A map of human migration, by DNA markers
Married women seem to flirt more. Their husbands hang around like desperate puppies, looking for a bone. The women just want to dance. White guys with foreign girls – recolonizing the world, one vagina at a time. Fine by me. I’m sitting at the bar, feeling like a transie. Not a transexual, it’s a term I read somewhere about Obama, regarding people with transcultural, transient identities. In America you can be that, call yourself American, be American and run for President. In Sri Lanka you can’t. You can’t settle here and be Sri Lankan. People will always ask who your parents are, what you’re doing here. Even a darkie like me, people always ask when I’m going back. But I at least have my (expensive) paperwork, obtaining the same for a suddha is nigh impossible. They can’t become Sri Lankan, can’t buy property, invest, work, etc. I know people born here, people living here for 20 years – waiting in the visa line. I object on one level cause it’s patently racist, and on another cause it makes the country weaker. I’ve been egging my suddha friend to say that he’s Sri Lankan, cause he is. The girls laugh and don’t believe him, ask where he’s really from. Keep asking where, keep saying Sri Lanka. Gets awkward.
The funny thing is that national identity isn’t as much about remembering your heritage as it is about forgetting. All humans are descended from an African population of a few thousand. Of these, as few as 150 people walked cross the then parted Red Sea about 70,000 years ago. That population literally walked around, one branch going to Europe, the other down the southern coast to India and Indonesia, through China, walking across the Bering Strait and populating North and South America. Yet we forget these human things and choose an identity situated in a blip of historical time, clinging to it like eternity.
This being one thing or another by blood, however, is a bit illusory and certainly not worth taking out the machete for. What I do consider worthwhile is the modern nation. This is in itself an illusion, but a useful one. It trumps race not in terms of culture or food or art or whatever, racial identity is still pretty good for those human bits. A nation is useful in that it you can build laws and institutions around it that don’t rest on the shifting sands of human procreation. Race is something you’re born with, but nationality is something you can choose. And choice is what makes the system work better than what came before.
In Sri Lanka, however, ‘choosing’ to become a citizen is very difficult, and odd. It’s like the system simply isn’t used to people trying to get in, only out. My birth was registered by my parents, so that piece of paper and Rs 200,000 enabled me to get dual citizenship. For a suddha trying to settle – and I know this only anecdotally – the process is byzantine and well near impossible. People will simply stay here on tourist visas for decades. Which seems OK, but it costs money and makes it difficult to live a normal life – buying property and investing and working and the like.
But besides the legal hurdles, Sri Lankan people simply find it very difficult to comprehend that someone can be white or not speak Sinhala and still be ‘Sri Lankan’. In America or Canada people pretty much don’t question anymore, you can walk around Toronto or New York and people sorta accept you for whatever you are. People there seem to think ‘minorities’ are all about the bongos and peace and feel bad for treating us poorly. What they don’t see is how bad we treat each other, and them, back home. We may be brown, but Sri Lanka is a far less diverse place than western countries, and it’s less diverse than Ceylon was.
Perhaps because we didn’t have that cathartic independence struggle, but we’ve still clung to that old trope of nationality being a generational thing rather than a choice one person can make. As in, something you’re born into, like race. But I really do believe that it is a choice, and that everyone – including those born here – should make that choice. And there should be a day where a white person, misguided as they might be, can not only apply for legal citizenship, but can also be treated as a citizen by their fellows. Where people of any race can immigrate, work, buy property, and invest in Sri Lanka. At this point not that many people want to, but when Sri Lanka finally does boom people will want to come back and we might as well get used to the concept that being Sri Lankan isn’t a function of being brown and around. That there is an idea behind this country, however hazy, and that anyone of any color can buy into that idea if they believe in it. Or so.
“I’ve been egging my suddha friend to say that he’s Sri Lankan, cause he is. The girls laugh and don’t believe him, ask where he’s really from. Keep asking where, keep saying Sri Lanka. Gets awkward.”
The reason for this is that there are not too many Sri Lankans who look radically different from the usual South Asian mould. This was not the case in the first decade or two after independence, we read about Afghan’s, Parsi’s and numerous other small communities that existed, along with Europeans and Burghers.
When I first met a member of the local Chinese community -as an adult mind you-I was very surprised, now I know that a (dwindling) local community exists and am not surprised when i meet one of them. There are a handful (literally) of Europeans and burghers who are white enough to pass as European’s but this is too small a lot to have any impact. Therefore, people have a really hard time understanding the concept that someone who looks radically different might still call himself Sri Lankan.
This reminds me the scene in Gladiator, Lucilla tells Commodus, “country is an idea in people’s mindâ€
In America they don’t question anymore? Really? Must be a different America from the one I live in…I’ve had many people ask me where I’m from, and when I say the valley…they ask ‘no originally from’ and I’ve seen the question asked many a time from friends of all ethnicities (except white and black)…admittedly it must be worse in Lanka but it is by no means a rare occurrence out here.
“In America you can be that, call yourself American, be American and run for President.”
actually you can’t . you have to be “natural-born citizen” to run for president according to constitution.
so austrian born governer schwarzenegger cannot be president even though he is an american citizen. even john mccain’s birth in panama canal zone was a matter of contention recently . you don’t read nyt anymore?
here you can run for president if you are a citizen. being elected is a different matter and depends on your attitudes above all here and in america ( more on that below )
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anyway are you saying doors to usa are open? as doors to sl are? then why are there 12+ million illegal aliens there? why the phrase “illegal aliens” or green card lottery, or visa restrictions, if anyone can call themselves “american” as easily as you say and there is no “(expensive) paperwork”?
are you denying that ppl get less trouble being called american if you are europeans or canadians than if you are african mexican or asian?
and you “can’t buy property, invest, work, etc” there for “non americans” who have not completed expensive and in most cases non-allowed-to-complete “paperwork”.
not mention lot on non paperwork” expenses” such as death in a desert while crossing arizona desert. lot of ppl are deported daily from america.
non sri lankans here have less restrictions. ppl do invest and work. here ppl may have to wait and even stay in line to get permission ( in fact i doubt that) but there ppl die crossing the seas and deserts and risk ending up in jail
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so what motivated you,(a hypocritical racist if there ever was one as your previous posts equating tamils with terrorists prove,) to write this latest bit of trash? is it your being frequently called a foreigner (not by me btw as far as calling goes) and not being taken seriously when you let lose your racist excretions here and in your padashow blog?
problem with your non acceptance here as a sri lankan which you have typically generalized here into a racist rant is not your or anybody else’s skin color but your attitude. you think and act like foreigner. (in fact it is the same attitude that led you to make the above false comparison between being american and being sri lankan )
obama is a good american and may get elected bc he feels like an american and have american attitudes and other americans get this. ( that also why his opponents try to call him a muslim etc to throw doubts about this ).
here you are not considered sri lankan by some and you and your ilk are treated contemptuously and will never get elected ( which you have right to ask for unlike in america ) bc your attitudes and feeling are at variance with sri lankans.
( for my part i consider you a sri lankan with a foreign attitudes and mentality)
don’t hide behind false analogies and generalizations, face the facts
Indi, in principle, you make a strong case, but i can’t help but feel that you may be romanticizing the west a bit too much. Migrating to and becoming a citizen of Australia for example – is a much simpler and more straightforward affair for a non-resident than it is in the US, and the society here is very ‘multicultural’ (even though i hate the term, it sort of conveys the general idea). i don’t know enough about the US to make a comparison though.
Yet, there are always people everywhere who judge you by the colour of your skin, your accent and the way you describe God. I think these are human errors, faults that are found everywhere – perhaps in varying degrees. As evident by the comments above, we Sri Lankans are not used to self-criticism. Perhaps we are not confident enough about ourselves, our values, beliefs and traditions to be able to criticize ourselves, so not many people are willing or ready to hear the point you are making and the call for change.
Majority Sri Lanka even as a nation that is sliding deeper into violence and economic bankruptcy, is perhaps not yet willing to accept the need for change – or perhaps lack the wisdom or imagination to envision the necessary changes. Those who can envision positive changes and courageous enough to speak out about our own deficiencies and new ideas about how things can be improved – are accused of having “foreign attitudes and mentality” – whatever that means.
Maybe the point is to keep at it, knowing all the while that the country will probably not be ready for these changes for another generation or two more.
Whoa…Haren I have no problem wiht self criticism in case u were referring to me above…I do think Lanka is quite narrow minded as a country but the post seems to lack context by as you said “romanticizing the west”…and for one thing in the west you find acceptance only in places like New York, LA, London where immigrants are present in huge numbers…go to Kentucky and it’s a different story.
I agree with the post in general, but the specifics are probably wrong. The thing with the girls is probably a psychological thing, not used to white guys (or black guys or chinese guys for that matter) being “sri Lankans”. If Colombo were to become a place where foreigners come and settle more, then you’ll probably see this sort of attitude just go away. I know it can be annoying, I have a friend of malay origin (who probably read this blog btw) and he kept being called a chinese guy at school, which is shitty I know, but like i said, it’s a psyco thing.
But having said that, there is no reason why immigration laws need to be tough here. The problem in the U.S. is that immigration is incentivised because of the welfare state, here I don’t think anybody is illegally swimming across for the healthcare system or Samurdhi.
what reality do you live in, sittingnut? it’s just bizarre reading your comments.
I remember reading that an earlier (pre-independence) version of the constitution had a provision disallowing anyone from even visiting Ceylon without permission, basically for fear of a stampede of people after its beauty and adventure. That’s funny now, all things considered.
India’s made it a practice to reach out to former Indians abroad to capitalize on their skills/money for reinvestment. A lot of Indians have moved back out of that sense of patriotism/sense of loyalty. Would Sri Lankans do the same? Most of us didn’t leave on happy terms. If the ‘peace plan’ that comes out of this conflict is as marginalizing to Tamils as it looks like it’s going to be, don’t expect too many to run home with open arms. The same can be said of other minorities. In the end, it seems like nationality and race are closely intertwined in Sri Lanka, just as many seem to want.
indi hav u tried applying for a visa to a first world country with a sl passport. or travelling to the UK or some place like that? with a US/Canada passport you can walk into any country. with a sri lankan passport you need a visa to go anywhere.
most passport holders can land in sl and get a visa at least a tourist visa. i heard even indans get visa free travel to sl but we have to sweat it outside their shitty embassy – even for a business trip. yet there are plenty of indians and pakistanis working without visa in sl. they just overstay their visas.
in USA your employer has to pay big bucks 2 immigration lawyers to get you a h1b visa or something like that to work legally. During the tech boom the back log of applications meant that you had to wait upto 6 months to get your application approved. Then you are a slave to your employer – if you get fired/laid off you got 2 weeks to find another job of leave the country.
forigners buying land is sl has had some bad effects
http://culturalsurvivaltrust.org/lankarealestate.htm
maybe that’s a single thin. but in most countries there are restrictions on non citizens buying land. in Aust for example non citizen can only buy off plan properties like appartments – not exisiting houses. this prevents housing prices going through the roof for locals if wealthy people just start buying up property.
i live in sl reality . you and indi seem to live in a fantasy dream world about america and sl so i am not surprised that you feel “bizarre” when facts are pointed out
fact – sl has less restrictions ( formal or informal )on coming in and going out than most countries.
ppl migrate from country to country if they see better opportunities.
so if some ppl choose not to come here ( after ltte is contained ), even when sl has shown creditable economic growth even during war, due to racist reasons that is their loss more than it is for sl.
thankfully ppl are selfish and can figure out where their interests are. they will come .
foliage-
what right do you have to speak for sl minorities. i am from a minority, you don’t spaek for me. so dont. speak for yourself only
Why do you say your from the valley? Don’t you consider yourself to be Sri Lankan?
here you can run for president if you are a citizen. being elected is a different matter and depends on your attitudes above all
Interesting. So do you think that a Sri Lankan citizen of Chinese, Japanese or European or African origin and whose physical appearance is east Asian, European or African has a chance at getting elected president if they learn to speak Sinhalese fluently and converts to Buddhism?
Or did you mean something else by that?
One of the dumber questions I’ve seen in awhile….country of origin has nothing to do with what i tend to perceive as a question of where I reside.
So when people ask you “where are you from?” you perceive that as a question of where you reside?
I’ve never actually been to the USA so your perception might be accurate. But here in Sri Lanka, when someone asks somebody who looks different “where are you from?” then it is pretty clear that they want to know the nationality of the concerned person, not whether he reside in Nugegoda or Dehiwela. Hence my question. Didn’t occur to me that in other countries the question “where are you from” , even when asked from someone who looks different is perceived as inquiring about the place of residence.
Anyhow what you wrote is still quite puzzling because you said many of your friends who are not black or white get asked that question. Shouldn’t that kind of make it obvious to you that people who ask this question are inquiring about your nationality, or at the very least what you refer to as your “country of origin”?
Hmm…I guess my mind reading/statistical analysis of past conversations abilities must pale in comparison to yours and I just assume ‘where are you from’ refers to place of residence. Also even if I consider that they mean country of origin when they ask that question I much prefer to give my place of residence and hope they shut up after that, I dread having to explain to a bunch of geographically inept nitwits where Sri Lanka is…still puzzling?
I was just trying to explain why I took it for granted that a person asking “where are you from?” from someone who looks different from how people in a given country are supposed to look implies nationality and not place of residence. This certainly is the case in Sri Lanka and I assure you there is no need to read minds to know that. If that is not the case in the USA then that is great, I’m just pointing out that I didn’t take that possibility into account when asking you my “dumb” question.
As to the actual situation in the USA, there is no need to analyze statistics. Use your common sense. You say that this question isn’t asked of your black/white friends. So why do you think that is? Because people don’t want to know where blacks and whites are residing and only want to know where non-black and non-white people reside?
Err…yes they ask me that because they assume I’m not American, simply because I’m different…I believe that was my original point…and ur question was do I not consider myself Sri Lankan because I assume ‘where are u from’ refers to place of residence as opposed to country of origin..so yes your original question was dumb…I hope ur not more confused now?
I think the American “Where are you from?” is the equivalent of the Sinhalese “Gama kohedha?” and means where do you come from. If someone in New York were to ask you where you were from, I doubt you’d say the Bronx if your family was from Texas. It’s the same anywhere in the world. If they wanted to know where you live, they’d ask you where you live.
N, actually my question was whether or not you consider yourself Sri Lankan because you answer “The Valley” instead of “Sri Lanka” when someone asks you “where are you from?”. As I said, it didn’t even occur to me that the question could be interpreted as “Where do you live?”.
I know what your original point was, that people assume you’re not American due to the way you look. And that’s precisely why I asked you why you don’t answer “Sri Lanka” instead of “The Valley”. The first answer you gave was that you consider the question “where are you from?” to be equivalent to “where do you live?”. That doesn’t make sense. Given that you know that they are asking you this question because they are assuming you not to be American, it is inconceivable that you are not aware about what they have in mind. Unless of course you are playing the fool and pretend you don’t know what they have in mind, which is basically the second answer you gave.