30 September 2006
Tamil
National Forum
29 September 2006 Festivals of the Tamils
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Dr.S.Jayabarathi, Malaysia
on Navarathi - Saraswathy Poosai: நவராத்தி - சரஸ்வதி பூசை "நாமகளை மனமுருகிப் பிரார்த்தனை செய்தால் போதும்.
பணத்தைக் கொட்டிப் படாடோபமாக நீட்டி முழக்கிச்செய்யும்
பூஜைகளினால்தான் அம்பிகை மனமகிழ்வாள் என்ற எண்ணம் எப்படியோ ஆழமாக
வேரூன்றிவிட்டது. தனக்கே சரியாகத்
தெரியாமல் வாய்க்கு வந்ததைச்
சொல்லிக்கொண்டு, ஆயிரக்கணக்கில்
செலவழித்து, பட்டுப்புடவைகளை நெய்யில் முக்கியெடுத்து நெருப்பில் போட்டு
எரிப்பதால் அம்பாள் ஏமாந்துவிடுவாளா, என்ன?
அவளுக்கு வேண்டியது ஆழமான, எளிமையான பக்தி.
அவ்வளவே!"
more |
29 September 2006 International
Relations in the Age of Empire
| 1.
China's Geostrategy: Playing a Waiting Game
"..China's military education programs have given
Beijing some tangible benefits with many of its graduates assuming
senior positions in their respective countries...While most countries
still send their very best, the chief of staff material, to Western
academies, many officers reaching less senior positions such as one star
and two star generals are increasingly being trained in China. All
armies in Africa and a few in Latin America and Southeast Asia have
N.D.U. graduates at the ranking of colonel or brigadier... China is
also assuming a major role in regions where the U.S. presence has been
curtailed by domestic politics, such as in the cases of South
America and some parts of the Middle East. From Venezuela alone, an
estimated 30 officers have graduated from various P.L.A. academies in
recent years..." more
2.Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez Speech to the United Nations "..The President of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right
here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear
extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your
dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom." Wherever he looks,
he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color,
and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy
president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The
imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are
extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all
over. And people are standing up..."
more |
28 September 2006 TamilNational Forum
to include
|
1.
R.Cholan writes from USA about The Poor Man’s Air Force by
Mike Davis
"..The
following is a 19-page article on the history of the Car-Bomb. I found
this article quite fascinating for more reasons than one. Firstly
the title of the article, as it appeared in the Harper’s Magazine
[October 2006], reads: ‘The Poor Man’s Air Force’. Car-bombs - the
equivalent of Air Force bombs! Many, who arrogate righteousness for
themselves, however, like to make a distinction. They prefer the label
‘barbaric’ for car-bombings, and ‘virtuous’ for air-bombings, when in
fact both have the same identical effects on their victims. They both
blow human beings to bits...."
more
2.
Sara
Ananthan from Australia -
Globalization and Our Place Under the Sun
"..It was said that the
gun powder was invented by the Chinese but the gun was
invented by the Europeans. Ever since, the geo politics of
the world appears to have become hostage to the threat of
gun diplomacy. Despite all the pep talk about globalization
and bringing equality and prosperity to all by the spread of
democracy, the balance of power is held by the threat of
atomic annihilation. It makes a mockery of all the progress
made by humanity in morality and ethics in all these
centuries. In addition, in the United Nations (UN) – the
august body of international affairs, the balance of power is
wielded by the threat of the veto. So there is no
democracy and fair play in international affairs. It is a
law of the jungle – the survival of the fittest (military might is
supreme) and the confirmation of the maxim that might is right in
international affairs. There appears to be a
nexus between the application of these amoral statecraft
policies and the unscrupulous think tanks, corrupted policy
advisors, lobby groups and media moguls
in the age of
Empire. These minions with highly decorative qualifications
will not dare tell the Emperor that he has no moral clothes
as they are paid servants serving their political masters in servitude..."
more
3.
Ana Pararajasingham from
Australia -
A Tribute to Adrian Wijemanne |
27 September 2006
Reflections
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Robert Greenleaf in
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
"...Who is the enemy? Who is holding back more rapid
movement to the better society that is reasonable and
possible with available resources? Who is responsible
for the mediocre performance of so many of our
institutions? Who is standing in the way of a larger
consensus on the definition of the better society and
the paths to reaching it? Not evil people. Not stupid
people. Not apathetic people. Not the “system”. Not the
protesters, the disrupters, the revolutionaries, the
reactionaries…The real enemy is fuzzy thinking on the
part of good, intelligent, vital people, and their
failure to lead, and to follow servants as leaders..."
more |
27 September 2006
Indictment Against Sri Lanka: Genocide'83 to include
N.Sanmugathasan, Leader
of Maoist Ceylon Communist Party on
Sri Lanka's Week of Shame
27 September 2006
Tamil National Forum
| 1. Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia and asks
பயங்கரவாதம் என்றால் என்ன?
2. Sachi Sri
Kantha writes from Japan on
Diplomatic Recognition
for Tamil Eelam State
"...I was hardly surprised by the text of
what President Mahinda Rajapakse had
spoken at the recently concluded Non Aligned Movement summit in Havana.. The Sri Lankan President’s
address was packed with nothing but the routine claptrap cliches we have come to
expect from the leading top dogs of the island. What can one expect from
run-of-the mill Sri Lankan politicians who suffer from mind block and timidity
to not read the history of valiant struggles for liberation, led by guys like
Washington, Mao, Begin and Mandela?.."
more
3. Brian
Senewiratne writes from Australia -
In the path of
Adrian Wijemanne
"...Adrian was,
like me, a Sinhalese who has, for many years, campaigned
for the cause of the Tamil people. There are some
similarities between the two of us but also some
enormous differences which will become apparent as we go
along. In following “the Path of Adrian”, I am not
referring to myself. I invite all of you, to
follow the enlightened path blazed by Adrian.."
more |
22 September 2006
Reflections
| " First they ignore you, then they
laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Mahatma Gandhi |
22 September 2006 Sathyam Commentary
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Tamils Rally in Tamil Eelam, September
2005 |
Nadesan Satyendra - On Terrorism
& Liberation "Sinhala Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse was at pains,
at the conference of the Non- Alignment Movement in Havana on 16 September
2006, to draw a distinction between terrorism and liberation. And that is understandable. He was, after all,
speaking in the land of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara... Having said that, President Rajapakse's address affords an opportunity
to examine the rhetoric of those who would suppress struggles for freedom
with the cry of 'terrorism' - and an opportunity to call for the liberation of political
language along with the liberation of peoples. What
is terrorism? Is all resort to violence
to secure political ends, terrorism?... Is it that there
are no circumstances in which a people ruled by an alien
people may
lawfully resort to arms to liberate themselves?..."
more |
21 September 2006 Tamil
National Forum
 Sachi
Sri Kantha writes from Japan on
The Mind of Mao and Its Relevance to Eelam
"..It has been my view for long time that
Eelam Tamils have been too much Indo-centric in their
world view. Among Eelam Tamils, for three generations,
we have had hundreds of arm chair experts and
politicians who could talk for hours on the liberation
ideology of Gandhi and Nehru. But, one could count in
two palms, Tamil specialists who have read Mao in-depth
(at least in English translation). While nothing is wrong in being comfortable with
Indo-centric thinking, it would also help Tamils if we expand our world view
beyond the boundaries of India and elicit some interest on India’s neighbor
China and its politico-military history of the 20th century to
comprehend what Mahatma Gandhi’s junior contemporary Mao Ze Dong contributed to
China’s liberation from her oppressors..."
more |
20 September 2006 Sri
Lanka Accused at United Nations to include
Briefing Paper on the Armed
Conflict in Sri Lanka: the Rajapakse Era - International Law
Project
 18 September 2006
Strength of an Idea -Revolution
in the Revolution? - Regis Debray "...The guerrilla force is independent of the civilian
population, in action as well as in military organisation; consequently it need not assume
the direct defence of the peasant population. The protection of the population depends on
the progressive destruction of the enemy's military potential. It is relative to the
overall balance of forces: the populace will be completely safe when the opposing forces
are completely defeated.......
By restricting
itself to the task of protecting civilians or passive self-defence, the
guerrilla unit ceases to be the vanguard of the people as a whole and
deprives itself of a national perspective... By choosing to operate at this level, it may be able to provide protection
for the population for a limited time. But in the long run the opposite is true:
self-defence undermines the security of the civilian population.... limiting oneself to passive defence is to place
oneself in the position of being unable to protect the population and to expose one's own
forces to attrition. On the other hand, to seek for ways to attack the enemy is to put him
on the permanent defensive to exhaust him and prevent him from expanding his activities,
to wrest the initiative from him, and to impede his search operations...."
more
 18
September 2006
Tamil
National Forum - Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia
தியாகத்தின்
செய்தி "...பத்தொன்பது ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு நல்லூர்க் கந்தசாமி
கோவில் வீதியில் ஓருயிர் தன்னைத்தானே சிலுவையில் அறைந்து கொண்டது.
தனது மக்களின் விடிவுக்காக, தனது வாழ்வைத் தியாகம் செய்து, தனது
சாவைச் சந்திப்பதற்காக அந்த உயிர் தன்கையில் எடுத்துக் கொண்ட
ஆயுதம் அகிம்சை என்ற அழைக்கப்பட்ட கோட்பாடு ஆகும்!..."
more
[together with
Translation in English: Sacrificial Message – 19 years On…]
15 September 2006 Tamils
a Trans State Nation: Australia to include
Kuruntokai
Dance Drama Presented by Lingalayam Dance Company in Australia - Review by Parasakthy Sundharalingam
13 September 2006
Reflections
| " Every adherent of the Congress,
however noisy in declamations, however bitter in speech,
is safe from burning bungalows and murdering Europeans
and the like. His hopes are based upon the British
nation and he will do nothing to invalidate these
hopes and anger that nation." Retired British
civil servant, A.O.Hume writing, not about writers on
the world wide web, but about the Indian National
Congress that he founded in 1885 |
12 September 2006
Sathyam Commentary
Nadesan Satyendra - Black Pebbles & White Pebbles
"...Sometimes, the Tamil response to
the international community, takes on the characteristics of the
teen age girl's response in the pebble story. It seems
that we avoid confronting the international community
for fear of provoking its ire.
We avoid seeking an open dialogue with the international community on
its strategic imperatives and the true rationale for its actions. We
resort to subterfuge. We say that
our way is the 'anuku murai' - the diplomatic way to 'approach' issues.
We claim that this is the effective way. But has this 'anuku murai'
succeeded? Again the result of not calling a spade
a spade is that we confuse our own people. We confuse
our people by leading them to believe that the
international community is without sufficient
'cleverness' to respond to our subterfuge with
its own subterfuge and advance its own agenda. We confuse our people by
leading them to believe that all that needs to be done
is to wake up the international community to the facts
and the justice of our cause and all will be well. This is the
limitation of our discourse. It is a limitation that we need to
transcend. Diplomacy may be the art of lying without getting caught but
a struggle for freedom is not..."
more |
12 September 2006
Tamil
National Forum
9 September 2006
Reflections
|
1.
"...We who lived in concentration camps can
remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others,
giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in
number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be
taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms
- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one's own way..."
Viktor Emil Frankl
in Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning
2."...We each have a wide range of concern -
our health, our children, problems at work, the national
debt, nuclear war. We could separate those from things
in which we have no particular mental or emotional
involvement by creating a "Circle of Concern." As
we look at those things within our Circle of Concern,
it becomes apparent that there are some things over
which we have no real control and others that we can do
something about. We could identify those concerns in
the latter group by circumscribing them within a smaller
Circle of Influence.
|
|
By determining which of
these two circles is the focus of most of our time and
energy, we can discover much about the degree of our proactivity. Proactive people focus their efforts in
the Circle of Influence. They work on the things
they can do something about. The nature of their
energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing
their Circle of Influence to increase. Reactive
people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the
Circle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of
other people, the problems in the environment, and
circumstances over which they have no control. Their
focus results in blaming and accusing attitudes,
reactive language, and increased feelings of
victimization. The negative energy generated by that
focus, combined with neglect in areas they could do
something about, causes their Circle of Influence to
shrink." Stephen Covey in
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
8 September 2006
Tamil National Forum to include
|
An
Exchange of Letters between an Uncle & a Nephew "..I would not place too much faith in
'Only God and a Miracle' can help us.
Neither would I lose sleep, pondering over 'what the LTTE's plans are
for the future'.
Much can be done by us 'to stop these
atrocities'.
Every bit counts, and little drops can make it all flow. 'REACH Out' should be the motto.
'Knock and it shall open' phenomenon will certainly work for all of us.
Look out and find 3 to 4 persons around you in whom you have confidence,
who think alike, those you can work with, and those who care for the Tamil
people in the North-East. Follow your friends or become their
leader/guide in this divine effort. You now have the Miracle in your
hands..."
more |
7 September 2006
Media & the Tamil Struggle
|
BBC Reporter
Dumeetha Luthra |
Reuban Nanthakumar writes from
Australia on
BBC and
its Flirtations with Sri Lankan Propaganda
"...In a
response written by the BBC’s South Asia editor, Bernard
Gabony, he defends their reporting by arguing that
both the Tamils and Singhalese accuse them of bias, and as
such it can only mean that they are neutral. That is wishful
thinking. The truth from one side cannot be “balanced” with
a lie from another. Neither can it be considered balanced if
the BBC suppresses vital facts of atrocities against the
Tamils. The BBC is not there to tally the votes, but to
report the facts. ..The “fog of
war” does indeed apply to Sri Lanka, but the BBC is yet
to reach its broadcast standards seen in other conflict
areas such as the Middle East. No, it’s far from perfect
over there, but at least, their Middle East coverage
provides enough balance for the viewers to make a
reasoned opinion. This is possibly due to reports from
the region being closely monitored and commented on
strongly by both Arabs and Jews alike – a task that is
disappointingly abandoned by the global Tamil community.
They should realise that their survival from ethnic
cleansing depends on their ability to keep news
organizations like the BBC honest and true to their
principles. Ultimately, where governments misgovern and
news organizations fail, it is the public who are left
to police the actions of those to whom they pay
attention. British citizens, who both directly and
indirectly fund the BBC, as well as the global audience,
have to determine if their trust can be allowed to be
abused continually, or act now and demand the respect
they deserve..."
more |
6 September 2006
Conflict Resolution: Sri Lanka - Tamil
Eelam
|
1.
International Federation of Tamils:
Sri Lanka's
Military Annexation Of Sampur A Complete Collapse Of
CFA? 2.
Statement from
Mr.Phillip Alston, Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial
Executions on proposed International Human Rights
Monitoring Commission
"...Another factor suggesting the value of international monitoring is that
the conflict between the Government and the LTTE is ultimately a
struggle for legitimacy, not territory. The conflict has no military
solution, and mere adjustment of the facts on the ground will not
fundamentally change either party's position in future negotiations. The
LTTE's hopes for autonomy or independence rest on persuading the
domestic and international communities that this would be the best
solution in human rights terms ..."
together with
comments by
tamilnation.org
"...if the international community
is truly concerned to play a Good
Samaritan role and is intent on securing the 'best
solution in human rights terms', the
question that Tamils may rightly ask Mr.Alston is to
explain why it is that the international
community has not been persuaded by the
delaration made by the Gandhian Tamil leader
S.J.V.Chelvanyagam in 1975 that the 'best solution
in human rights terms'
to the conflict in the island is to secure the
freedom of the Tamil people from alien Sinhala rule.
...The Tamils are a reasonable people
and they will welcome a reasoned response from
Mr.Alston so that they may be persuaded of the
'neutrality' of the views that he has expressed. There is ofcourse one other matter. Mr.
Alston is perhaps, understandably silent on the strategic
interests that the 'international community' seek to
secure in Indian region... is the international
community truly concerned about securing the 'best solution
in human rights terms' as Mr.Alston would have us
believe or are the trilaterals
(US, the European Union and Japan) and India (and
now China) concerned to prevent a resolution of the
conflict except on terms which secure each of their
own differing strategic interests in the Indian
region..."
more
|
5 September 2006
Tamil National Forum
|
Sachi Sri Kantha writes from Japan on
Tamil Mind
and Tiger Mind: A 1994 Debate between S.Sivanayagam and Ketheesh Loganathan " In late 1994, the Sunday Observer of Colombo published three
features (two by distinguished
journalist S.Sivanayagam and one by the then EPRLF theoretician
Ketheesh Loganathan) on the theme of ‘Tamil
Mind and Tiger Mind’. Shortly afterwards, I received copies of these three
articles from Sivanayagam himself, and I reproduce these below for their topical
interest...
Loganathan’s pet peeve for nearly two decades (from 1983 to 2006) has been,
whether LTTE deserves the ‘sole, legitimate representative’ status for Eelam
Tamils... After listing the alphabet soup of Eelam Tamil entities which have
‘Liberation’ in their names (TULF, PLOTE, TELO, ENDLF and EPRLF), Sivanayagam’s
smashing return was,
“Tamil people have never been short of liberators. What
seems to be the difference between the ‘self-proclaimed liberators’ in the
LTTE and other self-proclaimed liberators is that the former is at least in
the liberation business!”
more
|
3 September 2006
Sri Lanka's War Crimes to
include
 Eight
Months after Sri Lanka Para militaries abducted 7 Staff
Members of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation
and 5 days after TRO Jaffna Office was destroyed by Sri
Lanka Army -
Sinhala
Sri Lanka government freezes bank accounts of the Registered Charity
"Humanitarian assistance to the recently displaced
people of the NorthEast by local NGOs, INGOs and even UN
agencies has now been effectively shut down by the
actions of members of the Sri Lankan security forces.
Currently, due to the pullout of most international
agencies from the NorthEast, TRO is one of a handful of
organizations assisting those recently displaced by war.
TRO wishes to categorically state that the current
humanitarian situation in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka is
reaching a critical stage. There is a desperate need,
recognized by all who are involved in humanitarian work,
which the international community is being prevented
from responding to effectively. The timing of this
action by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka with callous
disregard to its consequences truly shocks not only the
TRO staff but also the Tamil Diaspora community."
more |
3 September 2006
Reflections
| “..Any change, any loss, does not
make us victims. Others can shake you, surprise you,
disappoint you, but they can't prevent you from acting,
from taking the situation you're presented with and
moving on. No matter where you are in life, no matter
what your situation, you can always do something. You
always have a choice and the choice can be power.” -
Blaine Lee author of
The Power
Principle : Influence With Honor |
2 September 2006
Sathyam Commentary
 The Charge is Genocide,
the Struggle is for Freedom... - Nadesan Satyendra
"...And to those in the international community who continue to speak of their
willingness to recognise the 'legitimate aspirations' of the Tamil people (but
who refrain from spelling out what in their view is 'legitimate') the time has come
to reiterate that which Gandhian leader S.J.V.Chelvanayagam declared 32 years ago
and say that that it is the legitimate aspiration of the
Tamil people to be free from alien Sinhala rule... Does
the international community agree that the aspiration of
the Tamil people to be free from alien Sinhala rule is a
legitimate aspiration? Or does it take the view
that Gandhian leader S.J.V. Chelvanayagam was wrong and that the aspiration
of the people of Tamil Eelam to be free from alien Sinhala
rule is not a 'legitimate' aspiration? If the latter be the case, has not the time come for the
international community to explain to the people of Tamil Eelam
its reasons for insisting that the Tamil people be ruled by a
permanent Sinhala majority within the confines of a single state? Perhaps, the time has also come for the Tamil people to engage in a dialogue with the
international community and tell them that they may ban the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam but they cannot ban the
cry of a people for freedom from
alien rule. And here let us be clear. The struggle of the people
of Tamil Eelam to be free from
alien Sinhala rule
is not about what the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam may have done
or may not have done. The armed resistance of the people of Tamil Eelam (warts and
all) arose as the inevitable response to decades of efforts by
successive Sinhala governments
to conquer and assimilate the Tamil people and the
enactment of the
6th Amendment to the Sri Lanka constitution set the seal by
criminalising all non violent means of struggle for an
independent Tamil Eelam state.."
more |
1 September 2006 Sri
Lanka's War on Eelam Tamils - in the Shadow of a Ceasefire
to include
|
Sri Lanka's military conducting slow pogrom - Tamil
Guardian on Race War "The
deliberate displacement of over 160,000 Tamils by Sri
Lankan military offensives and attacks this year
combined with the purposeful blocking of food, medicine
and relief supplies amounts to a 'slow pogrom' of the
Tamils... Whilst trotting out the tired
counter-insurgency rhetoric of 'hearts and minds' and a
glib insistence that Tigers, not Tamils, are the target,
Sri Lanka's military has always been ready to punish the
Tamils for the LTTE's violence" ...more |
1 September 2006
Media & the Tamil Struggle: Censorship, Disinformation & Murder of Journalists
to include
Maharaja TV employee abducted
in Colombo
|
