War is fundamentally people killing each other and occupying land. Even suicide terrorism seems to be a response to occupation, perceived or otherwise. Winning wars is basically occupying land and holding it, mainly by killing. The Sri Lankan model has been to do whatever necessary and deny everything. This resulted in 10 to 20,000 civilian deaths (no idea) and a stable end to war. The US counter-insurgency model is now to minimize use of artillery and air strikes. But they’re still not winning. And their soldiers are dying. This is causing grumbles, as reported in the New York Times.

Chris Patten has written an awful, patronizing and counter-productive piece in the New York Times. It is the same broken record about Sri Lanka being doomed to conflict and everything sucking, and oh if they would only listen to the west. He literally starts the piece with ‘pity the poor Sri Lankan voter.’ Pity my democratic ass, we have a real choice at this election and the it’s already delivering results. Dudes are falling over themselves to woo voters and roads are opening, IDP camps are emptying, journalists are getting out of jail.

This year has seen the first really positive stories about Sri Lanka, in the western media. For my whole life there’s always been an asterisk after Sri Lanka. ‘Oh, you’re from Sri Lanka. I’ve heard it’s great, but…’ and then you get into the war and the intractable situation and it sucks. It’s been like dating a beautiful girl with an ax in her head. The amount of times I’ve had that war conversation is legion and it’s not like we ever figured anything out. I’d rather talk about the beaches, or my family. Now we can.

The New York Times recently said Sri Lanka is the number one place to go this year. I fully agree. Biased, obviously, but Sri Lanka really is a small miracle. You can get anywhere in this country within a day, and there are a million places that are awesome and different. The Times recommends Nilaveli (Trinco), Galle and Unawatuna. I’d make a few other recommendations, as well as the times of year it’s best to visit.

Apple and Google are making money. Conde Nast and The New York Times are barely breaking even. What gives? Personally, I think the issue is that Apple and Google sell me an experience, they make my life easier. The other guys just sell content. People, however, never paid for content. Homer wrote the Odyssey for meals and a place to crash. Shakespeare became a prosperous land owner, but he never saw any bank from the Leonardo DiCaprio flick. The money is in the medium.

I live in Sri Lanka. I buy used books from the street. My parents give me books. Most Sri Lankans have even less access than me. Anything that makes books available to more people worldwide is good to me. Google Books is one place where any Internet Cafe Johnny can search and reference (mostly old) books if they have the initiative. What they’re calling for isn’t that controversial, they’re just collecting and preserving out of print books and ‘orphaned’ books where the copyright has expired. These would likely disappear into McCallum street, or entirely. They’re also talking about a payment system for copyright authors. Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon, however, are suing them.

Low light is the holy grail of photography. The shot above, for example, was taken outside at 1:50 AM. This is only possible by keeping the camera still and shutter open for 20 seconds. The subjects have to sit still the whole time, like old timey photographs. It is also possible to use a high ISO setting (literally the same ISO standard for companies) to get greater sensitivity to light. That means you can keep the shutter open less and maybe even hold the camera in your hand. The Panasonic LX3 is OK for this, but the new Canon G11 may be better. The New York Times also profiles two more pocketable cameras which may be just as good.

This irritates me. On an average (American) questionnaire they have a standard race category. I inevitably click the Asian category. This annoys me because A) I’m not Chinese and B) Asian includes almost 40% of the world’s population. That click box amalgamates China and India (and everybody else) into one category based on some outdated Orientalism. I don’t mind being grouped with India demographically as we are both brown and enjoy curry. However, I don’t like being grouped with China, which is what Asian generally ‘means’ in the US. At least break Asian into ‘Paki’ and ‘Chink’, for courtesy’s sake.

Today’s New York Times (International Herald Tribune) demands that IDPs be allowed to leave, presumably now. However, they are not in a position to demand, and it is not as easy as it looks. First off, you don’t get anywhere demanding anything from this popular government. Like India, it pays to be diplomatic. By speaking quietly and giving big donations, India is helping the IDPs. By speaking loudly and coming empty handed, the Times is not. Furthermore, there are serious security and safety issues letting people go.

After a suicide bombing, northern frontier villagers rioted and killed neighbors in their homes. Military gunships then bombed the civilian area and injured and displaced many. That’s one way too look at it. The New York Times reports “men from surrounding villages began looking for Taliban militants and their supporters, burning houses and killing at least 11 men they identified as Taliban fighters… government officials asked for help from the military, which came in the form of helicopter gunships Tuesday morning. Most missed their marks.” The headline is Attacked, Pakistani Villagers Take On Taliban. I guess terrorism is different when it affects you.