DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai talks about the experience of being a Sri Lankan woman blogger. Check out the latest issue of Options on women bloggers at http://options.womenandmedia.org/
Read Dushi’s blog at http://passionparade.blogspot.com/
Truth Journalism? Marie Colvin hoist on her own Petard
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph where the title is “Marie Colvin as a Mouthpiece of the LTTE” and where you will find all manner of comments. Also note the hyperlnks within this article HERE.in thuppahi.
Having come across Tammita-Delgoda’s 2009 article “Reading between the Lines” for the first time in 2014, I reproduced it in Thuppahi for several reasons. His essay reveals how significant figures in the Western media world participated actively in the highly effective propaganda war sustained by the LTTE networks abroad working in coordination with the Tiger directorate in the Vanni, armed as the Tigers were with modern satellite technology.
As Tammita-Delgoda’s news account indicates, Marie Colvin, an intrepid war correspondent who ultimately paid a price of death for her boldness when she was caught in crossfire in Syria in 2012, was one of those partial to the LTTE camp. Eight years earlier, in March-April 2001, she had used her Tamil connections to slip beyond the Government of Sri Lanka’s (GSL) frontlines into the territory of Thamilīlam, the de facto state of the LTTE, and was injured when returning. The details surrounding this incident are highly relevant to our examination of journalistic ethics and are addressed at length below. It is adequate for the moment to note Colvin’s well-known “empathy for the underdog” and her devotion to the plight of civilians in war-torn arenas (DBS Jeyaraj 2012) Continue reading
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, Eelam, Fascism, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, wikileaks, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Brits on Christmas Breaks 2013: short stories in competition
Sri Lanka tops exotic Christmas breaks contest
Telegraph, UK readers share their thoughts on recently published stories (October 11-19, 2014)
The winning entry: SRI LANKA
SigiriyaSri Lanka: The children woke to the screeches of wild peacocks to find that Father Christmas had filled their hammocks with a few well-travelled gifts – this was a Christmas Day like no other in the Mud House Hotel in central Sri Lanka. On this joy of a break, with neither electricity nor internet, we cycled to the nearby Buddhist temple and went canoeing and swimming at the local lake where fish nibbled our toes. Afterwards we enjoyed a feast overlooking a lily-filled buffalo meadow – and then the activities began: a cricket match against the staff, and lessons in rounding up buffalo by tuk-tuk.
Boxing Day was spent birdwatching at dawn followed by a cookery lesson over open fires learning to prepare the perfect dal and to shred our first coconuts. Our Sri Lanka tour continued with safaris and hiking high up on Sigiriya Rock and it seemed rude not to pop to the Maldives for New Year.
Sally York, from East Sussex, wins a voucher with DialAFlight
Marie Colvin’s Encounter with the Sri Lankan Army, 16th April 2001
The eye-patch worn by the redoubtable journalist Marie Colvin from late 2001 onwards probably enhanced her presence and impact in the world at large. But it was a heavy price and undoubtedly involved a traumatic journey of recovery from the injuries received from grenade shrapnel fired by a Sri Lankan Army patrol on 16th April 2001.
“In this Tuesday, April 17, 2001 file photo Sri Lankan army medical staff examine journalist Marie Colvin at a field hospital in Vavuniya (AP Photo/Government Information Department, File)” — Caption in Jeyaraj 2012
Filed under accountability, Eelam, female empowerment, life stories, LTTE, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world affairs
The JVP Insurgency in the late 1980s and its Death Toll
Dharman Wickremaratne, in the Daily News, where the title is “JVP uprising II killed 396 undergrads, while 227 students disappeared”… http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/jvp-uprising-ii-killed-396-undergrads-while-227-students-disappeared
DJV Slogans calling for the death of President Jayewardene (“Let’s kill J.R.”) written on walls
The second JVP insurgency began in 1986. Two were killed on May 1, 1987 when the banned May Day was commemorated. The insurrection was baptized near the Bo Tree, Pettah on July 28, 1987. The first to die there was Moratuwa University Engineering student Clifford Perera. The writer saw him lying on the ground with fatal gunshot injuries. The two of us studied in the same school. A brilliant student in the engineering field he was drawn to the JVP by Sudath, a second year student of the Colombo University’s Medical Faculty. I remember in the same group were Hiranya, Asiri, and Godagampola among several others.
Clifford was dying. His last words were: “Motherland or death.” No one dared to rush to the spot because gunfire was heard from all directions. When I appealed to Pathegama Mathupala, the caretaker of the pro-JVP Samastha Lanka Trade Union Federation, he responded promptly. He carried Clifford with the help of another. The next moment a bullet struck Mathupala’s hand. As soon as our photographer Chandrasiri Weerasinghe took a photo of the scene, we left the place. Continue reading
Only in Australia! Glendambo
Courtesy of Jith Wijeyesekera
Obamas incorporated into Diwali
by Ganesh … working wonders with Photoshop
