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Thursday, 29 November 2012

Smokin Laces! : Lacey Nail Art

Whaddup Gals!

Me good as usual! I won a couple of nail art contest past few weeks.
One of them was from Inglot (India) and other one was Revlon (India). Yay!!
I won a Nail Art Pen from Inglot and I am yet to receive my Revlon gift. Will keep y'all updated.

In the meanwhile the weather here has turned slightly pleasant in the mornings and evenings. Not cold, no..but I am still eager to pull out my woolies and start wearing them. So maybe this is what I would call the "Fall Season" for Mumbai. Hehe!

Anywho coming back to the subject..I had got some of these gorgeous smokey shades from Revlon when they launched their new shades sometime back. You can see the other one here (Muse). This is the second one. I still have an untried from this buy, hopefully will put up soon.

Base: Revlon's Mischievous (455)
Its a creme smokey grey-purple. Nice creme finish, slightly streaky..but 2 coats made it fine and opaque. Took more than 5-8 mins to dry.

Stamping plate: Konad M71
Stamping Colour: Konad Pastel Pink

Love this dainty lacey stamp from Konad.
Goin off to enjoy the weather! Ciao!

*All products bought by me unless otherwise mentioned.

Monday, 26 November 2012

Majestic Baroque Print Nail Art

One of my recent favorite combos this is!!

its an unbranded duo-chrome polish I found on one of my trips.
Shimmery metallic kinda finish. Layered over black.

Stamping Colour Gosh Metallic Purple. Stamps like a dream.
Stamping Plate BM 314
You know I really cant get enough of these baroque/victorian design stamping plates.
I wish someone made more of these with delicate/bold and all sorts of prints.

Doesnt the base colour look gorgeous in this pic with pink/red sparkle?

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Mattened Glitter Nails

Pinterest can get sooo addictive!
I had seen a mani on pinterest with matt glitter nails..but I couldnt figure out what polishes were used.
You can see the pin here and my pin board here

I attempted to do it with what I had. I knew I wanted duo-chromy glitter.
I painted the black base with Sally Hansen
Made glitter gradient with Kleancolor Chunky Holo Fuschia.
KC Holo Fuschia glows from yellow-green to pink-red. I've tried to capture the glitter from both ends of the spectrum. See how it starts from yellow and is amber-red at the tips.

How to do a glitter gradient? I get this search term a here's how:
For a glitter gradient: I added a single coat of KC all over the nail. Allow a few mins to dry.
Next dabbed some KC at halfway down the nail. Again allow a few mins to dry.
Now just dab again using the glitter polish at the tips.

I added the Inglot Matt top coat after a day as I liked the glistening nails. However I like the matt version better.

It looked so much pretty in real! like twinkling lights.
You have to matt-en some glitter to see what I mean. It looks absolutely gorgeous!!

Have you tried to matt-en glitter?

Monday, 19 November 2012

Black White and Glitter Nails

Whats not to like?
Classic Black and White? Check!
Glitter? Check!
Nail Art? Check!

I neeeeeed more Glitter polishes!! More More More!!

Base: Colorbar Exclusive 37 (white)
Glitter on accent: WnW Party of Five
Stamping Plate: Konad M85 from my Violetbag Haul.
I like this design from Konad..abstract and it allows to show the base non flowery.
I just think we dont need any more flowery nail plate designs..there are waaaay too much of those.

This is accent looked sooo pretty in real! It looks like the top coat smeared a bit in this macro..but I couldnt really see that in real.

Have a good start to this week!!!

Friday, 16 November 2012

Striping Tape Nail Art

Hello! Good Morning!
I've had fun these past couple of days enjoying the festivities and binging on the food!!

After going the blingy way I decided it was time to play with something spunky!

Zig-Zag Striping tape comes to my rescue.
Base is Loreal's Midnight Mistress from the new range.
See another mani using this shade here.

I wanted to go for a simple clean look and this did it for me.

Do you like doing manis with striping tapes? Its fun and super easy!!

Monday, 12 November 2012

Diwali Nail Art: Wish you all A very Happy Diwali!!

Hi Folks,

I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!!

Tuesday is going to be Diwali (the festival of lights) for us in India. it is one of the most widely celebrated festivals across all of India and Indians across the world. The day following that is the hindu new year!

One this occasion I wanted to a mani bling enough to be festive ...yet have the traditional indian colourful look.

Base: Inglot's Nail Enamel # 924
Its a cherry red jelly. Thats 2 coats on my nails with VNL (visible nail line).

I layered Inglot's # 203 flakies over it. Its a green- blurple duo-chromy flakey.
Thats also 2 coats of flaky as I wanted loads of shine. You can see the violet tinge of flaky on the upper side of the nails..changing to bright green as it progresses down.

Stamping plate: XL C
Stamping Color: Konad White
(these pics have no top coat as TC would have made it really difficult to catch the flakey in sunlight).

Friday, 9 November 2012

Periwinkle Lace Nail Art

Todays post is about this mysterious cool calm shade that has managed to entice!!

Base: China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle
Its a smooth cool creme a muted blurple shade ( know?)
pretty! pretty! like it? its easily one of my favorite shades.
Perfect for fall season.

Stamping Plate: for the flowery lace pattern Konad M71 and for the lined lace: Cheeky 11
Stamping Colour: Konad White
Black dots with a dotting tool

Like it?

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Ahhh my Muse!!

I just couldnt get over the (meh) mani from yesterday.
Gave me sleepless night! :D
So here I am today with something much better.

The base is Revlon's Muse!
Adorable shade isnt it?
Smooth creme, perfect opaque in 2 coats, not streaky either. Pale Olive greeeeen!
I am totally loving these new range of polishes from Revlon!!! and mind you I am not a fan of green, but this one is SUPER!
I got another couple more to show you too..but another day.

Stamping Plate: Konad M85 (available from
Stamping Polish: Kleancolor Mango (awesome stamping polish I tell ya!)
Topped with SV

Now this mani me Likey! :D

Chao! till I see ya next!

Monday, 5 November 2012

Autumn Fern

Rush Rush Rush!
Manic monday as usual..forgot to schedule the post last night.

Base: OPI You Dont know Jacques
Nice creme in taupe-greyish shade (?). Two coats opaque.

Stamped with Street wear Barely nude. I was looking for a muted stamped i choose this   shade..even though its a bit sheer. Nice effect for subtle stamping.
Stamping Plate: BM310

However the subtle effect didnt really show unless I took macro pics.
I stamped over it with RA 121 with Konad Black and Yellow for accent.
Overall I wasnt very happy with this...turned out meh!

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Blue Roses Porcelain Nail Art (Jelly polish)

I am so digging jelly polishes these days!! But they are hard to find by where I stay and I am on a mission to make some. Recently after Revlon launched some new polishes here I saw Revlon's Royal, a blue jelly polish. I suspected I had something very similar in my stash of untrieds.

OPI's Dating a royal. Its a jelly finish leaning towards creme. 2 coats make it almost opaque.
Now I suspect this is really close to Revlon Royal.
I stamped with BM 323 with the bold roses design
Stamping polish: Konad silver and konad white for accent.
The accent really looked like those white-blue chinese porcelain.
Topped with SV

Usually I am not a fan of rosey designs but this one was good. They stamped perfectly and the jelly polish does give it a floating effect, like you see a layer below the stamping.

I am off to make some jellies...please suggest me some colous that you think will look good in jelly finish.

Also on my do-to list is to make some glitter frankens. I have tried real hard not to buy like a 100 polishes off etsy, however I need some nice indies and having them shipped here takes way too long and costs waay too much. So I am gonna attempt to make some of those.


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The Legal Dimensions of the Sovereignty Claim of the Tamil Nation of Sri Lanka

 A Focus on the Role of Leader S J V Chelvanayagam QC in evolving the concepts of self –rule, autonomy and federalism in Sri Lanka

                   The Memorial lecture delivered  on 28  April 2017  in London

 By Dr. Sandrasegaram  Paramalingam B A (Cey)LLM (Hull)UK PhD (Keele)UK ,  Attorney at Law  [Sri Lanka ] Solicitor  of  England [retired] Formerly visiting Post-doctoral  research fellow at the Centre for Socio –Legal Studies  University of Oxford

Mr Chairman,

Honourable   Minister Mr Mano Ganeshan MP

Ladies and gentlemen

Good evening

I wish to express my pleasure             in being with all of you this evening. I am much obliged to the organisers of this event for honouring me by inviting to deliver the memorial lecturer today. The leader S J V Chelvanayagam QC whom we are remembering today, was an outstanding personality in the fields of politics and law in Sri Lanka.  He devoted his life and wealth to the well-being of the Tamil nation. The political and constitutional programmes he proposed and advocated were aimed at preserving the dignity and identity of the nation in their homeland. Before I focus on the topic, I feel it is most important to set the scene and begin the lecture by referring to a statement made by an MP in the House of Commons of the British parliament.

Dear friends,

Before many of you and I were born, a bill titled “Ceylon Independence Bill-1947” was presented to the House of commons to de-colonise Ceylon and grant independence due to the fact that after the British India was decolonised by creating two states India and Pakistan in 1947, the island would be less beneficial based on the facts of cost and benefit analysis .The beneficial factors of Britain were protected by signing   a defence    agreement for the use of Trincomale naval base and the air force base at Katunayaka.

During the debate of the above bill few MPs participated in the debate and they conveyed their greetings to the people of Ceylon and warned the danger of communism   which would be threat to the democracy of the country.  However Mr Gammans the MP for Hornsey electorate considered the socio-political aspect of the island and   stated as follows

“Ceylon is not a single racial unit. There are two races in Ceylon, the Sinhalese and Jaffna Tamils who are in the northern part of the island and number 1,500,000 out of a total of 6,500,000.They differ from the Sinhalese in race, religion and to a larger extent in background. They are extremely capable and intelligent people. Where there is a racial minority in the country, the danger is that it may become a permanent political minority and if it does become a permanent political minority, Ceylon’s evolution on a democratic basis is bound to fail.

———— This imposes on the two peoples of Ceylon a very great responsibility. It imposes on the  Sinhalese the responsibility  of seeing that   they grant  fair and , if necessary , rather more than fair treatment to  the minority  not only in the political power  but also in the administrative  responsibility , so  that  the minority is  not inevitably  driven  to regard itself as a permanent political minority”

Against this background, if we consider the politics and the treatment given to the Tamil nation and the Tamil speaking people during the last seven decades, the above statement of the MP could be treated as the perfect political prediction on the post –colonial politics of Sri Lanka.18155862_955982067878266_3176989664726178486_o

Enactment of the Citizenship Act 1948:-

The first government of Ceylon, led by D. S Senanayakie enacted the act to de-franchise the Tamils who were the backbone of the plantation economy of the country over the one and half –centuries. When the bill was submitted to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the bi-cameral parliament Mr Chelvanayagam vehemently opposed the injustice caused to the people who gave their blood to the country by working in pathetic socio-economic conditions. He crossed the floor and resigned from the Tamil Congress which was in the governing coalition led by the United National Party. G.G Ponnampalam QC continued to remain in the government while Chelvanayagam and few other Tamil MPs crossed the floor in search of future political action. During the debate of the bill, he made a comparison that periodically Tamils from South India were brought in during the colonial rule and settled in the South of Ceylon where they had lost their identity and assimilated with wider society. However, the Tamils in the plantation area brought in by the British had maintained their socio-cultural identity. Therefore, they were punished by the proposed Citizenship Act.  The Tamil MPs of the plantation area and the MPs of the leftist parties also pointed out the danger of terminating the citizenship of the plantation Tamils. As far as the government was concerned the act contained two edges for reducing the strength of the Tamils in the parliament as well as the leftist who had the vote bank in the plantation area. The fate of the hard working of Tamil people of the plantation area and who were the backbone of the country’s economy were left to be determined by the Governments of India and Ceylon .In the later years, the initiatives of the governments were formulated as treaties known as Nehru –Kothalawell and Sasthiri and Srimavoe pacts without the participation of the affected people.

In the meantime, the government had engaged in state sponsored colonisation in the Northern and Eastern provinces with the majority community. Mr Chelvanagagam and the other MPs who resigned from the Tamil Congress had foreseen danger to spread over the Tamils and Muslims and formed the Federal Party in 1948.

The Inauguration of the Federal Party and the Discourse of Federalism. [1948]Chelvanayakam

It has to be noted that during the latter part of the   British colonial rule there were claim for federal setup by the leaders of Kandyans. However this claim weathered away and did not have any impact on the country’s politics.

The Federal Party is the brain child of Mr Chelvanayagam and the governing model proposed by him is treated as “safe heaven” for the Tamil speaking people in the North and Eastern provinces. The party was inaugurated in 1948 for achieving constitutional justice under a federal constitution in which the Tamil speaking Northern and Eastern provinces could be federal unit. It gained few seats in the first general election held in 1952 of its formation. Since the 1956 general election, the party gained majority of the seats of the Northern and Eastern provinces and emerged as the main the party representing the Tamil nationalism. Due to the party’s strength in the parliament and for the purpose of the formation of government it had opportunities to negotiate for autonomy and federalism which is defined as governing model for unity among diversity.The leaders of the federal party entered into two political pacts with governments.  In 1958 Banda –Chelva pact and in 1965 Dudley- Chelva pact  aiming for “reasonable regional autonomy and language rights” were signed.  As these were opposed by the people of the Sinhala community, the pacts were abandoned.

1970 general election was the last general of election of leader Chelvanayagam’s lifetime. In this election too, the federal party continued to maintain its political status as the dominant party of the Tamils of the homeland.

The result of this general election clearly demonstrates the emergence of two nationalisms in the island of Ceylon. The both nationalisms represented two different goals. The Sinhala nationalism demanded the sole control of sovereign power and utmost prominent place for Buddhism, while the Tamil nationalism represented by the Federal party under the leadership of Mr Chelvanayagam relied on the grievances caused by the colonial rule, improper de-colonisation of 1948, and the local colonialism emerged since then, as the grounds for demanding federalism.

The election victory of the coalition of the MEP led by Srimavo Bandranayakie in 1970 put the government as the first time for complying the requirement of 2/3 majority as prescribed in the constitution for amending or repealing and proclaiming  a new constitution. In the election manifesto of the Mahajana Eksath Permuna [People United Front] led by Sri Lanka Freedom Party, it was stated as follows.

“We seek  your mandate  to permit  the members of the  parliament  you elect  to function  as  a  simultaneously  constituent  assembly to draft and adopt  a new constitution . The constitution will declare Ceylon to be a free, sovereign and independent republic pledge to realise objective of a socialist democracy “.

The election victory of the MEP gave the advantage legal position to repeal the existing constitution and to proclaim a new one to achieve the above mandate. Accordingly, after the election, Srimavo Bandranayakie, then PM of Ceylon invited all  MPS  to participate the inauguration of the constitutional assembly to be empowered to draft and proclaim a new constitution  to declare Ceylon as  a republic and to rectify the grievances of the people caused by the constitution in force for 22 years. In the drafting stages of the new constitution, an amendment was proposed to the main primary draft submitted by Dr Colvin R De Silva the Minister for Constitutional Affairs by the Federal Party   relying on its electoral norms formulated by the previous five general elections.

The main features of the amendments proposed by the Federal Party

The Constitutional Committee of the Federal Party drafted a model constitution. 32

The memorandum of the draft constitution outlines the historical background of the communities in the island of Ceylon and claimed the entitlement of the Tamil nation to the right to restoration of lost sovereignty.32  It emphasises that the principle of equality can only be assured by means of federal constitution and appeal, that it would be the only solution preventing the Tamil people from demanding full restoration of their sovereignty that existed prior to colonial rule.33, The memorandum of the draft constitution claimed that it was submitted with the genuine intention of creating conditions in which the cultural and social identity of the Tamil people could be preserved while maintaining co-existence with the other communities.

The draft constitution of the Federal party contained seven sections and 60 articles. In the preamble the concept of equality was emphasised. 34

  1. Section 1 dealt with the political structure   according to which the central government would be based in Colombo and the country would be divided into 5 states for power- sharing and administrative purposes. In the amendment it has outlined three federal units for Sinhalese and one each for Tamils and Muslims and to declare Ceylon as Federal Republic of Sri Lanka.
  2. Section 2 appealed for granting citizenship to persons of Indian origin who did not apply to return to India under the 1964 Indo –Ceylon Agreement.
  3. Section 3 dealt with fundamental rights with arrangements for enforcing by courts.
  4. Section 4 proposed that Tamil and Sinhala be declared national languages.
  5. Section 5 said the medium of instruction should be in the mother tongue.
  6. Section 6 outlined the economic policies and objectives.
  7. Section 7 outlined the economic policies.

The change of name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka in Sinhale and Illankai in Tamil was not disputed but the second basic resolution, which read ‘The Republic of Sri Lanka shall be a unitary state’, started the conflict between the Sinhala and Tamil members of the Assembly. Dharmalingam, on behalf of the Federal Party, moved an amendment on 16th March 1971, proposing that Sri Lanka should be a non- sectarian federal republic for the purpose of communal harmony, was a prerequisite for national development and could be achieved only through a federal system. He also requested that if the federal model was rejected the ruling majority should consider some meaningful decentralisation of the administration.35 As all the amendments were defeated in the assembly, and based on the decision of the Federal Party, its leader Samuel James V. Chelvanayagam Q.C. announced   as follows:

“It sought to embody the language law of the country into the proposed constitution. At a time like this no one can deny the reasonableness of our demand that the language rights of the Tamil-speaking people should be defined in the constitution. We moved several amendments regarding the nature of the constitution, citizenship rights and other fundamental rights. All these amendments have been rejected. In the circumstances, we have come to the painful conclusion that as our language rights are not satisfactorily provided for in the proposed constitution, no useful purpose will be served by our continuing in the deliberations of this assembly. By taking this step we mean no offence to anybody. We only want to safeguard the dignity of our people.” 36

Since then the representatives of the Tamil people have not participated in the proceedings of the assembly. They were even unable to seek legal remedy under the constitution in force as the right to Privy Council was terminated during the drafting process of the new constitution.37

The members who were elected from the Sinhala language belt refused to accommodate the electoral mandate of the Tamil– speaking people, which had developed since 1956. The Sinhala people were in a position to reject the electoral claim of the Tamil nation due to the political power base designed at the time of the introduction of the first colonial constitution in 1833, which failed to adopt an appropriate system of governance. Since then, all constitutional changes and developments introduced by the British were confined to the unitary system. Further, decolonisation was implemented within the   colonial boundaries and the prescient warnings expressed in the House of Commons on the nature of the constitutional arrangements introduced at the time of decolonisation were not suitable for a country which was   a multi –racial and had two language speaking regions.

The political history and events of Ceylon demonstrate that   the Tamil nation was the victim of colonial rule and now suffers under local colonialism.39   At the time of the drafting of the new constitution during 1970-1971, the representatives of the Sinhala people who exercised the power of the state were under legal obligation, particularly due to the fact that Ceylon was a Member of the UN, to recognise the rights of the Tamil people and other minorities which originated from the regimes of the UN.40  Further,  as the result of the observation  of Capotorti  that “ it was a fundamental mistake  of the drafters of the Charter of the UN  to ignore the rights of minorities, and anticipating their  being enjoyed within the wider context of universality of human rights”41and the identification  of the Human   Rights Commission that  “ the rights of minorities have been  violated in many countries,” 42  there emerged   a UN minority  rights regime. For a democracy to be of good governance, it has to adopt equality and non –discriminatory participation of all people within the territory as well as federalism and protection of minorities being considered underlying features.43Therefore, Ceylon was under obligation of the UN regime to incorporate those legal rights into its new constitution.44The above-outlined political and constitutional affairs clearly demonstrate that the attempt of the Tamil-speaking people to resolve the conflicts between the two nations by peaceful means was in vain. The new constitution institutionalised denial of justice and re –confirmed the domination of the Sinhala nation over the Tamil nation. This political event led the Tamil nation to search to find an alternative arrangement for self-preservation.45

The experiences of the Tamil parliamentarians from 1948-72 clearly demonstrate that negotiating for constitutional justice and settlement were an impossible task. The trend was observed by Sankaran Krishna, a commentator on South Asia’s post colonial insecurities as follows:

In the case of Sri Lanka, even the lip service paid to secularism was  dispensed with .It is, after all, a country that in 1972 rewrote its constitution to give a special place to Buddhism and explicitly avowed its  sustenance as one of the charters of the state. The idea of the nation is heavily interlaced with the notion that it is a special land because it is consecrated by Buddha and its manifest destiny is the preservation of the Buddhist faith. The liberal – democratic idea of the fundamental equality of all citizens within the national space runs directly counter to the idea of Sri Lanka as ultimately the abode of Sinhala Buddhists, a space divinely ordained for the preservation of their faith. 46

The Memorandum submitted by the All-Ceylon Moors Association:-

The All –Ceylon Moors’ Association’s memorandum has been very comprehensive and reflected the grievances   of the Muslim community in Ceylon. While it favored the unitary state, it proposed a number of amendments to the main draft of the government. It proposed a charter to guarantee a category of fundamental rights and constitutional safeguard of these rights. The memorandum also referred to the colonial grievances of the Muslim community and their lack of socio-economic development during the colonial time and proposed a provision for equality of opportunity. The Association heavily relied on a provision taken from the proceedings of the Indian Constituent Assembly as a model for protecting the rights of the Muslims in Ceylon. Although in the memorandum in a number of places it had relied on and admired the provisions of the constitution of India, it expressed the aspirations of Muslims for Ceylon as a unified country and unitary state. However, in the latter years political parties of Muslims have called for personal and regional autonomy for Muslims, in order to protect their identity.

The Proclamation of First Republican Constitution in 1972 and its important features.

The proclamation made on 22 May 1972 declared Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is  a  Free, Sovereign and Independent  Republic. It created  a president as the head of the state ,a unicameral  National State Assembly as legislature ,  the Cabinet of Ministers  as executives and the courts and other institutions  as judiciary while the  National State Assembly was empowered to  exercise directly  the judicial powers of the people according to law. Section 6 of the constitution gave Buddhism   foremost place and Section 7 endorsed the Official Language Act of No 33 of 1956 that made Sinhala only as the official language, to remain as the official language provision of the constitution while the Tamil Language (Special Provision) Act No 28 of 1958 was made clear not as a provision of the constitution and shall be deemed as secondary legislation.

The impact of the proclamation of the constitution of 1972, made the  Federal  Party and the Tamil Congress  led by G.G.Ponnampalam QC  to form the Tamil United Front which was lately named as Tamil United Liberation Front .  The front resolved on 14 May 1976 widely referred as Vaddukoddai Resolution relying on the historical events of the past three hundred years of the colonial rule. It also traces the post colonial adverse consequences and serious and systematic violations rights of the Tamil speaking people and concludes the events and practices are amounting to a denial of justice. It therefore resolved that the restoration of the lost sovereignty and reconstruction of the Free, Sovereign, Secular Socialist state of Tamil Eelam based on the right to self-determination inherent to every nation.Dr Jampathy Jeyawickrama   lawyer and academic described that the Vaddukoddai Resolution was the inevitable consequences of the constitution of 1972.

The Second Republican Constitution [1978]

The general election held in 1977, gave an opportunity to the incoming ruling party, the United National Party [UNP] which was the opposition during the tenure of the previous parliament. Its amendments to the draft of the 1972 constitution were defeated by the pro-socialist and left lean People’s United Front which was in power. The proposals for the amendments of the United National Party were mainly on the guarantee for fundamental rights through the higher court of the land and the rights of the citizens to own properties. These were alleged as “strengthening capitalism and exploitation and reactionary in nature”. The United National Party was displeased with regard to the political economical changes that were adopted   on socialist –Marxist doctrines. In order to achieve the  socio-political –economic goals the previous government it    proclaimed the 1972 republican constitution as seen above  giving weight to  socialist concept  such as people’s sovereignty and absolute  supremacy of parliament  while liberal constitutional  principles  of  separation of powers,  rule of law and guarantee for  fundamental human rights were ignored .

The United National Party in its election manifesto of 1977 had called for mandate and approval for drafting and proclaiming a new constitution. After the formation of the government, the party as the first step in the moving of its constitutional program brought an amendment, which was the second to the 1972 constitution for elevating the presidency as executive and similar to the de Gaulle model of government. Due to the consequence of the amendment, on 4 February 1978, J.R Jayewardene, then Prime Minister became the first executive president of Sri Lanka. However, many other features of the constitution remained contrary to political doctrine of the United National Party which had the majority of 5/6 in uni-cameral legislature – the National State Assembly. The government therefore introduced a comprehensive draft constitution and proceeded to proclaim the new constitution which came into force on 24 October 1978.

The Tamil United Liberation Front, the opposition in the National State Assembly, did not participate in proceedings of the constitutional drafting and debates on this subject due to the fact that its political and constitutional demands would not be accommodated. Even the UNP led   new government did not take any initiatives for negotiating with the representatives of the Tamil people. The experiences of the making of the both constitutions confirm beyond any doubts that the majority community is not prepared to accommodate the legal entitlements of the Tamil people under the UN regime.

The Denial of Constitutional Justice:-

Since the de-colonization of the island, the Tamil people have formulated their political claim by way of electoral norm by electing most of the candidates from the Federal Party and demanded for federal governance which is recognized in constitutional and international law. The complete denial of constitutional justice could be witnessed at the time of drafting stages of the first republican constitution during 1970-72.  Since the proclamation of the first Republican constitution and adoption of the Vaddukoddai Resolution parliamentary path became less effective and armed resistance as a last resort emerged to dominate the political arena and “the thirty years war “in the island.

The Political legacy of “Thanthai Chelva”

Mr Chelvanayagam QC was called affectionately by the Tamil people as “Thanthai Chelva” and Gandhi of Eelam as he advocated for and adopted ahimsha – the Ghandian philosophy of non-violence. During his political life he had met seven general elections [1948, 1952, 1956, 1960 and June 1960, 1965 and 1970] and one long delayed bye –election for which he resigned as MP of his electorate KKS rejecting   the 1972 constitution. In the bye –election he gained landslide victory defeating the candidate of the ruling party.  He has been recognised and respected even by his political opponents for his principles and democratic values he stood for. Since the formation of the Federal Party he had advocated and sought political mandate from the people of the North and Eastern provinces to take all action and negotiate for creating institutions for self rule and autonomy under a federal constitution. These concepts which were introduced and advocated by Thanthai Chelva have become undeniable legal rights as these are enshrined in the rights regimes of the United Nation.

Part 2.

In the above pages it has been noted how the claim for self rule, autonomy and federalism have emerged under the political leadership of leader Chelvanayagam. He and his party   have seriously endeavoured in reaching constitutional settlement with the leaders of Sinhalese who have denied accommodating   the legitimate rights of the Tamil people.

Now, I wish to   trace the legal status and recognition of these concepts and how these have become integral components of constitutional and international law.

Since the formation of the United Nations Organisation the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity have undergone tremendous changes and progressive evolution in order achieves peace, prosperity and justice to all. It’s Charter and other international instruments enacted by its Members aim to achieve these goals. The UNO as the society of states aims achieve to universal harmony, peace and friendly co-operation among the people of all continents. In order to achieve its aims it enshrines democracy, self-determination and protection of human rights as the pre-conditions. It has to be noted that the contemporary international law while recognises the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, it imposes the duty of responsibility and accountability on states.

Professor Robert Jackson within the above context has stated in  his book , Quasi- Sovereignty and International Relations that  the States of the third world which gained their independence according to the Charter provisions were keen in order to gain the befits of the safety net of the UN provided to states while denying to fulfil their obligation under the Charter.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 in its preamble states

“It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”

This Declaration that aims to clarify and develop the rights of people included in the Charter and call upon the States to undertake the duty of implementing the rights recognised therein at the national level.

Internal –Conflicts and constitutional and international law.

This aspect of law is very large and controversial subject. Therefore I wish to confine the discussion within the parameters of the sovereignty claim of the Tamil people.  The contemporary international law and the regimes of the UNO recognise the states as the primary subject and nations, peoples, minorities and other non-states actors as secondary subjects of international law.  Therefore it emerges that the State of Sri Lanka is a primary subject of international law while nations, peoples and communities fall within the category of secondary subjects of international law. A single nation or community within Sri Lanka cannot exercise and enjoy the sovereign power in order to undermine the rights of another nation or community within Sri Lanka. If it does, it would be amounting to inequality and discrimination which are not recognised in the jurisprudence of international law. The colonial consequences, improper de-colonisation, the post colonial constitutional structures and serious and systematic violations of rights of the Tamil people are the fundamental causes of the contemporary internal conflict of Sri Lanka.

It has to be emphasised that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka are under the local colonialism and prevented constitutionally in enjoying the rights granted and guaranteed by the rights regimes of the UNO. The common Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural rights states as follows.

Article 1

  1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

The General Assembly Resolution   2625 (XXV) titled Declaration on Principles  of International Law concerning  Friendly Relations  and Co-0peration  among  states ,  very comprehensively outlines the right to self-determination  and obligation of States in implementing the right.

The principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples

By virtue of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.

Every State has the duty to promote, through joint and separate action, realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, and to render assistance to the United Nations in carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Charter regarding the implementation of the principle, in order:

      1. To promote friendly relations and co-operation among States; and
      2. To bring a speedy end to colonialism, having due regard to the freely expressed will of the peoples concerned;

and bearing in mind that subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the principle, as well as a denial of fundamental human rights, and is contrary to the Charter.

The International Court of Justice in the case of the Construction of Walls in the Palestinian territory [ 9 July 2004] observed as follows.

Every state has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples of their right to self-determination.”

It is appropriate to refer to few lines of the   judgment of the Canadian Supreme Court in the Quebec Sovereignty referral case below.

A state whose government  represents  the whole of the people  or  people’s within its territory , on a basis of equality  and without discrimination  and respect the principles of  self-determination  in its internal arrangements , is entitled to  maintain  its territorial integrity  under international law  and to have that territorial integrity  recognized by other states .

The jurisprudence of the above judgment was relied upon by the US, UK and France in the proceedings   before the International Court of Justice in 2004 in the matter of the Request for Advisory Opinion on the Legality on the Unilateral Declaration of Kosovo made by the General Assembly of the UNO. The international judiciary determined the existence of the right to self –determination in the contemporary international law and the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo was not contrary to the principles of international law.

Since 1997, the Labour Government of the United Kingdom carried out series of devolution programs by enacting Scotland Act 1998, Government of Wales Act 1998 and Northern Ireland Act 1998, for the purposes of accommodating the aspirations of the peoples of the regions of the United Kingdom. Toney Blair, then prime minister, stated in the House of Commons that devolution programmers of his government could be treated as “British approach to global problems”. Further, it was stated in the white paper on Scotland’s parliament as follows.

The Union will be strengthened by recognizing the Scotland, Wales, and the regions with strong identities of their own. The Government’s devolution proposals by meeting those aspirations will not only safeguard but also enhance the Union.” Sri Lanka, as the member of the United Nations and Member of the British Commonwealth   has no any choice, other than learning lessons from the recent political developments of Britain and other democratic countries, for enforcing good governance through constitutional rule and deliver constitutional justice.

Though the international community is optimistic on the implementation of the Resolution of the HRC which was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, the statement made by the foreign minister is contradictory. Before I conclude I wish to leave a note on the comment made by Mr Mangala Samaraweera the Foreign Minster of Sri Lanka. He has stated the resolutions are not carved on stones. It implies the uncertainty of the commitment made by the Government of Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council.  However, it has to be noted that Justice Weeramanthiry as the judge of the International Court of Justice, particularly in the cases of East Timor [Australia Vs Portugal] and Advisory opinion on the Legality of the Use of nuclear Weapons had relied on a series of relevant Resolutions of the UNO for reasoning his judgements.

The Tamil nation has seen many of its political leaders. Among them SJV Chelvanayagam QC was a unique leader who had played his role honestly and sincerely for the well being of the Tamil nation. His vision and mission were based on history, democracy, human rights, rule of law and non-violence   which are universally recognised legal concepts. It is therefore our social duty to recognise that these principles prevail in our struggle for constitutional justice and restoration of the legal status of the Tamil nation according to the rights regimes of the UNO

32 The Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly 1970-1972.Govt Printers Colombo.Sri  Lanka

32 Ibid

33 Ibid

34 Ibid

35 Ibid.

36 A.J Wilson supra note 3, .240-1 for willingness of the Federal Party and giving guidelines to the drafting committee of the constitution for very minimum rights to the usage of the Tamil language in the public affairs. As the demands of the Tamil representatives were denied it had become an issue of pride and honour for the Tamil people of the country.  They also requested the inclusion of the Banda –Chelva pact of 1957 which was entered between Bandaranaike PM and Mr. Chelvanayagam. See  Chapter 9 of the thesis  for details.  Therefore, the leader of the Federal Party issued a statement in the assembly and boycotted the proceedings.

37 The MEP government which came to power after the 1970 general election had 2/3 majority which is the pre-requisite to amend the 1948 constitution which was in force. The government passed an amendment to the constitution to terminate the Privy Council as the supreme authority of the judiciary of Ceylon which once pronounced that the section 29(2) cannot be alterable.

39   Ceylon :A Divided Nation – Emergency 1958.  S Sivanayagam.   Sri Lanka witness To History. Ibid. Sri Lanka  A Bitter Harvest . Minority Rights Group. London. Wilson A.J. Break Up of Sri Lanka supra note 1.

40 1… UN Charter.,    2 . Universal Declaration of Human. Rights.  3. Article 1 of both the covenants namely ICESCR and ICCPR (1966) According to the Article 1 of both Covenants.

41 Capotorti supra note 1 of Chapter 5 of this thesis.

42 Ibid.

43  Franck M. Thomas, Fairness in International law supra note 1, 47-79, 83-109. The above view was endorsed later in the Quebec Sovereignty case (1998)

44  Recommendations made to the Government of Sri Lanka by international bodies.

45 A number of legal issues to be considered to assess the legality of treatment given to the demands of the Tamil nation by the Sinhala members of the Constituent Assembly. Steven Whitley’s view on the issue of Democratic governance is more relevant to compare the   treatment given to the Tamil’s demand.   He views that ‘’The people do not actually rule in any obvious sense of the term. People and the democratic government become the rule of the politicians. The aggregative model is not conducive to realising the interest   and preference of those minority groups with a high degree of solidarity   and shared outlook, which find themselves permanently outvoted by the majority population. ‘‘Deliberative Democracy and Minorities. In European Journal Of International law. Vol 14, Number 3,June 509,

46 Sankaran Krishna, Postcolonial Insecurities .–  India, Sri Lanka and the Question of Nationhood.    University of Minnesota Press. 1999, 42-43. Also see. Neelan Thiruchelvam, The Politics of Federalism and Diversity in Sri Lanka in Autonomy and Ethnicity ed by Ghai. Cambridge 2000, 197-215. He identifies the issue as follows. in page  199. The ideology of  a centralised state drew its legitimacy from two distinct sources. On the one hand,  the Sinhalese  ideological  construction  of the state was  linked to the idea  that the land  which had certain  cosmic characteristics, belonged to the Sinhalese. This was linked to the idea of  the  Dhamma Deepa, the land in which  Theravada Buddhism  had been preserved  in its purity. On the other hand, the dominant political, colonial constitutional discourse had conceptualised the modern democratic state as one based on the centralisation of political and administrative space.  Also see the discussion on the Colebrook –Cameron Report  (1931) in chapter 7 of this thesis . The Report of the British Govt (1829) identifies that the Island of Ceylon was a Hindu province.

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VIDEO: Wildfire in Extension quickly brought under control

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff
August 6, 2017 - 9:38pm Updated: August 6, 2017 - 11:22pm

Helicopters from the Coastal Fire Centre dump water on a bush fire in Extension on Sunday evening.Submitted

The approximate location of Sunday afternoon's bush fire.BC Wildfire Service

NANAIMO — Crews from the Coastal Fire Centre have contained a small bush fire south of Nanaimo.

The BC Wildfire Service's online map shows the blaze just west of Extension Rd.

The Coastal Fire Centre's Donna MacPherson told NanaimoNewsNOW the fire grew to about 0.3-hectares in size on Sunday evening. She said it was human-caused and on private forest land.

Six firefighters and three helicopters from the CFC battled the fire, along with help from Nanaimo Fire Rescue.

The CFC is in control of the scene as the fire is outside Nanaimo city limits. Crews were still there Sunday night mopping it up.

[email protected]

On Twitter: @NanaimoNewsNOW

UPDATE: Wildfire near Nanaimo Lakes in mop-up stage


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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Another dance of contradictions

I’ve been reading—and enjoying—two books that might X each other out. They seem to say two opposite things. The title of David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, actually embarrasses me. I don’t usually read this kind of book. The other, more my style, is Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. But I am finding value in both books. I love sorting through mixed messages and finding that it’s another both/and situation, rather than either/or. Since I’m having fun, I use the term “dance of contradictions.”

The Getting Things Done book came highly recommended, so I ordered it, thinking, “This might be good for Hal.” I should have learned by now not to think that way. While it might indeed be good for Hal, I’m finding it good for Nancy as well. Basically a system for time and task management, I’m finding Allen’s approach practical and doable, even if I choose to apply only parts of his system. The clutter on my desk top, in my files, and even in my mind is beginning to rearrange itself into orderly patterns. That’s good. Efficiency and productivity are good. North American culture certainly values them.
Actually, I’ve always rebelled at the emphasis on efficiency, although I’m told I’m very efficient myself, a good executive secretary type. The librarian in me smiles at this. But the poet scowls. I really prefer intuition, creativity, freedom. At least most of the time. Some of the time?
Well anyway, the other book appeals to my poetic and mystical self. In Falling Upward, Catholic priest and spirituality guru Richard Rohr claims that adult spiritual development falls into two phases of life (based partly on Jungian psychology). The tasks and values of the first phase include establishing one’s identity, climbing the ladder of success, hard work, productivity, achievement, and getting things done. Rohr sees this as a necessary stage.
In the second stage of spiritual development (which, the author claims, not everyone reaches), the person moves beyond the emphasis on doing to a focus on being. More than productivity, the person is content to live out his or her identity, to simply be the person God created her to be. Gratitude, harmony, relationship, wisdom are all values of this stage of life.
Sounds good. I’ve always been drawn to being above doing, even during my most productive years. At the same time, I’m addicted to lists and love crossing off items as the day moves forward. Getting stuff done feels really good. I’m told schizophrenia runs in the family. Is this evidence?
Probably not. It’s another Mary/Martha story. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, listening, being, “falling upward,” while Martha fusses and cooks and gets stuff done. Jesus praises Mary’s receptivity and rebukes Martha’s fussy anxiety, but I don’t think he makes this into an either/or choice: be or do. Following the story beyond this incident, we see Martha continuing to fix meals, but with a holy attitude. Apparently we can learn to be and do at the same time.
Are the “real” Quakers the silent, mystical contemplatives or the activists for mission and social justice? Or both at once? Or something beyond the stereotypes?
Even the word “poet” is helpful to me at this point. It comes from the Greek verb “poiew” which means “to make” or “to do.” I’ve always wondered how “poetry” came from this linguistic root, other than the fact that poets make poems. It’s an active, doing (literally) verb, and poetry has always fallen to me on the being side of the continuum. But, there you have it.
So I guess I can still be a poet and have my daily to-do list at the same time. I’d reflect further on this fascinating subject, but I need to draw this to a close. I’ve got way too much stuff to get done today.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Aaron's clothes

Robinson Jeffers has two wonderful concluding lines to his poem, “To the Stone-Cutters.” He writes that in spite of the ravages of time, “Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained thoughts found/The honey of peace in old poems.”

For the past month I’ve been savoring the honey of peace in an old poem by George Herbert (1593-1633). The poem is entitled simply, “Aaron.” Brother of Moses and first High Priest to the Hebrew nation, Aaron was required to don elaborate ceremonial robes before he could minister to the people. (You can read the details in Exodus 28.) This poem about Aaron’s priestly clothes points to our only source of adequacy in ministry and gives me hope. I need this reminder often.

Holiness on the head,
Light and perfections on the breast,
Harmonious bells below raising the dead
To lead them unto life and rest:
Thus are true Aarons dressed.

Profaneness in my head,
Defects and darkness in my breast,
A noise of passions ringing me for dead
Unto a place where is no rest:
Poor priest thus am I dressed.

Only another head
I have, another heart and breast,
Another music, making live, not dead,
Without whom I could have no rest:
In Him I am well dressed.

Christ is my only head,
My alone and only heart and breast,
My only music, striking me e'en dead,
That to the old man I may rest
And be in Him new dressed.

So holy in my head,
Perfect and light in my dear breast,
My doctrine tuned to Christ (who is not dead,
But lives in me while I do rest),
Come, people; Aaron's dressed.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The slug and I

It’s not that I like slugs. I don’t. I find them repulsive in their sluggish sliminess. But I have a certain narrative relationship with this ugly but innocent beast. Slugs are part of my story.

It started when my kids were little. Out of pure whimsy, I began slipping slugs into the story books I read and re-read to them. Only now and then, in odd places, without skipping a beat, I would read, “As the prince slipped the glass slug on Cinderella’s foot….”  And Kristin would giggle and say, “Mom, it’s a slipper, not a slug!”

Interestingly enough, when I try it on my grandkids, it doesn’t work. Instead of amusement, they get mad, as in, “Come on, Grandma! Read it right!” So much for whimsy.

And then there was the time when David, on some Boy Scout hike, took on a dare to kiss a slug. Later he told me it was a scientific experiment, to see if kissing a slug really does make your lips go numb. It does.

The next time slugs enter my story, I’m in graduate school. To help support my addiction to education, I worked as research librarian in the same school. As such I was in charge of making sure all theses and dissertations passed the muster in regards to margins, headings, grammar and references. As if that were not fun enough, I also got to edit the school’s style manual.

To be perfectly honest (which I try to be), academic style manuals are not my favorite literary genre. And the manual I inherited needed extensive editing.

Again, my sense of whimsy clicked in. Partly in order not to go crazy with academic jargon and stylistic rules, I began subtly inserting slugs into the text. As long as it didn’t interfere with the manual’s purpose to give clear formatting instructions, I figured my slugs did no harm. They certainly made my work more fun. I’m sure my co-workers in the office occasionally wondered why I was at my desk giggling.

I inserted most of my slugs into the examples, not the actual instructions. “References Cited” provided rich opportunities. The school used the reference system of the American Association of Anthropology, and I selected my examples from various journals. Slipping a slug into a title was easy.  Samples:

Rumekkiart, David E., and James L. M. McClelland. 1986. Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition among Slugs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Rogers. E. 1963. The Hunting Group: Hunting Territory Complex among Mistassini Slugs. Bulletin No. 195, Anthropological Series No. 63. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.

Legge, Anthony J. and Peter A. Rowley-Conwy. 1987. “Slug Killing in Stone Age Syria.” Scientific American 257:88-95.

Fawcett, William B., Jr. and Alan C. Swedlund. 1984. “Thinning Populations and Population Thinners: The Historical Demography of Native American Slugs.” Review of Their Number Become Thinned, by Henry F. Dobyns. In Anthropology 11:264-269.

In the capitalization guide to theological terms, the “S” list contained the following words:
serpent, the
slug, the
Son of God
Spirit, the
(Although slugs deserve respect, you don’t have to capitalize them.) I found many other hiding places for my slugs.

For several weeks after the revised edition of the style manual was published, I held my breath, wondering if the Dean would call me into his office and fire me. Now, some years later, I admit to being disappointed that no one has ever mentioned it. But, after all, who reads all the examples in style manuals? Not me.

Currently Hal and I are in the middle of a new slug adventure. And this one is alive.

It’s called kombucha tea, and the recipe asks for tea, sugar, water and a SCOBY. That stands for “Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.” We call it simply The Slug (upper case letters required). It floats in a gallon jug of tea, in a dark corner of our laundry room. And there in the darkness, it quietly procreates. Every few days I siphon off a quart of the fermented kombucha tea, replenishing the brew with fresh sugared tea. Then Hal and I actually drink the stuff.

For our health, of course. Our daughter-in-law, Debby, first got us on to this. (Our grandkids refer to their SCOBY as The Octopus.) The use of kombucha tea has been traced to ancient cultures in both China and Russia, and its health claims make it worth trying out. It tastes just strange enough that you know it’s got to be good for you. Adding apple juice helps.

There you have it. My life with the slug. What will the next chapter bring?


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Ducks’ splashdown set Saturday at noon during RiverFest

ducks One of previous RiverFest's ducks comes in for a win.

Ducks are getting ready for their big race on the Tallahatchie River this Saturday. The fourth annual Rubber Duck Regatta gets underway at noon off the river bridge in New Albany. The ducks’ lucky owners will win over $1000 in cash prizes.

Approximately 2000 yellow ducks will race to the finish line under the walking bridge during RiverFest this Saturday. Winners will take home cash, thanks to the efforts of New Albany Rotary Club and Union County Heritage Museum. Tickets are $10 per duck, or a Quack Pack of six ducks is $50. A Box of Quackers (12 ducks) is $100.

First place duck will win $500, 2nd place will win $300, 3rd place will win $150 and there will be a Lame Duck winner – $50, a Lucky Duck – $25, and a Random Duck will win $25.

Tickets will be sold up to the race’s starting time.

Tickets will be on sale until race time on Saturday, so it’s not too late to get tickets for the event. Rotary members and Museum Guild members are selling tickets, as well. Witt Spencer is one of the Rotarians who is in charge of this year’s event. He, as well as other members, will be downtown loading ducks into the back hoe, which will dump the ducks and make the big splashdown at noon.

This annual fundraiser helps both organizations with Rotary Club charities as well as Rotary Club’s Creative Spirit gallery sponsorship at the museum.

“We are so grateful to all the businesses who have sponsored the Duck Regatta,” said Jill Smith, museum director. “It is encouraging to see those yellow duck signs around town. Rotary Club members have worked hard, as have the Museum Guild members, in selling tickets.”

For more information , or to buy tickets, call the museum at 662-538-0014.

For more info on Tallahatchie RiverFest fun: 2017 Tallahatchie Riverfest- Diamond Rio

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Mon, 21 Jul 2014 04:13:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 The best and I mean best gluten free biscuits. Mon, 21 Jul 2014 04:13:12 +0000 So biscuits seem the hardest thing to get right when it comes to gluten free baking if you’re trying to approximate a flour biscuit.  (Look, I really like biscuits, OK?  A LOT.  Thus all the biscuit recipes.)  It is not terribly hard to mask or undo the grittiness of most gluten free flours when you’re making cakes.  And it’s not hard to get used to the weirdness of flax bread or things like it because there’s like eleventy jillion kinds of bread anyway and it’s all pretty much good for sandwiches.  But biscuits?  Biscuits are HARD.  And there’s no masking if they’re too dry or too crumbly or too bitter or any one of the myriad problems that can go wrong in gluten-free baking.

But this recipe?  This recipe is GOLDEN.  And it involves ingredients any ROCKSTAR gluten free baker should have in her stash anyway — rice flour, arrowroot starch (sometimes called arrowroot flour), gluten-free cornstarch (be careful, celiac sufferers — some cornstarches are NOT GLUTEN-FREE) and xanthan gum.  Along with regular biscuit-baking items such as butter, baking powder, salt, eggs, etc., you too can eat amazing biscuits that taste like Grandma used to make.  Well, someone’s Grandma anyway.

THE RECIPE (note for dairy-free folks — this recipe uses buttermilk,but you can make your own non-dairy buttermilk by following THIS LINK):

1 cup rice flour (white or brown)

1 cup arrowroot starch

1/2 cup gluten free cornstarch

1 T sugar

5 tsp gluten-free baking powder (make sure to choose one that is gluten free — not all of them are)

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp sea salt

1 stick unsalted butter or 1/2 cup dairy-free alternative, cold and cut into 1-T size pieces

2/3 cup hot buttermilk (should be starting to curdle, or at 135F)

2 large eggs, beaten

3 T melted butter for basting

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine all the dry ingredients and whisk to remove any lumps.  Cut in the cold butter and use your hands to combine until the mixture is like very fine crumbs.

Beat the eggs, then slowly add the hot buttermilk, whisking until both are combined.

Add the egg/buttermilk mixture slowly to the dry ingredients, mixing well so that there are no lumps.  Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, then spoon batter into a lightly greased muffin tin (you can also dust the tin with leftover arrowroot starch).

Bake for 7 minutes, then remove from oven.  Pour 1/4 T of the melted butter over each biscuit, then return them into the oven for 5-10 minutes or until browned on top.

Serve alone or with your favorite biscuit accoutrements.  Should make 12 decent-sized biscuits, even though my picture only shows three (see below).  Why would I make a recipe that only makes three biscuits?  That’s crazy.

Enjoy and rock on!

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BETTER than Cheddar Bay Biscuits! Mon, 12 May 2014 02:47:03 +0000 There are few things harder when pursuing a diet that is both gluten free AND low carb than finding a bread that actually has…a BREADLIKE texture.  Many GF-LC breads rely heavily on eggs to bind them together and thus feel more like quiches than they do breads.  I mean, I love me a quiche, but I wouldn’t try to make a sandwich out of it.

Additionally, I love Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster and I am not afraid to show it.  But…I shouldn’t eat them anymore.  What’s a woman to do?  MAKE HER OWN, THAT’S WHAT.

Equipment needed: kitchen scales (possibly), hand or electric mixer, big mixing bowl, muffin tin

1/3 cup coconut flour

4 eggs

5 tablespoons of coconut oil or butter (for all you paleo fans, I use coconut oil and this comes out fantastic!)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder OR minced garlic if you prefer

1 tsp oregano

1 tablespoon chives

1 tsp parsley

6-8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese (but feel free to use your favorite cheddar)

1/2 tablespoon xanthan gum (trust me on this — you may be able to find this at a grocery store or specialty grocer, or order it online — it keeps “rougher” not gluten flours from giving your bread a terribly grainy texture) (however, paleo folks may want to omit it)

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix all ingredients but the cheese in and combine until smooth.

coconut flour and oil

four eggs

four eggs and chives

final batter

Add the cheese last and mix evenly into the batter.

add cheese

Using your hands or a spoon, form batter into baseball-sized balls and place into a lightly-greased muffin tin.  As you can see, this recipe makes six.  It doubles easily, but beware…these biscuits only keep for about 3-4 days outside a freezer!

muffin up

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until tops start to brown.  I also tend to broil them for just one minute longer for an extra added crispy CRUNCH.

grease drain

They’re not perfectly like Cheddar Bay Biscuits, but for those of you who want to eat gluten free and/or low carb, they are a REALLY good biscuit analog.  Trust me.

dry on paper towel

There’s one missing in the above picture because I ATE IT.

For those of you who are following Atkins: each biscuit contains about 3.5 net carbs.

Enjoy and rock on!

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Welcome; Asparagus-Leek Soup with Shrimp Sun, 27 Apr 2014 03:06:20 +0000 Welcome to the Napalm Kitchen!

The name of this blog results from my love of punk rock and my tendency to set kitchens on fire. (Don’t worry; we finally got the smell of smoke out of the house after the last time.)

Punk is a very do-it-yourself ethos.  Why pay for paint-splattered jeans or safety-pinned skirts when you can make them yourself?  I did that growing up, much to the chagrin of my mother.  Then I learned to cook, thanks to my mother (and father, and grandmas).

My thinking is, if you want to eat a healthy “specialty” diet such as gluten-free or low-carb, why not cook it yourself?  Most of these recipes will be easy.  I’ll try to showcase some totally-vegetarian or non-dairy recipes as well, for those of you who have those limitations.

For now, let’s start with something very simple…simple like punk music…Asparagus and Leek soup with shrimp.

Serves 4: requires stovetop, food processor

  • 1 leek
  • 1 bunch asparagus
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups vegetable broth (I make my own with gluten-free veg bouillon paste and water)
  • 4 oz shrimp (peeled)
  • 3 T butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

  1. Melt 1 T butter in stock pot on med heat. Add shrimp and cook until opaque, remove shrimp from pot.
  2. add shrimp

  3. Chop leek and discard green parts.  Slice white part lengthwise and then dice.
  4. leek cutting

  5. Slice woody ends off asparagus (about the last inch to 1.5 inches).
  6. asparagus cutting

  7. Mince garlic very fine.
  8. Add diced leek and 2 T butter to pot.  Cook 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
  9. add garlic

  10. Add asparagus and cook for 1 minute.
  11. Add stock and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat; let simmer for 8-10 minutes or until asparagus is tender.
  12. asparagus simmer

  13. Remove from heat; add cream and salt and pepper.  Pour mixture into a food processor and process until smooth.
  14. add cream

    food processor

  15. Chop shrimp and add to the soup.

Serves: 4

Net carbs (for Atkins followers):  Approximately 6 per serving.

Enjoy and rock on!

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Monday, 11 March 2013

2013 Wellington Oceania Championships

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the first draft of this report is clocking up some frequent flyer points. Hopefully, it is an enjoyable read for the next customers reading the Qantas magazine who want to know “What you should do in Newcastle” and obviously, how I went during this race.

Often known as the place that is windy, wet, cold and hilly, Wellington lived up to its reputation on race day. When the sun rose on Friday morning, after getting in quite late Thursday night, it was a nice surprise to wake up to a beautiful autumn day. Wollongong earlier in the week had not seen the word “taper” and I enjoyed 3 full days of hard but meaningful training towards the weekend race. Friday was a bit of a hit and miss with how I felt and having a banana smoothie before our pre-race run probably was not the best idea. I am sure the girls agree!

A perfect start time of 10:30am, we woke up to what Wellington is renowned for - wet, windy and overcast skies. An early morning ride to get the legs rolling, gave me a good idea of the conditions.  A quick run, gave me time to debate whether I wanted to do a swim warm up or just dry land exercises. After getting out of the cold water, 30 minutes of dry land exercise became the ideal situation. First onto the pontoon due to Oceania rankings was a change and something that I could get used to. I choose mid/left and the first Olympic distance of the year was about to begin. Well, the start was brutal. I got bashed around pretty bad and made the move to the far left to get some free space. It was probably the best decision and by the first buoy, I had time and space. For the rest of the swim, I had feet of a NZ girl that led me around the course to come out of the water 3rd. Unfortunately, my transition was under par as I could not clip my helmet on with my cold hands.

We started the ride into a tail wind which gave us plenty of time to get our feet in. For the first 3km of the ride, until the u turn, there was 3 of us rolling turns. When we turned around, the chase pack of girls were just behind us and by the hill they had caught onto the back of us. The course has a hill in every lap which adds a little pinch to the legs every lap. The course was pretty windy in some sections, where my front wheel got blown around. As soon as we caught Kate Mcilroy, the pace eased up and no one was going to pull a turn if they didn’t have to. Our group of ten, had all the main runners in it and it was going to come down to a run race. I got near the front on the end of the 6th lap and was one of the first in and out of T2.

I went out with five other girls, into what was going to be a solid 10km run. After we turned around at 1.25km, three girls went off the front and I had 3 other girls to run with. I knew it was important to keep my cadence up especially into the head wind. I felt comfortable and I wanted to keep pushing with the front girls. After that it was a cat and mouse for 4th/5th and 6th place. Jamie used some good analogies to describe my run after the race. I was the one ending stronger and I needed to use this to my advantage. On the 3rd lap, I bridged up to Sophie Corbidge into the tail wind. This is not the ideal situation as I let her into my bubble. If I did it into a head wind, I could have “stamped” my position and taken over her at a more dominate pace. The last lap, Simone Ackermann surged and I wasn’t going to let her get away. I caught her at the u turn and we were fighting for 4th and 5th. Jamie yelled at me with 1km not to lead her out as getting to 500m first was not the objective, it was to get to the finish line first. I sat back and was mentally going through what would be the best tim e to go. With 200m to go, I surged and we hit grass. Every week we do “shuttle runs” or short sprints on grass. In my head, I was like “Natalie, you sprint on grass every week, you can do this!”. I  got her by a small margin of a foot.  Ending up with 4th place, I am satisfied with how the race went, learning important race tactic skills and how to put them into races to come.

Thanks Jamie for the weekend in general and getting things organised for the weekend to run smoothly! A final congratulations to my training partners for having a solid weekend in Wellington! Next stop Mooloolaba this weekend!

1 comment:

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Back in the grind

I got back from Cambodia last Sunday, and at the time it felt like I'd been away a month (instead of just a week), but that disappeared very quickly as I got back into the grind of things.

Soccer season is finally over, thank goodness. I was not made out to be a coach... it's far better just playing! Now I've been signed up for a meeting duty instead... so many obligations! At least this quarter will go by quickly... only 8 weeks to go, and there's a 4 day weekend in the middle which I have to figure out what I'm going to do with. I was going to a working elephant camp, but that looks likely to fall through. It's a bummer that going anywhere within Myanmar costs MORE than leaving the country. Still, I feel like time's running out, and still have a long list of places I'd like to visit here. I may move somewhere else next year, though that's not for sure, but it's in the back of my mind anyway.

Halloween's next week, but pretty low key here. There's a student party that I may go to as a mermaid! That'd give the kids a laugh. Otherwise, have no idea what to wear or even if I'll dress up as anything. Then I have two formal balls to go to, one this Friday night. Then the Melborne Cup evening. I'm off to a meeting tomorrow with the management committee of the IFG (International Friendship Group) to finalize our calender. That's quite exciting--a Myanmar calendar to be sold for charity. I'm hosting book night tomorrow as well. Have had a few sagas with Sabai, my cook, mainly over cultural food differences, but am keeping calm about that (well, most of the time!).

I heard there's an arabesque (belly) dancing club that I would love to join, so as you can see I'm still as busy as ever. Not enough time in the day, or week, or year!

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Am reading a book called The Tipping Point. It's about fads and epidemics in fashion, life, health, etc, and how they differ from the ordinary. In particular, it mentions how people can have an influence on when things explode or implode. It's a fascinating read, and have done a lot of reflecting on myself while I've been reading it.

'Most of us don't have particularly broad and diverse groups of friends. In one well-known study, a group of psychologists asked people living in the Dyckman public housing project in northern Manhattan to name their closest friend in the project. 88% of the friends lived in the same building, and half lived on the same floor. In general, people choose friends of similar age and race. But if the friend lived down the hall, then age and race had a lot less importance. Proximity overpowered similarity. Another study, done on students at the University of Utah, found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else, he'll say it is because of similar interests. But if you actually quiz the two of them on their attitudes, you'll find out that what they actually share is similar activities. We're friends with the people we do things with as much as we are with people we resemble. We don't seek out friends in other words. We associate with people who occupy the same small physical spaces that we do.'

I thought this was so interesting. It made me think of relationships and how we (I) look for perfection in our partners, but are they indeed truly the one, or does the situation just fit at the time and then we adjust our lives and personalities so that it continues to fit? I thought of all my friendships and how true this is, which perhaps explains why often we drift away from each other. But, as is says in the next quote, I'm someone who still considers friends friends even if I'm slack about keeping in touch with them.

'Six degrees of separation doesn't mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps. It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few.'

'Most of us shy away from (a) of cultivation of acquaintances. We have our circle of friends, to whom we are devoted. Acquaintances we keep at arms length. The reason we don't send birthday cards to people we don't really care a great deal about is that we don't want to feel obliged to have dinner with them or see a movie with them or visit them when they're sick. The purpose of making an acquaintance, for most of us, is to evaluate whether we want to turn that person into a friend; we don't feel we have the time or the energy to maintain meaningful contact with everyone.'

The Connector Impusle: 'Horchow (and myself!) is quite different. The people he puts in his diary or on his computer are acquaintances -- people he might run into only once a year or once every few years -- and he doesn't shy away from the obligation that that connection requires (oops...). He has mastered what sociologists call the "weak tie", a friendly yet casual social connection. More than that, he's happy with the weak tie... He sees value and pleasure in a casual meeting.' Traits: versatility, good luck, different worlds, curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, energy.

'When Weisberg looks out at the world, or when Roger Horchow sits next to you on an airplane, they don't see the same world that the rest of us see. They see possibility, and while most of us are busily choosing whom we would like to know and rejecting the people who don't look right, Lois and Roger like them all.'

I guess I empathized with this "Connector" person, who knows everyone a bit, and few really well (as few know me really well). I only have a small group of loyal friends, and of them, I have an even smaller number would probably call me their good friend too. This is not self-pity, but the reality of changing worlds constantly and moving around. I have always wondered how I can possibly find a nice young man who could fit into all my different worlds. I have so many and I am comfortable and at home in them all, but they are just so very different, and there is no one who is just like me (not that I want there to be), with my peculiar collection of interests.

If I took a typical kiwi guy to meet my college friends, the flirts, the exes, the wild and the calm, how would he react? If I took any western guy to meet my Moroccan or Filipino or Kenyan friends, could he deal with the cross culture? If I wanted to spend an afternoon having tea with older lady friends, would that be boring? If I wanted to go out and spend an evening on the town, would that be too wild, or too much of a typical thing (i.e. expected all the time)?

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Romania Pictures: Part II

These are some photographs from the gorgeous painted monasteries and churches of Moldavia. When I resized these ones, there was so much detail they needed to be resized a second time to fit in with blogger's rules, which is why its taken me so long to get them up. These'll make the last of my summer photos. Now I suppose I better catch up and put some Myanmar ones on here.
Inside one of the old wooden churches that dot the Moldavian countryside. It was covered in soot, and fading badly, but really impressive all the same. That's the old chandelier for candles down the middle.
The typical structure of the outside of the churches. The paintings were the same on all the churches. They basically told the stories of the bible for the illiterate villagers to understand. The main reason to visit the various churches is that each is in a different state of repair, and usually, the wall in the best condition is different for each church. So you visit one for their ark story, another for Jerusalem, another for the saints, etc, etc. There are very few windows, one entrance at the back, and decoration on the plaster within and without. They must have been devilishly cold in winter!
The wares available outside the church. Very folksy, and I surprised myself by not finding very much that I wanted to buy in Romania!
The inside of one of the churches, the dome is really a series of arches, each decorated and separated to tell the biblical stories.
An outside wall in an interesting shadow.

Here I am standing in front on some of the interior paintings.

The gift shop within a monastery. Lots of icons and religious/saintly images. I have difficulty relating to these kinds of things, but I will admit they are unique and beautiful (an important, at least from a cultural perspective).
One wall with all the heads of saints on it. I wouldn't recognize half of them, but others certainly would!

A view of the most outstanding monastery that we saw. I climbed the hill behind it to see it from above. It is fortified of course, as things had to be in the middle ages, but if the powers that be wanted to invade, the monastery would not have put up a fight, but flowed with the ebbs of power.

Photos of Cambodia 6: The last few

So I'm back in Bangkok now, ensconsed in my regular Suk 11 Hostel room. The whole reason I came back (and didn't just camp out in an airport chair--shudder!) is because I left some food here last Friday that I didn't want to cart around with me. What a foolish person I am! Of course my bags are overweight and can't really handle any more stuff! I will manage somehow (I have on two flights already from Siem Reap and from KL). I hate this stress!!

Anyway, here are the last of the Cambodia photos.

On my last day I took a tuk tuk to a far off spot, called Banteay Srei. It wouldn't have been worth it for just that, but my true aim was a step further, when I took Chon, the female moto driver up to Kbal Spean, where I hiked up into the forest to see the most amazing river bed carvings. They must have carved it when it's dry, but at the moment it's monsoon, so they truly were surreal!

After that I came back to Banteay Srei (again at sunset!). Here are the monks leaving for the day. They have much more orange robes than the ones in Myanmar (which are more maroon).

Banteay Srei is famous for the details of its carvings, which are incredibly intricate. I also like the fact that Banteay Srei is dedicated to women.

Ah, Kuala Lumpur! I was there for just a short stopover on the way back, but managed to get up the Menara KL, to look at the Petronas twin towers, which sadly, from this angle, look like just one tower. KL's architecture was my favorite thing--they may be a modern city, but they take Islamic architecture to a modern level that I've seen nowhere else. They're so proud of their heritage, and they incorporate it in original ways. For example, the shape of these towers as two squares overlapping, like in Islamic design.

The last one is of the old city hall, designed by a British guy during the colonial era (but still copying Islamic design). In the background is a modern skyscraper, also in Islamic design. All of those window looking things are actually geometric lattices.

This will probably be my last post for a while as tomorrow when I get back I have to grade papers and finish my grades to hand in Monday morning. That along with typical Yangon life leaves me so little time that I always feel behind. I'm going to go now and put up the last of the Romania photos that are on this drive, and maybe one or two from Yangon. Enjoy!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Photos from Cambodia 5: Rest of Siem Reap

Wandering on the "Giant Circuit" around the smaller temples was a relaxing afternoon. I had my moto driver Chon (a young guy I picked up on the street!), who had the same name as my female moto driver the next day!
This is Pre Rup, the most similar of any I saw to the temples that are in Bagan in Myanmar. It still had the multiple levels, but seemed to go up much more than the others... good views over the surrounding countryside.

My pigs!!! I finally did get a pictures, though this is nothing near as good as the ones I saw. This bike only had 2 pigs on it, and I was taking it from a moving moto, so couldn't really get close up. Still don't know if they're alive or dead... what do you think? I would say dead because they're not really strapped in (and if I was a pig, I would squeal and wiggle). Then again, why would you want to carry around a dead carcass? I thought animals had to be bled immediately.

A lovely elephant guard at the temple Eastern Mebon. This particular temple was not so remarkable except for these elephants. I think I was on overload a bit!

Chon was delightful and dropped me off near what we thought was the northern entrance to Preah Khan, a great city temple at the far northern reaches of Siem Reap. I told him I'd meet him on the other side, and we left. After being pestered eternally by these children to buy something from each of them, I set off past the gates, happily taking pictures of the lovely guards in the sunset light.

So I go under the giant tower gate with some more creepy faces, and to my dismay, the entire pathway is flooded. No problem, I say! I roll up my pants and carefully wade in. I get more and more alarmed as it gets deeper and sludgier. Then I come to a little stream, flowing into the middle of this impromptu lake. It's 2 feet deep. I was happy with a little ankle water, but this was too much! I was in despair. What would I do? It was at least a kilometer or 2 just to go around to the other gate, and it was very close to sunset. I went back to the gate and tried to go along the walls. A little boy followed me, and said, just like in the labrinth movie... "You can't go that way. It's very far." So I went back out the gate, and wondered what I would do. Hiking up the road, the little boy said, "You can come on my bicycle... We'll share." I was dubious, and since he had no seat at the back, I thanked him and said I didn't think it was possible. He said, "I have another bicycle!" So we negotiated a price (50 cents), for me to ride the bike, and him to ride his with his little friend sharing, and off we went, this time to the real northern gate. In I ran, and bumped into, who else? My driver, Chon, who'd obviously heard by this time either that he hadn't actually dropped me at the Northern Gate like we'd assumed, or that where he had dropped me was flooded. What a dear!

So I raced around the now quite dark temple frantically seeing the two entwined trees and the huge Roman-like temple, that you see here.

Being out in the temples at dusk is an interesting experience. It's eerily quiet and there is no one else around. I suppose I should have been afraid, but I wasn't. It was just peaceful. The animal noises are that much louder, as the birds flutter overhead, the lizards crawl around to find the stones that are still warm from the sun. The other creepy crawlies rustle around me, retaking their world back from the tourists of day.

Okay, that's it for today. I need to go and explore Kuala Lumpur before my plane tonight. What an exciting city... reminds me a lot of Manila. I won't be climbing the Petronas Towers, because I wasn't getting up early to get the free ticket, but may just go up the other tower. I still have more photos to upload, but will try and do them in Bangkok tonight when I breeze through to pick up the stuff I left at Suk 11.

Photos from Cambodia 4: Angkor Thon

I think I mentioned that Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples in the Siem Reap collection. I am now in a different complex, this time a city, called Angkor Thon.

This is at one of the gates to the city (they have a grand gate at each of the 4 cardinal directions), guarded by demons and gods, although it's very hard to tell which is which! These would have been decapitated over the years, but reconstructed in replica.

This is in the cenral temple in the middle of the city. This was my favorite temple in all of Angkor. It's called Bayon and from every angle, there are huge faces looking down at you.
Here are several of the faces all at once... how many can you find?
Two in one... so picturesque!
Here I am in front of one face... see how enormous they all are!

Now I'm in another complex at Siem Reap. It's the next day, and I'm exploring Ta Prohm, which was a temple being absorbed by the jungle.

This is the famous Tomb Raider tree. It was underneath this tree that Angelina Jolie disappeared into the ground.
A whole corridor collapsed and this was the result... you can see exactly where the pillars would have been... I wonder if it all fell on one spectacular day! Look at the beautiful colors!

This is where a little sculpture was peeking from behind the tree roots. It looks remarkably similar to the one in Ayuthaya in Thailand, but much smaller.

Like water flowing from above, or a hand gripping Angkor's history in its fist!

This was an intact corridor... the moss and lines and colors certainly made it seem other-worldy, and it was hard to picture what it would have been like in its heyday.

Photos from Cambodia 3: Angkor Wat

I am now in Angkor Wat . This is one of the apsara (heavenly nymphs) that are all over the temple walls.
This is the ultimate Angkor Wat picture: the domes and layers of the different layers of the Hindu universe. The central one, and of course the highest, would be Mt. Meru. Complete with reflecting pool.
Some more heavenly nymphs, with their unique hairdos and clothing.
The beautiful decorations near a statue of Buddha within Angkor Wat itself.
Here is a closeup of the amazing decorations that line the entire kilometer of the outer wall of the inner temple. They tell stories from the ancient Hindu texts, and also of the kings of Angkor.
There I am, standing on the enormous causeway between the main gate, and the central temple itself.
The climb up to Mt. Meru (highest level of the universe, aka heaven) isn't meant to be easy, and just look at those stairs!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Testing my blog's email

I just wanted to send an email to test the email-to-post facility of
blogger.com. I have spent the last 20 minutes waiting for blogger to
load--I can access every other blogger page, just not the sign in
page. I'm also having problems with gmail, which this computer is too
slow to open. However, at least it's not blocked here!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Photos from Cambodia 2: To Siem Reap

This is on the boat up from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. A bit of a rip off, but enjoyable all the same. A German photographer and I were the only ones riding on the top of the boat, and I discovered why when the "fast" boat, picked up speed. I was quite windswept. Still, I stuck it out for the 5 hour ride, and crept under an awning when it started to pour with rain in the middle of Tonle Lake (practically an inland sea).

This is a houseboat in the floating village near Siem Reap. Everyone lives in these brightly colored, beautiful homes and travels everywhere by boat. Quite a unique lifestyle.

Being a teacher, I noticed the school. Very brightly colored, but wouldn't want to be anywhere near when its break time! Talk about no space and high likelihoods of kids getting chucked in!

I had another 30 or so to post, but am having huge difficulties getting them onto blogger. I will work on putting them on another site (once I've chosen it!).

Photos from Cambodia 1: Phnom Penh

The gorgeous Mekong delta. In Phnom Pehn it merges with 2 other rivers, before disappearing across the border with Vietnam (where I saw it once before). This was the view from the plane as I was landing.
Here's one of the magnificent buildings within the Royal Palace grounds in Phnom Penh. Overall, the complex was quite similar to Thailand's. What beautiful and unique structures!
This is me using my zoom lens! These birds were perched on top of the roof edge!
This is another zoom shot... the roof was so amazing, except the lights ruin it!
Here I am standing inside the national museum. If you think the pose and face are strange, that's because I did it on a timer... the joys of travelling solo!
This is Wat Phnom, which the city is named after. A bit of a monstrosity now, and very poorly taken care of, but important just the same.

This is inside the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This was a school before Democratic Kampuchea (as the Khmer Rouge were known as), but became a torture and interrogation center. Around 17,000 passed through, and I believe only 12 survived.
One of the displays inside Tuol Sleng. These are pictures of the terminated (like the Nazis they documented it all very well!!). A truly powerful experience. See the men whose hands are tied behind their backs? This was one of many many displays, and some were more gruesome showing torture, etc.
This is the memorial that the new government has built to commemorate and remember all those that died. The inside (all the way to the top) is filled with the skeletons of those found on the site of the killing fields.
Here are some of those skulls, open to the air and so close I could touch them. Such an absolute tragedy. Have started reading about why it wasn't stopped. Western governments have a lot to answer for!
These are the beautiful kites for sale along the street beside Independence Monument. I like to see these as hope for the future after all the tragedy has passed.


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Bacon Free Library Events

  1. The Hoopoe Show: Mirth, Mime and Magic

    July 25, 2017, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    Something different at the BFL! We’re excited to welcome Chris Yerlig as Hoopoe the clown.

    In his show Chris blends silent pantomime comedy, movement illusions, sleight of hand magic tricks and balloon wizardry, to create an original vaudeville show that is funny, imaginative, and full of surprises. The unexpected is to be expected when audience volunteers are invited to join him on stage to assist with illusions. Young and old unite through laughter as they follow the non-verbal antics of this unique performer to their humorous ends. Chris Yerlig is originally from England and began performing on the streets of France and Spain. He has been performing and teaching around the world for over 20 years.

    Weather permitting, this event will be on the lawn so bring a blanket!

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  2. Book Buffet: Junior Edition

    July 25, 2017, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

    Kids in grads 1 through 4, join us for an open book talk! You choose the book you want to read and talk about, and then come and tell us all about it! You may discover something you’ve never heard of before or you may inspire a friend to read a book they haven’t picked up.

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  3. Bacon Free Library Book Club: Life after life by Kate Atkinson

    July 25, 2017, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

    Join us for a discussion of Life after life : a novel by Kate Atkinson

    Summary: “What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can — will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original. an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather.

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