Sinhala nationalists are sleeping. Their sons will pay a huge price, while the presidents kids with western education, western influence and converant in western languages and dressing in and living culture will have the best of both worlds. I know this for a fact. wimal weerawansa has the same story. What stupidity !! What madness!! Sri Lanka is in the dark ages economically and socially. The Bullies have been our politicians. the west will get on with life and will not need us for thier survival. I am sure we will die without their help.

let me give you my perspective. I, like most other people lead busy lives in the office. Most of out time is taken up by work and free time is spent doing chores, there is very little time to spend analysing events.

We go on in our humdrum existence, relying the press for the little time that we spend on current affairs. The press reports little nothing wrong so we happily spend our lives thinking everything tickety-boo: until we actually see something that scares [edited out] us, which is what has happened to me.

Minor employees in the office being taken in and held for no reason, the sister of the next-door servant disappearing after visiting the police station to make a complaint about some petty matter, amongst other stuff.

So far these problems have affected the underclass- who are poor and mostly from minority communities. It does not touch us and we do not think it exists until we see it happening.

Malinda Seneviratne was a witness to an abduction, see his views here:

http://sinhale.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/the-nationalist-paperson-the-folly-of-%E2%80%98underworldism%E2%80%99-in-tackling-the-underworld/

We look in the newspapers and there is absolutely nothing; yet things keep happening, so we know there is a problem. What happened to the two boys in Angulana is a very small tip of the iceberg.

At the end of the day, human rights is not about some abstract academic concept, it is not about what has happened in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is about [the fact that we are] in the line of fire, which is why the rule of law needs to be restored.

I’m merely stating the obvious and you are indulging in conspiracy theories. Statements like “most Westerners are living beyond their means” and “Asians are working harder than ever” are meaningless because they cannot be objectively verified. I also think that labels like East and West become less relevant day by day because globalization has redefined identities, so to speak. You may be from the East, yet you were educated in the West, your partner is from the West, and your career takes you from East to West… not to mention your children, who are an exact balance between the two. People in the West understand this pretty easily, whereas people in the East have a difficult time… this is one reason I don’t buy your Western conspiracy theories. The West is actually more ethnically diverse than the East. A Tamil man has a better chance of becoming mayor of Toronto than he does becoming mayor of Colombo… in fact, there was one Tamil lady a few months ago who ran for mayor of London. Using colonialism to discredit the West is also a bad argument… there was no colonialism after 1950… 60 years is enough time to recover. What could the West have plundered from the East 60 years ago that would make the West still be super-rich today? Mango’s? Cinnamon? Tea? Rubber? Plus you should keep in mind that the technology for plundering was pretty bad 60 years ago…

The real reason why the West is rich: Industrial Revolution. Every nation that is industrialized is self-sufficient. You can do your own research; in any event, its a more sensible argument than putting forth colonialism and documentaries on China.

The mission was chaired by a respected South African judge, Richard Goldstone and published its report on Tuesday September 15th. It concludes that “While the Israeli government has sought to portray its operation as essentially a response to rocket attacks in exercise of its right to self-defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole.”

LETS SEE USA and CPA take action on these findings??
or is it one law for some and another one for the LDC’s

– Most Western people are living beyond their means in an unsustainable way.
– Asian’s are working harder for less and they’re hungrier than ever.
Long as it’s an open global market, which way do you think the scale is eventually going to weight towards? Those that burn the money or save the money? Wealth is also power and in these areas too they’re building armory.
I personally think US will engage in direct military oppression before this scale tip too much. That;s the fireworks I was talking about.

And also ponder if Chinese are getting a raw deal out of this whole globalisation thing and they’re getting “used” as you say, how come they can afford to buy US bonds when the US budget is going into deficit? Surely they must be making money somewhere right?

Mind you these aren;t the Chinese you get in the China towns in LA as you mentioned earlier, these are real Chinese cunning people you’re talking about. They will very rarely get into a bad deal! haha Sorry if I offended any Chineese, not meant to be racist 😛

Watch this doco called “Ascension of money” I think the last episode of that series was called “Chimerica”. Just some complementary material.

A week ago US killed 30 civilians in an air strike on 2 oil trucks! Where is the UN asking for a ceasefire for the safety of Afghan civilians?? Why is Navi Pillai’s big mouth silent? Did a US “sock” get stuck in there? She should demand a damn ceasefire if she cares for all the humans in this world. Or am I the only one that see her ethnic bias there?

I totally accept war is BLOODY war! It’s ruthless to the bare bones. Those that go into war should understand the full consequences (including the people they claim to stand for) and accept the [Edited out] u get with it. Because you put them in more harm’s way.

We were given this war and we just responded with ruthless efficiency to rid of our enemies. That is the sovereign right of our country and respect that! That’s all we ask for. US can run around and hunt down their enemies too. And we’d like to offer our well wishes in their hunt and wish them all the success! We all too well understand there will be collateral. Wars aren’t precision heart surgery right?

Israel also had a legitimate case for their war and I think today’s report is unfair to them! I can understand the sort of witch hunt UN subject people to that they don’t favor. Cough! Not US! Cough! Not UK!

What we don’t like is hypocrisy! Those that beat the hell out of innocent people all over the world have no right to judge others who are engaged in legitimate wars. We had 10/20 times the 9/11s and we had a right to defend ourselves!

Like I said before old man, there are no human rights in any war. Killing is wrong no matter if the bullet was between your temple or the back of your neck. Or if the bomb came in one piece or a cluster. It’s all about maximum kills, maximum destruction, etc. That’s what make good generals. After all, killing enemies is their business. It’s effin wrong and painful! But that’s war and sometimes it has to be done! So stop getting all fussy about it.

JVP, LTTE they all had it coming and I have no sympathy whether they were passionate Sinhalese or Tamils. One of my uncles was JVP and to this date no one knows what happened to him. Yeah dead for sure but donno how. I couldn;t care less about his fate. He was an enemy of the state far as I was concerned. I don’t want any form of justice for him. he got it the cold hard way. They killed people who didn;t deserve to die and like that old saying goes, those who pick up swords die by swords.

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I agree that the Governments of the US and some of the EU need to look in the mirror and fix themselves as well. Maybe not all the EU but those that were involved in Iraq / Afghanistan.

The wrongs of the US have been well documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – see for example:

Afghanistan: US Should Stop Using Cluster Bombs (search for this on the HRW site)

Urgent investigation needed into civilian deaths in Afghanistan (search for this on the AI site)

There are many more reports on both websites on the US

http://www.hrw.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/US+afghanistan

Both HRW and AI have nothing to do with either the US government or the EU governments. They have consistently pointed out the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They have also highlighted a lot of problems in Sri Lanka. There are reports dating from 1990 which highlight the abuses that took place in the south during the crushing of the JVP. I don’t think it is possible to dismiss the reports of these two bodies on the basis that they were complicit in the abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If there is anyone who has a real concern for rights then the reports of AI and HRW need to be viewed very seriously and investigated fully.

http://www.hrw.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/sri+lanka

http://www.amnesty.org/en/ai_search?keywords=sri+lanka&op=Search&form_id=search_theme_form&form_token=ce7144a7894e9877e89e0fb2d0505536

The UN vote was won with the support of many countries whose record on Human rights was even worse than Sri Lanka’s so that it is only a victory in terms of political manoeuvring, not a real endorsement of our Human rights record.

This does not back your earlier assessment that outsourcing benefits third-world nations. First of all, look at the exchange rate. It costs Walmart very little to set up a factory in India or Indonesia, pay the workers less than minimum wage, and pay a tiny tax (tariffs) to the Indian/Indonesian government. The only way that the WORKERS would benefit is if Walmart payed them what it pays AMERICAN workers. But then outsourcing would have no purpose. Secondly, these are low-end jobs. H1-visas are issued for skilled workers to COME to the USA. High-skilled jobs are NOT being outsourced. As I said, customer service and some minor coding is all that is being outsourced. Manufacturer? Walmart IS the manufacturer. Walmart OWNS the factory… the factory is not outsourced. The only thing being outsourced is the *cheap* abor.

“In fact Walmart only pays very little to their employees.”

Do you know what minimum wage is? It’s $7.75 in the USA. That is the minimum that Walmart pays its American employees. If you think Walmart is paying less than that, that is a figment of your imagination that you need to deal with elsewhere.

“They can’t even pay for their medical needs. Most of them can’t afford health insurance and they might as well lived in a 3rd world country with free medical care.”

When all is said and done, the quality of healthcare in the USA is better than it is in any Asian country. Having access to healthcare has nothing to do with quality.

“But also have a look who are behind the scenes as well. Lot at the back end service providers. If you think India is all about call centers, then you have a serious case of prejudice for a black man or live in a hole. When they make money so do these Indian IT companies. We all know some have done very well becoming billionaires in India.”

Behind the scenes what??? All that matters is who controls the market. There is no Indian company that comes close to competing with Microsoft, Google, etc.
A few billionaires indicates nothing. Osama Bin Laden, Fidel Castro, and Robert Mugabe are all billionaires.

“Slowly but surely, there is a shift in wealth no matter how you deny it. Most experts agree on this matter and I’m bold enough to say it’s FACT! ”

I don’t think you understand what wealth means. Wealth is not based on paper currency. Wealth is based on economic indicators and diplomatic muscle. All the economic indicators show that China is still lagging far behind the West. China does not have veto power in the IMF (only the USA does)… China does not call the shots in the UN. China does not even attend the summit of the 10 richest nations (G-10) nations. What has happened with China is that it embraced a few free market economic policies, which resulted in explosive economic growth. On the other hand, economic growth does not go on forever. There is a point at which it levels off. Leveling off indicates stability… on the other hand, the developed nations reached this stable equilibrium point ages ago (that is why they are called “developed”). There is nothing special about China. It is still at the “explosive economic growth” stage, which is natural for a developing economy.

“You’re talking about US ability to manage their deficit. Record numbers are bailing on home mortgages and credit cards. The government is coughing up billions to keep the banks afloat. ”

So far the economic recession recovery plan has been a success. Look at J.P Morgan Chase. GM and Ford are still around. The housing crisis is over. There is no boom, of course, but a boom is not necessary to indicate stability.

” “Shock & Awe”! Oh don’t even tell me Iraqis are getting paid for that oil.. lol. ”

Actually the Iraqi’s are getting paid for the oil. They are getting paid more than they were during Saddam’s time, because the market is bigger now. In Saddam’s time, the oil was sold through the black market; Saddam used the money to build palaces for himself. Ever heard of the UN oil for food scandal? Plus, the USA is not the only buyer of Iraqi oil. There are pipelines that go from Iraqi to Turkey to Iran to Syria. Plus, Obama has pledged to remove all Americans from Iraqi before 2020.