Editor  ‘Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe’s Tourism Communique

PROMOTING

ETHICAL TOURISM IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

(https://www.srilankacampaign.org/ethical-tourism/thinkagain/)

vs

Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe’s Tourism

Communiqué

Ethical-Tourism is a new trend which simply means budget-tourism which benefits people and the environment in different destinations.  It can offer a better income to families by sourcing products and services locally rather than pleasuring your holidays staying in five star hotels.

To all Tourists in search of ‘Ethical-Tourism in Sri Lanka,’ the ‘ Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe Tourism Communiqué’ provides tourists reasons with FACTS  as an alternative besides SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN for Peace and Justice’s TRUTHS, to plan the visit to Sri Lanka.

1. Peace & Justice (P&J) says: Planning a holiday to Sri Lanka is in each case a personal decision and we don’t claim that any particular trip to Sri Lanka is ‘ethical or ‘unethical’. This is because we recognize that, on the one hand, no trip to Sri Lanka is without negative consequences – they all support the regime to one extent or another, even if it is just through airport taxes – and that on the other hand, only the most isolated of tourists could visit Sri Lanka without some sort of social benefit.  This site will help you understand both the negative and positive impacts of your trip and how, with thought and planning you can better manage them.”

2. Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe Tourism Communiqué (CAWTC) says: ‘Planning a holiday to Sri Lanka, the most resplendent island in the Indian Ocean,  which is now enjoying its  resurgence of its magical natural, physical, human qualities and beauty since the end of the Tamil separatist Eelam War IV on 19 May 2009, shouldn’t be a difficult exercise.

This war was fought by the most ruthless terrorists in the world. The notorious Tamil Tigers, who fought a conventional war with the Government’s armed forces to claim a mono-ethnic, separate, racist Tamil state, Eelam, with the most sophisticated war weapons snuffing out the lives of scores of thousands of innocent civilians for 27 long years with mainly Tamil-women suicide bombers and  claymore mines.  This island destination will charm you with Sri Lanka’s cultural ethics by peoples who have nothing but coconut-kernel smiles welcoming you with gentle bows with palms together at their hearts. Prior to 19 May 2009, bombings by Tamil Tiger terrorists were an every day affair, which has now being silenced by the khaki, air force sky-blue and ocean surf-white uniformed armed forces.  Tourists have little to worry now to explore Ethical-Tourism in this Other Eden.

3. Don’t holiday with criminals of human rights abusers”, announces P&J.

The Sri Lankan armed forces were responsible for some of the worst human rights violations in Sri Lanka.  They are now deeply embedded in the tourism industry and poised to benefit from your spending.  We believe it is the duty of the ethical traveller to ensure they are not supported.  This campaign is designed to help you identify just who to avoid whilst offering some advice about of the ethical alternatives on offer.”

4. Sri Lanka with all the mystique of an Asian country destination, will offer the tourists a limitless variety of ethical tourism vignettes in their choice-menu, says CAWTC.

Once you land your feet on the kabook soil of this ancient island, you would have arrived and welcomed to the island of ‘khaki-clad – angels-of-mercy’, by pretty bronze-tanned women wrapped in peacock-motif saris, with smiles and palms together Ayubowan’s” wishing you a long life at the arrival lounge.  The island with a rare profusion of indigenous moonstones, flora and fauna within its palm fringed coast, jungles, plains, beaches and mountains will provide the Ethical-Tourist wonderful memories to take back home.

The ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ are the Government soldiers who gave back to their 21 million peoples, their right-to-life, the apex of Human Rights which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 27-bloody years, by defeating the Tamil Tiger terrorists on 19 May 2009. They are the ‘khaki-clad angels-of-mercy’ who rescued 295,873 Tamil Refugees by the end of the war from the Tamil Tiger Terrorists clutches who were used as a Human Shield during the final 30 months of the Eelam war, and herded like unwashed cattle in the tropical heat from the west coast to the east coast of the island.

These are the courageous men and women soldiers who are the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’. In Ethical-Tourism, take the opportunity to shake the hand of one of these ‘khaki-clad-angels-of- mercy’, who were the ones who carried aging and feeble Tamil grandfathers and grandmothers like babies in their arms, running for safety dodging terrorist bullets.  Shake the hand of one of the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ who helped to cook one million meals a day – hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners to feed the 295,873 Tamil refugees who were housed in refugee camps having starved for 30 months as the Tamil Tiger human shield.

These are text book examples of Class Acts of Ethical humanitarianism.  And shake the hand of a rare breed of a ‘khaki-clad-angel-of-mercy’ in a world of Tamil Tiger copy-cat terrorism  of suicide bombers and truck bombs.

5. What you see – Sri Lanka is a stunning island with beautiful sights, amazing landscapes, incredible wildlife, wonderful food and friendly people.  It is not surprising that each year over a million people from all over the globe visit to experience the hospitality and sight on offer”, says P&J.

6. In Sri Lanka expect the unexpected… it could happen to you as you fly in with your first aerial discovery of what looks like a sudden shimmering aquamarine pendant dangling from the southern tip of India, bathed in the azure waters of the surfing Indian Ocean.  And this is why the English language was bequeathed the word SERENDIPITY – the faculty of making one happy with unexpected discoveries by accident.  So you will discover an amazing array of scenic beauty, exotic flora and fauna, plains and highlands, meandering rivers, lakes and waterfalls, terraced verdant- green lands of manicured tea-bushes, elephants and araliya temple flowers. The Ethical-Tourist will not be disappointed, CAWTC says.

7. What you don’t – Many Sri Lankans live in fear. Sri Lanka is ranked as the second worst country for involuntary disappearances”, says P&J.

8. P&J are absolutely right as many Sri Lankans lived in fear for 27 years prior to 19 May 2009, when the Tamil Tigers were annihilated militarily, the last killed on the sandy shores of the Nandikadal lagoon in East Sri Lanka.

The breadwinners of each Sri Lankan home would make the sign of the cross before getting onto a bus on their way to work each morning, and some placing their palms together in prayer wanting to return home after work in one piece and not been blown to smithereens by a bomb planted under a seat of a bus or a train, or at a street corner during rush hour by the Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless terrorists in the world. That fear was rampant not wanting to return home in the evening in a plywood casket as a puzzle of a head, heart, limbs, bones and flesh glued together with sticky Ketchup blood.  All this is history now as the Tamil Tigers have been silenced by the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ and tourism is flourishing in Sri Lanka and there ought to be no concern of getting harmed.  Sri Lanka is safe for Ethical-Tourism, says CAWTC.

9. P&J says as a guide to make choices for an Ethical Tourist, During last stages of the war in 2009 an estimated 70,000 civilians were killed. There is credible evidence that Government forces deliberately shelled hospitals and designated No Fire Zones, while the LTTE used civilians as Human Shields.”

10. CAWTC will make a clinical analysis of P&J’s statement to make it easy for an Ethical-Tourist who has intentions to tour Sri Lanka to make up his or her mind whether to go to Sri Lanka or not.

The Ethical-Tourist who has intentions to tour Sri Lanka should claim his or her Charter Rights to know the FACTS by asking the following Questions from P&J to seek clarity.  This would help the Ethical-Tourist to form an educated opinion to make a choice between P&J’s advice and Canadian Asoka Weerasinghe’s Tourism Communiqué to be another Ethical-Tourist visiting Sri Lanka.

1. You say that 70,000 civilians were killed by these ‘Khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ when over 7,000 of these ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ gave up their lives to save the lives of 295,873 of your Tamil people by the end of the war, who was no relation to anyone of these angels, when it would have been easy to have snuffed them out too.  How come! Explain, as I don’t believe you lot as your numbers do not make sense and you sound mischievous.”
2. Show me the 70,000 bodies/skeletons of civilians that you say were killed by the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’.  If you can’t show me a single, then you are out of luck P&J as I will not believe you as it is a patent Humbug.”
3. Seventy thousand dead bodies are not peanuts. Where did the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’  dispose these bodies of Sri Lankans whose average height is 5’6” and  the width at the shoulders is roughly 20”.  Explain or else I would dismiss your claim  and your TripAdvisor as pure vulgar, sordid  Humbug.”
4. If the 70,000 bodies were buried somewhere in the sliver of land along the Nandikadal lagoon, did anyone report with photo or video records that the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ forced the 295,873 Tamil refugees to slouch on their knees and claw the earth with their fingers to excavate a massive hole to dump the 70,000 bodies and bury them. Yes? No?  Or did anyone report that there were five tractors with back-hoes digging five massive holes feverishly to dump the 70,000 dead bodies of Tamil civilians and cover them with rocks and soil.  Yes?  No?   I am sorry P&J. If you cannot satisfy me with a convincing answer I will call you all as sleazy, nauseating, pacha-Humbugs.”
5. For Pete’s sake P&J, give me the FACTS. If they were not buried and you have difficulty to show me the 70,000 bodies, would you say that the ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ gathered  them into a mountain heap and burnt them.  If they did no one showed us photos or a video of this bonfire or the plume of this nasty, smelly black smoke snaking towards high heaven. Did they – Yes? No?  If you cannot produce this evidence, I will relegate with contempt your advise to the nearest dust bin and I will make up my mind to go to Sri Lanka as an Ethical-Tourist, find one of these ‘khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy’ to shake his or her hand with a sense of pride, and thank the angels for getting rid of the scum of the earth, the serial killer Tamil Tiger terrorists.  And you bet I will!”
6. Or would you say P&J, that the 70,000 bodies were taken in speed boats after the sun fell over the Indian Ocean’s horizon so that no one could see in the dark and dumped the bodies at mid-ocean. Did they?

If they did, did you find a single body washed ashore along the east-coast of Tamil Nadu like in Pondicherry, Chennai and Kanchipuram.  If they didn’t, then where the heck are those 70,000 bodies that you claim that the Sri Lankan soldiers killed.  What fibs…..what boloney…. what piffle ….what a barrel of smelly Jadi.”

If P&J and its Campaign on Sri Lanka are unable to explain who counted the dead bodies during the latter stages and came up with the number 70,000, it is about time that the SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN for Peace & Justice on Ethical-Tourism close your books, close the shutters of your office windows and pack up your nefarious Unethical Campaign on Sri Lanka and her armed forces personnel,  switch off your lights of hate and shut the doors for good behind you all when you depart. . But what is more important is to tell your targeted audience like me, whether the personnel who were hired to count the dead bodies had passed the Primary School Grades in counting numbers.

Were they really tested whether they were competent to count numbers and add 1+1 = 2, and not come up with 1+1 = 3. Did you all?”

As an intending Ethical-Tourist wanting to tour Sri Lanka, I am convinced that you at Peace & Justice are a conniving mischievous lot and I have lost my confidence in you and shall follow what Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe’s Tourism Communiqués columns have to say, which I am convinced to be FACTUAL and HONEST.”

I am sorry if I had disappointed you all, but, please, I am no Dummy and I have little interest to visit the North that you have recommended.  Just too bad!  You at ‘Peace and Justice’ killed my interest with your sly efforts.  And let me repeat, I am no Dummy, but I will assure you that I will be an Ethical-Tourist to Sri Lanka in the near future, and you bet I will make a special effort to shake the hand of a Khaki clad Angel,  who you say is a killer of ‘Tamil’ civilians, and to Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe, this same soldier emulates to be a ‘Khaki-clad-Angel-of-Mercy’’ who gave back to 21 million of his peoples their right-to-life that had been hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 27 long years and eliminating them militarily on 19 May 2009.

Peace & Justice, it was a good try to hoodwink us, the future Ethical-Tourists of Sri Lanka.

Editor

‘Canada’s Asoka Weerasinghe’s Tourism

Communique

26 July 2016