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Draft 5
Posted on: Thursday, July 30, 2009 Posted at: Draft 5
Memories of the past flickered vividly through Alan’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his scars on his both hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.
“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs. Dead bodies scattered around….” Alan recalled.
Alan lived in Colombo, where predominantly Sinhalese lived. After Sri Lanka gain independence in 1948, Alan’s life started to change and danger was impending.
Alan had scored good grades. However, he was not able to enter University. For Alan, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. “I felt so sorry for you,” his friend mentioned in a sarcastic way. The rift between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him deepened. Alan went straight home from school, without bothering his Sinhalese friend.
“Why are you not working today?” Alan questioned his brother, Bala, while taking out his socks.
“I have been fired.” This was the moment when Bala’s eyes started to well up with tears. “The Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration. I was only given three years to learn Sinhala. Unfortunately, I could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala.”
“This is unfair!” Alan suddenly flew into a paroxysm of rage.
“Son, nothing in this world is fair. You have to note this,” his father was trying to keep him cool.
Alan was no longer able to attend schooling because both his dad and brother had been retrenched from their work and was not able to afford Alan’s schooling fees. Worse still, Alan and his whole family were chased out of their house, which had caused them to be stateless.
“Dad, where are we supposed to go now? Even our house has been abandoned by the Sri Lanka government,” Alan asked as he was filled with dejection.
“Don’t worry, my son.” Alan’s dad stroked his silky hairs. “We would slowly figure out where to seek for shelter and food. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive.”
Walking past some streets, Alan and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Alan and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. Alan and his family members decided to seek help from refugee camp. Alan was flabbergasted when he saw the numbers of people were injured and he could feel a mood of melancholy descended on them. Bala decided to join the terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to fight the rights for Indian Tamils.
Other countries were trying to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. Alan and his family members, except Bala, decided to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India. They would not return back to Colombo, unless the Sri Lankan government ended the civil war and redressed the injustice. However, Alan and his dad went back to see how was the situation at Colombo. After some persuasion from Bala, they decided to stay.
“Are you Indian Tamil?” the Sri Lankan police pointed the gun at my temple. This had stirred Alan back to the normal.
“Not again.” Alan closed his eyes and held both his hands up. “Yes, I am. What do you want from me now?”
Draft 3 & 4
Posted on: Sunday, July 26, 2009 Posted at: Draft 3 & 4
Memories of the past flickered vividly through Alan’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his scars on his both hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.
“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs. Dead bodies scattered around….” Alan recalled.
Alan lived in Colombo, where predominantly Sinhalese lived. After Sri Lanka gain independence in 1948, Alan’s life started to change and danger was impending.
Alan had scored good grades. However, he was not able to enter University. For Alan, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. “I felt so sorry for you,” his friend mentioned in a sarcastic way. The rift between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him deepened. Alan went straight home from school, without bothering his Sinhalese friend.
“Why are you not working today?” Alan questioned his brother, Bala while taking out his socks.
“I have been fired.” This was the moment where Bala’s eyes started to well up with tears. “The Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration. I was only given three years to learn Sinhala. Unfortunately, I could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala.”
“This is unfair!” Alan suddenly flew into a paroxysm of rage.
“Son, nothing in this world is fair. You have noted this,” his father tried to keep him cool.
Alan was no longer able to attend schooling because both his dad and brother had been retrenched from their work and not able to afford Alan’s schooling fees. Worse still, Alan and his whole family were chased out of their house, causing them to be stateless.
“Dad, where are we supposed to go? Even our house also has been abandoned,” Alan asked as he was filled with dejection.
“Don’t worry, my son.” Alan’s dad stroked his silky hairs. “We would slowly figure out where to seek for shelter and food. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive.”
Walking past some streets, Alan and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Alan and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. Alan and his family members decided to seek help from refugee camp. Alan was flabbergasted when he saw the numbers of people were injured and he could feel a mood of melancholy descended on them. Bala decided to join the terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to fight the rights for Indian Tamils.
Other countries tried to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. Alan and his family members, except Bala, decided to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India. They would not return back to Colombo, unless the Sri Lankan government ended the civil war and redressed the injustice. However, Alan and his dad went back to see how was the situation at Colombo. After some persuasion from Bala, they decided to stay.
“Are you Indian Tamil!” the Sri Lankan police pointed the gun against my temple. This has stirred Alan back to the normal.
“Not again.” Alan closed his eyes and held both his hands up. “Yes, I am. What you want from me now?”
Draft 2
Posted on: Monday, July 13, 2009 Posted at: Draft 2
Memories of the past flickered vividly through Bali’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his Sinhalese friend and scars on his hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.
Draft 1
Posted on: Sunday, July 12, 2009 Posted at: Draft 1
Sri Lanka is an island on the southern tip of India. It is also known as the ‘Pearl of the Ocean’. The Sri Lankans are made up of three major races; Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors. The Indian Tamils is the first generation Tamils from India.
“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs….,” Bali whispered softly to himself.
Bali lived in Colombo, where there were mixtures of Sinhalese and Tamils. When Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the new government was made up of mainly the Sinhalese, introduced policies that favoured their own race. The Tamils, who held privileged positions during the British rule faced discrimination. Conflict arose on issues of citizenship rights, civil service jobs, and university admission and lastly resettlement after the British had left. There was a conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils and Bali’s life had started to change.
Bali had scored good grades which allowed him to enter the university. He was not able to enter because the university admission was no longer based on merit. For Bali, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. This had caused some tension between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him, as his friend was eligible for the University.
Sri Lankan government only granted citizenship to those who born there or their fathers or grandfathers. Unfortunately, Bali’s family was not so they were on disadvantageous. His brother, Bala was working in government service. However, the Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration in 1965. This had put Bala in difficulty because he was only given three years to learn Sinhala, otherwise he would be fired. However, Bala could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala and had resulting him to be fired.
Bali was no longer able to attend schooling because Bali’s dad and his brother had been retrenched from their work and did not have sufficient money to pay for Bali’s schooling fees. Worse still, Bali and his whole family were chased out of their house, causing them to be stateless. The reason behind maybe was that the policy wanted to transfer the poor Sinhalese peasants into the Tamil areas to provide land for the landless Sinhalese to live on and cultivate padi.
“Dad, why do they have to treat us in this way and where are we supposed to go now?” Bali asked as he was filled with dejection.
“Don’t worry, my son. We would slowly figure out where to go and maybe we will go to the refugee camp to seek for shelter and food first. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive,” Bali’s dad replied him calmly.
Walking past some streets, Bali and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Bali and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. After few hours of walking down the streets, they had finally reached the refugee camp. Bali was flabbergasted when he saw the number of people had injured and he could feel that a mood of melancholy descended on them.
Other countries, like India came to their rescue and tried to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. They pleaded the Sri Lankan government to give the Indian Tamils citizenship. In the end, there were still 100,000 of them stateless. Bali and his family members had managed to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India.
Many of the Tamils youth felt discriminated and flew into a paroxysm of rage as the Sri Lankan government rejected the idea of a separate and independent state and decided to form a terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). The Tamil youth decided to use violence to gain their rights. The Tamil Tiger and Sri Lankan government attacked each other days and nights. Norway decided to intervene so there was peace. Peace was indeed short-termed as Norway withdrew a year later. The war continued again.
The Sri Lankan government had to stop the civil war and redress the injustice because the war has claimed the lives of more than seventy-two thousand people since 1983. If the war continued, there might be more dangers impending. Although Sri Lanka was known as the ‘Pearl of the Ocean’, tourists would still try to avoid Sri Lanka which adversely affected the economy because of the conflict happening in Colombo. The conflict also resulted in loss of foreign investment because my investors had lost confidence in investing in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government should not be bias and must fairly treat the Tamils. If not able to carry out, Sri Lanka should ask other countries for help to solve the problem.