I wish she weren’t so hot
MIA’s boat was turned away and her candidate lost in the EU elections. Which is a weird sentence. Feels like SciFi, popstars launching boats and cadging votes. I fear that celebrity may one day permeate reality, but not just yet. You can’t land a boat without papers and you can’t win many votes without a party. The Vanni Mercy Mission was turned away, because they basically didn’t follow naval law at all. As much as I’d like to, I cannot sail a container ship down the river Thames. Her candidate for EU Parliament Jan Jananayagam lost. As much as she’d like to, it’s hard to win an election without party support and a local agenda. I would say nonsense, but it’s nice that they’re at least trying. I’d say try something different.
MIA’s also been supporting a boycott, basically hitting the garment factories. Instead, I’d support building garment factories in resettled areas. I believe families are being resettled in Mannar now. The big thing is demining the areas, and then establishing proper civil services. But then they need (and can do) jobs.
The boat was stupid because they didn’t get permission, not even a letter. That’s not how airports work and that’s not how ports work. You can actually ship goods if you follow normal procedure and kiss a little ass.
Instead of a self-serving boat they could just donate money to some of the charities operating. The fuel cost of the container ship must be hundreds of thousands of dollars. SOS Children’s Villages is building an orphanage in Zone Four. Sarvodaya is taking charge of child nutrition. For the price of fuel alone they could, like, do something useful.
hotness factor decreased exponentially when she designated herself as the SL Tamil spokesperson and started ‘getting political with it” as she might say.
even though she’ll never respond directly, i say we all keep calling her out till the weight of the historical record plainly favors those who questioned her and not her blubbering ignorant fans at jezebel, feministing, pandagon and other lefty blogs as well as the hipster communities.
to criticize her in the home of feminism is hazardous to maintaining your PC cred–which over here is crucial to maintaining a social network that includes attractive potential mates.
I think turning the ship away might have been a bit of a propaganda opportunity missed. We could have taken the aid, kept the idiot Icelandic rep and his cronies on board, handed the aid over publicly to the Sarvodhaya or WFP and pointed out to that nitwit Arjunan Ethirveerasingam that next time you can’t sail into ports of harbour without the proper clearances. Now all we are going to hear is shrill denunciations from the LTTE Diaspora and the idiotic media like the BBC parroting them, maybe even MIA writing a song about it…boom boom…they turned away my ship…or some crap like that.
they turned away my ship
my candidate got the slip
boom.. boom
I’ so mad
so sad sad..
oh yeah , i am political
no no no
i have no idea
of the system in sri lanka
no no no
i have no idea
of the number of tamils in sri lanka
but yeah i am so political
yeah yeah yeah
I’ so mad
so sad, sad
its so unfair
I agree.
With Griffin and Brons representing MIA et al it is really not her day. The ship sailed before the war was over and they may have thought of delivering the goods directly to north. But I think SL still could use the 900MT of supplies. Perhaps GOSL is making a statement now with refusal.
Have a good recovery time and be safe. I am sending my pay checks for next two months to my Grand Ma and I know they will reach the right people. I am off to enjoy the world, before it disappears.
Yes it’s sad. I suspect this is the outcome Arjunan & Co. were hoping for. They might have been even happier if the Navy had opened fire. Or at least detained our Icelandic friend. Because I’m not sure if this has generated the kind of international media attention they were probably expecting. I dunno. Maybe the British press are all over it – I haven’t checked and don’t care to. But all this nonsense aside, there was genuine aid on that ship and it really should have reached the people. Shame all round.
Before the ship left UK, I asked Arjunan what they were hoping to achieve as there was no way they were going to let the ship in. He pointed out a similar mission where expatriate Palestians tried to get aid into Palestine, and built enough support that Israel allowed the aid through. He said he was hoping for a similar result to that.
The GoSL could’ve accepted the aid, kept face, and spun it into positive propaganda for them… maybe even tried to use it as a stepping stone to build bridges with the diaspora (like stated that their help is welcome if they do it through the right channels).
what to do…noone in the government is going to go hungry, sick, or unclothed because of this… turning away aid on technicalities won’t be of much consequence to them.
IMHO, the cargo should have been handed over to the ICRC for distribution in the camps, while the crew should have been sent packing with no opportunity for any publicity, good or bad.
MIA is an idiot. But the GoSL is also a bunch of idiots for turning the thing back.
It’s kinda a sovereignty issue. A nation has to control its water and airspace. For any government that’s a matter of dignity and pride.
You could keep the aid and spin it off, but this government doesn’t have the diplomatic finesse. That’s how big a piece the LTTE took off the chessboard when they killed Lakshman Kadirgamar.
or you mean when the GOSL allowed for egregiously large security lapses which made it possible for some dirt farmer from vavuniya to get a clear shot.
Lakshman isn’t coming back and it’s beyond disputable that only a few brain cells separate the person who makes the decision to not appropriate the aid from the person who does.
A massive PR opportunity missed. The gov’t could’ve deflated the critics… instead, they’ve given ’em more fodder for protests and speeches. The people who sent the boat knew very well that the gov’t would not welcome it with open arms and even if it did get allowed in, one shipment wasn’t going to make a dent in the requirements of the IDPs.
It was a propaganda exercise that couldn’t lose… if the shipment got through, it would’ve be a small win. If the shipment got sent back, it would be a massive win. Either way, they win. A cataylyst for more protests, speeches, collection drives, etc.
” That’s how big a piece the LTTE took off the chessboard when they killed Lakshman Kadirgamar”
1 in 20 million ‘eh?
I think it goes a little deeper than a lack of diplomatic finesse. This government is characterized by seemingly boundless paranoia and pigheadedness. Kadirgamar? Not even Kissinger would have enough lipstick to cover that.
prabha needed mahinda to survive (initially) and mahinda needed prabha to establish himself, or even exist. now that prabha is gone, mahinda still needs at least some controvesry to survive, othewise ppl will start criticising the gosl’s policies/governance/economy/hr etc. etc. now that the celebrations are starting to wear thin, what a good opportunity to pretend that sl is always better and feed the masses some more uber alles. all on the skin of paupers as per usual. utter allround crap.
correction:
prabha needed mahinda to survive and mahinda needed prabha to establish himself (initially)
Good post !
Just started following after seeing your posts on bailaman.