Author by : Rajkumar Kanagasingam

The Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel in Marawila, a sleepy western coastal town of Sri Lanka is always a fascinating place to me.

The beach-end restaurant of the resort facing the scenic Indian Ocean will become at times a forum for various international issues.

My conversation with the students from various leading German universities who were in their exchange programs and doing their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the fields of economics, political science, social science, engineering and other disciplines gave me a chance to know more about the German history, economy and cultural issues.

I had a good discussion with Marita Kantar at the beach-end restaurant of the Aquarius Hotel today.

The sun had started to go further and further towards the deep-end of the Indian Ocean’s horizon.

The evening sunlight shone on Marita’s face as she was seated facing the ocean directly and I asked her whether she would like to seat opposite the ocean at the rectangular table.

She smiled and opted to stay where she was enjoying the glorious sunset in the Indian Ocean.

While I was talking to her on various issues, I asked her how she felt about the massacre of Jews by Adolf Hitler. She said, “They are only the victims for a person who was mad and power-hungry.”

She further continued, “He managed to brain-wash many for his unjustified cruelty on Jews and others in the Germany and neighbouring nations.”

She burst out at one point by saying that the act of one lunatic had the effect of giving a bad image of them.

I placated her saying the act of one megalomaniac does not necessarily tarnish all Germans.

I think not only in Germany even in other countries by the act of some of the reckless leaders, their nation and people have become untouchables or villains for other communities and nationalities.

In our recent past, we have seen many like them. Sadam Hussein in Iraq for his marginalization of Kurds and Shi’ite Muslims and some of the leaders from then Yugoslavia for their violation of Bosnian Muslims and Croatians are too the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in their own way.

Some of the culprits had been prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for War-Crimes, but others escaped. Still there are many war criminals around the world at large.

I told her, “These culprits are either hiding or not punished yet or still the law is not strong enough or its enforcement is too weak”.

As Marita was a Diploma student and doing her field of studies in managing social science, I asked about the unification of Germany which created a lot of unemployment problems in Germany and some Germans in the former West German part are uncomfortable about it.

I knew as she is from the former East German part, she might feel uncomfortable at my question.

Her eyes had gone really blurred over my question and answered with a sobbing emotion, “the Germans won’t like them to be seen as East Germans and West Germans.”

She further went on that she had been all over the Germany and saw minor changes in their dialects and couldn’t identify any major differences.

What she said is correct. Even East Germany is only a creation after the Second World War when the major allied forces divided Germany into two parts.

East Germany had been left out with the communist USSR and their puppet East German administration.

But when the cold war came to an end and the demise of the Berlin wall in 1989, the new united Germany had made East Germany part of the existing federal system in other parts of the Germany as a new territory.

The capital of the new unified Germany was shifted from the then West German capital Bonn to the then East German capital Berlin.

Marita was doing an interesting assignment on a topic on Germans and their perception on the benefits for going abroad for a better living in their retirements for her Diploma at the University of Applied Sciences, Technology Business and Design in Wismar.

As Walker told me, she is from the plain land which has a vast horizon on land and with its Baltic sea; she has shown some natural intelligence in her arguments.

She answered intelligently to certain complicated issues on Germany.

While we were discussing at the restaurant, some German students were sun-bathing on the beach.

They were shining when the sun-rays reflected on their swim-suited white skin.

The sunshine penetrated everywhere in the restaurant through the wall-less space facing the Indian Ocean and made the restaurant into a sudden surge of brightness.

The sea wind was flowing towards the restaurant gustily.

The whole atmosphere in the restaurant something different from the normal and Marita was fascinated by the change.

But, the sunshine and its rays when time was passing into early twilight were cooling and the reddish sky looked so unique.

The sun was about to be set in a short while.

Though Marita was traveled vastly in Europe, she hardly made any comments on other nation’s social or economic issues.

She said firmly, “I can’t comment about other countries by staying just a few days on their cultural, social and economic issues.”

I also agreed with her.

Even people living together in one country are failing to identify other communities who are living with them for centuries.

They fail to identify different aspirations, cultural differences with acceptance and religious differences with understanding for some reason or other, causing many of the world’s conflicts from time to time.

It is sometimes very difficult for a visiting tourist or a trouble-shooting diplomat to get the right picture of the social aspirations of different communities in a short stay.

Darkness had spread everywhere over the Indian Ocean and the restaurant balanced by its lights to make the whole environment out of darkness and the atmosphere had become such a fascinating place for those who want to be away from worldly struggles and problems.

[tags]Germany, intern, Sports, Exchange, Internship, Asia, War, Europe, Hilter, Nazis, Indian, economy[/tags]

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