This is a festival celebrated throughout India and surrounding countries. It is colloquially known as the “festival of lights,” for the common practice is to light small oil lamps and place them around the home, in courtyards, verandahs, and gardens, as well as on roof-tops and outer walls. In urban areas, especially, candles are substituted… Read more »
Pirapaharan 2, Chapter 23: Manal Aru becomes Weli Oya
by T. Sabaratnam, November 5, 2004 (Volume 2) sangam.org/articles/view2/633.html On the Sly The Yan Oya settlement that would break the territorial contiguity of Tamil Eelam between Trincomalee and Mullaitivu districts was started on the sly. The planners of the project wanted to settle Sinhalese along the Yan Oya (river) which flows into the sea north… Read more »
Twenty Books on Eelam Tamils
For reference and research by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 4, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/632.html This list was originally prepared by me to aid one young reader of my writings in the Sangam site. Early this year, he solicited my choices for study on the history and politics of Eelam Tamils. For convenience, I have arranged my selections… Read more »
No Peace Without Justice
by Arundhati Roy, November 4, 2004 Speech on accepting the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize sangam.org/articles/view2/648.html Sometimes there’s truth in old cliches. There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice. Today, it is not merely justice itself, but the idea of justice that is under attack. The assault… Read more »
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 »
Youth Event at Sangam AGM Nov. 6
October 22, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/617.html
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 »