Smart light bulb fools burglars by pretending you're at home

by Jon Fingas | @jonfingas | November 5th 2014

There's no shortage of smart light bulbs that will save energy or set a special mood, but they don't usually do much for when you're away from home. What if you want to trick thieves into thinking you're still around? BeON Home might have tackled that problem with its newBurglar Deterrent. The lighting doesn't just come on for set intervals -- it learns your habits to make it look like you're at home, and it'll even listen for your doorbell to turn on the lights and spook would-be intruders. Each bulb has its own backup power, too, and they'll react to your smoke detector's sounds to light the way out during a fire.

BeON is crowdfunding the project by offering bundles based on the size of your home. Apartment dwellers can pledge between $199 and $269 to get a three-pack; those with larger abodes can plunk down $395 to $535 for six units, and those with sprawling estates can shell out $595-plus for nine bulbs. So long as everything remains on track, you'll get your gear between April and August. This isn't the cheapest smart lighting system you'll see, but it could make the most sense if you go on enough trips to worry frequently about break-ins.

Who Should Govern the North: TNA of 78% or Govt.of 18%? Asks Sampanthan

[Election in the North 2013; AFP photo]

By R.Sampanthan,MP-06/11/2014 

I now get onto my second point, Sir. That is, the Northern Provincial Council and its governance. Sir, governance can only be with the assent of the governed. Governance cannot take place without the assent of the governed. The verdict of the Northern Provincial Council Election clearly indicates the democratic wish of the people of the North.

Seventy-eight per cent against 18 per cent
Who Should Govern the North TNA of 78% or Govt.of 18% Asks Sampanthan by Thavam

The Journey of Content: Instagram Unplugged IRL

We are discussing a photograph. It was taken by the camera of a smartphone. It has been viewed by thousands, engaged with by hundreds, and is now being exhibited at the Saskia Fernando Gallery. @colombedouin is Abdul-Halik Azeez. Colombedouin is the title of the exhibition that is ongoing at the time of conducting this interview. It is a strange place to be.

by Imaad Majeed 

- on 11/06/2014 

“Blowing up your Instagrams and putting them up on a wall gives you a different perspective of what was captured,” says Abdul-Halik, as I point out to him that this photograph we are discussing reads ‘BBS pons’. He had not noticed this when he snapped this photograph among the 200 or so he took when he visited Aluthgama, this year, a week after the riots.

“I couldn’t stay away from it,” Abdul-Halik explains, “My excuse was that I was going there to help in some way. Which, anyway, I was.”

The photograph that we are discussing is, in his words, “just another broken down expensive house. It was one of the most sprawling in the neighbourhood. I could tell that it belonged to one of those big, established families from the way it was annexed with rooms in unexpected places. It had grown over generations with no method to the madness.”

I ask, then, of his observations on the manner in which these attacks took place.

“Well, there was definitely a method to the madness that destroyed the houses – to know where they were located, and to have the courage and arrogance to ignore the curfew.”

Why take pictures of graffiti in a scene of destruction? Isn’t graffiti considered, by a majority mentality, to be vandalism – another form of destruction?

“I look for the intention behind graffiti. It is my representation that counts, though I try to be objective. I knew I wouldn’t be able to not document the aftermath. It was not only an attack on the Muslim community, but also, it had taken place in a country just emerging from 30 years of conflict.”

I then ask whether he practices discretion when documenting violence, to which he responds that location and context are what need to be considered.

“In Hyderabad, I witnessed a Shia Muslim tradition where the streets were full of bloody men as they flagellating themselves. When their palms struck their chest, water would mix with blood, spraying into the air like a Kill Bill movie.”

Abdul-Halik did not post any of those photographs onto Instagram. Instead, he chose to post a photograph of a child, after the event was over, bandaged, with traces of blood still on him.

“Here, I tried to practice subtlety.”

Our conversation tails back to a lecture he delivered at the American Center, where he quoted Nathan Jurgenson’s take on Instagram as Decay Porn: a fetishization of the offline, characterized by the affectations of nostalgia inducing faux-vintage filters. Abdul-Halik admits that his work does consist of this genre.

“I am fascinated by things that are old. It is part of my world view. We glorify the present and denigrate the past – which is where the present is heading. This brand new thing, today, is transient.”

In this modern age, where human movement is fluid from A to B, people do not interact with each other on the streets. They are glued to their smartphone, flicking through Instagram to consume “culture” and “reality”. I am referring to the developed world, and ask him if he feels that it is the direction in which the developing world is headed, too.

“We are boxed in by the vocabulary of progress. Have you seen rich kids on Instagram?” he asks, “A lot of Instagram is full of selfies and self-indulgence.”

According to Abdul-Halik, in order to document life and be able to observe phenomena meaningfully, you have to be ‘unplugged’.

“Such Instagrammers tend to be in a socio-economic status in which they are self-actualized. That is why we see meaning in what other people pass by,” he explains, “Instagram allows you to rebel against the status quo that Instagram both represents and is.”

This status quo, however, is coming into its own on Instagram, as Abdul-Halik observes, “When I joined, Instagram was much more fluid. You could carve out a niche and get noticed much easier. You could rebel all you wanted, but, now, that dynamism is becoming more rigid. There are archetypes like the #selfie, #foodporn and #puddlegram that are defining a way of being and a way of seeing on Instagram.”

Then, there are hashtags, which, we agree, are sometimes a sell-out thing to do.

“If you’re in it simply for the ‘likes’, you are undermining your own integrity. It’s a balance. You need an audience. You have to reach out. Hashtags are simply a very blatant way of doing so. But hashtags also serve the function of making your content searchable. I have used them in the past and continue to use them in a way I see is appropriate.”

Halik’s journey has seen him go from a few followers, starting with his friends and the old blogging community, to organizing an InstaMeet where several Instagrammers congregrate at one location and do what they do, then delivering a lecture on Instagram and the sub-culture associated with it, to being recognized by Instagram as a “featured user”, enabling him to gain over 20,000 followers, to where he is today – exhibiting his work,curated by Saskia Fernando.

“I took a step aside and did not intervene in the process of curating the exhibition,” Abdul-Halik explains, as the process of curating work is not just relevant to a gallery, but also to Instagram, as he has always consciously curated his Instagram feed.

“With low followers, you have nothing to lose. Your feed is curated by instinct. With many followers comes a satisfaction and a reluctance to post anything that might harm that.” “

This is where integrity is questioned, again.

“This runs the danger of affecting the purpose of getting onto Instagram in the first place.”

I ask him what he makes of the idea that form outlives content, and he adds that, in this case, it is the “medium” that is the content.

“The content is moving from my Instagram feed to the gallery to people’s walls in their homes. I find this journey of the content through each medium intriguing to observe”

A Dangerous Game?

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Life is gradually getting myopic…”

Joseph Brodsky (Allenby Road)

( November 6, 2014, Colombo. Sri Lanka Guardian)  Why would Lankan military need a war gaming centre?

Why did Sri Lanka refuse to sign the resolution condemning nuclear weapons-use, for the second consecutive year?

A Dangerous Game by Thavam

Dilemma In Two Fronts: OHCHR Investigation On Human Rights And Pursuit Of Reconciliation In Sri Lanka

By G K Nathan -November 6, 2014 

Dr. G K Nathan

Members of the International community are currently taking  an approach which is to persuade Sri Lanka to cooperate with the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), which was mandated by the Resolution (A/HRC/25/L.1/Rev.1) passed at United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at the 25^th  session in March 2014.  Direct intervention on Sri Lanka was initiated after the International community failed to persuade the current Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) at the end of war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, to pursue: reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. The underlying reasons for the failure is because the six decades long conflict between the Tamil and Sinhala Nations is used by the Sinhala dominated parties to capture power, as well as to remain in power by opposing any proposal to devolve power.  Any approach to resolve the conflict, makes the party in power weak or conceding too much to the others in the eyes of majority Sinhala voters in the country; which led the current GSL to ignore, the previous two UNHRC resolutions, the first one at the 19^th session (A/HRC/19/L.2 of March 2012) and the second one at the 22^nd session (A/HRC/22/L.1/Rev1 of March 2013). Following the precedence set earlier for the reason given above, the GSL led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa has rejected the OISL process and decided not to cooperate with OHCHR. The intransigence behavior of GSL and rejection of the majority of democratic countries call are perhaps in the believe that countries like China and Russia will come to their aid, if required at the UN Security Council?  Recent arrival of nuclear submarines of China at the shores of Sri Lanka for the first time is a signal that cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is being consolidated with military cooperation, but at the expense of other friendly countries in the region. It should be noted at the same time; China is consolidating its position in South China Sea and further spreading and consolidating its tentacles in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka, a small country, is unwisely getting drawn into a geopolitical tug-of-war so as to establish an authoritarian regime in Sri Lanka at the expense of neutrality which was the policy in the past.  In the long run, this strategy might affect the country adversely and the security and survival as a unified country is in question? In the 21^stcentury, the worst conflict in the world, that caused deaths, deprivations, displacements and destruction of belongings occurred in Sri Lanka, while the world silently watched; in all more than half a million people are still waiting since the end of conflict in 2009 for justice, it is turning out to be “Justice delayed is Justice denied”.

Read More

President’s reference to the Supreme Court

by Dr Reeza Hameed 

- on 11/06/2014 

It is reported in the media that President Rajapaksa has referred to the Supreme Court for its opinion the question of his own competency to contest a further term, and that the Registrar of the Court, on the instructions of the Chief Justice, has written to the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka inviting submissions in writing but denying an opportunity to make oral arguments in Court. Furthermore, submissions are required to be submitted to Court no later than 3.00 pm on 7 November, which gives anyone less than 48 hours to do so. It appears that the Court is required to give its opinion to the President on 10 November 2014 (read the full letter here).

It is evident that President Rajapaksa has made this reference purportedly acting under Article 129 (1) of the Constitution, which provides for the Court to exercise it consultative jurisdiction. A president, acting under this provision, may refer ‘a question’ (not any question) ‘which is of such a nature and of such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court upon it’. Naturally, the question that ought to be asked at the outset is: is the question on which the reference has been made one of public importance? There is no doubt that a serious question has arisen about the incumbent’s eligibility as an individual to contest a further term but that does not make the question one of public importance to be resolved by the Supreme Court in the exercise of its consultative jurisdiction. It is not a question that affects him qua President but as Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is an improper invocation of the Court’s jurisdiction.

It is a question that affects Mahinda Rajapaksa’s fortunes in his individual capacity. The Supreme Court does not exist to give private opinions to individuals and the fact that it relates to the eligibility of a person who happens to occupy the office of the President does not transform it into one that affects the Presidency or make it a question of public importance.

If he so wishes Mr Rajapaksa may invoke the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal under Article 140 or the District Court and seek a declaration. The Court would in turn refer it to the Supreme Court as it would involve the interpretation of the Constitution. Ultimately the question might reach the Supreme Court, but through a different route, following a different procedure which would give the Court and relevant parties sufficient time and opportunity to participate in the proceedings. The reference is obviously intended to short circuit those procedures and to preclude full argument on the issues involved.

The question on which the Court’s opinion has been sought is itself one which has been in the public domain for several months and Mr Rajapaksa could have sought this declaration by going to Court several weeks ago. There is no apparent reason for the expeditious manner in which the Court has set out to act. The President might have given the Court a deadline by which to report to him with its opinion but that does not mean that the Court should act blindly to his bidding and not give an informed opinion, which can only be arrived at by hearing full argument on this question from all interested parties.

Article 129 (1) does say that the Court ‘may, after such hearing as it thinks fit, within the period specified in such reference or within such time as may be extended by the President, report to the President its opinion thereon’

In my view it would be impossible for the Court to arrive at a considered opinion within such a short period of time as is specified in its letter to the BASL. Even if the President had specified a time frame for the Court to give its opinion there is provision for it to be extended. Instead of blindly adhering to the impossible deadline set by the President, the Court should seek from the President the reasons why it is being asked to give its opinion urgently and in any event ask the President to give it sufficient time to address it and seek an extension.

An opinion given in haste is likely to be erroneous as has been proved by the Court’s own opinions regarding the Third and Eighteenth Amendments. If no extension is given it would be sensible for the Court to refuse to give its opinion.

A significant feature about the Court’s consultative jurisdiction is that it has failed to frame rules of guidance setting out the procedure that it would follow when responding to a reference made to it in terms of this jurisdiction.

The Presidential term has two more years to run and there is no reason why the Court should show such urgency in giving its opinion. The Court ought to decline giving an opinion but going by past experience this is unlikely to happen.

The writer is an Attorney-at-Law

The Two Bizarre Constitutional Questions!

| by Laksiri Fernando 

( November 6, 2014, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) It may appear that Mahinda Percy Rajapaksa has preempted Sarath Nanda Silva. But you never know. The latter may appear before the Supreme Court before the verdict on the 10th. An intriguing constitutional situation has arisen in this serendipity (does it mean strange?) Sri Lanka with two bizarre questions being referred to the Supreme Court by the former in his apparent capacity as the incumbent President. They were buddies few moons ago.

The Two Bizarre Constitutional Questions! by Thavam

Can Mahinda seek a third term goes to SC : CJ prepares two questions and judgment in Temple Trees backyard

(Lanka-e-News- 04.Nov.2014, 11.50PM) The incumbent President of Sri Lanka (SL) Medamulana Percy Mahendra Rajapakse had himself today written a letter to the supreme court (SC) to get a ruling on whether he can contest the Presidential elections a third time . This issue to be examined by a panel of judges of the SC including the chief justice (CJ) on Friday. The other judges who would be on the panel are still not known.

The funniest and craziest part of this judicial issue of crucial importance is : the two questions given herein below to secure an opinion in this connection had been prepared by the chief justice (cheat justice) Mohan Peiris himself from within the Temple trees itself. Basil Rajapakse had told Peiris that this matter be taken up on Friday , and a verdict be delivered on Monday.

The mockery of justice in this instance to be perpetrated is very clear because , it is Mohan Peiris who is questioning and it is he who is going to write down the judgment . The two questions prepared by Mohan Peiris alias Pachoris on behalf of Percy Mahendra are as follows :

1. Whether the incumbent president is entitled" at any time after the expiration of four ^4& years from the commencement of his current term of office" by Proclamation" declare his intention of appealing to the People for a mandate to hold office by election for a further term" as amended by `8th Amendment?

2. Whether the incumbent President is qualified to be elected to the office of President for another term in terms of Article 31^2& read with Article 92^c& as amended by the 18th Amendment or vice versa?

It is a pity in this Island of Sri Lanka where Lord Buddha preached noble precepts , the courts which uphold justice is being degraded and disgraced to this ignoble level so shamelessly and sordidly .

Previously , a former chief justice Sarath Nanda Silva argued that as Mahinda Rajapakse is already declared unqualified , he cannot even seek the opinion of the SC .

At least let us hope the SL judiciary will attain nibbana that is being murdered so cruelly in cold blood by the very sentinels of justice and the powers that be who should on the contrary be safeguarding its sanctity and hallowed traditions.

MR’s third term: To be or not to be?

November 6, 2014

The Supreme Court yesterday sought written submissions from legal experts on the Constitutional validity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa contesting another term and calling for an early election.
The move follows the President seeking the opinion of the Supreme Court on if he can run for the office of president for the third term as well as if there is any impediment to him calling for an election four years into his second six-year term.
The Registrar of the Supreme Court M.M. Jayasekera wrote to the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) yesterday stating that Chief Justice Mohan Peiris PC has requested written submissions in respect of two questions upon a reference by President Rajapaksa.
The two questions are:
(a). “Whether in terms of Article 31 (3A)(a)(i) of the Constitution, as amended by the 18th Amendment, I, as the incumbent President, serving my second term of office as President, have any impediment, after the expiration of four years from the date of commencement of my second term of office as President on 19 November 2010, to declare by Proclamation my intention of appealing to the People for a mandate to hold office as President by election, for a further term; and
(b) “Whether in terms of the provisions of the Constitution, as amended by the 18th Amendment, I, as the incumbent President, serving my second term of office as President, and was functioning as such on the date the 18th Amendment was enacted, have any impediment to be elected for a further term of office.”
Meanwhile, BASL President Upul Jayasuriya said he has requested an opportunity to make oral submissions in open court as well.
Even though the 18th Amendment to the Constitution passed in 2010 removed the two-year constitutional limitation on a person from contesting the presidency, moves by President Rajapaksa seek re-election for a third term has been challenged by some legal experts, who say the amendment does not apply in the case of the incumbent president.
A five-member bench presided over by Chief Justice Mohan Peiris PC is likely to take up the matter on Friday.
The full text of the letter sent by the Registrar of the SC to the BASL President is as follows:
I have been directed by His Lordship the Hon. Chief Justice to inform you that His Excellency the President in terms of Article 129 (1) of the Constitution, has referred to this Court the following questions for its consideration and for an opinion to be submitted to His Excellency on or before 10th November 2014;
(a) “Whether in terms of Article 31 (3A) (a) (i) of the Constitution, as amended by the 18th Amendment, I, as the incumbent President, serving my second term of office as President, have any impediment, after the expiration of four years from the date of commencement of my second term of office as President on 19 November 2010, to declare by Proclamation my intention of appealing to the People for a mandate to hold office as President by election, for a further term; and
(b) “Whether in terms of the provisions of the Constitution, as amended by the 18th Amendment, I, as the incumbent President, serving my second term of office as President, and was functioning as such on the date the 18th Amendment was enacted, have any impediment to be elected for a further term of office.”
I shall be pleased if you could inform to the membership that written submission in respect of the above mentioned questions will be entertained at the Registry of the Supreme Court until 3 p.m. of 7 November 2014.
The written submissions would be tendered to the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

MR Asks For SC Opinion: A Political Trick - AHRC

The Supreme Court cannot become party to a political trick 

( November 6, 2014, Hong Kong SAR, Sri Lanka Guardian) “A careful reading of the two questions, posed in the letter as (a) and (b), makes it clear that what is being attempted is a political trick; the Court’s opinion has been requested in order to give credence to the political scheme,” pointed in its latest statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a rights group headquartered in Hong Kong SAR.

MR Asks for SC Opinion a Political Trick - AHRC by Thavam

Enemies Of The President’s Promise – Chapter II

By Rajiva Wijesinha -November 6, 2014

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP

This did not mean it was not sincere about reconciliation. Basil I think honestly believed that rapid development of the North would make everyone happy. Certainly he seems to have been surprised when the election results were announced, and winning less than a quarter of the vote clearly upset him, even though the confidence he had expressed previously, that government would do well in several places, may have been bravado.

The problem was, he did not consult those whom he thought he was helping, rather like the devoted lady in Trollope who did everything in terms of her passion for Phineas Finn, but never thought of asking him what he might want. Thus, when the Northern Task Force was set up initially, there had been no Tamils on it. Though this was soon remedied, Basil did not much consult Douglas Devananda, the Tamil Minister who was on that body, and who was the most forceful of the former terrorists who had given up arms after the Indo-Lankan Accord of 1987, and thus became the greatest enemy of the Tigers.

Douglas himself was not perhaps capable of clear conceptualization, and the most clear thinking of his supporters, who might have helped him to plan, had been assassinated by the Tigers a year before the war ended. Still, he might have been able to articulate some of the aspirations of at least some of the Tamils. But Basil could not work with other strong personalities, so the main instrument he selected to represent the people of the North was Rishard Bathiudeen, one of the Muslims the Tigers had ejected from the North way back in 1990. Having obtained a degree and then developed as a politician despite these difficult beginnings, Rishard was a doughty fighter, who certainly did a lot for his community. But he was in mortal fear of Basil, as we found when we tried to persuade him as Minister of Resettlement to urge swifter action on sending the displaced home. The reason I wrote to Basil in August 2009 was because, at the meeting at which it was decided that someone should do so, Rishard flatly refused and wanted someone else to do it.Read More

Sri Lanka landslide deaths linked to early warning failures

Rescue teams from the Sri Lankan military engage in rescue operation work at the site of a landslide at the Koslanda tea plantation in Badulla October 29, 2014.

BY AMANTHA PERERA-Thu Nov 6, 2014 

COLOMBO Sri Lanka (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Four days before the village of Meeriyabedda was swept by a landslide that killed at least 10 people, district officials received early warning that the area was in danger – but those warnings were not effectively relayed to villagers, officials said this week.

Closing such gaps in early warning systems is becoming increasingly crucial as Sri Lanka is hit by a growing number of disasters caused by extreme weather linked to climate change, experts say.

During the third week of October, after heavy rainfall, the National Building Resources Organisation (NBRO) issued warnings that the region around Meeriyabedda was in danger of landslides, including a specific warning for the village the night before the disaster, said NBRO officials.

The message was conveyed to local administrators at the Haldumulla Divisional Secretariat, the administrative unit the village falls under, the officials said.

However no formal warning or evacuation alert was disseminated among the villagers, they said. On Oct. 29, a landslide swept the hilly village in Badulla District, about 220 km southeast of the capital, Colombo.

A week after the landslide, 10 bodies have been recovered and 28 have been listed as missing, according to the Disaster Management Center, the government authority overseeing the relief operation.

Indu Abeyratne, the head of early warning systems at the Sri Lanka Red Cross, said there was no formal and tested procedure in Meeriyabedda on how to receive warnings, distribute them among villagers and coordinate follow-up action.

“There was no such plan in place, so the warning proved useless,” Abeyratne said.

‘WE NEED TO BE MUCH MORE EFFICIENT’

The disaster in Meeriyabedda is the third incident in less than two years where dozens of lives have been lost for the want of better early warning dissemination, experts said.

In November 2011, 29 died in Sri Lanka’s Southern Province when gale force winds hit the coast. In July 2013, over 70 were killed in the same region when the onset of the annual South West Monsoon came earlier than anticipated.

“We need to be much more efficient in getting our warnings to the people in danger,” said Disaster Management Centre spokesperson Sarath Lal Kumara.

In the 2011 and 2013 disasters, there was some confusion as to whether warnings were issued. But at Meeriyabedda, there was no ambiguity, experts say.

Four days before the landslide, the National Building Resources Organisation issued a general landslide warning that was disseminated by the Sri Lanka Red Cross. N.K.R. Seneviratne, an NBRO district geologist for Badulla District said the night before the landslide a warning about Meeriyabedda specifically was passed to the Haldumulla Divisional Secretariat.

“There were warnings, and it was a well known fact that the village was in a high risk area,” Seneviratne said. However, officials at the Haldumulla Divisional Secretariat said that although there were warnings, they never received an evacuation alert.

According to officials from the disaster centre, the Red Cross and the National Building Resources Organisation, there was no mechanism at village level to receive warnings or to distribute them among villagers.

FAILED TRAINING

This gap existed despite a 2009 awareness programme conducted by the three organisations at the village, to educate local people on how to spot red warning flags and organise community groups to coordinate evacuation.

The awareness training included a simulated evacuation, officials said.

However, there was no follow-up after the programme, officials admitted, and no local government body was tasked with monitoring early warning efforts.

“The biggest lapse was that there was no government body that was in place to take over any evacuations or coordinate them,” Kumara said.

Abeyratne, of the Red Cross, agreed. “There should have been a technical agency in place to interpret the warnings and initiate what action should be taken. Villagers themselves can not be expected to take such action,” he said.

Officials looking for solutions after the landslide deaths might consider a tested early warning mechanism in use in some parts of Sri Lanka, especially along the coast, officials said.

There, when the Disaster Management Centre issues a warning and evacuations are necessary, they are coordinated by DMC district offices, with police and armed forces deployed to manage crowds.

Networks of Red Cross volunteers also spread warnings in coastal communities. In April 2012, over one million were evacuated along the coast after a tsunami warning.

“What we need to do now is to bring uniformity across the island,” DMC’s Kumara said.

(Reporting By Amantha Perera; editing by Laurie Goering)

Kaleidoscope of Desire

by Taylor Dibbert 

- on 11/06/2014 

It’s really weird to live in a place and then to come “home” and feel like a stranger there too. It’s unusual to be thinking utensils are superfluous and that all this air-conditioning is making me cold. Yet, throughout the summer to early fall – from Texas to New York to Maryland – the utensils sometimes seem to be getting in the way and all this A.C has been making me chilly. With winter right around the corner, I’m in even more trouble.

For starters, I miss the people in Sri Lanka, or at least many of them. And I still believe that Sri Lankan cuisine is the best in the world. I miss buying and holding newspapers, but I don’t necessarily miss reading what was inside – too many typos, too little analysis or decent writing even and too many large blocks of text which are just anodyne quotations. I miss browsing for books in Barefoot and eating lunch at Green Cabin on a regular basis.

It feels strange to miss both the fun and the annoyance of tuk-tuks. Many people, including this writer, might be surprised at how popular Uber has become. A few weeks ago I was in a trendy American bar talking with a friend of a friend. It was getting late and he asked me if I wanted to “do an Uber.” I told him that I was trying to stay away from that stuff. He gave me a strange look and we quickly got back to our drinks.

And yet things in Sri Lanka don’t seem to be too inviting either. Writing for special permission just to visit the North? Really? I saw that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un had disappeared recently. Maybe he had time to give President Rajapaksa a few pointers; after all, everyone needs role models.

I miss the island as much as I don’t miss the island; there’s good and bad and ugly and even personal stuff that I’m barely ready to ponder let alone write about. There’s a unique kaleidoscope of experience, emotion and desire captured in a single island – one where dreams die, where hope abounds and where everything left in between matters too.

I’ve been bouncing around the U.S. recently, but have been spending most of my time in Washington, D.C. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with some extremely thoughtful, generous people – at think tanks, NGOs on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. I keep getting reminded that – professionally speaking – I need to “branch out” and “look beyond Sri Lanka.” I keep hearing that Sri Lanka is “very small,” among other things.

Nonetheless, Sri Lanka remains – by virtually any standard – a fascinating place. And the way the war ended is still relevant – not just on the island, but globally. We’ve heard ‘never again’ too many times to actually believe that; Syria’s civil war further reinforces that notion. Nonetheless, this should give people all the more reason to watch Sri Lanka from afar; since this is exactly how not to win a war. Since this is another deeply troubling example of how the international community continues to fail. And because if we keep overlooking the lessons of the past, we will continue to make the same mistakes.

It’s a complicated issue, but the stark reality is that humanitarian endeavors still haven’t caught up with the pace and complexity of violent conflict. When that will change is anybody’s guess, yet there’s little to suggest that the end is near.

There’s something else too. There’s something about Sri Lanka that some outsiders can’t shake. Perhaps it’s the people, the history, the culture, the politics, something else entirely, or a mix of things. Regardless, I keep running into people who’ve never really left Sri Lanka. And then, at least for a fleeting moment, I don’t feel alone on this issue. And I love that. I love that there are others who have been swept up in that same beautiful storm, perhaps a delicate medley of fear, emotion and longing – only to depart from the island knowing that quitting is for losers and that the truth waits for no one.

Taylor Dibbert is the author of Fiesta of Sunset: The Peace Corps, Guatemala and a Search for Truth.