Thursday, July 27, 2006

The Art of Terror

Listening to: the fan

Two months ago, this was the plan: my friend would come to Sri Lanka, and for two weeks, we would take her around and introduce her to the wealth of history, culture and natural beauty that my beautiful island is famous for. Then, we would travel to India, and she would return the favour by showing me around the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur).

One month ago, this was the plan: my friend wouldn't be coming to Sri Lanka due to the LTTE's penchant for suicide attacks, claymore mines and other destructive means. Instead, I brought forward my visit to India and extended it by a few days. Retrospectively this was probably a wise decision, considering the current petrol strike - who needs the LTTE when legitimate Sri Lankans are wreaking havoc all over the country?
When can I get my can full? (Front page of Daily Island 27/07/2006)

Now, this is the plan: my friend isn't coming to Sri Lanka, and I'm not going to India. Why? Well, Delhi happens to be on a Security Red Alert after numerous bomb threats etc. Luckily for the people of Delhi, all the threats so far have been hoaxes.

The hardships I'm facing due to the threat of terrorism are negligible compared those faced by my brothers and sisters in occupied regions, and this is in no way an attempt to belittle their plight. However, I'd like to highlight the three different types of terrorism I've witnessed over the past few months:
  • Terrorism by established terrorist organisations who like to blow people up to prove a point
  • Terrorism by Trade Union workers who like to cripple their own country's transport system to prove a point
  • Terrorism by sick creatures who like to make false bomb threats to 'have some fun'
Oh what a wonderful world we live in.

In other somewhat-related news, the 25th of July 2006 marked 23 years since Black July, when my countrymen went on a rampage and did who-knows-what to innocent Tamil civilians. If Sri Lankans want to be ashamed of anything in our history, we should be ashamed of this. News reports state that a commemorative event was held at Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park. According to this article, this event was more of an LTTE rally than a memorial gathering. I thought UK terror laws prevented this sort of behaviour?

1 comment:

  1. ah sorry ur India trip didnt work out. Is she not coming over at all? It seems to be somewhat settled in Sri Lanka now..

    ReplyDelete

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