No wonder your so angry.

I genuinely apologise.

Warning – Chips carried on shoulder will lead to obesity.

I am sorry for you old girl.

I am so glad that you are a church going journalist. We have helped quite a number of asylum seekers from Sri-Lanka, many of them journalists. Out of those journalists, the only ones who were ashamed to be affiliated with any religion were the Sinhala Buddhists. Their reasoning was that, in going to temple, they would automatically be branded as Sinhala racists/nationalists by Tamils. How pathetic can they be?

We just heard it through the grapevine that somebody has mistaken you for some LTTE supporter who is pretending to be reporting from Jaffna under a Sinhala name. This bogus journalist is probably making lots of money just sitting in a comfy place. Our church frowns upon such deceit.

Anyway, Pearl, I don’t have time to do a Google search on The Drama Queens’ Club – aka Exiled Journalists Network.

I would love to go Jaffna and I will. I am still in Harrow and I do go to M&S. But today I went to church and I did not go to M&S. Please google Exiled Journalists Network and my name so you will get a picture of what I am up to.
My learned mentor HLD Mahindapala is Down Under but some may have got the wrong end the stick and assumed I was in Jaffna. But then standing on their heads London may look like Jaffna.

Answer to DD:

It’s a bit late for me to `learn’ thy kind of journalism. I learnt under Manik De Silva, late Ivor Milhueisen, late Darryl de Silva, Prof. S.B. Dissanayake, and in the US intrepid journalists from Wall Street Journal, Washington, prize-winning journalists at UC Berkeley and of course BBC, Reuters and Guardian in the UK

Best of all from late Bonny Fernando, who often told us in journalism class to, `murder your darlings’, meaning to drop pompous sounding words and instead use plain English. He also introduced Plain English by Sir Ernest Gowers to us who thought we should use words like paradigm and polity if we are to be taken seriously.

I enjoy a full life and I work with exiled journalists the network of which I am the founder member. There are at least 200 members from 40 countries.

Please DD, feel sorry for those who are ignorant.

“His downfall was the fact that those closest to him sold him out.”

Who sold him out?

@ pearl
I like the sudden loss of ‘sarcasm’ from you. However your tone still does not hide your bitterness and apathy of living in the west as a third citizen. Nor your jealousy of seeing other people enjoy living in the west with access to WONDERFUL Sri Lanka. Unlike you I am here by choice, not as an asylum seeker. Nor do I depend on anyone for my daily pittance. Unlike you, I in my 40 something enjoy life.
I strongly suggest you get one too.

“…So that is the cold hard bitter reality of SL… that there is a general climate of dishonesty which prevails. From where did it come? I do not know….”

Heshan, we need to redefine the honesty.

The act of walking away with some thing (which is NOT yours) is NOT stealing.

The act of getting 10% on a contract is NOT corruption. It is an accepted norm. If you don’t know it is your fault.

I understand your anguish because we are on the same boat.

“I am also one of the few Sri Lankans who really know what happened with the LTTE and UNP in early 2001/2. Emil Kanthan/Anthony is well known to our family.”

What happened?

As you are an honest journalist we all believe whatever you write or say. You are so transparent. The latest talk amongst Sri Lankans living around the world as well as those in Sri Lanka is that you are no longer in England. Our friends from Down Under say that you have gone to work in Jaffna. Pearl, we really admire you. Now that you’ve gotten used to life in London, you must be so brave as to venture into uncharted territory.

Someone at our church gathering mentioned that, you, being a Tamil, should take extra precaution and take on a Sinhala name. I told her that only a coward would assume a Sinhala identity in order to avoid government harassment. I know that you are honest at all times – you would never resort to cheap masquerades.

Another person mentioned that he spotted you at Marks and Spencer only a little while ago. I don’t believe him; I know you are slaving away in Jaffna.
Please post a video of the work you are engaged in.

” in Colombo, they don’t think twice about dishonesty.”

hahahaha you make me laugh! What do you have to say about the conduct of AIG, Citigroup execs? Not only dishonesty but FRAUD in the scale of billions. Which the US gov turned a blind eye to after a little show and slap at a congressional hearing. Whooptydoo! This is from people who already have MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Cut some slack for a poor man who’s trying to get few extra rupees from someone they think can afford it so MAYBE he can buy some extra nutritious food for his little brothers and sisters who depend on him. Or buy some expensive medicine for his sick mother. Pick on guys like Sakvithi who are nothing more than a Sl version of Madoff. That’s fair picking.

“When you think of Chennai, Mumbai, NY, LA, London, the chances of being hustled in Colombo is a very small margin.”

Of course, in every big city, there are bad neighborhoods. I am talking about the general atmosphere that prevails in SL. It is pathetic to see how the business establishments treat tourists like royalty, but locals are given less-than-human treatment. The difference between LA, NY, and Colombo is that in Colombo they are unabashed when it comes to trying to swindle you – in Colombo, they don’t think twice about dishonesty. That’s what I’m talking about, the attitude.

In regards to the rest of your article, yes, you can become the victim of some human rights violation in the West, but the avenues for redress are also far greater than in SL. I would say that that’s actually just as important as the violation itself. At some level, you cannot prevent abuses – they are going to occur regardless. What you can do is minimize the impact. In this regard, SL does not hold a candle to the West.

Okay, just explain to me why the tourist sites have the signs written in two different languages. The sign for locals, written in Sinhala, says 10 rupees. And the sign for tourists, written in English, says 1000. Why not inform the tourists that they are paying 9990 rupees extra compared to the locals?
If its not a big deal, like you claim, then why this discrepancy?

A university is not like a tourist site. So your analogy in this regard is entirely inappropriate.

I make enough, I could probably make more if I really wanted to, but the point is I make far more than I ever could if I lived in SL. I can say the same thing about my career – the avenues for career advancement are far greater here (more than the $$$, this is the reason why I left). And those 3-wheeler guys – I have learned to avoid them. Much easier to rent a car. I don’t quite approve of their driving either; weaving between two buses in a narrow lane can lead to *unpleasant* consequences.

I am so glad you are sending your children to school in UK.

Has not UK been munificent in treating them equally.

I will not say I am a professional. I am a humble but honest journalist and one who had to leave SL amidst death threats and arrest in 1995.

Many Tamils were professionls in SL but your government could not stand our achievements or hard work.

There are many Sinhalese who practice Buddhism and some of whom I am eternally grateful for when I lived and worked in Colombo.

But there are also others who do not understand what it is like to be Tamil in the South.

The rest is history.

I did not mean to humiliate you and I aready knew you are a professional. But in UK there is no clear distinction between professionals and blue collar workers. The class system exists but is fastly eroding. It’s money that counts in the West and among emerging economies like India and China.

When I suggested you take up a job in the petrol station nobody would be able detect whether you have PhD from Harvard or MSc fromThames Valley University. I was simply humouring you.

So let’s ger rid of our hang-ups.