Would love to one day. Needs at least 3 months to travel in India.rajsunder
Thusitha,
why dont u visit Chennai and see the number of Hindi moves being run in theaters to see the situation on the ground.
The next 25 years are going to be very interesting not just for the would be republics of present day India but also for its neighbours 
thusitha wrote: But Chennai is Tamil Nadu. What are you trying to say? They appreciate Hindi? We watch English films. That doesn't mean we love English. More like lack of Choice.
Do you know how many tamil movies get made? Answer: A whole lot, there is no lack of choice.
joshvajohn wrote:India Hates Tamils. Sri Lanka hates Tamils. Maldives hate Tamils. Indonesia had enough of the Tamils. Sigapore and Malaysia are soon reaching the point of hatred. Only Canada, UK, and Norway likes the Tamils. Tamils should immigrate to these three countries and leave other countries in peace. they have become the parayas of the south east Asia.
Welcome to the club my friend. India is proof that God really exists. Indians love their freedom of expression and the fact that they have it compared to the pathetic condition of individual freedom in our neighbours!! If one were to conduct a real, fair survey in the Kashmir Valley, the shocking result would be that Kashmiris do not want any part of Pakistan's mess/genocide/jihad/revolving door farcial democracy/dictatorship/!!thusitha wrote:.... But to tell you the truth, I am very surprised that India with so many different languages, people, surrounded by not so friendly states are actually still together.Rahul M
you are not the first time who has predicted the imminent demise of the Indian state over the last 60 years. all of them had to eat their words
Mate, nowhere have I speculated that India is going to break up. For me to make such a statement I need to understand India. For me to do that I need to travel in India. Just reading about India would not give me any understanding of India. I have travelled extensively in South East Asia, Cetral-South America, U.S. and Europe and therefore I can comment bit on those countries. But I have no Idea about India (Although I have quite a lot of friends) PAK, Bangladesh or Nepal.Mahendra
Tushita my friend, you are winning no friends here by wildly speculating about the odds of India breaking up, ain't gonna happen because when push comes to a shove we all put away our petty differences and unite,
Are you kidding me? Look at some of the recent comments made by Canadians, Australians e.t.c. regarding Tamils trying to seek refugee status. Due to the recent behaviour by LTTE supporters every where in the world there is a bad reputation for the ordinary Tamils.joshvajohn
India Hates Tamils. Sri Lanka hates Tamils. Maldives hate Tamils. Indonesia had enough of the Tamils. Sigapore and Malaysia are soon reaching the point of hatred.
Only Canada, UK, and Norway likes the Tamils. Tamils should immigrate to these three countries and leave other countries in peace. they have become the parayas of the south east Asia.
)It was the most critical period in Pakistan's history. The sensational news of genocide and military crackdown on Mukti Bahini had raised a storm in world capitals. Pakistan was bereft of sympathy and support and totally isolated. The military government of Yahya Khan, instead of pacifying the Bengalis and engaging them in dialogue, decided to send cultural troupes to different capitals, including Colombo, to project Pakistan's soft image.
Colombo served PIA as a refuelling stop as its aircraft could not fly non-stop between Dhaka and Karachi. While a stop-over for fuelling was unavoidable, the crew decided to make a quick buck. The flight to Dhaka was primarily to augment our military presence. The return flights invariably carried bodies of army jawan who laid down their lives in defence of their motherland. Instead of having a sobering effect the crew used the stop-over to buy semi-precious stones, even paan. At that time a single leaf of paan was being sold in Karachi for Rs 5 each. Confronted with dead bodies, "the great people to fly with" were using the opportunity to enrich themselves.
Among Pakistan's neighbours, Sri Lanka was the only country that extended its full support to Pakistan's integrity. The prime minister came under intense pressure from India and the Hindu Tamils in Sir Lanka. Mrs B, as she was affectionately called, was indeed an Iron lady. She refused to cave in.
Among Pakistan's neighbours, Sri Lanka was the only country that extended its full support to Pakistan's integrity. The prime minister came under intense pressure from India and the Hindu Tamils in Sir Lanka. Mrs B, as she was affectionately called, was indeed an Iron lady. She refused to cave in.
It was a cold morning on December 17, 1972, when I as per routine entered the embassy. I saw hundreds of Sri Lankans sitting on the sprawling lawns. I went upstairs to inform the high commissioner of the presence of hundreds of Sri Lankans. In a brusque official tone he asked me to meet them. The 500 or so Muslims led by Sir Abubakar Fareed, who later served in Islamabad as Sri Lanka high commissioner, were sobbing and crying over the Dhaka surrender -- loss they could not bear.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: m.tayyab.siddiqui @gmail.com
.Philip - Wasn't the Puratchi Thalaivar a Tamil of Malabar extraction?Philip wrote:Poor man,Doesn't he know that the Dutch census of the island labelled the Jaffna Tamils as "Tamils of Malabar extraction"!
With origins from Palakkad Dt, in the modern day Socialist republic of Kerala. This link have another interesting nugget.Sridhar wrote:He was a Malayalee from Kandy.
Tamils throw weight behind general who crushed them
Tigers' political wing trying to oust incumbent president at January poll
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Sarath Fonseka, who is running for President, has said he will release Tamil youths held on suspicion of rebel links
Seven months after Sri Lanka's long and bitter civil war was brought to an end by a withering government assault, the political coalition that supported the Tamil Tigers has thrown its support behind the former army chief who crushed them.
In an ironic twist to the presidential election campaign being fought on the island, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) announced yesterday that it was supporting General Sarath Fonseka in his bid to defeat President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
At a press conference in the capital, Colombo, the leader of the TNA parliamentary group, Rajavarothayam Sambanthan, said his group had decided to support Mr Fonseka's candidacy to prevent another victory by Mr Rajapaksa, whose poor record on human rights and law and order made it vital that he be beaten.
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"The majority [of Tamils] are of the view that the only meaningful way in which the desire of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to seek a mandate for a further term may be thwarted is by voting for joint opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka," he said.
"Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have been common, and the worst affected are Tamil people. Corruption is rampant, and consequently the rule of law and good governance have reached the nadir."
For all its apparent irony, the TNA's decision to support the controversial general in the election on 26 January was not entirely unexpected. Analysts say that many voters who may instinctively not wish to back the former army chief are likely to do so as a protest vote against the incumbent.
In November, Mr Fonseka announced he was stepping down from his post as head of the defence staff and soon afterwards it was revealed he had reached an agreement with the opposition coalition, headed by the United National Party (UNP), to stand as its candidate against Mr Rajapaksa.
The President and the general had once been close allies, but in the aftermath of the military operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the military man was shifted sideways, prompting claims from Mr Fonseka that his role in the victory had not been sufficiently recognised. He later said that he was moved from his position as army chief because the President and his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, believed he was plotting a coup.
In an interview with a Sri Lankan paper published last month, Mr Fonseka also claimed that the President's brother had given orders that all the LTTE leadership be killed, even though some of them were seeking to surrender as government troops marched into their final stronghold last May. Perhaps conscious of a possible backlash, he later retracted the claim, saying he had been misquoted.
The increasingly heated election contest has split the support of the Sinhalese Buddhist establishment but Mr Fonseka has sought to position himself as candidate for minorities as well. Having previously claimed that Tamils should not receive the same rights as the Sinhalese majority, he has increasingly moderated his position and talked of equality, human rights and justice.
Over the weekend, with the campaign gathering pace, the former general toured the formerly rebel-held Jaffna Peninsula and said he would create an environment that encouraged business, relax security measures and return land seized by the military. He also said he would release hundreds of Tamil youths held on suspicion of having links to the rebels and offer amnesty and rehabilitation to hardcore fighters.
Making up 12 per cent of the population, Tamils represent an important electoral bloc and the UNP opposition coalition has been seeking to reach out to the TNA, which currently holds 22 seats in Sri Lanka's 225-member parliament.
"If the Tamils don't support Fonseka, then their vote is lost. It's more like a protest vote against Rajapaksa getting back into power," said one Colombo-based analyst who asked not to be identified. "In the 2005 election, there was a boycott by the Tamils. Had they taken part then Rajapaksa would not have won."
At yesterday's press conference, Mr Sambanthan did not comment on Mr Fonseka's role in the alleged abuse that is said to have taken place during the closing stages of the war, when the UN estimates up to 10,000 Tamil civilians were killed.
However, he said his party talked with both candidates about issues that were of importance to Tamils, such as the resettlement of some 300,000 civilians displaced by the war, the rehabilitation of areas destroyed by the fighting and the dismantling of so-called high-security zones in Tamil areas.
COLOMBO:Sri Lanka on Saturday released more than 700 former Tamil Tiger fighters from military custody following a rehabilitation program, an official said.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is touring the northern town of Vavuniya, handed over the ex-combatants to their immediate relatives, an army officer involved in the rehabilitation, Major General Daya Ratnayake, said.
"Out of some 12,000 Tiger combatants who are undergoing vocational training we have identified about 800 who had very minimal involvement with the Tiger movement," he added.
He said 713 out of the 800 identified for release were given over to their parents on Saturday while the others too would be freed soon.
Some of the Tiger rebels surrendered to security forces while others were arrested from among nearly 300,000 war-displaced civilians who moved into state-run internment camps during the final stages of fighting last year.
The agreement is backed by a Government of India line of credit for USD 185 million. It is part of a larger package of assistance directed at the rehabilitation of railway infrastructure in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, for which Government of India has committed a total amount of USD 425 million in lines of credit, it said. The latest agreement follows similar agreements that have been signed earlier for the rehabilitation of the Southern Railway corridor, which had been extensively damaged in the 2004 tsunami. Under that agreement, India is assisting in the rehabilitation of the Colombo-Matara rail link through a line of credit of USD 167.4 million. Work on the Colombo-Kalutara sector of this line is already at an advanced stage.
.Ex-Army Captain adds fuel to accusations against Fonseka
by Harischandra Gunaratna
Retired Army Captain Upul Illangange, currently resident in Oklahoma, USA, yesterday claimed that Presidential candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s son-in-law Danuna Tilakaratne had forged his signature and supplied arms to the Sri Lanka Army.
At a press conference in Colombo, the ex-soldier said that those transactions had been done with the full knowledge of the then Army Commander Gen. Fonseka and they were fraudulent. Fonseka had influenced certain officers in the army to purchase arms from his son in law’s company Hicorp International, Illangange said.
Illangange said that the address given by General Fonseka for his Green Card and the address under which Hicorp International had been registered were the same.
"After Tillakaratne came to know that I had discovered that my signature had been forged in the documents pertaining to Hicorp, he filed notice of change in the registered agent with Secretary of Sate of Oklahoma designating his friend Ruwinda Guanaratna as the new agent and changed the address of the company," he said.
Fonseka, serving as the Chairman of the Tender Board of the Army, had also greatly influenced the purchases from Hicorp International by the Army, Illangange alleged.
Ruvinda Gunaratne’s signature in the document of change of registration in 2009 did not match with his signature in the incorporation document of Hicorp in 2005, he said.
"I am in possession of all the documents pertaining to transactions with Hicorp International. If there is any threat to myself or my property General Fonseka should take responsibility," Illangange said.
Illangange said that he had known Fonseka for the last 35 years. He said: "We were family friends. The General has carried me on his shoulders when I was a kid. It was I who helped Gen Fonseka, his wife Anoma and his two daughters to obtain the Green Card which is a prerequisite for citizenship in the US."
PS:I must make a prediction too,that if Pres.Rajapakse is re-elected by hook or by crook (the latter seemingly the most likely),every scribe in the island who has attacked him will have to apply for asylum in a foreign land,joining their compatriots who fled earlier.The fate of Herr General der Fons too is open to question as all manner of cases against him for traitorous behaviour will be slapped upon him,specially his allegations about war crimes (quickly withdrawn but the damage was done to the GOSL in the eyes of the world).The next war however in the island will be a family affair fought between the various clans of the ruling family,if what one is told about the growing rivalry between the younger generation is true.Ninety Eight Per Cent Success: Fact Or Fiction?
Posted by admin on Jan 10th, 2010 and filed under serendipity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry from your site
During our college days long years ago, those who claimed to have scored 98 per cent were either called cribbers or geniuses.
Last week our President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that he had scored 98 percent of his election manifesto — the Mahinda Chinthanaya — presented at the last election while his Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga said on TV that his boss had scored 92 percent. Never mind the discrepancy, you know who will correct whom. But this claim of 98 per cent is stupendous and cannot be ignored. It is like other great claims of the great man.
Growing rice and pines on the moon
The problem for us in checking the veracity of the statement is that we don’t have the text of this sacred Chinthanaya with us nor have we read it. Now don’t blame us. Who reads election manifestos — the turgid prose that promises the horses, asses and the masses everything on earth? Now that there is a shortage of rice in the Pettah market caused by the genius of Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena and with reports that they have found water on the moon, there is quite a possibility of rice being imported from the moon as the erstwhile leader of the SLFP, Sirima Bandaranaike, promised in the sixties when the Soviets and Americans were trying to reach the moon.
It may be even possible that our export promotion enthusiasts will now attempt to grow pineapples on the dark side of the moon purely for export purposes while assuring the annasi eating yakkos that Gampaha Annasi will be aplenty for them.
No military solution in manifesto?
There are others who have cast doubts about this 98 per cent performance and this is only natural during election time. We went to the internet to find out about the successes and failures of the Chinthanaya and there appears to be quite a lot of doubters about this Chinthanaya magic. Some bloggers are even contesting the main claim of Rajapaksa: military success in defeating LTTE terrorism. The Chinthanaya, it is said, promises that on Rajapaksa winning the elections (in 2005) he would conclude negotiations with all political parties inside and outside parliament, clergy of all faiths, Tamil and Muslim organisations in the north and east within three months of coming to power and while the above process is underway, he would start direct discussions with the LTTE (that had not entered the democratic process) and for this purpose he intended meeting its leader as well.
Thus, it is argued that a military solution was not included in the Mahinda Chinthanaya and did not have the approval of the people. On the contrary Mahinda Rajapaksas’s greatest claim is that he had won the 30-year-old war on LTTE terrorism and this counts for 98 percent of his promises. If the military victory is taken away, the achievement will be close to zero.
Of course, the military victory today is hailed by most people but it has to be said that it was not in the original Rajapaksa thinking. It was all precipitated by the Mawilaru episode. The grand visionary, it appears has strayed from his own sacred text although now everything good that follows in this country, it is claimed, stems from this Chinthanaya.
Colossal disasters
As to the 98 per cent success claimed, the internet writers have listed a long list of disasters which we are not certain whether the manifesto has touched upon or not.
Some of the disasters unleashed on the people and the country quoted are: Rs 33,000 million fraud as stated in the COPE report; Loss of Rs. 6.6 billion by Mihin Lanka which had been given an additional Rs 3 billion; SriLankan Airlines losses of Rs.9.98 billion; CEB loses of Rs 39 billion; Ports Authority losses of Rs 3.5 billion; Petroleum Corporation losses of Rs 7.1 billion; SLTB losses of Rs 4.5 billion, Road Development Authority losses of Rs 9.9 billion; Tsunami donations unaccounted for Rs. 47 billion; Foreign Employment Ministry fraud Rs 100 million; Expenditure on 22 President’s Advisors Rs 150 million; 29 ministers ask for Rs 2.5 billion for over expenditure in buying luxury vehicles; Maga Neguma Project loss of Rs 1000 million; SriLankan Catering losses of Rs 9,000 million (last year’s profit being Rs 400 million).
Obviously there are much greater losses incurred during the four year rule of Rajapaksa such as on defence expenditure. It does appear that a billion rupees during this period was equivalent to a peanut, not even a cadju nut as we Sri Lankans used to say, because cadju nuts are so expensive. These figures do not account for the tragic loss of human lives that included 14 journalists killed in cold blood. Nonetheless the Chinthanaya bandwagon rolls on merrily.
Knee jerk racism
An ominous development last week was the reaction of the ruling party to the announcement that the Tamil National Alliance would extend their support to General Sarath Fonseka. The knee jerk reaction of the ruling party was an age old reflex: “Secret Pact between the TNA and Sarath Fonseka to divide the country.” This disgusting manthra has been repeated ad nauseam from the days of the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact, Dudley-Chelva Pact, JR’s agreements with the TULF, Chandrika’s attempts at reconciliation and Ranil’s Ceasefire Agreement. What would happen to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s passionate pleas after May last year, for communal amity and unity?
If
(A Serendipitous Find)
With apologies to Rudyard Kipling for distorting his famed lines.
If you can keep your head about you,
When your General is claiming victory which you say is your’s,
If you can keep your head cool about you,
When those around are doubting you and your brothers too.
If you can carry trays of flowers to appease the gods,
And take along camera crews and other odd bods,
You can make the masses believe that you are an arahat
Though the masses may say that’s all cock hat.
If you can be aloof to truths told about you and your brothers;
And call your accusers: rogues, scoundrels and traitors,
While you and your hurrah squads are all patriots true,
And all good people are SLFP Blue.
If you can swear to abide by the constitution,
And the next day call it a bahubootha abomination,
Ignore not only the 17th Amendment,
But whole of the damn JR Constitution!
Ban cut-outs and posters throughout the island,
And get Kudu Gemunu to plant them all round the land,
Get your hurrah boys to call you Maharajano,
And tell the masses you haven’t lost the common touch.
If you can do all that and more,
No one could touch you — no General, no Ranil Wicks.
On Jan 26 you can lead a happy band, And make Sri Lanka your family land!
Winning by crook? What exactly did you mean by that? Of course there is going to be election violence, and bit of rigging here and there. But the Presidential elections would most likely to be fair. Their is lot of claim that Government manipulates the state media, which is correct. But the whole of Independent (or not so independent) media supports UNP, which balances this. Also there is plenty of funding for UNP via the west and the pro LTTE organizations. Also SF has plenty of henchmen to do his dirty work as well as MR. Therefore this time around this is going to be a tough battle. But hopefully for SLs sake MR would win. Otherwise a country would go to a military despot who has no experience in civil administration.Phillip Said...
PS:I must make a prediction too,that if Pres.Rajapakse is re-elected by hook or by crook (the latter seemingly the most likely),every scribe in the island who has attacked him will have to apply for asylum in a foreign land,joining their compatriots who fled earlier