Whats New Archive
- August 2007 -
| 28 August 2007 Tamils: a Trans State Nation -
Malaysia அறிமுகம்
மலேசியத்
தமிழ் எழுத்துலக இணையத்தளம் "தமிழ்
மொழியை சுவாசிக்கும் மலேசியப் படைப்பாளர்களே, பன்மொழியும் பல்லின
மக்களும் வாழும் மலேசிய நாட்டில், தமிழ் மொழிக்காக தொண்டாற்றிய
பேரருளார்களை இளைய தலைமுறையினர் மட்டுமல்லாது உலகமெங்கும் வாழும் தமிழ்
மக்கள் அறிந்து கொள்ள இந்த அகப்பக்கம் நீண்ட யாத்திரை மேற்கொண்டுள்ளது." |
Week Ending:
Sunday, 26 August 2007
Reflections
1. "...All oppressed nations
want independence. Everything is subject to change.. In the past,
Britain made war on us many times. Britain, the United States...were all very
interested in this land of ours... Now, U.S. imperialism is quite
powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically
because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked
by everybody and by the American people too.
In appearance it is
very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a
paper tiger... Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S.
imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously...."
US
Imperialism is a Paper Tiger - Mao Tse Tung, 1956
2. " Imperialism is an institution under which one nation
asserts the right to seize the land or at least to control the
government or resources of another people."-
John T. Flynn
3. "As the country that benefits most from global
economic integration, we have the responsibility of making sure that
this new system is sustainable.. The hidden hand of the market will
never work without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish
without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the
hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's
technologies is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine
Corps....The global system cannot hold together without an activist
and generous American foreign and defense policy. Without America
on duty, there will be no America Online...
" Thomas Friedman, "A Manifesto for the Fast World", New York Times
Magazine, March 28, 1999
|
Tamil National Forum
Sachi
Sri Kantha writes from Japan -
Edmund Samarakkody on the Events of July/ August 1977
"
The outbreak in mid-August of the anti-Tamil pogrom
(the third such outbreak in two decades) has brought out the reality
that the Tamil minority problem in Sri Lanka has remained unresolved
now for nearly half a century, leading to the emergence of a
separatist movement among the Tamils.
As on previous occasions, what took place recently was not Sinhalese – Tamil
riots, but an anti-Tamil pogrom..."
more |
Tamils: a Trans State Nation - Malaysia
அறிமுகம் - " மலேசியாவில் நம்பிக்கைக்குரிய தமிழ் இளைஞர்களின்
ஒருங்கிணைப்பில் "வல்லினம்" காலாண்டிதழ் வெளிவந்துள்ளது. இதழின்
ஆசிரியராக திரு. ம. நவீன் செயலாற்றுகிறார். நவீன இலக்கியத்தை தமிழ்
மக்களுக்கு அறிமுகம் செய்ய மலேசியத் தமிழ் இளைஞர்கள் முயன்
றிருக்கிறார்கள். அதன் வெளிப்பாடுதான் வல்லினம்." |
International Relations in an Emerging Multi Lateral World
Unfolding
Consciousness: From Matter to Life to
Mind...
|
1.
Informing Ourselves To Death -
Neil Postman "..As things stand now,
the geniuses of computer technology.. will give us artificial
intelligence, and tell us that this is the way to self-knowledge. ..
But that is only the way of the technician, the fact-mongerer, the
information junkie, and the technological idiot. .. All our
inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end. .. There is
no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always
been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in
technological glory..."
more |
Conflict Resolution: Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka
|
1.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse's
All Party Representative
Committee Farce - 2006/2007
including
Comment by tamilnation.org
"..Today, 22 years
after
the Thimpu
Talks - July/August 1985, the Sri Lanka government and its apologists
(including Tissa Vitharane, Chair of the APRC)
continue to regard genuine 'federalism' as the unmentionable F
word. And they (together with the 'international
community') refuse to address the simple question: who
is to federate with whom? After all 'to federate' (federare) is
'to associate' with one another. The stand of the current Sinhala
political leadership (as well as
the
Sinhala opposition of Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mangala
Samaraweera) is no different from that which was enunciated
by Dr. H.W. Jayawardene, the leader of the Sri Lankan government
delegation to Thimpu..."
more
2. Revisited
Self Determination & the 'Multi Ethnic Plural Society'
- Nadesan Satyendra, 15 September 1993
"...In certain circles where a search is on for a solution to the armed conflict in the
island, the oft repeated mantra is that Sri Lanka is a 'multi ethnic plural society'. It
is a mantra which the Sri Lanka government has also found useful to chant from time to
time. The mantra has a nice meditative ring to it. It conjures up the soothing vision of a
society where all ethnic groups are equal and a plurality of view points is encouraged and
secured. But mantras intended to resolve an armed political conflict, must fit the
political reality on the ground..."
more
3.
Revisited
The Parliamentary Select Committee Farce,
November 1993
"The Sri Lanka Parliamentary Select Committee after labouring for more than two
years, has not simply produced a mouse. It has also produced a structure to further
Sinhala chauvinism's long held desire to divide the Tamil homeland..."
more
4.
Revisited
Thirteenth
Amendment to Sri Lanka Constitution:
- Devolution or Comic Opera, March 1988 "..It is difficult to discuss the provisions of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lanka
Constitution seriously - they are so impossibly burlesque and farcical. Yet, they have a
serious aspect. They show that
Sinhala
chauvinism, like all chauvinisms in the same
predicament, has made the time honoured, ineffectual effort to evade a settlement of the
real question by throwing belated and unacceptable sops to Demogorgon..."
more
5.
Revisited
Joint
Response by Tamil Delegation At Thimphu Talks 17 August 1985
"..More than 50 years have passed since 1928 and we have moved from Provincial Councils to
Regional Councils and from Regional Councils to District Councils and now from District
Councils back to District/Provincial Councils. We have had the 'early consideration' of
Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike and the 'earnest consideration' of the late Dudley Senanayake.
There has been no shortage of Committees and Commissions, of reports and recommendations
but that which was lacking was the political will to recognise the existence of the Tamil
nation. And simultaneous with this process of broken pacts and dishonoured agreements, the
Tamil people were subjected to an ever widening and deepening national oppression aimed at
undermining the integrity of the Tamil nation..."
more |
Child Soldiers and the Law
to include
|
International Educational
Development to
the Security Council’s Working Group on Children
and Armed Conflict
"..More troubling is the fact that international monitors, including
those operating under United Nations auspices, are using the age of
eighteen (18) for the minimum age for recruitment or participation
in hostilities when the international law age is clearly fifteen
(15). This improper application of the law has been a key
element in international demonizing of the Tamil forces (LTTE),
which has spilled over to the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and the
Tamil diaspora as a whole in a completely unacceptable manner.."
more |
What
is Terrorism? - Law & Practise
| 1. Australia:
Full Text of
Judgment of Victorian Supreme Court in Vinayagamoorthy & Yathavan
Bail Application "...Each of the charges faced by the accused
requires proof by the Crown that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation within
the meaning of the relevant division of the Code. The Crown concedes that it
has not been declared to be such by any decision of the Australian
Government, and perhaps more pertinently, although it was formerly regarded
as a terrorist organisation in Sri Lanka it has not been so regarded since
2002 ... Of course, having regard
to the terms of the relevant federal legislation under which these accused
are charged, it is open to the Crown to prove that the LTTE is a terrorist
organisation, notwithstanding its not having been so declared to be in this
country or in Sri Lanka..."
more
2.United Kingdom:
Full Text of Judgment in
R v F "..Countries other than the United Kingdom, even if which
were governed by tyrants and dictators, were protected by the
provisions of the UK Terrorism Act 2000 from terrorist activities
organised and planned in the United Kingdom. There was no exemption
from criminal liability for terrorist activities which were
motivated or said to be morally justified by the alleged nobility of
the terrorist cause."
more |
Tamil National Forum
to
include
|
International Community's New
Pastime
"Almost two years after His Highness Mahinda Rajapakse –President
of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL),
Czar of
Vakarai,
Emperor of Thoppigala, democratiser of the Tamils, etc., etc. – launched his
"War for Peace", the
International Community (IC) has a new pastime. A 'positive and frank'
discussion with the GOSL they say. And this discussion is all about 'access to
humanitarian work'. In the mean time the GOSL is carrying on with its murderous
war augmented by policies of divide and rule..."
more |
Week Ending: Sunday, 19 August 2007
Reflections
Tamils: a Trans State Nation to include
London Sri
Murugan Temple “Ther” Festival
Tamil
National Forum
Nations & Nationalism:
The Strength of an Idea
|
1. On the 60th Anniversary of
India's Independence:
Remembering
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
"...It
is our duty to pay for our liberty with our own blood.
The freedom that we shall win through our sacrifice and
exertions, we shall be able to preserve with our own
strength..." Netaji to the Indian
National Army in Malaya |
|
 |
|
"...I developed a deep attachment to the Indian Freedom
struggle and martyrs like Subhash Chandra Bose,
Bagat Singh and Balagengadhara
Tilak... Above all, Subhash Chandra Bose's life was a beacon to me, lighting
up the path I should follow. His disciplined life and his total commitment
and dedication to the cause of his country's freedom deeply impressed me and
served as my guiding light..."
Velupillai Pirabakaran, 'How I Became a Freedom Fighter',
April 1994 |
| 2.
Nonviolence: Its Histories and Myths - Professor Michael Neumann
"...I have neither the moral standing nor the slightest desire to
disparage the courage of those who engage in non-violence.... But,
non-violence, so often recommended.. has never 'worked' in any
politically relevant sense of the word, and there is no reason to
suppose it ever will. It has never, largely on its own strength,
achieved the political objectives of those who employed it... There
are supposedly three major examples of successful nonviolence:
Gandhi's independence movement, the US civil rights movement, and
the South African campaign against apartheid. None of them performed
as advertised...The notion that a people can free itself literally
by allowing their captors to walk all over them is historical
fantasy..."
more |
Reflections
| "..Apart from revisionist historians, it was none other than
Lord Clement Atlee himself, the British Prime Minister
responsible for conceding independence to India, who gave a
shattering blow to the myth sought to be perpetuated by court
historians, that Gandhi and his movement had led the country to
freedom.(In reply to a question by) Chief Justice P.B.
Chakrabarty of Calcutta High Court... 'what was the extent of Gandhi's
influence upon the British decision to quit India ?'.... Atlee's lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he
slowly chewed out the word, "m-i-n-i-m-a-l!" "
Subhas
Chandra Bose, the Indian National Army, and the War of
India's Liberation - Ranjan Borra, Journal of Historical Review, no. 3, 4 (Winter
1982)
|
Tamils: a Trans State Nation - Canada
|
Sri Lanka’s “Shame”: the
Massacre of Sixty One Innocent School Girls - Usha S Sri Skanda Rajah,
at Remembrance Day in Canada to mark 1st anniversary of Vallipunam
Senchcholai Massacre "Ladies and gentleman let me draw
your attention to the
mural on the stage. A woman throwing up
her arms in a sheer state of helplessness depicted in the mural
typifies our feelings of pain and outrage. This outcry by women;
led by women; using the intellect, the expertise and advocacy
power of women, for women will continue until justice is done..."
more |
Tamil
National Forum
| Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia -
மேற்குலகத்தின் இலங்கைக்கான
உல்லாசப் பயணங்கள்
"..சிங்கள அரசு தொடர்ந்து நடாத்தி வருகின்ற தமிழின அழிப்பு நிலையை
மேற்குலகம் (தான்) கண்டு கொள்ளாமல் இருக்கக் கூடியதற்கான
வாய்ப்பினைத்தான் இன்று தேடி அலைகின்றது..."
more |
|
 |
Tamils: a Trans State Nation
- Australasian Federation of
Tamil Associations Meet Australian Greens Senator Kerry Nettle -
Australian Tamils Seek a Principled Approach to the Ethnic Conflict
in Sri Lanka
On the
First Anniversary of the Chencholai Massacre & On the Eve of India's
Independence Day
Revisited:
The
Charge is Genocide - the Struggle is for Freedom...
"..It is a vain dream
to suppose that what other nations have won by struggle and battle,
by suffering and tears of blood, we shall be allowed to accomplish
easily, without terrible sacrifices, merely by spending the ink of
the journalist and petition framer and the breath of the orator..."
Sri Aurobindo in Bande Mataram, one hundred years go in 1907
more |
Sri
Lanka's War on Eelam Tamils - in the Shadow of a Ceasefire
Sri Lanka Air Force jet
bombs Church and School in Alampi - TRO Situation Report on Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vadamaradchchi East (Jaffna), Mannar & Vavuniya: Time period covered: 16 July 2007 – 31
July 2007
Tamil National Forum
Week Ending: Sunday,
12 August 2007
Reflections
International Relations in an Emerging
Multi Lateral World: The Invasion of Iraq
Matt
Howard, US Iraqi War Veteran Speaks Out: Troops out of Iraq!
"The Iraqi people fighting us are fighting for their freedom - to be
free from foreign military occupation....We go and clear an area and
they just go somewhere else and when we leave they come back, and
this will go on and on until we finally admit that we're not
supposed to be there. We never should have been there in the first
place. This war was based on lies. As I like to say, you can't win a
crime, you can only stop it..."
more |
Tamil Diaspora - a Trans State Nation: Germany
Democracy Continues, Sri Lanka Style
Reflections
Human Rights & Humanitarian Law -
62 years ago on 6 August 1945
Hiroshima & Nagasaki -
the Worst Terror Attack
in Human History
"...The
destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime worse than
any that Japanese generals were executed for in Tokyo and
Manila. If Harry Truman was not a war criminal, then no one ever
was.. Today, self-styled conservatives
slander as "anti-American" anyone who is in the least troubled by
Truman’s massacre of so many tens of thousands of Japanese innocents
from the air..."
"
more |
Tamils: a Trans State Nation
- United Kingdom - M.I.A.
Maya Arulpragasam M.I.A. New Album
Release - Kala "..It is interesting to note that, with
‘Boyz’, 30-year-old M.I.A. arguably captures a modern
day Britain more successfully than many of her younger
peers. Social commentary is often more powerfully
delivered implicitly and the imperfect, work-in-progress
rattle of ‘Boyz’ somehow mirrors the tensions and
excitement of its creator’s (temporary) homeland..."
more |
Week Ending:
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Reflections
| 1. “I began a revolution with 82 men. If I had to
do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does
not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of
action..” -
Fidel Castro
2. "Life accepts only partners, not bosses, because
self determination is its very root of being." -
Margaret Wheatley |
International
Frame of the Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom
| 1.The Indian Ocean Region:
Japan’s Indian Ocean Naval Deployment: Blue water militarization in
a 'normal country' - Richard Tanter
"By most
standards, Japan is now the world’s number two naval power....the
primary reason for dispatching the Kongo-class Aegis ships
(to the Indian Ocean) ...was... undoubtedly...to do with the
prodigious area-wide surveillance and tracking capacities of the
Aegis air defense system operated by the Kongo-class ships . These
would have enabled the MSDF ships to cooperate with both US and UK
navy and air units operating not only in the Indian Ocean, but
possibly over Afghanistan itself..."
more |
|

"The DD173 Kongo is equipped with prodigious
area-wide surveillance and tracking capacities" |
|
2.
Australia's Expansive Asian Security Footprint
"The (Australian 2007) Defence Update is a deeply flawed policy
document... Double standards on core issues abound...In East Asia,
Australia supports "Japan's more active security posture within the
US alliance and multinational coalitions". But Chinese military
modernization "could create misunderstandings and instability in the
region" .... (Then there) ...is the elephant in the room problem:
the obvious and undoubted perceived interest -- a perceived benefit
to Australia from western access to oil -- cannot be mentioned
in polite company... even when the dirty secret is admitted, even if
only in only in conclaves of trusted experts, it is soon clear that
it is not at all certain that the security of the Australian people
can be shown to be affected by who owns the oil fields of Iraq.."
more |
|
3.
India's
Interests at Stake in Relationship with China - Dr. Harsh V.
Pant " China does not want India to move closer to the United States
in order to contain China...It is time for India to realize that
India's great power aspirations cannot be realized without a similar
cold-blooded realistic assessment of its own strategic interests in
an anarchic international system where there are no permanent
friends or enemies, only permanent interests."
more |
Democracy Continues, Sri Lanka Style
Conflict Resolution: Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka
The Limits of State Sovereignty:
The Responsibility to Protect in the 21st Century - Gareth
Evans, Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture together with
Comment by tamilnation.org
"The
one question that Mr.Gareth Evans signally failed to address
was the content of the strategic interests of the so called
'international community' (including Australia) in the island of Sri
Lanka and in the Indian Ocean region - a question made all the more
relevant by his passing reference that
'various foreign states
bear some of the responsibility for allowing the Tigers to build
up their power over the years'.
.."
more |
Tamil
National Forum
| 1.Sachi
Sri Kantha writes from Japan
On the
Tightrope Acts of Neelan Tiruchelvam: Eight Critiques "As one
would have expected, the Sinhala-owned Colombo news media paid their 8th
anniversary tributes to Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam...If
Colombo’s media moguls think that this kind of soppy sophistry on Neelan’s
tightrope acts would make him a paragon of virtue among Tamils, they are mistaken..."
more
2.
Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia
சுதுமலைப் பிரகடனம் - இருபது ஆண்டுகள் சுட்டும் நிதர்சனம் "1987ம் ஆண்டு, ஆகஸ்ட் மாதம, நான்காம் திகதியன்று,
அதாவது, இருபது ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு, தமிழீழத் தேசியத் தலைவர் மேதகு
வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன் அவர்கள் யாழ்ப்பாணத்தில் சுதுமலை என்ற ஊரில்,
முதன் முறையாகப் பகிரங்கக் கூட்டம் ஒன்றில் உரையாற்றினார்..."
more
together with
Comment
by tamilnation.org
Mr.Sanmugam
Sabesan is right to point out a closeness/ dependence in the
relations between India and the US. Said that, we may also need to
recognise the reality of the uneasy
balance of power
in the
Indian Ocean region...Some
15 years ago, Indian Foreign Secretary Dixit
spoke of a
calibrated interaction’ between India and the US. We ourselves
believe that that remains the case even today. India will always try to march to the beat
of its own drummer - but whether it will succeed, only time will
tell..."
more |
What is Terrorism?
- Law & Practise
Dr. Liaquat Ali Khan, Professor of Law,Washburn University
School of Law, Kansas -
On Terrorism & the Lawful Right to Armed
Struggle “..Major new developments are muddling the
right to armed struggle.The global war on terrorism openly denies
that any such right exists. ...
(But) In 1974,
the United Nations General Assembly passed
historic Resolution 3314, adopting the Definition of Aggression
that includes the right to armed struggle.. if there were no right to
armed struggle, predatory states would be emboldened to subjugate
weak nations...The occupying states wish to
change the law and morality of armed struggle so that they can
easily crush the will of the occupied..."
more |
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