I dont respond to certain person’s who employ ELASTIC yardsticks. Not because I cannot but because it would be a waste of time. http://www.groundviews.org/2009/11/25/the-transformation-of-buddhism-in-sri-lanka/#comment-12093

You can judge for yourselves how Elastic that yardstick becomes by reading the second link provided below and the ensuing discussion with this person regrading Sinhalese Mastery of Irrigation, Trigonometry, Surveying and leveling in 230 BC.

If you are interested in Egyptology you will also learn how the Pyramids of Egypt were built by using the “Pharaohs’ Pump”

http://www.groundviews.org/2009/11/05/deepavali-dilemma-reflections-from-the-diaspora/comment-page-5/#comment-10802

Who really cares? The day that the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists came to power and the quota’s were replaced, the country went to pieces. How many 10,000’s of Sinhalese village girls are now slaving away in the Middle East, while “Dr.” Mervyn, Champika, and the Rajapakse Robbers milk the country dry?

I would rather have a civil administration that was ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT TAMIL, if that ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT was COMPETENT.

understand also that although the demographic leverage of the singhalese within the island will put the tamil community at a disadvantage to these state machinations, the tamils possess other strengths the singhalese do not, from their diaspora to (the ever richer and more powerful) neighbouring tamil nadu and by implication india. sri lanka cannot do without india, whether it likes it or not and tamil nadu will have a growing clout (in addition to its already considerable power) within the indian polity.

That’s an extract from your post.
Written like a TRUE Keyboard warrior (your words).
Gives meaning to the word Chauvinism.

This is the reason people like you sacrificed the Vanni Tamils and their Children to be shot in the back and having their Legs Chopped off by the LTTE (Ref interview with Anna Marie Loose of Medicines Sans Frontiers).

You were hoping for Tamil Nadu or Indian intervention to save Prabahkaran and to hell with the Vanni Tamils.

You grudgingly admit within parentheses that

(in 1983 there were many brave singhalese who hid tamils from singhalese mobs but the point is, the majority did not and were passive observers if not active participants in the pogrom)
Unquote

How can they be called passive observers when in the face of death to their own families many thousands of Sinhalese braved the wrath of armed gangs to save fellow human beings who by the way were Tamils?

So who do you think those selfless people were?
All except Sinhala Buddhists?

The power hungry Tamil intelligentsia trampled the rights of the Majority Sinhalese because you held the whip at pre independence in 1948. People like you tried to perpetuate it post independence after 1948 as the Govt service was packed with 60% Sri Lanka Tamils whose population was just 11%

The Govt was the largest employer at that time and those figures alone shows where the discrimination was.

60% of Govt jobs dominated by a 11% Tamil population and the Tamil CHOUVANISTS wanted that perpetuated. Some Govt Depts were nearly 100% Tamil dominated including the Peons jobs. This is why its a chicken and egg story.

You have taken a good lesson from your former British Masters. Divide and Rule. You failed in your Terror attempt as the Sinhalese and the Muslims were united.

The deep penetration unit of the Army was led by a Muslim that your prodigies the LTTE later killed. Thanks to the Cease Fire Agreement prostituted by the LTTE.

Now you are planning for the next stage and before that split up the Sinhalese and Muslims and others on what ever lines that you can think of.

Religion is a good place to start is it not?

Engaging the disapora is a good idea, but practically impossible in my mind. I’ve met many tamil diaspora members whose children DO NOT speak tamil. So its got to be the first generation diaspora if at all…. Second generation wouldn’t bother.

That is an extract from your post of January 3, 2010 @ 10:03 pm

I too believe you are right. The first generation would be the key.

As far as the second generation is concerned what you state is exactly what is happening in Singapore. Classical Tamil is slowly dying over there and that is happening despite Tamil having the status of an Official Language in Singapore. Read the paper “Tongue tied in Singapore” available on the net.

“the Sinhalese Buddhists form the vast majority of Sri Lanka’s population and Tamils will have to learn live with them, grudgingly or otherwise. If not, another Nanthikadal like situation will likely be the eventuality for the Tamil community”
– is this how the singhalese practise politics and ‘accommodation’ with their minority neighbours in sri lanka. the last 60 years would appear to confirm dhiraj’s

he politely discusses the ‘multiculturalising’ of the tamil homelands/heartlands…sounds all well and good. all tamils however are fully aware what this ‘mixing’ entails, (people like him intend) that there will be no more tamil majority area in sri lanka and that tamils will be subsumed in the sinhala mass. end of tamils as a linguistic/cultural community, end of problem.

a cursory examination of the last 60 years of sri lankan society has shown what tamils will face in singhala majority areas – no security of life/property, no respect accorded to tamil language, religious, cultural or other ethnic markers. continual discrimination from both polity and people at every conceivable level (from the petty enlarging of the sinhala font, over and above those of english and tamil, on trilingual board signs throughout the country…to the more serious and equally long term implicit and explicit empowering of the singhalese and simultaenous disempowering of the tamils within the (sinhala)sri lankan state.)

tamils are fully aware of what the sri lankan state has in mind for the them. understand this, the tamil people will not submit, and they will not go away.

understand also that although the demographic leverage of the singhalese within the island will put the tamil community at a disadvantage to these state machinations, the tamils possess other strengths the singhalese do not, from their diaspora to (the ever richer and more powerful) neighbouring tamil nadu and by implication india. sri lanka cannot do without india, whether it likes it or not and tamil nadu will have a growing clout (in addition to its already considerable power) within the indian polity.

the duty is on chauvinists like dhiraj to put aside mahavamsa myths, and sinhala origin fixations (not more than a century ago, the recent heroes of the sri lankan govt.’s recent victory over the LTTE were mostly newly arrived lower caste fishermen from the south indian coasts, tamils and malayalees – unfortunately they have adopted something of the ‘zealous convert’ in their need to prove their newly found sinhala-ness.)

sri lanka will continue to rot as long as people like dhiraj remain in the ‘vocal'(?) majority amongst the singhalese.

DHIRAJ name 2 things the singhalese community have positively contributed to the world (or even sri lanka) over the last 60-70 years? now ask yourself why it is that a community with the cultural and historical richness of the singhalese, have contributed nothing but death and destruction to both tamils and singhalese (JVP uprisings) and are in such dire straights today. the answer, my friend, is you and your kind.

“tamil nationalism is a reactive phenomenon. singhalese chauvinism however is a self-perpetuating plague.”

i should like to correct what i stated earlier, tamil nationalism is indeed (and will remain) a reactive phenomenon. and singhalese chauvinism is indeed a plague, however, it is not ‘necessarily’ a self-perpetuating phenomenon, it doesnt have to be.

wickramabahu may be a sinhala buddhist but he is also a morally honest man and politician who does not entertain fantasies of domination and humiliation – as long as the singhalese possess people like him within their ranks…there remains hope for a peaceful sri lanka.

Nibras Bawa, I do share some of your fears about the second generation — you are right about them for the most part, I think. But maybe the older generation can provide some leadership that will pave the way for doing things differently in the future. And of course, there is always the question of the leadership in SL, Tamil leadership, how Tamils will be treated now by the state, corruption, etc. etc. A long and difficult path ahead, and difficult to predict.

I wonder if anyone knows of any academic studies/surveys that have tried to poll SL diaspora members? Just an idea for any of you academics in universities abroad, with money and graduate students to burn!

More than 500,000 people were displaced in Sri Lanka in 2004
Nearly 500 million USD provided by the foreign donors for tsunami reconstruction has gone missing, a corruption watchdog in Sri Lanka said.
Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) has accused the authorities of failing to explain to what happened to over 471 million USD out of 1075 million USD provided by the donors.

In a statement to mark the fifth anniversary of the devastating Asian tsunami, the TISL said the donors have also failed to keep their word.

More than 2126 million USD has been pledged by the donors but only 1075 million USD has been disbursed, according to the watchdog.

Proper audit urged

“The difference between the disbursed and the expended has been a controversial issue that does not have a credible explanation. While some officials were reluctant to divulge the information, there were some responsible bodies, who implied that the funds have been utilized by the government for other purposes,” the statement said.

Tsunami aid (in USD)
Committed funds: 2,126,771,858
Disbursed funds: 1,075,375,348
Expended funds: 603,443,908
TISL (Based on 2007 data)

More than 40,000 people died there and some 500,000 were displaced in Sri Lanka after the tsunami.

The watchdog called on the authorities to conduct an audit into the funds granted for tsunami recovery and its disbursement.

“When the higher officials at Auditor General’s Department of Sri Lanka were contacted in December 2009, TISL was informed that there is no audit conducted on funds received for Tsunami Reconstruction process since the last audit by the former Auditor General in 2005,” it said.

The TISL says the figures are based from the Development Assistance Date Base (DAD) published in March 2007.

Don’t get me wrong, you can scream about the Sinhala Buddhists, and quote Neil Votta on how evil and cruel and nasty etc they are until the cows comes home, but the Sinhalese Buddhists form the vast majority of Sri Lanka’s population and Tamils will have to learn live with them, grudgingly or otherwise. If not, another Nanthikadal like situation will likely be the eventuality for the Tamil community. Look at the last three decades or so and you will see that it is the Tamils who have suffered terribly during the war. It is time for the Tamil community to end their politcs of hate against the Sinhala Buddhist community; it has got them nowhere at all.

Whether it is Mahinda Rajapakse or Sarath Fonseka or Vikramabahu Karunaratne they are all Sinhala Buddhists. If Tamils want their vote to count they will be voting for a Sinhala Buddhist presidential candidate. Bottomline: Tamils cannot escape dealing with Sinhala Buddhists, and they are not going to get anywhere by antagonising the Sinhala Buddhist community.