Monthly Archives: October 2004

Sangam’s Nov 6 Annual General Meeting Program

sangam.org/articles/view2/630.html The Sangam’s AGM is coming up in one week, on Saturday, November 6 in Edison, New Jersey.  There will be interesting programs, lots of socializing with old and new friends, dinner, a business meeting, dancing and more! All are welcome. There will be an all-day and evening program, with a separate youth event in… Read more »

The Discipline of Honor

by P.J., October 31, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/629.html I became interested in the armed struggle of our people in the eighth grade.  It all started with my friend telling me about a band called “Rage Against The Machine.” Rage Against The Machine fascinated me with the idea of revolution.  I tried to learn about the issues they… Read more »

Reclaiming the Rights of Cyclists

Press Briefing – Cyclone October 25, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/628.html In Sri Lanka there are approximately two million bicycles. However, the provision of infrastructure to cater the requirement of the cyclists is minimal. Apart from the lack of proper infrastructure facilities, the increase of motor vehicles is another factor that hinders the bicycle use. This sudden influx… Read more »

Power to the Minority

by Mafoot Simon, Straits Times, Singapore, October 29, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/627.html Dear Ehsan, It’s been many years since you migrated to the United States. Quite a long way from Jalan Ismail to Los Angeles, isn’t it? Your accountancy business doing OK? I’ve been following the presidential contest, and it strikes me that it truly is the… Read more »

Pirapaharan 2, Chapter 22: JR’s Third Track

by T. Sabaratnam, October 29, 2004 (Volume 2) sangam.org/articles/view2/626.html Smashing the Basis Home Minister K. W. Devanayagam’s coordinating secretary K. G. John telephoned me in the morning of 8 September 1983 and said the minister wanted to meet me on an urgent matter.  I met him in his ministry. Devanayagam told me that a Sinhala… Read more »

Karuna: A Voice From The Past

by K. Mylvaganam, October 27, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/623.html Karuna’s is a name that is getting fast diminished from the political world.  His biggest fear is that people are going to forget him very soon.  He knows that he is becoming history, hence he is forced to do something to prove that he is alive and kicking. … Read more »

A Kerry Win: Implications for Sri Lanka

by Dayan Jayatilleka, [source not recorded], October 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/622.html The Sangam makes no endorsement in the American election campaign.  This is an interesting article speculating on the implications of one outcome of the election.  Jayatilleka is a voice crying in the wilderness for a a non-sectarian, pluralistic, federal state on the island.  If that… Read more »

LTTE Rationale for Talks Based on the ISGA Alone

by Taraki (aka D.Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, Wednesday, October 23, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/625.html Why are the Tigers refusing to restart peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) on any basis other than their Interim Self Governing Authority proposal? With each passing day, the opposition to the ISGA is gathering such irreversible momentum in the… Read more »

Will the New Karuna-led Alliance Pose a Serious Threat

to the LTTE? by A.R.M. Imtiyaz, Ph.D. [1], October 27, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/624.html The straightforward answer is ‘No.’  Why?  Scholars of ethnic political conflict from Gurr to Howard clearly maintain some basic understanding of the dynamics of these struggles to answer the question.  Accordingly, no ethno-political military group or alliance would enjoy the loyalty and political… Read more »

ilam < sihala?: An Assessment of an Argument

sangam.org/articles/view2/621.html by Peter Schalk Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2004 ISSN 0439-2132, ISBN 91-554-5972-2 (distributed by Uppsala University Library, www.uu.se [use the search engine for Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis]) This is a very important book for the understanding of the relationship of the terms ilam and sihala from ancient times to the immediate present.  Because of the contemporary political situation, this relationship is of… Read more »

Sangam’s Nov 6 Annual General Meeting Program

sangam.org/articles/view2/620.html The Sangam’s AGM is coming up in one week, on Saturday, November 6 in Edison, New Jersey.  There will be interesting programs, lots of socializing with old and new friends, dinner, a business meeting, dancing and more! All are welcome. There will be an all-day and evening program, with a separate youth event in… Read more »

Pirapaharan 2, Chapter 21: Sustained Guerrilla Campaign

A reader sent the following information to add to this series on the life and times of Pirapaharan. We encourage all readers to send us their understanding of this history of us all. It is no exaggeration Pirabakaran’s life is also the history of the heroic Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.  Pirabakaran joined the Tamil Students Forum… Read more »

The Meaning of Empathy

A Summer With the Children of NorthEast Sri Lanka by Nimmi Gowrinathan, October 21, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/616.html The four Tamil Sri Lankan-Americans who ventured back to Yalpannam knew the story well.  After all, it was only one generation that stood between them and the violence whose legacy left no Tamil family untouched.  It had been passed… Read more »

An Endless War with No Corners

by Wakeley Paul, October 21, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/615.html Is an endless war what President Kumaratunge has in store for the Sinhalese and for us Tamils?  It would certainly appear so, unless someone from somewhere intervenes. The leader of the opposition has recently emphasized to the Indian authorities the urgent need to continue with the peace talks. … Read more »

Inventor of the Yellow Fever Vaccine and Jaffna

by National Library of Science’s Profiles in Science, Washington, DC, accessed October 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/614.html Wilbur Sawyer started college at the University of California, Berkeley.  He transferred to Harvard University in his second year, and got his AB there in 1902.  He attended Harvard Medical School, received his MD in 1906. In 1908, Sawyer returned to… Read more »

Re: ‘An Indictment of the Sri Lankan Government’

by Saravan, October 20, 2004 The article ‘An Indictment of the Sri Lankan Government‘ is the first time, to my mind, where I have come across a comprehensive list of discrete actions on the part of the Sri Lankan state at causing genocide of Tamils.  Unfortunately, these events have been reported from time to time,… Read more »

Of Cranky Letters and Political Knaves

by Sachi Sri Kantha, October 20, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/612.html It seems that some kind of virus strain is turning Tamil politicians like Douglas Devananda and Veerasingham Anandasangaree into letter writers.  Early this year, it was revealed that Minister Devananda wrote 16 letters to the Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections on the ‘irregularities’ he experienced as a… Read more »

Basketball Tournament to Benefit NorthEast children

San Diego, October 30 Dear Friends, My name is Greg Buie, and I had an article posted on the Sangam website recently entitled “Inspiration and Hope: The Youth of Sri Lanka.” I would like to tell you about a charity event I am planning for the end of this month in San Diego, California.  All… Read more »

Short Biography of Velupillai Pirapaharan

by T. Sabaratnam, October 19, 2004 ‘Pirapaharan,’ Volume 1 & 2 by T. Sabaratnam Reposted – Ilankai Tamil Sangam sangam.org/articles/view2/610.html On numerous occasions the detailed biography that Mr. Sabaratnam has been writing, and which is being posted on the Sangam website, is too much material, particularly when dealing with non-Tamils. We, therefore, requested Mr. Sabaratnam… Read more »