Thuppahi&#039;s Blog

Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, communal relations, economic processes, education, governance, life stories, patriotism, rehabilitation, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, working class conditions

April 7, 2024 · 8:11 pm

Stark Images of Ethnic Retribution & Violence in Colombo, late July 1983

Photos selected by Michael Roberts & Rendered Accessible by David Sansoni of Sydney

Commencing with a ‘shot’ of passers-by and ordinary citizens assaulting and ridiculing a Tamil person at Galle Road in Colpetty

Filed under accountability, atrocities, citizen journalism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, photography, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, racism, refugees, riots and pogroms, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry

April 7, 2024 · 5:32 pm

Black Friday in Colombo: 29 July 1983

Sugath Kulatunga, …. original submission with highlighting added by the Editor, Thuppahi

That** was the story of Monday. The Friday that followed was a stark tragedy and a national calamity which has left its bloody stain in the records of our recent history. This was my harrowing experience of Friday 29 July 1983.

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, conspiracies, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry

April 7, 2024 · 2:06 pm

Transforming Sri Lanka Cricket …. in 2001

Rex Clementine in Sunday Island, 7 April 2024, where the title reads thus:

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the appointment of the first ever Cricket Interim Committee. Ironically, the man who was chosen to Chair that committee, although a keen follower of the game, had little experience in its administration. Rienzie T. Wijetilleke is his name.

Orders to appoint Wijetilleke, then the Chairman of Hatton National Bank, came directly from the Country‘s President, Chandrika Kumaratunga who was well acquainted with his “no nonsense” approach to discipline and accountability.

Filed under accountability, cricket selections, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people

April 6, 2024 · 3:43 am

Pictorials: Roman Szechowycz in the Dry Zone in the 1950s

Michael Roberts

Dr Roman Szechowycz and his brother served the newly independent island of Ceylon in its hydraulic agriculture projects in the Dry Zone in the period 1950 to 1961 …. mostly from a base at Inginiyagala in the Eastern Province where the Gal Oya Tank was constructed. We are fortunate to have some photographic ‘asides’ of a “personnel nature” — so to speak — associated with this work The detailed descriptions presented elsewhere in TPS: viz.; …..

Experiences: Working on the Gal Oya Project in Ceylon, 1950-61

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, commoditification, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, population, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

April 6, 2024 · 12:58 am

Undermining the Australians at the Colombo Oval in 1948?

**Hugh Karunanayake, in The Island, 2023 …. with his preferred title running thus: “Did Ceylon Try a Fast One on Don Bradman’s Team?”**

Bradman struggles against Sathi Coomaraswamy

The Ceylon Team walks out to field

The last cricketing appearance by Don Bradman in Sri Lanka was at the Colombo Oval on March 31, 1948, before a capacity crowd of 20,000. The Australian Team was on their way to England for the Ashes series and stopped over in Colombo to play a one-day game against what was then called the All Ceylon XI – captained by M. Sathasivam. The game was characterized by two major controversies. The first was on the captaincy of the Ceylon team which many thought should have gone to the more experienced and accomplished F.C. de Saram. T. B. Marambe in his book “Pen sketches of our cricketers” thought that “de Saram clearly had not had sufficient contact with the common man” and the selectors preferred the popular Sathasivam instead.

Filed under accountability, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, heritage, life stories, performance, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, world events & processes

April 5, 2024 · 8:01 pm

THAT Monday 25th July 1983 in Colombo: Organized Violence within the Pogrom

Sugath Kulatunga .…. in item entitled “Black July Monday 25th” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In my last post on the 4th of March, I mentioned that the time I served under Lalith [Athulathmudali] was the golden era of my public service. But it did not occur to me that I had deliberately suppressed in my mind the ugliest and nastiest week in my life as well as of the nation. That was the week of Black July of the ghastliest communal riots. Let me recall my experience of that week.

4 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, conspiracies, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes

April 3, 2024 · 11:37 pm

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh Twice — Away in Bangladesh – and Move to Third in Test Table

Mahinda Balasuriya in ESPNcricinfo, 3 April 2024, where the title runs thus: “Sri Lanka wrap up 192-run win to complete series sweep”

Sri Lanka did not take long on the fifth morning to pick up the remaining three Bangladesh wickets  •  Getty Images

Filed under cricket for amity, cricket selections, life stories, patriotism, performance, Sri Lankan cricket

April 3, 2024 · 10:24 pm

Islamic Hands? Controversy over Moscow Bomb Attack

Michael Roberts

The information and interpretations present in this Thuppahi website by “A Observer in a Black Sea Resort” (see refs at end) have been challenged by several Academic friends of mine located in the West (A and B quoted below within this text). However, another friend located in USA …. a Sri Lankan as it happens …. has chipped in with a counterpunch (see C below); while another Sri Lankan has also added a note of significance.

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, heritage, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, racism, religious nationalism, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, World War II and Ceylon, zealotry

April 2, 2024 · 8:21 pm

Britain MI 6 behind Crocus Hall Attack in Moscow

An Observer in a Black Sea Town, .… with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The FSB (Russian intelligence) have gathered documentary evidence plus statements from recent persons complicit in the terrorist attacks in Moscow that conclusively prove that the explosives and weapons used in the Crocus terrorist attack (which were also to be used in other attacks inside Russia) went by road 2,000 miles starting in Kiev, then moving by truck across the Romanian, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia borders into Russia.

See below for the journey taken to move weapons and explosives from Ukraine into Russia to be used in multiple terrorist attacks (with ISIS to take the blame).