This is an email I sent to a few friends. England is abuzz about this Vanni Mercy Mission to send a ship to Sri Lanka with aid. They’ve even got a letter of support from M.I.A. On their site they list the UK government and celebrities as dependencies, but no mention of the Sri Lankan government. This leads me to think this is just a PR stunt, because you have to work with the government of a sovereign nation to land a ship there. This is very cynical, and very sad because the problem is real. You simply cannot antagonize the government if you want aid to actually reach people. I fear that’s not their goal at all, I think they just want to have the ship turned away to make a point. It’s so sad, because the suffering is very real.

Arundhati Roy has written an especially arrogant and irrelevant editorial in the Times of India. She makes sweeping statements condemning the government and Sri Lanka and prescribes the world to return like Jesus and somehow fix everything. The government’s not going to turn around and be like, wow, we’re genocidal maniacs, thanks for pointing that out. The ‘world’ is not going to a) exist in any real sense or b) come and occupy Sri Lanka. All she’s doing is intellectual masturbation. It might make her feel better but it helps no one. All the people I see actually doing something on the ground speak moderately and do small things when and where they can. And they work with the government, and they don’t needlessly antagonize people. People are working on sending basic medical supplies to the Vavuniya hospital this week for example. There is hopefully a truck going up on Friday. I bought some surgical gloves. I’m not waiting for the world police, no matter how loud Arundhati Roy blows her own horn.

Need to get out of bed and find the paper. Got an article on What Next in this war and what we’re actually fighting for (or should be). It’s easy to forget that the LTTE is not the actual problem. More like virulent herpes we caught after fucking around for too long. But the real issues are still, ah, there. There’s also an interesting piece where the publish the names of people who invested more than Rs. 10 million with Golden Key, including some prominent politicians.

I find writing this Sunday Leader column very hard. It’s 750 words but I end up writing like 3000. I spent all day writing this and it sucks so I scrapped it and wrote something else. Which hopefully sucks less. Posting what is basically notes here anyways: The war has not passed and the economy has not crashed so the national opposition just seems to be waiting it out. Like JR, Ranil seems to think that if things get bad enough, leadership will be his. Perhaps, but that’s not leadership. Leadership is not a title, it’s action. It’s those who keep organizing even when opposition is not opportune. Many say that the time is not right, that things are dangerous, to wait it out. More cynically, some say that the economy and war will get so bad that people come running back to the UNP. Well, OK. But who wants that? Personally, I don’t want the government to fail, because I don’t want the country to fail. I just want change.

George W. Bush prescribed democracy and capitalism as the cure to all the world’s ills. Now capitalism has crashed and democracy has some explaining to do. Democracy literally means people (demos) rule (kratos). Rule by the people. The definition varies, but two core elements (as per Wikipedia) are that people have access to power and universally recognized freedoms and liberties. It means that people have access to the levers of power and the freedom to do something with them. Democracy, however, has been advertised as peace, prosperity and Baywatch all in one – delivered via an anonymous vote. And then we wonder why we end up electing the same feudal lords and ignoring our imported Constitutions. It’s because we’ve mistaken means for an end. Democracy is not a fish, it’s a fishing rod. If you try to eat a fishing rod you get splinters in your mouth. If you educate and empower yourself you can get more fish.

Here are some videos from the Borella Open Mic. I apologize for the quality, was way too dark. They look a bit better in HD, but you have to click through to YouTube for that. Thought this one was interesting. Bit different cause we had it in a house. We are wandering a bit like diaspora Jews but that has its own value as well. Please try to behave, however. The first video was a criticism of Open Mic, which is worth listening to.

This week I visited some war displaced children who’d come to Colombo for treatment. Just to see, and sorta let them know that Colombo is not uncaring. That’s the source for this Sunday Leader column. I always wake up late the paper is hard to find, but it is almost always available at the Bamblapitiya News stand at the Galle Road/Dharmapala Junc, across from the Milk Bar. And the Laugfs on Havelock Rd. I think Frederica is doing good things with the paper and I recommend picking up a physical copy. I also recommend waking up earlier. I’m hungry. The article is also available online and excerpted here (slightly less edited version).

Read an interesting piece in Canada’s National Post. Money quote: “Why are Canadian Tamils permitted to express support for terrorism in a manner that would be considered outrageous if the demonstrators were Arab or Muslim?” Indeed. I’m all for Tamil participation, even from abroad, but supporting the LTTE is just wrong. Carrying pictures of Prabhakaran is just sick. You can’t walk around Toronto supporting Al Qaeda or Hezbollah without people’s rightful scorn. The LTTE recently sent a suicide bomber to a mosque (video, explosion at about 0:43) and has been attacking fleeing civilians and relief convoys. The people of Canada should be outraged at the Tigers in their midst.

This is an intemperate rant, but here goes. I’ve been going easy on the swears but whatever. Fuck the IMF, fuck the international community, fuck donors, co-chairs, special envoys, committees, whatever. None of these people are going to save you. I don’t see any of these people in my neighborhood. You know who I see? That bookie Thilanga Sumathipala. Coming home at 1 am yesterday his office still had a guy in it. It’s blood money, but I can still theoretically contact that man. Who’s the IMF got on my street? Does the IMF know where my street is? Seriously, forget all that. Nobody is going to help you until you help yourself.

I called myself a Buddhist for most of my life, but I never really understood it until I meditated. In the same way I’m beginning to believe that I can’t really call myself a citizen unless I practice democracy. So that means speaking out more, be it in writing or in voice. It means paying attention to elections, even local ones, and voting. It also involves writing letters and meeting people and standing on the street and running around and being uncomfortable and awkward and generally muddling through. I’d say getting your ass the first inch off the couch is the hardest, but it gets easier.