Navigating on balance

The latest Al Qaida threat

2011-12-15T00:54:00.003Z

When we all thought that Al Qaida was gone after it's Jihadi leader was killed and fed to the sharks, it seems Al Qaida has come up with a new strategy to promote it's lethal violent ideology.

The Onion News Network reports that there are now close to five million Al Qaida combatants posing as 'patriotic, peaceful decoy Muslims' so that the public will lower their guard thereby making it easy for Al Qaida to strike.

Steps are being taken to counter this threat. The next time you see a patriotic, peaceful Muslims be warned that it could be another Al Qaida combatant just doing what it does best, espousing its violent Jihadi ideology.

Death & Execution

2011-09-22T00:53:00.005+01:00

As I type this post, Troy Davis, a man convicted of killing a policeman twenty years ago awaits death. He will be executed by lethal injection in a matter of a few hours, two at most.

I post paragraphs from one of my favourite essays 'A Hanging' by George Orwell, about death, killing and what it means to execute a person.

"It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never
straightens his knees. At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path."

"It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working --bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming--all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned--reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two
minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone--one mind less, one world less. "

If by some rare chance, Troy Davis isn't dead when you read this, please sign this petition here.

Of Sinhalese Buddhism and Racism

2011-09-15T21:36:00.014+01:00

I write this post with some level of pain and sadness. I write this also as a Sri Lankan and as a Muslim. My credentials in the Sri Lankan blogosphere are established, if not anything at least as someone with genuine love to Sri Lanka where I was born, where I lived except for five years of my life and where I hope I will be buried when I die.

Those of you who know me, know me for various reasons, one being my fluency in Sinhalese and the fact that it wouldn’t be discernible that I am a Muslim when I speak in Sinhalese to someone who doesn’t know me. Never in Sri Lanka (or elsewhere for that matter) have I been affected by racism, never have any of my Sinhalese friends (who consist of the vast majority of my Lankan friends) addressed me in racially derogatory tones with intended venom or malice, unless in instances when I myself have referred to me and other Muslims facetiously as ‘Thambiya’s.

However, racism has been present in Sri Lanka right throughout my life; I am in my mid twenties now. Never have I known a Sri Lanka devoid of racism. Sadly it seems, racism may be an intrinsic part of Sri Lankan society for years if not for decades to come, in fact one wonders if there will ever be a time in Sri Lanka devoid of racism. Racism is usually propagated by a majority community towards a minority, that is true for almost any instance in the world where racism takes place. By this almost golden rule of how racism takes place, Muslims and Tamils have been mostly at the receiving end in Sri Lanka. I am not suggesting that Muslims have in Muslim majority areas not preferred a Muslim over a Sinhalese or a Tamil.

But forget not the contribution Muslims have made to the Sri Lankan social fabric and forget not how loyal Muslims have been to Sri Lanka as a nation and as a state at its most crucial moments. From spilling their own blood for Sri Lanka in fighting colonial invaders to the crucial political struggles Muslims have made to gain independence from Britain. Remember 'Parangiya Kotte giya wagey' ? How Muslims took the colonial invaders on an almost wild goose chase?

Unlike in Britain, where Muslims are mostly immigrants not more than a few generations old, the question of Muslims in Sri Lanka isn’t even a question!

There have been several instances where Muslims have been attacked recently in various instances. There was this whole debacle surrounding the Grease Yaka, and now the following incident I am about to relate.

I don’t know much about this; Groundviews told me they are looking into it. But it is not a pretty sight.

Images suggest that Sinhalese youth under the guidance of Buddhist Monks and the connivance of the Police (who clearly are meant to be acting on the contrary) destroying a sacred place of Muslims in Anuradhapura.

These are Buddhist Monks we are speaking of, whatever happened to the very Buddhist principles of causing no harm? Of course it does not help the Buddhist philosophy when monks stand by watching and those desecrating the premises do so with Buddhist flags being waved about.

This news piece suggests the place was built illegally. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it wasn’t, I for one do not know. If it was should there not be a court order for it to be demolished in such a way? If there was indeed a court order should it not be the state that carries out such a demolition and not hooligans and thugs waving Buddhist flags with Monks monitoring their every step with hawkish scrutiny ?

It sets an extremely dangerous precedent when vigilantism spreads its thorny fingers around with the state doing nothing about it, more so when such vigilantism has been encouraged when there wasn’t even any harm done to anyone.

Traditionally, Muslims and Sinhalese have been on the best of terms. I have always maintained how Muslims (then Arabs who later married local women) have been in Sri Lanka before Islam itself and Muslims in Sri Lanka have a history as old as Islam itself. Halik writes about this here.

This is not the first time I am blogging about a mosque attack, I blogged here a few years ago.

I refuse to believe that the primary seed that is creating such hatred towards Muslims by Sinhalese Buddhists comes from Sri Lankan Buddhist themselves. The vast majority of Sinhalese Buddhists are innocent human beings who want to get on with their lives; the slim minority who physically sweat to do such laborious tasks are just the labourers. They have no ideology, they have no world view, they do not even live by the sacred texts of Buddhism (some monks included), they are just that – labourers who can wield an axe. Their capacity to wield an axe is being used, exploited by someone who would like to see the dangerous effects of what they do.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I see a third hand involved, a third hand that would benefit in seeing Sinhalese - Muslim clashes. The Sinhalese - Muslim riots in 1915 were unnecessary and were based on an incitement. I have read material suggesting that with 2015 being the one hundredth anniversary of those riots, they should be commemorated. I fear for the Muslims of Sri Lanka when those commemorations take place.

This is beneath the vast majority of Sinhalese to do. This country does not need another conflict to screw us deep into an abyss. It is in the best interests of all to identify these elements and have them dealt with.

The problem with Sri Lanka is that you see negativity on such a regular basis where that which was abnormal once, becomes such a normal thing where people are desensitised to consider it serious.

I will not appeal to the Sri Lankan Muslims to remain calm, I know they would. Being the ever patient and resilient community they have been in the wake of so many difficult and tumultuous events, they would dismiss this as just another incident and try and get on with life. But the fact remains, these incidents keep happening, and the danger lies in the fact that the frequency doesn’t seem to diminish.

I am currently living in the UK. I will eventually return to Sri Lanka, I have never been part of the ‘Diaspora’ and intend never to be so. But when my friend asks me, Machang when are you coming back, and I see images like these, least I can do is tell a date and just shrug or sigh to myself.

Enjoy your weekend.

Click image to see larger.

UPDATE - For some reason I am having problems uploading images. Please save the above image to desktop and view it large. My post would seem less substantial without the images.

Proposals, Aunties and Marriage

2011-09-15T01:08:00.007+01:00

As I have said here, I am currently reading ‘Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim’. This is a semi autobiographical account of the life of the author Ziauddin Sardar, a British citizen who came to Britain as a child in the early 60’s.

I only started it so I can’t say much about the book in general, whatever I say about the book in this article will be based on the first few chapters I have finished reading. He speaks of being born in the borders of current day India and Pakistan before the partition took place. Having being born in the borders and not knowing if he really belonged to Pakistan or to India, was the first internal crisis he faced about his identity. His father was one of those who left Pakistan to help rebuild Britain after the World war and his family eventually followed him and thus the author (Ziauddin that is, not me) had to grow up as a Pakistani child trying to carve out an identity of his own as a British person.

The book thus far has been a thrilling read. However, I can’t help but feel that when I have finished reading it I am almost bound to consider it to be a far too liberal approach on how my ideas of an Islamic ideological discourse would be, I must admit though that I would have been superbly entertained by the style of writing and the fascinating diversity of the milieu he articulates of.

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the following paragraph a few days back.

“Marriage has always been the province and prerogative of the matriarchs. The senior women of the family in Muslim households the world over jealously guard their right to investigate, analyse and pair off individuals who come within their purview. It is a traditional skill combining consummate mastery of the deepest mysteries of personality profiling, sociological sensitivity and understanding, psychological insight and quantifying variables well beyond the most sophisticated computer dating software”

This is true, very true. The females in the households usually are the ones who go about with all these profiling of potential spouses for people they know. Many of us would know of the nosy auntie or anti as some would say (a Sri Lankan auntie, as opposed to a British aunt isn’t necessarily related by blood) who would snoop around asking your mother how old you are and what you are doing. In the case of a boy, the job would be of interest, how much he earns and how his personality is would be of reasons to consider. In the case of a girl, how she looks would be quite important, we all know how fascinated and gleeful some Sri Lankan aunties can get when they see a girl with very fair or light coloured skin.

The last paragraph was me trying to get into the mind of a stereotypical Sri Lankan auntie, and not my views, please note.

But are all these profiling of individuals for marriage really wrong, provided they are done with sincere intentions?

The writer further elucidates of the predicament of the young Muslim community in Britain in the 1960’s when it came to marriage and finding a life partner.

“The ideal arranged marriage seeks compatibility, the kind that develops, grows and flourishes in and for the lifetime of two people who, even if close relatives, officially have no idea of each other’s existence. Arranging marriages is an art form, but that does not travel well. In Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, the women of the Muslim community had been uprooted. They were removed from stable environments where they were interconnected over generations with entire villages or neighbourhoods. In their new setting in Britain, they had more truncated networks, more circumscribed access to the contacts and information that were essential to perform the arcane rites of arranging marriages. The steady business of building circuits of visiting, connecting with people from similar backgrounds, identifying the right kind of people from within their limitations of the ‘Asian’ community, sniffing out the not suitable kind of badmashes and making sense of all the new environment’s influences and effects and how they worked on young people was in its infancy.”

The debate about arranged marriages and marriages created otherwise and which of the two is better is a debate of the past. Traditional Muslim communities and Diasporic Muslim communities have very different problems when it comes to marriage. The very use of the term Diasporic in itself is contentious, one being that there is no such word, the other being that whilst parents may consider themselves as part of a Diaspora, their children would not as they would possibly have been born and brought up in a country outside that which their parents were born and consider themselves full citizens.

Asian/Muslim families in Britain are not more than a few generations old and therefore the deep sense of networking that is prevalent in traditional Muslim communities is usually absent.

A sad predicament of Muslim communities (mostly in non-Muslim countries) is that divorce rates are now increasingly on the ascendancy in line with the high divorce rates amongst non-Muslim communities. According to some, one in eight marriages amongst British Muslims now ends in divorce, up from one in twenty within the span of two generations.

There is an inherent lack of trust amongst Muslim youth of their parents’ capability of finding a life partner they would consider suitable and they increasingly look to good friends to find someone for them. This is mostly evident in families where there is a cultural gulf between the parents and children, i.e for instance when the parents grew up in a certain culture and the children grow up in a culture (mostly Western) which is totally different, the salient feature in this gulf is the difference in prioritising.

Why I say 'parents find someone' is because for various reasons the concept of an 'arranged marriage' is considered far more secure within Muslim families worldwide. Another interesting factor that may add weight to this sense of security in avoiding other types is that Germain Greer in her book 'The Whole Woman' argues that ‘Some of the briefest marriages are those that follow a long period of cohabitation’. Muslim societies hold the institution of marriage as relevant and important, for those who don't this argument would be seemingly irrelevant.

In an Islamic sense, cultural gulf should not be a problem when it comes to reconciling critical matters. It wouldn’t matter if the parents grew up in a rural village in the Amazon and the children grow up in the concrete jungles of New York if the priorities in life were defined as a means of best fulfilling your needs for the hereafter. Prioritising decisions for the sake of this life without understanding its impact in the hereafter would be like running in the opposite direction in a train when the train is moving forward.

Of course personal tastes may inevitably differ, but if approached with an Islamic understanding, personal tastes would be strictly within reason.

Muslims believe that this world is a test that would determine the outcome of the hereafter, this is what Muslims believe. Of course non-Muslims or secular readers can dismiss this notion.

If any of you head-hunters (aunties mostly) reading this article get the wrong message, I say this with the greatest respect, please don’t bother. My affairs are in order.

This is an article I wrote for a magazine, I have edited it to suit this blog. It's 1.36 am now and I am not feeling too pedantic. Excuse any errors please.

Of Muslim Women and Marriage

2011-09-05T22:09:00.011+01:00

I am currently reading Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim. This is a semi autobiographical account of the author Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani immigrant who came to the UK as a child in the 1960's.

It deals with how he had to negotiate two identities, that of a Pakistani and that of a child growing up in Britain and having to embrace a British identity.

The book so far has been an exceptionally thrilling read. However, I can't help but feel that when I have finished reading it I will consider it to be a far too liberal approach to how my ideas of Islamic ideological discourses would be, even though I am sure I would have been superbly entertained.

I couldn't help but chuckle when I read the following paragraph this morning.

"Marriage has always been the province and prerogative of the matriarchs. The senior women of the family in Muslim households the world over jealously guard their right to investigate, analyse and pair off all individuals who come within their purview. It is a traditional skill combining consummate mastery of the deepest mysteries of personality profiling, sociological sensitivity and understanding, psychological insight and quantifying of variables well beyond the most sophisticated computer dating software."

Though not exclusive to Muslims, and is more of a phenomenon intrinsic to Asian families irrespective of their faith, I couldn't help but chuckle at it's authentic pertinence.

Life as you would have it.

When Louise Mensch wished me for Eid!

2011-08-29T22:31:00.007+01:00

Today is Eid here in the UK. After the longest days of fasting I have ever fasted for 30 days, today I celebrate Eid.

It is a bit sad that I am not celebrating Eid with family, I used to go to a park in Colombo every Eid with my family and how I miss it. Today I will be celebrating Eid with no family but with a lot of great friends, and how thankful I am that I have them.

Anyway, last night I had even more reason to be much chuffed (spiritual reasons aside), one of my favourite Tory MP’s Louise Bagshawe now Mensch (not to mention one of the prettiest) sent me a personal tweet wish for Eid! How class is that!

I am not a Tory fan, indeed the Tories are considered much less pro-Muslim than say the Labour Party. Irrespective of faith, minorities in the UK tend to be more Labour leaning than voting for a Tory.

Oh, if it appeals to any of you Metallica fans, her husband is a Metallica person.

Above is a video of Louise, have a look at it. I am sure you will like her personality too, for a woman of forty, she looks remarkably schoolgirlish.

This is her tweet – “@aufidius the co-Chairman of our party is a Muslim! hope you have a wonderful Eid”

In hindsight, this post looks very unlike me and very juvenile, but heck - I don't do this always.

Hope you have a wonderful Eid, please do remember me in your prayers.

An Open Letter to David Cameron’s Parents

2011-08-10T23:31:00.008+01:00

London has been burning the last few nights. Riots have made almost all of the city insecure. There was an extremely heavy riot police presence a few yards from my house the night before last, last night there was a heavy police presence and tonight (10th August) the presence of police is more sporadic. I hope by tomorrow things would be perfectly settled.

Other parts of the city that have a weaker immune system than London are now in turmoil, I spoke to my mates in Newcastle where racist attacks had taken place, there are reports of severe rioting and looting in Liverpool, Nottingham and Manchester.

Hackney, Peckham and Croydon are some of the worst affected areas in London. I cycle through Hackney a lot and it was sad to see my usual cycling paths destroyed or damaged.

The resilience of many people in this saga has come out. This woman who shouted at rioters and later saved a boy from them is remarkable, The great dignity and steadfastness of this father whose son was killed is both moving as it is admirable.

All in all London is recovering with the resilience that only a great city with great people can. This clean up operation that instigated great communal feeling is truly marvellous. Of all the images I have seen of great communal spirit in the midst of this whole saga, this would surely be the best.

There have been various people voicing varying opinions about this issue. One thing is common amongst everyone, this criminality and hooliganism is absolutely disgusting and should be condemned and the perpetrators of these crimes should feel the full force of the law. I have no reservations in saying myself that these are terrible acts and all those looters should be punished in proportion to their crime.

However the response of self professed centrists and right wingers is absolutely disgusting vis a vis all that took place the last few nights. By saying this I am not admitting to being a leftie, I am not, the Left isn't devoid of sins either. Twitter and facebook has been full of all sorts of views, some of sympathy , some of hope and some absolute rubbish.

What we have to understand is this, every action is born out of a fertile climate that creates it. Fire cannot spread in a vacuum however much someone tries to. However much someone tries to instigate disorder and anarchy in society, one would absolutely fail to succeed in that if the people in the society are recipients of the moral, physical, emotional and financial justices in the system. If discontent is rampant and people suffer with severe disadvantages and hardships and there were disparities in the way people are treated, all that's needed to start a roaring fire is an accidental spark, and it spreads and spreads and spreads.

What the government needs to do now is to immediately stop the fire first, and then extract the reasons that create a conducive environment for such carnage.

The government is doing the right thing by creating law and order first, well and good. But if it stops there and even if all the perpetrators are locked up and yet the authorities do not attend to the cause - Creating law and order will be purely for cosmetic purposes and history will repeat itself.

Tuition fees have been trebled, there have been cuts to the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), Councils are rampantly closing down youth centres amongst many of the other actions taken by the government that surely has contributed to youth restlessness and frustration. With the closing down of these institutions, one of the few bodies outside the family unit that can keep youth out of mischief has been rooted out.

"But it's also a nonsensical position. If this week's eruption is an expression of pure criminality and has nothing to do with police harassment or youth unemployment or rampant inequality or deepening economic crisis, why is it happening now and not a decade ago? The criminal classes, as the Victorians branded those at the margins of society, are always with us, after all. And if it has no connection with Britain's savage social divide and ghettoes of deprivation, why did it kick off in Haringey and not Henley?"

"It then erupted across what is now by some measures the most unequal city in the developed world, where the wealth of the richest 10% has risen to 273 times that of the poorest, drawing in young people who have had their educational maintenance allowance axed just as official youth unemployment has reached a record high and university places are being cut back under the weight of a tripling of tuition fees." (link)

Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, an otherwise righteous man was imprisoned because he stole a piece of bread out of severe hunger to feed his sister's children. The saner move would have been to eradicate hunger and poverty from that society all in all so that no one else steals out of hunger.

For those of you who don't know. David Cameron and Boris Johnson were part of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, an elitist club where members can join only by invitation. Members were usually from the most aristocratic families. After meetings or events, Bullingdon club members are known to go about breaking windows and causing havoc in the communities. I distinctly remember Ed Miliband once taking a shot at David Cameron's Bullingdon Club past.

I came across this brilliant open letter to David Cameron.

Seeing all these riots, I can't help but wonder if this infamous quote from the Joker is apt in this situation.

"You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...these civilized people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."

Stay safe if you are in England and enjoy the rest of the week.

Update - Just read RD's post on the same issue.

Guru and Indi debating Sri Lankan issues on Al Jazeera

2011-07-13T23:55:00.004+01:00

My good friend Guru and Indi Samarajiva debated issues on Sri Lankan politics and the way forward just a couple of hours ago on Al Jazeera’s The Stream.

I met Guru for dinner last night and we discussed some of these issues on a very casual level, I knew the outcome of this debate long before it started.

My personal opinion on this video, followed by the twitter conversation Indi, Guru and I had afterwards is that Guru clearly comes out on top. His argument was clear and concise, Indi’s on the other hand stemmed from a more cosmetic and idealistic perception of the sufferings of those in the North and East which seemed out of touch with ground realities of those at the grassroots.

It doesn’t help Indi that his connection timed out (or so I like to think) a little after Guru threw a barrage of arguments, and he goes on to say ‘I am not a very good Sinhalese’. Which begs the question, who was he representing ? By his choice of argument one would understand that he certainly didn’t represent a holistic ‘Sri Lankan’ identity, surely not - and he proceeds to reinforce this ambiguity furthermore by saying what I have quoted above. Guru on the other hand had a stronger sense of what he stood for.

This is purely my opinion, to be fair to both Guru and Indi watch the video above and make up your own minds.

Kumar Sangakkara's Cowdrey Lecture

2011-07-04T23:30:00.005+01:00

I listened to today's Cowdrey Lecture by Kumar Sangakkara delivered at Lord's Cricket Ground. I can't help but admit that I was very moved listening to it.

I used to have reservations about him, but the content of his speech gives a strong indication of how much his attitudes are underpinned by a resolute ideological awareness.

It is indeed a must listen for all Sri Lankans. I am usually not the type to post the rubbish pro-govt types put up and say 'for all Sri lankans'. But listen to his speech here first and judge if I was right to say 'for all Sri Lankans'.

The Guardian too has put up a piece on his speech here.

On Sinhalese Political Oratory

2011-05-16T19:59:00.007+01:00

Sinhalese Oratory is something that has enthralled me almost if not as much as English Political Oratory. I get access to very good orations here in England, where one would understand is the place the best English is spoken. Unless you are American and you beg to differ.

In the recent past, Sinhalese Oratory has been hijacked by Mervynesque jargon and good Sinhalese orations are not always what Sri Lankans get to enjoy.

There are some brilliant Sinhalese orators still around, amongst the JVP for example but surely they do not get a platform of their own to appeal to the public. When I said JVP has good orators, I am not necessarily endorsing their substance - rather the choice of words, the delivery and the way the sentences are constructed.

This speech here by Imthiyaz Bakeer Markar delivered recently was something that caught my eye and is most certainly one of the better Sinhalese orations I have heard in a long time.

Anyone who appreciates Sinhalese oratory would do well to listen to it.

Osama : Whose bin is really Laden ?

2011-05-03T23:06:00.011+01:00

The other day President Obama in a midnight conference told the world that Osama bin Laden is dead. However, the body apparently was buried in the sea.

Before I go on, I must say this lest any of my readers judge me. I am not 'pro-Osama', I do not subscribe to his take on ideological issues, I am not related to him and I am neither a fan or supporter of him or his works. Period.

But here is the issue, they claim Osama is dead but thus far there is no living evidence to support this.

Again, I am not saying he is alive, I am not saying he is dead - I am indifferent to the matter, I do not care if he is dead or alive.

The war on terror started with the sole intention of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. Then they went to Iraq. Saddam Hussein was captured, they made such a show of it. We all remember a bearded and dishevelled Saddam having a doctor inspect his teeth when he was captured. They telecast all his trials, they made every possible step to ensure that the world was convinced that Saddam, that great prize has indeed been captured.

Osama is a bigger target isn't he ? surprising that no evidence is shown or they aren't making a big victorious display of him like they did of Saddam.

However, one thing is certain, this is going to do wonders to Obama's re-election bid. Something that was hitting stormy waters these past few weeks.

Another question that arises. How right are extra judicial killings ? Moral scholars and theologians and even governments in instances condemn publicly the concept of extra judicial killings. The BBC now says here that, "Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed by US troops on Sunday after resisting capture, the White House has said". So he was unarmed ? Could they not have trialled him in a suitable judiciary procedure ? Sentence him to death by if the court orders that.

There is no legal or moral justification whatsoever for a state to kill an unarmed man, and at point blank range according to most.

How different are we as a people if we cannot morally and righteously differentiate ourselves from the very 'evils' we aim to fight ?

As Chris Hedges says here -

"And empire finally, as Thucydides understood, is a disease. As Thucydides wrote, the tyranny that the Athenian empire imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. The disease of empire, according to Thucydides, would finally kill Athenian democracy. And the disease of empire, the disease of nationalism … these of course are mirrored in the anarchic violence of these groups, but one that locks us in a kind of frightening death spiral. So while I certainly fear al-Qaida, I know its intentions. I know how it works. I spent months of my life reconstructing every step Mohamed Atta took. While I don’t in any way minimize their danger, I despair. I despair that we as a country, as Nietzsche understood, have become the monster that we are attempting to fight."

For those of you who celebrated his death publicly, let me tell you this - as Jeremy F. Walton, professor of Religious Studies at NYU, wrote on his blog today -

“I do not mean to denigrate the persistent grief of the families of 9/11 victims, or, for that matter, the pain that countless Americans continue to experience when they recall or witness the indelible images of that infamous Tuesday morning. But make no mistake: last night’s celebrators, and all those whom they represent, have no comprehension of the political history, quotidian violence, and post-colonial frustration over increasing global inequities—to gesture to but a few factors—that made Osama bin Laden and his network possible. Political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, for one, has vigorously argued that a reckoning of the American role in the creation of jihadist violence during the Cold War is indispensable to understanding al-Qaeda itself. Acknowledgement of this neglected political history is even more crucial in the wake of bin Laden’s death.”

The US and its allies went to Afghanistan and then Iraq with the motive of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, and not for oil. Right ? So will they leave those lands ? we may all know the answer to that.

10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, & $1,188,263,000,000 later, they managed to kill one person. Let's hope it was worth it.

Of Royal Weddings and War Crimes

2011-05-01T18:32:00.012+01:00

Last Friday was the Royal Wedding, that of Prince William and Kate Middleton of Britain. No, this is not another post about the Royal Wedding, I am sure you have had enough of it already.

Anyway, I went to Buckingham Palace with some friends on the day of the Wedding, I was not necessarily interested in the occasion, but I did go for photographic purposes. Does that qualify as having been part of the Wedding proceedings from a 'commoner's point of view ? yes it does, I was about 10 meters away from the balcony that the newly married couple kissed - except that they kissed in the morning and I was there with thousands of others at about six o' clock in the evening. Still, there was a lot of pomp and pageantry, I can only imagine how it would have been in the morning.

As I said, this post is not about the Royal Wedding.

This week has been about the Royal Wedding, the blood bath in Syria, Nato attacks in Libya and the release of the UN SG Panel report on alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka.

The War crimes allegations in Sri Lanka are serious indeed, very serious. The atrocities allegedly committed by the LTTE and the GoSL are extremely heinous and painful to fathom. Those accused if guilty must be brought to justice and penalised as deemed fit.

This post is not about war crimes in Sri Lanka either, that too has got a lot of attention.

I watched Democracy Now the other day and Johann Hari, a British Journalist who writes to the Independent was hosted on the programme.

He went on to expose such atrocious war crimes committed during the time of the British Imperial empire that it overshadows many of the war crimes that the West peeks into. (Imperial)Britain though not as nosy as the USA and with a better human rights record, has committed a significant amount of War crimes that need to be discussed if a future sans such heinous acts can even be contemplated.

Don't get me wrong, I have lived and studied in Britain for the good part of five years now, I have never had tertiary education outside Britain, and after Sri Lanka I love Britain the most, and after Sri Lankans there are no peoples in the world I love more than the British. Some of my closest friends are British, regular readers may have read this post here. This is not an emotional rant either.

But a spade has to be called a spade.

Of war crimes and atrocities, this is true - the order and instructions for war crimes come from a negligible fraction of a population at the upper end of the political hierarchy and for this, the whole nation should not be held to account.

The British people should not be held directly accountable for the war crimes committed in their name by their leaders. This applies to any people, the people of imperial powers such as America, France, Italy, or people of developing nations such as Sri Lanka or the countries in the Middle East for that matter.

One may argue that an order for a war crime to be carried out cannot come from the top without the connivance of the people that elected them. This is also true, but the instances where a whole populace disapproves of the war crimes committed by their leaders far outnumber the instances where a whole populace approves of the war crimes committed by their leaders.

Again, there is another twist. There are instances where imperial powers committed war crimes, but importantly that has almost always been against peoples of other nations. Not to suggest that this somehow dilutes the crime. But war crimes against one's own people is a far greater crime indeed. We have seen that in history again and again, and I fear we may not have seen the last of that phenomena.

I have posted the video above where Johann Hari very eloquently discusses war crimes committed by the British Imperial empire where millions of people died, including the British instigated famine in India in the late 1800's where more than twenty million people died. Well worth a watch.

On that sombre note, have a great week everyone!

How Daughters manipulate their Fathers.

2011-04-27T10:40:00.004+01:00

I saw this here, and knew I should post it here.

Daughters! Always.

DAUGHTER: Daddy, can I have a bracelet like mamma?
ME: Why?
DAUGHTER: I want one. Can you buy me one?
ME: Why do you need a bracelet?
DAUGHTER: Because I loooove you

Enough said.

The great burqa/niqab/hijab debate

2011-04-26T23:28:00.005+01:00

Interesting arguments on the New Statesman here by Mehdi Hasan.

Two questions immediately come to mind:

1) In the middle of the worst economic crisis in living memory, how can France’s ruling conservative party justify focusing its legislative energies on banning an item of clothing worn by 0.1 per cent of the French population of adult Muslim women (or 0.003 per cent of the French population as a whole)?

2) Why did the “French internal security services” commission a study on the burqa/niqab? Is it now deemed to be a national security risk? Do French intelligence agencies have nothing better to do with their time? No other threats to deal with, apart from 2,000 Muslim women with covered faces?

Then there is the matter of the clothing itself and distinguishing between the various types. I’m no fan of the burqa or the niqab myself, and have yet to be convinced of the Islamic legal reasoning behind either garment, but I do recognise the difference between the burqa and the niqab, on the one hand, and the hijab on the other.

On being neglected

2011-04-21T20:12:00.004+01:00

No No,I wasn't being neglected. Well I have in ways.

Anyway, I have been neglecting this blog and my photoblog.

I have been long intending to blog regularly. But the rise of Twitter, links on facebook and my facebook photography page has meant that I tend to have a lot of discussions on them and this blog has beeen neglected!

Anyway, I sincereley intend to resume normal services on this blog.

Look forward to more posts here!

Have a great holiday everyone!

Do you type 'x' at the end of a message ?

2011-02-26T20:36:00.013Z

Well Rugby too.

This post was typed on Saturday night forgetting that it was Saturday night and not Sunday night! So the sports aspect of it is a bit stale - the rest still applies though! Apparently the England v India cricket match has been a stunner! I wasn't at home sadly, so missed it!

Those who saw my facebook status yesterday would recall that I was excited about today, Sri Lanka vs Pakistan in the Cricket world cup and England vs France in the six nations.

One of the two teams I was rooting for won and the other gave a very gallant fight.

I have been the most uninterested amongst many a friend about this years cricket world cup, no reason why. Anyway a certain argument I had with someone I know about the Sri Lanka v Pakistan match reignited the Cricket fan in me and allow me to confess that the cricket bug has hit me now and hit me hard. Needless to say Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan had me deflated, quite a few expectations were lingering in me and the task of facing some vocally politically incorrect Pakistanis meant that I had to cringe a bit. Well, I guess a defeat in this match can only mean well for us, now that we have time to reassess and come down from the high citadels of over confidence and media related hollow swollen beliefs. This loss may well be our wake up call to re-juvenate ourselves, remember Spain that won last year's football world cup also lost their first match that they were expected to breeze past against very weak opposition.

England on the other hand came up with a clinical performance to beat France to keep their Six Nations grand slam hopes alive!

Now to come to the part of this post. Are you one of those who use 'x' at the end of an email/text message or anything else? an 'x' symbolises a kiss, or so I am made to believe. I am very reserved about using my x's at the end of sentences as endearing as it may be. Here in the UK, it is quite normal and a guy can send a text to another guy with an x at the end and no one will really find it odd (or queer for that matter) to the extent that they would question the senders orientation. But in Sri Lanka a guy sending it to another guy can be a bit contentious, though girls send it to other girls and no one seems to bother. Equality they say, pah!

I usually use it when someone uses it to me first, just as a matter of courtesy than actually meaning it. As I said, I am very reserved about sending 'x's around and when I do send one it is only to a very limited circle of friends and I usually mean it.

My good friend Kevin had posted this in his facebook page and I couldn't help chuckle when I saw it. I am sure you'll like it too!

Are you one of the x-men or x-women too ?

Have a great Week!

xx

Libya now on the brink!

2011-02-21T20:18:00.004Z

Tunisia done, Egypt done and now seems Libya is on the brink.

Protests have been continuing for the last few days in Libya and Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi, Libya’s idiosyncratic leader for forty one years is not using inhumane tactics to dispel the protesters in the streets of Tripoli Benghazi and all other places in Libya that protests are taking place.

The latest I’ve heard is that is that two fighter pilots who were sent in their jets to bomb the protesters (yes bomb) have defected and gone to Malta, Reuters has more here.

Seven Libyan diplomats have thus far defected from the Libyan regime, the Libyan ambassador to London among them.

Reports suggest 250 people were killed today alone (though I can confirm that at least 60 were killed today) and there are talks of massive air raids tonight and someone tweeted saying the Libyan Navy was firing towards the show.

If Libya falls to the protesters and true democracy prevails, the West will have to really buy oil from Libya and not get them so cheaply from a regime that bends to the will of it’s western allies. A whopping 72% of Libyan Oil is purchased by western European countries and Ghaddafi is an asset they can not bear to lose.

The West is in an interesting conundrum, the long bearded, fiery eyed slogan shouting ‘muslim’ is not necessarily the person out in the streets, rather it is the general day to day Libyan who wants a better quality of life and dignity for himself that is on the streets protesting peacefully to enjoy the very same rights we here in the West enjoy. The West is stuck between doing the morally correct thing of taking radical action against a Libyan regime blatantly violating human rights and fighting a very key economic and strategic ally.

The last few weeks have exposed the hypocrisy of the west and the UN very profoundly. Tunisia, Egypt and Insha’allah Libya were people’s revolutions devoid of any assistance from the west. However, the West cracked down on Saddam who is culpable of the same autocracy in Iraq because he was not an ally of the West, he was very conservative about his oil and the related fiscal ramifications and he didn’t give a damn about the US – but, Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Ghaddafi of Libya were/are well and truly in the pockets of the west and the US and therefore they are immune to US and Western pressure and/or action do what they may, democratic or not.

The last thing a dictator does before he goes is to use violence, Ghaddafi is doing just that. My prediction is that like Ben Ali, like Mubarak Ghaddafi too will be deposed in the coming few weeks if not days, my concern though is that he will create a lot of bloodshed on his way out

Mubarak and the waiting game

2011-02-06T22:17:00.006Z

I have been fairly inactive on this blog for sometime now. Work and many other commitments have kept me away! A lot of things happening have been happening these days and to reiterate what I just said, I have been busy. Amongst other things, sl2g, that great second generation Sri Lankan organisation here in London is having a photo exhibition and RD and I and the rest of the team are very excited about it! For those of you in the UK who still would like to get involved do visit the page!

One other thing I have been doing inspite of all those things that need attention is that I have been glued to Al Jazeera for a long time in the last few nights, Mubarak doesn't seem to budge and the protesters don't seem to want to move and the hypocrites in the white house are playing their same dirty game of seeing primarily to their interests in approaching this whole issue and its ramifications.

When anti governmental protests took place in Iran in 2009-2010 there was a big hue and cry by the Western leaders amplified by the Western media! Now, Mubarak being their baby, nothing seems to be said with clear conscience - except perhaps for Al Jazeera who are doing a stellar job in balanced reportage and brilliant anchorage! What would have put the Western leaders in a proper quandary would be if the anti-Mubarak demonstrations in Egypt and the anti-Ahmadinejad protests in Iran took place simultaneously, to quote a friend 'the hypocrites would then be caught by the bollocks'!

The Question remains, WWMD?!

Robert Fisk of The Independent has here a very interesting analysis very artfully put forward!

"The sight of Mubarak's delusory new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq telling Egyptians yesterday that things were "returning to normal" was enough to prove to the protesters in Tahrir Square – 12 days into their mass demand for the exile of the man who has ruled the country for 30 years – that the regime was made of cardboard. When the head of the army's central command personally pleaded with the tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in the square to go home, they simply howled him down.

In his novel The Autumn of the Patriarch, Gabriel Garcia Marquez outlines the behaviour of a dictator under threat and his psychology of total denial. In his glory days, the autocrat believes he is a national hero. Faced with rebellion, he blames "foreign hands" and "hidden agendas" for this inexplicable revolt against his benevolent but absolute rule. Those fomenting the insurrection are "used and manipulated by foreign powers who hate our country". Then – and here I use a precis of Marquez by the great Egyptian author Alaa Al-Aswany – "the dictator tries to test the limits of the engine, by doing everything except what he should do. He becomes dangerous. After that, he agrees to do anything they want him to do. Then he goes away".

Hosni Mubarak of Egypt appears to be on the cusp of stage four – the final departure. For 30 years he was the "national hero" – participant in the 1973 war, former head of the Egyptian air force, natural successor to Gamal Abdel Nasser as well as Anwar Sadat – and then, faced with his people's increasing fury at his dictatorial rule, his police state and his torturers and the corruption of his regime, he blamed the dark shadow of the country's fictional enemies (al-Qa'ida, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Jazeera, CNN, America). We may just have passed the dangerous phase."

As it stands, The US is doing everything possible to keep Mubarak on his chair at least till a pro-US pro-Israeli puppet successor incubates in Mubarak's government or till the protestors finally leave, or will they ?

The geo-politics of all these is very intersting and has the potential to impact the next generation! As Jonathan Freedland rightly says here, When Egypt shakes, it should be no surprise that Israel trembles!

TED Talks - Explaining the Qur'an

2010-12-26T21:56:00.023Z

Lesley Hazleton, an agnostic Jew gives this very well understood presentation on TED about the Qur'an as an outsider to the fold of Islam.

She highlights sensitive areas of misconception such as the alleged 'killing of non believers' and the idea of the '72 virgins in heaven'.

I found this fascinating to listen to as a Muslim, the extent to which non Muslims understand and misunderstand the Qur'an.

Lesley Hazleton blogs here as the Accidental Theologist.

Have a great week and a very fruitful year ahead!

Tony Blair's sister in law's conversion to Islam. Now what?

2010-11-04T20:07:00.006Z

Lauren Booth, Cherie Blair’s sister and Tony Blair’s sister in law converted to Islam a few days ago. Where I am concerned, it’s just one of the many thousands of transitions that take place every year. The significance of this is that the person in question is a well-known figure, and sister in law to a man oft repeated in political circles in the new millennium, Labour’s most successful leader and apart from the Iraq war and a few other mishaps a man who brought a lot of constructive changes to British society.

The Islamophobic right wing press and some feminists will have to eat their own words due to this rather unexpected phenomenon.

Cherie Blair herself has immediately changed her stance about Muslim women, as today’s Evening Standard reports here.

Lauren Booth has written a wonderful piece on the Guardian about her conversion, the press and stereotypes. I am copying it here.

The reader is neither obliged to agree or to disagree, but definitely well worth a read.

It is five years since my first visit to Palestine. And when I arrived in the region, to work alongside charities in Gaza and the West Bank, I took with me the swagger of condescension that all white middle-class women (secretly or outwardly) hold towards poor Muslim women, women I presumed would be little more than black-robed blobs, silent in my peripheral vision. As a western woman with all my freedoms, I expected to deal professionally with men alone. After all, that's what the Muslim world is all about, right?

This week's screams of faux horror from fellow columnists on hearing of my conversion to Islam prove that this remains the stereotypical view regarding half a billion women currently practising Islam.

On my first trip to Ramallah, and many subsequent visits to Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, I did indeed deal with men in power. And, dear reader, one or two of them even had those scary beards we see on news bulletins from far-flung places we've bombed to smithereens. Surprisingly (for me) I also began to deal with a lot of women of all ages, in all manner of head coverings, who also held positions of power. Believe it or not, Muslim women can be educated, work the same deadly hours we do, and even boss their husbands about in front of his friends until he leaves the room in a huff to go and finish making the dinner.

Is this patronising enough for you? I do hope so, because my conversion to Islam has been an excuse for sarcastic commentators to heap such patronising points of view on to Muslim women everywhere. So much so, that on my way to a meeting on the subject of Islamophobia in the media this week, I seriously considered buying myself a hook and posing as Abu Hamza. After all, judging by the reaction of many women columnists, I am now to women's rights what the hooked one is to knife and fork sales.

So let's all just take a deep breath and I'll give you a glimpse into the other world of Islam in the 21st century. Of course, we cannot discount the appalling way women are mistreated by men in many cities and cultures, both with and without an Islamic population. Women who are being abused by male relatives are being abused by men, not God. Much of the practices and laws in "Islamic" countries have deviated from (or are totally unrelated) to the origins of Islam. Instead practices are based on cultural or traditional (and yes, male-orientated) customs that have been injected into these societies. For example, in Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive by law. This rule is an invention of the Saudi monarchy, our government's close ally in the arms and oil trade. The fight for women's rights must sadly adjust to our own government's needs.

My own path to Islam began with an awakening to the gap between what had been drip-fed to me about all Muslim life – and the reality.

I began to wonder about the calmness exuded by so many of the "sisters" and "brothers". Not all; these are human beings we're talking about. But many. And on my visit to Iran this September, the washing, kneeling, chanting recitations of the prayers at the mosques I visited reminded me of the west's view of an entirely different religion; one that is known for eschewing violence and embracing peace and love through quiet meditation. A religion trendy with movie stars such as Richard Gere, and one that would have been much easier to admit to following in public – Buddhism. Indeed, the bending, kneeling and submission of Muslim prayers resound with words of peace and contentment. Each one begins, "Bismillahir rahmaneer Raheem" – "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate" – and ends with the phrase "Assalamu Alaykhum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh" – Peace be upon you all and God's mercy and blessing.

Almost unnoticed to me, when praying for the last year or so, I had been saying "Dear Allah" instead of "Dear God". They both mean the same thing, of course, but for the convert to Islam the very alien nature of the language of the holy prayers and the holy book can be a stumbling block. I had skipped that hurdle without noticing. Then came the pull: a sort of emotional ebb and flow that responds to the company of other Muslims with a heightened feeling of openness and warmth. Well, that's how it was for me, anyway.

How hard and callous non-Muslim friends and colleagues began to seem. Why can't we cry in public, hug one another more, say "I love you" to a new friend, without facing suspicion or ridicule? I would watch emotions being shared in households along with trays of honeyed sweets and wondered, if Allah's law is simply based on fear why did the friends I loved and respected not turn their backs on their practices and start to drink, to have real "fun" as we in the west do? And we do, don't we? Don't we?

Finally, I felt what Muslims feel when they are in true prayer: a bolt of sweet harmony, a shudder of joy in which I was grateful for everything I have (my children) and secure in the certainty that I need nothing more (along with prayer) to be utterly content. I prayed in the Mesumeh shrine in Iran after ritually cleansing my forearms, face, head and feet with water. And nothing could be the same again. It was as simple as that.

The sheikh who finally converted me at a mosque in London a few weeks ago told me: "Don't hurry, Lauren. Just take it easy. Allah is waiting for you. Ignore those who tell you: you must do this, wear that, have your hair like this. Follow your instincts, follow the Holy Qur'an- and let Allah guide you."

And so I now live in a reality that is not unlike that of Jim Carey's character in the Truman Show. I have glimpsed the great lie that is the facade of our modern lives; that materialism, consumerism, sex and drugs will give us lasting happiness. But I have also peeked behind the screens and seen an enchanting, enriched existence of love, peace and hope. In the meantime, I carry on with daily life, cooking dinners, making TV programmes about Palestine and yes, praying for around half an hour a day.

Now, my morning starts with dawn prayers at around 6am, I pray again at 1.30pm, then finally at 10.30pm. My steady progress with the Qur'an has been mocked in some quarters (for the record, I'm now around 200 pages in). I've been seeking advice from Ayatollahs, imams and sheikhs, and every one has said that each individual's journey to Islam is their own. Some do commit the entire text to memory before conversion; for me reading the holy book will be done slowly and at my own pace.

In the past my attempts to give up alcohol have come to nothing; since my conversion I can't even imagine drinking again. I have no doubt that this is for life: there is so much in Islam to learn and enjoy and admire; I'm overcome with the wonder of it. In the last few days I've heard from other women converts, and they have told me that this is just the start, that they are still loving it 10 or 20 years on.

On a final note I'd like to offer a quick translation between Muslim culture and media culture that may help take the sting of shock out of my change of life for some of you.

When Muslims on the BBC News are shown shouting "Allahu Akhbar!" at some clear, Middle Eastern sky, we westerners have been trained to hear: "We hate you all in your British sitting rooms, and are on our way to blow ourselves up in Lidl when you are buying your weekly groceries."

In fact, what we Muslims are saying is "God is Great!", and we're taking comfort in our grief after non-Muslim nations have attacked our villages. Normally, this phrase proclaims our wish to live in peace with our neighbours, our God, our fellow humans, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Or, failing that, in the current climate, just to be left to live in peace would be nice.

New Camera,Flat and the trip to Bath!

2010-10-21T22:04:00.004+01:00

I have been rather silent these few days. Well, truth be said there has been a lot happening - some I could do without, but I have seen people undergo so many calamities that make my odd discomfort seem non-existent. Just the other day I heard someone (not so well off Indian student must be) on the tube tell someone else how he travels a very long distance every week to work 55hrs a week on a wage of £2 per hour! Folks in Sri Lanka may think oooh that’s Rs. 360 per hour and close to Rs. 80,000 a month, not bad! Trust me, compared to how much you'll spend living here - in my opinion working at that rate is virtual slavery! And he travels from Croydon to central London every day!

Again, some of you in Sri Lanka may not understand the gravity of what I am saying, since the contexts are totally different, those in Britain or those who have been here long enough would get it. Listening to him made me feel a painful amount of sympathy towards that guy and absolute relief that I am not in his place.

The minimum wage stipulated by labour laws in this country is £5.70 per hour, or something around that mark.

Anyway, to the crux of my post.

I bought a new camera! Absolutely chuffed - something I have always wanted and absolutely thrilled I bought it.

It's a Canon EOS 1000D with an 18-55mm IS lens. It's my first SLR and I am looking forward to the transition from point and shoot to DSLR photography!

My landlord called me a about ten days ago and said he wanted my flat due to a sudden family emergency - legally (ethically and morally even) , I am on a good footing to refuse - but I had to sympathise with his predicament so I offered to move out. Thankfully I got an absolutely gorgeous flat to which I hope to move in on the 1st November. I am at the moment living with a friend of my fathers, so things are packed and rather difficult since I don’t want to unpack too much lest I have to repack all over to move to my new flat, hence my inactivity in general and inactivity online in particular. Being in this state of limbo is very frustrating, staying unsettled and having to depend on someone else is very frustrating too. I say ‘depend’ because in true Sri Lankan fashion my father’s friend insists on doing everything and it’s a bit uncomfortable for me to stay as a guest for 14 days without doing anything back in return.

I have not even really got an opportunity to play with my new toy!

Thankfully, as I have said here, like we did here I am going on a trip to Bath this weekend with Amie, Kevin and Paul! I look forward to it and will hopefully take loads of photos with my new dslr and revel in the discoveries!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Inspite of all, here's why Sri Lankans are a happy bunch!

2010-09-09T00:55:00.012+01:00

Inspite of all this, here’s why Sri Lankans are still a happy lot!
Sri Lankans are very very special, ironic it may be to say. But here’s why.
Given the political development yesterday where the 18th amendment to the constitution was implemented which effectively stifles democracy in Sri lanka unless something drastic takes place – the title of this blog post may be a bit of a paradox.

Enough has been said about the banes of the 18th amendment to the constitution, and it will serve no purpose for me to dwell on that any further, even though I must admit I found everything to do with the recent political developments in Sri Lanka extremely nauseating and very cringe worthy! Rather, this blog post is to speak about something diametrically different.

The Charities Aid Foundation published the World Giving Index yesterday. Here are the results, the higher ranked you are the more charitable you were found to be.

1. Australia 57%
1. New Zealand 57%
3. Ireland 56%
3. Canada 56%
5. Switzerland 55%
6. USA 55%
7. Netherlands 54%
8. Sri Lanka 53%
8. United Kingdom 53%
10. Austria 52%

The full report which is worth a download can be taken from here.

“Researchers compared the strength of the relationship between giving with a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. They found the link between well-being and giving was stronger than the link between wealth and giving (a correlation of 0.69 compared with a correlation of 0.58).
It means happy people give generously. Australia and New Zealand topped the index in the study, which CAF said was the largest of its kind.A CAF spokesman said: ‘It is clear that happiness plays an important role in whether people give.’” (link)

Seeing this gave me a good amount of joy to quell my disgust somewhat. Inspite of all the difficulties Sri Lankans have(mostly rural ), largely thanks to politicians on either side of the divide blatantly raping and bastardizing the country and her resources to foster their own fortunes, we still are a charitable and happy lot.

Sri Lankans are inherently nice people, most Europeans I speak to would testify to this, as I have also mentioned here.

Mind you, in that index Sri Lanka is the only third world country to be featured in the top ten, and Sri Lanka is surrounded by some of the richest European countries and Australia, New Zealand and the US. See, all these countries have citizens who are relatively comfortable in their lives even if they aren’t sometimes as rich as perceived. Most of these countries if not all, have very strong welfare systems that look after their citizens. If you’re unemployed you may get a loan, a stipend, a dole or any other form of financial support. So basically, they will never die of hunger or poverty like in some third world countries including those of Africa. And better still, their poverty levels never go beneath a certain standard, because their welfare system looks after them – a very reliable safety net if you like.

So these people can afford to give charity, it’s not going to hit their pocket as strongly as it would hit someone in a third world country. I am not dismissing their very noble charitable nature, just giving some perspective.

Sri Lanka doesn’t have a powerful welfare system. Her people live in misery whilst their politicians make merry. There is no minimum wage, other perks or generous welfare and benefit schemes which insulate Sri Lankans from economic difficulty. True, Sri Lankans are better off than most third world countries, given that despite all the hardships we have no one actually dying of poverty – possibly due to our own non-governmental human benefit and charity system where one feels accountable to the others wellbeing.

Inspite of all these, why oh why do we still manage a smile and are ever so charitable and hospitable? I can’t find any other reason other than the fact that Sri Lankans are an inherently nice bunch, fostered by a lot of things that are uniquely Sri Lankan.

But I have a worry; The Sri Lankan political system is extremely corrupt at the upper levels. Sri Lanka’s infamous neighbour too has a very corrupt political structure at the grassroots and a few rungs above – but relatively much more stable at the top, so I am told.

And what’s at the top usually permeates to the bottom.

The Sri Lankan to me is extremely sacrosanct, I sincerely hope and pray that it always stays that way and that the oxymoron’s in the you know what by the you know which lake have their conscience pricked and get their act together, so that I for one amongst other things will always be proud to call myself a Sri Lankan irrespective of whom I am standing in front of.

On a personal note, I find immense joy in the fact that the two places I call home, Sri Lanka and Britain are on the same footing when it comes to generosity - another reason why I love the people of both these countries.

Last day - either you're pregnant or you aren't !

2010-08-25T03:32:00.006+01:00

As ominous as it may sound, last Friday the 13th was my last day at work. I was working as a part I Architectural assistant at a reputed firm in central London. Regular readers of this blog and my followers on twitter may have had to put up with my intermittent rants about work with all its banes and boons.

I worked at this same architectural firm in the summer of 2008 as a summer intern. I wrote a post about my time in this place after I stopped work, but unfortunately that blog post was for another blog and I hadn’t blogged anonymously, hence I am deprived of the opportunity to link it here. Reading that post may perhaps have given a background to what this post is about.

Architecturally, I have had a tremendous experience at this place. The kind of projects that I worked here are of such a nature that I never envisaged myself to be involved with them as a schoolboy with a wandering mind. Extensions to Heathrow Airport, Buildings for the Ministry of Defence and a few conservation projects to name a few. Incidentally I started work on the 1st September 2009 during Ramadan as I have mentioned here, and I stopped on the 13th August 2010 again during Ramadan. Anyway, this post is not wholly about the professional experience I had in this firm, rather it is in essence of something more important (at least to me) – the people that I came in touch with and the friends that I made.

To help put what I am about to say in context, allow me to give a brief outline of the firm I worked in. It is one of the better known architectural firms in the UK, started by one of Britain’s most famous post –modernist architects. When I worked here in 2008 there used to be approximately more than 60 staff, but the recession meant that the firm had to cut down a lot, albeit possibly steadily increasing or so it seems. As legend has it, this starkly contrasts to the times the firm had close to or more than a hundred employees.

I started in my customary position in the third floor, I say customary because that’s the floor I used to work on during my last stint. The significance of the floor you work on is dependent on the type of projects the floor specialises on.
The composition of the third floor had changed somewhat from when I last worked here. There were new faces and also the odd one or two who had come from other floors. Where I was seated, I was surrounded by girls (Well, women included) and in front of me was a bloke named Kevin Capo C, a part I student who was finishing his year as a placement student. At least four to five of my blogger friends have already met him, some even more than once.

Kevin likes to say he is from Liverpool, you have to get to know him enough to realise that he actually is from a peninsula close to Liverpool with a name as familiar as Vojislav Koštunica.

Kevin was around for about a month, being the only boy amongst all the other girls seated to the desks close to mine, Kevin and I got to know each other just well enough to talk something other than all those exaggerated tales of weddings, wedding gowns, wedding rings (or lack thereof), wedding cakes, wedding… etc.

After Kevin left, I had to find my way around the wedding related conversations between work and I must admit I did miss having a guy around to speak with even though the girls around were very good chappasses (for lack of another word). Kevin went back to his peninsula.

As time went on, work became more intense. I had to spend many a day working outside office hours to complete work, so much so that when I left one odd day at 5.30pm I came home and didn’t know what to do with my spare time! Just before Christmas, more staff were being laid off and to add salt to a fresh wound – one of the most liked and nicest persons I have worked with left to a better job. The few months that ensued weren’t particularly good in general, but personally I was having a not so enjoyable time. I wish not to dwell on it for purposes of this post.

Time passed by and slowly but surely things began to change for the better. We got some massive projects and in March or so, Kevin who had worked on a similar project before was asked if he can leave the comfort of his peninsula behind and come back to London for another stint at the practice. Kevin was available and I was chuffed, Kevin and I stayed in contact after he left last year.

Simultaneously, Liam al-Fuleye (no he isn’t an Arab) from a different floor was coming up to the third floor and was to sit in the desk beside mine and Kevin took his old place opposite me. Finally some respite from all the wedding talk I thought!
Things were enjoyable in spite of the workload we had. I was still having a bit of a discomforting time for no fault of mine, but having Liam and Kevin around whom genuinely saw and understood my odd predicament only reinforced a nonchalant sense of abstinence from the source of my then troubles. And as it seemed then, for better or for worse I was to leave my desk to a different floor immediately after Easter,as part of the rotational policy the practice uses to help students get a holistic architectural exposure.

After about a month after having moved to the third floor, Liam who was closer to qualifying as a full architect than Kevin or myself left the practice due to many reasons – the foremost being that the side which he was asked to come to had greener grass. A wise decision we thought! Liam was popular in all floors, and since he spent most time with Kevin and myself – it was different to not see his cheeky Irish face (told you he wasn’t Arab) and hear his monotonously consistent use of the F word (no, not Faith).

Kevin, Liam and I used to go to the nearby Tesco every day to buy lunch, a time which helped us regurgitate the mornings occurring’s – sometimes blended with a bit of humorous gossip albeit never malicious. As spring approached and the sun was coming out, we used to go to the park nearby to have lunch, mostly seated on the grass –this possibly because the benches around us were decorated passionately and determinedly with pigeon shit! Hard to say who may have done that!

About a week before Liam left, the third floor was joined by Paul Bob Scotland, preceded a little before that by another staff member, Amie Fabio.

When Paul was being introduced to floor to floor, my first impression of Paul with his energetic eyes and trimmed ginger beard was that if he were to poked with a fork (with friendly intents) he may turn back to face you to shout ‘freeeedorrrm’! Of course that impression swiftly diminished. Jenny Scotland his girlfriend, reports of incidents where as of late when she does a friendly jab on him he makes noises similar to something that sounds like ‘wnuk wnuk’ and this apparently comes coupled with hiccups. Jenny is still perplexed.

Kevin and I made a trip to Cambridge a few months ago as I relate here. Taking this as a precedent, we decided to do a day trip to Oxford. This time we spoke to Paul too who showed willingness to join. At a staff outing during the Germany vs Ghana world cup football match, we asked Amie if she would like to join and I was happy to hear that not only did she agree but she showed genuine interest too. Until then I hadn’t spoken to Amie more than I would to another staff member as she and I were on different floors and never really got to chat. The Oxford trip was super! And it did a lot to harness good spirits amongst us all.

We play softball every Wednesdays at Regent’s Park against other architectural practices. Kevin, Amie, Paul and I are regulars. Apart from day to day office work and these social outings, I have grown to like these four friends of mine. Although Liam is no longer with us (no he isn’t dead), he is very much part of our team in more respects than one.

I have known Kevin the longest followed by Liam. Paul and Amie have been around only for 4-5 months, but it seems that they have been around for so long that I had to wreck my brains thinking how long I know them for.

All those mentioned above are absolutely brilliant people and surely qualify as some of the nicest people I’ve met. I admire Kevin just for the way he conducts himself, I would fail to explain but he has a very correct way of dealing with situations in a very considerate yet effective manner and I continue to learn from him. As subject to interpretation as it may sound, Kevin and I have done many outings together – Cambridge, several trips to the cinema and even to a stimulating discussion on post-war Sri Lanka.

Amie is an absolute sport, a no fuss character who sticks to her guns and is a superb person to hang around with. Amie leads our softball team and one of those things that make softball ever so worth to be part of is Amie’s constant omnipresence in the field and her stirring words to all players. And to her credit she runs like a camel on fire with petrol stored in its hump! ( by hump I refer to this and resemblance to any other description is only co-incidental)

Then we have Paul, judging by the amount of times he says ‘Wnuk Wnuk’, it makes me wonder if he knew someone by that name! For some reason ‘Wnuk’ sounds so polish to me.

Paul and I have a very well-coordinated fielding ploy we employ to mesmerise the opposition! We have been so successful that the ever powerful Scottish 1st XI cricket team is after our splendid formula! Paul’s a really nice guy who is someone who's immensely considerate and makes those around him very comfortable to speak to!
I just can’t say enough of these friends of mine who are just such nice human beings to start with!

On the other hand, I hope I have done my part to reciprocate all their good dealings with me. If at all there was something intrinsically different in them from me, it would be that they are British and I am a Sri Lankan. Being a Sri Lankan and a Muslim, I am an ambassador of a different identity – that of a Sri Lankan who is also Muslim. As it rightly should be, I have never let this be a hindrance to anything that my conscience stipulates as correct. I go out on Friday nights with those afore mentioned and I don’t consume alcohol, I go for barbecues et al whilst fasting during Ramadan and yet don’t relinquish my fast and I play softball whilst fasting and I am still fitter and faster than most and the occasional fat barrel from the opposition, slower of course than super Amie who runs as fast as a camel on fire. Although it may seem otherwise, I say this not to blow my own trumpet but to drive a point that it is rubbish to be lazy and sleep all day during Ramadan just because the body is naturally weaker. Or 'Rubbadub' as the partner I work under facetiously calls it, I think he was thinking of saying Ramadan and then 'Poppadam' came to mind and he got mixed up.

The media has conjured terms like ‘extremist Muslim’ or ‘moderate Muslim’. I just see these terms used by certain media as a tool to give a selling factor to their news.

There is no such thing as an extremist Muslim or a moderate Muslim! You’re either a Muslim or you aren’t. It’s like being pregnant – either you're pregnant or you aren’t! Whoever heard of an extremist pregnancy or a moderate pregnancy! Of course being a Muslim (Christian, Jew or Buddhist for that matter), you can be good, bad or anything in-between. An example of a bad one being someone who spreads hatred and pain and that of a good one being someone from whose hands and tongue another human is safe.

I hope that as a Muslim and as an individual I have created an impression on all those who know me that provides an alternative to the negative and spurious stereotypes some sections of the media portrays of Muslims.

I conducted myself in such a way just because it is me, and not necessarily to create an impression, but in the process if I did create an impression then that's good.

Even though I have my plans in mind, I really don’t know what can happen in the next 12 months. Having come here as a student, I have grown to like England and her peoples, love even. Apart from many facets of my demeanour that reflect my nature as an anglophile – the fact that I was genuinely nervous about the outcome of the England v Slovenia match which England had to win, the fact that I rose up from my seat and screamed in frustration when Frank Lampard’s goal was disallowed during the England v Germany match and the fact that I have a sincere sense of attachment to my uni and work friends and them reciprocating that attachment towards me (at least I like to think they do) are things of the past and present that make me gulp at the thought of having to leave England prematurely. As it stands, it’s just too early to tell.

In no particular order, Amie, Kevin, Paul and Liam – thank you ever so much for everything. It has been an absolute pleasure to work, play and just spend time with you all. Even though this post may prove otherwise, I am rather reluctant to give compliments, but allow me to admit that even though we will still meet each other albeit not daily, still be in touch and still get to know a glimpse of how the other spends his or her day – I will miss you guys and value every moment spent together.

This post is becoming a bit too cheesy now isn’t it? Well to hell with it!

The four of us (Liam doesn’t know yet) with a few others have planned a trip to Bath (noun, not verb), where apart from all the sightseeing and laughs – Amie and I may have a joint birthday party. This is scheduled to happen in October and I am as excited as if it is to happen next week.

Apart from those mentioned in this post, there have been others who have been superb to be at work with. Catherine of Tredegar, Mon O’Tone, Haike Giggles and Helen Vineyard amongst many others to name a few.

Although I am not in office anymore, I still join the team for softball. Tonight would be our last game this season. And for one last time I wholeheartedly look forward to seeing Kevin taking catches in the outfield, Amie giving her stirring battle cries from behind my position at third base (apart from that camel thing) and of course Paul coordinating with me to do our little criss-cross fielding stratagem!

(To the author’s best knowledge, accurately based on a true story. Names on this are semi-fictional and any exact resemblance to anyone else living or dead is purely coincidental)

Video - Colombo in 1976

2010-07-01T19:39:00.006+01:00

I was born and grew up in Colombo city, in spite of all that it has to offer, in spite of all those places that help make Colombo my home I have always wanted to live in Colombo in the 1940's.

A time when we were still under colonial rule, and yet a time when Sri Lankans had a greater sense of autonomy than during the times of the initial independence struggles. A time when walls in Colombo 7 were just three feet tall parapets built just to demarcate a land boundary and to amplify the beauty of the colonial or vernacular house behind it, as opposed to the 10 feet tall walls we now have which in the name of security (and rightfully) obscure any sense of beauty or serenity.

A time when an individual was always secure in society by the protection he or she receives from the family, neighbourhood and community. A time where moments after school were for play and family evenings and not tuition classes, times where a lot of 'old school' things like reading books were clearly one of the best pastimes, houses which were so well naturally lit and ventilated and the house that helped harness family and neighbourly relationships, a time possibly when the rowdiest of thugs used to conceal their lit cigarette (or beedi) and hide it behind their backs and show nothing but the most respectful body language when a woman passed by.

Certainly a time when politicians were genuinely servants of the people and corruption wasn't as rampant and bloodshed wasn't such an everyday cliche.

Times when time itself passed slowly and people felt more purposeful and focused as opposed to being exposed to one too many things and thereby consuming one's childhood and youth without one's own knowledge.

I doubt if I will ever get an accurate description of how life used to be then, apart from books which best illustrate such a time in Colombo.

I found this video which is an absolute gem in terms of showing how Colombo used to be in 1976.

Sadly, not much seems to have changed from a developmental point of view. Same old CTB buses, same potholes in the roads where water stagnates, same old trains and of course the traffic jams. And besides, Colombo, as one would expect seems to be much greener then than it is now.

Pink razors ? not for you Sir!

2010-06-20T23:56:00.003+01:00

I read Halik's post and remembered one of my own.

When I was still in school in 2004, when having a phone was the ‘in thing’ and the likes of twitter or facebook were unheard of, I toured the UK for two weeks. I met other students from other countries and it was a good convention of like-minded students and teaching staff where we learnt of and saw a lot of things.

The tour itself was great, it was my first visit to the UK and I had a lot of highlights. Even if not one of the most academically important, I think this particular incident really did teach me a lot of things.

I think it was in Aberdeen or Glasgow in Scotland where this took place. Now this was a 14 day all expenses paid tour, I took one (yes just one) razor as part of my toiletries. I really didn’t need that many, because facial hair growth was minimal and things on the face were only starting to happen, well pimples apart that is.

I can’t really remember the details, but we were to have a dinner or tea-meeting with the city’s mayor or someone of some significance and we were to be dressed smart, bow tie and all. And I realised that it may be better to just shave off the facial hair just beginning to sprout and look more in one extreme, I should either have a proper well groomed beard or none at all, as it was- my facial hair growth then was about one hundredth of the way towards a proper beard.

With all the stuff I had, little stuff like cables, chargers and those of the same ilk I had lost my razor in the suitcase.

So I walked into the shop nearby, male ego and all – going to buy a razor you see. Went through the aisles looked around, walked around pompously as if I had a whole bank to spend and then I went to the counter, where ironically razors were behind the sales girl.

I waited in the queue and then it was my turn to make my order, and by now there was quite a queue behind me, from the normal queen like old woman with a regal outlook to the suave executive. With my school boy confidence oozing I said pointing at the most expensive pack of disposable razors, ‘can I have one of those please’, I heard a deafening hush behind me – the reason for which I didn’t know then. The salesgirl who may have been about five years my senior looked at me, smiled and with a slight sarcastic politeness said as if to deflate my confident air, ‘we don’t sell singles sir, you have to buy the whole pack’.

This was new to me, I was used to going to the shop near the junction, five minutes from the road I live in Colombo and just said ‘uncle Gillette ekak denna', when I was out of pocket money I just say ‘uncle bic ekak denna’. Being the eldest in the family, and the first to go through life’s changes, asking money from my parents to buy a razor was more embarrassing than it was painful for Oliver when he asked for more.

When the salesgirl told me this, I was in a new kind of predicament – now what! The pack of razors I had shown her was about £ 8.50 and as a school boy in 2004 the cash rate converter rang alarm bells in my head just then. I was going to do a transaction of about Rs. 1750 for a pack of ten razors which I will take at least 8 months to exhaust, at the rate my beard was growing.

I quickly looked around, and with renewed confidence spotted the cheapest pack of razors – given the amount of facial hair I had, anything would do I thought. The cheapest was a pink coloured pack (I must’ve thought it was salmon), I pointed at that and said, ‘oh, in that case I’ll have that pack’. Connecting with the smiling queue behind me, she said ‘pink razors aren’t for you sir’ as if I hadn’t got it already she reinforced that by saying ‘they are for ladies’.

I was stumped, as a losing warrior on a quest for redemption I bought that £ 8.50 packet of razors and walked back to the hotel I was in, knowing inside that I was a man beaten, boy rather. I had bought razors for Rs 1750! It kept haunting me every time I saw that pack; I could have had seventeen meals at MC food court with that amount! Hell I could have taken the whole of my AL class to MC food court and been the hero! Yeah, MC food court was sadly the decent hang out place then.

In my defence, those were different times – whilst we (or I) knew things in theory, the fact that a product such as a razor also has a market amongst the ladies had not really sunk it. Or maybe I was just the slow weirdo who didn’t catch up with the times.

Then in Sri Lanka, I can’t recall ever seeing a tv advert showing razors for women, razors were always a men’s thing and was always attributed to a smooth cut a man can have. Plus, those were times when twitter, facebook, online activism, youtube were unheard of if they were already there and even a high speed adsl internet connection was only owned by a very limited amount of businesses. Adsl was just beginning to be marketed and only a handful of people had it then, I certainly had only my dial up connection. Free flow of information was not as rampant and effective as it is now.

Lesson learnt I guess.

Have a great week!

A small act of kindness really does wonders - My 100th post

2010-06-15T23:36:00.011+01:00

Today was one of those days. I cycle to work now; I have now been cycling for about two weeks. It’s about 25km a day to and fro in the busy streets of central London; funnily enough I seem to like it. My backside was in protest every single day, since it never had been pressed against such a solid surface as the hard bike saddle in about three years, but now it seems to have accepted that giving me relentless pain is not really going to change things.

I went to work today, normal day in the first half – but something about the second half after lunch just wasn’t right. I had a deadline today and was really busy trying to get the drawings out, and working for a seemingly I-am-recovering-from-a-hangover senior colleague who is directly responsible for the project and hence has his backside is in the firing is not very easy. I managed to get work done and left work about 15 minutes late, which is about average.

I very reluctantly had to cycle off route for about 10 minutes to go to Liverpool Street to get something. I locked my bike into a custom made post where other bicycles were parked and went rather hurriedly to Liverpool street and came back to find my bike vandalised.

Mine was a glittering new bike amidst some other hacked or relatively old ones, and someone who really didn’t like seeing it in its well, errm virgin state thought he or she will do me a favour by trying to damage it for the first time. The chain was pulled out and everything was a mess, the vandal had tried more things but evidently didn’t get enough time to do his thing and go. I dirtied myself and spent at least 15 minutes trying to get the complicated gear chaining system in place, fifteen minutes is a long time because it takes me only half an hour to ride home. I pushed the bike to the nearest restaurant to get tissues to wipe my very dirty greasy hands and then started riding back.

I was a bit upset, mixed emotions really. You know that feeling when you buy a new ipad and it falls for the very first time and gets scratched all over? Well it was that with frustration and anger really, anger that some people out there just have fun by causing another unnecessary suffering.

Riding home, past my office again since I had to go in the other direction and went riding in my usual direction home, one hour later than when I usually past that spot. Riding on, I was just not in the mood to take on the slope that was coming, I cut across a park where I thought I may be able to avoid the slope and when I went in I got lost, well not lost in the usual sense – I could have just gone back and taken the usual route, but because of the day’s developments I just couldn’t be bothered.

I just shouted at a fellow cyclist, told him where I wanted to go and after some thought, still riding parallel to each other he said ‘just follow me’ and I did. We went through the park, a really nice one – would be my new route home.

Riding parallel to him we got to speak a bit, I mean we can’t be riding together and just ignore each other can we. Besides this man was doing me a favour, so I just asked him if he was from around here and surprisingly he gave me a fairly detailed response – bear in mind we were still cycling. I was surprised because, after a hard day’s work (and Brazil playing a world cup football match tonight) you usually would want to get on with it and not really spend time with some random stranger.
He asked me where I was from, what I do and the usual.

I told him I was originally from Sri Lanka – and he instantly went ‘I knew you must be from Sri Lanka!’ I was pleasantly taken aback really. ‘That’s surprising, given that I can also be mistaken for an Indian’ I said, ‘well, Indians have several faces, and the Sri Lankan look is more consistent’ he went on. And if I am quoting correctly, he said something like ‘you know what mostly made me think you were Sri Lankan? Your smile – you have a very Sri Lankan smile’.

Now this was different, very very different – first of all I don't smile like this (pun intended), Secondly I am not really known amongst my friends as a ‘Smiler’ of the smiling kind! My sisters will bet all their buttering skills (buttering in the Sri Lankan sense) to say that I don’t smile! Thirdly, I was actually proud and happy for the fact that a non-Sri Lankan European associated a ‘smile’ with Sri Lankans.

We came out of the park and just as we were going back onto the main road my bike gave a weird noise. We stopped to inspect it and I realised a 65mm steel nail had pierced my tyre from the slightest of angles, the angle was so slight that it had gone in from one side and the other side of the nail was sticking out of the tyre – so two perforations.

What happened could easily have not happened if I had just moved 10mm away from where I came, it was so illogical to explain what happened that my new friend very aptly described it as ‘Sod’s Law.

I was told there was a bike shop close by, we walked to it and it was closed. I was getting a bit worried now. There are no tubes stations on that route and thinking of taking a bus with my bike on board is a joke! And unlike in Sri Lanka, we don’t have a bike repairing place (fondly known as a ‘vinkal’) at every junction.

My friend offered to go to his home and help me fix it. I was very much obliged, as I knew I really had no choice at all! Unless – well there was no ‘unless’.
We went to his house, which was a good 20 – 25 minute walk and he pushed his bike alongside mine. I had a very uneasy feeling; you know that feeling where a stranger goes through all that trouble just because I was in difficulty. I mean he could have easily said ‘Sorry about what happened mate, hope you get that sorted’ and cycled on his way, and if he did do that it would still be understandable, surely people do have other work to do.

We spoke of a lot of things; he had travelled a lot in Sri Lanka and absolutely loved it! And he had proposed to his wife in Sri Lanka, just at that moment I remembered a few female bloggers/tweeters who may have gone ‘awww’ if they were there ha! He had a decent knowledge of the Sri Lankan and global political scene and what we spoke about is a blog post in itself. Decent from the amount we spoke, but I don't enough to deny the fact that he may be someone really well read on these matters.

We later shook hands and introduced ourselves, his name is James.

We went to his house and he genuinely took a lot of trouble to help me fix the puncture, borrowing tools, dirtying himself and the usual stuff that involves fixing a puncture. Whilst we were at it, I did remark – and I meant it when I said ‘I am sorry for all the inconvenience, I guess you are missing the Brazil match to be stuck helping me out’, and he went ‘I guess that can’t be avoided cuz you need help, but what I really may miss is reading a story to my little boy’. I was introduced to his son as we came to his house.

After a good dinner, and at the comfort of my room – when I look back, I don’t regret anything that took place today, however malicious or regretful they may have been when they did take place.

When my bike was vandalised, it was so unnecessary, something I really didn’t deserve and something about that incident just didn’t fit in place that I thought – surely, surely there must be some good in this happening to me, and may be in the grand scheme of things this will actually be a good thing.

I got lost, and I found someone who was kind enough to direct me – just then I got a puncture in the middle of nowhere, and if I hadn’t met James I really wouldn’t know what would have happened. Hell! I may still not be at home!

What if I never had to go off route to Liverpool Street? What if my bike was not vandalised? What if I was not tired, and did not get lost? What if I was just 10mm to the right or left and the nail never pierced? Answers to which I will never know. God works in mysterious ways, and I am ever so grateful for the dangerous precision in which his mystery has worked to my benefit.

This post doesn’t do justice to what James did for me, it was a great help that he did and the way he did it was unexplainably refreshing amidst all the negativities we see around us, all we have to do is just look.

Not to be politically incorrect, but if someone in Sri Lanka, where everyone looks like me and talks like me and understands me better did what James did, I won’t make a scene of it. But believe me when I say that in here, in London, where I am as significant to the great city as a dead twig is to the Amazon, and where most people are understandably just too busy to help someone, having James to help me just at that moment is simply just one of those rare things!

This is my one hundredth post, and it is only apt that I dedicate this post to you James, cheers mate!

Filler!

2010-06-15T21:57:00.001+01:00

This seemingly worthless post, actually serves a far greater purpose!

Londoners against Israel - Photographs

2010-06-01T06:55:00.010+01:00

As you may already know, Israel yesterday attacked a ship consisting of innocent civilians which was carrying aid and much needed relief supplies to the Gaza strip. 19 people died according to most reports and much more injured.

As usual Israel is defending the indefensible, but this time the world is less reluctant to believe their tosh. In December last year during the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, several countries called back their ambassadors including Bolivia and Venezuela, this time I hear Turkey, Spain and even Sweden have called back their ambassadors.

It may be argued that the flotilla going to Gaza was rather naïve, and that Israel would not have let it pass anyway. I think it’s a win-win situation.
If they had reached Gaza and much aid was given to them it will ease a lot of the suffering of the people of Gaza, and Israel will have been humiliated.

Now that this has taken place, a senior al Jazeera political analyst was saying yesterday that Turkey was Israel's closest Muslim ally. Israel depended on Turkey ever so much on a lot of issues, and this is the last straw with Israel since there has been a lot of friction between the two nations. And the only way Israel can mend fences with turkey will be to lift the siege in Gaza! Now that's even better than the flotilla reaching Gaza noh? With the siege lifted, international aid, Red Cross, UN humanitarian forces can go to Gaza freely! As much as my thoughts are with the families of the people that died, I think this is a win-win situation.

The Turkish flotilla aimed to replicate the Exodus story or, more precisely, to define the global image of Israel in the same way the Zionists defined the image that they wanted to project. As with the Zionist portrayal of the situation in 1947, the Gaza situation is far more complicated than as portrayed by the Palestinians. The moral question is also far more ambiguous. But as in 1947, when the Zionist portrayal was not intended to be a scholarly analysis of the situation but a political weapon designed to define perceptions, the Turkish flotilla was not designed to carry out a moral inquest.

Instead, the flotilla was designed to achieve two ends. The first is to divide Israel and Western governments by shifting public opinion against Israel. The second is to create a political crisis inside Israel between those who feel that Israel’s increasing isolation over the Gaza issue is dangerous versus those who think any weakening of resolve is dangerous. (link)

Turkey I hear, is already planning to send more ships to Israel flanked by the Turkish navy.

There was an emergency protest march organised in London yesterday and within hours after waking up to the news the people had decided to convene outside Downing Street in Westminster and then proceed in a very peaceful and equal vocal march towards the Israeli embassy at south Kensington.

I have never been to a protest before and this was my first, and I am damn glad I went to experience firsthand the solidarity local people have with the suffering of the Palestinian people irrespective of what their governments do.
Deputy prime minister of Britain Nick Clegg said before the elections that there should be an arms embargo on Israeli, should be interesting how he reacts to this.

Some of the photographs I took at the protests yesterday.

Gutter journalism, how much freedom is media freedom?

2010-05-18T20:17:00.009+01:00

There have been so many rants about media freedom, or lack of it. And yet the media abuses its freedoms on a very monotonously regular basis. This video is just pathetic!

It is very disgusting to see that sincere parental (human) emotions are exploited to earn an easy buck. More often than not, it is not even for the money, but purely the stereotypical attitude people can have towards another person.

The media has an immense role to play in society to expose the everyday negativities that take place with the intention that doing so may pave way for a purer society. But, increasingly (if not already) the media is intrinsically a tool used to play the role diametrically opposite to what it should be playing.

Recently I was at a conference in London about islamophobia and national identity. Conceivably, issues of national security and media freedom did come up. There were a few MP’s present, some from constituencies which were largely Muslim, hence this was an ideal opportunity to exhibit how ‘Muslim friendly’ they were in order to win the Muslim vote, which thus far has been to an extent traditionally Labour.

A community marginalised by islamophobia (mostly due to the negligence or in an extreme case, connivance of state institutions) can create a fertile ground for individuals with convoluted thoughts that can pose a threat to national security, as it has been proven again and again and again. Therefore shouldn’t governments around the world treat islamophobia as a threat to national security, than isolating the phenomenon as purely an issue which affects only Muslim communities around the world?

Of course my question ‘got lost’ in its difficult and adventurous journey from my notepad to the desk of the moderator to the hand of an MP, but these questions do exist.

Elected!

2010-05-17T22:39:00.003+01:00

It's that time of the year again, Beyond Borders are having their latest theatre forum. As always I can vouch for the quality and I am genuinely thrilled that the new guns at BB are firing well! Do go take part if possible, it will be well worth your time! Details in the attached poster.

More information here.

Oh to be an Architect!

2010-05-12T23:42:00.005+01:00

I saw Makuluwo's post and her rantings about her voluntary self inflicted torture and felt this post of mine in another blog deserved a repost! As an architecture student I went through the bulk of these myself, and I will start them again in a few months when I am back in Uni!

Why we do it is what comes to mind when we go through the stress,pain and apprehension! but the excitement in the end is what drives us!

You know you are an architecture student when -

....you know the janitors by name

....your roommates say "good morning," and you reply "good night."

....you carry a toothbrush in your backpack.

....someone asks you for your phone number and you give them the studios.

....you start paying rent for your desk space in studio.

....You total up 3 meals of the day to your breakfast."

....'Red Bull' is you favorite drink.

....all of the Christmas gifts you give are wrapped in trace.

.....you ask Santa Clause for architecture supplies.

....you ask Santa Clause for a sleeping bag.

....after all of your expenses, you can't afford to pay attention.

....you have 3 or more cups of double shot coffee espressos in one night.

...you hear the same song on the radio 3 or more times in one night.

.... You know the different taste between UHU and Pritt glue

.... You can stay alive without sunlight, communicate with people nor having foods but you would commit suicide if the plotter doesn't plot your work out.

....construction workers are already working.

....You've lost your house key and you realized a week later.

....you sleep more than 16 hrs at weekends.

....you dance madly at 3 am though u aren't drunk.

.... You are an expert and Photoshop, 3DS Max, illustrator and auto cad but you don't know how to use MS excel

....you spend more time in studio than in your own bed.

....your parents are complaining that you're not having enough fun.

....you only leave studio to buy supplies.

....you haven't taken a shower in a week.

....you see showering as a waste of time.

....you've even dreamt about your models.

....upon hearing 'supermodel', you think of a nicely crafted-foam core model.

....your parents have more of a social life than you.

....your 14-year-old brother has more of a social life than you.

....you consider using broccoli for your models.

....you enjoy hanging out at 'Home and Garden Fair'.

....you know all the 24-hour food places in the area.

....your friends get more sleep in one night than you do in one week.

....the streetlights turn off.

...You consider 3AM an early night.

....when you are out at 3AM, and people knows where you're at.

....everything you eat comes in single serving baggies.

...smoking sounds appealing.

....you're out on Friday nights in studio.

....the only building on campus with its lights on is your studios'.

....you say "It's only midnight- I have plenty of time to finish."

....you confuse sunrise with sunset. ....you ask what time it is, then ask "AM or PM?"

....you strangle your roommate because she said she stayed up late studying.

....your Friday night is 68 hours long.

....you know how much a cubic foot of concrete weighs (150lbs).

....you slice your finger, and the first thing you think of is if you'll be able to finish your model.

....you understand why architects have glasses and white hair.

....You call some great architects as if they are you friends. err... Frank... Tadao. .... Corb

....you know all of these are true, no exaggerations.

....you can listen to all your CD's in one night.

....certain songs remind you of studio.

....Sister's favorite brand names are Prada DNKY etc... But yours are Mastex, Staedtler, pentel, rotring.

....you dare not to have a gf/bf because no-one can accept you for what you are.

....you can conceptually compose the food on your plate.

....you think the 'Weekender' happens every weekend.

....upon hearing 'Weekends' you think of sleep.

....the 'Shop Cafe' closes when you arrive, and reopens before you leave studio.

....you have to wait for breakfast shops to open.

....you go to the food shop, and order the "usual", and they understand.

....you use architecture tools to eat.

....you only buy groceries once a month.

....you wake up to go to school and you're already there.

....you start wearing all black.

....you have no life, and admit it.

....you start to critique a radio selection's selection of songs.

....you bring your friends to studio to keep you company.

....you refer to outside studio as the "Real World."

...."going out to eat" is at the 'Shop Cafe'.

....going on a vacation involves going to 'Flax' or 'Pearl'.

....you confuse today and tomorrow.

....you tell time by when other people leave studio.

....you can write a 6-page term paper by procrastinating.

....you hear "Didn't you wear that yesterday?' followed by "and the day before that?"

....your roommate files a Missing Person Report.

....you count the number of days (not hours) you've been awake.

....you think days are 48 hours long.

....you go to the store to buy a six-pack of 'Red Bull'

...."Homecoming" happens once a term.

....on Halloween, you dress like your instructors.

....on Halloween you trick-or-treat in studio to get arch supplies or 'Red Bull.'

...."respect", "coolness', and "hatred" are all based on how much sleep you get, or lack of.

....you see your own picture on a milk carton.

....you start using words your instructor uses.

....your bed has collected a layer of dust on it.

....concept of time is not forward, but a countdown from the time a project is due

....you contemplate dropping your major 3 times a day.

....you have a tent pitched in studio, but still don't go to sleep.

....doing models all night long excites you.

....you know the people in the studio better then your roommates.

....X-acto knives can be dangerous

... as we all know or will find out.

....Beer pyramids AND Red Bull pyramids are some of our late-night late projects.

....Elmer's glue doesn't dry quick -- not even close.

....They know the phrase "Always done, never done" all too well and wish the professors would stop saying it

....They can always have more construction lines.

....They know the number and price of their favorite item in the snack machine downstairs, as well as every other item and all the drinks in the other two machines

....And if you have been drunk while in the studio working on a project, join the club.

....they believe they should be paid just for having the major

....you drink more in studio than you do when you're out

....you have sent messages on aim to another jackass architecture student in the same room as you are

....you think "X-Acto Blade Throwing" is a sport.

....you have 3 or more 'Mountain Dews' in one night

....you spend more time in studio than with your wife.

...."scoring" involves an X-Acto blade

....you don't find out who wins the Presidential Election until Thanksgiving Break, if you get one at all.

....a break consists of moving your car.

....you've memorized your favorite vending machine combination item

....you use your T-square or straight edge as a baseball bat.

.....the day has 2 sunrises.

.....you test which glue will cause your model to burn faster.

....you can't draw without listening to music!

.... when people tell you that they like walking around with you because you see things know one else does.

.... when you don't understand how someone doesn't strategize their way through traffic

....when someone says "icon" and you think of Louis I. Kahn

.... When you're not sure what day of the week it is

.... When you have slept straight through a day and into the next day after a final review

.... When lack of sleep makes you feel and act as if you are high

.... When any flat surface is seen as a place to take a nap

.... When the books that you read consist primarily of photographs and not so much of words

.... When you go to studio and spend more time socializing than doing work

.... When you have big enough balls to tell a critique that they are wrong

.... When everyone in studio hates you because you are the one who plays their music too loudly

.... When after playing your music too loudly the same people who hated you start to take interest in your music

.... When you have developed an addiction to buying new albums, because you have gotten sick of all your old ones

.... When trying to decide what album to play you find an album you haven't listened to a while and it ends up being the perfect choice.

.... When professors for courses outside of the architecture school are lenient once they are aware you are an architecture student.

.... When you tell someone in another school that you are architecture major and they automatically assume you have no social life

.... When you have a non architect friend who wants to tag along to architecture parties because they know that architects have the best parties

.... When you are the only sober person standing outside of the hot truck on a Friday/ Saturday night

.... When you have a sign taped to your back that says do not disturb unless you are ordering food

.... You have given a final presentation with your fly open

.... You try to do things to make your friend laugh while he is presenting

In all honesty I've experienced 95% of these

Birds in a post war zone.

2010-05-11T00:01:00.002+01:00

The absence of birds is one of the most strikingly common characteristics of post-war landscapes. The quotation below provides a contemporary example of how their return may make it possible to signal the return of peace:

“…I strained my ears but all I could hear was the distant rumbling of heavy guns in the mountains. Then I realised what I was listening to. Across the road of the top of a charred stump of a tree in the ruins of the palace gardens, a bird was singing”

– Christina Lamb in her book, The Sewing circles of Herat.

British General Elections 2010 - my thoughts

2010-05-06T23:11:00.004+01:00

Lately I have been excited by many elections. I was the most excited by the recently concluded Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka. The General elections in Sri Lanka didn't even make me bother seeing the preferential vote’s results.

As a citizen of the Commonwealth and being over 18, I was allowed to vote in this general election.

I am quite excited by the general election in Britain today, polling closed a few hours ago and the counting has begun - unlike in the last two Sri Lankan elections when the results took abnormally long to be released, results in one constituency has already been released and Labour has taken one seat. Alarmingly the racist British National Party has got close to 2000 votes, well hopefully that will be only a small storm in a tea cup once the entire result has been released, but you never know.

I too am excited by the prospect of change, but I fear the Conservatives are far too right wing for my liking and that may possibly create a fertile ground to nurture parties like the BNP.

A few of the following can take place.

1.Conservatives may get a thin majority just sufficient to form a government.
2.There will be a hung parliament and – Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats may get an opportunity to play King Maker.
3.David Cameron is generally centrist, but the Conservatives are still the same right wing party and a lone Cameron can’t do much to make decisions on his own.

•There will be friction when it comes to policy formulation between LibDem and Conservatives if they form a government as LibDem are too liberal vis a vis the more rightist stance of the Conservatives. So it will be interesting to see if LibDem will actually form a coalition government with the Tories.
•If Labour comes third, LibDem will not want to form a coalition with the party that came third.
•If Tories come first, Labour second and LibDem come third there is a possibility that Labour will form a coalition government with LibDem. There won’t be much friction between LibDem and Labour when it comes to policy formulation albeit it will stifle free thinking and decision making.

4.In an extremely unlikely event, labour can shock us all and get a thin majority to form a government.

Either way, if there was a hung parliament and there is procrastinating indecision if I am right, the Queen lets the incumbent stay on till strategic decisions are made for parliamentary normalcy to follow.

If we are out of the recession, as it stands I don’t really mind anyone being in power. For me the pressing question is who can actually take us out of this recession.

Oh labour just won another seat! But they have lost -13.7% from the previous election in the constituencies that the results have been announced.

I am going to leave my computer on, tomorrow morning should be interesting! I can picture a few regular culprits in office chatting in the kitchen over coffee as if they should be elected PM!

Oh, and there are reports coming out that many voters weren’t allowed to cast their votes at polling booths! As a commonwealth citizen, I guess I can’t complain.

Four years of blogging and four years other-wise

2010-05-03T22:27:00.009+01:00

I have been on flickr for much longer, but this blog is four years old this month. I have been blogging thus far, and genuinely this is not something that I ever anticipated to last. My life has been a story of phases, and my blogging hues give a fairly accurate reflection of how my life has twisted and turned, become almost empty only to be replenished on time and then been tested over the past four years.

I have been blogging on a whole plethora of issues, ranging from architecture, politics, life and humour (mostly dumb) and the ride has definitely been devoid of any semblance of monotony – at least for me. I have blogged on politics both as deep rooted Sri Lankan and as someone who aspires to be a devout Muslim. A few in their myopia may perceive that those two don’t make a good amalgam and will never go together, but I hope this blog would prove them wrong. I have never got any hate mail or spiteful comments, except perhaps when someone once thought I was a ‘Muslim nationalist’. Ideologically speaking, there is no such thing as a Muslim nationalist.

I think the first defining changes in my life began to take place when I was doing my A levels, nothing particularly prominent but I surely felt the change. This may have possibly been reinforced when I became a bit of an authority at student level in college.

The other I think was when I was one from the first group to be selected to Beyond Borders in 2005. I met some of my best friends at BB, the odd one or two who are still members of it. Even the most of the then crop are actively out of it, albeit like me very much a part of in some capacity. BB is possibly what turned me from a naive, blunt, too much information for my age, multi directional geek to a much more focused and consolidated activist. A good few of those who were at BB when I was part of it would attribute the same to beyond borders. Of course I had to take ‘extended leave’ when I came here to the UK for my studies.

I started Architecture and Beyond Borders within a few weeks apart from each other, and those two decisions in my life in the short term I think have been the two decisions (strategically not necessarily quantitatively) that crafted my life in the recent years the most. This was either directly or by paving ways for other avenues in life.

I took to blogging when I was at BB, some of those who used to blog then are not there anymore and some of them are still around. There have been many vicious and malicious antagonisms directed towards many bloggers whilst some others have found in another blogger a lifelong friend.

Twitter then came along, and I reckon it got rampant amongst Sri Lankan bloggers in early 2009, when I was deep in assignments when I was at uni in Newcastle. It condensed the blogosphere even more and helped consolidate a strong sense of fraternity amongst bloggers, by twitter I revealed my identity to a few in a way I never would have done without it.

I started photoblogging half way down the line, my photoblog may be known to a few of the new ones – but I guess the most of those who knew this blog (if many knew it) are the ones who used to be on Kottu.

Nothing in my life has ever been planned, I never planned for something or somewhere I must be in say two years from a given time. But two years from a given moment I have always been happy at where I was, and I do pray and hope it stays the same. Surely when I started my degree I planned to finish it in three years and not fail and then extend it, but you get the gist.

I met Pseudorandom and Scrumps in Cambridge yesterday, and I vaguely remember telling them how when I was doing my A levels in Colombo I would never ever have envisioned that I will be doing in London what I am doing now, career wise.

Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist is not a particular favourite of mine, but sometimes I can relate my life to the fickleness, the apprehension, the excitement, relief and eventual satisfaction in the convoluted ride that life takes you in.

The topics of conversation to, in and from Cambridge were a very pleasant salad of everything. This below is one of my highlights.

Place – inside the magnificent King’s College chapel.

Me: How old do you think this chapel is? About four hundred years?

Pseudorandom: I think it was started by King Henry the 6th.

Me: Oh, wasn’t he the promiscuous one! Amazing how someone so controversial did such a splendid monument!

Pseudorandom: Oh no that was King Henry the 8th, the chapel was started during King Henry the 6th and was completed during the reign of King Henry the 8th!

Scrumps : (in barely disguised excitement) Oh my god! They had a whole Henry in the middle!!

I will be arriving at the most critical juncture in my life thus far quite soon, academic or otherwise. How it will turn out to be, good or bad is anyone’s guess, but one thing I can promise is that it will not be a monotonous ride!

Like everyone else here in the UK, I will go to work tommorrow after a long weekend.
Keep blogging and have a great week ahead!

On Nationalism and things at home.

2010-04-19T20:18:00.003+01:00

I read Arundathi Roy’s book The Ordinary person’s Guide to Empire some time ago, quite recently I came across the book again and a particular paragraph I read stuck me rather strongly.

"An anti national is a person who is against her (or his) own nation and, by inference, is pro some other one. But it isn’t necessary to be anti national to be deeply suspicious of all nationalism, to be anti nationalism. Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. When independent, thinking people (and here I don’t include the corporate media) begin to rally under flags, when writers, painters, musicians, film-makers suspend their judgement and blindly yoke their art to the service of the nation, it’s time for all of us to sit up and worry. In India we saw it happen soon after the nuclear tests in 1998 and during the Kargil War against Pakistan in 1999. In the US we saw it during the Gulf War and we see it now, during the War against terror. That blizzard of made-in-China American flags."

I do respect Arundathi Roy for some of her writings, but I am not the most ardent fan of her works. But in this paragraph I think we as Sri Lankans have points to ponder.

On Muslim Sri Lankan cricketers.

2010-02-14T16:02:00.009Z

I was at a bookshop yesterday close to the Baker Street tube station in London, and whilst I was casually browsing through the books, a Pakistani man, who gave himself away by the clothes he was wearing got chatty with me and spoke to me on random things - despite my polite attempts to convey to him that I wanted to not be disturbed.

In the face of his rather interrogating demeanour, when I told him that I was a Sri Lankan student, and I am currently working between courses, he began to ask me more about Sri Lanka and its demographic distribution on ethnicity and such like.

As is inevitable when speaking about Sri Lanka, he started talking to me about Cricket and this even when I was now less inclined to be polite anymore.

He asked me, 'you know that Mubarak, is he a Muslim ?' referring to Jehan Mubarak, I honestly felt rather discomforted as religious politics has not really infiltrated into the Sri Lankan cricketing fabric and I am not one of those belonging to the negligible minority who analyse National cricketers by isolating them on their ethnic or religious background. I responded vaguely in the affirmative saying something like 'yeah I guess'.

'Anybody else?' he asked, I rather reluctantly said 'I think Farveez Maharoof is a Muslim'.

Then he asked me in his rather thick pseudo-Arab accent, 'What about Hasan Tilaq Al Athni ?' now I was really confused,first I did tell him I have never heard of such a person, and gave him a sharp look without bothering to insulate my face to conceal the bewilderment, only to realise after a few awkward seconds looking at him straight in the eyes that he was actually referring to this good old Sri Lankan bloke shown here.

So much for Muslim Sri Lankan Cricketers heh!

Hey there Khalilah!

2009-12-19T19:35:00.003Z

No Khalilah is not deleting her blog - but this one cracked me up! and I thought it to be worth posting.

I have been away from blogging for sometime now, rather preoccupied with work and relatively busy weekends travelling or visiting friends. But I plan to make a swift comeback against the odds and get back to active blogging. With the presidential elections looming at good ole home there will be loads of thoughts to be translated into words.

In the meantime, enjoy the video!

Seen absolutely naked!

2009-10-14T19:51:00.003+01:00

Perhaps that title is very unbecoming of this blog, but I mean that very literally.

A new scanner is being trialled at Manchester Airport where passengers scanned will be giving out very personal and sensitive details such as any breast enlargements, false limbs, piercings, and a clear outline of passengers' private parts.

How morally acceptable can this be considered? For the sake of security are we willing to expose visuals of our private parts to people we don’t know?

Some people will rather die than have their private parts exposed for the sake of increasing their longevity by protecting themselves from suspected terrorist activity. So in that case is the scanner actually serving its purpose?

How will these images be used in a country where corruption is as common a thing as bread and butter? Surely politicians are a travelling lot, if naked images of an opposition politician in a corrupt country are accessed by officials it may not be surprising if they "accidentally" get leaked and are publicly vilified.

There are a lot of questions which arise out of this new phenomenon, mostly questions which challenge the morality of such a scanner – interesting how religious groups may react to that.

Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality

2009-09-24T21:20:00.005+01:00

A woman swathed in black to her ankles, wearing a headscarf or a full chador, walks down a European or North American street, surrounded by other women in halter tops, miniskirts and short shorts. She passes under immense billboards on which other women swoon in sexual ecstasy, cavort in lingerie or simply stretch out languorously, almost fully naked. Could this image be any more iconic of the discomfort the West has with the social mores of Islam, and vice versa?

Ideological battles are often waged with women's bodies as their emblems, and Western Islamophobia is no exception. When France banned headscarves in schools, it used the hijab as a proxy for Western values in general, including the appropriate status of women. When Americans were being prepared for the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban were demonised for denying cosmetics and hair colour to women; when the Taliban were overthrown, Western writers often noted that women had taken off their scarves.

But are we in the West radically misinterpreting Muslim sexual mores, particularly the meaning to many Muslim women of being veiled or wearing the chador? And are we blind to our own markers of the oppression and control of women?

The West interprets veiling as repression of women and suppression of their sexuality. But when I travelled in Muslim countries and was invited to join a discussion in women-only settings within Muslim homes, I learned that Muslim attitudes toward women's appearance and sexuality are not rooted in repression, but in a strong sense of public versus private, of what is due to God and what is due to one's husband. It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling - toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home.

Outside the walls of the typical Muslim households that I visited in Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt, all was demureness and propriety. But inside, women were as interested in allure, seduction and pleasure as women anywhere in the world.

At home, in the context of marital intimacy, Victoria's Secret, elegant fashion and skin care lotions abounded. The bridal videos that I was shown, with the sensuous dancing that the bride learns as part of what makes her a wonderful wife, and which she proudly displays for her bridegroom, suggested that sensuality was not alien to Muslim women. Rather, pleasure and sexuality, both male and female, should not be displayed promiscuously - and possibly destructively - for all to see.

Indeed, many Muslim women I spoke with did not feel at all subjugated by the chador or the headscarf. On the contrary, they felt liberated from what they experienced as the intrusive, commodifying, basely sexualising Western gaze. Many women said something like this: "When I wear Western clothes, men stare at me, objectify me, or I am always measuring myself against the standards of models in magazines, which are hard to live up to - and even harder as you get older, not to mention how tiring it can be to be on display all the time. When I wear my headscarf or chador, people relate to me as an individual, not an object; I feel respected." This may not be expressed in a traditional Western feminist set of images, but it is a recognisably Western feminist set of feelings.

I experienced it myself. I put on a shalwar kameez and a headscarf in Morocco for a trip to the bazaar. Yes, some of the warmth I encountered was probably from the novelty of seeing a Westerner so clothed; but, as I moved about the market - the curve of my breasts covered, the shape of my legs obscured, my long hair not flying about me - I felt a novel sense of calm and serenity. I felt, yes, in certain ways, free.

Nor are Muslim women alone. The Western Christian tradition portrays all sexuality, even married sexuality, as sinful. Islam and Judaism never had that same kind of mind-body split. So, in both cultures, sexuality channeled into marriage and family life is seen as a source of great blessing, sanctioned by God.

This may explain why both Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women not only describe a sense of being liberated by their modest clothing and covered hair, but also express much higher levels of sensual joy in their married lives than is common in the West. When sexuality is kept private and directed in ways seen as sacred - and when one's husband isn't seeing his wife (or other women) half-naked all day long - one can feel great power and intensity when the headscarf or the chador comes off in the the home.

Among healthy young men in the West, who grow up on pornography and sexual imagery on every street corner, reduced libido is a growing epidemic, so it is easy to imagine the power that sexuality can carry in a more modest culture. And it is worth understanding the positive experiences that women - and men - can have in cultures where sexuality is more conservatively directed.

I do not mean to dismiss the many women leaders in the Muslim world who regard veiling as a means of controlling women. Choice is everything. But Westerners should recognise that when a woman in France or Britain chooses a veil, it is not necessarily a sign of her repression. And, more importantly, when you choose your own miniskirt and halter top - in a Western culture in which women are not so free to age, to be respected as mothers, workers or spiritual beings, and to disregard Madison Avenue - it's worth thinking in a more nuanced way about what female freedom really means.

Naomi Wolf is the author, most recently, of The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot and the upcoming Give Me Liberty: How To Become An American Revolutionary, and is co-founder of the American Freedom Campaign, a US democracy movement.

The one man I genuinely fear!

2009-08-30T23:33:00.003+01:00

There are men who may not fear anything and some others who may fear everything under the sun. Irrespective of whom you fear and who you don’t it may be possible that the man I fear may perhaps be genuinely feared. As he may have a big contribution in how you present yourself. I say man, as I have never been to a woman who does that job.

I moved to London about a month ago after I finished my architecture degree in Newcastle upon Tyne. I was in London the whole of last summer and worked at the same architecture firm where I am set to start work tomorrow, hence I travelled with my weekly pass to almost every possible destination in central London and needless to say I am very familiar with main attractions, second hand bookshops, museums and libraries and the sort. What I am not familiar is the immediate vicinity of my neighbourhood where I now stay in London.

Last Friday was a particularly cold day, very windy, gloomy and cold and would have sat well with the late autumn days, and yet we are still to get to the end of summer. I guess the fact that I was fasting made me even more susceptible to the cold.

I used to walk for about half an hour or get a bus for about 10 minutes to go to the only salon I had ever been to in London apart from this other salon which is closer, and yet has a reputation in my mind for being a place that made a big mess of my hair. With time for Iftar (breaking fast) fast looming and the prospect of facing the very cold weather I really wanted to turn back – nevertheless I have a big day coming the following week so I thought I needed a bit of a trim.

I started walking towards that salon and then remembered there was another one closer to where I stayed and walked to that salon – on arrival I found that the salon wasn’t there anymore - asked a little boy probably Nigerian, if there used to be a salon here and he said “ya ma’an, it’s on de oder syd’ o da road innit” and pointed me towards a restaurant on the other side, when I went to the restaurant I found it to be just full of big black men ( with the odd smaller framed one) making big noises of laughter and talking in pidgin English around a good amalgam of tables decorated with African food – even if I wasn’t fasting I doubt if I would have been interested.

I looked back at the boy on the other side and he dangerously crossed the road with callous disregard to any traffic rules and took me through the restaurant, he probably was quite popular and several men kept pulling him close and squeezing his cheek, sandwiching his nose between their middle and index fingers and pulling it – I think one big burly man took him to his lap and tickled him saying kuchi kuchi koooo much to the annoyance of the little boy who wanted to show me that he was “da maan”, and I had to pause in my stride every time the boy was pulled to be part of some form of supposedly affectionate expression.

I must say that in my 5’ 8” frame I was feeling very small and insignificant, much like a foreign dignitary who may have felt very small when visiting Hitler in his larger than life scaled chancellery.

I was taken through the rear of the restaurant and down a flight of stairs – by this time I was certain this is NOT my kind of Salon! But defying the little boys’ effort and enthusiasm to show me the way and walking out and the thought of having to be the relatively smaller Asian boy walking across big black men who probably never see a non-black person walk into their domain was not very alluring, so I decided to follow the boy.

Anyway I was taken to the basement which smelt of fresh paint and spirits and there was the barber in his grandiose dexterity cutting another black man’s hair and I must say the salon chair was rather sophisticated for its environs – so were the other paraphernalia that were being used by the barber to do a very meticulous job or so I thought. And I thought, hmm I have come to the right place!
I waited patiently for that mans hair to be cut, well he had typical afro hair so it was not really “cut” but the electric clipper did the job.

It was my turn, I was called I sat on the chair and gave him instructions – the same instructions I have been giving in salons for the past 10 years or more. “Cut all round in number 1, and trim the top very short, and yet short enough that I can comb it to a side” – he got the point, well he has to – it was clear enough and he seemed to be a professional guy.

First thing he did was use the small trimmer, which is used to cut the side burns – he started cutting the ends of my fringe – this has never been done to me before and I asked him what he was doing and he said just cutting that part and assured me that I will have it “just the way you want”.

That done he cut all round in number one, and then he turned the chair and I couldn’t face the mirror anymore – and this guy as opposed to other barbers who keep the chair static and keep moving around to reach different positions of the head was staying static! and turning the chair all round for him to cut all sides of my hair! I had to wait for a couple of minutes to complete my 360° turn to see my hair!

Having done my sides he changed the size of the comb on the trimmer to trim the top of my head! And I coolly told him, “err no I want you to use the scissors” , and then he replied equally coolly “I don’t use scissors” but don’t worry I’ll have it cut “just the way you want”, a phrase which by now I was bombarded with every time I objected to something!

He doesn’t use scissors! Now why didn’t I observe that before!! And now he tells me!

Anyway he started trimming, and by now I was about 75° from the mirror so I couldn’t really see what he was doing! And when I made my next complete revolution – lo and behold a good chunk of my hair was taken off and I looked no different to the big fat black guy guy whose hair was cut before mine! Except I was smaller made and had a fairer complexion! I immediately made a bodily expression from which he knew I was very annoyed! I couldn’t do a follow up of my expressions of objection because there were a lot of other black men with whom he was constantly conversing in his pidgin English and my objection earlier came out rather loud and I was faced with objecting looks wondering who this pariah was! So I had to immediately change course and not carry on with the “aiya part” I may have put if I was at home.

Well what was cut can’t be taken back and I tried to console myself saying that it wasn’t bad after all when deep within I knew that I was now looking like a smaller made south Asian version of Dizzee Rascal!

I have always been apprehensive of barbers, I used to be aggressive when they made a mistake, but then that has only made the barber play around with my hair in a way I really don’t like. And then I have been really nice, like fake smiles and exchanging very artificial cosmetic pleasantries to give the guy an impression that I am a nice guy and so please do a good job! Somehow I have been very unlucky with barbers and I do a big mistake of having a hair cut just before a big day and end up being better off had I not cut my hair. I start work on Tuesday and I must confess I really despise the fact that I will be going in there with a hair cut very unlike the one I would usually have!

Yes I do fear barbers for the amount of social embarassment the tend to put me through, and historically I have never been that very well treated in salons - hair wise of course!

Inside the head of a thirteen year old

2009-08-09T23:46:00.003+01:00

My sister in this case – being the fourth in the clan following two boisterous boys and a relatively not so boisterous girl, my sister is quite a pickle. She seems to have picked up familiar family traits like sometimes being visible in the dark only when she smiles and exposes her white teeth which illuminate sharply in contrast to her dark skin. This is neither a compliment nor an insult – just bare reality – well slightly exaggerated perhaps.

Being the latest addition to the family she has enjoyed much more privileges than I had when I was her age, at thirteen I remember kneeling beside my dad marvelling at the speed in which emails were pouring in – and we had a computer which was way before the Pentium series had started (although it was advance compared to the not so many computers that were around at that time) – and my sister is strongly contemplating blogging! Yes I am getting old indeed!

Being the last she picks up things faster than we used to pick up info – not necessarily that she has a Intel centrino quad inside her head but probably the relaive abundance of information swirling around the others in the family- hence the ease of access to it.

There have been times when she gets her wires crossed. Like once when we had a discussion (more like a heated debate) amongst extended family circles about types of schools, i.e. private schools, government schools, semi – government schools and International schools, and none of us would have even noticed my then 2-3+ year old sister’s presence in the crowd. Later in the evening (must have been a very hot one) , she came walking around almost to be scolded by someone saying “why are you walking around with your private parts exposed”, to which she replied with all ignorant childhood panditha innocence “no no these aren’t private! These are semi government”!

I doubt if The Whackster will remember this, but I remember him calling me once at a time when I happened to be asleep when we were doing our A Levels, my sister then 7 years old had answered and said I was asleep – on being asked by whack when I will wake up, apparently her response then was “how do I know men! Heh.

Anyway, what prompted this post was a poem of hers which I accidently came across on her facebook profile (at her age I think I was reading the mirror magazine those days to see if I can make a pen pal!!). I am reproducing her poem below in full, without her permission of course! (yeah like I am going to ask her to use her poem).

Anger

Anger piles up and engulfs your brain,
Makes you blind to see beyond your pain,
You see no good while your tears creep in,
You fail to see the good thats within.

But as you calm down and your brain clears,
You finally see beyond the film of tears,
The cause of your anger was not really that bad,
What then seemed enormous is now just a tad.

So when you are angry you seem like a fizzy can of drinks,
Thats waiting to sprout out its patience at the brink,
But as time goes by and your anger calms,
And the realities you see are many healing balms.

Perhaps could do with a tweak or two, but interesting to note what runs in the head of a thirteen year old.

Blood, a Woman and Media space

2009-08-02T23:17:00.006+01:00

I write this with a certain level of emotion, helplessness and frustration. Emotion because the free flow in my thoughts were disturbed by a video I watched, helplessness because I was not given a role in the drama that the video portrayed – for somewhere inside me a desperate voice screams to do something!, frustrated that I can’t seem to do enough quench albeit momentarily that voice inside me.
The video was about …

“Marwa Ali El-Sherbini , an Egyptian pharmacist and handball player, she was killed in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany, by a man against whom she had testified for previous xenophobic insults against her. Because Marwa was wearing a headscarf he had called her an “Islamist”, a “terrorist” and a “bitch”.

In August 2008 Alex W. (a German of Russian origin, not identified by full name in line with common practice of German authorities and media concerning criminal suspects) shouted abuse at Marwa in a Dresden playground, calling her an “Islamist”, a “terrorist” and a “bitch” in a dispute about her 3-year old son, who was apparently playing on a swing that his niece wanted to use. El-Sherbini was wearing an Islamic headscarf.

Marwa brought charges against him for insulting behaviour and he was fined 780 € by the Amtsgericht in Dresden. The Public Prosecutor filed an appeal to achieve a higher penalty because of the openly xenophobic character of the incident, since Alex W. stated “You don’t have the right to live here” at the time of the first trial.

The appeal hearing started in the late morning of July 1, 2009. Eight persons were present in the courtroom: a panel of one professional and two lay judges, the prosecutor, Alex W. as the defendant, his defence counsel, Marwa El-Sherbini as witness for the prosecution, and her husband and son as members of the public.

After Marwa El-Sherbini testified, 28-year-old Alex W. leapt across the courtroom and attacked her in front of her husband and son. Alex W. stabbed Marwa 18 times, killing her. Some witnesses allege that he shouted “You don′t deserve to live” as he attacked her. “

Her husband reportedly had jumped to her aid only to be shot by courtroom police and is now in a very critical condition.

The question arises, why were the authorities so lackadaisical that Alex was able to get into the courtroom with a knife?

The Hijab has been at the centre of many a story and I will not try to dwell on a topic already clichéd to a level of nausea to the lay-reader so to speak. But the level of media space that is allocated to issues which relate to an icon which reflects Islam is appalling.

I checked the Websites of many media organisations and I found nothing related to this incident, if they did it was a casual headline making a lethargic telling-just-to-tell-it report of the incident. I typed Marwa El Sherbini in the UK Times’ website and nothing comes up whatsoever!

When Gillian Gibbons was supposedly accused of charges of blasphemy in Sudan her story was in the media for days, and there wasn’t even any blood involved!

Leave aside the “Muslim” factor; the ashamedly hypocritical almost diabolic (yeah strong word) silence of the media (western in particular), human rights organisations and that of the ever vociferous feminist groups in the wake of such incidents is enough to trigger waves of emotions in anyone with a just sense of mind.

And I don’t need to be a male chauvinist to wonder where global feminist groups are when one of their sisters is subject to such treatment!

If the West is attempting to do its best to mitigate radical Islam by all audacious or even subtle means that it employs, I am rather disturbed by this laughable myopia it exhibits in letting such incidents take place. Take an everyday Muslim, who innocently does what his religion asks him to do and harms no one in the process – relate to him (without exaggeration) the whole story of Marwa El Sherbini and – you may create a “radical” Muslim.

I may not get radicalised by what I saw and never will be, simply because I have lived in western society and have seen the levels of acceptance and tolerance an everyday westerner shows towards a Muslim practicing his/her routines and I know that radicalism in any ideology violent or non violent is not going to achieve anything, but such inaction by authorities will only amplify the calls of some Muslims who themselves were radicalised in the first place by being subject to injustice or by their human emotions being disturbed by the injustice they saw meted out to another human being who happened to be another Muslim.

This post is dedicated to Marwa El Sherbini who resorted to ethical means in fighting her case only to be let down by a legal system in which she had put her trust in.

I am not a fan of Sami Yusuf (I really don’t like his songs, ok I hate his songs), but I found the following rather befitting.

What goes through your mind?
As you sit there looking at me
Well I can tell from your looks
That you think I’m so oppressed
But I don’t need for you to liberate me

My head is not bare
And you can’t see my covered hair
So you sit there and you stare
And you judge me with your glare
You’re sure I’m in despair
But are you not aware
Under this scarf that I wear
I have feelings, and I do care

CHORUS:
So don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
this piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
to preserve my dignity…

My modesty
my integrity
so don’t judge me
Open your eyes and see…
Why can’t you just accept me? She says
why can’t I just be me? She says
Time and time again
you speak of democracy

yet you rob me of my liberty
All I want is equality
Why can’t you just let me be free?

For you I sing this song
My sister, may you always be strong
From you I’ve learnt so much
How you suffer so much
Yet you forgive those who laugh at you
You walk with no fear
Through the insults you hear
Your wish so sincere
That they’d understand you
But before you walk away
This time you turn and say:

But don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
This piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
To preserve my dignity
My modesty
My integrity
So let me be
She says with a smile
I’m the one who’s free.

Video

The Reality and the Cost of War..

2009-07-05T00:05:00.004+01:00

'The reality is that any organization that domesticates its rebels has won its peace but has lost its future.' Gerald Arbuckle

sounds familiar ? It does indeed. The term rebel is very subjective and has a lot to do withe context that it is placed in.

However varied the term "rebel" is defined in the srilankan politicosphere the above quote aptly describes the current situation that we are placed in. The Sri Lankan state and its people are in cross roads, a historic moment and this moment is something which should bring with it a very prominent - whats it that intellectuals so often use- paradigm shift ?

That said Have you ever wondered what the International community (or any country which resorts to war to solve a conflict) could achieve if funding for war was diverted to urgent humanitarian needs? This Calculator shows what could have been bought and used for humanitarian purposes if the chosen weapon was not used.

For instance, The Cost of a Single B-2 Stealth Bomber Is $1,000,000,000. This could provide 'Any One' of the following resources:

* 2,564,102,564 Meals For Starving People.
* 1,150,510 Clean Water Wells.
* 31,446,541 Adult Cataract Operations. Restoring sight to the blind.
* 285,714,286 Blankets for refugees. In emergencies, families often leave home with only the clothes they are wearing. Blankets give essential protection from the chilling cold.
* 106,951,872 Mosquito Nets. Two million people die every year from malaria, most are children under five.
* 31,466,331 Child Immunisations. Protect a child from the six childhood killer diseases - diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, polio, tetanus and tuberculosis. A gift of life every child must have.
* 713,318 Houses for family's currently living in cramped, unsanitary and dangerous conditions.
* 270,196 Schools Furnished with desks, chairs, tables, blackboards - vital things children need to build a foundation for learning.
* 53,504,548 Children supplied with school books for a whole year.
* 1,000,000 Landmines removed from the ground.
* 3,876,720 Adult Literary Classes.
* 3,030,303 World Response Medicine Boxes. Each containing essential medicines to treat the most common diseases for a community of one thousand people for approximately three months.
* 106,951,872 Fruit trees planted. Providing a giant boost to the diet and health of a poor family.
* 89,126,560 Fishing Nets. Give a man, woman or child a fishing net and they - and their families - will have a source of food.
* 41,152,263 Nanny Goats. Milk, cheese and kids. Families in places like Bangladesh can earn a living by starting a small goat-herding business.
* 35,663,338 Chickens. Eggs mean protein - vital for every diet. Three chickens can produce enough eggs to feed a whole family. They'll produce baby chicks too.
* 89,126,560 Training courses for a health worker. Providing a local health worker basic skills on how to treat, prevent and stop the spread of the most common life-threatening diseases.
* 25,477,707 Childrens School Desk and School Supplies. For children who have no place to sit, study and read this gives one child a desk with pencils, pens and books.
* 3,876,720 Wheelchairs. For a disabled child, a wheelchair can be the ticket to freedom and education.
* 1,430,451 Vocational Scholarships. One year programme helps young people learn a trade and gives them the vocational and technical training they need to improve their future.
* 89,126,560 Water Filters. Poor families in places like Cambodia, have no choice but to drink water full of bacteria and parasites. Water filters saves lives by screening out small but deadly bugs.
* 15,285,845 Bicycles for a child to get to school every day.
* 100,000,000,000 Chlorine Tablets to make water safe to drink.

Food for thought indeed.

My new blog on Architecture

2009-06-04T01:08:00.004+01:00

I am back to blogging after a momentary break due to final submissions.I have submitted all my work, but i still have to meet the external examiners from the RIBA, so despite not having anymore submissions and one more model i am relatively submission-less :)

I have always wanted to start a blog on architecture and express myself and my work using that blog. I have somehow been ramified from starting one, mostly due to issues with commiting to it. Despite the fact that the blog will be subject related, coursework deprives me of random rantings, let alone thoughtful reponsible blogging. So, this thought was fermenting in my mind for sometime, and in the thick of my final assignments and needing excuses to procrastinate i started my new architecture blog. Henceforth i intend to use that blog for all architecture related thoughts.

This post is more like a advert for that blog :)

I have named it Serendipity+Architecture, since in architecture there is a lot of serendipity and wonderful things happen when architecture and serendipity amalgamate, and Serendib is an old name for Sri Lanka and i thought it was all the more fitting.

The blog address starts with "archimetes", i must confess i thought the name was a brain wave, "archi" stands for architecture and "metes" means to measure or the result of a mesurement, and it rhymes with archimedes :) all the more suitable i must say.

My architecture blog can be seen here.

I have finished my last project and hope to upload visuals soon.

The Greatest threat to our existence!

2009-05-18T03:59:00.005+01:00

No its not cow flatulence.

Urban design today means that many people drive a long way to school,cafe's,work or a religious place. Having everything at a walking distance would mean that we burn more calories and less oil.

Have it the other way and we burn less calories and more oil, thereby adversely affecting the environment we live in.

So either we die fast, or we consume more to extend our life - which means we destroy the system faster, yeah - typical cul de sac!

On Qaddafi of Libya

2009-05-16T22:45:00.001+01:00

Quite an interesting anectode that i read here.

When he visited China in the 1980s, so the story goes, Qaddafi plucked up courage to ask the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping about a possible federation between Libya and China. China's supreme leader, who was then presiding over a country with over 900 million people, pondered for a while and asked Qaddafi how big his country was.

Told that Libya's population at that time was only a paltry three million people, Deng put his arm around Qaddafi and said rather affectionately: "When you next visit Beijing, why don't you bring them along with you."

Father and Son

2009-05-13T21:01:00.001+01:00

One of my all time favourites, father and son, by Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens.

Peace with the other...

2009-05-11T22:48:00.005+01:00

So they fight a war
For peace they say
And then they expect
Peace to hold sway
Peace to some is
Not always peace to another
Peace is relative
As is every other

Will Peace only come
When some others
Lose theirs?
Must I fight to usurp
The other’s peace
To achieve my piece of peace
Can we both have it and
not have it
At the same time
Or do I HAVE to disturb
The other’s peace
To achieve mine

Will this “other’s child
One day
Steal my child’s peace
To achieve his own
Just like i stole
his dads peace
to achieve mine

Can my child one day
have peace in seeing
the “other’s child
In peace.

If I live to see that day
Will I be in peace
With the other?

On Architecture and Schools in Sri Lanka

2009-05-09T20:02:00.004+01:00

Architecture,apart from the aesthetic and functional elements it has been associated with, has also been long known to be as an establishment of iconism,authoritarianism, Nepotism and even intimidation.

It has long been used as a tool to demarcate political and georgraphical boundaries, and even as a brand image in many ways than one.

The several century or so old schools in Sri Lanka are a perfect epitomy of this same iconism, and all others binding factors. What makes a school boy or girl coming from one of these old schools in Colombo,Kandy, Galle,Jaffna or any other major town in Sri Lanka be so loyal to his/her alma mater and all that she stands for is its architecture and elegance apart from many other reasons. The aesthetics and the elegance of the buildings inculcate in them a certain amount of Pride and belonging and sub consciously brainwashes them to be bound by that phenomenon. All school children from these conserved buildings leave the building in sorrow and determination to serve her in every possible way, even if they do not serve at least they intend to do so.

The building and the elegance that oozes from it and the same functional aspects of the building itself is instrumental in moulding the psyche and thought process of the student, and the growth of a child in such a building for 13 or so consecutive years instills in him a sense of security and strength that he takes out for long years to come.

All of us have memories of school days and reminice them with a sense of extremist nostalgia, the mischievous pranks pulled on teachers, the many practical jokes played in the class, the class geek who does nothing but stays in the lab, to the sportsmen who religiously attended sports pratices in the college grounds. Apart from other obvious factors, what binds all these in a memory and visually places individuals/friends in our mind which we remember for so long is the very ambience and and locality within the school campus in which whatever incident took place. If not for that link which acts as the matrix to hold all these data together, the incidents remembered would only include a few names.

Class favourites, the pranks they pull up, the eccentric teachers and the stern principal are given due credit in the story grandpa relates to his mesmerised audience, and it is rarely understood that all those memories revolve around a place and the elements or signature icons of that particular place, the lab, the principals office or the ground pavilion.

And its is this very same element in the building that creates an umbilical chord that connects the past, present and future generations of that particular school.

If an old prestigious school in colombo or elsewhere was demolished and a high tech multi million dollar new building was set up to carry on the very same functions of the old builing It would do so (in other words, to cut the umbilical chord), but with a lot of different essences attched to it. There may not be the usual pranks, the mischeivous laughter, the strict disciplinarians and the friendly school peon, but it would be replaced with Robotic students, teachers with a mechanical mindset, and an environment that philosophizes a whole different set of values. The latter mentioned are not necessarily negative attributes, but rather attributes that are in many ways than one devoid of an element that makes school life so fundamental for the growth of a student.

These factors are usually unnoticed by the larger slice of society, a student from an old building may always be stereo typical of the student from a new (high quality even) establishment, and vice versa. But that is what architecture does, it gives different people a different sense of belonging and loyalty, and a totally unique mindset and eyes to see the world.

This is something i wrote in 2007, therefore ideas mentioned may perhaps be more debatable now than they were then. Just felt like reposting.

Sri Lankan Moors & Misconceptions

2009-05-05T15:57:00.002+01:00

We all keep racial, religious, cultural and other misconceptions in our own minds and at the behest of those ‘others’.Sri Lanka is no exception. Granted however, that the country’s less than 20million people are divided between a dominant ethnic majority (Sinhala), two significant minorities (i.e. Tamil and Muslim), and myriad other sub-groups it’s hardly surprising that misconceptions about ‘the others’ are enmeshed in the Sri Lankan psyche and the social subconscious of its’ people.

What are misconceptions? Broadly defined a misconception is a wrong understanding; or a belief in a concept that is false. Largely innocuous even if left unchecked and unrestrained, a misconception becomes potentially dangerous, when it sinks into the realm of the stereotypical.

A stereotype - “an unvarying form or pattern; specific., a fixed or conventional notion or conception, as of a person, group, idea, etc., held by a number of people, and allowing for no individuality, critical judgment, etc.” (Webster’s New World Dictionary) - is the worst of the two vices.

Repeatedly, history has demonstrated the disastrous consequences of stereotypes. The world has witnessed all too well stereotypes of women (‘women are weak’), Africans (‘blacks are intellectually inferior’) and more recently Muslims (‘Muslims are terrorists’) thereby breeding precarious repercussions. Sociologically speaking, stereotypes are often viewed as necessary and inescapable. The mental categorization perpetuated by stereotypes is what enables us humans to simplify, predict and organize the world around us. It saves us the difficulty of having to take into account all the complexities of our world. Breaking down stereotypes therefore becomes a herculean task. Misconceptions however can be erased with the presentation of credible facts that establish the contrary in relation to the subject at hand.

So what are the misconceptions unique to the case of the Sri Lankan Muslim? ‘Muslims are rich’ and ‘Muslims add to the population like no other community’ are two misconceptions that come to mind instantaneously. My own life is dotted with several encounters with common misconceptions. On my first job at an advertising agency I was taken aback when I inadvertently came across a post-it note stuck on my interview assessment – a note evidently not intended for my viewing. Minutely inscribed were these words: “she is best suited for the job, but she looks so conservative.” This was an obvious reference to the hijab sitting comfortably on my head. That Muslim girls and women in hijab are ‘conservative’ is a common misconception in Sri Lanka. ‘Conservative’ connotes the sense of being unsociable, not progressive and generally not being the ‘go-getter’ Sri Lanka’s bustling private sector passionately seeks. Those ‘others’ often react with a look of shocked disbelief at the sight of hijabis at the helm of the corporate ladder. Fortunately though, with several hijabis daring to break the glass ceiling this misconception is on a downward spiral.

One particular misconception about the Muslims of Sri Lanka, namely the false belief that, ‘Moors are Tamils’ carries with it some serious connotations. Moors are “the descendants of Arabs who espoused local women they are largely a mixed race with a considerable infusion of Sinhalese and Dravidian blood.”

“The epithet (Moor), was borrowed (from the Spaniards) by the Portuguese, (the earliest colonizers of ‘Ceylon’ – as Sri Lanka was then known) who, after their discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, bestowed it indiscriminately upon the Arabs and their descendants, whom in the sixteenth century, found established as traders in every port on the Asian and African coast, and who had good reason to regard them as their most formidable competitors for the commerce of the East."

Presently “Sri Lankan Muslims” are sub-divided as Ceylon Moors, Malays, Pakistani Moors and Indian Moors by the Census Department.

What is meant by ‘Moors are Tamils’ is that Moors do not form an ethnicity that is distinct from that of the Tamils of the country, and it is only religion that sets the two groups apart. Accordingly this argument supposes that, the Tamil race is sub-divided religiously into those who follow Islam,as distinct to those who embrace Hinduism or Christianity; like the Sinhala race, the group that adheres to Buddhism and the other to Christianity.

The misnomer that Moors are ethnologically Tamils, first found expression in a speech delivered by Hindu-Tamil Political leader Sir Ponnanbalam Ramanathan, in the heyday of colonial British divide and rule policy. Ramanathan based his contention primarily on the facts that Tamil was the spoken language of the Moors, that certain customs were common to Moors and Tamils (particularly in relation to marriage) and the etymology of the word ‘sonahar’(commonly used Tamil word to denote Moors). Vehemently opposing this contention was renowned Moorish Scholar and editor of Muslim Guardian I L M Abdul Azeez:

“In 1885, in the Ceylon Legislative Council, and in 1888, in the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch), Mr Ramanathan, ……announced that the Ceylon Moors were Tamils in nationality and Mohammedans in religion. Though there is nothing humiliating in being Tamil in race, the persistent attempt of that gentleman in attributing to the Moors an origin which they do not claim, in spite of their assertion to the contrary, is annoying, if not offending; and it becomes very necessary that his statement should be examined and his references sifted before his conclusions are adopted.”

It has been proven beyond doubt that the Moors of Sri Lanka are “the descendants of those Arabian colonists, who settled in Ceylon many centuries ago. Alexander Johnston has recorded that:

"…the first Muslims who settled in the country, were, according to the tradition which prevails among their descendants, a portion of those Arabs of the House of Hashim who were driven from Arabia in the early part of the eighth century by the Umayyad Caliph Abd-al Malik bin Marwan, and who proceeding from the Euphrates southward, established settlements in the Concan, the southern parts of the Indian peninsula, Sri Lanka and Malacca. He adds that the division of them that came to Sri Lanka formed eight considerable settlements.”

Similar sentiments have been expressed by other historians of the country including Dr. Lorna Dewaraja in "The Muslims of Sri Lanka, 1000 years of ethnic harmony 900-1915 AD", Dr. M I M Shukri and Professor K M De Silva.

With reference to the etymology of the term Sonahar Hussien comments;

“The appellation given to the Moors by themselves as well as by others also indicate their Arab origin. The Moors have traditionally referred to themselves as Sonahar in their peculiar dialect of Tamil, the pure Tamil form of which, Sonagar, refers to a native of Arabia (Sonagam).”

Refuting the argument that Moors are Tamils because their mother tongue is Tamil, Hussein says:

"Although it is likely that it was Arabic that was the spoken language of the early Arab settlers of the country, and perhaps of the early Moors whom they sired, it is today largely Tamil, and to a lesser extent Sinhala, that has become the ‘home language’, so to say, of the present-day Moor community. Arabic is today employed by them only as their liturgical language in their prayers and other religious observances. Tamil is by far the predominant speech of the Moors.

"The Tamil spoken by the Moors is however not quite the same as the Tamil spoken by the Tamils of Jaffna and South India. Indeed, this peculiar dialect or rather patois of the Moors is derogatorily referred to as ‘Sona Tamil’ by conservative Tamil folk. This Sona Tamil speech seems to have largely derived from a South Indian Tamil patois…..

"It has also been considerably influenced by other languages such as Arabic, Hindustani, and Sinhala, all of which goes on to show that it approaches a sort of Creole, albeit considerably influenced by a Tamil dialect …..”

In retrospect it appears that Ramanthan’s contentions were governed by political aspirations rather than a desire to set history straight.

“Moreover, it was thought, nay believed, that his (Ramanathan’s) object in calling the Moors, Tamils in race was to dissuade the Government from appointing a Moorish member in Council. It has leaked out then that the Government was contemplating the appointment of such ones, and making them understand that there was no necessity for taking such a step, as the Moors did not form a distinct race (Mr Ramanathan was then representing, in the Legislative Council, all the Tamil-speaking inhabitants of the Island).”

Relevant to this context is the findings of Dennis B Mcgilvry and Mirak Raheem in Muslim perspectives on the Sri Lankan conflict:

"Muslim leaders immediately perceived their well argued, but politically motivated conclusion that Moors were simply Muslim members of the Tamil “race” as an academic excuse for continued political domination of the Muslim community by the Tamil leadership. Although Ramanathan’s strategy failed when the British governor appointed a Moor to the Legislative Council a year later. His essay seemed to embody the patronizing Tamil outlook found on some parts of the island, where even today some high caste Tamils look down on Muslims as their inferiors and uneducated neighbors. Muslim/Tamil acrimony over the Ramanathan “ethnological” thesis has been festering for well over a century, evoking feelings of betrayal on the part of Tamil chauvinists, and the LTTE in particular over the Muslims alleged disloyalty of the Tamil nationalist cause.”

The writer of the above,Farwin Fousdeen is a Sri Lankan, freelance writer, currently based in Doha, Qatar. She contributes regularly to publications in Qatar and has worked with local and international NGOs in Sri Lanka in the field of Human Rights and Development

On speaking in Sinhala, and things going wrong..

2009-05-05T00:51:00.000+01:00

Most of us are bilingual and some of us are tri-lingual. I find it extremely satisfying that i am trilingual.But being multi lingual has its disadvantages too, like speaking one language in another language's context. One little boy i met once at a childrens camp, on seeing that i was playing around with my camera kept telling me "touch my photo, touch my photo", obviously i was confused, until his English teacher told me that the boy had translated the sinhala "magey photo ekak allanna" as "touch my photo in English. Not many multi-linguals are exempt of this natural slight mix up.

anyway..

I remembered an incident when i saw this post.One of my Sinhalese friends was once copped for speeding and his licence was confiscated by the traffic police. So, as is the norm he had to go to the police station in Colombo fort, collect a dhada kolaya (err crudely translated - fine sheet) go to the nearest Bank of Ceylon to pay the fine and come back to the police station to get another document, producing which he can retrieve his licence.

When he got his fine sheet there was a male police officer, and my friend had addressed him as Raala Hami as policemen are called and had done the needful.

But when he came to the police station for the second time, there happened to be a female police office at the counter. And my friend who being sinhalese and someone who is very good in his colloquial sinhalese walked to the counter with his usual unconsciously confident aura around him.

On seeing a female there he was a bit disturbed as he didnt know what she should be called, not knowing the feminine of Raala-Haami and clearly desperate, he had addressed her as Raala-Haamine (Haminey means wife..usually) and the police office obviously amused had said "malli danne neththang mukuth nokiya inna" :)

For all you "awww..ing" types :)

2009-05-04T22:58:00.004+01:00

I am far from being one of the "awww..ing" types,but i thought the awwwing types may like this.

Well strictly speaking i am meant to be studying. But staying late working means a few moments gallivanting online too.

Good day all!

global recession - spotlight on Islamic finance

2009-04-22T02:46:00.003+01:00

Could this global financial crisis have been avoided if Western banks had been more open to incorporating Islamic principles in the first place ? according to experts the answer is yes.

Two Key principles in Islamic Banking :

1.Interest is Forbidden

2.Profits can only be made with tangible assets.

The global recession is said to have begun with sub prime lending which surfaced in the mortgage sector, where almost anyone was able to mortgage a house without having to prove that they can pay back the loans - in other words not being in possession of tangible assets, which could always have been there as something that can have been liquified if the need arose.

What happened in the subprime mortgage industry ? basically this was a large group of banks that allowed financing to people regardless of their credit and more often than not they could avoid proving income. They didn’t even have to bring money to closing (which inflated home values even more because people weren’t putting real money into buying these homes).

Father and Son..

2009-04-21T22:26:00.005+01:00

Well yes, technically i am not meant to be blogging. But i thought this very moving short film about a father and a son had to be posted. I highly recommend this video and its only about five minutes long.

I was told some people got an email forward on a similar theme.

I am leaving..

2009-04-16T20:00:00.012+01:00

Well yes..For some time. I am in my last 7-8 weeks of my course and things are really piling up. I have been procrastinating a lot on computer vices these few days, rather unlike me but I have.

This will be my last post for quite some time, I may post the odd photo on my photo blog, but other than that I will be nonexistent where blog posts are concerned. I am sensitive to certain issues discussed by other bloggers, mostly political ones, some are rather immature and don’t deserve a response, but some others which are brazen stupidity (despite some being disguised in genuine ignorance)do tick me off and I can’t resist the temptation to give an ethical yet vicious response. I intend not to let my vulnerability of being tempted to get the better of me, so I will stay silent and let the barking dogs lie, so to speak (wrong use of the metaphor – but you get the gist).

These few days have been extremely monotonous, the wakeup-eat-assignments-sleep-wake up cycle has had such a monotonous consistency that the lack of variation in my daily routine has made me forget which day of the week I am in (yes I don’t have calendars hanging anywhere),fortunately for me I am in my Easter break and I have no submissions over the vacation, so I won’t be accidentally missing a submission date.

The last few days have been particularly boring, because I have been very busy with typing endless pages of feasibility reports, at least if it is design it won’t make me bored. This boredom I am having now is like a pitiless zooming in on the epidermis of time; every instant is dilated and magnified like the pores of the face.

Anyway, I will be around reading the odd post on Kottu and regular reads if I can spare a moment, and will be rather uncharacteristically turning a blind eye to what I don’t agree with or don't endorse.

Over the next few weeks I have at least about 17,000 - 18,000 words to type, and have immense amount of writing and tearing papers before I come to the typing stage, not to forget the amount of drawings and research I have to do. And time is brutally against me!

So for these reasons and these reasons alone I have made a conscious decision to stay away from the lures of the internet i.e. blogging, reading blogs, and yeah blogging for sometime, and focus purely on my studies. I may not be very accessible over the next few weeks, but will always try to be there if needed to talk.

As a coincidence, this blog happens to be three years old next month.

Enjoy the weeks ahead.

Of all things to happen in a kitchen!

2009-04-14T19:44:00.008+01:00

Right so here i was this evening craving for a cup of tea. The tea i make can never match what my mom makes, try as i may, hence i have quite by default got used to the rather "unlike me" practice of drinking dark tea.

Anyway, this evening I just could not have another cup of dark tea and set out to make a rather ceremonious tea with milk, just the way we Sri Lankans like to have it. Opened the Kitchen larder only to find out that my can of Nido was empty and that I had to go out and buy one, i just couldnt be bothered to out to buy another can, Newcastle is still cold you see.

So I rather innocently opened my flatmate's part of the kitchen store and stole a few spoons of milk from his can. I thought it had a rather fancy label, but being in the hurry that i was i just went on to prepare my cup of tea.

Finished my cup of tea over a few youtube videos and some biscuits, i felt the tea wasn't like how milk tea usually tastes, and deduced that by not having drunk milk tea in a few months I would have forgotten how it used to taste. Having finished my tea I went down to wash my cup when on impulse i thought i'll check the fancy label my friend's milk powder can had, and of all things it happened to be a substitute for breast milk!

So i had rather pompously prepared myself a cup of pseudo-breastmilk tea! not bad for my growing expertise in the kitchen department! It intrigues me to think of why my flatmate uses that particular type of milk!

No side effects so far! a tad bit energized.

Anyone good in English?

2009-04-13T18:43:00.002+01:00

I just read the following -

'The diverse religions are conceptualized as cultural-linguistic grammars or idioms for engaging in soteriologically oriented forms of religious life that ultimately refer to one radically transcendent reality.'

I am sure there is an easier way of putting that across! And i am usually accused of using big words! pah!

My two cents on Bawa!

2009-04-08T17:59:00.008+01:00

Ok I know i am coming in rather late, but I really couldnt help but say something about Bawa and join the drama!

Bawa is a hero to many, many others have learnt to loath the now cliched glow of admiration to Bawas work, albeit the fact that he was too old to achieve what he became famous for he still did become famous and thats what matters to most.

I have seen debates about Bawa taking place in circles where he may be held in esteem. I like bawa, i used to at least, but then this fanatical following he got made me spurt mixed reactions about him. Whatever said about this man i personally would credit him for taking Sri Lankan skills and local industry to the international stage and carving a name for Sri Lanka in an arena where Sri Lanka is not that well known. Bawa's work was great in marketing what otherwise was little known about Sri Lanka.

But what most people who are masters in industry in their own way say about Sri Lanka is that as opposed to common expectation Sri Lanka does have quality Architecture and Geoffrey Bawa had a great role to play in carving out a niche for Sri Lankan architecture to incubate and project to greater heights.

I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Murphy, the architect who designed the new British High Commission a few weeks ago.Murphy met some of us students during cocktails after his presentation. Murphy, in this building in bauddhaloka mawatha has quite successfully echoed sentiments which are very reminiscent of Bawa's work and his design i think is unique in his own way.

Inspired by his Sri Lanka visit, Murphy developed a design which echoed Bawa’s architecture and incorporated a range of local materials. But it was also rooted in the experience of his own practice and his preoccupation with courtyards, with the interconnection of inside and outside space, with the creation of naturally tempered environments and with the articulation of richly coloured and textured surfaces on a framework of simplified modernist forms. His design was developed from a trio of basic premises: that the building should be built on a single level, that they should be disposed around a series of courtyards and that they should incorporate a section which encouraged natural stack-ventilation and introduced controlled amounts of natural top lighting.( link )

Murphy said during his lecture something that sounded like, "feel free to copy what you want, copying someone elses work and changing it to suit the conditions makes it original". I guess he did just that, and a job well done with the high commission!

This just has to be seen!!

2009-04-01T15:42:00.006+01:00

This is a photo from the 2009 American Inauguration, In which you can see IN FOCUS the face of each individual in the crowd !!!

You can scan, double click and zoom to any section of the crowd. Point out to any face, double click your mouse, wait few second, bingo...the focus will automatically adjust.

The picture was taken with a robotic camera at 1,474 megapixel. (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera)

Now now dont be naughty, big brother is watching!

See the picture here.

Rain water harvesting in Sri Lanka..

2009-03-30T13:20:00.004+01:00

Apparently Legislation has been passed to mandatorily have rain water harvesting units in new developments including houses. According to the Daily Mirror the annual rain water fall in Sri Lanka is 100 Billion cubic meters, that is approximately a quarter billion cubic meters a day! This water if utilized for purposes other than drinking can be very useful in terms of cutting on energy and water costs.

This makes Sri Lanka the only country in the world to have a public policy on rain water harvesting! I whole heartedly applaud this move by the UDA, but i am consciously cynical as to what extent this will be implemented in future developments given the efficiency (or lack of it) of public institutions.

If implemented well this can have result in a major reduction of water,energy or even electricity costs.

To speak the truth and die..

2009-03-29T19:52:00.007+01:00

Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed for being a vociferous proponent of what he and many others thought was the truth, the world has seen a great many good souls who have been mysteriously killed for speaking the truth. Many have spoken about how Lasantha was great in what he did.

I have another person who i am a very ardent follower of. Robin Cook was the former British foreign secretary who rather unexplainably was "pushed off a cliff" off the scottish highlands. And this took place in the immediate aftermath of him making the following statement.

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity,the country behind this propaganda is the US"

"Secret societies" could be tolerant of people who making such claims, but it may have been a bit too much if the person who made such a claim was at that time the British foreign secretary and leader of the house.

One of my favourite resignation speeches is when Robin Cook made his resignation speech, it is very inspiring and has always inspired me to go back to it and listen to it, just like i go back to lasanthas editorial and re read. The above video is part 2 of his Robins resignation speech, part 1 can be seen here and the full text here.

The video is highly recommended.

Obama and Hip Hop

2009-03-04T18:53:00.001Z

The state of the nation address, hilarious :)

Another one on "supposed" freedom of speech..

2009-02-12T20:26:00.004Z

I have almost screamed several times that freedom of speech is not absolute! i particularly emphasized on that here.

The dutch MP who created an extremely anti muslim film has been denied entry to the UK on grounds of inciting religious hatred. That apart i am impressed by British Foreign Secretary David Milibands example on distinguishing between freedom of speech and the extent to which speech is free..

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC's Hardtalk: "The home secretary made a decision on an individual case as she is required to do."

He added that the film contained "extreme anti-Muslim hate and we have very clear laws in this country".

Mr Miliband also said: "We have profound commitment to freedom of speech but there is no freedom to cry 'fire' in a crowded theatre and there is no freedom to stir up hate, religious and racial hatred, according to the laws of the land."

so much for those who think they can bellow CHINTANAYAAA!!! in a loud hoarse voice in public if a VVIP's garment was comes off!

Why a ship is called a She..

2009-02-08T12:50:00.007Z

"it takes a lot of paint to keep her good looking; its not the initial expense that breaks you, its the upkeep "

The other day i had a site visit to Lindisfarne,Holy Island. This is just off the Northumberland coast. After walking a good couple of miles in the muddy terrain in surprisingly warm winter sunshine i had worked up a very good appetite and the thought of fish and chips was very alluring. This was more so since my mates kept going on abt it. Lindisfarne is a very remote Island and the first few places that we found that suggested that there may be food inside were a few old pubs which boasted of an exciting history.

The pub which we happened to go in was a proper sailors pub,not surprising since the pub was located very close to the beach.

After a filling lunch of fish and chips and a cold Red Bull to match my mates pints, i had a walk around the pub, and then i came across this poster framed and hung on the wall. I used to always wonder why a ship is called a She, now i know why :)

I am no male chauvinist btw :)

Aaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhh!!!!

2009-01-29T20:02:00.003Z

I really need to scream! who cares if its the library!! over the past few weeks i have written in excess of 10,000 words! and it is now slowly but surely affecting my nervous system!

feel totally brain dead! frustration doesnt help! it only adds to the exasperation and calmlessness!! this is a frustrated rant!!

needed to vent this frustration somewhere!

bloody foggy outside and its -2 deg celsius!!! the thought eating my own cooked dinner doesnt waiting for me at home doesnt help in making me resilient to the chilly winds outside!

i feel i am in some utopian capsule when i am seated in the relative calm and comfort of the library and cant help but see the trees outside violently swaying one side to the other!

oh layers of insualtion in the walls! how i wish i had a few of you in my jacket!

senseless post! reflects the state of mind i am in while i write!
AAAARGHHH!

Palestinians are not just Muslims..

2009-01-26T15:11:00.004Z

There has always been this misconception, and many will still have it. But reality is that "palestinians" doesnt necessarily mean "muslims". This video gives a great insight to the suffering of the christians vis a vis the Isreali occupation.

Bush's letter to Barry dear...

2009-01-21T18:33:00.003Z

As is traditional,outgoing US president George W Bush left a note for his successor in the top drawer of his desk in the Oval Office.The white house obviously doesnt reveal the exact details of the letter to Barack Obama, but i am sure lot of you out there would like to think it went something like this...

Dear Barry,

First and foremosting, i would like to congratulatise you on getting the job. It will be great to have someone come in and bring a finished completion to all the work i did. I have to warn you,though, being president isnt all laughs. There are a lot of boring speeches to sit through.

But i think you will make a great commander-in-chife. You've got what I've got - charismaticism. And that goes a long way. I also dig the way you got all those famous people on your side - they didnt take much to me. But i like that Jon Bon Jovi who sang a few days before your augmentation - he's a good guy.

My daddy once told me : 'eat your vegetables, George Jnr.' And he was right. Well,now it;s my turn to give some advisementary words. Don't let people misunderestimate you the way they misunderestimated me - I hope you don't misunderstanderate what I'm getting at there,Baz. I know I used a lot of big words in that sentence.

Being the president is a bit like grabbing a bull by it's horns - you gotta go up to that bull and grab its horns. In a metaphosphorical sense,of course. If you grab a real bull by the horns you won't be the president for too long. You should maybe write that down.

I've left you some pretzels on my desk and,before i forget,i've also left you a crisis in the Middle East and a bad economy - in London,Engerland, they're calling that a 'credit crunch'. Ain't that cute? sounds like a breakfast cereal to me,Baz. Next time you're in No 1,Downing street, tell Gordon Ramsay I said 'hi'.

So i guess that's all i got for ya,I know you'll be a super leader. They made a movie about me after eight years were up,so if they do the same with you I guess you'll know you've done a good job. Good luck,Baz!

Yours in the white house,

G doubleU B

Fit to kill Pittu!

2009-01-19T16:37:00.002Z

I copied this from the facebook profile picture of a friend of mine, i fail to understand the connection between Pittu and death!

Amusing how these morons just write the sinhala word without even an iota of consideration that they are making a fool of themselves! or should i say poolop themselves!

We will not go down..

2009-01-18T15:22:00.003Z

A blinding flash of white light
Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
People running for cover
Not knowing whether they're dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes
With ravaging fiery flames
And nothing remains
Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Women and children alike
Murdered and massacred night after night
While the so-called leaders of countries afar
Debated on who's wrong or right

But their powerless words were in vain
And the bombs fell down like acid rain
But through the tears and the blood and the pain
You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight

We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Micheal Hart

Mahathir on Lasantha!

2009-01-13T18:48:00.004Z

I happen to follow Marina Mahathir's blog, she is the daughter of the former malaysian head of state, Mahathir Mohammed.

I happened to come across this post of hers, "editorial by a ghost" written about the editorial supposedly written by Lasantha.

As expected, all the comments in that reflect how many people were moved after having read the editorial. Phrases she thought were interesting have been highlighted, and it was very interesting to me to see the reaction of a prominent international figure who i assume knew about lasantha very little, if she knew him at all!

The next hundred years - A prediction

2009-01-13T16:43:00.005Z

Imagine a second cold war, or Mexico as a world super power. Imagine the rise of Turkey and the decline of China. Stratfor founder George Friedman makes these provocative claims and more in his latest book, The Next 100 Years.

Here's an excerpt from the book..

Imagine that you were alive in the summer of 1900, living in London, then the capital of the world. Europe ruled the Eastern Hemisphere. There was hardly a place that, if not ruled directly, was not indirectly controlled from a European capital. Europe was at peace and enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Indeed, European interdependence due to trade and investment was so great that serious people were claiming that war had become impossible—and if not impossible, would end within weeks of beginning—because global financial markets couldn't withstand the strain. The future seemed fixed: a peaceful, prosperous Europe would rule the world.

Imagine yourself now in the summer of 1920. Europe had been torn apart by an agonizing war. The continent was in tatters. The Austro-Hungarian, Russian, German, and Ottoman empires were gone and millions had died in a war that lasted for years. The war ended when an American army of a million men intervened—an army that came and then just as quickly left. Communism dominated Russia, but it was not clear that it could survive. Countries that had been on the periphery of European power, like the United States and Japan, suddenly emerged as great powers. But one thing was certain—the peace treaty that had been imposed on Germany guaranteed that it would not soon reemerge.

Imagine the summer of 1940. Germany had not only reemerged but conquered France and dominated Europe. Communism had survived and the Soviet Union now was allied with Nazi Germany. Great Britain alone stood against Germany, and from the point of view of most reasonable people, the war was over. If there was not to be a thousand-year Reich, then certainly Europe's fate had been decided for a century. Germany would dominate Europe and inherit its empire.

Imagine now the summer of 1960. Germany had been crushed in the war, defeated less than five years later. Europe was occupied, split down the middle by the United States and the Soviet Union. The European empires were collapsing, and the United States and Soviet Union were competing over who would be their heir. The United States had the Soviet Union
surrounded and, with an overwhelming arsenal of nuclear weapons, could annihilate it in hours. The United States had emerged as the global superpower. It dominated all of the world's oceans, and with its nuclear force could dictate terms to anyone in the world. Stalemate was the best the Soviets could hope for—unless the Soviets invaded Germany and conquered Europe. That was the war everyone was preparing for. And in the back of everyone's mind, the Maoist Chinese, seen as fanatical, were the other danger.

Now imagine the summer of 1980. The United States had been defeated in a seven-year war—not by the Soviet Union, but by communist North Vietnam. The nation was seen, and saw itself, as being in retreat. Expelled from Vietnam, it was then expelled from Iran as well, where the oil fields, which it no longer controlled, seemed about to fall into the hands of the Soviet Union. To contain the Soviet Union, the United States had formed an alliance with Maoist China—the American president and the Chinese chairman holding an amiable meeting in Beijing. Only this alliance seemed able to contain the powerful Soviet Union, which appeared to be surging.

Imagine now the summer of 2000. The Soviet Union had completely collapsed. China was still communist in name but had become capitalist in practice. NATO had advanced into Eastern Europe and even into the former Soviet Union. The world was prosperous and peaceful. Everyone knew that geopolitical considerations had become secondary to economic considerations, and the only problems were regional ones in basket cases like Haiti or Kosovo.

Then came September 11, 2001, and the world turned on its head again. At a certain level, when it comes to the future, the only thing one can be sure of is that common sense will be wrong. There is no magic twenty-year cycle; there is no simplistic force governing this pattern. It is simply that the things that appear to be so permanent and dominant at any given moment in history can change with stunning rapidity. Eras come and go. In international relations, the way the world looks right now is not at all how it will look in twenty years . . . or even less. The fall of the Soviet Union was hard to imagine, and that is exactly the point. Conventional political analysis suffers from a profound failure of imagination. It imagines passing clouds to be permanent and is blind to powerful, long- term shifts taking place in full
view of the world.

If we were at the beginning of the twentieth century, it would be impossible to forecast the particular events I've just listed. But there are some things that could have been—and, in fact, were—forecast. For example, it was obvious that Germany, having united in 1871, was a major power in an insecure position (trapped between Russia and France) and wanted to redefine the European and global systems. Most of the conflicts in the first half of the twentieth century were about Germany's status in Europe. While the times and places of wars couldn't be forecast, the probability that there would be a war could be and was forecast by many Europeans.

The harder part of this equation would be forecasting that the wars would be so devastating and that after the first and second world wars were over, Europe would lose its empire. But there were those, particularly after the invention of dynamite, who predicted that war would now be catastrophic. If the forecasting on technology had been combined with the forecasting
on geopolitics, the shattering of Europe might well have been predicted. Certainly the rise of the United States and Russia was predicted in the nineteenth century. Both Alexis de Tocqueville and Friedrich Nietzsche forecast the preeminence of these two countries. So, standing at the beginning of the twentieth century, it would have been possible to forecast
its general outlines, with discipline and some luck.

the twenty-first century
Standing at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we need to identify the single pivotal event for this century, the equivalent of German unification for the twentieth century. After the debris of the European empire is cleared away, as well as what's left of the Soviet Union, one power remains standing and overwhelmingly powerful. That power is the United States. Certainly, as is usually the case, the United States currently appears to be making a mess of things around the world. But it's important not to be confused by the passing chaos. The United States is economically, militarily, and politically the most powerful country in the world, and there is no real challenger to that power. Like the Spanish-American War, a hundred years from now the war between the United States and the radical Islamists will be little remembered regardless of the prevailing sentiment of this time.

Ever since the Civil War, the United States has been on an extraordinary economic surge. It has turned from a marginal developing nation into an economy bigger than the next four countries combined. Militarily, it has gone from being an insignificant force to dominating the globe. Politically, the United States touches virtually everything, sometimes intentionally and sometimes simply because of its presence. As you read this book, it will seem that it is America- centric, written from an American point of view. That may be true, but the argument I'm making is that the world does, in fact, pivot around the United States.

This is not only due to American power. It also has to do with a fundamental shift in the way the world works. For the past five hundred years, Europe was the center of the international system, its empires creating a single global system for the first time in human history. The main highway to Europe was the North Atlantic. Whoever controlled the North Atlantic controlled access to Europe—and Europe's access to the world. The basic geography of global politics was locked into place.

Then, in the early 1980s, something remarkable happened. For the first time in history, transpacific trade equaled transatlantic trade. With Europe reduced to a collection of secondary powers after World War II, and the shift in trade patterns, the North Atlantic was no longer the single key to anything. Now whatever country controlled both the North Atlantic and the Pacific could control, if it wished, the world's trading system, and therefore the global economy. In the twenty-first century, any nation located on both oceans has a tremendous advantage.

Given the cost of building naval power and the huge cost of deploying it around the world, the power native to both oceans became the preeminent actor in the international system for the same reason that Britain dominated the nineteenth century: it lived on the sea it had to control. In this way, North America has replaced Europe as the center of gravity in the world, and whoever dominates North America is virtually assured of being the dominant global power. For the twenty-first century at least, that will be the United States.

The inherent power of the United States coupled with its geographic position makes the United States the pivotal actor of the twenty-first century. That certainly doesn't make it loved. On the contrary, its power makes it feared. The history of the twenty-first century, therefore, particularly the first half, will revolve around two opposing struggles. One will be secondary powers forming coalitions to try to contain and control the United States. The second will be the United States acting preemptively to prevent an effective coalition from forming.

If we view the beginning of the twenty-first century as the dawn of the American Age (superseding the European Age), we see that it began with a group of Muslims seeking to re- create the Caliphate—the great Islamic empire that once ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Inevitably, they had to strike at the United States in an attempt to draw the world's primary power into war, trying to demonstrate its weakness in order to trigger an Islamic uprising. The United States responded by invading the Islamic world. But its goal wasn't victory. It wasn't even clear what victory would mean. Its goal was simply to disrupt the Islamic world and set it against itself, so that an Islamic empire could not emerge.

The United States doesn't need to win wars. It needs to simply disrupt things so the other side can't build up sufficient strength to challenge it. On one level, the twenty-first century will see a series of confrontations involving lesser powers trying to build coalitions to control American behavior and the United States' mounting military operations to disrupt them. The twenty-first century will see even more war than the twentieth century, but the wars will be much less catastrophic, because of both technological changes and the nature of the geopolitical challenge.

As we've seen, the changes that lead to the next era are always shockingly unexpected, and the first twenty years of this new century will be no exception. The U.S.–Islamist war is already ending and the next conflict is in sight. Russia is re-creating its old sphere of influence, and that sphere of influence will inevitably challenge the United States. The Russians will be moving westward on the great northern European plain. As Russia reconstructs its power, it will encounter the U.S.-dominated NATO in the three Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—as well as in Poland. There will be other points of friction in the early twenty-first century, but this new cold war will supply the flash points after the U.S.–Islamist war dies down.

The Russians can't avoid trying to reassert power, and the United States can't avoid trying to resist. But in the end Russia can't win. Its deep internal problems, massively declining population, and poor infrastructure ultimately make Russia's long- term survival prospects bleak. And the second cold war, less frightening and much less global than the first, will end as the first did, with the collapse of Russia.

There are many who predict that China is the next challenger to the United States, not Russia. I don't agree with that view for three reasons. First, when you look at a map of China closely, you see that it is really a very isolated country physically. With Siberia in the north, the Himalayas and jungles to the south, and most of China's population in the eastern part of the country, the Chinese aren't going to easily expand. Second, China has not been a major naval power for centuries, and building a navy requires a long time not only to build ships but to create well-trained and experienced sailors.

Third, there is a deeper reason for not worrying about China. China is inherently unstable. Whenever it opens its borders to the outside world, the coastal region becomes prosperous, but the vast majority of Chinese in the interior remain impoverished. This leads to tension, conflict, and instability. It also leads to economic decisions made for political reasons, resulting in inefficiency and corruption. This is not the first time that China has opened itself to foreign trade, and it will not be the last time that it becomes unstable as a result. Nor will it be the last time that a figure like Mao emerges to close the country off from the outside, equalize the wealth—or poverty—and begin the cycle anew. There are some who believe that the trends of the last thirty years will continue indefinitely. I believe the Chinese cycle will move to its next and inevitable phase in the coming decade. Far from being a challenger, China is a country the United States will be trying to bolster and hold together as a counterweight to the Russians. Current Chinese economic dynamism does not translate into long-term success.

In the middle of the century, other powers will emerge, countries that aren't thought of as great powers today, but that I expect will become more powerful and assertive over the next few decades. Three stand out in particular. The first is Japan. It's the second- largest economy in the world and the most vulnerable, being highly dependent on the importation of raw materials, since it has almost none of its own. With a history of militarism, Japan will not remain the marginal pacifistic power it has been. It cannot. Its own deep population problems and abhorrence of large- scale immigration will force it to look for new workers in other countries. Japan's vulnerabilities, which I've written about in the past and which the Japanese have managed better than I've expected up until this point, in the end will force a shift in policy.

Then there is Turkey, currently the seventeenth-largest economy in the world. Historically, when a major Islamic empire has emerged, it has been dominated by the Turks. The Ottomans collapsed at the end of World War I, leaving modern Turkey in its wake. But Turkey is a stable platform in the midst of chaos. The Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Arab world to the south are all unstable. As Turkey's power grows—and its economy and military are already the most powerful in the region—so will Turkish influence.

Finally there is Poland. Poland hasn't been a great power since the sixteenth century. But it once was—and, I think, will be again. Two factors make this possible. First will be the decline of Germany. Its economy is large and still growing, but it has lost the dynamism it has had for two centuries. In addition, its population is going to fall dramatically in the next fifty years, further undermining its economic power. Second, as the Russians press on the Poles from the east, the Germans won't have an appetite for a third war with Russia. The United States, however, will back Poland, providing it with massive economic and technical support. Wars—when your country isn't destroyed—stimulate economic growth, and Poland will become the leading power in a coalition of states facing the Russians.

Japan, Turkey, and Poland will each be facing a United States even more confident than it was after the second fall of the Soviet Union. That will be an explosive situation. As we will see during the course of this book, the relationships among these four countries will greatly affect the twenty-first century, leading, ultimately, to the next global war. This war will be fought differently from any in history—with weapons that are today in the realm of science fiction. But as I will try to outline, this mid-twenty-first century conflict will grow out of the dynamic forces born in the early part of the new century.

Tremendous technical advances will come out of this war, as they did out of World War II, and one of them will be especially critical. All sides will be looking for new forms of energy to substitute for hydrocarbons, for many obvious reasons. Solar power is theoretically the most efficient energy source on earth, but solar power requires massive arrays of receivers. Those receivers take up a lot of space on the earth's surface and have many negative environmental impacts—not to mention being subject to the disruptive cycles of night and day. During the coming global war, however, concepts developed prior to the war for space- based electrical generation, beamed to earth in the form of microwave radiation, will be rapidly translated from prototype to reality. Getting a free ride on the back of military space launch capability, the new energy source will be underwritten in much the same way as the Internet or the railroads were, by government support. And that will kick off a massive economic boom.

But underlying all of this will be the single most important fact of the twenty-first century: the end of the population explosion. By 2050, advanced industrial countries will be losing population at a dramatic rate. By 2100, even the most underdeveloped countries will have reached birthrates that will stabilize their populations. The entire global system has been built since 1750 on the expectation of continually expanding populations. More workers, more consumers, more soldiers—this was always the expectation. In the twenty-first century, however, that will cease to be true. The entire system of production will shift. The shift will force the world into a greater dependence on technology—particularly robots that will substitute for human labor, and intensified genetic research (not so much for the purpose of extending life but to make people productive longer).

What will be the more immediate result of a shrinking world population? Quite simply, in the first half of the century, the population bust will create a major labor shortage in advanced industrial countries. Today, developed countries see the problem as keeping immigrants out. Later in the first half of the twenty-first century, the problem will be persuading them to come. Countries will go so far as to pay people to move there. This will include the United States, which will be competing for increasingly scarce immigrants and will be doing everything it can to induce Mexicans to come to the United States—an ironic but inevitable shift.

These changes will lead to the final crisis of the twenty-first century. Mexico currently is the fifteenth-largest economy in the world. As the Europeans slip out, the Mexicans, like the Turks, will rise in the rankings until by the late twenty-first century they will be one of the major economic powers in the world. During the great migration north encouraged by the United States, the population balance in the old Mexican Cession (that is, the areas of the United States taken from Mexico in the nineteenth century) will shift dramatically until much of the region is predominantly Mexican.

The social reality will be viewed by the Mexican government simply as rectification of historical defeats. By 2080 I expect there to be a serious confrontation between the United States and an increasingly powerful and assertive Mexico. That confrontation may well have unforeseen consequences for the United States, and will likely not end by 2100.

Much of what I've said here may seem pretty hard to fathom. The idea that the twenty-first century will culminate in a confrontation between Mexico and the United States is certainly hard to imagine in 2009, as is a powerful Turkey or Poland. But go back to the beginning of this chapter, when I described how the world looked at twenty-year intervals during the
twentieth century, and you can see what I'm driving at: common sense is the one thing that will certainly be wrong. Obviously, the more granular the description, the less reliable it gets. It is impossible to forecast precise details of a coming century—apart from the fact that I'll be long dead by then and won't know what mistakes I made.

But it's my contention that it is indeed possible to see the broad outlines of what is going to happen, and to try to give it some definition, however speculative that definition might be. That's what this book is about.

forecasting a hundred years ahead
Before I delve into any details of global wars, population trends, or technological shifts, it is important that I address my method—that is, precisely how I can forecast what I do. I don't intend to be taken seriously on the details of the war in 2050 that I forecast. But I do want to be taken seriously in terms of how wars will be fought then, about the centrality of American power, about the likelihood of other countries challenging that power, and about some of the countries I think will—and won't—challenge that power.

And doing that takes some justification. The idea of a U.S.–Mexican confrontation and even war will leave most reasonable people dubious, but I would like to demonstrate why and how these assertions can be made. One point I've already made is that reasonable people are incapable of anticipating the future. The old New Left slogan "Be Practical, Demand the Impossible" needs to be changed: "Be Practical, Expect the Impossible." This idea is at the heart of my method. From another, more substantial perspective, this is called geopolitics.

Geopolitics is not simply a pretentious way of saying "international relations." It is a method for thinking about the world and forecasting what will happen down the road. Economists talk about an invisible hand, in which the self-interested, short-term activities of people lead to what Adam Smith called "the wealth of nations." Geopolitics applies the concept of the invisible hand to the behavior of nations and other international actors. The pursuit of short-term self-interest by nations and by their leaders leads, if not to the wealth of nations, then at least to predictable behavior and, therefore, the ability to forecast the shape of the future international system.

Geopolitics and economics both assume that the players are rational, at least in the sense of knowing their own short-term self-interest. As rational actors, reality provides them with limited choices. It is assumed that, on the whole, people and nations will pursue their self-interest, if not flawlessly, then at least not randomly. Think of a chess game. On the surface, it appears that each player has twenty potential opening moves. In fact, there are many fewer because most of these moves are so bad that they quickly lead to defeat. The better you are at chess, the more clearly you see your options, and the fewer moves there actually are available. The better the player, the more predictable the moves. The grandmaster plays with absolute predictable precision—until that one brilliant, unexpected stroke.

Nations behave the same way. The millions or hundreds of millions of people who make up a nation are constrained by reality. They generate leaders who would not become leaders if they were irrational. Climbing to the top of millions of people is not something fools often do. Leaders understand their menu of next moves and execute them, if not flawlessly, then at least pretty well. An occasional master will come along with a stunningly unexpected and successful move, but for the most part, the act of governance is simply executing the necessary and logical next step. When politicians run a country's foreign policy, they operate the same way. If a leader dies and is replaced, another emerges and more likely than not continues what the first one was doing.

I am not arguing that political leaders are geniuses, scholars, or even gentlemen and ladies. Simply, political leaders know how to be leaders or they wouldn't have emerged as such. It is the delight of all societies to belittle their political leaders, and leaders surely do make mistakes. But the mistakes they make, when carefully examined, are rarely stupid. More likely, mistakes are forced on them by circumstance. We would all like to believe that we— or our favorite candidate—would never have acted so stupidly. It is rarely true. Geopolitics therefore does not take the individual leader very seriously, any more than economics takes the individual businessman too seriously. Both are players who know how to manage a process but are not free to break the very rigid rules of their professions.

Politicians are therefore rarely free actors. Their actions are determined by circumstances, and public policy is a response to reality. Within narrow margins, political decisions can matter. But the most brilliant leader of Iceland will never turn it into a world power, while the stupidest leader of Rome at its height could not undermine Rome's fundamental power. Geopolitics is not about the right and wrong of things, it is not about the virtues or vices of politicians, and it is not about foreign policy debates. Geopolitics is about broad impersonal forces that constrain nations and human beings and compel them to act in certain ways.

The key to understanding economics is accepting that there are always unintended consequences. Actions people take for their own good reasons have results they don't envision or intend. The same is true with geopolitics. It is doubtful that the village of Rome, when it started its expansion in the seventh century BC, had a master plan for conquering the Mediterranean world five hundred years later. But the first action its inhabitants took against neighboring villages set in motion a process that was both constrained by reality and filled with unintended consequences. Rome wasn't planned, and neither did it just happen.

Geopolitical forecasting, therefore, doesn't assume that everything is predetermined. It does mean that what people think they are doing, what they hope to achieve, and what the final outcome is are not the same things. Nations and politicians pursue their immediate ends, as constrained by reality as a grandmaster is constrained by the chessboard, the pieces, and the rules. Sometimes they increase the power of the nation. Sometimes they lead the nation to catastrophe. It is rare that the final outcome will be what they initially intended to achieve.

Geopolitics assumes two things. First, it assumes that humans organize themselves into units larger than families, and that by doing this, they must engage in politics. It also assumes that humans have a natural loyalty to the things they were born into, the people and the places. Loyalty to a tribe, a city, or a nation is natural to people. In our time, national identity matters a great deal. Geopolitics teaches that the relationship between these nations is a vital dimension of human life, and that means that war is ubiquitous. Second, geopolitics assumes that the character of a nation is determined to a great extent by geography, as is the relationship between nations. We use the term geography broadly. It includes the physical characteristics of a location, but it goes beyond that to look at the effects of a place on individuals and communities. In antiquity, the difference between Sparta and Athens was the difference between a landlocked city and a maritime empire. Athens was wealthy and cosmopolitan, while Sparta was poor, provincial, and very tough. A Spartan was very different from an Athenian in both culture and politics.

If you understand those assumptions, then it is possible to think about large numbers of human beings, linked together through natural human bonds, constrained by geography, acting in certain ways. The United States is the United States and therefore must behave in a certain way. The same goes for Japan or Turkey or Mexico. When you drill down and see the forces that are shaping nations, you can see that the menu from which they choose is limited.

The twenty-first century will be like all other centuries. There will be wars, there will be poverty, there will be triumphs and defeats. There will be tragedy and good luck. People will go to work, make money, have children, fall in love, and come to hate. That is the one thing that is not cyclical. It is the permanent human condition. But the twenty-first century will be extraordinary in two senses: it will be the beginning of a new age, and it will see a new global power astride the world. That doesn't happen very often. We are now in an America-centric age. To understand this age, we must understand the United States, not only because it is so powerful but because its culture will permeate the world and define it. Just as French culture and British culture were definitive during their times of power, so American culture, as young and barbaric as it is, will define the way the world thinks and lives. So studying the twenty-first century means studying the United States.

If there were only one argument I could make about the twenty-first century, it would be that the European Age has ended and that the North American Age has begun, and that North America will be dominated by the United States for the next hundred years. The events of the twenty-first century will pivot around the United States. That doesn't guarantee that the United States is necessarily a just or moral regime. It certainly does not mean that America has yet developed a mature civilization. It does mean that in many ways the history of the United States will be the history of the twenty-first century.

Mistake..

2009-01-06T16:20:00.004Z

Story about a man who is convicted of murdering a police officer, sentenced to death and subsequently after the man dies after the sentence was carried out facts are unearthed which reflects the innocence of the man already dead. The 120 second video speaks so much about how sensitive a tool the death penalty is and how many people can be sentenced to death even when no blood is in their hands.

Tigers capable of fight!!

2009-01-02T14:14:00.003Z

Mahela Jayawardene praised the Tigers' attitude and indicated that Sri Lanka must be more planned and not give away any more away like they almost gave away last week.

But when asked of the unthinkable, Jayawardene confidently gestured that his side had absolutely no fear of losing . But he recognised the Tigers' effort,.

More from the Daily Mirror.

Commissions function like a visit to the toilet!

2008-12-30T19:22:00.005Z

I remember reading this in a writing by the fifth columnist of the Sunday times, a friend of mine and i share this joke and we both have read this as may many of you out there.

Commisions in you know where, be it a presidents commission, a Bribery commission or any other commission, function like a visit to a toilet.

First- there is a sitting,

then - there is a waiting,

then - there is a little bit of deliberation.

and finally - they drop the matter!

Now you know why most of these commissions are futile cosmetic measure done to satisfy the parties involved!

Still wondering who the real terrorists are ?

2008-12-28T18:48:00.008Z

We live in a funny world, what is ok for me to do is not ok for you is a dictum of childhood playmates. How innocent lives and the blood spilt can be a price for percieved redemption in a world euphoric about human rights is the mother of all paradoxes.

Whilst a majority of the world are over consuming and frolicking in celebration of what is yet another end to a cycle of 365 days, over 200 innocent civilians were slaughtered in an exhibition of mass brutality in Gaza.

How does the world feel about Obama pledging to “forge an unshakeable bond” with the "miracle" of Terrorist Israel?

How do we feel about the EU rewarding Israel for its terrorist acts with enhanced benefits under the EU-Israel Association Agreement?

The Best Gordon Brown could do was to urge "restraint", as opposed to urging Isreal to end the siege.

If i remember right, President Rajapakse is the founder chairman of the Sri Lankan Committee for Solidarity with Palestine for the last thirt years, has the Sri Lankan government condemned the attacks in Gaza? i still have not heard, i dont know if they have.

According to the U.S.'s own definition of terrorism Israel is squarely in the frame. Under Section 3 of Executive Order 13224 "Blocking Property and prohibiting Transactions with Persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support Terrorism", the term “terrorism” means an activity that…

(i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and

(ii) appears to be intended

• to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

• to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

• to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination,
kidnapping, or hostage-taking.

The order and its definition of terrorism, signed 23 September 2001 by George W Bush, is used to outlaw and crush any organization, individual or country the U.S. doesn’t like. The Israeli regime’s "amoral thugs", as a British MP branded them, have plainly been terrorizing the Palestinians for the last 60 years.

The only peaceful means of achieving a lasting peace is for Western leaders to pull the plug on Israel until the regime conforms to international law and the will of the United Nations (without whose misguided generosity there would never have been a state of Israel), pulls back behind the 1967 border and strictly observes the principles of universal human rights.

If they don’t shoulder their responsibility, they risk a mighty moral backlash from ordinary people, who are beginning to learn the awful truth.

Al Jazeera has more.

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Genius at 9..

2008-12-26T14:47:00.002Z

Well at 9 i was making little clay models and running around with phlegm coming down my nose, dirt all over my body and fighting with the boy who always cheated when we used to play together.

This Girl at 9 has become the youngest Microsoft certified proffessional, an interesting and inspiring video.

2008 - My Crises..

2008-12-26T09:04:00.005Z

I have been tagged by the Whackster, and i agree with most of his sentiments and his reasons for pessimism are very genuine. I have attempted to put into words the pessimistic rhetoric which i hope will be more inspiring once it has been read in full.2008 has been like the years gone by, hopefull 2009 will be better.

THE WAR(S) : The wars around the world,with particular reference to the war at home are merely a symptom of a disease, and treating the symptom doesnt cure the disease. Whats to say that the war will end when every single LTTE cadre and the supremo himself are killed/eradicated? if the disease stil remains then the symptom will emerge in some other part of the body and may be deadlier than the last symptom, i dont see the need to expand on my metaphorical rhetoric, i think its pretty self explanatory.

Let me put it another way, one of my friend who is notorious for his constipation once got a severe headache and we all attributed it to his high coffee intake and the resulting constipation, no ammount of paracetamol or application of balm seemed to help,albeit it temporarily gave relief! obviously! but the best and the lasting remedy would be to take fibre rich food and get the err crap out of the system! i see these wars as paracetamol or balm, after a period of relief the headache will come again.

There used to be a sinhala dubbed movie which used to be telecast in Rupavahini, the story is about a man imprisoned because he stole a piece of bread, surely imprisoning all people who steal bread out of hunger will not help, even if barbarically tortured a man driven by hunger will steal to satisfy his hunger! so the lasting solution would be to eradicate poverty to mitigate (percieved) anti social behaviour.

Like the Whackster puts it, the people of palestine are having immense suffering and are such a downtrodden people.The conflict in Palestine will go on until due people are given due right! and the US must resolve not to blindly support ISreal and not blindly veto every motion against Isreal.

Until i learn not only t accept,but to also tolerate my brother from another race religion,friction in relationships will be there by default and thereby lead to conflict.

I feel i have made my point.

CORRUPTION and CRONYISM : another phenomena akin to third world countries, this is another driver of conflict. Say the war is over, with that the commissions offered with the purchase of weapons by weapons companies will stop right? if a person is driven by his lustful greed to this commission money and he somehow wants to get commissions as he used to get them what does he do? start another war at a diferent front? god knows!

Tamils were gradually kicked out of the beauracracy in post independence Sri Lanka,irrespective of the fact that the people they were replaced by had merit to deserve their position.

In a smaller scale, when a genuinely deserving person loses his place to a ministers crony (for personal or racial reasons), it is only human for the disadvantaged to develop hate and rancour which on a larger scale could expand to taking up arms at least in a few generations.

I have not stressed much on corruption, but hell! its there for all to see.

ILLITERACY: just like the rich poor divide, the educated middle class and elite are keeping on educating themselves and their kids, obviously its a great thing to have great intellectuals, but what of the poorest who have no education to the point of illiteracy?

I was once asked by some wierdo, why Sri Lankan Muslims have not taken up arms, when muslims in Pakistan,India,and Bangladesh have taken to some kind of militancy. Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate in south asia, so naturally the muslims of Sri Lanka would have the highest literacy rate amongst the muslims in South Asia, simpl eh? just like i believe the muslims in the US are the most capable,intellectually sound and powerful muslims in the world. Obviously there are a lot of other reasons as to why muslims in SL have not taken up arms, but literacy certainly is an important aspect, recruiting SL muslim youth to vision of success via militancy is not easy, they see a more intellectual soultion to their issues than their south asian counterparts.

GLOBAL WARMING : Is a great issue indeed! i didnt understand this until i came to the UK and it is hard to envisage how imminent this catastrophe is when you live in SL. In here every single new action,invention or even statutes have refence to the implications of the climatic variations. So everything now is about energy saving and sustainability.

LEGISLATURE vs SUPREME COURT : Scary!

I have not mentioned many issues,but i feel if the issues mentioned are resolved many things will fall in place, be it education,politics,the economy or peace and security.

Hopefully we will learn to be more resolute and unbiased in our policies next year.

Happy New year!

pic

10,000 views on Flickr!

2008-12-24T10:29:00.005Z

So i have reached 10,000 views on Flickr, it was not something i necessarily looked forward to, but nevertheless i am glad i stuck to photography passionately and for this long.About four years since i started photography actively, well it added a bit of spice later on when Dinidu became a bitter rival and tried to out do me, and i think dinidu and i are very grateful to minah for starting this whole interest in photography.Well Dinidu has a better camera than mine,but then an Idiot like George Bush is the president of the most powerful country in the world :P

When minah sent me the link to flickr and how to start a flickr account, i was least interested but being the pretender that i am i acted :) well i was mostly disinterested because i then had a dialup connection at home and it would literally take half an hour to upload a picture, and i wasnt as good as i am in photography as i am now,not to say my photographs are good, but my later ones are better than my initial ones, so when i say "good" i say it relative to myself and not relative to the other photographers out there.

I have made a lot of good friends via Flickr, but the flickr friend i have been constantly in touch with and have grown to consider a close friend of mine is Chamina who was kind enough to buy me my first pro account a few years ago,i then was a virtual stranger to her. Chamina is getting married this January and sadly i am unable to go to her wedding because i am not going home this christmas.All the very best to her and her fiance!

Overall flickr is an extremely wonderful tool which is very encouraging and has served me as a learning tool, and it is a much more happy forum to be in than a blogosphere which can turn out to be vicious.

Happy Holidays!

Community building I designed.

2008-12-22T16:55:00.012Z

I am still awaiting the grades for this design project i submitted last Friday. I will be getting my grades only after the new year. Anyway the following exterior and interior images give a glimpse of how it looks. It is placed in a very rough area in newcastle where unemployment is rampant hence the high rates of anti social behaviour.

As a result the building is of a robust design for sustainability and long life, a community centre has to reflect the history of the place and hence many design elements of the building take precedence from historical and cultural influences of the area, for instance the use of brick from derelict and fire burnt houses in the vicinity.

As much as possible i have refrained from using artificial energy during the daytime and have made maximum provisions for natural and artificial ventilation. Balconeys have been used as shading devices. The Site is perched on a hill with a panoramic view of scotswood bridge, and the intention is that it would project itself as a beacon to the vehicular movement by the bridge when it is lit up in the night.

Front Elevation.

Exterior Perspective.

Interior Perspective of main seating area and circulation space.

Many of my friends argued that having a large area of glazing would be very tempting and vulnerable to an anti social behaviour, but if the community building was very much integrated in the activities of the community and was very much a tool that engages every sector in the community in a cohesive integrated social framework it would mitigate anti social sentiments. Even though the 3D's dont reflect this,louvers are in provision to protect the building from summer time overheating.

Anyway my 3Ds need more working on, but i personally was content with my approach to the project. Would appreciate your comments and criticism.

Cheers!

This man can spit!

2008-12-22T13:25:00.003Z

I know there are people who put the fire brigade to shame when they spit! but this man in the picture is some spitter! I took this image during one of our many family outings when i was at home, he probabaly is a mahout and took a dip in the water while his elephant was having a wash. Click image to see large!

Shoes thrown at Bush have been traced to Pakistan!

2008-12-20T12:34:00.005Z

The pair of shoes thrown at Mr.Bush has been traced to Pakistan, reporters claim.

The journalist had visted pakistan 20 years ago where he held secret talks with the Cobblers liberation Islamic Party (CLIP) a notorious organisation known for its lethal shoe throwing tactics. He is said to have been trained by this organisation to conduct shoe based warfare. He is said to have had alliances with Richard Reid who was arrested attempting to bomb a plane with explosive substances found in his shoe.

The DNA sample of leather has revealed that the animal whose skin was
used for manufacturing the shoe had traces of grass which is grown in north
of Pakistan and this skin was collected by a Jihadi organization on
Eid-ul-Adha.

A country wide operation against all cobblers is now deeply in swing in pakistan.

Ministry of Indigenous medicine to grow its own Weed!

2008-12-17T02:45:00.004Z

Well heres a story!! the governemnt is to grow its own weed!

Now where will all these culminate at! Apparently the ministry of Indigenous medicine is to grow its own Marijuana, and that too 4000 kg a year on a 20 acre farm!

Bob Marley must be hating himself for being jamaican! why oh why couldnt he have been born here when we are starting (at least planning)to legally grow it! albeit the fact that at the moment they are getting some stocks from the courts of law, because there are people who grow this cannabis illegally and they have been raided by the police!

Talk about starting a new venture with an even newer type of capital!

A shoe in hand is worth two in a bush!

2008-12-15T20:55:00.004Z

This is quite amusing. There is now a flickr group where pictures of shoes have to be posted to commemorate shoes being thrown at George Bush. Its interesting how people find so many ways of articulating there emotions, and a flickr group of all things! and that too about shoes!

May be the journalists shoes can become a collectors item! imagine it being in a museum titled "a boot in hand is worth two in a bush".

Who knows, Nike may design a shoe to match the style. I am sure there will be quite an amount of anti bush folks willing to buy them.

pic.

Hitler wanted a united Eid!

2008-12-07T07:07:00.007Z

Hitler very badly wanted to celebrate his birthday! But there was confusion as to when Eid was in Muslim countries and he had a big problem in deciding what to do or whether his birthday will be celebrated in the right fashion in Muslim countries, check the Video Hilarious!

Over the past decade intensely (and even longer in a not so intense way) there has been controversy about the date that Eid should be celebrated on. Technically if the crescent was sighted and there are two independent witnesses then Eid can be celebrated, and if anyone was fasting on that day he should break his fast.

The Theologians back at home have this notoriety for procrastinating the announcement of Eid, and more often than not folks at home end up celebrating Eid a day after the correct day according to the Islamic Calender.

Some people who realise this celeberate the festival on the correct day according to the Islamic Calender and defy the verdict of the theologians, and some others wait for the verdict of the theologians before they celeberate. Perhaps the folks who celeberate Eid irrespective of the verdict may be celeberating on the correct date, but i for one celeberate with the Majority simply because there should not be two eids and it should not reflect disunity in the community. This is a very controversial and deep issue and i am underqualified to comment. Bottomline, i am not an "international pora" as those who celeberate early are identified as.

Check this Video! btw the video doesnt feed into my facebook, so if you are seeing this in my fb page you will have to view original post, the video is worth it.

Wish everyone a Peaceful and Joyous Eid. !

Sunset in Galle

2008-12-04T00:57:00.005Z

So this is what really happens!!

2008-12-03T23:05:00.003Z

Interesting cartoon about what may perhaps be happening inside a crisis management team, by virtue of the eventual blunders that many a crisis management has done in the past.

Doing another all nighter! looming deadlines are getting to me, not like me to keep posting anothers handiwork,but just cant be asked to blog about anything these days! submissions! damn!

Why did the Chicken cross the road? Ask the Sarkozy this time!

2008-11-30T19:14:00.002Z

Indian News Channels: Breaking News! Chicken crossed the road! Tune into our special show about it at 9 pm tonight.

Nicolas Sarkozy: Ze cheeckeen? Where? Where? Perhaps my Carla would like eet!

Atal Bihari Vajpayee: The chicken *pause of 10 seconds* crossed *pause of 15 seconds* the road *pause of 20 seconds* because *indefinite pause*...

Arjun Singh: Now, all these privileged upper caste chickens won’t have monopoly over crossing the road. 49.5% of the road is reserved henceforth for the OBC/SC/ST chickens. (If we have our way, the upper caste chickens will soon be banned from crossing the roads altogether.)

The Supreme Court of India: Aye, aye, aye! But butter-y, cream-y chickens are not allowed to have a share in that 49.5%.

Yousuf Gilani: Let’s get back to our old whining. No compromise on Kashmir. The chicken question is secondary, you territory-grabbing Indians! And anyway, our chicken has already been outed from power.

The Taliban: It was a female chicken and without a burqa and a male relative. We will not answer the question but there is going to be a public stoning of that chicken.

John F. Kennedy: Ich bin ein Chickenliner.

Voltaire: I don’t agree with the chicken crossing the road but I will defend to death its right to cross it.

Sartre: Because it had found out that “Hell is other people” and hence, it was escaping. Now, shut up and let me kiss ma belle Simone.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: I have a dream. It is to see the chicken cross the road without being questioned.

Le Corbusier: It was checking out my beautiful little Chandigarh’s 90-degrees road planning.

William Wordsworth: It wanted to wander lonely as a cloud.

Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death.

Pablo Neruda: To sing a song of despair.

Hamlet: To cross or not to cross is the real question.

Caesar: Et tu, chick?

Robert Frost: Because it wanted to cross The Road Less Travelled and to make all the difference.

Rudyard Kipling: If you can cross the unforgiving road/ With(in) sixty seconds’ worth of distance run/ Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it/ And – which is more – you’ll be a Chicken, my son!

Edgar Allan Poe: Ghastly, grim, and ancient chicken, wandering while crossing a road and more/...../Quoth the chicken, “Nevermore”.

Douglas Adams: 42.

Marvin, the Paranoid Android: Chickens! Don’t talk to me about chickens! You can loathe them or ignore them but you can’t like watching them cross the road.

Voldemort: Who the hell cares about a chicken, you foolish, filthy Muggle? Avada Kedavra!

Luna Lovegood: It was not a chicken. My Daddy told me that it was a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Grindelwald and the 17-year old Dumbledore: For the Greater Good.

Plato *copying the two wizards*: Yes, I put my bet on that too. For the Greater Good it is!

The Agnostic: The chicken, if that’s what it really was, crossed the road, if that’s what it really crossed - if it crossed at all - to uh... hmmm... I don’t know!

The Atheist: I don’t believe there ever was a chicken. I don’t even believe there ever was a road. Neither of them existed. This is a trap!

The Paranoid: Why are you asking me? No, why are you asking me? How should I know? Really! And why do you want to know?

Blonde/Sardar(ni)/Drenched: She was in what? You know, the chick... what was the chick in? Without that information, I can’t tell anything.

The Creepy Old Man of KFC (what’s his name?): Chicken? Damn! We missed one?

Amitabh Bachchan/Shah Rukh Khan: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: It did it by mistake; B: It was forced to do so; C: It wanted to meet its family standing on the other side of the road; D: It wasn’t a chicken at all.

(K)Ekta Kapoor: Kyunki (k)chicken (k)bhi kabhi (k)egg (k)tha.

Mallika Sherawat: After having lived in such an oppressive environment where it had no rights, the chicken finally broke free and is now exposing itself to the world by crossing the road. It’s not a hypocrite like all others.

Australian Press: Just like the Indian Cricket Team, the Indian chickens are also ill-mannered and rude. [Four pages dedicated to slandering the Indian chickens.]

Elvis Presley: It was walking to the Jailhouse Rock.

Bob Dylan: How many roads must a chicken cross before it can stop being questioned? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

John Lennon: You may say the chicken is a dreamer, but it’s not the only one.

The Beatles: Because it was tired of sitting on a cornflake and waiting for the van to come.

Pink Floyd: On the day the wall came down, the chickens threw the coop locks onto the ground, and with beaks high, they raised a cry, for freedom had arrived.

Led Zeppelin: To reach the stairway to heaven on the other side.

Hilarious! i found this here.

In Solidarity with the people of Mumbai

2008-11-28T21:28:00.003Z

The events in Mumbai have left most of us shocked and dismayed over the narrow mindedness and myopia of the perpetrators of these heinous acts. Our hearts and prayers are with our indian brothers and sisters at this time of distress.

Let me say something here, such a sophisticated and meticulously planned onslaught cannot be implemented by any one (irrespective of who or what they may be called) without the aid and or connivance of people in the higher echelons of power.I have not been following this story due to looming submission deadlines, but from what i gather this level of planning is impossible without support from people who know the system.And i am no conspiracy theorist. At this point natural inclination would be to say i am wrong, but only time will tell.

RantingsbyMM has also blogged about this with a link to a petition which can be signed.

Peace!

The two drunkards - An Economic analysis.

2008-11-26T09:12:00.004Z

Seen two druncards high on arrack? they would walk with one hand on the others shoulder and the other hand waving about for balance. They will always stagger but will never fall, but when one falls he pulls the other who is depending on him down as well.

Type the word globaliZation on google and 19,400,000 hits come up, try the word globaliSation 6,290,000 hits come up. There is a very distinct irony in this. Globali-s/z-ation has failed to globalis/ze the very word which manifests its ideals.

Economics is not my area of expertise, but it is something that has always interested and enticed me albeit my relative ignorance on the subject.

An Indian economist M.R.Venkatesh speaks about the global economy and stresses on very pertinent issues, globalisation, the family system, the imminent crash of the dollar and global economic/military domination.

He speaks about how vital the institution of family is for the growth of a nations economy, it may perhaps be the very facet that decides if a nations economy is a savings economy or a consumption economy. I spoke about how the disintegration of the family inevitably results in added and more often unnecessary consumption here .

So much so that he assures the sustenance of the Indian Economy as long as the Institution of Family is deeply rooted in the Indian social fabric, he has a very simple and correct argument, lets not go into economic jargon and avoid serious terms dealing with national fiscal policies. He speaks about how the lady in the house manages the economy at home by protecting the family from over consumption and hence avoiding wastage, therefore the family is secure from the banes of unnecessary expenses and the home economy goes at a steady pace, and the safety of all family economies would result in the direct security of the national economy, simpy by avoiding waste.

The family is so vital to the global economy that it is not spoken about in Economic text books. As he says himself this is not another video bashing America's fiscal policies, but he claims to want to save america from its own undoings and the banes of globalization.

There is a very simple comprehensive explanation on the current sub-prime and mortgage crisis, and how today's economy is run by pure speculation as opposed to substance at hand.

He speaks of how the mighty Russia once was and claims that in 1991 people in russia had to wait for 48 hrs to get a loaf of bread, such was its decline, and he predicts the imminent crash of the American might if this economic trend continues.

The title of this post - the two drunkards- refers to The american and chinese economies being inter-dependent. Whilst china is happy to produce domestic goods and sell to america and thereby boost their dollar reserves, the americans are happy to not produce day to day items such as domestic appliances and keep buying them from china, the two economies will stagger and fluctuate when one has its turbulence, but they support each other. But when one economy fails it pulls down the other.

The beauty of the Indian economy is such that it is a savings economy relative to America and a consumption economy relative to China, that is its expenditure is with responsibility and only when necessary.

My seemingly negative rhetoric towards the capitalist ideologies doesnt mean that i am a proponent of socialist thought, i am just an outsider who is unwilling to embrace entirely either one of them, this is not to say btw that neither system has no good.

A very good video to watch, a definite eye opener.

Coy yet Mischievous

2008-11-25T23:12:00.005Z

One of my favourite captures.