Archive for May, 2011

Opposition to the UN Panel report: Any method to this madness?

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There is obviously much confusion in official circles on what to do with the report of the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into issues of accountability in Sri Lanka, which has flagged credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. As we flagged on our Twitter feed, the country’s foreign minister is himself confused over an appropriate response. Over the course of 24 hours, he first said that Sri Lanka would respond in detail, and then told mainstream media we would not. On May 10th, our foreign minister in the company of the President said that we would not respond to the report. In mid-April, before the UN officially published the report, government spokesmen said that a detailed response to the report would be made. Political parties like the TULF supported this stance. Mainstream media on May Day (1st May) reported that the government would in fact respond to the UN in the course of…

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Some Quick Reflections on the Legislative Process in Sri Lanka

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The author (centre) with Ambassdor Terry Miller, Director Center for International Trade and Economics and Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow Heritage Foundation and some guests at the talk delivered at the Heritage Foundation. ### I am on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix, Arizona to St Louis, Missouri having enjoyed the only break in the rigorous seven week Eisenhower Fellowship program at the Grand Canyon, America’s great natural wonder.  I came to Phoenix after a few rewarding days in Boston, rather Cambridge, having met with some of the most respected academics at MIT and Harvard on issues of public policy.  The ravioli lunch with five types of mushrooms and the long chat with perhaps the largest buyer of apparel from Sri Lanka was a treat even though out of my direct line of interest of the fellowship.  It was wonderful to hear Martin Trust say that Sri Lanka has some of the most ethical entrepreneurs and very high quality workers…

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Anti-UN sentiment in Jaffna: Fact or fiction?

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The Uthayan newspaper runs a revealing story on its website which suggests that on 8th May, the campaign to collect a million signatures against the UN Panel’s report basically forced people to sign up to the campaign. Groundviews has already covered this bizarre, mindless campaign when it started in Colombo, before in fact the UN Panel’s report was officially released! The story in the Uthayan reveals that bereft of any public support, the minister and his goons are now ostensibly forcing people to sign their names, and this too in the regions most affected by war. Much like the outrageously wasteful ‘record breaking’ kiri-bath (milk rice) made to celebrate the President’s second term in office, this continuing display of insensitivity and brutishness by members of government speaks volumes. As we noted in our story on the signature campaign, “This petition, and others that will invariably follow after the report’s official publication, is emblematic of Sri Lanka’s peculiar democracy, where highly…

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The Destroyed Temple

The house at the end of the road, the giant multiple-walled house at the end of the road without a telephone, or internet, without a satellite dish, without rubbish—the residents burned what they consumed— certainly smoke can be traced, and the courier’s story leaked out of somebody else’s mouth held incommunicado in an East-European dungeon, on leased land in the island of Cuba, but that is another story, the war found its target, today, in helicopter to hand combat, four aircraft once again, this time choppers, and special forces— not from Afghan camps into Florida flight schools–but Navy Seals, and the target legitimate, not three thousand ordinary civilians living their American lives until robbed by death, rules for the rest of us alive modified, and now another death, tying of the circle, a full spin around the planet, what Peru’s president said was John Paul’s first miracle, coincidence, his beatification and death in combat of Osama Bin Laden, a bullet…

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A Plea from a Muslim woman in a Western Country

Now that the men in black Have descended the machines Silently, Like nocturnal birds of prey And stalked and slain the beast That taunted them For a long, miserable decade, Now that the people of the United States Of America Have danced in the streets and screamed with joy That their land is the greatest The mightiest And fairest Because they have finally got their man Who killed 3,000 men, women and children In cold blood On soil that is more sacred than The dirt of Afghanistan (Or Iraq for that matter), Now that blood has been appeased by blood And vengeance served cold And now that God has truly blessed America Can I, May I, Have My Hijab Back Please?

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From Haiti Hell: Perspectives from the ground a year after the earthquake

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Words Hugh Bohane. Pictures Alison Thompson. Australian nurse, filmmaker and author Alison Thompson is making a name for herself, selflessly volunteering to help in dangerous global calamities, such as in the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami – and now in Haiti. When the Haiti earthquake struck in January 2010, her buddy, two-time Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn (who had previously backed her Third Wave film about the Tsunami in Sri Lanka) asked if she was interested in joining him in an important Haiti relief effort. Alison and Sean have been working together in Haiti ever since then, setting up their own NGO’s and making a very real difference to relieve the Haitian people’s suffering. Both have received awards for their efforts. Alison was awarded the (OAM) Medal of the Order of Australia (general division), while Sean was awarded the Hollywood Humanitarian Honor for his work in Haiti. This from a letter Alison wrote to her parents from the field…

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Opening a public case against the US and its President(s)

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President Barack Obama reads his statement to photographers after making a televised statement on the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, May 1, 2011. Image courtesy Pennlive.com There are many cases pending with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague. There are trials and pre trials on Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan – Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Central African Republic and also one filed most recently against a Sri Lankan holding Australian citizenship, held responsible for presumptive war crimes committed in Sri Lanka in its war against the Tamil Tigers. This list is unique in that all countries are from under developed and developing part of the world that grapples with issues of establishing democratic States and have either broken up with ethno-religious wars or have brutally fought to establish new regimes like in Cambodia. They are all bound by the civilised laws of the modern world…

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The burka ban: Europe and Muslims on collision course?

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‘I think someone forced you to wear this. I will help you. Here is a fine of €200’. Sounds stupid? Well that’s the bizarre logic of the French rescue plan/law to help around 2000 Muslim women get out of the burka. Whilst prostitution and pornography flourish it is the burka that is banned. The debasement of women in the sex industry is well known but it is the attire of Muslim women that inspires French chivalry. I doubt anyone’s being fooled here – this has nothing to do with helping women but is another instance of the exploitation of women and women’s issues. The ban is ridiculous. It’s another blemish in the deteriorating relationship between European Muslims and White Europe. But why is Europe getting all jittery about what Muslims wear or to state another example, how they build their mosques? In Switzerland they banned minarets when there were only four in the country. Minarets and domes are fairly controversial…

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On Sinhalese Nationalists, Tamil Diaspora and the War Crimes Saga

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Photo from The Australian A couple of days ago I was watching a political talk show in the Derana TV Channel attended by prominent nationalists including Professor Nalin de Silva of the Sinhalatva School of thinking. One needs no special introduction to this nationalist ideologue cum academic. The focus of discussion was Report by the UN Experts Panel baptized by the government as the “Darusman Report”. I was curious when Nalin de Silva said something along following lines “There was no war in this country and whatever the pundits ( pandiyo) say this is not the Post War period. In fact this is pre-war period and there will be a real war within next six to seven months!” then came the thunderbolt if ever there was one as Nalin de Silva went on to explain that this report would be a preliminary towards a more damning report which would be taken as justification for NATO to do a Libya or…

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A-Z of Sri Lankan English: K is for kadé

I normally try to stay on the right side of the descriptive-prescriptive divide, but today I’ve got my prescriptive hat on. I deplore the habit of some writers, editors and publishers of employing French and German accents when rendering Sinhala and Tamil words in English. You might read about more important issues on Groundviews today, but this is my personal bugbear. The most common example is kadé with an acute accent, like café – cute, because a kade is sort of like a café I suppose, apart from the croissants and cappuccino. But unfortunately the é vowel in French is a different sound from the e in kade, so it doesn’t help. Why not just spell it kade? I have come across the acute accent being appropriated with the same function in words such as amudé, andé, dané, kondé, kalé, pin katé, haminé, hiramané, karadaré, and even twice in éllé… Ané deviyané! The late Nihal de Silva used the German…

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Sinhala and Tamil translations of UN Panel’s report on accountability

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Original image from TNL The official version of the report published by the panel constituted by the UN Secretary General to look into issues of accountability in Sri Lanka was released on 26th April 2011. It is highly unlikely the UN itself will produce Sinhala and Tamil translations of the report. Given the near complete absence of reporting in Sinhala media over the issues flagged in the UN Panel’s report, readers have only got to read commentary based on sections of the report, which is almost always virulently in opposition with very little reasoned debate. Groundviews through Vikalpa commissioned a translation of the Executive Summary of the official version of the report. We received another translation done by a third party today. We also received today a translation of the report into Tamil. We give below links to the three documents – two in Sinhala and one in Tamil. The translation into Sinhala published on Vikalpa can be read online…

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Proud of being a ‘half-caste’: Perceptions of Eurasians in Sri Lanka

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Although there were times when to be an Eurasian meant that one was generally looked down upon, considered ‘half caste’, Rosemarie is proud of her mixed heritage. At the time when she was growing up, Eurasians and Burghers saw themselves as being distinct and different from each other. Now, both communities are a rarity in Sri Lanka and frequently perceived as being outsiders, foreign. “Where are you from?” is a familiar refrain. For Rosemarie’s story and video, please click here. For Part 1 of Rosemarie’s story, click here. Produced by Menika van der Poorten for Moving Images. A trailer of A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka can be seen below, and all the videos on the Moving Images website.

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Osama Bin Laden and Sri Lanka’s WMD Moment

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Image courtesy stuff.co.nz The killing of Osama Bin Laden by chopper-borne US Special forces and Navy Seals is good news and a job well done by that country. Shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers the Sri Lankan papers carried a piece I wrote entitled ‘Why Osama Ain’t My Hero’, a full-on critique of terrorists masquerading as liberation fighters and an explanation of why defence of existing states, most especially democratic ones, against the former is perfectly compatible with the defence of the latter. My rejection of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda was on a continuum with my polemics and politics against Prabahakan and the LTTE, and earlier, the JVP’s savage second insurrection. It also stemmed from my understanding of Lenin’s and Ho Chi Minh’s rational use of violence even on a large scale, and the ethics of violence of Fidel, Che, and the Sandinistas. At stake are the ‘ethics and politics of violence’(the precise phrase is the…

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Training for University Entrants in Army Camps and at District Level

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Photo from Wikipedia The Ministry of Higher Education has decided to make compulsory for all university entrants a 3-week training in army camps (supposedly because they are the only places that can accommodate all the entrants) and then give them 3 months of training in English and Information Technology (IT) at District level. While the intentions may be laudable, I wish to argue that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. I hope Vice Chancellors and others in academic leadership will support me. I list the reasons for my opposition below. This measure will delay entrance to universities, causing both entrants and their parents much anxiety. Most if not all universities have orientation programs at which English, IT and other soft skills are taught. It is much better for students to be taught in their future academic environments rather than at district level, because a university environment is an academic one that creates a sense of seriousness of purpose. It must be…

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The killing of Osama Bin Laden

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Photo from The Atlantic I consider my self a political moderate. I value world peace, equity and justice. I sympathize with the USA on the calamity of 9/11. I abhor terrorism. However, I am also acutely aware of US imperialism which is globally pervasive in order to further US national interests. Fossil fuel is the most valuable and scarce natural resource essential to advance economic and political power. For centuries, the US and its western allies have commanded everything within their power to exploit it both covertly and overtly. It is no co-incidence that both Iraq and Libya, targets of the west, happen to produce the most superior fossil fuel in the world. Africa and Asia has also been subject to centuries of exploitation due to their abundant and valuable natural resources resulting in prosperity of the West at the expense of debilitating and chronic poverty of the exploited nations. Whether one likes it or not, Bin Laden was undoubtedly,…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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