Algal… Algal … !!! Confronting the Threat Along Adelaide’s Beaches

A Circular from Louise Miller-Frost, MP for Boothby, mid-August  2025 … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

I spent most of Wednesday at the SARDI/PIRSA facility in West Beach with Federal Environment Minister Senator Murray Watt and Deputy Premier and SA Environment Minister Susan Close.
Scientists briefed us on the causal factors, development and impact of the bloom and possible future scenarios.

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When S. Thomas’ College Stormed into the Rugby Arena in Lanka

Sajeewa Jayakody, in  an article entitled S.Thomas’ College ’s bold beginning in rugby,” August 6, 2025 …. with  highlighting being  an  imposition by The Editor, Thuppahi

The 1961 S. Thomas’ College rugby team captained by Tony Sirimanne….

Back Row: M.Flamer Caldera, C.R. Dickson, H.R. C . D’Silva, M.N.A. Gunasekera, H.L.C. D’Silva, C.L.Perera, G. D’Silva, S.J. P. Guneratne, B.C. Molligoda, R.Jayatileke, N.Dias- Abeysinghe.

Seated: Mr P. Perera (Coach), J. Cader, H.S.Kanagaabai, T.Sirimanne (Captain), The Warden, M.G. Koch, M.Samarasinghe, Mr L.W. Abeywardena. ….

Ground: C. Asirwatham, C.H. Weerasooriya.

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Facing A Tsunami & A Civil War

Dennis  M. McGilvray, in an  article  pubd in 2006 in the India Review, vol. 5, nos. 3–4, July/October, 2006, pp. 372–393 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC  …. ISSN 1473-6489 print; 1557-3036 online DOI:10.1080/14736480600939132 … one bearing this title:  “Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka: An Anthropologist Confronts the Real World

Recent calls for a new “public anthropology” to promote greater visibility for ethnographic research in the eyes of the press and the general public, and to bolster the courage of anthropologists to address urgent issues of the day, are laudable although probably also too hopeful. Yet, while public anthropology could certainly be more salient in American life, it already exists in parts of the world such as Sri Lanka where social change, ethnic conflict, and natural catastrophe have unavoidably altered the local context of ethnographic fieldwork. Much of the anthropology of Sri Lanka in the last three decades would have to count as “public” scholarship, because it has been forced to address the contemporary realities of labor migration, religious politics, the global economy, and the rise of violent ethno-nationalist movements. As a long-term observer of the Tamil-speaking Hindu and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka’s eastern coastal region, I have always been attracted to the classic anthropological issues of caste, popular religion, and matrilineal kinship. However, in the wake of the civil wars for Tamil Eelam and the 2004 tsunami disaster, I have been forced to confront (somewhat uneasily) a fundamentally altered field- work situation. This gives my current work a stronger flavor of public anthropology, while providing an opportunity for me to trace older matrilocal family patterns and Hindu-Muslim religious traditions under radically changed conditions.

 BEACHFRONT HOME DESTROYED BY TSUNAMI, MARUTHAMUNAI. AUGUST 2005

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UNHRO Calls for Investigation of Past Killings in Lanka

 

Tamil and Sinhala versions attached

Sri Lanka has opportunity to break from past – Türk

GENEVA (13 August 2025) – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses committed in the past, including international crimes.

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A ‘Refreshing’ Mountain in Portugal: Pico del Areeiro

A cinematic mountain backdrop

Pico do Areeiro, the third-highest point on the island of Madeira, is located at an altitude of 1,818 metres. From this elevated spot, the ample view allows observers to extend their gaze over the unique grandeurs of Madeira’s Mountainous Massif, with the Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Besides the wide view over the central mountain range, from Pico do Areeiro you can also see Ponta de São Lourenço, Curral das Freiras and, on clear days, the island of Porto Santo.

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Turbines at Mannar are A Threat to Vital Bird Corridor

Dilum Alagiyawanna, in Daily Mirror,  August 2025

Local-based renewable projects, unlike Adani’s mega 5.2 MW high-efficiency turbines, show that cleaner energy is possible, without harming Sri Lanka’s sensitive bird habitat. 


The Central Asian Flyway is one of the most significant bird migration corridors globally, stretching from Siberia and Central Asia to the Indian Ocean.

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How to ‘Tweak’ Trump’s Tariff Programme to Benefit Lanka

 Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake,  whose preferred title is “Opportunity in Trump’s Tariff Shock: Diversify Products, Markets, and Industrialize”

Real and staged crises present opportunities to reorient, innovate and think outside the box.  Trump’s tariff ‘shock’ presents Sri Lanka’s business sector and national policy makers with an opportunity for short, intermediate and long term economic and industrial policy shifts out of the current neocolonial, services heavy, economic model.

At this time, the focus of discussion should be on Development of New Products and New Markets by businesses and entrepreneurs, in partnership with state agencies like the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI), in order to grow the economy out of the Eurobond- USD debt trap and International Monetary Fund bailout business.

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Public or Private Health Care? The Dilemma Sri Lankans Face

Fazli Sameer, at Those Fuzzy Days where the title of the article runs thus: “Ethics of Health Care: Waiting, Paying and Weeping,” … with highlighting here imposed by The  Editor, Thuppahi

When my sister, Kumari, went for her annual cardiac check-up to the elite Makalanka hospital, we expected the usual strain, long hours of waiting, some tests, and maybe a bit of worry. What we didn’t expect was to be caught between two worlds: one where care came with a steep price and hidden payments, and another where care seemed trapped in endless waiting and fading patience.

Waiting. It’s the first and most universal experience patients face when seeking medical care in today’s clinics and hospitals. Whether public or private, the hours-long wait, without explanation or apology, has become the norm.

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Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills: German Settlers From 1839 On ….

Keith Conlon in a Genealogical Society of Queensland – GSQ’s post =deospnoStrg8 r42uti9lf3m8pgff0il26tl5f1tag2f57flti74h033aA5t · … entitled  “From Prussa to Hahndorf in South Australia. Thanks to Keith Conlon”

The end of an epic pioneer voyage:  it began in Silesia, Prussia, for the ‘Old Lutheran’ religious refugees who founded Hahndorf in South Australia in August 1839.

John Ford waterccolour    

 

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Israel’s NAZI Terror in Palestine … with US & European Backing

Bishop Duleep de Chickera in Colombo, in an  article  in  GROUNDVIEWS, 31 July  2025, entitled “From Toe Hold to Freehold: Zionist Occupation Strategies”

GV NOTE  INTRODUCING THE AUTHOR : In 2001 Duleep De Chickera was ordained the 14th Anglican Bishop of Colombo. Educated at Royal College, Colombo and representing the college at 1st XV Rugby, he gained his training for the ministry at the Theological College of Lanka in Pilimathalawa, earning a B.Th thereafter earning a M.Sc. from Keble College, Oxford.  He has served as chaplain and then as the sub-warden of S. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia. And in 2008 was accorded the honour of preaching a key sermon at the Lambeth Conference in the presence of 650 Bishops from around the world.

When US President Donald Trump arrogantly suggested that the neighbouring Arab States should absorb the Gaza population as a solution to Israel’s decimation of Gaza, he announced what discerning persons the world over had already perceived – the earliest Zionist Israeli arrivals, courtesy Lord Balfour, had come to take it all.

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