Category Archives: Tamil migration

October 23, 2019 · 8:55 am

Wigneswaran’s Political Manifesto dissected in Devastating Fashion

Chandre Dharmawardana, in Island, 29 October 2019, where the title is “The ITAK’s 13-Point Letter””

According to news reports in The Island of 18 Oct. 2019), the TNA has sent a 13-point to the presidential candidates, even though the prospective President has been shackled by the 19A crafted by the Jayampathy-Sumanthiran cabal. It should not be forgotten that parties constituting the TNA backed the LTTE in its heyday and were the political facades of Prabhakaran’s terror campaign, even though their very own colleagues like Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran had been murdered in cold blood by Prabhakaran. Those acts have never been condemned by the TNA.

see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Tamil_Eelam

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October 6, 2019 · 12:41 am

Sri Lanka’s Rivers of Grief from 1956-to-Present within Documentary Film

Anurudha Kodagoda in Sunday Observer, 6 October 2019, reviewing Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s TEARS IN PARADISE

 

Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s latest documentary film, ‘Tears in Paradise’ (Paradisayaka Kadulu), consists of the political history of Sri Lanka from the assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to the 1983 Black July, emphasizing the dark history of violence released by the Sinhala-Buddhist ethnicity of the country with the patronage of the Sri Lankan Government which was in power at that time.

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September 11, 2019 · 6:46 am

A Sob Story? Hodge in Batticaloa batting for the Nadeshalingam Family

Amanda Hodge in The Weekend Australian, 7/8th September 2019, where the title is “Mum’s fears for asylum son tainted by time with Tamil Tigers”

On the scuffed green walls of Nadeshalingam Murugappan’s family home in eastern Sri Lanka, a maxim written in English — a language none of the occupants can read — hangs above the television in a room full of anxious ­relatives. It says: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Whether “Nades” and his wife Kokilapathmapriya “Priya” Nadarasa end up back in the rural Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa they fled separately years ago — this time with two Australian-born daughters in tow — could be decided before the end of the month.

Nadeshalingam ‘Nades’ Murugappan’s mother Alakamma in the family’s village home in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka. Picture: Benislos Thushan

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September 11, 2019 · 1:19 am

Evaluating Jehan Perera’s Assessments of the Presidential Candidates

Edward Upali in Canada, via Email Memo to Thuppahi, September 2019**

In his opinion piece on the Presidential Stakes Jehan Perera (JP) evaluates three of the more likely candidates at the next Presidential Election in Sri Lanka (SL).  However, I have some concerns relative to the criteria he uses to evaluate the prospective candidates.  It is a common practice in Problem Solving, to use the same criteria to all alternatives and score them to choose the best solution.  However, JP who claims to be a lawyer by training, appears to use several sets of criteria /attributes to evaluate three prospective Presidential Candidates. 

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September 8, 2019 · 3:23 am

Nadesalingam Family in Heated Asylum-Seeker Controversy

Tracey Ferrier, in AAP News Item,  3 September 2019, entitled “Peter Dutton lashes out at Tamil parents for “dragging” kids through court appeals”

A Tamil couple has unfairly “dragged” their two young children through drawn-out court appeals in an ill-fated bid to stay in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says. Mr Dutton has rounded on the couple, saying the reason they’ve been in Australia for so long is because they have refused to accept rulings that they are not genuine refugees. He said “excessive” appeals had kept them here and now they were complaining about having to leave the life they established in the Queensland town of Biloela.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton says the Tamil couple has unfairly dragged their two young children through drawn-out court appeals. Picture: AAP Image/Mark JesserMinister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton says the Tamil couple has unfairly dragged their two young children through drawn-out court appeals. Picture: AAP Image/Mark JesserSource:AAP

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August 20, 2019 · 5:34 pm

UN Aid Workers in the Crucible of War, 1989-92: William Clarance’s Fascinating Account

Michael Roberts, in SOUTH ASIA¸ Sept 2008, 31: 394-96 reviewing Ethnic Warfare in Sri Lanka and the UN Crisis (London: Pluto Press, and Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2007), 296 pp.

This is an unusual book and essential reading for those interested in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. William Clarance was head of UNHCR’s relief mission in Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1992. He kept a diary and has waited until he had left the arena of international administration before recounting his riveting experiences in the field. 

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August 16, 2019 · 12:53 pm

Nish Duraiappah appointed Police Chief in Peel Region, Canada

News Item in

Mainstream print media in Toronto including News Agencies and television broadcasting stations were quick to break the story that Halton Region police deputy chief Nish Duraiappah has been named Chief of Police of the Peel Region. Duraiappah, who has been a member of the force for 25 years, will take over from interim chief Chris McCord in October.

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August 8, 2019 · 5:14 pm

Clobbering Rajiv Gandhi as Chastisement in 1987: A Guti Dheema

Michael Roberts

When Vijithamuni Rohana de Silva upended military discipline and attempted to clobber the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the head as the latter was inspecting a guard of honour on 30th July 1987, he was indulging in an act of chastisement – a guti dheema in Sinhala parlance. As such, in my tendentious elaboration, Rohana de Silva was administering a medicinal pill in the vocabulary of archaic Sinhala – a vocabulary that has resonances within the term beheth guliya. [1]

The emphasis on guti dheema was a conjecture I presented way back in 2002.[2] In my reading now, one that Retd Commodore Somasiri Devendra does not share, the intricate details provided recently by Retd Lt KH Perera confirm this set of musings.

 Indo-Lanka Accord about to be signed on 29th July 1987

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July 29, 2019 · 11:15 am

Australia takes Tough Line on Asylum Seeking Boat People

Asiri Fernando, in Sunday Times, 28 July 2019, where the title is

Five Sri Lankan men who attempted to reach Australian shores by boat were repatriated to Colombo this week. Several attempts by Sri Lankans to sail illegally into Australia the past three months have raised questions if human smugglers are probing Canberra’s resolve to stop such incursions following the federal election in May.

Three such attempts were intercepted by the Australian and Sri Lankan authorities since then, resulting in 66 Sri Lankans being repatriated, a spokesperson for the Australian Department of Home Affairs said. Police said all those sent back were adult males. Australian authorities notified their Sri Lankan law enforcement counterparts via the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra prior to deporting the asylum-seekers by air.

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July 26, 2019 · 3:32 pm

Ludicrous Science. Huge Error Margins in Death Toll Figures

Chandre Dharmagunawrdena, in Island, 26 July 2019, where the title is “Genocide Claims, Number Games and their margins of error”

June 23, 1983  known as “Black July” was a day of shame for Sri Lanka where a government calling itself a “Dharmista Rajya” (a Righteous Regime)  permitted, aided and abetted armed mobs to attack a section of its defenseless citizens — civilian Tamils.  The fact that there were looters, or the possibility that other forces  fished in  troubled waters (http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=74181),  or that most DIG’s of the time were Tamils (http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=74047), etc.,  are irrelevant to the very clear-cut  main issue. That state-aided  terror  happened in the CAPITAL itself  is a FACT and not some allegation based on a numbers game of guessing how  many Tamils  lived in the Metropolis before and after the event.

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