biodiversity and tea... high fives all around

happy birthday...to...you...mr...sri lanka....

I opened the fold anticipating a MIA word count that would rival Abhi's former (and much repented for) obsession with the female anatomy. Girl, you did good :)

Beautiful country, but deeply, deeply troubled. Hope she pulls through the latest rough patch.

Respeck!

much respekk to lanka!

Dunno how many of you guys know about this, but I got
this magazine at
a club night a couple months ago -- Serendipity is supposedly "the first
magazine for the global Sri Lankan community." Of course my Brit Sri
Lankan journalist friend snarked "If the cover of the first issue has
Nihal, and issue two will have MIA, who's left after that?" ;)

pull through brown girl, happy birthday

cinnamon. And tea. ...and lets not forget great writers: Shyam Selvadurai and Michael Ondaatje. And labour movement feminists, and post-colonial feminists...woot woot

Anyone know where Serendipity is available in Western Canada? If at all...

P.S. Let not forget silly Duran Duran videos!

yeah, sri lanka, a place i have yet to visit.. devastated by the tsunami, but hopefully recovering.. we never really hear about the recovery anymore... i guess in our fast paced world it's old news.. just like katrina... sad...

and the first female prime minister? that fricking rocks..it's ironic that most of these countries where women are usually subservient, or the female fetus isn't valued as much as seen as the million of abortions done in these countries as in others (we've aruged this point before).. that they have female leaders...(aka india and indira gandhi, pakistan with benazir bhutto, phillipines with aquino, etc....and of course england with the iron lady herself, maggie thatcher)..as compared to amrika where a woman running for president would be something of a new thing..the closest i can recall is geraldine ferrarro running with walter mondale in 1984..sigh..

hmm..sometimes i wonder..is amrika all that caught up in the real political realm of the world and equality amongst the sexes? dunno...

Word...
Don't forget it's the home and love of Arthur C Clarke who has been very instrumental in bringing Sri Lanka to the world for all it's positives.

hi chick pea. i was thinking about what you said r.e. "it's ironic that most of these countries where women are usually subservient ... they have female leaders...(aka india and indira gandhi, pakistan with benazir bhutto, phillipines with aquino, etc."

i suspect that this is more a matter of these women coming from countries where family lineage carries a lot of weight. alas, each of these women had family names (via husbands and dads) that accelerated their ascent into the center ring.

however, michelle bachelet (chile) and ellen sirleaf (liberia) - correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they both got there independent of dads and husbands. and in the case of the former, despite not having a husband!

perhaps batchelett and sirleaf will set examples that inspire other women to put their thing down, flip it and reverse it...

i suspect that this is more a matter of these women coming from countries where family lineage carries a lot of weight.

ditto. as well as social class. as was the case with Thatcher

in other sri lanka news, i thought you guys might enjoy the wording of a campaign ad that i came across in one of the daily papers in colombo while there in november, just before the election:

"Do you realize how precious hour vote is? Cast it wisely
or your will bring ruin upon yourself, your children and
your country. Vote wisely. Vote for Siddhalepa Vedamahatamaya"

the colombo based friend whom i asked about this assured me that the candidate in question is a minor party dude. regardless, how about importing some o'that unmitigated frankness into amrikan politics???

ditto. as well as social class. as was the case with Thatcher

Thatcher was the daughter of a greengrocer. She could be probably described as lower middle class in background. By no means was she born of a priveliged background.

Congratulations to Sri Lanka - always been a dream to visit.

and the first female prime minister? that fricking rocks..it's ironic that most of these countries where women are usually subservient, or the female fetus isn't valued as much as seen as the million of abortions done in these countries as in others (we've aruged this point before).. that they have female leaders...(aka india and indira gandhi, pakistan with benazir bhutto, phillipines with aquino, etc....and of course england with the iron lady herself, maggie thatcher)..as compared to amrika where a woman running for president would be something of a new thing..the closest i can recall is geraldine ferrarro running with walter mondale in 1984..sigh..

Chick_pea.
Check the facts before ranting.

There are no female homicides in SL.period.Actualy Sri Lankan women outnumber men!(because of the all the female abortion in India nature is trying to balance the brown people populations).
There are more women in Sri Lankan universities than men(except for the two engineering colleges)
Check the literacy ,life expectancy and health care availability and compare against any country in the world.
Even though we had women prime minister and prezedent women are under represent in politics.3 major parties are trying to remedy the situation.

Of course we are a broke ass country ,living day to day but we love our women.
(part of the reason is Sri Lanka basically lives off women .Main forein exchange earners are domestic workers in middle east ,garment workers and tea plantions which run on women labor).

rezpect........
booyakasha!.................

women often outnumber men in countries which have had long wars. It's not surprising.

however, michelle bachelet (chile) ....- correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they both got there independent of dads

Michelle's father was a Major General who died in Pinochet's jail. Her father's role has been rallying cry in her political career.

I have seen Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto in person - they both were (are) are very charismatic.

Chick_pea, running mates in USA have little significance except Cheney. They have been Spiro Agnews.

65000 has died due to war.(government and tigers both have women fighting in the war,too)
Sri Lankan population is 20 million.
you do the math.

I'm not saying women have better conditions.THERE IS NO FEMALE FETUS ABORTION IN SRI LANKA.TALK TO THE NEXT SRI LANKAN YOU MEET AND CHECK.

Please check table 2.
http://www.statistics.gov.lk/population/tables.pdf stats

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka gains its Independence from the United Kingdom. Respect

I didn't know SL was an announced socialist.

let's assume out of 65000 deaths due to war only 15,000 are women.
then explain the following numbers.
2001 male=9,267,000 female=9,465,000

however, michelle bachelet (chile) ....- correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they both got there independent of dads Michelle's father was a Major General who died in Pinochet's jail. Her father's role has been rallying cry in her political career.

During Pinochet's coup, Michelle Bachelet's father mother and herself were imprisoned. Ofcourse her father was tortured and killed. But her mother and herself as a little girl spent time in jail as political prisoners. I saw her interview on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She is great. The American journalist asked her about her experience in the jail and feeling of revenge and her answer was great in general I was very impressed.

The difference between her and GWBush is that Bush said "after all he (Saddam) tried to kill my dad" ... and followed this words with an illegal war against Iraq and caused the deaths of untold tens of thousands.

where as Michelle Bachelet's dad was actuall killed by Pinochet and she in true christian spirit has "forgiven" Pinochet personally, but her government will prosecute whichever laws were broken at the time .... What a difference.

And one more thing She is a medical doctor.

Last, Happy Birthday to Sri Lanka ... the land of the happiest south asians (according to a sri lankan co-worker's claim :-) )

"the land of the happiest south asians (according to a sri lankan co-worker's claim :-) )"

I don't know if we are the happiest, but I've been told we are surely are the smiliest(??) and
ones with significantly more pride or so my other South Asian friends have told me.

I think our smilies or state of mind is just that given the situation back home, we are all just happy
to go at life with as much as we can. Any opportunity in education and careers is taught to us to be
a true blessing. The reality is unlike many south asians many don't hav a home back is SL to go back to, to revisit where our parents grew up and went to school. Especially if you are from Northern SL, there isn't much left. Our families are scattered around the globe, and I think our families enphasize anything to keep
the culture going.

Much Respect to SL indeed :).

I think SL should merge with India. Win-win for both of us!

Thanks for the post ANNA!

One of my favorite facts about SL is that the word 'serendipity' comes from the Persian name for Sri Lanka, Serendip.

Mmmmmmm ... Serendipity ... they have great deserts you know. Sorry, I shouldn't comment when hungry.

ennis:
waited 2 hrs for their frozen hot choco..was in heaven..and it right next to dylans candy bar... hehe.. let me tell you.. i was in chococandy heaven.. nirvana

Is it true that the Sinhala middle class remained very Anglophilic even after independence?
I have heard that the Queen's christmas address used to be broadcast on Radio Ceylon till the '60's and had a high listenership in Sri Lanka.

P.S. This is in genuine sense of inquiry, not a flame.

chick pea: we're afflicted with mysogyny as many other SA nations, but don't have such a strong bias against females. In fact, I recall, on a number of times when I was told that having a girl first was regarded as a blessing!...

...because when she grew up she could help the mother with the housework...I was thrilled no end.

bongdongs: English was the medium of edication until just after Independance, but no, anglophilia wasn't retained taht much from what I've heard...anyone?

Respeck indeed! [basks in momentary reflected glory, pretending she didn't forget until she saw Anna's post]

Thatcher was the daughter of a greengrocer. She could be probably described as lower middle class in background. By no means was she born of a priveliged background.

true. You're totally right, but I was speaking more to the social status into which she married. She married into the family of Sir Dennis Thatcher, a major in the military and a millionaire. This is not to suggest that women politicians' relevance is determined by the men in their lives or to obscure all of Thatcher's work and achievments as a politician...I'm just speaking to the fact that, especially in the UK, class and oxbridge social circles are needed to get into the PMs office. And I feel that her becoming PM was more a symbol of class than gender. Thatcher herself in fact quite often dismissed the relevance of her gender, and her social policies hardly did anything for the cause of engendering support for women's social rights. I could be all together wrong here, and I'm totally open to that. cheers. :)

no, anglophilia wasn't retained taht much from what I've heard...anyone?

there are the posh types in all ethnicities that cling to the brit nostalgia...but generally, no. Actually if you look at food/popular music, of all the colonial influences I'd say the Portugese were most influential. Of course I think...and maybe I'm wrong here...that UK Enlish and particular traditions (spelling and grammatical conventions, cricket, tea time, etc) are indeed stronger than US influence. I haven't been back in 5 years, so I could be out of date.

At the moment, I'd say of all the global influences, perhaps India is the strongest....I'm thinking about the popularity of india-import movies and music. Its a pretty cosmopolitain place all together

Happy Birthday Sri Lanka!

I don't know about Sri Lankan anglophilia, but I always got a kick out of meeting Sri Lankan uncles with veddy British names like Eardley, Simon, Junius, and Felix, that sound like they were inspired by a Noel Coward play or something.

lol. I have uncles named Alfred, Greogory (pronounced Gee-ree-goriss!), Aloysius, Cyril, two Felixes and an Arthur. I've also got a Sri Lankan aunty Alice, aunty Sophia and an aunty Estelle.

Kanchana: Yep, English/Western names used to be the norm. My grandmothers had Mary and Beatrice Margaret; we had an Arnolis, Irene, Elsie and many more...

Lots of Sebastians, Cyrils, and Felix was a popular name back in the day!

You can see the first issue of Serendipity for free here, but I guess you've gotta subscribe to get the rest. I've never seen it on any shelves around here (toronto area).

And yeah, I doubt it was any special appreciation for women amongst sri lankans that resulted in the election of a female PM. She came to power after her husband, the PM at the time, was assassinated.

Do we say respect and all that simply because it's a free country? My first reaction was something along the lines of nearly six decades and what do we really have to show for it? Tea and war? I don't live there though, so maybe things are better than they look from the outside looking in. Here's hoping the biodiversity improves a bit by next independence day.

That's one country I WILL visit. It (or that part if it) looked beautiful in a Telugu movie, Antham, made by Ram Gopal Verma. The cricket stadium in Galle is one of the prettiest. And Sri Lankan women are HOT!

Sorry about picking up the off-topic discussion, I think there have been women politicans/leaders in India who got to the top (at the state level) on their own. I can remember Sheila Dixit and Mayawati off the top of my head. May be there are others...happy to be corrected here. As for elsewhere, Golda Meir certainly falls into that category (although she was brought up in the US).

Kush Tandon

Michelle's father was a Major General who died in Pinochet's jail.

Happy Birthday Sri Lanka from across the Straits. Sri Lanka's human development indicators are several rungs above that of its neighbours. And it isn't at an economic dead end like Kerala (a state with excellent HD indicators but lousy economics). And the history of spice ought to start with Sri Lanka.

Happy Birthday Sri Lanka!!

Golda Meir certainly falls into that category (although she was brought up in the US).

Exactly, right. In fact, Gold Meir is perhaps a female politican who took the meaning of "iron lady" to a different level. David Ben Gurion once said about her, "the only man in the cabinet".

You may agree or disagree with Indira Gandhi or Benazir Bhutto - at some point, it was their own charisma that put them where they were. You have to give them credit.

Shiva & RC,
You are right. I just wanted to highlight role of Michelle's father, General Bachellet. That's pretty much it.

Happy Sri Lanka Day, belated.

Kush and Ennis r.e. "You may agree or disagree with Indira Gandhi or Benazir Bhutto - at some point, it was their own charisma that put them where they were. You have to give them credit."

I won't deign to speak for Ms. Bhutto, but crediting Gandhi for her "charisma" reminds me of a comic I came across after Reagan kicked it.

If matching one's sari to the region in which one is appearing counts as "charisma" then I agree, Indira Gandhi had charisma to spare. It takes a lot more than "charisma" to forgive, explain and counterbalance the pattern of ruthlessness, paranoia and disrespect for the democratic traditions that she once seemed to hold dear.

Jailing hundreds of thousands for dissent, allowing one's son to coerce 23 million poor Indian men into sterilization, silencing the domestic media, scheduling and cancelling election according to one's needs, manipulating the judicial system and constitution in order to preserve one's stranglehold on the Prime Minister's seat, dividing and conquering regions and minority groups in ways that will affect India and her neighbors for generations to come...Animal Farm might as well have been based on her!

As for Sri Lanka, she did a pretty good job of neutralizing moderate voices and covertly backing the LTTE, though I guess she already had a fair amount of practice doing just that in Punjab (in terms of secretly backing Bhindranwale and his followers).

Apologies for the threadjack. Few things get me going like heralding Indira Gandhi's "charisma" (except maybe heralding that of Ronald Reagan)!

mallumolu,

I was a youngster when Indira Gandhi was thrown out of power after emergency, I celebrated. The whole cult of personality stinked. She did incredible damage.

However, she came back to power very convincingly by the people of India, after being thrown. Remember, when she became PM the first time, she was a stop-gap arrangement by Kamraj and Morarji D. (the patriachs of Congress). Within a year, she had purged all of them.

I am not "extolling" her. It was more than being daddy's girl. She was a ruthless politician.

Same with Ms. Bhutto, she spent years in jail, and almost died. Being curropt, another story.

PS: Let's discuss it later on some other thread. This is about Sri Lanka.