Diego Garcia – Role in Middle Eastern War

Dr. Itay Gal in Jerusalem Post, in Jerusalem Post, June 2025

What is Diego Garcia? The US military base that will be key to operations against Iran ….?  What is there, what aircraft operate from it, and why could it become a critical link in any future conflict in the Middle East?

 US B2 Spirit stealth bomber

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Territorial Claims: First Settlers & Their Primacy

Michael Roberts, presenting an article published in 2005 as a pamphlet by the ICES, Colombo with this title “The First Settlers and Their Claim to Ownership of Terrain/State. A Comparative Excursion” … an essay originally presented in Abdul Rahman Embong, Rethinking Ethnicity and Nation Building: Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji in Comparative Perspective, Panbrit UKM, Bangi, Malaysia, (c. 2003) which was then reprinted as a booklet by ICES, Colombo in 2005 – see ISBN 955-580-099-5 I.

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A Veddah With A Blog …..

It seems that a Sri Lankan “VEDDAH” launched a Blog in 2015 ….with this opening note “Throughout the centuries Sri Lanka had its own identity. Its idntity appears to have gone missing in the latter part of the twentieth century. Is it regaining it now?

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An EDITORIAL COMMENT From Michael Roberts, 20 June 2025:  “The assertion that Sri Lanka lacked an identity in the latter part of the 20th century is a sweeping claim that requires elaboration and groundings. Let Vadda provide support for these contentions here in Thuppahi as well as his website [which I could not access]”

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Nayeem Secures 5-Wicket Haul at Galle

Madushka Balasuriya in ESPNcricinfo, 20 June 2025 …………..In article entitled “Shanto, Shadman stretch Bangladesh’s lead after Nayeem’s five-for”

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ran each other neck and neck all day, with Bangladesh now 187 runs ahead

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Hill-Country Cosmopolis – A Review Of Obeyesekere’s Booklet

Richard Simon … reviewing The Many Faces of the Kandyan Kingdom by Gananath Obeyesekere

 In this slender but fact-filled volume, the author presents an alternative and, to my mind, more truthful view of the Kingdom of Kandy in its heyday than the perspective afforded by modern Lankan historians and scholars. The latter must, of course, hew closely to Sinhalese-Buddhist ‘nationalist’ orthodoxy if they hope to obtain academic publication or preferment in our country. The effect of this censorious regime on national life has been stifling, not only in the study of history but in every intellectual and cultural field from fine art to marine archaeology. Music, perhaps, has suffered most grievously of all.

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Friends, Colleagues & Countrymen … Meandering Memories

Gamini Seneviratne, whose chosen title is different: viz, being Vignettes of the Public Service –The Foreign Beat”

My acquaintance with officers in the foreign service was, for the most part, casual, that is to say, not related to our work, and, despite a hiccup or two, cordial as well.

I knew of my namesake while I was busy through each interval seeking, as we all were, championship honours at French Cricket. Actually there were four of us Gamini Seneviratnes at the time in school, including one who took to medicine and Aetaya who opened batting, the senior-most who is wrapped around or within these lines was better known as Gadaya, a nickname he had inherited from his brother who retired as the IGP, G A D E A Seneviratne, (better known as Ana). I do not know whether the same nom de guerre had been conferred on brother Nalin, who retired as the Army Commander.

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When Wisdom overcomes Ignorance: An African Leader’s Example

  Brian Victoria …. responding to the TPS item presenting Ibrahim Traore’s Response to A White Racist  = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNfnbU-Kc0 …
June 20, 2025 ….. Dear Michael,
Many thanks for sharing. In these dark days, that are becoming ever darker, it is beyond inspiring to see a bit of ‘light’ shining threw the clouds, to see that it is possible that ‘truth’ still has the power to dispel ignorance!

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When An African Major undermined a White Racist

SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNfnbU-Kc0

Ibrahim Traoré (French pronunciation: [ibʁaim tʁaɔʁe]; born 14 March 1988) is a Burkinabé military officer and politician who has served as the interim President of Burkina Faso since 2022. Traoré took control of Burkina Faso in September 2022, ousting interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in a coup d’état.

NOTE THE WIKIPEDIA ACCOUNT

Ibrahim Traoré (French pronunciation: [ibʁaim tʁaɔʁe]; born 14 March 1988) is a Burkinabé military officer and politician who has served as the interim President of Burkina Faso since 2022. Traoré took control of Burkina Faso in September 2022, ousting interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in a coup d’état.[4]

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The World Today: On the Brink of Armageddon

That Observer at World’s End

The St Petersburg Economic Forum is being held from 18-21 June 2025. On Friday, Vladimir Putin will deliver a speech which will be followed by Q &A. People from all over the world will be in the audience and can ask the President questions.  The forum is one of the world’s largest platforms for discussing global challenges and new models of cooperation in a rapidly changing world.  Today, Putin held a Q &A session with foreign journalists. Questions from West Europeans were, as expected, revealing- they displayed the Western mindset which seems fixed in 200 years of stone.

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Ranil Wickremasinghe at an International Forum in Moscow …. NOW

An Observer at World’s End**

Interesting to see former President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in St Petersburg yesterday (18/6), attending the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
I am not sure what the true purpose of his visit to Russia is but he said it was his first time there ….. in orderto attend the St Petersburg forum, that he was very impressed by the range of people and countries at the forum,  the issues of global significance being discussed, and that it was very important for countries outside of the West to meet at such a forum for cooperation and to discuss how best to deal with the great challenges, and to make progress for a better future.

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