The Business For Peace Alliance forum was somewhat tame till a few Tamil gentleman got up to speak. There is great hope and opportunity, but there is still a lot of hurt and deprivation among the Tamil community. People usually don’t talk about it, but these guys did. Above is a YouTube of one gentlemen doing a test to see what languages people in the audience understood. And discussing the language issue thereupon, in Sinhala. At some point some Sinhalese gentlement in the back got up and started yelling at him to stop politicizing things. Then Secretary Rajiva Wijesinha (Ministry of Disaster Management, fittingly) got up to calm things down. Good show I thought, true, and everyone shook hands after.

Through this BizPact (Business For Peace Alliance) visit I met a few small businessmen in Trincomalee. Ranging from IT to rice mills to land development, there is a range of development going on in Trinco, and excited and capable people to carry it out. These are some YouTube interviews/conversations with a few people. The video above is a member of the Trinco with remarkable enunciation. He’s talking generally about two big opportunities, tourism and fishing. The other YouTubes are conversations about programs for farmers, IT students as well as investment opportunities in concrete businesses like condominium development.

I’m in Trincomalee. For the first time in a long time I’m genuinely excited, by the same hope that brought me back to this country. Met a bunch of local small businessman at the local of Chamber Of Commerce and they’re excited to grow. Traveling with a bunch of diaspora investors and they’re excited to invest. Everybody is willing to work together to develop this wonderful country. Trinco itself is a bountiful and long neglected place, now poised and ready to grow. Boom even, and no artillery this time.

I’m on tour bus near Ibbagamuwa but the Dialog 3G still connect. Travelling with this Business For Peace group to see development opportunities in Trinco. Passing through Kurunegala also met a young man who’s excited about the chance to develop the soil of mother Lanka. Into red clay tiles. There is business just burgeoning to happen, and I think that is the best hope for peace. Not security or stability, but peace.

Mona Sarika wrote an article in the Huffington Post and cited me as Tamil. I’m not. I repeatedly told her so. She also makes up whole parts of my quotes and changes them to say something completely radical and different. In her article she writes “I spoke to many Sri Lankan Tamils, but most of them were reluctant to divulge any information fearing government reprisals. However, a few did respond. One was Indi Samarajiva”. Literally the first email response I gave her was ‘I’m not Tamil.’ And then she calls me Tamil and puts different words in my mouth. It’s absolutely terrible journalism and the Huffington Post should be ashamed.

To relax I read gadget/product blogs like uncrate.com. It’s a bunch of stuff I can’t buy, but it still amazes me the variety and wonder of things available in the world. One thing that especially interests me is the solar powered gadgets. In Sri Lanka, especially outstation, it is very difficult to find power and I’m often stuck without attachments or whatever. Most of these gadgets are prototypical, but they’re still pretty cool. For examply, Samsung has a (weak) solar-powered phone called the Solar Guru. There are also elegant solar storing bags, a $30 solar flashlight and rather expensive tables.

I was walking up the stairs in Vavuniya General Hospital, where a lot of the war survivors are helped. It’s a decent hospital, despite being well over capacity. There are literally a thousand stories in those halls. If you attach you disappear into a well of situations you can’t do anything about, so I don’t. Until. As I was climbing the stairs a young woman came down, clutching the railing. She was dark and disheveled, and her eyes completely not there. She was off balance, stumbling, about to fall. She needed an arm to guide her, but my immediate thoughts were that she was dirty or diseased. I was ashamed, of myself.

I’m deeply skeptical of any force but power, but it is amazing to see what’s happening in Iran. There are now confirmed cases of fraud, with the Iranian government itself admitting over 100% turnout in 50 cities. Also, a Chatham House study (PDF) shows over 100% turnout in two provinces, a disappearance of regional variation in turnout, etc. In one third of provinces, for the official results to be correct Ahmadinejad would have had to “win over all new voters, all former Rafsanjani voters, and also up to 44% of former reformist voters”. I think there really is credible evidence of voter fraud, credible injustice as Obama says, and some real power behind these protests now.

The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora is huge and the ones waving the LTTE flag don’t represent everyone. Just as the LTTE didn’t represent Tamils here. Those people may be the loudest but they are not the Tamil diaspora. That is a whole range of people with different ideas and many of them I interact with are eminently reasonable. I don’t agree with all of them, but there are not nihilistic towards Sri Lanka but rather justly concerned. A Virile Nagalingam for example, who I believe comments as Nayagan here. Also this Heart On A Sleeve character wrote something complaining about the same. As much fun as it is bashing the nonsense that comes out of the diaspora, that shouldn’t be at the expense of the people that talk sense. Of which there are many.

I’m looking at the Sigiriya rock. It is a big rock and I understand why people wanted to climb it. Briefly got a glimpse inside Menik Farm yesterday. Basically just dropped off goods, talked to the coordinating doctor and left, so can’t say too much. Spoke to some people at Cheddikulam Hospital and it’s pretty much the same. Had two cows and a house in Kilinochchi, house got bombed, now here. Old woman said they hid in a ditch till they could flee. Played with a 3 month old baby and he didn’t say much but just goggled about.