Shame
A Hindu kovil in Pettah
Yesterday the Sri Lankan police rounded up Tamils in Colombo and deported them to the North and East. Prima facie, this is wrong. It is wrong for a government to abuse its citizens so. Strategically, this is foolhardy. It runs directly contrary to the goal of a united Sri Lanka and reconciliation. Consecutive governments ahave asked us to sacrifice human rights, press freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom in general for this struggle. This government has asked us to sacrifice while the corrupt Rajapakse family takes control of 75% of state funds and lines up even more cabinet ministers at the people’s trough. What they have never asked us to sacrifice is what we need to sacrifice. We need to sacrifice our pride, we need to sacrifice our mental laziness, and we need to take mindful steps towards peace and security. This government is corrupt, inept, and mindless. When the LTTE flies some WWII planes they fire every gun in the city and give away our airspace. When we fear bomb attacks on Colombo they just deport all the Tamils they can round up. It is foolish, it is morally wrong, and it does not help us win.
From the LBO report:
Armed police forced hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils out of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo Thursday as part of an effort to clear the city of feared Tamil Tiger cells, officials and witnesses said.
Police stormed Tamil-majority areas of the capital under the cover of darkness and forced guests at low-budget hostels to get into buses escorted by armed men, residents said.
One of the most damning abuses of the LTTE was their ethnic cleansing. Rounding up Muslims and giving them 24 hours to leave, etc. Now Sri Lanka is in the same boat. These people are Sri Lankan citizens. They were not charged with any crime. They were identified based on their race and forcibly deported. As if the North and East was, wait a minute, a different country. The reason Prabhakaran voted (via the force of boycott) for Mahinda is because he knew he would polarize the country in just this way. The reason Mahinda does it is because he’s incompetent at everything except accumulating feudal power – to the detriment of the entire nation. This is a man who covered up the investigation into his theft of Tsunami funds, for the love of mercy. This is a man who’s installed his brothers as Secretary of Defence and Minister of Ports and Aviation. The Sec Def has also completely lost control of Sri Lanka airspace to two fucking test planes, but he now stands to get the usual 10% from the Mig29s we’re buying to shoot down these dragonflies.
Mahinda controls the Ministry of Finance and any ministry with any money, and he’s using the largess to buy off politicians with Cabinet Position – a cabinet he has bloated to over 100. A cabinet that won’t fit in any conference room. He is gorging himself, printing money while the cost of living rises and the war rages on. There are numerous confirmed abductions in Colombo, and his solution has been to simply deport Tamils ‘to protect them’.
This man does not have the integrity, the intelligence or the competence to conduct this war. He cannot defend our airspace, he cannot defend our cities, and he asks us to sacrifice our freedom for nought. The real sacrifice is compassion. The real sacrifice is negotiation. The real sacrifice is taking the LTTE to the negotiating table and slowly, painstakingly wrestling them to the ground – all while defending your flanks from Sinhalese extremists. Mahinda has taken the easy path of war, but this is not the mindful path. It is the path of reaction – LTTE takes to the air, shoot all guns in the air; LTTE threatens Colombo, deport Tamils. It allows the LTTE to dictate policy, and that policy leads to division. Mahinda is a puppet of the LTTE, he is systematically silencing those who liased with the LTTE to help get him elected, and if there is a true ‘kotiya’ in this nation it is this corrupt incompetent, deporting our own people in the dead of the night, for ‘dollars more dollars’.
For all the hatred in the Daily News and more against journalists, NGOs, etc, it is Mahinda’s policies more than anything which are driving this country towards division. War is easy and war strengthens the LTTE. War and Mahinda is what the LTTE want. Peace is hard, and peace takes courage. That is the strength that this country requires, the strength to resist our first impulse and take mindful, strategic action. I only pray that this country finds that strength in time.
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
There’s nothing wrong with pornography, but there’s a lot wrong with porn. Nothing wrong with watching people have sex, but too often that sex is brutal, senseless and coerced. I mean how many couples are coming on each others faces every day? Hence, philosopher king Alain de Botton – after calling for a 
Sri Lanka is going to start offer 
Sending them away, like a TNA parliamentarian suggested this morning is the effective recognition of the NE as a separate state, more than just a humanitarian circus show, this is punching yourself in the face. It’s nowhere near due process and once again makes moderate voices in Sri Lanka inaudible and illegible. The right is pacified at the chagrin of everyone else.
Fantastic post!
“When we fear bomb attacks on Colombo they just deport all the Tamils they can round up”
really ? don’t you think that is an exaggeration? of course you are freeto base your arguments on exaggerations
this my or may not a be a stupid overreaction on the part of the police but it is certainly an overreaction on your part . i am not a security expert. (are you ? ) as such i will not judge efficacy of this and leave that to professionals. they have top answer to the lives of all colombo residents.
you are of course free to make subjective judgments and unwarranted sweeping generalizations based on your limited experience and prejudices. which include the the racist one that ltte is fighting for tamils and that any tamils who do not have faith in government will support ltte.
coming to this specific case, it is fact that there are restrictions on freedom of movement everywhere in the world due to various reasons . they are so common that we do not even notice them. can anyone travel to another country? why is there restrictions on some countries and not others ? can anyone legally live in houses that do not meet with municipal regulations? do you regularly oppose demolition of pavement stalls ( never seen such a post here though much more ppl are ruined by that very common procedure of police?
in order to warrant the sort of sweeping generalizations you make you need more than what you have in my opinion. your opinion differs.
i am sure i will not regret my opinion a year from now . i was right about my opinion when similar sweeping claims ( including one about ethnic cleansing) were made by lot of the same ppl ( esp ngo ppl ) last april after the small riot there. in the end their generalizations proved false never seen them apologize :-)
i was of course referring to riot in trinco.
“i am not a security expert. (are you ? ) as such i will not judge efficacy of this and leave that to professionals.”
You don’t have to be a security expert to realise that the expulsion of a group of people who are innocent of any crime is unjust and detrimental to the war effort. It also plays to LTTE propoganda because the only basis for this expulsion is that these people are from the Northeast and don’t have valid reasons (apparently visa interviews, marriage, etc are not considered valid by the GoSL) for being in Colombo. Since it is not constitutionally (and therefore legally) required that one must have a valid reason for one’s existence in SL if one is a Sri Lankan (if it was, what excuse would Snut and the president have?), we must presume that these Tamils are not considered Sri Lankans, but foreigners (who are required to furnish valid reasons for their stay). This is exactly what the LTTE says as well — ie Tamils are not Sri Lankans, so give them a separate state. Congratulations on an excellently shot own goal, GoSL.
To think theat there might be some sort of efficacy to this expulsion is purely idiotic. Of course you are free to be an idiot since it is a free and democratic country. :)
How do you know that they are innocent of any crime?
They were not tried in a court of law. Last time I checked, you’re
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
How do we know you are, for that maatter? Shouldn’t the Australiaan police deport you just in case?
Actually , They do , if you stay there for no reason
INNOCENT UNTIL BLOWN UP THEM SELF
Interim relief has been granted by the Supreme Court to stay the evacuations in lieu of an FR application that the order to evacuate violated Articles 11, 12, 13 an 14 of the Constitution. The Chief Justice was not present.
“why is there restrictions on some countries and not others ? can anyone legally live in houses that do not meet with municipal regulations? do you regularly oppose demolition of pavement stalls ( never seen such a post here though much more ppl are ruined by that very common procedure of police?”
Sittingnut, they weren’t evacuated because they compromised Colombo’s aesthetic integrity, or that the lodges are infested with vermin, they were evacuated with little legitimate reason, certainly none that come under any meaningful security concerns.
Government delivered a full toss by overreacting to arousals. Applauds for hitting a six Indi!
Good post Indi, my sentiments exactly.
The irony is MR claims to be a champion of human rights while grossly abusing them and vilifying anyone who tries to uphold them.
This is from the official website of the President:
“and becoming a champion of human rights. He was a leading member of the Parliamentarians for Human Rights”.
“He came into prominence as a leader, together with Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu, of the Mothers Front, which organized the mothers of the “disappeared†in the white terror of 1988-90. The Visva Bharati University of Calcutta in India conferred on him the title Professor Emeritus for his record on human rights.”
also
“He has been the President of the Sri Lankan Committee for Solidarity with Palestine for the past 25 years and has always maintained a close interest in finding a peaceful solution to the Middle East problem within the framework of a sovereign Palestinian state.”
Sauce for the palestinian goose is apparently not sauce for the Tamil gander.
see:
http://www.presidentsl.org/data/about.htm
Nice of you to no shed tears for the Sinhalese and Muslims who cannot live in the North and the East, you know, the areas that have been made 100% Tamil through ethnic cleansing. Yeesh 300 Tamils out of 100 000 plus are sent back we have this whine about “ethnic cleansing”
There’s been plenty of criticism of the LTTE ethnic cleansing here in blogs and in the media. Their banning in much of the western world is a result of that criticism. If the GoSL wants to avoid criticism and the resultant sanctions it should staart aacting like a government of the people and not the Nazi party.
It’s nice of you to be shedding tears over there in Australia. If you’re so concerned, why don’t you get your arse in the grass over here with the rest of us?
I will once I finish my degree. I will be more sympathetic when non-Tamils are free to live wherever they want in their own country. It’s not OK for only Tamils to be able to do that.
Now run along and write another crappy book and prostitute it at some literary festival.
“I will once I finish my degree.”
I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one, given the level of intelligence & maturity you just displayed.
Yes and come back here and talk instead hanging out overseas, enjoying the priviledge of living in a stable democracy, and preaching dictatorship to people who have to live with it.
You’ve hit the nail on the head here man. People can call it an overreaction or whatever the hell they want to call it, but to a normal humanbeing this is simply a disgusting act. To say that our government did this brings shame upon the entire nation.
A full toss deserves to be hit for six. There will be many more full tosses in time to come. That’s because there’s a really bad bowler in the attack, and bad bowlers need to be taken out of the attack as soon as possible before far more damage can be inflicted.
Looking at the specific example of muslims…this was a terrible thing that occured. This is what war is about; there is nothing just about war in my opinion. Something will have to give.
War is the easy path, and to use Indi’s words, “peace is hard and peace takes courage”. The ceasefire agreement forced various parties including the LTTTE to have a cold hard look at themselves. They were not able to hide behind the conflict.
Here is what happened during the ceasefire, and what even a group considered to be despotic like the LTTE did, just with regard to this specific issue (I believe there is still much more that has to be done to compensate them for this tragedy. It makes me ashamed as a Tamil that our own people who have been subjected to opression commited such an act).
1. In 2002, Prabhakaran made a formal apology for the expulsion of Muslims from the North.
2. The SLMC and the LTTE had direct dealings in terms of negotiating terms and conditions with regard to sharing power in the North and East.
According to Rauf Hakim in an interview in 2002:
“The LTTE realises that the dominance they have gained through guns is not anywhere near the legitimacy they can gain through people’s participation. They will use the “D plus 90 days” and beyond to gain that legitimacy through people’s participation. It will be ideal for us to have a situation where Muslims will have a chance down the line, after the interim administration is put in place, to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a working arrangement.”
3. When senior LTTE leader Karikalan gave an interview in April 2002 “in which he reportedly expressed the desire of young Tamils to reclaim land taken by Muslims, Pirapaharan stripped him of his title and gave him the ambiguous designation of “Special Leader of the East.—http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/721.cfm
According to D.B.S. Jeyaraj
“Karikalan has not tried to hide his anti-Muslim bias. In recent times, he contributed to much tension among Muslims when he asserted that most Muslim lands were formerly Tamil-owned and that the Muslim community had to pay its dues as taxes to the LTTE. Moreover, it is suspected that Karikalan was personally involved in the Kattankudi and Eravur massacres of 1990. It had also been said that he was instrumental in pressuring Prabakaran to drive Muslims out of the north in 1980 as a reprisal for Muslim Home Guards collaborating with the armed forces in the East. In recent times, Karikalan was seen as the primary impediment to the implementation of an agreement that Prabakaran reached with Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem on April 13.”
This is what is involved when people are faced with the cold hard facts of operating in a civilised environment of peaceful negotiation for a just settlement.
This is in answer to the statement made by River. I also want to add that one injustice does not justify another. That is a humane perspective as opposed to a small minded “tribal” perspective.
Nice to hear your voice speak out for the Sinhalese and Muslims who have been denied the right to live whereaver they want in Sri Lanka *rolls eyes* Seriously when have all these people shouting about this move made a blog post about those folks? Are Tamil lives more important to you or is everybody a human being in your eyes?
Since you asked…
Answer: In my eyes everybody is a human being.
I think as a Tamil I have a greater obligation to speak out against injustices commited by my own people. Just because we have suffered injustices in the hands of the sinhalese, it doesn’t give us the right to commit similar acts.
Hope that clarifies things.
that’s it, this is the last straw, i’m leaving this country. (hurrah, one peacenik less, hu?) in about 2/3 months, just time to get things done, i’m out. (close school, sell house/car/furniture/get visa for my wife/tickets/dog cage etc etc) it’s not worth it. what a waste of a country, resources, etc etc. i just can’t bear the sight of all this, it’s not even human, it’s just so animal like it’s unbelievable. and u want international recognition?!??!? help!?!? progress?!?! tourism!?!? a healthy ecomomy!?!?! what a disgrace, what a waste… good luck, you need it,( because action is not in your vocabulary guys). the day will come (when?) and you might just have a place which you can call a country to live in some day, until then have a nice dictatorship, nazi style (remember the Jews? only thing missing is a little Auschwitz to be built somewhere to deport these Tamils….). fuckin unbelievable. u can’t imagine how sad i am.
Keep moaning. And then do nothing.
Sacrifice? What have you sacrificed? A night at the club? A day at the pub? Instead of writing articles (stating the obvious) to make yourself feel good and look good in the eyes of the mob, do something other people would consider a worthwhile solution. If all these armchair warriors had actually put their “opinions” into practice back in the day, our country might be in a better place by now. Not that their “opinions” are always right, or that they’d really want to get their hands dirty putting them into practice of course.
So keep doing nothing.
Hey Star Lizard no point being personal.
Any suggestions as to what can be done?
And also what have you done? maybe we can learn from it.
sorry Lizard
Words are important and writing is important. It is ‘doing something’. Laws are words, the neglected Constitution is words, the CFA is words. The FR petition that the CPA filed to stay the evictions is words. Words are important.
Words won’t hold the LTTE. It’s the army, navy and the airforce with their guns and brute strength who are doing that.
And we’re ever so grateful for your contribution, over in Oz, fighting off the Tigers with your little mouse.
No, the FR petition that the CPA filed was “action”. They didn’t just talk about the issue like everyone else did.
Talk helps, yes. But it has to lead to action. Nelson Mandela talked. Mahatma Gandhi talked. Martin Luther King talked. But then they got off their butts and went and DID something.
Talking’s great. But in 50 years time, where are we going to be? Still in deep shit – but you can be sure we’ll be talking about it…
So Prabhakaran is innocent in your eyes?
Who said Prabhakaran is innocent??????
This is war….who can be innocent in a war????
Oh please. Don’t change the subject. Prabhakaran is a totally different story.
We’re talking about a bunch of random Tamils who were branded as terrorists and sent packing from their nation’s capital. No evidence was shown that they were terrorists. Some of them were even fleeing the LTTE terrorists up north, out of fear. These are the very people that the Government is fighting to free from the clutches of the fascist LTTE pussies in the Wanni.
I wouldn’t call this ethnic cleansing. And would in no way equate it to the Muslim ethnic cleansing by the LTTE. Ethnic cleansing would be if they start clearing the thousands of Tamils from Wellawatte. I hope that doesn’t happen next.
But the whole thing was pretty dumb, nonetheless. If we want to defeat the LTTE and live in peace and harmony as one nation and one people, we can’t just brand random Tamils as being terrorists, without evidence.
You asked: “How do you know that they are innocent of any crime?”
Well, no evidence was presented by the police, other than the fact that they had ‘no legitimate reason’ to be in Colombo. Before doing something like this, they should have evidence of links to terrorism, and they should show it to the public, proudly. Why not, if they have found terrorists, all the Colombo public will be happy. But it seems like they just sent people of Tamil origin away indiscriminately.
Sinhalas and Muslims come to Colombo too, without ‘legitimate reason’. Maybe they are trying to find work, maybe they are just visiting on a holiday, maybe they are here to get visas. Why weren’t they sent away?
One can understand why Tamils are fighting for a separate state, when they country they are in doesn’t seem to want them.
He’s been convicted in Sri Lanka for the Central Bank bombing and India for the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
And, words did hold the Tigers, the CFA did. The military has actually never been successful in ‘holding’ them. During the CFA there were very few attacks, and now it’s almost weekly.
“The military has actually never been successful in ‘holding’ them”
It’s because of the military that you get to live in Colombo and write your little blog. Otherwise the LTTE would have been there and do to you what they did to the Muslims.
Great Post Indi!
It is a real shame that our politicians act in an insensible and foolish manner? Or are they really foolish maybe Our politicians are racist. The average Sinhalese is not at all racist but the politicians seem to be.
The sad thing is that there are bloggers in Kottu who advocate and say that this war is necessary. Maybe they should get away from their computers and take a real gun (if they have ever held one) and join the poor soldiers who are unnecessarily laying down their lives just because of these politicians.
The CFA held the Tigers? Are you kidding me? Tell that to all the anti-LTTE Tamils and intelligence personnel who were gunned down, and the soldiers who died in daily claymore mine attacks while the UNP (the party that you were promoting back then, and making websites for) provided free airforce flights to the LTTE and hosted them to champagne and the best hospital facilities in Colombo. Righteo, Indi.
River, you need to weigh the costs against the benefits. This is actually the fault of the Sri Lankan leadership. They have not communicted this clearly to the people. Mahinda has been lazy as….simply taking the easy way of appealing to popular sentiment, instead of doing the hard work of convincing the people about the benefits of peace.
To be honest, I don’t blame people for thinking this way. This CFA thing is damned complicated and difficult to grasp. The challenge is to communicate the machinations of peaceful negotiation to the average person.
I am wondering if someone writes stuff in their blog about the CFA or peacful negotiations, if it will attract much traffic to their blog?
well it seems i did not have to wait for a year to be proved right.
supreme court issued an interim stay order stopping evictions. institutions of the law are working in sri lanka in spite of all the exaggerated claims made in above post and elsewhere. this sort of thing happens in all democracies whether it be usa or eu countries. governments take some security measure to protect citizens as they are duty bound to do. courts when appealed to, stop them, if they are deem to violate the constitution. that is as it should be.
only difference is that in sl there are ppl who parrot the exaggerated claims of terrorist propaganda.
instead if they are really concerned about sri lanka, they should for instance come up with real evidence for their absurd white van conspiracy claims. and see how the law works, instead of shouting silly unsubstantiated allegations. instead they call ppl like me who call for evidence extremists.
isn’t is ironic that paikiasothy saravanamuttu who filed the fundamental rights petition also advocate peace at any cost (or appeasement of terror for peace) that will completely cut of access to similar justice to millions of ppl in north east who will end up under ltte oppression in case of that. ( not to mention those who were really ethnically cleansed from north )?
“well it seems i did not have to wait for a year to be proved right. supreme court issued an interim stay order stopping evictions. institutions of the law are working in sri lanka in spite of all the exaggerated claims made in above post and elsewhere. this sort of thing happens in all democracies whether it be usa or eu countries. governments take some security measure to protect citizens as they are duty bound to do. courts when appealed to, stop them, if they are deem to violate the constitution. that is as it should be.”
Brilliant… are you suggesting that the police should go ahead and violate the constitution (or worse be ignorant of it) and only stop when the highest court orders them to stop? this is NOT how it should be… fool
And what are these security measures you speak of… if these people were legitimate suspects then the PTA has provided enough and more provisions to arrest, detain and question them but none of these were done… all they were told is “look you’re a Tamil and you don’t have a valid reason to stay so fuck off back to the North”. In that case there are plenty of unemployed Sinhalese/Muslim youth living in Colombo; so maybe they too could be bused off to their respective towns and villages since they have no legitimate reason to be here.
The only thing you’ve proven is that you are an idiot
Easy Blacker. Let’s try to keep this a constructive debate.
David Backer is a decent guy. River who is called a curry muncher (all indian looking) among the Aussie should not insult much older people.
The expulsion of Jews from europe led to Israel. Mahinda with his secret pact with LTTE is doing them the best favour. Now tamil eelam is being legitimised. Innocent tamils need the LTTE who are the only ones fighting for them. Douglas and Karuna are free to rape,murder and abduct but its okay becuase mahinda gets his take.
The SLA has not the decency of accepting the Soldiers. What an insult. Furthermore the idiots in the internet are calling it a gimmick by the LTTE.
tariq
you do not decide what violates the constitution, supreme court does.
as yet supreme court has not ruled that there was a violation of constitution . this is merely an interim order. but even if they do ( as i hope they will) that does not prove police were wrong to act as they did.
their job is to protest the public. this is i country at war. they will have to answer for all the bombs that go off. almost all bombs ( there was one found today in maradana) are set off by tamils affiliated with ltte from north and east. as such it is right to be wary of ppl from north who are saying in colombo without identification or a reason for staying.
if you think it is wrong to have reasonable suspicions about them, you are living in a fantasy world.
if there are suspicions police should act within law to take preventive action. they are duty bound to do so.
do you prefer police to detain and monitor all of them under pta? do you think that is a practicable measure given the numbers involved? or do you want police to wait until bombs explode?
this was a novel method employed, aimed at prevention. ( it may or may not be a stupid overkill as i said in my first comment , but that is a subjective judgment )
since this is a new situation legality of this case is uncertain. legality is decided by courts. ( not by you or me) that is exactly what is happening here. sri lanka’s institutions of the law are working contrary to exaggerated claims made in above post and elsewhere .
as i said this sort of situation where actions of security apparatus is tested against constitution do take place in all countries ( whether that is be ‘extraordinary rendition’ in eu, wire tapping and detention in usa, ‘shooting to kill because looking like asian policy’ in uk etc) . that sri lankans have direct access to supreme court ( instead of going through several lower courts) is a good thing about sri lankan constitution.
btw you are free to call me names without pointing out why they are valid, if that gives you satisfaction :-)
i take it you agree with me about paikiasothy saravanamuttu contradictory position? if not do tell.
david blacker:
as i said, what a security expert thinks needful to protect lives is not for me or for you to decide.they are the professionals. as i said to indi, you and everyone else is free to have a subjective opinions based on their limited experience and prejudices. however police have to answer for bombs that go off in colombo. not indi, you, or anyone else.
“apparently visa interviews, marriage, etc are not considered valid by the GoSL”
are you sure? can you tell me where you got this information? did you see the evidence for these employments? do give details about sources so that we can see :-)
btw you do not decide what constitution says courts do and since this is going through the proper channels it will be decided according to law.
-
only thing that will remain from this incident is that police is trying their best (to the point of overreacting depending on pov), sri lankan institutions of law are working ok, in spite of claims to the contrary in above post and elsewhere, and that there are ppl like you who can be excited into making absurd exaggerated claims.
“tariq you do not decide what violates the constitution, supreme court does.”
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA
http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Introduction.htm
Freedom of Speech, assembly, association, movement, &c.
14. (1) Every citizen is entitled to -
(h) the freedom of movement and of choosing his residence within Sri Lanka
There you go that’s one violation… if they were not charged with any crime or arrested then they are presumed innocent… do you disagree with any part of that?
What the police did wasn’t admirable or novel… it was lazy, illconcieved and put more citizens lives at risk… how you say? well by strengthening the LTTE’s claim that the Govt doesn’t consider Tamils as Sri Lankans.
“this is i country at war”
This country is at war you are right… but the military aspect is only a part of it… this country is at war with its own identity, there needs to be a fundamental shift in how we perceive the man standing next to us if we are to win this war. There are a huge number of wrongs that have been committed against Sri Lankans by Sri Lankans and its no longer about how it all started and who did what to whom first, its about all us of us stop saying “my country” and start calling it “our country”.
“their job is to protest the public”
and each citizen is part of this “public” so telling them to pack up and leave isn’t really protecting them is it?
“if you think it is wrong to have reasonable suspicions about them, you are living in a fantasy world”
Never said there’s something wrong about having suspicions but there are actions that they can take to investigate them… rounding them up and shipping them out isn’t really helpful is it?
“if there are suspicions police should act within law to take preventive action. they are duty bound to do so”
but they didn’t… even the president ordered it to be stopped
“do you prefer police to detain and monitor all of them under pta? do you think that is a practicable measure given the numbers involved? or do you want police to wait until bombs explode?”
My preference is that all citizens be treated fairly and equally by all agents of the State, you start doing that then those bombs wouldn’t be going off in the first place.
“since this is a new situation legality of this case is uncertain. legality is decided by courts. ( not by you or me) that is exactly what is happening here. sri lanka’s institutions of the law are working contrary to exaggerated claims made in above post and elsewhere”
Wouldn’t it be better if the police were fully aware of these laws in the first place so that… at the end of the day their action did far more harm than good (if it did any at all)… the view that the Govt doesn’t consider Tamils as Sri Lankan (as purported by the LTTE) was given a massive boost and the authority of the police was undermined, they were made to look like a bunch of incompetent fools who’s only security solution involved bussing people (who were guilty of nothing) out of Colombo
“as i said this sort of situation where actions of security apparatus is tested against constitution do take place in all countries ( whether that is be ‘extraordinary rendition’ in eu, wire tapping and detention in usa, ’shooting to kill because looking like asian policy’ in uk etc)”
Yes but do think for a second any state agency of the EU or US would even consider rounding up people based on ethnicity and shipping them out of the major cities? oh and ‘shooting to kill because you look asian’ is NOT a policy in the UK… BBC broadcasts would make pretty grim viewing if so
tariq
you quote the constitution:
“14. (1) Every citizen is entitled to -
(h) the freedom of movement and of choosing his residence within Sri Lanka”
and ask
“do you disagree with any part of that?”
my answer is no.but courts determine what that means in real world.
it is the court that interprets its applicability in conjunction with other provisions in the constitution and constitutionally valid laws.
not every one is allowed to travel freely everywhere. can you, me or others ( even when they are not “charged with any crime or arrested”) travel in some streets in colombo? are we not prevented from doing so by security ? is that a restriction on freedom of movement? yes, but is that against the constitution ? no. bc courts have not ruled against it.
What the police did wasn’t admirable or novel… it was lazy, illconcieved and put more citizens lives at risk… how you say?
as i said previously that is a subjective judgment on your part. if anyone is in any position to judge the efficacy of some security measure it should be the professionals; the police. as i said from my first comment you are free to have your own opinion. however it is them, not you who will have answer to the lives of ppl killed by bombs.
“..its about all us of us stop saying “my country†and start calling it “our countryâ€.”
agreed. did i say anything that disagrees with that ?
““their job is to protest the publicâ€
and each citizen is part of this “public†so telling them to pack up and leave isn’t really protecting them is it?”
depend on the actual situation .asking ppl to leave certain area may be part of ensuring their security.
“Never said there’s something wrong about having suspicions but there are actions that they can take to investigate them… rounding them up and shipping them out isn’t really helpful is it?”
you are making a mistake. ppl from northeast who does not have identification and do not have a reason to stay are suspicious not bc all them can be terrorists but allowing them to stay here means that ltte can infiltrate the city with cadres who do not have identification and a reason. by this measure ltte’s barriers to entry goes up . legality of it should be determined by the courts
if you want to arrest, detain, and question, all those ppl ( as i would suspect police will resort to now) until investigations are complete, overcrowding the prisons, and overwhelming the police, you are welcome to it. as i said efficiency of this measure in comparison to alternatives is a subjective judgment .
“but they didn’t… even the president ordered it to be stopped”
more subjective judgments.
“My preference is that all citizens be treated fairly and equally by all agents of the State, you start doing that then those bombs wouldn’t be going off in the first place.”
i agree with the first part. whether in this case police were not acting thus, taking into account the interests of all ppl is a subjective judgment.
i disagree with the second part. bombs will go off, ppl will kill , steal, and commit all sorts of crimes, depending on their nature. vast majority of poor and hungry ppl will not steal so to blame stealing on poverty or hunger is not correct. in the same way some ppl ( say virgina tech killer ) will fantasize imaginary insults and kill. your logic is weak.
“Wouldn’t it be better if the police were fully aware of these laws in the first place… ”
as i said in novel situations limits of law have to be tested . this happens is all democracies.
“Yes but do think for a second any state agency of the EU or US would even consider rounding up people based on ethnicity and shipping them out of the major cities? oh and ’shooting to kill because you look asian’ is NOT a policy in the UK… BBC broadcasts would make pretty grim viewing if so”
in the first place you are making the claim “based on ethnicity ” in other words you are engaging in exaggeration denying the facts. this was not based on that, it was based their original location, lack of identification, and their lack of reason to stay in colombo,. there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day. their was selection based on those criteria . to reduce it to mere ethnicity is an error on your part.
why do you make it ? do explain in your reply
btw have you not heard of concentration camps of japanese americans during world war ii ? are you saying there isn’t ‘ethnic profiling’ going on in usa? where does the word comes from ? and they don’t even have a war.
that usa and eu at present implement security measures that curtail rights is not in doubt. only difference may be in the nature of rights curtailed. but they do not have war in their soil at the moment so do not have to curtail movement as they did when they had a war. however they do that in iraq. they are even building barrier between sunni and shia in capital there . legality of such curtailment of rights do go in front of their courts too
so don’t advance half baked arguments.
btw don’t prejudge any differences between sri lanka and other democracies just bc this is sri lanka and not usa or eu etc. that smacks of racism
-
yes this gave an opportunity to terrorist propaganda to exploit through exaggeration, as i said in my blog. but in the end propaganda is not sustainable without actual facts. that is why i said in the first comment “i will not regret my opinion a year from now” any more than my opinion about last year’s trinco riot when same ppl made the same arguments.
i believe we are not engaged in anything close to ethnic cleansing and believe sri lanka’s institutions of law are working, contrary to claims here. as long as that is the case whatever excitement terrorist parrots may derive from exaggerations relating to this, whipped up by ltte spin office, will not last.
“Never said there’s something wrong about having suspicions but there are actions that they can take to investigate them… rounding them up and shipping them out isn’t really helpful is it?â€
you are making a mistake. ppl from northeast who does not have identification and do not have a reason to stay are suspicious not bc all them can be terrorists but allowing them to stay here means that ltte can infiltrate the city with cadres who do not have identification and a reason. by this measure ltte’s barriers to entry goes up . legality of it should be determined by the courts”
LTTE’s barriers to entry hahaha that’s a good one… what makes you think that the LTTE wouldn’t have accounted for that, forged ID’s are not difficult to create and them having ones with sinhalese names is not too difficult to imagine, even so I myslef have witnessed the police being bribed with 100 rupees to look the other way when ID’s were not presented… so really these aren’t very good reasons to do what they did.. it doesn’t improve anyones security in fact it probably makes people less secure.
It amuses me how you continue to defend the method adopted by the police as ‘novel’ when it’s plain to see that it was illconceived and sloppily executed and this is not me speaking in hindsight. If any reasonably intelligent person was told that as a security measure, Tamils without ID and a valid reason to stay (whatever that means… no Sri Lankan needs a reason to stay anywhere in Sri Lanka) were to be bussed back to where they came, they would flag it as a bad idea from the get go (you don’t need to be a security expert to see the inherent flaws in the plan). It’s bad idea because it achieves nothing apart from ill will on the part of the lodgers, it certainly doesn’t prevent LTTE cadres from entering the city and it gives the impression that the police have limited options when it comes to securing its citizens. At worst it strengthens the LTTE’s argument that Tamils have no place in Sri Lankan society – you may not buy into that argument but you cannot deny that it strengthens their claims.
“i disagree with the second part. bombs will go off, ppl will kill , steal, and commit all sorts of crimes, depending on their nature. vast majority of poor and hungry ppl will not steal so to blame stealing on poverty or hunger is not correct. in the same way some ppl ( say virgina tech killer ) will fantasize imaginary insults and kill. your logic is weak.”
Please re read your comment before you post, its funny how you accuse others of weak logic when you demonstrate none of it yourself… my point was that if all citizens of this country are treated fairly and equally by the state you’d go a long way in ensuring that bombs dont go off in the future. If you think that the minorities are treated fairly and equally by the state then you might want to leave your fantasy land and join the rest of us in the real world. The discrimination faced by the minorities in this country isn’t imagined, it is very real and in no small part is a major contributor as to why we are in this mess in the first place. The moment you remove that reason you’ll go a long way in ensuring real security and not just perceived security. Oh and although stealing and murder may in some cases be due to the nature of certain people, bombs on the other hand generally don’t go off because a persons nature.
“not every one is allowed to travel freely everywhere. can you, me or others ( even when they are not “charged with any crime or arrestedâ€) travel in some streets in colombo? are we not prevented from doing so by security ? is that a restriction on freedom of movement? yes, but is that against the constitution ? no. bc courts have not ruled against it.”
Your argument is specious at best… high security zones which limit or deny access do so without prejudice, it is applicable to all people regardless of ethnicity, caste, creed, sex, religion or even geographical profile. It doesn’t say that if you’re not from the north East then you can enter… please come up with a better argument than that. In this case the lodges were not in any high security zones and no one else was prevented from renting a room there or staying there. The people who were asked to move weren’t breaking any laws and there was never any indication that staying there was illegal or restricted or do you just feel safer with less North Eastern Tamils around?
The basic facts are that if you were Tamil, from the North East, without an ID and a “valid” reason you were asked to leave regardless of whether you were innocent of any crime. The validity of the reasons were determined by a bunch of cops and military personnel with limited knowledge of Tamil and therefore made subjective judgements with grossly imperfect information – apparently getting married isn’t a valid reason to be in Colombo. The lack of identification is more likely due to the absence of appropriate government officials to administer the same. There are literally thousands of Sri Lankans without proper identification, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims mostly from the North East simply because Govt officials have been unable to travel there… are they all then to be treated with suspicion? In reality these people were punished for not having access to ID’s.
The decision to just bus them out of Colombo is more revealing of the Police’s lack of ideas in properly managing the security of citizens than it is an indication of their willingness to protect. It’s not even a case of “their hearts were in the right place” – this was by anyones standard a ill thought out, badly executed measure which backfired spectacularly and while that gives me no pleasure, to not criticize them would be a failing of our duty as citizens to speak out at a very real injustice and our duty to respect the rights of our fellow citizens.
“in the first place you are making the claim “based on ethnicity †in other words you are engaging in exaggeration denying the facts. this was not based on that, it was based their original location, lack of identification, and their lack of reason to stay in colombo,. there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day. their was selection based on those criteria . to reduce it to mere ethnicity is an error on your part.
why do you make it ? do explain in your reply”
Ok I’ll humour you.. you yourself say that the Tamils in the lodges were the targets of the raid was that not a decision made on ethnicity? The police weren’t targeting everyone without an ID or a valid reason to stay, they were targeting Sri Lankan Tamils falling into that criteria.. that my friend is a decision based on ethnicity not anything else… if not there are thousands of Sinhalese and Muslims without ID residing in lodges in Colombo… didn’t see them being bussed back did you? So either you are blind to the main criteria or you just like making rubbish arguments for the hell of it. I agree though that this wasn’t ethnic cleansing.. people who say so haven’t seen the horror that it really is… but this isn’t far off from it… I believe that we have matured as a nation not to repeat the mistakes of ’83 which is why actions like this saddens me no end… it is a throwback to one of our darkest days as a nation and to deny it is to contribute to it
The extremist types go in for the argument that since the LTTE is run on dictatorial lines, the GOSL needs to be like them to defeat them. If that is the case, then it follows that the GOSL is a terrorist organization.
We need some educated people up their in the parliment,its full of gangsters,thugs,kassippu guys and corrupt business men.UNP & SLFP both are equally inept and corrupt (half of UNP is in SLFP,don’t forget),change of parties won’t do any thing,lets change the people
Very very bad move by the GOSL. Some one has to take the responsibility for these actions on the part of the GOSL. The lack of a political solution after all these years is a sad indictment of the politicians including president himself. There seem to be no clear agenda with regard to terrorism, a political solution and economy.
Idiotic…they should have investigated a bit more thoroughly to eliminate a few more of the people and then detained the rest. Aside from the blatant human rights violation the cost of the international furore hardly makes up for off chance that a few of those deported might have been LTTE agents.
I hate to think what the Sri Lankan state and police will do to future working migrants from Tamil Eelam.
[...] highlights the importance of a compromise and points out that this war cannot be ended militarily. Indi.ca, in a post titled “Shame” expresses that war and conflict only strengthen the LTTE. The [...]
You guys would bend over and suck yourselves off for an excuse to do nothing wouldn’t you?
90% of the people are comfortable doing nothing unless they have someone to show them what to do. Some of them even blog. The rest are about doing something a little more efficient.
Wake up, you’re hiding behind your fear!
What have you done lately Lizard?
Mr S’nut has outdone himself in twisted logic. The government deports people on the basis of ethnicity; people of goodwill protest; CPA goes to the Supreme Court, which, in a rare fit of lucidity, stops the government action. This is supposed to be proof that (a) this was not ethnic cleansing; and (b) all those who protested were overreacting.
If not one protested and the CPA did not move the court, the Supreme Court would not have acted. No “over-reaction”;’ no injunction; deportees still stuck in Vavuniya. But now that the injunction was issued, this is proof of over reaction. Wow!
There still is hope, seeing how isolated S’nut is in the blogsphere.
So many people of goodwill protested including the usually lethargic opposition in Parliament.
The Rajapaksa brothers made a huge mistake by trying to cover their asses by trying to shift the blame to the IGP and police who did their bidding. Once the police figure out that the Rajapaksa brothers will betray anyone to save their skin, hopefully they will be more careful in following their orders.
Yes, this was one of the positives to come out of the whole episode.
Recently a friend who was involved in trying to alert the media on the humitarian crisis in Sri Lanka’s conflict zone was advised by one of the television stations that he had to produce graphic footage. Otherwise the story would not get on air.
Found this article today:
War is hot! Diplomacy, so uncool
By Jonathan Steele
Hi Indi One more thing, I couldn’t find a post in your blog about the plight faced by 30000 farmers when LTTE closed the Mavilaru reservoir,when i red your blog i see you as a person who wants to protect human rights,so i’m sure you have covered the Mavilaru incident as well,could you please post the link agaist that incident….good daY
Mavilaru Crisis: Implications for Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka
Date 6 August 2006
Link to Article
Institute of Peace and Conflict studies
“The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) was established in August 1996 as an independent think tank devoted to studying security issues relating to South Asia. Over the years leading strategic thinkers, academicians, former members of the Civil Services, Foreign Services, Armed Forces, Police Forces, Paramilitary Forces and media persons (print and electronic) have been associated with the Institute in its endeavour to chalk out a comprehensive framework for security studies – one which can cater to the changing demands of national, regional and global security. The Executive Committee reflects this essential mix of experience and expertise. “
The Institute is located in Delhi
Why are you silent,didn’t you see mavilaru incident as a human right violation or you forgot to see it as a violation,or you are supporting LTTE propaganda war
What’s the point of seeing something the LTTE did and pointing it out as a violation? This is the Government of Sri Lanka and is supposed to be trying to help ALL Sri Lankans.
If the police and the Rajapakse Reich cannot figure out that deporting people on the basis of their ethnicity is a gross violation of their human rights (something you really don’t need a legal brief to figure out) then other people need to point out the absurdity of the situation.
Blinkered idiotic nationalists like you are the reason we still have a 20 year war.
So, whats your explanation for mass killings of sinhalese by LTTE? Isnt it bad than this? What abt kebithigollawa?what abt water restriction they did by covering a water line? Killers should be removed. Innocent tamils could stay. What are they doing for ages in pettah? Give answers to these……Why cant they go back of they came for a good course? Why pettah? Cant they live in a less crowded suburb in Colombo? THey came to mass kill,,thats why they stay there…answer these if you see it as shame….who killed buddhist monks? wasnt it shame? who did pettah bomb?
Let me answer your rather juvenile and un-neutral questions, Neutral.
“So, whats your explanation for mass killings of sinhalese by LTTE?”
Terrorism.
“Isnt it bad than this?”
I think you mean “worse than this”, and yes, killing is worse than explusion. But a democratically elected and legitimate government is held to higher standards than a dictatorial terror group.
“What abt kebithigollawa?what abt water restriction they did by covering a water line?”
Very bad.
“Killers should be removed. Innocent tamils could stay.”
Very good, so remove the killers, leave the innocent. How do you do it? It’s called criminal investigation. The police even have a division for it; its called the CID.
“What are they doing for ages in pettah?”
Whatever they’re doing, if it’s legal, they should be allowed to do it as long as they can afford to.
“Why cant they go back of they came for a good course?”
Why should they? It’s a free & democratic country, and citizens of SL are free to travel and live wherever they wish without GoSL permission.
“Why pettah? Cant they live in a less crowded suburb in Colombo?”
Has it occured to you that maybe these people can’t afford to live in Colombo 7? Perhaps you’ve got a room you can rent them.
“Hey came to mass kill,,thats why they stay there”
Got any evidence?
“.who killed buddhist monks? wasnt it shame?”
Killing of ANY civilians is shameful.
“who did pettah bomb?”
If you mean the recent one on Reclamation Rd, I believe it was the LTTE. Do you think it was someone else?
Aiyooo….I miss this.
Sri Lanka does not need to take moral guidance from terrorists. The LTTE has committed countless atrocities, as has Karuna. Those are not the standards by which we measure ourselves.
diyasena:
“Mr S’nut has outdone himself in twisted logic”
are you sure? not bc you cannot understand?
anyway let examine your arguments
“The government deports people on the basis of ethnicity”
really ? as i said above “there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day.”
clearly there was a selection made, based on lack of identification and lack of reason to stay in colombo.
why do you persist on your ethnicity argument ? is it bc without it you have to admit you do not have one? :-)
“CPA goes to the Supreme Court, which, in a rare fit of lucidity, stops the government action”
you mean it has not done this before ? really ? may be you expect cpa to succeed every time. for your information courts are there to decide on law not to agree with one party ( or the party you back) every time. :-)
This is supposed to be proof that (a) this was not ethnic cleansing; and (b) all those who protested were overreacting.
if the main criteria was not based on ethnicity it was not ethnic cleansing , and all those who say it is ethnic cleansing in spite of facts are overreacting. you think that is twisted logic? as you wish. :-)
If not one protested and the CPA did not move the court, the Supreme Court would not have acted. No “over-reactionâ€;’ no injunction; deportees still stuck in Vavuniya. But now that the injunction was issued, this is proof of over reaction. Wow!
wow indeed! your imaginary powers in attributing things i never said to me is indeed great.
did i say a thing against cpa going to court ? in fact i said they should come up with evidence ( as i have asked repeatedly ) for their other hobby horses like white van theories and see how courts dispense justice ( see above )
so get down to earth from fantasy world and point out any errors in argument i did make .
“There still is hope, seeing how isolated S’nut is in the blogsphere”
wishful thinking ?
quite apart from your allegation about isolation ( which i don’t feel as i used to in 2006 april and i am the best judge) do you believe that parroting terrorists based on such sloppy logic as above makes you right bc others are doing the same . is that what you think? as they say some ppl are so weak creatures that they cannot think or have opinions on their own . they always depend on others .you seem to be one. that explains why you adopted the terrorist spin on this in spite of facts
you probably thought the same in 2006 april. when your like made the same claims after the trinco riot. and attacked me. most of them have dropped out and others have changed their names. while i am still here with the same opinions. what was the name under which you posted then ? :-)
i am going to have some fun if the present lot doesn’t drop off likewise
aadhavan:
Yes, this was one of the positives to come out of the whole episode.
so you subscribe to diyasena’s diyawena arguments above ? typical :-)
indi:
Sri Lanka does not need to take moral guidance from terrorists. The LTTE has committed countless atrocities, as has Karuna. Those are not the standards by which we measure ourselves.
very good principle
hopefully you would stick consistent to that in the future ( you haven’t in the past even though you have said the same before ). as such would we soon see the following
you would not support any measure (like giving power to ltte in return for unsustainable ‘peace’ or even ceasefire ) that will allow it to carry on with it atrocities . you would support legitimate use of force to defeat ltte. you would in fact advocate that ppl under ltte be liberated. you would if there was a mavil aru type situation advocate that military force be used to ensure the rights of ppl to water ( as you did not do then even as weeks passed by is dead lock ). you would denounce ppl who accept ltte as sole representative ( instead of arguing that was the pragmatic thing to do as you did )
or do you think that we don’t have to use military bc ltte will just give up arms and reform bc it was asked to do ? :-)
fact is if you really considered ltte to be evil and terrorist, you would not advocate appeasement for peace,or believe that ltte is supported by tamils as their security and that tamils think it is fighting for them etc. as you have done. you say ltte is evil, but you do not act and speak like you think it is so.
Governments decision is wrong , We all know that , but blogger like Indi is only crying out when government did something wrong,and that is free LTTE propeganda,and thats wrong too
Since you’re obviously ignorant about the subjects Indi blogs (and has blogged) about, I suggest you skim through the archives and educate yourself (Snut already knows it but chooses to look ignorant) before you talk rubbish. However, even if he hadn’t criticised the LTTE in the past, what’s it to anyone of us but him? Each blogger chooses to discuss a particular subject with each post. Is there some requirement that every single angle of the war must be covered in every single post? Won’t every single post be the same then?
If you feel that a particular side of the story isn’t being covered, start your own blog and tell everyone about it. I’m sure we’d all be interested.
david blacker
when person says one thing in one place and says another thing in another what do you call him or her ?
when person advocate peace with ltte at one point and then say ltte is beyond the pale of morality is he being consistent? or is he advocating giving power over millions to ppl who are so immoral intentionally ?
of course he is free to be inconsistent and whatever you call it .others are however just s free to point that he is inconsistent etc.
“when person says one thing in one place and says another thing in another what do you call him or her ?”
Since I’m unaware of the context of the two situations you refer to, I’m afraid I don’t know what to call him or her, though I’m sure you have a simplistic Bushean epithet to give me (and that you will take at least three paras to articulate it badly).
“when person advocate peace with ltte at one point and then say ltte is beyond the pale of morality is he being consistent?”
How is advocating peace with an immoral enemy inconsistent, and if it is, what is it inconsistent with?
“or is he advocating giving power over millions to ppl who are so immoral intentionally ?”
I’ve no idea. Is he? If so, please point out the evidence of that advocacy.
“of course he is free to be inconsistent and whatever you call it .others are however just s free to point that he is inconsistent etc.”
Yes, we’re all free ‘cos it’s a free world. Thank you for pointing that out. The Tamils are free to live in Pettah, the GoSL is free to evict them, the people of Colombo are free to protest it, and the SC is free to prevent it. And your point was…?
English is not most Sri Lankan’s first language(It shouldn’t be, in fact), so let people articulate themselves any which way they want. Bushean or otherwise. Sittingnut has got the point across where you seem to fail.
Where do all these moronic false-elitists come from? Those who bolster their next-to-nil self-esteem by putting down others and thus making themselves happy? Is that how you hope to let your ideas gain credibility?
Your false elitism is the flip side of pity, and really, you might even consider religion, so you that you’ll at least do some good instead of sitting on your internet throne and congratulating yourselves for being so ‘intelligent’.
Amusing as your bumming up to Snut is, perhaps you could actually explain this: “Sittingnut has got the point across”. I confess I am unable to get his point even though I’ve trawled through his tedious rhetoric several times. Maybe that way even you could do some good, my reptillian friend :)
River : you are ridiculous and alarmingly shameless. Your attacks on David Blacker got very petty, low and personal, that just goes to show what little ground on which you can attack him to begin with: because you know nothing about the topic on which this discussion is based, you resort to childish and irrelevent remarks. How do you sleep at night? Do you make a fool of yourself all the time? You clearly do not know a THING about what’s being talked about here. Till you do, why don’t you just chill out and finish your degree?
The argument about the moral standards of the LTTE vs the GoSL has been an eternal one, we’ve established over and over again that the GoSL are NOT terrorists and therefore cannot go around behaving like terrorists.
Indi : CONTSTRUCTIVE DEBATE? Have you failed to notice that every single bloody time someone puts up a post about the war, we get called LTTE supporters and tiger lovers? That I get told that me being the ‘little rich kid’ that I am, I have no right to say what I say? Have you not seen the way people trash us, our work, our personal lives, our PARENTS? It’s disheartening dude, some people are just bigoted and it’s difficult to make constructive debate when bigots are not only bigots but ignorant.
Sorry David,
I know its not fair that you have a public profile and take advantage to people make personal attacks on you.
Electra,
In some ways its not your fault or their fault, Sri Lanka is extremely polorised, racialy, socio economicaly etc. So its very difficult to have a calm rational dialogue about things that we all care about…ie the future of the country, the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. If you figure out how to work around this you will be able to survive any place on earth! :)
Sorry David,
I know its not fair that you have a public profile and people take advantage of their anonymity to make personal attacks on you.
Electra,
In some ways its not your fault or their fault, Sri Lanka is extremely polorised, racialy, socio economicaly etc. So its very difficult to have a calm rational dialogue about things that we all care about…ie the future of the country, the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. If you figure out how to work around this you will be able to survive any place on earth! :)
electra,
you do live a life that only .005% of the SL population is able to live…
true or false?
your views etc are condition by your upbringing and your parent’s status and the education that that afforded you…
the colombo elite live off of the blood sweat and tears of the people of SL…
you and your “club kids” crowd are part of the problem, not the solution…
you’re all spoiled little brats…
peace
“electra, you do live a life that only .005% of the SL population is able to live…
true or false?
your views etc are condition by your upbringing and your parent’s status and the education that that afforded you…
the colombo elite live off of the blood sweat and tears of the people of SL…
you and your “club kids†crowd are part of the problem, not the solution…
you’re all spoiled little brats…
peace”
Nice bit of nonsense there tamilgirl…
I especially liked the bit where you stereotypically assumed that just because Electra is from a wealthy (and by that I mean relative to the majority of this country) her ideas and opinions are myopic and blinkered to reality… then again maybe yours are too.
You’re also wrong about the colombo elite living off the blood, sweat and tears of the people of SL.. they live off their babies… far more succulent.
By your own “mathematical” reasoning and the “club kids” are only .005% of the problem so wake the fuck up to the real problems and do something about it.. me I work my fucking ass off and pay taxes to ensure that the blood, sweat and tears of the SL people are not in vain… and to buy more babies… mmmmm so tender…
Oh what a perfect example. I couldn’t have made my point clearer myself, tamilgirl.
You’re a bigot in your own way. Amen to that.
I’m not even going to attempt to defend myself, that was not even worth a response. I’m done proving my worth to those who believe I am worthless just because I’m privileged.
Tariq, brains, mmm…
The last bastion of the LTTE in the east, Thoppigala, is under severe pressure from the Sri Lanka Army and the Sri Lanka Navy’s Fast Attack(FAC) Squadron has consistently been able to defeat the sea tigers in sea battles . A report from the front line:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/06/22/fea03.asp
These successes are not occurring by accident. Amongst the many factors that are contributing to these successes is the relatively better leadership provided to the defence establishment by Gothabaya Rajapakse. Please see the interview he gave the Nation newspaper at:
http://www.nation.lk/2007/06/17/inter1.htm
haha,
quoting the “daily news” as a reliable source… hahahahahahahahahahaha
From a very interesting article about Israel in next Sunday’s New York Times magazine (will be open to all on Sunday). This was Sri Lanka in the no-war-no-peace times (not now, when the Cabernet tastes bitter):
After meeting Peres, I found myself at a dinner party with Yossi Vardi, a dot-com millionaire who made a bundle from one of the first Internetwide instant-messaging services. “Israel became very fertile ground for young people with ideas,†Vardi told me. “More than $1.4 billion in venture capital came in recently. The place is crazy — a technology boom alongside a very unacceptable political situation and chaos in Gaza, where most of the population is living on under $2 a day. It’s not right or sustainable.†He took a sip of a respectable cabernet sauvignon — Israeli winemaking is on the rise (from a low base) — before adding: “You know, power corrupts, and occupation is the ultimate manifestation of power. There are no checks, no balances. Occupation, after 40 years, corrupts absolutely.â€