From: mohan@eiffel.tele.nokia.fi (Lavanya-Mohan)
Subject: Re: On news postings in the net
Organization: Nokia Telecommunications Oy, Espoo, Finland
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 08:19:42 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.204814.8946@wuecl.wustl.edu> sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian) writes:

>	 On news postings in the net
>       ------------------------------
>
>  [Some parts deleted ...]

>       I saw one interesting reply pointing out
>    what it means to avoid political news in the
>    net. Avoiding political news in the net doesn't
>    mean avoiding Sri-lankan news but avoiding 
>    Tamilnadu news as well like Jayalalitha's ADMK
>    celebration in Madurai, Rajini - future CM ?,
>    CHO's Thuglak articles etc.

Exactly. This is what I was wondering for some time, as
a SL Tamil. There were many items in this group on maters
particularly concerning TN, of which you have mentioned a
few. One more was about the reservation problem in TN,
which has nothing to do with Tamil culture or language in
any sense, but purely a political topic.

>       What do we do if we don't like a news item in
>    a newspaper that we read ? The news items that
>    we read in a newspaper are not `facts'. They are
>    subject to questioning and reasoning. They give 
>    us alternate views and it is upto us to use our
>    intellect to decide whether or not we can buy the
>    theories put forth by the newspapers. We don't
>    fast till the reporter of the article we disagree     
>    in views is executed. We write in the `Letters to 
>    the editor' column our views if we disagree in 
>    views and such letters are considered by the
>    associated reporter and other readers and they 
>    write their views on the topic under discussion.
>    This is a healthy way of discussing news articles.

Well said. Some wrote here that TE news are not facts. Why
must they decide on behalf of all of us? If somebody finds
some item not being true, he/she can correct it or just skip
it. And on what basis he/she decides about facts? What are
his/her sources anyway? What some TN people do not realize
is that we, SL Tamils, having many relatives and friends in
many parts of SL, are in much better position to judge about
facts in the news than any foreigner!

>       What is happening in S.C.T. ?
>    Are we having a healthy discussion in the net
>    on the news articles posted by others ?
>    We are more keen on attacking the writers than
>    reading the `news excerpts' posted in their articles.
>    If we think that the `news excerpts' are wrong, then
>    we can point out that the excerpts are in error by
>    pointing out other news sources, BBC news etc. Or one
>    may write an essay evaluating the excerpts posted and
>    send it by e-mail to the writer for his comments.
>    Or, one can ignore such articles totally and choose to
>    read other articles posted ( This is the way I read
>    S.C.I. articles/flames regularly. )
>       I would ignore the news articles posted in the
>    net if I disagree with their content instead of
>    flaming the writer not to post such articles at all.
>
>					      S.Pandian.
>				       sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu

Couldn't agree more!

I don't any more expect any sympathy for SL Tamils from
TN Tamils, but all what I ask them is to be at least rea-
sonable!

	"nenychil uramuminRi nErmaidh dhiranuminRi
	 vanychanai cholvAradi kiliyE - vAychchollil vIraradi"

	"chondhach chakOdhararkaL dhunpadhdhil chAdal kaNdhum
	 chindhai irangkArati kiLiyE - emmai marandhAradi"


Mohan



--
=  S. Lavanya-Mohan               E-mail:    mohan@tele.nokia.fi    =
=  Nokia Telecommunications       Telephone: 358-0-511 5671         =
=  Finland                        Telefax:   358-0-511 5615         =
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