Simon Gully
Category Archives: trauma
The Three Amigos at the World’s Peak
Simon Gully
Filed under authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, disparagement, governance, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Putin’s Puppet in the White House
Frank Collins
Golden-boy Trump has renamed the Department of Defence as the Department of War which is a better name given the forever wars the US have mounted since 1945. He believes the US has never won a war since 1945 because the Pentagon had the wrong name ‘Department of Defence’. Now that it is called “Department of War”, he is confident the US will win every war from now on. It’s all the name. He won his first battle the other day against Venezuela when American fighter jets blew up a Venezuelan fishing boat instantly killing 11 fisherman which Trump claimed was a boat laden with drugs bound for the US, 1000 miles away, even though the jet engine boat only had sufficient petrol to travel 200 miles.
Ramifications From Past Killings in Sri Lanka … Burgeoning Issues
Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu 1 September 2025, where the title runs thus: “Decades Later A Difficult Story Finds Its Way to the Sinhala South” … with highlights being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi
Forensic experts has been unearthing human remains from a mass grave in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka. The number of skeletons retrieved has now crossed 200, including some of children.
The grave site and the mounting toll of human remains found in it dominate daily headlines in the country’s Tamil media, while receiving little attention in the country’s mainstream English and Sinhala media. In response to this gnawing gap, three young journalists decided they must tell the story to the majority community, Sinhala-speakers. Wasting no time, they pooled resources and made multiple reporting trips and conducted several interviews with locals and experts over the last few months to write Chemmani, a Sinhala-language book on the mass grave site in the locality, believed to contain the remains of Tamil civilians, and dating back to the mid-1990s, shortly after the Sri Lanka military captured Jaffna.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, ethnicity, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes
Zimbabwe Squash Sri Lanka
Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, 6 September 2025
Sri Lanka never recovered from a terrible start • Associated Press
Zimbabwe 84 for 5 (Musekiwa 21*, Burl 20*, Chameera 3-19) beat Sri
Zimbabwe 84 for 5 (Musekiwa 21*, Burl 20*, Chameera 3-19) beat Sri Lanka 80 (Mishara 20, Raza 3-11, Evans 3-15, Muzarabani 2-14) by five wickets
Sri Lanka crashed to their second-lowest T20I total ever, going down for 80 inside 18 overs, as Sikandar Raza, Brad Evans, and Blessing Muzarabani shared eight wickets between them. At no point in their batting innings did Sri Lanka stage even a mild recovery. There was a 26-run partnership for sixth wicket, but even that appeared laboured, and had multiple close calls.
Zimbabwe‘s top partnership was also worth just 26, but they strung greater periods of batting competence together, even in the face of some penetrative bowling from Dushmantha Chameera. Tashinga Musekiwa’s assured 21 not out off 12 balls helped the hosts stroll to victory in the 15th over.
Filed under accountability, cricket selections, life stories, performance, trauma
A Cricketer Who Survived ……..
From FACEBOOK Entry by Lankan Lions, Sept 2025
He made a brilliant century, which set up Zimbabwe’s first ever Test win when they beat Pakistan in 1995. Two years later, scoring 203 against New Zealand, he became the youngest Zimbabwean batsman to score a Test double century. He has represented Zimbabwe in three World Cups (1996), 1999, and 2003, and during his 10-year career, he took 139 international wickets in addition to 4912 international runs.
AI Looms Over Our Future …. Look-Out!
ITEM in LUMEN, Adelaide University Magazine, September 2025 or so … no date specified clearly & bearing this title: “The Future and AI” …. Authorship unclear: maybe Carolyn Semmler, maybe Isaac Freeman
Whether we like it, or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle. Its rapid evolution has been embraced by some, and met with raised eyebrows by others.
In our earlier issue of Lumen this year, we asked readers to describe their hopes and fears for the future. AI was an overwhelmingly present theme.
We shared some of these letters with academics from both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia to help clarify and respond to concerns on four broad themes: impact on jobs; global security; wellbeing; and the potential for cognitive decline.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, education, education policy, governance, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Transforming Gaza …… “The Great Trust”
Outback Aussie
The Great Trust is a 38-page document setting out plans to turn Gaza into a grand American Riveria by constructing over the bones and bodies of Palestinians — hotels, casinos, bordellos, condominiums, golf courses, and million-dollar seaside properties. America has no legal basis for taking control of Gaza but they want to do it anyway which is why the US and the West support the genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing, and if need be the extermination of all Palestinians in Gaza.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, arab regimes, australian media, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, Fascism, foreign policy, historical interpretation, human rights, Jews in Asia, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, world events & processes
A Candle for GAZA in Colombo……Supporting the SUMUD Flotilla
Message from Manel Fonseka
Join us to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the Sumud Flotilla as they set sail to break the siege on Gaza.
Starting on August 31st, 150 ships will set sail with crew from more than 40 counties, in the biggest global effort to break Israel’s 18year siege of Gaza. As famine spreads in Gaza and Israel continues with complete impunity to murder, rape and starve the population of 2 million people living there, the people of the world are banding together to step up where international law has failed.
Join us this Sunday, 31st of August, at 4.30pm under the Nuga tree at the Chapel of Christ the Living Saviour on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07, to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the fleet, the safety of its crew, and the salvation of the people of Gaza from Israel’s unrelenting genocide.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disaster relief team, education, ethnicity, human rights, Jews in Asia, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
The Insidious Power-Brokers Aligned behind Israel in Today’s World
APOYI-APOYI
The title and the highlights in this presentation have been imposed by the Editor of Thuppahi –who receives The AUSTRALIAN and is aware of its heavy bias. Apoyi-Apoyi, incidentally, is a White man
SEE …. https://youtu.be/dpkD0uGAE90?Filed under accountability, anti-racism, arab regimes, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, Fascism, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religious nationalism, sri lankan society, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
Horrors Faced by Lankan Female Labour in Middle East
Aanya Wipulasena in Ceylon Today, August 2025
The decision to work overseas wasn’t easy. Burdened by debt, 25-year-old Nelum Niroshani, a mother of one from Anuradhapura, felt she had no choice. Her plan was simple: Take a job as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia, earn enough to support her family, repay her loans and then return home to her seven-year-old child. But her time in the Middle East quickly turned into a nightmare.
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, human rights, island economy, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, migrant experiences, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
