Tamils Funding the Tamil Genocide

(மன்னிக்கவும் தமிழில் இதை மொழி பெயர்க்க முடியவில்ல. யாரவது முடிந்தால் செய்யுங்கள்.)

Tamils Funding the Tamil Genocide

Several Tamils have taken to the streets to protest against the Tamil genocide taking place in Sri Lanka. By UN account over 2500 people have been killed and over 7,000 people have been injured. The actual figure might be lot higher. Over 200,000 people have lost their home and all their belonging and are moving around as animals. Tamil expatriates are looking at ways to stop this. One of the place they have missed looking is into their own kitchen.

The Srilankan government has spent over 1.6 Billion for this war. It is on its knees with IMF unable to fund it any further. It is asking the IMF for $1.9 Billion. Tamil expatriates have largely missed the economic side of this war. This war is partially being funded by Tamil expatriates themselves. Several people put their contribution as very small therefore insignificant to even consider. However, if you add insignificant amount, it comes to a substantial amount. A simple calculation will illustrate this:

Expatriate Tamils (western countries) 1,000,000

Person per house hold 4

Number of house hold 250,000

Weekly purchase of SriLanka goods $50.00

Monthly $200.00

Monthly spending $50,000,000.00

Yearly spending $600,000,000.00

This does not take into consideration a huge sum of money that is being sent by expatriates as remittance, as investment, as tourist or Sri Lankan clothes that are purchased. If all these are added, the sum will be around $1 billion dollar. At least 40% of this war is being funded by Tamil Expatriates themselves.

Several initiatives have been taken to boycott Sri Lankan products. However, it has not been affective because it is hard for a shopper to check each and every product that is being bought. Another more affective way would be to boycott the entire store that sells SriLankan product. Most stores are very sympathetic to their people’s situation but are not acting on the boycott thinking that it is insignificant. However, customers to their stores could persuade them by showing the actual impact of not boycotting. Popular websites could list out stores that have guaranteed not to carry any SriLankan product. The list could also be made available on Newspapers. People could inform the stores they visit that if they don’t get on the list then they are not going to be shopping there anymore. Stores could just go through all their products and once they are clear that there is no products from Sri Lanka can call a number and get on the list. This system will work on its own. Initially there might be few stores on the list; however they will get the extra business of the active expatriates. The other stores will also know that they are losing business because of that. Even if the loss is only 10% of the business, the impact is much higher. As the profit that goes to the owner in most business is the last 10% to 20%. This will push them to join the boycott movement as well. Even if 50% of the expatriates actively participate and get the stores to boycott, it will mean boycotting by the 100% of the expatriates. Most of stores will participate once they are educated on the impact that the boycott could have.

Persuading Japan

Japan has been supporting Sri Lanka for a long time. It is a good sign that they seems to be moving away from this. Expatriate Tamils buy cars made out of Japan more than any other countries. A simple calculation would be as follows based on 250,000 households.

Japanese Cars

Average car per household 1

Purchase of car every 10 Years

Average price of car $20,000.00

Yearly spending of cars $ 500,000,000.00

Japanese manufactured cars 50%

Just Tamils in Western countries $250,000,000.00

In India/Malaysia $250,000,000.00

Total $500,000,000.00

This could be considered as the minimum amount that goes to Japan from the grater Tamil nation as Tamils also buy Japanese made electronics, computers etc. Japan has been giving grants in hundreds of millions of dollars to Sri Lanka for years. A boycott of their product by Tamils at this financial hard time will send a clear message for Japan to consider when they decide on the next round of grant and other diplomatic help to Sri Lanka.

Initially the protest could be as small as sending a letter or email to the dealership, Car head quarters in Western Countries and Japan outlining that we are an owner of a Japanese car (we can include the VIN number for verification) and we will be forced to look at other option if they continue to help the genocidal Sri Lankan government. If they continue to help, then protest could be organized in front of all the dealership in western countries to make their customers aware that they contributing to the killing of Tamils. If needed the customers could also be pointed to the fact that they are killing Canadian jobs as well.

Persuading China

China has been supporting Sri Lanka through military, financially and diplomatically. China is one of the most powerful countries in UN that is stopping the UN from taking any productive step in stopping the killing. China is mainly working based on their economical interest. China gets most of their money from exporting manufactured goods to western countries. It is very hard to persuade China through boycott as they export variety of items that are low in value. However, China exports huge amount of merchandize to Wal-Mart. So expatriates could arrange a protest persuading Wal-Mart to pressure China to support the UN in stopping the genocide. It is a long shot however, every bit and every call and pressure counts.

Persuading India

India has been supporting the Tamil Genocide overtly and covertly. India has over 60 million Tamils. The sad part is that part of the money that is being used to carry out the genocide is given by them as taxes to the government as well as by buying product and services from government controlled companies. Gandhi has used not paying taxes as a way to protest against the British Empire. If the Tamils in Tamil nadu protest that they cannot allow their own money to be used to kill their own people and stop paying taxes, India will have no choice but to stop giving financial and other assistant to the SriLankan government. They can also boycott companies that are owned by the Indian government such as IOC which is directly giving money to Srilanka in the form of investment.

Several major corporation including banks where most Expatriates have their mortgages outsource their work to India. A protest in the form of letter outlining that since they are using outsourcing in India we are considering switching banks as we don’t want any of our money being used to kill our own relatives might send a message. Most of the businesses are controlled by few very large corporations and they have great influence on the Indian government. Most of them are involved in outsourcing business as well. Pressure on them will translate into pressure on the Indian government as well.

NRI (Non-resident Indian) have a great influence in the Indian government as invest a lot of money into India. Most of the NRI will not support India government’s support of SriLankan genocide. They should be made aware of the Tamil Genocide. One of the best places would be the Bay area in California. Continuous protest in those areas will also have a positive impact to stop the war.

Tamils should explore every venue to bring the Tamil Genocide to a stop. Economics is very important for all the countries directly or indirectly involved in the Genocide. Most of the countries are helping SriLanka for their own economic interest. Economic pressure should also be utilized to persuade them against it. Tamils outside of India has over $10 billion buying power. Tamils in India has over $35 billion in buying power. Tamils have used their political power till now; it is time to look into their economic power. Their economic power is multiplied by the fact that they are living in most of the major markets and can influence others in the market as well. Tamils should use this fully as no stones could be left unturned.