Me and my friends often sit around and talk about how to make money. All of our ideas suck. One constant refrain is that this a new economy (especially for media). We just don’t know what that new economy is, or if it makes money at all. There is more opportunity, but seemingly less reward. I personally don’t hold out hope for publishing that one book or making that one entree into the giant media machine. I think the media machine is running on fumes. However, I don’t know exactly what replaces that, pay-per-click? advertising? speaking/events? How does a creative/media person make money nowadays?

Read an interesting article by Ruwan Weerakoon (via Bailaman). It’s an interview with a Black Tiger suicide bomber, now in custody. One thing that stuck with me was the quote: “One day, I came across the Tamil shop owner speaking in fluent Sinhalese to another person who was Sinhalese. This surprised me: During our training in the LTTE, we were impressed upon that the Sinhalese were the bitterest rivals of the Tamils.” One reason I never understood Eelam was Colombo, which is majority minority (Muslim and Tamil). No matter how much the LTTE tried to drive the races apart, we still can and do live together.

Sri Lankan IDPs are not displaced as much as detained. They’re being held until LTTE cadres are ‘weeded out’ or screened or whatever, which has a logic, but there’s no particular legal basis for it. That’s why I’m interested in the Fundamental Rights case filed by the family of an IDP. Under the Constitution freedom of movement is a fundamental right. It can be restricted under Emergency Law (PTA) basically at Ministerial discretion, given a detention order. It can also be restricted under the 6th amendment for supporting secession from Sri Lanka. I suspect these are the reasons for the detention of basically everyone moving with the LTTE (willingly or not). The detention, however, is not really done in a legal way. The Supreme Court should actually strike it down.

I love my phone and I love my netbook. I remember a time when I didn’t have them and it sucked. I also remember walking around Montreal with my primitive Ericcson flip and thinking all the things a phone could do. Now most of those things can be done. However, today’s super jack-knife phones still neglect some basic, simple features which I think would be mara useful. Specifically, forwarding contacts, managing contacts and not dying on me. All of these things are technically possible now, but haven’t quite happened.

I went to the Neelan Tiruchelvam lecture by Upendra Baxi. That was a good hour of intellectual throat clearing and I retained nothing. However, I did pick up a brochure of a speech by the Bishop of Colombo which was very lucid. I reproduce the edited speech of Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera here because I think it’s worth listening to. It’s a very realistic and compassionate answer to the question, after the war, what next? I agree with pretty much everything he says and pray that we’ll be able to implement a fraction of his ideas.

I think a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka under a functional constitution would be a nice place to live. The Constitution defines certain fundamental rights, but there are also responsibilities. One is the sovereignty and very existence of a Sri Lankan state. Basically, to get the benefits of a Sri Lankan nation, you need to be loyal to it. Amidst the talk of power sharing under the 13th amendment people forget the 6th. That explicitly makes it illegal to even advocate for a separate state. It’s a bit harsh, but I don’t think you can have one without the other. Rights come with responsibilities.

Most LTTE sites went underground, along with their leader. Now KP (the nominal leader of the LTTE) has a new site at ltteir.org. This I discovered via the Going Global blog. It is a bit sad, actually. It’s a Wordpress blog and they haven’t even turned the permalinks on, so the latest post reads as http://ltteir.org/?p=119 rather than, nevermind. The site is also registered via a proxy (third party), though I hope Interpol would use the posted Law Enforcement contacts to request the information. KP is still wanted for arms smuggling, criminal conspiracy and involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. And now he has a blog.

Saw some guys hanging on hooks today. Was driving around for fun and traffic came to a snarl in Wellawatte, Tamil Town. Got out to have a foot around and saw a bunch of floats, a parade, presaged by the bits of litter before. Called the Aadi Vel Festival (I believe), what looked like a Hindu procession along Galle Road. The processions I’ve seen lately have been mixed (Hindu, Buddhist, Corporate) but I think this may’ve been primarily Hindu. This is some video of a devotee hanging by hooks in his back. It looked mundane almost and people abouts were going about their business. I’m still quite impressed.

The unifying, winning issue is equal rights for all Sri Lankans. Framing it as a Tamil issue will inevitably lose because this isn’t about Tamil Eelam. It’s about Sri Lanka. Too much from the Tamil side is about how they are being wronged by the bad Sinhalese, how this is never going to work. Well, it can work, but we have to unite as Sri Lankans. I am Sinhala and I believe in equality for all Sri Lankans. I do not believe in Sinhala or Tamil exceptionalism, but I do believe in Sri Lanka. The issue that concerns all of us is equal civil rights for all Sri Lankans.

McCallum street is one of my favorite places in Colombo. I’m not even sure it’s called McCallum street, but it’s great. At the end of Darley Road there’s a row of used bookshops. They have a lot of nothing, but also a lot of gems. Old and new magazines for example, and a lot of surprising books. Yesterday I got Juche Art, printed in North Korea, a history of the toilet and water closets, a bluffer’s guide to consulting, some short stories by Satyajit Ray and some other stuff. Oh, an issue of Ceylon Today from 1956. It’s pretty sweet.