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!).