Wimal Calls For Boycott Of GMail
Wimal’s search engine, a meme via Shameezh
Oh mantz. In response to the US’s admittedly douchey human rights poking of Sri Lanka, Comic Relief Minister Wimal Weerawansa has called on people to boycott American products. Like Google, and GMail. Which is dumb.
I do think that America posturing on war crimes is rich, but Sri Lanka does have its own shit to sort out. The pressure may actually have some positive effects. I still think it’s douchey, but sometimes douchebags tell you the truth, badly.
Wimal’s call for a boycott of US products, however, is pretty dumb. A) no effect and B) GMail, really? You might as well protest the entire Internet, including Android, iPhone and whatever Wimal uses. Even this website runs on US servers, because they suck quantitatively less than say, LankaBell.
Wimal gets rolled out for token protest, which is good at in a local spectacle sense but internationally it looks retarded. The last thing was a hunger strike in front of the UN building. I went. It was pretty fun, but ultimately pointless.
What Sri Lanka needs to do is get ahead of this stuff before it happens and do the right thing before the wrong people have to pressure our government to do it. Whatever their motivations (which I think are corrupted), some of the points are correct. And some of this pressure has influenced results, like what seems to be a draft reconciliation policy, and what was a surprisingly candid LLRC Report.
The best thing for Sri Lanka to do is not token strikes against America, but actual progress on actual reconciliation and equal rights for all Sri Lankans. The buzz and bullshit from the west will remain, backed by bile from LTTErs and angry diasporals, but then we would at least address the core issues that affect peoples daily lives, people of all races. Then we would at least have something to show for this drama. Besides a crappy SLTnet email address.
Posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 in International, Politics, Sri Lanka.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
Why is GoSL reluctant to implement their own investigation findings for starters? Is there no genuine intention to reconcile on the govt side? I am interested to know what people think on why govt is reluctant on this.
Because every time the GoSL concedes anything (admitting civilian casualties, launching the LLRC, etc) we hear loud shouts of “Ooh, we told you so, let’s investigate the motherfuckers.” So are you still surprised that they don’t want to give an inch? Stop beating the GoSL with every concession it does make, and perhaps you’ll see ‘em making some meaningful ones.
Debatable I think. With no pressure what is the incentive to make any concessions?
But there’ s good pressure and bad pressure. Recent diplomatic pressure from the west has always been highly suspicious or outright bullying. From Japan it has been quite different.
Americans want to either screw over sri lanka or get their puppet in power here. The puppet was SF, he failed. A stable sri lanka under MR allow China to dominate the region, that’s the last thing they want right now.
Why not look at these thing from the position of the citizen? Could this pressure improve governance? It may or may not, but if it does, then it will improve the welfare of the individual.
When I read things like this:
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/03/11/abduction-attempt-on-kolonnawa-mayor-foiled/
then there is good reason to wish for improvement in governance.
Ha-ha. Vimal actually believes that a Sri Lankan boycott of American companies will make a great dent in their revenue!
Wimal has become a joker alright.
However, if the criticism is about the effect it has on American economy, then those who boycott particular products also should be laughed at in the same way.
I am sure everybody who reads this has a friend who boycotts Apple products, no? Is it about bringing down Apple, or making a statement?
The problem with Wimal lately is not about making statements themselves, but that those statements don’t make sense anymore.
I wonder if Wimal would also want USAID to stop doing things like this:
http://www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/fl_mar12/FL_mar12_PPP_SRI_LANKA.html
Sri Lankan Search Engine http://www.wimgle.com bookmark and use. really cool.
OMG…. Really nice…. :D.. it is like google.. i bookmarked and will use.