#Mullaitivu

[todaytamilnews]

மல்லாவியில் துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு - இளைஞர் உயிரிழப்பு

முல்லைத்தீவு மல்லாவி காவல்துறைப் பிரிவிற்குட்பட்ட பாலிநகர் பகுதியில் உள்ள வீடொன்றில் சிலர் நுழைந்து நடத்திய துப்பாக்கிச் சூட்டில் இளைஞர் ஒருவர் உயிரிழந்துள்ளார். இதேவேளை துப்பாக்கிச் சூட்டுக்கு இலக்கான  பாலிநகர் மல்லாவி பகுதியைச் சேர்ந்த 23 வயதுடைய இளைஞர் சம்பவ இடத்திலேயே உயிரிழந்துள்ளார்.  நீதவான் விசாரணைக்காக சடலம் சம்பவம் இடம்பெற்ற இடத்தில் காவல்துறையின் பாதுகாப்பில்…

[herpsandbirds]

Coppersmith Barbets (Psilopogon haemacephalus), T - male, B - female w/ chick, family Megalaimidae, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka

photographs by Dr.Shanthamenan Wildlife photographer

[mutant-distraction]

Indian Brown Mongoose.

Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka.

Picture: @Dr.Shanthamenan Wildlife photographer

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.18

1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle. 1966 – A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order. 1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California. 1970 – An Antonov An-22 of the Soviet Air Forces crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 20 aboard. 1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics. 1981 – A Canadair CL-44 and Sukhoi Su-15 collide in mid-air near Yerevan, Armenia, killing four. 1982 – Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre. 1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police. 1992 – A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web. 1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300. 1994 – Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide. 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee. 1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever. 1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1,200 soldiers. 2002 – A Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer crashes near Estes Park, Colorado, killing both crew members. 2012 – At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria. 2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant requires Christians to either accept dhimmi status, emigrate from ISIL lands, or be killed. 2019 – A man sets fire to an anime studio in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens of others.

[srilankanews]

Forces on alert to stop Tamils from commemorating LTTE members who died in conflict

The security powers have been put fully on guard in the northern and eastern districts to counter endeavors to recognize Freedom Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) individuals killed in the contention for a Tamil country, in front of the fifteenth commemoration of the conflict's end. Occasions to respect the LTTE are arranged in spite of preclusions and uplifted observation.

Security powers have been organized to stop the celebration of the LTTE individuals who were killed in the contention for a different country for minority Tamils, a security force was conveyed in front of the commemoration of the long-drawn fight's end.

The fight began in 1983 and was finished by the country's tactical killing of the heads of the LTTE in 2009. Albeit the military ruled against sending troops, an extraordinary team of the military and the police would watch out for the conceivable LTTE remembrances from Wednesday to May 20.

According to the wellsprings of safety powers, the favorable to LTTE writing was seen circling at a few memorial occasions and there were endeavors for the restoration of the LTTE, which is under prohibition globally including adjoining nation India.

The police have rigorously declared that anybody seen attempting to recognize the LTTE would be captured. Be that as it may, Tamil political and privileges bunches say the occasions arranged are to recognize their friends and relatives, who kicked the bucket in the tedious clash since the mid-1970s.

In Mullaitivu, the site of the last fight, the really dedicatory occasion is set to occur at Vellamullivaikkal oceanfront. In Tamil-overwhelmed Jaffna, college and common gatherings started 'Mullivaikkal week' on May 11, highlighting blood gift crusades in memory of the people who died. Porridge was dispersed to review the pitiful apportions regular people got while caught during the furious fights between the LTTE and government powers in Mullaitivu.

Police revealed the capture of four people, including three ladies, in Sampur for resisting a court request that boycotts LTTE recognitions. The LTTE had worked as an equal organization in pieces of the northern and eastern locales until May 2009. The furnished struggle finished up on May 19, 2009, when LTTE pioneer Velupillai Prabakaran's body was found in the Mullaivaikkal tidal pond.

Verifiable between ethnic lopsided characteristics between the Sinhalese and Tamil populaces are asserted to have made the setting for the rise of the LTTE.

Post-autonomy Sri Lankan state run administrations tried to diminish the expanded portrayal of Tamils in government positions, prompting ethnic separation and troublesome arrangements, for example, the "Sinhala Just Demonstration" and hostility to Tamil mobs. These actions encouraged disdain and nonconformist belief systems among numerous Tamil chiefs. By the 1970s, the at first peaceful political battle for a free Tamil state developed into a vicious secessionist uprising led by the LTTE.

[mercymedia83]

⚠️ SRILANKA MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENT !! MINISTRIES AT SRILANKA(Batticaloa/Vavuniya/Mullaitivu) | MARCH 3-20 Kindly contact us for more details: +91-9345353730 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - https://www.youtube.com/@mercyarkchurch https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086819356914 #srilanka #srilankatravel #srilanka🇱🇰 #mercyarkchurch #mercymedia #mercyark #live #holyspirit #miracle #anointing #mercychurch #worship #music #march #2023 #worshipmusic #sunday (at Sri Lanka) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co_urHYS6bO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[exithamster]

This feels like time travels into the 80ies. When shells used to cover beaches... #planetorplastic #srilanka #mullaitivu #exithamster #natgeo #lonelyplanet #natgeoyourshot #srilankadaily #srilankatrip #beach #shellisland @srilanka @wonderlust.srilanka @srilankainstyle @srilankadaily #srilankatrip (at Chundikulam, Sri Lanka) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByQ23YsoPrw/?igshid=1liei910dg8ng

[lalulutres]

Blue-faced malkoha.

Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka.

[herpsandbirds]

Brown-headed Barbet, Psilopogon zeylanicus, family Megalaimidae, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka

photograph by Dr. Shantamenan

[mutant-distraction]

Dr.Shanthamenan Wildlife photographer

Brahminy kite.

Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.18 (after 1900)

1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time. 1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf. 1942 – World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia. 1942 – The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time. 1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort. 1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle. 1966 – A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order. 1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California. 1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics. 1982 – Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre. 1981 – A Canadair CL-44 and Sukhoi Su-15 collide in mid-air near Yerevan, Armenia, killing four. 1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police. 1992 – A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web. 1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300. 1994 – Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide. 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee. 1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever. 1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1,200 soldiers. 2002 – A Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer crashes near Estes Park, Colorado, killing both crew members. 2012 – At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria. 2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant requires Christians to either accept dhimmi status, emigrate from ISIL lands, or be killed. 2019 – A man sets fire to an anime studio in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens of others.

[eyecache]

@prinita.thevarajah on @southasia.art, 11/11/2019 to 11/19/2019

“Hello, Prinita @prinita.thevarajah here. This week I’ll be sharing my thoughts about Eelam cultural identity formation through Tamil cinema (Kollywood) and the Eelam diaspora.

Eelam Tamils are native to Sri Lanka and constitute the largest diasporic Tamil community outside of India. Not all diasporic Tamils share a collective sense of Tamil identity, though Kollywood has been crucial in marking  and maintaining one’s Tamil identity in the diaspora, especially where Tamil communities often hold minority status. As an Eelam kid in Australia, I often looked towards Kollywood to shape my understanding of what it meant to be Tamil. The child of Eelam refugees who fled Sri Lanka in the 80s as war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted, ongoing violence carried out against Eelam Tamils halted our community's capacity in developing a 'popular culture’ of it’s own. To be an Eelam Tamil is to be part of a community whose territorial, cultural and ethno-linguistic identity have been so heavily discriminated against to the point of genocide. The trauma of war seeped into our identity formation, and our fragmented diaspora while incredibly resilient, had not one single cultural representation to rely on. So, despite a lack of representation, Kollywood became the pillar that Tamilness sat upon. And while the articulation of Dravidian identity and Tamil nationalism is profound in Kollywood, the struggles of Eelam Tamils fit well within the profound self proclamations of Tamil language, culture and tradition propagated by Kollywood, but solidarity failed to materialize on the screens.

This week I want to explore representations of Eelamness in Kollywood, highlight artists in the diaspora contributing to an Eelam cultural renaissance and ask - what does it mean to re-imagine Eelam popular culture and how can we reclaim our Eelmaness by de-centering Indian ideals of Tamilness?

Despite yearning for a Eelam identity that is whole, I cannot discount the profound impact Kollywood has had on molding me into a proud Tamil. As a child in Sydney, my Appa contributed to Inbathamil Oli (Sweet Sound of Tamil) - a 24 hour Tamil radio station.

He would take me along to spend overnight shifts at the station, and I would listen on fondly to his musings over the air. The theme song for the station was Mettu Podu from the film 1994 Tamil film, Duet. 20 years on, the song still sticks with me as an anthem for the strength, resilience and beauty of the Tamil community.

ஆண் : தங்கமே தமிழுக்கில்லை தட்டுப்பாடு ஒரு சரக்கிருக்குது முறுக்கிருக்குது மெட்டுப் போடு Tamil will never be lacking & I will make music to proclaim it! எத்தனை சபைகள் கண்டோம் எத்தனை எத்தனை பகையும் கண்டோம் அத்தனையும் சூடங்காட்டிச் சுட்டுப் போடு We have seen many fights We have been through many wars Forget them all and be free of them! மெட்டுப் போடு மெட்டுப் போடு என் தாய் கொடுத்த தமிழுக்கில்லை தட்டுப்பாடு Make music, make sound With the tongue of Tamil my mother gave me Tamil will never be lacking

MATERIALIZED AS TRAUMATIZED// Today I want to focus on the representation of Eelam Tamils in Kollywood as one that is flattened without nuance: a people in constant agony and despair, solidifying us in our state of trauma. It is certainly necessary to provide an understanding of the ramifications of genocide for Eelam Tamils. Where historically, our struggle has been erased: the denial of genocide and failure by the international community to intervene or hold the Sri Lankan state accountable for war crimes, the depiction of the plight of Eelam people in Kollywood is assumed to be informative. But I ask, why all trauma and no strength? If Kollywood could make room for us as broken people, why not also portray our vigor and irepressibility? How do we see ourselves as Eelam people when the only representation of us in popular culture is a community that is defeated?

Historically, Kollywood has been uninterested in Tamil diasporic subjects. It's preoccupation has been in the entrenched ideas of Tamil culture, tradition, modernity and ethno-linguistic nationalism. The praxis of Tamil cinema is guided by the everyday practices of Tamil lives in Tamil Nadu and fails to incorporate the question of identity that the diaspora grapples with. Consider that the political struggle of Eelam Tamils heralded a new phase of militant Tamil nationalism, created a society that reformers and poets of Tamil Nadu could only imagine, and waged a war for liberation that was of epic proportions in both triumph and tragedy. It is a grievance that a culture industry in the ‘heart of Tamil civilization’ did not give adequate artistic due in its mainstream medium to an achievement that is claimed by many a Tamil nationalist to have been the ‘height of Tamil civilization’

It’s clear that diasporic Tamil identities are shored up as an anomaly to normative Tamil cinematic identity. Looking closer at the 2000 film Thenali shows the vexed and complex relationship between the Eelam Tamils and those from Tamil Nadu.

Thenali (Kamal Hassan) is an Eelam man from Jaffna. He is a hyper anxious neurotic used by his psychiatrist to derail the career of Dr Kailash. Thenali falls in love with Dr Kailash’s sister, Janaki. The film follows an enraged Dr Kailash’s attempt to eliminate Thenali despite Thenali’s naive quest to please the Dr. Subtle distinctions portray the disparate identity of Eelam Tamils. From the Dr Kailash questioning why Thenali speaks Tamil differently, to Thenali painted as a miserable jest juggling irrational fears as a result of having his home raided by soldiers, his father attacked and mother raped. The film seeks to other Thenali, the traumatized Eelam man who just can’t seem to get it right. Towards the end of the film Dr Kailaish adopts words from the Jaffna dialect, but immediately corrects himself upon realization. If Thenali is the oppressed Eelam Tamil, Dr Kailash is a metonymy for India, whose help Thenali seeks again and again, refusing to see anything wrong in the doctor or his intentions, elevating him to the position of a divine being.

The political history of Tamil Nadu is riddled with moments when the people of Tamil Nadu and the state have been sympathetic to the cause of the Eelam Tamils, resulting in policies allowing Eelam Tamils to stay as refugees and also in offering us financial aid. Much like the fluctuation between compulsions that drive its foreign policy and the sympathy for Tamils expressed in Tamil Nadu, Dr Kailash declares his predicament that he is unable to disclose the thoughts he harbours. At the point when he thinks he is close to eliminating Thenali, he declares, ‘there is no joy in living as in watching destruction’, a statement that resonates deeply with the oft-repeated criticism of the Government of India and Tamil Nadu’s silence in the wake of the Sri Lankan army action in 2009 that resulted in the deaths of 100 000 Eelam Tamils

The film features the song "Injerungo" (slide 5&6) which supposedly includes Jaffna slang - but ask anyone actually from Eelam and they’ll tell you that Kamal Hassan missed the mark almost completely - Eelam kids, what do y’all think

Kannathil Muthamittaal (2002) is probably Kollywood’s most comprehensive take on the human cost and emotional toll endured by Eelam Tamils, complete with visceral descriptions and images of war torn Sri Lanka. The film tells the story of an Eelam girl, Amudha who is adopted by an Indian Tamil couple, and the family’s journey back to Sri Lanka to reacquaint mother and daughter. Her biological parents abandon Amudha to join the ‘rebel cause’ who we can assume is the LTTE. Rather predictably, considering the labeling of the LTTE as a terrorist organization, there is no overt reference made to the group. The rebels are depicted as armed men who speak Jaffna Tamil and the audience are left to form their own interpretation. Much like Thenali remains silent about the cause of Thenali’s oppression, Kannathil Muthamittaal resists making explicit reference to the cause of conflict or parties involved. Expectedly, the film holds arms traffickers responsible for the plight of Eelam Tamils, as opposed to the Sinhalese government, erasing actual genocidal intent since 1948. After visiting the island and witnessing the helplessness of the Eelam people, Amudha and her family return to Tamil Nadu. The underlying message is that the Indian Tamil is both politically and culturally superior and more empowered than the Eelam Tamil.

A common thread in both Kannathil Muthamittall and Thenali is that in the traumatized portrayal of Eelam subjects, Kollywood domesticates Eelam Tamils for an Indian Tamil public. Eelam Tamils are removed of their political agency and are presented as an object of pity. Rather than demanding concrete political solidarity, an abstract humanitarian sentiment is requested. As if to say, “ooh, look how they suffer. Let’s marry them. Or adopt them. Assimilate them into our safe lives. Let us be their providers.” Charity is the gesture appealed for, but there is always something fundamentally depraving in charity.

Tonight I want to make space to think about what it looks like to reimagine and reconstruct an Eelam Tamil cultural identity, away from Indian Tamil ideals.

An accurate portrayal of the political, social and existential condition of the Eelam Tamils is yet to be found in Kollywood. And as Eelam Tamils, we reject being labeled as Sri Lankan as to do so means aligning with the very state that attempted to erase our existence. What does this then mean for our capacity to develop as a people within the island? The North-East of Sri Lanka, the Tamil homeland, is one of the most heavily-militarized regions in the world. Currently, according to the Adayalaam Centre for Policy Research, in the Mullaitivu District - where the last phase of armed conflict was fought - at least 60 000 Sri Lankan army troops are stationed. That’s 25% of the 243 000 military personnel of the whole country. Our people in Eelam are under constant surveillance and control, the military's presence in Eelam facilitates displacement and land grabbing that consequently destabilizes and disrupts the day to day activities of our community. Survival becomes the goal with the preservation and development of culture an understandable after thought.

Considering the impossibility of any free Eelam Tamil cinema developing under the Sri Lankan state, we turn to the diaspora. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide against Eelam people, and as we move into the new decade, it's vital to reflect and consider deeply the history we pave forward as a community. How are we creating stories for ourselves away from the narrow narrative that has been bolstered by Kollywood? How are we reclaiming the identities that the state of Sri Lanka tries to squash daily? At what point do we move away from memorializing genocide to depicting our resilience and expansiveness?

In the pursuit of an Eelam identity that is total, fragmented identities of caste, kinship, class, and region are devalued, uniting diasporic Tamils and strengthening our affinity to ūr. I want to spend the next few days exploring what it looks like to embrace our Eelamness fully as a diasporic people. I believe that in doing the work to understand and articulate ourselves wholly, we as diaspora Eelam Tamils begin to heal the trauma that has trickled down through our bloodlines. Our narrative has a destiny that is full of autonomy, solidarity and collaboration.

HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE/READY/RAW

I begin my imagination on the embodiment of diasporic Eelamness by exploring the legacy of Mathangi/Maya Arulpragasm, M.I.A. Not to revere or glorify, instead to honor and applaud her immense strides to give us visibility while fully embracing the multifaceted and radical notion of being an Eelam Tamil. Maya remains one of the only widely known representations of our community, from our community. That she is as revolutionary, innovative & resilient as she is is a reflection of the immense talent, ingenuity and pure force of Eelam people. Through her art, she amplifies the placelessness and the cultural and political contradictions that come with being an Eelam Tamil in a hyper-globalized world. The fact that she is so often dismissed, ridiculed and as of late ‘cancelled’, is clarification of her power in undermining and challenging unequal systems of control. From flipping off the Super Bowl to being banned from Sri Lanka, Maya is an unapologetic weapon of freedom.

Maya is a DIY artist guided by her trajectory from refugee to icon. Her strength in bringing bits and pieces together: beats, words, images, ideas - to create something new while centering her narrative as an Eelam woman, epitomizes the journey of an Eelam Tamil. Against a culture that glamorizes reality & equates beauty to consumption, Maya provokes a discussion about how the minority live, closing the distance between here and everywhere else. To be a diasporic Eelam Tamil means to be gaslighted by an entire nation, and yet moving uncompromisingly forward in being deeply inspired in our current contexts to bring change, revolutionize & decolonize. And while M.I.A. cannot go back home, we can.

Sunshowers came out when I was 9 years old. One Saturday morning, I crawled out of bed to watch music videos and inhale cereal and suddenly become entranced when Maya appeared, the hypnotic jungle beats blowing my mind. Up until then, the most representation I had as an Eelam kid was my reflection on a blank TV screen.

Reflecting on the music video now and it's images of brown women organizing, I draw parallels to the ideals and aims of the Women's Front of the LTTE. While it is not productive to linger on what could've been, I do believe that a radical imagination will set us free - and perhaps, this was Maya's intention, to provoke profound fantasies to revive the legacy of our ancestors.The aims of the Women’s Front were to: secure the right of self-determination of Tamil Eelam, to abolish oppressive caste discrimination and feudal customs such as the dowry system; and to eliminate all discrimination, secure social, political, and economic equality.

At the end of verse 1, Maya chants 'like PLO, I don't surrendo', making reference to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, emphasizing the interconnectedness of struggles throughout the world and the need to collaborate with and show solidarity with groups of people who experience similar discrimination under colonization. How can transnational, decolonial solidarity allow evolution to our identity as Eelam people? What does it mean to maintain the radical, non-violent goals Eelam within the diaspora?

BIRD FLU

2006/The track draws on the sonics of urumi/gaana that most Eelam kids will recognize. You know the sound cos when you hear it you can’t stop moving: it’s an infectious outbreak/dance break. Maya swims in a sea of folks who look like they could be my Anna or Thangachi - the visuals look like the homeland. It’s the noise of freedom, the resistance of dominant interpretation. Within the sonic dance break of Bird Flu, Maya cultivates themes of militarized warfare and global dispossession spins them into a collective resource for imagining the alternate for Eelam Tamils.

Running with this idea of ‘flu’ and ‘contagion’, with the sound and it’s accompanying visuals, Maya emphasizes the need to spread ideas of alternative utopian possibilities, collectivity, belonging, and pleasure in the midst of & despite devastation by warfare. For me, Bird Flu provides a refreshing moment of criticality—an opportunity to reactivate our political imaginations and reconceptualize eelam community.

SRI LANKA JUST ELECTED A WAR CRIMINAL AS PRESIDENT and I continue my attempt to unravel Eelamness. With the ache in my heart and rage in my chest I ask: how do we move forward?

When Sri Lanka repeatedly assigns power to murderers and thieves, Kollywood tries to cement us as wounded and the rest of the world exclaims ‘oh Sri Lanka! That’s near India right!!???!!?' how are we as a community dealing? Where our experiences of genocide are dismissed transnationally, how do we divert fury and desire for validation of our struggle to healing? How are we to heal when the scab keeps being torn open? What are our responsibilities, as artists, to bring rejuvenation and radical change?

As we grieve for the homeland, I encourage you to think about the privilege that comes with being in the diaspora. Our access to resources expands our capacity to strategize and organize: we cannot limit ourselves. Christopher Kulendran Thomas is an Eelam artist based in London & Berlin. Thomas’s 'New Eelam’ disregards the boundaries of the white cube to project an alternate reality of citizenship and ownership. Provoking the art world itself, Thomas is interested in how his work as an artist can bring structural and social change. New Eelam is presented as a real estate start up of sorts with a housing model grounded in collective international co-ownership: subscribers pay the same amount to access different houses across the world. Working alongside an architect and team of real estate, finance, law and tech folks, Thomas seeks to provoke conversations around property and migration. Our identity as a people is one that is marked by consistent displacement and disruption. We are dispersed but profoundly connected. New Eelam imagines a future that brings autonomy in migration and allows us to maintain the idea of an Eelam the transcends borders. Freedom of movement increases opportunities to collaborate, and our collaboration as a diaspora is essential in the liberation and legacy of Eelam.

When the riots began, My Thatha was the principal at Jaffna College in Killinochi. His school shut down immediately and when I was 6 months, he moved to Sydney and into our home on Burlington Road. Being in a war affected refugee household brings with it a plethora of traumas & my relationship with my grandfather was my safe space. He is an artist - and his idea of child minding was reciting Thirukurral to me as I listened at his feet, entranced: my fingers often swirling in acrylic paints or homemade clay. When I was scared, he would serenade me with sangitham, gamakas cartwheeling from his belly through his chest. Sometimes at night I would tip toe out of the bedroom I shared with my parents and older siblings into Thatha’s room. More often than not, he would be in a state of hypnosis, brushing away at a canvas with images that usually resembled home. Reflecting on this time in my life, I understand that creative expression was Thatha’s device for healing. Not only did his art allow him to reconnect with Eelam, but it also allows him to rewrite and reimagine his narrative.

My attempt to dissect our Eelam Tamil identity has been perplexing yet empowering. As a community heavily persecuted against within the island, distressingly traumatized within the diaspora and yet profoundly capable and irrepressible, I wonder - how can we as a community of diasporic artists begin to shift our narrative? They burnt down the Jaffna library for a reason, they saw our vision and were threatened by it. How can we harness the collective rage we feel productively in a way that not only allows for the liberation of our own people but inspires expansive radical change?

My fellow Eelam people, I challenge you to think large - move away from the commodified and the curated, the white cube and other structures and systems that attempt to contain our ideas. I encourage you to think about art as a a movement for change as opposed to an aesthetic. Organizing is a form of art, protest is a form of art and so is survival. We must use our creativity as an imaginative space that provokes discussion, dialogue and education across struggles. How, through our art, can we make the invisible, visible while listening and working alongside our Eelam community at home?”

Original posts available here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Wanted to repost this from @southasia.art on Instagram because of how informative it was. 

[etthawitthi]

රිය අනතුරකින් කමාන්ඩො භටයන් දෙදෙනෙක් මිය යයි - තවත් සෙබලෙකුට බරපතලයි

රිය අනතුරකින් කමාන්ඩො භටයන් දෙදෙනෙක් මිය යයි – තවත් සෙබලෙකුට බරපතලයි

මුලතිව් නෙදුන්කර්නිහිදී යුද හමුදාවට අයත් රියක් පාරෙන් ඉවතට පැන පෙරළීම හේතුවෙන් එහි ගමන් ගත් කමාන්ඩෝ සමාජිකයින් දෙදෙනෙකු මිය ගොස් ඇත.

තුවාල ලැබූ තවත් පස්දෙනෙකු වව්නියාව මහ රෝහලට ඇතුලත් කර තිබේ. ඉන් එක් අයෙකුගේ තත්වය බරපතල බවයි රෝහල් ආරංචි මාර්ග පැවසුවේ.

ඇත්ත විත්ති – ඇත්ත ඇති සැටියෙන් දැනගන්න පිවිසෙන්න අපගේ ෆේස්බුක් පිටුවට සහ සමූහයට.

[universaltamilnews]

இராணுவ வாகனம் விபத்துக்குள்ளானதில் ஒருவர் பலி – 8 பேர் காயமடைந்துள்ளனர்

இராணுவ வாகனம் விபத்துக்குள்ளானதில் ஒருவர் பலி – 8 பேர் காயமடைந்துள்ளனர் #Accident #Mullaitivu #ut #utnews #tamilnews #universaltamil #SL #SriLanka

இன்று காலை முல்லைத்தீவு – கோப்பாபிலவு பகுதிவில் இராணு வாகனம் ஒன்று கவிழ்ந்து விபத்திற்குள்ளாகியுள்ளது.

இந்த விபத்தில் ஒருவர் மரணமடைந்ததுடன் 08 பேர் காயமடைந்துள்ளனர். காயமடைந்த வீரர்கள் மருத்துவமனையில் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.

இராணுவத்தின் 59 வது படைபிரிவின் வாகனமே இவ்வாறு விபத்துக்குள்ளாகியுள்ளதாக தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

Website – www.universaltamil.com

Facebook – www.facebook.com/universaltamil

Twit…

[wanninayaka]

US and THEM – Flash Floods in the Northern Sri Lanka and the Aftermath

US and THEM – Flash Floods in the Northern Sri Lanka and the Aftermath

This post originally appeared in Colombo Telegraph. Visit https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/us-them-flash-floods-in-the-northern-sri-lanka-aftermath/

The news about the North being badly affected by flash floods last weekend did not appear in the Sinhala and English press till 48 hours as far as I saw. Not even the websites that publish rubbish gossip immediately after some minute…