May 22, 2015 · 4:25 am

Koenigsberg on the Western INVESTMENT in Bloody Warfare and Suicidal Missions

Letter from Richard Koenigsberg to Michael Roberts, 21 May 2015

Again, your description is great—like to see more of this kind of “literary” prose. I think you have an idea of what I’m doing, but let me put it forward again (this is where it all began): I’m trying to point out that the West is DEEPLY IMPLICATED in “suicide missions” (SM as you call it, or is it S&M?) In the scene you just saw—and in nearly every battle in the First World War (and also in the Civil War), generals sent soldiers into battle with a high probability that they would be slaughtered. THE SCALE OF THIS DWARFS WHAT ANY TERRORIST ORGANIZATION HAS DONE.

Yet, for some strange reason, people in the West have difficulty seeing this: it’s right in front of our faces, yet we can’t see it. We take it for granted. It’s part of our culture. We take war for granted.

richard koenigsberg 22 Continue reading →

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May 21, 2015 · 7:04 pm

War as Blood and Gore: Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944

In support of my concept of “sacrificial devotion” and in keeping with his consistent criticism of all the generals on all the sides in World War One, Richard Koenigsberg has sent me a video clip of US troops storming and blundering onto Omaha Beach at Normandy on D-day 6th June 1944. It is an unfolding picture of fear, faith, bravery, death and carnage. You see men kissing their rosaries and crosses as the landing craft approach the beach  —  you see guys shot to pieces, limbs being torn asunder, a man with entrails hanging out shouting “Mamaaaaaa” …

It is actually a set of scenes from Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks involved. However its is realistic fiction involving the use of contemporary film pyrotechnics  to capture the horrors of war. So those young bucks who head for war zones and chauvinists and patriots who push for insurgency do need to absorb the effects.

You can click either of these links

 But, a WARNING …the film’s realism is horrible.

NOTE: David Hart, an authority on war movies, had this to say: “The stir caused by Spielberg’s WW2 combat movie “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) has been caused by the unflinching depiction of the nature of combat for those American soldiers who landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy on 6 June 1944. For many viewers it is the first time in 54 years that the nature of an amphibious assault under fire by modern weapons has been depicted in such graphic detail on the screen.”

For more on  and by HART see http://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/assets/pdf/Hart-ProPatriaMori.pdf

ALSO SEE http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/surviving-d-day-omaha-beach-1944-full-documentary.html AND use the material to reflect upon “The Will to War…” Continue reading →

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May 19, 2015 · 11:29 am

Reflections on Caste Disabilities in the Jaffna Peninsula in 1973 and Movements towards the Present

Jane Russell  …. Memo to Michael Roberts re Articles to Sri Lanka Guardian from Sebastian Rasalingam (Toronto) and Thomas Johnpulle (London) on the topic of caste in Jaffna and its effect on politics and culture in Sri Lanka

When I first lived and studied in Jaffna in late 1973, there were elderly women who went around the villages, streets and markets with no upper covering over their breasts. I had come from a UK where young women occasionally went bare-breasted as an extreme commitment to feminism. This was different.. yet somehow also the same…these women appeared to have no embarrassment nor shame about their nakedness..their sagging breasts were blatantly exposed to all..I wondered whether Gloria Steinem might even have approved? But also I instinctively felt that Simone de Beauvoir would have immediately recognised an abuse…..of birth, of poverty, of gender which those women had internalised to the point where it didn’t matter to them anymore.

But when they were young? Imagine the society in which these sixty year old women had entered puberty and grown to adulthood in the 1930’s….where their nudity was demanded by upper caste men and (presumably) the wives, sisters and daughters of upper caste men: possibly these upper caste women felt relief that they were excused this dishonouring custom by the Victorian prudery adopted by the English educated class of which they were part. Continue reading →

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May 18, 2015 · 6:49 pm

Debating Tales of Caste Oppression in the North

Michael Roberts

Sebastian Rasalingam and Thomas Johnpulle have been frequent essayists on Sri Lankan and Tamil politics. They seem to be elder statesman of sorts, apparently residing in Canada. The name “Johnpulle” could be Colombo Chetty or Sri Lankan Tamil. While the article by Rasalingam which drew my attention suggested an Indian Tamil background in one spot, elsewhere it seemed that his family had been at the severe end of caste discrimination in the Jaffna heartland. After some detective work Chandre Dharmawardana in Canada has clarified matters on this latter score in his site http://dh-web.org/place.names/rasalingam/

“Mr. Sebastian Rasalingam has declined our attempts to meet with him. He has communicated with us by e-mail and sometimes sent us his articles (that we had missed) by e-mail. He has stated that Prof. Hoole, and many other distinguished Tamil academics have also communicated with him, and that he is in no position to meet with anyone, especially because of his advanced age.
It is believed that he lives with his children who have immigrated to Ontario, Canada. Based on his writings, we surmise that, unlike most Tamil-speaking writers, he is an educated, vocal “low-caste” Tamil. He seems to have grown up in the Donoughmore era (1930s), lived in Jaffna, Mannar and Hatton. We discern his wife to be an “Indian Tamil” from Hatton. Their arrival in Colombo is said to have opened him the possibility of further self-education in night schools etc., unhindered by the caste restrictions and threats that he had faced in previous locations.”

The claims presented by Rasalingam about the discrimination encountered on trains taking Indian Tamil peoples to India via the Mannar rail route struck me as questionable and I decided to draw on Victor Melder’s long and loving experience with the Ceylon Government Railway[1] to test one facet of Rasalingam’s tale. Likewise my initial readings of both articles suggested a measure of stridency and overkill in their assertions. Continue reading →

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May 18, 2015 · 5:11 pm

Rasalingam and Johnpulle on Caste Discrimination in Tamil Society in the Past and Its Pertinence Today

Two old articles penned in 2011 by Sebastian Rasalingam and Thomas Johnpulle on alleged caste oppression in Jaffna Tamil society turned up in my email letter box a few months back. Because of my long engagement with caste issues in the Sinhala south and more recent explorations of the caste factor within Tamil nationalist politics and in the story of the LTTE, I embarked on a project of arousal. The procedure will be clarified in another post alongside this one. Here I content myself with reproducing the two essays with my thanks extended to Nilantha Ilangamuwa and the Sri Lanka Guardian for their original sponsorship of these writings. Michael Roberts

ONE: SEBASTIAN RASALINGAM –  “Keeping Tamil culture and uprooting the caste system from the North,” July 2011, http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/07/keeping-tamil-culture-and-uprooting.html

My article published in the Sri Lanka Guardian, entitled “Sinhalizatioon of the North and the Tamilzation of the South” was provoked by a response to D. B. S. Jeyaraj’s article on Kokachchankulam by Prof. Dharmawardana who maintains a detailed website on place names. My article was followed by a very compassionate and hopeful article by Pearl Thevanayagam and Dr. Narendran. We also see Jeyaraj taking up the same theme within a different script under the title “Tamil destiny is inextricably intertwined with that of the Sinhalese“.

rasalingam JP coast Continue reading →

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May 18, 2015 · 1:12 pm

One of Skandakumar’s Reflective Journeys in 2012

S. Skandakumar, in The Island, 23 June 2012, where the title is “Some things British and some Brits I have known” … being the Speech made on the occasion of the Sri Lanka UK Society’s celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

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Your Excellency, John Rankin, High Commissioner for Britain in Sri Lanka, Eminent Excellencies of the International Diplomatic Corps, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, When Carlo your President invited me on behalf of his committee to this evening’s function, I said to him, “Carlo I am four years into retirement, I have spent it all in relative hibernation in Haputale and many feel that soon I will be ready for the Archives “…to which his response was ‘Ah that’s just the profile we are looking for !!” Continue reading →

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May 18, 2015 · 10:31 am

The Will to War: Anzac, Mujahid, Kamikaze, Tiger

Michael Roberts

  • “It was an adventure,” said an old Australian soldier to the camera during a TV sequence retailing the tales of enlistment for war during the 20th century in the course of the massive media coverage leading up to Anzac day on 25th April 2015 one hundred years after the disastrous Australian participation in Allied operations against Turkey at Gallipoli.[1]
  • “Are you a terrorist?” asked the film-maker in the course of a relaxed interview with an Algerian migrant from Britain netted by the police in Frankfurt before he and his colleagues embarked on a bomb-planting operation at the Christkindelsmärik beside Strasbourg Cathedral in 2000. “No, I am a mujahid” said the young man quietly in firm denial.[2]

Enlistment for War: Australian Visions

One of the vignettes above highlights one thread in the mix of motives that prompted Australian males to enlist in the Australian forces committed to support Britain and its Allies in the First World War in 1914. In surmise one could say that some young teenagers who bumped up their age in order to join the brigades were particularly inspired by a spirit of reckless adventure in embarking on this deadly pursuit. Continue reading →

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May 16, 2015 · 1:37 pm

Meditations: The Ascetic Buddhist Path at Serene Kudumbigala Rock Monastery

Courtesy of Chula Wickramasinghe, Hiran Cooray and Asoka Kuruppu

Here atop the Kudumbigala Rock experience first hand the ascetic’s tranquil way of life. Wrapped in an atmosphere of calm, Buddhist monks, who have renounced even the austere comforts of the village temple, lead an isolated existence absorbed in mediation, seeking the all elusive inner peace. They follow in the steps of their religious brethren who continuously made this rocky habitat their forest hermitage for over two thousand years.  Cloistered from external distractions, ensconced amidst rocks and trees and balmed by a soothing breeze they strive to attain Nirvana, which Buddhists hold as the spiritual kingdom where freedom of the mind reigns supreme.

Leave behind your emotional baggage, conditioned thoughts, prejudices and perceived notions at the foot of this rock, steeped in history. And begin to take the first step on a pilgrim’s progress to explore the serenity of an entirely different world.  The long and winding path to the top of the rock is placidly beautiful with each step inviting you to take the next, which inexorably you do. The soil on the ground is sandy white, clean and pure. Tall trees and even taller boulders flank the enchanting path as it twists and turns leading toward the summit where the ambience provides one with the opportunity to discover the joys of losing one’s ego. At one point in the trek, you find the path taking you through two giant boulders, a rocky canyon. Rocks rise on either side and some slope away.

kudumbigala monastery Continue reading →

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May 16, 2015 · 7:35 am

Stratagems & Spoils: Backroom Campaign to Oust Rajapaksa clarified by Kapila Ranasinghe

Chamitha Kuruppu, courtesy of Daily Ft, where the title is “The mission to oust Mahinda, win over Maithri and select a common candidate”

In a candid interview with the Daily FT, Dr. Kapila Ranasinghe revealed a secret mission they launched to oust once-powerful President Mahinda Rajapaksa, convince the former General Secretary of the SLFP Maithripala Sirisena to cross over and the crucial task of selecting a common candidate. Dr. Kapila Ranasinghe is one of the few scholars who has had the privilege of studying at Harvard University, Cambridge University and University of Colombo. He serves as a Director in six private sector companies, Consultant in Strategy and Innovation and a visiting lecturer for masters programs in local and foreign universities. Following are excerpts:

Kapila RDr. Kapila Ranasinghe – Pix by Lasantha Kumara

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May 16, 2015 · 6:44 am

“Speaketh with Forked Tongue” — John Kerry in Sri Lanka

Mohan Samaranayake, in The Island, 16 May 2015, where the title is “Holes in John Kerry’s bucket“

The two day visit to Sri Lanka by John Kerry, the Secretary of State, USA, on 2nd and 3rd May, the first by a US Secretary of State since Collin Powell’s brief visit here in 2005 in the aftermath of boxing day Tsunami, rightly received wide media coverage in news and commentary. Leaders of the Government lost no time to call it a landmark achievement for its yahapalana principles and it s efforts to win back the International Community which was ‘foolishly antagonized by the Rajapaksa regime’. A section of the media, especially English language, and civil society activists hailed the visit, with heightened joy and enthusiasm.

KERRY AND MS

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