endings and beginnings

a peaceful 2006 to all of you. in sri lanka, with war clouds looming, peace is what ye olde scribe would like to see over our little island. as we have experienced over the past 25 years, 25,000 square miles of land is not much when there is a war being fought. and, 19 million people dotting this little square makes the effects of war that much more terrible.

peace on earth? not in our lifetimes it seems. on the other hand i am a firm believer that anything is possible providing (a) you have the will to achieve whatever it is you want, and (b) there is a window of opportunity.

so... as lennon once sang in a hotel room in toronto, over and over again, "all we are saying, is give peace a chance".

26th of december

...2004 and i woke up late that morning. the previous day being christmas, it had, as usual, been pretty hectic with family gatherings and people dropping in for the "season". switched on the bbc news at 10 a m and caught a ticker flash which said 60 odd people had died due to floods in southern sri lanka. floods? it was a bright blue sky morning in colombo. a couple of hours earlier my sis had tried to wake me up to listen to an unusual cacophony from flocks of birds in the garden. a minute later the figure on the screen jumped to 150 dead. i turned to my sis and said "something's wrong."

for an old cynic like me, the response from the international community and the sri lankan diasporas to the effect of the tsunami was amazing and overwhelming . same goes for individual sri lankans and the private sector. i was involved as a part of the response from the company i work for and subsequently in an individual capacity. so were some of you. one cannot begin to describe the scale of the devastation and tragedy. and yet, for a brief moment in time, sri lanka ( as we were in 1996) was united as a country in grief and a desire to reach out and heal. that moment and opportunity, passed.

365 days on and the tragedy continues. official response was initially very good but significant parts of the bigger picture are still missing. the missed opportunity to unite sri lanka has deteriorated into what is likely to be war again in northern and eastern sri lanka. i an told that trinco is like a town under siege. however, there is still a lot that an individual can do and not necessarily as a group. and, look to people in those areas which are not that easily accessible from colombo. it does not take that much to make a difference. please do so.

our scheme to sponsor two kids in trincomalee will commence in the new year. some of you have already sent in handsome initial contributions ( and be warned that i shall be asking for more) which is enough to launch the scheme details of which shall be circulated on e mail shortly. the colombo chamber of commerce has requested people to observe two minutes silence at 9.30 AM on the 26th and to hoist a white flag. but we need to do more.

merry christmas 2006 ( will war be over?)

i cannot truthfully say that it will be a merry christmas in sri lanka. for one thing i fail to see the relevance of fir trees, snow, annual sales, yule logs, jingle bells and a fat white man dressed in red. before i am accused of being a party pooper i however hasten to add that i fully endorse family gatherings, kids making life a misery for their parents, giving gifts, cribs, midnight mass and the carol “o! holy night!”. actually all carols.

the message of christmas, after all, is love. not mistletoe and wine.

x’mas last year was memorable in that mid night mass was celebrated with churches under armed guard. it really did feel very like the middle east during the birth of christ. this time around there is growing tension in the north and the east of the island. plus, on the 26th of december, we remember last years tsunami.

so for christmas 2005, this is just for you;


“...yet with the woes of sin and strife

the world has suffered long;

beneath the heavenly strain have rolled

two thousand years of wrong;

and man, at war with man, hears not

the tidings which they bring;

o hush the noise, ye men of strife,

and hear the angels sing!”

- it came upon a midnight clear

my wish is that you listen this christmas.

jungle drums

the rhythms of the reasons for a return to war in sri lanka are hotting up. check out this article from "the australian". link

then check out the ltte repost here.

also the news flash about the killing of two tamil youth from "tamil net" here

bala tells me that the whole of trincomalee was shut down yesterday with a ltte organized haratal. in canada, the us of a, the uk and australia the organization is on a massive fund raising champaign.

and so it goes. as predicted, the ltte is now pushing the government to the wall and each side is now making the "right" kind of noise which we were all too familiar with in the past. i personally think that war will break out sooner rather than later unless sanity returns.

talking of which, the new president launched his own budget for the year ( 2nd p & l statement within a month). as anticipated, it is all welfare and subsidies which in the medium and long term makes everyone poorer. the unashamed massive deficit is to be bridged by borrowings and increased taxes. check this out for a sardonic analysis of our economic future - such as it is. link.

the cyclone which was sitting 90 km north of jaffna is moving towards south india. there is definitely another one coming.

sri lanka - a frightening analysis

check out this rant for a truly frightening analysis of what is in store for sri lanka. link

it seems that ye olde scribe is not the only one a- moaning and a- groaning.

a new hope?

news reports quote former president kumaratunga as saying in her farewell speech on her 1st of december address to the nation, that the time had come to make revolutionary changes in the history for sri lanka. they quote her as saying “the history of nations has amply demonstrated that there are moments when leaders are called upon to effect revolutionary changes, which necessarily cause some dissatisfaction amongst some groups.”

i take it this means that the singhala buddhist ethos mixed with a socialist form of government will now prevail over the country. it also implies that she now acknowledges that the jvp and the marxist theories that it represents, will inevitably come to represent the wish of the majority. if correct, then the statement also accepts that a division of the country on lines of race is also inescapable. for if the singalese think that it is right that their will alone prevails over the entire country then it is equally right for the tamils to think that their will should prevail over those areas which they consider their traditional homelands. no. let’s not debate the rights and wrongs of this view. just accept that if one statement is okay then so is the other point of view.

chandrika leaves the office of president with sri lanka in a poorer state then when she was elected to office in 1994. moreover, unlike in 1994, the prospects for the future well being of sri lanka as an united country has never been bleaker.

it’s a bright and sunny saturday morning in colombo. the tropical depression hanging over the island seems to have moved away much to the relief of those at flood ravaged rr. there is some talk ( and news reports) that the new president has signed a secret deal with the ltte which resulted in the latter preventing people from voting in the north. there is also talk that mahinda will sideline or marginalize the jvp and put the country back on track. c. s. lewis’s “the lion, the witch and the wordrobe” is due for release on the 8th of december and i for one look forward to the movie with great anticipation. there is better hope in fantasy escapism than in political realities of sri lanka.