Sunday, May 10, 2009

There has been one thing I have been unable to understand.
There are enough organizations and people holding placards, shouting, investing that which is of essence - time, slamming down politicians who do not care for animal or bird rights And how come the same energy or effort is not given when human beings are killed in thousands just a few hundred kilometers away??

I just do not understand the apathy towards the people in Sri Lanka. Be it the politicians or even normal citizens. I think if it had not been for several individuals who got together to form huge groups that have become mammoth organizations of global presence fighting for against animal testing and for animal rights , I guess major cosmetic companies would not be spending that extra buck to specify "Not Tested on Animals" on their labels.

Those that are given asylum in refugee camps, reportedly being in such a camp is worse than facing bombs in Sri Lanka on a per minute-basis.

I wonder if divisions have been laid down so much that one human being has deadened feelings when it comes to another human being if they do not belong to a certain community or speak a certain language. I wish those who sowed the seeds of such ideas of dividing people on the basis of caste community creed and language or anything else - that which has become a way of belief in most people are rotting in hell right now.

Wonder how we don't care when people die for the sake of a few people's wretched designs on power and super money. Be it anywhere in the world. Why is it that we do not care for someone who is separated from us by a mere line called a border drawn by another man or a group of people who sat down and said , hey lets draw this line here. The lines of division and separation, lines that we cannot actually see on the soil unless it is drawn on paper or is symbolized by whatever else demarcates borders of countries. And worse still the situation in Sri Lanka is being used by a lot of people here to create fresh caste divisions in a land that already had enough. Sowing seeds for fresh hatred. Brilliant tactics. When will people learn???

Wonder why it is important for people to place politics above basic human need for peace, safety and security. Wonder how these lines have gone to the extent of blinding the whole lot of us from the light of justice and love.

There are those who have the guts to step up and fight for the rights of people dying there and all that most of us can do is criticize them or attempt to silence them as well.

P.S.: Amongst a lot of links sent to me, here is one

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chinmayi!
I was just going to post on your blog asking if you would write your thoughts about the current situation in Sri Lanka! Thank you for bringing this issue to the attention of your blog readers.

Do check out this video of:

UngaLil Yaar aduththa PrabhuDeva - Prem Gopal performance on EeLam Tamils sufferings

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5020271
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCYRkC40KDQ

His dance will leave you in tears.

Sincerely,
S.

Nash said...

To be honest I just now am beginning to get a clear idea of the same.I found this BBC documentary on the conflict right from the beginning.This gives a clear idea of the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UnhPq8Pio&feature=PlayList&p=1E68FA22A7D495C1&index=0

I would say that to me it looks more than an Ethnic cleansing just similar to WW II if you know what I mean. This is just my personal opinion :-)

Raghav_K said...

Hmm an interesting post...

I'll start by saying that while I'm a Greenpeace supporter, i never felt doing anything much about the genocide taking place in SL probably because of the following..

1) Not much can be done, when SL refuses humanitarian access to the war areas, and when it questions the criticizers "where were you during the America- Iraq war" http://tinyurl.com/pgljvg

2) Not much can be done, when the United Nations is powerless and just a mute spectator!

3) Our government has failed to take a strong stance in this issue, except a phone call to Rajapakshe once a week, and sending a messenger

4) Constant twisting of the Sl tamils issue by Tamil nadu politicians is a put off...

It's not that we don't care... It's my opinion that we - the commons - are powerless in this issue, and the politicians just don't seem to care....

Sathiya said...

//I wish those who sowed the seeds of such ideas of dividing people on the basis of caste community creed and language or anything else - that which has become a way of belief in most people are rotting in hell right now.//
This must be 100% true...you have written exactly what I used to think...

One classic example is Salman's case of killing a spotted deer...the importance give to a deer is not given to humans.....Where is the human rights now?

I'm just ashamed of myself being not able to do anything to help those poor people....politicians are going to be of no help unless it affects their vote bank!

Anonymous said...

Sri Lankan crisis is a classic case of things going awry and beyond a point of no return if the underlying issues are not sorted out within a reasonable timeframe.

It has been nore than two decades and it only gets worse by the day.

Throw in the typical South Asian credo - "leave the problems - they will go away - or they will solve by themselves" and you have a perfect recipe for a humongous mess.

Blamegame is the order of the day.

A scenario which anybody "who want to muddy the water more" relishes -so much scope for posturing, with no real intent of sorting anything out.

(I would rather Indian Tamils self immolate for local problems like no power, no water, monumental corruption and what not)

Problem for people like us who are caught in between and are emotionally upset hearing about all those reported killings is - lack of real & correct information.

We only get to look at the gory visuals. We have no real access to deciphering what went wrong.
What one reads and sees in the media are approximations.

One thing is the killings and sufferings of the innocents have to be strongly condemned.

But this alone is not going to resolve the situation.

The other thing is to be able to analyze the whole scenario - the players, their roles and are they really what they say they are...

If a genuine attempt is not done -maybe even by external force -atleast now, the helpless innocent Tamils there will just vanish - because they are simply too powerless to do anything on their own will - instead they would have just succumbed to the whims of the few on both sides of the fence.

Bottomline is PEOPLE THERE being penalised for reasons not of their own making.

THEY need to realize and revolt.

As long as THEY take things lying down, they will never be able to rise up.

Only THEY themselves can bring all this to an end.

Something like a THIRD FRONT.

SHAN said...

Dear Chinmayi,

Thanks for your voice for srilnakan tamil. I was visit there in Vanni thamil mugam in last friday.There i saw all the tamil people are dieing without food,drinking water and medical treatment( all apart from booms).And the way they are treated by srilankan army is make US to cry and i cant explain that in worods.Really we have to do some thing for them and pray for them.


Note .

Chinmayi you start collect some funds for them here and you send that through red cross .Kindly
co ordinate and do some thing for them please ...........


Regards,

SHAN.

Aravind said...

I'm really amazed that you came up with something which i want to discuss with someone.
Everybody says prabakaran fights for tamilians and trying to find a permanent place for them in srilanka. He was doing that few days back but as far as i know he is not doing that right now. If he really care for those people then he should have surrendered by now. whats the point in hiding, if the people for whom you care and love is dying. He knows how many people are dying everyday and whatever he tried all these days are in no use. If the guy who was carrying for them all these days doesn't care then whoz gonna bother.
I would rather ask these so called big people to talk to prabakaran instead of asking the srilankan govt. to stop the war. They are not gonna stop now for sure, even if the world leaders ask them to stop. Moreover this is too late since almost most of them are dead.
I was really worried after seeing a video which shows the people suffering to the core. check this out..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OZ3CHIUCw&eurl=
I wish something good should happen to those poor people. Let god bless them.
Thanks for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts.

Saran said...

Hi Chinmaiye,

You have pen down all your remorse for the people who die there. We dont know from where he got the curse.The politicians are using the this war as a tool to win the election to safeguard their life.But none is ready to get a solution. I always feel proud to be an Indian and love saying to others that I am an Indian(out of India). Feeling shame on thinking about our politicians who screw this country with their ego and power.

Sharing my thoughts because felt little bit compromised to see the words in your blog that floats in my mind. Hope the people at lanka will a peace life soon and pray the god along with hundreds for the same.

My self Saravanan and I am working in an MNC

Anonymous said...

Dear Chinmayi,

Nice post. Heart is burning to see the civilian deaths in Sorry lanka.

God save the people from non-sense politician.

Regards
Srini
Sharjah

Kaushik said...

good that you are contemplating this question. I think it is difficult to cultivate such human values unless we really care for unrelated people in our immediate surroundings. Anyway, we just carry on with our duty of reaching out to as many people as possible.

cheers,
kaushik

EsKay said...

Animals have not quite evolved into humanbeings yet! Every person in this world inherantly operates with a selfish agenda - be it related to to his/her self,family, caste, sect, region etc. No amount of teaching or preaching wd help. Only Self realisation will make him/her human which needs time.

Anonymous said...

Chinmayi San...

You cant be normal even if you wanted to be...

Well What goes around comes around...someone started it thinking this is what the best thing they can do...now someone is doing it to them...You may not like this argument but that is the world's everygreen nature...

You can stack up your arguments,so would others.

Sometimes holding onto something is not the best thing to do...let it go...and believe the best is yet to come...

The biggest problem is we dont see ourselves as Indians and they dont see themselves as srilankans...


if man and woman who speak diff lang ended up in horrible marriage ,i understand divorce is only solution...but i dont think we can suggest the same for a nation !!!

I think World is filled with good people with values and never going to support anyone who thinks guns and bombs are the only ways to build a Nation.

The question is... do we or they know how to build a Nation?.I dont think anyone has the answer and if someone thinks he does and a large chunk of people blindly follows him...then they are wrong !!!

ramji1992 said...

HI.. CHINMAYI AKKA..

The thing you have said is absolutely right...

None of us really care for them... Just what we do is have a discussion about it with friends and family for a short time and not even leaving a thought about it later..

Again when this problem becomes serious discussions prevail for some more days....

But practically its very difficult to bring everyone's attention to this.... All spend their time to look at their welfare alone ...

Its governments duty to do something in this matter...But this serious issue again falls into politics among various parties..

So its waste to rely on them too...
:(

SaRa said...

Hmmm,everybody has become dumb for the other person's pains, Chinmayee...What pains me most is that: while there is a huge mass among the general public who keep fuming, we don't go beyond this fuming...We lament for a while, pity for a while, sympathesize for a while, then we carry on our own works... I wonder, tomorrow when our own family members are attacked, tortured, each of us will be running to earn the next penny...That's what the "globalized" world is teaching us...All that man made is ruining the species now....And I am damn sure, however far science grows, whatsoever man does, it will only end up in ruining the entire human race,finally.....

Unknown said...

i agree your comments....no humanity towards the people being killed....wat s the meaning of peace in gandhisam and buddhism... I would like to share the below I read in net...

Ahimsa is not just a golden principle to quote, but the only solution to all the local, regional, national and international disputes. Globally speaking, we all know that violence and terrorism cannot be tackled by violence and terrorism alone. Paul Wolfowitz as the US Defence Secretary General suggested that Palestinians adopt Gandhian ways to bring ‘enormous changes quickly’. This shows that as human beings the idea of non-violence naturally resides in our hearts. There is just the need of breaking the walls of lure of power and materialism. That’s why Gandhiji maintained, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

The value of life is not realised....attention paid by all countries to the victims affected by Natural calamities.... Y all r keeping quite for the helpless people being hurt killed every day.... y no law to stop people being killed...people say that god come through human to help human... then y dint he find a human to help them...

we can achieve anything in this through love, affection, peace...the right path to peace

we would like to plead the concerned authorities to stop human being hurt and killed by an other human.... whoever it is, watever it is have peace in world... already v have lots of challenges ahead to focus on...economy slowdown, natural calamities, terrorism etc... let us develop an healthy peaceful world to our future generation...
v dont have to be an indian, srilankan, tamilian to help an other human...peace can be acquired even without war....hence gandhi is called mahatma and remembered till date...

Jishu said...

Hi akka,
Not even a single politician is having interest about this matter akka,they are very much involved in their election campaigns and giving their port folios.They are promising to let the people of Sri Lanka freed from the hands of those deadly demons,after they get seated on their big chair.
Our gr8 politician,who is continuosly introducing many schemes, recently had Fasting for the sake of the Sri Lankans.But,on that same day ,those deadly demons made a chemical testing, in which nearly 2447 people were killed unnoticingly. To hide this he did that dramatic fasting.Even the huge officials cannot stop war in Sri Lanka, then how can we powerless people take any furthur step against it akka?
The saddest part is most of them were killed due to their thirst itseems.The Sri Lankans were in the verge of extinction and there is no hope in still believing our (poli)ticians.The Frooti ad Should be misspelt here in the case of these politicians ''VALARADHE KANNA''.
jai HO! our Democratic country.
Tommorow the people gonna rush and elect a new PM leaving all their works.In return we will wait and see what our XXX PM will do for us and for our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka.
-Jishu.

My share of life said...

Hi Chinmayi,

I totally agree with you. Have we all become so much immune to fellow humans/living creatures? Does the word "compassion" have any meaning at all today?

Sharing the agony,
Kavitha

NK said...

Hi Chinmayi,

Chanced upon this blog of yours. And voila.. a gud topic to comment on blog first time... This issue is something thtz irritating... Everybody (Tamilians or not) understands the plight of people suffering in the name of ethnic
clash.

But emotions apart, can we think
logically on solution which can end this genocide. The main aim of SL govt is to catch Prabhakaran's head...
Though we see death of people everyday, sufferings of Tamilians, I would compare this to the militancy happening in Kashmir everyday. Think of it, a basic necessity of any human being is
to live a secured life, peacefully
devoid off terrorism, devoid of
uncertainity over their lives, (Marana Bayam as in Tamil).

Wud it not be okay if we have a single full fledged war to clear the roots of LTTE, Prabhakaran and co. even if the war results in death of 10s of 1000s of
people ONE LAST TIME instead of seeing 10 deaths everyday for decades. Please dont get me wrong. I am not a sadist, nor am I against Tamilians or Human rights as I am a Tamilian (from Singara Chennai).
We don't want Srilankans (including Sinhalese and Tamilians) to live the fear of death everyday over attack of
militants or SL Army.

Inspite of knowing well that SL govt's is causing all damange to Tamil civilians only for his head,
Prabhakaran refuses to surrender. Is it not dishonesty, injustice he shows for his community who has supported him all these days. Everyone knows that LTTE started with good notion of welfare of
Tamils but it is not the same as it was once. If the same guy who created the organization (it was once but now a terror outfit), can not surrender himself for his civilians, he shud be ashamed of calling himself a pride of Tamilian.

Even the SL govt is trying to safeguard Tamil civilians, or letz assume even kill Appavi Tamil civilians on the pretext of war (attempting genocide and
SL army not leaving any stone unturned to kill Tamilians as much possible), all these cud be stopped by one man - PRABHAKARAN! And if he does not have the
courage to stand up and come into talks with SL govt, then what sort of a leadership quality does he possess.

I sincerely wish that militancy is
nipped off entirely and change is made in Constitution of SL govt. Democracy be brought in and Tamils be given equal rights as that of Sinhalese. Even I would support Quota System for the next 3-4 decades for Tamilians in education, jobs for the oppression they faced all these years to uplift the population. It would also help to bring more erudite scholars into administrative positions (while there are a few currently) to pacify Tamilians and work for their welfare.

Wherever it is, nothing succeeds like Democracy. This would rather be the best solution than another 6 decades of enemity between the two race.

Let this war bring a revolutionary moment in history where the constitution of a country is changed for heaven's sake for good purpose.

SHAN said...

Dear all,

Please check the url to see how the civilian is suffering from srilankan ARMY attack .......

Regrds,

SHAN

Unknown said...

Dear Friends,



Dont compare LTTE prabakaran with the president of a nation.... prabakaran is doing right or wrong is different from a national leaders view...if prabakaran thinks only with nonviolence and by killing human that he can get equal rights to his tamil people... then a national leader cant think the same way....the people in lanka should be protected by the president and not to be killed for taking revenge or to eradicate a team (LTTE).... its the responsibility of the leader of a nation to protect and provide basic necessary things in life to his people....shift to a safe area controlled by army and then hunt prabakar.... thats acceptable...if everyone feel that to trap prabakar or to stop terrorisam, innocent people will be killed...then its stupidity and ignorance...its not war betwen two countries…...u mean the old people, kids who are killed by army are ltte associated...if ltte has killed people for tamil ealam... what s the reason for sl govt to kill only tamils in mass....this is not war.... war is between nations and they dont know who s who... just finish the entire nation...but here only a specific group or community is being killed within a nation that too for no reason... if they say it is to capture prabakar...wat a shame.. they r killing innocent people for months together just for a single man.... it shows their inability inefficiency and their revenge taking mentality...if the govt feels by killing so many innocent tamil people prabakaran will surrender, then how cruel and inefficient they are......its not ethical and right.....a nation can not grow or feel proud with such act...


Ashamed of our Indian leaders, not able to force central govt, not able to take any wise decision other than usual stunts....for them only win in election is primary than human lives...win and do what.. can they bring back the people died for no mistake of them...human lives are valueless in politics... only position, power, wealth is valid more than humanity...think of the innocent people who have died there... how they would have felt while running in their own country for survival...and while dying they would have definitely cursed the people in the world for not saving them... wat s the meaning of us having, knowing buddha, gandhi, mother teresa in our country...we declare holiday on gandhi jayanthi, buddha purnima....its meaningless...no respect to gandhism, buddhism... how can we feel proud of being an indian and call india a peace loving country...only selfish people in this world.....imagine us being in their position at sl.... wat s their mistake other than being a tamil born in sl......

SHAN said...

Dear Chinmayi

Please check the url to see how the civilian is suffering from srilankan ARMY .......


http://www.tamilwin.org/view.php?2aSWnBe0d1j0g0ecGG7B3b4j9EE4d3g2h2cc2DpY3d436QV3b02ZLu2e

Regards,

SHAN

Anonymous said...

A Sinhala politician, currently in exile in Chennai quoted "Patriotism sees no reason", when explaining the majority Sinhala peoples acquiescence to the current barbarious acts by the government there, which has peaked all past attrocities. We can add "Hatred sees no reason" as well. That is why, there is more barbarity in these supposed developed, civilized times.

There is this half-backed knowledge among the so-called educated mass, that what is going on in Srilanka is a civil war between a militant group and the government. What has been successfully hidden, is that the Tamils in that country carried forth a nonviolent movement for over 30 years, trying to gain equal status in what was rightly, their homelands for thousands of years. After 30 years, they opted for separation through a democratic election. So it is not to say that all was well and a small section of the population took to rebelling against authority.

Coming to the current plight of the Tamils, I don't think there is any covering the fact that it is a hate war that is happening there. Hate sees no reason. An estimated 1200 bodies were counted over several hours itself, not including the wounded, this past weekend. And this is not without stating the awful situation of civilians living in army controlled land and camps. This is not about war between LTTE, Prabhakaran, or terrorism. The Tamils of Srilanka have been facing pogroms since even before they raised arms against the government.

The problem here is not terrorism, but imported nationalism which hasn't worked, and that has effectively kept the citizens of the north and east in constant terror for their lives, and the ones elsewhere, downtrodden economically, because a select few religious and political leaders decided to use differences, for their personal gain.

Notably though, it is extremely disappointing that not only in history, but today in such a dire situation, Tamilnadu and its leaders, who own the medias, are playing games with the lives of so many thousands of Tamils, instead of working to stop this barbarity.

Why is it that NGOs from America and reporters from Britain, Australia are risking their lives to report, while Tamilnadu aims at hiding it all? A lot could have been done to stop much of this by Tamilnadu, earlier. Second, the so called elite, and middle-class educated mass, have stubbornly refused to face anything beyond what their favorite media sources provide them. And we know how medias are, without exception.

As you say, the apathy, among even Tamils, is simply disturbing. Counter this with the Middle-east nations, which differ culturally, even linguistically, but worked together to bare the horrors of what happened in Gaza recently, so that Western nations had to openly take a stand due to public outcry.

At the end of the day, Tamilnadu and Indian politicians were responsible for quite a number of rebellious acts taken by the Tamil youth in Srilanka at certain periods of time. Sadly, the words spoken on stages and actions behind the scene are two polars apart, and most youths are too idealistic to figure that out.

I just want to link something that came on Telegraph(UK) the other day. The article just resurfaced after a strong fight between reporter and vested forces who objected to it. It just might show the other sides perspective, because in today's political and social breakdown due to caste and creed and borders, the other side in Tamilnadu, is the Tamils.

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/richarddixons/blog/2009/05/04/sri_lanka__a_paradise_turned_into_kingdom_of_vultures

Digress: My 1000 apologies, for this extremely long post.
-kajan

Anonymous said...

Well said sahana!!! SL Government is killing thousands of innocent tamils just to capture a single man!?!?!

If prabhakaran hide some where in sinhala area, would this irresponsible/racist government do the same?? NEVER!

Anonymous said...

While we all mourn the happenings to srilankan Tamils, we should also remember all these were caused by a single maglemonic dictator Prabhakaran who killed Tamil leaders, his own people and the Prime minister of India. He like Hitler made some wrong calculations and is killed by the sinhalese army. Had he compromised, laid down arms and took to democratic path with Rajiv Gandhi Accord and so many opportunities that came along.

It is always the fault of a leader that puts ordinary people in to Jeopardy, whether it is Iraq, Pakistan or Japan. These kind of sufferings happen for ceturies in some form or other and it will continue to happen. Tomorrow it may be our own people who will suffer due to nuclear bombing by either Pakistan or China.

Anonymous said...

Once the emotions have subsided, I hope people understand that violence will never be an answer to any problem, especially during these times. I have just one question to ask everyone who thinks Prabhakaran was the saviour of Tamils - what did he really achieve? Try to be honest with yourself...

Anonymous said...

//Once the emotions have subsided, I hope people understand that violence will never be an answer to any problem, especially during these times. I have just one question to ask everyone who thinks Prabhakaran was the saviour of Tamils - what did he really achieve? Try to be honest with yourself...//

Answer is: he was the reason why tamils were at least alive all these years. Now you can see what's happening to them now, at this time, when there is just a unproved news that prabhakaran is dead (if you know what's happening). They have started to beat up the tamils when they identify them even in non north-east Sri lanka - this is how the gov and the sinhalese are celebrating the so called victory. All because of a yet to be confirmed news. Imagine what will happen when it is confirmed? Even a sinhalese street begger will not hesitate to beat up a tamil.

The public sihalese were not so cruel as these days because they had an inner fear that there is someone for the tamils. But it is not the case now, its a question!! and the second part of the process of elimination not by the gov. but by the public has begun..with a 2 days national celebrations.

Anonymous said...

What a pity that its become almost blasphemous for a Tamil to admit that Prabhakaran's way did absolutely nothing for the people who he was supposedly protecting. One who lives by the sword, dies by it. Peace can only come through communication, no matter how much people here hate the idea. Middle East is the best example. Arrogance of both Palestinians & Jews has made sure that people will continue to die and peace will only remain a distant dream.