10 games leading up to the final and were heavy favourites to claim the trophy, but fell at the last hurdle. Al Jazeera takes a look at five things that went wrong on the day for India as their winning streak ended at the worst possible time.

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November 19, 2023 · 3:36 pm

Fantastic Predictions: WORLD CUP FORECASTS from Lankan Cricketing Fanatics

A FORECAST by Errol FERNANDO, …. A Piano Player from the Heavens, 19 November 2023

After a long tournament, we reach the final that we all predicted many weeks ago, Lorenz   –   India vs Australia   –   with the obvious prediction that India will win. Millions will back India,of course.

Let me take a different path by predicting a win for the Aussies, especially if they bat first. Head, Marsh and Maxwell are dangerous players who can take the game away from India.

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November 18, 2023 · 7:53 pm

The Logic behind the Hamas Raid of October 7th 2023

Scott Ritter of Global Research, 14 November 2023, whose chosen title is  “The October 7 Hamas Assault on Israel: The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century” …. with highlighting emphasis in purple being that of the Author; while other highlights in blue  or red are those imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … who thanks Jayantha Somasundaram of Canberra for leading him to this important essay

There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.

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November 15, 2023 · 12:30 am

How Collective Belief Heals War’s Hidden wounds

Daya Somasundram, Alvin Kuowei Tay & Rajitha Wickremasinghe, in Cambridge Core Blog, 2 November 2023 ... with the highlights being imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The mental and emotional aftermath, particularly from modern warfare that targets civilians, is profound. Civilians suffer alongside combatants, facing deaths, injuries, chronic disability, torture, disappearances, multiple displacements with uprooting of whole communities, loss of homes, destruction of essential services, infrastructure and environment. These traumatic experiences lead to a wide range of mental health issues, from depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse to family and collective trauma impeding personal and community recovery.

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