Lasantha Wickramatunga (new window)

I didn't dare call a bluff until I checked, wow...

UsikFark: Lasantha Wickramatunga (new window)

I didn't dare call a bluff until I checked, wow...

I would've called BS on reflex had I not heard this story on NPR yesterday / day before / whenever.

/They all blend together when you work 3rd.

Personally I think this shows the value of words and writing. He mentions not caring until the last moment. He was reflective enough to make sure he never had a last moment...

Perhaps one day only the writers will be remembered.

Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.

Wow. I'm not well-versed in Sri Lanka and its issues but that right there is profound and brave. If only most journalists had an ounce of that spine and courage.

I look forward to our right wing inhabitants coming forward and demanding that we spread democracy to Sri Lanka.

We'll give all them Sri Lankans purple fingers!

Random Reality Check: I look forward to our right wing inhabitants coming forward and demanding that we spread democracy to Sri Lanka.

We'll give all them Sri Lankans purple fingers!

It is a democracy, you dipshiat. And don't take matters as grave and true as this and make them partisan, it's wrong.

My first approved link. I don't feel much like celebrating, though. Except maybe the fact that I live in a country where things like this do not happen.

If I did live in Sri Lanka (or if somehow Canada one day moved in that direction), would I have the courage to so brazenly stand against the rules of my society and risk getting killed? I doubt it... and so I can but salute this fallen hero.

and the hero tag not used because.....freedom against oppression is somehow a not worthy cause?

It's amazing how little gets reported here about life in other countries is actually like, outside of a few places like the Israel/Palestinian conflict. I suppose it's our fault in a way - this thread is certainly going to get less replies than a thread about Paris Hilton of Britney Spears.

Still, even though I know nothing about the political situation in Sri Lanka, I found that quite moving. Knowing that there's still people on earth willing to die for democracy and freedom partly makes up for the world being so crappy that people are required to die for democracy and freedom...

Proud.

/someone had to say it.
//This guy had balls the size of Jupiter
///You see?! THIS is what 'Defending Freedom' means. THIS GUY. RIGHT HERE.

Soros, CIA and Reptoids at it again - messing in affairs of foreign countries and trying to amerikkkonize and secularize them with their liberalizms and democrazy

Just read TFA, and now I have something in my eye. Damn dust.

Hero, and probably one of many in that conflict.

It's strange to think there actually are places where journalists speak truth to power regardless of the risks.

Well here I am with the requisite "Duuuuude I totally submitted this like 4 days ago linked from the New Yorker." Well as long as it was someone's first greenlight I'm happy; woulda been mine too.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

Before I read the whole piece, I fully expected it to be the Tigers who killed him... Maybe they wanted to also. But it really sounds like it was a government death squad instead. How despicable.

That was humbling, depressing and inspiring in equal parts. Thanks for submitting, Esn.

In before the trolls wake up.

Journalists are a strange bunch.If/when things get this bad in our country, it will be the fringe media that will lead the uprising. Those mofo's know how to drink and sex it up like nothing else, and their roladex has contacts from politico's to arms dealers to many many drug dealers mixed in.

Much respect to Wickramatunga. You stood up when it is easier to kneel.

coco ebert: If only most journalists had an ounce of that spine and courage.

Esn: I can but salute this fallen hero.

Gunther: It's amazing how little gets reported here about life in other countries is actually like

Ruz: Hero, and probably one of many in that conflict.

It looks like everything I came here to say has already been covered... If what he writes about himself and the situation is anywhere near true, we could really use a few journalists with this kind of courage and independence in the US.

No Such Agency: I fully expected it to be the Tigers who killed him

This was really the only thing that came to mind at first, and I haven't heard anything about the Tamil Tigers in about a decade. I had absolutely no idea this kind of thing was going on. I've got a hell of a lot to look into today, it seems.

RIP Danny Casolaro:



Link (new window)

Nothing I do today will be worth what that man did. I hope his family experiences no further tragedies.

Sri Lanka really needs to get more coverage than it does. It shouldn't have to take something like this.

A true example of the artform there folks. This man knows the true value of freedom and it's cost. They may have taken his life, but his word will forever live on.

Rest well sir, you earned it.

Though little consolation to your survivors, history will judge you well for standing for liberty and truth. You've earned your seat in Valhalla. Godspeed.

fark... Hero.

I've read a few things about the Sri Lanka situation in the past, and I doubt I can do anything to even remotely describe the true situation, but, as this guy said, the Sri Lankan government is likely the only government on Earth to bomb its own citizens. But the Tigers are also far from clean in all of this mess.

RIP. I'm gonna forward this to as many people as I can.

Gosling: Sri Lanka really needs to get more coverage than it does. It shouldn't have to take something like this.

Every situation like this anywhere in the world should be covered more. If we never got to hear about Paris Hilton again because the media was too busy addressing real issues around the planet, even if not as critically as this brave journalist here, we'd all be much better off.

The tools at NRO should read this and then look in the mirror. Then they should quit and get a job they are qualified for. They don't have the intestinal fortitude to question a republican when it's unpopular to do so because they have a base they need to pander to that keeps their magazine alive. Consequently, we are in the shape we are now because of fools like them they drank the koolaid.

This is journalism integrity - something they wouldn't know anything about.

/rant off
//pissed off conservative republican

LewDux, dear, we have no flies and berries here
to feed your stupid Martian iguanas with.
Please go DIAF.

Gosling: Sri Lanka really needs to get more coverage than it does.

About how the Sikhs are killing like tons of Israelis there?

Donald_McRonald: Gosling: Sri Lanka really needs to get more coverage than it does.

About how the Sikhs are killing like tons of Israelis there?

No Sri Lanka is the jews and the nazis longest running civil war since 1812.

Any real reporters reading these comments? This is how you comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Kittypie070: LewDux, dear, we have no flies and berries here
to feed your stupid Martian iguanas with.
Please go DIAF.

Kittypie070, comrade, please go BSD

When a guy like this talks about meeting his Maker proudly, it makes me waver on my views of atheism. Specifically, I start wishing there was a God just for people like him. To my regret I end up going back to the view that this person served a just cause as well as he could, and he's been annihilated, unable to even observe from afar the fruits of his labour.

Makes me ashamed of Western journalists. Using even the last few years of history we could rattle off a long list of lies they could have fought against, with little of the risk that this guy had to face, and they did nothing, and will continue to do nothing.