27 June 2005 Tamil Culture - Festivals & Ceremonies to include Bharathidasan on புரட்சித் திருமணத் திட்டம் "...திராவிடர் புரட்சித் திருமணம் இந்நாளில் முன்னாளிற் போலின்றிப் பெருமக்களால் மிகுதியும் மெற்கொள்ளப் பட்டுவருகிறது..."more  27 June 2005 Caste & the Tamil Nation - Brahmins, Non Brahmins & Dalits to include
Mari Marcel Thekaekara on the Stink of Untouchability in the New Internationalist " Narayanamma and 800,000 other toilet cleaners are on the lowest rung of the caste system in India. They are despised by everyone. They experience absolute exclusion from the cradle to the grave. They are the other face of India; the one that nobody likes to see. It is in sharp contrast to the progressive, technological, we-have-the-bomb-and-are-no longer-the-Third-World face. Chennai railway, station says it all. It has a hot spot for laptops to download mail, mobile phone chargers, international food counters offering burgers, chocolate mousse and chow mein next to hot dosas and chicken tikka. Yet, a few metres away, sweeper women clean shit in the most primitive manner possible, lifting it out of the railway track with a stick, broom and pieces of tin. Why does this unacceptable, utterly obscene dichotomy exist. Because hardly anyone wants it to change..." more 27 June 2005 The Tamil Heritage - History & Geography to include
| Dr.N.Muthu Mohan, Kamraj University on Sikhs and Tamils - The Indus Connection "..The Sikhs and the Tamils have created two great non-Brahmanic cultures at the two ends of India. The Cashmeres, the Marathas, the Assamese or the Bengalis may contest this claim and would like to join in the list. But it is true that the Tamils and the Sikhs are the only people who have openly fought, declaring their non-Brahmin ideology in the recent history of India. The two peoples have a political and cultural tradition of non-Brahmanism. I do not think that the non-Brahmin legacy of the Sikhs and the Tamil is of recent origin. It is as old as Indian history..." |
26 June 2005 Reflections to include
| "...many peace agreements are fragile and the 'peace' that they create is usually the extension of war by more civilised means... A peace agreement is often an imperfect compromise based on the state of play when the parties have reached a 'hurting stalemate' or when the international community can no longer stomach a continuation of the crisis. A peace process, on the other hand, is not so much what happens before an agreement is reached, rather what happens after it... the post conflict phase crucially defines the relationship between former antagonists..." - Walter Kemp, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, reviewing 'After the Peace: resistance and reconciliation' by Robert L.Rothstein, 1999 |
25 June 2005 Conflict Resolution: Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka to include 25 June 2005 Tamil National Forum to include Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia on புத்தரும், சிங்களப் பௌத்தர்களும் "...நல்ல விடயங்கள் நடந்தேற வேண்டும் என்பதற்காக எத்தனையோ உண்ணாவிரதப் போராட்டங்கள் நடைபெற்றுள்ளதை நாம் அறிவோம். ஆனால் ‘தமிழினம் பட்டினியால் சாக வேண்டும்’ என்பதற்காக சிங்களப் பிக்குகள் பட்டினி கிடந்து உயிர் துறக்க முன் வந்துள்ளமை, ஒரு வித்தியாசமான விடயமாகும்..." more 24 June 2005 Tamil National Forum to include V.Thangavelu from Canada -
21 June 2005 Struggle for Tamil Eelam to include
'Voice of Tamil Nation' Rally at Kailasapathy Hall, Jaffna, Tamil Eelam - தமிழ்த் தேசியத்தின் குரல் "...Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is staging a dangerous dance in south Sri Lanka...(It) is showing its cruel face by refusing even the limited joint structure to channel tsunami relief... We vow to defeat this cruel Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism and reclaim our land from the occupying forces and determine our own future using our own strength in our own land.." more |
20 June 2005 International Relations in the Age of Empire to include The Coming World Realignment - Dr. Michael A. Weinstein, Yevgeny Bendersky - "Since the U.S. intervention in Iraq revealed the limits of Washington's ability to implement its security strategy of becoming the unquestioned political and military arbiter of the globalizing world economy, the underlying tendencies towards a multipolar configuration of world politics have crystallized into hard and obvious fact..." more 19 June 2005 Tamil Language & Literature to include | Albert B Franklin on The Tamil Language in the Modern World - An Essay on Contemporary Tamil Fiction, Its Younger Writers and Their Relationship with Their Society - "It has become increasingly apparent over the last century, that Tamil is indeed one of the world's great languages and that in it is expressed one of the world's great and ancient literatures...Such mystic outpourings as the poems of Thirumular, such philosophical penetration as that of Sankara and Ramanuja, such scientific brains as that of the other Ramanuja, the mathematician, or that of the late Nobel Prize winner C. V. Raman do not arise in barren soil. Nor do the exquisite arts of Carnatic music and Bharata Natyam. Imagination of this category springs from a richly intricate and articulate linguistic symbolism..." |
15 June 2005 United States & the Tamil Struggle to include
14 June 2005 Conflict Resolution: Sri Lanka - Tamil Eelam to include D.B.S.Jeyaraj - Something is rotten in the state of Sri Lanka 13 June 2005 Tamil National Forum Sara Ananthan from Australia Response to "A Friendly Comment" by Erajh S Gunaratne 12 June 2005 Reflections to include
| "...Pride teaches us that we are in charge. Humility teaches us to understand and live by principles, because they ultimately govern the consequences of our actions. If humility is the mother, courage is the father of wisdom. Because to truly live by these principles when they are contrary to social mores, norms and values takes enormous courage.." more |
12 June 2005 Caste & the Tamil Nation - Brahmins, Non Brahmins & Dalits to include
| V.Geetha, and S.V. Rajadurai. - Towards a Non Brahmin Millenium - From Iyothee Thass to Periyar "...This book grew out of our desire to understand the complexities of the Non-Brahmin-Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu which, in varying degrees, has come to inform and sustain political commonsense in the Tamil country... In a context when Brahmins claimed that birth was no more a badge of status and then went ahead to act and speak as if it was, non-Brahmins, comprising a range of castes and communities... claimed the contrary. They called attention to practices of discrimination, humiliation and negation suffered on account of their always already lowly birth, and came to articulate a philosophy and practice of rights which would help them combat inequality and humiliation..." more |
12 June 2005 Sinhala Buddhist Fundamentalism to include Buddhist Monks and Ethnic Politics: A War Zone in an Island Paradise - Prof.H.L.Seneviratne with a Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha. 12 June 2005 Tamil National Forum to include
8 June 2005 Tamil Language & Literature - Jeyakantan on Tamil & Sanskrit (contributed by V.Thangavelu) 5 June 2005 Indictment against Sri Lanka to include
| Asian Human Rights Commission reports on Sri Lanka: Miscarriage of Justice - Mass Acquittal in the Bindunuwewa Massacre Case "The Bindunuwewa massacre was reminiscent of the massacre of 52 Tamil prisoners held at the maximum-security prison of Welikeda in the capital Colombo in July 1983....The impunity accorded by the Sri Lankan government to the perpetrators of racial violence has increased the alienation of the ethnic minority Tamils...The judgement of 27 May 2005 which established the fact that not a single person could be held guilty for the mass murder of 28 Tamils in the protective custody of the State at Bindunuwewa will further increase the distrust of even the moderate Tamil minorities..." |
5 June 2005 Tamil National Forum to include
3 June 2005 Tamil National Forum
Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia - பொதுக்கட்டமைப்பு எதற்காக? "எம்முடைய கவலையெல்லாம் ‘பொதுக்கட்டமைப்பு உருவாகுமா இல்லையா என்பது அல்ல.’ அப்படி ஒரு பொதுக்கட்டமைப்பு உருவாகினால் அக்கட்டமைப்பு உரிய முறையில் தக்க வகையில் செயற்படுத்தப் படுமா? என்பதுதான் எம்முடைய கேள்வி. ஒரு மேசையைக் கூட வாங்க வலுவில்லாத வரதராஜப் பெருமாளின் மாகாண சபையின் செயற்திறமையோடு இந்தப் பொதுக் கட்டமைப்பு அமையக் கூடுமோ? ...... 'போராட்டத்தின் வடிவங்கள் மாறலாம். ஆனால் போராட்ட இலட்சியம் மாறாது’" more |
1 June 2005 Reflections to include "இறைவன் மனிதனுக்குச் சொன்னது கீதை, மனிதன் இறைவனுக்குச் சொன்னது திருவாசகம், மனிதன் மனிதனுக்குச் சொன்னது திருக்குறள்"
1 June 2005 Sinhala Buddhist Fundamentalism to include
| A.Thangavelu from Canada on Buddha’s Statues - Symbol of Sinhalese Hegemony "...On Sunday night May 15, 2005 a 12 ft tall Buddha’s statue was installed on land belonging to the Trincomalee Urban Council ... This provocative act should not be seen as an isolated incident. There is much more than what meets one's eyes... It was no secret that the Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), the North East Sinhala Association (NESA) and some saffron-robed Buddhist monks were behind the installation of the Buddha statue.. It is obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence that a Buddha’s statue near a fish-market is not meant for worship or veneration by Buddhists..." more |
News & Whats New Archives - May 2005 |
