July 28, 2023 · 8:31 pm

Hindu Zealots of the RSS target Sri Lanka

PK Balachandran in Email Note to Roberts, late July 2023, … with highlighting being my imposition

The RSS  has begun exploiting the Tamil issue to spread its Hindutwa ideology. The idea is to win over the Lankan Tamils to its side by discrediting the secular Tamil identity in SL. None of the speakers listed has any knowledge of the Lankan Tamil issue. Tamil Nadu BJP leader K.Annamalai has already visited Sri Lanka and is trying to put up an RSS-BJP unit here. Very dangerous development. The Sri Lankan government should make certain that Sarath Weerasekara and the monks don’t do anything anti-Hindu. It is sad that this ís happening when India-Lankan relations are improving thanks to the correct policies of Modi and Ranil. Continue reading →

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July 26, 2023 · 12:32 am

Reflections: My Engagement with the Pogrom of July 1983 in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

The attacks on Tamils living and/or working in the southern and central parts of island Sri Lanka by elements of the Sinhala population were indefensible, horrible and disastrous for the country.  It is not adequate to depict them as “riots.” They constituted a “pogrom” – with all the pejorative colourings attached to that concept.[1]

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July 25, 2023 · 8:22 pm

Death of a Trotskyist … In Memory of Nathan Sivasambu

Jane Russell … presenting “a fictional short story in warm testimony fo Nathan Sivasambu who was a one-off: a convinced Trotskyist, his greatest gift was in bringing people together to celebrate the era of ‘British Ceylon’ of which he was a true patriot.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was October 23rd, two days before the Centenary of the Revolution. The black and white photo of Leon Davidov Trotsky looked down from his ebony frame on the sitting room cum study wall. This version of Trotsky was unsmiling: stern – very much Creator of the Red Army, Hero of the Revolution. The photo had been taken in the early 1920’s, in St. Petersburg, when it was still called Petrograd.

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July 24, 2023 · 2:27 pm

The Agony and Ecstasy of A Pogrom: Southern Lanka, July 1983

Michael Roberts … reproducing an article that appeared initially in a collection of my essays in 1994 under the title above in EXPLORING CONFRONTATION, Readng, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994,  pp. 317-27. It was subsequently reproduced in Nethra, vol. 6, 199-213.  …. and then placed on web  in Groundviews (without its footnotes) .… https://ground views.org/2019/03/28/the-case-for-foreign-judges-in-a-judicial-mechanism-in-sri-lanka-countering-falsehoods/. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bystanders after the burning and assaulting: also at Borella Junction area, 24-25th July 1983, picture by Chandragupta Amarasinghe. There is a suggestion here that popular participation in attacks were also initiated and/or facilitated by state functionaries. It is also likely that some of those described as ‘bystanders’ were perpetrators of some of the destruction, burning and killing. I had not discovered whom the photographer was when Exploring Confrontation went to press in 1994. Let me use this occasion to record my greatest respect for the bravery and ingenuity revealed by Chandragupta Amarasinghe in extremely dangerous and trying circumstances. 

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July 23, 2023 · 5:32 pm

Rhodes Island is Burning!

Tourists and residents are being evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes due to severe forest fires. The fires began after a prolonged heat wave, and temperatures are expected to rise further in the coming days, and winds are also expected to increase.

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July 19, 2023 · 8:03 pm

Traversing the Port of Colombo: ‘Fridaying’ and All That

David Sansoni **

Despite my pedagogic heritage, I never considered teaching as a career. I was surprised to receive a message (verbal, or a note… don’t remember…nor from whom…) to teach ‘Citizenship’ to an Upper IV class (12 year olds) at S. Thomas’, whence I had just graduated. Term 1, 1972. Jackson Karunaratne Esq did the Sinhala speakers, next door. He was a great help. He gave me a copy of a compilation – a ‘Civics/Social Studies equivalent of Literature’s “Choice Reading”. Just two subjects remain in my memory. A piece about the importance of History, and Gandhi. It was a fun time… a fun term…for me! I can but hope it was for the shishyas.

 

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July 18, 2023 · 11:50 am

The Temple Wall Paintings at Karandeniya

Uditha Devapriya, in the Sunday Observer, 16 July 2023, where the title reads “Interesting Temple Murals at Karandeniya” … with photos by Manusha Gunarathna

The Buddhist temples of the Southern Province, in particular those going back to the late 19th century, display a uniquely fascinating style. They cannot be viewed in isolation from the Kandyan temples, though as Senake Bandaranayake has noted, it is difficult to ascertain or conclude whether they were an offshoot of the Kandyan Period, or whether they were merely influenced by it. This debate does not concern us at present: what should concern us is that the murals of these temples reflected their times, and that no two temples, even in the same locality, were ever the same, a point I gathered when I travelled some 50 km from the Sunandaramaya in Ambalangoda to Kataluva in Ahangama a year ago.

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July 17, 2023 · 1:54 pm

A “Fernandopulle” from Sri Lanka brightens Aussie Headlines

Frontpage Headline in THE AUSTRALIAN, 17 July 2023 = “Students take housing shortage to next level”

“Internaional students Isi Larraguibel, Rowen Fernandopulle, Jaden Amba and Rois Maullers in Brisbane on Sunday”

 

…. visit … https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE …. AND TRY TO  negotiate their money-seeking hoops if you wish to read the whole article

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July 16, 2023 · 3:05 pm

The World’s Propaganda War Today: Take Keating Seriously

An Observer in A Black Sea Town

The opinion writers for The Australian newspaper, like Peter Jennings, who adopt anti-Chinese, anti Russian, and pro American positions, do not critically analyse the subjects they write on. There is no critical analysis in their writings. Their purpose in writing is to propagate official Australian-American perspectives to educate/propagandize ordinary Australians into being good little Australian citizens, very nationalistic and pro-American. At present, their role is to demonize China and Russia as the bad guys, America and the West as the good guys, so that if war comes, Australians will go along with it.
Keating …. a lesson for Jennings ….

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July 16, 2023 · 2:02 pm

Best Eleven Team from W-Cup Qualifying Competition in Zimbabwe?

Sportsmedia ….. https://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/best-xi-icc-world-cup-qualifiers-2023

The ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023 culminated on Sunday, July 9. The tournament, which was hosted in Zimbabwe, saw Sri Lanka and the Netherlands qualify for the mega event later in the year in India.

The two qualifying teams faced each other in the finals of the World Cup Qualifiers earlier on Sunday. The strong Lankan outfit defeated the Dutch by a healthy margin of 128 runs in Harare.

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