hey
there are power shortages so i want to get across a few things, frantically and as fast as i can, in the distance i can hear the practicing of SL forces for its missile attacks; my house is shaking; there is curfew:
no, things have worsened. long story, but i went to watch the cricket match world cup final at a big cricket grounds last nite, which was mad in itself. luck and intuition made me leave right at half-time around 130am. when my flatmate, her beau who is visiting since yesterday from sweden, and i went back to our flat to find the power cut off. then the bombing started. ltte now has over 5 aircrafts with good pilots who bombed the main fuel station supplier (near the international airport), parts of the international airport, the harbour and some other areas in colombo. so fighting has started in colombo. about 2 weeks ago the bombing took place 8km from the international airport, so my friends who arrived/departed were ok, but shaken up.
now in SL there is very weak surveillance and military strategy. so after these mysterious attacks, during the match when the whole country was watching cricket, crowdedly gathered, the confused SL forces shot back into complete darkness...so they were firing at anything, often hitting buildings, residences, businesses in colombo, alot of 'collateral damage'. i dont think anyone was hurt or killed. it looked like fireworks. but the first time i heard bombs right in my sweet little neighbourhood in Colpetty.
there were 2 main attacks by ltte, from 130-140 am, then again at 330am or so. the counter attacks by SL forces went on until 5am. i was receiving security calls and calls from friends (luckily cell phone working during this time - even tho they are dastardly evil machines) all through the nite. we are all tired and distraught, but coping and relatively safe, showered by rain this sunday not bombs. we are not sure what will happen next. most likely there will not be another attack for at least a week, as tigers have to prepare. but there is a curfew and i cannot go long distances.
i have been hanging out most of the day, drinking tea, arrack (a coconut whisky) and smoking fiendishly with my greek friend in his guesthouse garden. he is one of the lucky few who will leave this country on thurs. so sad to see a good friend leave - even tho he's only been here a few months...the president of this fukt up country and 70 parliament ministers have rightfully fukt off but done so by using state funds to go on an excursion to support the cricket team in barbados. i hope he is having a nice time drinking coconut rum while his country is being bombed to bits. maybe he will suddenly mysteriously be disappeared or have committed suicide, like the pakistani cricket coach who was strangled after losing the match.
the priorities are fukt here. not sure what un will do and if we have to be evacuated. hard to say. hard to get any info from them. now it is the vesak holiday, where normally everyone celebrates "lord' buddha's birthday, day of enlightment, and deathdate. they decorate houses and streets with paper lanterns, give out free food, and have massive lit up billboards of plastic shaped buddhas. tacky is the thing for sri lanka, in all aspects of life. there are no political or surveillance strategies, only hideous cheeky teledramas, embarassing crotch grabbing and pissing into the wind with sarongs flapping. i was talking all day with some ex-pat sri lankans living in singapore who sell everything from solar panels to arms to aircrafts. their company has sold second hand helicopters and airplanes from soviet russia to SL govt, because govt wants it cheap. (whereas tigers are getting trained by thais and getting top notch crafts from pakistan, india etc who knows).
now the president, after losing the cricket match to Australia, is prolly pandering to US to get more funds and arms from them to blindly w.a.s.t.e. and shoot at anything here, including its own civilians. so the sri lankans in singapore were saying that they tried to warn the govt to invest in surveillance and intelligence technology, but govt does not want and says there is no need....yet they cannot even find the 3 planes that attacked last nite. it takes about 45 min to get back to the north to safely land so i dont know how they could not track these planes and cannot find tiger aircrafts nor runways. priorities are fukt. the govt knows what is going on and know more than what they are revealing, as usual, but costing and risking many people's lives. this is a sick game for them, a test of strength and brutal masculinity. on both sides. at least, thus far, the ltte has made very strategic targets, to bomb military bases, fuel and power stations, harbours etc, whereas the govt is blindly shooting at orphanages, internally displaced peoples, any civilians and they are even suspected of planting the bombs on buses (near vavuniya and hikkaduwa in previous months) in order to get more funding from the west in order to fight the so-called terrorism. no one remembers that the jvp party who has a stronghold in the govt parliament, was once a terrorist group massacring everyone suspected of not supporting them. and many sri lankans are too ignorant and daft to critically analyse the situtation. oddly, there was no mention of the attacks in the papers today nor on the news, only about sri lanka losing the world cup. for fuck sakes! so if it not printed in the media or on tv no one knows in the rest of the country. even tho most ppl in colombo felt it and saw it last nite. i am strangely tranquil and i will leave the country if my intuition, which is usually strong, tells me to leave. even my greek friend says that his ngo back in greece could help me find job to work in eco-tourism...so i am waiting to see what opportunities or circumstances arise. i do not feel too threatened yet, despite seeing shrapnel and bits from buildings falling into my lovely courtyard, under my lime tree which is dropping mad, massive limes. so no good news to report. it is a week long buddhist holiday, yet i have lots of work to do and keep busy. today is a day of reflection and attempt to make sense of what i am doing here.
let's see what happens these coming weeks/months. take care of yourselves. the world that we grew up with, its comforts and privilege has fallen apart. even water and power shortages are felt in the us. so we are slowly waking from our coccoons to a reality that is a nightmare in which we have already too much fukt up any plan for getting out of it. i wish i could be more optimistic. hope you and your families are safe. there is only a few more years left of oil so enjoy the commodities and conveniences that we have and keep spreading the word. missing you and hope to see you again very soon!
a bit of a ramble...but trying to take advantage of my access to internet/power. shit another bomb just went off as i post this....it feels like an earthquake or when a subway is about to arrive at a platform or when your intestines and bowels cut loose. not sure if this will turn into riots. cheers.
lots of love
b
