Sri Lanka X

It's a shame the Sri Lanka government didn't act on the warnings they recieved about this attack.

Besides "colonialism stuff!", what, specifically, did they do to make this happen?

English created the conflicts in both Myanmar & Sri Lanka by displacing locals & bringing in agricultural workers en masse.

For many years Rangoon and not New York was the biggest port of immigration.

After that, the colonial legal infrastructure they left gave precedence to foreign Imperialist colonizing religions like Christianity instead of protecting indigenous communities and beliefs.

All the famines, kidnapping kids for Oxford 'education' or crocodile hunting etc. Come after.

I have gotten to know several people from Sri Lanka over the years. However I never got involved in the problems from there and stayed away from asking them about it.

All I really remember at this moment is that their food is delicious, their names use four syllables or more, and they eat dinner very late (I hate that one sorry)

The National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ; Arabic: جماعة التوحيد الوطنية‎; Jamā‘at at-Tawḥīd al-Waṭanīyah, "National Monotheism Organization") have been implicated in the bombings.

cco wrote:

It's a picky bunch of jihadists who, in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country where the largest religious minority group is Hindu, go after the small Christian minority. Not saying it's necessarily untrue, but it seems odd.

I don't think the location country necessarily means more than that there were violent extremists there to do the deed in a place they understood well. It is possible that they wanted to reignite conflict in this country. It is also possible that they could not pull it off easily elsewhere. If the extremists are local, their interests will be as well.

The argument about colonialism can be made in part by the fact that it affected everything. There is nothing significant in former colonies that would not be affected -- almost always deeply negatively -- by colonialism. It is likely that colonialism is not the most proximate cause but it is a secondary cause, or an environment that prevented the country from being strong enough to repel the degree of breakdown. But we have to acknowledge that this could happen in coutries that were not colonies as well. Even there colonialism can be a factor though.

In any case I entirely support the link, even if it is not the principle proximate cause (what made it happen here and now). I won't go through the specualtion about how extremism was affected by colonialism by I think that is an argument to consider.

Given that Christians are the minority but also the religion associated with colonialism this raises the chances that colonialism was related to the rationale.

 

JKR wrote:

cco wrote:

It's a picky bunch of jihadists who, in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country where the largest religious minority group is Hindu, go after the small Christian minority. Not saying it's necessarily untrue, but it seems odd.

Jihadists seem to have a broad international perspective. It seems to me that they view Jews and Christians as being their greatest adversaries.

Without condoning them, it is easy to see why. Too many aggressive to the Muslim world hold out these two religions as their guide. Perhaps real secularism from the aggressors would be less likely to make those religions a target. I am not blaming the victims at all but their selection as targets are also not random.

The pressure is always on Muslims to disavow what is done that is terrible in the name of Islam. That is a problematic point but the same issue exists for Christians in particular, there are not enough denials of support for what is done in the name of Jesus Christ. It puts Christians in greater danger. Aggressive bible thumpers in the US with big bombs are not going unnoticed.

The NTJ was previously known for defacing statues of the Buddha - an attack on the majority faith. 

Targeting Christians may be a sign that this attack is internationally coordinated and supported, if NTJ is in fact responsible. Or it may be  as ign that Christianity, and tourist hotels, are linked to a feeling that they are where power lies globally - with the “crusaders” and colonialists and the wealthy in the top hotels. 

This is unfair to Sri Lankan Christians, of course, who have striven to be a church of the poor, but it could still be the perception. 

Muslims are about 10% of Sri Lanks’s population and have been respressed rather badly as Sri Lankan Sinhala/Buddhist nationalism has been on the rise - especially linked to the war against the Tamil minority. (Remember Tamil protests shutting down Toronto highways a few years back when the war was on?) 

The ethnic tensions are of course a colonial legacy, but Sinhala nationalism is an indigenous development. Tamil-Canadian writer Shyam Selvadurai has written evocatively on this point in fictional form. 

A useful explainer: http://theconversation.com/sri-lanka-has-a-history-of-conflict-but-the-recent-attacks-appear-different-115815

voice of the damned wrote:

Sean wrote:

Without condoning them, it is easy to see why. Too many aggressive to the Muslim world hold out these two religions as their guide. Perhaps real secularism from the aggressors would be less likely to make those religions a target.

Well, according to the government of the PRC and its supporters, China is currently being menaced by violent Muslim fndamentalists in Xinjiang province and elsewhere. Hard to think of a more secular bunch of people than the Chinese Communist Party, and to the extent that they are promoting any religion at all, it's certainly not any variation of colonial Christianity.

China has a conflict with Muslims in its NW province. I am sure that you are not suggesting that anyone talk about it as there will be a flood as this is a topic we would not be allowed to explore here.

I will say that just becuase there is a conflict does not mean that all conflicts are related. this does not negate the colonial roots of most other religious conflicts in the world.

It is also not implausible that colonialism is related and in more ways than one in the case of China. China has a colonial past, its border regions have a colonial past along with neighbours. I am not going to explore further any colonial relationship to this issue in China but it would not surprise me to find some people could do that successfully. There are extremely good reasons to link much of China's behaviour and concerns to past colonialism.

In my opinion China is a country that suffers from ongoing PTSD from its colonial past. Colonialism in China involved dismembering the country, weakening it such that it was ripe for attack from a neighbour, crippling it economically, dividing it, subjecting its people to second class status. China was colonized by several European countries, Japan and the US. It is a very strong thread running through what is going on now. I would argue that regardless of the reasons for China's present actions, colonialism as an influence that would not be that far away. When China reaches for supremacy in anything and is ultra aggressive about its unity, avoiding the past humiliation is a frequent explanation. Further, Japan stated that foreign imperialism was the reason for its own aggression.

Do not think that much in Asia cannot be traced back in some way to the experience of colonialism and the after effects of it.

 

Yes indeed. 

A useful description of Sri Lanka's ethnic and religious make-up, with maps, at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/23/world/asia/sri-lanka-isis-religious-ethnic-tensions-map.html?smid=tw-share

I don't normally link the NYT, but the maps are good. 

Some of us are acutely aware of the genesis of 'Islamic terrorism' and who primarily supports, encourages and weaponizes it for its own purposes.  Good to see an American politician of their chief sponsor  recognize it as well. I see Islamic State has claimed responsibility and I expect we will see more of these jihadi proxy actions as part of a 'pivot to Asia'...

"Trump/Pence continue to try to hide the truth from their Christian supporters - the terrorist attacks on Christians/Christian churchs in Sri Lanka and elsewhere are inspired by the extremist Saudi ideology that Saudi Arabia spends billions propagating worldwide."

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1121025866501279744

Summing up

The country’s serious foreign debt problem makes the external financial position very vulnerable. The massive debt repayment obligations of over US$ 5 billion this year by further borrowing increase the debt burden and the external financial vulnerability. The indebtedness to China is a low proportion of foreign debt that has been borrowed at low interest cost and with a long period for repayment.

Here is good article taken from The Sunday Times, a Sri Lankan weekly paper.

https://www.veriteresearch.org/2019/02/18/sri-lanka-debt-is-china-to-blame/

Sri Lanka Protests Turn Deadly as President Leaves Maldives for Singapore

In Sri Lanka, one person was killed and scores of others injured after police used tear gas and water cannons to attack anti-government protests in the capital, Colombo. This comes after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country for the Maldives on Wednesday, where he was met with protests; he has reportedly since left the Maldives aboard a Saudi airplane bound for Singapore, though it’s not clear whether that’s his final destination. Rajapaksa promised to resign by Wednesday but has not yet done so.

NDPP wrote:

US Fingerprints Found Behind Sri Lanka Unrest

https://youtu.be/Ysy6qrXi0m0

Evidence is emerging segments of the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka are funded and backed by the US, serving US interests...

Thanks for the link. I hadn't noticed this guy before, but I find him quite credible, and I've subscribed to his channel.

Just had a thought, often this sort of instability can have ripple effects throughout a society, and magnify pre existing fracture lines.  I wonder if this will have any effect on the Sinhalese Tamil conflict. It was never entirely settled.

I regularly marched with the Tamils in a hopeless attempt to incite support and solidarity for them against the genocide which ensued. All I remember in response were the irritated calls for police action by Toronto drivers upset at the delays.

Check out those earlier hair-raising threads here and then compare the desultory response with the ferocious support enjoyed by Nato-nazified Ukraine now.

..more from above.

Citizens’ Movement

What is the nature and identity of the citizens’ movement that knows itself, and is known in society, as the Janatha Aragalaya? It is extremely vigilant in being recognised as ‘non-party’ (nirpakshika), that is unaffiliated to any political party or indeed ideology. This is novel in a society where political parties across the ideological spectrum have been vehicles of social protest or quick to appropriate such protests. In fact, its point d ’honneur is that it rejects all parties represented in parliament, as to blame for lost opportunities over 74 years since decolonisation in 1948. It takes pride in being non-violent (samakami) – not insignificant in terms of popular acceptance when Sri Lanka has thrice experienced armed youth uprisings since 1971. From the beginning there have been clear messages of opposition to racism, understood belatedly and still incompletely, as having been used by the ruling class to divide people on the basis of their ethnicity (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim) and religion (Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Christian).

It has no dominant leader or identifiable spokesperson, coalescing a variety of backgrounds and interest groups bound by their distaste for Gotabaya (‘Gota’) Rajapaksa and his family; but also their determination to effect what they call “system change” – correcting structural defects in the political system including the concentration and centralisation of power in the presidency; the nomination and election of political representatives; and a new constitution to replace the 1978 one based on vesting executive powers in the office of the president.

It is neither critic nor advocate of capitalism or even neoliberalism. At most, there is attachment to the free health and education services and social programmes that are what remains of Sri Lanka’s welfare state. But mostly, the movement mirrors the mainstream in its adaptation to, and normalisation of economic liberalisation: deregulated markets, prices fixed by cartels, privatisation, foreign capital, and export-driven growth.

Often described as ‘middle-class’ and of ‘youth’ – and not positively – these categories are not exact in their application in Sri Lanka, nor accurate in all contexts. The social composition of the main permanent site of protest known as ‘GotaGoGama’ (‘GotaGoVillage’) adjacent to the President’s Office) is largely Sinhala and Buddhist, their ages ranging in the main from the early 20s to the early 40s, and drawn from the self-employed and aspiring professionals, but also working-class youth and students from lower middle-class homes. It is mostly male but with better representation and visibility of women than is to be found in trade unions and on the Left. Volunteers and visitors are drawn from all ethnic communities, genders, sexualities, and faiths, and older people including long-time activists energised by this unique and unprecedented movement.

This citizens’ movement does not begin and end where it is most concentrated and visible at Galle Face Green in the heart of British colonial-era Colombo. There are also permanent encampments in other cities and towns: Anuradhapura, Badulla, Galle, Gampola, Jaela, Kandy, Kurunegala, Matara, Monaragala, Negombo and Ratnapura. Beyond these, this movement includes the way in which it began: small scale protests by people who gather every evening or weekly in their neighbourhoods to hold placards, wave the national flag, and chant anti-government slogans. In each place, the crowd varies by class, ethnic and religious origin.

Its beginnings are from late February, when a handful of co-workers and friends in a suburb of Colombo, fed-up by lengthening power-cuts and shortages of essentials, staged small silent candle-lit vigils for an hour or two each evening. Inspired by this example and looking for ways of expressing their frustration with the government, more people from around Colombo joined this action. They were encouraged to begin similar ones in their own neighbourhoods.

By late March, there were many such vigils taking place, attracting media attention, and following the same format of holding candles or flashing torchlights to symbolise the darkness in homes from power outages; and with self-made placards blaming the government and especially then Finance Minister (and younger brother to the President) Basil Rajapaksa as well as then Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal for their mismanagement of the economy.....

Musicians have stepped up to give us the soundtrack to this revolution.

In the midst of all of this, as a curator, I was working with two underground musicians on a music video to be launched on a new platform for music from the fringes of Sri Lanka. They are OJ Da Tamil Rapper and Bo Sedkid. In November, 2021, OJ had written the lyrics for the song “Wake Up” that addressed the country’s rapidly deteriorating condition and the looming crisis. It wasn’t until June 22, 2022, that we were able to release it, once the music video was fully animated. The visuals capture the energy of the protest movement, while the words express the plight of the people, urging them to wake up. And surely enough, they did indeed wake up..... 

Zany Inzane X Bo Sedkid - Eka Gamanak

Zany Inzane, one of Sri Lanka’s rising Sinhala rappers, collaborated with Bo Sedkid to release “Eka Gamanak” (One Journey) on April 16, 2022. He pleads, “End this suffering. I can’t bear to witness this.” He called for the end of the racism that had been used by the Rajapaksas to divide citizens.

The song was performed at the GotaGoGama protest village, with a music video by Riyal Riffai and Muvindu Binoy capturing vibrant moments from the site. We see Pride flags waving among the Sri Lankan flag, and Muslims bowing down to prayer: images of a unity and equality that the most marginalised desperately yearn for.

Protests Continue in Sri Lanka as Ex-PM Picked to Be New President

Sri Lankan lawmakers have voted to elect former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president following last week’s resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after mass protests rocked the country. Wickremesinghe is a six-time former prime minister who was a close ally to the former president. Protesters decried his selection as Sri Lanka’s new leader.
bq. Buwanaka Perera: “I think it’s a sad day, though. It’s a sad day not just for the people of this country, but for all of the world, I guess, because it seems that the entire world is sort of accepting this most unethical manner of leadership, because this is someone who did not win an election. He’s someone who was rejected by the people’s mandate. And then, such a person — how ethical is it for someone like him, let alone lead a government, lead a country, be the head of a state?”

Thread: 1/4 'Testy Exchanges'

https://twitter.com/BhadraPunchline/status/1551151155417600000

"Anglo-Saxon viceroys [including Canada's] put in their place, shown the door! 'Responding to US Ambassador, Wickiremesinghe pointed out that security forces of the US acted in the same manner according to US law to free US Capitol building from protesters..."

True, but as with most arrogant western lecturers, it's do as we say not as we do.