by MEENADCHI GUNANAYAGAM, staff writer
In 1964, the Srimavo-Sashtri pact effected the deportation of 500,000 disenfranchised Tamils. Take the buggers back to India, the gov't said.
In 1983 however, the final straw was lit. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. On July 23, 1983 the government brought the fallen back in state, leading the coffins on a tour of the capital city Colombo.
It was the Kristelnacht of my country. A governmentally backed, anti-Tamil pogrom began. Tamil homes were looted and crashed, women raped en masse, and people were petrolled and burnt alive. Thousands fled the country and those that didn’t removed themselves from Sinhalese inhabited areas – fleeing to the North and East. The LTTE received cadres by the hundreds. It was the start of the civil war.
THE LEGENDARY SWORDS OF DAMASCUS - Now Only Museum Pieces
by HABEEB SALLOUM, special guest writer
Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth, was for hundreds of years known for its fine swords. ...they were legendary for their sharpness and were considered superior to all other swords.
There were many myths and legends relating to the swords of Damascus... One such tale tells of a meeting between Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin. Richard, to impress his guest with his great power, cut through with his broadsword a thick iron bar with a single blow. Saladin, unimpressed, threw a silk pillow into the air and, as it fell, sliced it into ribbons with his Damascene blade.
Another story relates that the Damascene blade is so flexible that a man can take the hilt in one hand and the point of the sword in the other, then bend the sword around his body and when released the blade would spring back to its original shape.
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