HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: 2067bh@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
Subject: Something to take note of
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 19:11:40 -0500
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In article <of_xYDS00WBM049mM3@andrew.cmu.edu>, rs6x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ranjith Ravindiran Suresh) writes:
|> About 2 months back, when 134 Muslims were apparently massacred by LTTE
|> cadres in eastern SR, I chose not to comment on it. 

ARE YOU SURE MAD SURESH?

|> Not, because I
|> didn't have anything to say or that I didn't care. 
|> There were two reasons why I kept quiet. First, there are thousands of
|> children who are orphans in northeast SR. Many have lost both parents,
|> wither to SL armed forces or to IPKF. Others have lost brothers or
|> sisters. Worse, many killings took place right infront of their eyes(to
|> teach a lesson!). But, the world kept quiet. The silence pervades even
|> now. What happened to some of these orphans?... one may ask. Some, who
|> have nothing to lose, joined LTTE to seek revenge. Traumautized, made
|> numb to wide scath of death and destruction around them, they they went
|> to work in the 'killing fields'. Remember Cambodia & the effect of
|> constant bombardment of B-52's on people 'down below'?
|> 
|> So, when I saw picture of little girl(at the massacre site), who has
|> lost everything that had a meaning to her life, casting her eyes at the
|> burnt home/hut, I thought about the countless others who have already
|> become the 'lost kind.' I had nothing to say.
|> Secondly, it the masscare was exploited by SL government to get the
|> maximum political mileage it can get. It was rather sickening to me.
|> Having killed thousands of Tamils in countless unpublished 'little' and
|> 'big killings,' what right did it have to claim to uphold any modicum of
|> justice? When many jumped in to condemn LTTE for the massacre without
|> any knowledge of what leads to suc acts, I felt furious. After having
|> lost so much, many Tamils feel that anyone cooperating with the
|> Sinhalase should not be allowed to stay on in our soil. In this war,
|> this raging anger(fueled by a sense of hopelessness and
|> insecurity)against few Muslims extends to all Muslims, by way of
|> generalization. 
|> 
|> Anyway, I brought this up now to make a small point. What is happening
|> in SR can atleast be explained by savagery of war. But, what can explain
|> the current orgy of killings in India? Yes, there are similarities.
|> Communalism was nurtured by politicians in SL which evantually led to
|> this war. And in India, deacades communal politics are bearing their
|> fruits. Let what is still taking place in SR be a warning to 'secular'
|> minds in India. If someone  plays with fire, it will finally get to the
|> that person at the end. Some of those politicians who played with fire
|> for a little too long ended up having un-natural deaths(SR). Communal
|> politcis, is after all, a rather volatile mixture. 


Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
From: se_dang@rcvie.co.at (Sang Dang)
Subject: Sri Lanka trip
Organization: Alcatel - Elin Research Center
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:59:11 GMT

 
Hi!

First of all please excuse me for my awful English. I hope it would not disturb
you much.

I'm a vietnamese guy having been for long time to Europe. Now I live and work in 
Vienna, Austria.

I'm going to make a trip to Sri Lanka at the beginning of February. I'm not only 
interested in sightseing, beach and sunbathing etc., but especially in the daily  
life there. I would be very happy if I have the possibility to get to know some 
of you in SK, so that I can discover the country not only under the viewpoint of 
a tourist, and probably can visit some regions far from tourist roads. 

I'm also interested in ethnic conflicts, social problems, religions..., as well 
in what young people think and how they live in SL.

So could you e-mail me some information and tips about cheap possibilities to 
sleep, tranport means, or something to be care of (regions in civil war,...), 
and if you have a little more time, please give me some facts and figures about
SL's history, cultural underground (maybe relationship with Indian), economy and policy.

It would be nice if we can start to have e-mail contact right now.

Thank you in advance.

Sang




Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
From: niranjan@eng.cam.ac.uk (Mahesan Niranjan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Date: 16 Dec 92 17:29:23 GMT
Organization: Cambridge University Engineering Department, UK

In article <1ggve7INNnej@lanka.cs.purdue.edu> saw@cs.purdue.edu (Sanjiva Weerawarana) writes:
[...]
>mentioning that until 1977, there wasn't a single engineer or doctor from
>17 of our 22 districts. If this is the case, then something had to be done 
>about it - this is an extremely unfair distribution of resources.
>

22 districts is an artificial split created for admin reasons. For University
admissions, or to measure fairness in admission policy, one should
go to a finer scale. Say there are 300 engineering places each
year, we divide the country into 300 areas and find the distribution,
see how fair has it been during various admission policies :-)
We could adopt a policy that sends one representative from each
of these 300 areas to read engineerin :-)

niranjan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.india,soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.tamil
From: na@abb-sc.abb-sc.com (Aru Arunasalam)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Date: 13 Dec 92 20:03:04 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: ABB Systems Control Company, Inc.


In article <Bz5n14.4Lx@acsu.buffalo.edu>, desilva@acsu.buffalo.edu (Channa Desilva) writes...
> 
>Take a look at some of the schools in Colombo....(ex. Mahabodi Vidyalaya,
>near Town hall).  That school cannot be compared to Royal, Visaka, Ananda
>or some schools in Jaffna.  I don't know if anyone goes to any university
>from that school.  So, nobody should generalise that the quota system
>affects only Tamils.  If affects all of us, no matter whether it's Sinhalese,
>Tamil,Muslim or any other.  (Ex. In Nuwara eliya(sp?) there are quite a few
>Tamils.....but the cutoff marks there are really low, if not the lowest)
>

Couldn't agree with you more. When "standardization" was first introduced
following the 1969 ALevel results, it was couched in a little bit more
scientific terms. The raw marks in each language group were weighted so that
each group  had a normal distribution. Though this whole process was started
because it was felt that the Tamils were getting more than their fair share
of the "professional education pie", the people who truly benefited from the
initial standardization were the English medium students, the majority of whom
were Muslims. It was no coincidence that Badiuddin Mohammed was the Minister
of Education!!! After a couple of years of this type of standardization,
the government moved to a 100% "district" basis. Following the 1977 UNP
victory, the then Education Minister (Nissanka Wijeratne?) moved to have a
strictly merit based approach. Vested interest groups prevailed, however, and
a combination merit/district system was adopted.

I was from a school in Kandy. While we certainly didn't lack for facilities,
the culture in my school put us at a serious disadvantage with the better
Colombo and Jaffna schools. This didn't prevent the government from grouping
my marks with the Jaffna and Colombo Tamils and "standardizing" it...

>The solution to this should be to improve the standards of these so called
>"schools in the rural arears".....it may be easier said than done...but I
>don't even see any attempt being made to improve these schools.

Again I couldn't agree with you more. I don't know how many of the netters
remember that the A.L. exam included a  Practical Exam as well which was
conducted at the UNiversities in Colombo and Peradeniya. The government
abolished this in 1971 so that students with poor lab facilities will 
have a fighting chance. Somehow I feel that this decision reduced the quality
of science education in education.

> 
>Any comments?????
>
I am very sorry to hear about what happened with your University entrance
plans in Sri Lanka. If it is any consolation, an Iranian friend of mine
completed his Ph D in EE at Purdue, worked for a few years, and then went
off to Medical School because this is what he had always wanted to do.
So don't feel that you are stuck in an "engineering groove"...though it is
not a bad groove to be stuck in. 


Aru.                                  na@abb-sc.com
From: nishani@coos.dartmouth.edu (Chandana H. Fonseka)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Resent Vs. Resemble
Date: 17 Dec 92 21:55:35 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In article <10450@arccs1.fed.FRB.GOV> m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena) writes:

>> I resemble that remark.
     ^^^^^^^^
>
>Obviously, this is the first time you heard it.
correct.

>Think about it for a couple of weeks, ha?
ha. I shall also conduct an in-depth investigation to satisfy myself
that the expression exists :).


>prasad
>++ Those of you who think they know everything are very annoying to
>   those of us who do. ++
Cool it, old chap. Take a deep breath, and exhale slowly...

-Chan "harbouring no resemblement" Fonseka
From: niranjan@eng.cam.ac.uk (Mahesan Niranjan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Date: 15 Dec 92 18:55:08 GMT
Organization: Cambridge University Engineering Department, UK

In article <1992Dec14.163402.28717@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> muttiah@thistle.ecn.purdue.edu (Ranjan S Muttiah) writes:
>Sarath has asked me to post this to this newsgroup.
>
>From sarath@hydra.cis.mcmaster.ca Mon Dec 14 06:46:05 1992
[...]
>	who have A's Bs and do really badly in the university. I thought
>	they get high grades from cram schools (``tuition'') and then
>	when they come to the university they are all worn out.

I dont think there is (statistically) significant evidence
to support this generalisation; I once looked closely at exam performance
of four years of Peradeniya Engineering undergraduates (78-82)
and the "cram-school" effect is not widespread. The cram-school
argument in SL universities is a smoke screen, often used by lazy staff who
aren't willing to put in the required teaching effort.

niranjan
From: desilva@acsu.buffalo.edu (Channa Desilva)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Date: 12 Dec 92 16:27:03 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <ByHtoK.ArC@acsu.buffalo.edu> you write:
>	this is in reply to article 4501 by
>	                obey@ds13.scri.fsu.edu (Dr. Obeysekera) ...
>
>i do not think the percentages matter. i personally feel the system need
>some changes for the following reasons ..
>
>	a) i do not think anybody will be happy if they do not get a
>university seat with certain marks, and somebody else gets an engineering
>or medicine admission with the same or worse performance from another
>district. this is something which has happened ..
>
>	b) more importantly the system where only 30% of the admissions
>are on merit is just not correct. i think something like 60-70% on merit
>is essential.
>-- 
>						S. Muhunthan,
>
>	"The shortest distance between two people is a smile"
>################################################################################


In my openion the quota system should be abolished, but my point 
is that it affects not only Tamils.  I'm writing this because 
I've suffered the consequences myself!  I sat for my A/levels
in '86 for the first time.  I was in the Bio science section,
and was able to get 279 out of a possible 400 with an A and
3 B's.  But, the cutoff mark for Medicine that year was 280 in
Colombo.  I think even in Jaffna it was 278 or something like that.
If I were in anyother place, other than Colombo, I would have
gotten into the Medical college that year.  I was so dissapointed,
but decided to try my luck again the following year.  I guess this
may have never happened in the History of Sri Lanka!  I again got
279 marks with an A and 3 B's.  The cutoff mark that year too was
280 in Colombo, higher than all the other districts in the Island.
Well, I was so frustrated with the system......I guess, if I wern't,
I may not be Human.  Anyway, now I'm following Engineering here in
the U.S.  So, the point I was trying to make here is that the
quota system affects both communities.....(sometimes Sinhalese more
than the Tamils......). By the way, I studied at Royal college.

Take a look at some of the schools in Colombo....(ex. Mahabodi Vidyalaya,
near Town hall).  That school cannot be compared to Royal, Visaka, Ananda
or some schools in Jaffna.  I don't know if anyone goes to any university
from that school.  So, nobody should generalise that the quota system
affects only Tamils.  If affects all of us, no matter whether it's Sinhalese,
Tamil,Muslim or any other.  (Ex. In Nuwara eliya(sp?) there are quite a few
Tamils.....but the cutoff marks there are really low, if not the lowest)

The solution to this should be to improve the standards of these so called
"schools in the rural arears".....it may be easier said than done...but I
don't even see any attempt being made to improve these schools.

Any comments?????

Channa.
From: m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Backwardness revisited
Date: 18 Dec 92 19:23:58 GMT


<uunet!coos.dartmouth.edu!nishani> (Chandana H. Fonseka) writes:

> In article <10450@arccs1.fed.FRB.GOV> m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena) writes:

> >> I resemble that remark.

> >Obviously, this is the first time you heard it.
> correct.

Ah, I rest my case!

> >Think about it for a couple of weeks, ha?
> ha. I shall also conduct an in-depth investigation to satisfy myself
> that the expression exists :).

Looks like you have a long way to go, pal.  BTW, is NH sort of like
Cleveland, where a single day seems like a couple of weeks?  :>

> >++ Those of you who think they know everything are very annoying to
> >   those of us who do. ++
> Cool it, old chap. Take a deep breath, and exhale slowly...

Send me your postal address.  I'll send you a check (or a cheque as
*you* probably know it :-)) for a quarter so you can buy a sense
of humor.  <sigh>

BTW, who are you calling "old chap?"  <sigh>  Them annoying British
slang they use in that mutilated dialect of an excuse for a language 
which they call "English" in Colombo-7 -- an area recently re-labeled as 
being "Not-so-backward," though some of us have our sincere doubts.


prasad
++ Things are more like what they used to be than they are now. ++
--
Prasad Dharmasena      Internet: <pkd@fed.FRB.GOV>     UUCP: <uunet!fed!pkd>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.india,soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.tamil
From: 2067bh@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
Subject: News flash - Prabhakaran wins the award
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 19:09:48 -0500
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X-To: soc.culture.india.usenet, soc.culture.sri-lanka.usenet,
        soc.culture.tamil.usenet



		Human Life Protection International

		    Third Annual Award Series

			    1992

HLPI announces the winner of the "World's Worst Serial Killer" Award
		
The winner eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 	LTTE ANIMAL Prabhakaran

THE AWARD IS "ELECTROCUTION"
AND 
THE AWARD WINNING CONTRIBUTION 


					Eelam News
					Jaffna
	

		World's Worst Serial Killer

The LTTE leader Mr. V. Prabhakaran,
dismembered more than 860 Prisoners of War
and almost completed eating their remains in one year.

This 860 POWs include the Sri Lankan police officers 
surrendered in 1990 without fighting the 
Tigers believing the normal decorms of warfare
expecting them to be treated as prisoners of war.

Out of more than 900 police personnel who
surrendered to the LTTE only 40 are alive according
to the International Red Cross. Others being 
executed by the LTTE leader Mr. V. Prabhakaran. 

Mr. Prabhakaran  dismembered more than 860 Prisoners of War
and almost completed eating their remains in one year. 

According to an eye witness from Carnegie Melon University, USA
Animal Prabhakaran 
also crucified thousands of HIGH CAST HINDU TAMILS 
lived in Jaffna 
and ate their flesh.

Low cast  Tamils living in Jaffna believe that they are discriminated
against by the High Cast Hindu Tamils.

NOW
BRING ALL LTTE ANIMALS BEFORE THE JUSTICE
WE LOOKING FOR THE JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD
RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THIS WORLD.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
From: cs304001@scs.carleton.ca (Chulaka Ailapperuma)
Subject: Re: Hambantota Lawyers
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:46:27 GMT

In article <10292@arccs1.fed.FRB.GOV> m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena) writes:
>
>A group of Hambantota lawyers have decided not to defend repeat offender
>involved with drugs.  (SLNet news)  they have taken "the decision to try
>to save the town of 4,000 people, where there are many drug addicts."
>
>This seems like the "right" decision by some "good lawyers."  (let's 
>not start a thread of lawyer jokes and say things like "good lawyer" is
>a contradiction in terms. :-))  However, this is a bad decision.
>
>Repeat offenders may be innocent people.  It can happen folks, specially 
>in Sri Lanka where people are being arrested for here-say and other 
>influences such as "wrong" political affiliation.  Or, the offender 
>might be innocent this time though he was guilty the first time. etc. etc.  
>What are these people going to do?
>
........

Of course, they (the lawyers) have totaly missed the point of the
whole concept of the criminal justice system. supprised ?
From: 2067bh@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
Subject: Re: If I were a tiger ..
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 19:08:34 -0500
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>From: obey@ds13.scri.fsu.edu (Dr. Obeysekera) WRITES
Subject: If I were a tiger ..

If I were a tiger these would be my thoughts:
...

LET ME ADD MORE

AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE I AM AN ANIMAL.
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE I AM AN IDIOT.
	TO PUT CYNIDE PILL AROUND THE NECK AND BITE ANY TIME.
	WONDERFOOL  CYNAIDIOTS.

AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE KILLED ALL MOST ALL HIGH CAST HINDU TAMILS LIVED IN JAFFNA.
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE KILLED ALL MOST ALL MOSLEM TAMILS LIVED IN JAFFNA.
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE KILLED ALL MOST ALL SINHALA TAMILS LIVED IN JAFFNA.

AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE ATE ALL MOST ALL SINHALA TAMIL MOSLEM FLESH LIVED IN JAFFNA
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE DRANK ALL MOST ALL SINHALA MOSLEM TAMIL BLOOD


AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE DESTROYED ALL MOST ALL THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN JAFFNA.
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE DESTROYED THE BEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM WE HAD IN JAFFNA.
        NOW THEY USE BULLOCK CARTS - LITTLE BETTER THAN CARRYING BY SHOULDERS
AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	WE DESTROYED ALL MOST ALL THE HIGH CAST HINDU TEMPLES IN JAFFNA.
        THOSE HIGH CAST HINDUS DIDN'T ALLOW US TO GET INTO TEMPLES
	BECAUSE WE ARE LOW CAST
......


AS A TIGER I AM HAPPY BECAUSE 
	Nobody has BALLS to suggest anyTHING AGAINST US.
From: ccgary@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Gary Young)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Airline Company names and addresses
Summary: I'am very interested in Names & addresses of airline companies
Keywords: Names and addresses of airline companies and flying schools
Date: 21 Dec 92 03:58:28 GMT
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland

I'am very interested to obtain names and addresses of aviation airline 
companies and flying schools.
I would like to correspond to overseas airline companies to offer trainees the oopportunity to learn to fly professionally and at the same time study for a higher degree in aviation in Australia at the Air Training Centre in Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia.
The weather is great all year round.

For furhter information
Contact Gary Young

Gary Young                                      Education Officer
Prentice Centre                                 Tel: +61 7 365 4359
The University of Queensland                    Fax: +61 7 365 4477
Queensland, Australia, 4072             Email: ccgary@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Backward Screws
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:56:52 GMT


Someone said:

> students who get into universities
> from "backward" arears
        ^^^^^^^^

Someone else said:

# that would settle the problem of "backwardness." 
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^
etc.

I don't like you people* calling non-Colombo,
non-Jaffna and non-Kandy  areas "backward areas."

I resemble that remark.

Here

	|\
	| II\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\>     (it's a screw, for you people*
	|/				who are ascii-picture impaired)


Now you know what to do with yourselves.

Merry Christmas.

Oh yeah, almost forgot...   :-)  ;-)  :->  8-)  8^)

prasad
--
* "You people" is a Registered Trademark of Ross Perot Inc.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
From: nish@cv4.chem.purdue.edu (Nishantha I.)
Subject: Saturday Night Live
Organization: You guess it
Distribution: USA
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 20:37:41 GMT

	Did any of you recognize the cool Sri-Lankan dude who did a 
number with Glen Close on the opening act on SNL last week?
				Nishantha
From: na@abb-sc.abb-sc.com (Aru Arunasalam)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Date: 13 Dec 92 20:50:32 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: ABB Systems Control Company, Inc.


In article <1992Dec13.011446.7456@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, muttiah@thistle.ecn.purdue.edu (Ranjan S Muttiah) writes...
> 
>But I will say more (since this newsgroup has more readers than writers:).
>
Unable to bear this taunting[ :=)  ], I am posting my second article for the
day.

>You are absolutely right of course.  Standard should be brought up in all 
>the disadvantaged regions of the country.  Some of the looney politicians
>think that by getting a few doctors here, and then some engineers over
>there that that would settle the problem of "backwardness."  What
>moronic thought.  Just the opposite happens. It just makes those places
>more backward.

Agreed. If I can give these comments a slightly different twist: the government
set out to level the playing field...but filled it with potholes instead.

>And guess what happend to those doctors and engineers
>from the backward regions ?  Did they go back to their own home towns ?
>Rarely if ever.  Most of them are driving BMWs and one even has access
>to a computer account right here in 'ol US of A!

This begs the question: should the "professional education pie" be sliced
so that it benefits individuals from different parts of the country or
should it be used to benefit the majority of the people in different parts 
of the country? 

It is now more than 20 years since Sri Lanka started standardizing University
entrance marks. It is time for the government to review whether standardization
has been beneficial to Sri Lanka. From the point of view of personal health,
I don't think it really matters which ethnic group your doctor belongs to.
On the other hand, people in positions of power in Sri Lanka tend to look
out for their own people, whether they are Jaffna Tamil Hindus or  they are
Low Country Sinhala Catholics. So professional education can be used to
leverage the self interests of a particular community. Unless there is some
mechanism by which we can prevent this nepotism of sorts, or reduce people's
dependence on government jobs, it will not be practical to remove 
standardization altogether.

Aru                                na@abb-sc.com
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka