A MEMO From Michael Roberts as Editor, Thuppahi, July 2025
The Word Press system keeps me informed about the HITs on TPS items everyday and also assembles figures for each week. Reviewing these details provides one with a glimpse of internet viewers and their interests. As an exercise with this objective I provide figures of HITS on items carrying biographical tales.
HEREWITh, then, are the figures of such hits — HITS on bio-tales –– during the past week.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cricket selections, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, performance, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, teaching profession, theatre world, unusual people, world affairs, world events & processes
Michael Roberts, presenting an article published in 2005 as a pamphlet by the ICES, Colombo with this title “The First Settlers and Their Claim to Ownership of Terrain/State. A Comparative Excursion” … an essay originally presented in Abdul Rahman Embong, Rethinking Ethnicity and Nation Building: Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji in Comparative Perspective, Panbrit UKM, Bangi, Malaysia, (c. 2003) which was then reprinted as a booklet by ICES, Colombo in 2005 – see ISBN 955-580-099-5 I.
Filed under Aboriginality, ancient civilisations, animal world, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, intricate artefacts, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, racism, religiosity, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
That Observer at World’s End
The St Petersburg Economic Forum is being held from 18-21 June 2025. On Friday, Vladimir Putin will deliver a speech which will be followed by Q &A. People from all over the world will be in the audience and can ask the President questions. The forum is one of the world’s largest platforms for discussing global challenges and new models of cooperation in a rapidly changing world. Today, Putin held a Q &A session with foreign journalists. Questions from West Europeans were, as expected, revealing- they displayed the Western mindset which seems fixed in 200 years of stone.
An Observer at World’s End**
I am not sure what the true purpose of his visit to Russia is but he said it was his first time there ….. in orderto attend the St Petersburg forum, that he was very impressed by the range of people and countries at the forum, the issues of global significance being discussed, and that it was very important for countries outside of the West to meet at such a forum for cooperation and to discuss how best to deal with the great challenges, and to make progress for a better future.Arlen van der Wall
In the city of Colombo in the 1940s and 1950s the Bambalapitiya strip between Lion House and Saraswathi Lodge was Colombo’s walk of fame. You did not have to be rich or famous to enter the mythologies that accompanied the virtual sidewalk stars.
In Your Face** … with highlights added by Editor, Thuppahi
SEE Tim Anderson’s Views on al-Jazeera as one step towards understaning the present hot war between Iran and Israel …. https://youtu.be/r6euXK-_qec?
First and foremost, may all those who lost their lives in the recent Air India air crash rest in peace. Let us hope this marks the final tragedy of its kind in aviation history.
In aviation, airline operators and their supporting industries share one ultimate goal: to deliver quality service grounded in safety. A sustainable aviation business model must be driven by an unyielding focus on delivering intended products and services, ensuring passengers reach their final destinations without compromise. Aviation is a complex chain of interdependent services, with each facility playing a distinct role in ensuring safe and seamless operations. While human factors inevitably influence all aspects of performance, it is our shared responsibility to resist the temptation of taking shortcuts. Tragic incidents serve as a stark reminder of the devastating cost when safety is overlooked.
Somasundaram Skandakumar to Cricketing Friends, speaking from the Heights of Uva, 15 June 2025
Dear All, An amazing final indeed and I too watched all of it.
A Country once banned by the ICC for its extreme apartheid policies and readmitted in July 1991, stands tall today on the world stag…….. having annexed two prestigious sports championships led by the very people it discriminated against for decades.
thuppahi
