How do you solve a problem like Sri Lanka?

Most of you are probably vaguely aware that Toronto and other major cities have recently been ground zero for Tamil protests. If you've been paying particular attention to the story, you might know that the Tamils are a group of people in Sri Lanka, engaged in a civil war with the government.

The reaction I've seen to these events is primarily indifference mixed with apathy - it's something going on halfway around the world in a country most people have never heard of, so why should they bother themselves to learn the details? And why are they bringing the problems of their old country over here in the form of these protests?

Others look past this, but can't look past the Tamil Tigers (the main organized group fighting on behalf of the Tamils) being on a Canadian government list of known terrorist groups. Why are we allowing these people to voice support for terrorists, they ask, and would we be as tolerant if it was a more well-known group like Hamas being promoted?

Admittedly, I used to be part of the first group. I used to not really understand what was going on, and thus not really care about it. Then I was watching a news report which include a line similar to "journalists and aid workers have been barred from the war zone by the Sri Lankan government".

Guess what tipped me off.

(Hint: it's not the journalists.)

Humanitarian workers, sponsored by international NGOs such as the Red Cross. Not allowed into the area.

Al-Qaeda doesn't always respect the rights of Red Cross workers as non-combatants. Not all terrorist groups do. But it's not exactly a list you'd want yourself to be on, especially if you're a government.

There are only two reasons to justify keeping aid workers out - either you don't want them to get hurt, in which case they know the risks and they'll go in anyhow, or you don't want them to see what's really going on.

Where else in recent history did the Western world only start to understand the true magnitude of a humanitarian crisis after it was far too late? Rwanda. Darfur. Maybe the Holocaust.

After each of these, we say "never again" and vow to fight for humanitarian causes from then on.

So why is it that when people try to call our attention to it, we dismiss them and get mad at them for blocking a highway?

--Ryan