The Golden Strawberry

This evening I saw a film called No More Tears Sister. Quick synopsis:

 A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the documentary recreates the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Mother, anatomy professor, author and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated at the age of thirty-five.

It was excellent. It weaves a tragic but inspiring tale of an educated, principled and idealistic woman who was killed for doing the right thing. She took a stand against both the authoritarian repressiveness of the Sri Lankan government,  with its de facto support to rascist Sinhalese gangs who attempted to ethnically cleanse the Tamil people from the island; and also the poisoned rebellion of the Tamil Tigers, people who had every right to take up arms to defend themselves, but whose fight for freedom was perverted by its methods and its indiscriminate targeting of civilians and recruitment of child soldiers.

While watching this film I was reminded of other figures on the democratic left throughout history. Men and women who could not stomach the bile spewing from much of the left wing intelligensia in support of genocidal countries like the USSR or Mao's China. Men and women who were disgusted by the apologies made for dictators like Castro or thugs like Guevera who, whilst looking good in a photo-op, supported an ideology directly responsible for the murder of countless millions.

They took up rhetorical arms against people who should have been on their side. People who should have been with them in their quest for liberty, social justice and peace. People who, instead, sung the praises of men like Stalin and Lenin. People who, in effect, in practice, were in bed with the most reactionary and hardline of the furthest of the far right.

Rajani Thiranagama can take her place alongside such people as George Orwell and those other heroes of the democratic left who stuck to their principles in the face of those who would seek to stifle debate and dissidence; instead they would always challenge authority and tyranny - whether it comes from the left or the right. From the government or the rebels. From the Sinhalese or the Tamils. From the incompetence of the Bush administration or the inhumanity of the Islamic Fascists.

She should be a hero to everyone who is against tyranny and for justice. Everyone who is against war for wars sake and for reasoned resolution of conflict. People who choose the use of debate and discussion over the perverted self righteousness of the mob of faith, class or opinion poll.

If you have the time and live near one of the few places that are showing it, I can't recommend this film enough. It sheds some light on one of the forgotten and unresolved conflicts of our time and it proves that, amidst the brutality of civil war, some people can rise above the melee and set an example which every person would do well to emulate.

-posted by Adam