TamilWeek_Nov_13

Sri Lankan elections: a conspiracy to prevent
Tamils from voting [WSWS]

In the communally charged atmosphere of Sri Lankan politics, a conspiracy is
underway to prevent large numbers of Tamils in the war-ravaged northern and
eastern provinces from voting in the November 17 presidential elections. In
what is an unlikely alliance, the Colombo government and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)—each for their own political purposes—are
seeking to obstruct Tamil voters from exercising their basic right to vote.

Presidential
Election: Sole
Representation
and the
Disenfranchisement
of Tamils in the
North and East

The elections in the North
and East were held in a
climate of fear as the LTTE,
through its front
organizations, called for a
boycott of the elections.
This directive was backed
by violence on the days
leading up to and on
Election Day, as LTTE
cadres on motorcycles beat
and chased away voters
and tyres were burned as
road blocks to intimidate
civilians.
[SLDF]

LTTE-TNA Impose boycott of poll on Tamil People

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The presidential election campaign of Ranil Wickremasinghe has been dealt a
terrific jolt by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization and its
appendage the Tamil National Alliance.

In one decisive stroke the LTTE and TNA have dispelled the notion that they
were extending tacit support to the United National Party candidate and
Opposition Leader.

Why is the LTTE disappointed with Ranil
Wickramasinghe?

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The attempt made by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to enforce a Tamil
boycott of the Presidential elections will affect Ranil Wickremasinghe as the
bulk of Tamil votes was expected to be cast for him. The LTTE - TNA press
conference in Kilinochchi has made it clear that the tigers are in favour of a
boycott. Earlier there were confused signals to that effect. Now it is in the open.

Bala Tampoe: N othing can be expected from either
Ranil or Mahinda

The CMU denounced the provisions for the Executive Presidency in the 1978
Constitution as being completely undemocratic, and accordingly called for a
boycott of the 1982 Presidential Election. We declared that no candidate, if
elected President, should be vested with the powers of the Executive
Presidency, irrespective of who the candidate might be, and whatever a
candidate might promise to do or not do, if elected.

Devolution and Constitutional Reform

By Dr. S. Narapalasingam

A nation state whose future is threatened by sustained internal rebellion
because of political alienation of a section of its population by the prevailing
one-sided system has three choices to end the state of unrest, manifest in the
growing law and order, social, financial and economic problems. The state
could crush the rebellion militarily (with or without external help) or in
frustration allow the rebels to take full control of the contested areas (this
means de facto division of the nation state into two regions under the control
of two separate authorities) or settle for a mutually acceptable autonomous
power sharing arrangement respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty
of the country. The latter entails constitutional reform for delineating and
describing the demarcated powers to be exercised by the central and regional
authorities. This option has the best chance for re-uniting the divided
communities and ensuring durable peace which are essential for the social
and economic advancement of all the communities in the war-torn country.

Devananda sings Mahinda’s peacemaking virtues

By Austin Fernando

EPDP Leader and Northern Development and Hindu Cultural Affairs Minister
Douglas Devananda declared in the Asian Tribune of October 24, 2005 that
the ethnic issue has to be approached in a pragmatic way, relying essentially
on negotiations and avoiding military confrontations. The country, as a whole,
agrees with Devananda.

He urged the Tamils to vote for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse without
being “misled by empty and destructive emotions that would push future
generations to dreaded military campaigns and bloodletting.” No one
disagrees.

Milinda Moraoda: "Karuna is a product of the peace"

Karuna is a product of the peace process:for which the UNP had made the
bulk of the contributions. The process was started by President Kumaratunga
by inviting Norway to play the role of the facilitator.

A dissident Karuna would most probably have never emerged in a war
situation. By silencing guns, by opening roads and removing barricades we
created an environment that offered alternatives to the most ruthless of the
LTTE cadres. Even a suicide cadre who had seen all these positive changes
would think twice because he has been offered an alternative to their resolve
to die for a cause. When they see that they can live the life of any other
citizen and have the same access and opportunities they will definitely think
twice.

Mr. Wickremesinghe always says that we have to create the right environment
so that the LTTE would not be able to behave the way it does. As to what we
should do with Karuna is something that we have to decide once our
candidate is elected the president. We see it more as a law or order issue
especially in the Eastern province than anything else.

"My close relative Prabhakaran" - Mangala [BBC]

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s campaign is not racist or discriminatory
in any way says the Chief campaign spokesman Mangala Samaraweera. The
Minster also accused the opposition campaign of campaigning to divide the
country on ethnic and religious lines. "If you take me as an example, my
recently deceased brother was a catholic. My elder sister is married to a
catholic. My father’s sister was married to a Tamil from Velvettithurai, a very
close relative of Prabhakaran." Said Mangala Samaraweera. The aim of Prime
Minister Rajapakse is to create a land with equal opportunity for all races and
religions said the Minister.

Mahinda, Ranil and the Kandaswamy deity of
Maaviddapuram

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

"Yarlppanakudanadu " or Jaffna Peninsula became the cynosure of the on
going presidential election campaign when both Ranil Wickremasinghe and
Mahinda Rajapakse paid brief visits on successive days last week. The
Leader of the Opposition was in Jaffna on Nov 3rd and the Prime Minister on
the 4th.

Presidential
election is
irrelevant to the
Tamil people
[EelamNation]

“Presidential election
of Sri Lanka is totally
irrelevant to the Tamil
people at this juncture
when they are
frustrated with the
unproductive Cease
Fire Agreement and
the denial of post-
tsunami humanitarian
aid in an equitable
manner” said Mr.S.P.
Tamilselvan, Head of
the LTTE Political
Wing in an interview
with the media after
meeting with Tamil
National Alliance
Legislators yesterday,
10 November 2005 at
Kioinochchi.

Radhika laments absence of a holistic Sri Lankan
identity;
Insists peace should be linked to human rights

The desperate struggle of Sri Lankans to establish a Sri Lankan identity
reflecting the aspirations of various groups has resulted in an appalling
human rights record for the country, said Sri Lanka's top human rights expert
at an awards ceremony held in Montreal, Canada earlier this week.

India as Mediator

by Old Jaffna Man

It appears that the JVP and Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse want
to invite India to come in as Mediator/Facilitator, to deal with Sri Lanka’s
problem. The Sri Lanka Tamils are a part of this problem. I for one will find it
extremely difficult to accept any role by India. Because what India did to the
Tamils in the 3 1/2 years from 1987 to 2000 when their Army was occupying
the North East province.. The Indian Army came with the designation Indian
Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) but when they left it was felt that they were a
Indian People Killing Force. There were no people to send them off in
Trincomalee and no one to receive them when they landed in Madras.

LTTE runs risk of misjudging intnl. response to
election boycott

By Jehan Perera

Indications from the north east are that people there are getting the
impression that the LTTE is opposed to them casting their votes at the
forthcoming Presidential elections. This contradicts the public statements from
LTTE officials that they are goig to remain neutral in the elections and will not
obstruct the elections in any way. But the newspapers in Jaffna, which is the
population centre of the north, and opinion former for the Tamil people of the
north east, are giving a negative picture about the elections. Perhaps there is
a divided opinion within the LTTE itself on the elections, which is reflected in
the uncertainty being felt by the people.

KR Narayanan:
Expert In State And Diplomatic Affairs

by Gopalkrishna Gandhi

"When can you come?" The voice over the long distance from Delhi to
Pretoria was soft in timbre, tough in substance. K.R. Narayanan (KRN) had
been elected India's tenth President and was looking for a secretary. I had
just done a year in my assignment and was riveted by Nelson Mandela's
leadership of the new South Africa. But one does not remonstrate with the
President. And when he added, "I need you around here." I knew my air ticket
had been stamped. I reported under a month.

So you want to
enter politics?

By Asitha
Jayawardena

"I have come to the
conclusion that politics
are too serious a
matter to be left to the
politicians," says
Charles De Gaulle. So
you now think of
entering politics? Don’t
rush in. Why don’t you
come to a decision
after exploring what
politics is and what it
requires?

Flooded out [Frontline]

Heavy rains wreak havoc with life in drought-hit Tamil Nadu. But, even amid
the misery, there is cheer in water-starved regions such as Chennai.
Torrential rain battered Tamil Nadu in the last week of October, after four
consecutive years of drought. Over 60 persons lost their lives and about two
lakh people had to be accommodated in state-run relief centres in Chennai,
the capital, and other parts of the State. Crop damage was reported from
several districts in the Cauvery delta.

Two days of heavy downpour in Chennai, caused by a depression in the Bay
of Bengal and the floods that resulted from intermittent rain for about a
fortnight and the release of surplus water that flowed into the Mettur dam from
Karnataka, left a trail of destruction and brought misery to thousands of
people, whose huts and belongings were washed away. Life was paralysed for
more than a week.

The Elusive Maddak Kalappu (Batticaloa)

by K.S. Sivakumaran

Maddak Kalappu is the Thamil name for what is known as Batticaloa in
English. And in Sinhala it is called Madakalappuwa. The Dutch that ruled the
maritime provinces of Sri Lanka after defeating the Portuguese called the
eastern capital town Batticaloa. In Dutch then the English letter"M" was used
as "B". In the Thamil newscasts over the Radio and TV and also in the print
media in India, they call Maddak Kalappu as "Batticalowa" Strange these
spellings and pronunciations!

Two Tributes: Jeyam (CJT) Thamotheram
(1918 - 2005)

“I met Mr Thamotheram, for the very first time, in June 1994. It was at a
meeting of the International Tamil Foundation to which he invited me. Within
minutes of meeting, he made me feel as if I had met a long lost friend. He had
a gift for friendship. It was a gift that survived the pain and trauma that our two
nations were suffering in the throes of war at that time.

Leela: Exquisite songbird with a mellifluous voice

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Porayathu Leela known to millions of rasikas as P. Leela passed away
around midnight on Sunday October 30th in Chennai. The 71 year old South
Indian songbird was lying in a hospital bed of Sri Ramachandra Medical
Centre for nearly a month . She had fallen in the bathroom at her house in
Nandambakkam Defence colony , shared for decades with her sister and
family. Diagnosis after admission revealed a blood clot in her brain.Surgery
was performed. Complications set in when she got pneumonia.Being an
asthma patient her condition deteriorated. She was in a coma at the time of
death and so passed away peacefully and painlessly. [Filmalaya.com]

Choosing action over apathy [Hindu]

Leaving behind the security of their homes and jobs, young
non-resident Indians are working to change things in their
home country. The Indicorps venture shows the way.

A crowd has gathered at Vijay Char Rasta, one of Ahmedabad's busiest
intersections. Neither for a film shooting nor an accident, and neither is it a
dispute. A street school, run by Ahmedabad-based NGO Indicorps, is in
progress. In a land that is home to the largest number of illiterate people, it is
unfortunate that the school stands as an exception in its urban setting.

Speaking of the school, an Indicorps volunteer admits, "Many of these
children attend school only for the free breakfast, yet it is important that they
come, as it is the closest many will ever come to a school in their lifetime."

The playwright as a dissenter

The Nobel laureate's dramatic genius rivals his concern for the world around
him.

I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a
good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political
intelligence in my own right. - Harold Pinter, The Guardian, August 3,
2001.

IN the fall of 1977, reading English literature at Golden Threshold, Sarojini
Naidu's former home in Hyderabad, was a heady experience. The Emergency
had been lifted; there was freedom in the air and we had celebrity poets like
Shiv K. Kumar, Meena Alexander and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra as our
teachers. While many texts vied for our attention, what stood out the most was
"The Home Coming" by Harold Pinter, this year's Nobel Prize winner in
literature.

About a lost paradise

IN his latest novel Shalimar the Clown, Salman Rushdie returns to the place
where it all began. Kashmir in Midnight's Children, and that spring morning
early in the century when Saleem Sinai's grandfather Aadam Aziz, kneeling on
a tussock of grass, hits his head and feels three drops of blood roll down his
nose. This moves him to declare that he will never again kneel before man or
God, and creates a hole inside him - a hole that will remain all his life.

At this point, Kashmir is still the paradise on earth that Jehangir celebrated. It
is the mountains, the chinars and the tranquil Dal where ancient Tai the
boatman rows Aadam to the perforated sheet that becomes his destiny. Tai, it
may be recalled, died in 1947 protesting against the dispute between Pakistan
and India over Kashmir.

An Unstamped Ticket [OutlookIndia]

The Ode to Waris Shah was her defining work. Much of the
rest was sheer atmosphere.

Amrita was a very beautiful girl, daughter of a widower who was a pracharak
from Gujranwala, now in Pakistan. She was brought up as an orthodox Sikh
and moved with her father to Lahore where, at the age of 15 or 16, she
started writing poetry. It was syrupy stuff about Sikh gurus and Sikhism. It
earned her instant acclaim from the orthodox.

Deepa Mehta’s
rocky “Water”

While making,
“Water,” the third in
her “Elements Trilogy”
(“Fire,” “Earth”)
Toronto-based
filmmaker Deepa
Mehta caused waves
in her native India
because of the movie’
s theme: an eight-year-
old widow resigned to
live in an ashram with
other widows in 1938,
who is forced into
prostitution by one of
the elders.

The film, which
opened the Toronto
International Film
Festival this year, was
forced to shut down
production by Indian
extremists, with Mehta
putting the picture on
hiatus for five years
until it found a new
location with new
actors in Sri Lanka.

The Kamal Haasan phenomenon [Rediff]

It's hard to be dispassionate about an actor who was an intrinsic part of one's
growing up years. It's impossible to be dispassionate if the actor in question is
Kamal Haasan.

I have been involved in numerous arguments sparked off by my
characterisation of Kamal as India's finest actor. Sneers, guffaws, hoots of
derision and worse have followed my remark. To them, I offer a list - meant to
comprise 10, but expanded to 14 - of his movies in defence. Each of the films
sees a different Kamal - is there another with a better repertoire and who is
also a commercial success? Sure, bring him/her on.

Sivakasi: With the formula intact

Typical Vijay with all the fire works

An apt title for the Deepavali season, Sri Surya Movies' `Sivakasi' (U) is
firepower from first to last. Sivakasi, the hero, is a metaphor for light, fireworks
and everything bright. Shekar V. Joseph's camera makes sure that you don't
miss the symbolism at any point. Paerarasu takes on the onus of story,
screenplay, dialogue, direction and lyrics and completely in tune with the taste
of the masses does a fairly neat job of it. Only that the invariable protraction
of the climax and the villain's predictable remorse tire you.

Bambara Kannalae: The treatment goes awry

Where the hero talks non-stop

Srikanth would have made a better impression in comedy if the other
parameters had not played truant. For instance, some of his reactions in the
name of levity seem overdone. When the screenplay sags badly and direction
doesn't bother too much about redressing matters, the film as a whole suffers.
Aarti Agarwal, who ought to have made her debut in Tamil with `Winner,'
enters the scene with `Bambara ... ' and looks rather mature for a new face.
Vadivelu appears in just one scene in the first half and in a couple of
sequences in the second. Namita exudes sex appeal to entice the
frontbenchers.

'Arular' conceals powerful social commentary with
shiny hip-hop veneer [Dartmouth]

British hip-hop artist Maya Arulpragasam grew up in poverty-stricken,
war-torn Sri Lanka, where she and her family lived until the country's civil war
forced them to flee to England. After a substantial production delay,
Arulpragasam released her debut album in March, recording under the
moniker M.I.A. to honor family members still missing in her homeland. The
product proves well worth the wait, if not quite "worth" the tumultuous
upbringing that shaped Arulpragasam as both a performer and a human
being.

Why France is burning [Rediff]

I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles

Cole Porter's standard, sung by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Ella
Fitzgerald, perhaps symbolises the kind of romanticism the world associates
with France, and its capital. You normally think of Riviera luxuries, easy
working hours, wine, music, literature, art -- the finer things in life -- when you
think of France.

But now, with arson, rioting and killing sweeping the nation for 12 consecutive
days, the country that gave birth to the lofty ideals of humanism -- Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity -- is facing questions it has perhaps never faced since the
Bastille fell, 216 years ago, and the French Revolution marked an important
step in human evolution.

If bits and pieces have left you craving for the full course on why Paris is
burning, read on:

Muhammad Ali

"One of the greatest
athletes of all time,
Muhammad Ali
produced some of
America's most lasting
sports memories, from
winning the Gold
Medal at the 1960
Summer Olympics to
carrying the Olympic
torch at the 1996
Summer Olympics. As
the first three-time
heavyweight boxing
champion of the world,
he thrilled,
entertained, and
inspired us. His deep
commitment to equal
justice and peace has
touched people
around the world. The
United States honors
Muhammad Ali for his
lifetime of achievement
and for his principled
service to mankind."

Bush honours Ali with mock punch [BBC]

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been awarded America's highest civilian
honour by President George Bush.

The president drew laughs by assuming a mock boxing posture while
presenting the former heavyweight champion with the Presidential Medal of
Freedom.

Mr Bush called Ali the "greatest of all time", in a ceremony at the White House
at which 13 others were also honoured.

2007 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2007)

State Department Web site for the 2007 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2007) is
now open. The application submission period for DV-2007 is from 12:00PM
EST (GMT -5) on October 5, 2005 to 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on December 4,
2005. The application form will only be available for submission during this
period and this period only. Applications will not be accepted through the U.S.
Postal Service.

The 2007 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery where 50,000 individuals worldwide
will be selected has been formally declared open in Washington, the US
embassy in Colombo said yesterday.

"There are two things born from mountains, shining so brilliantly that the great bow down, driving
darkness from earth circled by roaring waters. One is the flaming sun, single wheel bright as
lightning, the other is Tamil that has no like." — from the taNTiyalankârum [Berkeley Tamil]