July 24, 2014 · 10:01 pm

Heartening Developments … and a young heart blooms

Kumudini Hettiarachchi reporting from Jaffna in The Sunday Times, July 2014

Knowing since 2009 that she had a hole in the heart, she and her paternal grandmother, Nakapillai Gnanasoundarie, from Alankerni in Kinniya, Trincomalee, were compelled to do nothing due to poverty. They just could not afford the heart operation at a cost of about Rs. 500,000 in Colombo, while accessing a government hospital in the capital also brought with it heavy burdens on this ‘single’ grandmother who was eking out a living as a labourer.

HEART OP -SUNDAY TIMESLast Sunday (July 6), however, her life changed in a way they had never imagined. Archana became the flag-bearer in a quest to introduce open-heart surgery in Jaffna. The initiation of open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine for people living in the northern, north-central and eastern areas has been the quest of eminent Heart Surgeon Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 3:45 pm

Rally for UNITY at Colombo — 27 July 2014

“Rally for Unity”, as a co-host, invites you to be a part of the Solidarity Day Rally organized by Socialist Youth Union and hosted by the broader citizen movements including FUTA, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Artists’ Collective, “Saamuhika Prayathnaya”, Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, All Ceylon Muslim League Youth Federation, Young Christian Journalists Association, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Forum, Muslim Media Forum, Professional Journalists Association and other Journalist collectives, Professional Associations, Trade Unions, Youth networks and many concerned citizens.
The solidarity walk will start in Maligawatte and expected to reach Vihara Maha Devi Park by 4pm followed by a Rally on Unity and Diversity. The rally will be followed by a Festival atmosphere with performances by various ethnic representations as well as performance artists including Sunil Perera from Gypsies, Ishak Mohideen Beg and Nalin Perera from 6.30pm onwards
We urge you to be present for the event with your friends, family, colleagues and concerned citizens to be a part of this effort to make our collective voice heard against Hate and for unity of diversity.  You are encouraged to bring a board stating “Lets Rally for Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka” if possible and join us in this effort. The events will be multilingual.
Please forward this to your networks and urge all who are interested to join us on this Sunday the 27th July @ 4pm near the Outdoor Theatre of Vihara Maha Devi Park
Thank you!
Sent on behalf of Rally For Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka

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July 21, 2014 · 9:43 pm

Vested interests push asylum propaganda — thereby profiting from a lucrative trade

Bandula Jayasekera, in The Australian, 9 July 2014

AUSSIES CHECK A-S I couldn’t help reading over and over The Australian’s editorial of July 7 that said: “Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser doesn’t help his standing by likening the return of Tamils to Sri Lanka to handing over Jewish refugees to Nazi Germany. Such intemperance can only damage Mr. Fraser’s cause.” It certainly has, as has the hysterical language in the “lopsided” asylum debate in Australia in the past few days.

A misconception has been created among some Australians regarding asylum-seekers arriving from Sri Lanka because of a huge and very well-funded misinformation campaign carried out by parties with vested interests. Their claims are unfounded and unbelievable. Even Ripley would have said “You cannot believe it” instead of “Believe it or not!” Continue reading →

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July 21, 2014 · 11:27 am

Where In-fighting generates Fervour & Power: ISIS Today, LTTE yesterday

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews where some prejudiced and one-eyed commentary has already been set in train

“Division and in-fighting will sap and weaken any organisation or ideological current.” This formulation (mine) may seem a common-sense dictum.  Let me challenge this notion with another dictum: “fratricidal militant fission sparks dedication, skill and organisational power.” The recent, explosive expansion in Syria and Iraq of Sunni militants under the banner of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) can be placed alongside the rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among Tamil militants in the 1970s-to-90s as potential illustrations of a thesis that undermines common-sense notions. In the LTTE case too one could say that “success breeds legitimacy” as Mendelsohn argues for ISIS in clarifying how that organisation’s military might and its capture of swathes of territory in recent months enabled it to supplant such Al-Qaeda branches as Jabhat al-Nusra (2014a). Continue reading →

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July 19, 2014 · 10:31 am

Australia remains a “lucky country” — courtesy of migration, feminism and egalitarianism

Natasha Bita, in The Australian, 19 July 2014, where the title is “Why Australia is still the lucky country”

MELDED by migration and forged by feminism, Australia has been transformed in half a century from its whitebread heritage into a cosmopolitan and egalitarian society envied the world over.

In 1964, when the first edition of The Australian rolled off the presses, this country employed a White Australia policy, and managed migration under the Aliens Act. Women lost their jobs when they married. Children died from tuberculosis and were crippled with polio. Men made up two-thirds of university students. We used typewriters and corded telephones, wrote letters in longhand and knew how to read street maps. Continue reading →

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July 19, 2014 · 9:37 am

A Fascist Bhikkhu Force in Sri Lanka?

Tim Hume, CNN, with help from Iqbal Athas, 18 July 2014 … and the original title as “Fascists in saffron robes? The rise of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist ultra-nationalists”

GNANASARA BBS general secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara at a press conference in 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • An ultra-nationalist Buddhist group has been campaigning against Muslims in Sri Lanka
  • The Bodu Bala Sena is blamed by many for inciting religious riots that left 3 Muslims dead
  • A month on, a monk who gave an inflammatory speech before the riots has not been charged
  • Observers say it appears the group is operating with impunity, fuelling the fears of minorities.

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July 19, 2014 · 8:56 am

Marga Storehouse of Knowledge

 Marga Storehouse of Knowledge ….. Commencing a series on articles from Marga Quarterly Journal published from 1972 – Abstracts of vintage literature are cited for requests of full articles

A unique facility for

  • Scholars
  • Students
  • Researchers
  • Academics
  • Writers and journalists
  • Feature writers

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July 14, 2014 · 6:39 pm

Aussie-Go, Aussie-No, Gallay Bahinno

Chathuri Dissanayake and Aanya Wipulasena in Galle ….. courtesy of the Sunday Times, 13 July 2013, where the title reads: “Washed up: How the Aussies torpedoed a voyage of dreams”

Two Sri Lankan families from the south planned a voyage for 41 asylum-seekers and a pet stray dog for what they thought was a new and prosperous life in New Zealand. Instead, they sailed right into the hands of Australian troops engaged in “Operation Sovereign Borders”. They complained of being ill-treated with food past its shelf life. The dog, however, was given a shampoo bath, fed milk and choice bacon.

AsylumSeekersGraphic Continue reading →

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July 14, 2014 · 4:02 am

Behind the Scenes: The American Contribution to the Current Crisis in Sri Lanka

Rajiva Wijesinha** responding to an Editorial Request to comment on Daya Gamage: “The American Agenda for Sri Lanka’s National Issue,” …. http://thuppahis.com/2014/07/05/the-american-agenda-for-sri-lankas-national-issues-1970s-2014/

The request to write an article on US Policy towards Sri Lanka in 2008/2009 came at a timely moment, for I had been reflecting in some anguish on the crisis that the Sri Lankan government is now facing. I believe that this crisis is of the government’s own creation, but at the same time I believe that its root causes lie in US policy towards us during the period noted.

Nishan de Mel of Verite Research, one of the organizations now favoured by the Americans to promote change, accused me recently of being too indulgent to the Sri Lankan government. I can understand his criticism, though there is a difference between understanding some phenomenon and seeking to justify it. My point is that, without understanding what is going on, the reasons for what a perceptive Indian journalist has described as the ‘collective feeling that the Sri Lankan State and Government are either unable or unwilling’ to protect Muslims from the current spate of attacks, we will not be able to find solutions. Continue reading →

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July 10, 2014 · 8:21 pm

Batting for Sri Lanka: Abbott, Bishop and Morrison …

Battting for Sri LANKA

SEE http://thuppahis.com/2014/07/10/sinhalese-asylum-seekers-are-dumped-back-in-galle-while/#more-13295

AND http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/scott-morrison-attacks-critics-of-sri-lanka/story-fn9hm1gu-1226986157128#mm-premium

AND  “Australian minister visits Sri Lanka, snubs Tamil groups” … courtesy of Gulf News

Colombo: Australia’s immigration minister, defending Canberra’s policy of turning back boats of asylum seekers, visited a focal point of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war against Tamil separatists, but came under fire for meeting no Tamil political or civil groups.

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