August 1, 2022 · 9:05 pm

Lylie Goderich: Memories are Made of These

Charles Schokman

“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,”

It was in the early 1950s that I met Lylie, and it didn’t take us long to build a friendship that grew into a warm and deep rooted affection for each other. Lylie, with his parents, brother and sister lived in a modest home at Kotahena and I often visited him on my bicycle for a friendly chat. I lived at Dematagoda and although it was quite a distance to ride, it was worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

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August 1, 2022 · 8:10 pm

University Federation of Dons condemn Sri Lankan Government’s Actions

Item in The Island, 1 August 2022, where the title runs thus “Dons Condemn Suppression of Aragalaya”

“Tyrannical governments and illegitimate leaders throughout history have led their societies to destruction”

The Federation of University Teachers (FUTA) says that the Wickremasinghe-Rajapaksa government lacks any legitimacy and it should stop taking cover behind the Constitution.In a statement condemning what it termed as “repression of aragalaya activists by the current regime” the university teachers have said that “the tyrannical governments and illegitimate leaders throughout history have led their societies to destruction.”

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August 1, 2022 · 6:37 pm

The Force of Migrants in Australia Today: Figures & Insights

Bernard Salt in THE AUSTRALIAN,  30/31 July 2022  where the title reads “Celebrating Our Migration Nation”

It is a single demographic metric that encapsulates modern Australia. It is often the subject of heated debate. It rises and falls over time, but generally over the longer term it has kept an upward trajectory. It is the proportion of the locally based population born overseas. It includes immigrants but it also includes foreign students, backpackers and so-called guest workers based here for 12 months or more.

Asian migrant children tuck into vegemite sandwiches.

Australian Sudanese Peter Bol of Team Australia competes in the Men’s 800m Final on day nine of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon this month. Picture: Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletic

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August 1, 2022 · 2:14 am

Under Fire in Playing with Snow

With a curtsey to Keith Bennett (in Melbourne I think?) for presenting this TALE:

It’s been snowing all night.  So  8:00 I made a snowman.
8:10 A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn’t make a snow woman.


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August 1, 2022 · 1:47 am

Power Cuts in Cuba indicate Spreading Economic Crisis

Marc Frank in Reuters, 30 July 2022, with this title “Havana announces blackouts, cancels carnival as crisis deepens”

The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has cancelled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday.

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July 31, 2022 · 8:31 pm

Extending and Protecting Sri Lanka’s Ocean Assets

Ivan Amarasinghe, presenting “A Proposal for Non-Traditional Resources Exploitation  within the UN Allocated EEZ and the Ocean University of Sri Lanka”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Map-of-the-Sri-Lankan-Exclusive-Economic-Zone-EEZ-Source-Maritime-Boundaries_fig1_313525677

Executive Summary of the Proposal

The Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka contains vast, precious minerals which have so far not been explored or exploited by Sri Lanka. A review of recent scientific literature indicates that powerful States and Corporate sectors are active within the area. The support of the United Nations [UN] is sought to legally delineate the national Extended Economic Zone [EEZ] in keeping with the UN Convention on Law of the Sea [UNCLOS]. Sri Lanka must urgently guard its ocean resources before they are exploited to exhaustion by others. Sri Lanka must ensure forex earnings through a new policy on sustainable exploitation of ou ocean resources.

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July 31, 2022 · 4:42 pm

Jonathan Manz’s Revelations re US Machinations in Sri Lanka: Two Essays

Jonathan Manz, in LankaWeb

ONE: “Pivot-to-Asia: America executes a Ligthening Coup to take control ofa strategic Island in the Indian Ocean” …. in LankaWeb, 13  June 2022 …. note DATE

Bewildered, reeling and confused, Sri Lankans are just beginning to pick up the pieces of the jigsaw to decipher the events of Black-Monday, 09 May 22, when America, with its all-too-familiar ‘false-flag’ operations, executed a lightning Coup, to take control of the strategic Island in the Indian Ocean.

Taking control of the Island-Nation was critical to the Americans to implement their re-chartered game-plan for the Indian-Ocean region; this plan, they were compelled to develop following the unexpected defeat of their proxy mercenaries in Sri Lanka.

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July 31, 2022 · 3:23 pm

Do or Die for the Tory Leadership in UK

Padraig Colman, in The Island, 31 July 2022, where the title reads “The Tory Leadership Battle”

British voters have been watching with growing irritation/apathy the contenders for the leadership of the Conservative Party fighting with each other on TV. The session on July 26 ended abruptly when presenter Kate McCann literally became unconscious. Many viewers had already lost the will to live.

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July 30, 2022 · 9:17 pm

Jayati Ghosh exposes the IMF Role in the Crisis in Sri Lanka and Elsewhere

Video Presentation in DEMOCRACY NOW …. with this title “Economist Jayati Ghosh: Global Debt Crisis Is Perfect Storm of Unrest, Economic Disaster, Starvation”

THE looming PERFECT STORM = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPMed4KOHuI

We look at the looming possibility of a global recession amid rising inflation, the pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine. World financial institutions and wealthier countries should take stronger actions such as writing off debts that are crippling developing nations, says Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “This is just completely lack of political will. It’s not because we don’t know what to do.” Her piece in The Guardian is headlined “There is a global debt crisis coming — and it won’t stop at Sri Lanka,” and she also discusses other countries on the brink of an economic collapse, including Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Panama and Argentina. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at https://democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Support independent media: https://democracynow.org/donate Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

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July 29, 2022 · 8:24 pm

From Banda to Gota

Laleen Jayamanne, in The Island, 20 & 27 July 2022 where the title runs thus: “Teargas cinema and Rukmani Devi”

“I have never found anything to excite the people in quite the way this language issue does”–– Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike to a journalist.

If true, this observation attributed to Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike, is quite chilling in its cynicism. ‘Excitement’ is a political emotion here and SWRD appears to take a distance from it, observing somewhat clinically, how ‘this language issue’ stirs up ‘the people’. Politicians are especially crafty, cunning, when they know how to excite people with ideas that they themselves may or may not truly believe in.

A protester covering the eyes of the Bandaranaike statue at Galle Face

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