A Glimpse of Paradise

A whole new world - May 2011

It had all started with a picture of a fascinating human being. I watched her sit on the sidewalk reading her magazine, while her dogs slept nearby.

‘Can I take your picture’ I had asked. She had nodded. And, I had gotten down on one knee brought my SLR to my eye and snap. She was captured.

My curiosity bubbled within, ‘Why are you here?’ I heard myself question. And, her answer was as novel as her ambience.  ‘I followed the universe here’ she responded.

Following the Universe - May 20th 2011 

Then there was Michael standing grandly before the Mediterranean Café that the young lady sat before. ‘Aren’t you going to take my picture?’ he smiled.  SLR to my eye and snap.  

Michael Dowdy - May 20th 2011 

Then he gestured to the Café.We sat at a table and Michael began to read Tarot. I was in.

I had noticed Michael and his friends from the first day I’d arrived at Berkeley. They sat along Telegraph in front of the Mediterranean Café in large groups. They read or talked or held instruments. They dressed in random apparel and were unique, to say the least. I had wanted to speak to them from the very beginning. Something within me drew me to them. Even when I’d been advised against it by the friend I was visiting in Berkeley. They could be dangerous, I’d been told.

Yet, Four days later, there I was. I was in.

Michael laid out the Tarot on the table, as he slowly explained his story as my curious eyes watched. It turned out; he had renounced his family and home and moved to Berkeley. He was on a spiritual journey.

Later that day, I was back in the Café. Sitting with Michael as some friends he'd made from the university sang Top 40’s in a way that had much more depth than I’d ever heard. Every word was said leaving a piercing presence in my mind. Techno beats replaced with a guitar melody. Oh the sorrow of the Modern age woman, I had thought.  Singing about her sexy body – when really all she wanted was innocent simple Love.

I had wanted to join. That’s just how I am. I’m a participant – a doer. I am rarely a watcher. So I had hummed because I had not known the words. And slowly, as my comfort level grew, I was singing something with no words. Ancient sounds rouse up from within me. I had tears in my eyes. Something emerged as I sang. It was sadness; I guess. Something from the depth of my soul soared out. And, I had thought - ‘that’s it, that’s how I feel’. Language had never explained it as best as the foreign sound that escaped through my lips.

And, I would come back; the day after that and the day after that. I immersed myself in the life that Michael and his friends led. And, I found bliss.

The next morning I met Michael before the Café. The sun was out and I was in high spirits. He introduced me to a friend and we settled onto the sidewalk.

His name was Nature. He was a struggling artist. He had busked for awhile to survive on the East Coast. He had faced a lot of opposition from Police officers against his occupation of sidewalks. He’d heard Berkeley was a haven for homeless musicians. So, he’d moved.

Nature - May 20th 2011 

‘Let’s see how many join us’ Michael had interjected before heading into the Café to do a Tarot reading. I waited by the sidewalk with Nature. Two Young men passed us starring curiously. I might have looked out of place. So, I just smiled. Then they stopped. And, soon they were sitting with us.

Then another and another joined us. Soon there was many. And, we all just sat there. Watching people pass us by. I guess, we all decided to just stop for the day. Where were any of us trying to get anyways? That day I felt like everything I was looking for was right where I sat emanating Joy.

Family in seconds - May 20th 2011 

By late afternoon I headed to People’s Park, which was near the Café, with my new brothers. Free food was being served there. We found ourselves a plot of grass. Nearby a young man was erratically setting up his piano, guitar and set of books. I joined him. And, spent the day singing and reading some of the books he laid about in the grass.

People's Park - May 20th 2011 

As I write about this day, what stands out the most is how easily I fell into love. I found it so easily. I had been all alone. I hadn’t known any of the people I met for more than a day. Yet, I had felt more comfortable and loved than I had felt in very long.  

Also, I had felt so free. Presumptions and fear set aside I had met so many wonderful people. Among those who did not judge easily. But, rather accepted and encouraged you to be yourself. I had discovered my interest in singing. 

The simplicity of those few days will be forever engrained in the depth of my soul. There was no pursuit and no phathonable future benefit from spending my time lying in that park mingling or singing with these various souls.

I discovered, it was the little pleasures that gave the greatest joy. There was nothing tangible gained from the day.  Yet, something intangible had etched a smile across my face, soul and memory. A smile that had been absent for far too long. 

I fell in love the moment I got off the plane. I wrapped my soul around it and tied a knot...

I remember I was four getting off the plane and having the warm air brush against my face. Young men that looked like me called out to each other in the foreign language my mother spoke as well. A foreign language I had heard too sparsely in the land I was born – Oh, Canada.

 I fell in love the moment I got off the plane. I wrapped my soul around it and tied a knot. I was bounded and I would love it forever.  It was perfect in so many ways - A home away from home. 

I stayed with my mother’s family. A smile always on a person’s face, when my little eyes had met there’s. They would offer me food, hug me, sit me on their lap and feed me. So, so much Love.  I would run outside through the gates into our neighbor’s home and run back. I began to speak the foreign language my mother spoke. Sinhala she called it. And, I would talk and talk.

A few of my very large family from the maternal side

It was a place of constant life. In the morning the Fisherman stood at the gate, “malu, malu” he would bellow. The stray dogs guarded the streets roaming in packs or alone. In the Afternoon a stray herd of cows settled in slumber by the gates of our home. And, Grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins would endlessly stream in and out. And, when I ventured out small red stones rubbed against my small feet as the warm loving air hugged and kissed my little body.

Outside by the gates of my grandparents home where the cows rest 

We are Sinhala, I learned. My large extended family would visit Buddhist temples together. All dressed in white. We would ceremoniously provide offerings to the Shrine of the Buddha. I would get down on my little knees and bow to the Monks that strolled through the open aired temple.  

My family in Sri Lanka attending Buddhist Temples and on occasion Hindu Temples as well. 

And, I would cry every time the months passed and it was time to part my family, my home. I’d hug my uncles and aunts tears streaming down my face my body tense. I hated goodbyes. I always hated the end.

The visits to the Island persisted over the years. As I grew older, I began to understand there was War. And, as I grew wiser I began to understand why it was so.  My heart had been drawn to it from the very start. And, I had been drawn to the plight of the Tamil people.

This is because though I had loved that Island so much, there are moments I hadn’t been loved in return. There were moments I had felt unloved.

A child may not speak or intellectualize what they experience. But, we watch and we sense. And, I remember the injustices I experienced.

I was dark skinned and I remember watching my fair skin cousins with envy – knowing I wasn’t as beautiful because I’d been cursed with more melanin. Where this had come from, I do not recall. Maybe from the taunts of my older cousins, who in good humor would laugh about how dark I was.

“You look Tamil” they would laugh sometimes as well. And, I would wonder; why should I be ashamed of looking Tamil?

With my little sister and cousin. 

In Sri Lanka there is racism, racial and ethnic discrimination. These are some Injustices I have experienced.  And, the longer we deny that these are things that need to be improved in Sri Lanka – the longer that these injustices will persist in Sri Lanka and be carried in the bodies and minds of those who go abroad.

I love that Island. But, I cannot rest until I know that we have changed the spirit of the people. No child should grow up feeling less loved on an Island because of their skin tone or ethnicity.  

Prashan De Visser’s and Christin Raja’s Social Movement Sri Lanka Unites explores the Inherent inequalities that push us apart.  And, they believe these inherited prejudices can be trumped by inclusive education. They know that Reconciliation is a process – we need to purge inequities.

Please join us as we meet and understand a Social Movement that can change our country for the better. 

Occupy Toronto For Love

21.11.2011 Jeff and I, the morning Eviction was formally announced. 

It was the morning Rob Ford announced Eviction: 21.11.2011. The night before, my friend Jeff and I had decided to sit outside and wait until sunrise to hear the verdict of whether we'd be evicted or not. We knew one of the mandates of the eviction would be the removal of our tents in the park. Therefore, we decided to test our abilities to ‘Occupy’ without a tent.

Initially we had only one blanket. But, over the course of the night, we experienced the power of humanity or communal love. Where we started the night with only one blanket, by morning we had five more blankets placed on top of us. Through the course of the night, we were provided with food, water and heat pads to warm our hands. By sunrise, we awoke to find us surrounded by a circle of banners and signs.  Those who did not provide blankets provided their body warmth with a platonic cuddle. All of this was given, rather than demanded. We made it through the cold November night because of the unconditional love of our fellow occupiers at St. James Park.

The next morning Eviction was formally announced. As the Cops walked through St.James Park, placing eviction notices on the tents, I realized; Rob Ford had the power to take down our tents. Yet, it was questionable whether he’d be able to break down the unity we'd built in our hearts.

As an occupier, I experienced a sense of communal identity that, in my twenty-two years of growing up in Toronto, I'd never experienced before. St.James Park proved that people were more than self-interested and individualistic being. In contrast, they were also giving and loving being. People savored the company of others and wanted the betterment of "We" rather than just "I".

Further, St. James Park was also a place to consciously evolve and re-imagine the essentials for a community of individuals, who were not common in race, gender, or class. But, were common, nonetheless, in the very fact that they shared common space. 

                                 21.11.2011 Occupiers Cuddle Together Upon Hearing of Eviction.

In our current society, most people would agree that food and shelter are undeniable essentials. However, we often forget the importance of love. Arguably, universal love is one of the primary essentials that every human being needs.  This means we need to love more than ourselves, our nuclear families, our exclusive friends or lovers. We need to be able to love all human beings. This is essential for nurturing a happy community of individuals. Yet, it is questionable whether Toronto nurtures such love.

Right now in Toronto,  the identity that unites us is mass-consumption or Multi-Culturalism. Mass-consumption makes us ostentatious in nature. Through products we construct a superficial identity of worth. Through this act, we define some as a superior and others as inferior. Then, we draw lines and barriers between us and others. On the other hand, Multi-Culturalism constructs a lot of group love among a certain ethnic group. Yet, this may discourage a sense of common-hood with other ethnic groups. 

As a result, Torontonians have a lot of exclusive individual or community identities. And, these identities are out-weighing inclusive individual and community identities. We spend more time celebrating how we’re different, rather than trying to understand how we are essentially common. Therefore, exclusive identities are over-powering a sense of inclusive identity. In this way, we lack a sense of common identity. This prevents us from acting in the interest of the greater universal community.


Toronto needs to start working towards a sense of communal identity that finds the plural affinities between the various class and ethnic divisions. 

 If Torontonians had a sense of common-hood, we could begin to nurture a sense of kinship based on universal love for all. With this sense of commonality, we'd begin to seek a truer essence of equality, justice, joy, and happiness for all. 

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1090008--dimanno-beneath-the-legal-veneer-about-the-right-to-protest-the-park-squatters-are-bullies?bn=1

Therefore, I think, it is time we break down our imagined barriers and begin to re-imagine our identity as a city and nation. We need to start asking ourselves: what does it mean to be an individual, in the midst of a community of diverse, and yet essentially similar, human-beings?  And, the best way to answer the question is from a place of universal boundless love.

Critics may argue that this is impossible. Yet, these same people would never actually attempt it. In contrast, those who occupied at St. James Park were constantly apart of this creative process in experiencing and constructing an inclusive communal identity. And, more often than not, people discovered that it was very possible. All it takes is a simple choice of the heart.

 Personally, I experienced a sense of common-hood across the barriers of race, gender and class. I experienced a bond that was stronger than my woman-hood, middle-class upbringing and South-Asian ancestry. It was a bond of acceptance - human to human. It was a place where I could openly express both my Western and Eastern values and be without fear of judgement. It was a place, where I found the affinity between my Western and Eastern Values. This was essentially our bond as human-beings who want love. This is the ultimate joy and happiness every human being seeks. And, human-beings fear a life without love, for such a life is suffering.  Our aspirations, at the core, were very similar.

For me, the Occupy movement isn’t about negating the system, in an absolute sense. Rather, I believe, it has the potential to contribute positively to our growing and young identity as a diverse city and nation.

In a society that acclaims science, we need to be empirical with our lives. You need to test and observe different ways of expressing yourself. And, question: when are you more happy? Is it when you're being egotistical, competitive and self-interested? Or,  is it when you're being kind, accepting, and self-less?

St. James Park gave me the space to test the waters. What I’ve realized is that our competitive materialistic lives are preventing us from working towards common happiness. St.James Park was a place of acceptance, giving, sharing, simplicity, love and the ultimate creation of a sense of common identity in the now. It led to a happier group of human-beings.

The Occupy Movement has the potential to define Toronto’s cultural identity beyond virtual communities, traditional ideals and consumerism. It has the potential to contribute something lacking in our city, which is a sense of common-hood. I believe discovering our common-hood will have several implications on how we conduct our lives apolitically and politically. 

 As a supporter of the Occupy movement, my radical demand is for the right to work towards building an identity for our community that goes beyond the limitations of 'multi-culturalism' and consumerism. It's encouraging people to love one another, regardless of racial, gender, and class barriers. And, then asking them to ponder: what do we essentially need to ensure the happiness of all human-beings? 

                             21.11.2011 'We Are One' :   Darren Calabrese / National Post:  http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/21/occupy-toronto-protesters-must-vacate-park-judge-rules/

What led humans to acquire more?

Truth be told I have overcome my fear and doubt and realized the true beauty of existence that laid dormant in my heart. We are nature’s being. One with the earth and our true nature we will discover. we are one with the universe  - God.

Socialization has left us to forget our true essence. Layered by things – shoes, clothes – aesthetic division has left us from seeing common man in our midst.

The truth is I am tired of being told this is the way to be. Taught to be in love with things and material possessions.   That is how my worth is measured. I am tired of allowing apathy to take the place of my empathy.

Our purpose is to enlighten humanity and to free them from their chains and lies. We are more than being striving for the accumulation of things.

Earth, mother Earth has given us everything we need. The magic of fire, fresh water to appease our thirst, and abundant fruit and vegetation to fulfill our hunger. We have two legs to travel, a voice to make music, arms to carry and emphasize.

What led humans to acquire more?

Shot By: Alex Grey

Bigots on a Righteous Mission.

By: Natale Danko

The end; is there an end in sight? The Sri Lankan Conflict has penetrated into my life-time like an unwelcomed genetic trait. I didn’t ask to be born into a community, with a history of conflict. Yet, it is inseparable from an identity I am still trying to grasp. I am a child of the war generation. It is all I have ever known and, probably, all I will ever know. Yet, I hope to live to see a change; a fresh new way to understand my being, so deeply entwined with the Sri Lankan ethno-national conundrum.

As the rest, who feign any interest in the Conflict of an Island of our forefathers, I ponder the plausible solutions.

The answer seems so simple:  I suggest, re-Imagine Sri Lanka beyond the ethno-national confine.

We do not need a land for Tamil Eelam or to build several Buddhist statues amongst non-believers. We do not need to colonize “Sinhala people” here and “Tamil people” there. We need something else.

We do not need more ethnicity. We need less.  The only problem with the ethno-national conflict in Sri Lanka is that we have too much ethno-nationalism.

We have too much Buddha Lovin’ Sinhala Chauvinists. We have too much Tiger Flag wavin’, Tamil Eelam lovin’ nationalists. Too much.  These individuals see life through an extreme matrix. In a world where social cohesion is achieved through ethnic exclusiveness, a purified ethno-national experience.

Well, in my eyes, all of this is wrong. Contemplation on this problem has left me convinced; the problem in Sri Lanka is ethnic-exclusiveness. The UN Panel Report agrees.  The national boundaries in Sri Lanka leave several minorities outside – walled off.

There’s an essence of being that a ‘majority’ of Sri Lankan’s have inherited, by a gift of blood and birth; and, that’s being Sinhalese. There’s a minority that has not inherited it and, therefore, are left to be felt like outsiders. The national boundaries in Sri Lanka only accept those, who through the purity of a blood line, get to claim themselves Sinhala Buddhists (i.e. the true natives of the land).

Yet, Sinhala ethno-nationalism leaves the Tamil minority frustrated. Sure, they don’t speak Sinhalese. Sure, they’re not Buddhist. But, hell, they live and have breathed the same land for centuries. They have plowed the fields and birthed their children. They have created and buried families on that land and to not be recognized as rightful natives of the land is an insult, at the most.

Yet, some of the Tamil community has responded to this ethnic exclusiveness, with an exclusiveness of their own. This is Tamil Nationalism. Their ethno-nationalism is no less brutal, than the Sinhala ethno-nationalism before them. It too has led them excluding the other. It has left them rounding up brothers of the North because they were, on the terms of ethnic boundaries, different. They were Muslim and, therefore, not really brothers at all. They were different and difference justified them leaving. 

Tamil Ethno-nationalism hasn’t helped the situation. It has only made it worst. Nevertheless, there persist self-determinists who believe that a Tamil homeland is the only answer. A recent visit to Sri Lanka proved that much. These believers of self-determination are pretty much saying, “Sinhala Chauvinists you can have the South, just give us Tamil Chauvinism in the North”.

These ethno-nationalists seem to think, quite naively, that if Sinhala and Tamil people aren’t feeling excluded on the Island anymore that the problem will just end. That all the mixed bloods and Muslims won’t complain next.

The sad reality is ethno-nationalism will never solve the problem. It will only aggrandize it. Thus, I come back to my initial proposition. We must re-imagine our lives beyond the confines of the ethno-national splendor.

There is a greater and more inclusive Sri Lanka to be imagined, even if we haven’t imagined it, yet. And, my wish for Sri Lanka is that we dream it. We must awaken from this stupor of limited ethno-national determinism. It will never allow us as human beings, of a wonderful land, to experience our true potential; to create a community for human beings. A land made not just for the Tamil and Sinhala. But, a land that is welcoming to the woman, the under-privileged, and the excluded middle.

See, the thing is, if we don’t get over our ethno-national attachments we’ll never talk about the human problems that plague our land. We will never work towards creating a home for the universal, yet distinct and fluid, human identity.  

To be liberated from our limited ethno-national attachments might be the closest Sri Lanka gets to a solution.  We must think of the multiple possibilities of creating community and we must be more creative than the traditional ideals we have set for ourselves.

As I finish this piece, I worry for the ridicule I know I will get from the Sinhala and Tamil Nationalist, or the wise academic  who can’t imagine anything but an accommodating ethno-national solution for Sri Lanka.  I worry not because I have any doubt in my suggestion; but, rather, I worry because I understand, though I deny it, why importance is instilled in ethnic identities. I understand the human attachment, centuries so old.

Yet, I say with the utmost respect to these ideals: let go. Let go; not so I can conquer some intellectual feat. Let go, because I genuinely believe it is the best for our posterity. 

Our children should grow up in lands not labeled by limited national boundaries. But, in lands that are promising to about any human being. That ensure peace, justice, liberty, and equality; yet, have no preference for the color of your skin or tongue. This is the land I imagine being the best for all, that will evolve with the time and migration of the future. That will be welcoming to the babies that might be born of the Chinese workers, sleeping with the woman that will have them, as they build highways in Sri Lanka.

A land that recognizes that nothing is ever permanent. That things change with the times. That one day these pure ethnic identities will be a story of the distant past. The faster we accept this, the sooner we can save a nation from falling into the hands of bigots on a righteous mission.


   Also Published here:  http://groundviews.org/2011/10/17/bigots-on-a-righteous-mission/

• By: Natale Danko, Colombo Beach 

Why do I, a privileged Sinhalese soul, give a shit about the plight of the Tamil community?

On Sunday I was at a SLWB meeting when a gentleman posed a question the group had trouble answering.  "What is the purpose of this organization?", he questioned.

Though I couldn't speak on behalf of the organizaiton, it made me question myself. What is the purpose of my work with the Sri Lankan community? Why do I, a privileged Sinhalese soul, give a shit about the plight of the Tamil community?

Well, here's my go at it:

We have a responsibility to our ancestors and our heritage to be of one heart. We have been on the same land for thousands of years and now, in foreign land, we act like strangers. Brother and Sisters we must remember we are one family. I know we speak in different tongues and pray in different spaces; but, if you look into one another’s eyes, do you not see yourself?  We have let foreign men of power encourage our differences; we have let it disseminate our hearts and fight amongst ourselves. If we want positive change for the future, we must come together; we must see where our concerns are common.

Maybe it won’t immediately change our reality. But, it will cleanse our hearts of hatred. It will set aside misunderstanding. It will let Brothers and Sisters, who have fought for too long, to realize our faults and fall into one another’s arms with forgiveness and realization. We are one and our obligations to our "community" should be one.

I seek to overcome imagined barriers and re-imagine my "community" beyond the confines of ethno-nationalism. I actively seek forgiveness from those who have been forsaken by a land that is labeled, by an act of fortune, as mine. I want to undermine this privilege. I seek to reunite with my lost brothers and sisters who, ignored and denied, have become angered. I seek to bring them home. I seek to remind them of a beauty long forgotten. I seek to hold their hands to the gates of justice, prosperity, and eternal peace.

                                              Shot: A religious Hindu parade in Trinco
                                               By: Natale Danko