{"id":57042,"date":"2016-07-27T13:58:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T20:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57042"},"modified":"2016-07-27T14:00:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T21:00:40","slug":"promoting-ethical-tourism-in-sri-lanka-sri-lanka-campaign-for-peace-and-justice-vs-canadas-asoka-weerasinghes-tourism-communique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/27\/promoting-ethical-tourism-in-sri-lanka-sri-lanka-campaign-for-peace-and-justice-vs-canadas-asoka-weerasinghes-tourism-communique\/","title":{"rendered":"PROMOTING ETHICAL TOURISM IN SRI LANKA Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice vs Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism Communiqu\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor \u00a0\u2018Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism\u00a0Communique<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

PROMOTING<\/strong><\/h2>\n

ETHICAL TOURISM IN SRI LANKA<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

(https:\/\/www.srilankacampaign.org\/ethical-tourism\/thinkagain\/)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

vs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Communiqu\u00e9<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ethical-Tourism is a new trend which simply means budget-tourism which benefits people and the environment in different destinations.\u00a0 It can offer a better income to families by sourcing products and services locally rather than pleasuring your holidays staying in five star hotels.<\/p>\n

To all Tourists in search of \u2018Ethical-Tourism in Sri Lanka,\u2019 the \u2018 Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe Tourism Communiqu\u00e9’ provides tourists reasons with FACTS \u00a0as an alternative besides SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN for Peace and Justice\u2019s TRUTHS, to plan the visit to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Peace & Justice (P&J) says: Planning a holiday to Sri Lanka is in each case a personal decision and we don\u2019t claim that any particular trip to Sri Lanka is \u2018ethical or \u2018unethical\u2019. This is because we recognize that, on the one hand, no trip to Sri Lanka is without negative consequences \u2013 they all support the regime to one extent or another, even if it is just through airport taxes \u2013 and that on the other hand, only the most isolated of tourists could visit Sri Lanka without some sort of social benefit.\u00a0 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.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe Tourism Communiqu\u00e9 (CAWTC) says: \u2018Planning a holiday to Sri Lanka, the most resplendent island in the Indian Ocean,\u00a0 which is now enjoying its \u00a0resurgence of its magical natural, physical, human qualities and beauty since the end of the Tamil separatist Eelam War IV on 19 May 2009,\u00a0shouldn\u2019t be a difficult exercise.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This war was fought by the most ruthless terrorists\u00a0in the world. The notorious Tamil Tigers, who fought a conventional war with the Government\u2019s 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\u00a0 claymore mines.\u00a0 This island destination will charm you with Sri Lanka\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Tourists have little to worry now to explore Ethical-Tourism in this Other Eden.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Don\u2019t holiday with criminals of human rights abusers\u201d, announces P&J.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The Sri Lankan armed forces were responsible for some of the worst human rights violations in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 They are now deeply embedded in the tourism industry and poised to benefit from your spending.\u00a0 We believe it is the duty of the ethical traveller to ensure they are not supported.\u00a0 This campaign is designed to help you identify just who to avoid whilst offering some advice about of the ethical alternatives on offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Sri Lanka with all the mystique of an Asian country destination, will offer the tourists a limitless variety\u00a0of ethical tourism vignettes in their choice-menu, says CAWTC.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Once you land your feet on the kabook soil of this ancient island, you would have arrived and welcomed to the island of \u2018khaki-clad \u2013 angels-of-mercy\u2019, by pretty bronze-tanned women wrapped in peacock-motif saris, with smiles and palms together Ayubowan\u2019s\u201d wishing you a long life at the arrival lounge.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

          The \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 are the\u00a0Government soldiers who gave back to their\u00a021 million peoples, their right-to-life, the apex\u00a0of Human Rights which had been hijacked by the\u00a0Tamil Tigers for 27-bloody years, by defeating the\u00a0Tamil Tiger terrorists on 19 May 2009. They are the\u00a0\u2018khaki-clad angels-of-mercy\u2019 who rescued 295,873\u00a0Tamil Refugees by the end of the war from the\u00a0Tamil Tiger Terrorists clutches who were used as a\u00a0Human Shield during the final 30 months of the\u00a0Eelam war, and herded like unwashed cattle in the\u00a0tropical heat from the west coast to the east coast\u00a0of the island.<\/p>\n

          These are the courageous men and women\u00a0soldiers who are the \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019.\u00a0In Ethical-Tourism, take the opportunity to shake\u00a0the hand of one of these \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-\u00a0mercy\u2019, who were the ones who carried aging and\u00a0feeble Tamil grandfathers and grandmothers like\u00a0babies in their arms, running for safety dodging\u00a0terrorist bullets.\u00a0 Shake the hand of one of the\u00a0\u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 who helped to cook\u00a0one million meals a day – hearty breakfasts,\u00a0lunches and dinners to feed the 295,873 Tamil\u00a0refugees who were housed in refugee camps\u00a0having starved for 30 months as the Tamil Tiger\u00a0human shield.<\/p>\n

          These are text book examples of Class Acts of\u00a0Ethical humanitarianism.\u00a0 And shake the hand of a\u00a0rare breed of a \u2018khaki-clad-angel-of-mercy\u2019 in a\u00a0world of Tamil Tiger copy-cat terrorism \u00a0of suicide\u00a0bombers and truck bombs.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. What you see \u2013 Sri Lanka is a stunning island with beautiful sights, amazing landscapes, incredible wildlife, wonderful food and friendly people.\u00a0 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\u201d, says P&J.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \n
            1. 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\u00a0aquamarine pendant dangling from the southern\u00a0tip of India, bathed in the azure waters of the surfing Indian Ocean.\u00a0 And this is why the English language was bequeathed the word SERENDIPITY \u2013 the faculty of making one happy with unexpected discoveries by accident.\u00a0 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\u00a0disappointed, CAWTC says.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. What you don\u2019t \u2013 Many Sri Lankans live in fear.\u00a0Sri Lanka is ranked as the second worst country for\u00a0involuntary disappearances\u201d, says P&J.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                  \n
                1. P&J are absolutely right as many Sri Lankans lived\u00a0in fear for 27 years prior to 19 May 2009, when the\u00a0Tamil Tigers were annihilated militarily, the last killed on the sandy shores of the Nandikadal lagoon in East Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  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.\u00a0 All this is history now as the Tamil Tigers have been silenced by the \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 and tourism is flourishing in Sri Lanka and there ought to be no concern of getting harmed.\u00a0 Sri Lanka is safe for Ethical-Tourism, says CAWTC.<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. P&J says as a guide to make choices for an\u00a0Ethical Tourist, During last stages of the war in\u00a02009 an estimated 70,000 civilians were killed.\u00a0There is credible evidence that Government forces\u00a0deliberately shelled hospitals and designated No\u00a0Fire Zones, while the LTTE used civilians as\u00a0Human Shields.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    1. CAWTC will make a clinical analysis of P&J\u2019s statement to make it easy for an Ethical-Tourist\u00a0who has intentions to tour Sri Lanka to make up his or her mind whether to go to Sri Lanka or not.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      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.\u00a0 This would help the Ethical-Tourist to form an educated opinion to make a choice between P&J\u2019s advice and Canadian Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism Communiqu\u00e9 to be another Ethical-Tourist visiting Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

                        \n
                      1. You say that 70,000 civilians were killed by these \u2018Khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 when over 7,000 of these \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 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.\u00a0 How come! Explain, as I don\u2019t believe you lot as your numbers do not make sense and you sound mischievous.\u201d<\/li>\n
                      2. Show me the 70,000 bodies\/skeletons of civilians that you say were killed by the\u00a0\u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t show me a single, then you are out of luck P&J as I will not believe you as it is a patent Humbug.\u201d<\/li>\n
                      3. Seventy thousand dead bodies are not peanuts. Where did the \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 \u00a0dispose these bodies of Sri Lankans whose average height is 5\u20196\u201d and\u00a0 the width at the\u00a0shoulders is roughly 20\u201d.\u00a0 Explain or else I would\u00a0dismiss your claim \u00a0and your TripAdvisor as pure vulgar, sordid \u00a0Humbug.\u201d<\/li>\n
                      4. If the 70,000 bodies were buried somewhere in\u00a0the sliver of land along the Nandikadal lagoon, did anyone report with photo or video records that the \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 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?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Yes?\u00a0 No?\u00a0\u00a0 I am sorry P&J. If you cannot satisfy me with a convincing answer I will call you all as sleazy, nauseating, pacha-Humbugs.\u201d<\/li>\n
                      5. For Pete\u2019s sake P&J, give me the FACTS. If\u00a0they were not buried and you have difficulty to show me the 70,000 bodies, would you say that the \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 gathered\u00a0 them into a mountain heap and burnt them.\u00a0 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 \u2013 Yes? No?\u00a0 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 \u2018khaki-clad-angels-of-mercy\u2019 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.\u00a0 And you bet I will!\u201d<\/li>\n
                      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\u2019s horizon so that no one could see in the dark and dumped the bodies at mid-ocean. Did they?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        If they did, did you find a single body washed ashore along the east-coast of Tamil Nadu like in Pondicherry, Chennai and Kanchipuram.\u00a0 If they didn\u2019t, then where the heck are those 70,000 bodies that you claim that the Sri Lankan soldiers killed.\u00a0 What fibs…..what boloney…. what piffle ….what a barrel of smelly Jadi.\u201d<\/p>\n

                        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, \u00a0switch 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.<\/p>\n

                        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?\u201d<\/p>\n

                        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\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism Communiqu\u00e9s columns have to say, which I am convinced to be FACTUAL and HONEST.\u201d<\/p>\n

                        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.\u00a0 Just too bad!\u00a0 You at \u2018Peace and Justice\u2019 killed my interest with your sly efforts.\u00a0 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, \u00a0who you say is a killer of \u2018Tamil\u2019 civilians, and to Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe, this same soldier emulates to be a \u2018Khaki-clad-Angel-of-Mercy\u2019\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

                        Peace & Justice, it was a good try to hoodwink\u00a0us, the future Ethical-Tourists of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

                         <\/p>\n

                        Editor<\/p>\n

                        \u2018Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism<\/p>\n

                        Communique<\/p>\n

                        26 July 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                        Editor \u00a0\u2018Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism\u00a0Communique PROMOTING ETHICAL TOURISM IN SRI LANKA Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice (https:\/\/www.srilankacampaign.org\/ethical-tourism\/thinkagain\/) vs Canada\u2019s Asoka Weerasinghe\u2019s Tourism Communiqu\u00e9 Ethical-Tourism is a new trend which simply means budget-tourism which benefits people and the environment in different destinations.\u00a0 It can offer a better income to families by sourcing products and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asoka-weerasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}