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.
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