Dining with Terrorists

Heres something that Realskullzero pointed me in the direction of. It's a video from AlJazeera taking in the 3 decades or so from the Southern JVP uprisings and the current 'terrorist' situation. Why 'terrorist' was in inverted commas was because the video clearly indicates Mahinda Rajapakse's sympathies with the Southern Sinahlese Nationalist uprising or the JVP uprising, which he now denies and says that the only thing he was sympathizing with was their feeling towards how the government quelled the rebellion and not their actual cause. But a young and radical looking Mahinda clearly talks about India's invasionary tendencies and how they are trying to 'take over this country' and how we could soon become 'a part of India' (unless that was a result of an editing trick where he was actually referring to what the JVP's sentiments about it were).

But in Sri Lanka today, his own government is accused of terrorist acts just like the then UNP govenment was accused of. What i realized on a personal note was just how much i didnt really know about the political history of Sri Lanka, the devil is in the details they say. Those in power will always exploit and push their own ideology forward not caring about the same ideologies and the need to be heard of others, it is the imperfect nature of the inherent power struture. And at the end of the day what is 'terrorism' in the first place? is it just a distinction between two sides? Where the ones challenging the existing status quo are branded so?





He seems anti establishment in terms of bowing down to the existing world order; to the pressures of the West and other external interests. But we all have seen how the West fights its own brand of 'terrorism' (which leaves whole lot to be said there). Fight fire with fire? And if so, you really can't make a distinction between the two can you? Government and terrorist? What then do we call them? Insurgents? Freedom fighters? I guess it depends on which side your sympathies lie on. Words build perceptions and unfortunately or otherwise, or perhaps as a simple characteristic of archaic (?) human nature, perceptions are everything.

If the embed has problems, you can view the vid here.