Category Archives: unusual people

Is Prabakaran NOT a Hitler! …. Goodness Gracious Me!

Shenali D. Waduge, whose slashing sarcastic essay is entitled “Let’s Celebrate Prabakaran & the LTTE’s Glorious Achievements!”  ... with the highlighting being that in  the original item

A tribute to the world’s most misunderstood mass murderer and his liberation-through-terror campaign.

They say greatness demands sacrifice—and Velupillai Prabakaran understood this better than most. He wasn’t content with speeches; he offered the world a blueprint: to build a homeland, first destroy the present; to claim justice, first silence every voice—especially your own people’s; to prove your worth, leave no witness behind. For over three decades, he led with unmatched precision: dismantling democracy, eliminating dissent, recruiting children, and bleeding civilians dry—all while demanding the world call it liberation. Some build nations through unity; he built his with bunkers, landmines, cyanide, and the bones of the innocent. And still, they light candles for him. They hold commemorations in universities. UN officials attend. Foreign parliamentarians give speeches. So, in the spirit of glorifying terror, let’s not just mourn Velupillai Prabakaran—let’s celebrate the man who redefined cruelty and called it Eelam, by honoring every child stolen, every right violated, and every drop of blood shed in his name.

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A Tennis Love Match Beyond Imagination

A Web Item sent by one Ramsay and one Eric

They met on the courts, forged in fire and fame. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf were more than tennis royalty — they were survivors of pressure-packed childhoods, two athletes who’d once been treated more like machines than children. So when they became parents, something shifted. Not just in their lives, but in their hearts. There was a quiet vow between them — a promise not to repeat the past, not to push, not to mold. They wouldn’t raise champions. They’d raise *children.*

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Deciphering Patriotic Devotion: The Japanese in the 1940s & the Lankan Tamil People For the LTTE

Michael Roberts reproducing an article presented in a popular website during the final stages in Eelam War IV in 2008/09 within the context TODAY of a horrendous war-situation in Palestine and its environs — the website being GROUNDVIEWS: …………….. https://groundviews.org/2009/04/21/ltte-and-tamil-people-i-preamble/ ….. This article was just the first essay in a four-part enterprise.**

“LTTE and Tamil people, I: preamble,” http://www.groundviews.org, 21 April 2009.

This set of essays on “LTTE and Tamil People” submitted to Groundviews is a sequel to the four articles on “Suicidal Political Action” reproduced in http://www.transcurrents.com from 2 April onwards. Both sets of essays are interconnected and involve a measure of repetition because they are set out as separate articles. All of them are a product of a comparative survey that I embarked on about five years ago: namely, reviewing the cultural ingredients which have motivated the projects of the jihadists (holy warriors) and mujahideen (fighters for cause) on the one hand and, on the other, the

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From Kamburupitiya … Malkanthi’s Multi-Faceted Journey

Fazli Sameer in Those Fuzzy Days, July 2025 … presented in fazli@substack.com with a slightly different title and the sub-title: “A trek through days of milk, honey, and roses”

In the small southern village of Kamburupitiya, nestled amidst the mist-covered hills of the southern coastal city of Matara, a determined teenage girl named Malkanthi prepared for a journey that would alter the course of her life. At sixteen, she was the pride of her village school, a bright, kind-hearted girl who had earned a scholarship to pursue her higher studies in Colombo.

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In Appreciation of James T. Rutnam

Sachi Sri Kantha, whose preferred title is “James T Rutnam (1905-1988): Noted Bibliophile and a Valued Mentor” … with the highlighting in colour being impositions from The Editor Thuppahi

Introduction

My destiny to meet and interact with James T Rutnam came in the aftermath of the August 1977 anti-Tamil riots. Previously, I had written a little about the anti-Tamil riots that engulfed the island then, and my initial attempts to make a grade as a writer in English. [Please check this link. https://sangam.org/s-p-amarasingam-1977-anti-tamil-pogrom/].

I wrote to Mr. S.P. Amarasingam, the editor of the Tribune (Colombo). At that time, I was unaware that James Rutnam was an influential contributor to the Tribune, since its inception in 1954.

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FIRE AND STORM analyses Sinhala-Tamil Confrontations Over the Decades

Neil Jayasekera introduces FIRE AND STORM by Michael Roberts … printed by Vijitha Yapa Publications in 2010 …. ISBN 978955-665-14-8  ….presenting 28 articles & an Amalgamated Bibliography …. Posted by  Feb 28, 2023 

Unique JewelsAnonymous Reviewer in Sunday Times, 21 July 2013,  where the title runs “Important contribution towards a dialogue on Lankan polity. Book facts”

When Michael Roberts left Peradeniya in the late seventies, he was part of an exodus of intellectuals from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, arguably one of the best universities at that time. The exodus of academics at that time was compelled by the economic difficulties faced by university dons. It was the second wave of such emigration that diminished the intellectual life of the university and country.

Unique Jewels

Pirapāharan and leading Tiger Commanders at the Indian sponsored training camp at Sirimalai in 1984

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James T. Rutnam (1905-1988): A Radical Activist in Ceylon Politics

Sachi Sri Kantha, ... with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

 Introduction: Previously, I had studied the electoral performance of three prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politicians, namely Ganapathipillai Gangesar Ponnambalam (1901-1977), Appapillai Amirthalingam (1927-1989) and Murugesu Sivasithamparam (1024-2002). All three were electorally successful in most of their attempts, though suffering defeats intermittently.

E.W.-Abeyegunasekera-Rutnams-formidable-rival-in-1931-and-1936.jpg

 

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Featuring Andrekos Varnava’s Swathe of Political Studies

Andrekos Varnava is a Greek Cypriot and it has been the privilege of Flinders University in Adelaide and Australia-at-large to have him researching and teaching in their various reaches. CYPRUS is in a strategic location in the Eastern Meditteranian and has beenat the centre of many invasions and tussles.

Books by Andrekos Varnava

Exiting War: The British Empire and the 1918-20 moment, 2022
Exiting war explores a particular 1918-20 ‘moment’ in the British Empire’s history, between the F… more 
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St. Anthony’s College in Kandy: Its Heritage

Bernard VanCuylenburg  and  Sisira Weragoda  … whose title reads “From Little Things Big Things Grow – Antonians Who Excelled Beyond Excellence” 

Prologue

As an introduction to the subject of this article I had to choose a title which nails it all in just one line. It is the story of an academic miracle which emanated from a simple school in its infancy, St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, by a group of students who raised the bar of achievement and excellence in the prestigious London Matriculation Examination in 1934, with a 100% pass rate THUS OBTAINING THE BEST RESULTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. It was a path breaking year for the College and a validation of the school’s excellence. Twelve students sat the examination that year of whom six obtained first division passes, and six obtained second division passes. Their names which should be emblazoned in letters of gold in the field of education will be mentioned in this article. Paraphrasing the title of the book by Rubeih Murray James, we should “Carve their names with pride”.

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A Pathway to History: Biographical ‘Hits’ in Thuppahi, 22 July 2025

Michael Roberts

Biographical tales and investigations serve as one pathway to historical enquiry.  Because they resonate with readers interest in their own personal journeys this fascination seems to evoke continuous appeal. The WORD PRESS record of readers hits on items in THUPPAHI confirm this fact. Let me, therefore, provide TPS readers with a list of some of the items that drew at least one reader …. that is one HIT …. today/yesterday.

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