The Sri Lankan government is doing a very good job of re-writing history at the moment. I have seen evidence in the Canadian press that people think "Tamils are terrorists" etc. The French company Ubisoft is producing a computer game in which you can hunt terrorists in Sri Lanka [1]. I wonder how many of those 'terrorists' will be dressed in Sri Lankan army, navy or air-force uniforms. The Sri Lankan armed forces have a long history of rape and mass murder and racist violence against Tamil people in Sri Lanka prevailed long before Tamil terrorism emerged [2]. Somehow I doubt those realities are going to be portrayed in the computer game, so this generation of gamers will grow up thinking Tamils are terrorists and the Sri Lankan armed forces are heroes. If you want to see the kind of religious extremism and racism Tamil people face, you only need look on the internet. Some examples are included in this blog.
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| A fake Tamil profile on the wall of: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43859695674 probably set up by a Sinhalese Nationalist to make Tamil people look like idiots. |
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| Chaaminda Wijekoon implying that Tamil Nadu is populated by savages: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamil-Nadu-history-is-a-disgrace-to-Hinduism/353953823732 |
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| Claiming that Sinhalese people are Aryan: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tamil-Nadu-history-is-a-disgrace-to-Hinduism/353953823732?v=wall |
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Claiming that the Buddhist religion could not survive without the Sinhalese race: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=72170069437 |
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| Homophobic racist obsenities: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamil-Nadu-history-is-a-disgrace-to-Hinduism/353953823732?v=wall |
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| Comments on www.youtube.com stating that Tamil women are too ugly to rape, and should be sterilised so that they cannot have children. |
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| Various fake profiles set up by armchair-warriors to hurl abuse on a group wall: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2215400217 |
I have also received various personal threats and attacks for speaking out on this issue:
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| A sick reference to the murder of 3000 Tamil people by a racist mob in 1983: http://www.blackjuly.info/ from a profile with a fake name: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000098712823 |
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| Another immature threat accusing me of being a member of a terrorist group simply because I am Tamil: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000307926422 |
All of this is due to an underlying Sinhalese Nationalist psyche pushing the Sinhalese language and the Buddhist religion while treating all other Sri lankans as outsiders, based on the belief that Tamil people are inferior. |
| Chamara Senaratna claiming that "Tamil society is rather a backward society": http://te-in.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2201225225&topic=7696 |
Many people believe the solution is do deny what is going on and blame Western Christians for the short-comings of Sri Lanka putting full support behind the president despite his megalomaniac oppressive regime.
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A wall post here: http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=130764207002 about this video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/07/ctw.anderson.intv.alston.cnn
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If you were Tamil, would you like to live in Sri Lanka?
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References:
1. Loewenstein A. (2010) Thank you Ubisoft for backing Colombo’s war crimes. Available from: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/08/18/thank-you-ubisoft-for-backing-colombos-war-crimes/ Accessed: 13:44 25/8/2010
2. Jivan (undated) Occupational Alienation: a personal perspective. Available from: http://www.metaot.com/blog/occupational-alienation-personal-perspective Accessed: 13:47 25/8/2010
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