a claymore mine was planted in wellawatte, my old neighbourhood, at the end of my old street, hidden in refuse. it wasnt detonated and no one was hurt. it is suspected to be aimed at a passing train on the seaside train tracks. numerous wealthy tamil businessmen have been kidnappped this month as well, with speculations that they support the tigers. it may be the karuna faction behind these abductions. however, karuna faction (a rival guerilla group from tigers - somewhat in cahoots with GoSL) is nearly defunct, so it is suspicious about who is behind these kidnappings. it seems like GoSL forces are defeating ltte forces in jaffna area by way of killing more civilians. then there are reports that tiger affiliates in london are knocking on tamils' doors asking for 2000 quid per household to support tigers. they obtained residents' info through the election registration, apparently. but media is wild and it's difficult to get all the stories.
our peace demo in main roundabout in colombo was cancelled today cos jvp and jhu suppporters took to the streets to protest the norwegians (claiming that they are partnering with ltte - even tho they are just facilitating peace talks and invited by the government at the time of the ceasefire agreement) and protesting all ngos (claiming that any humanitarian assistance in the north and east is going to support the tigers and division of the state). all a bit mad.
check out:
tamilnet.com
04 October 2006
03 October 2006
underground tunnels in Saudi built by the newest forms of slavery
managed to participate in 5K peace run the other day, initially aimed for 10 but didnt last for the whole thing. i am useless compared to the other participants, most under the age of 20 who managed to run 21K, all barefoot on the steaming broken asphalt of colombo. absolutely incredible to see these children run that long. we'll have to keep running, shouting, cheering, cartwheeling for peace in sri lanka, and prolly for a long time to come, in terms of attaining a sustainable process.
i've also been speaking alot lately with former migrants who went to the middle east to work. they are back, some drive three-wheelers, some own small businesses like corner shops or shalwar boutiques, some are in IT. a confluence of issues send them in search of work, namely to find opportunities that were diminished here due to the conflict, to save money to return to their familiies or to start a small business back in SL, or due to poor recruitment or trafficking. the middle east is the most common destination for SL migrants, about 50% are women who go there to work as domestic helpers, in nursing homes or nurses. after the phase out of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing, about 120,000 retrenched workers went abroad, most likely to the middle east. in the case of the men migrants i;ve run into or spoken to recently, they go to work as hard labourers in saudi arabia, bahrain, kuwait. they find jobs in construction, mining, oil rigging etc. they have said that awhile ago (1980s) they used to go to iraq and kuwait to help with underground construction, now it seems they are sent to the insanely rich, untouchable, unaccountable kingdoms of saudi arabia, jordan, dubai...
some interesting overlap has become more apparent with their stories. several of these former migrants have discussed that they were working on building massive underground tunnels in the Saudi Arabian deserts, the size of superhighways. some were located fairly close (maybe 20km) to oil pipelines, but these tunnels ultimately connect all over the country, potentially connecting across the middle east one day. these tunnels have the potential to house planes, missiles, housing/bunkers, storage, various kinds of infrastructural needs. some workers have said that many of these internal structures already exist. it's easy to be skeptical. then they say that the industry often hires the cheap, (initially) non-english speaking labourers because no one will really talk about it or question the work, just do the job for a short time then leave. some say that managers, engineers and other designers are from the North (finland, norway, sweden). one family man i know quite well had been there for several years, worked in various positions including in an office part. they always checked to make sure that the workers did not take any documentation out of the workplace. often these unknown, vague corporate entities prefer to hire sri lankans because as one former migrant says, they do not eat all the time, or not as much as filipinos or bangladeshis. maybe it's a running joke.
again, it is easy to be skeptical. but it is also hard to ignore the possibility that countries that are outside the radar, in terms of weapons-inspections or any kind of accountability, recruit cheap labour to build their grids and star wars empires. what could all this construction be for other than the smooth access of immediate crude oil to satiate the 40% of total consumption by the world's militaries? what could we possibly need all this oil for other than to put into research and designing the world's most dangerous weaponry to be used in the most unconscionable destruction of humanity?...should the time come. what better way to characterize the perpetuation and existence of poverty than the idea that people made poor by crap international financial loans, conflicts, natural disasters, preventable disease and deprivation by the North, are sent abroad as labourers, furthering their economic dependence on this new form of slavery, in order to service the unfathomably rich, as part of their scheme to safeguard themselves against other rich kingdoms (also rotten with obese filthy scoundrels), by creating massive labyrinths crammed with anti-humanity killing machines???! this notion, fragmented and scotch-taped together by a number of former migrants, of the same ethnicity and background, makes these spossedly 'new' international torture chambers look like playgrounds.
i've also been speaking alot lately with former migrants who went to the middle east to work. they are back, some drive three-wheelers, some own small businesses like corner shops or shalwar boutiques, some are in IT. a confluence of issues send them in search of work, namely to find opportunities that were diminished here due to the conflict, to save money to return to their familiies or to start a small business back in SL, or due to poor recruitment or trafficking. the middle east is the most common destination for SL migrants, about 50% are women who go there to work as domestic helpers, in nursing homes or nurses. after the phase out of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing, about 120,000 retrenched workers went abroad, most likely to the middle east. in the case of the men migrants i;ve run into or spoken to recently, they go to work as hard labourers in saudi arabia, bahrain, kuwait. they find jobs in construction, mining, oil rigging etc. they have said that awhile ago (1980s) they used to go to iraq and kuwait to help with underground construction, now it seems they are sent to the insanely rich, untouchable, unaccountable kingdoms of saudi arabia, jordan, dubai...
some interesting overlap has become more apparent with their stories. several of these former migrants have discussed that they were working on building massive underground tunnels in the Saudi Arabian deserts, the size of superhighways. some were located fairly close (maybe 20km) to oil pipelines, but these tunnels ultimately connect all over the country, potentially connecting across the middle east one day. these tunnels have the potential to house planes, missiles, housing/bunkers, storage, various kinds of infrastructural needs. some workers have said that many of these internal structures already exist. it's easy to be skeptical. then they say that the industry often hires the cheap, (initially) non-english speaking labourers because no one will really talk about it or question the work, just do the job for a short time then leave. some say that managers, engineers and other designers are from the North (finland, norway, sweden). one family man i know quite well had been there for several years, worked in various positions including in an office part. they always checked to make sure that the workers did not take any documentation out of the workplace. often these unknown, vague corporate entities prefer to hire sri lankans because as one former migrant says, they do not eat all the time, or not as much as filipinos or bangladeshis. maybe it's a running joke.
again, it is easy to be skeptical. but it is also hard to ignore the possibility that countries that are outside the radar, in terms of weapons-inspections or any kind of accountability, recruit cheap labour to build their grids and star wars empires. what could all this construction be for other than the smooth access of immediate crude oil to satiate the 40% of total consumption by the world's militaries? what could we possibly need all this oil for other than to put into research and designing the world's most dangerous weaponry to be used in the most unconscionable destruction of humanity?...should the time come. what better way to characterize the perpetuation and existence of poverty than the idea that people made poor by crap international financial loans, conflicts, natural disasters, preventable disease and deprivation by the North, are sent abroad as labourers, furthering their economic dependence on this new form of slavery, in order to service the unfathomably rich, as part of their scheme to safeguard themselves against other rich kingdoms (also rotten with obese filthy scoundrels), by creating massive labyrinths crammed with anti-humanity killing machines???! this notion, fragmented and scotch-taped together by a number of former migrants, of the same ethnicity and background, makes these spossedly 'new' international torture chambers look like playgrounds.
27 September 2006
Aku
Aku by Chairil Anwar (famous Minangkabau poet - indigenous group in West Sumatra, Indonesia, which are the largest matrilineal society in the world)
If my time should come
I'd like no one to entice me.
Not even you.
No need for those sobs and cries.
I am but a wild animal
Cut from its kind.
Though bullets should pierce my skin
I shall still strike and march forth.
Wounds and poison shall I take aflee. Aflee
'Til the pain and pang should disappear.
And I should care even less.
I want to live
for another thousand years.
If my time should come
I'd like no one to entice me.
Not even you.
No need for those sobs and cries.
I am but a wild animal
Cut from its kind.
Though bullets should pierce my skin
I shall still strike and march forth.
Wounds and poison shall I take aflee. Aflee
'Til the pain and pang should disappear.
And I should care even less.
I want to live
for another thousand years.
18 September 2006
Serious grievances
Its shocking when you work for an international organisation that works for human development and come to find out that it is full of inept, misguided, harassing lunatics. I mean, the majority of these people do not know how to relate to people within the office, on a humanist level, much less people on the street. In the process they use the hierarchies within this organisation to compete, climb over people, backstab, maliciously gossip and generally treat people like budawa manure. Management is comprised of a couple of weirdos who do not care about the people or programmes they are spossed to be managing. The Number 1 is a languid, airheaded, lacking substance womanizer who plays ambient music in his post-modern furnished office, and cannot even answer basic questions about human development or MDGs. The Number 2, soon to be transferred to Bangladesh - god help the country - walks around with a puffed up chest, wears glasses like Austin Powers and sports pink shirts. All the while he cannot make decisions and blocks the efficient processes in implementing our programmes. At this rate of administration and hurdles, due to bad management (with managers hired on a nespotic basis), countries in Asia-Pacific will not attain Millennium Development Goals by 2015, most likely 2200 - to be generous.
That brings me to the latest flavour of the development world: the Integrated Package of Services, or the costing of MDG attainment in counties. Its the newest version of Structural Adjustment Programmes, where a number of international organisations, revamping neoliberal private sector mentality, try to restructure governments so that they take priority to achieve the MDGs, without looking at the very particular context of each country. Essentially, this latest programme attempts to impose a macro-economic model, still at its very conceptual and abstract stage, on a country that may not have the technical capacity or fiscal ability to adopt such a model. As I see it, each agency has to come up with priorities of which MDGs it can meet by 2015 and how it will cost the government to do so. Of course, it is not the responsibility of just the government to carry human development objectives forward, it has been launched by (in)formal civil society and collectives.
Loads of development money is funnelled into this programme, but it could likely fail given its poor management and top-down construction, probably developed by the top men economists in the world. If more women or feminist economics were consulted on its design and implementation, it may be more open to accepting feedback from people living in poverty - in a way that asks people what they except from donors or development community, how these international so-called experts can work on their immediate behalf. (For starters, maybe these folks can give up a fraction of their ridiculous salaries and business class treatment - unless there is a dire health or well-being complication, such as special healthcare for staff living with HIV). Its an extremely political programme, with staff getting lauded for their so-called good work on rolling out the implementation of this MDG costing in its 4 pilot countries. Yet these countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Pakistan) have not been a success. Afghanistan has fallen apart as any kind of state with the obvious occupation of US and other imperial governments. Bhutan has its own indicators (Gross National Happiness) on measuring and financing human development objectives. Pakistan has met obstacles because leaders in several international organisations have objected to the paradigm of the MDGs, saying that they are not fully inclusive and have been devised in a top-down way. Mongolia is one country that may move further in the implementation. But this programme is another example of policy wonks formulating massive, abstract packages to shove onto Southern countries shoulders - rather than being truly altruistic. Moreover, the leader of this programme is a genius but acts like a prankster child who needs an army of people to clean up after his ideas - who does not necessarily have the practical sense on how to manage or implement things.
Basically, the development world is screwed in this region if management continues to operate like headless chickens. Meanwhile, programme staff who are achieving a good number of things, in terms of linking civil society or networks of people living with HIV and AIDS, or ensure that policies are examined in a gender-sensitive manner, are stunted from moving their projects forward. There are added challenges of power relations (and personal politics) within this organisation, particularly those within South Asia. Too much talking from men, not enough doing, for instance. Or uber-aggressive women without much compassion for other team members.
I honestly do not know how much longer I can sit through these hierarchies and abuses of relative power. There are too many massive reprecussions for speaking out and there is no appropriate forum for expressing grievances.
Then again Im on a precarious contract anyway, so I could bloody well be sacked for any reason - so maybe they are more threatened by me, as I am part of the disgruntled masses who preach ethics, social justice and equality....Perhaps.
That brings me to the latest flavour of the development world: the Integrated Package of Services, or the costing of MDG attainment in counties. Its the newest version of Structural Adjustment Programmes, where a number of international organisations, revamping neoliberal private sector mentality, try to restructure governments so that they take priority to achieve the MDGs, without looking at the very particular context of each country. Essentially, this latest programme attempts to impose a macro-economic model, still at its very conceptual and abstract stage, on a country that may not have the technical capacity or fiscal ability to adopt such a model. As I see it, each agency has to come up with priorities of which MDGs it can meet by 2015 and how it will cost the government to do so. Of course, it is not the responsibility of just the government to carry human development objectives forward, it has been launched by (in)formal civil society and collectives.
Loads of development money is funnelled into this programme, but it could likely fail given its poor management and top-down construction, probably developed by the top men economists in the world. If more women or feminist economics were consulted on its design and implementation, it may be more open to accepting feedback from people living in poverty - in a way that asks people what they except from donors or development community, how these international so-called experts can work on their immediate behalf. (For starters, maybe these folks can give up a fraction of their ridiculous salaries and business class treatment - unless there is a dire health or well-being complication, such as special healthcare for staff living with HIV). Its an extremely political programme, with staff getting lauded for their so-called good work on rolling out the implementation of this MDG costing in its 4 pilot countries. Yet these countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Pakistan) have not been a success. Afghanistan has fallen apart as any kind of state with the obvious occupation of US and other imperial governments. Bhutan has its own indicators (Gross National Happiness) on measuring and financing human development objectives. Pakistan has met obstacles because leaders in several international organisations have objected to the paradigm of the MDGs, saying that they are not fully inclusive and have been devised in a top-down way. Mongolia is one country that may move further in the implementation. But this programme is another example of policy wonks formulating massive, abstract packages to shove onto Southern countries shoulders - rather than being truly altruistic. Moreover, the leader of this programme is a genius but acts like a prankster child who needs an army of people to clean up after his ideas - who does not necessarily have the practical sense on how to manage or implement things.
Basically, the development world is screwed in this region if management continues to operate like headless chickens. Meanwhile, programme staff who are achieving a good number of things, in terms of linking civil society or networks of people living with HIV and AIDS, or ensure that policies are examined in a gender-sensitive manner, are stunted from moving their projects forward. There are added challenges of power relations (and personal politics) within this organisation, particularly those within South Asia. Too much talking from men, not enough doing, for instance. Or uber-aggressive women without much compassion for other team members.
I honestly do not know how much longer I can sit through these hierarchies and abuses of relative power. There are too many massive reprecussions for speaking out and there is no appropriate forum for expressing grievances.
Then again Im on a precarious contract anyway, so I could bloody well be sacked for any reason - so maybe they are more threatened by me, as I am part of the disgruntled masses who preach ethics, social justice and equality....Perhaps.
09 September 2006
Rambutan, Durian, Zulfi, Flatmate
Rambutan (red lychee) and Durian season are over. Durian is a strange fruit that smells atrocious - like sour garbage, and tastes like burnt soysauce with a texture of chicken or some kind of sinewy meat. You are not spossed to eat durian after drinking any alcohol, apparently the doshas - or energies - are both heated so the compounds can kill you. I will have to keep that in mind before boarding a 30-hour flight back to North America.
Also, a photo of my trusty three-wheeler, Zulfi. His son is Zafar (as tagged on the front of his three-wheeler), daughters are Zahara and Zara, and wife is Begem. Completely patient, loyal, my daily newsman, tourguide, translator, price negotiator at markets, mechanic, body guard, and chauffeur. At this point, I dont know what Id do without him! Even his wife cooks me rasam - a soup made of only spices - when I have fevers, and makes me polos - a very difficult curry made from a tuber that resembles jack fruit.
Finally, a photo of my flatmate, a British intellectual property lawyer, who has an active social life and queue of admirers. Now he is redeeming his soul by working on conflict and poverty issues with a local NGO. A bit flamboyant with obnoxious jetsetting friends, including two main squeezes - a Cockneyed-accented, coddled Sri Lankan girl and a French born-lisping metrosexual peace journalist of North African descent. Are they dating - no one really knows, but they are the drama queens in this rather posh flat.
Still, a good change from the chaos in Wella Watte.
18 August 2006
Fighting monks
To clarify, the school that was bombed by the Government of Sri Lanka in the north, was, in fact, a school for orphaned girls. GoSL had the coordinates, knew it was a regular school, committed the war atrocity anyway.
To add to the horror and sorrow, a beloved advocate for peace and research partner at Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Mr. Ketheesh Loganathan. He was gunned down at his home by anonymous assailants, government blaming LTTE, but government could be behind it or know more than is telling. Mr. Loganathan worked as Deputy Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat for the government of Sri Lanka, and headed the Poverty and Conflict Analysis unit at CPA until this past April. Definitely telling that academics, activists, scholars are targets and it is hard to find independent news source.
In a separate incident, right-wing Buddhist monks picked fights with anti-war protestors at one of the main parks in Colombo, yesterday evening. Swinging punches for peace? Chanting fascism intermingled with promises of intransient being?
An interesting site on all that is Sri Lankan: http://www.indi.ca/
17 August 2006
more than 60 kids bombed, then more bombings in Colombo
In addition, UNICEF helped to run this 'orphanage', possibly a school or programme for former child soldiers. Gov't of Sri Lanka claims the school was a training camps for child soldiers. In any case, more than 60 CHILDREN were massacred - I am utterly stunned. More than 800 civilians have died these past few months due to intensified fighting. International gaze averted to Middle East, all is lost:
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said a government bombing raid hit an orphanage in rebel territory in the island's north on Monday, killing 43 schoolgirls and wounding 60 as the worst fighting since a 2002 truce raged.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman I. Ilanthirayan said. "Forty-three... students were killed and 60 wounded."
A military source said air raids had been launched on rebel territory on Monday but said they had no details of targets hit or casualties.
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and 17 others were injured on Monday, when a security forces convoy escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle was hit by a Claymore fragmentation mine, officials and bomb squad officers said.
A driver from the convoy said the embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but no one was hurt. He refused to identify any passengers in the vehicle. The Pakistani ambassador was uninjured, the bomb squad said.
"Seven people were dead on arrival. We have 17 other people who are injured and being treated now," Colombo National Hospital director Hector Weerasinghe.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and hit just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
The rebels had earlier on Monday accused the government of bombing an orphanage in rebel territory and killing 43 schoolgirls.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two Claymore fragmentation mines.
The embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but nobody in it was injured.
The Pakistani Embassy was immediately available for comment.
A three wheeler taxi was on fire. The other vehicles in the convoy continued away from the site of the blast. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and comes just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
FIGHTING DISPLACES 100,000
The government accused the rebels of shelling civilian areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula, saying it feared fatalities as the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire raged on.
The military said it had launched air strikes on identified Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targets such as camps in the northeast, but gave no further details.
With contact with the conflict-hit areas limited, the LTTE report on the bombing of the orphanage could not be immediately confirmed. Aid workers estimate around 100,000 people have been displaced during three weeks of fighting. Dozens are confirmed dead, and many fear the eventual death toll will be far higher.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said. "Forty-three ... students were killed and 60 wounded."
He said the students were between 15 and 18 years old.
The government said civilian casualties were also likely around the Jaffna peninsula, where the LTTE over-ran government forward positions on Saturday, although the army says they had since been repulsed. The rebels, who ignored a government demand to surrender, are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demands for a separate ethnic homeland for Tamils in the island's north and east.
"They have mingled with civilians and are calling artillery fire onto the areas of the security forces," said Major Upali Rajapakse of the National Security Center. "It is falling in and around civilian areas. There has to be civilian dead."
He said the country's east was quiet but artillery rained down on Kayts island, just to the west of Jaffna town, and was being fired across a no-man's land that separates government from rebel territory around 20 miles to the east.
STOCKPILING FOOD
The pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com said 15 civilians were killed when army rockets and shells hit a church, but there was no independent confirmation.
Jaffna residents flocked to shops to stockpile food after the army briefly lifted a curfew. With no prospect of fresh supplies from the country's south, prices of basic goods were soaring.
"We are used to being displaced, but this time it came about so suddenly we were ill-prepared," said 50-year-old fisherman Ledil Amaldas, who fled his coastal village and is staying with a relative in Jaffna.
"I have 5,000 rupees ($48) with me," he said, standing in a long queue to buy sugar and flour. "I hope we can manage for another 12-14 days. After that I don't know what will happen."
The High Security Zone Residents Liberation Force (HSZRLF), a presumed Tiger front group that says it wants the military out of civilian areas, said if the military targeted minority Tamils then bombs would explode in the majority Sinhalese south.
We regret to inform that the HSZRLF's Central Committee has given orders to all cadres stationed across the island to carry out attacks against civilian targets in southern Sri Lanka if Sri Lankan armed forces continue to massacre innocent unarmed civilians in the Northeast," it said in a faxed statement.
The HSZRLF claimed responsibility for previous attacks on troops in the north, and proclaimed a ceasefire in early 2006 when the Tigers went to peace talks before claiming more attacks in April. Analysts say it is clearly a Tiger front.
Many of Sri Lanka's most prominent Tamils come from Jaffna and analysts say the Tigers are bent on eventually capturing a town that they have controlled in previous phases of a war which has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said a government bombing raid hit an orphanage in rebel territory in the island's north on Monday, killing 43 schoolgirls and wounding 60 as the worst fighting since a 2002 truce raged.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman I. Ilanthirayan said. "Forty-three... students were killed and 60 wounded."
A military source said air raids had been launched on rebel territory on Monday but said they had no details of targets hit or casualties.
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and 17 others were injured on Monday, when a security forces convoy escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle was hit by a Claymore fragmentation mine, officials and bomb squad officers said.
A driver from the convoy said the embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but no one was hurt. He refused to identify any passengers in the vehicle. The Pakistani ambassador was uninjured, the bomb squad said.
"Seven people were dead on arrival. We have 17 other people who are injured and being treated now," Colombo National Hospital director Hector Weerasinghe.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and hit just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
The rebels had earlier on Monday accused the government of bombing an orphanage in rebel territory and killing 43 schoolgirls.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two Claymore fragmentation mines.
The embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but nobody in it was injured.
The Pakistani Embassy was immediately available for comment.
A three wheeler taxi was on fire. The other vehicles in the convoy continued away from the site of the blast. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and comes just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
FIGHTING DISPLACES 100,000
The government accused the rebels of shelling civilian areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula, saying it feared fatalities as the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire raged on.
The military said it had launched air strikes on identified Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targets such as camps in the northeast, but gave no further details.
With contact with the conflict-hit areas limited, the LTTE report on the bombing of the orphanage could not be immediately confirmed. Aid workers estimate around 100,000 people have been displaced during three weeks of fighting. Dozens are confirmed dead, and many fear the eventual death toll will be far higher.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said. "Forty-three ... students were killed and 60 wounded."
He said the students were between 15 and 18 years old.
The government said civilian casualties were also likely around the Jaffna peninsula, where the LTTE over-ran government forward positions on Saturday, although the army says they had since been repulsed. The rebels, who ignored a government demand to surrender, are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demands for a separate ethnic homeland for Tamils in the island's north and east.
"They have mingled with civilians and are calling artillery fire onto the areas of the security forces," said Major Upali Rajapakse of the National Security Center. "It is falling in and around civilian areas. There has to be civilian dead."
He said the country's east was quiet but artillery rained down on Kayts island, just to the west of Jaffna town, and was being fired across a no-man's land that separates government from rebel territory around 20 miles to the east.
STOCKPILING FOOD
The pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com said 15 civilians were killed when army rockets and shells hit a church, but there was no independent confirmation.
Jaffna residents flocked to shops to stockpile food after the army briefly lifted a curfew. With no prospect of fresh supplies from the country's south, prices of basic goods were soaring.
"We are used to being displaced, but this time it came about so suddenly we were ill-prepared," said 50-year-old fisherman Ledil Amaldas, who fled his coastal village and is staying with a relative in Jaffna.
"I have 5,000 rupees ($48) with me," he said, standing in a long queue to buy sugar and flour. "I hope we can manage for another 12-14 days. After that I don't know what will happen."
The High Security Zone Residents Liberation Force (HSZRLF), a presumed Tiger front group that says it wants the military out of civilian areas, said if the military targeted minority Tamils then bombs would explode in the majority Sinhalese south.
We regret to inform that the HSZRLF's Central Committee has given orders to all cadres stationed across the island to carry out attacks against civilian targets in southern Sri Lanka if Sri Lankan armed forces continue to massacre innocent unarmed civilians in the Northeast," it said in a faxed statement.
The HSZRLF claimed responsibility for previous attacks on troops in the north, and proclaimed a ceasefire in early 2006 when the Tigers went to peace talks before claiming more attacks in April. Analysts say it is clearly a Tiger front.
Many of Sri Lanka's most prominent Tamils come from Jaffna and analysts say the Tigers are bent on eventually capturing a town that they have controlled in previous phases of a war which has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
04 August 2006
Anthropological Study of an American Pop Star in Dubai, While Bombs Drop Over Baghdad, Beirut, Muttur, Jaffna…
Delayed in Dubai airport, while en route to Montreal to attend a friend’s wedding. Journey, as usual, is wrought with witnessing glaring vulgarities of enormous wealth. I am mesmerised by some familiar pop star reading Anthony Keidis’ autobiography, who is concentrating on the perfection of his hair, instead of waking up to the realities of Middle East brutality. I am using my return business class ticket for my flight, so it offers a glimpse into the vacuous noggins of the obscenely rich – ah, but perhaps I have already become one, at least as I am considered in Sri Lanka. But I cannot understand the rich and comfortable decision to sit back and watch atrocities unfold on telly, and not lambast their governments, international organisation, neighbours, their own consumption, for not doing a bloody thing!
What must pass through this bimbo pop star’s head (o, what is his name? Some-kind-of-singer) to ignore, not even blink, at the carnage unfolding on the bbc? Moreover, how have we gotten to the point where genocide, massive amounts of unfounded violence, is a pleasurable pastime, that can never really satiate our hollywoodised appetite for destruction?
Meanwhile, I am doubly disturbed about my companion passenger coming from Colombo. Apparently, this Indian fellow is in charge of marketing, developing, controlling, managing, cracking the slave whip, of Victoria’s Secret in Sri Lanka. His factories produce all the fabric used for Victoria’s Secret – serviced by sub-contracted Korean manufactories. This fabric supplies all the sub-contractors that produce lingerie, swim-wear, and all ready-made garments (ah, the latest season’s fashions) for Victoria’s Secret, as well as Next, Neiman Marcus, Marks& Spencer’s, Gap. I noted to him that it is interesting that none of these garments are available domestically in Sri Lanka – everything is produced and exported from the Export Processing Zones, surrounding the airport. This nameless Indian guy finished off the summer’s end blitz of preparing to meet Back-to School clothing demands, and now is off to join his Zambian wife (daughter of a Prime Minister) and 3 children on a trip to Egypt, snowing South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Oh, you should have heard the way he romanticised Africa – all deserted, with lovely noble savages – Maasai. It is perplexing to observe class stratification within a formerly colonised society (albeit, India or Zambia or Sri Lanka).
I tried to bring up that I visited a garment workers’ home, 9 crammed into a 8 sq. ft slum dwelling, and that they had no idea what clothing lines they supplied. They had no idea about fair wages or that they are entitled to good working conditions, as Sri Lanka is bound to ILO codes. It means little that these garment workers often turn to seeking other forms of employment to supplement their monthly pittances. In addition to slave labour, in order to clothe the emperors of this neo-liberal paradigm, many of these young women become sex workers or members of terrorist circles. In the case of Nason, he harboured impoverished LTTE cadres in the home he also let out to garment workers; are the lines blurred here?
So however much I chat with this moghul about workers’ conditions coming before profit, he argues that the workers for V.S. are taken care of, that bad incidences of factories are only anecdotal not indicative of the whole industry, and that he is offering them employment. It is often true that many women living in poverty prefer a job in a sweatshop, rather than revert to begging or sex work, but it cannot be the main excuse to continue to let labour conditions deteriorate. No matter how much you harp on, try to explain things from an economic perspective (many studies show that good wage and working conditions improve productivity, stability in employment, commitment to MNCs, etc), the rich and powerful do not listen, as they want to hang on to their small bit of wealth and power.
In other news, there are 22,000 recently displaced Sri Lankans, due to escalating violence in North and East. Tigers have bombed Muttur – a predominantly Muslim town near Jaffna. Unfounded and unforgiveable. So this brief journey, as I continue to wait in Dubai, has shown more interconnections of violence, only there are significant differences in terms of which ones corporate media decides to highlight.
P.S. Words of Caution: Don't Eat Dorian Fruit If Drinking Alcohol - some say it can cause death?!
What must pass through this bimbo pop star’s head (o, what is his name? Some-kind-of-singer) to ignore, not even blink, at the carnage unfolding on the bbc? Moreover, how have we gotten to the point where genocide, massive amounts of unfounded violence, is a pleasurable pastime, that can never really satiate our hollywoodised appetite for destruction?
Meanwhile, I am doubly disturbed about my companion passenger coming from Colombo. Apparently, this Indian fellow is in charge of marketing, developing, controlling, managing, cracking the slave whip, of Victoria’s Secret in Sri Lanka. His factories produce all the fabric used for Victoria’s Secret – serviced by sub-contracted Korean manufactories. This fabric supplies all the sub-contractors that produce lingerie, swim-wear, and all ready-made garments (ah, the latest season’s fashions) for Victoria’s Secret, as well as Next, Neiman Marcus, Marks& Spencer’s, Gap. I noted to him that it is interesting that none of these garments are available domestically in Sri Lanka – everything is produced and exported from the Export Processing Zones, surrounding the airport. This nameless Indian guy finished off the summer’s end blitz of preparing to meet Back-to School clothing demands, and now is off to join his Zambian wife (daughter of a Prime Minister) and 3 children on a trip to Egypt, snowing South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Oh, you should have heard the way he romanticised Africa – all deserted, with lovely noble savages – Maasai. It is perplexing to observe class stratification within a formerly colonised society (albeit, India or Zambia or Sri Lanka).
I tried to bring up that I visited a garment workers’ home, 9 crammed into a 8 sq. ft slum dwelling, and that they had no idea what clothing lines they supplied. They had no idea about fair wages or that they are entitled to good working conditions, as Sri Lanka is bound to ILO codes. It means little that these garment workers often turn to seeking other forms of employment to supplement their monthly pittances. In addition to slave labour, in order to clothe the emperors of this neo-liberal paradigm, many of these young women become sex workers or members of terrorist circles. In the case of Nason, he harboured impoverished LTTE cadres in the home he also let out to garment workers; are the lines blurred here?
So however much I chat with this moghul about workers’ conditions coming before profit, he argues that the workers for V.S. are taken care of, that bad incidences of factories are only anecdotal not indicative of the whole industry, and that he is offering them employment. It is often true that many women living in poverty prefer a job in a sweatshop, rather than revert to begging or sex work, but it cannot be the main excuse to continue to let labour conditions deteriorate. No matter how much you harp on, try to explain things from an economic perspective (many studies show that good wage and working conditions improve productivity, stability in employment, commitment to MNCs, etc), the rich and powerful do not listen, as they want to hang on to their small bit of wealth and power.
In other news, there are 22,000 recently displaced Sri Lankans, due to escalating violence in North and East. Tigers have bombed Muttur – a predominantly Muslim town near Jaffna. Unfounded and unforgiveable. So this brief journey, as I continue to wait in Dubai, has shown more interconnections of violence, only there are significant differences in terms of which ones corporate media decides to highlight.
P.S. Words of Caution: Don't Eat Dorian Fruit If Drinking Alcohol - some say it can cause death?!
23 July 2006
sunday morning
thom yorke has new album, indepedent but intrinsically influenced by radiohead, which is alarmingly good and full of good samples.
and about the continuation of the conflict in mid-east. it's just exacerbated by us/uk involvement. im so sick of it, but i cant imagine how the people living there feel about it. it makes absolutely no sense that israel invades lebanon! it really is all starting to collapse and a matter of time before it spreads to most inhabited places, i.e. pakistan-india, amerikkka, etc. we all know that it was from the decree of us/uk, that it is a way to sink their teeth in the region. and we've royally skrewd it up for the next couple centuries. who's keen idea was it put a jewish 'homeland' by bulldozing present day inhabitants, at the expense of another minority? and i;ve already had my fill of listening to bizarre anti-semitic conversations for the week. i tend to take the zero-tolerance view on hierarchies of power and perpetuating inequalities that only serve to spawn and rebirth global capitalism and to squeeze the last drop of black gold. it is truly gruesome and unforgivable. so basically, coming from the latest chummy talk between bush and blair at G8, us outsourced 'reconstruction' of afghanistan to canada and its trans-national corporations, and iraq to uk TNCs, so that it could be more focused at the wheel of tarnation in israel-lebanon-syria. ah, but at least now we can say the un will be on board, gagged and bound!
it is all reminiscent of the situation in sri lanka - conflict with no end in sight. the more i learn about it the more complex it is. it is not clear-cut in terms of buddhists v. tamil hindus v. tamil muslims/et al. nor about 2 sides fighting each other for a scrap of (the best) land in north and east. there are viable ways to end the conflict if each side is willing to go through processes of demilitarisation, but there is no commitment on either side and there is too much money/power at stake. (you think western patriarchy is bad - take a glimpse at south asian schoolboy patriarchical mentality). and just last week, we saw a major general of ltte admitted to a prominent hospital in colombo (where there is a ban on admitting ltte members into south). meanwhile, the former bitch president, chandrika, helped get the main ltte fellow's daughter a visa in order for her to study in uk. what kind of reasoning is that??? so the government is working hand in hand with ltte, at the expense of poor civilians caught in cross-fire. absolutely mad! neither gov't or ltte is serious about peace talks, ceasefire etc - they are the face of the same side of the coin.
life otherwise on this island paradise is fairly tame - truly tropical and lovely, but sweltering! such friendly, smiling people. the best food in the world, and such different landscapes. i recently shifted to subletting a room in a posh apartment with a semi-gay/metrosexual intellectual property lawyer, who currently works on building up conflict-areas' livelihoods. nice fellow, a bit erratic, very sociable and a parade of men, women and beasts coming through each evening to fawn over him. a bit surreal change from the other residence, which served to prop up the ltte. i've been learning to cook sri lankan and to speak tamil....
and about the continuation of the conflict in mid-east. it's just exacerbated by us/uk involvement. im so sick of it, but i cant imagine how the people living there feel about it. it makes absolutely no sense that israel invades lebanon! it really is all starting to collapse and a matter of time before it spreads to most inhabited places, i.e. pakistan-india, amerikkka, etc. we all know that it was from the decree of us/uk, that it is a way to sink their teeth in the region. and we've royally skrewd it up for the next couple centuries. who's keen idea was it put a jewish 'homeland' by bulldozing present day inhabitants, at the expense of another minority? and i;ve already had my fill of listening to bizarre anti-semitic conversations for the week. i tend to take the zero-tolerance view on hierarchies of power and perpetuating inequalities that only serve to spawn and rebirth global capitalism and to squeeze the last drop of black gold. it is truly gruesome and unforgivable. so basically, coming from the latest chummy talk between bush and blair at G8, us outsourced 'reconstruction' of afghanistan to canada and its trans-national corporations, and iraq to uk TNCs, so that it could be more focused at the wheel of tarnation in israel-lebanon-syria. ah, but at least now we can say the un will be on board, gagged and bound!
it is all reminiscent of the situation in sri lanka - conflict with no end in sight. the more i learn about it the more complex it is. it is not clear-cut in terms of buddhists v. tamil hindus v. tamil muslims/et al. nor about 2 sides fighting each other for a scrap of (the best) land in north and east. there are viable ways to end the conflict if each side is willing to go through processes of demilitarisation, but there is no commitment on either side and there is too much money/power at stake. (you think western patriarchy is bad - take a glimpse at south asian schoolboy patriarchical mentality). and just last week, we saw a major general of ltte admitted to a prominent hospital in colombo (where there is a ban on admitting ltte members into south). meanwhile, the former bitch president, chandrika, helped get the main ltte fellow's daughter a visa in order for her to study in uk. what kind of reasoning is that??? so the government is working hand in hand with ltte, at the expense of poor civilians caught in cross-fire. absolutely mad! neither gov't or ltte is serious about peace talks, ceasefire etc - they are the face of the same side of the coin.
life otherwise on this island paradise is fairly tame - truly tropical and lovely, but sweltering! such friendly, smiling people. the best food in the world, and such different landscapes. i recently shifted to subletting a room in a posh apartment with a semi-gay/metrosexual intellectual property lawyer, who currently works on building up conflict-areas' livelihoods. nice fellow, a bit erratic, very sociable and a parade of men, women and beasts coming through each evening to fawn over him. a bit surreal change from the other residence, which served to prop up the ltte. i've been learning to cook sri lankan and to speak tamil....
16 July 2006
WTF with the Zionist invasion of Lebanon?!
And they're bloody well sending Condaleeza Rice in to negotiate Cease Fire Agreement? Who will offer the highest bid for the reconstruction contracts? With the nation-state eroding how can we still justify utterly brutal, genocidal wars in the name of one's 'sovereign' capability to do so: 'cos we feel like it'? Are we using the facade of territoriality (mine vs. yours vs. ours) to further the corporate-led military project? Hot damn: this is what 'progress' looks like!
13 July 2006
so people in the Gulf should drive less, consume less?
Development: Crowded planet feels the heat
New York, 11 Jul (IPS/Fritzroy A. Sterling) -- Consider the following statistics: at
the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was less than two billion,
but at the dawn of the 21st century, there were more than six billion people on
earth.
According to the US Census Bureau's population clock, the world's population is
now 6,527,525,419. Every 14 years, one billion people are added to the planet. At
this rate, the total number of people in the world will be a little more than 9.1
billion in 50 years.
Although the population growth rate has slowed, the world's population is still
growing. The US population is projected to reach 300 million by October.
According to a report by the Washington-based group Population Connection,
more than half of the world's population will live in cities by 2007, "Making us,
for the first time, an urban species."
Emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming have also
increased significantly since the 20th century. There are greater concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief contributors to global warming, in the
atmosphere as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels.
"We have to look at the overall contribution of human activities as it relates to
increased CO2 emissions since industrialisation," said Jay Gulledge, senior
research fellow for Science and Impacts at the Pew Centre on Global Climate
Change.
"There has been a 35% increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from
280 ppm (parts per million) pre-industrial times to a current 380 ppm."
As the population increases, particularly in urban areas, the demand for more
energy requires power plants that already emit huge volumes of greenhouse gases
to produce even more. And as people in lesser developed countries gain access to
electricity, more power plants that emit greenhouse gases are built.
Population growth also goes hand-in-hand with deforestation and clearing of land
to make way for urban sprawl. While living forests act as "carbon sinks",
absorbing greenhouse gases, dead and decaying trees emit carbon into the
atmosphere.
"A third of all current CO2 emissions come from automobiles," Gulledge added.
"Coal-fired power plants and heavy industry also accounts for much of the
greenhouse gas emissions."
"Population growth and global warming are definitely intertwined," Janet Larsen,
director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, told IPS. "A growing population
means a growing use of energy."
The US currently has five percent of the world's population, but produces 25% of
the world's global warming pollution, according to a report by the US-based
environmental group Sierra Club. Together, the most industrialised nations
consume 60% of the world's fossil fuels.
The George W. Bush administration has not offered any indication that it will
accept the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 163 nations,
because it believes that the treaty to reduce CO2 emissions would put a strain on
the economy, resulting in a decline in GDP.
US officials have also complained that India and China, two of the biggest emitters
of greenhouse gases, are exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.
"The Kyoto Protocol was designed to be a first step in what is to become a more
progressive effort," said Tim Herzog, a research associate at the World Resources
Institute. "China and India will have to be addressed in a significant way in
subsequent meetings."
Still, many critics argue that since the nation that emits more than any other, the
US must take a more proactive approach to setting an international standard for the
reduction of greenhouse gases.
"The US consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases than any other
nation on earth," Janet Sawin, senior researcher and director of the Energy and
Climate Change Programme at the Worldwatch Institute, told IPS.
"If you add 100,000 more people to the population here, and 100,000 people to a
country in sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions here would
be far greater because we use more energy per capita here than someone in
sub-Saharan Africa does."
The combined effects of global warming and population growth are palpable,
despite efforts by groups such as the National Centre for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
to cast doubt on the science behind global warming.
According to an October 2005 report from NCPA, "Historical data and ongoing
hurricane research reveal scant evidence linking human-caused warming to more
frequent or powerful hurricanes."
Gulledge dismissed those claims. "I don't speak in absolute terms because science
is not absolute," he said.
"But there is hard scientific evidence that global warming affects hurricanes,
making them more intense in general and more frequent in the Northern Atlantic.
Global warming is causing the loss of mountain glaciers, and some two billion
people rely on glaciers for water supply."
John Seager, the president of Population Connection, said that too often, the
debate about population growth and global warming ignores the fundamental
question of population control.
"There is a deafening silence when it comes to the question of population growth,"
he said. "Most of the discussions about how to handle population growth are
dominated by technological discussions versus basic family planning."
According to Seager, people everywhere should control basic decision-making
about when and whether to have children. This, he said, would in the long run curb
population growth and, eventually, the effects of unchecked population growth on
global warming.
Others argue that undertaking adaptive and preventive policies simultaneously will
best alleviate the effects of global warming.
"We need to act now to do what we can to slow down the rate of global warming,"
said Larsen.
"Most of the world's population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries
where people are most vulnerable to severe climate changes. Therefore,
underdeveloped countries have to develop in a manner that is sustainable."
The transition to cleaner fuels must be swift and widespread, according to Herzog.
He said that people everywhere should become less reliant on coal and petroleum.
"Because growth results in increased GDP, governments should explore
hydropower and wind energy," Herzog said.
New York, 11 Jul (IPS/Fritzroy A. Sterling) -- Consider the following statistics: at
the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was less than two billion,
but at the dawn of the 21st century, there were more than six billion people on
earth.
According to the US Census Bureau's population clock, the world's population is
now 6,527,525,419. Every 14 years, one billion people are added to the planet. At
this rate, the total number of people in the world will be a little more than 9.1
billion in 50 years.
Although the population growth rate has slowed, the world's population is still
growing. The US population is projected to reach 300 million by October.
According to a report by the Washington-based group Population Connection,
more than half of the world's population will live in cities by 2007, "Making us,
for the first time, an urban species."
Emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming have also
increased significantly since the 20th century. There are greater concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief contributors to global warming, in the
atmosphere as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels.
"We have to look at the overall contribution of human activities as it relates to
increased CO2 emissions since industrialisation," said Jay Gulledge, senior
research fellow for Science and Impacts at the Pew Centre on Global Climate
Change.
"There has been a 35% increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from
280 ppm (parts per million) pre-industrial times to a current 380 ppm."
As the population increases, particularly in urban areas, the demand for more
energy requires power plants that already emit huge volumes of greenhouse gases
to produce even more. And as people in lesser developed countries gain access to
electricity, more power plants that emit greenhouse gases are built.
Population growth also goes hand-in-hand with deforestation and clearing of land
to make way for urban sprawl. While living forests act as "carbon sinks",
absorbing greenhouse gases, dead and decaying trees emit carbon into the
atmosphere.
"A third of all current CO2 emissions come from automobiles," Gulledge added.
"Coal-fired power plants and heavy industry also accounts for much of the
greenhouse gas emissions."
"Population growth and global warming are definitely intertwined," Janet Larsen,
director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, told IPS. "A growing population
means a growing use of energy."
The US currently has five percent of the world's population, but produces 25% of
the world's global warming pollution, according to a report by the US-based
environmental group Sierra Club. Together, the most industrialised nations
consume 60% of the world's fossil fuels.
The George W. Bush administration has not offered any indication that it will
accept the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 163 nations,
because it believes that the treaty to reduce CO2 emissions would put a strain on
the economy, resulting in a decline in GDP.
US officials have also complained that India and China, two of the biggest emitters
of greenhouse gases, are exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.
"The Kyoto Protocol was designed to be a first step in what is to become a more
progressive effort," said Tim Herzog, a research associate at the World Resources
Institute. "China and India will have to be addressed in a significant way in
subsequent meetings."
Still, many critics argue that since the nation that emits more than any other, the
US must take a more proactive approach to setting an international standard for the
reduction of greenhouse gases.
"The US consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases than any other
nation on earth," Janet Sawin, senior researcher and director of the Energy and
Climate Change Programme at the Worldwatch Institute, told IPS.
"If you add 100,000 more people to the population here, and 100,000 people to a
country in sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions here would
be far greater because we use more energy per capita here than someone in
sub-Saharan Africa does."
The combined effects of global warming and population growth are palpable,
despite efforts by groups such as the National Centre for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
to cast doubt on the science behind global warming.
According to an October 2005 report from NCPA, "Historical data and ongoing
hurricane research reveal scant evidence linking human-caused warming to more
frequent or powerful hurricanes."
Gulledge dismissed those claims. "I don't speak in absolute terms because science
is not absolute," he said.
"But there is hard scientific evidence that global warming affects hurricanes,
making them more intense in general and more frequent in the Northern Atlantic.
Global warming is causing the loss of mountain glaciers, and some two billion
people rely on glaciers for water supply."
John Seager, the president of Population Connection, said that too often, the
debate about population growth and global warming ignores the fundamental
question of population control.
"There is a deafening silence when it comes to the question of population growth,"
he said. "Most of the discussions about how to handle population growth are
dominated by technological discussions versus basic family planning."
According to Seager, people everywhere should control basic decision-making
about when and whether to have children. This, he said, would in the long run curb
population growth and, eventually, the effects of unchecked population growth on
global warming.
Others argue that undertaking adaptive and preventive policies simultaneously will
best alleviate the effects of global warming.
"We need to act now to do what we can to slow down the rate of global warming,"
said Larsen.
"Most of the world's population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries
where people are most vulnerable to severe climate changes. Therefore,
underdeveloped countries have to develop in a manner that is sustainable."
The transition to cleaner fuels must be swift and widespread, according to Herzog.
He said that people everywhere should become less reliant on coal and petroleum.
"Because growth results in increased GDP, governments should explore
hydropower and wind energy," Herzog said.
06 July 2006
Protecting Americans through Torture, Eavesdropping, Dictatorial Decrees
United States: Signing away the Constitution?
New York, 1 Jul (IPS/William Fisher) -- Last March, the US Congress passed
legislation requiring Justice Department officials to give them reports by certain
dates on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using the USA Patriot
Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
But when President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, he added a
"signing statement". The statement said the president can order Justice Department
officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides that it could
impair national security or executive branch operations.
Late last year, Congress approved legislation declaring that US interrogators
cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment.
But President Bush's signing statement said the president, as commander in chief,
can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will
assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
These are but two examples of more than 100 signing statements containing over
500 constitutional challenges that President Bush has added to new laws passed by
the Congress - many times more than any of his predecessors.
While he has never vetoed a law, many constitutional scholars say the president is,
in effect, exercising a "line item veto" by giving himself authority to waive parts of
laws he doesn't like.
The practice has infuriated members of Congress in both parties because it
threatens to diminish their power. They consider it an assault on the notion that the
constitution establishes the United States' three branches of government -
legislative, judicial, and executive - as co-equal.
Further fuelling Congressional anger is Bush's defence of his National Security
Agency (NSA) "domestic eavesdropping" programme, in which the president
claimed that he could ignore a 1978 law prohibiting wiretaps of US citizens
without "probable cause" and a warrant issued by a court.
The NSA programme was revealed by the New York Times last December. Since
then, newspapers have disclosed other secret programmes, including amassing
millions of domestic phone call records and examining perhaps thousands of
financial transactions in an effort to track and interrupt possible terrorist activity.
A member of Bush's own party, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened hearings on the subject this week. He
said, "The real issue here is whether the president can cherry-pick what he likes."
And the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
said, "The president hasn't vetoed any bills, but basically he has done a personal
veto. He has said which laws he will not follow and... put himself above the law,
even the same law he has signed."
The hearing is part of a continuing effort by many in Congress to reclaim authority
that they say the president has usurped as he has expanded the power of the
executive branch.
Bush claims that the constitution gives the executive branch of government
"inherent power" to do "whatever it takes" to protect the people of the United
States.
Testifying at the Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of the Bush
administration, Michelle Boardman, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office
of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, said that signing statements
serve a "legitimate and important function" and are not an abuse of power.
"Congress should not fear signing statements, but welcome the openness they
provide," she said. "The president must execute the law faithfully, but the
constitution is the highest law of the land. If the constitution and the law conflict,
the president must choose," she said.
But many constitutional scholars disagree.
Among them is Barbara Olshansky, director of the Global Justice Initiative at the
Centre for Constitutional Rights, a prominent advocacy group. She told IPS, "I
think it is hard evidence of (Bush's) continued aggressive arrogation of power. It is
a blatant attempt to expand power by pulling the rug out from under Congress each
time it passes a bill that he dislikes."
She added, "Many of the laws that Bush has decided to bypass or overwrite by this
method involve the military, where he once again invokes the idea that as
commander-in-chief he can ignore any law that seeks to regulate the military."
Another opposition view came from Prof. Edward Herman of the University of
Pennsylvania, who told IPS, "The brazenness of Bush's use of this practice is
remarkable. But even more remarkable is the fact that this de facto further
nullification of congressional authority fails to elicit sustained criticism and
outrage. It is part of a step-by-step abrogation of constitutional government, and it
is swallowed by the flag-wavers and normalised."
"We are in deep trouble," he added.
Signing statements are not new - their use started with the fifth US President,
James Monroe (1817-1825), and from that time they were used sparingly and
mostly for rhetorical purposes. Until Ronald Reagan became President in 1980,
only 75 statements had been issued. Reagan and his successors, George H. W.
Bush and Bill Clinton, made 247 signing statements between them.
But President Bush has taken the practice to a new level, attracting criticism both
for the number of statements he has issued as well as for his apparent attempts to
nullify any legal restrictions on his actions.
Democratic members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are
viewing President Bush's signing statements as a dangerous over-reach of
presidential power - and a campaign issue for the congressional elections in
November.
Last week, House Democrats introduced a resolution requiring the president to
notify Congress if the president "makes a determination to ignore a duly enacted
provision of law".
And Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as the "lion" of the Senate, declared this
week, "For far too long, Congress has stood by and watched while President Bush
has slowly expanded the unilateral powers of the presidency at the expense of the
rest of the government and the people."
The US legal community is also concerned. Earlier this month, the American Bar
Association's board of directors formed a Task Force on Presidential Signing
Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine to review the use of signing
statements and whether or not this use is consistent with the US Constitution.
Bush's signing statements have covered a wide variety of subjects, ranging from
the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their
commanders to timely transmission of government-funded scientific information
to Congress to rules for firing a government employee whistle-blower who tells
Congress about possible wrongdoing.
But until President Bush's signing statement on the anti-torture legislation, the
subject went virtually unreported by the US press.
According to Phillip Cooper, a Portland State University public administration
professor who is an authority on signing statements, "I think one of the important
things here is for reporters to apply their journalistic instincts to this story."
Cooper concludes that the Bush White House "has very effectively expanded the
scope and character of the signing statement not only to address specific
provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify, but also in an
effort to significantly re-position and strengthen the powers of the presidency
relative to the Congress."
New York, 1 Jul (IPS/William Fisher) -- Last March, the US Congress passed
legislation requiring Justice Department officials to give them reports by certain
dates on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using the USA Patriot
Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
But when President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, he added a
"signing statement". The statement said the president can order Justice Department
officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides that it could
impair national security or executive branch operations.
Late last year, Congress approved legislation declaring that US interrogators
cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment.
But President Bush's signing statement said the president, as commander in chief,
can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will
assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
These are but two examples of more than 100 signing statements containing over
500 constitutional challenges that President Bush has added to new laws passed by
the Congress - many times more than any of his predecessors.
While he has never vetoed a law, many constitutional scholars say the president is,
in effect, exercising a "line item veto" by giving himself authority to waive parts of
laws he doesn't like.
The practice has infuriated members of Congress in both parties because it
threatens to diminish their power. They consider it an assault on the notion that the
constitution establishes the United States' three branches of government -
legislative, judicial, and executive - as co-equal.
Further fuelling Congressional anger is Bush's defence of his National Security
Agency (NSA) "domestic eavesdropping" programme, in which the president
claimed that he could ignore a 1978 law prohibiting wiretaps of US citizens
without "probable cause" and a warrant issued by a court.
The NSA programme was revealed by the New York Times last December. Since
then, newspapers have disclosed other secret programmes, including amassing
millions of domestic phone call records and examining perhaps thousands of
financial transactions in an effort to track and interrupt possible terrorist activity.
A member of Bush's own party, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened hearings on the subject this week. He
said, "The real issue here is whether the president can cherry-pick what he likes."
And the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
said, "The president hasn't vetoed any bills, but basically he has done a personal
veto. He has said which laws he will not follow and... put himself above the law,
even the same law he has signed."
The hearing is part of a continuing effort by many in Congress to reclaim authority
that they say the president has usurped as he has expanded the power of the
executive branch.
Bush claims that the constitution gives the executive branch of government
"inherent power" to do "whatever it takes" to protect the people of the United
States.
Testifying at the Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of the Bush
administration, Michelle Boardman, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office
of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, said that signing statements
serve a "legitimate and important function" and are not an abuse of power.
"Congress should not fear signing statements, but welcome the openness they
provide," she said. "The president must execute the law faithfully, but the
constitution is the highest law of the land. If the constitution and the law conflict,
the president must choose," she said.
But many constitutional scholars disagree.
Among them is Barbara Olshansky, director of the Global Justice Initiative at the
Centre for Constitutional Rights, a prominent advocacy group. She told IPS, "I
think it is hard evidence of (Bush's) continued aggressive arrogation of power. It is
a blatant attempt to expand power by pulling the rug out from under Congress each
time it passes a bill that he dislikes."
She added, "Many of the laws that Bush has decided to bypass or overwrite by this
method involve the military, where he once again invokes the idea that as
commander-in-chief he can ignore any law that seeks to regulate the military."
Another opposition view came from Prof. Edward Herman of the University of
Pennsylvania, who told IPS, "The brazenness of Bush's use of this practice is
remarkable. But even more remarkable is the fact that this de facto further
nullification of congressional authority fails to elicit sustained criticism and
outrage. It is part of a step-by-step abrogation of constitutional government, and it
is swallowed by the flag-wavers and normalised."
"We are in deep trouble," he added.
Signing statements are not new - their use started with the fifth US President,
James Monroe (1817-1825), and from that time they were used sparingly and
mostly for rhetorical purposes. Until Ronald Reagan became President in 1980,
only 75 statements had been issued. Reagan and his successors, George H. W.
Bush and Bill Clinton, made 247 signing statements between them.
But President Bush has taken the practice to a new level, attracting criticism both
for the number of statements he has issued as well as for his apparent attempts to
nullify any legal restrictions on his actions.
Democratic members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are
viewing President Bush's signing statements as a dangerous over-reach of
presidential power - and a campaign issue for the congressional elections in
November.
Last week, House Democrats introduced a resolution requiring the president to
notify Congress if the president "makes a determination to ignore a duly enacted
provision of law".
And Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as the "lion" of the Senate, declared this
week, "For far too long, Congress has stood by and watched while President Bush
has slowly expanded the unilateral powers of the presidency at the expense of the
rest of the government and the people."
The US legal community is also concerned. Earlier this month, the American Bar
Association's board of directors formed a Task Force on Presidential Signing
Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine to review the use of signing
statements and whether or not this use is consistent with the US Constitution.
Bush's signing statements have covered a wide variety of subjects, ranging from
the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their
commanders to timely transmission of government-funded scientific information
to Congress to rules for firing a government employee whistle-blower who tells
Congress about possible wrongdoing.
But until President Bush's signing statement on the anti-torture legislation, the
subject went virtually unreported by the US press.
According to Phillip Cooper, a Portland State University public administration
professor who is an authority on signing statements, "I think one of the important
things here is for reporters to apply their journalistic instincts to this story."
Cooper concludes that the Bush White House "has very effectively expanded the
scope and character of the signing statement not only to address specific
provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify, but also in an
effort to significantly re-position and strengthen the powers of the presidency
relative to the Congress."
20 June 2006
Am. Soldiers charged with Murder in Iraq
But how do you bring charges against a whole country, whether it's murder directly, implicitly, structurally, through history, bigotry, capitalism, religion?, man - hooo-eeeee!
By Will Dunham (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American soldiers were charged with premeditated murder after being accused of shooting three detainees north of Baghdad on May 9 and then threatening to kill a fellow soldier if he told the truth about the incident, the U.S. military said on Monday.
The charges were brought against Army Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard, Spc. William Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey Clagett, according to charge sheets provided by Army officials at the Pentagon. Premeditated murder charges can bring the death penalty under U.S. military law.
The three soldiers are accused of deliberately allowing three men detained during a raid on a former chemical factory to flee so they would have an excuse to shoot them, said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The charges were brought as the U.S. military continues to investigate other cases of alleged abuses by American troops, including the killings of 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last November.
Girouard, a noncommissioned officer, was charged with 11 counts stemming from four charges: premeditated murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and wrongfully communicating a threat. Clagett was charged with six counts and Hunsaker was charged with eight counts of the same charges.
By Will Dunham (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American soldiers were charged with premeditated murder after being accused of shooting three detainees north of Baghdad on May 9 and then threatening to kill a fellow soldier if he told the truth about the incident, the U.S. military said on Monday.
The charges were brought against Army Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard, Spc. William Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey Clagett, according to charge sheets provided by Army officials at the Pentagon. Premeditated murder charges can bring the death penalty under U.S. military law.
The three soldiers are accused of deliberately allowing three men detained during a raid on a former chemical factory to flee so they would have an excuse to shoot them, said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The charges were brought as the U.S. military continues to investigate other cases of alleged abuses by American troops, including the killings of 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last November.
Girouard, a noncommissioned officer, was charged with 11 counts stemming from four charges: premeditated murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and wrongfully communicating a threat. Clagett was charged with six counts and Hunsaker was charged with eight counts of the same charges.
06 June 2006
India's eunuchs
India's eunuchs seek new way
By Sanghamitra Chakraborty in Tamil Nadu
Eunuchs have been ostracised for years.
Sudha is dusky and wears a salwar kameez, a traditional dress for women in India, but no make-up. She is a eunuch (or "aruvani" as they now prefer to be called) and represents a group of transsexuals seeking respect for their identity and greater acceptance in society.
"While transgender people must protect their identity, we are willing to do our bit to gain acceptance," says Sudha on the sidelines of a community festival in southern Tamil Nadu state.
"If necessary we will dress down, tone down our speech, even desist from the commonly misunderstood practice of 'clapping' and negotiate with people in work and social settings." Since most hijras end up being stereotyped as cross-dressing men, feared for their lewdness and aggression, the aruvanis face many day-to-day challenges, linked with their identity.
New tactics
For most hijras, as Indian transsexuals are called, their physical appearance is an extension of their transgender identity. Lavish doses of make-up, flowing wigs, harsh, staccato clapping and aggressively sexual speech and body language are tokens of belonging, entrenched at an early age by community leaders.
Aruna and her friends want eunuchs to tone down their behaviour. Sudha and her friends want hijras to change tactics to win acceptance. Eunuch groups now participate in community-led inter-personal communication sessions regularly in what they see as a pragmatic way to learn how to negotiate with the mainstream.
"We are focusing on the aruvani being a woman in day-to-day life, not just in front of the mirror at home," says Sudha.
Bharathi Kannamma, an eunuch who edits a community journal, says the communication sessions seem to be addressing the problem.
"Earlier, when aruvanis were teased or harassed, they fought back often by shouting and using foul abuse. This created a bad impression in the minds of the general community," she says.
Spreading awareness
A trainer, Rajakumari, says eunuchs are much more in control of their lives after attending the sessions. "We aruvanis have achieved in the past two years what was left undone in the past 20 years. Wait and see what young aruvanis can do."
Aruna, transsexual
"When people mock or tease them, they don't take off in a rage as they understand that the public can be ignorant or insensitive," she says.
There is more on the minds of the aruvanis than celebrating their yearly festival in the village of Koovagam in Tamil Nadu.
"We're fighting for our right to live and work with dignity as other women do. The violence against transgender people must stop," says Sudha's friend Aruna, who marched along with 500 other transgender protesters.
"They lead many self-help groups working in Tamil Nadu, spreading awareness about safe sex and HIV to hundreds of transsexuals, many of whom are sex workers or beggars." Delhi-based historian activist Mario D' Penha says there is a "huge debate" raging in the eunuch community "about the right path to integration and whether they should be seen as eunuchs or women".
Not recognised as females by law, these castrated males face a very real identity crisis. Once their surgery has taken place they are no longer considered male and there is no legal framework in place to deal with them.
Eunuchs in India face an identity crisis
One of the most important aspects of the training is to impress upon the community the need for safe sex. Since many of them are extremely vulnerable to HIV, given their social isolation and low literacy levels, short films, documentaries and modern parables are used to improve social skills and to highlight health issues, such as the need to use condoms.
"From living on the fringes of society, they are not only working towards 'mainstreaming' themselves, but are now focusing on expression of their hidden talents that can contribute to them being accepted as citizens in their own rights," says Dr R Lakshmi Bai, chief of a local HIV prevention project.
Aruna is hopeful about the future. "This is the way to go. We aruvanis have achieved in the past two years what was left undone in the past 20 years. Wait and see what young aruvanis can do."
04 June 2006
Talk about human interconnectedness!
Apparently, Nason, the cook who worked for my landlady and ran away around the time of Hindu New Year, was involved in the Colombo suicide attack. While we idly chatted about Sri Lankan cuisine, whether you add turmeric or ground ‘katagum’ to lady finger curry, three or four women took up residence in Nason’s apartment in Pettah district, Colombo 01. While Nason claims he is from Kandy – near Hunas Falls – he has an Indian Tamil accent, according to the landlady.
The LTTE is well equipped, with imported, contraband weapons and military-related technologies. Skilled technicians can operate satellite-controlled weapons; they have warplanes and ships. They have the military might, jaded youth to comprise their army, funds extorted from the global Tamil diaspora, the immense corruption within Sri Lankan government to work to their advantage, and a thirst for bloodshed, but no state. Meanwhile the flaccid, malevolent, racist government that is recognised and supported by the international community, is losing ground in terms of its military capacity and definitions for a peaceful future. So the back alleyways and shady wheeling and dealings rule this country; be prepared to bribe your way through it. With economic development and job growth only concentrated in Colombo, disenfranchisement, abject poverty, hopelessness looms in the rest of the country. It’s an easy entry point for the LTTE to ‘swoop in’ to offer jobs, cold hard cash, and a glimpse of infamy to many people living in poverty, primarily to Tamils like Nason.
I do not know the whole story of Nason’s involvement, only that the military police frequently stop by the residence to question my landlady, as his former employer. It is believed that he harboured in his apartment three or four women, possibly former garment workers, who knew the pregnant suicide bomber. It is possible that these women helped to get her fake identity cards, or they could have monitored the Army Headquarters and Hospital to check when the head of the Army arrived to the compound after lunch. Nason evidently knew everything about attack, and has since vanished, along with the three or four women accomplices. His daughter, Wani, who I met on her birthday, still calls the landlady to find out where he is. If he is discovered in Sri Lanka he will likely be detained, questioned with torture, imprisoned and executed in the most inhumane, incomprehensible way – many of the ‘disappeared’ Tamils who ended up in government hands during the last 20 years were cut into pieces and their mark on history was erased from within their unmarked, mass graves.
The blast that occurred on 27 April, injured an high-ranking army general, and killed several people including his driver and bodyguard. A young woman, plotted with the LTTE to become pregnant in order to qualify for maternity services at the Army hospital. Her fake papers stated that her husband was a Singhalese officer. This meticulous plan was carried out over six or seven months, all throughout the peace talks, lowlighting that the LTTE was never really serious about securing, long-term, sustainable peace. And I’m just in awe to know what went through this young woman’s head, how was she convinced to become a part of this scheme? Am I too bold to believe that this is a blatant attempt by masculinised military institutions to play on women’s perceived roles as mother/nurturer/docile/obedient/subordinate in order to achieve archaic, dehumanizing, violent ends? These perceived gender roles are more pronounced here, so it is not surprising that this pregnant LTTE cadre was never searched or questioned when she entered the compound. Or is it a way for the LTTE to show that it is willing to sacrifice its people (and instead offer a childless future) until it gets what it wants – in a rather disgusting tantrum?
The folks in Colombo – particularly the foreigners - are still shaken by the immense violence that shrouds this talented, beautiful, glorious ‘pearl of the Indian Ocean’. And most people I talk to cannot wrap their heads around these events. But I wonder if by the LTTE using a young woman and unborn child to scaremonger the comparably rich denizens of Colombo into reacting, into giving land rights, recognition of state, sovereignty…if they do not just undermine their cause? If they do not just fit more easily into the rest of the world’s misguided, simplistic, dichotomous conceptions about terrorism, i.e. Hollywood ‘good’ vs. ‘evil.’ With no value for human life, how can this circle of so-called leftist intellectuals and foreign-educated elites pretend that they are fighting for the ‘dignity’ of Tamils in Sri Lanka? What about the Tamil tea pickers, completely fucked over by North and East Tamil communities, by Singhalese compatriots, and by foreign plantation owners, investors and probably the slough of foreign development workers? What about the Veddah indigenous peoples also absent in the discussions on how the former colony of Ceylon should operate, implement human rights, and grant access to basic services and profound freedoms? Hence the pernicious fight between zealous Buddhist nationalists and a corrupt circle of criminals claiming to represent the views of the marginalised Tamil communities, sees no end. One colleague described this war in everything but name, as the only way for the LTTE to assert its existence, because it could not face the arduous task of forming a separate state and all that entails.
We are all complicit in this Sri Lankan ‘uncivil’ war, (in all wars against humanity) moreso when we do nothing to speak out for peace, worldwide and at home. I am inconsolable about my complicity knowing that my connection to all of it is right under my nose and I can do little to prevent it from happening. Moreover, you really cannot trust anyone.
19 May 2006
Warning: Gruesome!
To let us remember those massacred, whose identity the government-backed media tries to conceal
Let us remember that war is not a numbers game, or a way to promote one's power or might, but that primarily it is a loss of life, individuality, sweetness of human character, and extinguishes the potential for future generations to correct past brutal, warmongering mistakes. The conflict in Sri Lanka is going in circles, many of the recent attacks replicate those from the last 20 years.
A story written by friend of my Sri Lankan colleague, to shed light on this massacre in November 1995.
Night was falling. My Kiri Amma (grand mother) retuned through paddy field directing a herd of cattle back home. She had vaguely seen some strange boys in dark suits sitting by the pathway, in unusual places. She was old, eyesight was poor. If not, that wouldn't have been the last time she returned home. There were 13 homes in our village. Many were poor farmers. There was one home with a TV. As it was Sunday, we all gathered there to watch the tele drama. Seneviratne mama was cleaver; he said "we all should not stay here for long". He came to the road & found some strangers positioning around the place we gathered. Having nothing for his defense, he shouted. That was a call for others to flee. We heard gun fire, it was for Senevi mama. He laid down his life and saved some lives, because tigers had to start shooing before they circled the village completely.
Though we tried to run away, tigers were around us. My chuti nangi (little sister) was 4 yrs then, she did not eat without listening to a story. My brother was writing something in his school book. Suddenly
Tigers hit the front door. It was not made up of strong wood, so my father kept pushing from inside preventing force opening. When that failed, tigers fired several shots at my father thru the door, he fell still trying to keep it closed. They dashed inside, kicked my father's body away and chopped the head away. My mother held 3 of us firmly, trying in vain to cover us with her hands. When a tiger aimed his gun at us, she pleaded to leave the children. He went back
And came with another lady tiger. She had a sword. She grabbed my chuti nangi away from my mother's lap and cut her neck off. Then my brother because he tried to say something. Then my mother. When tiger girl hit my mother's neck with the sword, I fainted. Whole night long, I cried trying to wake up my mother. She jerked few times, and became silent. Her blood was warm, same warmth 3 children cherished until this day.
Whole night, I heard gun fires and my relatives crying. With each gun shot, their voices dwindled. I heard Renuka nenda crying next door, pleading them to kill her. Later I learnt why she pleased that way. A tiger man beheaded her mother, father, 3 brothers and only sister and
Brought all 6 heads to the road. They shot at the house opposite mine, then dashed in. There they killed Nawaratne mama's mother (my kiri amma), his elder bother, nanda and two daughters.
Following morning, many people came to see this wonder, one big person (a politician) even came in a helicopter. Bodies were collected by Army men and prepared for last rights but they could not reach the village cemetery because, tiger men were still waiting in ambush. There was another fire fight too. Then a bulldozer came and cut a mass grave and all bodies were laid in it and closed. Those killed on this day were,
1. K.R Amarasinghe Karunaratne
2. Punchiralage Somawathi
3. Saman Ravidralal Amarasinghe
4. Kumudu Nalanee Amarasinghe
5. A.Hethuhami
6. Nimal Karunartne
7. Mallika Damaynthi Karunaratne
8. Nadeeka Sandamalee Munasinghe
9. Pradeepa Sandamalee Munasinghe
10. Pulinguralage Chandradasa
11. Kapuruhamige Dhanapala
12. Sumudu Seneviratne
13. Murugathage Tikiribada
14. Jayantha Jayasiri Ranasinghe
15. Tikiri Bandage Siriyalatha
16. Piyadasage Nandaseeli
17. Gunasekarae Nimalwanshe
18. Piyasenage Wijesena
19. Nimal Wanshage Sriyani Surangika Nomalwanshe
20. Nimal Wanshage Priyanthe Nimalwanshe
21. R.D.A.Chadradasa
22. Malhami Punchibandage Kumarashinghe
23. Podi Appuhamige Seethawathi
24. Kumarasinghage Sisira Kumarasinghe
25. Kumarasinghage Samantha Kumarasinghe
26. Kumarasinghage Malkanthi Kumarasinghe
27. Mudalihamige Piyasena
28. Herathamige Tikirihami
29. Piyasenage Piyanka
30. Piyasenage Sunethra Nandani
31. Piyasenage Milinawathi
32. Piyasenage Nuwan Kumara
33. Piyasenage Rohana Sisira Kumara
34. Niluka Thilakasiri
35. Kumarasinghage Gamini Upathissa Kumarasinghe
36. Manthihamige Piyasena
37. Mudalihamige kalyanawathi
38. P.Sriyani Kusumalatha
39. P.Ramani Niranjala
40. P.Manori Priyanga
41. Mudalihamige Rangiethana
42. Wickramadasage Ranjana Jayakodi
43. Kandappurale Bedderalage Malhami
44. Siral Mohottalage Bebi Ethani.
16 May 2006
Update:a note on Vesak
I will continue to work in Sri Lanka even if the whole place goes up in flames. They have invested too much into this place (just had the inauguration) that they won't move. LTTE would be lunatic to attack an international place; they mainly target nationals, civilian places of interest, and try to impact the government's sources of revenue, i.e. WTC, financial sector. And since only poor civilians are mass murdered, the rich politicians in power do not get affected or make moves to remedy their own genocidal militarisitic tendencies.
There have not been any other attacks in Colombo since the last pregnant woman guerilla. But now the LTTE has taken to the seas and has kidnapped a gov't naval ship in which several Norwegian peace monitors were on board. It is strange since I had just gone to a SLMM (Peace monitors) party the weekend before and met several of the peace keepers. Lovely, lively, funny and stressed out folks. For now, life remains unusual, surreal and a bit disconnected from reality.
This past weekend was Vesak (Buddha's birthday, enlightenment and death day) so the whole country was lit up with lovely paper lanterns and gaudy Xmas lights. Some communities shelled out 30,000 USD to purchase these monstrous large, plastic, flashing light, carnival-looking structures that depict a story from Buddha's life. People hand out free food, ice cream and soda and there are lantern competitions. So for nearly 2 weeks there are lots of people, very pleasant, cheerful; a complete change from the horrors you see on tv. I also managed to get out of Colombo for the weekend to visit a beach 1 hr north. Expansive, clean beach, with billowing sails on fishing boats, and I was refreshed from the unpolluted air. So there is a huge disparity in how I celebrate life and witness all the bright, cheerfulness of my days around Colombo, and the grim news that I read or hear about. So indeed there is escalating violence, with no end in sight, and no seriousness going on in the peace talks, but there is also the mundane normalcy (however normal you can make of living in South Asia!).
There have not been any other attacks in Colombo since the last pregnant woman guerilla. But now the LTTE has taken to the seas and has kidnapped a gov't naval ship in which several Norwegian peace monitors were on board. It is strange since I had just gone to a SLMM (Peace monitors) party the weekend before and met several of the peace keepers. Lovely, lively, funny and stressed out folks. For now, life remains unusual, surreal and a bit disconnected from reality.
This past weekend was Vesak (Buddha's birthday, enlightenment and death day) so the whole country was lit up with lovely paper lanterns and gaudy Xmas lights. Some communities shelled out 30,000 USD to purchase these monstrous large, plastic, flashing light, carnival-looking structures that depict a story from Buddha's life. People hand out free food, ice cream and soda and there are lantern competitions. So for nearly 2 weeks there are lots of people, very pleasant, cheerful; a complete change from the horrors you see on tv. I also managed to get out of Colombo for the weekend to visit a beach 1 hr north. Expansive, clean beach, with billowing sails on fishing boats, and I was refreshed from the unpolluted air. So there is a huge disparity in how I celebrate life and witness all the bright, cheerfulness of my days around Colombo, and the grim news that I read or hear about. So indeed there is escalating violence, with no end in sight, and no seriousness going on in the peace talks, but there is also the mundane normalcy (however normal you can make of living in South Asia!).
30 April 2006
Market in Fort Cochin
The market and beach at Fort Cochin has everything and is extremely lively. Fishermen sell their day's catch and kiosk restaurants offer to cook and serve the catch to tourists. Local artists sell their etchings and handicrafts; Kerala has put alot of funds and efforts into promoting its local artists and performers. People even sell the latest in camera and portable music technology right there on the beach. At sunset half the city pours onto the beach to dip their feet in the waves and watch fishermen unload their Chinese fishing nets.
Kerala Backwaters
One of the most memorable things about Kerala is its waterways, with small villages dotting the coastlines. The Vishnu festival and Good Friday abbreviated our trek further south, so we hovered around Cochi instead of taking a longer trip to the wildlife sancturaries and beaches. There is just too much to do in this relatively developed Communist, and largely Catholic state! Many of the villlages along the canals earn their income by distilling toddy (illegal moonshine from coconut milk) or processing coir (rope from coconut husks). In addition, there are small factories that process tiny mussles, that are made into calcium fertilisers and concrete supplements. Because it was Vishnu festival many of the villagers had their best clothing on; they had just returned from temple. Quite peaceful and sweltering!
Kerala, southern India
A friend and I took a quick trip to Kerala for the April Hindu New Year. It turned into a ginormous shopping trip, loading up on saris, shalwars, spices, incense, weavings, artwork, nuts and delicacies, ayurvedic products and mahindi henna.
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