When I sent Sampanthan’s recent “Statement” in Colombo Telegraph[1] to Jane Russell in England, her Immediate Response by Email, dated 13th April 2019, was an impassioned Cry from the Heart
There are no sensible replies to this kind of rhetoric…. perhaps a novel such as Gogol’s ‘Dead Souls’ might challenge such hyperbole? But we are in an era when the ‘Leader of the Free World’ can lie, exaggerate, fantasise, stereotype and throw unsubstantiated accusations and abuse on opponents with happy abandon.
Again, in ‘little’ Britain, Rees-Mogg, Johnson and Farage can emulate these tactics without riposte… In the long-admired peaceful haven of New Zealand, a deadly white racist psychopath murders kids, women and men at prayer and steams his monstrous actions live…. So, what chance for Sri Lanka to abide by higher standards? None, none whatsoever….
You can pile evidence, based on facts and sworn truths, as high as the Shard… they will stand as nothing compared to political prejudices based on racism, casteism, religious and linguistic supremacism and skin-colour preferences.
The planet will shed we petty, vicious, toxic humans long before there can be any agreement on this matter.
With friendship and sadness (love and rage as XR has it!!!)
Jane Russell (Dr.)
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[1] See “Mullaitivu 2009: 400,000 Lived, 290,000 People Came Out, What Happened To The Balance? – Sampanthan Asks – Colombo Telegraph,” https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/mullaitivu-2009-400000-lived-290000-people-came-out-what-happened-to-the-balance-sampanthan-asks/
A NOTE
Jane Russell is an Oxford graduate who completed a history Ph.d at Peradeniya and then wrote a book covering the politics of the pre-1948 period with special attention to the the communal manoeuvring in the Donoughmore period (see Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1947, Colombo, Tisara Prakasakayo, 1982). She lived in Sri Lanka for a while and is presently teaching in London, but has made several visits recently to an island she has deep attachments for.
ALSO SEE
Michael Roberts: “Hardline Ethnic Mind-Sets: Jane Russell’s Findings and Reflections” , 28 April 2016, https://thuppahis.com/2016/04/28/hardline-ethnic-mind-sets-jane-russells-findings-and-reflections/
