Quintus De Zylva
ALBERT EINSTEIN reflecting on his role in the development of the atomic bomb said “ If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker”!
The Burghers in Sri Lanka: A Hunt for Photographs
The VOC heritage in Sri Lanka: The Dutch Burghers of Ceylon 1640 -2015
I. An Appeal from Nina Van Dort:
Dear Burghers, …….. Our team members will be in Melbourne from the 13th – 20th February 2014, Australia for 8 days collecting images. We are staying with Roger and Norreen Wright who are so kind to put up with us .Once again the team would like to ask your kind assistance , as we are on the look-out for more images which will be presented at the 2015 Burgher Heritage Exhibition in Amsterdam.
Since we equipped with a camera, scanner and gadgets, we have the capacity to scan photographs at your homes if desirable and/or feasible. Kindly spread the word around. My contact address is ninavandort@live.com.
Nina is in black 4th from right as you face the pic Continue reading
Australia’s Emergence: Western civilisation’s legacy has a dark side
Riaz Hassan, Sociology, Flinders University, Adelaide …. from http://theconversation.com/curriculum-review-western-civilisations-legacy-has-a-dark-side-22082 – where revealing blog comments can be located.
The push is currently on for Australia’s national curriculum to place more emphasis on the history of Western civilisation and its values. But if we accept that the purpose of such an education is to achieve a proper and fuller appreciation of this legacy and its role in the making of the modern world (and Australia), we cannot ignore the many significant elements of its dark side.
Western civilisation and history have a darker side of genocide and land dispossession: a history that is often ignored. Wikimedia Commons
Core Values: It is commonplace to hear that Judeo-Christian values are the core of Western civilisation. But, ironically, destroying Jewish religious idols was key to historical anti-Semitism in Christian European societies. Jews were accused of various kinds of conspiracies and evil designs. Continue reading
Filed under Australian culture, australian media, British colonialism, British imperialism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, racist thinking, the imaginary and the real, world affairs
“When will we ever learn!” Lessons from the Horrors of War. Declassified plans for the WW II invasion of Japan
Buz on the Declassified plans for the WW II invasion of Japan: Operations “Downfall”, “Coronet”, et cetera
For those interested in WWII, it’s a good short read. Now that the documents have been downgraded I’m sure there are going to be many new books both pro and con on this subject. Interesting!! The magnitude of the planning and operation is unbelievable!!
Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., hidden for nearly four decades lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped “Top Secret”. These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan during World War II.
American troops disembarking at Okinawa
Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese home islands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched. Operation Downfall was finalized during the spring and summer of 1945. It called for two massive military undertakings
to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire. Continue reading
The War in Sri Lanka: Ravi Nessman’s Slanted Story for USA on the Tavis Smiley Show, 18 February 2009
Ravi Nessman was Associated Press Bureau Chief in 2008/09 based in either Delhi or Colombo. He was carried to the war front on day visits in October 2008[1] and late January 2009. He was certainly located in Colombo when asked by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to speak to America on the show that is simply titled Tavis Smiley. This show usually features “a unique mix of news and pop culture to create a thought-provoking and entertaining program. A hybrid of news, issues and entertainment, it features interviews with artists, activists, news makers, politicians and everyday people.”
18th February 2009 in “episode 18 of Season 6, Smiley interviewed Dr Palitha Kohona and then Ravi Nessman . For a live hearing of the latter session with Nessman, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ZqLlpuLBE.
Critical Comments are inserted at the end of this word-for-word record of the interview. Michael Roberts Continue reading
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, disparagement, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, legal issues, news fabrication, NGOs, photography, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, world affairs, zealotry
Asokan Mandala in Cricket: Cakravarti Emperors replace ICC
Step One — read Michael Atherton: “It’s the end of the ICC world that we used to sort-of know,” 28 January 2014, http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/its-the-end-of-the-icc-world-that-we-used-to-sort-of-know/
Step Two — read the following works
* S. J. Tambiah: “The Galactic Polity: The Structure of Traditional Kingdoms in South East Asia” at http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/its-the-end-of-the-icc-world-that-we-used-to-sort-of-know/ …originally pubd in 1976 in his World Conqueror,World Ruler.
* Paul Wheatley: Pivot of the Four Quareters, … http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/462423/The-Pivot-of-the-Four-Quarters
* the Mandala Concept = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala_%28Southeast_Asian_political_model%29
*Michael Roberts: “Mahinda Rajapaksa: Cakravarti Imagery and Populist Processes,” 28 January 2012, http://thuppahis.com/2012/01/28/mahinda-rajapaksa-cakravarti-imagery-and-populist-processes/
* Victor Lieberman: Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800-1830, Volume 1: Integration on the Mainland, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
* HL Seneviratne: “”Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah: Anthropologist And Patriot,” at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/stanley-jeyaraja-tambiah-anthropologist-and-patriot/ Continue reading
In Appreciation of Stanley Jeyaraj Tambiah: Teacher, Anthropologist, Scholar, Sri Lankan and Humanist Citizen of the World
I: “Professor Stanley Tambiah (1929-2014): A Remembrance,” by Chris Fuller, 24 January 2014, courtesy of http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Asia&month=1401&week=d&msg=KYddiNr4WSC/Pc49X1yyng 
In the sixties and early seventies, students in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge had the great good fortune to be taught by four outstanding scholars: Meyer Fortes, Edmund Leach, Jack Goody, and S. J. Tambiah (who didn’t call himself “Stanley” in those days). My personal good fortune was that Tambi – as everyone knew him – was my supervisor (“academic tutor”) in my final year as an undergraduate in 1969-70 and in the early part of my PhD training, before he left for Chicago in 1973. In this brief reminiscence, I want to pay tribute to him as an inspirational teacher in Cambridge in the period prior to his long career in the US. Continue reading
Weevils in the Mind among the Obstacles facing Sri Lankans Today
Michael Roberts, reprinted from Groundviews, 22 May 2010, http://groundviews.org/2010/05/22/challenges-today-weevils-in-the-mind/ because it is deemed pertinent today in association with two recent re-editions of memoranda from Jayantha Dhanapala and Rajasingham Narendran.
Pics by Shyam Tekwani
Daya Somasundaram was in Jaffna town in late 1995 when the Sri Lankan army advanced south and eastwards from Palaly. As the LTTE decided upon a strategic withdrawal, they insisted that all the Tamil people should move with them. This enforcement was termed an “Exodus” by some Tamils versed in biblical themes. As Somasundaram relates the tale, many people resented this specific LTTE writ.
Eventually most of the people moved back to their homes in army-occupied territory. Somasundaram was among the professional classes who engaged in their duties in the Jaffna Peninsula in the late 1990s. Within no time army-rule had generated a “collective amnesia” among the Tamils: it was the army that had created the exodus and the Sinhala state was the principal ogre. The role of the LTTE mostly slipped under their retrospective assessments.[i] Continue reading
