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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
Feature
Volume 4, Issue 1: October 3, 2005
Sri Lanka through poetry and continued aidBy Bryan Smith, Chairperson, Human Rights / Status of Women Committee |
Even if familiar with Sri Lanka only through literature, the beauty of “the Pearl of the Indian Ocean” is not lost on us. A poem by Anne Ranasinghe - visit http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/anneranasinghe.html to hear her - tells of the consequences of war on her adopted country, warning:
That anything is possible
Any time. There is no safety
In poems or music or even in
Philosophy. No safety
In houses or temples
Of any faith.
Rienzi Crusz, well-known poet whose work now has been adopted by the University of Toronto for their post-colonial literature course, speaks in elegiac tones of blood and nostalgia. “My son / the blood I spilled for you / was real” he writes explaining how civil war engulfed his nation. Like other Sri Lankan authors, Rienzi Crusz, samples of whose works are available at http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/crusz.htm, knows of death, and his poems hold our attention to the beauty and sorrow of his land.
How sad then to learn that while our attention has strayed from the tsunami
victims, their lives remain affected by the wall of water which razed towns
and villages along the northern shores. Conversely,
TRIP Canada 
(Tsunami
Rebuilding Involvement Program) proposes to send
volunteers to devastated regions of Sri Lanka to help rebuild homes.
Using the resources of
Developing World Connections, TRIP Canada suggests that people with real
compassion, practical skills and some time to volunteer can change the lives
of the needy and of themselves. DWC, originally established by Rotary club
members, is a Canadian non-profit, charitable organization that plans
travel, cultural learning and projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Guatemala
for individuals.
In the context of the shaky and oft-broken truce between the Sinhalese and Tamil peoples, Sri Lanka was taken unawares by the tsunami of December 2005 and has little capacity to restore safe housing and community services to its population. Information on TRIP Canada comes to us from Linda Harvey-Rioux of Parkside CI. Like the Common Threads projects around sweatshop labour in South America and HIV/AIDS’ ravages in Africa, TRIPS is an eye-opening opportunity for District 11 teachers and, through them, for their students.
For more information on opportunities to help, or resources around Human Rights and the Status of Women:
 | the Human Rights and Status of Women links on the OSSTF District 11 Website | ||
| an Action Resource Launch Party of the Human Rights / Status of Women group (All are welcome to come!) | ||
| your branch’s Human Rights Committee
representative or Branch President (Ask
about Take Action!)
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| web-sites for Developing World Connections, The League of Canadian Poets, or OSSTF Provincial office | ||
| Information about TRIP Canada (Tsunami
Rebuilding Involvement Program) |
Moreover, if you have a human rights story, get in touch. Tell us!
