April 28, 2023 · 7:15 pm

USA’s Double Standards: A Payback Today for Sri Lanka’s Refusal to Kow-Tow in 2009

Item in the DAILY MIRROR, 28 April 2023… with this title “Designating Karannagoda; Russia hits back at US: Says West should not interfere in other countries affairs”

 The United States has designated former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, for his alleged involvement in gross violations of human rights. The US State Department said that Karannagoda has been designated pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, due to his involvement in a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as a Naval Commander. As a result of today’s action, Karannagoda and his wife, Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda, are ineligible for entry into the United States.

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April 27, 2023 · 4:21 pm

A Partisan Australian-Voice: China as Spectre

A Canary Club Reader

SEE

This Australian is obviously a subscriber to Australian media outlets such as Sky News, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Herald Sun – an avid reader of the ideological nonsense written by people like Andrew Bolt, Peter Jennings, John Lee, Gerald Henderson, Paul Dibbs, Paul Kelly, Greg Sheridan, to name a few. (I need not list them all here because their names are well known).

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April 26, 2023 · 10:50 am

The LTTE and Their Sacrificial Devotion to Cause

Michael Roberts on his Essays on this Theme within the Global Context ………… https://thuppahis.com/2017/07/21/sacrificial-devotion-how-i-entered-this-terrain/…. JULY 21, 2017 · …………..“Sacrificial Devotion” — How I Entered This Terrain

 

 Tiger fighters relax in camp, late 1980s—Pic by Shyam Tekwani who was embedded with LTTE for a while.

With the benefit of a Teen Murti Fellowship I was collecting data on communal violence in India in 1995 when my readings of news archives indicated that the death of Mrs Indira Gandhi by assassination in Delhi induced a handful of individuals in southern India to commit sympathetic suicide. Since news reports did not indicate similar reactions in other parts of India, I began to reflect on the cultural foundations that promoted such expressions – acting, of course, in contexts that also could provide political and economic inspirations. This eventually led to my first essay on this topic: “Filial Devotion and the Tiger Cult of Suicide,” Contributions to Indian Sociology, 1996, 30: 245-72.

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April 26, 2023 · 12:41 am

Ireland vs Sri Lanka, Day Two: Two Readings

REPORT ONE: Daniel Byrne: “Ireland almost reaches 500, but Madushka and Karunaratne make it clear that the Sri Lankans are far from beaten yet. Day Two in Galle” …..

Woods and I arrived early to ensure there were time to get the electricians to put the wires into the wall in order to get the fans working before the start of play. As the rest of the Irish players warmed up with a game of football, Paul Stirling sensibly opted for slip catching practice instead. My old friend Keerthi the Sri Lankan scorer turned up to say hello just as the TV in the Member’s Bar was showing highlights of the previous day’s play. Tucker should have been out caught at silly point off bat-pad just before the new ball was taken, but the umpire missed it and Frank was minded not to potentially waste his team’s last review. Unfortunately for Ireland Tucker was unable to take advantage of his lucky escape and was bowled by Vishwa from the fourth ball of the day for 80. It looked to everyone near where I was sitting that he had been caught at second slip as that was where the ball ended up. It’s hard to watch a game properly sitting in the sun at deep square leg ( 321–5).

Clouds paint the sky towards the end of Day Two

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April 25, 2023 · 11:37 pm

Profound Currents of Thought at Trinity College: Fraser, Martin Wickramasinghe & Bishop Wickremesinghe

Uditha Devapriya, whose chosen title was  “Martin Wickramasinghe and A. G. Fraser.”

On 7 February 1971, Trinity College, Kandy held its 99th annual Prize Giving. Presided by the then Anglican Bishop of Kurunegala, Lakshman Wickremesinghe, the ceremony featured Martin Wickramasinghe as its Chief Guest. By this point Wickramasinghe had established himself as Sri Lanka’s leading literary figure. A grand old man of 80, he was now writing on a whole range of topics outside culture and literature. His essays addressed some of the more compelling socio-political issues of the day, including youth unrest. His speech at the Prize Giving dwelt on these issues and reflected his concerns.

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April 24, 2023 · 8:45 pm

Escalation of Attacks on Hindu Shrines in Northern Lanka

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 23 April 2023, whee the title reads thus: “Tamils flag escalating attacks on temples in northern Sri Lanka” … with highlighting added by The Editor, Thuppahi

Several Tamil parties have called for a protest on April 25 against the recent Temple attacks.  Tamils in Sri Lanka have witnessed an escalation in the attack on Hindu temples in recent weeks, a trend that they note is part of the State’s “ongoing Sinhalisation project” in the island’s north.

 

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April 24, 2023 · 7:35 pm

Sinhala Village Roots and Jungle Lore at Discerning Depth

Sugath Kulatunga, 

responding to an Invitation from The Editor, Thuppahi after the latter had seen an extract of this detailed and invaluable autobiography in Facebook in 2023 **

1/10/2014: Written for the reading pleasure of my grandchildren.

As a child and in school:

I am very fortunate to have been brought up as a small child in a rural village in the Kalutara District of Sri Lanka, in a setting under relatively comfortable and caring conditions. I was the number two of three brothers and two younger sisters. Two more brothers were added to the family later on. We were the masters of our time and life was totally carefree. Our parents had an abundance of time for us. In addition, most of the time during the early childhood we had my mother’s sisters, who adored us, staying with the family. We also had the loving but respectful attention of the senior schoolgirls.

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April 23, 2023 · 11:29 am

Roaming the World: An Accidental Cameraman

Michael Roberts

In the course of composing items for THUPPAHI and during our family travels around the globe, photographs were ‘shot’ at will. These, of course, are amateur products. But on occasions the settings and subjects are striking or unusual. As one ages and withers, there is less hesitation in focusing on one’s past and the display of personal ventures.

I commence with a ”shot” taken on quick whim that happens to be spectacular …

 

 Casting Net near Wattala in Lanka where a canal meets the sea and I was at the prow of a padda boat

… and there are a few more chance moments that could spike reader interest.

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April 20, 2023 · 6:42 pm

Alastair Roosmale-Cocq: Appreciations & Memories

VALE ONE by Jeremy Ludowyke

My name is Jeremy Ludowyke and I’d like to tell you something of Alistair’s life before he came to Australia in 1969.

Like Alistair, I was born in Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, of Dutch heritage and ancestry. The first Roosmale Cocq arrived in Ceylon from the Netherlands in 1763 and many were Magistrates or Judges in the first Dutch then British colony. Perhaps this is where Alistair inherited his magisterial bearing.

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April 19, 2023 · 12:49 am

Ireland Squashed in Three Days at Galle: Fidel & Danny Report

 Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, 22 April 2023 ….

Sri Lanka 591 for 6 (Karunaratne 179, K Mendis 140, Samarawickrama 104*, Chandimal 102*) beat Ireland 143 (Tucker 45, Jayasuriya 7-52) and 168 (Tector 42, R Mendis 4-76, 3-56) by an innings and 280 runs
Ramesh Mendis celebrates a wicket
Ireland’s collapse rolled into day three in Galle, as Sri Lanka’s spinners scythed through them twice, to secure an innings-and-280 run victory with Prabath Jayasuriya claiming a 10-wicket haul.

Madushka pulls off two stunning catches at forward short-leg

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