Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

18 July  2019

Refugees v Orphans

This morning’s  mail brought communication regarding Tamil refugees in Indonesia. Yesterday there was one regarding a Vietnamese lady and the email was headed ‘AUSTRALIA -- Catholic baby in detention rushed to hospital’. There is the continuous consciousness of the victims of war who have a need. So how do we share our resources?

As I often say – the three levels are as per the ‘seen’, the known and the truth. I tend to be driven by my truth these days because that is the most peaceful pathway. At the seen level – one has to have belief  based emotions to be a genuine contributor.  Initially they are our immediate family. We did sponsor family members who were affected and were at the risk of becoming greater victims if they remained in Sri Lanka. But personally, that experience brought us unhappiness – due to huge gaps between our expectations from them and theirs from us. As per our knowledge, we are not the only sponsors to experience this disappointment.

Majority members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community have been adversely affected by the war in Sri Lanka. The way we experienced the pain and loss would vary not only as per the externally visible damages but more deeply due to loss of value in our investment in our own culture. This is true not only of members of the Tamil Diaspora but also of politicians and others in Sri Lanka who abuse global resources – especially global laws and principles  must underpin our community based actions at global level. In other words, we need our own parallel of Thesawalamai to sustain our ability to resource such victims who leave Sri Lanka. This is essential if Tamils are to rank ahead of other communities – such as the Vietnamese Catholic.

Our contributions need to be true for their power to be naturally universal. True contributions result in the power of our contributions extending beyond the local at current times and/or being preserved for time-based sharing by our heirs. Our true heirs are those who have a genuine need for our services and are able to independently access them. That connection happens through the Universal power of truth.

Tamils who were persecuted by Tamil militants are also victims of war. Their immediate refuge must come from Tamils opposed to militants. This diversity is essential if we are to not make the same mistakes that the Sinhalese government made – to show unity. Mr Wigneswaran is also calling for that kind of unity against TNA. The core reason I identify with is the ‘free’ and unregulated mind environment in which infections happen. By promoting LTTE leader - Mr Wigneswaran promoted militancy above higher education. This kind of easy credit turns youth away from the harder pathway of higher education.

Militants tend to ‘find fault’ at the primary level. Recently, when we were buying goods for our opportunity shop in Vaddukoddai in Northern Sri Lanka, the young mother was demonstrating strong attachment to the goods without realising that if she did not sell them – she would need to given them away free. But her older husband was generous and brought the price down. When he heard that it was for ‘service’ purposes – he said ‘take them free’. But I took them as One unit and found the middle way out. I paid more than he stated but without finding fault with the wife. In fact when the husband said that his wife was ‘attached’ to most of the things – I understood that and said I was also like that in my younger days. Even now, there are some items that I withdraw when I do not feel that they would be valued by the purchaser. To me that valuation needs to be total – starting with the one who made that item. But by not finding fault with the wife – I was able to include her . The money was paid to the husband.

The parallel of that in refugees and orphans is to include those who expect as per the successful applicants – but show the outcomes not at their level but at the higher thinking  leadership  level. That level needs to be made up of successful applicants who include the juniors as part of themselves. As a refugee seeking community – we need to be true to ourselves to preserve our natural sovereignty.

The fact that India that gave us refuge more than any other country has not included Chennai as a destination connecting to Northern airport at Palaly – confirms that they also feel disappointed and unhappy with the Sri Lankan Tamil community. (Ref Hindustani Times article Flights soon from Sri Lanka’s Jaffna to 4 Indian cities but not Chennai. Here’s why)