This video is both dumb and offensive to any Jaffna Tamil I know
Via MIA, indirectly, I checked out the Boycott Sri Lanka site. Everything’s out of date, but by now it’s descended to farce. There are very brave people in and out of Sri Lanka who have fought and are fighting against injustices. This campaign, however, is all about panties, and people punctuating political rants with comments about their hair. I cite the stuff here not because it requires any political response or commentary, but just because it’s so silly. Their ads consist of someone pulling their panties down and the boy being repulsed because it says ‘Made In Sri Lanka’. They also feature a random emo girl as a convert, mixing half-baked statistics with comments about her highlights.
I say this not to laugh, well, no, I do say it to laugh. These efforts are fundamentally unserious, and they tend to inflate the root causes to the level of caricature. Genocide, holocaust, perhaps because it’s easier to engage with the extremes given the cursory amount of attention they pay. It’s disaster porn, and about as masturbatory. There is serious organizing the diaspora could do, but I think they’d be better inclined to A) understand the issue beyond soundbites B) participate in the political process. Personally, I think the money and time would be better spent helping people vote and encouraging tourism directly to the North and East.
The Tamil diaspora is livid because of what happened at Nanthikadal. They poured in millions of dollars into the LTTE and then watched it all diasappear. They are furious and now they have nothing to brag about, nothing to make them feel like they actually matter. “Genocide”, “Holocaust”, “Slaughter”, “Sinhalese want to wipe out Tamils” are actually quite common terms and phrases they bandy about as they go into a rage about everything to do with Sri Lanka. Many of them (at least the one’s I have met) are absolutely clueless about Sri Lanka and even claim that the LTTE never killed civilians (yes really). Folks like MIA are even thicker. I don’t think engaging them is going to do anything much, because they are too set in their ways. But I could be wrong.
Just ignore these people, not the misinformation spreaders, but the normal people who take up a cause driven by misinformation. They mean well, so there’s no harm in that, so don’t hate them.
As for the people spreading misinformation, can MIA and whoever is behind the spread of this be sued for defamation under American laws? Anyone know this?
Oh I don’t hate them. Sometimes I actually feel sorry for them because they seem so incredibly desperate for a homeland but are unable to connect in any way to Sri Lanka. They don’t seem to understand that Tamils that live in Sri Lanka are actually living in a Sri Lankan system and that if Sri Lanka does poorly economically their own brethren are going to suffer even more. Rather than spend money on directly helping Tamil folk in the north, they would much rather spend their money on campaigns like the above. I don’t think logic or common sense is driving their actions, rather hatred, anger and ignorance.
I was talking about the people who support without having any direct or indirect connection to sri lanka, like that girl on the video.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Get serious people. Which guy will note the tiny made in Sri Lanka label on a girl’ panty? Only a loony. This falls into a ‘paid commercial’ category. Paid by those who cannot move on and do not wish to build peace. Anywhere.
LMAO – what a load of bull !
That guy in the first video is an eunuch. When the women pulls her panty down he is looking at the label, not the pussy :)
The americans should give up using half of their stuff, bcos they are made in China !!!!!
One a serious note, when America and Britain were bombing the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan where were these dumb white people?
People who really care about an issue, do their homework. They contribute positively and do good.
These kinds of people are not concerned with the issues or Sri Lanka or Sri Lankans of any ethnicity. Sri Lanka is for them, what it is to certain western politicians of the Milliband variety. Simply an excuse to advance some personal goal or crusade which has little or nothing to do with Sri Lanka.
1. Comments expressed above are some expressed without real understanding or thought.
2. While a lot of sinhalese are happy with the outcome of the war, for Tamils this is not so, which should be understandable to any right minded observer of the Sri Lankan conflict
3. Why was there a war in the first place? For sinhala hegemony to prevail over the whole island! Is it not??
4. While I don’t agree with everything MIA does, she does have a point with ‘Boycott Sri Lanka’. Because all the talk of developement and prosperity was not for the Tamil people in the lower rungs of society or to any people in the lower rungs of Sri Lankan society. But rather for big business and government stooges and people who thrive on nepotism and favouritism. Members of the sinhala community poaching state land in Eastern province, members of armed forces who have procured land where Tamil people dwelt for tourism purposes, etc, etc. When such things are prevailing then a Boycott Sri Lanka campaign is necessary, if at least to highlight the injustices !
5. Indi’s pro-sinhala tendencies are well known, although he has accepted Tamils are discriminated. I hope the Tamil people of the North and East and Muslims will get their fair share of the benefits. But the Sri Lankan government cannot be trusted as their past record of Sinhala chauvinism shows.
To add to my earlier post.
Indi needs to ask the following questions to himself and his beloved Sri Lankan, a.k.a. Sinhala, Government.
1. Why did the GoSL not allow any independent sources anywhere near the conflict area?
2. Why was there a total information block on independent reporting?
3. Why were close to 300,000 Tamil people detained in concentration/internment camps without free movement?
4. What about the channel 4 video on executions of Tamil people by GoSL forces, which has been proven true?
5. What about a transparent investigation with statellite footage from UN, U.S., etc sources?
6. MIA brings out many good points. I like some of the messages being brought out in the Boycott Sri Lanka website.
Indi may want to laugh at those messages because Tamils were being killed, how would he feel if it was his own kind?
Indi’s sinhala chauvinism and convenient life of dual citizenship may afford him time to laugh but not so for those who suffered.
7. I’d like to know how justice will prevail for everyone in this country?
8. What happend to the Commission of Inquiry???
9. Is the constitution being implemented?
10. The election’s commissioner is being made a joke by the IGP and those in power
11. Same old sinhala chauvinistic jokes. Now that’s something to laugh about!
with the LTTE going down it effected the cash flow of many LTTE money collectors in Germany, UK, Canada, France and some in Australia. These people now have to get jobs ,learn a skill or do something so that they can maintain their lifestyle.
It is such a joke now about the so called Gonocide. the normal tamil people who are educated freely at state universities are quite happy with thepresent situation and so are my Tamil friends living out of the country who no longer have to fork out their hard earned money for a cause that only got them grief.
The only unhappy lot are the ones that made $$$ out of the situation. One has only got to think logically as to what LTTE has got for the Tamils so ever. The only thing that LTTE managed to do for their own people was to kill them and make sure that the next two generations of kids don’t get an education. Now that is a crime against humanity in country where education is free.
what a hoot !!!!! the ad is hilarious. made by someone who has not had some “lived experience” of the actual act. Yes, that is nice but let me check the lable, that is exactly what goes in the head of an average dude at times like that.
Seriously good one.
@myil selvan,
Not sure you are looking for rational explanations to any of your questions. If you are, then you need to grow out of this ‘vicitim complex’. That mindset makes it difficult to sort out facts from fiction.
Obviously you are very educated, and you deeply care about Sri Lanka, so please don’t take this advice the wrong way. I think you seriously need to visit Sri Lanka and hang out with a good sample of ordinary people to understand how ridiculous your Tamil-centric worldview is.