Sad State of Affairs

Have just been reading about JS Tissainayagam, a prominent Tamil journalist, being sentenced to 20 years in jail under anti-terror laws for apparently 'creating agitation between the Tamil minority and the Sinhala majority'. Sri Lanka has increasingly become a dangerous place for journalists and since the beginning of 2006 up to 14 journalists have been killed and many more have left the country. Although I love living here, the current political situation depresses me, as does the unquestioning faith that the Sinhala majority seem to have in the basically totalitarian regime of the current president.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sri-lanka-jails-journalist-who-criticised-war-policy-1779889.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/totalitarian-leader-was-once-a-young-idealist-fighting-for-human-rights-1779890.html

I'm having a much-needed weekend at home. I wasn't very well last week - came down with some virus that seems to be going around - and although I managed to teach most of my classes, on Friday I was so worn out that I came home after my morning class. Luckily I was feeling much better by Saturday morning and am feeling fine now.

Have just been speaking to my Grandma and various other members of my family on Skype. Setting up Skype on my aunt's computer was such a great idea as it means I can talk to my Grandma much more often. Was also speaking to my Mum and Dad earlier as my Mum had another session of chemotherapy yesterday. She said that she's feeling fine and that the results of the blood test that she had after the last session of chemo were extremely positive, which is good news.

This morning I booked a flight back to Perth for Christmas and New Year, which of course means I'll be back in Perth twice in the space of a few months. I'm coming back to Sri Lanka just after the New Year as a friend is coming to visit me for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to spend Christmas this year with my Mum and Dad.

I spent this morning watching a Hindi film, Dil Se. The DVD drive on my computer was playing up, but it seems to be OK now, which is great as I've missed watching DVDs. The last time I watched Dil Se was actually when I was in Perth with Dhanushka, just before he came back to Sri Lanka, so I didn't really remember much about it as my mind was on other things. Although I'm not a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan's acting, I like the story and there are some excellent songs - especially the title track and Chaiyya Chaiyya, which was shot on top of a train in Tamil Nadu in southern India.

Have actually been watching quite a few films on YouTube - including an excellent Israeli one called The Bubble (HaBuah) about love and life in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. I've wanted to see it for quite some time and even though one of the episodes was missing - as YouTube has this annoying habit of removing anything that has nudity in it - even without that episode I really liked it.

At the moment I'm listening to some songs from an old Hindi film Pyaasa that a friend recommened that I watch. Although I love many of the songs in contemporary Hindi films, there's something about some of the old songs...

Jaane kyaa tuune kahii
Jaane kyaa maine sunii
Baat kuchh ban hii gayii
Jaane kyaa tuune kahii

Who knows what you said
Who knows what I heard
Something stirred in my heart
Who knows what you said