It is actually possible to report and speak out about disappearances, abductions and human rights abuses without supporting the LTTE. Crazy, I know. It’s what Mahinda did during the Premadasa years, to similar abuse. When a top police official like Victor Perera admits that rogue forces are complicit in abductions, I think it’s worth speaking out about.

It is also possible to be against war and still love Sri Lanka. In fact, the government hasn’t abrogated the CFA, so they are technically against war. In fact, all official statements repeatedly state that they are looking for a negotiated settlement. That is why it’s so absurd to demonize people that support the official government policy.

Finally, they make the absurd statement that anyone opposing the war is in it for ‘money, money, money’. Like an ethnic slur, you can toss an accusation like that out but it just looks nonsensical to people that don’t already agree with you. The people I know making money are arms dealers, people in defense procurement, people involved with Mihin Air or the Hambantota Port, or otherwise in the good graces of the government. No one on the fringes protesting about the war is getting ‘money’ from the LTTE or phantom foreign forces. There is no personal money in peace, though it is better for society.

Standing for a negotiated, peaceful settlement is not treason. It is, in fact, a principled and defensible stand as a patriotic Sri Lankan. It is the official stance of our government. It is supported by the international community. It is spoken by our President, though he practices something different. The people who have the courage to say and practice peace are not traitors and they are not by any stretch LTTE. They are Sri Lankan, like you.

• Sri Lanka’s Dirty War
• Media and Violence
• Disappearances of Persons in Sri Lanka
• Mahinda – Better than G.W Bush ?
• A letter to the President on his re-election campaign spending

More recently, this unjournalistic box has taken to echoing the JHU in alluding to people and media that oppose the government as LTTE supporters. This ‘With Us or Against Us’ mentality is both inaccurate and injust, and it’s a shame that it’s being espoused so openly. This government has weakened media through it’s shut-down of CBNSat, re-establishment of monitoring/censorship boards and the firing of Rajpal at the Sunday Observer, but now it is quite bold in its corruption of journalism, in the vicious little slanders on the front page.

• Update on Menik Camp flooding: More images and reports from the ground
• Bob Rae, The Sunday Times and Wikipedia
• Video from second day of Wimal Weerawansa’s fast unto death
• Confusing reportage over comments by the President: Propaganda or fact?
• Significant Other

Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb greeting AHM Aswer

In case you hadn’t noticed, Colombo has been full of men and women in head to toe cloth, white and colored respectively. Nice hats too. These people are obviously Muslim, but I did a bit of reading and they are part of a Shia sect called the Bohra. Their leader Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb, has arrived in Colombo for a ten day ceremony called the Ashara Mubaraka. This influx has almost single-handedly boosted the Colombo tourism industry, filling hotels and guest houses. I’ve also seen Majestic City and Odel full of these guests.

The Prophet Mohammed’s temporal succession involved many schisms in Islam, the most notable being that between Sunni and Shiite. That division hinges on the 1st successor to Mohammed, while the Bohras emerged from another succession dispute, this involving the 9th caliphate. That group split again, with one branch being the Dawoodi Bohra. They are mostly India based, but many live in Sri Lanka. Those are the Bohra that now walk our streets to gather with their leader, Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb.
He is the Imam’s (descendant of Mohammed) vice regent, and Dawoodi Bohras consult him on all manners, spiritual and temporal. They also pay a significant Zakat, or tax, directly to their leader, which is in turn distributed and funds the restoration of mosques, etc. The Bohras emphasis both secular and religious education and have a high proportion of businessmen and professionals above them. They seem pretty cool.

And that is all I got from Wikipedia. Now, rumour wise, these are things that I heard. If anyone can confirm deny them I’d be interested to know.

• That huge fantastic house across from Colombo University bookstore is a private Bohra residence.
• They had ID cards which they scanned at the airport. The cards matched them to the local Bohra houses they were staying with.

• Jaffna People Back To Barter Business
• Sri Lankan Defence Ministry suddenly wakes up to its own propaganda
• A difference of 3 days: V. Anandasangaree on the killing of Tamil civilians in the Vanni
• Exclusive video interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of JVP, in English
• A bizarre polling card: Evidence of a flawed election?

Uniflow is a convincing sounding word for traffic management, and it may even make sense. In Colombo, however, there are few tangible benefits yet. As an example, I was at a Pirate Shack on Galle Road and I wanted to go back to Majestic City, against the flow of traffic. So fine, get onto Duplication, go that direction, and turn off where the signs show a viable reconnect to Galle Road. Over the course of 20 minutes. The medians on Galle Road, however, are still up so I’m stuck on the opposite side of the road and am forced to pass MC entirely. Double back again, spend another 20 minutes, and finally get to back. Via Dickman’s Road. The rub, however, is that I spend 20-25 minutes and clog up kilometers of Duplication Road to get literally 200 meters from where I was. Should’ve just walked.

Worse, the one-way system is random and haphazard. The marking is still the same, so if you turn onto an empty street you have no idea of which way to go. The lanes also suddenly change to two way, which is a bit of a shock if you don’t see it coming. Sometimes Galle Road is one way, sometimes it’s two-way past Temple Trees, and sometimes they close that side and you have opposing traffic coming directly at you.

Also, all my laboriously collected shortcuts are now useless cause nothing makes any sense. I just stick to the main roads because a mistake can end up turning into a 30 minute tour of the city.

Another problem with the confusion is that it necessitates a cop literally every 100 meters. I can’t imagine the outlay, but there are literally hundreds of cops on the street every day. Must be a good time to rob outstation.

One more. As a pedestrian, crossing the street is now totally impossible. Duplication is a case in point. There’s no oasis in the median, it’s just four lanes to cross. There are 4 lanes to cross, but the probability of benevolence is perilously low. I’m scared to cross normally cause even if one guy stops, the guy in the other lane won’t. You pass in front of the kind lady who stopped to get grazed by a van. Now it’s that problem times four. Even at night Duplication is really difficult to cross. What happens is just chaos. Pedestrians flow across all parts of Dupes, in hordes. One car shows a little weakness and suddenly it’s zombies in the street.

• Air raids and airports
• Whose “bomb” is it anyway?
• The Big Stink in Sri Lanka
• Colombo goes under water, and not for the first time
• Bus Terrorism and Justice