Has the following been put aright please?

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1121703274255/1439264-1126807073059/Paper_Final.pdf
Respect for Diversity in Educational Publication – The Sri Lankan Experience, Ariya Wickrema and Peter Colenso, 2003:

‘’It is necessary to trace briefly the historical links between the development of the education system and the development of an ethnic -based politics, leading to armed conflict. ….
Divisions were exacerbated by successive government policies discriminating against the Tamil minorities. ….
Divisive ethnic politics and loss of confidence in non-violent and democratic politics8 fuelled the desire for autonomous, separatist solutions through the 1970s ….
The Government dominates the educational publications sector in Sri Lanka through its provision of free textbooks to all students from grade 1 to 11 ….
Tamils not involved in writing the textbooks – Textbooks written in Sinhala, and then translated into Tamil ….
full of spelling, grammatical and factual errors ….
distortion of history ….
the history of Sri Lanka is confined to a few selected Sinhala kings ….
the textbooks do not educate the child about the various characteristics of a multi-religious and a multi- racial society;
the majority of Sinhala medium textbooks emphasize Sinhalese Buddhist attitudes;
distorted maps under-represent North and Eastern Provinces;
“geographical, social, economical or cultural features” of Tamil communities (including the plantation sector) are not adequately discussed or presented;
in studying art, the Tamil student only studies Sinhalese Buddhist aspects of art;
the textbooks encourage children to develop “apartheid attitudes” …..
War is shown as patriotic while peace is portrayed as cowardice’’

Yes indeed, Sri Lanka is all yours (including your family’s)

I came across this interesting site that maps out the Rajapakse family tree and all the crooked deals done over the last 4 years. Check it out… takes a moment to load… be patient.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25826138/Rajapakse-Government-Family-Tree

Why I say ”They must know what the successive governments have done to the Northeast in the last 63 years, including what it has been doing in the last 30 months.” is that successive governments have several episodes of news blackout from the Northeast to the South, esp. the present one.

”Today, the ray of hope is from the civil society that has taken the lead to engage in the communities in confidence building activities through active engagement and participation with the North and the East” as reported in the media speak of the people of the Northeast being taken to the South. I have yet to read that the people of the South are taken by these initiatives to the Northeast (obviously not counting the very large number of Sinhalese who are given free transport to go and see the war memorials built in the North after the war was over).

I appeal to these initiatives to take the participants (as many as possible) to see the interiors in the Northeast and not simply towns down A9. They must know what the successive governments have done to the Northeast in the last 63 years, including what it has been doing in the last 30 months.

The examination of many intractable ethnic conflicts in the world tell us that it is only the involvement of a third party that can resolve them. Our conflict has been particularly complex and perplexing many around the world.

”It is not as if the subject has to be studied anew; it has been examined from all angles for over five decades, with no aspect of the majority/minority concerns left unexplored” has been repeated in a way in the last 5 years : APRC, APCDR, TNA talks, ”curtains”,…PSC……

NB: ”curtains”:

i.“President: ”If I make any devolutionary concessions to the Tamils, it will be curtains for me” – Sri Lanka: Indian Delegates go Home Empty Handed, Kumar David, 15 June 2011 ( http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers46/paper4558.html)
ii.”NW: Will your government ever produce a political solution? Basil Rajapakse: This Constitution of Sri Lanka is far more advanced than any other Constitution in the world. … It’s all there in the book but practical things have to be done” – Namini Wijedasa interviews Basil Rajapakse, 30 July 2011, http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2333%3Atna-stoked-hatred-ballot-papers-taken-away-were-ours&Itemid=56
‘’Q:The Tamil National Alliance(TNA) which secured 18 local councils yesterday insists on the devolution of police and land powers..
Basil rajapakse: Then the President has a bigger mandate not to give these powers’’- 28July2011, http://print.dailymirror.lk/opinion1/51370.html
iii.“The existing constitution is more than enough for us to live together. I don’t think there is any issue on this more than that. I mean this was given as a solution for the whole thing with the discussion of these people. I mean now the LTTE is gone, I don’t think there is any requirement. I mean what can you do more than this?” – Video: Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa speaks to ‘HeadlinesToday’, 8 August 2011, http://transcurrents.com/news-views/archives/2921