Missing in action

If you are watching “News 1st", abductions may not be such an alien topic for you. I feel many things when I watch these sad news every day. Different people say different things. I would like to share your views as to how would you feel about this.

Some people say these people who are abducted & killed are LTTE intelligent officers or some sort of terrorist attached with them. Therefore people think SL army is using a " Mozard" system to disappear them. There was a belief that when you disappear the supply for the problem, problem will get disappear with time. One of my friends in the SL army claimed that these people are not innocent & involved in killing so much of innocent citizens. Therefore it’s not a sin to kill them. He claimed that people should support the government for this as the same way American people supported the war against terrorism. His point was after Bush started so called "War against terrorism" there wasn't a single terrorist attack in America. Therefore it proves the success of it.

Another set of people think these are done by organized gangs in Colombo. People think they are abducted to take huge ransoms. One of the guys who stand for this argument told me that they abduct people who earn so much black money. Because then, when they get released they could not go to police & complain about the real amount they paid. Then they will have to answer the questions of income tax officers who will be at their door step next day morning. So some category of people thinks its fine to charge them since anyway its unlawful money. But as we all know, not only rich people get abducted.

But in my opinion I cannot agree with any of these. I do not know what happened to these people. I do not know whether abductions are for real like "News 1st" says or those are fake like president says. I do not know who do these things. (But I am sure that is some group with a very high power & political backup). All sorts of people belong to all levels & all religions get their victims. In the beginning it was only Tamils. But recently I saw they have abducted some Sinhalese lady & her little daughter at the Battaramulla check point. Whether its Sinhala or Tamil it’s human. It’s our people after all. Every person has a right to live. My friend still argues these people are terrorist & therefore should get punished. I agree. But there is a way. There is a law. You should give them a chance to prove their innocence before the court.

This shows that our society is not developed much. It’s true that even in developed countries these things happened. If you have watch “Prison break" you may have see how the intelligent service disappear the people. When these things happened in a country, after some time there are so many criminals that gradually develop. People uses the chances for their personal users & who are with power will always win.

Is it fair?

Did anyone think what will it be like if this happens to any of our family members? How sad it will be? Their families also must be feelings the same way. My friend here argues that people who get killed by them & their families also have fundamental rights. I know. I know. But still I feel very sad about this. What do you think?

Most Critical Problem in SriLanka

What do you think the most vital problem in Sri Lanka these days?

Is it War? Corruption? Abductions? Poverty? Cost of living? Well… when I read the news papers & listen to radio these days it seems that none of the above is “THE” problem of Sri Lankans. It is Lasith Malinga’s hair. There are so many conversations, arguments, insults on this talented boy’s hair style.

What do you think? I felt like analyzing who are these people who made it their favorite topic? First category is quite surprisingly a few Sri Lankans who are migrated to other countries, doing small super market & petrol shed jobs & feeling inferior about them selves. They don’t even work for this country. They don’t try to be Sri Lankans in any aspect. But try to make others live in the past forever.

Other category is who are here not doing any creative things & blaming others for whole day & expect someone to come & make a miracle for us. When a poor lad from here comes to an international level, they expect him not only make the hair style as they want but head too. What a joke it is. If he don’t play good cricket, then it’s a problem. If he’s not a good team mate it’s a problem. If he is match fixing it’s a problem. But he should have all his rights to cut his hair as they want. What harm does it do to other people? It’s all their deceitfulness. Patriotism is something different.

I remember once I met a daughter of a well known businessman laughed at one of our good cricketer saying he can’t speak good English. I asked her whether she can play cricket. She got shocked & mad with me.

Don’t be scared Malinga. & don’t look back. We need new people. New thinking. New patterns within the frame work of rule of law & fair play. We’ll always be with you. Even though you made up your hair style often, you are original by heart unlike some people who blame at you.

Go Malinga go.

A Beautiful Mind

Couple of our mates went for an assignment at a company near Central bank. There was a girl who joined recently to our group. She was a Tamil & her origination was at Jafna. We’ll call her Kalpana, though it was not her real name. In the outbreak of the war, she came to a refugee camp. Then moved from one camp to another & them managed to come to Colombo with the help of some rich relatives in Colombo. During some snacks, we were singing & enjoying our selves. Then it was Kalpana’s tern to sing a song. Obviously she sang a Tamil song. It was a beautiful song. We have heard many Tamil songs, but not this one. So we asked her from which film she picked that song & who sings it? Then she told us it’s the National anthem of the LTTE. We felt sad that she sang an anthem belongs to a killer organization. But since we didn’t want to hurt her, we remained silent. She complained that army guys out side checked her ID. I told her, they checked my ID too. It was the road next to Central bank & presidents’ house. So it’s obvious they check. But she hated when they check. It was just a matter of showing the ID. I did it with pleasure. But her attitude her ego was different. It was a shame to her. That’s how LTTE has taught her. I tried to explain it’s not discrimination. They her the same way they checked me. But it’s difficult to change what’s in their head. It’s how they were taught from childhood. Have to die for Tamil Elam.

The next day morning we completely forgot the national anthem part & it was normal day today work. While we were working, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. It was for the arms giving for her father who died from the Central bank bomb. I was telling my friends how sad that innocent people die from the bomb attacks. Then suddenly Kalpana speaks up. She said

“No we should kill Sinhalese. Then only the government will feel the pressure”

I couldn’t believe she said that. All of us were Sinhalese. We worked together. We played together. We eat together. Studied together & lived together basically. How come a person is so rude like that? We were really frustrated. But still we didn’t say anything. Because we knew it’s not her fault. Its how they have made her up. She was from a LTTE controlled area & they were brain washed. They were not building up in an open environment like we do. Her imagination is very little & she was always in her little frame. She was not a bad person. She was very good with us. She helped people a lot. I think with the time we managed to change her attitude & anger towards Sinhalese. But we could never be sure of that. They didn’t have a childhood. What more can you expect from them?

But that doesn’t mean that every Tamil is like that. There were very nice people. The good families bought them up under good conditions. I had so many friends like this. But there was a difference. They were not suffered with LTTE. They were not from war areas. They lived happily & peacefully at the other government controlled areas. Some of these people have so good qualities, which I never ever saw with other nationals.

Same as this problem is vice versa. There are many Sinhalese people with lot of bad qualities. They are not affected by war. But they had to live with lot of difficulties. It is not about belonging to a particular nation. It is about how people brought up. What was their environment? What was their family background? & Education also affected little bit.

Some time back I worked for an audit firm. We had to go to a NGO. This belongs to the key NGO activitist in SL (Sinhalese). Auditors get access to all the documents & basically they can sense the atmosphere when they work with a client. Since I have to respect my professional ethics I cannot disclose most of the things we revealed there. But every time when he & his team comes & sell the “Peace” in television I feel so sad for the people who believe in their nasty peace. I saw how they got money & how they spend money. I am not surprised. When a person gets such a large piece of chunk, you have to be more than human to say NO. It’s not about being a Tamil or sinhala. It’s about personalities. There would be favorable affects. There would be more weighting to some sides by some nationalities. But in my opinion, it’s all about how people think. How their mind set up are.

For a fact Tamils set up all the bombs in the metropolitan areas with the help of sinhaleese. That’s the tragic truth of it. That’s why building a person’s mind is very important after all. Even though people think its non of their business to change the way people think, there would be a day it will be their business.

There were many Tamils in Sri Lanka who tried to do this. Lakshman Kadiragamar is one example. But LTTE killed all of them starting from the Mayor of Jafna Dore Appa. Let this be a tribute to those who really tried for real Pease, unlike the NGO agents who support terrorists in the name of Pease. Let this be a tribute to real Heros of the process of brining peace to my motherland.