You can hold any number of referendums "YES" or "NO" to Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. I can assure you "No Eelam in Sri Lanka. Perhaps your own in France! in Canada! in Britain! in USA! in India!
Sri Lanka was ranked 162nd of the 175 countries in the latest press freedom ranking released by the Paris based Reporters without Borders today. The Asian countries that least respected press freedom were announced as North Korea, one of the infernal trio at the bottom of the rankings, Burma, which still suffers from prior censorship and imprisonment, and Laos, an unchanging dictatorship where no privately-owned media are permitted, RSF said.
It is wonderful to see Tamils taking part in the democratic process. I find it amazing how well Tamils have integrated themselves in their host countries from Norway, France, Germany to Canada, UK, Australia. The French spoken is beautiful.
Well said. Tamils have integrated very well indeed in western countries and have no problem learning English, French, Norwegian, Italian, German, etc.
But when they have to learn Sinhala...oh my, now that's a gross violation of their fundamental human rights. In fact, it's GENOCIDE ;-)
I don't mind if Tamils don't learn Sinhala. It's your choice. But my point was that they had no problem learning other languages except for Sinhala. Why is that? Do you consider yourselves superior to us?
None of these western countries even list Tamil as an official langauge. Only India, Singapore and SRI LANKA have given it official status. What exactly is your problem here?
Sri Lanka is the motherland of Eelam Tamils just as India is of Indian Tamils. Western countries have taken us in and treated us fairly in their countries. It is not our motherland. In Toronto there are hospitals with signs in Chinese, Tamil, English.
Sri Lanka has tried to take away the Tamil language as official language before. Singapore has Tamil president and ministers. We should not have to learn Sinhala in our own country.
Correct! Eelam means Sri Lanka, so yes, Sri Lanka is the motherland of SRI LANKAN Tamils LOL! But if you ask for special rights, please go abroad and stay there ;-)
Good to see you understand that the west isn't your homeland. They only use Tamils to keep Sri Lanka burning. You guys have always been only too happy to be their lapdogs...except for the great Lakshman Kadirgamar.
@SinhaHelaya Why would the west want you to be poor. There is nothing to be gained from it. Japan was a poor country and an enemy now it is rich friend. The west can only sell you things if you are middle class ie buying things other than food and shelter.
they want to sell you tvs, GM cars, etc.
Why do you think they invest so much in India and China. Having an integrated world only helps the west.
Why does the west want us brown and black folk to remain poor? Simple: the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia (in short, the WHITE majority countries) have a relatively small population but they consume most of the world's resources. If other countries develop, that will increase demand for resources that are currently consumed by the west. This in turn will force the whites to tone down their largely lavish lifestyles.
But they worked hard to recover (thanks largely to JR Jayawardene pleading the west for mercy on their behalf). And the west doesn't sell us a lot of their stuff. Most of our imports are from China and Japan. The Chinese and Indian militaries are powerful enough to keep the west from getting any funny ideas. But wily old Uncle Sam is having joint training exercises with India to meet 'a common foe' ;-)
The west sells a lot of things to you. Every computer has Intel or AMD chips designed in US and made in China. US sells movies and ideas, Youtube, Google. US sells you a lot of things you don't realize. Canada has immense amount of resources including oil. We have the second largest amount of proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. We are quite happy selling resources to China and India.
China is completely dependent on US. So is Gulf states. US, Europe power comes from trade.
That is true, but most of the software for their technology is coded in India. China and India are growing very fast, so of course they will consume your resources. Many Australian mines sell almost all of their stuff to China too.
And the US is completely dependent on China as well. In fact, they owe trillions of dollars to China and that amount is increasing all the time.
US, Canada are not really white majority countries in the trues sense. They have huge minority populations. That's why Obama is president. Yes you are correct about sharing resources such as oil and metals. The US is more of a service economy. As far as food is concerned, the US could feed 2 billion people with current technology if it wanted to. As far as lavish lifestyle most people in US don't have that. That is just the billionaires. Just like Lanka. Most people drive Toyotas not BMW
The US and Canada were founded by whites after killing off the natives. Canada is still a British colony, just like Australia and New Zealand.
Yes, US is a service economy. China, Japan and India are in manufacturing. The west was powerful in the old days because they had a manufacturing economy. It's what got them out of the Great Depression (thanks to making weapons for WW 2).
They obviously don't want that happening, so they covertly do all they can to stop the rest of the world from catching up with them. See how they're controlling the middle east and Asia. They also have a hand in almost every revolution that occurs in South America regularly.
Japan was a well-to-do country with a strong currency before World War 2. What did Uncle Sam do to them? Now their yen is worth almost the same as our rupee!
India is considered a friend because it is a democracy and China isn't. US understands democracies and they can always go directly to the people of India if they don't like what India is doing. People are generally the same. China is run by the few and what they want no one knows.
Japan is as rich as US, Canada, UK, Singapore. They all have similar GDP per capita of $45,000 per person. The yen is worth the same as a rupee but Japanese are paid 4.5 million a year. Need to understand economics.
That is just more of their propaganda. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's, the US helped Saddam Hussain, a mad dictator. They have also helped various other countries, especially in South America, pull of coups and install pro-US govts. They just use democracy as a pretext to expand their influence and make the rest of the world dance to their tune.
I'm not an economist, btut I can see that though Japan is wealthy, they don't consume as much resources as the west.
If genocide has taken place, where is the proof? Serbia, Turkey, Sudan and many other countries have committed that crime but they've always been found out, no matter how hard they tried to cover up. This 'genocide' is just another BS claim of you guys who are smarting from the hammering you got from us.
Ironically enough, most of the planes landing at our airport this Christmas season are filled to bursting with diaspora Tamils. Maybe they're coming to experience this genocide first-hand? ;-)
LOL! Yes, keep worshiping your white gods. Not only will they take our president to court, they will give you Eelam as well. Most totally!
I learnt Tamil in primary school, like all my friends as part of the syllabus. But why do we NEED to learn Tamil when less than a quarter of the population speak the language? We only really need to learn Tamil for business purposes and to make sure you don't plot against us behind our back. Knowing your language will be useful in that regard ;-)
Agreed! In addition to aiding inter-ethnic relations and business opportunities, learning Tamil will help us keep an eye on the treacherous elements in Tamil society, as I mentioned. I personally think it's nice to know different languages anyway.
If all the Sinhalese people can speak perfect Tamil there would be no problems at all. Tamils and Sinhalese would understand each other through communication. It is seriously lacking right now 17th amendment. You have to understand why Tamils want a separate nation. They did not always want it in the beginning.
FYI Mahinda speaks Tamil and even Chandrika spoke the language when she was in power. Mahinda is the only head of state to address the UN in Tamil. But I guess your propaganda sources didn't bother mentioning that.
Trust me the Tamil he speaks is not correct Tamil. It is similar to when white people in Canada speak Tamil. We teach it to them. The intonations he uses are incorrect. It is difficult to understand what he is saying. Considering he is started learning Tamil very recently it is not bad but it is not good Tamil.
It would be as good as if I tried to learn Sinhalese and speak it.
That is because he is not a native Tamil speaker. But you can't blame him for trying.
BTW given the population ratios in Sri Lanka, it doesn't make sense for Sinhalese to learn Tamil. Tamils should learn Sinhala instead. As I mentioned to you before, you guys have no problem learning European languages but why not Sinhala?
All the bilingual people in Sri Lanka are pretty much Tamil. Those who do live in the South and to some degree in the East do learn Sinhala. Many of have even married Sinhalas and this has been happening for thousands of years. Some Sinhalas supported the Tigers including a relative of Chandrika.
If Tamils have to learn an extra language it puts Tamils at a disadvantage. It also goes against equality. In my country Canada very similar in terms of French people. We learn French.
Why would Tamils be at a disadvantage if they have to learn an extra language? Are the Tamils in the diaspora at a disadvantage because they speak another language? On the contrary, their bilingualism ensures they have jobs!
Tamils will have to learn 3 languages. Sinhalese will have to learn 2 (English not Tamil) of course. Perhaps the government could put in a program of bilingualism (Sinhalese and Tamil) in all schools in Lanka and everyone learns all 3 languages and is tested fairly.
The Tamil children in the diaspora speak their respective country's language best and Tamil second. Tamil Language is being lost to varying degrees on the younger generation.
Tamil is already being taught in govt schools from Grade 4 now. I went to an int'l school and learned Tamil from Grade 1 to Grade 5. Since we often spoke in Sinhala in between classes, my Tamil classmates also learned Sinhala, in addition to English and their mother tongue Tamil! None of them complained about being inconvenienced with it. Rather, they are happy they learned some Sinhala because they can now hold basic convos with Sinhala people.
I would personally like to see Sinhala students also learning Tamil like this. But I don't know how feasible that is because Tamils are a minority in schools as well. That's why my Tamil friends automatically got to know Sinhala and not us learning Tamil.
I guess you could say that even the young Sinhala generation overseas is losing the Sinhala langauge. Almost all of my cousins abroad can't read or write in Sinhala, though they can understand it because their parents speak Sinhala at home.
Prime minister, governor-general (black woman, has been minorities only for 20 years now), ministers need to be bilingual.
The question is do you believe Tamil language is equal to Sinhala and by extension Tamil people to Sinhalese people.
If you truly believe in a unitary state you must guarantee the Tamil language on the island. Merger of the North and East and demarcation of it as Tamil Lanka or Tamil Eelam where the language used is Tamil mostly would be a good start.
Of course, Tamils and everyone else is equal to Sinhalese, languages and all. But by asking for Eelam, you guys are asking for SPECIAL rights, not EQUAL rights (which you already have). If you try it again, we have a strong military just waiting for more action ;-)
You say everyone is equal to to Sinhalese. Perhaps you do believe so but many others do not.
Please explain how asking for Eelam amounts to SPECIAL RIGHTS.
What you are saying is status quo or Sinhalese will beat the Tamils down again. We don't like what there is now. We want more power to govern ourselves. Police, Tamil section of Lanka army in the North to guard against terrorism.
What do you think will happen if Tamils have so much more money or education than Sinhalese because of Diaspora
When an ethnic race demands its own mono-ethnic state just for themselves with its own police, military and courts it is obviously too much. What kind of 'equal' rights is that?
There are Tamils in the police and the forces. One of my Tamil uncles by marriage was in the SL Navy. Jaffna is already recruiting hundreds of Tamils to the police force.
The Tamil diaspora is already more numerous and richer than the Sinhalese. But how did you guys contribute to Sri Lanka?
Many ethnicities but Tamil language. We want to have a country where we are the majority. You are welcome to live with us.
Indigenous Tamils, Muslims, Tamils of Indian Origin, Malays, Burghers and Sinhalese. We will of course want to bring our Black, Chinese, White friends from Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin also with us as some of us married to them.
We want to defend ourselves from the tyranny of government and the majority. We like university entrances by merit because we had 50-75% of them.
LOL! sorry, but you speak as if you've already got Eelam. Get out of your dreamland and accept the status quo: if you want a separate state, we have only one answer.
University exams affected even Sinhalese. It was done to encourage more people of all races from the VILLAGES get into uni, not to stop Tamils.
Your boycott campaign doesn't seem to be working. You must have seen the NYT giving us the no. 1 rank in their tourist spots. Now google 'DailyCandy Sri Lanka' for another good one :)
We like things based on merit, not of race, or place of origin. GAP, Victoria Secrets will be changing their minds and we will see what to do from there. We have not really spent money on advertisement yet. Give it time.
We want to be free from rule by government. Let the people be free with a very small government. Let there be local governments at the local level collect taxes and make laws. We want power that majority Sinhalese enjoy and have used against us. I am sure we can make concessions on the amount of land for Tamil Eelam.
I hope there is a new government without family rule. I am sure we can work out something amicable to all communities. We hate the government what it has done to us.
You contributed by sending money to fund terrorism. Your so-called sole representatives butchered anyone of your own kind who had the slightest intelligence and condemned their terrorism. even today you are begging the world to boycott us. To put it simply: we don't trust you.
You can't have a country with people you don't trust. Prabha was never the sole representative of the Tamil people although he like to think he was. He simply killed all other voices.
We will ask the world to boycott Lanka until we are happy with a solution. MR and Fonseka have both said there will be a political solution.
I was originally hoping for huge MR win in both president and parliament for constitutional change.
Fonseka seems to be the man who will bring the change needed.
I don't see SF giving you Eelam the way he promised. He is just saying it to get your gullible votes.
And of course you like Lanka 'in the beginning' when you were the white man's lapdogs. but the white man doesn't rule us any more, no matter how much you beg them to intervene in our country. Like I saidm you will get EQUAL rights, not the SPECIAL rights you had under your white masters. They're only using Tamils to stop Sri Lanka from developing. You guys are only too happy to oblige them.
Well if we get real EQUAL rights then we will be happy. When we are our percentage of army, police as we are in the places we live. It will be equal. When we have control of the places we live we will be EQUAL. That is what we have always wanted. It is things we can work out with the constitution. If we are allowed to right the constitution and put in things so that it can not be changed without majority consent of each community we will be EQUAL.
We can't keep fight forever. I am sure something could be worked out. If many things are changed there can be a unitary state where Tamils have a greater say than their numbers would dictate. Where Tamil speaking peoples control the North and East. Where Tamils are equal or superior in economic condition and education. We liked Lanka in the beginning when we had all the good jobs.
We did not like the communal violence where we were often killed in Colombo and elsewhere.
What happened in the past is that Sinhalese used majority status to take away the good jobs we had through Sinhala language of government, system of standardization of marks which meant we had to score much higher for university entrance. Tamils still overachieved so they implemented quotas by provinces/districts. This pissed us off the most. We liked a unitary Lanka where we had 50-75% of all the best jobs and university placements by merit nothing else.
The colonization thing we keep talking about are development schemes in East where land was given to Sinhalese only and not to Tamils or Muslims. Anyone can buy land in North and East but at market prices. We don't like when government gives preference to one community.
Presidents in the past have said racist things about Tamils such as starving them out and etc...
I hope the next president will be fair to all communities and maybe Eelam will not be needed. Right now it seems needed.
SF had a plan to colonize the NE with military families but the govt stopped it, remember? And non-Tamils can't buy land in Jaffna. It is the law there, which will soon be revoked. Compare that to Tamils being allowed to buy land anywhere in Sri Lanka. Where is the discrimination?
Listen we have no problem with Sinhalese living with us as long as they learn and use Tamil in Tamil areas. We simply want to be the majority. We don't want government giving land for free or very cheaply to Sinhalese or HSZ.
SF has the support of all communities right now. I don't like family rule. I suggest you support SF right now since he has support of all communities and can unite all people.
MR could have brought about the change necessary but didn't. He had support of TMVP SLMC before.
You can hold any number of referendums "YES" or "NO" to Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. I can assure you "No Eelam in Sri Lanka. Perhaps your own in France! in Canada! in Britain! in USA! in India!
NoEalamInSL 2 years ago
Well Tamils will do their best to get Eelam. They will work together to hurt Sri Lanka's economy as best they could.
Freedom, Human Rights, democracy greatest virtues of society not found in Eealam
janewarrant 2 years ago
Sri Lanka is a terror state!
luxsman3 2 years ago
Sri Lanka was ranked 162nd of the 175 countries in the latest press freedom ranking released by the Paris based Reporters without Borders today. The Asian countries that least respected press freedom were announced as North Korea, one of the infernal trio at the bottom of the rankings, Burma, which still suffers from prior censorship and imprisonment, and Laos, an unchanging dictatorship where no privately-owned media are permitted, RSF said.
seny3000 2 years ago
It is so sad the democratic process won't work in Sri Lanka. I
B12N 2 years ago
so proud of my people!
iu098 2 years ago
It is wonderful to see Tamils taking part in the democratic process. I find it amazing how well Tamils have integrated themselves in their host countries from Norway, France, Germany to Canada, UK, Australia. The French spoken is beautiful.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Well said. Tamils have integrated very well indeed in western countries and have no problem learning English, French, Norwegian, Italian, German, etc.
But when they have to learn Sinhala...oh my, now that's a gross violation of their fundamental human rights. In fact, it's GENOCIDE ;-)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Sri Lanka is our homeland. Tamils have a claim to it just as much as you do. Tamil right is written in your DNA, your language and your names.
Tamils should not have to learn Sinhala at least not more than you have to learn Tamil both are equal
Tamils are naturalized citizens of those countries. They are not naturalized citizens of Sri Lanka.
Genocide has taken place when Sinhala people have attacked Tamils in the past for being Tamils. Some have protected them also many still died.
janewarrant 2 years ago
I don't mind if Tamils don't learn Sinhala. It's your choice. But my point was that they had no problem learning other languages except for Sinhala. Why is that? Do you consider yourselves superior to us?
None of these western countries even list Tamil as an official langauge. Only India, Singapore and SRI LANKA have given it official status. What exactly is your problem here?
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Sri Lanka is the motherland of Eelam Tamils just as India is of Indian Tamils. Western countries have taken us in and treated us fairly in their countries. It is not our motherland. In Toronto there are hospitals with signs in Chinese, Tamil, English.
Sri Lanka has tried to take away the Tamil language as official language before. Singapore has Tamil president and ministers. We should not have to learn Sinhala in our own country.
Why don't Sinhalese learn Tamil.
Reciprocate and we will.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Correct! Eelam means Sri Lanka, so yes, Sri Lanka is the motherland of SRI LANKAN Tamils LOL! But if you ask for special rights, please go abroad and stay there ;-)
Good to see you understand that the west isn't your homeland. They only use Tamils to keep Sri Lanka burning. You guys have always been only too happy to be their lapdogs...except for the great Lakshman Kadirgamar.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
@SinhaHelaya Why would the west want you to be poor. There is nothing to be gained from it. Japan was a poor country and an enemy now it is rich friend. The west can only sell you things if you are middle class ie buying things other than food and shelter.
they want to sell you tvs, GM cars, etc.
Why do you think they invest so much in India and China. Having an integrated world only helps the west.
Eelam word for island.
etymology ලංකාව laṃkāva sanskrit
Eelam, Elankai Dravida
janewarrant 2 years ago
Why does the west want us brown and black folk to remain poor? Simple: the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia (in short, the WHITE majority countries) have a relatively small population but they consume most of the world's resources. If other countries develop, that will increase demand for resources that are currently consumed by the west. This in turn will force the whites to tone down their largely lavish lifestyles.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
But they worked hard to recover (thanks largely to JR Jayawardene pleading the west for mercy on their behalf). And the west doesn't sell us a lot of their stuff. Most of our imports are from China and Japan. The Chinese and Indian militaries are powerful enough to keep the west from getting any funny ideas. But wily old Uncle Sam is having joint training exercises with India to meet 'a common foe' ;-)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
The west sells a lot of things to you. Every computer has Intel or AMD chips designed in US and made in China. US sells movies and ideas, Youtube, Google. US sells you a lot of things you don't realize. Canada has immense amount of resources including oil. We have the second largest amount of proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. We are quite happy selling resources to China and India.
China is completely dependent on US. So is Gulf states. US, Europe power comes from trade.
janewarrant 2 years ago
That is true, but most of the software for their technology is coded in India. China and India are growing very fast, so of course they will consume your resources. Many Australian mines sell almost all of their stuff to China too.
And the US is completely dependent on China as well. In fact, they owe trillions of dollars to China and that amount is increasing all the time.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
US, Canada are not really white majority countries in the trues sense. They have huge minority populations. That's why Obama is president. Yes you are correct about sharing resources such as oil and metals. The US is more of a service economy. As far as food is concerned, the US could feed 2 billion people with current technology if it wanted to. As far as lavish lifestyle most people in US don't have that. That is just the billionaires. Just like Lanka. Most people drive Toyotas not BMW
janewarrant 2 years ago
The US and Canada were founded by whites after killing off the natives. Canada is still a British colony, just like Australia and New Zealand.
Yes, US is a service economy. China, Japan and India are in manufacturing. The west was powerful in the old days because they had a manufacturing economy. It's what got them out of the Great Depression (thanks to making weapons for WW 2).
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Compared to Asia and Africa, most westerners live well. Even a McDonald's cook there earns a lot of money compared to office workers here.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
They obviously don't want that happening, so they covertly do all they can to stop the rest of the world from catching up with them. See how they're controlling the middle east and Asia. They also have a hand in almost every revolution that occurs in South America regularly.
Japan was a well-to-do country with a strong currency before World War 2. What did Uncle Sam do to them? Now their yen is worth almost the same as our rupee!
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
India is considered a friend because it is a democracy and China isn't. US understands democracies and they can always go directly to the people of India if they don't like what India is doing. People are generally the same. China is run by the few and what they want no one knows.
Japan is as rich as US, Canada, UK, Singapore. They all have similar GDP per capita of $45,000 per person. The yen is worth the same as a rupee but Japanese are paid 4.5 million a year. Need to understand economics.
janewarrant 2 years ago
That is just more of their propaganda. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's, the US helped Saddam Hussain, a mad dictator. They have also helped various other countries, especially in South America, pull of coups and install pro-US govts. They just use democracy as a pretext to expand their influence and make the rest of the world dance to their tune.
I'm not an economist, btut I can see that though Japan is wealthy, they don't consume as much resources as the west.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
If genocide has taken place, where is the proof? Serbia, Turkey, Sudan and many other countries have committed that crime but they've always been found out, no matter how hard they tried to cover up. This 'genocide' is just another BS claim of you guys who are smarting from the hammering you got from us.
Ironically enough, most of the planes landing at our airport this Christmas season are filled to bursting with diaspora Tamils. Maybe they're coming to experience this genocide first-hand? ;-)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Don't worry, Rajapakse family will be taken to court. There is a lawyer compiling the charges and submitting it.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Why don't the Sinhalese ever learn Tamil. If you had 1 Sinhalese president who was bilingual, there wouldn't be such a problem.
Tell me when there is 1 Tamil speaking president. Indian Tamil, Muslim Tamil, or Eelam Tamil.
A Tamil can be president of in these countries not in Sri Lanka.
janewarrant 2 years ago
LOL! Yes, keep worshiping your white gods. Not only will they take our president to court, they will give you Eelam as well. Most totally!
I learnt Tamil in primary school, like all my friends as part of the syllabus. But why do we NEED to learn Tamil when less than a quarter of the population speak the language? We only really need to learn Tamil for business purposes and to make sure you don't plot against us behind our back. Knowing your language will be useful in that regard ;-)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
@SinhaHelaya Well we want you to learn our language. We can have more talks that way.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Agreed! In addition to aiding inter-ethnic relations and business opportunities, learning Tamil will help us keep an eye on the treacherous elements in Tamil society, as I mentioned. I personally think it's nice to know different languages anyway.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
If all the Sinhalese people can speak perfect Tamil there would be no problems at all. Tamils and Sinhalese would understand each other through communication. It is seriously lacking right now 17th amendment. You have to understand why Tamils want a separate nation. They did not always want it in the beginning.
janewarrant 2 years ago
FYI Mahinda speaks Tamil and even Chandrika spoke the language when she was in power. Mahinda is the only head of state to address the UN in Tamil. But I guess your propaganda sources didn't bother mentioning that.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
@SinhaHelaya
Mahinda does not speak Tamil. He reads it off a teleprompter. It is not even close to pronouncing it well.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Did you see him using a teleprompter when addressing the UN in Tamil?
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Trust me the Tamil he speaks is not correct Tamil. It is similar to when white people in Canada speak Tamil. We teach it to them. The intonations he uses are incorrect. It is difficult to understand what he is saying. Considering he is started learning Tamil very recently it is not bad but it is not good Tamil.
It would be as good as if I tried to learn Sinhalese and speak it.
janewarrant 2 years ago
That is because he is not a native Tamil speaker. But you can't blame him for trying.
BTW given the population ratios in Sri Lanka, it doesn't make sense for Sinhalese to learn Tamil. Tamils should learn Sinhala instead. As I mentioned to you before, you guys have no problem learning European languages but why not Sinhala?
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
All the bilingual people in Sri Lanka are pretty much Tamil. Those who do live in the South and to some degree in the East do learn Sinhala. Many of have even married Sinhalas and this has been happening for thousands of years. Some Sinhalas supported the Tigers including a relative of Chandrika.
If Tamils have to learn an extra language it puts Tamils at a disadvantage. It also goes against equality. In my country Canada very similar in terms of French people. We learn French.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Why would Tamils be at a disadvantage if they have to learn an extra language? Are the Tamils in the diaspora at a disadvantage because they speak another language? On the contrary, their bilingualism ensures they have jobs!
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Tamils will have to learn 3 languages. Sinhalese will have to learn 2 (English not Tamil) of course. Perhaps the government could put in a program of bilingualism (Sinhalese and Tamil) in all schools in Lanka and everyone learns all 3 languages and is tested fairly.
The Tamil children in the diaspora speak their respective country's language best and Tamil second. Tamil Language is being lost to varying degrees on the younger generation.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Tamil is already being taught in govt schools from Grade 4 now. I went to an int'l school and learned Tamil from Grade 1 to Grade 5. Since we often spoke in Sinhala in between classes, my Tamil classmates also learned Sinhala, in addition to English and their mother tongue Tamil! None of them complained about being inconvenienced with it. Rather, they are happy they learned some Sinhala because they can now hold basic convos with Sinhala people.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
I would personally like to see Sinhala students also learning Tamil like this. But I don't know how feasible that is because Tamils are a minority in schools as well. That's why my Tamil friends automatically got to know Sinhala and not us learning Tamil.
I guess you could say that even the young Sinhala generation overseas is losing the Sinhala langauge. Almost all of my cousins abroad can't read or write in Sinhala, though they can understand it because their parents speak Sinhala at home.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Prime minister, governor-general (black woman, has been minorities only for 20 years now), ministers need to be bilingual.
The question is do you believe Tamil language is equal to Sinhala and by extension Tamil people to Sinhalese people.
If you truly believe in a unitary state you must guarantee the Tamil language on the island. Merger of the North and East and demarcation of it as Tamil Lanka or Tamil Eelam where the language used is Tamil mostly would be a good start.
janewarrant 2 years ago
Of course, Tamils and everyone else is equal to Sinhalese, languages and all. But by asking for Eelam, you guys are asking for SPECIAL rights, not EQUAL rights (which you already have). If you try it again, we have a strong military just waiting for more action ;-)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
You say everyone is equal to to Sinhalese. Perhaps you do believe so but many others do not.
Please explain how asking for Eelam amounts to SPECIAL RIGHTS.
What you are saying is status quo or Sinhalese will beat the Tamils down again. We don't like what there is now. We want more power to govern ourselves. Police, Tamil section of Lanka army in the North to guard against terrorism.
What do you think will happen if Tamils have so much more money or education than Sinhalese because of Diaspora
janewarrant 2 years ago
When an ethnic race demands its own mono-ethnic state just for themselves with its own police, military and courts it is obviously too much. What kind of 'equal' rights is that?
There are Tamils in the police and the forces. One of my Tamil uncles by marriage was in the SL Navy. Jaffna is already recruiting hundreds of Tamils to the police force.
The Tamil diaspora is already more numerous and richer than the Sinhalese. But how did you guys contribute to Sri Lanka?
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Many ethnicities but Tamil language. We want to have a country where we are the majority. You are welcome to live with us.
Indigenous Tamils, Muslims, Tamils of Indian Origin, Malays, Burghers and Sinhalese. We will of course want to bring our Black, Chinese, White friends from Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin also with us as some of us married to them.
We want to defend ourselves from the tyranny of government and the majority. We like university entrances by merit because we had 50-75% of them.
janewarrant 2 years ago
LOL! sorry, but you speak as if you've already got Eelam. Get out of your dreamland and accept the status quo: if you want a separate state, we have only one answer.
University exams affected even Sinhalese. It was done to encourage more people of all races from the VILLAGES get into uni, not to stop Tamils.
Your boycott campaign doesn't seem to be working. You must have seen the NYT giving us the no. 1 rank in their tourist spots. Now google 'DailyCandy Sri Lanka' for another good one :)
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
We like things based on merit, not of race, or place of origin. GAP, Victoria Secrets will be changing their minds and we will see what to do from there. We have not really spent money on advertisement yet. Give it time.
janewarrant 2 years ago
We want to be free from rule by government. Let the people be free with a very small government. Let there be local governments at the local level collect taxes and make laws. We want power that majority Sinhalese enjoy and have used against us. I am sure we can make concessions on the amount of land for Tamil Eelam.
I hope there is a new government without family rule. I am sure we can work out something amicable to all communities. We hate the government what it has done to us.
janewarrant 2 years ago
You contributed by sending money to fund terrorism. Your so-called sole representatives butchered anyone of your own kind who had the slightest intelligence and condemned their terrorism. even today you are begging the world to boycott us. To put it simply: we don't trust you.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
You can't have a country with people you don't trust. Prabha was never the sole representative of the Tamil people although he like to think he was. He simply killed all other voices.
We will ask the world to boycott Lanka until we are happy with a solution. MR and Fonseka have both said there will be a political solution.
I was originally hoping for huge MR win in both president and parliament for constitutional change.
Fonseka seems to be the man who will bring the change needed.
janewarrant 2 years ago
I don't see SF giving you Eelam the way he promised. He is just saying it to get your gullible votes.
And of course you like Lanka 'in the beginning' when you were the white man's lapdogs. but the white man doesn't rule us any more, no matter how much you beg them to intervene in our country. Like I saidm you will get EQUAL rights, not the SPECIAL rights you had under your white masters. They're only using Tamils to stop Sri Lanka from developing. You guys are only too happy to oblige them.
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Well if we get real EQUAL rights then we will be happy. When we are our percentage of army, police as we are in the places we live. It will be equal. When we have control of the places we live we will be EQUAL. That is what we have always wanted. It is things we can work out with the constitution. If we are allowed to right the constitution and put in things so that it can not be changed without majority consent of each community we will be EQUAL.
janewarrant 2 years ago
We can't keep fight forever. I am sure something could be worked out. If many things are changed there can be a unitary state where Tamils have a greater say than their numbers would dictate. Where Tamil speaking peoples control the North and East. Where Tamils are equal or superior in economic condition and education. We liked Lanka in the beginning when we had all the good jobs.
We did not like the communal violence where we were often killed in Colombo and elsewhere.
janewarrant 2 years ago
What happened in the past is that Sinhalese used majority status to take away the good jobs we had through Sinhala language of government, system of standardization of marks which meant we had to score much higher for university entrance. Tamils still overachieved so they implemented quotas by provinces/districts. This pissed us off the most. We liked a unitary Lanka where we had 50-75% of all the best jobs and university placements by merit nothing else.
janewarrant 2 years ago
The colonization thing we keep talking about are development schemes in East where land was given to Sinhalese only and not to Tamils or Muslims. Anyone can buy land in North and East but at market prices. We don't like when government gives preference to one community.
Presidents in the past have said racist things about Tamils such as starving them out and etc...
I hope the next president will be fair to all communities and maybe Eelam will not be needed. Right now it seems needed.
janewarrant 2 years ago
SF had a plan to colonize the NE with military families but the govt stopped it, remember? And non-Tamils can't buy land in Jaffna. It is the law there, which will soon be revoked. Compare that to Tamils being allowed to buy land anywhere in Sri Lanka. Where is the discrimination?
SinhaHelaya 2 years ago
Listen we have no problem with Sinhalese living with us as long as they learn and use Tamil in Tamil areas. We simply want to be the majority. We don't want government giving land for free or very cheaply to Sinhalese or HSZ.
SF has the support of all communities right now. I don't like family rule. I suggest you support SF right now since he has support of all communities and can unite all people.
MR could have brought about the change necessary but didn't. He had support of TMVP SLMC before.
janewarrant 2 years ago