Sri Lanka: Divided nation faced with fight to death
April 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Nestling under India, the island of Sri Lanka is famed for its palm-fringed beaches but also the bitter civil war that has gripped the country for 25 years.
The battle is rooted in deadly identity politics: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – known as the Tamil Tigers – are fighting for an independent homeland for the country's 3 million Tamils, who are mainly Hindu.
The minority group in the Sri Lankan population, Tamils are long-established residents of the north and east regions of the country. Rebels say Tamils have been the victims of racist pogroms and discriminatory policies for decades at the hands of the majority Buddhist Sinhalese population.
It is true that Sri Lankan politicians produced questionable policies, first by stopping the teaching of the Tamil language in schools, and then by allowing anti-Tamil riots to spiral out of control.
The Sinhalese resented what they saw as favouritism towards Tamils under the British administration until 1948. After independence, a more assertive Sinhala nationalism developed, widening ethnic divisions until civil war broke out in the 1980s between Tamils and government forces.
The results were bloody. Beginning in 1983, a ruthless campaign by the Tigers saw them eliminate key rivals, and then the Sri Lankan president, Ranasinghe Premadasa. They assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the prime minister of India, who had unsuccessfully sent in Indian troops to keep the peace in Sri Lanka.
Most of the fighting took place in the north of the country. But the conflict also penetrated the heart of Sri Lankan society, with Tamil Tiger rebels carrying out devastating suicide bombings in the capital, Colombo.
The Tigers have killed indiscriminately, resulting in many "disappearances" and child abductions. Meanwhile, the armed forces have bombed and shot their way through the forests.
There has been no respite in the past 20 months: foreign aid workers have been hacked to death; Sri Lankan ministers have been assassinated; and the army chief barely escaped with his life from a suicide bomb. The Tigers' peace negotiator was blown up in an air strike, and last January the group's intelligence chief was killed.
The rebels' shadowy leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was rumoured to have been badly injured in a bombing raid late last year. Some 5,000 people have died in the past two years of supposed ceasefire. The total dead since the war began is estimated around 60,000.
The losses are not just human; war has harmed tourism and damaged the country's economy.
It had seemed so different in the days after September 11. Sensing a new geopolitic, both parties in Sri Lanka talked about reconciling their views. In 2002, Norway brokered a ceasefire agreement. In 2003, international donors promised huge financial assistance to the country if the war ended.
But a peaceful political solution implies a federal-type arrangement in Sri Lanka, a prospect that raises fears in the Sinhalese that the country would be split up.
For two years until the end of 2005, the Tigers went about creating a de jure state in the north, replete with banks, courts and schools draped in rebel flags. This stirred unease in the Sinhalese, leading to the election as Sri Lankan president of Mahinda Rajapakse, a rabble-rousing nationalist.
A year ago, Rajapaksa's government formally scrapped a six-year truce brokered by Norway with the Tamil separatists, saying the rebels were using it as cover to regroup and rearm.
Foreign countries can do little to stop war erupting again. Rajapakse relies on stoking nationalist passions among the Sinhalese and his administration talks of finding a "military solution". The Tigers' Prabhakaran appears to approve of Rajapakse's warmongering, seeing a fight to the death as preferable to foreign peace efforts. The inevitable consequence is a slide back into all-out war.
The latest ceasefire was called in January 2008 but broken two weeks later. In April there was a particularly bloody attack when a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated a powerful device at the start of a marathon race in Waliweriaya, killing a dozen people including a government minister and a former Olympic athlete.
In August, government troops entered the district housing the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital, Kilinochchi, for the first time in 11 years. The military offensives have forced the rebels out of much of their territory in the north of the island.
Sri Lankan forces have now fought their way into the town of Kilinochchi, according to the country's defence ministry, and predict it will soon be captured.
But the Tamil Tigers' political leader, Balasingham Nadesan, vowed this week that the group would be able to keep fighting.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsAmanda Brooks publishes Internet Escort’s Handbook
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When most schoolgirls were playing with their Barbie dolls, Amanda Brooks was dreaming of growing up to be a prostitute.
“When I was in fourth grade, it sounded like a good idea for me. To me it sounded like a really interesting way to make a living and not having to follow other peoples’ rules,” she said by telephone from Texas where she lives.
Retired at 29 with a steady boyfriend after two-and-a-half years working as an escort, she has published the Internet Escort’s Handbook series for aspiring call girls everywhere.
The series so far contains two books. The first book, called The Foundation covers “basic mental, emotional and physical considerations in escort work”. The second, Advertising and Marketing, gives tips on how to set up a website and advertise online.
“When I began working I had a lot of questions and there wasn’t really any way to find out answers. I did what they always tell authors to do: I wrote the books that I wished I had been able to read,” she said.
Brooks is unapologetic about a lifestyle that she says suited her perfectly. On her website she describes her frustration at being told she should get a “real job”.
“I’ve read many job books which list the symptoms to look for when a job is going bad: depression, stress, anxiety, insomnia, weight gain or weight loss, anger, ulcers, hair loss, hatred, suicidal thoughts, and feeling trapped.”
“How did I feel working as an escort? Happy, satisfied, in control of my life; wealthy, healthy, at peace with myself, free, successful and I slept like a baby every night.”
Brought up in a small town in Texas, she graduated from university with a double degree in photography and English before getting a job as a cocktail waitress at a strip club. She then worked as a stripper for four years before finally taking the plunge at 26 and placing an ad offering escort services.
At a time when global trafficking and organised crime are making prostitution more dangerous than ever, Brooks said the internet made it easier to go into business on your own - free from exploitation by agencies, brothel owners or pimps.
The main tip for staying safe is: do your homework. She used the internet to screen her clients and turned down appointments when she had doubts.
The worst abuse she suffered was clients who refused to pay her fees, which she said were “standard prices in the US, between $A265 and $A530 an hour”.
The work became safer once she had a steady stable of regular clients. She found them easier to deal with than her boyfriend.
“Adding money to a sexual relationship does not necessarily make it violent or horrible,” she said.
“Relationships with my clients are fun and easy. They were kind of a break from real life and we all know that real life can be difficult.”
Artist Gregor Schneider wants volunteer to die as artwork
April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
PRIZE-winning German artist Gregor Schneider has caused an uproar by launching a search for a volunteer willing to die for art.
The enfant terrible of the German cultural scene is looking for someone whose dying hours will be spent in an art gallery with the public admiring the way the light plays on the flesh of a person gasping for the last breath.
The 39-year-old artist has been concerned with death for much of his career. He gained critical acclaim for a sculpture, Hannelore Reuen, of a dead woman.
He has been hatching his latest idea since 1996, and now has a pathologist and art collector to help to find a candidate who wants to become a work of art in the final days of his or her life.
“The dying person would determine everything in advance, he would be the absolute centre of attention,” said Mr Schneider.
“Everything will be done in consultation with the relatives, and the public will watch the death in an appropriately private atmosphere.”
Death is commonly seen as the last taboo, although artists have been trying hard to demystify it.
Gunther von Hagens, nicknamed Doctor Death, has been travelling the world with an exhibition of plastinated corpses, showing genuine human bodies in living poses, playing chess or on horseback. The Wellcome Collection in London has an exhibition of portraits of people pictured before and after death by two German photographers.
The Schneider project, however, seems to have gone too far. It is being compared with watching executions in the US.
The influential gallery owner Beatrix Kalwa spoke for many German curators who rule out the idea of giving space to Schneider’s artistic endeavour.
“Existential matters like death, birth or the act of reproduction do not belong in a museum,” she said.
“There is a fundamental difference between portraying these acts in an art form, and showing them in actuality.”
The head of the German hospice foundation that provides care for the terminally ill, Eugen Brysch, said: “This is pure voyeurism and makes a mockery of those who are dying.”
But Schneider argues that death is already undignified and that his aim is to restore its grace.
Bin-bag Darth Vader strikes Jedi
April 24, 2008 | 1 Comment
A DRUNK man wearing a bin-liner and a cape attacked the founder of a Jedi church while shouting “Darth Vader”, a court has heard.
Arwel Wynne Hughes, a 27-year-old from Anglesey in England’s west, admitted to committing two counts of common assault after drunkenly attacking two men with a metal crutch, the BBC reported.
The court was told that Jedi church founder and Star Wars fan Barney Jones and his cousin Michael were filming themselves playing with light sabres in a backyard before Hughes jumped over a garden wall.
Hughes had consumed more than half of a 10 litre cask of wine before the attack, the court heard.
The court was told Hughes did not remember the attack until he read about it later in a newspaper, and where the crutch had come from was still a mystery to him.
Prosecutor Nia Lloyd told the court that Hughes was laughing as he was striking the cousins.
“He was wearing a black bin bag and a cape and had a metal crutch in his hand,” Ms Lloyd said.
She said Hughes hit the church founder in the head and the second man in the thigh.
The men suffered minor injuries.
Hughes’ lawyer Frances Jones said alcohol was “ruining” his client’s life.
Hughes will next face court on May 13.
Teenager Sarah Walker takes own life after bullying
April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment
The coroner will investigate the death of a Melbourne teenager who took her life after claiming she was bullied.
Sarah Jean Walker, 17, died in her family’s western suburbs home earlier this month.
It is believed the VCE student was involved in a spat with another teenager about a fortnight before she died on April 7.
Sources said Sarah left notes saying she had been bullied and taunted.
Police are believed to have seized notes and several personal items, including her mobile phone.
Described as a happy student and keen hockey player, Sarah left behind her grieving father Doug, mother Evelyn, stepmum Kerrie and a younger sister.
Mr Walker said the family did not blame the school or any individual for the tragedy.
But they encouraged youths to consider other people’s feelings.
“Be kind to others and be careful what you say to people,” Mr Walker said.
The Walkers said it was too early to conclude what had compelled Sarah to take her own life.
The principal of Mount St Joseph’s Girls College distanced the school from the bullying claim. “Our sole priority at this time is with the family,” Regina Byrne said.
It is believed Sarah had been at the school for less than a year. Altona police confirmed they were preparing a report for the coroner.
A series of death notices in the Herald Sun reveal the devastating impact of Sarah’s death on family and friends.
Sarah’s aunt Linda and uncle Jim wrote: “A life lived too short. Cherished memories of a beautiful and special girl.”
Family friend Neona Connolly recalled her vibrant personality.
“A shining light with twinkling eyes, a breath of fresh air whose sparkle warmed hearts,” she wrote. “You are our ‘princess who laughed’.”
An under-17 player with the Altona Hockey Club, Sarah was fondly remembered by her friends. Staff and students also expressed their sorrow in a death notice published in the Herald Sun.
“She will be remembered for her smile and warmness of heart. She is already greatly missed but she will never be forgotten,” it said.
Hockey teammate Hannah wrote: “Sarah, I miss our constant talking and bludging at hockey. You will be my hockey buddy for life.”
Sarah was buried at the Altona Memorial Park Cemetery on April 16.
Suicide accounts for 18 per cent of deaths among Australians aged between 12 and 24.
