Category Archives: war crimes
Horrendous Western Misreadings of Sri Lankan Situation in 2008-09
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, taking the piss, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Finale: Eelam War IV …. Recalling the Final Stages
Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 18 May 2022, where the title is “Sri Lanka’s War Aniversary: Tamil Victims remembered in Colombo”
Scores of people on Wednesday gathered in Mullivaikkal village, in Sri Lanka’s northern Mullaitivu district, to remember the tens of thousands of Tamil civilians who were brutally killed in the final stages of the civil war in May 2009, when the armed forces crushed the LTTE.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, discrimination, doctoring evidence, governance, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Framing Russia as a Nuclear Nut — USA’s Programme
Peas from the Same Almighty Pod: USA and Russia
Norman Solomon, in Common Dreams 23 March 2022, with this title “From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don’t Justify Each Other”
Russia’s war in Ukraine—like the USA’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—should be understood as barbaric mass slaughter. For all their mutual hostility, the Kremlin and the White House are willing to rely on similar precepts: Might makes right. International law is what you extol when you aren’t violating it. And at home, rev up the nationalism to go with the militarism.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, military expenditure, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, world events & processes
Mearsheimer’s Incisive Analysis on the Causes of the Ukraine Imbroglio
John Mearsheimer’s You-Tube presentation today in late March 2022 = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6mw9U62ZJU
NATO’s expansion into Ukraine from 2006 seen as an existential threat to Russia — in the Russian Perspective
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, disparagement, economic processes, European history, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Blood on Putin’s Hands from Way Back
Michael Patrick O’Leary …. The PADRAIG, in Ceylon Today, …. whose chosen title = “Putin’s Bloody Past” …. Part One”
From 2007 to 2013, Catherine Belton was the Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times. She currently works as an investigative correspondent for Reuters, based in London. In her book Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West, she gives a good insight into the character of Putin as he rose to power.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, conspiracies, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, military expenditure, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Booklet on Sri Lanka’s Cricket History reviewed by Jon Gemmell
Jon Gemmell reviewing in 2019 a booklet from Michael Roberts pubd in 2006

Sri Lankan academic Michael Roberts has issued a booklet charting the key events in the island’s cricketing history. Forces and Strands in Sri Lanka’s Cricket History starts by telling us that cricket is the one game in Sri Lanka that has penetrated the world stage in a consistent fashion. As the national pastime for a large section of the population its purpose is beyond the mere aesthetics of leather on willow.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cricket for amity, governance, historical interpretation, insurrections, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Russian Corner: Three Options Now
Ivan Timofeev of the Valdai Club, deploying this title “Russia now has just three options left on Ukraine” … with highlighting imposed by Thuppahi
With Washington rejecting many of Moscow’s security concerns, the prospect of escalation is rising. The US has handed Russia a written response to its proposed security guarantees. While Washington refuses to accept Moscow’s demands for a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand further towards its borders, it has indicated it is ready to discuss certain issues, including arms control and strategic stability.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, asylum-seekers, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, conspiracies, disparagement, economic processes, energy resources, ethnicity, European history, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, nationalism, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, refugees, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
Ukraine Crisis: Some Fundamental Issues
Noel Carl: “A Sceptical Take on the Ukraine Crisis,” 2 Mactrh 2022
n a recent post for the Daily Sceptic, Toby claims the received wisdom on the Ukraine crisis is basically right, noting that he’s “experienced the unusual sensation of feeling more in step with the mainstream media than I have with my sceptical friends”. While he makes some good points, I don’t think he really steelmans the sceptical position.
Filed under american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, European history, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, trauma, truth as casualty of war, Uncategorized, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes
For Ukraine: Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam
Jane Russell, in an essay dedicated to Shirlene de Silva who introduced her to the Mandelstam’s writings …. an essay writen on 1 March 2022 with the title “Ukraine and its place in 20th century Russian literature: Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam”
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam, the genius Russian-Jewish poet murdered by Stalin, met his Jewish wife, Nadezhda Yakovlevna, in a nightclub in Kyiv when both were in their twenties. It was 1919, the second year of the Soviet revolution, which was finally getting going after the 1st World War.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, Fascism, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, human rights, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, politIcal discourse, power politics, Russian history, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes