January 23, 2024 · 11:40 pm

John De Silva: Aloysian, Sri Lankan, Australian

Michael Roberts 

John was one of my class generation at St. Aloysius College, Galle and we represented the College in cricket, soccer, athletics and swimming. …. yes swimming …..  and were recipients of training in life-saving at the little harbour of Galle. He was “Johnny” not a “John” in our minds then.

Alas, on one occasion a bad call for a run by me resulted in Johnny being run-out when he was batting well — in a match under my captaincy that we eventually lost. But in a previous year St. Aloysius had won all its matches under Mohammed Anwer’s astute captaincy and the quiet guidance of coach Marcus Jayasinghe.

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January 23, 2024 · 8:08 pm

In the Vibrant Heart of Cricket: India! … As England Face…!!!

Danny Byrne **

Match tickets are in my wallet. The first hurdle has been overcome. The Hyderabad Test begins two days from now.

Danny Byrne on the left with Nick White, an Australian cricket-lover, at an England Test Match in Galle some years back (photo by Roberts)

Obtaining tickets for the first Test Match wasn’t as difficult as I had expected. When the on-line website for Paytm – insider was working, and the WiFi in the Hotel had a decent signal, the process took only a few minutes. Of course, the best seats were sold out within 24 hours of being available, suggesting that very few were actually there in the first place. Turning the electronic tickets into paper versions was equally straightforward, at least by Indian standards. Hampshire Plaza Hotel is right next to Lakdi Ka Pul Metro Station on the red line and the Gymkhana Ground is close to Parade Ground on the Blue Line. The cost was only 40 rupees per journey and cash payments were acceptable. The trains were full, but not uncomfortably full. Apparently, they only can the sardines in the evening.

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January 23, 2024 · 5:40 pm

Boiling Point: Arrowheads Aimed at AUSTRALIA DAY

Item:  https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=AAWEB_WRE

But the issue that’s reaching boiling point today is the Australia Day debate. Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has added his voice to calls to change the date from January 26: “My personal opinion is I absolutely love Australia and think it is the best country in the world by a mile. I think we should have an Australia Day but I think we can probably find a more appropriate date to celebrate. Australia Day is meant to be a celebration of everything Australia in our history. I think we could choose a better date.”

 

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January 18, 2024 · 9:31 pm

Expanding War in Middle-East with Increasing Brinkmanship & Bluff

SEE Alistair Crooke’s Assessment at almayadeen with this title “Bluffs and Counter Bluffs as the War Widens” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The Washington Post reported on 7 January 2024 that Biden has tasked his staff with preventing widening regional war. The piece was purposefully leaked (as even the Washington Post admit) — and is a bluff.

When Defence Secretary Austin last visited “Israel”, he clearly ‘green-lighted’ Israeli military action to push Hizbullah away from south Lebanon, to the north of the Litani River — about 29 kms north of the Blue Line southern boundary.

 

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January 18, 2024 · 9:25 pm

The Culinary Cuisine & Crossoads Culture of Marseille

Tristan Rutherford & Rebecca Marshall in AramcoWorld in  March/April 2018 ………………………………………….. https://www.aramcoworld.com/Articles/March-2018/Marseille-s-Migrant-Cuisine

Five hundred years later the Mediterranean became Rome’s nexus of trade and empire, and Marseille became one of its maritime centers. Now, mucem exhibits olive-oil amphorae from Anatolia, soapmaking paraphernalia from Syria, and sailing charts that show how to navigate from Algiers without running aground on the island of Mallorca.

Culinary historian Emmanuel Perrodin says the city’s cultures, traditions and foods influenced by centuries of trade and migration throughout the Mediterranean make Marseille unique.

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January 18, 2024 · 10:46 am

Searching for Familial Roots: An Odyssey …. with Lamentations

Bernard Van Cuylenburg ….. presenting an essay penned in 2020 – one which has had highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … and pictorial additions

This is the story about a family – a personal story which I wish to share with a wider world. This family consisted of four brothers who lived in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. They were the Eagars and one day, following catastrophic events in the land of their birth, they set their sights on far horizons and left their motherland for a little island still known today as the ‘pearl of the Indian ocean’. One of them was my great grandfather, Halley Eagar.

A partial map of Ireland with a miniature crate of potatoes depicting the potato famine of 1845 – 1852

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January 17, 2024 · 7:44 pm

Devious Propaganda Guided by Geopolitical Positioning

An Honest Broker **Devious 

With regard to the Maldives piece, this article is propaganda: …………………..  https://thegeopolitics.com/navigating-the-geopolitical-waters-india-maldives-relations-in-a-shifting-global-landscape/  You cannot expect it to remain unchallenged.

The article doesn’t contain a single piece of information that hasn’t been slanted in India’s favour, at the expense of China. The arguments presented here are “meritless, counter-productive and not based on facts”, as John Kirby would say. The intention is once again, as India always does, to smear China’s relations with countries in the South Asian region and reassert Indian hegemonic dominance. That’s why you can’t post a link without it being challenged.

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January 17, 2024 · 12:53 am

The Geopolitics underlying the Strengthening of Maldivian Links with China

Timur Fomenko in rtcom.news, 15 January 2024, where the title reads  as “How a tiny tourist paradise has become a political flashpoint between India and China” ….. with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi and pertinents Thoughts sent by “Skindiver” who sent this reference to Thuppahi.

The Maldives, with its new anti-New Delhi, pro-Beijing president, is set to become an inconvenient neighbor.

The Maldives is an archipelago nation just south of India. With a population of just half a million people, the islands may seem inconsequential, and the small republic is mostly known as a paradise getaway for tourists.

Maldives’ President Mohamed Muizzu (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, January 10, 2024 ©  STR / CNS / AFP

 Despite this, the nation is, in fact, a stage for a political flashpoint between China, India and the West, having recently elected a new president, Mohamed Muizzu, who is actively pro-Beijing and openly antagonistic to New Delhi, so much that Indians are now threatening a tourism boycott of the country. Muizzu has just visited China, where he inked a series of agreements with Xi Jinping, particularly in the area of infrastructure.

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January 15, 2024 · 8:20 pm

A Jewish Virtual Library on Sri Lanka

Jewish Virtual Library on Sri Lanka ………….. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sri-lanka-virtual-jewish-tour  … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi**

Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is an island nation south of India…………Legend and tradition, Islamic and Samaritan in origin, connect Sri Lanka with biblical personalities and events. Adam is said to have descended on the island after his expulsion from Paradise, and Noah’s Ark allegedly rested on the mountains of Serandib, which tradition equates with Mount Ararat. The Sri Lankan city of Galle is said to be the city of Tarshish, to which King Solomon sent merchant ships.       

  NOTE  …… Al-Idrisi’s Masterpiece of Medieval Geography ………….

  Posted by: Carissa Pastuch, on 13 January 2022 ………………… https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2022/01/al-idrisis-masterpiece-of-medieval-geography/

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January 15, 2024 · 12:18 am

When Squirrels Menace Religious Orders ……….

Coping with a Squirrel Menace

The Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will.

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