Monday, May 09, 2005

Sri Lanka is paying it's bills by exploiting it's women

I checked the most e-mailed article in New York times today.That's what I usually do when I miss a Sunday Edition.There was an article about Sri Lanka in the top ten.It was not about Tsunami.New York Times is probably the most influential paper when it comes to journalism.On-line edition is widely read and it's free.It couldn't be all Sri Lankans who has been e-mailing the article to each other ,to make it to top ten.

Mm Ád úed; nivi eyo;k; Tyimis; pt;ter; vADipurm Í-emil; kl puvt; pt; lipi Átr lÐkov gAn lipiyk; dAk;ko. nivi eyo;k; Tyimis; pt;try elo;key; blvt;m pt;tr vlin; Ekk;.Em lipiy mul; dhyT En;n Íeml; kel; lÐkev Áy vitrk; evn;n bAhA.Ánit; Ek Ey sUnomiy gAnt; enemi.

You can check the article here .It is about Sri Lankan housemaids.I have seen these kind of article for so long.Nothing has changed for the last 20-30 years.Same is true about female workers in free trade zone or female workers in the tea plantions.Those three combined together keep the country afloat.

Em lipiy emi smibn;ðeyn; blogn;n puluvn;.E;k lÐkik g®h es;vikovn; gAn.emi veg; lipi kIyk; nmI psugiy ÁvIrAdu tieh; pl evlo ÁAd;d ?ÁAyi nidhs; evld klep; esvikovn; gAn?tv gt;etot; vtu krey; kn;tevo; gAn?emi kn;tovn; tun; egol;l niso tmyi rT bn;ekoelt; enovi tieyn;en.

I have seen bar room fights in Sri Lanka ,just because some guy hit on another guy's -cousin's -friend's girl friend.Check what happened when some guy took a picture of some guy's sister-in-law's legs.When it comes to living on the money those women make ,Sri Lankan men don't have any shame.

Mm lÐkoev smoj Solovl rn;Du dAkla tieynva kaeg; hari bDuvk; diho nikn; blpu niso.ÁAyi emi liyum kiyvla bln;n kaegd nAnn;Dieyk;eg; gel; pin;tur ghlo evcic ed;.eE; únaT lÐkoev pirimin;T reTi gAnU duk; vidlo hmibu krla sl;li vlin; jivt; evn;nnmI hirikit nA!

6 comments:

Lohan said...

Yes, this is cool.
Oh!!! I protest against your translation and vocabulry. Baduwa + Gala are not the appropriate words. heh heh...You'll be called MCP if you continue to use the word Baduwa

Chandare said...

;-)).
Had to make it interesting!

ivap said...

Nice work with the singhalese translations. Some of us need the english versions, otherwise it's hard work.

Anyway, getting back to the post, do you think this kind of story would have made it to the nytimes a) Without the increased attention generated by the Tsunami and/or b) Without a greater focus on the state of the middle east life since sept.11 or c) any other reason ?

Chandare said...

I think it is the greater focus on middle east ,mostly.One thing left and right (or pro-war-anti-war factions which is almost the same)agree is "Middle-East is bad"(sort of) .Jon Stewart,from Daily Show the fake news show on comedy central sort of embodies the liberal argument.He recently wondered out loud (when Iraqi elections were held)"What if Dubya has been right all along". What they don't agree on is how to fix it.Like the sovietology era now it is the middle-east.Most of the people who didn't give a shit about middle east earlier now keeps track on what's going on.
Tsunami attention might already have played it's part,too.There might be another reason, the feminist angle that might have helped it to be circulated widely.

Lohan said...

About Sinhala blogging:
I think we should continue to translate these "international" stuff - at least news related to Sri Lanka - and post them in our Sinhala blogs

Chandare said...

Lohan ,
Yep probaly we can.We also need lot of original stuff ,too.My point on having a bi-lingual blog is that if somebody feels like commenting on a Sinhala post in English he should be able to do so and vice versa.(Anyway we use a lot of English in daily Sinhala conversation.Most of the Sri Lankan internet surfers have some knowledge of English).If you create a seperate blog for Sinhala you might cut off some readers.http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11462324&postID=111570715282514405