Sunday, May 13, 2007
Aren't preventing these worth loosing our rights for?
I hate having to stop at the check points. And I know there are people who face greater difficulties than that because of the security reasons. But I believe that process help prevent at least few of these massacres. Isn't it worth all that? It is for me at least.
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The question is does it really prevent these things from happening?
ReplyDeleteHow effective are the measures taken?
The media blackout raises a lot of questions as well. They tell us that things are going fine, but information is highly restricted and independent analysis is difficult to come by.
They say it is in the interests of security but are they simply trying to hide bad news and cover up for incompetence.
I think we all have a reason to be suspicious. we have had our share of political mafia in this country. We can never trust a politician with no transparency. But even the one's who boasted of transparency seemingly had their own hidden agenda.
ReplyDeleteIt's a battle within whether to believe the current fellows is doing it right or not. But I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.
I think people like us who comment or write these blogs have a certain educational exposure, to questioning and analysing.
ReplyDeleteI am always careful, to ask for data to back certain things up.
For instance, as Jack point suggested, is the depreviation of rights and freedoms in the name of preventing these sorts of massacres, really helping? Sri Lanka has had a history of censorship, state of emergencies or anti terror laws for various reasons. What has it done to help the country? Things have in fact become worse.
In the west, we are now going through the same thing, and people are angry with George Bush, Tony Blair etc. for actually increasing the amount of global terrorism with their war against terror. They claim they are trying to protect us. It hasn't. The Madrid bombing, the London bombing, the Bali bombing, and threats to Australia's internal security. We never had to even think about things like this.
Just look at the numbers of americans who died after 9/11 after Bush's war against terror.
My belief is that politicians are manipulating us into being fearful and suspicious, and now our fears and nightmares are in fact coming true. All it is doing is providing a boom for the arms industry, while more people are dying.
Mahasen:
ReplyDeleteWe can never trust a politician with no transparency. But even the one's who boasted of transparency seemingly had their own hidden agenda.
I agree with that. No politician should be trusted. All politicians holding office should be held accountable. They are in a position of power and accountability and transparency is something that is a given in a democracy. No leader should be exempt from that.
Coming back to what L says, Marc Faber poses the question "Is the US becoming a Banana Republic?" He defines a Banana Republic as
ReplyDelete" a banana republic isn't characterised only by a rotten political system, ruled by a small, wealthy, and corrupt clique...." (this is a fairly standard definition)
and goes onto add
"A banana republic is also characterised by a ruling class that curtails people's personal freedoms and is moving towards a heavyhanded military dictatorship under the excuse of fighting guerrilla (or terrorist) opposition groups or enemies. Moreover, the fact that the ruling class or the elite comes from different political parties isn't a relevant factor in classifying a country as a banana republic; what is relevant is the determination of the elite, irrespective of which party its members belong to, to shift wealth from the majority of the people (the masses) to themselves, usually through simply printing money and incurring chronic budget deficits, and frequently also through senseless warfare."
full article here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/faber2.html
http://oneplusoneceylon.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteAn arithmetical analysis of Lanka politics and people...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/05/070513_monk_killed.shtml
ReplyDeleteA leading Buddhist monk, Handungamuwe Nandarathana thero, was shot dead in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Morawewa, Trincomalee.
The monk has received death threats as he promoted communal harmony
Anyone know the background of this?
LET there be a eelam and let us get our life going as the tamils.
ReplyDeleteHeard some rumors that the monk was in the military before retiring and becoming a monk. Apparently he had been supportive to the people in border villages and thus was constraining LTTE from chasing them from their lands. Don’t have any authenticity on that information though. I shall post information when I receive it from an authentic source.
ReplyDeleteSome thing that could be compared with this incident is the assassination of the head monk of the famous Dimbulagala Forest monastery. The sole reason for his assassination was that he stood as a leader to the society and helped in their need, thus depriving LTTE from occupying their land by scaring them away.
Thanks Mahasen. He seems to have had an unusual background. Must admit I instinctively became suspicious when I read he was an ex-army officer. ie was he a spy. But I should know the facts before making such a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI found Jack Point's and Lanka Personalitie's links quite interesting.
There's no evidence to say he was a spy, more likely he saw the impermanence of life while in the army and wanted to be away from all the killings.
ReplyDeleteArmy could be a real eye opener to the fact that existence is neither permanent nor could be controlled, thus is an eternal suffering.
Army wouldn't dare to disguise spies as monks. Regardless of whether they practice Buddhism or not, every Sinhalese still has enough honor left towards the Dhamma to refrain from doing a disgrace like that.
Actually Mahasen, I looked at the news items and at first as I said, I got suspicious when it said ex-army officer. Then I started thinking the way you describe it...ie being an army officer he would have seen so much killing and destruction. Because the reports said that he was fluent in both languages and was trying to forge some sort of peace between the communities and got death threats for doing this.
ReplyDeleteSorry if it sounded offensive. Was trying to be honest and say what I was feeling even though I knew that it wasn't fair to assume something without knowing the facts. Unfortunately, like the sinhalese who are afraid of terrorist attacks, we have also had bad experiences with buddhist priests who have incited racial hatred so we tend to be suspicious of them. The most well known one was the man who shot SWRD. Anyway, I hope soon in the future, things will be different and we won't have these fears and the paranoia will start getting less.
That's alright L, no hard feelings.
ReplyDelete