Famous rapper and Tamil Tiger daughter M…
Famous rapper and Tamil Tiger daughter MIA is very angry at the New York Times for listing Sri Lanka as the top destination to go on vacation in 2010.
Famous rapper and Tamil Tiger daughter MIA is very angry at the New York Times for listing Sri Lanka as the top destination to go on vacation in 2010.
cbarwa and 
aziz are discussing.
aziz 10:24 am on January 14, 2010 Permalink
Color me unsurprised. But the fact remains that Colombo was a delightful city, Sri Lanka utterly gorgeous, and the people of Colombo among the warmest and hospitable I’ve ever met. I was entranced by Sri Lanka and I think it’s a great place to go.
Tamils have grievances but portraying Sri Lanka as some kind of North Korean analogue isnt going to help their cause any.
cbarwa 11:04 am on January 14, 2010 Permalink
Considering the history of riots targeting them long before the current war started, that is one hell of a euphemism!
aziz 11:32 am on January 14, 2010 Permalink
I am trying not to take sides here. Frankly I was glad the war was over; I posted a lot on the war here at TI mostly critical of terror attacks on civilians, and I also wasnt happy about the postwar treatment by the govt. Check out the talk islam archives:
http://talkislam.info/tag/sri-lanka/
my point is that treating Sri Lanka like its a tyranny is just wrong. And most of the people I met in Colombo were just weary of the whole thing.
cbarwa 12:53 pm on January 14, 2010 Permalink
Yes I know Aziz, I didn’t mean to imply you were taking sides but I think it is a bit meliorist just to say that Tamil’s had ‘grievances’ I mean that just makes them sound like some disgruntled constituents upset about a Wind farm in their backyard or sthg! There were real substantive issues at stake
Yes, but lets not forget it isn’t a pleasant place for many Tamils to live in, through little fault of their own.
I worked on a consultancy for the Sri Lankan govt several years ago (on a rural credit programme) and I found it a beautiful place as well, didn’t have any problems with Sri Lankans either but then most obsessively wanted to find out whether I was Tamil or not and looked visibly relieved when they discovered that I was not. Can’t help wondering what my experience would have been like if I was.
You need to ask yourself, how many of the people in Colombo that you met were Tamils and how many were Sinhalese. I think that could colour perceptions quite a bit.