31 January 2007 Tamil National Forum Revd.B J Alexander On Human Shields " '...The guerrilla force is independent of the civilian population, in action as well as in military organisation; consequently it need not assume the direct defence of the peasant population...' The above quote inspite of its moral bankruptcy fails to answer the question of the human shield. ..Let's walk in the moccasins of Vaharai Tamils before we philosophise in our own safety nets...". together with response by tamilnation.org "Several matters arise in the comments made by Rev.B.J.Alexander. And we propose to address each of them in turn..." more |
30 January 2007 Reflections | "Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to -then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are - your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears." Jiddu Krishnamurthy in Freedom From The Known (1969) |
30 January 2007 Tamil National Forum Sachi Sri Kantha writes from Japan on Art Buchwald: The Pen Slinger in Washington DC 29 January 2007 Conflict Resolution: Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka | 1.India must stop assistance to Sri Lankan government: Thamilchelven "India is the regional power. Specifically it is a country where millions of our brethren live. Indian government must therefore understand the just aspirations of the Tamil people and give us moral support. India must stop giving all financial assistance to the GoSL and act to bring the GoSL in line.In addition, it must urge the international community to do the same." 2.International Community's flawed approach assists Colombo- Thamilchelvan "We would never, under any circumstance, engage militarily and simultaneously enter talks,...The process towards a negotiated settlement can only take place in an environment conducive to talks. The LTTE has explicitly stated the conditions necessary to create such environment...The most basic of these conditions were agreed upon and laid down in the Cease Fire Agreement of February 2002." |
29 January 2007 Reflections " ...The irony is that to do things faster, you often have to go slower. You have to be more reflective. You have to develop real trust. You have to develop the abilities of people to think together. Why? Because it requires you to go through basic redesigns. You need to build a shared understanding of how the present system works.... People must trust one another through difficult systemic changes... ...First off, we often don't take any responsibility for what we have created, which is obviously patently absurd at some level. Organizations work the way they work because human beings create them that way!... To me, the essence of what systems thinking is all about is people beginning to consciously discover and conceptually explain and account for how their own patterns of thought and interaction, often very habitual and unaware patterns, patterns that we haven't ever reflected on, manifest on a large scale, and create the very forces which the organization then 'is doing it to me.' ...Given the way we operate, no wonder we can't win! And what is always significant to me, in those moments, is the we. Not "you," not "them," but we...." Peter Senge author of the Fifth Discipline more |
26 January 2007 International Relations in the Age of Empire to include | 1. The unipolar moment of US supremacy has passed - Professor Timothy Garton Ash "..Power is no longer what it was, nor where it was. (Concentrated in the west, that is, and especially in the West Wing of the White House). It is more diffused both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, in the sense that relatively less power resides with the governments of states. Horizontally, in the sense that power is more widely distributed between a number of powerful states. Increasingly, the power map is both multilevel and multipolar... According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, a couple of years ago the National Intelligence Council of the United States played through a number of scenarios for the world in 2020. The only reasonably attractive option was one in which multiple powers addressed global challenges jointly with non-state actors... Here is the next great challenge..." more together with Comment by tamilnation.org "It may have been helpful if Professor Garton had explored a few connected matters - firstly the extent to which 'non state' actors (such as, for instance, Human Rights Watch) are funded indirectly through Foundations supported by state actors as well as the relationship that members of the executive board of some non governmental organisations may have with state agencies. - secondly, the significance of the non state nations of the fourth world in the emergent 'muti polar, multi level' world..." more 2. Ho Chi Minh to Lydon Johnson - Exchange of Letters , February 1967 "..The U.S. government has committed war crimes, crimes against peace and against mankind. In South Vietnam, half a million U.S. and satellite troops have resorted to the most inhuman weapons and most barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, toxic chemicals and gases, to massacre our compatriots, destroy crops, and raze villages to the ground. In North Vietnam, thousands of U.S. aircraft have dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs, destroying towns, villages, factories, schools. In your message, you apparently deplore the sufferings and destruction in Vietnam. May I ask you: Who has perpetrated these monstrous crimes? It is the United States and satellite troops. .. In your message you suggested direct talks between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States. If the U.S. government really wants these talks, it must first of all stop .definitely and unconditionally its bombing raids and all other acts of war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, withdraw from South Vietnam all U.S. and satellite troops, recognize the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation, and let the Vietnamese people settle themselves their own affairs...This is the only way to restoration of peace. ..The Vietnamese people will never submit to force, they will never accept talks under threat of bombs. Our cause is absolutely just. It is to be hoped that the U.S. government will act in accordance with reason. " more |
25 January 2007 Reflections | "...The guerrilla force is independent of the civilian population, in action as well as in military organisation; consequently it need not assume the direct defence of the peasant population. The protection of the population depends on the progressive destruction of the enemy's military potential. It is relative to the overall balance of forces: the populace will be completely safe when the opposing forces are completely defeated....... By restricting itself to the task of protecting civilians or passive self-defence, the guerrilla unit ceases to be the vanguard of the people as a whole and deprives itself of a national perspective... By choosing to operate at this level, it may be able to provide protection for the population for a limited time. But in the long run the opposite is true: self-defence undermines the security of the civilian population.... limiting oneself to passive defence is to place oneself in the position of being unable to protect the population and to expose one's own forces to attrition. On the other hand, to seek for ways to attack the enemy is to put him on the permanent defensive to exhaust him and prevent him from expanding his activities, to wrest the initiative from him, and to impede his search operations..." Regis Debray in Revolution in the Revolution? |
25 January 2007 New Delhi & the Tamil Eelam Freedom Struggle to include 23 January 2007 The Armed Struggle for Tamil Eelam to include 22 January 2006 Reflections "God gives us opportunities to be of service to humanity, to our country, to ourselves. You must be ready and equipped to make use of those opportunities ...More than 2500 years ago a great Tamil poet wrote "Every country is my country, every human being is my kinsman". The brotherhood of man and universal love are themes central to practically all religions of the world. From this followed human rights such as the right to life, right to freedom of thought and speech and right to equality between man and man........ According to the Upanishads life is work and work is worship. So in the evening of my life I have fought many a battle as a member of the Civil Rights Movement... I have won a few and lost many. I console myself with the thought that what matters is the fight for the cause and not the results. What is important is the fight and struggle for justice and not the victory nor the defeat.The saying in Bhagavad Gita 'To action you have a right but not to the fruits thereof' has been a source of great comfort to me in my life as it has enabled me to cultivate a sense of detachment which is necessary for happiness and peace of mind." - from Somasunderam Nadesan at the Peter Pillai Award Presentation, 1984 |
21 January 2007 Tamil National Forum - Sachi Sri Kantha writes from Japan on the 15th Death Anniversary of Edmund Samarakoddy - Edmund Samarakkody (1912-1992); The Sanest Sinhalese Voice 21 January 2007 Tamil Diaspora - a Trans State Nation: Canada to include A.Sollun on Being At Home 20 January 2007 Tamil National Forum | Chandi Sinnathurai on Sri Lanka: The Undeclared Dirty War"..I wish to ask the question again: What is still the obstacle in the Sinhala mind in recognizing the Tamils as a nation in order to live side-by-side, as neighbours with peace and harmony? One has to admit that the writers, intellectuals, artistes, poets and others have a public role to play in this human crisis – a cry for freedom. Each side must possess intellectual integrity and deep honesty for the sake of common humanity. I should think none would want the suppression of the Tamils to continue. Talk of federalism is a pie in the sky, quite frankly..." more |
19 January 2007 The Strength of an Idea to include | The Public Role of Writers and Intellectuals - Edward W. Said (suggested by Mariam Manuel Pillai)"...Peace cannot exist without equality: This is an intellectual value desperately in need of reiteration, demonstration and reinforcement. The seduction of the word itself -peace -is that it is surrounded by, indeed drenched in, the blandishments of approval, uncontroversial eulogizing, sentimental endorsement. ..The intellectual's role generally is to uncover and elucidate the contest, to challenge and defeat both an imposed silence and the normalized quiet of unseen power, wherever and whenever possible. ...In this day, and almost universally, phrases such as "the free market," "privatization," "less government" and others like them have become the orthodoxy of globalization, its counterfeit universals. They are staples of the dominant discourse, designed to create consent and tacit approval. From that nexus emanate such ideological confections as "the West," the "clash of civilizations," "traditional values" and "identity" (perhaps the most overused phrases in the global lexicon today). All these are deployed not as they sometimes seem to be -as instigations for debate -but quite the opposite, to stifle, pre-empt and crush dissent whenever the false universals face resistance or questioning. .." more |
16 January 2007 Comments to include Nagalingam Ethirveerasingham on the International Community 15 January 2007 Tamil Language & Literature 15 January 2007 Tamil National Forum Sanmugam Sabesan - தைப்பொங்கல் தினமே தமிழ் புத்தாண்டுத் தினமாகும்! 14 January 2007 Conflict Resolution: Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka European double game to 'tame' Sri Lanka says State controlled Sri Lanka Sunday Observer 14 January 2007 Culture & the Tamil Contribution to World Civilisation 14 January 2007 Tamil National Forum Sachi Sri Kantha Profile to include List of over 100 research publications in 40 peer-reviewed biomedical journals. 13 January 2007 Reflections | "...A key psychology for leading from good to great is the Stockdale Paradox. Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be... Create a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard. Creating a climate where truth is heard involves four basic practices: 1 Lead with questions, not answers. 2 Engage in dialogue, not coercion. 3. Conduct autopsies without blame. and 4. Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored. Leadership does not begin just with vision. It begins with getting people to confront the brutal facts and to act on the implications...Spending time and energy trying to 'motivate' people is a waste of effort. The real question is not 'How do we motivate ouu people?" If you have the right people, they will be self motivated. The key is not to de-motivate them. One of the primary ways to de-motivate people is to ignore the brutal facts of reality.." Jim Collins in Good to Great |
13 January 2007 United States & the Struggle for Tamil Eelam to include An Open letter to the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka - Professor Aaron Rajah 12 January 2007 Revisited Implementation of the Right to Self Determination, as a Contribution to Conflict Prevention - UNESCO International Conference of Experts, Barcelona 1998 | "...In all regions of the world conflicts turn violent over the desire for full control by state governments, on the one hand, and claims to self-determination (in a broad sense) by peoples, minorities or other communities, on the other. Where governments recognise and respect the right to self-determination, a people can effectuate it in a peaceful manner. Where governments choose to use force to crush or prevent the movement, or where they attempt to impose assimilationist policies against the wishes of a people, this polarises demands and generally results in armed conflict. The Tamils, for example, were not seeking independence and were not using violence in the 1970s. The government response to further deny the Tamil people equal expression of their distinct identity led to armed confrontation and a war of secession... For peace, security and stability to exist, any associations between peoples and communities or between them and the state must be based on genuine and continuing consent, mutual respect and mutual benefit. Peace cannot exist in states that lack legitimacy or whose governments threaten the lives or well being of a section of the population. The international community, its members and institutions have an obligation to act where international law, including human rights and especially the right to self determination, is violated. ... Prevention of conflicts requires proactive measures to persuade states to act in compliance with international legal standards towards their citizens, including distinct peoples and communities that exist within their borders, and to desist from actions, such as population transfer or forced assimilation, which impede the exercise of self-determination. States must be made to realise that aspirations of peoples and communities cannot be ignored." more |
10 January 2007 Tamil National Forum | 1. Victor Rajakulendran - An Open Letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa - Re: Your attempt at hoodwinking the international community together with comment by tamilnation.org: "Whilst we understand the concerns expressed by Mr.Victor Rajakulendran and agree with his condemnation of the actions of Sri Lanka President Rajapakse (and the need to place on record these genocidal actions), we ourselves do not take the view that the international community has been 'hoodwinked' by Sri Lanka or for that matter Sri Lanka is engaged in an attempt to 'hoodwink'...We believe that there is an urgent need for the Tamil diaspora to move away from the 'hoodwinking' syndrome and first study and then openly address the strategic interests of the so called 'international community', New Delhi, and China in the Indian Ocean region. At the sametime, we also need to address (and address in depth) the international legal frame in which the political attempt is being made to suppress the struggle of a people for freedom from alien rule. We need to raise the question whether there are any circumstances in international law where a people may lawfully resort to arms to resist alien rule of their homeland - and if so what are those circumstances. It is by doing so that we believe that the Tamil diaspora may meaningfully contribute to enlarging the political space in which the struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam for freedom may progress.." more 2.Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia குடாரப்புத் தரையிறக்கமும், சமாதானப் பேச்சு வார்த்தைகளும் "...போரியலிலும், அரசியலிலும் நேர்கோடு எதுவும் இல்லை என்ற தத்துவத்தை நாம் இவ்வேளையில் உள்வாங்க வேண்டும்." more |
9 January 2007 Reflections | "For a moral order to be sustained it has to take on a form which compels us, which we can feel and which can be acted upon. The process of re-enactment reinforces meaning. That is why religion is full of ritualised enactments of ceremony.... Historical continuity is a profound psychological need. We also need to believe in a good past that endorses our present. We all like to think well of our forbears. It is apart of a healthy self image. As a result we need to give great credence to the past. This may sound anachronistic in an age where change is meteoric and the past tends to be dismissed as arcane. But psychological continuity is the foundation stone of our sense of order.. Our traditions make us secure.." Mark C. Scott in Reinspiring the Corporation: The Seven Seminal Paths to Corporate Greatness, 2001 |
9 January 2007 அறிமுகம் - | New Democratic Party - Sri Lanka "The escalation of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE over the past year is moving rapidly towards its logical conclusion. The Government and the LTTE declare that the current acts of hostility do not constitute war. To complement this mockery, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has declared that the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) is still alive. It makes one wonder whether the CFA is a brain dead but clinically alive patient. The attitude of the ‘International Community', meaning the big powers, has been highly cynical. The EU ban on the LTTE this year was neither a miscalculation as the Norwegians would like us to believe nor an act of approval of the actions of the Mahinda Rajapaksha government. The imperialist West has its global agenda and its policies are not based on the interests of the Sri Lankan state or of the LTTE, and even less the plight of the Tamil people or for that matter any section of the Sri Lankan population. The peace process has been used by the imperialists to manipulate the country into total submission to the process of globalisation, while the Indian hegemon finds in the conflict a tool to assert its dominance over Sri Lanka . While India has been a reluctant supporter of the peace process and probably has a stake in keeping the conflict alive, Pakistan has of late taken advantage of Indian reluctance to give unqualified military support for the Sri Lankan state, owing partly to popular resistance in Tamilnadu to such support. This has added a further international dimension to the Sri Lankan tragedy..." more |
7 January 2007 Tamil Culture: Contribution to World Civilisation to include Suppu in MinTamil - ஆங்கிலேயனின் புத்தாண்டை நாம் ஏன் கொண்டாடவேண்டும்? "இப்பொழுதெல்லாம் புத்தாண்டென்றால் ஆங்கிலப் புத்தாண்டு என்றாகிவிட்டது.... சாதரணாமாய் இரவு 10 மணிக்கு உறங்குபவன் கூட கண்விழித்து ஏதாவது செய்தே ஆகவேண்டும் என்ற எதிர்பார்ப்பில் நிற்கிறான்.....இதில் வேடிக்கை பாருங்கள், இப்போதெல்லாம் நம் நாட்டு ஆன்மீக குழுக்களும் சளைக்கவில்லை. புத்தாண்டு அன்று இரவில் பஜனை என்கிறார்கள். நள்ளிரவில் என்ன நல்ல திதியா ? நல்ல நட்சத்திரமா ? சாதாரணமாய் நள்ளிரவில் 12 மணிக்கு கிழகத்திய நாகரீகங்களில் இறை வழிபாடு இல்லையே, ... காலையில் ஆதவன் உதித்த பின்னோ, மாலையில் நிலவுதித்தபின்னோ நம் நாள் பிறக்கிறது. பின் நள்ளிரவில் என்ன புத்தாண்டு" |
5 January 2007 Tamil National Forum Sachi Sri Kantha - 1 January 2007 New Year Reflections | "We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow." - British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) "War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means" - Karl Von Clausewtiz (1780 - 1831) "...We must never forget, that under modern conditions of life, science and technology, all war has become greatly brutalized and that no one who joins in it, even in self-defense, can escape becoming also in a measure brutalized. Modern war cannot be limited in its destructive method and the inevitable debasement of all participants... we as well as our enemies have contributed to the proof that the central moral problem is war and not its methods..."Harry L. Stimson, US Secretary of State 1929-1933, 'The Nuremberg Trial: Landmark in Law', Foreign Affairs, 1947 - quoted by Albert Speer in Inside the Third Reich 1970 "Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."- Pericles, 430 BC |
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