Emotional Tagging…

I’ve been tagged by Dinidu… (I’m terrible with doing links)
It’s a simple system actually, you write five words to describe how you feel about recent events in Sri Lanka, you tag five bloggers, you sit back and relax.

1. Joy
2. Sadness
3. Confusion at the feeling the above 2 emotions at the same time
4. hope
5. Cynicism about the above emotion

And my tags are:

Black Exists
Delilah Says
Sach
Jaded Shades
Black Lullaby

If you guys have already been tagged, just ignore my tag ya?

High time for Human Rights inquiry against the US?

There’s a famous line written somewhere that talks about removing the beam from your own eye, before pointing out the speck in someone else’s eye. We’ve all heard about this line in various different ways right?

Wrong….!!!

Obviously the USA and the UK have never heard of this valuable piece of advice! Of course in their defense, it may be the fact that a bloody great beam that’s stuck very firmly in their eyes has grown so big, it’s blocking their hearing as well.

What exactly am I talking about here? Well, to be specific, it’s about the ongoing special session of the UNHRC to inquire into alleged violations that have happened during the assault on the LTTE’s final stronghold. Now correct me if I’m wrong here, but I believe the armed forces actually held back to a certain extent and in fact declared numerous ceasefires in order to facilitate the safe passage of the civilians who were being held hostage by the LTTE.

Yes, there have been civilian casualties, inflicted by both sides of the fence, and that’s a sad fact we all have to accept. But what really gets my goat is the fact that the very countries that are pushing the hardest for this inquiry, the US and UK, are right now involved in an ongoing assault which includes repeated air strikes against a Taliban enclave in Afghanistan. An enclave where there are thousands of innocent civilians trapped between the two armed factions!

There have been numerous reports of hundreds of civilian casualties that are occurring as a result of these air strikes. But the US and UK seem to think these deaths are just a ‘regrettable consequence’ of the war on terror and should not be seen as a reason to call off the attacks. On the contrary, the ‘allied’ forces seem to be putting more and more effort into totally destroying this enclave with a devil may care attitude towards the loss of innocent lives.

Now is it just me being dense here, or is there actually some sort of logic that’s being used here? Maybe it’s the logic that says as long as you’re a western country, it’s perfectly OK to kill and displace civilians in your battle to eradicate terrorism. After all, God did die and leave you guys in charge of what’s right and wrong in the world right?

But God (The one who died and left them in charge) have mercy on any third world country that actually succeeds in ending a 3 decade long terrorist organization and in the process liberates thousands of civilians who were being held hostage!

IMHO, it’s high time Sri Lanka spoke to a few of our friends on the UNHRC and requested them to table a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan, and also for a prompt third party inquiry into the human rights violations perpetrated by the US and UK in their on going war on terror. This should also take into account the reports of torture and abuse of prisoners in the hands of the US and UK armed forces. Abuses that have been well documented and even admitted to by the administrations of these countries.

In fact, this inquiry should extend to all the western countries who were involved in George Bush’s almighty offensive on the ‘Axis of Terror’. I’m sure this list will read like a ‘who’s who’ of the countries pushing for the inquiry against Sri Lanka right now!

So what say you guys, can we all start a petition that calls for the immediate inquiry into US and UK human rights violations? If that doesn’t work, maybe we can start organizing some mass protests in Times square and also block a couple of highways in Canada and the US. But do remember to bring your kids with you so the police can’t do anything to stop you!

Put up or shut up time…!!

In the middle of all the joyous posts and articles celebrating the end of the war on terrorism, I couldn’t help reading quite a few foreign news agency reports and opinions that tend to harp on what action the West should take with regard to the ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ and ‘War Crimes’ that’re happening in Sri Lanka.

Some advocate the US and European countries should undertake their own investigations and take the powers that be to task. Others encourage the view that economic sanctions should be put in place to force the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to cooperate with the inquiries. One columnist in the ‘TimesOnline’ has even advised the US to block the much needed IMF loan, claiming that Sri Lanka does not deserve to be helped.

Forgive me for sounding a bit naive here, but wasn’t it these very people who for the past several months been harping about the well being of the IDP’s and how bad things were for them? They even went to the extent of threatening the GOSL and in turn the people of Sri Lanka with extreme sanctions on the lines of Zimbabwe, unless an immediate ceasefire was declared. Well, the war is over, they’ve got the ceasefire they wanted, maybe not in the manner they hoped for, but it’s still an end of hostilities right? So why then are these governments still threatening sanctions?

As I see it, the immediate need of the day is to ensure the rehabilitation of the IDP’s. They desperately need to be provided with food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment, etc. in order for them to regain what 3 decades of war has taken away from them. The GOSL and the people of Sri Lanka are doing their utmost right now to tackle a situation for which they were ill prepared. We need all the help we can get right now in order to put these people back on their feet, and IMHO the West seems pretty determined to shoot our efforts down in a blaze of hypocrisy!

Right now what Sri Lanka and its people need is not self righteous posturing but straight forward pledges of support that aren’t couched in conditions and demands that are guaranteed to make the situation worse and even prolong the suffering of these poor people!

I seriously think it’s high time the West understood that we Sri Lankans are getting pretty tired of the sanctimonious preaching being directed at us in our time of need. We’re also pretty tired of the double standards adopted by the West, that makes it OK for them to carry out air strikes against civilians in Afghanistan, but prevents them from providing vital aid to a struggling democracy that’s trying to help its people!

IMHO, it’s high time the West either put up or shut up!!

The Cowardly Custard…!! ;)

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the newest trend in Sri Lanka’s blogging scene? There seems to be a radical increase in people who seem to think it’s cool to try and threaten and blackmail others into either deleting their blogs or editing their posts.

The newest entrant into this rather twisted field of blogging is someone who likes people to think he/she/it is a wonderful combination of sugar and spice, but unfortunately comes across more as a bit of a rotten egg desert! More a Cowardly Custard than anything else. He/she/it proudly claims to be responsible for the deletion of ‘Charm Bracelet’ and ‘Indyana’ and has now published a list of people to be further targeted.

Now, while I do understand there may be a very few people who would be intimidated by this sort of creature, does he/she/it seriously believe that everyone who’s been listed will be shaking in their shoes and running to delete their blogs??

I’m sure most of the bloggers mentioned on this particular site are probably having a hard time controlling the urge to piss themselves right now… not with fear as the Cowardly Custard hopes… but by laughing so hard at the thought of being threatened by someone as childish as this.

I actually had the bad experience of having just taken a sip of hot coffee when I read the latest post by Cowardly Custard… Not a pleasant thing to have said hot coffee come shooting out through your nose…! Of course the other guys in office found that to be almost as funny as the threats made on Cowardly Custard’s blog!

This creature has also happened to mention how it’s insulting to be compared to the formerly unknown but now infamous NB, but IMHO, the Cowardly Custard is a few degrees below that level too. He/she/it doesn’t even have the balls to blog under a real name like NB did, instead, this creature prefers to hide behind a computer and attack other bloggers who have done nothing to deserve such attacks.

Of course, I’m sure in this Cowardly Custard’s twisted little mind (Where there are many voices running around in straight jackets), the people on the list have been personally responsible for much persecution and harassment of this poor creature!

Anyways, I’d seriously love to hear what you guys think about these threats. Are you gonna go into hiding or continue to blog?

I’m sure I already know the answer to that question of course… Not everyone as cowardly as the Cowardly Custard… So here’s looking forward to reading lots of more interesting posts!

Oops… Your Slip is showing Ms. Clinton!

This is an Afghan child who was injured in the recent US led air strikes in Afghanistan…

I guess he looks like a Al Qaida terrorist to Ms. Hillary Clinton huh?

‘Nuff said about America’s double standards…!!

Nari Baana and the sour Kottu…

Woke up this morning with this really great story in my mind, all about this silly Nari Baana and how he desperately wanted some Kottu. But since he couldn’t get any, the Nari Baana went around saying how sour and rotten the Kottu was…

But then I realised…. Damn… that story has already been written and sold a million or more copies…! These bloody fairy tale writers I tell you…!!!

Humph…! Better luck next time I guess…