Like most expatriates, I've been distracted lately. Distracted by the daily grind, the economy, and well by life in general. Once the seething mass of pro-LTTE Tamil and their cries of 'genocide' receded away from the streets of Toronto the war in Sri Lanka and its related aftermath slipped from slipped mind.
I'm a bit embarrassed, but its true. Like most Canadians, if people aren't protesting on a highway or holding up my subway-line, I'm content to do my nine to five and let the daily grind wash over me.
However I DID hear of something that really made me sit up and take notice and also make me very much aware of my own apathy.
This apparently happened at the start of summer, during one of the pro-LTTE protests that the York Tamil Students Union organized. Apparently towards the tail end of the proceeding after the Tamil Students Union march around campus waving the LTTE flag and making a general ruckus about the LTTE Terrorist group; a Sri Lankan flag was held up and torched.
A Sri Lankan international student who was watching the proceedings apparently ran into the mob of pro-LTTE supporters grabbed the flag away from them, put out the fire and triumphantly held up the burnt remains of the Sri Lankan national flag.
Now the pro-LTTE supporters here in Canada are a violent bunch to say the least, and have been known to carry firearms and various blunt and sharp weaponry; so for a lone individual to rush in to grab a burning flag off these louts and symbolically put it out; is in my opinion a pretty big deal.
You'll see what I mean when you see the attached video: The flag burning starts at around 6.01 in the timeline and almost immediately you'll see someone rush in and grab the burning flag, put it out and walk around definitely with it.
Its a pretty gutsy thing to do I must say:
Dr A.T. Ariyaratne: A Visionary Community Leader
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The government’s decision to conduct the funeral of Dr A T Ariyaratne with
state honours is a recognition of the contribution that the founder of the
Sarvo...
9 hours ago
Wow! Grits, guts, glory I'd say!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to say I know the guy. He's a tamil boy who went to school with us in Sri Lanka. Thanks for posting the video.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the video!
ReplyDeleteNo words to express! The very multitude of the crowd, is to the least, SCARY!True GUTS indeed! BRAVO! All my salutes to the guy, whoever he is! Anonymous, if you ever meet him again, just give all my admiration!!!
BTW, after this, did he 'get away' safely? What happened after this part?
holy crap. i was planning to come up on the 4th of next month for a cousin's birthday celebrations but gave the excuse that I like to wear my SL cricket kit wherever i go (along with speaking loudly in English and nothing else.)
ReplyDeleteI do intend to come up eventually though.
by my recollection, the only groups experiencing homicides as a result of young tamil criminals are Tamils themselves (ourselves? do i count?) and that poor Sikh girl who was hunted down by craven sex-starved fuckers.
anyhow, if you ever genuinely feel unsafe, the long arm of Nagalingam can always regulate on these fools. There's always a wise auntie or uncle to call them a madayan and deliver a slap or two.
Yes, a very gutsy young man indeed...
ReplyDeleteTo the best of my knowledge as this incident was occuring one of his friends had the foresight to call the Toronto Police and they showed up within a couple of minutes as they were already in vicinity to monitor the rally. So things didn't get out of hand at this paticular time however these louts DO have long memories and are alleged to have close ties to Tamil gangs and other unsavory groups....
lol @ 'A Virile Nagalingam'
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Tamil groups were actively at war with each other, however that's died down quite a bit after the Toronto Police formed their " Toronto Tamil Task Force" to combat the crime and violence that those groups spawned.