April 29, 2017 · 9:59 am

Legless Sapper Delivers Anzac Day Address in Canberra

Jamie Walker, courtesy of The Australian, 25 April 2017, where the title is “Tour of duty inspires hero Curtis McGrath’s Anzac honour”

Curtis McGrath lost both his legs when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2012, but not the will to excel. He was walking on prosthetic limbs within three months.  And on a golden day in Rio de Janeiro last September, the young combat engineer stood tall to keep a promise he made to the mates who helped save his life on the battlefield: he would go to the Paralympics and win.

If the gold medal in the KL2 paracanoe was a highlight of his epic journey back from injury, it’s neck-and-neck with the honour conferred on him this Anzac Day. Sapper McGrath, 29, was [chosen] to ­deliver the commemorative address this morning at the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. His subject was sacrifice, duty and the debt he owed to his country. Continue reading →

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April 28, 2017 · 2:55 pm

Against The Modernist Grain: Polyandry & Other Traditional Practices that may still persist in Sri Lanka

Asiff Hussein, courtesy of Roar Life, 25 April 2017, where the chosen title is  “Three Strange Sri Lankan Customs And The Stories Behind Them”

Sri Lankans had, and still have, some strange traditions that are thought of as indigenous. However, much of these have their origins in other parts of the world, especially in India, and, to a lesser extent, in the Middle East. Here are three such local beliefs and customs with exotic origins.

Dola-Duka (Pregnancy Craving)

Sri Lankans, and especially the Sinhalese, believe that mothers-to-be experience a longing to eat certain kinds of foods, and that if these cravings are not satisfied, it would harm her health or the child she is carrying. This is known as dola-duka. Continue reading →

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Aussie Duplicity: A Cartographic Veil for Kim Jong Un and His Nukes

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April 28, 2017 · 9:07 am
April 27, 2017 · 4:17 pm

Distinguished Sri Lankan Aussies: DFAT Honours

Distinguished Sri Lankan Australians profiled by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade … with photographs by Nathan Fulton of that institution

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April 27, 2017 · 2:18 pm

Apoi! Apoi! Yahapaalanaya!!! Walking Gossiping Sinhala Gentlemen Today

  Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda, Courtesy of the Daily Mirror, 9 March 2017, where the title is “Eavesdropping in Colombo Colonial slang rules the local tongue”

There is a pounding on the sand, a sound of thudding footsteps. A young woman in yellow shorts flashes past. Behind her puff several older women in tracksuits, behind them a woman strides out in a black chador. Colombo was once a shabby third world capital like any other, its buildings and its people hiding behind high walls and piles of sandbags. Since the end of the Eelam War the walls have been knocked down and the city has become a place of sweeping open spaces, elegant colonial buildings, parks, walkways, ponds and lakes.  The end of the war has ushered in a revolution. Walking was once the preserve of the upper middle class: now everybody flocks to these public spaces. Previously you would only hear English, the voice of Sri Lanka’s colonial past, but now it is mostly Sinhala and/or Tamil.   

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April 26, 2017 · 5:24 pm

The Deep Imprint of Prabhakaran’s Thamililam: Kilinochchi in May 2009

Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda, being an article published in The Island on 17 May 2009 and thereafter in 2010 by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies –with the title “Letters on a Blackboard – A Lost Generation” … being a review is based on the author’s personal impressions and experience of the last Eelam War. Much of the material was gathered during the course of the author’s visits to the war zone between 19 March and 27 April 2009,

52-chicago_maaveerar_naal_usa1_21081_435    The entrance to Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam (Kilinochchi High School) is dominated by a large map. Although it is actually a map of Sri Lanka, most of it is blank. One section however, is clear and sharply defined in bright red. Stretching all the way down from the top, it occupies the entire north of the island, snaking down on either side. On the west coast it touches the outskirts of the capital Colombo; on the east, it reaches right down to the deep south. All in all, the red areas encompass more than one third of the entire landmass and almost two thirds of the coastline. Continue reading →

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April 26, 2017 · 2:29 pm

Hillary Quite Contrary: American Zealotry

About Hillary Clinton in public on the world stage on Sri Lanka on 22 April 2009

“One glaring instance of this blinding zealotry in the wielding of power was when Clinton directed a tongue-lashing at the government of Sri Lanka on the 22nd April 2009 for engendering “a terrible humanitarian tragedy.”[1] about 36 hours after all the Western ambassadors had been shown real time aerial footage[2] of some 100-110,000 civilians streaming across the shallow parts of Nandikadal Lagoon to safety in the wake of a remarkable SL Army military operation launched on the night of the 19th April.” …. Michael Roberts = https://thuppahis.com/2017/04/26/the-death-toll-in-2009-deceit-and-myopia-international-and-lankan/#more-25087

             The Exodus 21-24 April 2009    Smoke from air strike in Syria – 1413219939287_wps_33_Smoke_from_an_airstrike_b-300×199.jpg Continue reading →

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April 26, 2017 · 11:17 am

Hillary Clinton’s Anti-Syrian Fire & Brimstone, 31 December 2012

Choice & Truth, 2 October 2016, where the title is “Clinton Email: We Must Destroy Syria For Israel”

A leaked Hillary Clinton email has now confirmed that the Obama administration, with Hillary directing policy, orchestrated a civil war in Syria to benefit Israel’s geopolitical interests and stability.  The new Wikileaks release shows that Clinton, then Secretary of State orchestrated the war in Syria to overthrow the government of President Assad, because it is “best way to help Israel”.

Newobserveronline.com reports: “The document was one of many unclassified by the US Department of State under case number F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498, following the uproar over Clinton’s private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.” Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email (in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul) show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012. The email makes it clear that it has been US policy from the very beginning to violently overthrow the Syrian government—and specifically to do this because it is in Israel’s interests. Continue reading →

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April 26, 2017 · 3:06 am

The Death Toll in 2009: Deceit and Myopia, International and Lankan

 Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph which  accepted the idea in principle several days ago, but requested a division of the essay into six parts.

Discussion of the death toll during Eelam War IV and the related topic of “The Disappeared” has been marked by collective myopia. Most discussions have dwelt in cloud cuckoo-land. This criticism can be levelled at the witch-hunters in the Western international order (whether UN and Western officials, media personnel or Tamil migrants) as well as the liberal humanists within the Sri Lankan middle class supporting a range of allegations. However, it also applies to analysts and reporters in defense of the realm such as Rohan Gunaratna,[1] Shamindra Ferdinando,[2] the editors of Sri Lanka’s print and internet media and many defenders of the Sri Lankan dispensation in its moment of crisis.

 1=Tiger dead assembled by SL Army (MoD Pic)    2 = A body in the Last Redoubt, presumably Tiger (MoDefence Pic)

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April 25, 2017 · 4:09 pm

Arjuna in Battle and under Duress 1999

Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of The Cricket Monthly, at ESPNcricinfo …..where the title is “Arjuna Versus”

 This is an unique image… and if I am not mistaken the bloke on the left side of the taxi is Lionel, an avid supporter in Sri Lanka and everywhere those days. The day on which this photo was taken is a puzzle because it is daytime and could not conceivably have occurred on the day of the match because it was, I think, a day-night game.

VISIT CRICKETIQUE for full article at https://cricketique.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/arjuna-the-indomitable-challenging-aussie-skulduggery-in-1995-98-and-more/#more-9225

 An unprecedented finger-wagging confrontation between Umpire Emerson and Captain Arjuna Ranatunga at Adelaide Oval during the ODI match vs England on 23 January 1999 — the incident which led to disciplinary charges against Arjuna Ranatunga

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