Whats New Archive -
December 2007 -
Week Ending:
Sunday 30 December 2007
Comments to include
Reflections
"..Every five years,
it is the masses who determine who will
form the government. And in between those
five years the classes determine what that
government will do... when you talk of a
nine point two per cent growth rate, it
becomes a statistical abstraction: 0.2 per
cent of our people are growing at 9.92 per
cent per annum...You have to be quarrelling
with your mother-in-law or hitting your
daughter-in-law to be able to hit the
headlines. It is impossible to get
particularly the pink papers to focus on
issues that affect the bulk of the people.
And it is so easy to get them to focus on
issues that are of high relevance to only
one or two per cent of the
people..." Indian
economic policy is hijacked by a small
elite - Mani Shankar Iyer , Minister for
Panchayati Raj at the Confederation of Indian
Industry |
Spirituality & the Tamil Nation
- Christmas
|
Grace in Christianity
& Hinduism - Bishop Sabapathy
Kulendran
"A proved
method of studying a subject is by
comparison and contrast....Even though in
comparing the teachings of religions there
can be nothing like a neutral criterion,
there has to be some criterion. I am
writing this book as a Christian minister..
Augustine defined grace, when he said
Gratia non est gratia nullo modo, si non
est gratuita omni modo (Grace is not
grace at all, if it is not gratuitous in
every respect). Grace cannot depend on
merit. The word used in the New Testament
is charis. This word had originally
meant joy... The word used in Saiva
Siddhanta is Arul (the original root
being said to be associated with movement).
Whatever be the etymology of these words
they have come to denote the idea
corresponding to grace in the West. Grace
is different from pity, as pity involves a
certain amount of contempt on the part of
the person showing it towards the person
receiving it..." more |
Tamil National
Forum
Comments to include
Selvarajah
Senthan writes from Sri
Lanka "I am
currently working as a Researcher on Media
and Conflict Resolution in Colombo. I am a
regular visitor of your website. I must
first thank you for operating such an
excellent website containing news, views
and analysis. This is a good database for
social science research. I am one of the
beneficiaries of your service. Herewith, I
am enclosing my thesis document
�The Discourse of the
Peace Process in the Sri Lankan
Press�, submitted to the
Orebro University, Sweden for the Degree of
Masters of Global Journalism. Could you
please include it in your database, so that
many people can see it?" together
with Response by tamilnation.org |
|
Reflections
�A race of
people is like an individual man: until
it uses its own talent, takes
pride in its history,
expresses its own culture and
affirm its own selfhood, it
cannot fulfil itself... We want freedom
by any means necessary. We want justice
by any means necessary. We want equality
by any means necessary. We don't feel
that in 1964, living in a country that is
supposedly based upon freedom, and
supposedly the leader of the free world,
we don't think that we should have to sit
around and wait for some segregationist
congressmen and senators and a President
from Texas in Washington, D. C., to make
up their minds that our people are due
now some degree of civil rights. No, we
want it now or we don't think anybody
should have it. � -
Malcom X - Speech at
Founding Rally of Organization of
Afro-American Unity (OAAU),
1964
" For many the
pursuit of the material life is a
necessity...They rightly strive to secure
it and it must be our aim and the aim of
all who are just and wise to assist in
that effort. But many have got more than
is required and are free, if they choose,
to devote themselves more completely to
cultivating the things of the mind and,
in particular, those that make us out as
a distinct nation. The first of these latter is the
national language. It is for us what
no other language can be. It is our very
own... It is more than a symbol,
it is an essential
part of our nationhood. It has
been moulded by the thought of a hundred
generations of our forebears. In it is
stored the accumulated experience of a
people... A vessel for three
thousand years of our history, the
language is for us precious beyond
measure... To part with it would
be to abandon a great part of ourselves,
to loose the key to our past, to cut away
the roots from the tree. With the
language gone we could never again aspire
to being more than half a nation..."
On Language & the Irish Nation
- Eamon de Valera -
Speech to the Nation, broadcast on Radio
�ireann, 17 March
1943
|
Tamil
Diaspora: a Trans State Nation - Malaysia
to include
|
1. Chemman Chaalai (The
Gravel Road) - A Malaysian Indian
Story - a film about Malaysian
Indians told in a Malaysian way.
Chalanggai portrays some of the social,
cultural and economic conditions of
Malaysian Indians who struggle to keep up
with the rapid growth of developing
Malaysia. more
2. Malaysian Tamils and
Tamil Linguistic Culture -
Harold F.
Schiffman, 1998
"...
increasing number of Tamils ... are not
actually Tamil speakers.... The Tamil
language will probably survive in
Malaysia into the twenty-first century,
but perhaps only in isolated rural
pockets, or as the language of a
marginalized urban underclass...
Tamil has no economic value in
Malaysia, and is therefore maintained by
the socio-economically destitute as a
last vestige of primordial ethnicity.
Since even in the developed western
countries (e.g. the US) a similarly
destitute urban underclass persists...
the prognosis for Tamil is unlikely to be
any different in Malaysia.." more
|
Tamil
Nation Library to include
1.
Political Memoirs of an
Unrepentant Communist N.Sanmugathasan,
1989 " It was my second year at the
University, 1939 - 40, that changed the
direction of my entire life. In that year I
became a communist. I have not looked back
ever since. I had finished my secondary
school education at the Manipay Hindu
college which was only half a mile from my
home in Manipay, Jaffna..." more |
2.Theorizing the National Crisis:
Sanmugathasan, the Left and the Ethnic
Conflict in Sri Lanka - Dr. Ravi
Vaitheespara The book consisting
of two research papers, 'Towards a Tamil
Left Perspective on the Ethnic Crisis in
Sri Lanka,' and 'The Wisdom of Hindsight:
Sanmugathasan, the Left and the National
Crisis in Sri Lanka,'published by the
Social Scientists�
Association, Colombo was released on 8
December 2007... more |
Week Ending:
Sunday, 23 December 2007
Reflections
"...Some quarrellers do not realise
that in this world
We must all at some time cease to live
But there are others who do realise,
And they will settle their
quarrels..."
Dhammapada quoted by a
Sinhala Teacher, A.S.de Silva from
Balapitiya in a Tribute to S.Nadesan
Q.C., December 1996 |
On the 21st
Death Anniversary of S.Nadesan Q.C.
Remembering S.Nadesan
Q.C. who passed away 21 years ago on
21 December 1986. Manel Fonseka of
the Sri Lanka Civil Rights Movement in a
Tribute declared in 1986 "...His life
is a chronicle of the age, as much as the
values for which he stood were such that
he has been called the conscience of our
time...". Senator Nadesan's
speech On
Genocide'58 delivered during the course
of the debate on the State of Emergency
on June 4th, 1958
remains 49 years later,
a moving testament to that which Manel
Fonseka said. "..The Tamils are the
pawns in a political
game. It does not matter to anybody
how we suffer, how we feel, so long as in
this game one Sinhala party is the victor
and the other Sinhala party is the
vanquished. .... if one party said, "We
will kill the Tamils", the other party
could go one better and say, "We will eat
the Tamils." In other words, it was a
competition as to who would hold down the
Tamils most. And the party which was
going to hold down the Tamils most was
going to have the support of the
Sinhalese masses... That is all. That is
why I ask you not to make us pawns in
your game... We are willing to go. Every
Tamil man, woman and child is willing to
go...We do not want language rights from
you. We will
look after our language..... Please have
Sinhalese only. No
Tamil worthy of his name is ever going to
study the Sinhalese language. You have
stamped it out... We only want the right
to live in our areas. We
want the right to be able to walk the
streets without being molested. Those are
the rights we want. The elementary
duty of a Government is to afford
protection to its subjects, and the duty
of the citizens is to be loyal to that
Government. The moment that Government
fails to afford that
protection, it forfeits its right to
that loyalty and affection. This
Government has forfeited that
right... " more
|
Tamil
National Forum to
include
Tamil
Digital Renaissance to include
Reflections
Tamil
National Forum
Unfolding Consciousness: From
Matter to Life to Mind...
|
The Torture of Endless Desire -
Ronald Rolheiser "In the torment of
the insufficiency of everything attainable
we come to understand that here, in this
life, all symphonies remain unfinished.....
The reason why we are tormented is not
because we are too greedy to be satisfied
with this life. No. The first, and deep
reason, is that we are infinite spirits
living in a finite situation, hearts made
for union with everything and everybody,
meeting only mortal persons and things. We
are Grand Canyons without a bottom.
Nothing, short of union with all that is,
can ever fill in that void. To be tormented
by restlessness is to be human. But in
accepting truly, that humanity we become a
bit more easeful in our restlessness. Why?
.... in this life there is no finished
symphony, everything comes with an undertow
of restlessness and inadequacy. This is
true of everyone.... Peace and restfulness
can come to us only when we accept that
fact.... " more |
Comments to include
Raj
Rudran from USA "I had the
pleasure of looking at the Tamil Nation
website after a few years. It is heart
warming to see its growth and achievements.
Congratulations. It covers every aspect of
our culture and it's a great
reference site for anyone interested in
what the Tamils stand for. Paticularly
pleasing for me to see was how you finished
the column on Tamil Music
with reference to our struggle for freedom.
Excellent contribution to
Tamil." |
Week Ending:
Sunday, 16 December 2007
Tamil
National Forum
Sachi Sri Kantha
writes from Japan - The Indo-LTTE War (1987-90) - An
Anthology. Part 3 "The Tamil
Tigers of Sri Lanka are facing extinction.
Like the great beasts they named themselves
after, they were fighting tooth and claw
this week against the Indian soldiers sent
to disarm them, but it was a losing fight.
They were outnumbered, outgunned, running
out of supplies and, with the Indians
blocking every exit, had no place to
retreat to." Twenty Years
ago - Requiem for the Tigers
by Sri Lanka
Correspondent; Economist, Oct.17,
1987 |
Democracy
Continues, Sri Lanka Style...
Tamil Nation Library:
From Matter to Life to Mind: An Unfolding
Consciousness to include
Joachim Israel - The
Language of Dialectics and the Dialectics
of Language
"...in order for our
experiences to acquire meaning, we must
be able to speak about them, to express
them in words. Therefore, a central
problem becomes: what does it mean to
possess language?...the sharp
dualistic distinction between knowledge
of language, and knowledge of reality,
has to be abandoned...Language is
constitutive of social reality,
as well as being a part of social
reality...Social sciences do not
reflect the social world, but
contribute to its
constitution.."
|
Reflections
"
கவிதை
எழுதுபவன்
கவியன்று.
கவிதையே
வாழ்க்கையாக
உடையோன்,
வாழ்க்கையே
கவிதையாகச்
செய்தோன்,
அவனே
கவி" -
பாரதி
"He who writes poetry
is not a poet. He whose poetry has become
his life, and who has made his life his
poetry - it is he who is a poet." -
Bharathy
|
Tamil National
Forum
M.Thanapalasingham writes from
Australia on Bharathy's 125th Birth
Anniversary, 11 December
2007... |
மகாகவி
பாரதி -
அன்றும்,
இன்றும்,
என்றும்
"...இன்று
சி.சுப்பிரமணிய
பாரதியார்
பிறந்து
125
ஆண்டுகள்
உருண்டோடி
விட்டன...
இத்தனை
ஆண்டுகளின்
பின்னரும்
பாரதியின்
குரல்
தமிழ்கூறும்
நல்லுலகம்
எங்கணும்
ஒலித்தபடி
இருப்பதன்
மகிமைதான்
என்ன. ...
"கலைத்
துறையில்
துணிவோடிருப்பது
மிகவும்
அவசியம்.
இல்லாவிட்டால்
அற்பமானவற்றைத்
தவிர
வேறு
ஆர்வமாஃனவை
எதையும்
நீங்கள்
படைத்துவிட
முடியாது
" என்று
கூறினார்
லியோ
டால்ஸ்டாய்.
இதற்குத்
துணிவுவேண்டும்.
பாரதியிடம்
இருந்த
துணிவாற்றலே
தன்
சாதியையும்
சமுகத்தையும்
எதிர்து
நின்று
கவிதைபாட
முடிந்தது..."
more
|
Bharatha
Natyam - Classical Dance of the Ancient
Tamils to include
இங்கிருந்து
எங்கே? -
இளைய
பத்மநாதன்
at a Bharatha Natya Arangetram in Sydney,
Australia on 27 Ooctober 2007 - a Speech
which inspired the 2007 Sydney Maveerar
Naal dance presentation |
"..அகக்கூத்து,
புறக்கூத்து
என்று
சிலப்பதிகாரம்
கூறும்
இருவகைக்
கூத்துள்,
இவ்வகையான
அகக்
கூத்துகளை
ஆடியது
இப்போதைக்குப்
போதும்.
இன்றைய
தேவை
புறக்கூத்து.
சங்ககாலப்
புறநானூற்றையும்
விஞ்சிய
வீர
வரலாறு
இன்று
நிகழ்த்தப்படுகிறது.
அந்த
அற்புதங்களை
ஆடுவோம்,
பாடுவோம்,
கொண்டாடுவோம்..."
|
[Comment
by
tamilnation.org "Whilst Ilayan
Pathmanathan's speech serves to right an
imbalance in some present day Tamil
approaches to Bharathanatyam, it may also
be helpful to remind ourselves that the
inside and the outside always go together. Without an
outside, there is no inside - and without
an inside there is no outside. And the
relationship between the two is both
intrinsic and
dynamic. The
reality to which great art gives expression
- expression which moves and touches us
deeply - lies in the dynamic interplay
between the inside and the outside. The two
are not two. |
அகமில்லாமல்
புறமில்லை.
புறமில்லாமல்
அகமில்லை.
அகத்தினுள்
புறமும்,
புறத்தினுள்
அகம்தான்
உண்மை.
இரண்டும்
இரண்டல்ல."
more
|
Tamil
National Forum
Boycott Sri Lanka
Products and Save Tamil
Lives
|
R.Cholan writes
from United States - We Send Them the Money:
So Don�t Complain - Part
VI "Since I
started this series [4 Nov 2007], I have
found that there are hundreds of Tamils
from around the world who have also found
this state of affairs appalling. Many have
contacted me, and I have heard about others
through the grapevine. Some are now
beginning to take action. A Tamil blog at
www.yarl.com is a good
example. Facebook.com has a page on the
subject, with enthusiastic youngsters
participating, pledging to each other and
urging others to
�influence their
parents�. Many, I
understand, are in the works. See below for
two videos on youtube.com. Videos:
�Will you
give money to kill your brother or
sister?� Part 1 - Part 2" |
Week Ending:
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Tamil
National Forum
1.Shan Ranjit writes from United
States On Tamils in
Malaysia
"Malaysia has been in the news of
recently. The Tamils in Malaysia
especially those of Indian origin have
begun agitating for their civic rights. I
had written an article - attached below
- in the mid nineties during a visit to
Malaysia. I was shocked at the way that
non Malays - especially those of Indian
and Eelam origin were treated..."
more
2.
Nakeeran writes from
Canada எரித்தியாவின்
வீரம்
செறிந்த
விடுதலைப்
போர்
(தமிழீழ
விடுதலைப்
போராட்டத்துக்கும்
எரித்தியாவின்
போராட்டத்துக்கும்
இடையில்
காணப்படும்
ஒற்றுமையை
இந்தக்
கட்டுரை
விளக்குகிறது)
more
|
International Frame of Tamil Eelam
Struggle for Freedom: Tamil Nadu to
include
Savithri Narayan
writes from Chennai on Mount Road Maha Vishnu,
India & Tamil Eelam |
'Mount Road Maha
Vishnu'
|
"மக்களை
தலைநிமிரச்
செய்த
தந்தை
பெரியாரால்
'மவுண்ட்
ரோடு
மகாவிசுணு'
என்று
அடையாளம்
காட்டப்பட்ட
'இந்து'
நாளிதல்,
ஈழப்பிரச்சனை
குறித்து
மீண்டும்
திருவாய்
மலர்ந்திருக்கிறது.
டிசம்பர்
முதல்
தேதி
எழுதப்பட்டுள்ள
தலையங்கம்
'பிரபாகரன்
தலைமையேற்கும்
வரை
தமிழர்
பிரச்சனை
தீராது"
என்று
விதன்டாவாதம்
செய்கிறது.
" more
|
Tamil Nation Library: Conflict
Resolution to include
Tamils - a Trans State Nation:
Malaysia to include
Muslims & Tamil Eelam to
include
Dr.
A.M.A.Azeez - Some Aspects
of the Muslim Society of Ceylon with
Special Reference to the Eighteen
Eighties together with
Comment by
tamilnation.org "More than 40 years
after it was written, Dr.Azeez's well
researched paper on the 'Muslim Society of
Ceylon' remains essential reading for
Eelam Tamils. That Dr.Azeez was born in
Jaffna, had his
early education in Allapichai Quran
Madrasa, Vaidyeshwara Vidyalayam and Jaffna
Hindu College, graduated from the
University of London in 1933, was the first
Muslim civil servant in Ceylon, was
Assistant Government Agent in Kalmunai in
the Eastern Province, was a scholar in
Tamil and served as the distinguished
Principal of Zahira College from 1947
added to the interest with which we
ourselves read (and learnt from) his
analysis." |
Tamil Nation Library: Culture to
include
1.
Metta Spencer - Two Aspirins and a
Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health
and Society ""Imagination is more important than
knowledge," declares Albert Einstein...Two
Aspirins and a Comedy explores the movement
of ideas and feelings back and forth - from
subjective experience into objective,
empirical reality, which in turn stimulates
new subjective experiences, and so on, ad
infinitum. The interaction between
objectivity and subjectivity interests
me... Culture contains only those ideas
that have been manifested objectively, at
least in a fleeting way. Culture originates
in the imagination, but its existence must
also be physical, objective, so as to move
from one mind to another..Live culture
consists of this ongoing motion of ideas
from one mind to another.." more |
2. R Cheran, Darshan
Ambalavanar, Chelva Kanaganayakam
- History and Imagination: Tamil
Culture in the Global Context
"Tamils,
originating in South India and Sri Lanka,
constitute a large part of the diasporic
South Asians in Canada, as well as the
United States, Australia, and Europe. Many
of them have fled the civil war in Sri
Lanka. This rupture in the physical and
imaginative landscape of the Tamils is
undoubtedly reflected in their cultural
production and has led to a renewal of
their traditional
aesthetics"... |
Maaveerar Naal - மாவீரர்
நாள்
2007
to include
Tamil
National Forum
M.Thanapalasingham
writes from Australia -இங்கிருந்து
எங்கே?
"..மக்கள்
மக்களுக்காக
மக்களால்
நடத்தப்படுவதே
சனநாயகம்
என்றால்
ஒரு
மக்கள்
இன்னொரு
மக்களை
ஆள்வது
சனநாயகமாகாது.
அந்த
நிலை
மாற்றி
அமைக்கப்படும்வரை
வரலாற்றின்
அசைவியக்கத்திற்கு
முடிவில்லை.
இந்த
வகையில்
தமிழீழ
மக்களின்
தேசிய
விடுதலைப்
போராட்டம்
வரலாற்றின்
அசைவியக்கத்தின்பாற்பட்டது
எனலாம்."
more |
Spirituality
& the Tamil Nation to include
Tamil Nadu &
Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom to
include
24
Years Ago - Complaint to United
Nations of Genocide of Tamils in Sri
Lanka
submitted by M.Karunanidhi, 15
August 1983 "I, M.Karunanidhi, President
of the D.M.K. Party and the Chairman of
the Committee for the Protection of the
Tamils of Sri Lanka, and millions of citizens of India,
living in the State of Tamilnadu,
which is physically separated from Sri
Lanka only by a narrow stretch of sea of
about 29 kilometers, put our signatures to this
Memorandum (containing 105
Volumes), bringing to the
attention of the International Community
through you, Sir, about the consistent
pattern of gross violations of Human
Rights and acts of genocide committed by
the Government of Sri Lanka against its
own citizens, who belong to an ethnic
group called the Tamils..." more
|
Tamil National Forum to
include
1. Nagalingam
Ethirveerasinghan writes from USA on
Boycott -
"I commend Cholan's effort to get Tamil
individuals and families to boycott
products from Sri Lanka... It gives a
chance for Tamils and non-Tamils to show
solidarity with the suffering of our
people." more
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2. N.Nandhivarman
writes from Puducherry On Constructing the
History of Tamils "...The necessity to
launch a history website arose when I read
the book "Kadaikazhaga Noolhalin Kaalamum
Karuthum (Period and Message of Sangam
Literature 500 B.C to 500 A.D) written by
Dr.R.Mathivanan, former Director of Tamil
Etymological Dictionary Project of
Government of Tamilnadu. In the preface to
the book the learned scholar says,
"Japanese have preserved their past history
spanning to 2440 years, whereas Egyptians
and Sumerians recall with pride their 4000
years of history. The 3000-year-old history
of Chinese gives them a unique place. But
Tamils with 10000 years of history have not
brought it to the world arena." more |
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3. Sachi Sri
Kantha writes from Japan
The Indo-LTTE War (1987-90) - An Anthology
Part 2 |
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