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2007-09-30 Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Air Force sez LTTEs key sea training base is destroyed

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Posted by Seafarious 2007-09-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 I always found this conflict unusually interesting for a 'small' war. Part of it, I guess, is the quirkiness - like the impromptu Tiger airforce, but mostly because it seems like a bunch of guys choosing up sides to re-enact small scale Harpoon scenarios.

But recently, I've lost track of this conflict. IIRC, there was a truce between the Lankans and the Tigers. So have hostilities resumed in earnest? Is this a truce-fire? A fight to the death? And who is winning?

And finally, here is the obligatory All your sea training base are belong to us reference.

Posted by SteveS 2007-09-30 19:54|| 2007-09-30 19:54|| Front Page Top

#2 Just a little history on the subject: See Victor Heiser's 1936 book, "An American Doctor's Odyssey" for more details.

Heiser was a remarkable man who survived the Johnstown Flood and, without anything left of his family or possessions, managed to work his way through medical school. He passed an exam for the Marine Corps medical corps in his 20s and found a lot of work to be done in public health. He worked for the Marines, for the US Govt in the Phillippines, and for the Rockefeller public health program that eliminated hookworm in the US and around the world.

The British treated any coolie labor worse than animals. They imported large numbers of Tamils from South India to work their Sri Lankan tea plantations. The coolies were dying like rats because of the miserable sanitation conditions--dysentery and hookworm anemia. Heiser was trying to get the planters to reduce morbidity from hookworm infestation among the workers. Moral arguments for providing simple sanitation for the workers fell on deaf ears, so Heiser calculated in pounds and pence just how much money the tea planters could save if they provided privies and taught the workers to use them. Money talked where compassion couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Posted by mom">mom 2007-09-30 20:30|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]">[http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2007-09-30 20:30|| Front Page Top

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