This is a classic. Friday Ron called me from work to say he had heard that a bomb had been exploded in the harbor in Colombo. Our cable service is suspended due to a lawsuit so I went on line to confirm the report. I went to BBC. I copied this from the BBC web page:
"The police initially said there had been an explosion about 15km (nine miles) from Colombo, caused by a sea mine planted by Tamil Tiger rebels.
But the government said later that the sound had been caused by "a sonic boom" from fighter jets on a training run."
Now you can see just how each side works to discredit the other. Without even knowing what caused the sound, the police are reporting it as a LTTE destruction behavior. This type of reporting only serves to keep the civilians on edge and engender hatred for the other side. Every time there is a killing in the north and east the LTTE says it is the government trying to make the LTTE look bad. You have to wonder if the government and the LTTE really want peace when this type of behavior is going on. To add to the saga, the LTTE is now issuing an ultimatum that the members of the cease-fire monitoring mission who are from countries that are in the EU must be replaced with non-EU members. This is because the EU has now declared the LTTE a terrorist organization. We still feel safe here so for all of you, who are reading reports or misinformation about what is going on here, stop worrying for now. We will let you know when to start to worry!!
Mey, our Cambodian houseguest, has yet to arrive. I think she is having fun being on her own. She has a full time security guard at the house and the nanny is there when she gets home from school until the evening so she isn’t totally alone. Mey said on Saturday she would come here today.
Our friend John Craig, who is a consultant on Ron’s project, arrived on Saturday from Croatia where he and his wife live. He had him over for dinner on Saturday and got to see lots of baby pictures. John and Jennifer are the proud parents of an adorable, very photogenic son, Harper. We had a lively discussion about SL and about the project. It was good for Ron and me to spend some time with John. On Sunday we met for lunch at Barefoot, a lovely outdoor café associated with the store/bookshop where I spend time and money for gifts and clothes for us.
After lunch we came home and started working on dinner. We had Chandini and her husband, Laksman, over for Italian fare. Chandini is our language teacher and on the board at Shilpa, the children’s home where I volunteer, teaching career development classes. Last week I finally got around to making some jewelry. I hauled four cases of beads over here from home and haven’t touched them until last week. I made necklaces for each of the girls and gave them to the girls when we met on Friday. We had a delightful evening with Chandini and Laksman and are grateful for their friendship. We are going to try to get out more on the weekend. We are so used to doing projects at home on Saturdays and Sundays and usually we have a long to do list. Not the case here. We have yet to visit the national museums so I will try to organize us to get out and about each weekend if Ron isn’t working.
Tuesday.
Yesterday another suicide bomber killed the third highest-ranking military officer in SL when the general was going to work. The bomber rammed the officer’s car with his motorcycle and killed four people in addition to him. Since the bomber knew exactly when and where the officer would be, it appears the attackers have inside information. Pre-ceasefire security measures are being re-instituted that will mean more security checks, more roadblocks, etc. The paper’s description is way too graphic in describing the aftermath. This reminds me of the 1960’s song, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The refrain, ‘when will we ever learn’? comes to mind. Violence only begets violence. It is not a solution. I vote for Gandhi’s approach. ‘Nuff’ said.
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