Globe and Mail,  Fri Jan 23 23:29:32 EST 2009

    VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — Every day, the women get up in the cool of early morning and walk a few kilometres north to the heavily fortified checkpoint that stands between them and their families. And every day a kindly staffer from the International Committee of the Red Cross tells them that they still cannot cross.

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- The Academic

Did this woman right beautiful poetic stories about Gaza?

She clearly has a sympathy for the LTTE story. A simply analysis of her own narrative in the face of fact she herself presents suggest she got the balance wrong.

One to consider: she speak of the line up to get back to LTTE areas. The evidence she provides for why people want to go back is that the LTTE has kept a relative hostage. And, that people would prefer to die together. But, her tone suggests that the SLA are wrong to keep them from returning!

Our press in the West often gets it wrong. So we suffer the consequence of a badly educated public. So, Roger you are correct, we have warped views of the bombing of Gaza. Would you believe it, not a single show of actual footage of bleeding kids and dying kids on CNN (this from a story in today's NPR).

P.O.


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Do not start a war, unless it is already won...

By and large the article is balanced. We can split hairs on the nuances. We are speaking here of our own brothers and sisters in Srilanka. These people are stuck between a rock and a hard place. What hope have we offered them so far. I haven't seen a political package discussed to our people in Srilanka. Does this mean that we will eliminate the LTTE and forget about the political solution ? Knowing our sad past once the LTTE is finished will we turn on our selves as we did before ?

I think you guys know that when the IPKF was molesting our sisters in the North by " chakin ", it was the south who screamed blue murder when the news travelled down. This was a gift to the JVP and the rest is history.

You would also recall, when Janaka Perera gave a .. nose to the LTTE in " Janakapira/Manel Aru " and when the bodies of the 400 plus LTTTE combatants were displayed for the villagers to see, the villagers saw and said " Magey ammo, may kiri sappayo ney ". The army's PR exercise  tanked.

The stories go on and on.

We must move forward, one people, one nation under one flag. The politics of the Tamil Bogeyman has haunted our nation since independence. The results are ours to discover. Who will bring our people together ?

As for GAZA, the North American press had no room for discussion. So was the BUSH clans and Little BUSH's ( Steven Harper of Canada ) coercing of the press via the Jewish lobby. Incidentaly people were debating GAZA on a Globe and Mail column on Srilanka. ( GM too closed the column on GAZA for discussion ). The Sinhala folks in Canada voted en block for Steven Harper all because he blacklisted the LTTE. I guess GAZA is par for the course.

Who cares.

The Palestenians were stunned when one of the first four calls made by President Obama was to Pres Abbas. The Israelis and their henchman were pissed. So GAZA and the Palestinian issue will be on the front burner. No more hands off as the BUSH's did. The Srilankan issue too will be on the front burner as Madame Clinton will nudge us all towards a political solution.

Always good to see your comments Roger and PO.

Cheers.


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We need to resolve the historical grievances of Tamils because it is a right and civilized political act to follow by the political leadership in the country. -Dayapala Thiranagama-