The Sri Lankan government really really messed up cricket. I think the last World Cup was either thrown or the squad selection was messed with so badly that we lost. That was one of the more depressing days of my life, including the prior World Cup, during which the light went out in the West Indies and the LTTE bombed Colombo. Anyways. I’m not a big rugby fan, but the mix of politics and political sons does not fill me with hope.

I think I got it from those streaming video sites. Damn you Mad Men.

Symptoms

This malware seems to work by hijacking Amazon and Google to point to their affiliate links. Therefore they get a commission for each thing you buy, and I actually do buy a lot. Those assholes. This is just one symptom that I’m aware of. I do a lot of banking and purchasing online so anyone having that level of access to my shizz is terrifying.

Cure

Basically, reset your router and change the password. WiFi routers tend to have default passwords (ie, admin/admin) so I guess that’s how the hack gets in. I went to my router, shoved a pen in the reset hole and reset it. I then went to 192.168.1.1 (the address may vary, check your router settings and call your ISP) and went through the wizard to setup a new connection. Luckily I had the SLT username/pass around. Otherwise you’ll need to call your ISP. I can say that for SLT on a TP-8816 router the settings are basically default. Again, call for your particular situ.

And then I dug through the settings and changed the password. And that’s about it. Seems virus/malware free for now. I haven’t used Windows for years and haven’t worried about stuff. It’s scary that viruses can now infect the damn router.

Don’t Be Sri Lankan. Only

As much as China postures to be Sri Lanka’s new best friend, it’s no great friend to Sri Lankan people. Sri Lankans cannot apply for normal tourist visas to China, at least not officially. A friend discovered this when her request was rejected, I found some unofficial documentation in an embassy comment thread, and I just now called the embassy in Sri Lanka to confirm. They said, under current regulations, visas are only issued for groups of five. I don’t quite understand, but I think it’s kinda not cool. The alternatives are A) if you have an inviter there B) they otherwise read your application and mystically let you through. Officially, however, free and independent Sri Lankan travelers are not welcome in China.

So, what of my process then? I’m a dual citizen (Canada and Sri Lanka) so I applied under my Canadian passport, which has no such regulations. Even so, they made me get an invitation letter from my friend in China, scans of his passport and visa, and my own bank statements. And I’m still not sure.

Prepare For Multiple Visits

The Indian visa process used to suck until they outsourced it to a private company which is now pretty efficient. The Chinese process is still insourced, and it still sucks. The Chinese Embassy is across from BMICH, but the visa office is at the back, at 120/3, Vidya Mawatha (map). To get there turn off Bauddhaloka Mawatha onto Wijerama and go past the British Embassy. Then go down Vidya Mawatha, where NIBM and the Eye Donation place are. On your left there’s a nondescript white and blue cladded building. That’s it.

The lines are not bad and the people are not rude, but the information is incomplete. For one thing, there’s no mention on the official Embassy website of this group visa rule, though it seems to be common knowledge. So that would be one wasted trip there. You can download the forms online, but the instructions there are incomplete. In my case, I didn’t know that I’d need bank statements, an invitation letter, and scans of my inviters visa and passport. So that was another wasted trip.

While I was there a gentlemen from Jaffna was complaining about this. He was trying to visit his son’s graduation and they were asking for an invitation letter and the son’s birth certificate. He was complaining that they didn’t mention this beforehand and the lady replied by pointing to some instructions on the wall. Which are not on the website, so rather pointless. Anyways, he left to get a fax from Jaffna.

Oh, and the posted hours are 9-11 and like 3-5, but they are really only from 9-11 (am). That said, the lines aren’t onerous, but if you mess something up (as is inevitable) you inevitably lose a day. A single entry visa costs Rs. 2,300 for Sri Lankans (who will still struggle to get it) and Rs. 3,900 for other countries. It costs Rs. 16,300 for Americans. Normal service takes 4 working days. As in, I applied on Thursday and they told me to come back on Tuesday. If you want it in two days that’s Rs. 4,000 extra. By their calculations, this seems to be next day service, as I think the days are inclusive. Anyways, you can download the visa fee table here.

In Sum

So, in sum, if you’re a regular Sri Lankan tourist and you want to visit China with your girl or whatever, forget it. If you’re a breeder or a package tour kinda person you can probably apply as a group. Otherwise you’ll need to know someone in China, get an invitation letter, and produce bank statements and whatever they ask for.

If all that’s in order, you can print and fill the application online. Then, bring all that stuff to the Visa Office, which is behind the Embassy, and prepare to mess at least one thing up and have to return. I always went at around 9, cause the place closes at 11. And that’s about it.

Please note that my criticism of the visa process are not a criticism of the country or government of China. I want to go there, it’s obviously cool. I once had an Indian High Commission officer (in Canada) yell that I was ‘threatening our sovereignty’ when I complained about something. So I’m not getting into that again. China and Sri Lanka are friends and it would be nice if they opened up A) an option for Sri Lankan nationals to feasibly apply at all and B) made the process simpler for everyone, perhaps by outsourcing it.

Sarath Fonseka, crossing a river I think.

Nowadays there are pressures on leaders to not behave like brutes, and Sri Lankan power, in general, transitions peacefully. At various points the Bandaranaike and Jayawardena families have had near absolute power which was not nearly as absolute as they thought. Premadasa is one counter example that ended with a bomb, but even he served at the mercy of significant democratic pressure. All this is good, and it’s why neither Fonseka nor Mahinda is dead and why the country is not a mess. This is how such conflicts used to go down:

Thereupon the powerful general Kitti had the eyes of this king put out, deposed him and had the government carried on for three years without mishap by Lilavati, the first mahesi of the sovereign Parakkamabahu.

Thereupon King Sahasamalla of the race of Okkaka, a lion in courage, carried on the government for two years. Then having deposed this Monarch, the general Ayasmanta, a man of almost unsurpassable courage, a supporter of his royal family, prudently had the government carried on with wise policy for six months by Kalyanavati, the first mahesi of Kittinissanka…

Thereupon there reigned for one year a royal prince Dhammasoka by name, who on coming to the throne was aged three months. The Mahadipada Anikanga came at the head of a great army from the Cola kingdom, slew the ruler in Pulatthinagara, Prince Dhammasoka, together with the general Ayasmanta and reigned seventeen days. But the general, Vikkantacamunakka, the villain, slew the Monarch Anikanga and had the government carried on for a year by the first consort of King Parakkamahihu, Lilavati by name, who had already reigned before.

Now came King Lokissara by name, who had been wounded in the shoulder by a spear, with a great Damila army from the opposite shore, brought the whole of Lanka under his sway and reigned, dwelling in Pulatthinagara, nine months. Hereupon the general Parakkama, the best among men of decision, endowed with great power and courage, belonging to the family of the Kalanagaras, consecrated the Mahesi Lilavati who came of the dynasty of the Sun and Moon, in the royal dignity, she who afterward shone in royal splendor. When then a space of about seven months had passed for the Mahesi, there landed with a great Pandu army from the Pandu kingdom the glorious Pandu King Parakkama, deposed the Queen and her general Parakkama and after he had cleared Lanka from the briers (of revolt), he ruled the realm in superb Pulatthinagara for three years, without transgressing the political precepts of Manu. (The Sixteen Kings, Culavamsa I think).

Power is not so unstable now, which is a good thing, because such jockeying only really happens in an extractive economy where average people are getting screwed and the strong are fighting over who gets the spoils.

My only wonder is what the play is now. In the Mahavamsa, every general conflict proceeds towards the same inevitable conclusion – either him or me. Get power or die trying. What we have here is a novel situation where the General is out, but stripped of his rank, his Parliament seat, possibly his civil rights and with his only shot being democratic rather than force. Yet an election is four or five years in the future. There have been kings stupid enough to take Generals back into military service, or to let them escape, but I’ve never read a situation where the General was out but so hampered by invisible fetters.

Mahinda has presumably planned this so that Fonseka is locked up while he locked power down and then out before he dies in jail (he’s in poor health, what from losing much of his innards in the war). So now Fonseka is out and criticizing the government, but power has already been consolidated and he looks to be tied up in court cases for the rest of his life. But, as with any reading of the Mahavamsa, you never know. Power is more predictable than before, but it’s still not predictable. So I guess we’ll see.

India representing at the ‘Rural Olympics’.

I dunno. I was asking. I guess I’ll do some reading. Let’s start with a couple hypotheses

1. Indians suck at sports
2. The Indian government sucks at sports administration

1. Indians Suck At Sports

I honestly don’t think this is possible, and Indians are pretty good at cricket. The rub may be that they devote everything to cricket, which isn’t an Olympic sport. I know they (we) are short and not physically awesome, but the average Indian can take the average Chinese person in a fight. And there’s a billion of them, so there has to be a certain amount of innate ability. Perhaps I’ll get back to this, but let’s move on.

2. Indian Government Sucks At Administration

This seems more likely. The Indian government – while a democracy – is still a mess. Sadanand Dhume has an essay starting with the Olympics but flowing into a broad indictment of Indian mediocrity in all forms.

India’s traditional invisibility at the Olympics—the gold and two bronzes won in Beijing mark its best ever performance— can be viewed as a legacy of the flawed policies it pursued in the early decades after independence. For long an autarkic and socialist economy, India has lagged in establishing the competitive culture and market incentives that spur excellence in the developed world. At the same time, as a democracy, it has never had the option of emulating the intrusive controls and collective purpose that mark the authoritarian model. (India’s Olympic Reality Check)

Then there is India’s sports administration, which displayed naked corruption and incompetence during the embarrassing Delhi Commonwealth Games. This via Neeta Lal in the Asia Times:

For one, India’s annual budget for sports is too meager. This year’s US$280 million worth of funding is overshadowed by international standards. For example, China’s – one of India’s biggest rivals – has earmarked $2 billion for this year’s Games.

About half the money from India’s outlay will be channeled towards administrative expenses and the salaries of officials and bureaucrats. In other words, much of it will be gobbled up in administrative expense rather than the crucial training of athletes. (India’s failure of Olympic proportions)

Basically India isn’t enough of an authoritarian country to muscle a sports program through, but they aren’t enough of a democracy to have competent sports institutions either. Which is perhaps a chicken egg situation, that the private sector should step in to ameliorate. Or maybe Indians are happy enough with being awesome at cricket and OK at field hockey and don’t really care about running fast or any traditional feats of strength. But they kinda should, because it just looks bad, internationally.

It’s still got the old features (aggregating 1,119 blogs) plus the new stuff (calculating ‘hotness’ via social buzz, segmenting by language) with a new new look. It’s kottu.org. New… stuff everyday. I swear too much.

Women have long had some preference for older, wealthier guys. Men tend to get better and more confident with age, and have access to and knowledge of more fun places and things. Actually going out and angling for this as a sort of deal, however, is considered uncouth, as most of the profiles I browsed on Miss Travel are. The girls and guys look down for sex, and most of them seem like idiots.

The deal seems inherently creepy and flawed, but who knows. Attractive fools somewhat obviously can’t angle for marriage as it’s a bad deal. As this (I think fakely sourced but interesting) letter from a banker to a gold digger states:

Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Sites like Miss Travel or Seeking Arrangement seem to work within this logic. The girls (and male babies) aren’t getting married, they’re just getting along. The guys also aren’t really paying for anything besides the ‘girlfriend experience’. So I guess it’s a win-win. For losers.

The holy grail – in these days of traffic and oppressive heat – is never leaving the house at all. For things such as small and large appliance purchases, this is becoming possible. Both Singer and Abans have functioning online shopping sites and anything.lk has their own store. I don’t think any man ever independently desires an appliance, but if fate thrusts appliances upon you, at least you can get them online.

He said society is “awash with porn” which “represents a threat” both to the people who create it and to those who consume it, but he is convinced that it need not be that way and that people can be sexual and virtuous simultaneously.

Pornography as it is presented today is divorced from the values that people generally aspire to for their day-to-day lives, he says. To use pornography is to turn to a brutish and exploitative set of values that bear little relation to the “other concerns which a reasonably sensible, moral, kind and ambitious person might have”.

The Ancient Greeks, he said, understood that there was no need to have to choose between “being human and being sexual”, he said, and maintained that there should be no need to do so in the 21st century.

“Ideally, porn would excite our lusts in contexts which also presented other, elevated sides of human nature – in which people were being witty, for instance, or showing kindness, or working hard or being clever – so that our sexual excitement could bleed into, and enhance our respect for these other elements of a good life,” he said.

“No longer would sexuality have to be lumped together with stupidity, brutishness, earnestness and exploitation; it could instead be harnessed to what is noblest in us.” (The Independent)

Porn is super fucked up values wise, but it’s still an obvious human need and even joy. So porn of people that, like, seem to actually give a shit about each other would be nice. As Botton says, “As currently constituted, pornography asks that we leave behind our ethics, our aesthetic sense, and our intelligence when we contemplate it. Yet it is possible to conceive of a version of pornography which wouldn’t force us to make such a stark choice between sex and virtue – a pornography in which sexual desire would be invited to suppert, rather than to undermine, our higher values.”

Sri Lanka wants to be successful like Singapore, but we have no immigration policy. It doesn’t work like that. If you want to be the best you have to attract and retain the best talent. Every successful modern country has a policy to allow for immigration and Sri Lanka needs to get in that line.

At the least, as I’ve said, spouses of Sri Lankans need to be able to get citizenship or permanent residency, if we respect the institution of marriage and stability of family at all.

Sub-least, we need dual-citizenship for people like me who, incidentally, still have to pay over 2 lakhs for the privilege, despite the fact that I’ve paid that many times over in tax since, plus I actually care about the country and try to contribute.

To really be successful, though, we need to be a place where, say, an Australian engineer can come for a contract, like it, fall in love and decide to bring his business here because he can have a stable and secure future. Because he can be a citizen, have the same rights as everybody else, and not be potentially separated from his children. If we want world-class companies and universities, people that come need some potential conduit to apply their talents and energies here. Right now Sri Lanka just says no. All that matters is where you or your parents were born.

If we want to be the wonder of Asia we can’t be a genetically sealed zoo and, indeed, we never have been. Sri Lanka is an island built on immigration (from the Sinhalese to the Burghers) and to freeze that process at a random point is nonsensical. Have a process for sure, but at least have a policy. Dual Citizenship is a start, but Sri Lanka urgently needs a real immigration policy.

I was never an Avengers fan. None of them really. More of a Spiderman or Batman, er, man. I went back (via the Marvel app) and read the very first comic and it’s, well, kinda hokey. Loki, the Norse God, frames the Hulk and a bunch of ham radio operators – trying to reach the Fantastic Four – accidentally assemble the Avengers. In their rec room. I think the whole thing ends in a circus. Anyways.

In the movie the setup is more.. set up… built over the prior series of films (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and sorta Hulk). Rather than ham radio operators, the Avengers are summoned by Nick Fury and some big world government cabal. Anyways, who needs a plot rehash. Let’s just jump into some semi-spoilers. These are just some funny ‘fucking why’ moments in the film. They don’t make it any less entertaining.

Seriously, Why

1. Why is anyone using handguns? People are firing pistols at helicopters, fucking alien space ships, the Hulk. Fucking why.
2. Hulk’s pants. What’s up with that. Shirt rips but pants stay on. Except he still wakes up naked. It’s like every TV sex scene where the characters cuddle post-sex with the bras and pants on. I mean, they’re not doing it right. I wonder what happens to Banners penis when he goes Hulk. Lot of blood flow. He must be erect.
3. Why is SHIELD using a flying fortress? There are only like 10 people on there who are actually doing anything, and they’re never actually going anywhere. Everything else is just a bunch of idiots and expensive machinery to save. The thing doesn’t need to be flying and it doesn’t need to be a fortress. They could’ve literally had the Avengers meetup at a coffeeshop.
4. Nuclear weapons are like Siddhalepa for the American psyche. They will apply them to anything. Just saying. And why don’t the aliens have some awesome weapon? Instead they send fucking foot soldiers with what are basically AK-47s.

The Fun Parts

That’s enough. Those are points you kinda reanimate disbelief, but they don’t make the movie less fun. And it is a fun movie. I like Iron Man and Thor, Captain America has some good jokes, and this Hulk is by far the best incarnation of Hollywood’s multiple attempts.

I normally don’t like fight scenes, but the battle was very well choreographed and built around story-telling rather than effects. You could follow what was going on and you gave a shit unlike, say, Transformers.

They go through the Anne Of Green Gables/Gilbert trope of having the characters hate and then like each other which is fine. I mean, not genius, but they’re all pretty good actors and it kinda works. Except for Hawkeye and Black Widow, who have no superpowers and who I don’t quite get what they’re doing there. But the Hulk was cool. I thought he developed emotionally.

The dialogue is good, it’s entertaining, fine. There isn’t the same arc of self-discovery and fun as, say, the first Iron Man, but it’s not the mindless romp and pomp of Iron Man 2. It’s a good film, if not a great one. I’d say check it out, but you need to book for days in advance. Try ticketslk.

I really admire what Arunoda’s done, mainly cause he showed what’s possible and made it more possible for other people to follow. I’ve heard about him for a while, met him at Hackathon, struggled with his name for ever (I kept thinking Anurodha for some reason) and occasionally call him for references and advice. Being a geek is one thing, but making money and being a geek is the holy grail. Arunoda’s doing that, so respect.

The interview covers what Yalu is, what kodeincloud is, some of his open-source work, and the scene in general. See if you can spot where we run out of questions, because it happens. I didn’t invite him btw, I just showed up, they’ve been booking some good guests.

Sri Lankan wedding cake. Once I was dusting off my wedding suit and found some cake from a year before. It looked the same.

Sri Lanka has no immigration policy. At all. There is one loophole, if you bring in a shitload of investment or are a celebrity like Arthur C. Clarke then maybe. If you meet a nice girl and want to open roti shop and settle down, citizenship is simply not possible. Besides that one loophole, there is not path to citizenship unless you’re off Sri Lankan descent, and even dual citizenship has been (temporarily) shut down. We’re calling for foreign investment and support but making it impossible for people that love the country to settle down here. It’s dumb.

More pressingly, it’s also cruel and unfair. If you marry someone it means something, and in most countries it is a pathway to citizenship. This is important because it gives both partners equal property rights, legal rights, etc. In Sri Lanka, let’s say you’re an Australian woman that marries a Sri Lankan and has kids. Things don’t work out and you get a divorce. Since you’re on a spousal visa, at that point you actually need to leave. You have to leave your kids and apply for some other sort of visa, if you’re lucky. This is a policy that can break up families, which is deeply uncool.

What’s shocking is that a fair amount of powerful people have married foreigner yet seem to do little to budge this law. Off the top of my head, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and former Minister Milinda Moragoda. Not to mention businessmen, lawyers, whatever. They have an interest and they should push.

I personally think Sri Lankan immigration should be possible, if you love the country, are willing to work for the country, there should be some pathway by which you can become a citizen. That’s the hallmark of an open and productive country – one which can attract and retain the best talent. That’s what’s makes the US so productive and – historically – it’s what’s made Sri Lanka awesome as well. I mean, I hate to break it to you, but we all came from India at some point (via Africa). And we all got a fair amount of Tamil in us, probably a lot of Malayali, Arab, Dutch, Portugeuse, whatever. Sri Lanka is an island and we’re built on immigration. Back then there was no policy and things got a bit weird, but I think we can handle some immigration now, legally. We should start with people that marry Sri Lankans. Because, really, it’s only fair.

LGBT people should be able to get married, that’s a civil right. They should be able to marry in Sri Lanka, or India, or anywhere in the world. My favorite writer is Andrew Sullivan, whose blog I read every day. He’s gay (and married) and it’s an issue that he’s led and supported for years. And, frankly, I think it’s an issue that anyone should be concerned with. He recently covered it in a Newsweek cover story, which he discusses here:

I cannot speak for all gay people; but I can speak to my own experience and suggest common themes. And if my own experience were completely an outlier, marriage equality would have remained a quixotic intellectual game for a few gay conservatives.

But there is, of course, an aspect to this that is timeless, and that is the fact the vast majority of gay kids grow up in straight families.

And they understand marriage long before they understand sex. And that breach between their identity and their parental models of authority is deeply wounding. The possibility of civil marriage – of being equal with your own parents and siblings – targets this wound, and does more than anything else to salve it. (The First Gay President?)

Marriage is a stage of life which all of us kinda hope to get to someday, or at least have a choice to. It’s something that gay people are mostly shut out of, and it’s not fair. I mean, the idea that you can’t grow up and have the same adult life of everyone else (that chooses to), it’s just mean. The fact that unmarried people can’t inherit property, get hospital visitation or myriad legal rights, that’s just cruel. Banning gay marriage is just patently not fair and it needs to change.

So, to return to my subpoint, the way it changes is that you meet gay people. I know tons of gay people, many in long term relationships, and I would not advocate discrimination against them because I would feel like an asshole. If you don’t know gay people you can somehow be an asshole without feeling like one, simply cause you don’t get feedback. And as I’ve been arguing, politics is a feedback mechanism. Politicians don’t drive public opinions as much as ride it, though they can take small inflection points and really change things in one direction or another, through either political courage or cowardice.

Hence what happened in the US was slow but it ends in more and more justice. First gay people had to come out, then they had to get network TV shows… well, that’s a joke, but also kinda true. First they had to come out, to be proud, then people could connect an abstract (albeit ethical) issue to people they know and be like, yeah, OK, I may think gay sex is weird but my cousin is cool and his boyfriend is cool too.

And that’s how change happens. First the change just happens, then politicians get feedback, then slowly laws and institutions change.

Sarath Fonseka posters in Jaffna, 2010.

What’s the lesson here? For me, it’s that politics trumps ethnicity. It’s not that the Rajapaksas are inherently racist. I mean, maybe they are (I don’t think so), but whatever they do is mediated by political pressure – ie, people calling them and asking for or giving them feedback. For the Rajapaksas, a significant minority is Sinhala Nationalist, so they bow to that political reality. Sarath Fonseka, who had hitherto been considered a racist [by some people], suddenly became the minority protector in 2010, as positioned against Mahinda. Which is crazy, right, except it’s not. It’s not like he had a change of heart or even that it mattered. That was his political reality.

IMHO, the biggest problem Tamils have isn’t the Sinhalese, it’s that they’re so divided politically. In fairness, Tamils did exercise significant political pressure after Independence and got little but beatings and pogroms in return. They were once the main opposition, but little good it seemed to do. When Tamils, under the yoke of the LTTE, effectively tried to opt out of the political process altogether, however, things got even worse. When the LTTE ethnically cleansed Muslims and alienated Eastern Tamils, things got even worse. Now it’s a fractured and decimated polity which can’t really swing elections.

Except it could. As Fonseka showed, Tamil speaking people can still form a semi-effective vote base. If the UNP had its shit halfway together they would capture this minority vote, but instead it’s slipped away to smaller, weaker ethnic parties (like the Tamil National Alliance and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress). But that vote base is there, and there is a political reality which can make even the most Sinhala politician (or soldier) get real.

Historically, Sri Lankan leaders have to be very cautious of Generals. They frequently take power, at least in the Mahavamsa. Mahinda was uber-conscious, surrounding Fonseka’s hotel with troops right after the election. It was super dodgy, actually, but Mahinda wasn’t taking any chances. He also saw fit to eliminate him from politics by putting him in jail. I’m not sure if Fonseka even has political rights when he gets out. This has happened to leaders like Srimavo Bandaranaike and they’ve recovered, but Fonseka is not a career politician, and not naturally skilled.

If he does get out, what does it mean?

Fonseka was an MP, but he’s been stripped of that. He was the head of his own party, but that’s frittered away. The next Presidential election isn’t till 2016, unless Mahinda decides to call it earlier. And I’m not sure Fonseka can even run with his conviction. From what I hear a lot of his campaign money was taken to start Ceylon Today (newspapers), so maybe he has a mouthpiece, or maybe he doesn’t. One of his major campaign issues was not having a house, and I think he still doesn’t have one. But it’s better than jail.

It’ll be good if he gets out. He really didn’t do anything except running against Mahinda, which isn’t a crime.

The cover of the first Playboy, from 1953.

You can’t get iPlayboy from the App Store, because Apple bans porn. But Playboy isn’t really porn. An average magazine is like 70% ads, 20% copy and 10% chaste women nude. The modern magazine kinda sucks, but the app is worth it for the back issues. The interviews, fiction and commentary from the 1950s, 60s and 70s are high quality stuff. There are interviews, for example, with Malcolm X. He advocates some pretty racist stuff, before he evolved. And Marshall McCluhan and, more recently, Jon Stewart and Jon Hamm.

There’s also fiction from Arthur C. Clarke and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (in the first issue). The 1953 issue seems to have been put together by Hugh Hefner’s hand in those cut paste days. It has amazing line drawings and really edgy, interesting content.

Trippy line art.

Another interesting feature is that you can see all the old (and new) ads. Some of the copy and art direction from back in the day is amazing, and I’m a big Mad Men fan, so it’s nice seeing what their work was like at the time.

Technically, also, the iPlayboy app is interesting. For one thing, it’s HTML5, so it runs on the browser, tablet or whatever. It’s not really an app (because Apple would ban it), it’s a website that’s built around touch. It also loads really really fast. I don’t know how, but you can flip through high quality pages at a satisfying speed, a far cry from most shitty Flash magazines, or PDF.

So that’s the iPlayboy App (NSFW). It costs $8 a month, or about Rs. 1,000.

Comic Books are great, I used to spend my petty cash on them and CDs. And baseball cards. We’d ride out bike down to the strip malls and buy toys for boys. You used to be able to get the old comics or reprints for cheap. So I read the first Spiderman, and some 1970s era Spiderman which had some amazing pants, and the stuff from the 80s, which had amazing hair. This was the Todd McFarlane era, before he created Spawn. That shit was fun, but I kinda grew up.

Ant Man and the Wasp named the Avengers, then disappeared. Perhaps got stepped on, or misfiled.

I was reading the first Avengers comic (which is free on the Marvel app). You know who’s not in the movie? Ant Man. And Wasp Women. Because they’re … I was going to say they’re retarded, but they actually did a lot of the work in the comic book. Oh, and Iron Man is an actual man covered in cylinders. He looks like The Thing in geometric brass.

It’s silly that old businesses can’t make money online. They just have to make awesome stuff, and make it easy to get. Marvel is an old business, and they’re printing money on all fronts. Avengers the movie just made the most money ever. Plus I just read like five Spiderman comics ($1.99 each, which is like Rs. 255) and THEY STILL HAVEN’T CAUGHT CARNAGE. Assholes.

I’ve been using the Marvel comics app for the iPad. It’s pretty good, if expensive. Loads beautiful comic pages fast, lets you zoom panel by panel, pretty sex. Thing is, I can read a single comic in like 15 minutes. An issue costs $1.99, a series is about $8.99. Also, NONE OF THEM EVER END. So can get addictive, if you like comics.

I was bone tired today. And yesterday. My thoughts are largely incoherent. It’s all been broken down to human relation. Recognition, memory, how are you, thank you, good bye. If I try to talk about anything abstract I simply don’t understand. I feel like a fax machine. A modem. 28k. I wish I hadn’t bitten that egg sandwich. I wish I hadn’t used my toothbrush to clean my pants.

My cousin needs to call a Somasiri in ten minutes. He lost an arm, Seeya helped him with a compensation case. Nanda says he’d want to know.

The night watch keeps dozing off in their chairs, heads down as if in prayer. It’s just me and Bon Iver.

…

One of the men dozing in the garden is Seeya’s cousin. His leg is injured such that he can barely walk, but he can apparently bicycle. He came all the way from Malabe, I think twice. Some people are habitually hardcore.

As a young man in the Air Force Uncle got in a bad motorcyle accident, ended up in Negombo Hospital. Achchi and Seeya were in Katunayake and they got word. He still remembers the bup of Marmite they gave him. He says the Marmite saved him. Perhaps coincidental, but still. I know how it feels, those small things, at big moments. You’re helpless in hospital. There are times when you just need someone to show up, when you need someone to carry you for a while.

Uncle has had 30 operations on his leg and it never quite healed. It’s bandaged still. How he bicycled from Malabe to Mount Lavinia is beyond me. And he keeps coming back. Achchi told him he’d said good-bye, to promise not to come back. He said he’d try, but he sometimes breaks his promises.

…

At the most vital moments, it breaks down to this. Showing up. Falling asleep in waiting rooms. Celestial or terrestrial.

I’ve been in jail before. It sucks. You just want someone to show up, but at those moments your Rolodex is mighty thin. Just family really. If you’re lucky. I have a friend in jail right now. Remand.

Seeya used to show up. Tha told me about a journalist he’d gotten out. He’d brought bunice, she said. I saw the case files, of the disappeared, of the war and the forgotten war. That’s what Seeya did, in his retirement, if you’d call it that. He went to law school, after his own son had graduated. He used to sleep in the office, in case somebody called. He used to wait. Through the night I guess.

Seeya’s portrait, as we remember him.

Ainsley Samarajiwa was a teacher, human rights lawyer, Christian, and – fundamentally – a deeply compassionate man. Other people remember different things. I remember parts of myself, suddenly in context, now that he has passed. His love for travel, exploration. His earnest desire to help, the sense that there was no other choice really, and to get on with it. He’s been sick for so long. I remember it now.

Seeya’s body is still warm. We cover him with a sheet and readjust his head. He looks peaceful now. After a long suffering with Alzheimer’s and physical decline, he has passed away. Today is Wednesday, May 9th. Just after Vesak. It was around noon. He was 87 years old.

This is my Achchi – grandmother:

“Ainsley Samarajiwa, as a boy, went to St. John’s. He then got a scholarship to Prince of Wales for two years and did his Inter-Arts because he was too young to go to University. Then he went to University at the age of 17.”

This is my father:

“Most people are identified by the last government job he had, very few people think of him as the Deputy Commissioner of Exams. Most people think of him as a lawyer, or a teacher. So the two official posts he had, I rarely hear people talk about.

Those days there was no dispute about appearing for Tamil prisoners, but there was about appearing for JVP prisoners. Seeya had been adamant that people should appear for all. He had appeared for JVP and people from various Tamil political parties.

He used to go to Boosa so often. He used to go in the bus. He became a lawyer only when he was about 60. He started law school when he was 55. He retired the earliest possible from government service. He was junior to me, I had finished law school.

He never took any money. Any payment whatsoever. I used to have endless arguments with him, but he never took any money.

There was a very important committee he was on, that looked at all the people who were forgotten, stuck in prison. He was the lawyer member. They went all over the country in planes, trains…”

and herein the narrative is interrupted to chase down long lost names of judges and contacts.

“The UNP had been in power for like 17 years and all these people had been stuck in prison from ’88, Tamil people, Sinhalese people.”

I saw the files in the house. Terrible stuff. Page after page of names, designations, and time spent, reports of torture. Like distant, impotent cries.

My father is on the phone.

Memory, in context.

When I heard Seeya had passed I rushed over. I still owe the trishaw driver Rs. 210. He had passed. He was there, peaceful. There was a Bible on Seeya’s pillow, opened to Kings. Achchi had been reading it, about King Solomon. At that point God seemed more concerned with getting people to acknowledge Him than them being necessarily righteous. I flip through to the New Testament. There’s a passage bookmarked in Luke, 46-56.

And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his posterity for ever.

I sit and thumb through the old, old Bible. It was a gift. The note says something like [from] Lowe and May Grundy, Chester-le-Street, April 1958. “To our sincere friend and brother in Christ Jesus. Praying that God will bless you always.” At the top it says A.P. Samarajiwa. As I’m sitting by his body, I’m thankful that it’s here.

Seeya’s suitcase is on top of the cupboard. Kinda plaid. Kinda Mad Men. Must be from the same era. Achchi says he’s been everywhere with that suitcase, Russia, Czechoslovakia, even Africa. I ask where in Africa, she says Nigeria, for a Methodist meeting. My grandfather was a Christian. In the best sense of the word.

I chose Buddhism when I was about 19, but I am thankful for the Christian values that my paternal grandparents lived and passed on. My father has returned.

“I remember the mundane things. He was a school principal in a village school. This was a kinda area where people were majority Christian, so they considered the school their own. They also liked their liquor. So on weekends they would take their liquor and play a game called Elle. The school had a playground and they would come to play Elle. Then some ruling came down from the authorities that on Sundays you couldn’t have this school ground used for these activities, because it was a Christian school and they needed the Sabbath respected. These fellows were not about to respect that, we’re talking about a large school. You could fit two soccer grounds. One day these fellows had come, had jumped the gate, they were going to play Elle whether the Principal liked it or not. And this scrawny man went against about a hundred guys. And he yells at them and they leave.”

And yet my father was not a Christian.

“When I was 13 and said I no longer wanted to go to church. Achchi brought Seeya along to have this serious conversation. And then he says ‘he’s got his reasons’ and that was the end of the conversation.”

Achichi has returned, so to chronology.

“He graduated from the Colombo University and till the results came he worked at Carey College. He gave it up and he applied to Kingswood College. He was about 20 years old at that time. That was 1944. Then he worked in Kingswood then of course we married in 49. Both of us were working, I was even senior to your Seeya by one term. And I left, because Lilani was born in 50, in February. I stayed at home without teaching for 15 years.”

“Whereas Seeya did his diploma in Education at the Colombo University in 51, and he was second in the list. In 58 he got a scholarship to go to England for his MA. And he went to Kent, nah, Bristol. Aaahh, Kumara.”

Kumara has come, to help move things, clean things, get the house ready for the funeral. A lot to do.

“Ethakota putha, he studied at Bristol, he came back after 14 months, he came back in 59, really December 58. One year he worked at Kingswood, he was warden of the hostel there. In 60 he was appointed as principal of Katunayake High School. That was a training for him to go to one of the Methodist schools, Kingswood, Wesley. But in 1960, no no, ’62 schools takeover by the government. ['61 maybe].”

“After that he was not full principal, he was class 2 principal. He was not eligible because of the government takeover, only the Buddhist people got placed. Richmond only a Buddhist, Kingswood also. Wesley College was the only place.”

One thing was Seeya supported the takeover – my mother

“He applied out, he applied to Examination Department. He got selected as an Assistant Superintendent. He worked there for 15 years. He finished up as Deputy Commissioner.”

But to return to the government takeover, despite it ending his career prospects, my grandfather supported the move.

“He was very happy about that. He was stoned, they threw rocks at the house.”

“He admitted Buddhist children into the school, Ainsley admitted all. He took a Buddhist teacher onto the staff. He was all open like that. There were a lot of people against but he didn’t care.”

“We moved to Kotte [after joining the Exams Department], and people said now that Seeya was in government he could get his children into good schools. We sent him [my father] to the Kotte boys school, Lilani to the girls school. Then the man topped the examination list and Ananda College he got in. Then said religion not provided for and threw him out. Then Royal College, they said underage and they threw him out. Then Seeya got excited and said where is this boy to go to school. Nalanda nah, Thurstan College vitharai. Poor relative. Seeya kuwa, kamak nah. ‘That boy if he studies at Royal College or Thurstan College, he’ll study, he’ll do well’.”

[as a note Thurstan is considered a second-tier school, not guaranteed 'class' like Royal or St. Thomas. Poor relative as my Achchi refers to it. There's a joke that goes something like - "Where are all the buses? Parked, all the bus drivers are watching their kids at the Thurstan/Isipathana match". One huge exception is that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also a Thurstanite, but for reasons of his own. That's another story.]

“He did his A/Levels there. He didn’t have proper masters, boys went for group studies. But the last term, Ainsley was getting a little worried about Chemistry or something, he put you on to a friend of his… a Muslim man.”

‘no, that was a Physics man in Pita Kotte. Talk about Seeya will you.’ (my father)

“I’m telling you that Seeya did not pressurize him. Though he got into Engineering, though he wanted to change [my father changed majors in University, which is another story].”

“Then on his 14th year or so Seeya got interdicted. We were in Dehiwela at the time. The interdiction was… western music paper, the third question had come from the previous syllabus. Seeya was in charge of the whole exam and each of these subjects had various groups… to correct any mistakes. And these people had not. And those who did western music were very influential people. So there was a big row.”

“And at that time, Seeya had gone on leave, he was in Bandarawela at a local preachers seminar. He didn’t even know. When we were at Dehiwela, four five Exams Commission people came home. They told me. So when he came back of course he got the news then, what do you think, the UNP trade union, Exams Department, went forward and fought for Seeya. They knew he was not in their camp, Ainsley was on the left side no? The UNP Trade Union went and said he’s a very fine officer, he’s not in our camp, but we’re speaking on his behalf. Then he was called and said you can go back to work.”

“But, after that, they decided that he was not going to do, he went on to Inquiries [department] and worked there for a couple years, he was of course Assistant Commissioner at that time. It was there that he got interested in law. He had to refer to law books because of the cases of cheating.”

Father – “He was in charge of the Confidential Branch. Major military operation to get all the exam papers out on the same day, he would be out with the lorries. During his day there were no leakages, I remember he actually arrested people.”

Achchi – “At age 55 he gave up exams. Following day he was at the Law College.”

Happiest time? [My father asks what their happiest times were].

“We were always happy.”

Then she thinks about it some more.

“He was happy working in Kaliyapullawatte. They started that project from, they worked for a time at Summitpura, off Dematagoda, where all these people who they threw out for a government summit. That is called Summitpura. It was a swampy area where the river waters came, they got the land development people to put lorry loads of soil there. They moved to Dematagoda, that was a real success.”

“You know there were rackety old buildings and all, they used to put canvas underneath. These were harbor laborers, vendors, carrying loku bags to market, had no place to live. They used to find takarang and plastic and cardboard, little places they’d hitch up. No proper road, no toilets, no bathing, no nothing.”

“So, CSR (Center For Society And Religion). They did a very fine job at Kaliyapullawatte. They organized, they worked for years on that. They started with trying to get the children… they had no toilets. Women would get up early morning with a tin of water, go further down do their business and come. Later on they had lovely toilets done. They had to be educated also. All those slum areas the children had no schools. Seeya had a lot of influence with education people. They went out and said “Appo, muduku lamay appe gan nah” [my bad transcription, essentially we won't take slum kids].”

“They opened a small shed. I used to work on a mat, teaching the small children letters. Most of them didn’t have birth certificates, first of all got the children their birth certificates. ”

Tha – “there’s a film, the ‘People Trade: Leftovers’ – ‘while community worker Ainsley Samarajiwa meets people looking for work in one of Colombo’s shanty towns.’”

“Kaliyapullawatte was a real success. They empowered the people themselves. Charlie was a man who pushed the garbage lorry, he was President of the society they had. They had a committee, they had meetings, they had film shows. Then the children, I want to tell you, they got birth certificates, their education level was nil. They opened a small school, they were taught to read and write. As soon as they were little competent, they were taken to schools. They managed to get the children in. After they come to school, four five teachers, all went there and helped the children. Some of them are doing very well today.”

“On the women’s side, they got the girls into sewing classes. Gave them a machine, they started sewing, so they were able to fend for themselves. Artificial flowers they were making, they had sales points. For a number of years they worked there. Once we went for another ceremony later. They had a nursery school they opened out. The girl who used to work rang me up the other day also, she’s in Ireland now. Ramani Gunasekera and others helped a lot.”

“Final thing was they went in delegation to the Municipal Councils and asked for land. Then there was a garbage dump, they got them to bring lorry loads of soil and cover it up. They took a census of all the people in the slums, each of them were given ownership of three perches of land. They cut roads, built toilets, water. They had a lovely picture of Ainsley standing in his national, the first tap they got into the compound. The film has been lost. So those were nice days.”

I’m not sure where this fits chronologically. The interesting thing is that my grandfather became a lawyer after retirement, after my father. And thus began what was in many ways the most productive and remembered part of his career. He worked at the CSR until he literally could not work any more.

“Seeya used to set the English paper for the law entrance. The moment he went into Law College, somebody else had done it and he had to sit the exam. In Law College he finished up his three years, but he came down in one subject. Accounts. So Ainsley went to a friends husband and taught him accounts. He got through.”

Achchi has gone to see Seeya’s body. Thatha passed me this Daily News link. He’s been Googling Seeya, to see what the digital record is. This is an old article by Upali Cooray.

“I know Mahinda Rajapakse only because in 1989, as a member of the Committee for Democracy and Justice in Sri Lanka (CDJ), I helped to organise a delegation of members from the European Parliament (MEP’s) and European lawyers to visit Sri Lanka.

They were sent to investigate the 60,000 odd persons that “disappeared” during the 1988-89 period. Without the assistance of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, Mr. Ainsley Samarajeeva, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera and others this delegation would never have been able to fulfil the important role they played in curbing the worst excesses of State terrorism. That year, Ms. Christine Oddy, MEP, presented the data that Mr. Mahinda Rjapakse and others so courageously and painstakingly collected to the UN sub-committee on human rights.”

I shan’t comment on that. I don’t think Seeya thought of his work in a political context, not in that sense. I mean, he was always political, don’t get that confused, to a degree we all were. But the human rights stuff was simply human rights. He was simply helping out humans who’d been forgotten in a very dark place. Achchi came back for a moment, before someone from Panadura arrived. Ah, he’s in Ratmalana now. We’re still moving up the coast.

“These slum areas, Seeya used to go to Netherlands, Germany, he met these groups. He brought them, these people came, they spent money and they bought those drains like that and fitted it. The whole Kaliyapulawatte was beautifully drained off by these Germans.”

There are more motions about. I turn back to the Bible. There’s another passage bookmarked, with a faded brown leaf.

“When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit,
they refuse to return.”

Not quite sure what that means, it’s from Jeremiah. Through the rest of the passage God seems rather… stern.

There are things to do. My cousin returns with the death certificate. It’s about booking cremation slots. Decisions. We start clearing off the mantlepiece for the funeral. Where on earth do these bric-a-bracs come from, and how do they persist. I walk past Seeya’s room. He looks more peaceful than I’ve seen in years.

Achchi – “Tha Tha was a local preacher. He was Vice President of the Methodist Church.”

I think there’s to be a service at Church.

Seeya’s last years – following a stroke and Alzheimer’s – were of progressive decline. He hasn’t recognized me or anyone for years. The body lost weight, huddled and declined – but remained. The mind was gone I’m afraid to say. For a man who lived by his mind, by words, by deeds, that volition was gone.

Over Avurudu I carried him out of bed in the mornings. It was like holding a heavy child, a body, in reverse. He struggled to breathe, to eat. Today is the first time I’ve seen him at peace in years. This is the first time I’m remembering him, as a man, beyond his present condition.

This is not an obituary. It leaves out so much of his work, as a human rights lawyer, as a father, grandfather and as a refuge for countless more. Perhaps this is part one, but I don’t want to trouble my Achchi too much, not today.

Their 63rd wedding anniversary was just weeks ago. In all things they were together. It’s difficult to say that I learned this from Seeya and not from Achchi, or from other sources as well. But I did imbibe something deep from them. A sense of Christian charity, of duty, of honor if you will. I’m not him, God knows, but if I have done anything compassionate in this life, it is only by their example. If I have any kindness, it was born of them. He was a good man, and he was my Seeya. He held me as a child and I held his head today, felt the warmth passing from his body. I feel he is at peace.

The funeral will be Friday the 11th of May, cortage leaving at 3:45 from the house. The house is 80/16 Templars Road, this is actually a bit off Templars, science college turn. It will proceed to the Mount Lavinia cemetary at five. In lieu of flowers, I don’t know, do something randomly nice.

Mr Pawan Goenka of Mahindra and Mahindra, launching the hydrogen-powered three-wheeler ‘HyAlfa’ in New Delhi.

Trishaws are actually fairly fuel-efficient as is, at least compared to cars and, like, Prados. Well maintained they’re not that noxious, but they can be. A ‘green’ trishaw, however, is an obvious improvement. This isn’t a commercial model, but Mahindra has said “The price of HyAlfa could be Rs.20,000-25,000 more than a CNG three-wheeler, which costs around Rs.2-lakh, in case of its mass production”. So that’s about 5.5 lakhs in Sri Lanka. Thing is, a normal trishaw costs about 3.5 plus, and these numbers are highly affected by taxes, making Sri Lanka a fertile testing ground. As with hybrids, not taxing the eco option can lead to much higher uptake.

Hydrogen, however, also requires infrastructure, but for contained places like Galle, Colombo and Kandy this wouldn’t be insanely difficult. If all the pieces come together, I think we should cut down car traffic to certain areas, or at certain times – like, say, around the Beira Lake during Vesak. As a fleet of normal city buses and better trishaws come online, this is looking more and more appealing.

Regarding layered web video, to a degree (sometimes an annoying degree) it’s happening on YouTube, but obviously not up to its potential. The best example I’ve seen is Hunter and Bear’s 2012 birthday party. I link rather than embed because you need to be in YouTube to really experience it. It’s sorta a choose-your-own-adventure (interactive YouTube) with a twist, at the end you can plugin almost any year and see some funny video. Very well done. It’s an ad for Tipex btw.

Still not the type of interactive video CODOC is talking about though. That seems pretty sophisticated and more focused, rather than hacking existing capabilities of YouTube. I’d be very interested to see the working prototype, as I suppose would Sir Branson. So anyways, check it out and vote for them.

Almost capacity.

While there are hilarious times to pile everyone you’re with into a trishaw, it’s obviously unsafe. If you crash it’s just a compressed ball of humanity with a few metal girders like so much twine. And people do die.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said this would help minimise road accidents. He said between April 1 and May 7 there had been 27 accidents involving three-wheelers leaving 34 people killed. (Daily Mirror)

Seriously, a toppled trishaw is the most pathetic thing. Like a flipped-over turtle. So I guess this rule is a good thing. Obviously. To be fair, however, you can fit four comfortable abreast in a Piaggio, those noisy shit machines. But I suppose the vertical stacking has to stop.

Flowers at a Hindu hall

As I discussed around the Jeyaraj article, Sri Lankan Tamils are broadly divided into those of extremely late (ancient) and colonial Indian origin (estate workers). Sinhalese are also of Indian origin via Vijaya, if you mythologically want to go there. Biologically we are all mixed and largely indistinguishable. Anyways, the one page news article view of Sri Lanka describes a nation of Sinhalese and Tamils, but this obscures the fact that Muslims may now be the biggest minority, and that Tamils are not a coherent group.

Broadly there’s the split between Estate Tamils and North Eastern Tamils. Then there’s the split between north and east. Then there’s the estimated 50% of Tamils who live in the south. Plus Christian Tamils, etc. And this doesn’t even begin to mention further sub-divisions based on class. It really isn’t a coherent race, and I personally don’t think race is the best way to understand or change Sri Lanka.

So, is Tamil just a language? Well, sorta. The thing is that Muslims and Tamils all over the island speak Tamil, among other languages. If they got together they’d be a formidable force (already a majority in Colombo), but they don’t. Tamil is a language, but not necessarily an identity. Which I think is true. This is why I think a broader civil rights movement is the only way out of the ‘ethnic conflict’ because the lines and sides in that conflict aren’t really clear. It’s too vague to actually be resolved whereas civil rights is something that appeals to all races and religions, etc. To all Sri Lankans essentially. In a world of shifting identity, the only one that makes sense to me is this island. There’s ocean all around, and if we don’t live together we don’t really have anywhere to go. So we should live together in peace.

Anyways, Radhakrishnan has the best report on the recent visit by Indian MPs to Sri Lanka. Worth a read.

Mahinda’s Tamil avatar.

If you look at the 2001 Census data (PDF) this is undoubtably true, but that was during the war years and excludes most of the north from the counting. According to that measure the population is 82% Sinhalese, 7.9% Muslim, 5.1% Indian Tamil and 4.3% Sri Lankan Tamil. But, as mentioned this excludes the places where perhaps half of Sri Lankan Tamils live, or at least one would think.

Prabha Ganesan cites this number to say that Indian Tamils outnumber Sri Lankan Tamils. While this may be true, I don’t think we’ll really know until this years census results are out, covering the whole island. Therefore, I’m not sure that Sri Lankan Tamils are the fourth largest ethnicity in Sri Lanka, but they could very well be the third or fourth. Which is surprising. DBS had some more to say on the demography:

The worst impact has been on demography. Tamils have left the country in very large numbers. Equally large numbers have moved to areas outside the north and east. Only 42% of Sri Lankan Tamils are said to be living in the north east now.

Some years ago at a seminar in Colombo , retired Indian Judge V. Krishna Iyer stated that Tamils be given full autonomy. Former Central Bank Governor N.U. Jayewardena wrote to the newspapers in response

N.U. made three observations. Firstly, he said the Sri Lankan population would stabilise to zero growth in 2025. Secondly, he said that the high rates of Tamils leaving the country indicated that the Tamils would only be 1.9 % in 2025. Thirdly, he said that 1. 9% was a “manageable minority that need not be given autonomy.”

Thanks to comparatively higher educational standards and social problems like dowry, late marriages, aversion to female children, etc., the Tamil birth rate has been on the decline even before 1983.

Census figures of 1963, 1971 and 1981 show gradual decrease percentage wise. If a proper census is taken now, the Tamil population percentage would be much less. It may not be 1.9 % as N.U. said, but it could certainly be less than 5%.

How Did This Happen?

One explanation is that this is part of a coordinated genocide by the Sri Lankan state against Sri Lankan Tamils. Which I don’t think is true, and neither it seems does Jeyaraj. He seems to lay the blame on the scorched earth policy of the LTTE, willing to sacrifice the Tamil people for the ‘Tamil cause’. Writing four years ago, while the LTTE still existed, he said:

In short, the LTTE’s growth in the past 25 years has been phenomenal. It is perhaps the only enterprise run ‘for, of and by’ the Tamil people in Sri Lanka that has registered a ‘success’ of this magnitude after July 1983.

This successful growth has come at immense cost to the Tamil people of Sri Lanka . Vertically the LTTE may have gone up, but horizontally the Sri Lankan Tamils have gone down. This is the unpleasant and inconvenient truth that the LTTE and acolytes often deny and do not like to hear…

The Tamils may have proved a point by taking up arms against the state dominated by the numerically larger Sinhala people. But ultimately, demography would defeat the Tamils.

If the prolonged armed struggle for Tamil Eelam is leading to a gradual decline of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka , then the ultimate losers will be the Tamils themselves.

The Sri Lankan state certainly hasn’t been helpful, but the LTTE took effective control of the North and East and essential gambled on Eelam or bust – with other peoples lives. I’ve argued that the same unemployed youth population wasn’t there to support an insurrection in the 2000s, but it also seems that there wasn’t enough population at all. Demography is often destiny, it seems.

What Are Sri Lankan And Indian Tamils?

One thing to be noted here is that Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils are separate categories, and why. Tamils have been on this island at least as long as the Sinhalese, what with it being a difficult swimming distance from India. Tamils that have been here for yonks and settled in the North, East AND South are called Sri Lankan Tamil. Tamils that were brought down more recently by the British to work on the plantations (cause they couldn’t get the natives to do shit) are called Indian Tamil. And many were shamefully disenfranchised post-Independence. But they’re Sri Lankan now, and I personally prefer the term Estate Tamil.

The more relevant question is why they and Sri Lankan Tamils aren’t grouped together. Largely because there isn’t a coherent Tamil identity like that. I think that most Jaffna Tamils wouldn’t group themselves with the up-country Tamils and, indeed, any liberation movement under the LTTE didn’t include Hatton. When Estate Tamils were disenfranchised, Sri Lankan Tamil politicians also played along.

Are Muslims Number Two?

Another interesting issue is that the decline of Sri Lankan Tamils makes mostly Tamil speaking Muslims the second largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka. They are ignored in more analyses of Sri Lanka, but recent events like the shameful shuttering of a Dambulla mosque have drawn Muslim relations to the forefront of public attention.

It’s obviously not a contest, and I think that the 2012 census will show Sri Lankan Tamils as the number three ethnicity and not number four, but it’s still a sad and heady decline, and quite contrary to the general perception we have of the country. If you asked me I’d guess that Tamils were like 17%, but if you look at the numbers it’s more like 4%, and if you assume double in the uncounted north it’s still only 8%. Which is crazy. Read DBS for some more background and insight, but that’s just some food for thought.

Actually, I’d like to close this another way. However it happened, this is really sad. I’m no stickler for demographic consistency, but that so many Sri Lankans had to leave their country or died is just terribly sad.