the mid week blues - 30/1/2008

"heaven", as the bishop said to the chorus girl, "is a state of mind."

we, in sri lanka, or at any rate we lot in the western and southern part of the island, are on cloud 9. prabarakan is dead or at least badly injured (by all accounts), daily around 30 to 40 ltters are being killed ( at this rate the blighters will be all gone by october), we are gaining ground on a three pronged encircling of kilinochchi - and terrorism will be over in months. sri lanka it seems is well on the road to untold riches and prosperity. yeah, gods and little fishes.

sorry to rain on the parade, poop on the party and throw a spanner in the works but i beg to differ. the other day i was called an ltte sympathizer by two separate people for expressing reservations about current developments in sri lanka. "no!" said i, spiritedly " i am sympathetic to the tamil point of view".

"ah, but are you sympathetic to the singhalese point of view" shot back the lass in question. i was miffed but held my peace ( the lass has considerable clout so to speak) but truth be told i am sympathetic to the sri lankan point of view i.e. a united sri lanka. i think current developments and war without an offer to address the issues of the tamils will eventually be meaningless. denzil kobbekaduwa, at the height of his successful campaign on jaffna in the mid 1980's gave an interview to the press in which he said that the problem with the ltte cannot be solved militarily and that the issues of the tamils have to be solved politically. we all know what happened to that particular patriot.

i think the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement was silly, and together with human rights abuses will cause untold damage to the country in the eyes of the international community in the years and decades to come. the actual toll of the current war is probably far higher than is being reported in the press. it's not our kids who are dying on the battle fields, our kids are safely in overseas schools and universities. it's the guy in the south and the north who are doing the fighting. and, don't we care how many civilians die in the north and east anyway or are they acceptable collateral damage? yesterday a school bus in mannar was targeted killing 9 kids and the news on the colombo airways was about heath ledger's death and the upcoming cricket tournament in oz.

the level of corruption in sri lanka does not give me much confidence that war is being fought for noble causes either. what's noble about dollars in a swiss account?

look at the world around us. nowhere ( apart from the punjab and in chechnya and both of those were fought by super countries with more resources than we have) has a conflict like this ended up in total defeat of one side. conflicts of this nature have always ended up on the negotiation table. i believe that the overall risk on the road we are traveling on ( and it is the one more traveled not less) is the very thing we are fighting to prevent. and, i believe that particular risk can and should ( and ultimately will - after much grief) be addressed differently. is there a time for war? unfortunately the answer is yes.

and, what options are we leaving the tamil community? who talks or represents them?

it was at this point that the good lass accused me of being an ltte sympathizer. nothing of course could be further from the truth. i am a sri lankan and believe in a united country including jaffna (and trinco, please note) but one in which the tamils will have a level of self determination. i believe that this simple thing is what will hold the country together. it is absolutely depressing to me that after 30 years of carnage, the majority in sri lanka think other wise.

i fear otherwise.

"a state of mind", said the chorus girl to the bishop rather tartly, " is anything you want it to be. "