A diplomatic event

Last week, I attended a reception hosted by the Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN, Prasad Kariawasam. The event was sponsored by the South Asian Journalists Association (yes, believe it or not, there are enough South Asian journalists around to form an association!!) and the Dean of Students at Columbia, who happens to be South Asian, allowed us aspiring journos to attend as well.

So, there we were, at the oppulent apartment of the Ambassador, complete with white gloved door-men, elevator-men, corridor-men, you name it. ("Note: this is how the other side lives," our Dean told us as we gazed around us with our jaws dropping. Well, I didn't go into journalism for the money, I have to keep reminding myself! I went into it for the love of ferreting out the TRUTH, the unadulterated facts. Even though that means I'll never get to have door-men, elevator-men and corridor-men!)

Anyway, the reception itself was very pleasant. Tasty finger foods, very pleasant company, and a very good conversation with Mr. Kariawasam, who was duly excited to discover that there was a Sri Lankan journalism student at Columbia. I asked him quite innocently, if he was Tamil or Singhalese - since he said he was from Galle (a Singhalese area), but his name sounded Tamil - a question that, in Sri Lanka, can be taken as an attempt to decide if the subject of the question is friend or foe. He looked taken aback, and then started laughing. He did answer my question, though - Singhalese, and we chatted about the difficulty these days of figuring out where a person is from based on their name alone!

He made a brief speech, thanking everyone for coming, etc. Although he was the true diplomat, careful not to ruffle any feathers, he did unwittingly ruffle a few of mine. One statement in particular. In talking about the conflict, he said that "we" are fighting the Tamil rebels. True, he is part of the Sri Lankan government, and as such, the statement is true, for it is the Government that is fighting them. But, it also made me realise anew the huge divide in Sri Lanka between the Government and the Tamil people. Because when the Government says "we", it means the Singhalese, those who are, at least theoretically, on the side of the Government in the civil war that has been tearing the country apart. His statement made me realise that the Government doesn't even want to make a show of representing the Tamil people, because the "we" in his statement certainly doesn't include the Tamils.

It made me angry, but the impromptu press conference didn't allow much time for probing questions. I expect to go back and talk to him at length about a lot of topics he talked about - the peace process, tsunami aid, the economy (the enormous growth in the stock market!) to name a few (I made friends with his first and second secretaries, so that should be easy!). I'll nail him then!!

Incidentally, the President of Sri Lanka is speaking at an event on Sept. 14, and I'm going!! That should definitely be a blogable event!