Courtesy of Richard Koenigsberg in New York
HITLER: “If I don’t mind sending the pick of the German people into the hell of war without regret over the spilling of precious German blood, then I naturally also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin.” …..
Adolf Hitler raises a defiant, clenched fist during a speech.
circa 1933: German Dictator, Adolf Hitler addressing a rally in Germany. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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Malinda Seneviratne … whose title runs thus “Ambassador Chung and Xeroxable Change” …. with highlighting emphasis being impositions by The Editor Thuppahi
Aragalaya. Translatable as revolt, uprising, protest, agitation, struggle or even insurrection. Aragalaya is singular, but considering statements and actions it was certainly not marked by concert, ideological agreement, unity of purpose etc.
Julie CHUNG, US Ambassador in Colombo
Eclecticism was the signature of the rumbling. There was mumbling, nothing more, about system-change, but a revolution it certainly was not. So, aragalaya: singular; aragala: plural. The latter is the better descriptive. And perhaps it is exactly this eclectic and disjointed character that forced the agitators to dilute whatever revolutionary fervour there may have been to a project that targeted an individual and once that ouster was obtained shift focus to another individual.
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Courtesy of my Aloysian Friend KK De Silva …………with a PIX from his schoolboy days at St Aloysius, Galle
Transcript of the Programme spelt out in Sinhala: viz https://fb.watch/eaarPjDUCc/?fs=e&s=cl
Yesterday we took part in the aragalaya. It was good. Now there is talk about a caretaker government. This is something new to the people & us.
First I must say that we got together irrespective of ethnic differences. Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils were together as Sri Lankans. In future no one can act differently. I am saying this to those actors. They should listen carefully. There is a set of actors, like the yellow group. There is another set called artistes (kalaakaruwo). There is a fellow wearing a sheet (?) There are others like Bhatiya & Santush. Are they not ashamed? Where were they yesterday. Then there is Iraj. Dont come wearing a cloth. Don’t come this way for shows. You all have been rejected,
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Malinda Seneviratne, at …. https://malindawords.blogspot.com/2022/07/when-centre-cannot-hold.html …. with this title “When the centre cannot hold…”
I write (it is 12.09 pm, on Wednesday) at a time when there’s a remarkable and unprecedented lack of political clarity in the country. As I write, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has left the country. As per the Constitution, if indeed Rajapaksa did resign, or, as reported, Rajapaksa citing Article 37.1 of the constitution , Ranil Wickremesinghe has assumed the presidency in an acting capacity. There’s ‘fighting’ within parliament with parties and politicians unable to decide on Rajapaksa’s successor and of course who the next premier should be. There’s fighting among ‘aragalists’ over representational legitimacy, ideological and political thrust, and preferred endgames.
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With thanks to my Aloysian compatriot KK De Silva
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Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 9/10 July 2022, with this title “When Sri Lanka came to the cricket to fight for the country’s future”
Thousands gathered in Galle to protest the government which has led them into economic chaos. …. [SCENE OUTSIDE the northern entrance to the cricket grounds …. Pix from AFP]
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Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in IDN, July 2022, where the title reads “Sri Lanka Needs a Balanced Economic and Foreign Policy”
A shortage of exorbitantly privileged American Dollars, the global reserve fiat currency, which is not backed by gold, silver, oil or drugs, is the purported reason for Sri Lanka’s compounding crisis and the international media narrative of ‘famine’ in the country.
The upturned vehicle could be siaid to highlight the situaiton of Sri Lanka today ,,,, and yesterday … PIX ‘stolen’ from Al Jazeera Continue reading
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Banyan ... with what seems to be a title ” Unhappy Families”
As the sun goes down the numbers swell on Galle Face Green, a promenade facing the Indian Ocean in downtown Colombo where families and lovers typically come to stroll and fly kites. These days it hosts a more purposeful crowd. Families are there, but so are farmers, students and their professors, Buddhist monks, Catholic nuns, Muslims and members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. A makeshift settlement has sprung up. There are teach-ins at the “People’s University” and slapstick plays for children. The capital’s classiest choir has even led a rousing rendition of “Do you hear the people sing?”. This is Gota Go Gama: “Gota Go Village”. “Gota” is short for Gotabaya. The whole carnival takes aim at the president, the 72-year-old Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and his family: Go, Gota, just go.
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Tisaranee Gunasekara, in Sri Lanka Guardian, 1 April 2022, where the title reads “Sri Lanka: On Protests”
I don’t know who is organising the Sunday’s planned protest. For me, that mystery is a serious problem. This is not a Hollywood movie, a Lankan version of V for Vendetta.
On November 2019, 6.9million Lankans overestimated the intelligence, capacity and compassion of the Rajapaksa brothers. That mistaken assessment was the root cause of the tragedy we are living through today as individuals and as a nation. Should we now compound that error by fatally underestimating their will to power?
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| The aftermath of the protest against the Government yesterday in Colombo suburb |
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thuppahi
