I will append here one of the well written articles which explain the narrow-minded and base philosophies prevalent in some people’s minds and why I choose to be NO part of it.

Lack of material

2. It is unfortunate that today, most young people in Sri Lanka have little critical material to read and study about our history and culture. The net result is that there is a lot of misinformation that is peddled by the media. Ultra-nationalists-both Tamil and Sinhala-feed on this misinformation, myth and legend. Rarely are these misconceptions challenged. Take for example the concept of race. Often people in Sri Lanka believe that Tamils and Sinhalese are two different races. I can still remember the day I applied for my first passport. In the application form there was one section where you had to specify your race. Although I guessed the purpose of that question was to ascertain whether I was Sinhala or Tamil, I knew that neither were distinct racial groups. Therefore I filled in that section by writing ‘human’. The clerk, who took the passport application from me, hit the roof. He got hysterical and shouted at me and said what do you mean ‘human’? Are you Sinahlese or Tamil ? Although I tried to reason with him and explain that we are not distinct races, it fell on deaf ears. He took the form, deleted human and wrote ‘Sinhalese’. Such lack of scientific and critical outlook permeates all aspect of our society.

DNA profiles

3. Recently, in England, a researcher interviewed a number of people who believed that they were of pure English or of Caucasian origins. Thereafter he carried out DNA tests on them. Most of these people assumed that they were either from good Anglo-Saxon or Norman stock or at least had North European ancestry. Surprisingly, in most cases their DNA indicated that they were not from North Europe. They had Mongolian, Moroccan and Turkish DNA. You will probably find the same if we carry out DNA profiles of some of the most upbeat chauvinists of Sri Lanka in order to determine which part of India or some other part of the globe his or her ancestors originated from. People in Sri Lanka are quite mixed. For instance the Karawas (caste) are descendants of South Indian mercenaries who were brought to our shores by Sri Lankan kings. They later settled on the western coastal belt. The same is true of Salagamas and the Durawas. They all have their origins in South India. If you think Kandyans are pure Sinhalese, you will be disappointed. A number of our later kings and queens were from South India. Although the King had an official wife (Queen) he could sleep with any woman he found attractive. That was his privilege. Those days there was no birth control and the illegitimate children of the king were called ‘Bandaras’. There are an awful lot of Bandaras about. That is not all. During the British period, a Kaffir Regiment was brought from South Africa. They gradually settled and married local people and became a part the population. Later on, Malays from Malaya (now Malaysia) settled in our country. There were also Malayalee Toddy tappers from Kerala who came and settled and inter-married the locals. We are also mixed with Portuguese, Dutch, British, etc. The same is true of Tamils. Amongst them is caste called the ‘Koviyars’. They were in fact Sinhalese prisoners (goviyars) captured in war and later became integrated into the Northern community. Moreover, the repression of the 1848 rebellion was quite ferocious. The British raj killed many people who rebelled against their rule. Thousands of others who escaped repression, fled to Wanni and settled there. Thus some of the people who later came to settle in the Wanni are most probably descendants of the Sinhalese who fled the 1848 repression.

Buddhagosha was a Tamil

4. It is equally stupid to argue that the existence of archaeological evidence of Buddhist temples in the North and East indicates that these areas were always inhabited by the Sinhalese. During those early years of our history, Buddhism was the religion of not only the Sinhalese but also the Tamils. For instance, one of the greatest Buddhist theoreticians, Buddhagosha, was a Tamil.

5. Obviously, there are linguistic and some cultural differences between the Sinhala and Tamil. But here too we must not exaggerate. There are lot of words that are common to both languages. In reality Sinhalese and Tamils have many more common features than differences. Ultra-nationalist on both sides of the divide want to exaggerate these differences and does so for ulterior motives. That is why remarks of some people to the effect that ‘all Tamils are from South India and they should return there’ are extremely stupid. And how would these charlatans treat Lord Buddha ? He was not a Sinhalese-He was from Varanasi in northern India.

Sinhala Buddhism is a contradiction in terms

6. Equally the concept of ‘Sinhala Buddhism’ is a contradiction in terms. Buddhism is a universal philosophy and cannot be confined to a particular group of human beings. Buddha did not recognise a ‘chosen race’ or a ‘chosen ethnic group’. To the extent one attempts to ‘Sinhalise’ it, Buddhism loses its validity and its rationale. Such a tribal ideology has nothing in common with Buddhism. This corruption of Buddhism has not stopped there. It has further degenerated into a division along caste lines. Thus we have the Siyam Nikaya for the Goigamas, Ramnnaya Nikaya for the Salagamas and the Amaapura Nikaya for the Karawas. Such provincialism and tribalism has nothing in common with the tenets of this great philosophy. In Britain Christianity in the form of the Anglican Church became a tool of the rulers. Buddhism has also been corrupted as ‘Sinhala Buddhism’ to serve the needs of the dominant ruling class and in doing so has robbed it of its core values. It is unnecessary dwell on these matters at length because you are conversant with my antipathy towards the parasites that live off hard working people in the land. Yet try to dictate to the world how we should behave and even what we should think.

Denying the grievances of Tamils

7. Hiding behind these erroneous and patently illogical concepts of race and religion, ‘Sinhala’ Ultra-nationalists assert that the Tamils in Sri Lanka are aliens or recent immigrants and that their grievances all imaginary or concocted complaints to preserve their privileges. Like the holocaust deniers they try to minimise the impact of pogroms of 1977, 1981 and 1983, the widespread torture, murder and disappearances of Tamil youths between 1978 and 2009 and the repression and discrimination some of them have suffered on a daily basis. They ignore or minimise the impact of the Sinhala only policy, which Tamils perceived as an attempt to deprive them of their fundamental rights.

Tamil nationalists also fail to see the reality

8. On the other hand Tamil ultra-nationalists erroneously consider that it is only the Tamils in the North and East who have suffered repression, discrimination and marginalisation. They ignore the repression and exploitation the rural poor in Sri Lanka have had to endure over decades. For instance in 1988-89 over 60,000 mainly Sinhala youths were ‘disappeared’ by the Premadasa government. (The irony is that one of the leading members of that government-Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe-is now one the most vociferous ‘defenders of human rights’ ! However, to date he has not apologised or show any remorse for the vile and abominable crimes his government committed in 1988-89 ). Tamil nationalists fail to recognise that the majority of Sinhala villagers in Sri Lanka live in dire poverty and have much more restricted educational opportunities than most Tamils who live in Colombo or Jaffna. Tamil nationalists also ignore the numerous problems that Tamil plantation workers have to endure. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in fact, the most disadvantaged people in Sri Lanka are the plantation workers the rural poor (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim) and women. They have always had a raw deal.

In 1958, I went to Karandeniya Central School to teach. I was appalled by the fact that most teachers in this school felt that the children of this (so called low caste) locality should not be taught because if they get educated they will become uppity. Even today the situation is not very different in many rural areas. In Pussellawa there are Sinhala and Tamil children who do not go to school because they cannot afford to buy a pair of shoes. Recently the organisation I work with, gave some money to a local welfare organisation in Pussellawa to buy shoes and school bags for a few children in that area. The help we gave was a drop in the ocean. There are tens of thousands of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim children who are malnourished; they are lucky to have two meals a day. That is not all. People who live in rural areas suffer other disadvantages. For instance they can rarely get justice from the police or the courts. There are about 100,000 plantation workers who do not have birth certificates or have birth certificates that provide wrong information. Fort that reason they cannot obtain an identity card and if they are caught walking around without an ID card they get arrested and locked up. Equally many women in our society suffer discrimination, domestic and sexual violence. The days when a lone woman could walk from Hambantatota to Point Pedro.
unmolested’ are gone for ever.

Identity and culture

9. Ultra-nationalists-both Sinhala and Tamil have a jaundiced view of the reality. Each in their own way distorts and misrepresent the reality. In doing so they fail to see that there are many sections of the population that suffer exploitation, repression and discrimination. They compel us to see everything from the narrow prism of ethnicity. Apart from our ‘ethnic’ origins we have many identities and interests. We are not merely people who speak Tamil or Sinahala. We are also scientists or economists or lawyers, students or factory workers, musicians or cricket or football enthusiasts, archaeologists etc. Amratya Sen, the Noble prize winning Indian Economist, in his book Identity and Violence, rightly points out that we have several identities and we do not look at the world merely from the narrow framework of ethnicity or religion.

Living in the past

10. Furthermore, both Sinhala and Tamil nationalists live in the distant past. They hark back to an imaginary golden age in the ancient or medieval history. They seek to idealise a non-existent golden age of the yester years. For this very reason their ideology is backward and retrogressive. They are like frogs in the well that have little understanding of the enormous scientific and technological progress that are being made in the world. They ignore the massive struggles working people all over the world have made in order to win even limited rights we enjoy today. People are no longer tied to the land of the feudal overlords or have to work 14 to 16 hours a day. Through struggles the toilers of the world have broken some of the chains. It is the inward looking ideology of the ultra-nationalists that resulted in 30 years of death and destruction. Although the Sinhala chauvinists are now dancing in the street in a frenzy of triumphalism, they fail to recognise that the rise of separatism is a direct consequence of the failure of our ruling elite to build a Sri Lankan nation.

In 1989 I was called to chair the funeral of an EPRLF Member of Parliament, Mr. Yogasangari, who was murdered by the LTTE in Madras . Since his wife and family lived in the UK, his funeral took place in London. One of the persons invited to speak at his funeral was an important political leader who later became the President of Sri Lanka. She sought to commiserate the wife of Yogasangari by saying “madam, your people and my people have both suffered from terrorist violence”. Although the speaker and Mrs. Yogasangari were both Sri Lankans, she found it necessary to make a distinction between Sinhalese and Tamils. That was quite inappropriate and unnecessary. On the other hand, in neighbouring India, the ruling elite has successfully built an Indian nation. That is a unique achievement in a country where there are many ethnic groups and over 300 languages and dialects. Inhabitants of India, whether they are from Kerala, or Bengal, Punjab or Maharashtra will always call themselves, first and foremost, Indians and not as Malayalees, Sikhs, Bengalis or Maratis. Until recently the President of India was a Muslim. Today the Prime Minister is a Sikh, the Interior Minister is a Dravidian, the Speaker of the Parliament is a Harijan and the leader of the ruling party is an Italian. They have achieved a unity in diversity which we can only dream of. We have failed because of the narrow and provincial outlook of our ruling elite.

11. Ultra-nationalists want us to dwell on traditions that have outlived their usefulness. They fail to understand the need to adapt ourselves to the needs of the 21st century. It is not by accident that the constitution of one of these ultra nationalist ‘Sinhala’ parties debars women form holding office. They think women are only good to bear children and do household chores even though, from the point of view of academic excellence, Sri Lankan women have proved that they are as good or better than their male counterparts. In reality most of these ‘ultra nationalists’ are hypocrites. While preaching Sinhala only to the masses, many send their children to universities in USA, UK and Australia. Their real objective is to perpetuate their elite status.

12. We must combat these backward and outdated ideologies and look to the future and not the past. Today we are witnessing a massive shift of economic power from the West to the East. China and India have become the new power houses of economic growth. In the next 10 to 15 years, the two most affluent countries in the world would be China and India. Within the next few years China will replace Japan as the second largest economy and by 2020 it is expected to overtake USA. India too is following closely behind and today some Indian firms are major players in the global economy. India has also taken a bold step to abolish the rural debt, provide a minimum of 100 days work per year to the rural workers and has consistently achieved growth rates of 7% or over.

13. We could either equip ourselves to benefit from this “eastern economic miracle” or be left behind dreaming about the ‘golden age’ of yesteryears while engaging in more internecine violence and ethnic conflicts. In one sense we are better placed to modernise and achieve a high level of prosperity than our neighbours because our literacy rate is much higher than theirs. The literacy rate of Sri Lanka is nearly 95% as opposed to 55 to 66% in Pakistan and India . Our greatest wealth is human capital. Yet we do not make optimum use of our literate and educated youth. Today, after 62 years of independence we are not able to provide university education even for 10% of those who qualify to gain entry to a university . Although some of those who do not gain entry into the universities may enrol on accountancy and other professional courses, nevertheless the number of students who are capable of pursuing higher studies but unable to find places in institutions of higher education is extremely high. This is a criminal waste of our human capital.

Lagging behind our neighbours

14. While India and China is developing rapidly we are lagging behind. Most professions-lawyers, doctors, teachers etc-have not modernised in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century. For instance the legal system of Sri Lanka today is more akin to the state affairs that Charles Dickens described in Bleak House (Jarndyce vs Jarndyce) than a system suitable for a modern democracy. Legal disputes that can be resolved in six months or a year, drag on for years or even decades. The only beneficiaries of this system are the lawyers.

Most doctors are only interested in amassing wealth rather than ensuring the well being of patients. Often, even after paying a hefty fee, most doctors would compel patients to queue outside their surgeries like cattle, hours on end. There is no effective regulatory system of these professions and there is no effective statutory body, which supervise their conduct. Teachers do not regularly update their knowledge or adopt more modern methods of teaching. There is an urgent need to regulate these public services, increase their efficiency and ensure that they serve the interests of the public and not merely those of the service providers.

We can study the provision of medical services in a small country like Cuba and observe the difference. Cuba, with a population of 11 million educates over 5000 medical students each year . Cuba has eliminated diseases such as malaria, diphtheria, chicken pox, measles, whooping cough and dengue. In Sri Lanka while there has been a proliferation of private hospitals and clinics, mostly money-making enterprises, the medical care in government hospitals have deteriorated very substantially. We must modernise our transport system and make it more environmentally friendly. We must outlaw the prevailing ‘tuition’ racket where teachers mint money by giving private tuition to the very children they should be teaching during school hours. We must insist that the licence to practice their profession, be they lawyers, teachers or doctors, will depend on their readiness to update their knowledge through a programme of continuing education.

The list of what we have to accomplish is endless because our ruling elite have been both lackadaisical and incompetent.

Men without a vision

15. Unfortunately, the older generation, including most of our political leaders lacks foresight and vision. They fail to recognise that the riches that can be made by modernising our country, is hundred times greater than the crumbs they are now able to exact by engaging in petty corrupt practices. They have little interest or inclination to modernise our country. For instance while many middle class young men and women are able to communicate through the internet ( chat, blog and twitter), most of our lawmakers, teachers, public servants and lawyers are totally computer illiterate. They have miserably failed to adopt the vast array of modern technological facilities to improve their service or provide better living conditions, or to create new job opportunities.

Modernity and prosperity

16. There is little doubt that with our literate and educated population, we are best placed of all the South Asian countries to benefit from the ‘Asian Miracle’. However, mediocre leaders and outdated ideologies are holding us back. We must sweep away all the hurdles that are holding us back. We must overhaul over system of governance and make it more accountable and transparent. We must sweep away feudal attitudes and practices. The president of the United States is usually addressed as Mr. President. It is the same in France and Russia.

However, in Sri Lanka even the Ministers of the State address the Sri Lanka President as ‘His Excellency’. Presidents, Ministers and members of Parliament are servants of the people and are maintained by taxpayers. There is no earthly reason why we should deify them or treat them like demi-gods. Such sycophantic practices are inimical to good governance because those who wield power often fall victims to the flattery of such sycophants and lose touch with the ordinary people who have elected them.

17. Good governance and transparency apart we have to modernise every aspect of our daily life. In a short letter of this nature I cannot detail all the measures we should adopt in order to modernise our society and utilise the full potential of the people. I could give a few examples of some of the steps we could adopt in order to meet the needs of the 21st century. For instance it is obvious that the modernisation of our system of education is long overdue. It is imperative that we must raise our standards so that our graduates are able to compete with those who pass out of the best universities in the world.

Firstly, this would involve training all teachers in computer skills, teaching computer skills to all students beginning with nursery school children , the establishment of computer centres in every rural school and making competency in IT skills a compulsory subject in all institutions of higher education. Secondly, we must ensure that every university graduate should have a high level of proficiency in at least one foreign language-either English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish or Russian. Thirdly, we must rapidly expand the training and education of doctors, engineers, accountants, linguists etc so that in future we will send abroad highly skilled migrants and not housemaids. If a small country like Cuba could educate more than 5,000 medical students a year, it is difficult to see why Sri Lanka cannot educate even one fifth of that number.

Similarly it is impossible for a society to be modernised without overhauling the legal system. Legal procedures should be changed to prevent interminable postponement of cases and the abuse of process involved in lawyers asking for dates at a drop of a hat or engaging in long and irrelevant cross-examination of witnesses. In criminal cases the procedure rules should be amended to compel the accused to specify the nature of his defence once he is in possession of the prosecution evidence. The police should be trained and equipped to adopt scientific methods of investigation rather than resorting to third degree interrogation, exacting ‘confessions’ under duress and staging false encounters leading to the death of suspects ‘trying to escape’ from police custody.

The need for a new movement

18. All this, of course, means sweeping away the corrupt and inept political structures and building a new movement that could campaign for a better Sri Lanka and a better world. The leaders of yesteryears and the nationalists of all hues have failed to resolve any of the major issues facing our people. The ultra-nationalism and militarism of the LTTE was a costly and wasteful detour. In many ways the militarism of the LTTE had a negative impact on the struggle of the oppressed. It led to the enactment of draconian laws and imposition of massive restrictions on human and democratic rights. The LTTE and it backers erroneously believed that they were invincible and that the Sri Lankan army could never defeat them. The disastrous strategy of the LTTE not only disenfranchised and politically disarmed the Tamils but it also strengthened the chauvinist and obscurantist elements amongst the Sinhalese. They turned their guns not on the ruling class but ordinary working people.

Equally, On the other hand, even after living through 30 years of ethnic conflict, the ruling elite has not recognised the need to take any meaningful and decisive steps to address the grievances of Tamils. Even today they offer only the same failed policy-i.e. placing total reliance on a few string-puppets who will dance to the tune of the southern ruling elite. That is their ‘home grown solution’. The APRC was mere eyewash designed to fool the naïve liberals. It is highly unlikely that the Rajapakse regime ever intended to offer anything other than the familiar ‘puppet show’ that we have witnessed since the days of the D.S.Senanayake regime.

We need a new movement

19. We must break decisively with those failed policies of the LTTE as well as those of the Sri Lankan ruling elite. Instead we must build a new and a bold movement that could unite all those who have been exploited, disadvantaged and marginalized. Like the Suriya Mal Movement and the LSSP, which spearheaded the fight against caste oppression and British imperialism in the 1930’s, today we need a new movement to spearhead the struggle for modernity and to drag our country from the economic and political quagmire that the failed prophets of the yester years have led us into. Unfortunately, the LSSP lost its clout and its mass base by entering into an opportunist alliance with the SLFP. We must learn the lessons of that debacle and make sure that the poor and the oppressed will always maintain its political and organisational independence.

It is important to remember that nowhere in the world have the poor, the oppressed and the exploited ever won anything by begging, pleading and imploring the ruling elite to do the right thing. It is futile to ask the ruling class to serve the people, plead that they behave like gentlemen or appeal to their good sense. Those who advocate that we must appeal to the good sense of the ruling elite in order to protect the rights of the oppressed or the minorities are like good old village priests who preach morality to brothel keepers and implore that they give up their sinful habits and lead godly lives . The poor, the oppressed and the minorities can win their rights only if they are able to build a strong and a united movement that can challenge the bankrupt politicians of yester years. We need not be intimidated or bedazzled by the power of the ruling elite. Even the most powerful men and governments on earth have been brought to their knees by the united action of the people.

It is the disunity of the poor and the oppressed that creates the impression that the ruling elite is invincible. Time and again history has shown that the seemingly invincible and powerful rulers can be defeated when the people unite. Of course, the task of uniting the people is no easy undertaking. Although I cannot compel you to join me in this onerous task, I am hopeful that there will be many young men and women who will recognise the need to break with the backward and reactionary policies of past and dare to dream and have the courage to build a new society based on modernity, prosperity equality and justice. The history of social progress in the world is the history of the struggle of the poor and the dispossessed for equality and justice. That is why, with Bob Marley, we must say in unison ‘Get up stand up, stand up for your rights, don’t give up the fight, stand up for your rights’!.

Yours affectionately

Upali Cooray

Via http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/899

Victory, like alcohol cannot be handled by some.

The following article written by Lilani Jayatilake may interest you.

All experiences are subjective. And so I realized when nine of us visited some of the IDP camps last week and found that each of us had different feelings and observations about the experience. Perhaps this is because every experience is viewed through the prism of our personalities, value systems, cultural and educational orientations as well as our own life experiences. This may also be the reason why there are such diametrically opposing views expressed about the conditions in the IDP camps, for while some feel that the refugees are very well looked after, others feel that their conditions are dismal. All that I will attempt to do here is to describe my own observations, thoughts and feelings during my visit to the IDP camps.

I was one of five lay people of different religions and faiths, who joined a group of Catholic nuns on a mission of mercy. Like many others in the South belonging to every religion and denomination, these nuns had been hard at work gathering clothes, food items and other essential in order to ease the suffering of the displaced people in the North. On this occasion however, they were working in conjunction with a group of young school leavers to provide 1,300 families at Sumathipuram camp with what were referred to as “friendship packages”. Since the government was supplying the camps with basic food items, each of these packages consisted of a bucket, a sarong, a dress, several pairs of slippers, siddhalepa, condiments, soaps, a towel, sanitary towels and toothpaste for each family. Some of the items in the package would have been used up in a week and would have barely scratched the surface of their needs. Still, as they say, something is better than nothing and even this something cost a tidy sum!

We left during the early hours of Thursday 16th July for the long drive to Vavuniya. Gradually the vegetation changed from lush greenery to dry scrub land. As we drew closer and closer to our destination I grew silent as I took in the scenes of neglect and devastation. It reminded me of a similar excursion to Matara that many of us in this very same group, undertook in the aftermath of the Tsunami, though it is difficult to compare the horrendous devastation we witnessed then along the southern coast with the desolate landscape that now lay before us. As a child, I had traveled overland through Vavuniya to Jaffna. However, I had no clear memories of the land that I was traversing, but felt very strongly that however dry and bare the landscape may have been before the war, there could not then have been this sense of sadness and defeat permeating the very landscape.

Tragedy

I was struck by the notion that tragedy leaves its imprint even on the very soil and that it would take a long time indeed for the Tamil people to regain a sense of dignity and pride in themselves. There might be some who might deem this a good thing. For they reason that as long as the Tamil people remain demoralized, they will not pose a challenge or a threat to the country. But the very converse is true. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so too the nation will thrive only when its religious and ethnic minorities as well as its marginalized classes are strengthened and allowed to live and function as equal citizens in this land.

As I looked out I took in the scenes that whizzed past my window: the few, stray, emaciated cattle and goats grazing listlessly among the dry brown vegetation; the broken, straggly fences made of palmyrah leaves behind which were the dilapidated huts of the people, some of whom could be seen working in their fields under the scorching heat of the sun. Some fields looked parched and dry, the stalks of paddy standing up like dry brown twigs in caked mud, while others looked green, though even this green did not look as vivid and bright as do the paddy fields in the South, but had a deeper, somber hue, not displeasing to the eye. I caught a glimpse of a people struggling to eke out a living from this harsh landscape and felt an immense sadness for their plight. I realized anew and in a concrete manner that the Tamil people were in a worse plight now than they had ever been before the LTTE took to arms.

I pondered for the umpteenth time what the 30 years of war had achieved, at the cost of enormous suffering and many lives lost in every corner of this land from “Dondra Head to Point Pedro”. History is the story of the victor, they say. The loser concedes to the victor territory, power and morale. The IDPs are the losers even though they did not themselves wage war. They are the flotsam and jetsam cast up on the shore as the army and the LTTE fought to the finish. Thus the IDPs in the North of Sri Lanka are dispossessed of their lands, powerless and demoralized, waiting for charitable hand outs from the South, waiting to be released from their prisons (for they are prisons, as long as they are not allowed to move freely in or out of them), waiting to be reconnected with missing members of their families, waiting, in other words, as they have waited for the past 30 years, for normalcy to return.

At Medawachchiya we were delayed for an hour and a half as our documents and our vehicle were subjected to scrutiny. After a few wrong turns, we eventually found our way to the convent at Chettikulam where we unloaded some of the goods we had brought from Colombo. The entrance to this convent was piled high with toys and other goods destined for the camps. However even without taking stock, we could see that these goods would not have been sufficient to scratch the surface of the needs of even one of the smaller camps. The nuns in this convent, who belonged to both the Sinhala and Tamil communities, then told us of their experiences in the camps.

[In this June 8, 2009 photograph, an internally displaced ethnic Tamil civilian walks with the help of crutches at a camp for displaced in Manik Farm-AP pic]

Menik farm

They explained to us that the Menik farm complex housed the older and larger camps in which most of the refugees were to be found. Some of these camps carried names like Ramanathan and Arunachalam, names that were ironic reminders of those very different sites of residence in the idyllic surroundings of Peradeniya. Compared to these camps, some of which housed as many as 45,000 people, the Sumathipuram, Dharmapuram and Veerapuram camps which had been set up fairly recently, had much fewer numbers, somewhere between 7,500 and 10,000 people in each. People were being shuffled about in these camps as the authorities traced members of the same family and re housed them together.

Tracing the families of 300,000 displaced people, located in several different camps, is a gargantuan task, especially in the context that concurrent arrangements had to be made to meet the daily needs of the refugees. To the inmates at these camps however, the process must seem agonizingly slow as they wait anxiously for news of members of their family. Some of the nuns had arranged for the collection and distribution of fresh milk to some 800 children in two of the camps. How did they pay for this, I wondered? One said that she receives funds from her brothers and sisters abroad and that she utilizes these funds to purchase essential goods for the refugees. Mostly, of course, there is the influx of goods from caring people in the South and from the outside world. The list of requirements seemed endless: the little children needed toys and milk in limitless quantities; the young teenagers needed clothes (as is the case with young people, everywhere) and books; and of course, there was the on-going requirement for the daily needs of life for all the people in the camps. The basic food items were being provided by the state, but every other need had to be met by others. The nuns had a practical, hands-on approach to solving these problems. When they were told of a need, they tried to meet this need, moving heaven and earth in order to do so until the next need engrossed their attention. I wondered how long it would be before they reached the point of exhaustion, but they obviously had not reached it as yet.

From Chettikulam, we drove on to the Puvarasankulam convent where we were to stay for the duration of our visit to Vavuniya. This convent provides a refuge for unwed mothers and orphaned children from the poorer segments of society. While the nuns stayed on in the convent, we, the five lay people in our group walked towards the large and airy building which housed the children. As soon as we walked in there, we were immediately surrounded by bright eyed little girls who wrested our bags from our hands and carried them upstairs to the airy, sprawling room in which we fashioned make shift beds for ourselves. I could not help but make comparisons between the lives of these children and those of our more privileged children in Colombo.
Feelings of contentment.

They lived away from their brothers and sisters in the convent during term time; they had no TV, computers or toys (expensive or otherwise) to speak of; their daily routine was regimented-with regular prayer sessions, two hours of study after school and another two hours before bed time, as well as household chores which included helping in the kitchen, mopping the huge expanse of floor space on their hands and knees as well as tending and watering the large garden. In between all this they had a few hours of play, in which they tore round the back garden in a burst of high spirits. Yet, when I asked them whether they were happy to stay here away from their families, they all chorused yes, even the littlest among them. The reason they gave me was that here they had lots of children to play with. However I suspect that getting three square meals a day must also have had something to do with their feelings of contentment.

After breakfast the next morning, we left for Chettikulam, where the Sumathipuram camp is located. However, before we could enter the precincts of the camp we had to join forces with the other half of this enterprise-the young school leavers from Colombo, who had been instrumental in making all the organizational arrangements, as well as in parceling the “friendship package” for each family. We were to rendezvous in Chettikulam, so while we awaited their arrival from Colombo, we went to another convent in Chettikulam where we picked up a nun, who could secure our entry into two other camps-the Dharmapuram and Kovaransankulam camps.

When we finally reached the Sumathipuram camp, it was mid- morning. As we drove up to the entrance to the camp in our small convoy of vehicles, I took in the barbed wire fencing surrounding rows and rows of what looked like plastic tents. I was told later on that these were not made entirely of plastic but of some kind of canvas, though the roof may have been made of plastic. As we stepped out, we were subjected to the scorching rays of the sun and inhaled the dust-laden air whipped up by a stiff breeze. The Colonel in charge of the camp said that though we had been told that there were 1,300 families in this camp, it had since increased to 1,800, as more families had been re-united. Though this was good news, it was a setback to us as we had brought only 1,300 packages. Still, we left these with the Colonel, who said that he would take charge of distributing them among the families, as otherwise there would be a stampede to collect these items.

We then piled back into our van while he and another army officer on a motorbike, took us on a guided tour of the camp. Some people stood outside their tents and watched silently as we drove past, while others went about their business, chatting to one another, tending their children or trekking to the water pump to collect water in buckets. We knew that access to the camps was restricted. We had been told that visiting relatives were not allowed inside the camps but were permitted to communicate with their families from outside the fence. I looked for evidence of this and saw a makeshift hut at the perimeter of the camp where a few people sat on rough wooden benches placed on either side of the fence and talked to each other. I felt both sad and angry at the sight.

My feelings of sadness were fairly uncomplicated, for I was sad that many who are innocent and powerless are treated with some suspicion, their daily lives fraught with the fear of harassment and the basic human need for nest-building, that is, for keeping one’s loved ones safe and secure under one roof, denied them. My feelings of anger however, were more confused and complicated, for I did not know who could or should be blamed for this state of affairs.

There is, for instance, the question of who was immediately and who was ultimately responsible for this state of affairs.

To trace the source of ultimate responsibility however would be akin to opening up a Russian doll, each one leading to another, and then to another. It would prove an impossible task, for it is a hotly-debated and contentious issue on which very few agree.

It can be said however, that extremist violence itself is, arguably, a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself. The disease is a sickness within the body politic of the nation, which successive governments failed to address in a meaningful manner, and which has led to several armed insurrections in the recent past, two in the South and a protracted one in the North.

The sources of immediate responsibility however, are the Army and the government who oversee the arrangements at the camp. The state is on a ‘weeding-out’ operation to root out terrorism. It has to be done: the country cannot afford the human, political and economic costs of another war. However it must be remembered that the LTTE itself is a spent force. To reason that because the LTTE was made up almost entirely of Tamils from the North, that all Tamils from the North must therefore be treated as possible LTTE suspects, is to reason fallaciously. It must not be forgotten that the IDPs are civilians who were trapped between a rock and a hard place. However late in the day, they responded to the invitation of the state and turned to it for succour and help. How the state treats the IDPs who are in its care will have far-reaching consequences for future relations between the two communities. The state should not leave room for speculation that the refuge it offered the IDPs as it fled the grasp of the Tiger, is akin to the invitation issued by the spider when it asked the fly to come into its parlour!

From Sumathipuram we proceeded to the Dharmapuram camp where the retired major in charge of the camp made us welcome. He spoke to us of his anxiety to promote the well-being of the refugees and of the arrangements he had made to make sure that the children in the camp received uninterrupted schooling. He also gave us carte blanche to wander at our will and talk to the people. Happily, and contrary to our expectations, most people in the camp seemed relatively cheerful. Their sudden release from the overriding fear of imminent death or disablement and the resultant sense of physical safety were reason enough for their relaxed demeanour. However, when we spoke to them, they all expressed an anxiety to get back to their homes and to their occupations. When I asked them whether their homes were still intact, they said that though their homes had been demolished, they would rebuild, once they got back home. One man I spoke to complained about the lack of variety in their diet, for they are given rice, dhal, brinjals and pumpkin for every meal, every day. His words of complaint were however accompanied by a smile, as if he were conscious of the irony of complaining about the lack of variety in his diet when, just a short while ago, he had had barely enough to eat to keep body and soul together. I asked him what he would like to eat and he replied “Bread” with a wry smile. I found out later on that he was a baker by profession!

Another told me that he had lost his parents as well as his brother and his wife as they all tried to escape from the Wanni, and was now very much alone in the world. One woman whispered to me that her young 14-year old son had been taken away and she was anxious for news of him. Reading between the lines, I surmised that her son was a possible LTTE suspect and as such had been taken in for questioning. I looked at her and recognized the pain that is familiar to all mothers, in her eyes. What could I say to her? I murmured some words of comfort but could do little else to soothe her pain.

We were soon surrounded by a group of men and women, each anxious to share their experiences. We just want to talk, they told me. But I could not linger. Our group was moving ahead and they called out to me to hurry up. Regretfully I hurried on to catch up with the rest. One fact that struck me forcefully as they all crowded around me was that none of them smelled unclean. In fact, we had passed some of the makeshift aluminium toilets on our way, and had not noticed any stench emanating from them. I do not know what the conditions are in the larger camps, but in these smaller, newer camps there seems to be an adequate supply of food and water.

As I hurried, I kept my eyes on the ground, as the stumps of trees which had been felled when the area had been cleared to house the refugees, were sticking up from the ground. This was another reason why there was an urgent need for footwear, though I saw many little ones running around barefooted. I caught up with the rest near the tents of their makeshift school. Five large tents were being utilized as a school. Soon we were surrounded by young girls and boys of different ages, who came out of their tents to speak to us. The children who were sitting their Ordinary Level Examinations this year, were concerned that they were not getting adequate tutoring especially in Mathematics and Science. Others made a request for more exercise books. When I asked them whether they have enough to eat, they said yes. One little girl who was about 10 years old said that prior to coming to the camp, she had slept in a bunker to escape the shelling, and used to fall asleep through fear, though her stomach was empty. At that time, she had subsisted on just one meal a day. Now she had three meals a day.

After going back to the Chettikulam nunnery for lunch, we had time to visit one more camp. Because a request had been made for bread, arrangements were made to purchase 150 buns and take these to the next camp at Kovarasankulam. This camp was located in the premises of the Kovarasankulam school. The Major in charge of the camp was a humane and kindly being, who jokingly told us to stay on at the camp site and help the people. As we stepped out of our vehicle, we were surrounded by a body of people who wanted to talk to us and we were struck once again, by the up-beat quality in their facial expressions and stance. One old woman kept embracing us and stroking our faces. Another, carrying a little toddler, told me that the child in her arms was the son of her injured son who had lost a leg due to shell injury. He and his wife were housed at another camp while she stayed on here to look after the little one.

The stories they shared with us were tragic, but as I had noted before at the Dharmapuram camp, they did not seem beaten down or depressed. As we had buns to distribute among the little ones, the Major asked the parents to take their little ones to the school hall and seat them in orderly rows on the floor of the stage. We were dismayed then to find that there were many more children than there were buns to go around. We managed to give a bun to every child seated on the stage, but there were others milling about in the hall who had to go without. The Major told us that these children were extremely well behaved and would not clamour for anything, unlike most other children. This we saw for ourselves, as they all sat quietly until we placed the bun in their hands. None of them reached out with their hands or even asked for one, if they had been inadvertently overlooked. One such little one sat with tears running silently down his cheeks, because he had been accidentally bypassed. Luckily this was rectified fairly quickly. The thought went through my mind that perhaps this kind of unnaturally good behaviour was the result of the trauma they had undergone in the recent past.

As we prepared to leave the camp, a sweet-faced, sixteen-year old found her way through the crush and spoke to me. I asked her, by way of conversation, whether she was still studying. She replied that she had completed her Ordinary Level Examinations. When I asked her whether she wanted to continue her studies, she shook her head vigorously. I want to go out she said and pointed towards the gates of the camp, an image that has left a cameo–like imprint in the recesses of my mind.

[The residents of the Manik Farm camp of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) wait the arrival of the United Nations Secretary-General-23/May/2009. Vavuniya. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.]

Via http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/985

I was wondering how in the years to come we will remember the Sri Lankan war being waged for the past 3 decades.  At what cost…  ?  Often, not everything is as it appears on the outside as Ken Silverstein reports.

It’s hard to know who bears more responsibility for the bloodshed in Sri Lanka, the government or the Tamil Tigers, but it’s clear that huge numbers of civilians are being killed in the crossfire. “The United Nations asserts that at least 4,500 civilians have been killed since January as the government has sought to decisively end a bloody rebellion that has lasted for a quarter-century,” said a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “The army is said to be preparing a final assault that, according to U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, could produce a ‘bloodbath.”‘

This is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The party that is perhaps more culpable — the rebels — answers to no one. And the Sri Lankan government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting “terrorists.” Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth.

The leader of the government’s military campaign is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Defense, brother of the President and an American citizen. (He lived in the U.S. until 2005, when he returned to Sri Lanka and helped get his brother elected. He still has a residence in San Dimas, California valued at around $1 million, according to Bruce Fein, general counsel of Tamils Against Genocide, an organization funded by ethnic Tamils living abroad.) Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Sri Lankan army, also has U.S. ties, being a green card holder.

Predictably, Washington lobbyists are making out quite well from the war. In January, the firm of Patton Boggs was retained by the Embassy of Sri Lanka, with “a fixed fee of $35,000 per month, payable quarterly in advance,” according to the contract. Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs is helping run the account, which calls on Patton Boggs to “provide guidance and counsel to the Embassy of Sri Lanka regarding its relations with the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government.” In other words, to sanitize the government’s conduct of the war and make it look good with the Obama administration.

After producing a “white paper” on Sri Lanka and the ongoing civil war, Patton Boggs organized a series of official meetings for its client. In late-March, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., Jaliya Wickramasuriya, met separately with Senator Richard Lugar. He briefed him on the conflict, stressing “the care taken to protect displaced civilians,” according to an Embassy press release.

Despite Patton Boggs’ best efforts, the government’s PR offensive has fallen flat. “I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering,” Secretary of State Clinton said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in February Fein filed a 1,000-page report with the U.S. Justice Department against Rajapaksa and Fonseka, charging violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. “Derived from affidavits, court documents, and contemporaneous media reporting, the indictment chronicles a grisly 61-year tale of Sinhalese Buddhists attempting to make Sri Lanka ‘Tamil free’,” he wrote recently in the Boston Globe.

Via http://harpers.org/archive/2009/04/hbc-90004852

World Vision Australia has hit the YouTube charts with its viral video on affluence, “Teenage Affluenza Is Spreading Fast”.

Erin is a fifteen year old girl living deep in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. She is at risk from teenage affluenza, like five million children and teenagers in her country. She still sleeps in the wooden colonial bed her parents bought her when she was ten. Although meals, travel and education is available to girls like Erin, many are forced to live on less than $40 pocket money each week. Erin’s iPod only holds 1 GB. And so the satirical commentary continues.

Juxtaposed with Erin’s ‘tragic life’ is the reality faced by children and teenagers in Vietnam, Sudan and other countries affected by famine and the long term impact of civil war. The video ends with the message “Do something else. Do something real. Do something.”

Is the church you attend mostly concerned about the “absolute” truth or a “relative” truth?  In other words, do they read the Bible for exactly what it says or a “watered-down” interpretation of what someone thinks it says.  I have encountered some churches which seem to have “permited” through their acceptance, behaviour and actions that would have been frowned upon or even chasticed by the early church.  I have also noticed that perspectives of some Christians today are determined not by the Biblical statement but by different philosophies and worldviews conveyed to them via the local church leadership, including doing what feels correct or comfortable in a given situation or based on a geographical location.  The argument that absolute truth is not popular and thereby is not very “user-friendly” is often used by some leaders to validate their stand.

Here’s another one….and let us be brutally honest here.  How often would you attend church and not feel like just another statistic?  In April 2005 George Barna presented what he termed a ‘transition letter’. This was his declaration that he was embarking on a new direction in ministry. He had invested 25 years in research designed to bring effectiveness and health to the local churches of America. He was now abandoning this effort as previously transacted – Why? Let his words speak to this issue:

“My concern has always been whether or not our assistance really made any difference in people’s lives. The most discouraging study we ever conducted was one in which we attempted to identify churches in the U.S. that consistently and intelligently evaluate life transformation among the people to whom they minister. We found that very few churches – emphasis on very – measure anything beyond attendance, donations, square footage, number of programs and size of staff. None of that necessarily reflects life transformation.

Further, our on-going research continued to show that churches do not act strategically because of a paucity of leadership. My objective had always been to get good information into the hands of leaders so they would convert those insights into great strategic decisions about how to minister more obediently and effectively. Not having the leaders in place to utilize such information was an obstacle I had not foreseen.”

“Hold on a minute” I hear you say.  “Doesn’t Hebrews 10:24-25 tell us that we are commanded to go to church?”  Not really; that passage of scripture is talking about assembling together to exhort one another, not about congregating in a building called “church” every week and being addressed by a professional sermon giver where the closest one would come to fulfilling this scripture is during the pre-programmed 1 minute slot hilariously called “meet-and-greet”.

Perhaps the reason why this formula in the early days proved to be so effective at creating real Christians who were willing to die for their faith was due to the fact that their “meeting and greeting” was conducted outside of the controlled environement some would call “church” today.  In contrast, today’s church seem to create many lukewarm, spiritually stagnant so called Christians who would only bother going to church if they could sit in comfort and be entertained by an elaborately orchestrated multimedia circus.

When I was pastoring and leading the church my wife and I started in Sri Lanka, my reasoning for the existance of the institutional church was mainly for these following reasons.

1. Individuals getting together in a (church) group have a more effective way to serve their community.
2. Equipping individuals for more effective ministry
3. Protection from being led astray by false or misleading doctrines

Let us honestly evaluate if these points are being addressed positively in our lives.  If the answer is a resounding “yes” let me tell you, you’re in the right place.

The following article written by Col R Hariharan - a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, who served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90 and is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies explains…

“The security forces have captured Mullaitivu, the last bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This comes as the icing on the cake of their achievements in the war against one of the toughest insurgent forces in the world, which has no hesitation in using terror tactics. However, the security forces have to address an issue that is disturbing not only to NGOs and UN humanitarian agencies but to many others who are no sympathisers of the LTTE.

In the last few days almost all international news agencies have reported the death of a number of civilians in Sri Lankan air strikes and artillery shelling carried out repeatedly to soften up the LTTE defences in support of the advancing security forces. A report of the Associated Press quoted Sri Lankan health officials saying that at lest 30 civilians were killed in a single day on January 20 due to shelling on a school and a hospital in the newly declared safety zone. The fact that the TamilNet, the pro LTTE website, had been reporting such deaths of civilians almost every day does not minimise the gravity of these incidents. Hundreds of civilians have died in such firing; even Indian newsmen who had been to Mullaittivu have confirmed it. One Indian reporter has spoken of heaps of dead bodies lying outside the makeshift hospital in Mullaittivu.

The death and injury among civilian population used as the human shield of the LTTE is caused when the security forces use artillery fire and air strikes to neutralise the LTTE pockets embedded in the midst of civilians. So it cannot be condoned as inevitable “collateral damage” of war. Such reports are even more serious if death and destruction of civilians come from an area that is supposed to be “safety zone”. So it is not surprising that the issue has drawn strong criticism worldwide.

Deaths of civilians and displacement of population from their habitations are perhaps the two most certain events in any war. When a society unleashes war as a solution, such happenings are to be expected. And war is also the biggest violation of citizens’ basic right to life and property. The expectation of privation is no consolation to the hapless population struggling just to survive between the foes. So what both the government and the LTTE do to mitigate their suffering is as important as winning or losing in battlefields.

It is in the nature of air strikes and artillery bombardment to cause death and destruction in areas around the target. Even with all the technology for precision strikes, both air and artillery fire has inherent probability error in hitting the target area. In fact even the most accurate artillery gun has to correct its fire for every target with a couple of salvos before it opens its barrage on the target. This is done to minimise error of shells not hitting the target. Such an area would extend to a radius of at least 100 yards around the target. That is how the damages from ‘collateral’ causes occur. As it is inherent in the use of artillery fire to call it collateral is absurd. The use of artillery fire and air strikes in civilian areas regardless of compulsions is to be condemned strongly because it is so inhuman.

Unfortunately bombs and bullets do not discriminate between soldiers and “human shields” or hapless civilians trying flee the battlefield. In times of war, displaced population have neither the resources nor energy to take protective measures taken by the troops. Women and children form bulk of such civilian casualties because they cannot run as fast as men to safety.

The security forces are repeatedly told to exercise caution while using their fire power. War is not a cricket match; it is each man fighting not only to save himself, but to kill the enemy to fulfil his commander’s mission. That is why soldiers are trained to become part of a gigantic killing machine that armies are. Their principles of war tell them to use superior force with preponderance of fire power while maintaining their objective. Under such compulsions of war, expecting the security forces to enforce a zero civilian casualty policy is extremely difficult if not impossible. So it is for other government agencies to take measures to ameliorate the fall out of battles on civil population well in advance and train them on how to save themselves.

In this regard the hands of both the government and the LTTE are tainted. The security forces have stepped up the use of artillery including multi barrel rocket fire and air power even as the LTTE areas are shrinking every day increasing the density of civilians per square kilometre. And the role of the LTTE is despicable and heartless. Even the UN has critically commented on the LTTE’s cynical strategy of not allowing civilian population to get out of the battle zone, even though it knows that it is not going to defend the area unto death of the last of its cadres. (emphasis mine)

The government run by an elected body of people’s representatives cannot absolve its responsibility in this respect by blaming the LTTE. As an organised government its norms are clearly defined and public accountability is an essential part of it. It is expected to perform better than the LTTE which has no pretension of such niceties and has only its leader Prabhakaran’s edicts as norms of functioning.

Media is the conscience keeper of society. When the government fails to operate according to the norms of governance, it is the duty of media to report it. This is more so in times of war, when people accept the curbing some of their fundamental freedoms in the national interest. Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan media feels increasingly insecure when they face violence and intimidation directly or indirectly from elements of government or suspected to have close connections with it.

President Rajapaksa had been enjoying better press than his predecessors and most of the other politicians. In spite of this, his repeated reassurances on media freedom have not made much headway because other limbs of the government continue add a new episode to media confrontation almost daily. What is surprising is the government attitude to the media trying to report on the war, when only government is the “authorised source” of information. The latest in the government’s firing line was the BBC Sandeshaya for quoting the civilian casualty figures given by a representative of Mullaittivu hospital in its report. Media men dig for news from any available source when they are denied independent access to the happenings. This is what is happening

Victory in war is a heady thing. It can cloud government’s perspectives on fundamental issues of governance. Victories in battlefields would not mean much in the long run if people do not feel secure and trust the government. The opposition Janatha Vimuthi Peramuna leader put it aptly: “These war victories can be meaningful to the people only when democracy is restored.” Unfortunately, Sri Lanka is giving the impression that this is not happening.”

(Col. R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90.He is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies. E-mail:colhari@yahoo.com)

Via:  http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cnotes5%5Cnote496.html

“They call him the ‘Sky Angel Cowboy’. Thirteen-year-old Logan Henderson lives on a ranch located in the middle of Nebraska.

Isolated from much of the world - he often listens to KSBJ Christian radio out of Houston, Texas, which he picks up on Sky Angel. In late October - Logan made a call to the station that would soon be heard around the world.” Via - CBNNews.com

Psalms 8:2 - “Out of the mouth of babes…..”

If Obama were white, would he still have won so convincingly.  I somehow am not too sure.  Let’s face it - many who I spoke with, who were quite determined to see Obama win did so mainly on the basis of him being “black”.  Most of them had no idea whatsoever of Obama’s policies or intent in office at all.

What if Obama were white and McCain black?

It seems to me that in a contest between a “black” and a “white”,  in todays environment, one stands at a distinct disadvantage purely based on skin tone.  Sound familiar….?

How I wish we could be colour-blind some times.

“I have to get this off my chest - it has been bugging me for a few weeks now. WHEN are people going to stop looking at skin colour?!!! They keep going on about Obama being the first black president and while I agree that it is a remarkable point in history, it is not such a big deal really. It is just skin colour. and Obama is NOT BLACK! His mother was lily white, he was raised by his mother and his white grandparents. His father was from Kenya, not from american slaves, which in my eyes makes his story vastly different from Alex Haley’s. Yes he is mixed race but just because the darker genes are stronger than the lighter ones does not put him into a category. He is a person, first and foremost. His history is more influential to his story than his skin colour.

My kids are mixed race, half Sri Lankan, half Australian. Yes, their colouring is darker than mine, but not as dark as their dad’s. They are neither black nor white, but perhaps both. They are Aussie citizens, purely for the convenience and opportunities that it affords. But they can choose to be either.  Which makes me wonder if the ‘first black president’ angle is being majorly exploited.

What would happen if the candidate was half Chinese. The combination of the genes between caucasians and Asians is often more even resulting in more mixed features and skin colour. They look not vastly different from either of the heritages. Would the candidate then be exploited as being the ‘first asian president’ or would that take a backseat in the campaign strategy?

I guess to really understand I would have to live in the US to experience the level of racism that they have there. It is definitely improving but the remnants of the bygone era still have a major influence. In Australia I think we are more open in our views as to race, we categorise less and we are a lot more inter-racial, basically we are a bunch of mongrels. But that is our heritage and something to be proud of I feel.

Perhaps I will see things differently when we get our ‘first aboriginal prime minister’.”