SEE http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/kushil-and-murali-reach-out-for-fog-in-los-angeles/
Pic of Kushil with Carl Strecker (movie producer) who has visited Seenigama post tsunami with medical team and producer of latest FoG video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egUNMCg-izM&feature=related
This video is a MUST SEE presentation and features Bourdain, Mike Brearley and Ian Botham among others. It should also be widely disseminated though, doubtless, those Sinhalese and others in visceral hostility to the Rajapaksa brotherhood (admittedly no saints) and those Tamils in the depths of bitterness and hate will shut their minds to the paths that are being forged in their own small way by Murali, Kushil and others. among them Naj Nagendran in LA who sent me the reports used here. It would seem that some 200,000 dollars has been promised at the LA fundraiser; and there are other events to follow in San Francisco.
The following are the web references for the Mankulam reports/pics.
*http://www.unconditionalcompassion.org/sub/20110712_2ndCoaching.php
* http://www.unconditionalcompassion.org/sub/201100614_fristever.php
Pics are from the recent Third Training Camp at the Mankulam Maha Vidyalayam
ADDENDUM: When I circulated information about the FOG event at Los Angeles as depicted in both this site and in http://cricketique.wordpress.com to various circuits of email, today the 16th August, I received an angry email response of an unsolicited kind (sent to others in the network as well) from one Chris Pulle. It runs thus:
Bullshit! If the Tamil Diaspora and wealthy Colombo Tamils can re-direct their monies and efforts to help the low-caste destitute Tamils, war widows and orphans instead of to the LTTE, then that would make a dent in the misery index. The Tamil diaspora were once able to raise $300 million a year – and are at it again!
From my knowledge based on private government information, billions are needed for reconstruction and development, not pennies tossed into visiting begging bowls.
Not all are happy with “goodness”. Those of us in the shadows, who still continue to help Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans, are fu..king fed up with all this ostentatious show-and-tell productions, to place the spotlight on certain individuals to satiate their vanities.
In my reading Pulle is not responding as a bitter Tamil in a condition of political hate directed towards anything beneficial to Sri Lanka; or someone like Dr. Balachandran of the south of England who deemed Murali to be “not a Tamil” for what many have surmised to be political grounds rather than Vellālar prejudices against Malaiyāha plantation Tamils. It seems that Pulle is an out-and-out cynic who casts his own dog-eat-dog mentality unto everybody else. This is another strain of thinking that diminishes humankind and seeks to undermine the efforts of good men and women to assist those in need through sustained effort.
It is indeed a pity that the very fine work Kushil,Murali and others are doing, has been ridiculed.To me a starting haul of 200,000 dollars is by no means a peanut, but a nucleus around which growth would take place. If we have faith as a mustard seed, we could move mountains.
Chris Pulle, if he be a Christian, should place his trust in God and hope Kushil,Murali and others would receive the Grace of God.I feel these little actions convey much more meaning than the actual funds raised. It creates an enormous amount of goodwill, which is seriously lacking.
I am proud of Kushil,Murali & others and pray God will help them to draw ashore the net, bursting at its seems with a rich harvest of cash.
kind regards
Mevan Pieris in email note to Michael Roberts