Fireworks For The LTTE
I missed the LTTE air raid entirely. Thankfully, two planes have been shot down. Mercilessly, many people are dead and injured. My friend was in Slave Island at the time, she said they saw the plane roll by and saw the explosion. It’s sad, but I wish I was there. I was at CR&FC, in the dark. The LTTE air attacks (except air/ground on Anuradhapura) have been largely symbolic and now, shambolic, the last embers of a dying creed. I was talking to a friend who’s an LTTE supporter in London. And yes, that is possible. I think that dialogue is important, especially with people you don’t agree with. But he says the struggle will go on. And I’m like, this struggle? I know the LTTE emerged after over 25 years of failed negotiation. But now violence has had 25, and failed even more. I’m all for the struggle, but not a dumb struggle. It’s time for new management.
The real game, I think, in the next 20 years. Is what Tamil leadership emerges. What minority relationship emerges? Can someone coalesce the Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims into a working coalition? In these coalition governments the minorities still have the power to be kingmakers, if they play their cards right.
Of course, this has not happened because the LTTE has systematically murdered Tamil leaders. From Prabhakaran himself shooting Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiyappah to Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam (feel sick about), to Kethishwaran Loganathan, to Laksman Kadirgamar, the list goes on and on.
My friend referred to the people in the streets of London. I checked the numbers and on January 31st there were an estimated 50,000 on the streets. I support their call for attention to the plight of civilians. But I don’t support the de facto leadership status of the LTTE.
Because the LTTE has failed. All they’ve succeeded at is credit card scams, drug deals, forced child conscription and terrorism. That is, they are a successful crime syndicate but not successful representative for the Tamil people. And I’m obviously not telling Tamil people who to choose as representatives, but we all live on this island together. Guys that buzz our city at will blowing random shit are probably not your best, er, emissaries.
The LTTE is going down in flames, albeit with the modern pyrotechnics of Charles Anthony, Prabhakaran’s son. I mean, I don’t know night from day, there’s no real reporting from the north, and they obviously still have the space and capacity to launch planes. But not really to land them or escape anymore. And those dead pilots. I’ve never understood this HR policy which trains and then kills your talent. It’s obviously not sustainable.
So, I’m sorry I missed the air raid, it seemed an entertaining show. I’m not going to miss the LTTE. I am looking forward to the next generation of Tamil leadership. I really hope it’s good.
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 
I never understood the kamikaze type! Only thing I can come up with is brain washed (brain less for that matter) or drugged up human beings. How in the world one could kill her /him self.
Brother, I pray the situation improves and your country once again becomes a tourist destination. Hope Buddha’s law prevails rather than the law of violence and hatred…
I was lucky……..the plane flew over my house….i heard this landmaster (tractor) like sound, Then i thought, LTTE air raid? then again i dismissed the thought…government said in media that they have captured all LTTE runaway :-
)…But some thing in my mind was telling it not right………then i heard this crackling gun shots…….i ran out..fireworks every where…….Then i heard this huge blast…Thought our WTC was down…that was a nice show man…The last LTTE show…going down in style…….finally after 30 years……i experienced srilanka’s war …….sad u missed it…….
Excellent post! Yes the Tamil leadership MUST unite and it should have young blood that thinks positively!
Eerm Tamil Leadership?
When looking for that bear this Dilbert cartoon in mind…
The only thing that is sitting in tatters all over Colombo is an end to attacks on it. I guess you lot have all grown up used to living with it and don’t know any better.
Such is life eh?
I thought you left for good ,BOY
This plane attack doesn’t signal an end to me, it seems like the beginning of the next phase of the conflict. This is probably what they’ll do now: random, effectively indiscriminate bombings and terror in the south as well as the north. Albeit it likely won’t be with airplanes, but this sort of thing seems like the obvious next step for them now that they’ve (almost) been beaten as a conventional force. The government will respond by using that 250k military force to enforce a more repressive police state in the interest of security. Tamils will be disproportionately targeted (and won’t respond with the circumspect rationalization of racial profiling that Blacker does) and will continue to feel like their only recourse is outside of the SL mainstream.
How can the type of moderate Tamil leadership that we all want exist in those circumstances? The LTTE won’t ever go down in flames because they’re the fire. Their oxygen is tamil disillusionment. As long as there’s a perception that they have a reason to exist, they’ll continue to exist, in one form or another. The onus is on the government to come to a generous political solution that involves significant devolution in order to take the LTTE’s breathing room away.
That was very well put Kiwi. The other voice that won’t go away, that never really shows up in this shitty blog is the very big silent majority.
This is the moderate, rational non-racist, educated and intelligent Sinhalese majority. I firmly believe and continue to meet Sinhalese people who are truly alarmed at what is happening in their country.
Unfortunately as with most political solutions, when you have such a limited choice of leaders and all Sri Lankan parties are tarnished with the same racist policies against Tamils for decades, if you wish to vote, you really don’t have an alternative.
I mean there are no Greens, Democrats, Christian (oooohhh heaven forbid) parties in Sri Lanka. Any left-wing political voices are drowned out by the nutty JVP, what are basically upto their old tricks. So it’s a blank canvass on which Mahinda has carved out his repulsive mark on Sri Lanka’s history.
Tamils feel guilty, ashamed, troubled, worried and pigeon holed about “suicide bombing” and “child recruitment”. What idiots like Indi never come to terms with is that where Sinhalese people can speak, so do they! These people look at Mahinda just as they would Mugabe, Sadaam or Milosovitch. What is happening to the culturally destroyed Tamil people in Sri Lanka is what has happened in Sudan, Ruwanda and Bosnia. These facts do not escape those that see through the racist (however sublime as in the case of Indi) bullshit and where this Sinhalese silent majority have found their voice, they are speaking out.
Two wrongs do not make a right. The cynical decision to put Karuna in place is also, as I’m sure you can imagine, not something that rational human beings cannot stomach.
There is no glory in this war however, the spin doctors of either side dress it up. It’s war, it’s tactical and it’s devastating. Lives are being lost and more will be in Colombo. What is the Mahinda murderous regime going to do? He is going to have to target Tamils in the south. Indi’s Tamil friends in Colombo might be safer but eventually they will all be affected. So the country will slip even more into a tryanical despot stage.
Blind Freddy (as opposed to “Boy”) above can see that the LTTEe have a variety of methods at their disposal. Mahinda has bankrupted his country, continues to do so on a daily basis, in this horrendous global economic recession and has justified it by saying he has vanquished the LTTE???
What he has done is cause abject misery to innocent people. Sinhalese people who are truly spiritual and Buddhist feel this very acutely. And they need to be counted too. Why is it that their voice is never one that I here on this blog.
Frankly because having come to Sri Lanka to work as highly skilled professionals during the whole Tsunami crisis, they have observed the polite racism that occurs on this blog under the guise of making professional political comment.
I’m not quite sure how old Indi (and all the other parrots are, Sophist etc) but if this is what Sri Lanka has in store for it in the future then you’re fucked.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Boy
I think it’s just a cycle Sri Lanka will have to weather. If it takes an MR to beat VP, so be it — it took a Stalin to beat Hitler, and while that wasn’t ideal, it was better than the alternative. God knows, all the other more “sensible” politicians were killed, maimed, or made into a laughing stock by the LTTE — THAT’s why there are no greens, dems, etc. SL has decided the LTTE is the the country’s biggest prob, and they want it dealt with first — that’s democracy.
The reason the so-called silent Sinhalese (and international) majority are so silent, is because they realise there really is no negotiating with the LTTE. All the absurd claims of genocide and atrocities and massacres have come to naught. Yes, people care, but no, they are NOT gonna bail out the Tigers. Suicide attacks like last Friday might bolster flagging morale, but it’s nothing more than the futile counterattacks by teenage Hitlerjugend using bicycles against tanks — good for nothing beyond buying a bit more time for the Tiger brass, but showing the world that there really is no choice. The gun is all the LTTE understands.
Yes, there will be more attacks in the south. Yes, the LTTE will keep killing civilians wherever they can. But if you think that’ll do anything for the cause, you’re dreaming. Every suicide attack, every massacre of a Sinhalese hamlet, reinforces the GoSL mantra that these are barbaric animals hiding behind innocent Tamils; please, world, help us kill ‘em. Did the Friday attacks bring anything but more calls from the world for the LTTE to surrender. The Tigers are instead saying “we will hide in our bunkers and fight to the last innocent Tamil woman and child”.
Oh well, now that everything has been worked out by another old blind fool everything will be fine.
MR will get VP and Sri Lanka will be just perfect.
Cool.
Holy crap, Batman, his logic is irresistible! Must… try… not to become a… Tiger…