May 8, 2017 · 3:06 pm

Has Assad been Tarred with a Sarin Brush? A False Flag Stratagem at Play?

 in Daily Mirror, 8 May 2017,  with title   “False-flag chemical weapons attack: Re-play of an old US ploy to smash Syria? – See more at:

As the fallout of the April 4th chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun in Syria continues to unfold, contradictory reports on the incident have produced more questions than answers as to what really happened.  The only certainty seems to be that sarin or a similar poison was used. This was confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons according to Reuters, but OPCW was not mandated to assign blame.

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May 8, 2017 · 2:46 pm

In Veneration of All Mothers

Diogenes

Mother is the wind, the earth and the sky,

 The serenity of the flower and the leaf,

The softness of a child’s sigh,

The steadfastness of the mountain and the star,

 The love of a Buddha

Mother, that’s what you are! Continue reading →

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May 7, 2017 · 2:13 pm

Kandy’s Landscape under Sunday Observer’s Eagle Eye

Sunday Observer Team, 17 May 2017

The Sunday Observer has launched “Cityscape” where our intrepid reporters will visit cities around the country, probing the shortcomings and asking the questions no one dared to ask before. In this segment of Cityscape, our staff journalists, Maneshka Borham and Husna Inayathullah are visiting the Hill Capital Kandy, the country’s second largest city, seeking answers to a host of issues including, but not limited to, garbage, air pollution and the lack of parking spaces.

 Kandy – mid 19th century overview    Kandy Today

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Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, governance, heritage, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions

May 7, 2017 · 1:51 pm

Sinhala at Cornell under Threat of Guillotine! A Protest

Malinda Seneviratne, in The Island, 7 May 2017, where the title reads “Save the Sinhala Program at Cornell University”

Deepthi Kumara Gunaratne once alleged that I never studied at Harvard University.  He said that I might have been eating hoppers in some boutique somewhere near Harvard, at best.  He was essentially claiming that I had learned nothing at Harvard.  Someone else asked me once what I had brought back from Harvard and I said ‘Harvard was too big to carry back to Sri Lanka,’ and, after a pause, added, ‘Harvard was too small too.’  Not true, strictly speaking, but I was using a broad brush and alluding to alleged superiority of certain knowledge systems, just like Deepthi.  Big or small the institution, big or small the individual, we leave something behind and we take away something too.  True of Harvard and true of Cornell University.

 Jim Gair at work  Cornell Uni Continue reading →

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May 7, 2017 · 3:15 am

Sri Lankan Airlines in Deep S**t !!

AFP News Item

A US equity firm that bid to buy a stake in Sri Lanka’s loss-making national airline has pulled its offer, officials said Saturday as the carrier scrambled for a new partner. TPG, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, has withdrawn its bid for a 49 percent stake in Sri Lankan, dashing hopes of a quick revival of the airline. “After completing the due diligence, regrettably TPG have informed us they will not pursue a potential investment in Sri Lankan airlines,” Sri Lankan Chairman Ajith Dias said in a memo to his staff. “It is their opinion that allocating the human and financial resources to make the airline profitable will not realise sufficient returns compared to the many other investment opportunities that are available to them,” Dias said. There was no immediate comment from TPG. Chairman of Sri Lankas national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines Ajith Dias addresses journalists during a press conference in Colombo on October 5, 2016. (ISHARA S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images) Continue reading →

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May 5, 2017 · 10:24 am

Nicobar Pigeon penetrates Australia

Victoria Laurie,  in the Australian, 5 May 2017, where the title presented is “The dodo’s gorgeous island-hopping relative finds its way to our shores”

A Nicobar pigeon has been found in the Kimberley.

A gorgeously plumed pigeon ­described as the closest living descenda­nt of the now extinct dodo has been found by Aborig­inal rangers in the Kimberley.The Nicobar pigeon has never before been found on the Australian mainland, but was spotted by Bardi Jawi rangers walking across a road near monsoon vine thickets at Chile Creek on the Dampier Peninsula last month.

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May 5, 2017 · 9:57 am

Sri Lankan Ingenuity! Only in Sri Lanka!!!

I have placed this real-life image in the cricketique web-site as the source of inspiration for Lasith Malinga’s hair style, but a comment from Mevan Peiris suggest a re-location to this web-site so as to promote wider acknowledgement. Indeed, I told Mevan that some millionaire-crank should consider purchase this item wholesale and gifting it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York as a remarkable artifact.

 In such an event, the millionaire would have to resolve the problem of what he should do with the bloke upon the husks at left earlobe !!

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May 5, 2017 · 5:01 am

Malaravan’s War Journey for Tiger Tamils, 1990s

War Journey, being translation of  Por Ulaa reviewed  here by three Indian intellectuals

ONE > R.K. Radhakrishnan: “A Heroic Life after Death,” 8 July 2013, The Hindu

Just as political parties in India used music, theatre and cinema with stunning results, the LTTE relied on the written word, and folklore, with the help of platform speakers in Tamil. Heroes are created long after their death. The embellished folklores, the sexed-up citations, even made-up stories of courage, valour and sacrifice — all contribute to the creation of a hero from an ordinary human being, who is often left without a choice of how, why and if he/she will be remembered or celebrated. Institutions and movements seek to capitalise on the emotional appeal of the ‘supreme sacrifice’ to further ‘The Cause.’ Continue reading →

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May 5, 2017 · 4:05 am

A Martyr for Allah — Jabar, the Assassin, in Sydney

  Rhiam Deutrom, in The Australian, 5 May 2017, where the title runs “Cheng killer Farhad Jabar feted as ‘martyr’ by accused co-plotters”

Farhad Jabar was celebrated as a “warrior” and a “martyr” in the days after the teenager shot unarmed NSW police finance employee Curtis Cheng in the back of the head, outside the Parramatta Police Headquarters, a court has heard. Farhad, killed by special constables during the attack in 2015, was allegedly given an illegal pistol by the men at the centre of a committal hearing this week in the Downing Centre Local Court. Talal Alameddine, 24, Mustafa Dirani, 23, Milad Atai, 21 and Raban Alou, 19, are facing charges relating to planning a terrorist act and supplying the .38 calibre pistol to Farhad. All but Mr Alou were present at court this week, dressed in prison-issued green tracksuits and seated together in the dock.

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May 4, 2017 · 10:18 am

Perinpanayagam’s Study of the LTTE Strand of Tamil Nationalism

Anushka Perinpanayagam, paperback, 2010 …

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a nationalist organisation which has been a key player in Sri Lanka’s ethnic war. Like the early Tamil nationalist groups in Sri Lanka, the LTTE professes to be a secularist organisation. This tradition of secularism distinguishes Tamil nationalism from its Sinhalese counterpart. A small group of academics, however, has debated whether the LTTE is truly secularist. The debate focuses on the LTTE’s ritual calendar and commemorative events which draw on religious symbols and which, according to some critics, have the character and quality of religious events. This project intervenes in this debate by analysing how scholars use the terms ‘religion’ and ‘secular’ when discussing the LTTE and Sri Lankan politics. In addition, this book investigates how the LTTE’s claim to be secular impacts upon its narration of history and its discourse around death and dying. This work is useful not only for those interested in the Sri Lankan situation but also for those who wish to explore nationalism, modernisation and the categories of religion and the secular.

 https://www.facebook.com/anushka.perinpanayagam

The book can be purchased via AMAZON = http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/handle/10063/1784… with illustrations below being from the Thuppahi stock associated with my work on the “sacrificial devotion” of the Tamil Tigers — work which is considered intelligently by Perinpanayagam in association with the writings of Peter schalk Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam and others.  Continue reading →

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