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Dear President-elect
CONGRATULATIONS - CONGRATULATIONS - CONGRATULATIONS
Your Audacity of Hope and Courage is going to give America and the world hope and courage to face the multitude of emergencies threatening the planet.
British Tamils
Dear Barack Obama
Heartiest Congratulations!
This victory is history in very many senses.
The Americans have made the perfect choice at this critical juncture of political and economic turmoil of their country and of the world.
Dear President-elect Barack Obama
Please accept our heartiest congratulations on your victory.
This is history in more than one sense.
Not only the Americans but the whole world is going to reap the results of Audacity of Hope and Audacity of Courage.
Sri Lankan Tamils trampled by sixty-year Genocide
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2.
From: "info@TamilsForObama.com"
Sent: Saturday, 8 November, 2008 13:14:36
Subject: Obama Wins and Tamils are Hopeful for Their Future; They See Peace, and Speculate about New Policies Toward Sri Lanka
Obama Wins and Tamils are Hopeful for Their Future; They See Peace, and Speculate about New Policies Toward Sri Lanka
Tamils for Obama, a PAC of Tamil Americans, supported the Obama-Biden ticket. The group hopes that the 44th president will change U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka. They hope that the genocidal war by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil community will be ended and that the Tamils will gain some measure of security and self-government (or a Tamil state).
Seattle (PRWEB) November 5, 2008 -- Tamils for Obama, a political action committee of American Tamils, has supported the Obama-Biden ticket ever since Obama became the primary winner. Now, they hope that the Obama administration will deliver on their hopes for peace in Sri Lanka and bring security and self-government (or a Tamil state) to the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The Tamils are a minority population in Sri Lanka, and have been the victims of government oppression ever since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. Since 1983, the oppression has taken the form of a genocidal war
(http://www.tamilsforobama.com/gotipbs.html) waged by the majority government against the Tamils.
Tamils for Obama is comprised of Tamils who have settled in the U.S., or who were born here.
These Tamils hope the 44th president, Mr. Obama, will take a strong hand in resolving the Sri Lankan genocidal war. The Tamils see a similarity between Serbian oppression of the Muslim minority population in Bosnia and their own situation in Sri Lanka. Since the U.S. and NATO intervened to save the Bosnian Muslims, they hope that the U.S. can be persuaded to force the Sri Lankan government to provide some form of autonomy and local self-rule to Tamils.
Tamils for Obama, and other Tamil groups, think that there are many models of minority populations gaining local self-government or their own homeland. They cite (besides Bosnia) Christians in East Timor, French speakers in Quebec, Slovaks, and Scots and Welsh in the U.K. They also name several American statesmen who might be useful mediators in negotiating local autonomy (or creating a Tamil state), including Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Richard Holbrooke, George Mitchell, James Baker or Jim Leach.
Because Tamils are on the verge of being destroyed in the Sri Lankan genocidal war, Tamils for Obama sees an urgency in changing U.S. policy toward the conflict.
Tamils hope to see certain changes in U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka, which they hope the new administration will make. The first change is appointing a U.S. representative to Sri Lanka who is friendly to both communities. (These Tamils feel that current U.S. representation has been overly friendly to the central government in Colombo.) They also hope that the new representative will put more emphasis on human rights in Sri Lanka rather than only on economic matters. Tamils believe, if peace is achieved, economic activities will grow exponentially.
Some of the Tamils note that the majority government has received money and weapons from Iran and China, both of which are unfriendly to the U.S.
They suggest that if the Tamils gain their own state, they can offer increased stability in the region. An end to war would remove limits to Tamils' development; Tamils' virtues include an ability to work within a globalized economy, general entrepreneurial ability, and the potential for developing titanium, cement and aquaculture industries. These are things that will benefit the U.S. and the world. Add that the Tamil State is in a strategic position, and that it would be friendly toward both India and the U.S., and it becomes clear that the U.S. has good reasons to help the Tamils.
Tamils are speculating about the probable policies of a new Tamil State. Trincomalee (a port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka) was Britain's major Indian Ocean naval base when the British ruled Sri Lanka. Some guess that having the U.S. there would stabilize the region, and would benefit the U.S., India, the Tamil state, and even Sri Lanka..
To contact the group, email any communication to info @ TamilsforObama.com or call at (617) 765- 4394 and speak to or leave a message for the PR Director, Tamils for Obama.
Visit their website at www.TamilsforoObama.com
3. Northern Ireland Assembly debates, Monday, 3 November 2008
Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin)
I have been critical in interviews of the fact that we have not moved more speedily to develop the Maze/Long Kesh site in the interest of our people. I hope that over the course of the coming period, we can see progress on that issue.
The Member referred to those who wish to see a shrine at Long Kesh; I do not know anybody who has argued for a shrine at Long Kesh.
I have heard people from the unionist persuasion articulate a view that that is what republicans want. Let me state here and now: that is not what republicans want. Republicans want, alongside our unionist colleagues who have contributed to the many visits and trips that we have been on — I have been to Sri Lanka, the Basque country and Iraq, and many other people in this House have made similar trips — a viable, meaningful centre that will contribute to world peace, not a shrine to anybody. If anything, what will happen at the site will be a shrine to peace building, not just here in the north of Ireland, but in the world.
World wishes Obama to say good riddance to politics of terrorism'
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2008, 13:01 GMT]
The historic victory of Barack Obama in the presidential elections of the United States of America, bestowed on to him by the people of America, heralds a paradigm shift in world affairs. "The new hope is that the International Community will recover from the psychological sickness of the 'paranoia of terror,' which will in turn induce recovery of economy, human rights and peace in the world," said Selvam Adaikkalanathan, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, welcoming the victory of Mr. Obama.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
After winning the elections, Mr. Obama said: "This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can."
One of the significant features of the American election was that it attracted record high turn out of voters. Michael McDonald of George Mason University told Associated Press that the voter turn out beat the old post World War II high of 63.8 percent of 1960 John F. Kennedy versus Richard Nixon election. He projected the turn out figure of 2008 at 64.1 percent.
A Reuter headline read: 'Black Americans celebrate Obama's victory'.
The phenomenal victory of a Black as the president of the United States is 'civilisational,' said Mr. Adaikkalanathan.
When the Blacks, kidnapped or purchased, brought to America as chained-slaves from the African coasts, their initial fear was that the cannibals (slave traders) were going to eat them. A couple of centuries of changes have now culminated in the becoming of a person of African ancestry at the helm of the affairs of the World, endorsing the beginnings of a new 'world human civilisation'.
Another encouraging element of sociological significance seen in the American elections was the enthusiastic interest shown by the youth in bringing out the change. 'Young voters helped Obama put over the top,' read a title of a report filed by the Associated Press.
Selvam Adaikkalanathan
Selvam Adaikkalanathan [Library Photo]
Commenting further on Obama's victory, Mr. Adaikkalanathan said: "The moment of the time seems to be for wind of changes everywhere. Already, three of the countries in South Asia, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives have been benefited by it. Bangladesh is facing democratic elections shortly. We hope that the victory of Obama will signal the wind of change in Sri Lanka too."
In January 2008, during an interview Mr. Obama had said that, "the problem of the 21st century is the problem of the other." He described this phenomenon as the inability of people to accommodate others "who are not like us," and mentioned Sri Lanka as an example, pointing out that war rages even when "everybody there looks exactly the same."
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