Get your humanitarian paws off my country
It is heartening that the Tamil Tigers have retained a sense of humor under extreme pressure. It is a lesson to us all. The Tigers have declared a unilateral ceasefire and promised…
Year: 2009
‘Barefoot Nation’ to revive an ancient tradition?
: The government is considering a proposal to usher in a new ‘barefoot revolution’ in Sri Lanka as part of its philosophy to revive ancient Sinhala traditions. This will see the systematic…
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke, 1795 As I sit on the steps leading down to the garden from…
The ‘post-LTTE’ misnomer
[Note from author: I had a piece in the web-magazine readers and trigger of much more discussion.] The term ‘post-LTTE’ is a misnomer; there will be no post-LTTE period in a political…
Have NGOs failed in peacebuilding? An interview with Jehan Perera
I recently interviewed Dr. Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council. Jehan is also a columnist for the in Colombo. He holds a Doctor of Law degree from Harvard Law…
Four things done, Four things undone: The self-immolation of the LTTE
It is clear, even amongst the most liberal of the western political academic circles that the end of the LTTE is now inevitable. Backed by the widow state of Sonia Gandhi and…
Ape Lankawe: The Great NGO Pantomime!
For anyone concerned with the plight of innocent civilians, the reports from the North are depressing. The latest ‘avalanche (!?) is yet to be fully screened, searched, scrubbed and bleached for any…
Let this be the moment that defines us
For over three decades, we have bombed and shot each other, split our tears and shed them only for ‘our own’, split our joys and celebrated as ‘their’ mothers, wives and children…
LTTE and Tamil People IV : Dedicated Tamils
In the previous essays within this cluster I have dwelt on the dedication to cause displayed by the Tamil Tigers and identified various inspirations or conditioning factors: namely, the Cankam poetry, the…
The ethics and politics of war zone writing
On 24 April 2005 Dharmaratnam Sivaram, (‘Taraki’) editorial board member of the website Tamilnet, was found shot dead from gunshot wounds to the head several hours after four unidentified persons had abducted…
LTTE and People III : Nationalism and Living Religion
The emergence of the LTTE was an outgrowth from Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Tamil nationalism in its turn was an outgrowth from SL Tamil communitarianism in the centuries prior to 1949/50, the…
LTTE and Tamil People II : Interflows
During the halcyon years of the LTTE, besides MÄvÄ«rar NÄl on 27 November, the Tigers conducted nine other mÄvÄ«rar or tiyaki ceremonies every year. These were, on the one hand, subjectively meaningful…
A Common Programme for a United Left Front in Sri Lanka
[I wrote this article in response to an “internet-project” initiated by the Sri Lankan journalist, Kusal Perera] Vasantha Raja 20 April 2009 In countries like Sri Lanka, capitalism did not evolve from feudalism.…
LTTE and Tamil People I : Preamble
This set of essays on “LTTE and Tamil People” submitted to (Black Tigers) after – and this point has to be stressed — these forces had been generated by specific politico-military situations…
Round-up
219 Tamils were rounded up in Gampaha town during dusk to dawn raids. They had no proper id cards and did not offer adequate reason to be living in the vicinity. Their…
