November 11, 2020 · 7:49 am

Remembering Jayantha Jayamuni De Silva and His Philisophical Messages

Malinda Seneviratne, in Daily News, 11 November 2020, ….https://www.dailynews.lk/2020/11/11/features/233326/jayantha-jayamuni-de-silva-weapon-wisdom

Almost 30 years ago, a bunch of young people, mostly undergraduates, spent a few days in a small temple in Matara. Anandaramaya, Pallimulla, Matara. They had gathered to discuss politics with a view to forming a political organization. Many things were discussed under various topics which included history, economics, philosophy and how these informed political practice.

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November 11, 2020 · 3:48 am

Combatting Terrorism Today: Three Imperatives

John Richardson

For what they are worth, here are three “imperatives for preventing conflict and terrorism” (from the 10 that conclude Paradise Poisoned) that seem particularly relevant to this discussion. These are excerpted from “elevator talk” I gave to Board members of the US Association for the Club of Rome a year or so ago.

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November 11, 2020 · 2:39 am

Mahindapala on Trump and USA after Trump with Kamala Harris in the Biden Team

H. L. D. Mahindapala, in LankaWeb, November 2020, where the title reads: “Post-Trump America with Biden – not to mention Kamala Harris”  …. highlighting by Editor, Thuppahi

Say what you like against Donald Trump, the man was a phenomenon. Whether the legacy he leaves behind is good or bad is a judgement that will be determined finally by those who will feel the impact of his regime in the years to come. Win or lose, (he is losing at the time of writing) he will be remembered as the leader who articulated and released the underlying undercurrents that had been dormant in the political landscape, awaiting a leader to take up the challenge. Trump is the leader that represented the subterranean forces which the pundit class had never expected to rise to levels raised by Trump. Though Trump seems to be doomed at the polls (now its midday – Friday) the Trumpism he generated has the force to haunt US politics in the foreseeable future. One of his ambitions has been to make his  mark in history. He would achieve that place as the most  unorthodox, controversial and unpredictable president ever who bucked the system and won. In short, he has changed the style, the substance and the contours of American politics with  the arrogance of an outsider spitting into the inside.

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November 10, 2020 · 1:26 pm

Kamala Harris’ Brahmin Tamil Roots: Ominous Portents for Sri Lanka?

Daya Gamage, in  Asian Tribune and Elanka.com  where the title runs thus: “Kamala Harris: Tamil Iyer Brahmin US VP for Sri Lanka Tamil reparation?”

As Joe Biden becomes the U.S. 46th president of the United States, Kamala Devi Harris will be sworn in as the Vice President on January 20 next year.

She is of South India’s Tamil Iyer Brahmin heritage. To date she has proudly retained her South Indian heritage – maintaining a certain level of the Tamil tongue – that could extend her vice-presidential reach to the South Asian region. Having a senior staffer of Sri Lankan Tamil-heritage, there is strong possibility that the Biden White House could add Sri Lanka’s ‘national issues’ or ‘ethnic issues’ as one of the US foreign policy planks  – once again – in the form of ‘Tamil reparation’.

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November 10, 2020 · 8:24 am

The Ideology of Sacrificial Death and Australian Nationalism during World War One

ALSThis short essay appeared  in the year K????K within the Website run the Library of Social Science headed by Richard Koenigsberg and he has sent it to me this month (November 2020) — presumably inspired by the recent jihadist attacks in Europe and by Thuppahi’s determined pursuit of the comparative literature on martyrdom pursued in a variety of contexts by diverse forces (not merely Islamic).

Michael Roberts

Addressing the practices of remembrance in Australia, Richard Koenigsberg has noted the irony that a battlefield defeat at Gallipoli in World War One, 1915, served a people as an emblem of nationhood: the “Australian nation, came into being on the foundations provided by the slaughter of its young men.”

Burying the dead at Gallipoli in 1915 ,,,and The Last Post

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November 10, 2020 · 2:01 am

Biden’s Challenges –New and Old

SWR De A Samarasinghe, aka “Sam”, in Daily Mirror, 10 November 2020, where the title reads  “Biden Presidency Faces Old Problems and New Challenges”

Joe Biden will assume office as the 46th president of USA on January 20, 2021. He defeated the incumbent Donald Trump in a bitterly fought contest. Biden polled 75.2m (50.7%) votes and has secured 290 of the 538 electoral college votes that are allocated among the states roughly in proportion to the size of the population in each state. Trump polled 70.8m (47.7%) and has 214 electoral college votes. The final vote tallies will be a little higher because some votes are yet to be counted.  But those votes will not affect the result because Biden already has 290, that is above the minimum 270 needed to win.

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November 9, 2020 · 1:04 pm

Remembering Sean Connery…. the Quintessential James Bond

Anura Gunasekera, in Sunday Island, 9 November 2020, where the title reads  “The Quintessential Bond and the Quintessential Scot”” 

As a teen my introduction to James Bond was “Casino Royale”, a tattered paperback copy bought second-hand, for a few rupees, from the Bethel Book shop in Dehiwala. The cover image depicted the full figure of a curvy female in distress, overshadowed by the head and shoulders of a cruelly handsome, steely-eyed male, hair artfully disheveled, forelock falling across the forehead, and the Walther PPK ready for action. With an uncanny prescience, the cover designer had captured the key ingredients that subsequently built the film franchise.

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November 9, 2020 · 12:35 pm

Prehistoric Humankind at Batadomba-lena in Kuruwita

Mahila Wijesinghe. in Sunday Observer, 1 November 2020, where the title is “Trekking to Batadomba-lena cave. A glimpse of the prehistoric rock cave”

As we sat on the base of an excavation pit dug by the Department of Archaeology to unearth the skeletons of early inhabitants in this cave in the mid 80s, we imagined life at the Batadomba-lena cave over 30,000 years ago.

This is the second oldest cave in Sri Lanka where the remains of pre-historic humans (c29,000-9,500) have been found. Among the remains discovered are skeletons and various implements in the main cave, which now attracts a large number of visitors including schoolchildren for educational study tours.

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November 8, 2020 · 8:46 am

Tamil Tiger ‘Martyrs’: Regenerating Divine Potency?

This article from my pen was probably drafted in 2004. It appeared in Studies in Conflict  & Terrorism vol. 28 in 2005 after the usual refereeing process. Some of the details and arguments have, in fact, been obliterated within my fading memory. For this reason, it was a refreshing READ for me and brought up specific details that are pertinent to any debate surrounding the motivations that induce self-immolation, jihadist killings of a suicidal nature, et cetera… The Bibilography will also aid present investigations though, of course, other writings have appeared since then on Islamic jihadists and other martyrdom operations…. Michael Roberts, 8 November 2020 … The photographs are fresh additions … and so too the highlighting within the text.

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November 7, 2020 · 3:49 pm

WHO’s Mike Ryan slashes World Leaders

Ronan McGreevey, in Irish Times, November 2020, .…https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/covid-19-world-in-for-a-hell-of-a-ride-in-coming-months-dr-mike-ryan-says-1.4370626

Covid-19: World in ‘for a hell of a ride’ in coming months, Dr Mike Ryan says …  WHO official estimates that 750m people globally have likely had coronavirus to date

An estimated 750 million, or 10 per cent of the world’s population, have been infected by Covid-19, World Health Organisation (WHO) official Dr Mike Ryan has said. The Irish-born executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme said he was worried for the fate of the 90 per cent of people who have not had the disease.

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