outside the city…
sometimes the local media is so biased it’s almost a joke. but there is nothing funny about giving the people a condensed, heavily one-sided version of what’s really going on, and this is most often what it does.
i’m still trying to abstain from getting involved in discussions regarding the road down which the country is headed as of recent times, but i must commend the thread of conversation on indi’s blog, and the posts by daytripper and childof25. the sri lankan blogosphere is finally showing me what most of it is truly made up of : passionate arguments, carefully thought out opinions and the innate desire for peace.
however, there’s an sms i just received from my mother that deserves blogging. simply because an sms has never made me cry before, and this one did. i did not cry in sympathy, or even empathy, and certainly not the understanding of what’s going on and what’s going to happen. i cried in simple and sheer fear. i am so scared for this country.
we very rarely find out the real crux of what is happening outside of colombo, and terribly, yet naturally, till something happens close to home, many of us are numb to the actual terror that has been prevailentt elsewhere, in other people’s homes, in other people’s colombos.
my mother says :
on the road to mutur, in small tamil town called kilivetti. 3 dead bodies on the roadside, wrapped in yellow plastic. mourners gathered around, waiting for police to come. kilivetti has 420 families, all fleeing army beatings. we met three small boys, 9, 12, 13, who have been beaten.
the enormity of this bloodlust, this unadulterated violence and mindless fighting has made the country tired. everyone caught in the crossfire is so fucking exhausted of being the innocent victim, and i am so fucking exhausted of hearing bits and pieces of news like this one. i am so fucking fed up with hearing about dead bodies wrapped in yellow plastic, hearing about little children being beaten senseless, hearing about killing and dying and bombing. i am so fucking done with having a voice that no one hears, and being one in a billion of us that just wants this all to end. i am so fucking fed up with feeling helpless and scared, and never knowing what’s coming next, and never ever knowing how ‘they’ have felt their entire lives till someone bombs the central city so i can, for a day or two panic a little and talk a lot.
Shall we add the 8 people who died and many who got injured from the Army HQ suicide bomb attack to the above list.
Then also add a line that Army attacked LTTE terrorist control areas after the initial suicide bomb went off in Colombo.
Then everything will be fair and square.. what do you think?
Comment by Janapathi — April 27, 2006 @ 9:59 am
Janapathi,
What about Vigneswaran’s killing as well as the 5 civilians shot in cold blood by the SLA 2 weeks ago.
You should be keeping a more accurate score. Dumbass.
Like everyone keeps telling you - go fuck yourself - why not get off the net and go volunteer? country needs more patriots like you in the front-line.
Comment by Victor — April 27, 2006 @ 10:25 am
You’re right, the realities of war so easily evade us until it hits home. I was in Killinochchi a couple of years ago and I got a glimpse of the enormity of the psychological problem we’re faced with. Seeing bullet marks on the walls, bombed out schools and other buildings transports you for a few seconds into their lives, and it’s not fun. There will be a whole generation of ppl my age, of all 3 races living in the North East and border villages, who have known nothing but war, fear and hatred. That is the true cost of war.
I’m going to take a guess that lot’s of ppl will see this, sit back, look smug and say “ha, fine army to be proud/appreciative of.” Well this sort of thing nobody can be appreciative of, it is simply horrible and inexcusable. That said, it is yet another manifestation of the psychological impacts of war (which impacts soldiers on both sides as much as civillians), and is one of the reasons why I for one am completely against war. I do however stand by what I said in my comment to your previous post, the army deserves kudos for it’s stance since December last year, regardless of my views on war and the manifestations thereof.
Comment by ddm — April 27, 2006 @ 10:40 am
Colombo is totally isolated from what happens in the North and East.
The main problem is that SL doesn’t have a TV news broadcaster that can relay info from the North and East on a live feed. My guess is that we don’t have a satellite of our own that TV stations can use, or we do, but it’s too expensive for them.
Until live TV reports can come from the North and East, Colombo (and us SL expats abroad) will be totally isolated from the ground reality of how truly terrible life must be in those areas.
I don’t even know if the TV stations have cameramen based in those areas full-time. Why is there no footage from the Trinco mob riots? Why no footage of the Trinco war going on at the moment? Why no footage of anything from the North and East, until days after the event has happened, and the news has long since gone?
Tiger TV, on the other hand, has cameramen in these areas, and relays stuff to their Canadian viewers within hours of an event happening.
Dunno how, but we need to get with the program.
Comment by Toronto — April 27, 2006 @ 11:08 am
Are we not allowed to add the mother and child who were hacked to death a few days ago. The farmers who were massacred a few days ago and all the other innocent people who lost their lives whcih has been undocumented.
Who orchestrated the racial divide many many years ago. Was it not the educated egalitarian Tamil Elite in the salubrious climes of Colombo 7????? Now who is suffering the people in the wanni who really do not want war. How can Tamils live in Colombo and the suburbs get on with other people and live in harmony while their notheren brothers can not? Simple reason being that the masses in the North have been denied a chance to see civilisation and peace at work.
Comment by The other side — April 27, 2006 @ 11:22 am
I’m not saying it’s one person’s fault or the other’s. Both parties have to answer for their actions.
I just find it weird that the majority of the English press shows us pictures of mothers mourning their soldier-sons but no one in the shows us the parents of the five boys who were killed in Jaffna for no reason, or the families of those who died in Trinco on 12 April. We don’t see follow up on the stories and I’m guessing there’s none anyway.
Double standards is all.
Comment by Azrael — April 27, 2006 @ 11:40 am
It also really really annoys me how pretty much every LTTE crime against Singhalese is publicised, and a lot of crimes committed by the armed forces aren’t. The stories that do get into the media (i.e. the really really bad ones that they cannot hide) make people scream for proof – why are those same people not asking for proof every time the LTTE gets blamed for something? For example, some horrific things allegedly happened in Mannar (over dec/jan) that didn’t even make any media reports except Tamilnet (this may or may not be true, but for the sake of the “victims”, independent media should have made an attempt to find out).
the one-sided media thing works both ways, like pro-LTTE and other Tamil-orientated media do represent the grieving-Tamil side. Both sides use grief and pain as a tool to demonise the other.
The Colombo media marginalising the Tamil side makes them as bad; if not worse than the LTTE (at least they don’t pretend to have a veneer of representing all of Sri Lanka). It also makes people/organisations who attempt to write without bias about human rights appear as pro-LTTE.
As long as this mentality exists in Sri Lanka, i don’t think we’ll ever see peace.
Comment by shimmi — April 27, 2006 @ 1:04 pm
More of us need to watch Tiger TV / Since the national news os too censored and technically backward and that’s the way El Buffalo and compadres like to keep it !
Comment by anon — April 27, 2006 @ 1:50 pm
Dear Electra…
We all know that wht Kinda fuckin bitch your mother is..
Yeah.. She fuckin NGO and all she does and do is tryin to make money out of War… She pretends to be a saint-like..
Huh… Whiney Bitches like your Mom needs to be stripped infront of the Whole nation..
Your Momma Never said a Good thing about the Sri Lankan army whos protecting your Brown ass while you Blog in the AC back in sri lanka.. whose protecting your Bitchy mom up in SL now.. Right now,,,
So dont Blog about your Moms SAD SMS whuch made mommys girl cry.. Cry about the Money your mom bribed from the Innocent people of this country to Educate you ..
How she Smuggled Millions of Rupees through NGO movements… We all know what your Breed are..
So stop Wanking on the Net.
Dadless Rich Bitch!
Shimmi… - Because they are the ARMY of Sri lanka..
Not Terrorists. They wouldnt have to do any of that I f those faggets are Not fighting you prisceless who!!!
Comment by Revealer aka G man — April 27, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
fact is lot ppl crying out now failed to say anythings let lone condemn the ltte for the almost daily attacks made on the military by ltte since december.
they failed to commend the military for their restraint. instead they made mountains out of mole hills when that restraint failed in few cases. as when some idiots in the navy attacked the mannar residents which claims to the contrary here was reported in local media.
and they fail to recognize the limited nature of the strikes taking place now. giving credence to unsubstantiated reports.
Comment by sittingnut — April 27, 2006 @ 4:07 pm
Um…obviously this thread has gotten a bit out of control..but heres my two cents anyways. A lot of comments here seem to be about how LTTE atrocities get blown out of control while SLA ones get hushed up. If you actually take an objective look at the media, especially the international media I think you might find the opposite is true.
I for one did not think the incident of the youths killed in Trinco was hushed up, there was plenty of press coverage. Maybe no convictions but then thats Sri Lanka. One has to realise that LTTE violations outnumber SLA by an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE. To me that is a large margin and would more than explain the apparent bias in level of reporting.
The international media, especially the BBC seems heavily tilted towards the LTTE. The BBC headlined the figures of 40,000 fleeing homes, with no mention of the fact these numbers came from the LTTE (as far as I’m aware, please correct me if I’m wrong) and have not been substantiated.
War at the end of the day is horror, unmitigated horror. But never forget that it was not us that wanted this, but the so-called “sole representatives” of the Tamil people.
Comment by childof25 — April 27, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
ok i c a lot of ppl have a lot to say…i guess i will also give all of u my 2 cents worth… well firstly reveeler aka G man i would like to say that u slandering Electra’s mom and herself on this blog is not going to help… sorry , i don’t mean to get involved in what ever it is that’s going on with u and her family, but i don’t think it’s very relavent in this case. From what i can c i don’t think electra was trying to take the LTTE’s side, she was merely trying to tell us that this war is meanigless coz of the countless innocent deaths.. that we’re all sick and tired of it, coz i know i am..
this country is too small to even think of deviding, yet that is what they want… but it is not needed, and many of us r just a small voice in the wilderness trying hard but in vain to end this war and suffering.. yes the LTTE is guilty for many crimes committed against our ppl, and right now they’re pissing me off too, but we cannot turn a blind eye to the countless innocent ppl who die on both sides coz of this war….i for one will not agree that killing of the innocent, nomatter what race they come from is correct.. it is not! So let us atleast try to join together and bring peace to r mother-land.. we deserve peace…. she deserves peace… God bless this beautiful island…. pls let us not fight among ourselves. It’l get us no where….
peace and love to all of u!
Comment by Humanity — April 27, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
The foreign press (B.B.C. , Channel 4 etc…) know how is going to win this conflict in the end…. I would take their large hint and stop whinning and join the LTTE.
Comment by Pada — April 27, 2006 @ 11:34 pm
see this is what is wrong with us. does it matter what the race of the dead person.. shouldnt it be our problem that someone s getting killed!!! and why do we have to argue about who started it and whose fault it is. why cant we all get together and come up with a solution. humanity and empathy shoudnt be resricted by race. Does it matter who started it coz it s already started and aggravated now. people like us who get every opportunity to point fingers an find fault will not help anyone. We obviously have no idea what the terror and heartbreak those people feel as obviously such a person wouldnt have time or facility to get on the internet and comment on someone s blog. therefore lets not try be such hypocrites and try to point fingers as if we know what exactly is going on. instead why cant we just treat each human as one and sympathise with the situation regardless of the dead being tamil or sinhalese and try to prevent this happening to either races.each hour we sit in front of the computer and argue, another brother sister of ours is dying in the north.
it disgusts me and disappoints me how we have managed to live so peacefully free of such anger and hostitlity and as soon as problems start how we just start bickering at every chance we get.
i hope we realise the bigger problem is. the fact that all of us as one nation cant come to a conclusion and respect humanity is leading to innocent lives being destroyed all over the country.
:(
Comment by Peace not war — April 28, 2006 @ 12:19 am
Below comment I wrote to another site but thought it is related to this discussion as well.
Do we have a solution to this problem other than offering ‘Tamil Ealam’ as per the one and only solution those LTTE terrorists put forward?
Since the answer to this question is NO from the majority live in Sri Lanka, I do not see the point of any other discussions over this subject as it’s a waste of time.
Another point is, why we talk about LTTE atrocities over the past and nothing about the GOSL?
Answer is simple. GOSL is an elected government and LTTE is a terrorist organization controlled by few dictators. Do they have a mandate to carry out Suicide bombings? Answer is NO. When it comes to GOSL, whether the policy to make Sinhala the official language of Sri lanka where over 85% sinhalese live is right or wrong? OR whether Government soldiers have mistakenly bombing innocent civilians during an active confrontation is right or wrong? does not matter. Why? GOSL has a mandate to protect its interest as an elected government.
Can a country be divided against the wishes of its majority Sinhales along racial lines? That has to be put forward to people live in Sri Lanka.
We all know the outcome should we put forward that question to a referendum.
So what are we talking here? In my opinion, we should all talk about ways to get rid of LTTE terrorists and then start to talk about giving powers and more respect to democratically elected Tamil parties and leaders in Sri Lanka. What’s the point of talking with some bunch of barbaric terrorists with links to TamilNadu India (where majority of Tamils in the world lives and real discrimination takes place).
—————————————–
This part is new..
For those who really wants to see discrimination and poor state of tamils live, please go and have a look in Tamilnadu India. Isn’t that discrimination? When the North of India adopt state politics by not allowing water to flow to south and when people in south live without access to drinking water, what do you call that?
Look.. you get thousands of NGO’s operating in north of sri lanka who are surviving by this war. If no war, no jobs, no funds for them. Who in this world would decide on operating child rehabilitation centers within a territory controlled by group of terrorists who recruit child soldiers to protect their own asses? Do you get my point?
Comment by Janapathi — April 28, 2006 @ 1:18 am
You guys are freaking out. It takes two to fight. News from both sides of this war is equally manipulated, for obvious reasons. The racial division in this country cannot be pinned down to one group. It may be so that the ‘Tamil Elite’ helped, but then again, wasn’t it SWRD Bandaranayake who implemented the “Sinhalese-only” law in the 50s?
Terror is no way to go about imposing your political/religious beliefs. The LTTE is unjustified that way. But don’t forget that they weren’t the only ones committing atrocities - the army, and the Indian Peacekeeping Forces were also guilty of this. No army - except the Swiss - anywhere in the world has a lack of atrocities in its history.
With the criticisms of NGOs I feel that people are losing sight of the whole picture. I’m sure there are a few points where NGOs can be criticised, but you’re just playing a blame game here.
If half of you trigger-happy hawks want to obilerate the LTTE, why haven’t you enlisted?
By arguing like the animals you are behaving like, you are no better than the majority of politicians in this country. You need to think forward, think progressively. All you people need to be thinking more objectively. So many have died due to two stubborn sides. Isn’t it time to finish this, without resorting to total annhiliation (in which case the LTTE would pound us into oblivion anyway?)
Don’t attack others whose viewpoints you disagree with in this pathetic, immature manner. If you really care about wiping the terrorists out, go and enlist. It’s that easy.
Comment by objectivity — April 29, 2006 @ 3:43 am
OK Electra - the penny has dropped.
I don’t know how many tears I will have to continue to cry everytime I read things like this.
Please thank your mother for her good work. She is a brave women - I don’t know how she does her job.
I have sent a large email out to friends to ask them to read this blog and Morquendi’s. Inspite of the blatant racial & disgusting attacks on people who are doing their utmost to help, I think this will give us all hope.
Certainly, it gives me hope. I apologise for losing my temper & getting angry about Sri Lankans but as I said before, if you were me you would understand my point of view - well that’ just not possible is it
In some ways I feel - the role of the peacemakers means that you almost don’t have anytime for tears. We have to move on very quickly to a solution - if at all there is one.
This is what I was trying to get across to sittingnut.
I have just watched a snippet on BBC world news re S/L. The ltte are not going to take this lying down. What is the contingency for civilians that are going to get caught in the middle. Can we please move onto this & can you find out how best we can help to stop the situation.
Thanks.
Comment by ashanthi — April 30, 2006 @ 6:11 pm
ashanthi : i will pass on the message to my mother. support, moral or otherwise, is always welcome by those in her line of work. thanks for the comments.
a solution must be arrived at soon. i just don’t know if the ones with the power realize that.
Comment by electra — April 30, 2006 @ 7:37 pm