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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November 7, 2020 · 8:42 am

How Joe Biden’s Win will Impact on Sri Lanka

Daya Gamage

LINK TO THE VIDEO PRESENTATION:   https://youtu.be/YafgU0UScxM

බයිඩන් ජනපති පාලනය සිරි ලකට බලපාන්නේ කෙසේද?

This interview was given by me – Daya Gamage – describing the U.S. electoral process, how Trump, during these four years, handled foreign policy, gives an interpretation how a Biden-Harris administration in the U.S. handle foreign policy AND how it could – I said ‘Could’ – affect Sri Lanka with ongoing issues such as US militarization in the Indo-Pacific region; US-India military bonds; ACSA/SOFA/MCC connected to US militarization against China AND Sri Lanka’s dilemma OR what position Sri Lanka could take with all these issue.

THIS IS IN SINHALA  ……………  Listen to the 25-minute presentation HERE: https://youtu.be/YafgU0UScxM

 

 

 

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Joe Biden දින්නොත් කොටි නැගිටියිද ?

Joe Biden දින්නොත් කොටි නැගිටියිද ?

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November 6, 2020 · 10:58 am

Allahu Akbar! Missing Dimensions in Contemporary Reportage

Michael Roberts

I recently watched a good part of Stephen Sackur’s dialogue with a French lady politician [whose name I have forgotten]. Sackur pursued his usual hard-line aggressive and bullying mode of questioning – posing vigorous criticisms of the French government’s position on secularism and its hostility to the carving out of sacred domains by French Muslim peoples.  The implicit suggestion[1] was that the British system’s tolerance of religious sensibilities was a better line of policy.[2]

Muslim protests … and the selfie proudly posted by the Islamic terrorist who was responsible for the killings in Nice in October 2020

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November 4, 2020 · 1:04 am

Lindamulagē Isaac De Silva Sri Lanka’s First Sinhala Novelist

Mahendra Amerasekera, in Daily Mirror, 2 November 2020

Recently, when a popular television quiz show asked to name the first Sinhala novelist, theanswer was erroneously stated as Simon de Silva, and the novel as ‘Meena’. The host however was doubtful of the accuracy of this answer, and said as far as he could recall it was a writer from Moratuwa whose name he could not remember, and that the novel was ‘Wasanawantha Saha Kalakanni Pawul’. But on another quiz programme aired by the same channel on October 18, 2020 it was correctly stated that the first Sinhala novel was in fact ‘Wasanawantha Saha Kalakanni Pawul’.   

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November 3, 2020 · 1:02 am

The Muslim Commitment to Allah: Desultory Thoughts

An Invitation. Your Thoughts from Michael Roberts  …. sent to SELECT PALS on 31 October 2020

I just caught parts of  THE HARD TALK grilling of a French lady politician [by Stephen Sackur]. One problem with journalism is its wholly presentist focus//limits. In my view the recent jihadist attacks in France cannot be comprehended without looking at the motivations and goals of, say

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November 2, 2020 · 8:36 am

Sri Lanka Now is Aligned ….. not Non-Aligned

Tamara Kunanayakam, in The Island, 2 November 2020, where the title runs thus: “US-Lanka military alliance in the wake of Pompeo visit”

Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva

Former Chairperson of UN Working Group on the Right to Development

In fact, a military alliance between the US and Sri Lanka already exists. By signing ACSA in 2007, and renewing it in 2017, Sri Lanka committed its strategic entry points – ports and airports, our armed forces, our military installations, food, oil, and spare parts, to the US for its war against China.

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