Comments on: Attacks on the Media, Military Successes and Political Settlement: The Stuff on Our Plates https://groundviews.org/2009/01/28/attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates Journalism for Citizens Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:59:10 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: Sam Thambipillai https://groundviews.org/2009/01/28/attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates/#comment-4618 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:59:10 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1086#comment-4618 About 300 of them tried to come into the military occupied area and were either shot dead or injured to bleed to death. The civilised world must act very fast. International intervention is needed now than ever before.

The UN should discuss this matter today as tomorrow may not exist for some of those civilians. The UN should seek ways to to stop firing and shelling immediately in the area, send UN monitors, and investigate the present genocide to bring the offenders to justice, as no law and order exists on Tamil matters and to Tamils in SL.

Many calls by individual states for ceasefire are being ignored and will be ignored by the GOSL, as the state and the army chief are drunk, "flat on the ground", with genocide.

]]> By: Sam Thambipillai https://groundviews.org/2009/01/28/attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates/#comment-4617 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:56:09 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1086#comment-4617 Excessive talking and gossip are done about the Tamil carnage at Mullaitivu. Most of these are based on the blatant untruth of the government of Sri Lanka(GOSL) and the Sinhala media. Talking lies and deragoratory utterances on Tamil matters and about Tamils is a "Daily Bread" of the state and its major Sinhala component. They cannot live without it, to be drunk daily with the intent of Tamil genocide.

Action is needednow, with accelerated urgency, to immediately save about 300,000 Tamil civilians. "The civilians are being kept as human shield by the LTTE", as the military and the state president propagate to the world, with no permission for neutral observers and the media to see ground situation, are only manipulations to propagate to the world what is far from the truth. They are deliberate lies.

The truth is that the civilians are afraid to their bones of the Sinhala soldiers, who are told to kill and destroy without any respect whatsoever for law, lamentation and lives. The 300,000 civilans have run away from their dwellings into the jungles for safety.

]]> By: citizen https://groundviews.org/2009/01/28/attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates/#comment-4583 Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:24:54 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1086#comment-4583 CK,
It makes me proud to see an insightful contribution from you. You heightened my hopes that you would drill more into the admittedly difficult question of “what could be the basis of suppressing the media in the current political context?” but then, digressed from exploring the possible answers and all but failed my hopes.
However, you make the key point about the importance of citizens being empowered to think freely and independently, which I agree lies at the heart of the issue. An empowered citizenry is not a magic pill that would solve all our problems, but it is the essential foundation of all the solutions to the complex problems we face.
A citizenry needs the media to educate them about the factual news, but those who depend on the media to deliver pre-fabricated opinions is a danger to themselves as well as their society.
Your worries concerning the “younger generation” that is “incapable of critical thinking, logical reasoning, and immature to appreciate and debate opposite viewpoints” in fact should be said of all living generations of Sri Lankans. But you and I belong to the younger generation and perhaps are more acutely aware of the problems faced by us.
The most crucial tool that our generation needs is all of the above and more importantly the creativity, to forge new solutions to the old persistent problems and the courage to question (but not necessarily doubt) our own intuitions and dogmas.
I would suggest that we start by removing all forms of political interference and influence from education policy and media – demanding that those in positions of power do not get to dictate what we learn and the topics we research or control the inflection of the content that is carried by the media that is funded by the public.

]]> By: citizen https://groundviews.org/2009/01/28/attacks-on-the-media-military-successes-and-political-settlement-the-stuff-on-our-plates/#comment-4582 Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:23:46 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1086#comment-4582 CK,
It makes me proud to see an insightful contribution from you. You heightened my hopes that you would drill more into the admittedly difficult question of “what could be the basis of suppressing the media in the current political context?” but then, digressed from exploring the possible answers and all but failed my hopes.
However, you make the key point about the importance of citizens being empowered to think freely and independently, which I agree lies at the heart of the issue. An empowered citizenry is not a magic pill that would solve all our problems, but it is the essential foundation of all the solutions to the complex problems we face.
A citizenry needs the media to educate them about the factual news, but those who depend on the media to deliver pre-fabricated opinions is a danger to themselves as well as their society.
Your worries concerning the “younger generation” that is “incapable of critical thinking, logical reasoning, and immature to appreciate and debate opposite viewpoints” in fact should be said of all living generations of Sri Lankans. But you and I belong to the younger generation and perhaps are more acutely aware of the problems faced by us.
The most crucial tool that our generation needs is all of the above and more importantly the creativity, to forge new solutions to the old persistent problems and the courage to question (but not necessarily doubt) our own intuitions and dogmas.
I would suggest that we start by removing all forms of political interference and influence from education policy and media – demanding that those in positions of power do not get to dictate what we learn and the topics we research or control the inflection of the content that is carried by the media that is funded by the public.

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