AP kills Sri Lanka-Civil War story

Next time when you "worship" Western Media as the "holly truth" of the ongoing situation in Northern terrortories of Sri Lanka; please keep this one in mind!

http://www.topix.com/forum/source/newsday/TJ1GID3PIPT2AUO14

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090129_01

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At last!

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe today praised the President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers for the success of the military operations. - Daily Mirror

Now that the "first move" had been made by the person who "matters" most; shall we see some of the "locked mouths" to be opened? :-)

BTW, there were some funny comments on DM thread here.

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S.B. Black Army of 100 Men and the Mysterious Attacks on Media in the South

Today's newspapers reports a statement by Mr. S.B Dissanayake, saying that he is backed up for this election by a 100 men of a "black army", and his personal army is protecting him against any violence from the SLFP side. This is an interesting statement, because this is the first time I heard a politician openly admit that they have underworld gangs to support their election campaigns (Even though it had not been a secret for the general public).

If this is a true claim by S.B.Dissanayake, this adds another evidence to the suspicion of a possible opposition involvement in recent violent activities against media personnel in the south.

The present government is going to win this war, and there's nothing seems to be able to stop that at the moment. Of course the economy is screwed. Mahinda will face serious problems, after the war to bring back the economy on track. For that purpose, he will have to rely on lots of foreign aids for reconstruction activities in recently cleared areas in the north. If Mahinda could access to those foreign aids, the government will be in quite a relieved position, against possible economic meltdown in the country. Meanwhile from the opposition (and from the LTTE's) point of view; economy is the only and best trump card against the Mahinda's government. If the international community align with Mahinda's government; in reconstruction process after the war; both the opposition and the LTTE will lose their last hopes of toppling Mahinda's government. In that sense, it makes perfect sense for the LTTE and to the opposition, to carryout propaganda in the international scene, to degrade the present government and label Mahinda as a human rights violations. Attacks on medial personnel is a perfect way to do that, because as a norm, when you hit a media man, you can get an enormous publicity very easily. Because, fellow media men comes in for talk on behalf of the attacked individual, and that creates a huge buzz in the media across the world.

And the present situation has given the perfect condition for some of the Free Media Mudalali's to spend their annual vacations abroad. And they get the maximum usage of their vacation trips, by claiming that they have left the country because of death threats. One stone... many birds!

If you look at a few years into the future, two things are obvious. LTTE will never get a chance to raise their heads again, under this government or under Gen. Fonseka's leadership to the military. And the UNP will never going to win a general election, in at least another 10 years. Therefore, a strategically driven guerrilla organization like the LTTE, and a strategically driven political party like UNP will do their best to fight for their survival. It's not necessary for them to work together. But, the objective seems to be common. That common objective is, to damage the international reputation of Mahinda's government and block the foreign aids for reconstruction works after the war. If they achieve that objective, the government will be in a huge financial crisis after the war, and that will prompt the government to collapse.

People like Sunanda Deshapriya, who took part in similar conspiracies against Premadasa government in the past, are repeating their historical duties. Poor media men in this country, are blindly falling into this trap.

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If You Are Not Feeling Guilty, Come and Join the Party!

I am not feeling guilty...
Because I believed in this cause of action; right throughout the day it was started..
I further believed that, this is the only way forward to see an end to this cruel terrorism..
I am not guilty because I never let my faith die..

I'm not guilty, because I paid my heartiest respect to the soldiers who risked their lives; to make our lives better one's than theirs..

I am not guilty; because I never been traitorous enough to call our forces as “uniform clad brainwashed cronies”.

You might feel that, it's the “morons who light fire crackers to celebrate war victories”. But, the average Sri Lankan citizen who suffered this war for more than 30 years, are not educated geeks like you guys. They all are not graduates or MBAs. They were living in more terror than any of you who criticize their acts ; because they were the one's who were traveling in buses, and trains; the main targets of these ruthless terrorists. They have a right to light fire crackers! They have a right to celebrate it their own way! (I personally believe this fire cracker thing is good for the morale of the people. It brings people together)

Looking back on how this war progressed; there were “active supporters” of this war. And there were other “believers” who kept their hopes alive, despite all the resistance they had to face, from “talks will work” camp. I know these supporters and believers are not feeling guilty too! I know that they also are celebrating the victory today..

And there were those non-believers. Now they are forced by the situation, to believe in this. The impossible has become a reality. I don't know how guilty or not guilty they feel from inside; if they listen to their own hearts. I wish that they can surrender their egoistic feelings (which is quite a hard thing to do for their breed), and accept the fact that this was the right cause of action to deal with terrorists and the present administration “dealt it right”. If you can; come and join the party!

Of course there were “middle of the roaders” (A gender problem?). They now have to realize, there's no middle path in dealing with terrorism. Welcome to the party!

And there were some frustrated politicians . They feared that their party leader will lose the next 10 elections as well; if this government could end the war. They wished if this war could continue to few more years, until such time their leader comes into power and solve this “their way”. Typical thoughts of a politician; but not of a true leader. But inside their hearts, I know the true Sri Lankan spirit is still alive. No matter what party you support, you are truly qualified to celebrate this victory. Forget about your party politics for a moment. Let your true Sri Lankan spirit to speak to your heart. Would you join rest of the Sri Lankans for the celebrations?

Finally there were “Active Spoilers” of this humanitarian war. They played their all cards, to degrade the army, the political leadership, and the entire nation, just to earn a few more dollars (precisely; Euros) from their donor organizations. You did all your best; to get the attention of international community and paint a negative picture of our motherland. Even after the tigers lost their last stronghold in Mullaitivu, you are still trying it hard to turn it back for the tigers. Of course your name will NOT go to the history as “traitors”. Because, no one will remember you as a part of the history. To all you spoilers of Sri Lanka's war against terror; what I have to say is “you are not welcome to the party”!

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If you tint your hair, not to look it like a Sri Lankan's hair...

Well; you might  probably be a Sri Lankan!

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May Be I Was Wrong about National Identity...

I am humbly delighted to see that I have inspired this many blog posts on kottu on the topic "You might be a Sri Lankan when..." with my last blog post. But I think I have made a big mistake in my original post! I have omitted out a one big value that we all Sri Lankans share in common! A unique Sri Lankan value which is being encrypted into our genes, for more than a few centuries. We Sri Lankans simply don't like to letting things go! We want to hold on to things that we possessed at a certain past time of our life, and we'll fight, defend, and argue for keeping that thing with us forever. It doesn't matter if we need it now, like it now, or don't use it anymore. But we just want to keep it with us! We don't want to lose it, and we will not let it go away from us. In some extreme cases, we might want to sit on it! (So that no one else can take it away from you).This is why we've been fighting this war against LTTE for 30 years now. Even though we don't have any plans for go and live in Killinochchi or Mullaitivu; we don't want to let it go to Prabhakaran. We want to hold on to it. Unitary state, resistance to power devolution! All of these things are in our genes. We don't want to let things go! Not an inch!Even though some people are labeling me as a Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist; about an year ago I argued that Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist fundamentalist country, (And we have to make it happen!) and Sinhalese are actually not Buddhists (Or rather, there's no such race called "Sinhala Buddhists"). Now I can relate that post to this little concept of "letting go". Lord Buddha taught us to "let go" things, and asked us not to hold on to things, if we want to attain Nibbana. In fact, the path to Nibbana starts with killing your desires to hold onto things that you posses in your present life. Get rid of Thanha and Asha. But we Sri Lankans, has failed to live with that teaching. Forget about burning desires; we don't want to let go even an empty biscuit tin in our kitchen.We collect everything that comes into our eye site. We believe that these thing will become useful to us on one future day! Even if that day never arrives, we will keep these empty tins, and card board boxes by allocating enough space in our kitchen cabinets. Not very hard to understand, why Sri Lankan kitchens are bigger than the living room of the house. We are programmed to think like that. that's coded into the software of our mind.

Plastic water bottles had become a symbol of convenience across the world, during last two decades. For many countries, this is becoming a huge environmental threat, as millions of water bottles are thrown out as garbage. But we don't see mountains of plastic water bottles alongside Sri Lankan roads. Because they are safely stored in our kitchen pantries. 

If we lend a weekend newspaper to a neighbor; we make sure that the neighbor will return it to us, no matter even after 1 month. We forget that the "news" in that newspaper is no longer "news" by that time. But we don't want to surrender "our newspaper" to the neighbor!

We might work hard to earn the PR of a developed country. Let it be UK, Canada or Australia. We spend all our wealth, time and effort to move to the land where the grass is greener. But, once we get it; we don't want to let our Sri Lankan citizenship go! No matter how much it cost, or how unlikely that we plan to return; we will hold onto our Sri Lankan citizenship, just because we "possessed" that identity on a one sweet day in the past. We just don't want to let our "Sri Lankan Identity" go!

We will embrace all sophisticated modern values of Brits, and Americans and try to imitate their accent and behaviors. We will do what ever they do. Halloween, Valentines day, Secretaries day, this day that day and some other day. Among Americans, we would do our best to show that "I am more American than you". We just "wannabe" like them! But,we get extremely annoyed when someone say "look here, you have lost your Sri Lankan Identity". And we try to justify our actions by saying, "This is the modern Sri Lankan Identity".

Yes I was wrong. All the people who commented on my last blog post and disagreed with me; were 100% correct. They all had a true Sri Lankan Identity, because they just wanted it to be with them. They just don't want to let go that identity. No matter how empty that identity is or how vague it is, no matter how much distant they are from that identity, they just want to hold on to that Sri Lankan identity which they possessed on a one sweet day in the past. Just like my grand mother didn't want to let go those empty biscuit tins in her kitchen. No matter how empty they are. No matter how useless they are. And no matter how unlikely that she's going to use those empty tins someday, she wanted those things to be inside her kitchen. Weldone everyone! You've earned your National Identity!

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Confused About Your National Identity?

Puzzled about your National Identity? Want to know what makes a real Sri Lankan? Take this test. This test is designed for those “lost souls” of mother Sri Lanka.

Talking about Malays, Muslims, Sinhalese, Tamils, and Chetties??? Have you ever been to any of their cultural festivals lately? Eaten together with them? At least inside Colombo, this very own city?

Or have you ever been to the remote towns and villages of Sri Lanka? Been to the famous Church fiest in Matara? A small town with less than a 1% catholic population? Have you seen how Bhudist girls and boys work together with catholic brothers and sisters of their town hood convent and church, day and night along, to make the church fiest a colorful one? How they welcome thousands of Catholics coming into their home town, from more catholic populated areas like Chilaw, and Moratuwa? Did you know that a Budhist rescued the sacred statue of Mother Mary of that church, on the Tsunami day? (If Sinhalese Budhists are so chauvinist as some of you believe; that person would have thrown away that 300 years old statue to the sea, without any second thoughts)

Have you been to Hambantota during Ramazan season? Is it only the Muslims who celebrate? Have you been to Kalutara during Vesak season? Is it only the Bhudists who walk around in street, watching pandols?

Have you been to Badulla or Nuwara Eliya? (Not to the Grand Hotel or the Golf Course). Have you seen Sinhalese and Tamils living in same line houses? Sinhalese married to Tamils?

Have you been to a funeral house of a soldier who killed in action? Have you heard what their families talk about? They want this war to be stopped. But not temporarily through a Norwegian brokered CFA. They are ready to give away another son to the Army; just to see an end to this separatism. Not to see their favorite political leader win the upcoming election.

Still don’t get what National Identity is?

Why did Sri Lankans consider Sir Arthur C Clarke as a Sri Lankan? A British born scientist, came to Sri Lanka and settled in Unawatuna, down South (Later moved to Colombo of course).

If you complaint, Sinhala Bhudist chauvinists are controlling the definition of “Sri Lankan National Identity”; tell me why Sinhala Bhudists love Jackson Anthony; a catholic, as an artist?

Why do people consider Tibetan monk S. Mahinda as Sri Lankan? American missionary, Henry Steel Olcott a Sri Lankan?


If examples from Sri Lanka doesn’t ring any bells, how about these?

Why do Americans consider Obama; a son of a Kenyan migrant as, American? (BTW, why don’t Obama consider himself as a Kenyan?)
Why do Indians honor Sonia Ghandi; a biologically Italian woman, as Indian?
Why do Indians honor Mahathma Ghandi; an Indian expat in South Africa for a long time, as a true icon of India?

Still confused? Let me explain you. National Identity is not in your language. Not in your blood either. It’s not in your religion. It’s not about where you’ve born or where you live. It’s not about who your father is or who your mother is.

It’s about something else. It’s about how well you “understand” and “respect” the collective programming of the mind, of people living in a certain nation. To understand, and connect with that collective understanding of the mind; first you have to be with them.

And obviously! You won’t find the signs of collective programming of the mind of Sri Lankan people, at Barefoot or at Barista outlets. Or at any of those night clubs, for that matter.

You won’t see that collective programming of the mind, on CNN or on Fashion TV. You won’t feel that collective programming of the mind in Beyonce music or Brad Pitt movies (Of course they are good entertainment. I enjoy them too).

To understand and, connect with that collective programming of the mind; you have to be in at least few of the places I’ve described above. Nuweara Eliya, Badulla, Matara, Anuradhapura, Kalutara, etc etc. You have to listen to Amaradeva Music, Sunil Perera Baila, Nalin Perera, Sun Flowers Salade, B&S’ music, and of course, Iraj’s hip hops!!. You have to have that “element” inside your body, to do a little bit of “Baila” to a Papara band playing in a Cricket ground. You have to watch local TV. Sirasa, TNL, Derana, Rupavahini. Chiththi, Maha Gedara, Praveena, Kaavya, Super Star, Dancing Star (Name few more!). Even if you don’t like them; you should know about them. Of course, this does not mean you shouldn’t watch American Idol or Bold and the Beautiful. I miss Baywatch a lot! (Can someone bring it back?)

Knowing who is David Cook or Jordin Spark, and where they were born, will add up to your general Knowledge. But, knowing who is Pradeep Rangana or Udesh Indula will make you Sri Lankan. It’s not just general knowledge.

A collective programming of the mind? Of course it’s about being “brain washed”. But, if you reject to be brain washed with the identity of rest of the nation; you are unsubscribing from the National Identity of that nation. Sad. But that’s how it works. It’s not VIC says so. Geert Hofstede says so.

This is what National Identity is all about. After all, this is how Sri Lankans are differentiated from Americans or Canadians. You don’t have to qualify all these tests, to identify as a Sri Lankan. But, qualifying only a “few” won’t do the job. I know how you feel now. But nothing else to do. You cannot change a country’s national identity, to match your identity. You have to change your identity, to match the identity of the country you live in. Like Sonia Ghandi did. Like Barack Obama did.

If you dare to take the challenge; be a Fidel Castro or a Mao Zedong, and try to change the National Identity of this country, to a one which match your ideology.

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Prabhakaran's Horoscope

Good job by Daily Mirror graphic guys! Prabhakaran's horoscope and health certificate. I think, someone should draw the horoscope of some NGO peace merchants as well. Their fate is going to be as bad as Prabhakaran's as soon the war comes to an end. The market for peace talksis zero when the war is over!

Click here to download and view the large picture

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How Significant Was Lasantha's Death to the Sri Lankan Society?

I was trying to get an idea of the magnitude of effect of recent developments in the country, on some of the people I meet “offline” the blogosphere (rather Kottusphere). Specially the two incidents of “Sirasa Attack” and Lasantha's assassination. And also the liberation of Killinochchi and other military victories in the north.

Surprisingly, there was a clear “imbalance” of general opinion among these people, and the people I encounter on some of the Kottu blogs. The imbalance is; these people have not been “touched” by Lasantha's death at all. For them it was yet another “shooting” which happened in Colombo outskirt, and that's it! Rarely someone made any remarks that “88/89 terror era is back!” or “await for more Tyre Seya's next!” or anything close to that. They were much more concerned about “Sirasa Attack”, than Lasantha's death, but the most important topic among these people were “When will Mulaitivu fall to Army?”

I was thinking to myself, “why is it the reason these people not taking much account on Lasantha's death?” And it didn't take me much time to realize the reason. Lasantha was not a “household name” among these people. In fact Lasantha is not a household name in most of Sri Lankan houses. He was an editor of an English medium newspaper published from Colombo. And in Sri Lanka, English newspapers have a very limited circulation, outside Colombo. Thank's to it's classfied and job vacancies section, Sunday Observer sell a fair bit of share outside Colombo. But Sunday Leader was never been a newspaper popular among masses in Sri Lanka. (Of course it did sell better than some fictional bullshit written by some self proclaimed war heroes of the past)

In contrast; the profile of an average Kottu blogger is different (bias) than the people I encounter in my "offline" life. Foreign educated, never exposed to Sri Lankan masses, listen to American music, watch Hollywood movies (and write reviews), read only English news papers, hang out in upmarket places. Exactly the same profile of Lasantha Wickramatunga!

It is no wonder, why Lasantha was such a hero, and an idol among (some) Kottu bloggers. Lasantha was a hero among a limited social circuit; who read English newspapers, and out of that again a limited share of people who actually read Sunday Leader. For the masses of this country, Lasantha's death was not; and will never be a loss, as some people were deliberately trying to point out. It is insane, someone to compare Lasantha's death with likes of Premakeerthi De Alwis, or Vijaya Kumaratunga. I would rather compare Lasantha with Rohana Kumara; who was assassinated during CBK's regime (And as usual she was the one who were accused by so called free media activists). Both were editors popular among only a limited social circuit.

In essence, Lasantha wasn't doing a significant enough job to threaten the stability of Mahinda's government, which was going strengths to strengths in popularity among common public in this country, with the “unexpected” success in the war against LTTE terrorism. Lasantha's Sunday Leader was so insignificant publication, because no one really cared about what was written there for two reasons. 1) It wan't read by masses of this country 2) Even among the people who were reading it; majority knew it was yet another political propaganda paper (And it is totally ok, for someone to run a propaganda paper in a democratic country).

This brings us to a very important point, which most of the blind faithed followers of “anti-Rajapakshe” ideology (Now it has developed into an “anti-Fonseka” ideology in some cases) don't like to believe. That is; even if the Mahinda government is so ruthless and undemocratic as some people try to label it; there was no logical enough reason to kill an insignificant character like Lasntha Wickramatunga at all. Specially at a time, where the government is gaining it's lost popularty (due to cost of living and petrol prices) with the help of recent military victories.

And, this is where we have to raise the question “if it wasn't Mahinda's government, then who else badly wanted a dead body to do their politics?”. Someone on Indi's blog raised the point that “this assassination itself is a politically motivated act. I honestly think it was a MUST to make his funeral a political platform to fight against this anti-democratic tendency. ” As a reply to this argument, I posted below comment.

“What you are trying to prove here is; “someone” (as you propose us to do) can
make a “funeral” of some prominent figure in the society,into a political
platform to fight against the existing political power (Mahinda government), if
they “think” or “believe” that the government is anti-democratic. Then, if that
is possible to do (turining funerals into political platforms against existing
government), isn’t it possible some anti-government hands to “create a funeral”
and make it a political platform against the government?. And if you endorese
the idea that it is a good tendency that people turn funerals into political
platforms, then the type of people I am talking about are more motivated to
create more funerals like this one in the future. Because, such funerals will
continue to create them good platforms to carry out the politics they want. if
you look at this development; it is very dangerous for all of us. So, what we
have to do is not to burn dummies of Mahinda. But to be logical, and probe for
the facts. This is the “core point” of my post “politics over dead bodies”.

Now that the fall of Mulaitivu has become so obvious, we could expect some more mockeries like this, if above theory is held true (and I believe this is not only my theory, and it has been expressed as a theory by some more significant figures of the society as well)

In essence; Lasatha's death was sad, and it was totally unacceptable the way in he was assassinated. No one should deserve such a fate, jut because involved politics (or journalism backed by a political ideology). We will all miss he articles on many Sunday's to come.
But..
Lasantha's death was not a major blow to Sri Lanka's well being, as many people trying to highlight.
It will not make any major bad impact in the international scene; despite the desperate efforts of few pathetic email chain letter writers based in Colombo.
People will forget his name; as soon as the mass media come up with a “better selling” topic.
His name will be written in the history, alongside Rohana Kumara's name; not with Richard De Soyza's or Premakeerthi De Alwis's name.
As for the question “who killed Lasantha?”, I will not have an answer. I am still open to the theory of, it would have been the government, or someone backed by the government was behind this. But, because of the facts I've pointed in this post; I have a high degree of doubt about that theory....

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Going Retro With “Jack-Point” Comments

When going back on “retro mode” on my own blog, I found this interesting comment made by JackPoint on one of my blog posts published on 12th July 2007 (More than a year ago). Jack Point is a popular figure in Kottu commentsphere in particular, so I guess he might have told this same thing on more than one blog. In most of the time, he holds totally different ideas than me on the topics we discuss on Kottu, but I respect him as someone who comments with a clear logic (of his own), and not with mere emotions like some of the other people who are in the same opinions as he is. And I know, unlike some of the other bloggers with opponent ideas to me; Jack Point will take this in the right spirit.

Here is the interesting comment I wanted to flash back. Points in bold, are formatting by me, to emphasize some important areas of his comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“………..Coming back to the original point that war is being fought honestly, my father who retired from the army about 30 years ago, is of teh view that to eliminate the LTTE one must go after the "strong base" or the head. In his day, this was in India and out of reach but today it is in Killinochichi and the Wanni.

Fightingf in the East will not eliminate the lTTE they will lose ground but the problem will remain. HOWEVER fighting in the East does make good political propaganda - fo rthe government - bringing the aforementioned benefits to the parties involved. True- it does bring more land under government control but holding it is difficult and costly.

This is going to be a long drawn out campaign, which needs to be funded - and the tax base is not wide enough to support this level of conflict for any length of time (in my opinion).”

(In another comment on the same post he says)
“Basically, in a yearor two the government is going to run out of money to fight a war. If they continue, we go bankrupt.”

[MY COMMENT: It didn’t happen in an year and a half, so I don’t see it’ll happen in next 6 months]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This whole comment reminds me a small advice given to me by my mother. “Don’t cry until the soup is being finished cooking”. If you cry “hungry” before the soup is being totally cooked, you won’t get anything.

It is so funny to see how the history has responded to above belief held by people like Jack Point. Read once again the words in bold! The connection between those words! And then think what has really happened today.

It was more than an year ago, I sensed that “this government is doing the war RIGHT, despite their fucked up economic policies”. And I had the faith that they will some how fund this war, without letting the whole economy collapse as Jack Point predicted above. Now that it self is another credit to the government. They some how “muddled through” the economy, while making it a reality the “impossible war missions”

Once again! To all people who are pessimistic about our Army ending this war. Wait until the soup is being cooked. And, to those people who are worried about losing their NGO projects after the war; Hmmmmm… Look for some other lucrative markets. May be the Gaza region is a good place for you to start your “Ground(ed)Views!

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After the War is Over: A Prophecy by Voice in Colombo!

I'm in front of my Crystal Ball. I see the future. Probably! I see the war is ending soon, in another 2 months time. Prabha’s call for international intervention and other conspiracies are not coming to success. But, after the war, Sri Lanka is never going to become a heaven overnight. Terrorism is only a one problem, and we will solve that problem pretty soon with Prabhakaran’s death. I can see it in the crystal ball. But there are more challenges. Here are some of my prophecies on, what would be the “post-war situation” be. (I'd like you to read my post on topic "Let the Economy be fucked" before reading this one)

Positives

1) The entire North and East provinces will join into the Sri Lankan economy. There will be more demand for consumer goods, making all the companies more profitable, selling to the new markets.

2) Addition of Trincomalee port to Sri Lanka’s commercial shipping network, would boost export oriented industries in those areas. That will increase employment opportunities for the youth in those areas.

3) Tourism (Local) would be the first industry to boom rapidly. Local tourists from south, will start to travel to attractive locations in North and East. This will open new business opportunities for the locals in those areas (Guest houses, restaurants etc) and that will create new wealth within the provinces.

4) Mobile telecommunications will be the next most attractive industry to boom. There will be fierce competition among the mobile operators, to grab shares of North-East market, and Airtel will be in an advantage, because their intended strategy here in Sri Lanka is to “un tap virgin markets”.

5) Two-wheel and three-wheel vehicles will get an expanded demand.

6) When the competition among companies to “tap the Northern markets”, get increased’ more and more job opportunities will be created at all levels. Those who can speak both languages, will get the advantage of getting high perks.

7) Government will be able to cut the defense budget considerably, and invest in infrastructure development.

8) When the level of violence goes down inside the country, more foreign investments will come into the country. Not only to North-East. But for rest of the country as well.

9) When the confident of local tourists re-established; the tourism industry will start to market the new destinations to the international source markets.

10) Overall, people will have more money. They will forget other problems, when they have more money to spend.

Negatives (We have to watch out!)

1) When the opportunities are opening up, after the war more of the "half Canadians" and "Half Sri Lankans” will come back to Sri Lanka. Those cowards who left the country during war time, and criticsed the military actions of the government, will use their family connections to grab the booming opportunities. Those cowards who called our Army "Uniform Clad Brainwashed Cronies" during the time they've sacrificed their lives to end the war; will come back to Sri Lanka, and will re-establish themselves in this country.

2) This will create frustration among the true Sri Lankans, who kept their hopes alive, sacrificing their blood and relatives, to end the war.

3) As usual; the “privileged” society in Colombo, will grab the most attractive opportunities, making the locals in those areas and people who gave their lives to end the war, frustrated.

4) There will be a social crisis of excess voluntary soldiers of war. Soldiers coming back home from war, might be starting to involve in unlawful activities, mis-using their newly granted social and political powers. There need to be a proper management of dissolving the voluntary forces.

Challenges

1) We have to make sure the Tamil people will never opt for an armed struggled once again. We cannot do it by force, or by weapons. We have to give them “more” equal opportunities. They should get bulk of the new employment and entrepreneurship opportunities creating after the war. If they have money, most of the other problems will be minor issues!

2) There must be more Tamil speaking administrative officers in those areas. People should be able to do their work, in their own language.

3) Power devolution! Hmm… I believe, present provincial council system has it all. It’s only a matter of execution properly. But, this area is highly open for debate.

Things That Won’t Change after the War

1) Never expect government corruption to go down. Corruption will continue, no matter if it is a SLFP government or a UNP government.

2) Never expect our politicians to make “wise decisions” after the war. Idiots will be idiots.

3) Don’t expect a perfect media freedom. Government media will continue their white washing campaigns, while private media will continue to go shopping for their favorite political leaders.

4) And the last on! Ranil will never be the president of Sri Lanka! Even after the war!!

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Uniform Clad Brainwashed Crony Grabs Another World Record!!

Yes. That’s how some humanitarian “Colombuwans” call our army men! Ajantha Mendis, being an Army man; these “humanitarian peace lovers” might call Ajantha with that “title of honor”. But for us, Ajantha represents our country, in the sport which made this country “at least” a little bit proud in the international stage. The star of our Army men is at the highest point of all time! No one seems to be able to let our army men down, with their insults and offensive. Well-done Ajjaaa! Keep it up. You make our country proud. You make our Army proud. You make us proud. Here’s the full story on Cricinfo

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OMG!! Who Designed www.citizens.lk??

It's too bad a web design, to begin with! Loads of technical issues. I typed citizens.lk on my firefox browser, and found a "Page Error". The domain is not configured without the www sub-domain (Same issue with Sri Lanka's most visited news website www.dailymirror.lk). I quickly realized the issue, and re-typed the URL www.citizens.lk and landed on the below message. Is that all? Do you think, all I want to know about this program is your "mission" and then simply "continue" ? Where are the links to "More Info", and "Why I should Register?" etc??? Where are the contact information, of the organization which conduct this site? Where is the "mutual trust" that you need to build, before you request some one's sensitive information on a website? This will give a perfect smart idea to some "phishers", if there are any of them in Sri Lanka. Simply register few domains with misspellings of citizens.lk and you can collect all the personal information of people, without any trouble. And what can the phishers do with that information? I have read somewhere on the internet that organized gangs of robbers, rob houses in UK, based on a customer data base they stolen from a bank website!!!! What else can happen in Sri Lanka, if some set of robbers get these information? When I click on "Continue" I am taken to the registration form at http://www.citizens.lk/register.php Now this is an insecure page. A secured web page, to collect sensitive customer information should have a 128 encription, with a URL begining with https:// Above registration form is not https:// It's basic http://. Meaning, any "smart geek" can steal my personal information, while it's been transmitted from my computer to the defence ministry server! Basic security issues in web design. Needless to say; I decided not to register myself, due to this simple factor. There's no gurantee that my data is only accesible by the people who are intended to get it. There are no privacy policy stated. How about a guy working in this website project, decide to sell all the information to some direct marketing firm?? There are no any help menus for the information to be filled. For example, as some one living on rent; I am clueless whether I have to fill my temporary address or the permanent address (where I am no longer living at) as my location. In summary, this clearly appears to be something done in a hurry. No proper planning has gone into this project. For the people involved, it might be a simple thing. But for the people who are suppose to be register on this site; there are major security threats of losing their privacy. I am confident enough to register my self in the Defence ministry. But not through this website. This is losely designed, and highly insecured!!!

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Let’s Raise Funds to Buy a CCTV System for Sirasa TV and Maharaja….

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage (One of the worst mouths out of 100 odd ministers we have), after a long time has said something meaningful!

He asks “Why the attackers of Sirasa Studios, were not captured on the CCTV system inside the complex?”

Actually this was a question came to my mind; the first time I heard the story of the attack. MTV/MBC claim that their facility at Depanama is one of the well equipped, state of the art TV studios in whole South Asia. Now, a CCTV system should be a basic requirement to have; to be qualified as such a state of the art facility. Even small pawn shops these days have CCTV. In the entire news coverage about this incident so far; Sirasa has never mentioned that the CCTV system was attacked, or disabled by the thugs, before they enter the studio complex. From my experience, a CCTV systems are manufactured to bare even a massive fire or a blast. The CCTV system at Minister Douglas Devananda’s office, captured the footage of the suicide bomber who blasted herself inside his office.

Now these are the questions!

1) Wasn’t there a CCTV system fixed at Depanama studio complex?
2) If there were CCTV; then where are the footages of that night?
3) If it was disabled or damaged by the thugs; why wasn’t it mentioned in the news?

I think lot of mysteries and blame games would be solved if, Sirasa can release these CCTV footages to police (and later to media).

Another question is; know that there are security threats for their facility complex in Depanama, why didn’t they kept a “hidden cameraman” (Not CCTV. A News crew) around the studio complex? I remember, they have sent secret cameramen to capture footages of Minister Alavi Maulana visiting some under world thug’s house, and to cover the recent incidents at Blood Bank. Why didn’t they keep a similar camera crew to cover themselves up, if they were expecting a security threat?

Minister Mervin Silva’s drama at Rupavahini was well captured on camera. Wasn’t there a single person inside that entire studio, to capture at least 1 thug out of these 20 came that night, at least on a camera phone? Not as motion. A snap shot???? Shame on the so called “News FIRTST” team!!!!

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A Response to Dinindu De Alwis

This is in response to the original post by Dinindu De Alwis on his blog. I would have posted this as a comment on his blog. But then again I thought, since he posted his original article as a response to one of my earlier posts; it's better to go as a new post.

My dear Dinidu; the 3 years old small kid,

Your blog posts, and anger against Rajapakshe's reminds me nothing, but my own "childhood" where I was fallen to the traps laid by people like Sunanda Deshapriya, Victor Ivon and Sunil Madava Premathilake, during early 90's where Premadasa was ruling. The people I mentioned above, used their pens to project a "dictator" profile over Premadasa, and we as little kids those days fallen to their traps. We lighted fire crackers, when we heard the news of Premadasa's death. But today, we know premadasa wasn't involved in Kobbekaduwa killing. He wasn't involved in Ethulathmudali killing. He wasn't involved in Clancy Fernendo killing. And of course he was not involved in his own assassination. We now know what was the invisible hand behind these killings, and who supported it.

Today, I don't blame you. You think this country was a heavan, before you were born 3 years ago. You are just a little kid (3 years old! Born in 2005), who is just blindly following the death traps laid by people like Sunanda Deshapriya, Kumar Rupasinghe, Pakayasoththi Saravanamuttu, and of course the invisible hand V P Prabhakaran. I don't blame you for your stupidity. You inherit your stupidity, from the social class you were born in. The class which believed the independence in 1948 was the worst thing ever happened to Sri Lanka. The class that still believe, it is a shamed to be ruled under a "sarong man" president coming from a southern rural village (Likes of Premadasa and Mahinda). The class which, Kumar Rupasinghe, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Sunanda Deshapriya, and Pakayasoththi Saravanamuththu belongs to. It's all in your ego! You still can't digest the fact that, Sri Lanka's power has shifted out of Colombo 7. You are in a "natural battle" to regain that power. You believe, it's still worth to regain that power, even at the cost of giving a part of this country to Prabhakaran.

I don't blame you. You are still a little kid. 3 years old as I said before.

You people are frustrated now. You can't go to western countries and settle there, because the white men treat you as second class citizens. You don't have a backbone to fight against them, for your fundamental rights there. That's why some "half Canadians" have settled back in Colombo, while still blaming this country as a "cursed land". If this is a cursed land, why don't they use their PR in Canada? Because, in Canada, they are treated as second class citizens. Now, when they come here; their social class has lost the powers they used to enjoy under JRJ and CBK. So they have a right to be frustrated.

For people like you, who never stepped out of Colombo, and catch a public train or a bus to see what's happening around in rest of Sri Lanka, these things cannot be understood. Colombo is not Sri Lanka. I'm just another voice in Colombo. Difference between you and me, is I know the big picture about Sri Lanka. You don't know. Because you are only 3 years old. You were born on 17th November 2005. You haven't had a time learn the history of this country! poor child. God bless you.

P.S.
I don't want to drag this debate any further :-) If you have any follow up comments, you can leave a comment here or write to me at voiceincolombo@gmail.com

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Politcs Over Dead Bodies!

Sri Lanka is popular for doing politics with dead bodies. When a political movement is directly heading down the barrel, due to various reasons starting from weak leadership to ever increasing popularity of the opponents; the best blessing they could have is a dead body to carry around the corners. Ranil’s UNP, at last found the dead body they wanted! Now they can drag their political fate to another few months forward, with the dead body of Lasantha Wickramatunga.

Assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga is brutal, immoral, and unacceptable and should be condemned without any second thoughts. All though some extremist groups are justifying the killing of Lasantha Wickramatunga, pointing him as a “traitor” and deserved this fate; I don not personally believe and endorese any sort of violence against the people who hold different opinions in the society. Lasantha’s opinions were totally different from mine. His intentions were clearly questionable. In my books, he was never a genuine gentleman or an honest media person as many of his supporters trying to emphasize. His paper was clearly biased, and published with lots of hidden agendas. (Lasantha’s fans might have the most common arguement “It’s fair, because government media do the same for the other side”).

BUT NONE OF THE ABOVE REASONS COULD JUSTYFY THE BRUTALITY IN WHICH, LASANTHA WAS ASSASINATED!

It should not have been happened. It was a clear shame on our country. And now what?

As always is very common pro-UNP bloggers and a regional organizer (who self proclaimed to be “different”. Huh! What’s so different about being a UNP’er??? My grand father also used to be a UNP local government member!!!) has already conducted their part of the investigation, and concluded that “Mahinda Rajapakshe’s government has definitely killed Lasantha!”

They cannot be blamed! They are just blindly following their “backboneless leader”. Ranil Wickramasinghe was so depressed by the recent progress the government is making in the war front, and he saw it is definite that the upcoming elections will add to his “never ending series” of election losses. For a hopeless person like that; the pre-dawn attack on Sirasa Station and the killing of Lasantha was the ideal New Year gift. Now he has something to shout at, to degrade the recent progress in the war front.

The Pro-UNP Blogosphere

The Pro-UNP Blogosphere was completely silent during fast few months, about the progress our forces were making against the terrorists. Indi, Dinidu De Alwis, Ajith, and most others. They were shattered by their prediction that this government will never going to win this war against LTTE.

They first said, government will collapse (due to economic reason) if they continue operations in the East.

Once the East was liberated, they said “What’s in East? Go and attack Killinochchi and Mulativu!”

When the war in North progressed, they predicted “Government can’t afford anymore on the war. LTTE will do everything to defend Killi, so government will run out of funds before Killi falls to Army”.

Once the Killinochchi was captured, the dreams of these pro-UNP bloggers seems to be shattered to pieces. The “dream” of Mahinda Rajapakshe, that most of these people (along with Prabhakaran) thought that would never come tru; has come true!! Now they say “Government will never be able to capture Prabhakaran”

Now they have the concession of Sirasa incident and Lasantha’s killing.

Dinidu De Alwis calls the soldiers of Sri Lanka Army, as “uniform clad brainwashed cronies” He forgets, that it is because of these “uniform clad brainwashed cronies “ that it is possible for him to live his comfortable life in Colombo, without being killed by a Claymore. Or may be he won’t be killed. (LTTE never kill the people who support them!).

And, UNP Bandaragam Organizer has re-done the lyrics of a popular Sinhala Song, praising the efforts by armed forces of this country, as this!

These are the clear signs of frustration, about disadvantage they get politically; by the victories the armed forces are gaining. These traitors are damn enough to disgrace the soldiers of our army, who are fighting a selfless war. Of course for a salary. But, to take the risk of losing your life, just to earn a 5 figure salary is not easy.


Clearly these people are now completely in sane. They see that LTTE will be soon eliminated from this country, and that will create a remarkable point in the history of this country. Clearly, the people will continue to admire the “leader” and his party, who rescued this country from terrorism, and it will make the life difficult for Ranil and his supporters to come to power. This is the psychology working inside the bloggers like Indi and Deane too.

How Does this Link the the Present Situation of the Country?

Prabhakaran’s “Heroes Day” speech this time was “begging” to the international community, to intervene in Sri Lanka and rescue the tigers. The word “International Community” was used over and over again, in his speech. It’s funny that the pro-UNP’ers (Including the above mentioned bloggers) are now saying the similar things. “Sri Lanka need international intervention”.

If International intervention is the objective of tiger leader; attack on Sirasa station and Killing of Lasantha are two good reasons for an international intervention, based on press freedom and fundamental rights.

Now who wanted an international intervention? Clearly the LTTE and UNP.

By killing Lasantha, and attacking on Sirasa, who will get the benefit? The people who wanted an international intervention.

These are the questionable areas! The government is in a clear advantage (politically) for next few elections against the UNP, with the popularity they gained from victories against terrorists. Terrorists are clearly getting defended. So, why should a government with 110 ministers with atleast a brain cell each for one of those, should do a idiotic acts like attacking Sirasa or Killing Lasantha?

The way things are progressing, we can clearly see a connection of Prabhakarans call for “international intervention” and the two recent attacks on Media. We could expect similar things to happen in next few weeks too. And we could expect, people like Ajith, Indi and Dinidu continue to write their “blind faith” blog posts, without knowing what’s really happening around; just cool down their boiling “Green Blood”.

To end this note, I would like to add some more “future events” to the list of 10 events Bandaragama Ajith has posted in his “not so different” blog.

11) Thissa Attanayake will conduct a press conference and say Lasantha was killed by Mahinda

12) On Monday, the funeral organizers will bring the coffin of Lasantha to a high security zone, without prior approval from the authority. When they are refused to enter, they will riot.

13) If possible, they will make sure another few people get killed or injured in those riots

14) Then Thissa Attanayake will provide fake documents saying that “we had the authority to take coffin from that road”.

15) Poor Lasantha’s body will become, yet another “political object” for Ranil to gain a little bit popularity.

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Prabhakaran's New Song: It must have been war, but it's over now!

If you loved "It must have been love" by Roxette, you would loe this one too!

Lay your weapons, on the ground..
Leave the cyanide on the floor..
I wake up suddenly, is there a silence...
In the bunker..... and all around

Shoot me now..... I close my eyes
And run away...

It must have been war, but it's over now
We must have been good, but we lost it somehow
It must have been war, but it's over now
From the moment we lost [Killinochchi], till the cadres run out

Make believing we're together
That I'm sheltered by a civillian sheild
But in and outside I turn to water [In the Indian Ocean]
Like a shitdrop in your arse

And it's a hard winter's day
I run away...

It must have been war, but it's over now
Ealam was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been war, but it's over now
It's where the pee flows, it's where the fart blows

It must have been war, but it's over now
We must have been good, but we lost it somehow
It must have been war, but it's over now
From the moment we lost [Killinochchi], till the cadres run out

Lyrics of the Original Song is here

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Blast in Colombo - Airforce Headquarters

 

A massive blast heard in Colombo. unconfirmed reports says a suicide LTTE attack near Airforce Headquarters (Near Trans Asia Hotel)

A suicide blast occurred opposite the Sri Lanka Air force office near Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo a while ago. Several have been injured, says SLAF spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara. - Update Via Ada Derana

Colombo National Hospital is receiving casualties of the suicide blast near Trans Asia Hotel / Airforce Headquarters

More than 30 people admitted to the Colombo National Hospital. A supporter of the suicide bomber said to be captured by the public around (unconfirmed)

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