By Laksiri Fernando –
Nearly eight decades ago
UN declared universal human rights
But do we have them?
In Palestine, people die and suffer
In Ukraine, people die and suffer
There are many other places
In our own country, people suffer
If not die
Who is responsible?
In Palestine,
US is behind Israel
In Ukraine,
Russia is directly the culprit
In our country,
Many leaders and parties are responsible
UDHR says,
All human beings
Are born free and equal
In what?
In dignity and rights
Is this correct?
Not really
Do we have a role to play
Yes, absolutely
UDHR says,
We are endowed with reason
And conscience
Do we know about it?
If not, think about it
UDHR also says,
We should act towards one another
In a spirit of brotherhood
Do we do that?
If not, start today
Rulers should be changed
We also should change
Let us look forward
To a system of rights and responsibilities
What is this UDHR?
It is the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
ramona therese fernando / July 11, 2024
One can only ponder on the lofty ideals, only to be disillusioned by their unattainability.
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Ruchira / July 12, 2024
Thank you for that insightful words of wisdom ramona. Been thinking about the same lately. Ideals exist in documents, on paper, written, and printed often in black and white. The people are of course a different matter. It is hard to come by at least couple of individuals who could keep their heads high. In a world full of people to meet a human is in fact a priviledge. Hope you are fine!
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 12, 2024
I am surprised that Ruchira joined Ramona! If this is the situation in Sri Lanka, I am however not surprised why human rights are not respected or hardly respected in the country. Let me ask both of you a direct but simple question. Do you believe in human rights?
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leelagemalli / July 12, 2024
LF,
At least today, you are turning to wake up with a revival. You who claim to be professors of the Sri Lankan universities shamelessly supported the Mahinda Chinthana which brought down the Sri Lankan society.
.
Having lived in Australia and Europe in your life, the civilized countries you know have some level of human rights.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Leelagemalli. Why are you so personal? The title of professors appears to be toxic to you. What is your education? May be grade five? Sri Lankan society was brought down not only by Mahinda Chinthana, but also by people like you. Uneducated rascals. Come up with your real identity without being a coward. Whom did you support? Tell us frankly.
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leelagemalli / July 13, 2024
LF,
.
thank you nevertheless.
.
I have never supported any rascal in plain sight. Those who call themselves professors, however, clothed them in doctor’s robes. Shame on you, at least in retrospect!
:
If you can’t confess that your attitude towards the Rajapaksas is mad as dogs, you must be really sick.
:
When the madman Sirisena (uneducated than others) was destroyed in the 52-day coup, you were one of the few who once again praised Rajapaksa.
–
Not a single person with some knowledge of the ground realities of Sri Lanka would praise such RODIA LIKE/cruel politicians.
MaRa was given many opportunities to bring reforms and harsher laws and adjust the society, but the dogs never took advantage of the opportunity.
:
My education is post doc level but not from Sri Lankan universities. I did not live in that country except for my first two decades. However, I observe you in the form of vagabonds, but vagabonds inflated as gods with academic titles. I have not the least respect for the individuals of your type.
:
I supported CBK after 1994 and I also supported late Mr. Kadiragamar. I even met him in Berlin once. I am now supporting the current President R.W.
I don’t respect party politics in Sri Lanka, if someone does their job properly I support them.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 14, 2024
1.You appear to be caste minded talking about RODIA as an example for politicians that you criticize.
2. Thanks for admitting that you support RW whatever the reason we may find out soon.
3. Your criticisms about me probably emerge from that premise, now and before.
4. You completely go behind some personalities without considering political parties or party policies.
5. You even might support a dictator on the above basis. Is this correct or not?
6. Why are you so apprehensive about professors?
7. In my approach, I would assess both strengths and weaknesses of all politicians. I have never gone to the extent of supporting anyone unconditionally like you. I may have made some mistakes.
8. You have said “I have not the least respect for the individuals of your type.” This is very personal. Why are you so angry with me?
9. When someone writes an article, the review or criticisms should be primarily based on the content of that article. Personal attacks are extremely primitive.
10. In my view, Sri Lanka has come to a stage where a system change can be initiated. I was writing about human rights (poem) on that basis.
:
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leelagemalli / July 14, 2024
cont.
2) In the 70’s and 80’s caste religion changed a lot in our society and some of our elders were called “Rhodia” if they did not behave properly, if they did not behave culturally at all. And I recently went back to reading about the different communities of Sri Lanka, to refresh my knowledge of the motherland, to my nostalgic feelings of how our elders discriminated others back then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojqIAj-Xv5E&t=818s
Sure, you and everyone else over 50 may have the same experiences. It was integrated into Sri Lankan society. Fortunately the Sinhalese have largely escaped it and the Tamils can no longer separate themselves from their caste-religion crisis.
–
Tbc
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leelagemalli / July 14, 2024
cont.
3) I am not racist and I do not promote them from my childhood. Certainly my elders were racist even against their housemaids. The Sinhala Buddhist monks I know are also racists.That is why I think twice before kneeling down a lanken monk today. To me most of monks I think are big hypocrites even if I cant generalize them. I have seen that they offer the chairs below to their maids and have leftovers as their meals. As if they came from other planets. Most of these maids belonged to the Sinhalese race. Today we should talk openly about these weaknesses of our own relatives. Also, in Peradeniya, I saw that in some places, Sinhalese students treat Tamil students as inferior to their fellow students. During the raga season, we can see them right.
4) You have to agree that the diplomatic services collapsed with the advent of the Rajapaksa era due to his deliberate deployment of “hand-picked wrong” diplomats and soldiers in the foreign service. According to scholars, this started after the end of the CBK government in 2005. Ex-military personnel or other idiots without the necessary credentials became Sri Lankan representatives in foreign countries. Wasn’t that the beginning of the end for Ms. B’s decades of astute diplomacy?
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Ruchira / July 12, 2024
Laksiri Fernando – You have a long way to go my friend. You speak as if you know me. I’m assuming you are Dr. Laksiri Fernando that I once unleashed a heavy load of critisims on? For you to comment as if you know me, though this account seems to be a different one with no profile picture attached. I don’t know ramona much, but I’ve exchanged we comments with her and have found her to be a kind hearted person. Her comment reflects and corroborate my sentiments. Hence my above response. As per your question – No I don’t believe human rights exist in Sri Lanka. Whether I believe in human rights? How can you believe in something that doesn’t exist? As far as surprises are concerned you are just begining…
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ramona therese fernando / July 13, 2024
he, he 😊 ….me kind hearted?….maybe a little. But thanks Ruchira. 🙇♀️
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Ruchira / July 13, 2024
Well… flutter has its own place. 🤷♂️
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leelagemalli / July 13, 2024
Ramona,
.
You are kind, but you don’t see it in the big picture. That is your problem. May be that is pathological as is the case with Prof. Laksiri Fernando.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Ruchira. Why are you confined only to Sri Lanka? Human rights are universal. Don’t have very narrow views. That is what I pointed out. Have you ever read the UDHR? Tell me frankly. In my assessment there are certain human rights that exists in Sri Lanka. The right to vote is one with restrictions and violations. We have an elected Parliament while the present President is not directly elected. Compare the situation with Myanmar (Burma). We have some fundamental rights in the constitution. The judiciary is fairly independent to protect them. Don’t go to an extreme. Unless you believe in human rights and try to practice them yourself, human rights cannot be promoted. You don’t seem to have any idea except just write criticisms. Why is your last sentence is incomplete?
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Ruchira / July 13, 2024
Laksiri Fernando – You made reference to the situation in Sri Lanka. Hence I responded about the situation in Sri Lanka. Besides that’s where I live. I may have read parts of the UDHR, but can’t recall reading it entirely. But it’s possible that I read it too for work related purposes. Not sure what you meant by “Don’t go to an extreme”? Did I say human rights should be promoted… not that I disagree with such a statement – which could be interpreted as a suggestion to make people more aware of and educate about human rights. What do you mean by this? 👉 “You don’t seem to have any idea except just write criticisms….” About what do I do not have an idea of? And what criticisms are you referring to? My last sentence is incomplete because I didn’t want to state the obvious… so you could fill in the blanks…
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ramona therese fernando / July 12, 2024
Thanks for the poetic reminder for Universal Human Rights, Laksiri. One just gets a bit put out when the strong continually oppress the weak in spite of the Declarations for Human Rights. In Sri Lanka’s case, our leaders who need to secure their money and assets are going to delay the mandated elections. They have bought up the armed forces to suppress, torture, and kill the dissenting people. In Ukraine and Palestine, it is expansionism for power and money by their strongmen. The suffering of their people is terrible to see. Even appealing to the higher powers does not work for many in these terrible situations. But we must keep reminding ourselves and work towards justice.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Thanks.
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ramona therese fernando / July 12, 2024
Hey, thanks Ruchira. I am fine. Hope you are too. Laksiri gives us a good poem appealing to our better selves
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Ruchira / July 13, 2024
Most welcome ramona.
.
I’m better compared to the state I was in a day or two ago, please refer to mu comments made addresing leelagemalli. Laksiri seems to be surprised that you and I agreed.
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davidthegood / July 12, 2024
Laksiri Fernando, this country does not need lofty ideals, but citizen equality, without trying to elevate SB above the rest in order to collect the votes. When we got independence in 1948, that was the state of affairs and it worked well. Tamils were treated equally, and they did not try to have a separate Eelam. After July 1983, things turned sour, and a new constitution followed. Difficult now to come out of hell.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 12, 2024
Davidthegood. You have borrowed the term ‘lofty ideals’ from Ramona without much relevance to your intended argument. If you want to promote equality between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, you must promote equality between other sections as well, gender, religion, caste, class etc. This means human rights in general. Before you write please also consider whether those are correct or not. Do you think that the Tamils were treated equally in 1948, before and after? Do you think that ‘things turned sour’ only after 1983? What is the new constitution followed after 1983?
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davidthegood / July 12, 2024
Laksiri Fernando, we had english education in school then, and sinhala and tamil had no issues till swabasha switch came in 1956. Gender issues and religion are difficult areas to promote equality obviously. Where caste is concerned, as long as living Buddhist priests have a say, they will keep their Asgiri/Malwathu above the low country Siyam nikaya and these too will separate the Amarapura nikaya and a couple of job related other castes as well. Surely all can see how Ranil has mania to block Sajith, just like how former president Premadasa was treated by JRJ. Only a fool will try to erase caste in this land.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Davidthegood. I only have a concern about your last sentence. We should eliminate caste discrimination. The task largely rests on people.
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davidthegood / July 13, 2024
Laksiri Fernando, the task to eliminate caste discrimination is not possible as every birth comes from the father’s caste and no way that the nikayas will accept the others. I agree it is good to erase but it will never happen through people alone.
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Anpu / July 12, 2024
David,
“Tamils were treated equally” – not true
“After July 1983” – it all started before independence and definitely after 1958 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_anti-Tamil_pogrom
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davidthegood / July 13, 2024
Anpu, in my school days, education was in English and we had no problem.
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Lester / July 12, 2024
Laksiri Fernando,
Surely you know that the UN is a business. Yemen is the equivalent of 20 Gaza’s, but since Head Chopper Bin Salman was leading the operation, the UN looks the other way. Ukraine? How did their weapons end up in Gaza, someone is skimming on commissions.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Lester. I frankly don’t think the UN is a business, although some countries and officials use it for various political and business purposes. Your examples are true. We should not throw the baby with bath water. Constructive criticisms are necessary. We should ask/urge/push them to implement their own declarations like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
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Nathan / July 12, 2024
“I am however not surprised why human rights are not respected or hardly respected in the country”.
Laksiri admits that human rights IS NOT respected in Sri Lanka.
When did you begin forming this opinion, Laksiri?
When I get a response, I promise to comeback.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Nathan. Why did you drop the first part of my sentence? To corner me? I was referring to the negative comments by Ramona and Ruchira and said, “If this is the situation in Sri Lanka, I am however not surprised why human rights are not respected or hardly respected in the country.” Your comments also confirm my assertion. Let me and others know your views on human rights?
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Nathan / July 13, 2024
Laksiri,
I didn’t drop anything that would have altered my observation. I drop any portion that is of no material value, for sake of brevity.
You have not responded to my Q. When you do do I’ll proceed.
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Laksiri Fernando (Author) / July 13, 2024
Ok. Ok. If you want to know Nathan, when did I begin to consider human rights are not properly respected in Sri Lanka, I will say in early 1960s. I joined the LSSP in 1963 (then LSSP/R) as a school student because of the rights of the poor and the workers. In 1965, we organized a Student Fighting Front at the University of Peradeniya and launched a major strike in December 1965. A friend of ours, Neville Perera, who was suspended before, travelled to Germany and came back with a copy of UDHR. That is how I first came to read the Universal Declaration. Of course, I did specialize in Political Science and our teachers taught us about human rights. Our textbooks (by Harold Laski etc.) contained rights and human rights. In 1966 December, when the government was planning to cut the rice ration, with another comrade, I wrote a leaflet titled “Hartalaya Matheka Nanda?” (Don’t you remember Hartal?). It was a warning to the government. The leaflet was widely distributed. Since it was printed in my name, I was taken to the Fourth Floor. The story is long. This was the beginning.
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Anpu / July 13, 2024
Nathan,
What Prof Fernando think of 1958, .. 1983 pogroms 2009, … ????
Perhaps he can add to his reading list. to find more about …
https://itjpsl.com/
http://white-flags.org/
https://srilankacampaign.org/
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Nathan / July 14, 2024
Thank you for your confession, Laksiri Fernando.
Human rights must emanate from within us. I adhere to this maxim.
Ask yourself if you do live up to your notion of human rights.
If your answer is a NO, I am sorry for you.
If your answer is a YES, I worry about you.
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Anpu / July 12, 2024
Thank you Prof Fernando.
“In our country,
Many leaders and parties are responsible ” for Tamil Genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_genocide
/