courtesy of www.cnn.com
No Sermons from the Ludicrous UNHCR please
Greg Sheridan, in The Australian, 12 November 2015, where the title is “Turnbull won’t fall for the Human Rights Hogwash”
HQ of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva
* “The UN is rotten to the core and the General Assembly is its core” = John Dauth
* “Everyone who looks closely at the UN sees how corrupt and ludicrous most of its workings are” – Sheridan
Nothing could more fully illustrate the fatuous idiocy of the United Nations than having North Korea, Iran and Egypt portentously criticising Australia’s human rights record as we are sized up for whether as a nation we meet the lofty standards required for membership of the UN Human Rights Council. Other member nations bring valuable insights from their different traditions. This can be a rich and textured dialogue. No one should preach the absoluteness of their own tradition.
You think?
Perhaps we could learn something from that member of the Human Rights Council in good standing, Saudi Arabia. We could introduce frequent beheadings, ban women from driving, and outlaw the public practice of any but the state approved religion. Continue reading
Rajpal Once More: Pictorial Impressions of Early Colonial Sri Lanka
Pictorial Impressions of Early Colonial Sri Lanka — Two further publications in the Series ….
courtesy of The Sunday Island, 7 November 2015,
TRAVEL and TRANSPORT: Rajpal de Silva & Ranjan Gooneratne
RELIGION and RITUALS: Rajpal de Silva & Albert Dharmasiri are to be launched on the 19th of November 2015
Comment – Vijita Fernando
The third and fourth volumes of Rajpal de Silva’s series of pictorial impressions of the early colonial era in Ceylon are once again a fascinating exploration into life in those early years in Ceylon. These two volumes deal with travel and transportation of the colonial years which he has compiled along with Ranjan Gooneratne, and religions and rituals of those early years in collaboration with Albert Dharmasiri. Continue reading
Sanga. A Parochial Assessment Profound
Adieu! Adieu! How Sanga smashed my Thomian Prejudices! … by Shanaka Amarasinghe, courtesy of The Cricket Monthly where the title reads “Liberation Song”
Pic by Gerald Copley for Getty Images
While many marriages end up with love turning to hate, there are some relationships that go the other way. The heroes of these stories rarely know whether they are loved or hated, but their journeys nevertheless invoke strong emotions.
Kumar Sangakkara evoked strong emotions in whatever he did. For many he was the symbol of a nation – a Horatio, bravely guarding the bridge to mediocrity. For many outside Sri Lanka he was a model batsman, a freakish record-breaker and an accented ambassador. But for me he was more real than that. He was the symbol of a generation. My generation. My loathsome, underachieving, fearful, suppressed generation. … GO TO https://cricketique.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/how-sanga-has-smashed-my-thomian-prejudices/
Filed under unusual people, world affairs
International Pressures & Island Fissures: Gunatilleke faces Ratnawalli
Q and A: Godfrey Gunatilleke meets Darshanie Ratnawalli
In contrast with the standard Q and A sessions, the series here is marked by in-depth reading of weighty documents and incisive questions with their own political agenda. Indeed, the questions were so combative that at one point Gunatilleke told Ratnawalli: “I must say I find your ad hominem questions a little amusing. This is what you call argument by exclamation.” Be that as it may, this series provides absorbing reading in relation to several momentous issues facing concerned Sri Lankans everywhere. The exchanges are long however and demand patience. To say “enjoy” at this point is misleading. Prepare for the benefit derived from the hard yards of a cross-country run. Emphases within the text are my insertions.Michael Roberts
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, citizen journalism, democratic measures, discrimination, doctoring evidence, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, TNA, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, war reportage, world events & processes
Refugee Migrant Influx or Invasion in Europe?
Are these Images True or False? Today’s Computer Wizardry in Political Dirty Tricks … OR A Searing Tale of Desperation?
The Critical Significance of Pictorial and Cartographic in Deciphering Eelam War IV: Extract from A Letter sent to the OISL Team in Geneva
Michael Roberts ….. This segment is part of an eight page survey sent to Sandra Beidas and her team in Geneva in November 2014. It addresses a problem we all face and a potential deficiency in the LLRC and Paranagama surveys: namely, their office room background.
Most analysts debating the intricacies of the war in its last phase have been, like this author, “armchair office personnel” with no battlefield experience. For this reason cartographic and pictorial evidence becomes especially important. While such perspectives have, indeed, been incorporated into the studies undertaken by the UN Panel of Experts and that of the ICEP, I insist that more detailed and thorough-going pictorial surveys are of central importance. My book, Tamil Person and State: Pictorial, is only one step in this direction. Video evidence is of even greater pertinence. That is why backroom investigators need to absorb the documentaries produced by Al-Jazeera as well as the propaganda videos peddled by Tamil outlets and the government (GSL). These media have to be carefully calibrated with the graphic map work produced by the International Crisis Group, the Daily Mirror and the Ministry of Defence.
Fig. 1– Graphic Map composed by ICG depicting the 1922 Penetration of the “Last Redoubt” (my concept)
Filed under accountability, atrocities, doctoring evidence, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Leopards and Wildcats in Lanka endangered?
An international summit on Asian wildcats begins tomorrow in Mount Lavinia as local concerns rise over the number of leopards – Sri Lanka’s most charismatic wild cat – killed in the span of a few weeks, some through reckless driving.
Sri Lanka is home to four wild- cats: leopards, fishing cats, jungle cats and rusty spotted cats all of which are threatened species. According to the National Red List on Threatened Fauna and Flora, the jungle cat is “near threatened” while the other species are “endangered”.
“As predators, these species are of potentially profound importance to the ecosystems of which they are a part and it is only armed with knowledge of their behaviour and ecology that we can implement effective conservation and management strategies to ensure their long-term survival,” said Dr. Andrew Kittle of the Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT), ahead of the symposium aimed at sharing research knowledge on wildcats. Continue reading
A Doctor’s Voice from Munchen in Germany … Prejudiced? Yes, but …
A Female Physician in Munich, Germany sends a message to the world . . . . . . Yesterday, at the hospital we had a meeting about how the situation here and at the other Munich hospitals is unsustainable. Clinics cannot handle emergencies, so they are starting to send everything to the hospitals.
Many Muslims are refusing treatment by female staff and, we, women, are refusing to go among those animals, especially from Africa. Relations between the staff and migrants are going from bad to worse. Since last weekend, migrants going to the hospitals must be accompanied by police with K-9 units.
Pic from Reuters–Marko Djurica
Paranagama speaks to ADA DERANA
Foreign involvement in mechanism a political decision – Paranagama, … in Derana, 233 October 2015, …
http://www.adaderana.lk/news/32801/foreign-involvement-in-mechanism-a-political-decision-paranagama
The Chairman of Sri Lanka’s three-member probe commission says that certain isolated incidents that may have occurred outside the activities of the war should be investigated in depth to come to conclusion. He said that whether to permit foreign involvement in the mechanism, more than observing, is a political decision. “Those are political decisions we never wanted to tread,” Maxwell Paranagama told Ada Derana in an interview.
Filed under accountability, doctoring evidence, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, news fabrication, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world affairs
