October 27, 2023 · 12:05 am

Severe Food Insecurity on the Horizon for Sri Lanka because of MONLAR’s Programme

Chandre Dharmawardena,  in The Island, 25 October 2023,  …. with this title “Monlar, a force for food insecurity, now blames 70-years of government! 

Image courtesy CGIAR Research Programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE

According to newspaper reports (Island 16th October [1]),  the NGO carrying the acronym MONLAR has presented the accusation that “the agricultural policies of successive governments have rendered millions of Lankans insecure”. It claims that “As of today, 5.3 million people in Sri Lanka are food insecure. This proves that what the government has been doing for more than 70 years to this date to feed its people has failed”.

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October 26, 2023 · 6:42 pm

A New Leaf in India-Pakistan Cricket Rivalry?

Banyan, in The Economist, 19 October 2023, entitled  “Cricket and geopolitics”

In cricket and otherwise, India is leaving its rivalry with Pakistan behind. In the build-up to India’s World Cup clash with Pakistan in Ahmedabad on October 14th, Indian news anchors spoke of “the greatest rivalry”. For once they were not exaggerating. Cricket contests between the South Asian giants have been their main interaction off the battlefield for three-quarters of a century. Into them each has poured subcontinental volumes of love and hate, nationalist chest-beating, aching for peace, addiction to the fray—and the wholehearted commitment of two great and fascinatingly contrasting cricket cultures. Even for cricket ignoramuses, India-Pakistan bouts are an essential window onto South Asian politics and culture. What, then, to make of the Ahmedabad match, which was attended by Banyan and ended in an easy Indian victory?

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October 25, 2023 · 11:35 pm

Israeli PM’s Message imitates Goebbels’ Programme

Camel Rider …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Attached is a video clip of a statement made by Yair Lapid on 24 October which (thank God) was broadcast on RUSSIA TODAY. You won’t find it in the Western media. It serves as a reminder that people do need to watch RT because that’s where you can find all the juicy news the West ignores. 

Yair Lapid stated,

“If the international media is objective, it serves Hamas. If it just shows both sides, it serves Hamas. My argument is that the media can’t just claim to bring both sides of the story. If you do that, you are only bringing one, Hamas’ side. That’s cowardly and it’s lazy. It’s an insult, insult to the victims including the Palestinian victims. It is also an insult to the core idea of what journalism is. Believe me, I know, I was a journalist for 31 years. — Yair Lapid, Israeli Prime Minister, July- December 2022.  

This is an extremely irrational and fallacious argument, very much in the spirit of the propaganda rhetoric that once came from Joseph Goebbels.   

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October 24, 2023 · 8:20 pm

USA encourages Israel’s Nazi Pathways

Blackjack Bibi …. with the title and the highlights being impositions by The Editor, Thuppahi

I was interested in the “NOTE from VB, an American citizen from Sri Lanka” which refers to Nikki Haley advocating the final solution for the Palestinians with the words “finish them off” in a hail-blaze glory of mass extermination which has come to embody what the West and Australians refer to as “Western values”. Haley doesn’t seem to realize what she is advocating is what Hitler advocated for the Jews. These two “final solutions’ can never be right under any circumstances.

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October 24, 2023 · 7:44 pm

Plinio’s Description of “Taprobane”

Piero Perondi, whose chosen title was “THE SPLENDID TAPROBANE ALIAS SRI LANKA””

The main ancient source on Taprobane is the Roman historian Plinio the Old, in his manuscript “Natural History”, which does not fail to briefly retrace the testimonies of previous authors. He states that only in the time of Alexander the Great was it made clear that Taprobane was an island; before it was considered almost another world, the “land of the Antichthone ” (i.e. the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere).

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October 24, 2023 · 7:14 pm

The Sea Tigers at War: Innovativeness married to Experiential Art

 Rear. Admiral Y.N. Jayarathne …. whose preferred title for this article is “Principles of the Swarming Concepts” …. and where the black highlights are his work

Situational awareness

The Sea Tiger, enemy we fought at sea, was a ‘worthy enemy’ as I recall! This enemy (when I say enemy it is not an individual that I am referring to but the group or the collection of individuals) evolved from a fisheries background: thus they knew the ground (the sea, the marine environment and the marine weather.  In any fishing community there always will be weather forecasters who would say whether it is going to rain or sea is going to be rough by simply looking at the clouds and environment), new the trade of seafaring; how to manoeuvre/navigate the boats and new how to repair, modify and manufacture boats! All these were passed down the generations through experience and wisdom, and not by formal education at school. So, they were psychologically empowered, physically fit by knowing how to swim at sea (a tremendous self-confidence factor in personal capacity) and professionally competent for the trade!

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October 24, 2023 · 1:45 am

No Victors in the Hellfire of Gaza and Palestine

KKS Perera, in Daily Mirror, 23 October 2023, where the title reads ‘…Yeah, We Wept, When We Remembered Zion’

The situation in the Gaza Strip remains highly complex and tense, with dire consequences for the Palestinian inhabitants.

472 people lost their lives in Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza; thousands suffered injuries in a highly contentious air raid on the hospital. Approximately one-third of Gaza’s population consists of children. When Israel drops phosphorus bombs, it’s the children who are desperately fleeing the deadly white plumes. The disruption of food and water supplies by Israel is exacerbating the situation. Hospitals are on the verge of running out of electricity.
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October 23, 2023 · 7:54 pm

Talking about Oral History Work on Ceylon in the 1960s

Adilah Ismail in the Sunday Times,  7 June 2015,  where the title is “Colourful history of a historian” … with highlighting imposed by the Editor Thuppahi viz, Roberts himself

Looking back on his ‘going-down memory lane interviews’ with retired Britishers and Sri Lankans who served mainly in the Ceylon Civil Service, Michael Roberts who was in Sri Lanka recently, talks to Adilah Ismail about the beginnings of a passion.

In Colombo last week: Michael Roberts. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
It’s the late 1960s: On most Fridays, Michael Roberts would make his way towards Colombo from Peradeniya, [1]  recording equipment balanced at his feet and his bag filled with assorted clothes strapped to the back of his trusty scooter. Navigating the sharp curves and turns on his two wheeler, once in Colombo, he would spend his weekend sprinting from one interview to another.

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October 23, 2023 · 12:42 am

Madness at the Heights of Power in USA: Electoral Demogogy

A NOTE from VB, an American citizen from Sri Lanka … responding to the Item in Thuppahi from  “A Sri Lankan in Brisbane”

Future Leadership in USA – Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley

Citizen: “What will you do with Iran if you were President?”

Hayley: “What I said to Netanyahu …. Finish them! Finish them! They are only going to try and kill us and kill Israelis …..”

No worries, guys! The land of the free and the home of the brave will be in good hands!

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October 22, 2023 · 3:34 pm

The GAZA Clash & Its Ramifications: Fundamental Grounding …. A Sri Lankan’s Reading

A Sri Lankan in Brisbane … responding to my Thuppahi Question: Why did HAMAS launch an attack in Palestine [with implicit awareness of extreme Israeli retaliations] ? … with the highlighting in red being that of the Editor, Thuppahi and that in black being the author’s.

HIS RESPONSE

Dear Michael,

Israel has never been a country that abided by International rules.

Although the majority of Jews migrated to Israel from Russia & Eastern Europe, the British & US heavily back Israel because the wealthy Jews who fund US Congress are in the US & UK. The US Congress is beholden to these wealthy Jews for their election funding. In addition, almost all Arab countries are headed by corrupt US cronies, beholden to the $.

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