October 28, 2014 · 12:42 am

Brigitte Gabriel’s Devastating Criticism of Simple-Minded Political Correctness

Brigitte-Gabriel-665x385SEE her response to the Question from law student Saba Ahmad at http://ozziesaffa.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-bet-she-regrets-asking-her-question.html ,,,

….. a question which replicated the simplistic, seemingly deep but quite obtuse and totally impractical point-of-view that was ALSO embodied in the question from Ursula — another law student — selected by TONY JONES of Q and A on Australian Broadcasting Channel’s popular Monday night show yesterday 27th October. This question was taken seriously by Geoffrey Robertson, HR Lawyer, and given a a partial nod of  approval.

Brigitte Gabriel also took it seriously … and then tore it to shreds. Continue reading →

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October 27, 2014 · 8:21 am

KP’s Frantic Efforts to Save the Tiger Leaders in 2009 … and USA’s Pursuits

Michael Roberts: “Setting the Context — Fragments of Data”

The recent ‘recovery’ of Fr. Gaspar Raj’s information on the various ideas and lines of endeavour directed towards saving the LTTE leadership in the dire circumstances confronting them in 2009, together with the interjections of PK Balachandran and Muralidhar Reddy that convey indirect information from other sources, provide one with significant wisps of data on the strategic “pursuits” favoured by USA in relation to Sri Lanka in 2008/09. I use the term “pursuits” advisedly here as an omnibus term for the USA’s mixture of goals, a ‘product’ that I hope to clarify, via conjecture and by analytical deduction, in essays to be written after the Wikileaks disclosures of US embassy despatches[1] have been digested.

The information in this respect within the Gaspar Raj item has particular value because this Tamil Jesuit from southern India is a rabid nationalist who has been an ardent supporter of the LTTE and continues to voice extremist claims, including charges of “genocide” levelled at the government of Sri Lanka.[2] Continue reading →

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October 27, 2014 · 6:32 am

Buddhist Extremists in Sri Lanka and Burma on the Warpath

Latheef Farook, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 11 October 2014, where the title is “BBS – Wirathu Agreement: Declaration Of War On Muslims In Sri Lanka And South Asia”

Anti Muslim Sinhala racist outfit Bodu Bala Sena(BBS), which does not represent the mainstream Sinhala Buddhists, but had done considerable damage to pit Sinhalese against Muslims in the name of Sinhalese and Buddhism, together with Myanmar’s convicted criminal Ashin Wirathu, have declared war on Islam and Muslims in Sri Lanka and in South Asia. As part of this program the two sides, BBS and 969, also signed a special agreement aimed at creating South Asia free of what they described as (Islamic) terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

bhikkhus listen to Wirathuv-AFP Bhikkhus listen to Wirathu at Sugathadasa stadium, Colombo — Pic AFP

Addressing the Sangha Council meeting, organized with pomp and pageantry by the BBS costing millions of rupees on Sunday 28 September 2014 at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Ashin Wirathu, the dreaded leader of the 969 movement, the architect of the massacre of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and described by TIME magazine as the “face of the Buddhist terror” told, that his organization 969 would work with the BBS to fight so called Islamic terrorism. Continue reading →

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October 27, 2014 · 6:09 am

China at the Pinnacle of the Buddhist World Today

Kalinga Seneviratne … at Baoji in China, in article entitled “China lays claim to leadership of the Buddhist World”

CHINA BU CONGRESS A Group photograph of all participants at this Conference was taken at the world renowned and extraordinary Famen Temple, Shaanxi Province on the morning of October 16, 2014

With an impressive display of Chinese Buddhist culture and hospitality, China laid claims to giving leadership to the Buddhist world, by hosting over 600 international delegates for the 27th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) at this historic city in north western China from 16th-18th October. The conference theme of “Buddhism and Public-Benefit Charity” laid the path of Buddhist collaboration, especially in mobilizing financial and spiritual resources to advance the development of Buddhist communities across the world in a compassionate and socially harmonious manner.

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October 26, 2014 · 2:49 am

Reconciliation via Cricket: Murali Harmony Cup 2014 sprouts more buds

SEE http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/murali-harmony-cup-2014-sprouts-more-buds/

ALSO SEE http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/series/680743.html

Sanga rules the north……As Sri Lanka recovers from a devastating civil war, Kumar Sangakkara does his bit to help with reconciliation in the LTTE’s former stronghold

Botham, Jayawardene open Murali Cup……Ian Botham and Mahela Jayawardene opened the 2013 Murali Cup in Kilinochchi on Friday, as the five-day tournament began in five venues across Sri Lanka’s northern province

Murali Harmony Cup Twenty/ 20 Tournament, 2013/14 / Results ….http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/680743.html

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Image

An Arsehole of a Motor Cyclist !!

ARSEHOL E MOTOR CYCLIST 

AND WHAT YOU NEED TO MEET THIS CHALLENGE Continue reading →

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October 26, 2014 · 2:43 am
October 23, 2014 · 10:03 am

Saving Talaivar Prabhākaran, 2009: Fr. Gaspar Raj’s Revelations in 2010

Saving private ryan The title for this item is inspired by that riveting film from 1998 entitled Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks in the lead role.

 KEY QUOTATION: “It is said that the LTTE was agreeable to USA’s direct involvement, but they were not agreeable to locking the weapons. The USA had also started preparing for the Mullivaikal operation. Accordingly, PACOM’s Naval unit, Marine Expediency Brigade, will land at the Mullaithivu shores; and the Navy and the Air Force of PACOM will also join in this operation” … being just one stick of dynamite in “Mullivaikal Last Stages: Facts Unknown to the Tamil-Speaking World,” by Fr. Gaspar Raj, an essay in Tamil translated by one “ M N” for Nakeeran and then presented to the world by Sri Lanka Guardian on 23rd June 2010.

 Jegath Fr. Gaspar Raj prabha-tiger Talaivar Pirapāharan in his guerrilla days

This essay was re-discovered by accident when I went through my computer files recently and becomes extremely important in the light of (A) the recent review article by Daya Gamage; (B) the startling facts and manoeuvres that are displayed in the raw within the US Embassy despatches of 2009 made available by Wikileaks;[1] and (C) by the veteran journalist[2] PK Balachandran’s information on Revd. Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj’s role in 2009 and his endorsement of key facts in the Gaspar Raj essay…….inserted here at the end of the article by Gaspar Raj.[3] Michael Roberts.

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October 23, 2014 · 7:18 am

Absorbing Lanka’s Variety by Rail

Anthony Dennis whose original title reads “Sri Lanka’s charmingly colonial era railway”

A journey on one of the most charming railway systems in the world reinforces the maxim that all great travel involves a modicum of discomfort. At Colombo’s Fort Station, the trapped tropical humidity inside the building’s interior, a tangle of silver-coated wrought and corrugated iron straight out of the early 20th-century British colonial era, is intense. I feel like a chicken inside a pressure cooker, and probably look like one, as I await my train for the two-and-a-half-hour ride to Kandy.

RAIL Lanka 1 I’m at the beginning of a 10-day journey around Sri Lanka. Such is the antiquated nature of the Sri Lankan railway network that here, in my perspired state, I wouldn’t be surprised if a locomotive, spewing steam and nostalgia, drew into the platform. Soon enough my train, pulled by a diesel loco, arrives and I identify the carriage – the last –with the words “Observation Saloon” written on it. Continue reading →

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October 21, 2014 · 9:38 am

Exotic Birds flying across the world … on the ‘wings’ of internet addicts

………. long live the chain mailers … and Felix Ng

Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock Guianan Cock-of-the-RockKing of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise++ King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise Continue reading →

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October 20, 2014 · 8:04 am

War Magic and Warrior Religion. Q and A with DS Farrer

Berghahn Q & A for War Magic & Warrior Religion: Sorcery, Cognition & Embodiment

berg DOUG Farrer Douglas Farrer

What drew you to the study of War Magic & Warrior Religion?

Initially I was drawn to the study of war magic through my doctoral research into a Sufi warrior cult, where the Malay martial art (silat) was employed as a means to attract and secure local and international followers and converts. A wise informant, Dato Penggawa Tua Zaharah Mokhtar, recommended that I start with Winstedt [1925] (1993), Shaw (1976), and Skeat’s [1900] (1993) books on Malay magic to begin my research on silat.  At the time I was lecturing on Weber at the National University of Singapore, so the chiasmus between warrior religion and war magic came naturally: of course, the connection also appears in Deleuze and Guattari’s [1987] (2004) Treatise on Nomadology—The War Machine, among other sources. Continue reading →

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