Peace for the World World ! Your War Our Lives
The Dalai Lama
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Back to 500BC.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Violent Rulers; Violent Mores; Violent Nations
July 14, 2012
By Tisaranee Gunasekara -
Gotabaya
“People will kill you!!! People hate you!!! They will kill you!!!”
Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Frederica Jansz (The Sunday Leader – 8.7.2012)
Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Frederica Jansz (The Sunday Leader – 8.7.2012)
“Language reveals all”.
Viktor Klemperer
(The Language of the Third Reich)
Viktor Klemperer
(The Language of the Third Reich)
In post-war Sri Lanka, violence is everywhere.
Over 700 children were raped/abused in the first six months of 2012 – a horrendous rate of four a day. Murders (including custodial murders) are so common they barely make the news. In post-war Sri Lanka, violence is becoming the method-of-choice to resolve a conflict, fulfil a desire, deal with an opponent, enrich oneself or just vent out.
The extent to which the virus of violence has infused the national-bloodstream can be gleaned from two recent outbursts of intra-Buddhist conflict. On both occasions mob-violence was used to ‘resolve’ a ‘religious’ dispute, with ‘true Buddhists’ assaulting ‘false Buddhists’. The rights and the wrongs of either case is immaterial; what is revealing is that self-proclaimed adherents of Buddhism, a teaching premised on absolute non-violence, had no compunction whatsoever in using violence to settle a doctrinal disagreement.
These violent outbursts were regarded with near-indifference by religious and political leaders (including the JHU, which believes, against all evidence, that monks can bring morality and civility into politics); and by society.
Over 700 children were raped/abused in the first six months of 2012 – a horrendous rate of four a day. Murders (including custodial murders) are so common they barely make the news. In post-war Sri Lanka, violence is becoming the method-of-choice to resolve a conflict, fulfil a desire, deal with an opponent, enrich oneself or just vent out.
The extent to which the virus of violence has infused the national-bloodstream can be gleaned from two recent outbursts of intra-Buddhist conflict. On both occasions mob-violence was used to ‘resolve’ a ‘religious’ dispute, with ‘true Buddhists’ assaulting ‘false Buddhists’. The rights and the wrongs of either case is immaterial; what is revealing is that self-proclaimed adherents of Buddhism, a teaching premised on absolute non-violence, had no compunction whatsoever in using violence to settle a doctrinal disagreement.
These violent outbursts were regarded with near-indifference by religious and political leaders (including the JHU, which believes, against all evidence, that monks can bring morality and civility into politics); and by society.
