Arun Vincent (4 Nov. 2007)

So do you expect us also to eat jewish food like you!!

We are SriLankans and we have to eat the food that produced in Sri Lanka.

Anonymous (5 Nov. 2007)

Tamils aborad cry when a tamil leader dies but forget the next moment and think of who buy the best goodies form sri lanka.they never learn.why cant the tamils give up food from sri lanka and eat like the whites atleast to teach the sinahklese a lesson for few months?

Sengodan.M (5 Nov. 2007)

This is an important matter which needs serious thought. Boycott of Sri Lankan goods should be done very selectively, selecting first and foremost only the products that are either Government owned or semi Government ownded such as the MD products. We should be very careful on deciding to boycott products that provide employment and means of livelihood to Tamils at both ends.

There should be no difficulty on deciding to boycott Sri Lankan airlines even at the hardship of a little extra cost in choosing an alternative carrier.

Similarly serious thought should be given for a systematic campaign to boycott Sri Lankan tourism and Sri Lankan garments among Westerners.

Vel Velauthapillai (5 Nov. 2007)

Good point. Buying Sri Lankan brand products is equivalent to giving money to Sinhala state terrorist to kill one of our friend, relative or villager. Most of the Tamils still shamefully do this ugly practice.

My family stopped buying Sri Lankan branded products including cloths and food items more than two years. It is very easy to find equivalent products from other Tamil brands (Canadian brands). Some people may argue that these Canadian Tamil branded products also imported from Sri Lanka. But, it is not true. Major Tamil brands such as Niru imports these from Tamil Nadu.

The other factor is that people argue that if we stop buying Sri Lankan products or apply sanctions on Sri Lanka, it will hurt the Tamils as well. Again, it is a false believe. Tamils in Tamil Eelam pays much hight price than its Sinhala counterparts for the food and medicines. Therefore, applying heavy sanctions on Sri Lankan state terrorist will certainly bring the government to withdraw the state terror military from Tamil Eelam. Recently UN send home more than 100 Sinhala rapist soldiers. Why Tamils can't send them home for the same reason?

Before asking International community to apply sanction on Sri Lankan state terrorists, Tamils must apply this first.

Varathar (5 Nov. 2007)

This is a positive contribution. We the Tamils of the diaspora should do a thorough soul search to examine as to what positive contribution that we can make for the Cause individually and severally instead of functioning as mere armchair critics. There is a lot that we can do if only we care to examine all options available. The time has come for ALL of us to unite and pull together to exert our might!Our opponents have united. But where do we stand?

Anonymous (5 Nov. 2007)

LETS DO SOME THING SMALL AND BEAUTIFUL. LETS EXPOSE AND LOBBY ALL ARMS SUPPLYING COUNTRIES FOR AN EMBARGO. BOYCOTTING LEMON PUFFS AND MANGO CHUTNEYS WONT DO THE JOB.

Gokulan (5 Nov. 2007)

This boycotting business has been trotted out every year. I'm not kidding. Every year, some bright spark becomes outraged and writes the same the thing. They may have their hearts in the right place but this is not feasible at all. Food is an essential commodity and people will continue to buy what they want when they want. They are not ready to give up their seeni sambol and katta sambol and kithul pani and Sri Lankan tea. The fact is that the Tamils living in Sri Lanka already pay taxes as well. Everytime you transit through Colombo airport you pay an airport tax which goes directly to the government. When you exchange Canadian/US/UK money for Sri Lankan rupees that is helping the government. When you transfer money into Sri Lanka that is also indirectly helping the government.

Boycotting individual companies will not affect the government, it would only affect the private companies that run the food business - like MD, Dilmah, Larich etc they are all privately owned companies. Whether Tamils buy the food or not, the company will pay taxes regardless. Whether Tamils fly on SriLankan Airlines or not also does not make a difference as any airline that operates to Sri Lanka has to pay a landing fee.

So can we please give this annual outrage a rest? It is getting quite farcical to be honest.

Arun Vincent (5 Nov. 2007)

Vel is promoting Niru brand. This brand is banned in Canada for Salmonella. Pls check Health Canada website.

Secondly, the food produced in Mullaitivu, Vavuniya by the LTTE is sold in Pettah to the traders who give tacit support to the LTTE. These re the products finally come to us here in foreign countries. So it is the Tamils at both ends but in between there is GOSL. If you stop buying food that is produced in Mullaitivu you shall know who will suffer at the end.

As Gokulan said above, forget this matter forever please!!!

Vel Velauthapillai (5 Nov. 2007)

It is disappointing to see that many Tamils still believe that it is difficult to stop buying Sri lankan branded products (Again "Sri Lankan" branded products).

Applying economic sanctions is that well known and ONLY one way available to even UN to apply pressure on governments that violate human rights.

Almost all the Tamils in Tamil Eelam have very limited access to food and medicine. We have variety of alternatives to choose from. The ONLY thing we need to do is switch the brand. That is all. Let us unite and don't buy any "Sri Lankan" branded item.

This will certainly apply pressure to the Colombo based business and eventually to the Sinhala state terror government.

Anonymous (5 Nov. 2007)

What about all those cos who are underwriting $500 Million loan to Sri Lanka? The HSBCs and JP Morgan Chase..?

Relentless campaign to disinvest in South Africa and Sudan was done by several activists. HSBC and JP Morgan are a bit different. But they need to be told that Tamils are not happy about them underwrting this bond.

Now that the war money is hard to comeby from other means, so watch out, more bond issues are likely. (If GoSL keeps up with payments on the current one)

Sengodan.M (5 Nov. 2007)

It is little drops of water that make the mighty ocean. Are we of the diaspora so selfish to be unable to make even a small sacrifice such as foregoing seeni sambol, the cumulative effect of which will eventually help the Cause?

Comparing the landing tax of foreign airlines with the benefits that acrue to the GoSL through patronage of Sri Lankan airlines is something totally disproportionate!

We must come out with sensible arguments unless we want to promote the enemy's cause under some pretext.

Once again can't we undertake a small sacrifice at least initially for just one year for a start, to study the effect? Can't we take this up at least as a sort of a penance? Let us be honest.

Anonymous (5 Nov. 2007)

let act on all front instead of talking clever outfitting one another.we should do it for eelam and let the assassination of tamilchelvan soft spoken smiling tamil raised the stadning of tamils as jovial people with clever mind behind.let us stop buying food and travel by lanka air and at the same time bring out the folly of finacing arms sale. in any case ,donty forget ,when thamilchelvan was killed stock market in colombo shot up.that m,eans there are crooks in colombo want ltte to be defeated so they can continue to invest and abuse young boys like western phidifiles in colombo.

Ram Mohan (5 Nov. 2007)

Eelam economy is already crippled or at subsistence level. So the boycott will only affect GOSL. Still we can concentrate on measures that Cripple GOSL without significantly affecting Tamils. Boycott has proved effective in the case of former South Africa and so no need to question that. What we should concentrate is not the theory of it but on the practice of implementing. We should propagate a way of sending money without being noticed by the central bank. Even if we do not like western food, why not patronise food from Tamilnadu which is close to ours. Let us point out to each other more practical measures.

Rajan (5 Nov. 2007)

Gokulan, obviously didn't read the article carefully before firing off his comment. It is the private companies who are doing business alright, but everytime these private companies remit their profits (dollars) back to Sri Lanka, it is converted to rupees through the government. Government banks the dollars (to be used for imports of arms, warplanes, etc.) and pays the local businesses local rupees, which it print in truckloads. I liked Arun Vincent's comment about the Jewish food. He should try it sometime. In the west Jewish food is considered unhealthy, but the Sri Lankan Tamil food is ten times worse. The Tamils in Toronto are killing themselves, slowly.

Nimal (6 Nov. 2007)

The Anonymous posts above make sense.

About avoiding the food items specifically, whatever the 'pro and con' arguments, in the end there are ONLY TWO questions that need to be considered:

Does one's conscience believe that this war is a good thing or a bad thing?

Will the effect it [avoiding the food items] has on the SL economy diminish, increase or have no effect on the GoSL's capacity to continue waging its war?

parakumba (6 Nov. 2007)

Hello, Please don't target the successful Tamil businessmen/women in Sri Lanka. In the name of Eelam, you are trying to kill one of the highest hopes still surviving in this country, the Tamil business community in the island, play the game wisely, do not show your stupidity in front of the international community. Thank you for the understanding.

Sam (6 Nov. 2007)

Indian IT co to invest $ 1 million in Lanka

Colombo (PTI): India-based data services provider ValueFirst will invest $ 1 million in the next 18 months to expand its presence in Sri Lanka, which it sees as a potential destination.

"We propose to invest one million dollars in the next 18 months in the Island country as we see major potential to expand in this growing market, ValueFirst CEO Srinand Sridharan told reporters on Tuesday at the launch of its services in Emerald Nation.

ValueFirst, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), would tap the 7 million mobile phone users in Sri Lanka to expand its services in areas like stock market and banking after tying up with cell phone companies, he said.

The company's co-founder Vijay Shukla ValueFirst said the mobile revolution in Sri Lanka has raced ahead of the internet revolution.

With growing competition and decreasing margins, enterprises, he said, would have to increase in-house efficiency and provide better services.

Shukla added that dissemination of information at the right time and place is now of prime importance to communicate with people on the move and his company has been focusing on the area.

ValueFirst intends to take its mobile data service products and services to the government departments, banks, insurance companies, FMCG, stock brokers, IT and media firms in the first year of its operations in Sri Lanka, he said.

The company with profits of more than Rs 100 crore, also has operations in Pakistan, Nigeria, Romania, Middle-East and Lebanon.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200711061622.htm

DerekA (6 Nov. 2007)

Let's stop this dishonesty of calling it the GoSL and the SL Armed Forces, and call it what it really is: the Sinhala Government and the Sinhala Armed Forces. As an expatriate Tamil, I stopped buying "Sri Lankan" products many years ago. Once this decision was made, it was easy to find high quality alternatives: Thai curry paste, etc.

Don't send the Sinhala one damn cent to assist their genocide.

Arun: your comments have defined your ideology. Over here (Australia) we call guys like you coconuts, brown on the outside, white on the inside. Making a science out of contradiction.

Varathar (6 Nov. 2007)

The only field in which Sri Lanka has 'advanced' over the last few years is a proliferation of mobile phones and a few high rise apartments in Colombo and suburbs of Colombo. Do you call this 'Development'?. Look at the state of roads and other infra structure. Look at the congestion and stagnation there and measure the 'development'!

Velliyooran (7 Nov. 2007)

It is very natural for anyone to long for traditional taste to appease their tongue. If you all need only Jaffna stuffs for that matter, why can\'t you buy products of the same from Malaysia, Tamil Nadu or Singapore where all these are available? If specific things are not manufactured or grown in these countries, why can\'t you create a corporation that produces these products using raw material from places such as Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. which have the same raw material. The only differece, may be, a bit softer than Vanni masala or sambal. Be it! Can\'t you sacrifice something less by 10% only in the taste to help the cause to free your brothers and sisters back in your homeland?

Although Im a foreigner, I made it a point 2yrs ago to ensure that no SL brand comes to my home, yet we use sambal and masala in everyday life.

We feel we are still basically Tamils. Hence, we try our best. And you all are still arguing over tongue. No means no, or else, its your perorogative to go back and put your neck into the SL guillotine!

Nenjil uramum inri

Nervmai thiramum inri

Vanjanai solvaradi - kiliye

Vaaisollil veeraradi!

Anonymous (8 Nov. 2007)

It is such action that is needed urgently than seenisambol boycott: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=23726

sathya (14 Apr. 2009)

Its never ceases to amaze me to see Tamils living in Australia serving Sri Lankan products at weddings of their children, inclusing Sri Lankan beer. Never mind that you can source some of the finest alcoholic products in Australia itself and even European assortment of drinks if you desire.

Regardless, my point is that there are many goog substitutes for Sri Lankan products, which on most counts are inferior to anything produced in the West. A camapign to raise awareness in Tamil minds to the diaster of purchasing Sri Lankan produce will never be effective if restricted to the pages of sangam. How many disapora Tamils in fact read the pages of sangam? Instead I think there needs to be a more grassroots level campaign where this topic is attacked with the same level of passion as soem of recent protests in major cities.

J. Vithnaraja (10 Jul. 2009)

I fully agree with the writer R. Cholan. However, there are many pennywise pound foolish citizens amongst us. I say this with responsibility because despite the many request there were a few importers of products amongst us who continued to import products from SL. Some importers went into the extent of changing packaging to fool our community by showing that the product came from another source other than SL. Some of these Companies capitalised on the boycott for their own benefit ie: Ban on EH Products they have plans of doing a similar product.

Let us expose all these rogue importers and let the Diasporas say no to such brands for thinking they can fool us, consumers!

Philip Vaas (29 Jul. 2009)

I fully agree with Mr. Vithnaraja and I wrote couple of times to Mr. Cholen commenting on his grand article on Sangam.org

While the obvious products were identified, the rogue importers got away, sometimes benefitting from this. Niru Brand Rice Flour is one such product that needs to be entered into the banned list. All the rice used for this rice flour is imported from the Dambulla region in sri lanka. Niru Enterprises Inc, toronto import the rice in full container loads and as early as last week OOCL confirmed the shipment of another load of rice leaving the shores of Sri lanka to Niru.

We need more of our community scouting for products and its sources and publish in such websites. www.tamilsource.com is another very useful informative website.

Thanks again to sangam for the opportunity and also to Mr. Cholen for his contribution to the website.

Ras (3 Nov. 2009)

I strongly suggest, please provide a list of products that are produced exclusively in Sri Lanka, example Marketing Department. This will provide a base for selecting products other than Sri Lankan made and those who are inclined or reduce to buy the products of Sri Lankan origin can make their decision.

[May we suggest that you yourself might start work on such a list for the benefit of all our readers? Thank you.]

[This post was modified by the Editor]