ONE: Kumar David: “Racists abhor breathing space for Tamils: Constitutional panic and proposals,” …. Sunday Island, June 15, 2013, 6:53 pm
There’s no need to hold the punches, let’s say it straight. Vermin who gladly enjoyed and exploited the Provincial Council system for 25 years, JHU, JVP, SLFP and an assortment of Councils included, are now up in arms at the thought of Tamils in the Northern Province having an elected council of their own for the first time since 13A was enacted! What is the mental makeup of these rats? I do not hold back in declaring them racists. If you belong in this bunch of bigots that want to deprive the NPC of rights other PCs enjoyed for a quarter century, well you now know what I think of you. I hope it makes your distilled chauvinist blood boil to hear me reckon that one reason may be that you fear a Tamil led PC (led by TNA, Douglas or anyone else) could achieve more than the other eight! Continue reading
Author Archives: thuppahi
To meddle or NOT to meddle? The 13th Amendment in the Gunsights
Usha S-S boxed in from All Sides: A Singular Tamil Spokesperson
Padraig Colman, in the Sunday Island, where the title is “Who speaks for Sri Lanka’s Tamils?”
Pic from Ministry of Defence
An article I posted on Groundviews on May 28 elicited many responses —http://groundviews.org/2013/05/28/sri-lankas-numbers-game/ On May 16, a seminar was held at the Marga Institute to launch a publication by the Independent Diaspora Analysis Group – Sri Lanka (IDAG-S) – The Numbers Game: Politics of Restorative Justice — http://www.scribd.com/doc/132499266/The-Numbers-Game-Politics-of-Retributive-Justice
Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke, Chairman Emeritus of the Marga Institute, opened the proceedings by answering the question: “Do numbers matter”. He acknowledged that, while even a low number of civilian casualties was cause for anguish, citing large and inaccurate figures could only inhibit the healing process. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, unusual people, war crimes, world events & processes, zealotry
A Seed germinates: Ian Botham to walk for FOG Charity at Mankulam
Faraz Shauketaly, with Mike O’Shea, in The Sunday Leader, 16 June 2013
English cricket legend, Sir Ian Botham has confirmed that he is embarking on his most daring walk ever – all in aid of raising funds for sport in Sri Lanka. ‘Beefy’ whose love for Sri Lanka has matured ever since he first arrived here for the first test that Sri Lanka played, at the Sara Stadium – The Oval Colombo – way back in 1982. The former English Captain and one of England’s most beloved cricket all-rounders, will walk from Mankulam in the former conflict zone to Seenigama in the South, an area that suffered particularly badly during the Tsunami 2004. Announcing the event at a function on London earlier this week, Sir Ian was joined by Sri Lanka’s own star player, Kumar Sangakkara and Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev. They were all present when the well known sports foundation, Laureus Foundation made the announcement that Sir Ian Botham’s walk will raise funds for a sports complex and school to be built in Mankulam. Continue reading
Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Evaluating the “Numbers Game”
Padraig Colman, courtesy of Transconflict, an online web journal
An End to Terror in Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka’s bitter and brutal thirty year conflict ended in May 2009. The government’s victory over the separatist LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) was decisive and the rebel leaders, including Vellupillai Prabhakaran, were killed or co-opted. There have been no terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in the four years since the end of the war. The formerly war-torn Northern Province has been enjoying an economic growth rate of over 28%.
In spite of all this, the government has come under unrelenting criticism, mainly orchestrated by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora who supported the cause of a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, Tamil Eelam. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, citizen journalism, fundamentalism, gordon weiss, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Tamil civilians, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Nandasiri Jasentuliyana’s ‘odyssey’ in space law: “Same Sky, Different Nights”
Ishara Jayawardane in Daily News, 5 June 2013
“It dawned on me how vast the length and the enormity of the journey was that I have travelled. From those early years when the sky had fascinated me to the present when I have taken part in creating laws and regulations to tether the infinite plains of outer space.” Young Jasentuliyana looked up at the sky and its myriad stars from Ambalangoda. So many stars! It seemed as if he could rise up and be one with them. And as he looked at them, he had no idea that his fate was already being carved out in the Universe.
Award recipient: The light from these stars reaching him, as he stood mesmerized by them. Perhaps these stars were already dead, their light reaching him only then. A little boy on a lonely planet in the Milky way in such a vast universe, how could he know what the cosmos would have in store for him? For one day, he would not only be a proud son of Sri Lanka but a gift to the world of academia and science. Continue reading
Filed under life stories, unusual people, world affairs
Peradeniya University in full bloom — AGAIN
courtesy of I LOVE KANDY
Filed under heritage, life stories
Neither Tiger nor Lion: A Suffering Tamil Voice of Reason from Diaspora Land
A Tamil in UK who must remain Anonymous … responding to Tamil nationalist commemorations of the Tiger and Tamil dead and to a photograph by Robert Pinney [see below] depicting this event in mid-May 2013**
It really bothers me that the protest of ‘Tamils… gathered around photographs of those killed during the Sri Lankan civil war’ is being symbolized by people carrying the LTTE flag. Anyone who protests that massacres of Tamils in 2009 should by no means do so under the Tiger flag. In 2009, the Tigers forced innocent Tamil civilians to remain in the Vanni – under pain of death. When I was working in the Vanni, I began to truly sympathize with the Tamils who stayed behind in Sri Lanka. They lost EVERYTHING under the Tigers and the GOSL 
A shed with garlanded photographs of maaveerar, Batticaloa locality, c. 2004 Continue reading
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, ethnicity, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, LTTE, martyrdom, mass conscription, nationalism, photography, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, world affairs
Undying Enmity in Pantomime at India Pakistan Border
SEE http://www.wimp.com/indiapakistan/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC9NeJh1NhI
“Every day at dusk, Indian and Pakistani border guards put on a show of one-upmanship at the Wagah border crossing near Amritsar, Punjab. The two countries are not on the best terms, but instead of a boring stare down, there is plenty of humour and acrobatic extravaganza to be found as the soldiers try to outdo the other side by marching and parading in hilariously exaggerated fashion. Thousands show up to watch from the stands everyday, and we thoroughly enjoyed the crazy uniforms, impressively HIGH leg kicks, and the longest bellowing contest we have ever heard. Gotta say, the Pakistani bellower was a bit better that day.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpiQTAC__s
PS: There is some parade on NOW in Sri Lanka is there not?
