Not to sound like a sociology/anthropology dissertation, but it is interesting how in one generation; just one generation we can go from one end of the spectrum to the other as Sri Lankan Tamils. 50 years ago, these were our cultural markers: educated and erudite, wealthy, respectable, extremely close-knit and communal, strongly allied to place, a strong sense of genealogy and ancestry, cultured in the arts, principled and disciplined, quiet, hard-working, conformist, risk-averse, homogeneous above all.
And today? Well today we can look at the list below to see what has happened. We are dislocated and displaced, traumatized, afraid, betrayed and betraying, isolated, selfish, politically expedient, purposely ignorant, our political leaders self-assassinated, psychologically dysfunctional and above all, paralyzed. In fact, as someone said, Sri Lankan Tamils don't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
- Tamil refugees and asylum seekers - trauma, on welfare, un-assimilated, poverty, dislocation, family dysfunction
- Tamil diaspora in the West - Youth are in gangs, disenfranchised, violent or espousing violence
- Wealthy Tamil diaspora in the West - despair, sense of failure (in comparison to all of the others, nothing)
- Tamil refugees in camps in India: in an open prison, disease, near-starvation, poverty,security issues and family dysfunction
- Tamil Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) in camps in Sri Lanka: disease, starvation, major security issues, extreme poverty
- Child Soldier Rehabilitation: Issues regarding re-integration into society, lack of education, psychological dysfunction
- Former LTTE combatants : see above
- Tamils living in Northeastern Sri Lanka: a sense of living in occupied territory, poverty, lack of leadership, politically fragmented, with no leverage whatsoever.
(Apologies for the glibness of the above - it is meant to be stylized)
As Arundhati Roy said in "The God of Small Things", things can change in a day. And an entire civilization can be gone with the wind.
