Anil's ghost is an acclaimed novel written by a Sri Lankan born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The book focuses on major issues of civil war and its effects, human rights, and the nature of one's shifting identity. In this essay I will focus on the way in which the main character Anil Tissera's surroundings affect her cultural identity throughout the story. An article written by Kara Somerville in 2008 provides an interesting insight on the issue of transnational identity, and how different
Living in the tropical island of Sri Lanka meant heavy exposure to mosquitoes and Dengue fever is a horrifying yet rather common disease that most Sri Lankans suffer from at least once in their lifetime. I remember when it was my turn. I was diagnosed at a time where dengue fever was at a peak high in Sri Lanka and my parents struggled to find me a room at a hospital because so many patients were admitted due to dengue fever
information fed to them and unfortunately, in most cases, all bits of media is taken as the whole truth. The ways in which media impacts society to a great extent are through the facts it chooses to reveal, as recently seen in the case of the Tamil war in Sri Lanka. The tone in which it is presented such as the
events. Anil’s Ghost is set in a time of political conflict in Sri Lanka, revealing unfolding mysteries, murders, and never-ending brutality. Each character uncovers the truth about one another, taking pieces of his or her own life, to reflect upon various hardships. During the civil war era, the protagonist, Anil Tissera, a high specialized anthropologist is sent to uncover several murders occurring in her country of Sri Lanka. During her various discoveries, she reflects back on her life
Sri Lanka’s Continual Civil War The ethnic tension between Sri Lanka’s majority and minority populations, the Sinhalese who are mostly Buddhists being the majority and the minority being mostly Hindu and are called Tamil, has been going on for many of years. Finally in 1983 the ethnic tensions finally spilled over into civil war. The civil war has been mostly between the government of Sri Lanka and the militant organization called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE are fighting for
country of Sri Lanka was engaged in a civil war for more than 25 years. The most basic reason is the conflict that arose between the Sinhalese and Tamil citizens, but it’s more than that. In 1948 Sri Lanka gained its independence from Great Britain. Before independence was gained, the island was dominated by the Sinhalese speakers, which were deemed to be on the island since 500s BCE. Also, there were mostly Buddhist Sinhalese, three million of them, and about 300,000 Hindu Tamils. Sri Lankan people
From its inception in 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, have launched a campaign to form a separate independent state for the Tamils in the Northern and Eastern part of Sri Lanka (SATP). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a report in 2008 stating the LTTE to be “among the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world” (FBI). According to the FBI report, the LTTE perfected the use of suicide bombers, invented the suicide belt, became the first
Cultural Memory and the Sri Lankan Civil War in Shobaskthi’s short story, “The MGR Murder Trial” By Dr Preetha Vasan . Abstract : This paper looks at the intersection of cultural memory, war and literary narrative in the specific context of the civil wars that raged Sri Lanka. It would consider the dynamics of cultural memory of an ethnic minority group during a civil war. To achieve this , the paper would attempt a close study of Shobasakthi , the Tamil Eelam writer’s titular short story “The
The tourism industry has become an increasingly important source of revenue for many countries. In the global environment concept, the tourism is the main communicator and promotor of the international trade. The expansion of the tourism creates many advantages and also cause some critical issues including social dislocations, Negative impacts on local culture and social structure, disruptive for the ecological and biological diversity. The minimising negative impact and managing the tourism industry
ethnic crisis. Similarly, the world was unresponsive to the ethnic eradication of Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1983. For twenty-six years, tens of thousands of helpless Tamils suffered as human shields for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and were caught in the crossfire of a civil war between the extremist group and the national government. The collective desire for the United States, UN, and Sri Lankan government to maintain