Are you the lady who friendly with Shehan de Alwis? Just asking to confirm whether i know you or nor because i want to help for this Jaffna thing.

Thank you! I am gainfully employed at the moment, but I will consider a job as a “map quest director” in Jaffna only after retirement.

Unfortunately, this job will not be open to you as you have revealed that you don’t know Jaffna from Timbuktu. But of course, you can find a great job at
Marisa’s company, well known for honest journalism.

Hasta la vista

The map quest directors are looking for you. They are impressed with your knowledge on the layout of Jaffna and they want to employ you.

If you are living at the Holy Family Convent, you can see the water tank from your window. “Groundtruth” mentions that a Buddhist Vihara is being constructed opposite the Holy Family Convent as we speak. Can’t you see it yet?

The Holy Family Convent is on Main St, and the tank is located at the corner of Main St and Mt Carmel road. If you are zooming in your SUV to work you won’t be able to spot these things, however, if you happen to cycle or walk, you will see all and sundry.

By the way, did you go to the Periya Kovil (Catholic Church) nearby? Anyway, Sister Jerome at St. John Bosco will be happy to meet you and get your services to teach English. They are still looking for you. Hurry! Hurry!

Please don’t run away before I arrive there. I really want to give a pair of gold bangles to the girl that offered you her cherished chain.

Ta-ta!

As for my intent behind the article, nothing really. I write what I feel – what I experience. I happen to be living at a Convent right now and this was how I felt and what I happened to experience. That’s it really.

It is somewhat unclear as to the purpose of your article. Being a journalist I suppose were you merely trying to find out how those girls live in a convent in Jaffna at the end of the so-called eelam wars or what? Possibly there is more in store.

By the way, did you see a Buddhist Vihare coming up right opposite the Jaffna Convent beside the water tower? Being erectd by the military on municipal land nilly willy despite objection by the Municipality. Any thoughts on that? Reminds one of the construction of the Anglican Church right next to the Dalada Maliagawa during colonial times. Are such times back again for the Tamil people or far worse ?

Thanks. Please send to sivat9@hotmail.com. lookforward to hearing from you.

I thought reading of the linked review on this book will bring some objectivity ans insight to the thouroghly subjective debate on Marisa De Silva’s blog.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1997/apr1997/fasc-a17.shtml

I will quote some excerpts from this review.

“The principal theme of Goldhagen’s book is easily summarized. The cause of the Holocaust is to be found in the mind-set and beliefs of the Germans. A vast national collective, the German people, motivated by a uniquely German anti-Semitic ideology, carried out a Germanic enterprise, the Holocaust. The systematic killing of Jews became a national pastime, in which all Germans who were given the opportunity gladly and enthusiastically participated……
Germans killed Jews because they were consumed, as Germans, by an uncontrollable Germanic anti-Semitism. Hatred of Jews constituted the foundation of the universally accepted weltanschauung, world view, of the German people…..The politics of the regime was of only secondary importance. Goldhagen insists that terms such as “Nazis” and “SS men” are “inappropriate labels” that should not be used when referring to the murderers. Goldhagen seems to suggest that the only essential causal relationship between the Third Reich and the extermination of the Jews was that it allowed the Germans to act, without restraint, as Germans, in accordance with German beliefs…..
As Goldhagen writes: “The most appropriate, indeed the only appropriate general proper name for the Germans who perpetrated the Holocaust is ‘Germans.’ They were Germans acting in the name of Germany and its highly popular leader, Adolf Hitler” ……….”Goldhagen gives the impression of not being particularly concerned with the impact of fascism on anyone other than the Jews. This callousness is derived from his narrow and embittered outlook: conceiving of the Holocaust as a crime committed by “ordinary” Germans against Jews, he is not especially interested in what Germans may have done to each other. At any rate, his thesis does not permit him to recognize the existence of any substantial opposition to Hitler among Germans.

This is not only wrong in a factual sense. The irony of Professor Goldhagen’s position is that it renders him incapable of understanding either the cause of the Holocaust or its universal, world historical, significance.

The fate of the Jews as a historically-oppressed people and that of the working class were inextricably and tragically linked. The downfall of the German socialist movement cleared the way for the destruction of European Jewry. The democratic rights of the Jews, indeed, even their right to exist, depended upon the political strength of the working class. The mass killing of Jews did not begin in 1933. Before a crime of this magnitude could be organized and executed the Nazis had to terrorize and destroy the intellectually vital, progressive and humane elements in German society.

The Holocaust was, in the final analysis, the price which the Jewish people and all humanity paid for the failure of the working class to overthrow capitalism.”

By removing a cancer I meant splitting the country. Rajan’s post was so full of poison.. Sorry to others who may be offended by the comment.

But back to Ranjan, how are Sinhalese moderates supposed to emerge when the Tamils completely seclude themselves from the rest of Sri Lanka and wage a secessionist war of violence and terror on 90% of Sri Lanka’s citizens? A climate of war is not conductive of moderates..

Argh, anyway, Ranjan will probably not respond. He’s probably run off to his local ‘boycott Sri Lanka’ gathering or to vote for the next leader of the LTTE.

From the South, Sri Lankans broadcast to all of India with Radio Ceylon. Eelam prefers to filter out any connection they have with the rest of the world and be only pure Tamil (Sanskrit – how dirty!)

@ Ranjan

Great to know you place so much faith in video provided from LTTE propagandists (WarWithoutWitness). Considering all the witnesses that have now shown up (including you buddy Damilvany who was released by the government) your stupid moniker doesn’t really work I don’t think.

And, I would love to rid Sri Lanka of the cancer that is the Tamil only homeland. There’s so much better things the Sinhalese can do than wrangle with racists like you. You can live with only Tamils I don’t give a shit really..

People die in wars. Its a known fact. Rebuilding broken and shattered lives is what is needed now. No point crying over the dead. We all had people die during the last 30 years due to the war. And I am glad that you are there instead of some of the people who Kings and what not and the other assorted vultures that seem to want a pieces of the Carcass that is Eelam.

A least you are there to hold the hands of a girl who lost her parents and to show that the southerners are humans too.

Where are those who wants to make Jaffna a Singapore? Still making money for themselves before they come and put $10 in the Convent till?

“don’t ever refer to this Govt as my Govt”

If you feel so strongly about the plight of the Tamils can I suggest a very provocative idea? Renounce you Sinhala identity (as it is deemed to be synonymous with chauvinism, racism and unfairness) and take up the Tamil identity and urge others to follow your example to save the Tamils in SL from extinction!

You said: “You seem to have a colossal chip on your shoulder so maybe until you decide to speak with some sort of civility, I think I’d rather not partake in the mud-slinging”.

There, there, no need to get so defensive. I was merely asking you a detailed question about your experiences in Jaffna – namely, the “Convent”. As most people, I like to separate fact from fiction, so hear me out first. You see, I love a good short story as much as the next guy, but I don’t appreciate people using fiction to manipulate facts.

Why do you insist on proving the “purity” of Tamil girls? Are you a man from the dark ages that suddenly popped up on the Lankan scene? All this talk about “purity” makes me wonder where all the feminists disappeared to.

It seems you’ve got all your little LTTE supporters backing you up. Please don’t pretend to scold them saying “I don’t know you”. You and your associates mutually reinforce your love of demonizing the ordinary Sri-Lankan people. How low can you go?

I am afraid I have to go back to that good old saying that a Rasta man put so well to music: “You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.

Everybody here, i want know your EMOTIONS, thoughts and opinions but mostly emotions since we are all humans have emotions. I am going to tell you a story and i want you to tell me if you were the main characters of the story what would your EMOTIONS be!!

What I am going to describe to you, you might not agree, you might have hard time putting yourself in the shoes of these characters ( I am 20 years old and am only starting to realize how important it is to see things from the opposite angle than the one you have. Sadly large percentage of this world’s population is nowhere close to this). But it is very important that you do your best to see the view from the other side.

So imagine this: you, your elder brother, younger sister, mom, dad, aunt, gramma, neigbours and everybody are so happy because the the white man who has ruled this place for 300 years is about to leave. Imagine the EMOTIONS that your are feeling right now! But your emotions are about to change when these other people ( this “other people” does not include 100% of the actual other people. This “other people” refers to anybody that matches to the following sentence or to persons that had the power but did not do anything to prevent the following things from happening) say, act, behave, enforce, educate, consume, socialize, play and talk in way that says your are an “outsider” “not one of us” ” you dont belong here” “you should leave now”. This doesnt happen over night. It slowly creeps up on you because you were expecting to be happy and jublious that the white man is not around anymore. but what really happened that the white man didnt leave, he just changed his skin color. So the OPPRESSION that was associated with the man did not leave the country when he physically left. So u start wondering, WHAT HOPE DO I HAVE FOR THE FUTURE???

Imagine your EMOTIONS that are running through your brain, heart, veins and blood.

Do you REALLY, really, absolutely positively belive that there is a such thing called a UNITED sri lanka?!? do u seriously believe in it? take a few minutes before you answer this questions. Just like how it takes 2 to tango ( latin american dance by 2 people) it takes 2 to be united. The Sinhalese are on the dancefloor saying that this country is united, ask yourself who else is out there on that dancefloor claiming that they live in an united sri lanka?

I Hope to hear from all of you lovely people!!