Cheran,

I’ve listed Loewenstein’s hypocrisy and doublethink again, but His Royal Highness won’t respond to commoners like me 🙂

GoSL must be thanking their lucky stars that RSF and JDF have supporters like him. Mind you, with his qualities, there’s one place in SL, he’ll feel instantly at home – in Parliament.

http://thecarthaginiansolution.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/antony-loewenstein-–-master-of-doublethink/

Could it be that Antony Loewenstein is afraid of getting his feelings “hurt”?  Perhaps his conveniently constructed “good” vs. “evil” paradigm will take a major nosedive once he arrives in Sri-Lanka, and starts mingling with the ordinary people who are hospitable, generous and ultimately decent.   Is he ready to handle this?

“Free speech is a delicate beast that must be constantly nurtured and defended. Our society can handle robust engagement on a host of issues. Some will offend Jews. Some will offend Muslims. Some won’t offend anybody. Hurt feelings shouldn’t be a crime.”

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/8013#comment-10250

So in AL’s opinion, only Western society is capable of safely handling free speech. Sri Lankans obviously haven’t yet reached that exalted stage of development.

TT, I have addressed all of this already. Why don’t you respond to my points instead of repeating yours?

Dear Mr Dunce, I don’t consider the Tiger leadership barbarians because they didn’t toe the GoSL line. Forcing little children to run through minefields and fight tanks, and sending young women to blow themselves up might have more to do with it.

Out of curiosity, how do you manage to pronounce traitor as “xenophobe”? 😀

And finally, I think anyone who believes that Geoffrey Dobbs and Shyam Selvadurai burned down Lanka e-News should spend less time on Aristotle and Orwell and more time on questioning their own sanity.

Also, do you and the present “Government” (for want of a better name) believe that because journalists like Lasantha, Eknaligoda and many others (pronounced MTV/MBC, Siyatha TV, Sunday Leader press, Lankaenews etc.) do not toe the “Government” line, they too are barbarians and need to be ‘Permanently Rehabilitated’ like Lasantha and like Eknaligoda made to vanish into thin air by Aliens/International Conspirators?

When Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky , Al Jazeera, etc criticize the West our idiots shout JAYA WAY WAA! But when they criticize ‘Idiot Islands’ human wrongs record they are called ‘International Conspirators’ and ‘Traitors.’ (Pronounced Xenophobes).

And finally, you say “Are you accusing the GLF of burning down Lanka e-news?” Well David anything is possible in ‘The Land Like No Other.’ A land where anything and everything is blamed on ‘International Conspirators,’ a land where yesterdays hero is today’s zero, a land where today’s enemy is a friend tomorrow, a land where retired terrorist are granted ParleyMutt posts and General’s who won the war are incarcerated, a land where good becomes bad and bad becomes good and the list goes on and on just like in George Orwells “1984.”
I’ll leave you with a quote from 1984.

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party (pronounced Family Dictatorship) imposed—if all records told the same tale (pronounced State Media)—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'”
– George Orwell, 1984

Have a nice day.

DB,

If you compare racism in Sinhala politics and Tamil politics, the latter is way ahead.

1. Look at the party names
Sinhalese vote for multi ethnic parties like United National Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, etc. whereas Tamils in the north vote for Tamil race based parties.

e.g. TAMIL national alliance, TAMIL united liberation front, illankai TAMIL arsu kachchi, all ceylon TAMIL congress.

So what you say don’t add up.

2. Look at what they always talk about

TAMIL homelands, TAMIL grievences, TAMIL aspirations, TAMIL right of self determination, TAMIL nationality, TAMIL sovereignty, etc.

Is that not racism at its worst?

3. Tamil race politics PRECEDED Sinhala race politics.

Race based politics emerged in 1921 when Tamil National League was formed.

First registered race based political party was all ceylon TAMIL congress (1944)

Second race based party was illankai TAMIL arasu kachchi (1949).

At every election (except 1994) tamil race based parties won in the north.
1947, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1977, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2010

As you can see Tamil race politics was northerners’ prefered choice (1947) even before independance (1948)!

So your cause and effect theory is faulty. The cause must precede effect, isn’t it?

You accept all Sri Lankans have problems. Since they affect 100% of the popualtion, why not resolve those in priority? That will put everyone in a better footing to address further problems.

The Duncester: “If you were not an organiser, HOW IN GOD’S NAME would you know that if she had requested them, they would have let her speak???”

Because, Mr Dunce, I have been involved both as a panelist and as an attendee at every single GLF since its inception, and I have worked closely with the organisers for two consecutive years to create their advertising campaigns. They are very intelligent and nice people, and would have been quite ready to accommodate Mrs Eknaligoda. However, as I said before, even the nicest of people don’t take kindly to bullies. Do you know whether Mrs Eknaligoda approached the GLF to be included in their programme?

“And also David right thinking non racist people along with the pro-tiger and non pro-tiger Diaspora are wondering WHY after all this time the Government of Rajapaksa isn’t willing to devolve power according to what was stated in the 13th amendment?”

First of all, what has this got to do with the GLF? I didn’t know the latter were responsible for implementing the 13th Amendment. Secondly, the devolution detailed in the 13th is in the process of being implemented right now via local government elections. PC elections will follow eventually. This has already been done in the east.

“ps: David, don’t you feel embarrassed to keep defending the Government of Rajapaksa and the armed forces day in and day out knowing full well that they are not angels?”

Dear Dunce, there are no angels in government anywhere on this earth; but the GoSL is a democratically elected administration, and whatever the Armed Forces are, they are not the barbarians that we defeated in the north. Aren’t you, dear Dunce, ashamed of yourself for condoning the bullying of people unconnected to the GoSL because you don’t have the ability to touch the big boys in the GoSL?

“when I asked you if you thought it was ALIENS? International Conspirators? The LTTE? Or the Diaspora? Who was responsible for the burning down of lankaenews you come up with a funny answer that it was not Selvadurai and the other organisers of the Galle Lit Festival?”

Ask a silly question, you get a silly answer. Since the boycott is against the GLF, how is the burning down of Lanka e-news relevant to this discussion? Don’t you feel a bit of a Dunce for asking the question?

“if you were not an organiser, HOW IN GOD’S NAME would you know that it was not the organisers of the Galle Lit Festival, but some other sycophants who burnt down lankaenews?”

Are you accusing the GLF of burning down Lanka e-news?

Dear David you have put your foot in your mouth once again. You say, “Well, MC, since I’m not an organiser of the GLF, I’ve no idea why Mrs Eknaligoda didn’t get the chance to address the audience. I’m sure if she had requested them to allow her to do so at, for instance, the public area where everyone hangs out between events, they’d have allowed her.”

If you were not an organiser, HOW IN GOD’S NAME would you know that if she had requested them, they would have let her speak???
And also David right thinking non racist people along with the pro-tiger and non pro-tiger Diaspora are wondering WHY after all this time the Government of Rajapaksa isn’t willing to devolve power according to what was stated in the 13th amendment?

ps: David, don’t you feel embarrassed to keep defending the Government of Rajapaksa and the armed forces day in and day out knowing full well that they are not angels? We know that you are well read etc. BUT it’s quite amusing to see you and Dr. Da yarn trying to defend anything and everything of the Government of Rajapaksa and armed forces…ha…ha…when I asked you if you thought it was ALIENS? International Conspirators? The LTTE? Or the Diaspora? Who was responsible for the burning down of lankaenews you come up with a funny answer that it was not Selvadurai and the other organisers of the Galle Lit Festival?

Once again… if you were not an organiser, HOW IN GOD’S NAME would you know that it was not the organisers of the Galle Lit Festival, but some other sycophants who burnt down lankaenews?