Vjosa Osmani becomes President of Kosovo

Kosovo is in news -  (Kosovo war and Battle of Kosovo are entirely different!).  With 61+ MPs in favor, Vjosa Osmani, 38, the most voted candidate for MP in history, who was expelled by her party less than a year ago because she stood by her principles, is the new President of the Republic of Kosovo. The peaceful political revolution is complete. Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu is a  jurist and politician serving as the fifth president of Kosovo since 4 April 2021.

Raised in the divided city of Mitrovica, Osmani became a political activist and studied law in Pristina as well as in the United States in Pittsburgh. She worked as an advisor to the president of Kosovo before she was elected to the Assembly. Osmani held the position of Speaker of the Assembly earlier and  also served as acting president   after the resignation of President Hashim Thaçi. Osmani has run successfully on an anti-corruption platform, and has expressed a desire to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

The Ottoman Empire   was a state[note 6] that controlled much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman  tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire would very slowly decline until its fall after World War I, in which it sided with the losing Central Powers of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Bulgaria.

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started in February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with air support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The KLA, formed in the early 1990s to fight against Serbian persecution of Kosovo Albanians, initiated its first campaign in 1995 when it launched attacks against Serbian law enforcement in Kosovo. In early 1998, KLA attacks targeting Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo resulted in an increased presence of Serb paramilitaries and regular forces who subsequently began pursuing a campaign of retribution targeting KLA sympathisers and political opponents. After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a "humanitarian war".  This precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia. The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav and Serb forces  agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence.

The Battle of Kosovo  took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Murad Hüdavendigâr. The battle was fought on the Kosovo field in the territory ruled by Serbian nobleman Vuk Branković, in what is today Kosovo, about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northwest of the modern city of Pristina.  The bulk of both armies were wiped out, and Lazar and Murad were killed. Although the Ottomans managed to annihilate the Serbian army, they also suffered huge casualties that delayed their progress. The Serbs were left with too few men to effectively defend their lands, while the Turks had many more troops in the east. Consequently, the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals became so consecutively in the following years.

Kosovo is a partially-recognised state and disputed territory in Southeastern Europe.  On 17 February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. It has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 UN member states. Kosovo is landlocked in the center of the Balkans, occupying an area of 10,887 km2 (4,203 sq mi).   Kosovo has an upper-middle-income economy. It has experienced solid economic growth over the last decade by international financial institutions, and growth every year since the onset of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Kosovo is a member of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and has applied for membership of Interpol.

Interesting !

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
11.4.2021. 

British were never merficul nor freedom obtained without sacrifices !! ~ * Mangal Pandey*

கருணை (Kindness) என்பது நன்னெறி;  இனிய மனநிலை மற்றும் மற்றவர்களுக்காக கவலைபடக்கூடிய ஒரு இளகிய மன நிலையைக் குறிக்கும் ஒரு நடத்தை ஆகும். இது ஒரு நல்லொழுக்கம் எனவும் அறியப்படுகிறது !!

 

We were fed a distorted history in our schools and colleges  -  ‘the uprising of 1857’ not as a National movement, not as a freedom struggle but as sepoy mutiny, only an uprising by a group of soldiers.  .. .. and Gandhiji  [Nehruji and Congressmen] got us freedom without spilling blood !! ~ British were so kind and noble that they gave freedom on a platter !!   Perhaps sons of cow belt soil would remember the movie  - Mangal Pandey - The Rising (The Rising - Ballad Of Mangal Pandey)  and the hero of the movie.   .. .. .. he was not the first man though, and Uprising – the National struggle of 1857 was not the first fight against British East India Company. 

கருணையுள்ள கானிங்பிரபு !  சரித்திர புத்தகத்தில் படித்தது.  மனிதர்களை அடிமைப்படுத்தி அவர்களை விலங்குகளைவிட மோசமாக நடத்தி – அவர்களை வியாபாரம் பண்ணினவர்கள், மனிதகுலத்தில் எப்படி நல்லவர்களாக கருதமுடியும் ?  ஜேம்ஸ் ஆண்ட்ரூ பிரௌன்-ராம்சே என்ற இயற்பெயர் கொண்ட ‘டல்ஹவுசி’ பிரபுக்குப் பின்னர் ஆங்கிலேயர்களுக்கு கீழேஇருந்த இந்தியாவின் இந்தியத் தலைமை ஆளுநராக பதவி வகித்தவர் – சார்லஸ் ஜான் கானிங்.  இந்திய முதல் சுதந்திர போரை முறியடித்து,  பங்குகொண்ட பல்லாயிரக்கணக்கான போர்வீரர்கள் மீது கடுமையான தண்டனைகளை வழங்கியவர் இந்த கருணையுள்ளம் கொண்டவர் என நாம் புத்தகத்தில் படித்த பிரபு   !! 

It is the life-history  of a hero that the Nation must be reading in School books etched in its History – the sad tale of an execution scheduled for April 18 but was carried out ten days before on April 8, 164 years ago. " and that hero was only 26 !! ...  if you read History well, do you remember or know, who was the  Governor General  of British East India Co at the time of the First war of Indian Independence in 1857 ?  

On that evening of May 10, 1857, native troops of Bengal Army at Meerut broke out into open insurrection and mutineers marched with triumph towards Delhi ! .. the Britishers were not the kind cats.  Genl Neill who proceeded from Calcutta in May 1857 with a regiment to Varanasi & Allahabad had the notoriety for inflicting inhuman cruelties everywhere he went.  Though dispassionately and carefully depicted by every British historian as ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ – in 1857 it was great outbreak – an uprising against domineering foreign power and their cruel ways of ruling.  Though volumes should have been written on the sacrifices during uprising, History as written by British concisely describes it as uprising in some pockets, duly extinguished by the Generals of East India Company !

It certainly was not as simple .. .. on that significant Sunday in the month of March at the cantonment of Barrackpore, it broke out – in the sepoy lines which had been quiet – most of the sepoys were lounging around, White officers were in their bungalows enjoying their siesta -  In the late afternoon, a Sepoy of the 34th  Native Infantry, wearing his regimental jacket but in a dhoti instead of the regulation trousers, appeared before the quarter-guard. It was obvious that he was greatly agitated. He had with him a loaded musket and his talwar. He belonged to the 5th Company and his name was Mangal Pandey.  The open insolence was not common among sepoys, and a Naik quickly carried the report of Mangal Pandey’s disorderly conduct to Sergeant-Major James Hewson.  As the sergeant-major approached Mangal Pandey, the latter took aim and fired. The ball missed Hewson who took shelter behind the bell-of-arms; couple of sepoys tried to persuade Mangal Pandey to surrender his weapons. By this time, the adjutant, Lieutenant Baugh, had arrived on horseback.

It is the story of a hero that the Nation must be reading in School books etched in its History – the sad tale of an execution. "... Plassey had been in 1757 and in the hundredth year after the battle it seemed everyone was awaiting a spark.  It was to come in the shape of a new cartridge. The projectile for the new Enfield rifle was part of a self-contained paper cartridge that contained both ball and powder charge. It required  the end to be bitten off and the cartridge then rammed down the muzzle of the weapon. To facilitate this process the cartridge was heavily greased - with animal fat.  "The preceding months held tensions and several serious events but they failed to cause as big a conflagration as those at Meerut. Fires broke out near Calcutta on 22 January 1857. On 25 February 1857 the 19th Regiment mutinied at Berhampore and the regiment allowed one of its men to advance with a loaded musket upon the parade-ground in front of a line and open fire on his superior officer; a battle ensued. On 31 March 1857 the 34th Regiment rebelled at Barrackpore.

On that fateful day, in 1857, Mangal Pande of the 34th Native Infantry attacked his British sergeant and wounded an adjutant. General Hearsay, ordered a jemadar to arrest him but the jemadar refused. Mangal Pande then turned the gun against himself and used his foot to try to pull the trigger to shoot himself. He failed and was captured, along with the jemadar he was hanged.   The whole regiment was dismissed as a collective punishment and because it was felt that they would harbour feelings against their superiors after this incident.  Every  other sepoys thought of this as harsh punishment.

Barrackpore the  headquarters of Barrackpore subdivision in North 24 Parganas district was a military and administrative center under British rule, and was the scene of several acts of rebellion against Britain during the 19th century.  Two rebellions against British authority took place in Barrackpore in the 19th  century. The first of these was in 1824, led by Sepoy Binda Tiwary.  In this rebellion, the 47th Bengal Native Infantry refused to board boats to cross the polluting "dark waters" to Burma in the First Anglo-Burmese War. Consequently, British-manned artillery fired upon and "erased" them.  In 1857, Barrackpore was the scene of an incident that some credit with starting the Indian rebellion of 1857 !  All along, the British & the historians preferred to call it the ‘Revolt of 1857’ – which to us is the First war of Independence.   

Mangal Pandey was born in  village of Nagwa in district Ballia Uttar Pradesh on 19th July 1827 and sacrificed himself for the Nation when he was only 26 ! .   The village in which young Mangal opened his eyes was Surhurpur—a small sleepy hamlet, which still retains the dusty rustic look, that speck of golden grime, the wont of Awadh, distinguishing the region from the more greener pastures of east UP. Divakar Pandey, Mangal’s father actually belonged to another village — Dugvaan-Rahimpur in Faizabad Tehsil.  Mangal Pandey entered the east India Company Bengal army in 1849. He was 22, a tall lad, lean and well built. Village anecdotes paint him as a man 9 feet tall—this is excusable exaggeration of a legend.  Sadly,  Mangal’s act of defiance in 1857  did not enthuse the other sepoys instantaneously. Pandey injured two British officers before a sepoy, Sheikh Paltu, held him from behind.  Mangal Pandey then tried to shoot himself but only superficially injured the bulging muscles of his chest. He was disarmed by Major-General Hearsey, tried and executed on April 8.  It was only a month later that the Mutiny broke out at Meerut on May 10. The next day the rebel sepoys marched to Delhi and entered the city through the Rajghat Gate. Until September, the sepoys held control of Delhi after an orgy of bloodshed.

Though Mangal Pandey did not have any connection with Delhi as such, he nevertheless is a hero  and in Meerut, a temple commemorates him. Every sepoy who had rebelled in Delhi and elsewhere was dubbed "Pande" by the British troops and their retaliation was termed "Pande-bashing" !  it is our duty to salute our motherland and remember all those great patriots who gave their tomorrow for our today ..

With regards –S. Sampathkumar
8^th Apr 2021..

PS :  in case you remember or answered the Q at the start – who was the Governor General  of British East India Co when the first Indian Independence War broke out in 1857 ?

It was - Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning, KG, GCB, KSI, PC (1812 – 1862) also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning.  He was the Governor General during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became the  first Viceroy of India after the transfer of power from the East India Company to the Crown of Queen Victoria in 1858 after the rebellion was crushed.  The Indian Penal Code was drafted in 1860 based on the code drafted by Macaulay and came into force in 1862 during his regime.   Canning met the rebellion with firmness and in  1858  was rewarded with post of Viceroy.   In Apr 1859,  he received  thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his great services during the rebellion. He was also made an extra civil grand cross of the Order of the Bath, and in May of the same year he was raised to the dignity of an Earl, as Earl Canning. About a month before his death he was created a Knight of the Garter, as he died without issue the titles became extinct.

Prior to the rebellion, Canning and his wife, Charlotte, had desired to produce a photographic survey of Indian people, primarily for their own edification. This project was transformed into an official government study and  was eventually published as an eight-volume work, The People of India, between 1868 and 1875. 

Pic of British reprisal execution – credit : https://www.spectator.co.uk/        

  

when Trams and boats ran in Thiruvallikkeni ~ Know : ‘Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville’

The roads in Triplicane are narrow and traffic often gets struck … Big Street at places is in fact a small lane…  the road that runs from D1 Police Station in Wallajah road to D3 Police station in Ice House is – Triplicane High Road   …. Old timers would refer this to as ‘Tram road’ ….yes,  referring to a unique form of transport that existed more than 6 decades ago.

A tram (tramcar) is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public roads.  Tram transport in India was established by the British in the 19^th  century ~  the first electric tram service was started in Madras in 1895 and went out of reckoning in 1953 in Chennai – it however, still continues to run in Kolkatta even now. The earlier trams were reportedly horse-drawn. The one that were running in Madras (as also the ones seen in Kolkatta)  run on electric and have overhead traction lines. 

The description as given by those who occasioned to travel by tram – was that they moved very slowly – sort of people can enter and get down whilst it was moving ….those perhaps were days when the life itself was leisurely paced – not the ones that you see in OMR or mad drive to Pondy in ECR – and those were the days, when you had little traffic on roads – not much of two wheelers and auto-rickshaws … more used public transport and most of them waited patiently – in fact thinking of people going by Pallavan Transport – people used to wait for a single bus on that route and would not even explore much of possibilities of going to a place with better connectivity – Beach, HighCourt, Parrys, Sowcarpet –  Central, Egmroe - Triplicane, Mylapore, T Nagar, Guindy …. some prominent places which were well connected …..

One cannot be faulted for not knowing – ‘Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville’ (1823 – 1889) and his Madras connection ! – he was   a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century. He was a close friend and subordinate of Benjamin Disraeli and served as the Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1867 to 1868 and Governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880.

Brill is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England, close to the border with Oxfordshire. Brill's name is tautological, being a combination of Brythonic and Anglo Saxon words for 'hill' (Brythonic breg and Anglo Saxon hyll).

The world's first passenger tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, in Wales, UK. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and this first horse-drawn passenger tramway started operating in 1807. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seater) electric tramcars, until closure in 1961. The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway,   was a six-mile (10 km) rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England. It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to help transport goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national rail network. Lobbying from the nearby village of Brill led to its extension to Brill and conversion to passenger use in early 1872. Two locomotives were bought but trains still travelled at an average speed of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).

In 1883, the Duke of Buckingham planned to upgrade the route to main line standards and extend the line to Oxford, creating the shortest route between Aylesbury and Oxford. Despite the backing of the wealthy Ferdinand de Rothschild, investors were deterred by costly tunnelling. In 1888 a cheaper scheme was proposed in which the line would be built to a lower standard and avoid tunnelling. In anticipation, the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway became the Metropolitan line of London Transport. The Brill Tramway became part of the London Underground, despite Quainton Road being 40 miles (64 km) from London and not underground.   In 1935 the Brill Tramway closed. The infrastructure was dismantled and sold. 

Getting back to that man - Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville – was the , 3rd Duke of Buckingham.  Buckingham was the only son of Richard Temple-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He joined the British Army, eventually rising to become a colonel. Buckingham entered politics, as Lord Chandos, in 1846 when he was elected unopposed from Buckinghamshire as a candidate of the Conservative  party. In March 1867, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies and served until December 1868. He  served as Governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880. As Governor, he handled the relief measures for the victims of the Great Famine of 1876-78.  He died on 26 March 1889 at the age of 65.

Buckingham’s tenure as  the Governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880  was plagued by deteriorating socio-economic and health conditions. In 1876, the Great Famine of 1876–78 broke out in Madras Presidency. By August 1877, the famine had spread all over the Presidency and over 18 million people were affected.  To make matters worse, the rains failed in parts of Madras and Mysore. Large quantities of grain were shipped from Bengal to Madras port, and through his efforts, famine relief was distributed to 839,000 people in the Madras districts, besides 160,000 in the Bombay Districts and 151,000 in the Mysore districts.

The Governor appealed to the principal cities of England, Scotland, Ireland and India for assistance. At Buckingham's suggestion, the Lord Mayor of London collected relief funds.  Though the famine eventually came to an end in 1878, the issue had far-reaching effects. As a part of the famine relief work, Buckingham had commenced the construction of a navigation channel between Madras city and the northern part of the Madras Presidency so that transportation of supplies to the interior in cases of emergency would be easy. More than 715,000 people were employed as labourers in Madras to assist with the relief work. Opened in 1878, this canal was named after Buckingham as Buckingham Canal. Buckingham Street in Penang, Malaysia was also named after him by the Tamil labourers who were brought there during the British colonial period.

Displeasure of the tribes of the northern part of the Presidency over the stringent taxation schemes of the British government erupted in the form of a major rebellion in 1879. The rebellion was eventually suppressed through a joint operation of the Madras police and army and the Hyderabad army, and the captured prisoners were sent to the Andamans. Many of the stringent taxation laws were repealed. Later  William Patrick Adam was appointed Governor of Madras and he succeeded Buckingham in December 1880.

The Buckingham canal so built no longer remains a canal – the waterway in which once boats ran and was a fresh water channel from Godavari basin to Marakkanam, sadly  is a stinking drain at places and a stagnant pool at places! – and here is a photo of the canal nearer  Thirumylai & Triplicane MRTS station taken a couple of years ago !! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
2.4.2o21

  

Jofra Archer ~ freak accident - glass in tendon !!

Keeping fish in home aquarium is a hobby enjoyed by many. It need not be a big set-up.  In my early days, used to keep Guppies fish in Horlicks bottles !  - they  bring along a very soothing effect.  Besides homes, we see fish tanks at many office receptions too !   Watching the beautiful  fishes gracefully swim  and feeding them is a great way to reduce stress.  .. .. can that harm in any manner ?

In the recently concluded ODI Series saw the tall Topley bowl .. ..  Reece James William Topley  in the past 5 years, has had four stress fractures, one bout of surgery and countless injections but has overcome them all and bowled reasonably well at Pune.

Cricketers, like other sportspersons are plagued by injuries.  In the recent tour to Australia on the day of the start of fourth and final Brisbane Test with the series tied 1-1, the team resembled a mini-hospital as coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Ajinkya Rahane tried every trick to  put together a fit eleven.  The injuries did provide many opportunities to many youngsters who had remained with the team as net-bowlers.  It was a tour when India was hard-hit by injuries to players starting with Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneswarkumar, Varun Chakravarthi, Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mayank Agarwal .. ..   

Ashish Nehra had a stellar 18-year playing career. However, the number of injuries was such that in that entire period, he was restricted to just 17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 27 T20Is. Groin, back, ankle, hamstring and calf injuries were so prominent that Ashish Nehra could never be in the Indian team for a long time.

Jofra Archer has come a long way overcoming the high expectations right from the WC 2019 and playing 40 odd International matches thus far .. .. having  flown home before the one-day series, Archer was already scheduled to miss the start of the IPL that begins on 9 April, but England are expected to decide in the coming days whether he can feature at the back end of the tournament, or whether he has to tell Rajasthan Royals they need to source a replacement. If so he would forgo his £800,000 deal with Rajasthan this year, although it is possible he may have insured his earnings against injury.

However, the need to treat the fast bowler’s longstanding elbow issue with a second cortisone injection made this week the ideal time for a specialist to double-check. Speaking on Monday evening, team director Ashley Giles confirmed a freak incident. “It’s true, it was a fish tank,” Giles told BBC Radio 5 live. “He’s been in surgery today and come out of it well. It was managed through India but given that he came home for treatment on his elbow, he [also] went to a specialist. The finger was stiff. They found a fragment of glass in the tendon.

A number of England’s cricketers have now linked up with their Indian Premier League teams but it remains to be seen if Jofra Archer will join them after surgery on a finger injury he suffered when accidentally smashing a fish tank in January. Archer, 25, underwent a procedure on Monday to remove a fragment of glass from a tendon inside his right middle finger, having reported some minor irritation in the digit after playing two Tests and all five Twenty20s during England’s time in India.  The Guardian learned this was the result of Archer dropping a fish tank in a bath at his home in Hove while attempting to clean it. England say the cut, which healed over before he arrived on tour, did not affect his availability for selection.

“This is going to sound like an awful conspiracy,” Giles told the Tuffers and Vaughan programme. “He was cleaning or something at home and he’s got a fish tank, dropped the fish tank, cut his hand. “So he’s been in surgery today (Monday), he’s come out of it well. It was managed through India.” He added: “I think they’ve found a small fragment of glass still in the tendon so it was the right thing to do.”

Archer, who is a key player for England across all formats, will miss the start of the Indian Premier League, which runs from April 9 to May 30. England face a packed schedule of matches this year including a five-Test series at home against India, a T20 World Cup in India and the Ashes in Australia. Archer has been troubled by his elbow since 2019, missing three Tests of England’s tour of South Africa in early 2020 and the T20 series that followed. His England team-mate Ben Stokes said last week that Archer needed to get his elbow “properly sorted” to protect his long-term career.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
31.3.2o21