TamilNet

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Okay.

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We're live.

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Hi, Camila.

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Helena. Hi, everybody.

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Welcome to our friend, the computer.

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Happy End of the year.

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Yes, it's the end of the year.

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Which means that I'm going
to be editing tomorrow on the 31st,

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which I think will be fine,
because there's nothing really to do

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on the during the day.

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Yeah, during. During the day.

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So, yeah.

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Just so sad about the.

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Yeah. No.

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Do you like Instagram round up
you have pick

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your 1010 best photos of the year
to post on the carousel on your Instagram.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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Do Spotify rant, listen to some songs,

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the Beyonce album and just reminisce.

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That was a fabulous year.

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So before we start, I'm
so excited about this episode

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that you're going to
you're going to tell us all about.

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But I

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yeah, I wanted to just talk really briefly
about an event I went to

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and I did a little poster out Instagram,
but I went to this

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like one day event that Rhizome
put on at the new museum, and it was

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sort of centered around this

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like computer program,

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artistic project called Cyber Powwow.

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And it was so it was so good.

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It was this.

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So the whole event was really great.

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It was like a pop up exhibition
and a panel discussion.

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But cyber powwow was this

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like chat interface exhibition platform,

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and I thought that you would

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love that, Ana, because you run an online
exhibition platform

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and like a virtual world

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called Cyber Powwow,
and it was started in 1997 in Canada

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by the Nation to Nation Collective,
which consisted of Ryan Rice,

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Eric Robertson and Scarnati,
who was in person at the event.

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And they described it as an Aboriginal
determined territory in cyberspace.

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So it used this popular
computer program called the Palace.

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Did you ever use a palace?

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No interface, I think I did. It.

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Was this like use graphical chat room.

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There

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was a bunch of them and that's
where the palace was, Where those.

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Did you ever see those?

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I'm a slightly older than you.

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The dolls, like little avatars.

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No, not that either. Sorry.

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Maybe I should do an episode on Dolls.

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There were these little avatars
that were kind of like, sort of,

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I guess, like, sexy,
a bit like Bratz dolls.

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And they had different fashions,
and you could like who?

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There were websites, offshoots
that you could, like, create your own.

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But they were
they got really popular on Palace

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chat rooms,
but they had all sorts of different ones.

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And I can't remember what I
when I used it,

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but they were sort of like Club Penguin,

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you know, like that style
have our hotel like pre those ones.

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So it was a kind of a graphical

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like a, a graphic background, so like
an image of something, a room, whatever.

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And then people that came in
could like pop up on the screen

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as avatars, as little images
with their name, and you could like chat.

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And yeah, it was a program
that was used for all sorts of things, but

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Cyberpower used this, but they used it
as this kind of like graphical chat room,

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but also to create a

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space for like exhibition.

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So they would have these different rooms
that you could enter

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by clicking a link.

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Yeah, I'm seeing a little window of what
the, the palace window would look like

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and I'm seeing like little cartoon
tapes in the background

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and it says, Click on a teepee

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to go to another room and see art.

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And then there's a person at the front
that says, Choose a cool avatar

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and make your own. And then, yeah, yeah.

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Q Mm hmm.

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And then you could, like,
talk with people within those spaces.

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And they mostly presented works
by Indigenous artists

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and it was, yeah, it was great.

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I hadn't heard of it before.

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Rhizomes
going through the process of restoring it

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and some of it's available now,
but they're doing a lot more

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and I was able to play around with it
on some of the old computers.

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They had a in like the Sky Room
or whatever it's called.

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They had a
like the top floor of the new museum.

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They had a presentation with with ephemera

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and then also some of some computers
so you could access it

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and Yeah, and scavenger

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is such a wonderful artist and it was
really great to hear more about her work.

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But specifically she,
she gave me all this talk

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how like later projects of hers

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could be seen
as linking back to cyber powwow,

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including she created like
a sort of next version of it within Second

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Life and sort of plays around
with ideas of avatars and things as well.

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Yeah, and it was just really nice
to hear about her, sort of like this

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decades long interest
in digital colonialism, saying

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creating spaces
for like gatherings and community

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and even some questions around
what it means and what it looks like

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to be indigenous within digital space

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and just a continue continuous
investigation

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into this since the nineties, since the eighties, even I think she was doing stuff.

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But yeah, it was just really great.

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You should I'll put a link in the

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in the show notes
so you can say what they have online but

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the end of the whole panel is the panel
discussion is available

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now to they record
it and I asked a question so you might oh

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what question did you ask? What did I ask.

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I think I was asking about
it's a restoration,

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but I guess I was wondering about
they wanted it to be accessible.

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And because it was such a

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interactive sort of community thing,
I was kind of wondering

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when they're putting it online again,
how they're viewing it.

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Like, is it just a
is it like a an artifact,

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you know, from the past that
now we can look at?

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Or are they hoping that it will continue
and and continue growing?

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And something that's the question wasn't
the answer was more that it was Yeah.

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More just like an artifact
that it wasn't something that they were

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really considering as

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continually evolving

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because obviously, like I said, the,

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the sort of ideas and things have evolved
since then.

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So to go back to this now,
it's really great to look back on it.

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But yeah, and

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I think there's only so much you can do
when you're trying to restore a website.

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Yeah, like
even though you're making it visible

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and you're making the interactions
a little bit more accessible,

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there's still other technological limits
that won't allow

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people to kind of use it in the same way

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that people
would have engaged in in the past.

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And it sort of felt
a little like wandering

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through a deserted gallery or something
because there weren't

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like these this, these digital spaces
in cyber powwow would have been

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filled with

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people at the time chatting and, and,
you know, activity

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and talking and discussions
within the artworks.

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But when I entered it,
there wasn't anybody else in there.

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So I just sort of clicked around
and it was really great

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to see the artworks and experience
what it felt like it was on.

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It was also on like a
I think a XP, Windows XP.

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So it was very weird to bring back

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some old muscle memory of how to navigate

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Windows XP because I had to open the
I was the first one to use it on the

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on that computer.
So I had to like, open it.

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But yeah, it's sort of

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it was a strange feeling.

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I am. I am.

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Yeah.

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Really glad that they're doing it
and it was fascinating.

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You should watch the panel
discussion actually.

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And I think you would find it.

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I think I will.

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Yeah, if I have time.

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Another question someone asked

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that was really interesting was
about moderation because it's a chat room.

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And firstly, was the chat room back
then moderated?

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And secondly, will it be moderated in
the new like the accessible version now?

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And the
answer is I don't think they've decided

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what's going to happen with the current
like iteration.

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But yeah, in the past they were like,
we didn't know what motivation was

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that didn't exist.

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That wasn't the thing.

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If people came in
and they were being like,

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you know, dickheads,
we'd just kick them out,

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I guess like the people in that
it wasn't that big of an issue,

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that they needed someone to actually make
sort of like executive decisions.

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Yeah.

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So there was an, an executive,
there was the people on the chat

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that were the mudder
Raiders themselves, right?

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I think so, yeah.

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I like that.

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We all have a responsibility, Right. Mm.

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Cute.

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I will give that a watch.

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Yeah.

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And I feel like that links

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sort of slightly in with, with the topic
that we're doing today.

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Yeah.

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I was wondering about the name of this

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because of the episode of the episode.
Yeah.

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Because I wanted to call it Tamal Net,

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which is the main website
that we'll be covering.

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But the thing is
that will actually be covering

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quite a few different websites
and we'll talk about the Tamil

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population and Sri Lanka
and the history of it

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and the online presence
that Tamil people have.

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But I kind of

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want to call it Tamil net

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just because it sounds a little bit
more like, you know, this is a space.

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Yeah, I think if that's sort of the main
the main website that we're covering,

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we could call it. Yeah. Yeah.

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Okay, cool. Let's call it that.

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Yeah. It's a little bit more catchy.

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Yeah. Let's call it time on that.

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But I guess this is like a disclosure
that it's not just about Tamil net,

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but it's a big kind of amalgamation

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of, of websites and a whole network.

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But yeah, I mean I guess before I give

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kind of a detailed account
of Tamil Ellen online,

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I'll just give a brief description
of the Tamil history and Sri Lanka.

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The Tamil people

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are historically referred to as the small,
like self-sufficient population

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in the north of the island

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of Salon slash Sri Lanka.

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But Tamil people are largely scattered
around this area

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and are basically Dravidian
ethno linguistic group

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who trace their ancestry mainly to India's
southern state of Tamil Nadu.

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And when

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Tamils from southern India were brought
to Sri Lanka during Portuguese, Dutch

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and British colonial occupation
starting roughly

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in 1597 and lasted for 351 years,

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that number of the Tamil residents
just boomed

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and this influx initiated resentment
among the Sinhalese

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because the colonial Brits
were pretty much boosting

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the Tamil people as better workers
and gave them the sort of superior status.

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Do you know why they why they did that?

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I I'm not sure.

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I think it could be a motivational tactic,

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but I don't really know
what the psychology was.

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It's I mean, none of this like British
colonialism ever really makes sense.

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Like all that logic is rooted in extreme
race racism.

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So, yeah, exactly.

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Yeah.

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The British then decided
to create a single state of that area

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that they called Salon
with the government located in Colombo,

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which was a majority Sinhalese area
and became the capital

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even after the island's independence
from colonial rule in 1948.

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The government
wanted to rectify injustices

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that the British rule imposed
and decided to kind of

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basically segregate and disenfranchize
most of the Tamil population

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who did not speak Sinhalese
nor practiced Buddhism.

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So they kind of considered to them

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to be this like reminder
and symbol of colonial subjugation

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which prevailed for so long
that eventually instigated,

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you know, violence between Tamil
guerrillas and Sinhalese government

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troops in I think it was 1983

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and thousands of people were killed
during this event.

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Several ceasefires
were called throughout the eighties.

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But disagreement and violence continued.

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Peace plans haven't been achieved
and the country still remains unified.

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00:13:40,786 --> 00:13:44,890
Although the Tamils want to become an
independent state called Eelam.

245
00:13:44,990 --> 00:13:47,726
Situated in the north,

246
00:13:47,726 --> 00:13:49,562
I was first drawn

247
00:13:49,562 --> 00:13:54,200
to this history
by an exhibition at the ICJ here in London

248
00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:58,671
by Christopher Callender,
and Thomas called Another World.

249
00:13:58,771 --> 00:14:01,807
It explores the visions of the Tamil

250
00:14:01,807 --> 00:14:05,911
Eelam liberation movement
as a prompt for alternative

251
00:14:05,911 --> 00:14:10,983
possible futures
through the help of its virtual project.

252
00:14:11,050 --> 00:14:15,888
So what's what's the what's the virtual
what's the virtual project?

253
00:14:15,988 --> 00:14:21,093
So the virtual well, I guess
we'll get into that eventually later.

254
00:14:21,093 --> 00:14:24,530
Okay. But essentially

255
00:14:24,630 --> 00:14:26,699
the Tamil population managed

256
00:14:26,699 --> 00:14:31,003
to utilize cyberspace

257
00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:36,742
and they created loads of web sites
which tried to create a sort of

258
00:14:36,742 --> 00:14:41,046
but narrative of recognition of Eelam
as a state

259
00:14:41,113 --> 00:14:44,116
that this
this exhibition is like a new, new.

260
00:14:44,316 --> 00:14:45,217
Yeah.

261
00:14:45,217 --> 00:14:48,988
So this exhibition is a new project,
but it takes inspiration

262
00:14:48,988 --> 00:14:52,258
from Tamil Eelam online.

263
00:14:52,324 --> 00:14:53,192
Cool.

264
00:14:53,192 --> 00:14:56,862
And he does a lot of work
around this idea of like new Eelam,

265
00:14:56,962 --> 00:15:02,001
which is like the cybernetic construction
of a new type of citizenship.

266
00:15:02,234 --> 00:15:02,801
What?

267
00:15:02,801 --> 00:15:04,003
What is that?

268
00:15:04,003 --> 00:15:07,006
What's the new what's the new type of.

269
00:15:07,172 --> 00:15:08,807
So I guess that's the question.

270
00:15:08,807 --> 00:15:13,078
I guess a citizenship
that isn't linked to borders, something

271
00:15:13,078 --> 00:15:19,051
that is a little bit more fluid, doesn't
really have a geopolitical linkage.

272
00:15:19,118 --> 00:15:20,119
But yeah, I guess so.

273
00:15:20,119 --> 00:15:22,121
Like digital space.

274
00:15:22,121 --> 00:15:25,391
Using space is like a way. Yeah. Mm hmm.

275
00:15:25,491 --> 00:15:31,030
And creating this new
sort of form of nationalism or even just

276
00:15:31,096 --> 00:15:34,466
exploring what nationalism really can
mean.

277
00:15:34,533 --> 00:15:37,536
Bfsi It is a lot of work around that.

278
00:15:37,803 --> 00:15:42,574
And he's, he's
quite an interesting artist,

279
00:15:42,641 --> 00:15:45,511
but yeah, so he's English and Sri Lankan

280
00:15:45,511 --> 00:15:50,249
and he even recites his Tamil family's
emigration journey.

281
00:15:50,249 --> 00:15:55,688
In a talk at the 2017 Verbier Arts Summit.

282
00:15:55,754 --> 00:15:58,691
And he says this is a transcript.

283
00:15:58,691 --> 00:16:03,762
For three decades during the Sri Lankan
civil war, the Tamil homeland of Eelam

284
00:16:03,762 --> 00:16:09,335
was self-governed as an independent place
led by a neo-Marxist revolution.

285
00:16:09,401 --> 00:16:14,340
It was supposed to be an autonomous nation
based on equality for all, irrespective

286
00:16:14,340 --> 00:16:18,210
of class, gender, race,
faith or sexuality.

287
00:16:18,277 --> 00:16:22,448
But this idea was eventually crushed
by an authoritarian president,

288
00:16:22,514 --> 00:16:25,217
so my family left that corrupt pretense

289
00:16:25,217 --> 00:16:28,487
of democracy
to look for a better life in the West.

290
00:16:28,587 --> 00:16:32,458
And I have to emphasize that

291
00:16:32,524 --> 00:16:36,428
the war was a high tech and high

292
00:16:36,495 --> 00:16:41,934
velocity war with exceptionally,
you know, well-armed freedom fighters

293
00:16:41,934 --> 00:16:45,838
who managed to withstand government
force for decades,

294
00:16:45,838 --> 00:16:50,909
even though this was a relatively small
population in comparison to the country.

295
00:16:50,976 --> 00:16:55,681
I also need to say that
just for just disclosure, although my

296
00:16:55,714 --> 00:16:57,916
you know, research on this does
come out of like

297
00:16:57,916 --> 00:17:03,122
a very positive fascination
with the liberation movement, I don't

298
00:17:03,188 --> 00:17:06,291
condone violence in general,
even though I do believe, you know,

299
00:17:06,325 --> 00:17:10,896
violence is necessary
when fighting for rights in some cases.

300
00:17:10,963 --> 00:17:14,500
But the war,
what is essentially become a civil war

301
00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:17,970
in Sri Lanka was traumatizing and awful.

302
00:17:17,970 --> 00:17:22,107
And I don't know what life was like
for the people that lived through it.

303
00:17:22,107 --> 00:17:23,575
I can't speak for that.

304
00:17:23,575 --> 00:17:25,878
But, you know,
people have died in the process.

305
00:17:25,878 --> 00:17:29,882
Families, children, innocent people.

306
00:17:29,948 --> 00:17:33,552
I do also think that

307
00:17:33,652 --> 00:17:38,323
the Western and Australian media
that had their eyes on the conflict

308
00:17:38,424 --> 00:17:41,960
at the time were unfair to the
to the Tamil Tigers,

309
00:17:41,994 --> 00:17:43,228
especially during a period

310
00:17:43,228 --> 00:17:48,200
when the topic of terrorism
was so sensitive and kind of novel.

311
00:17:48,300 --> 00:17:50,702
Yeah,
there's a lot to unpack there obviously,

312
00:17:50,702 --> 00:17:55,074
and will not get into this right now, but
I guess like you must have probably heard

313
00:17:55,107 --> 00:17:58,844
things growing up in Australia, right,
about the Tamil Tigers.

314
00:17:58,844 --> 00:18:03,549
Well, I was just going to bring it up
very briefly like I was very young

315
00:18:03,615 --> 00:18:06,618
when this was happening. And,

316
00:18:06,618 --> 00:18:11,590
you know, I was I was looking
over your notes for for this. And

317
00:18:11,657 --> 00:18:17,162
and it had been like a minute
since I had heard the phrase Tamil Tiger.

318
00:18:17,229 --> 00:18:19,765
And and when I was reading about it,

319
00:18:19,765 --> 00:18:23,202
like I was thinking over it again and

320
00:18:23,268 --> 00:18:29,141
I yeah,
I don't remember much of the actual

321
00:18:29,241 --> 00:18:30,742
discussion around it

322
00:18:30,742 --> 00:18:34,613
or even like seeing it on TV,

323
00:18:34,713 --> 00:18:37,950
but I did have this like vague sense

324
00:18:37,950 --> 00:18:41,286
that it was like a very dangerous thing.

325
00:18:41,286 --> 00:18:46,758
It was, yeah, there's like
some weird memory sense sort of vibe

326
00:18:46,859 --> 00:18:50,496
that I have from my,
like very early childhood.

327
00:18:50,562 --> 00:18:53,432
And it's interesting to hear you say about
like the Australian media

328
00:18:53,432 --> 00:18:57,069
because that must that's it, you know,
I mean, like my

329
00:18:57,136 --> 00:18:59,371
I don't really know how to explain it, but

330
00:18:59,371 --> 00:19:03,976
I guess Australia is so close to
Sri Lanka as well that it's

331
00:19:04,076 --> 00:19:04,610
I can see

332
00:19:04,610 --> 00:19:07,646
why we
would be having more like media around it.

333
00:19:07,646 --> 00:19:12,684
But yeah, yeah,
a lot of the press that covered

334
00:19:12,751 --> 00:19:17,189
the stories were Australian,
even if they worked for the BBC worldwide

335
00:19:17,356 --> 00:19:21,560
and it was broadcasted,
you know, to Europe and America.

336
00:19:21,660 --> 00:19:23,862
But yeah, yeah.

337
00:19:23,862 --> 00:19:27,633
So a lot of the documentaries
that I was researching

338
00:19:27,633 --> 00:19:30,469
that were produced were Australian

339
00:19:30,469 --> 00:19:33,772
and I would say they were quite harsh
towards the representation

340
00:19:33,772 --> 00:19:38,677
of the intention of,
yeah, what the Tigers were actually doing.

341
00:19:38,877 --> 00:19:45,350
But yeah,
I mean it was also visually very shocking

342
00:19:45,450 --> 00:19:49,021
because like I said, you know,
they were very well armed.

343
00:19:49,087 --> 00:19:54,092
Women were most definitely
amongst the front lines as complete equals

344
00:19:54,092 --> 00:19:59,932
in the fight, and teenagers were sometimes
the majority of the soldier population.

345
00:20:00,032 --> 00:20:04,303
And these fighters which called that,
you know, Tamil Tigers,

346
00:20:04,403 --> 00:20:08,907
used video footage and news outlets
to create a propaganda very efficiently,

347
00:20:08,907 --> 00:20:13,078
even though Western media
remain to be very anti-Islam

348
00:20:13,145 --> 00:20:14,947
and kind of dub them terrorist.

349
00:20:14,947 --> 00:20:17,216
Yeah, I'm just looking it up
now. Actually.

350
00:20:17,216 --> 00:20:20,219
I found an article in the Irish Times

351
00:20:20,452 --> 00:20:23,455
about Australia putting the Tamil Tigers
on a terrorist list

352
00:20:23,455 --> 00:20:27,492
and this stressed out the Tigers
and they were disappointed and shocked

353
00:20:27,492 --> 00:20:32,431
by the West's accusation of terrorism,
especially with the event of 911.

354
00:20:32,431 --> 00:20:34,967
Like I mentioned,
which happened around the same time

355
00:20:34,967 --> 00:20:38,704
that the guerrilla movement
continued to be very active.

356
00:20:38,870 --> 00:20:40,739
Yeah,

357
00:20:40,806 --> 00:20:42,241
but the

358
00:20:42,241 --> 00:20:47,412
desire for national sovereignty
remained strong, remains strong,

359
00:20:47,512 --> 00:20:52,150
and is even echoed throughout the Internet
by its proliferation

360
00:20:52,150 --> 00:20:55,587
of the phrase Tamil Eelam.

361
00:20:55,654 --> 00:20:58,957
So land and self-governance
has been refused

362
00:20:59,024 --> 00:21:02,494
to Tamils by Sri Lanka
and international governing bodies

363
00:21:02,494 --> 00:21:07,199
such as the United Nations and the Sri
Lankan government has suspended

364
00:21:07,199 --> 00:21:11,069
the entire
Tamil population's rights as citizens,

365
00:21:11,136 --> 00:21:16,675
which led a large number of Tamils
to flee the island for political asylum.

366
00:21:16,908 --> 00:21:21,280
Well, yet
the Tamil diaspora grew even more

367
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:26,251
so into nationally and together
with their compatriots in Sri Lanka,

368
00:21:26,318 --> 00:21:29,755
constitute
the stateless nation of Tamil Eelam.

369
00:21:29,955 --> 00:21:34,960
This is reflected
in these scattered groups presence online

370
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,331
where virtual Tamil Eelam commits itself
to the establishment

371
00:21:39,331 --> 00:21:43,835
of an ethnically homogenous
Tamil nation state.

372
00:21:43,902 --> 00:21:48,240
And Sri Lankan Tamils in diaspora
have been present online

373
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,510
since the early internet days,
posting on Usenet groups

374
00:21:51,510 --> 00:21:56,982
and launching websites in
or even before 1996.

375
00:21:57,049 --> 00:21:59,851
But what does Eelam mean?

376
00:21:59,851 --> 00:22:04,656
So Eelam is the name
of the northern part of Sri Lanka

377
00:22:04,656 --> 00:22:09,294
where they tried to constitute
that as a state geographically.

378
00:22:09,361 --> 00:22:13,532
So it's interesting
that that's like the phrase being used.

379
00:22:13,598 --> 00:22:16,501
I guess that goes back to that idea
that you were saying

380
00:22:16,501 --> 00:22:20,772
earlier
about the like new forms of citizenship.

381
00:22:20,839 --> 00:22:26,611
But, you know, what does that mean to be
from a specific, very specific place?

382
00:22:26,611 --> 00:22:33,018
But you're exploring that or establishing
that through this like digital space?

383
00:22:33,018 --> 00:22:36,455
Yeah, because I think the desire for this

384
00:22:36,521 --> 00:22:42,094
citizenship is still kind of comes out
for the right to inhabit a space,

385
00:22:42,094 --> 00:22:45,931
even though
you might not ever fully occupy it.

386
00:22:45,931 --> 00:22:48,867
There's always this desire
in the background

387
00:22:48,867 --> 00:22:52,037
or motivation in the background
to have your own space and to have a home.

388
00:22:52,170 --> 00:22:57,843
The idea that can transcend and a space
to connect and collect together.

389
00:22:58,076 --> 00:23:02,914
Yeah, if you're if you're so separated,

390
00:23:02,981 --> 00:23:05,450
just like one location to yeah.

391
00:23:05,450 --> 00:23:08,520
To feel the mass of the of the group.

392
00:23:08,687 --> 00:23:12,991
And I think also what Christopher
Callender and Thomas writes about a lot

393
00:23:12,991 --> 00:23:16,261
is especially the phrase new Elam

394
00:23:16,328 --> 00:23:19,798
kind of refers to like this new world.

395
00:23:19,865 --> 00:23:23,468
So even though it might not be physical,
it's kind of this creation

396
00:23:23,468 --> 00:23:27,906
of like a new sovereign nation

397
00:23:27,973 --> 00:23:30,876
and also like there's a little fun
fact here.

398
00:23:30,876 --> 00:23:32,010
Okay.

399
00:23:32,010 --> 00:23:37,082
So the ancient fairy
tale place of Sarah and Deb,

400
00:23:37,149 --> 00:23:41,620
which appears in 1001 nights,

401
00:23:41,686 --> 00:23:46,691
was also the old Arabic name
for the island of Sri Lanka.

402
00:23:46,792 --> 00:23:50,796
Oh, yeah, that's
it's like an ancient fairy tale place.

403
00:23:50,796 --> 00:23:55,567
And and yeah,
and the English word for serendipity means

404
00:23:55,567 --> 00:24:01,306
a fortunate discovery, which was coined
by Arthur Horace Walpole in 1754.

405
00:24:01,306 --> 00:24:06,244
So you can kind of see a wonderful
rom com with John Cusack.

406
00:24:06,311 --> 00:24:10,816
Oh, what serendipity.

407
00:24:10,916 --> 00:24:12,150
Okay, I'll watch it.

408
00:24:12,150 --> 00:24:13,185
I really like it.

409
00:24:13,185 --> 00:24:16,888
One of my best friends, it's like

410
00:24:16,955 --> 00:24:20,492
one of her favorite absolute
favorite films

411
00:24:20,559 --> 00:24:21,726
is it's set in Sri Lanka.

412
00:24:21,726 --> 00:24:25,564
It's set in York.

413
00:24:25,630 --> 00:24:26,832
That's my fun facts.

414
00:24:26,832 --> 00:24:29,734
You know,

415
00:24:29,734 --> 00:24:31,203
so you can kind of see

416
00:24:31,203 --> 00:24:36,374
like the importance of the discovery
of Sri Lanka in the colonial context,

417
00:24:36,374 --> 00:24:39,578
just by the like etymology of the word
serendipity.

418
00:24:39,578 --> 00:24:40,512
Yeah, Yeah.

419
00:24:40,512 --> 00:24:45,217
And it used to be the name for Sri Lanka.

420
00:24:45,283 --> 00:24:47,586
So basically, yeah, since the Sinhalese,

421
00:24:47,586 --> 00:24:51,723
you know,
they kind of assert the insignificance of

422
00:24:51,790 --> 00:24:55,594
Tamil presence before Colonial occupation,

423
00:24:55,660 --> 00:25:00,031
the Tamils really persist through online

424
00:25:00,031 --> 00:25:04,970
documentation that the island contained
these like two coexisting kingdoms

425
00:25:05,070 --> 00:25:10,542
and that they have one of the earliest
written alphabets and

426
00:25:10,609 --> 00:25:13,411
they contain manifestos and lengthy

427
00:25:13,411 --> 00:25:18,650
attestations of their distinct
traditions, heritage and culture,

428
00:25:18,750 --> 00:25:21,286
along with proposing daily activities

429
00:25:21,286 --> 00:25:25,690
that help to kind of claim for
for land and recognition.

430
00:25:25,790 --> 00:25:30,028
And many sites
also include pastimes for families

431
00:25:30,028 --> 00:25:33,865
and kids and forums
for discussion of the topics

432
00:25:33,865 --> 00:25:39,804
that could be of interest to Tamil
Eelam advocates or supporters. Wow.

433
00:25:39,871 --> 00:25:43,241
And these opportunities
to share news and participation

434
00:25:43,341 --> 00:25:47,946
architectures of the site allow visitors
to believe in this communal decision

435
00:25:47,946 --> 00:25:52,050
making and nation building process.

436
00:25:52,117 --> 00:25:56,855
So yeah, basically like virtual
Tamil Eelam really like perpetuates

437
00:25:56,855 --> 00:26:01,993
this insignificance and passion
for diasporic citizenship in a way.

438
00:26:02,093 --> 00:26:04,996
So it's it's kind of like preserving

439
00:26:04,996 --> 00:26:09,200
and archiving
what once was sort of the physical reality

440
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:14,239
or the kind of like physical culture,
but creating this like

441
00:26:14,339 --> 00:26:15,674
living online

442
00:26:15,674 --> 00:26:19,077
version that continues to grow and change,

443
00:26:19,077 --> 00:26:23,214
plus envisioning
possible futures from that.

444
00:26:23,248 --> 00:26:25,350
It's amazing. Exactly.

445
00:26:25,350 --> 00:26:25,717
Yeah.

446
00:26:25,717 --> 00:26:32,390
And this is all reflected in the project's
use of the website, where they also use

447
00:26:32,390 --> 00:26:36,161
the inherent conditions
of the Internet's medium.

448
00:26:36,161 --> 00:26:39,531
You know, the
the network information, communication

449
00:26:39,531 --> 00:26:43,068
and global interconnection
to kind of build this idea of a new world.

450
00:26:43,101 --> 00:26:45,103
Wow. So.

451
00:26:45,103 --> 00:26:48,106
So when was this Where was this started?

452
00:26:48,139 --> 00:26:50,809
Basically since the dot com boom.

453
00:26:50,809 --> 00:26:54,112
So kind of just like early noughties,
anywhere

454
00:26:54,112 --> 00:26:59,150
between 2001 to 2006.

455
00:26:59,150 --> 00:27:02,787
So I would think as Tamil Eelam

456
00:27:02,854 --> 00:27:05,890
was banned in 2005, then towards the end.

457
00:27:05,890 --> 00:27:12,731
But there's a study that came out in 2004
called

458
00:27:12,797 --> 00:27:17,302
Cyber Cafes in Sri Lanka,
Tamil Virtual Communities.

459
00:27:17,402 --> 00:27:20,572
That is the city of well, the what

460
00:27:20,605 --> 00:27:24,376
in Colombo
and focused on the emergence of basically

461
00:27:24,376 --> 00:27:29,881
just like an unprecedented
number of cyber cafes and net two phones.

462
00:27:29,948 --> 00:27:33,318
And yes, it basically this correlates

463
00:27:33,318 --> 00:27:37,188
with the boom of cyber cafes.

464
00:27:37,355 --> 00:27:37,789
Yeah.

465
00:27:37,789 --> 00:27:42,093
And the Internet and phones
that enabled Internet surfing basically

466
00:27:42,193 --> 00:27:45,430
correlates to that and also to how active

467
00:27:45,530 --> 00:27:49,200
the Tamil Tigers were as well.

468
00:27:49,300 --> 00:27:50,268
Hmm. Because

469
00:27:50,268 --> 00:27:53,972
some of the websites would also document
what was happening on the ground.

470
00:27:54,172 --> 00:27:58,476
But this isn't all like
this isn't all Tamil Tiger stuff, right?

471
00:27:58,476 --> 00:28:00,378
It's like Tamil.

472
00:28:00,378 --> 00:28:03,048
No culture. Yeah. And things.

473
00:28:03,048 --> 00:28:08,319
And then some of the sites were more
explicitly about kind of the fighting,

474
00:28:08,386 --> 00:28:10,755
the freedom fighting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

475
00:28:10,755 --> 00:28:11,723
Mm. Yes.

476
00:28:11,723 --> 00:28:14,726
So the main sites are Tamil net

477
00:28:14,826 --> 00:28:17,829
trauma dot com which I can't reach.

478
00:28:17,929 --> 00:28:21,399
Evan web Eelam webcam
which the domain name

479
00:28:21,399 --> 00:28:24,402
now seems to be up for sale
so that looks to be down

480
00:28:24,402 --> 00:28:28,273
and Elan K Tamil Eelam Sangam

481
00:28:28,373 --> 00:28:33,011
which is Sangam dot org
which still is up and running.

482
00:28:33,111 --> 00:28:36,014
So yeah, a lot of the website analysis

483
00:28:36,014 --> 00:28:40,952
I got is from spatial
conceptions of you are

484
00:28:40,952 --> 00:28:44,456
ls the Tamil Eelam
networks on the worldwide web.

485
00:28:44,489 --> 00:28:46,324
That's a great name.

486
00:28:46,324 --> 00:28:49,294
Spatial conceptions of URLs.

487
00:28:49,294 --> 00:28:53,131
Yeah, it's written by Julianna
and Tina for the New Media

488
00:28:53,131 --> 00:28:57,802
and Society Journal
for Northwestern University in 2006.

489
00:28:57,902 --> 00:29:01,606
And yeah, basically just got a lot
of this information from her

490
00:29:01,606 --> 00:29:05,777
because I do not have access to

491
00:29:05,877 --> 00:29:09,447
most of the websites, unfortunately.

492
00:29:09,514 --> 00:29:13,618
But like I said earlier,
they tend to mostly just chart out

493
00:29:13,618 --> 00:29:17,856
the kind of pre-colonial period
where Tamils and Sinhalese

494
00:29:17,922 --> 00:29:20,859
peacefully coexisted on the island

495
00:29:20,859 --> 00:29:25,563
and sometimes even demonstrating
what society

496
00:29:25,630 --> 00:29:29,701
would have been
without colonial domination at all.

497
00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:33,571
Sometimes the site will also argue
that their online presence

498
00:29:33,571 --> 00:29:38,443
is a legitimacy in and of itself
for the kind of recognition

499
00:29:38,443 --> 00:29:42,447
of both their ancient past
and right for autonomy.

500
00:29:42,514 --> 00:29:45,450
And they declare that the virtual,

501
00:29:45,450 --> 00:29:48,453
not just the geopolitical occupation

502
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:52,390
is just as important
for the independence project.

503
00:29:52,457 --> 00:29:56,628
So they kind of envision
like a solid network that facilitates

504
00:29:56,628 --> 00:30:03,034
a constant and engaging dispersal
or exchange of information. Mhm.

505
00:30:03,101 --> 00:30:07,772
And I just want to
look at the domain name.

506
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:11,442
One of the most popular sites, Tamil net

507
00:30:11,543 --> 00:30:16,781
to kind of explore
the motives of the Eelam project. So

508
00:30:16,881 --> 00:30:17,782
first of all, it

509
00:30:17,782 --> 00:30:22,487
uses Tamil, which points to the South
Asian ethnic group specifically,

510
00:30:22,587 --> 00:30:26,791
but most Tamils actually reside in India
where they are

511
00:30:26,791 --> 00:30:30,628
not that concerned with the independence
struggle in Sri Lanka.

512
00:30:30,695 --> 00:30:36,434
And then it uses the word net suggesting
the electronic and electronic network

513
00:30:36,534 --> 00:30:41,606
and then dot com
which explicitly isn't using a domain name

514
00:30:41,606 --> 00:30:47,011
extension that associates itself
with the geographical location because,

515
00:30:47,212 --> 00:30:52,784
you know, LK would be the Internet
country code domain for Sri Lanka.

516
00:30:52,951 --> 00:30:57,121
I wonder if that's also got something
to do with like the timing of it

517
00:30:57,121 --> 00:31:00,091
that it was so early on

518
00:31:00,124 --> 00:31:02,026
in like internet right.

519
00:31:02,026 --> 00:31:07,532
That that maybe the dot com might
have been the only option at the time

520
00:31:07,532 --> 00:31:11,269
because I feel like the country codes
came a bit later.

521
00:31:11,269 --> 00:31:11,836
Yeah that's true.

522
00:31:11,836 --> 00:31:15,540
And that is actually interesting
in and of itself.

523
00:31:15,540 --> 00:31:19,944
I feel like with this to sort of
think about if, if that, if that was

524
00:31:19,944 --> 00:31:24,716
the case, I have done my research,
but the fact that they're entering

525
00:31:24,782 --> 00:31:30,521
and choosing to establish themselves
within this virtual digital space

526
00:31:30,588 --> 00:31:32,423
that at the time perhaps

527
00:31:32,423 --> 00:31:36,628
really didn't have connections
to specific locations

528
00:31:36,628 --> 00:31:41,966
or there was nothing
to denote a different country.

529
00:31:42,033 --> 00:31:45,069
And then I wonder how that would
that feeling shifted

530
00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:49,240
just generally even when different
country codes started to come in?

531
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:50,275
Yeah, that's true.

532
00:31:50,275 --> 00:31:54,045
I guess there's like the point of view

533
00:31:54,045 --> 00:31:58,583
from the marketing side where it's like
you want to use a country code

534
00:31:58,683 --> 00:32:04,055
just to stand out somehow
or if it's relevant in some way.

535
00:32:04,055 --> 00:32:05,957
But yeah, I you're right.

536
00:32:05,957 --> 00:32:11,362
It was definitely like an early time
for the internet and they used

537
00:32:11,462 --> 00:32:14,565
you could tell
how like the use of the domain names

538
00:32:14,565 --> 00:32:19,871
and the use of the websites themselves
were still kind of being explored.

539
00:32:19,971 --> 00:32:26,144
Like even though they used news
media mostly

540
00:32:26,244 --> 00:32:30,782
for the websites to kind of keep things
relevant and up to date.

541
00:32:30,848 --> 00:32:33,751
The sites
also hosted various kind of like fun

542
00:32:33,751 --> 00:32:37,689
techie features
like online stores and games

543
00:32:37,689 --> 00:32:41,059
and desktop backgrounds
that people can download for free.

544
00:32:41,159 --> 00:32:44,429
I have a few things to say that I feel
like I don't know what to say first.

545
00:32:44,562 --> 00:32:46,798
Yeah, I was going to say
that I miss those downloads.

546
00:32:46,798 --> 00:32:47,732
I miss I've started.

547
00:32:47,732 --> 00:32:49,200
Maybe like I've been making some

548
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,736
for my art practice
because they're just they're fun,

549
00:32:51,736 --> 00:32:54,739
like computer backgrounds
and things that you could

550
00:32:54,839 --> 00:32:58,977
download from websites
that was often like a free thing.

551
00:32:59,043 --> 00:33:01,012
And then they say something else.

552
00:33:01,012 --> 00:33:01,879
What was it?

553
00:33:01,879 --> 00:33:04,716
Oh, also, I guess just like the

554
00:33:04,716 --> 00:33:08,419
the use of you were talking
about the participation

555
00:33:08,619 --> 00:33:12,490
architecture of websites
and that that is like.

556
00:33:12,490 --> 00:33:17,161
So it's a way to be interactive
and engaged with a website.

557
00:33:17,161 --> 00:33:22,567
Before that, interactivity was really like
an established concept on websites.

558
00:33:22,633 --> 00:33:26,471
That ability to kind of download
something you got from a website

559
00:33:26,471 --> 00:33:33,077
and then use it in your either your
digital world or even your physical world,

560
00:33:33,177 --> 00:33:33,978
depending on what the

561
00:33:33,978 --> 00:33:38,049
download is, is like a fun concept.

562
00:33:38,116 --> 00:33:39,183
Yeah. Yeah.

563
00:33:39,183 --> 00:33:43,421
I wonder why
we've like moved away from, from that.

564
00:33:43,421 --> 00:33:45,590
I think people just don't want clutter
as well.

565
00:33:45,590 --> 00:33:49,694
Yeah, but also I think that that's
you know, we talked last episode

566
00:33:49,694 --> 00:33:52,597
actually before about, I don't know,
we might have cut it out there.

567
00:33:52,597 --> 00:33:53,498
We got it. Yeah.

568
00:33:53,498 --> 00:33:57,402
I think we could end up having tones and

569
00:33:57,468 --> 00:34:00,938
phones
used to feel really customizable and

570
00:34:01,005 --> 00:34:04,008
because they were all there
with lots of different types of phones

571
00:34:04,042 --> 00:34:07,578
and people were really into those
like downloadable ringtones

572
00:34:07,578 --> 00:34:11,315
that you'd like purchase
or like little things you could like.

573
00:34:11,382 --> 00:34:14,485
I don't know, I feel like and we were
saying I think that it was coming back.

574
00:34:14,685 --> 00:34:17,688
But I do think that the sort of early

575
00:34:17,755 --> 00:34:20,525
Internet, early phone

576
00:34:20,525 --> 00:34:23,628
life was kind of a customizable vibe

577
00:34:23,828 --> 00:34:27,698
and that people enjoyed downloading things
to change stuff up.

578
00:34:27,698 --> 00:34:28,599
And yeah, you'd download

579
00:34:28,599 --> 00:34:33,037
little icon packs to change the
the folder icons on your desktop.

580
00:34:33,037 --> 00:34:34,839
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Things like that.

581
00:34:34,839 --> 00:34:35,373
Yeah.

582
00:34:35,373 --> 00:34:39,710
There's so many little tricks like that
that early websites

583
00:34:39,811 --> 00:34:40,912
really love to play with.

584
00:34:40,912 --> 00:34:47,618
Like it's
even just the idea of posting news

585
00:34:47,685 --> 00:34:51,522
like general news and current affairs
to websites is quite interesting as well

586
00:34:51,522 --> 00:34:55,993
because so the site's kind of
in assist visitors to come back

587
00:34:55,993 --> 00:35:00,932
by letting them in with you know
obviously like the the the relevant news

588
00:35:00,998 --> 00:35:05,303
up to date news articles
but also like with these consumer tactics

589
00:35:05,403 --> 00:35:10,875
and some of the desktop background
designs have Wayne waves on them

590
00:35:10,975 --> 00:35:13,644
which is quite interesting
because apparently waves

591
00:35:13,644 --> 00:35:17,281
represent resistance
committed by the Tamil Tigers

592
00:35:17,281 --> 00:35:21,719
as well as like an esthetic reference
to the former island of Salon.

593
00:35:21,752 --> 00:35:23,154
Yeah,

594
00:35:23,221 --> 00:35:24,388
and most

595
00:35:24,388 --> 00:35:28,626
of the sites are written in English, but
they encourage learning the Tamil language

596
00:35:28,626 --> 00:35:32,930
and how to write Tamil script
on a computer and on the internet.

597
00:35:33,030 --> 00:35:33,764
Well, right.

598
00:35:33,764 --> 00:35:38,803
So it was sort of like
it was for the Tamil diaspora

599
00:35:38,870 --> 00:35:41,405
to have like a place

600
00:35:41,405 --> 00:35:45,510
to collect and to to feel connected.

601
00:35:45,576 --> 00:35:48,513
But it was also to kind of

602
00:35:48,513 --> 00:35:53,317
teach other people about their culture
and wow, yeah, yeah.

603
00:35:53,317 --> 00:35:56,087
Anyone that was interested,
literally anyone.

604
00:35:56,087 --> 00:35:57,989
Yeah.

605
00:35:57,989 --> 00:36:01,626
And the representation of maps
is interesting too.

606
00:36:01,692 --> 00:36:05,463
For example,
the homepage of Islam dot com showed a map

607
00:36:05,463 --> 00:36:08,866
at the top of the main page,
which was like a heart shaped island

608
00:36:08,866 --> 00:36:13,471
with a dark pink field symbol
symbolizing the nation.

609
00:36:13,538 --> 00:36:17,575
And he writes that the outline suggests

610
00:36:17,642 --> 00:36:22,446
a version of Tamil Eelam removed
from the physicality of its location

611
00:36:22,446 --> 00:36:28,452
and a common form of representation
that Tamils abroad deploy.

612
00:36:28,519 --> 00:36:32,557
And to be honest, even when you just
Google image search Tamil map,

613
00:36:32,623 --> 00:36:37,595
the map of Tamil Nadu comes up,
which is just the alleged origin,

614
00:36:37,595 --> 00:36:40,598
you know, of Tamil people,
as I mentioned in the beginning.

615
00:36:40,631 --> 00:36:44,035
So that represents
just a fraction of the population,

616
00:36:44,101 --> 00:36:48,573
let alone completely ignores
Sri Lankan Tamils and.

617
00:36:48,573 --> 00:36:53,844
ELAM So are there any sites
that like specifically address

618
00:36:53,911 --> 00:36:55,746
like the diaspora sections of

619
00:36:55,746 --> 00:36:59,350
the diaspora, like Tamils that live
in like specific other countries,

620
00:36:59,350 --> 00:37:04,355
or is it all kind of a group groups
sort of together

621
00:37:04,422 --> 00:37:05,957
under the one? Yes.

622
00:37:05,957 --> 00:37:10,328
So the Lanka Tamil Eelam Sangam,
which is also known

623
00:37:10,328 --> 00:37:15,366
as the Association of Tamils of Eelam
and Sri Lanka in the U.S.,

624
00:37:15,433 --> 00:37:17,802
defines citizenship

625
00:37:17,802 --> 00:37:21,038
by identification rather than placement.

626
00:37:21,172 --> 00:37:24,175
Placement like location. Yeah. Okay.

627
00:37:24,242 --> 00:37:26,310
Even though they are aware of their U.S.

628
00:37:26,310 --> 00:37:27,945
borders.

629
00:37:27,945 --> 00:37:30,147
So the website makes it clear
kind of standpoint

630
00:37:30,147 --> 00:37:34,785
that Tamil ex-patriots
who reside in liberal democracies are,

631
00:37:34,885 --> 00:37:37,955
and I quote, the only voice

632
00:37:37,955 --> 00:37:41,759
through
which the voiceless Tamils can speak.

633
00:37:41,826 --> 00:37:44,295
And the Eelam web website

634
00:37:44,295 --> 00:37:48,399
letter states
our people are strength and shows images

635
00:37:48,399 --> 00:37:51,535
of demonstrations in Europe
like France, Germany,

636
00:37:51,535 --> 00:37:56,507
Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
and North America as well.

637
00:37:56,607 --> 00:37:58,142
And this kind of like,

638
00:37:58,142 --> 00:38:02,013
you know, portrays
the limitations of location

639
00:38:02,013 --> 00:38:05,049
by depicting the nation as like a network

640
00:38:05,049 --> 00:38:09,954
and that it's the participants
that form Eelam web.

641
00:38:10,021 --> 00:38:12,290
So the the Christopher Calandra

642
00:38:12,290 --> 00:38:16,227
and Thomas show that was a ACA

643
00:38:16,294 --> 00:38:18,763
that work is it
so we've been talking about

644
00:38:18,763 --> 00:38:22,800
the like the original websites
and community

645
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:27,371
that sort of came up
in the 2000s of nineties twins.

646
00:38:27,438 --> 00:38:30,441
But his work in that show, that's like

647
00:38:30,641 --> 00:38:35,112
is it using that as an archive
to create new work or it

648
00:38:35,146 --> 00:38:39,383
like responds to it
how how are they linked

649
00:38:39,383 --> 00:38:42,720
and what's he trying to do it
just responds to it

650
00:38:42,787 --> 00:38:46,524
But he he's making like a virtual project.

651
00:38:46,590 --> 00:38:48,459
Yeah. As well. Yeah.

652
00:38:48,459 --> 00:38:51,395
But I think he's also invested in like

653
00:38:51,395 --> 00:38:56,133
this idea of kind of subverting rentier

654
00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:00,271
and subscription models
to create like housing.

655
00:39:00,471 --> 00:39:05,042
He, I think he wanted to make at one point
this,

656
00:39:05,109 --> 00:39:08,612
this housing for people where you're just
paying for a subscription

657
00:39:08,612 --> 00:39:12,283
and then it gives you like a house
and you might move

658
00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:13,984
and you might exchange it
with other people.

659
00:39:13,984 --> 00:39:17,121
But he kind of believes in the fact
that after a long period of time,

660
00:39:17,121 --> 00:39:20,291
the subscription service
will be able to pay itself off

661
00:39:20,291 --> 00:39:23,294
and then people will
eventually have like free housing.

662
00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:29,500
So he's kind of like interested
in these techie new rentier

663
00:39:29,567 --> 00:39:35,439
things that can liberate us and actually
execute quite leftist desires.

664
00:39:35,439 --> 00:39:36,340
But interesting.

665
00:39:36,340 --> 00:39:36,707
Yeah.

666
00:39:36,707 --> 00:39:41,112
So yeah, he

667
00:39:41,178 --> 00:39:45,015
also underpins
the kind of construction of identity

668
00:39:45,116 --> 00:39:48,119
through the idea of exit or expats

669
00:39:48,319 --> 00:39:51,288
in the speech I mentioned earlier.

670
00:39:51,288 --> 00:39:55,292
And he says the economist Albert Hershman
makes the argument

671
00:39:55,292 --> 00:40:01,766
that the possibility of exit gives power
to the exercising of Democratic voice.

672
00:40:01,766 --> 00:40:06,203
And his biggest example of
this is actually that of America.

673
00:40:06,270 --> 00:40:06,837
Yeah.

674
00:40:06,837 --> 00:40:13,077
And in April 2005, the editor of Tamil net

675
00:40:13,144 --> 00:40:18,682
Dama Linga Sivaraman, was abducted
and killed by unknown gunmen.

676
00:40:18,816 --> 00:40:20,317
What?

677
00:40:20,317 --> 00:40:22,486
According to the BBC

678
00:40:22,486 --> 00:40:26,290
News Sinhala,
his body was found near the parliament.

679
00:40:26,290 --> 00:40:28,759
Inside the high security zone.

680
00:40:28,759 --> 00:40:31,562
The police is yet to find the assassin.

681
00:40:31,562 --> 00:40:35,433
This followed Tamil
net to be blocked by all major

682
00:40:35,433 --> 00:40:39,804
internet service providers in Sri Lanka
on the orders of the government.

683
00:40:39,870 --> 00:40:42,740
Well, Telnet was that suspicious?

684
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:46,343
Yeah, I mean, it was instrumental
in the self-determination of Eelam

685
00:40:46,343 --> 00:40:50,247
and the government obviously
saw its power and wanted to shut it down

686
00:40:50,247 --> 00:40:51,182
once and for all.

687
00:40:51,182 --> 00:40:55,286
So even though Tamil Net wasn't
the one that was specifically looking

688
00:40:55,286 --> 00:40:59,323
at like fighting or anything like that,
it was more just a

689
00:40:59,390 --> 00:41:04,962
I guess establishment
or a demonstration of, of culture

690
00:41:05,062 --> 00:41:06,063
that was that was

691
00:41:06,063 --> 00:41:09,900
enough that it was dangerous
to them, to the government.

692
00:41:10,100 --> 00:41:15,573
Well, they were also posting
what was happening

693
00:41:15,673 --> 00:41:17,107
on the front lines.

694
00:41:17,107 --> 00:41:17,408
Yeah.

695
00:41:17,408 --> 00:41:20,411
So they were covering lot of the footage.

696
00:41:20,544 --> 00:41:22,947
They had a lot of video footage
of that too.

697
00:41:22,947 --> 00:41:26,183
So but yeah,
I mean, these were just updates

698
00:41:26,350 --> 00:41:29,353
of what was actually happening.

699
00:41:29,453 --> 00:41:32,356
Again, not really sure who killed him.

700
00:41:32,356 --> 00:41:35,593
Basically a former member of

701
00:41:35,693 --> 00:41:37,595
the People's Liberation Organization

702
00:41:37,595 --> 00:41:40,931
of Tamil Eelam,

703
00:41:41,031 --> 00:41:42,199
which is a former

704
00:41:42,199 --> 00:41:45,236
Tamil militant group
that had become a pro-government

705
00:41:45,236 --> 00:41:49,006
military group and political party,
has been accused of the murder.

706
00:41:49,006 --> 00:41:54,011
But the Tigers accused the government
and Colonel Karuna

707
00:41:54,011 --> 00:41:58,549
Amon, more specifically, a politician
who's also like a former militant

708
00:41:58,549 --> 00:42:02,019
who is basically fighting the tigers
for 20 years.

709
00:42:02,086 --> 00:42:04,855
They they
yeah, they they essentially blamed him.

710
00:42:04,855 --> 00:42:08,792
Well, but,
you know, the results of Tamil Eelam

711
00:42:08,792 --> 00:42:12,763
online is still a global network

712
00:42:12,763 --> 00:42:18,636
which amalgamated international links
to create a type of sovereignty

713
00:42:18,636 --> 00:42:24,041
through the virtual even though they never
really occupy an entire space.

714
00:42:24,141 --> 00:42:27,311
Eaten also writes
that this type of national participation

715
00:42:27,411 --> 00:42:31,649
and information dispersal
for a recognition of a kind of autonomous

716
00:42:31,649 --> 00:42:35,085
population are reminiscent of the efforts

717
00:42:35,085 --> 00:42:39,823
of Pollard's The Basques and Nash

718
00:42:39,857 --> 00:42:43,761
and Black nationalists
making connections to Africa.

719
00:42:43,861 --> 00:42:46,063
She also states that with this example,

720
00:42:46,063 --> 00:42:51,268
we can kind of begin to rethink,
like the concept or kind of conditions

721
00:42:51,268 --> 00:42:55,739
of possibility for nation state
or national membership.

722
00:42:55,806 --> 00:43:00,110
Also,
I think it's just kind of like to include,

723
00:43:00,110 --> 00:43:04,882
I guess there's this quote
by Bruno letter, which goes,

724
00:43:04,982 --> 00:43:10,087
the network practice is more supple
than the notion of system,

725
00:43:10,154 --> 00:43:12,823
more historical
than the notion of structure,

726
00:43:12,823 --> 00:43:15,826
more empirical
than the notion of complexity.

727
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:18,662
The idea of network is the Ariadne

728
00:43:18,662 --> 00:43:21,665
thread of these interwoven stories.

729
00:43:21,865 --> 00:43:26,270
So here again, I guess we can see how,
like the online network provides us

730
00:43:26,270 --> 00:43:32,443
with really a more accurate expression
and building of national identity

731
00:43:32,509 --> 00:43:33,143
and virtual.

732
00:43:33,143 --> 00:43:37,681
Tamil Eelam also provides the Internet
with a better definition of itself too,

733
00:43:37,681 --> 00:43:42,119
because it kind of goes against this
like Cartesian idea of cyberspace,

734
00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:45,623
which is known as this other space,
you know, this other world

735
00:43:45,623 --> 00:43:49,827
that is mutually exclusive
to the physical.

736
00:43:49,893 --> 00:43:51,762
And since the word diaspora is frequently

737
00:43:51,762 --> 00:43:55,466
referred to as an imagined community,

738
00:43:55,532 --> 00:44:00,771
it kind of really goes to show
that the online and offline work in tandem

739
00:44:00,871 --> 00:44:03,841
because of this idea
of the network, really.

740
00:44:03,941 --> 00:44:08,812
So yeah, that's the story of Tamil
Eelam online.

741
00:44:08,912 --> 00:44:10,814
That's amazing. Thank you so much.

742
00:44:10,814 --> 00:44:15,753
And we are coming close to an hour,
so yeah, thank you so much for listening

743
00:44:15,819 --> 00:44:19,556
and asking all the right questions
as always.

744
00:44:19,623 --> 00:44:23,861
Yeah, I mean, even I would just like
my brain is also pow wow.

745
00:44:23,861 --> 00:44:25,229
So it's

746
00:44:25,295 --> 00:44:28,065
it there
was something with cyber power as well

747
00:44:28,065 --> 00:44:31,068
that I didn't mentioned before
but that they would have

748
00:44:31,201 --> 00:44:35,239
it was like a gathering online
where people could enter this space

749
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:36,240
and see the show.

750
00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:40,177
But then there was also
they had physical gatherings,

751
00:44:40,177 --> 00:44:43,180
they call them gatherings the physical.

752
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:43,614
Yeah.

753
00:44:43,614 --> 00:44:48,652
Like events and, and things that
they didn't really see as being different.

754
00:44:48,752 --> 00:44:54,191
The virtual or the the digital versus the,
the physical reality.

755
00:44:54,258 --> 00:44:57,961
And it
yeah, it's really interesting concept

756
00:44:58,028 --> 00:45:02,199
to think about a particularly
in like early Internet days

757
00:45:02,266 --> 00:45:05,235
we talk, we talk so much about
like what is it?

758
00:45:05,235 --> 00:45:09,173
How if we negotiate and renegotiate,
dated the relationship

759
00:45:09,173 --> 00:45:12,309
between computers and humans and the role

760
00:45:12,309 --> 00:45:15,312
that computers play in our lives,

761
00:45:15,446 --> 00:45:17,681
that serve our lives as our physical.

762
00:45:17,681 --> 00:45:22,586
But so much is now played out
in the digital world.

763
00:45:22,653 --> 00:45:26,957
And yeah, it's really interesting
to look back, particularly at this.

764
00:45:27,024 --> 00:45:30,461
The Tamil Tamil net to think about
like what

765
00:45:30,461 --> 00:45:34,732
that meant in the early 2000s
and how that continues today.

766
00:45:34,732 --> 00:45:39,670
Yeah, and I mean it's kind of examples
that like these that really show

767
00:45:39,670 --> 00:45:44,308
that the Internet
is inherently connected to land.

768
00:45:44,341 --> 00:45:44,908
Yeah.

769
00:45:44,908 --> 00:45:49,279
And it's connected to our idea of place
and home

770
00:45:49,379 --> 00:45:53,550
and idea of like nationalism, citizenship

771
00:45:53,550 --> 00:45:58,689
and the rights of land and how occupy
and the spaces that you occupy.

772
00:45:58,756 --> 00:46:01,291
It all works on the Internet as well.

773
00:46:01,291 --> 00:46:03,393
And just the idea of like

774
00:46:03,393 --> 00:46:07,831
colonialism online and the concept
of decolonial ization online.

775
00:46:07,831 --> 00:46:11,802
And in in that panel discussion,
it came up about

776
00:46:11,902 --> 00:46:15,506
the vocabulary
of particularly early Internet

777
00:46:15,572 --> 00:46:20,010
computer programs
and this idea of, I guess, colonialism.

778
00:46:20,010 --> 00:46:24,281
But it's they were referencing browsers

779
00:46:24,381 --> 00:46:26,884
like Explorer, Navigator.

780
00:46:26,884 --> 00:46:28,085
Yeah, Yeah.

781
00:46:28,085 --> 00:46:30,988
And even referencing, you know,
I think it's

782
00:46:30,988 --> 00:46:34,992
like Apache, like early Mac

783
00:46:35,058 --> 00:46:38,896
programs and things that, that this naming

784
00:46:38,996 --> 00:46:41,365
really references

785
00:46:41,365 --> 00:46:46,870
a colonial mindset
or this like the Explorer going into this

786
00:46:46,937 --> 00:46:52,009
to this new land and and within
that sort of fraught unexplored like that

787
00:46:52,042 --> 00:46:55,913
those topics not being really looked
at critically in the early days

788
00:46:55,913 --> 00:47:01,251
like why are they just picking these
these names how does how the different

789
00:47:01,251 --> 00:47:05,088
cultural, cultural groups
or indigenous groups

790
00:47:05,189 --> 00:47:10,327
exist within those spaces in a way
that is get connected

791
00:47:10,327 --> 00:47:15,332
with with the physical land and these.

792
00:47:15,332 --> 00:47:19,970
Yeah, I do know it's a no,
but that's interesting where

793
00:47:20,070 --> 00:47:22,472
in the beginning
they tried to show the internet as this

794
00:47:22,472 --> 00:47:26,910
like Wild West that should be occupied
and explored and conquered.

795
00:47:26,910 --> 00:47:30,714
Yeah, but it really goes hand in hand
with the idea of cyberspace

796
00:47:30,914 --> 00:47:35,652
and this other world that needs
to be surfed, that needs to be navigated

797
00:47:35,686 --> 00:47:38,922
and explored, scrolled through all these

798
00:47:39,022 --> 00:47:41,491
very physical metaphors

799
00:47:41,491 --> 00:47:46,029
are certainly put on to this thing
that they think is like

800
00:47:46,029 --> 00:47:49,199
an abstract alien space,

801
00:47:49,199 --> 00:47:52,202
but in reality it's just cool.

802
00:47:52,302 --> 00:47:52,703
Yeah.

803
00:47:52,703 --> 00:47:57,608
And it's this thing of like,
okay, yeah, reusing the same language.

804
00:47:57,674 --> 00:47:58,108
Yeah.

805
00:47:58,108 --> 00:48:01,111
And then taking language
from indigenous groups

806
00:48:01,311 --> 00:48:05,549
because for some for those those names,

807
00:48:05,616 --> 00:48:09,019
well it's like, yeah, those names have in

808
00:48:09,019 --> 00:48:12,923
this like Western mindset of that era.

809
00:48:12,956 --> 00:48:13,323
Yeah.

810
00:48:13,323 --> 00:48:17,227
Have some weird like denote other thing
and it's, it's like Yeah.

811
00:48:17,227 --> 00:48:17,928
Would just use it.

812
00:48:17,928 --> 00:48:21,932
Those things are things
that we should be critically analyzing

813
00:48:21,999 --> 00:48:22,766
anyway.

814
00:48:22,766 --> 00:48:26,203
It's just that yeah, it's just weird
that this whole like language

815
00:48:26,270 --> 00:48:30,941
like set of expectations
around like new spaces

816
00:48:31,008 --> 00:48:36,179
got all mixed up and then maybe we haven't
been I mean, obviously people are,

817
00:48:36,179 --> 00:48:40,517
but as a, you know, overall
haven't been kind of

818
00:48:40,617 --> 00:48:44,888
looking at it enough and thinking about,
oh, maybe we set this whole thing up.

819
00:48:44,955 --> 00:48:46,723
Not with the best.

820
00:48:46,723 --> 00:48:53,664
Uh, yeah, language or words or
of thinking around what is digital space.

821
00:48:53,730 --> 00:48:56,099
Yeah, that's interesting.

822
00:48:56,099 --> 00:48:56,266
Right.

823
00:48:56,266 --> 00:49:01,905
Well, thank you so much and thank you
also will be will be back in a month.

824
00:49:02,005 --> 00:49:02,873
Yeah.

825
00:49:02,873 --> 00:49:05,342
And I hope you'll have a lovely new year.

826
00:49:05,342 --> 00:49:07,444
Yeah. Oh,
my God. Happy New Year, everyone.

827
00:49:07,444 --> 00:49:13,583
I guess this Happy New Year will be coming
in the New Year, but shortly after so

828
00:49:13,650 --> 00:49:16,520
yeah,
hopefully everyone's having a good start

829
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,089
and we'll see you in the next one.

830
00:49:19,089 --> 00:49:21,425
See you soon. Bye. Bye, y'all.