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Author
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Topic: Racism
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Drwho1
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posted April 18, 2000 11:46 AM
 
I had one Boswana friend (neighbour Country of South Africa). He is former Boswana President's Son and Black, and studied at USA, well spoken person, He always told me about a lot of things of South Africa under white rules.
He asked me that which country, which group of people, which society, Does not have Racism.
First , Racism is mainly that how is your look(That means your figure, colour, small and large creatures(For example,mostly Asian are small builds), hair colour.
First point is due to your birth, you are different from others.
Then, other factors also contribute for racism such as language, religion, culture, wearing cloths, Depend what foods do you eat,etc.
How ever, additional factors are class systems,even you could say caste systems, other social factors(but I could not merely accept the last factors as factors of racism).When I was first time at UK, I knew practically that what meaned racism. Because I entered first time into multi culture socitey, Entered into the society, completely new dimensions of experience, I did not expect the new culture. Even Sinhalese did a lot of things against Tamils, I did not have direct experience from Sinhalese people, I lived as Prince in my town, even I studied at Peradeniya, Fortunately I did not have, in 1983, before started , University was closed. But In 1983 riots , my school class mate was burned to death at Mountleniya when They travelled by car (or taxi). That time , He studied at Moratuva university. He born as first son after twenty years , without child long time for his parents. why am I writting this, because to find out who started. I did not like violence, because I did not use any kind of violence in my life time, Even, I did not hit any body. Who strated. I had sinhalese friends when I studied at university, even Other halls were attacked by University sinhalese students, My favour Akbar hall which is next side of Mahavali, was not attacked, because the hall was protected by our Faculty sinhalese students at start of 1983 riots. Still remeber, My room was along with new kampola road and far distance of Mahavali, I could see through my room window, beautiful mountain. some times, I looked the mountain for hours, so beautiful. because I did not see a mountain in Jaffna during school time. who started the war. why did the sinhala goverment not think that it would make problem in future.
I could not come to tell this as white, black, brown, and yellow racism in Sri lanka. But the war is beyond some of racism. Tamils did not admit that purley not racists, but At start, Tamils did not try to kill any sinhalese people. Tamils did not rape sinhalese women in any riots. Who started?.
During the riots, sinhala goverment thaught that good lessons for tamils. That time , sinhala goverment did not think that tamils would be fight against them. Due to the bloody war, every family of Jaffna Tamils lost atleast one relative directely or indirectely from the problem.
We faced in foreign Country, different kind of racism, but in Sri lanka, different kind of racism. I did not come to say that all sinhalese people are bad people, and all tamil people are good people. But who started the problem. Only one Pirabakaran could not run war agianst a state. LTTE grew up step by step with evey mistake of sinhala goverment on Tamils.
First, Tamils did not choose violence, but after a time, they did not have a choice. How ever, In foreign country , racism is different dimension. I had that experience, but I overcomed by through the experience.
Racism is big subject. I could write a lot of things.
Sinhala and Tamil racism is different, and in foreign country racism is different. [This message has been edited by Drwho1 (edited December 13, 2004).] |
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Ali G
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posted April 18, 2000 12:04 PM
In Uk racism doesn't kill 1000's every year. No carpet bombing of part of UK. No school children as young as 6 years old gang raped by army. No prime minister (president JR Jayawardene), tell in any interview that he can not care about the minorities opinion or their lives. No prisoners killed in custody. No one with any sense would argue that its Ok to gang rape school children. (Mr GangBang Badege).No complete ban on food and medicine to part of UK. No schools have been destroyed by army. Not a single village has been burnt. No genocide of a minority,,,,,, I can not possibly list ,,,,Sorry,,, |
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lanka_s
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posted April 18, 2000 11:13 PM
As I have posted earlier under another topic, on Webster's dictionary the word racism is defined as:1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination Because it is a "belief", it is almost impossible to get rid of racism in everyday life. What makes one person stand out from the next, is how that person choose to handle their racist feelings. I know of both sinhalese and tamil people who have chosen to put aside their petty differences and be friends. It is not impossible. It is like a marriage - both parties will have to compromise and accomodate. And as for who started this war, well, do you guys honestly believe that the 83 riots is the start of the war? If so I suggest you read a book by A. Mahadevan titled "The faultline". Which is available in most states in the US. Anyway, regardless of who started this war, it is useless to live in the past and quote what has happened years ago (as most politicians do these days). In fact it is useless even to bring up yesterday. We must think of today and what all of us are prepared to do TODAY to stop this war. And the expectations should be realistic. Remember that age-old saying... "If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem." [This message has been edited by lanka_s (edited April 18, 2000).] |
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Ali G
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posted April 19, 2000 08:31 PM
I think chandrika is planing to end the war by killing all tamils and allowing her babaric army to rape children,,,Once they finished with tamil children, they may come after sinhalees children,, so make your daughters ready,,, its bed time for them,,, |
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Onlooker
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posted April 21, 2000 03:48 PM
Ref. Ali G's comment of 18/04/2000.
He should also recognise that in UK no body asks for separate homelands and carry suicide bomb attacks. Not even by IRA in Ireland.
His comments of 19/04 shows his mentality on which arguments are based on. |
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Ali G
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posted April 22, 2000 07:31 PM
Fuk off wanker!! |
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Onlooker
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posted April 23, 2000 03:16 PM
Come on Ali G, No point in getting angry.The facts are there.Up to intelligent people to interpret, including your language.
Truth is nice though bitter most of the time!
Its like oil, surfaces always, whether one likes or not
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Drwho1
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posted February 22, 2001 08:52 AM
I refreshed again |
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Riaz
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posted February 26, 2001 05:14 PM
Visva, most of the things that you accuse the Sinhalese of doing on the above post is done by others as well. It is not only the sinhalese who keep young children as servents in their posh homes. Likewise sexual abusers in Sri Lanka are of various different ethnicities and nationalities. The same goes for discrimination that exists in day-to-day activities in Sri Lanka. These are all problems of a country which is struggling to provide proper services/protection to it's citizens (just like many other devloping countries) - and the war in Sri Lanka is worsening these problems.Please don't say child abuse and descrimination against minority ethnic groups are the same. They are very different - I have worked with people who have been abused as children during their younger years and it is a whole lot different. |
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Casper
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posted February 26, 2001 05:28 PM
Visva,
FYI, none of my relatives have Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim or any other minority/majority child as a servant in their homes. In fact, none of my relatives even have adult servants ! Our family believes in cleaning our own dishes  Like Riaz said, the problem of child labour is common in most third world countries and 99% of the time it has nothing to do with Racism. [This message has been edited by Casper (edited February 26, 2001).] |
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Riaz
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posted February 26, 2001 05:43 PM
[This message has been edited by Riaz (edited February 26, 2001).] |
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Casper
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posted February 27, 2001 09:47 AM
Like I said earlier, child labour is a problem in most third world countries. In countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan the problem is much bigger than in Sri Lanka. It is my firm belief that the problem of child labour stems not from racism but from poverty. In Sri Lanka (back in the 80's and early 90's when I lived there) the Department of Child Welfare and Probation ran a series of public awareness advertisements on the news papers requesting the public to inform the authorities of any person employing an under aged child. A telephone number was given and one could be anonymous when giving information to the authorities. |
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Riaz
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posted February 28, 2001 10:43 PM
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