Monsoon Journal

“Amitabh Bachchan is a great hero for us in the Tamil diaspora, but we are very disturbed and profoundly saddened by our hero ’s proposed visit to a regime which has perpetrated crimes against Tamils, ‘ ‘ said the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) in a statement recently. CTC released the statement after the announcement that Amitabh Bachchan will travel to Sri Lanka to be the chief guest at the India International Films Awards (IIFA) function in July.  “By visiting Sri Lanka, Amitabh Bachchan will be lending credibility to a regime which has destroyed Tamils ruthlessly and committed horrendous human rights violations, ‘ ‘ said Canadian Tamil Congress national spokesman David Poopalapillai.

“When Tamils continue to suffer in Sri Lanka and numerous human rights bodies have implicated the regime in crimes against humanity, we plead with a person of Bachchan ’s stature not to go there to help a government that is desperately seeking recognition from the world community in spite of its crimes, ‘ ‘ he said. Seeking solidarity from the Bollywood super star, David Poopalapillai said,  “We want to bring to his notice the decision of the Commonwealth nations last year not to allow Colombo the right to hold the next meeting. If the Commonwealth can snub Sri Lanka, why not Amitabh Bachchan? He should respect our feelings. We love him and we are great fans of his whole family, particularly his daughter-in-law Ashwariya Rai. ‘ ‘

In Welcoming the announcement on May 3rd of “pardon” to Journalist J.S. Tissainayagam by the President of Sri Lanka, Media Rights Group-Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for details and clarifications on the announcement. CPJ released the following press release: The Committee to Protect Journalists is heartened by news reports today that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued a pardon to Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, left. CPJ is waiting for official clarification, however, concerning several important details.

The country’s recently appointed external affairs minister, G.L. Peiris, announced the pardon at a press conference in Colombo. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to pardon journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who was convicted on 31 August 2009 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act,” Peiris told reporters. He noted that the announcement was timed to coincide with World Press Freedom Day, May 3. “CPJ is waiting for a detailed explanation of the terms of the government’s announcement. We remain concerned about our colleague’s safety while he lives in seclusion in Sri Lanka,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “While this is potentially very good news, our enthusiasm is muted until the details are made clear.”

Tissainayagam’s attorneys were not notified of the pardon prior to the announcement, leaving several questions about the official details. Among its concerns, CPJ said, is whether the pardon will allow Tissainayagam freedom to travel within and outside of the country and whether the government will return the journalist’s passport.

CPJ is also concerned that Tissainayagam be able to live and work without fear of reprisal. Unpunished violence against journalists is very high in Sri Lanka, CPJ research shows. Tissainayagam was released on bail in January and has lived in seclusion since. At the time, CPJ welcomed Tissainayagam’s release from a sentence of 20 years, but called on Rajapaksa to extend a full pardon. Based on its research, CPJ has concluded that Tissainayagam was imprisoned in retaliation for his critical journalism.

CPJ named Tissainayagam a recipient of an International Press Freedom Award in 2009. The Tamil editor was first jailed in March 2008 and eventually indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in August 2008. The government said today that it would relax some restrictions put in place under a state of emergency first declared in August 2005. There was no mention of easing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, however.

From the Publisher’s Desk … May 15th is International Day of Families While Canada had declared Family day on Monday February 15, 2010; the United Nations deems May 15, 2010 to be International Day of Families establishing a new theme every year. This year’s focus is on “The impact of migration on families around the world” which reflects the increasing migration of families in the global world and the challenges they face. While last year’s theme focused on mothers and families and their challenges in a changing world, this year attention was brought on a new but important subject. Migration on families is highlighted and discussed at the various activities and events that take place at the local, national and international levels.

This year’s theme of migration on families is a key focal point in helping to shed light and bring awareness to the conflicts and difficulties that arise when families migrate and discusses ways to resolve these challenges. Celebrating International Day of Family assists in promoting a healthy and well- balanced family. This global observance began in 1994 when it was proclaimed as the International Year of Families by the United Nations.

Attention was brought to this matter because of changing social and economic structures, which have affected and still affect the structure and stability of family units in many areas of the world. The International Day of Families, on May 15, is an occasion to reflect on the work started during 1994 and to celebrate the importance of families, people, societies and cultures around the world. It has been held every year since 1995. Monsoon Journal hopes you all celebrate and promote International Day of Families not only on May 15, but everyday and commemorate the underlying message that this day symbolises. May is a full month celebrating a variety of people. For many of us our mothers or motherly figures are one of the most important people who have shaped us into the person we are today and on Sunday May 9, 2010 we celebrate these exceptional women who have sacrificed and worked hard to offer a better life to their child/children. Mothers Day falls annually on the 2nd Sunday in May.

In Canada the month of May is officially recognized as Asian Heritage Month to acknowledge the long and rich history of Asian Canadians and their contributions to Canada. To everyone of Asian decent and to those that wish to celebrate the extensive and valuable Asian Heritage, Monsoon Journal wishes you all a great month full of special occasions and opportunities to celebrate history and people that have led the path and continue to lead the path of a growing globe. By: Krishni Loganathan, BA (Hons.) Political Science, History

NEW ORLEANS - BP said it would launch an unprecedented effort Tuesday to contain the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico by shipping out a state-of-theart dome to place over the leak.  “We expect to load out the fabricated containment chamber tomorrow and we hope to have the system up and operating within a week, ” British Petroleum ’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters Monday.

The dome is designed to be placed  “over the leak sources and allow us to collect the oil, funnel it up through pipework to a drill ship called Enterprise on the surface, ” he said. An estimated 210,000 gallons of crude a day has been streaming from three leaks at the wellhead below the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank on April 22, threatening the U.S. Gulf Coast with environmental catastrophe if the well cannot be capped. BP, which leases the sunken rig, meanwhile has been racing to contain the leaks under high pressure from the White House and U.S. lawmakers, who have repeatedly pointed out that the British oil giant is legally bound to cover the cost of the disaster and spearhead the response. Over the next week BP will be connecting the systems to capture the oil, first with the main dome over the first leak and another two for the other leaks, and funnel it to the waiting Enterprise on the surface, Suttles said. With rough seas over the wellhead, Suttles reassured that weather conditions were forecast to be more favorable over the weeks ahead. The main containment chamber —  “essentially a very large metal building with a dome top ” — weighs some 65 tonnes, he said, and warned such an effort has never been tried before on this scale, or at this depth.

“There ’s a number of technical challenges . . . . This has been done in shallow water, it ’s never been done in deep water before, so we ‘re trying to get through those final challenges to make sure that we can actually get that oil to the surface through the pipework, ” he said. At a depth of around a mile (1,500 meters), conditions at the leaking wellhead are extreme for employing this level of delicate engineering — it is pitch dark and pressure at that depth is around 2,500 pounds per square inch.  “What allows this to work is the fact that oil is less dense than water and wants to float, so essentially an oil column exerts less pressure than a water column, so that helps push the oil to the surface, ” Suttles said.

Durham Tamil Association which is a non-profit organization formed for the Durham Tamil community to unite and participate in actvities that enhance Tamil culture has elected a new Board of Directors for the year 2010. The new members elected are as follows:

Board of Directors: President: Sinnadurai Mahendranathan Vice President: Kangatharan Sivanathan Treasurer: Joshua Suresh Secretary: Dinesh Subramaniam Assistant Secretary: Selvakumar Arasendran Youth Coordinator: Thaventhiran (Ravi) Kandiah Cultural Coordinator: Amirthalingham Karunakaran Public Relations and Media Coordinator: Kalyani Sathiananthan Membership Coordinator: Thayanandan (Sasi) Rajaratnam Executive Committee Members: Nandakumar Mylvaganam Sinnathurai Gukathasan Uma Suresh Nanthini Kailanathan Rajini Kailainathan Raj Ravindrakumar Thushi Thurairatnam Rajathurai Rabindranathan

To coincide with the 10th year of founding, the Association will be hosting the Annual Dinner/Dance on June 12th at the Crown Plaza Hotel located at DVP and Eglinton. The original date was changed from May 15th as a respect to the Month of remembrance.

Herizon House is a shelter for abused women and offers free confidential services 24 hours a day. They provide a place for safety, support and hope for abused women and their children. The Durham Tamil Association recently organized a get-together of their women members for a toiletry drive to support Herizon House.

The evening event was hosted by Mrs.Anusha Hariharan at her residence in Ajax. The event was a success with nearly 150 pieces of toiletries collected and to be distributed among those at the Herizon House. The women’s wing also decided to come up with a donation to pur- chase much needed undergar- ments for the inmates of Herizon House.

The evening proved to be entertaining to the women mem- bers of DTA who enjoyed the refreshments served and also par- ticipated in the games that took place. The evening gave the women members a break from their usual household chores and provided fun and laughter in a relaxed atmosphere. Seen here are pictures taken at the evening function.

By IRIN This time last year- (in March 2009), Arulamma Thambyraja, 99, was among tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka’s north by fighting between govern- ment forces and the since-defeat- ed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). When the fighting reached her village of Navajeevanam, near the town of Paranthan in Kilinochchi district in January 2009, her fami- ly fled deeper into areas con- trolled by the LTTE. She was car- ried on a chair by her sons and grandchildren during most of their journey. In April 2009, she entered a camp for internally displaced peo- ple (IDPs) with her family and was there until January this year. She now lives with a relative near the capital Colombo, where she told IRIN of the fighting and her dreams to return home: “Things were deteriorating by the minute, there was shelling from all sides.

I never expected to survive. Every second was like a lifetime there. “My sons were carrying me. We could not stay in one place forlong, it was very difficult. Food was hard to find … going to the toilet was risking death. “It is with God’s grace that I am here, nothing else. I don’t know how I made it out, it was terrible, there were people every- where running scared. I just closed my eyes every time there was a loud sound; I never expect- ed to open them. It was a like a very long, very bad dream. “So many things have hap- pened in my lifetime. The war began when I was already a grandmother and in my 60s. I have seen things I never thought I would, so much death, so much destruction. “When the authorities said we could return to our villages, my family did not want to return immediately.

We were not sure what we would find in the village. The house was destroyed, there were mines everywhere. And my children felt I needed rest. “I don’t know anyone in my lifetime who has lived to 100 years, no one in my village has lived that long. I want to be the first, I want go there and cele- brate. “I just want to go back to my village, live like I used to, in peace, with no worries. That is my only dream.” Louisa Arulamma Thamby- rajah is the wife of late Rev.A.C. Thambyrajah, who founded ‘Navajeevanam’ (new Life) com- munity living project in 1959.

Sri Lankan veteran film star Malini Fonseka has been named by CNN among Asia’s 25 best film artistes of all time. Indian stars Amitabh Bachchan, Nargis, Meena Kumarai, Pran and Guru Dutt are also on the list, which includes actors from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea,Singapore, Thailand, Malyasia and Cambodia. The CNNGo.com website said: “In the history of the Academy Awards (airing on March 7th), only two Asians have ever taken home a Best Actor or Actress stat- ue (we don’t count Ben Kingsley as a true Asian).

Yet Asia has produced incred- ibly talented thespians that have changed the course of their nation’s cinematic history. In anticipation of Oscar night, we’ve narrowed the list of greats to 25.” Referring to Malini Fonseka, the portal added: “The Queen of Sinhalese cinema had a diverse career that spanned many decades, beginning with her mov- ing performance in 1968’s ‘Punchi Baba’.

She was the first SriLankan actress to reach interna- tional heights, winning awards at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1975 and New Delhi Film Festival in 1977. Her best role was in ‘Nidhanaya’ (1972), which is known as one of the best works in Sri Lanka’s cinematic history. Fonseka memorably played a guileless lady who meets a man and stumbles into tragedy. The popular film star is likely to become an MP next month as the ruling UPFA alliance has included her name in its National List for the upcoming general election.