April 11, 2007
March 31, 2007
Tamil Tigers warn of bloodbath
Colombo – Thousands of civilians are fleeing Tamil Tiger-held territory in east Sri Lanka as troops and rebels battle with artillery and mortar bombs, the two sides said on Thursday, amid a rebel warning of a bloodbath.
Nearly 13 700 civilians have fled rebel areas in the eastern district of Batticaloa in the past fortnight, 3 800 of those alone on Wednesday. The Tigers and the military both said thousands more were fleeing on Thursday.
“Civilians are worried they will be held as human shields as happened earlier and are fleeing the area,” said military spokesperson Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
“The security forces’ plan is to liberate civilians from the Tigers and neutralise rebel gun positions that pose a direct threat to troops in Batticaloa,” he added.
The military already have captured a large coastal swathe of territory in recent months that the Tigers held under the terms of a now-tattered 2002 ceasefire pact, forcing the rebels to flee to jungles further inland or to their northern base by sea.
However, troops had not yet begun a push to clear the Tigers from a jungle area called Thoppigala about 40km west of Batticaloa, where rebel fighters have regrouped and which analysts say will be the next target of a military offensive.
A bloodbath
The Tigers warned on Monday of a bloodbath if the international community was unable to convince the military to halt a declared plan to wipe them out militarily.
Analysts fear a new episode in a two-decade civil war that has killed about 68 000 people since 1983 will deepen.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in north and east Sri Lanka, said the military had mounted attacks on most of the areas it still controls in Batticaloa.
The Tigers said they had recovered the body of one soldier, but there were no immediate details of any wider casualties.
Resettling refugees
Thursday’s fighting comes after land and sea battles, ambushes and suicide attacks that have killed about 4 000 people in the past 15 months alone.
It also comes a day after authorities started to resettle the first of more than 15 000 refugees displaced by months of fighting in newly captured territory further north in Batticaloa.
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has vowed to unveil a power-sharing proposal within weeks, but has rejected the Tigers’ demands for a separate homeland.
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March 9, 2007
Buruz
The saint was able to disappear from sight, to become completely invisible, and to practice buruz, exteriorization. According to legend, Rumi attended seventeen parties at one time and wrote a poem at each one! The saint was capable of coming to the aid of his disciples wherever they were through the faculty of tayy al-makan, of being beyond spatial restriction, which is often attested to in hagiography.
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NYC cabbies from Bangladesh
Taking a look at where New York City’s 43,402 taxicab drivers are from: about 2,300 are American.
The top five countries of origin for NYC cabbies:
1. Bangladesh
2. Pakistan
3. India
4. Haiti
5. United States
Although there are currently only 13,000 yellow cabs in NYC, one driver said that many ex-cabbies keep their taxi licenses active as a back-up plan in case their current jobs don’t work out.
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March 8, 2007
Mystical Awareness
Revelations of colored lights occur to the initiate during his spiritual training: there are dots and spots and circles; the soul passes through periods of black color and of black and red spots until the appearance of the green color indicates that divine grace is near–green has always been considered the highest and heavenly color.
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March 7, 2007
Sufi note
Letters written with ink do not really exist qua letters. For the letters are but various forms to which meanings have been assigned through convention. What really and concretely exists is nothing but the ink. The existence of the letters is in truth no other than the existence of the ink which is the sole, unique reality that unfolds itself in many forms of self-modification. One has to cultivate, first of all, the eye to see the selfsame reality of ink in all letters, and then to see the letters as so many intrinsic modifications of the ink.
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November 26, 2006
Facing an uncertain future
According to a report by Human Rights Watch Asia in June 1995 probably more than a million women and children are employed in Indian brothels. Many are victims of trafficking through international borders, mostly Nepal and Bangladesh. Bombay has an estimated 100,000 brothel workers. Twenty percent of Bombay’s brothel population is thought to be girls under the age of eighteen.
Trafficking victims in India are subjected to conditions tantamount to slavery and to serious physical abuse. Held in debt bondage for years at a time, they are raped and subjected to other forms of torture, to severe beatings, exposure to AIDS, and arbitrary imprisonment. Many are young women from remote hill villages and poor border communities who are lured from their villages by local recruiters, relatives or neighbours promising jobs or marriage, and sold for very small amounts to brokers who deliver them to brothel owners in India for anywhere from Rs.15,000 to Rs.40,000 [$500-$1,333]. This purchase price (Human Rights Watch Asia report, 1995) becomes the “debt” that the women must work to pay off — a process that can stretch on indefinitely.
According to an AFP report at least 20,000 Bangladeshi women and children are trafficked to India and Pakistan and to Middle Eastern countries every year. According to a Times of India report an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshi girls are trafficked to or through India every year. The girls end up in brothels in India or Pakistan or in Middle Eastern or South Asian countries.
India shares a 4,222-kilometers border with 28 Bangladeshi districts. Bangladeshi traffickers have built up bases in the border districts of India. According to an Independent Bangladesh report an estimated 90 percent of trafficked women were forced to engage in prostitution. Reportedly, 400,000 Bangladeshi women are engaged in forced prostitution in India, and 300,000 Bangladeshi boys have been trafficked to India. According to one report, every day 50 Bangladeshi girls are lured across the Indian border and sold. Bangladeshi girls who are trafficked to India by organised networks usually end up in brothels in Kolkata or Mumbai.
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November 17, 2006
Andaman tsunami victims protest
Tsunami victims are not happy with the new houses
Victims of the 2004 tsunami in India’s eastern Andaman and Nicobar archipelago have rioted in protest against the new houses provided by the government.
At least 12 people have been injured in the violence after protestors burnt official vehicles at Hut Bay in Little Andaman islands.
They were protesting against the location and quality of construction of their new houses.
Officials say the tsunami killed more than 3,500 in the Andamans.
Tsunami victims in the Hut Bay area have gone on strike in protest against what they call inadequate and shoddy housing.
“The permanent houses the government is making for us are located far away from our workplaces,” resident Somnath Banik said.
“The houses are made of pre-fabricated material which will make them very hot. Also the houses are on a twin sharing basis which is not acceptable to us.”
Locals say Hut Bay residents have observed two strikes in recent weeks in protest against what residents describe as “the high handedness of the administration.”
Tsunami victims in the Andamans were first put up in tents in more than 200 evacuee camps, then shifted to nearly 10,000 temporary shelters made of tin roofs.
They are now being shifted to more than 8,500 new houses made for them with pre-fabricated structures that have been shipped from mainland India at considerable cost.
The Nicobarese tribes people in south of the archipelago , who bore the brunt of the tsunami, were the first to protest against the pre-fabricated housing.
They said it was far too hot, given the warm climes of the archipelago.
Last month, the Nicobarese stopped erection of these new houses in some parts of their islands.
Some Nicobarese were also upset when the Indian navy tried to evict six of them from their homes.
The navy said the six were encroaching on their land – the tribals dispute that.
Most houses in the archipelago are built cheaply using local wood.
Nicobarese leaders say the pre-fab houses are hugely expensive. The authorities say they have been designed “in consultation with the local people”.
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Rains lash Rameswaram, Mandapam
Rameswaram, Nov 16: Several parts of Rameswaram island and Mandapam panchayat union in the mainland are in knee-deep water following heavy rains last night.
Almost all fishermen colonies in Rameswaram, Pamban and Mandapam are surrounded by knee-deep water. Even main roads adjoining the sea are flooded in the island, officials said.
Panaikulam, Atrangarai, Perungulam, Uchupuli where an air-base is located, Vethalai, Pattinamkathan, Mandapam refugee camp, Pamban, Thangachimadam, Chinnapalam and Kundhukal have been inundated and people have to wade through the water even to go to adjoining houses.
Most parts of the highway between Ramanathapuram and Mandapam have also been inundated following torrential rains last night. Rameswaram and surrounding areas have been experiencing heavy rains for the past 10 days.
Meanwhile, the newly elected local body officials in Rameswaram and Mandapam claimed that there was a shortage of sanitary workers and they were also facing financial problems.
J Jaleel, Chairman of Rameswarm municipality, and vice-chairman M Rajamani claimed that they had to engage people and also lend a helping hand to them in draining out water from low-lying areas.
The road stretch between Tamaraikulam and Nochi Oorani, Raghunathapuram – Kumbaram, Raghunathapuram – Vazhuthur Vilakku; Sathapan Valasai – Ariyaman Beach are in waist deep water today. Local revenue officials said most coastal villages are not getting essential items, including milk, rice and vegetables.
The district administration had been requested to supply essential commodities and house people in flood-affected areas in some mandapams.
Officials said that efforts were being made to drain the flood water into the sea by forming channels and also maintain the supply of essential commodities. Many office-goers and students had been stranded in villages as there were no bus services to many coastal villages.
Work on strengthening the banks of big lakes, tanks and ponds is being taken up on a war-footing to preserve water for the summer, district officials said.
Sand bags were being used to prevent flood waters from entering residential areas. Cyclone relief centres had been opened in many villages in Mandapam and Rameswaram, they said.
The services of the Navy and Coast Guard had not been sought so far, but it would be done if required, they said.
Officials said they did not have sufficient funds as the new local body chief had just assumed office. They agreed that there was severe shortage of sanitary workers, but said that steps were being taken to provide temporary hands in all the affected places.
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