Category Archives: world events & processes

January 5, 2022 · 6:01 pm

Searching Investigations from Verite Research in 2021

A VERITE RESEARCH BULLETIN

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As we approach the end of the year, there is much to look back on and reflect upon. I am glad to share with you some of the highlights of the recent month in this Verité Bulletin.

We have long felt that democracy is not meaningful when citizens are not critically cognizant of the information in relation to public finance. This is why Verité Research strategically expanded its work on Public Finance. The platform that we built, PublicFinance.lk, is probably the pre-eminent locus for information and analysis on the state of Sri Lanka’s public finance.

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January 5, 2022 · 2:35 pm

Australian Government’s Covid-Policy as Totally Shambolic

Dr. Kerryn Phelps, in The Guardian, 4 January 2022, where the tile runs  thus: “A shambolic mess’: the only example Australia is giving the world now is how not to manage Covid”

Where did it all go wrong? How did Australia go from being the envy of the world with our best practice public health measures, low case numbers, a prepared health system and an economy ticking along nicely to what can only be described as a shambolic mess?

The only example Australia is providing to the world now is a warning about what not to do with the Covid-19 pandemic.

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January 3, 2022 · 4:23 pm

Penetrating White Australia, 1948-to-1970s: Burghers and Amahs

Earl Forbes,  whose preferred title is  “Burghers and Amahs.  First to enter White Australia from Independent Ceylon, ,”.… Note that the highlights are impositions by The Editor, Thuppahi

The diplomatic relationship between Ceylon and Australia commenced even before the formal declaration of Ceylon’s Independence. Australia established a Representative Office in Colombo, on the 29th April 1947. On Independence Day, (4th February 1948) this representation was upgraded to High Commission status. As further indication of the importance placed on the relationship between the two countries, the Australian High Commission Office was moved from its temporary location at the Galle Face Hotel, to more permanent premises at Gafoor Building, in the Fort, Colombo.

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January 2, 2022 · 3:08 pm

More Tourists reaching Sri Lanka Now, But … …..

News Item, 16 December 2021: “First 2 weeks of Dec. draw over 24,000 tourists”

Tourism Minister overwhelmed by rebound in arrivals. Nearly 130,000 tourists have come since reopening of borders in late Jan. With just 15 days to year-end, original target of 200,000 tourists unachievable


[However} a record 24,773 tourists have arrived in the country within the first two weeks of December, reinforcing the industry’s optimism for the winter season. “There is a significant increase in the tourist arrivals to the country from September, and we hope the trend will continue,” Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said yesterday.

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January 1, 2022 · 12:05 am

Mahathma Gandhi at Mahinda College in 1927

Ruhunu Puthra

In November 1927, Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturbai Gandhi arrived in Galle. They were the chief guests at the prize-giving of Mahinda College, on the 24th. The Olcott Memorial Assembly Hall of the College was filled to capacity. Never was there such a large gathering of Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. The speech given by Gandhi is excerpted from the Mahinda College Magazine of 2002:

“It has given me the greatest pleasure to be able to be present at this very pleasant function. You have paid me, indeed, a very great compliment and conferred on me a great honour by allowing me to witness your proceedings and making the acquaintance of so many boys.

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December 31, 2021 · 4:19 pm

Defining Ethnicity in Sri Lanka and the United States: David Graham’s Story

David Graham

I only refer to myself as a Burgher or lansi with people who are likely to know who Burghers or lansis are–or rather, were. It wasn’t until 1986 that I was required to classify myself racially. This was in Grand Junction, Colorado. I needed a social security number to open a bank account, and back in those days the application form said nothing about Eurasians. Since Asian was the closest it came to describing what I was, that was the racial classification I was obliged to choose. Pursuant to U.S. law, my race isn’t mentioned anywhere on my passport or driver’s license.

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December 31, 2021 · 11:42 am

The Horrifying & Systematic Rape of Bangladeshis in 1971

Jayantha Somasundaram, from two-part series in The Island, 22 & 29  December 2021, entitled “Victory in the East”

“I have given you independence, now go and preserve it.” – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

In the aftermath of the 1857 Indian Mutiny, when over 50 percent of the 130,000 Indian Sepoys joined the uprising against the British East India Company, the theory of ‘martial races’ was developed by Lord Roberts of Kandahar, Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army 1885-1893. Thereafter it was believed that the best recruits would be drawn from British India’s north-west. “The Punjabi Muslims headed the list, followed by the Sikhs, the Gurkhas, the Rajputs and others claiming Kshatriya ancestry,” claims G.S. Bhargava in Their Finest Hour, a record of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. “Brahmins and Bengalis, including Muslims were out. In the south, while Tamils were tolerated, the Telugus, the Coogis and the Moplahs were not encouraged to join the army.”

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December 30, 2021 · 7:20 pm

USA’s Hegemonic Designs Sustain A Dangerous Wonderland

 Jean-Pierre Page, whose preferred title is “The Longer Telegram and “sleepy Joe”in Wonderland!

The Biden Administration appears to be implementing most of the recommendations in the Atlantic Council’s Longer Telegram: Toward a new American China strategy, an important strategic document about US policy towards China published in January 2021.  This document is one of a troika produced by the Atlantic Council; the other two are Global Strategy 2021: An Allied Strategy for China, published in December 2020 with a preface by Joseph Nye, and The China plan: A transatlantic blueprint for strategic competition, published in March 2021.

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December 30, 2021 · 4:53 pm

The Horrendous Record of Western Manipulations in Recent World History

Fair Dinkum, responding to the Global Times item in Thuppahi entitled “China on the World Stage: A Judicious Assessment,”….. https://thuppahis.com/2021/12/30/china-on-the-world-stage-a-judicuous-assessment/

We need to move to a new narrative about China, but also a new structure for the world, and not allow Western defence or military establishments to play language games over China, just because the rise of China doesn’t suit them. To take one example, in an article published in the US “Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy” journal this year titled “Cold war Redux: The West Loses Africa’s Horn” – just thinking about the title says much about colonialism. From the 18th to the 20th centuries, African nations were colonialised and carved up by the Britain, France, Portugal, Germany and Belgium for their own selfish gains. They did the same in Asia, the Middle East and South America. They were all Western powers.

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December 30, 2021 · 12:30 pm

China on the World Stage: A Judicious Assessment

Global Times, 10 December 2021, with this title “French media pushes anti-China narrative in a monolithic block, but at least one man is fighting for objective views” — “Bursting alliance” ….with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Maxime Vivas (Vivas), French writer and journalist, has been insulted and attacked for his objective views on China. Vivas started in early November on the world’s largest petition platform, change.org, a petition to call on all sectors of society to have an objective view of China. But then the link for the petition quickly became unavailable, as the US-based website deleted the petition. “Respect China like we respect ourselves!” Vivas openly criticized the Western media outlets and social media that demonize China, but was frequently attacked by the French media. The Global Times reporters Chen Qingqing and Liu Xin recently had an online forum with Vivas and Zheng Ruolin (Zheng), a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert who has lived in France for several years, to look into where the Western media bias came from on China-related coverage and how to deal with their smearing of China.

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