Sri Lanka

The green area is where Sri Lanka is.

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia; known until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest.

Sourced

• We should be less concerned about adding years to life, and more about adding life to years. I have been very fortunate to have witnessed some of humanity's greatest achievements during the 20th century that is nearing its end. Yet we must admit that it has also been the most savage century in the history of our kind. If I can have one more wish, I want to see lasting and meaningful peace achieved in Sri Lanka as early as possible. But I am aware that peace cannot just be wished; it involves hard work, courage and persistence.
  As we welcome 2001, let us harness our collective energies to create a culture of peace and a land of prosperity.
  • Arthur C. Clarke, as quoted in the "Sri Lanka" in Sunday Times (31 December 2000)

• My country has been influenced by the core Buddhist values of non-violence, loving kindness, compassion, equanimity and mindfulness. With this sense of direction, our Government has committed itself "Towards a new Sri Lanka", guided by a vision of peace, where every Sri Lankan citizen may live with dignity and self-respect, in freedom and without fear, free of want, and where every child may enjoy childhood and grow up with hope and expectation.
  • Mahinda Rajapaksa; Address to the United Nations General Assembly, September 20, 2006.

• I can sing about songs with gunshots in the background because I heard them. It's almost like my music has been a way to smoke out the hatred that's been bubbling underneath what's going on in Sri Lanka. If there's 300,000 people who are trapped and they're dying, it should be talked about, it should be brought to the table, and I don't see anything wrong in sticking up for 300,000 dying people.
  • M.I.A., Video Interview to TIME (2009)

• The potential for tourism in Sri Lanka is huge. International arrivals are multiplying year after year, and with all parts of this beautiful island now open to tourists, the country offers incredible opportunities. We look forward to playing a major role in the country's bright future.
  • Glenn de Souza, Vice President of International Operations for Asia & the Middle East, on Sri Lanka's tourism, quoted on Hotel News Resources, "Best Western Identifies Sri Lanka and Bangladesh As Key Growth Markets", January 29, 2014.

Unsourced

• What struck me, in reading the reports from Sri Lanka, was the mild disgrace of belonging to our imperfectly evolved species in the first place. People who had just seen their neighbors swept away would tell the reporters that they knew a judgment had been coming, because the Christians had used alcohol and meat at Christmas or because ... well, yet again you can fill in the blanks for yourself. It was interesting, though, to notice that the Buddhists were often the worst. Contentedly patting an image of the chubby lord on her fencepost, a woman told the New York Times that those who were not similarly protected had been erased, while her house was still standing. There were enough such comments, almost identically phrased, to make it seem certain that the Buddhist authorities had been promulgating this consoling and insane and nasty view. That would not surprise me.
  • Christopher Hitchens