Groundviews

Groundviews

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15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 0 replies · +1 points

You are forgiven for being suspected of carrying explosives, and for other lapses in judgement and comprehension.

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 0 replies · +1 points

The horror or delight in looking at your posterior is best left for others. That said, why on earth give more fuel to those who already accuse us of a certain fixation on them?!

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 0 replies · +1 points

I agree, you really must stick to onanism, intellectual or otherwise. On the topic of taking photographs, perhaps the debate can be taken up with Nalaka, who bases a compelling article on an incident where a credentialed photojournalist was taken in for questioning by a CDF - http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/14/endangered-...

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 0 replies · +1 points

Comprehension is a desired quality in a 'commentator'.

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 1 reply · +1 points

A prominent mobile telecoms company had plonked them to jump up and down whenever they pleased, but especially when there was a 4 or 6. Can't remember whether they were biased towards Royal or us...

You contradict yourself in the last paragraph, but given that you coined an entirely new English word to begin with, I didn't expect too much.

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 2 replies · +1 points

Ref comment above - the point was made in relation to the vicinity of schools and the overall context.

15 years ago @ Groundviews - 14 years ago: Memories... · 2 replies · +1 points

Channa,

The failure of comprehension is not limited to those points, but never mind, I'll take you for your word that you are not educated enough to comment. But since this realisation does not prevent you from going on to do so, I was pointing to the qualitative difference in the militarisation of polity and society. You weren't for example questioned by the CDF or arrested by the Police if you took photos outside a school. There weren't barricades around the entrances. There wasn't a sense of being garrisoned. The reasons for the emergence of security runs parallel to the increase in violence leading to an all consuming war at present. But this only qualifies the point that Thomians in and entering College today would face - literally and metaphorically - very different circumstances than when I was in College.

15 years ago @ Groundviews - WINNING LOCALLY, WINNI... · 0 replies · +1 points

Agnos, surely it was possible to say what you wanted to say without sounding like the regime you so abhor? Be the change you want to see. I have allowed this comment through, but please take note of the submission guidelines when you post to this site in the future. See http://www.groundviews.org/submission-guidelines.

I have noted earlier that:

"Dayan has published a number of articles on this site since July 2008 and all of them have been pro-war. Groundviews is the ONLY website where a senior diplomat of the Rajapakse administration can be interrogated. Further, Dayan himself, unlike others in government and the foreign service today, is open to serious and sustained questioning on a range of issues, including the war, as can be seen by the long comment threads on any one of his articles here.

If we believe in and are to promote peace through peaceful means, we must continuously engage with and be prepared to accept the merits of counter-arguments. Sadly, the pro-peace movement and the pro-war movement in Sri Lanka operate in self-referential spheres. Dayan's articles are published here to break that trend. His sustained engagement with interlocutors on this site is appreciated also for this reason."

(Under MULLAITIVU: CLOSING TIME, http://www.groundviews.org/2009/01/28/mullaitivu-...

15 years ago @ Groundviews - It's not cricket · 0 replies · +1 points

Hey Dayan,

1. Could you tell me from where in my article or subsequent comments you base the first assumption you attribute to me?

2. Fine. Say Western media is a bitch (for the record, does this include Al Jazeera too?). Let's get three media workers - one state journo, one private, one blogger - all armed with same equipment to do exactly what I wanted Sites to do. Place them in three camps. Or in the same camp. Non-western, endogenous eye balls whose bias can cancel each other out. The more the merrier, yes?

And lest this veers off into a debate on authenticity and identity, the issue is that with an atrocious track record of freedom of expression (don't even try to defend this one) the GoSL looks at public scrutiny with as much love as you have for the LTTE. This isn't about Western or Non-Western - it is simply about bearing witness to the humanitarian fall-out of war independently. However, I agree this may be a tall order for a regime that does not quite understand, in general, why independent media is important.

3. I have never been convinced that foreign / UN intervention is forthcoming or possible, even if desirable.

Fidel's spot on - what's fueling, inter alia, the hugely partial web campaigns by or in favour of the LTTE today, giving them more attention, traction and credibility than they deserve, is the obduracy and actions of the Government vis-a-vis human security. I refer you to Sara's article (Unending End Game) which points to aspects of Holmes' report to the SC that were conveniently ignored by the Government and State media reportage. These are concerns echoed by the recent ICG report, and to see them all as hegemonistic - interventionist discourses based on wild imaginings is an inadequate response.

But you know that.

Sanj

15 years ago @ Groundviews - It's not cricket · 1 reply · +1 points

Ahamed touché, but Chomsky in his tome speaks of a different animal, less dedicated to meaningful change, but appearing to be so.