Cray XMT - The LTTE's computer and database server?
Palitha Kohona, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka had this to say in a recent interview about the LTTE’s ICT infrastructure published in Himal,
Himal: If there were entire villages that had nothing to do with LTTE, they can just be let go. But for the others, it’s a massive job of identification that you would have to do.
Yes, we are likely to make mistakes. There was a senior person, 74 years of age, who was released because of his age. And then he promptly went abroad to Singapore. And he was the one who controlled the LTTE computer, the database. So we missed out on this fellow.
Emphasis mine. So gramps controlled THE computer and THE database of the LTTE, wherever and whatever they were. Lucky bugger. Surely, he must have played around with the Cray XMT? Seriously, what other computer could be THE one used by the LTTE’s for its database?
Here’s a novel idea for ICTA – urgently provide, nay force basic IT literacy education for these chowderheads in government. This alone would justify the Year of IT.
Photo from Gizmodo
First, the dangerous. A new security vulnerability on the iPhone that uses a simple SMS “to get near complete control of the iPhone’s functionality which includes dialing the phone, visiting Web sites, turning on the device’s camera and microphone and, most importantly, sending more text messages to further propagate a mass-gadget hijacking.”
I am almost nostalgic for the days when mobile phones were precisely that, not mini computers that ran the risk of the same infections and security vulnerability as PCs.
From community radio to Internet radio, mobiles and narrow-casting: New models for enduring needs
July 29, 2009
Saru Praja Radio production studio
For more images of Saru Praja radio and the training we conducted, click here.
In May this year, a colleague and I went to Nissankamallapura, Pollonnaruwa to strengthen online journalism capacities of a group trained in community radio production and had a decent production studio conveniently adjacent to an ICTA Nenasala. This groups was very interested in using the computers and internet access literally next door to their studio to publish and promote their productions on the web.
They called their station Saru Praja Radio and told us they were the first community in Sri Lanka to ask for a FM radio frequency to air their productions across a footprint of 48 villages in the Pollonnaruwa district.
Testing Blackberry WordPress app
July 29, 2009
This is a test post from my Blackberry. This app still has a long way to go.
On the banning of mobiles from schools
July 28, 2009
Lirneasia pretty much sums up all the nonsense here.
This latest ban, which has no basis in law, comes hot on the heels of the government ordering ISPs to block several porn websites, the Child Protection Authority banning the “hosting” of porn on mobiles, and the sickeningly subservient attitudes of mobile phone companies to appease a government that arbitrarily blocks websites other than porn it finds inconvenient.
If this is what the future looks like today, it stands to reason that we should be very worried about this inane, hypocritical encroachment of paternalistic government into our private lives.
LTTE launches new Department of International Relations site, kills its Peace Secretariat site
July 26, 2009
Old wine in new bottles or a genuine shift in thinking?
I encountered the LTTE’s new Department of International Relations website today, containing S. Pathmanathan’s blog and other really fun stuff. The site is registered through GoDaddy.com in Arizona, whereas the erstwhile LTTE Peace Secretariat site’s domain was registered to an individual based in Killinochchi, Sri Lanka who is quite possibly dead now or sans a few limbs, is in no condition to update the site.
Pathmanathan’s reasons for entering the world of blogging are revealing,
I also realised the importance of sharing of opinions with many who were not in a position to share opinions with me through direct means. How do I achieve this? In this advanced cyber era I soon realised that it was possible through a blog posting. This is why have I chosen to out to you using this method. The dimension of expressing opinions through political statements is very different to the dimension of distributing opinions through the web. It is not appropriate to release all opinions as political statements and notices. The internet gives me an opportunity to be close to the people and exchange views. I was attracted to this form of communication because of the ability to be able to reach many quickly.
Unsurprisingly, the LTTE Peace Secretariat site doesn’t load anymore even though the domain is still registered. All is not lost however, since two complete site archives I created in April 2008 and again in February 2009 are available here. These archives, invaluable for a researcher or historian, contain inter alia:
- Prabhakaran’s Heroes Day speeches from 1992
- All the news archives, press releases from 2003 including attached PDFs, photos and videos
- The official statements issued by the Royal Norwegian Government at the end of the 6 rounds of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE
- Proposals put forward by the LTTE for an Interim Self Governing Authority
- Historical documents such as the Thimpu Declaration
- Photos from 2002 on events that took place during the CFA
In looking at his past with the terrorist group, journalist DBS Jeyaraj notes that Pathmanathan, alias KP, is a formidable voice in the LTTE’s scattered remnants globally, though he also points to bitter power struggles that may undermine his new position. It’s clear that the new Dept. of International Relations is part of KP’s efforts to reach out and consolidate his position of authority and leadership.
Whether competing initiatives linked to other contenders appear on the web or not, its clear that the web and internet will play a predominant role in attempts to secure support and legitimacy for the movement and key individuals keen to appear as its new leaders.
Given the new site’s foundation as a blog (which the earlier Peace Secretariat site wasn’t) and given KP’s intention above, it may be that LTTE is now open to genuine dialog beyond its usual constituency in the diaspora and locally. How will this dialog be mediated and by whom?
The opinions page of the new website, at the time of writing, only notes, Opinions yet to receive… (sic) One hopes these opinions are progressive and civil. Nurturing, supporting and maintain such dialogue isn’t, and I say this from experience, an easy task, particularly when dealing with an entity as divisive as the LTTE, leave aside internal post-Prabhakaran power struggles that may seek to undermine and delegitimise this new site, its content and associated personnel.
Precisely because the future of LTTE’s new Dept. of International Relations is suspect, I’ve archived the complete site here and will continue to periodically update it.
An order by the Inspector General of Police in Sri Lanka, the same chowderhead who once said women could record themselves getting raped through mobile phones, now wants to the Director General of Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to suspend the licenses of 12 websites which were exhibiting nude photographs.
Firstly, none of the websites the IGP has got all hot and bothered about are registered in Sri Lanka, but a simple whois search would be as alien to the Police in Sri Lanka as peacebuilding is to the incumbent government.
Secondly, why this sudden love for the rule of law? Websites in Sri Lanka are arbitrarily banned and blocked without warning or any due process, despite flat denials by government when asked about their censorship regime in place for web media. Tamilnet remains blocked on all ISPs in Sri Lanka. Recently, another website was blocked in Sri Lanka for showing images of the President’s son, which was very conveniently on the same day the site reported the egregious public statement of a highly placed goon in government and close friend of the President. Subsequent reports circulated over email that these photos were doctored and the report on the President’s son was false is reason to hold the journalists accountable for libel or conduct investigations into their false reporting, not shutdown an entire site.
The Island notes the CID started the investigation into the pornographic sites following a written complaint lodged by the IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne. While it’s heartening the IGP is concerned about our morals, I would much rather judge for myself the content I view on the web. There’s a real danger here of setting a precedent of blocking and banning website for website defined and seen as unsuitable by the incumbent regime’s set of puritan values, as noted by Foreign Policy with examples from China and Bahrain. In August 2008, there were news reports of an even wider, more intrusive net filtering regime proposed by the President. A the time, it was reported that the TRC had gone to the extent of demanding ISPs to ”filter the websites featuring Obscene/phonographic (sic) /sexually explicit materials”.
As Lirneasia notes tongue in the cheek,
Criminal Investigation Department, working on a complaint by the IGP revealed these sites contain pornographic images and video clips of men and women, possibly Sri Lankan. They also suspected an international conspiracy to tarnish the image of the country, reported, Divaina. One may term the act anti-protectionist, because while the local production is blocked the vast majority of international porn sites still remain open.
Post-war Sri Lanka needs to worry more, at the very least, about the abysmal freedom of expression in the country than strengthening, widening and worsening existing informal and formal censorship of media. Honestly, shouldn’t the Police be far more concerned about the dozens of dormant investigations into acts of murderous violence against journalists since this President took office?
But if the IGP really is serious about eradicating pornography on the web like dengue, he should ban Google too. A simple search brings up over 800,000 pages and a couple of hundred sites in addition to those above that if the Divaina is to be believed, is are all part of an international conspiracy to tarnish the image of the country.
Exclusive articles and debates on the 13th Amendment, the APRC proposals, the murder of Lasantha Wickremetunge and IDPs
July 20, 2009
Groundviews
Groundviews published over the course of the past two weeks exclusive articles on a diverse range of topics and issues, ranging from constitutional reform and women’s attire to the plight of IDPs and peacebuilding.
Pros and cons of the 13th Amendment and the APRC
Writing exclusively for Groundviews, M.C.M Iqbal, one of the secretaries of the first Provincial Council of the Western Province, submits a detailed analysis of the 13th and ends by noting that,
The defeat of the LTTE has provided President Rajapakse a golden opportunity to settle the problems of the Tamils once and for all. His current popularity among the Sinhalese could make them accept whatever solution he puts forward to the problem saying that it is the need of the hour to bring about lasting peace and prosperity to the country… If he misses this opportunity, the problems of the Tamil will remain a festering wound in the body politic of this country and would necessitate the maintenance of an oversized military force which the country can hardly afford, due to fears of the defeated forces rising from their graves, persisting.
Read Devolution of powers under the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka: Fact or Fiction? in full here.
Regular Groundviews columnist RMB Senanayake in The 13th Amendment as a political solution notes that,
The cry for decentralization instead of devolution means that power will continue to be with the bureaucracy and the politicians of the Center… this cannot be called the expression of the opinions of the local Tamil people. On the other hand those who talk of 13th Amendment plus at this juncture are also wrong. This requires amending the Constitution. Any attempts to do so will again divide the Sinhala people and allow the populist politicians like the JVP to create confusion and chaos among the people.
Read his article and leave your thoughts here.
The APRC Proposals and ‘Winning the Peace’ is an article by Colin Irwin, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, based on a public poll in Sri Lanka conducted earlier this year. Read it in full here.
In what may be one of the last articles he writes in favour of the full implementation of the 13th Amendment from his current post, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Dayan Jayatilleka notes in Post-war reconciliation and nation-building in a global context that,
Those who encourage us to implement the 13th amendment are not those who lectured us on federalism and the need to accommodate the LTTE. Those folks talk of war crimes tribunals, unfettered access, an UN role in political reconciliation, economic sanctions etc. These are the folks who were defeated in Geneva on May 27th. We are being encouraged to swiftly implement at least the 13th amendment, precisely by those who did not belong to that camp, and stood by us, helping us in various ways during the war. It is these friends who will be undermined and who will pull back if we fail to, leaving us vulnerable to the Tamil Diaspora driven West and a possible Indo-US policy pincer.
Read his article in full here.
The murder of Lasantha Wickremetunge
An article on the admission on a senior government MP of murdering Lasantha Wickremetunge originally posted on Lankanenewsweb.com, currently blocked by the Sri Lankan government, was reposted on Groundviews and generated over 5,000 page views in just over 24 hours. Read Mervyn Silva publicly admits to killing Lasantha Wickrematunge and grievously attacking another journalist in full here.
Also on Lasantha Wickremetunge’s murder, a contributor to Groundviews criticises the recently held Journalism Awards for Excellence organized by the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Press Institute for not remembering his murder. Read Sri Lankan media awards and Lasantha who? here.
The continuing internment of IDPs in Sri Lanka
In Setting the record straight: Challenges of internment for IDPs, noted political analyst Rohini Hensman responds to the critique of her earlier writing on the internment of IDPs in Sri Lanka by Malinda Seneviratne and Lucien Rajakarunanayake. Her original article, published on Groundviews, is also an example of how content published first and exclusively on this site spark of wide ranging debate in traditional print media. For her response in full with links to the articles by Malinda and Lucien, click here.
In The internment of IDPs in Sri Lanka: Comparisons with another example from US history, Vidura makes a particularly compelling comparison between the internment of IDPs in Sri Lanka today and the internment of about 120,000 Japanese-Americans in USA in the wake of World War II.
Read Vidura’s article in full here.
In Concerned Tamils, but what about the rest?, Selvy Thiruchandran writes in favour of a common platform of concerned citizens to address the situation of IDPs and give suggestions for the speedy recovery of a human tragedy. Read her article in full here.
Succinctly capturing the sentiments of these articles is the poem Decree by Thiru Sambandar. Read it here.
Women’s attire
An essay that sparked over 40 comments over 2,200 pageviews to date looked at the “proper” attire for women in Sri Lanka. Read On a woman’s attire: Are we really tempting young boys and priests? in full here.
A follow up article, On women’s attire and gender equality: pondering on the long way ahead by Chaminda Weerawardhana, explores further the salient points in the previous article. Read it in full here.
Groundviews is Sri Lanka’s first and award winning citizens journalism website features an unparalleled range of ideas, opinions and analyses on humanitarian issues, media freedom, human rights, peace, democratic governance and constitutional reform.
Sri Lankan Government blocks another news website
July 14, 2009
International media watchdogs have condemned the blocking of another Sri Lankan news website by the authorities. Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Sri Lanka authorities have blocked Lanka News Web after the website published a news item on President’s eldest son, Namal Rajapaksa. The RSF has also condemned Namal Rajapakse’s alleged seizure of news media videos following an assault by displaced people in Menik Farm camp.
No surprise that the news reports on this website from a senior Government MP admitting to the murder of Lasantha Wickremetunge and the Chairperson of the APRC noting that the President is not interested in the devolution of power could not be accessed from Sri Lanka yesterday.
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