Category Archives: trauma

The Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Contradictory Readings & A Confusing Set of ‘Pictures

Michael Roberts, …. with highlighting being my imposition

I am no expert on this scenario, but our household receives  The Australian  newspaper and have therefore been subject to its pro-Western and anti-Russian leanings (besides its manifest support for Israel). Then, I came across a Viewpoint within Facebook presented under an Anglo-Saxon name that laid bare [or seemed to lay bare] the history of Eastern Europe and recent NATO machinations in revelatory fashion. Alas, I did not register the name of the author and the item disappeared [as FB items seem to do in my experience].

Thus, I sent this comment to several friends in Sri Lanka and the West whom I considered knowledgeable in this field. A few have responded. Their responses indicate that this ARENA is a complex and confusing field of issues…. several minefields of an overlapping nature to speak metaphorically. We must tread carefully.

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Bradman’s Momentous Task in Amparai in 1971: Facing the JVP Insurrection

An Extract from Bradman Weerakoon’s MEMOIRS presented in The Island, 9 March 2025 under this title “The JVP insurrection of 1971 as I saw it as GA Ampara”

In April 1971, there occurred the JVP insurrection which assumed significant proportions in the Ampara district. Rohana Wijeweera, the leader of the JVP at the time, had been arrested in Ampara, at the bus-stand a few months earlier and was in remand in far-away Jaffna. However, the cells he had initiated in the district schools, specially those with selected teachers and some of the best of the senior students continued to thrive — in Ampara those following science subjects were very active specially in the predominantly Sinhala areas.

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Misunderstanding Manorani Saravanamuttu’s Character in Film

A Critical Review of the Film “RANI” which is entitled “Did Rani Miss Manorani?” with the sub-title “A film that avoids the “Mannerism” of a Biopic” by Rani Bhagya Rajapakshe …. 

“This is only how Manorani sees Richard. It doesn’t have a lot of what Richard did. Although Manorani is not someone who pays attention to the happenings in the country. It was only after her son was kidnapped that she began to feel that this was happening in the country. She had human emotions. But she was a person who smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey and lived a merry life.”  ……     Interview with “Rani” film director Ashoka Handagama by Upali Amarasinghe – 02.02.2025 ‘Anidda’ weekend newspaper, pages 15 and 19

 The above statement shows the key attitude of the director of the movie, “Rani” towards the central character of the film, Dr. Manorani Sarawanamuttu. This statement is highly controversial. Similarly, the statement given by the director to Groundviews on 30.01.2025 about capturing the depth of Rani’s character shows that he has done so superficially, frivolously?

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The LTTE: Its Initial Founding and Funding

Dr Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam, in LankaWeb, 10 February 2o25, with this title The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Funding and Training of the Organization”

 The LTTE got their training and funding from the PLO, which is the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the arms they gained or got from Pakistan. This is why the Indian Central Government was very much against the LTTE and its leadership group.

In fact, the LTTE was an organization which diversified their businesses and even sold things like oils and soups to more dangerous items such as drugs and weapons. It is true that Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in overseas countries funded LTTE. The real fact was most of the Sri Lankan Tamils did ordinary jobs in the Western Countries and if the LTTE did not have diverse business interests and support from overseas countries, especially Palestine for tanning (sic) and Pakistan for military equipment, they would not have been able to carry out a civil war against the army of Sri Lanka for more than thirty odd years.  This is why if Kittu Master who was in the LTTE leadership group was able to smuggle the arms the government of Pakistan loaded in the ship he came on outside the port of Madras it would have been very hard to defeat and bring the LTTE down.

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Zain Airudeen’s Recounting of the Tsunami Traumas in and Beyond Hambantota

Zain Airudeen in The Daily Mirror, December 2024 …….. ... via Kamanthi Wickremasinghe:

Tsunami Survivors of Hambantota still relate tales of trauma and communal harmony

 

A view of the vast destruction of Hambantota, a coastal town in the South of Sri Lanka, caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Image courtesy  – UN Photo

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Responsibility … “Duty of Care” on the Cricket Field: Senake’s Thoughtful Essay

Michael Roberts 

In THIS MEMO inspired by Senaka Weeraratne’s article below, I present two striking photographs to illustrate the amateurish and rudimentary nature of treatment for those subject to serious injury on the cricket field in the 20th century in contrast with the jeep-ambulances and medical staff attending matches in recent decades. Howeer, these facilities did not prevent PHIL HUGHES from succumbing to “death-by-bouncer”  during a Sheffield Shield match.

Duleep Mendis bing carried off the field by Mevan Pieris & Dennis chanmugam (two teammates) after he was felled by paceman Jeff Thomson at the ODI match at Kennington Oval in London during the World Cup Prelims in summer 1975

When Phil Hughes wes felled in Sydney in 2014, there was a jeep with a stretcher available to carry him off …. Alas, he died in hospital; whereas Duleep suvived, played on and is still in the cricket circuit as a coach. C’est la vie.

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A Resurrection of the “HOLOCAUST” in Palestine

… the PerpetraTors being Israel with Netanyahu as Today’s “Hitler” ….. Heil Himmler! 

The One Video Israel Doesn’t Want You To See: …….. “Gaza is a Holocaust” Holocaust Survivor EXPOSES Israel on Holocaust Memorial Day ……………

“Never Again means Never Again for anybody” …… 28 Jan 2025

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Kittu, Tamil Tiger Commander, reaches the Heights of Wikipedia

WIKIPEDIA Item: … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittu_(Tamil_militant)

Colonel Kittu (Tamil militant)

 

Born S. Krishnakumar

2 January 1960

Died 16 January 1993 (aged 33)

Indian Ocean

Nationality Sri Lankan
Years active 1978 –1993
Organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Sathasivam Krishnakumar (Tamil: சதாசிவம் கிருஸ்ணகுமார்; 2 January 1960 – 16 January 1993; commonly known by the nom de guerre Kittu) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and leading member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.

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Kittu as LTTE Commander: A Violent, Tempestuous History

DBS Jeyaraj in The Daily Mirror20 January 2025, where the title reads “How Tiger ‘Col’ Kittu lost a leg when a bomb was thrown at him in Jaffna”

Former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Jaffna District Commander Sathasivamillai Krishnakumar alias ‘Col’ Kittu was regarded as the uncrowned king of Jaffna in the mid-eighties of the twentieth century. The greater part of Jaffna peninsula was under LTTE control then. This state of affairs [received] a rude shock when an unknown person lobbed a bomb into the vehicle driven by Kittu. The incident which rocked Jaffna in 1987 resulted in the Tiger commander losing a leg. The third part of this article focuses primarily on matters related to that explosive incident.

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An Elephantine Blockage in Sri Lanka! … & An Elephantine Problem!

Wasantha Chandrapala, in Daily Mirror, 12 January 2025

The Tempitiya-Mahaoya road in Ampara has been closed for traffic and pedestrian movement for the past three days due to an injured wild elephant frequenting the road. Residents of the area said the closure of the road had disrupted civilian life.

HEADLINE in DAILY MIRROR, 12 January 2025 = Elephant closes Tempitiya-Mahaoya road for three days”

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