Roman Expansion in Ancient France & Germania

Julius Caesar invoked the threat of Germanic attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul ( modern France ) to Rome.

As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many Celtic societies into the Empire.

The Germanic tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of the Germania were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term Alps relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.

The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Trans-Alpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.

In 58 B.C. Julius Caesar, governor of the Roman province of Southern Gaul, conquered the remainder of Gaul, which had been free until then: Thus, for the first time, the powerful Roman Empire moved into immediate vicinity to Germania, and further expansion and colonization on part of the Germanic tribes were blocked.

Caesar defeated Germanic warlord Ariovist, who had tried to conquer Gaul himself, and pushed back the Germanic Tencterians, who had crossed the Rhine from Upper Hesse. He had a 400-meter bridge built over the Rhine in 10 days, marched to the Germanic right bank of the Rhine, showed off the power of his army, won over the Germanic Ubians as allies and forced some other tribes into peace agreements.

In 38 B.C. Augustus' general Agrippa resettled the Germanic Ubians, allied with Rome, in a new town at the left bank of the Rhine in order to protect Roman Gaul from raids by uncontrolled Germania. This was the founding of Colonia Agrippinensis, today's City of Cologne.

The wealthy country of Gaul seemed firmly and safely in the hands of the Romans. Even before the Roman conquest, the Gauls had already lived in towns, and they started to get used to living under Roman rule. But in 16 B.C. Gaul was raided by the Germanic Sugambrians, Usipians, and Tencterians. They severely defeated Roman governor Lollius and freely looted the wealthy country and then returned to their homeland with heavy booty.

Emperor Augustus had led many wars, but this was the heaviest defeat his forces had suffered so far. Though Gaul was only looted, these attacks made Rome afraid that one day it could lose Gaul, a country that by then was yielding more taxes and crop than the fabulously wealthy Egypt.

In order to avoid this danger in the long run, Germania had to be conquered - though the country itself neither offered cities, nor treasures, nor a food surplus.

Augustus moved to the Rhine border and prepared the big offensive in person. First, all the territory between the Alps and the Danube was to be conquered, and then Germania was to be attacked simultaneously from the Rhine, the Danube, and from the North Sea coast with a fleet.

As a starting point, the Romans established 50 legion camps along the Rhine and connected them by army routes (these camps turned into modern cities Xanten, Bonn and Mainz).

Along the left bank of the Rhine, a considerable Roman fleet was being built. Emperor Augustus appointed his adoptive son Drusus governor of Gaul and made him commander-in-chief of the Rhine troops - probably 5 to 6 legions, or about 50,000 men, expected to conquer Germania.

While the Romans were preparing the war against Germania from their province of Gaul, the Gauls were embittered over the Roman tax collection: Apparently several Gaullic tribes were ready to risk an uprising against the Roman rule. But Drusus fell with his horse, broke his thigh, and died of wound-fever after one month, being only 29 years old.
He had been successful, and popular with Romans, and favoured by the Emperor: It is likely he would have become Augustus' successor - instead of his uncanny brother Tiberius.

After the death of the victorious general Drusus, 33 years-old Tiberius assumed continuation of the war. In the spring of 8 B.C., he once again crossed the Rhine with a large army.

The Germanic tribes were too weakened from the continuous warfare of the last years to put up any resistance: For four years, they had been attacked every year by superior Roman armies, their settlements had been regularly burnt down, and their fields devastated. In the countless bloody battles and skirmishes during these four years, probably all tribes had lost a significant proportion of their men.

Already in the previous year, the allied tribes had been unable to prevent Drusus' army from marching through their territories. This year promised to be equally unsuccessful. It seemed better to capitulate now - and not to wait until one would be totally defeated and defenseless. Probably out of these considerations, all Germanic tribes sent envoys to the Romans, asking for peace.

In an unpopular manner that was typical to Emperor Augustus, he simply arrested all the men, and had them brought to several Roman cities as hostages and they evaded this imprisonment by resorting to suicide. Now the Romans succeeded peace treaties with most of the Germanic tribes. They accepted Roman rule, and started to pay tribute and provide troops for the Romans.

German Memories - Roman Rule in Germania

During the year 7 B.C., the Romans had to put down only smaller unrest in some places and they didn't need to engage in any major combat operations, since the exhausted Germanic tribes mostly respected the peace and recognized the Roman rule.
The newly-conquered area was secured with army routes and camps. In the winter, the Roman army retreated into the camps along the left bank of the Rhine. But during the entire summer, all strategically important parts of Germania were occupied by Roman soldier camps.

Apart from this military presence, the Romans also set up numerous markets and founded trading posts: Slowly an extensive peaceful exchange of goods began between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes, who formerly had to purchase all Roman products indirectly over Gaul. These trading posts probably contributed much to make Germanic people familiar with the Roman way of life, language, laws and customs.

Besides, countless Germanic men served in Roman auxiliary troops. In return, they received generous payment and valuable weapons. Apart from Roman military know-how, they inevitably learned the Roman language, Roman customs, and often even got to know other countries of the Roman world empire: Many Germanic noblemen came to Rome; some even acquired Roman citizenship. A loyal and brave squad of Germanic warriors served at the Emperor's palace in Rome as bodyguards. Other Germanic warriors came as far as Palestine, where they served as bodyguards for the tetrarch Herodes, whom the Romans had installed as king of the Jews.

A few years later, probably many Germanic men had to fight for the Romans in Pannonia (today's southern Hungary), when an uprising against the Roman rule broke out there. All of these men inevitably acquired the Roman way of life and mentality, and after their return to their tribes, they passed some of that on to their families and friends.

The Roman commander-in-chief still marched through the tribal areas of Germania with his army every summer - not with the purpose of conquering anymore, but rather to speak Roman law, mediate in tribal disputes, and to remind the allies and subdued tribes of the lasting power of Rome.

In Rome, Emperor Augustus contented himself with the title 'first citizen', but in the provinces he let himself be worshipped as a god. He was indeed mighty like a god, whose every wish was law for over a third of the world's population, and who could order hundreds of thousands of soldiers to crush every resistance to his will.

A temple was dedicated to him in Germania too - in the newly founded Roman City of Cologne, where the Ubians had been settled. Some of the Germanic aristocrats became priests of the divine emperor.

There were uprisings but they had remained regionally confined - no other tribes had dared to join the rebels. Roman rule seemed to be generally secure, and now, after the last resistance had been broken, Germania could be declared a province of the Roman Empire. Its center probably was what later became the City of Cologne; or perhaps the administrative and trading city which was recently discovered close to Waldgirmes near the river Lahn.

After the soldiers came the officials: A Roman governor had a staff of approximately thousands of men, hundreds of officials, countless assistants, and a mounted guard of several hundreds of men. This province administration was supposed to raise taxes and draft men as soldiers, depending on whether a tribe was subdued or an ally, or liable to military service, or exempt from dues.

Only the Germanic Marcomanians could have become dangerous for the Romans: Some years earlier (9 B.C.) they had fled from the army of Drusus, and now they were residing on the other side of the Elbe and Danube rivers, as neighbors of the Roman-controlled Germania. Their king Marbod had set up an enormous army of allegedly 70,000 men and had subdued several neighboring tribes. He kept peace with the Romans, but to them his kingdom appeared as a continuous threat.

Therefore, in 6 A.D., Rome set out up to 100,000 legionaries in order to conquer and break up Maroboduus's empire. But the attack had to be aborted. The reason was that the peoples of today's South Hungary and Yugoslavia rose against the Roman rule: Up to 200,000 enemies of the Romans were under arms - an enormous danger even for Italy and the capital Rome itself. Augustus ordered a hasty peace with Maroboduus and sent all available legions into the rebellious provinces, where it took several years to strike down the rebellion.

Despite the favorable opportunity for a rebellion on their own, the weakened Germanic tribes kept quiet. The Roman rule between the Rhine and Elbe continued to exist undisturbed. Also the neighboring Marcomanian kingdom of Maroboduus continued to keep peace. Germania really seemed on its way to develop into a peaceful Roman province like Gaul.

German Memories - Germans Against Roman Rule

In 7 A.D. a new governor became commander-in-chief over Germania: 55-year old Publius Varus who had married a niece of the Roman Emperor Augustus. He had earlier served as governor in Syria, which led the first century Roman historian Velleius Paterculus to say, 'He came to the rich land poor and left a poor land rich.'

He wanted to civilize the Germanic tribes by consistently introducing Roman laws. He tried to overcome with the sword those he couldn't subdue by law. He came to central Germania and spent the summer time with jurisdiction and law-abiding proceedings before his bench among the people who were enjoying the sweetness of peace.

Yet the Germanic tribes had a different understanding of law than what Romans imposed on them. The tribes - used to liberty and savageness - felt that the modern Roman state was enslaving and burdening them: In former times, dues had to be paid only by slaves.

Now with the Romans requiring taxes from them, the Germanic tribes felt humiliated. What also filled them with bitterness was the fact that matters of dispute were decided by a Roman official - and not by an assembly of all free men. It was as if a slave master mediated disputes among his slaves.

In part, the dues were too high. The Roman officials were accustomed to high revenues from other provinces. But for the Germanic tribes who were barely able to feed themselves, such tax demands necessarily resulted in hardships.

Even the Germanic aristocrats were discontent. Over the last couple of years, they had ruled their tribes with Roman assistance according to the Romans' wishes. Now they feared Varus' policy of a faster Romanization: If the Romans ruled Germania directly and extended their control to local matters, they would no longer need any indigenous stooges or collaborators. They feared that they would very soon lose their power, wealth and privileges.

Apart from these general objections, most Germanic people were probably irked by the many small everyday humiliations, conflicts and quarrels. Roman officials objected to the insufficient size of the cattle skins delivered as tribute. But the race of cattle bred by the Germanic tribes was comparatively small at that time. They knowingly ignored the fact and demanded additional payments. The corrupt officials were not indicted when they demanded bribes, customs and taxes which appeared too high to the locals.

When soldiers of the occupying forces raped indigenous women, they were not punished or their punishment was not severe enough by the Roman authorities.

All of these may have raised people's nostalgia for the 'good old time', when they were their own masters, when they could fight for themselves when faced with injustice, when they had to obey no one at all, and when their tribe's fate was still decided by free voting of their own popular assembly - and not by the often unreasonable commands of subaltern Roman officials, who sometimes had arrived in Germania only a few weeks ago, who knew nothing about the previous customs of the people they governed and didn't care to know about the Germanic traditions.

German Memories - Attack on Roman Forces by Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons were marching south along with their neighbors, the Cimbri and the Ambrones, and attacking Roman Italy.

The Cimbri were ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Evidence that the Cimbri may have practised ritualistic sacrifice is found in the nearly 1500 year-old Haraldskaer Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated.

After several battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and other tribes appeared 113 BC in Noricum ( the today's Austria), where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci. On the request, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated only to find themselves deceived and attacked at Noreia, an ancient city in the eastern Alps as the capital of the kingdom of Noricum.

In a bloody battle, they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved them from complete annihilation.

Thereafter the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul (modern day France). They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The same year, they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux). In 107 BC, the Romans once again lost against the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri.

It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Empire itself. At the Rhone River, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. The Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later caused a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio.

The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed by being burned alive in a wicker cage.

The Roman force had witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp backs to the river caused their total annihilation. The Romans lost as many as 112,000 men including the lost auxiliary cavalry and the non-combatants.

German Memories - Germanic Migration From Scandinavia to Southern Europe

While I was narrating the migration of Nagas and other tribes towards the Island, our discussion went back to before the Christian era of Europe where some of the Germanic tribes from Scandinavia were migrating towards the Northern Part of today's Germany.

The southward movement of Germanic tribes were probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 600 BC - 300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia which was a couple of degrees warmer than today, deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave their settlements.

At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.

After they learnt new technological advancements, the Germanic tribes Teutons and the Cimbri were moving towards the southern parts of Europe. The Teutons were mentioned as a Germanic tribe in early historical writings by Greek and Roman authors, Strabo and Velleius.

The concept of 'Germanic' as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo as an adventourous group who dwelt in northern Europe. It was quoted by early chroniclers that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and drink their wine undiluted". The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king. The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes.

According to Ptolemy's map, the Teutons lived on Jutland, whereas Pomponius Mela placed them in Scandinavia. More than some hundred years before the birth of Christ many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Empire.

In the densely forested north of Europe, there lived more people than could be nourished by the primitive agriculture techniques. The fertile farmlands and pasture grounds of the south and the west were attractive to the Germanic tribes as battling for these areas was far easier than clearing their own forests with iron axes.

The Germanic tribes had been spreading out deeper and deeper into the west and south. At the same time they displaced the Celts up to the Rhine and the Danube, which now would be the borders to Celtic Gaul (today's France) and to Celtic Rhetia (today's South Germany and Switzerland).

German Memories - Victory of Roman Forces Over Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their Proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned towards Spain where they pillaged far and wide. During this time Roman general Gaius Marius had the time to prepare and in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhone River. These two tribes intended to go into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tyrolian Alps.

At the estuary of the Isere River, the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. Marius took up a strong position on a carefully selected hill and enticed the Teutones to attack him there using his cavalry and light infantry skirmishers by using the allied Ligurians. The leading Teutone elements, the Ambrones, took the bait and attacked. They were soon foolishly followed by the rest of the horde.

Meanwhile, Marius had hidden a small Roman force of 3,000 nearby. At the battle's height this force launched an ambush, attacking the Teutones from behind, and throwing them into total confusion. In the ensuing massacre 90,000 Teutones were slain including their King Teutobod, captured.

The captured women committed mass suicide, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism: By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning all were found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.

The Cimbri, however, had penetrated through the Alps into the areas of today's northern Italy. However, the consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the Po River, and so the land was open to the invaders. However, the Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements.

The Cimbri desired battle, and according to their custom sent to the Romans to settle the time and place for it; Marius gratified them and named the next day - it was the 30th July 653 (101 BC) - and the Raudine plain, a wide level space, which the superior Roman cavalry found advantageous for their movements.

Here they fell upon the enemy expecting them and yet taken by surprise; for in the dense morning mist the Cimbrian cavalry found itself in hand-to-hand conflict with the stronger cavalry of the Romans before it anticipated attack, and was thereby thrown back upon the infantry which was just making its dispositions for battle. A complete victory was gained with slight loss, and the Cimbri were annihilated. The Cimbri were virtually wiped out, with over 140,000 killed and 60,000 captured, including large numbers of women and children in the fateful battle of Vercellae in the Raudine Plain near the settlement of Vercellae (modern Vercelli) around 101 BC.

Thereafter the human avalanche had alarmed for several decades the nations from the Danube to the Ebro, from the Seine to the Po, rested beneath the sod or toiled under the yoke of slavery; the forlorn hope of the German migrations had performed its duty; the homeless people of the Cimbri and their comrades were no more.

German Memories - Early European Migration & Life-Style

Though our discussion touched on many of the early human migration what attracted us most was the 400, 000 year old wooden projectile spears which were found at Schoningen in northern Germany. These wooden projectile spears are thought to have been made by the Neanderthals' ancestors.

The Neanderthals disappeared completely from this world some 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon probably came in contact with the Neanderthals, and is often credited to have caused or finalized the latter's extinction. To what extent Cro-Magnons interbred with Neanderthals - if at all - is still a matter of debate and we came out with some controversial argument.

The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons were the earliest modern humans to enter into Europe perhaps around 50,000 years ago, during a long interglacial period of particularly mild climate, when Europe was relatively warm, and food was plentiful.

Some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France came into our discussion which were as old as shortly after the Cro-Magnons' migration. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and even they were believed to have created the first calendar around 34,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons even knew how to make woven clothing and constructed huts out of rocks, clay, bones, branches and animal fur.

The last ice age plunged Europe into a much colder and harsher environment, and covered much of the north of it with inhospitable glaciers. As the glaciers began to retreat, about 20,000 years ago, humans migrated northward again. It was this Mesolithic population, the descendants of Cro-Magnons who were dwelling in Europe around 7000 BC when the Neolithic people first began to enter there from the Asiatic portion of today's Turkey.

If the Neolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages in today's Europe the Basques of the Pyrenees are the descendants of Mesolithic people since their language is related to none other in the world and also the Basque population has a unique genetic profile. The Uralic speaking peoples, the Finns and others represent this Mesolithic generation.

The other current non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Turkish, Maltese, and Magyar - were introduced in pre-historical times.

Our discussion went back into the Neolithic European lifestyle in between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC to 1700 BC. The Neolithic Europeans were living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, made without the potter's wheel.

There were some Neolithic Europeans in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people in Greece whereas in England there were 50-100 people together as highly mobile cattle-herders.

The Neolithic European peoples were warlike, and they imposed themselves as an elite on the Mesolithic populations, who adopted their language. The Neolithic Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society. They had domesticated the horse and the cow which played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals.

They practised a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their household or wives under the human sacrifice called Suttee.

German Memories in Asia - A Discussion With Baltic German

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.

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.

German Memories in Asia - A Discussion on Volcanic Winter & Human Evolution

When I was talking to Walker on the beach, a large wave from the Indian Ocean frightened me making wonder whether the tsunami wave was on its way once again towards the Indian Ocean rim countries. The worst Tsunami which hit the Indian - Ocean rim countries in recent history subsequently formed after the earth quake of 26th December 2004 off the coast of Northern Sumatra, the fourth largest earthquake of this century.

Though the sea has risen in the Marawila coastal area and has reached up to the Aquarius Resort restaurant's beach - side garden area, there were no casualties around the Marawila's coastal areas. Marawila and other near by western coastal areas escaped from the tsunami disaster, as the epicenter was located under seawater in Sumatra right opposite that of Marawila.

But the Sumatra region has a record of having faced many disasters and re-shaping human evolution itself on Planet Earth. A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests that we came very close to extinction because of a "volcanic winter". Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois advocated this idea. He believes that the eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra caused the bottleneck.

"Modern human races may have diverged abruptly, only 70,000 years ago," he writes in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Geneticists have thought for some time that humans passed through a recent evolutionary bottleneck but they had little idea what may have caused it. Scientists believe that an eruption of Toba caused a volcanic winter that lasted six years and significantly altered the global climate for the next 1,000 years. During those six years, there was substantial lowering of global temperatures, drought and famine. No more than 15,000 people survived. When better conditions returned, the human population was able to grow once more and develop the genetic diversity we see today.

"When our African recent ancestors passed through the prism of Toba's volcanic winter, a rainbow of differences appeared," Professor Ambrose said.

While we were enjoying our chat, in the distance from the Bandaranaike International Airport, a passenger jet was taking off over the Indian Ocean taking a course, which could lead to the Gulf or straightaway to Europe.

German Memories in Asia - The German Kindness

I recalled memories of two months ago. At the event "Night of a Thousand Dinners" I gave a brief speech on various issues ranging from landmines to world affairs. I can't forget those moments when the German Praktikum (Internship) students were spellbound listening to my speech. I was amazed by their eagerness to know about contemporary world issues affecting Germany and around the world.


Having delivered my speech and moving away from the table, the way the students were greeting me by tapping slowly on the table is ever memorable. The simultaneous tapping on the table was creating a new kind of melodious music. I accepted their greeting with a smile. I was really amazed by their greetings and the way they did it. After being there for few more moments, while I was leaving the dinning table, Marita was coming towards me. She greeted me in a soft manner and shook my hand saying: "thanks for your speech".


When I saw Marita, still those memories came to mind and I was able to re-live them. Her kind remark was an added encouragement to me and was coming to mind. I remembered those moments of my speech and the excellent coordination of Marita to make the event a success. I met Marita at the Aquarius Resort lobby to brief her on the final arrangements relating to the "Night of a Thousand Dinners" and the purpose of having it. I explained to her in detail about the event and how she will have to explain to the students before my speech. I told her that I would be there in a short while and went to my room.


When I was walking down the narrow passage towards the restaurant, I observed there were around twenty-five students at the lengthy oval-shaped dinning table. Marita was seated at one corner of the table facing the Ocean. When I reached the table, she came out and asked me whether I wished to be in her place or to be in the upper platform of the restaurant to deliver my speech. I said I would prefer her place as I would be able to see all the students from there and being close to them whereas the upper platform would have distanced me.


She agreed and sat in one of the chairs, which was vacant. She was kind enough to help me develop a rapport with the internship students within a short while. As most of the students came from Germany recently, I was not close to them that much. The student-team with whom I went on our tsunami-relief mission to the northern region had already left the Island.

I had met Marita only once before while we were having breakfast at the restaurant and thereafter once at the discotheque. I didn't have enough chance to become friendly with her. But her caring nature towards me by listening to my ideas and then translating them into reality instantly amazed me as to how she and the German people are so accommodative.

German Memories in Asia - Traveling Through the Ancient Kingdoms

While I was watching the Lagoon I pondered how the capital of Nagas had shifted from Kudiramalai to Nallur. Ruins of the palace of the then Naga capital in Nallur have been revealed in recent excavations embodying many stories of the lost Naga kingdom.

The vicinity of the lagoon was suddenly lost by the mangroves aside of the highway by the speedily hurrying vehicle and brought my attention to the northern highway towards Jaffna town. While our vehicle was passing the Jaffna Lagoon and the then Elephant Pass camp vicinity we reached the Iyakkachchi area, an early settlement of Yakkas, a tribal group who were living in the era of Nagas together in the Island.

The 'Yakkas', possibly early immigrants from Persia, were numerous and very powerful, and held themselves aloof and confined themselves mostly to the mountain fastnesses of the North- Central region of the Island, whereas the 'Nagas' confined themselves to the seaboard. Ptolemy, the famous Greek-speaking geographer and astronomer who lived in the Roman Egypt called the Mahaweli River as Phasis fluvius, which means the Persian river, indicating that the Yakkas, who dwelt there, were connected to the Persians. The Yakkas also could have been the indigenous people of Persia and might have escaped to Sri Lanka when the invaders were advancing towards their territory by sea or land from Persia.

Kuveni was the queen of Yakkhas and became the consort of Prince Vijaya(B.C. 543-504) who eventually became the first Indo-Aryan king of Sri Lanka with the Kalinga ancestory. Later he married a princess from the Dravidian Kingdom of "Pandy" in South India.

Some of the German Praktikum (internship) students were tired and in a sleepy mood. They might have not had enough sleep because of the strange environment. For students it is an option to travel out of Germany to complete their internship. Several students are coming to Asia, especially to AGSEP in Sri Lanka. The students who were with me in the Northern relief mission are also one batch of students of those who were in their overseas study tour.

When we were passing by the last end of the then Elephant Pass Military camp, sea birds were flying around the shallow water and busily fishing for their night meal.

After nearly a decade when I was traveling with the German students through Elephants Pass, watching the same Lagoon where I crossed at midnights struck how things were changing the world over in an unbelievably short time.

German Memory in Asia - The War-Torn Memories in Asia

The German tsunami relief convoy reached the Paranthan junction, which is the last northern point in the mainland of Indian Ocean's war-torn island, where people lived in the midst of the civil war in 1996.

I had been there for a brief period of time when I was working with CARE International. The Elephant Pass strategic military camp of Sri Lanka Army was stationed there. The camp was a major coveted target for LTTE since their failed attempt in 1991 along with heavy losses of cadres.

When I was staying in that vicinity in 1995, the vulnerability of that area was an every day presence. The artillery shells were pouring at times like thunderstorm. Some of the shells had fallen near my house and in one incident I narrowly escaped. But a known girl nearby died, of shock caused by the heavy explosion of an artillery shell. I was able to recall how her two sisters were crying when her body was being taken for cremation along the same high way on which I was traveling with the German Praktikum (Internship) students in the relief mission.


After that incident and continuous artillery shelling, the Area Director of CARE International in Kilinochchi asked me to get away from that area a number of times. But I was reluctant to leave as I was used to the artillery shelling and aerial bombings since my childhood in the war-torn northern Jaffna Peninsula. But for the Area Director, her upbringing in the New York City in a calm and quiet atmosphere made it hard for her to accept my explanation.


Finally I left that area for a while. But memories still came alive when I was looking at the demolished buildings and the surroundings on the way. Our five-vehicle convoy was now speedily hurrying through a one-time No-Man Zone.

German Memory in Asia - A Visit to Tsunami-Hit Jungle Areas

Archaeological findings show that the Poompugar City, which was inundated, was off the coast of Tamil Nadu of Southern India as mentioned in Tamil texts.

Some other older texts like Tolkappiyam, the oldest surviving Tamil text and grammar book written supposedly around 500 B.C., says that the Pumpugar City was supposedly flourishing there 7000 years ago before tsunami tidal waves took the city beneath the sea. Most of the people thought it was only a myth until they experienced the 2004-tsunami tidal waves and experienced its massive devastation.

With drifting memories of the ruined Poompukar and walking along the destroyed marine drive in the Indian Ocean's coastal Mullaitivu, the LTTE member showed me a well near the beach and told me that that was pure water well now turned into salt water. I stepped up a ladder and peeped into the well, there was a motor for pumping the water out from the well. Though they had been dredging continuously for days, there was no significant difference in the water. The tsunami waves might have changed the underneath water system.

When I was about to step into the vehicle, the Catholic priest of the ruined church arrived. We went to him to hear of the tragedies of that fateful day and how he had survived. He had narrowly escaped as he was in a different church at the time when the tsunami demolished his church. God had saved the life of a spiritual leader to console the people who had lost their kith and kin and almost everything. We condoled with him on what had happened.

We started our journey towards Mulliavallai hospital, which was originally a maternity hospital, but now turned into an emergency ward for tsunami victims as well. A decade ago in the CARE days I have visited that area a number of times. But now the landscape had changed a lot.

When we were reaching the Mulliawalai area, old memories came alive. At the Mulliavalai hospital we heard many horrific stories of tsunami tidal waves. Entering the hospital we saw pregnant women, mothers with newborn infants and those who narrowly escaped housed there together in the same ward. The German Praktikum (Internship) students, I noticed were a little puzzled by the hospital and its set-up.

They might have wondered at the unusual combination of patients with different ailments being brought together or at the condition and the available facilities of the hospital to serve many an affected victim. The large hospitals they were accustomed to in Germany might have disturbed them when they compared them with the Asian jungle's tiny hospital. They might have well experienced the disparities of the very first Planet Earth where they were living on many grounds.

We went to meet the doctors and other health officials attached to the hospital in the front office of the hospital, and they came out with many pathetic stories about the condition of the hospital. They had only two medical officers for medical services, which are normally provided with twenty medical officers in a developed country, which run them efficiently. Dr. Jayalath, Dietmar Doering and the team had a lengthy discussion and came out with alternative arrangements in order to compensate for the shortfalls.

When I came out of the office the young students who were busily unloading medicines and medical instruments from a medium sized lorry of the six-vehicle convoy surprised me.

Immediately after the unloading, the tired Fredrike Wagnar, an undergraduate student of a Munich-based university was giving an interview on her experience about the tsunami devastation, which will be telecast all over Germany by satellite transmission. She was shaking her hands while talking as though she wanted such gestures to enhance her expressions of the extent of the tsunami devastation.

Her eyes were expressive adding more meaning to the tragedy. The eyes had a gleam in the mid-noon daylight.

Immediately after the interview I talked to Fredrike Wagnar. As she has a grasp of economics, her view about the disaster had a different dimension towards sorting out and coping with the crisis. The way she was behaving to express the tragedy was heart-rending.

German Memory In Asia - A Tsunami Mission On The Shores Of Bay Of Bengal

While I was approaching the edge of the Indian Ocean, I observed there were some sea gulls speedily hurrying from sea to land. I was terrified thinking that another tsunami was approaching us. Though I didn't feel any strong quake, I was aware that an earthquake can trigger killer waves thousands of miles across the ocean and could generate hours later the tsunami waves.


I observed closely the Indian Ocean to see whether there was a difference since an approaching tsunami is preceded by a noticeable fall in the water level. A big wave was on its way.


I had heard of stories how people were killed, when they went down to the beach to view the retreating ocean exposing the sea floor unaware that the strange phenomenon was a forerunner of killer waves. I made a quick retreat to a nearby high ground. When I turned and looked at the German Praktikum (Internship) students they were at a distance discussing something with some locals.


The tsunami expert's recent statement that a receding ocean may give only five minutes' warning to evacuate the area has started to bristle within me, because tsunamis can approach the shore as fast as 100 miles per hour. I realized it would be too late to see the wave and then confirm whether the tsunami was on the way.

Though I moved back to the ruined high ground, I started to observe again the ocean movements. There were no receding waters but large waves had come towards the shore. It was so horrific to think that many of the tsunami victims were seen being swept out to sea when the ocean retreated.


A tsunami surge may be small at one point of the shore and large at another point a short distance away. I didn't want to assume that this was a minimal sign of a tsunami and was trapped by the retreating tsunami flood later on from other directions. I further went near the high ground and approached the place where the German students were. I was comparatively in a safe place and a little relieved from the tsunami fear. I observed a number of wrecked boats were on the ruined buildings.


As tsunami wave activity is imperceptible in the open ocean, if those vessels had not returned to port they might have escaped that fatal end. The way the boats had been flung to the interior of the land and the extent of the wreckage frightened me how the tsunami can cause rapid changes in water level unpredictably with dangerous currents and cause massive destruction in the harbor and port areas. If the fishermen had the right information on time and took their vessels out to sea, they might have saved their lives and boats as well.



The Pacific Ocean is fixed with sensitive recorders on the sea floor to measure pressure changes in the overhead water, sending the information to sensors on buoys, which, in turn, relay the data to satellites for immediate transmission to warning centers. As there was no warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, the tsunami eluded and caused the worst disaster in the history of the Indian Ocean Rim countries.



We moved towards the narrow lane, which was now everywhere covered with the sand and debris. We found it difficult to determine whether the lane through which we were walking was a busy thoroughfare just a few days ago. We were roaming over the ruined buildings and then walked along the beach. It was difficult to reconcile to the fact that a once flourishing heavily populated coastal hamlet had been annihilated in just a few minutes. Meanwhile the German T.V. crew was busy, documenting those devastations.


The LTTE member who was familiar with that area pointed at a ruined road and told us it was a marine drive earlier, linking the coastal areas. He told how the sea had made incursions into the land.


The tectonic plates at the bottom of the southern Andaman - Nicobar Island had been shifted upward and the seabed subsequently. The tectonic plate movement and the tsunami tidal waves are not new to this world. Tectonic plate movements have taken place for billions of years resulting in tidal waves as well when they emit energy out to the surface as massive earthquakes. Turning my direction towards the north, I was reminded of how some thousand years ago the city of Poompoogar was sunk by tidal waves.

German Memory in Asia - A Visit to Tsunami-Hit Coastal Areas of Indian Ocean

I had a fine view of the mangroves in the both directions of the passage, recalling memories of the good old days in Mullaitivu.


When we reached the tsunami-hit bridge, we stopped over it and had a close view of the devastated bridge and the surrounding area. In the vicinity we could see that LTTE cadres were reconstructing the bridge and excavating the debris under it to enable an uninterrupted water-flow over the narrow canal which links the Indian Ocean and the interior Lake. I approached them and inquired about the tsunami devastation and its effects. They narrated the terrific moments and how they managed to escape at the time of the tsunami tidal waves by jumping onto the upper-side of the area.


I was horrified when they told how all the passengers and the vehicles passing by were washed away by the mighty tidal waves as though they were driftwood. The tidal waves had not only devastated human lives but also deprived the survivors of all hope and the meaning for existing. The tsunami waves have given a lasting message to the human race that worldly life is highly illusive and natural forces could triumph over their planning and execution. It had washed away everything in seconds.


We had conquered the outer space and successfully landed on the moon but were still struggling to cope with our own world's natural calamities. We had failed in controlling nature's furies. Technological advancement and other scientific inventions have been of no avail. The tsunami had smitten our conscience and posed the question as to why we bothered so much about the outer space wonders than finding solutions to our own world's disorders.


While my thoughts turned back to the tsunami-hit bridge and the surroundings, I focused my attention on the path we traveled by. I noticed our six-vehicle convoy was on its way towards us. The waving banners in front of the vehicles identified that those were our vehicles.


Suddenly I was terrified thinking of those fateful moments on the bridge and what would have happened to me. Oh! I just couldn't imagine it. Those horrific moments were again and again assailing me. The convoy had approached the bridge and stopped near us. Some of the German Praktikum (Internship) students got down from their vehicles.


The scenic beauty of the narrow lagoon and the surrounding Palmyra trees everywhere cast a fascination over all, despite having depressed moments. But I had mixed feelings of whether to enjoy the tropical beauty or mourn for those who were washed away there a few days ago.


In a few minutes most of the students who came with us in the convoy, even the girl intern students got down from the vehicles. The German television crew was busy in documenting the lagoon and the surrounding devastation, which they could telecast over satellite transmission throughout Germany.



The BBC correspondent with whom I traveled requested me to join him. But I decided to accompany the convoy and thanked him for his request. I joined the German team once again. I could see in their faces a difference. They too might have realized the illusiveness of this worldly life after having seen the devastation. A nauseating stench emanating from decomposed human bodies assailed our noses from the bridge area and all the way thereafter for some time.


We had passed the devastated Mullaitivu town, which was now beyond recognition. Then we returned back and reached the demolished town. When we approached the heart of the Mullaitivu town, we could see the havoc wreaked had completely destroyed the buildings. It was difficult to reconcile that there was a town there earlier.


The Sea Tiger unit of the LTTE cadres at the Junction stopped us. They inquired about our mission, as that was the first time that the AGSEP had come into the heart of the LTTE stronghold in Mullaitivu. I explained to the LTTE officials and they allowed us to proceed to the tsunami-devastated areas. They sent with us a member of the Sea Tiger unit to guide us.



Our vehicles were passing the sandy passage very slowly, following the LTTE cadre who was riding a motorbike. We stopped our vehicles near the beach after passing massive debris of tsunami devastation everywhere in the vicinity. We could hardly see a building, which had withstood the tidal waves. We all stepped down from our vehicles and spoke to the LTTE member who was assisting us about the severity of the devastation.



He told us they were still excavating the dead bodies from a nearby pond, which was once a tiny rainwater reservoir and now turned into a saltwater pond. The tsunami had smitten once again our conscience and posed the question as to why we bothered so much about the outer space wonders than finding solutions to our own world's disorders.

German Memories in Asia - Crossing the Jungle Highway

Our motorbike was going at a controlled speed because the Paranthan - Mullaitivu highway was heavily damaged by the on-going war and also heavily mined. There were a few miles of repaired roads, after which you would be getting on to a graveled passage. Along the highway good stretches of road alternate with bad ones. We had to reduce speed often and then step up. I wondered how our German friends managed to travel through this road.



While we were passing the "Bamboo-River" settlement my CARE day experiences came back to me.
The displaced people from Trincomalee, a North Eastern coastal town of the Island, were settled down there several years ago and it is now a flourishing tiny hamlet. Once I attended a function there nearly a decade ago and delivered a speech, which was unforgettable to me.



While our motor - bike was quickly passing the "Bamboo-River" area; we reached close to the "New settlement scheme," a relatively new town of some forty years, nestling in the dense jungle area.
While going, we were stopped by LTTE policemen, but as we had permits to enter the high security zone of the LTTE, we managed to pass the checkpoint without any hassle.


Our bike sped fast and we reached within half and hour the "New settlement scheme" town. When we reached the junction, which connects the road to Mullaitivu Island and the other into dense jungle area in the mainland, our six-vehicle convoy was slowly negotiating the bend towards Mullaitivu. I signaled with my hand and stopped the vehicle, which was foremost in the convoy. I spoke to the German Praktikum (Internship) students and continued my journey on the motorbike, thus spearheading the convoy.


When I was traveling on the path, which was going towards the dense jungle area made me recall my scouting days. When I was a boy scout we camped in these jungles. That was nearly 25 years ago and still memories of those good old days were rekindled. How we had improvised what we termed as 'get-a-pull", which comprised two strips of rubber attached to a forked piece of wood, known as a catapult. This was a protective weapon with which we could pelt stones even at wild animals to scare them away.



I had taken the catapult solely for fun as well as for self-defense because I had a terrible experience some time back when I encountered a number of monkeys in the jungles of Mannar, a western coastal area of the Island on a trip there, when I was returning after a brief exploration in the jungle, which had lot of edible fruits, all over its shrubs and small tropical trees.



I heard that monkeys sometimes gather in a group and attack humans who are even known to suffer severe injury. In a jungle - based school ground, I had pelted one or two shots towards a group of monkeys who were perched on a tree. One of the monkeys when hit by one of my shots jumped angrily towards me. We fled screaming and the incident reached the ears of the master-in-charge.

He punished me by getting me to put the catapult over my neck and asked me to tell the scouting principle. He warned me and confiscated the catapult. That was an unforgettable incident and while I was passing that area I could not resist such evocative memories.



Another incident too came to my mind. We six boy scouts went deep into the jungle and lost our way. I had to climb to the top of a tree to try and regain my bearings. But I realized after I climbed to the top, all I could see was the rich greenery of the jungle. We had blown a few whistling signals but received no return. We had to grope our way and as though by instinct we discovered a path, which ultimately led us, back to the camp.



To be lost in a jungle is a horrifying experience.

German Memories in Asia - A Visit to Rebel-Held Area

We started our journey towards Kilinochchi and reached the Omanthai Military Check Point, the Northernmost Frontier of the Sri Lanka Army in the mainland and stopped for clearance.



Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene spoke to the Military Officials and we were cleared after a few procedures and set on our journey towards North. In a few minutes' time by passing the No Man Zone, we reached the LTTE Check Point. I spoke to an LTTE member who questioned me about our mission. I explained our mission and introduced the German team and others there. I told we had already informed the Political wing of the LTTE about our mission.



They were highly concerned about our mission as we were about to visit the Mulaitivu region which is an LTTE stronghold. The German Television crew had come with satellite equipment for direct transmission of disaster immediately from the spot. We thought whether we would be facing any difficulties because of the security issues. But we had been cleared and were on our way to Kilinochchi.


While we were traveling we found both sides of the highway were a blend of dense forests and the paddy lands created a lot of excitement within me. Peacocks were everywhere, busily foraging in the paddy lands.


After two hours of our journey we reached Murukandy, a stopover for passengers where a small Hindu temple is found. It has become a tradition for passengers to stop there and worship the God, which was enshrined in that small temple especially if they were Hindus. Others too used to stop there as a pastime and buy a variety of foodstuff available there. We too stopped for a while but not very long, as we were already late according to our schedule to reach Kilinochchi. We had to arrange accommodation for more than twenty-five persons. I was highly worried as there were fifteen German nationals, and they would expect reasonable accommodation for the night. When we reached Kilinochchi it was early night.


We went to meet LTTE's media spokesman who was coordinating our mission in the LTTE-controlled areas. He was startled at the number of people on our mission. He asked his subordinates to look around for places to accommodate us. Visiting NGO members and the media people had already occupied the available places. We were stalled for a couple of hours.


The German T.V. crew and the German Praktikum (Internship) students were in their vans for hours and it was sad to see their situation. Some of the youths who came with us from a local T.V. channel started to scold me, as I was the coordinator in those areas. But I had to pacify them saying after all it's a relief mission, and we were prepared to bear the hardships.


Some how or other the LTTE's Political Wing found accommodation and I had to take some of the German students to the lodgings, which had been arranged for them. My responsibility had been narrowed down. The German Television crew had also been assigned a place.


Some of the students were asking whether their rooms were equipped with mosquito nets. I had to find rooms with mosquito nets for them. But one room with nets, I had to reserve for a Sinhalese couple as promised. I had taken some extra care that they should not feel that they had been discriminated in a Tamil area. I had told the students I had to keep that room for the couple. All the students got rooms with mosquito nets in that complex except two students. Then I went to the LTTE's Political Wing office to check what was happening there.


AGSEP's Director Dietmar Doering said he would be staying where the female students and some of the AGSEP staff were staying for their safety and went with them. The young Sinhalese couple got a room at the LTTE's Political Wing office. The incident might be as surprising as an Israelit couple taking night shelter at the office of the Palestinian rebels.


I returned to one of the lodgings, where the students were staying and got into the room, which had a mosquito net, which became available, as the couple had found room at the Political Wing. I was a little worried staying in my room because of my German friends. Would they have any misgivings about me? So, I knocked at their room doors, but got no response from them.


The exhausting day-long journey had overcome them with deep slumber.

German Memories in Asia - A Mission in Asia

In a week's time I came back to Aquarius Hotel to assist the team which wanted to survey the tsunami-hit areas.


I was waiting in the lobby, expecting Pascal Sadune, the leader of the survey team and others. In a few minutes' time, Pascal came to meet me. He was wearing a sarong, a usual casual and traditional dress of Sri Lanka and South Indian to some extent. There were two others, Mike and a female German Praktikum (Internship) student . I shook hands and went with them to the restaurant.



The wind was blowing a little heavily from the Indian Ocean.



Pascal holds a Master of Arts in Political Science and had worked for some time in the German Ministry of Defense. Pascal is a simple guy. He said his maternal grandfather was from France and in the Second World War while serving in Germany, had fallen in love with his to-be grandmother. There were many inter-marriages in Germany and Europe in the Second World War and before.



Pascal is now attached to the International Institute of Ratings and Consultancy. The tsunami disaster had activated the Institute to survey the needs of the people in the tsunami-hit areas. The tsunami survey was coordinated with the leading University in Germany with its three professors. While we were on an interesting topic, a new female student whom I had not met before came to us. She said she is Stefani and part of the surveying team. I greeted and conveyed my good wishes.



Pascal held forth about the rest of Europe and Germany. He confessed this was his first visit to Sri Lanka and before he came some of his professors who had already visited Sri Lanka had told him that Sri Lanka looks more like some of the Latin American countries.



On the subject of Sri Lanka's infrastructure he praised it and said he visited Morocco sometime back and it is only in city only you feel at ease, but when you go interior you feel you have lost contact with rest of the country. I told him the ethnic crisis severely hampered Sri Lanka's progress and now it's far behind compared to its once neighbouring countries of Southeast Asia.



Once, Singapore's then Prime Minister Li Kuan Yew was impressed by Sri Lanka's economic progress and wanted to model Singapore along the lines of Sri Lanka. But now if Sri Lanka wanted to progress like Singapore it was a Herculean task and would take a very long time. Singapore has gone far in rescheduling their resources and given maximum effect to their strengths and reduced their weaknesses and created the opportunities or tapped it in the right way.



Even neighboruing Malaysia which was struggling with tin and rubber, identified the new world trends and collaborated with various combines in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world and established manufacturing Industries that started to export high-value hi-tech goods. Later it joined the information super high-way club, by introducing the multi-media super corridor. Though the dot.com burst troubled its new IT ventures, it is still coming up with its own unique strategies to play a major role in Industry.



Pascal was listening carefully to my points on the Southeast Asian super-hubs developments in the economic sphere and asked me about the currencies which are pegged and the Asia financial crisis. Now, our discussion were on how we were going to undertake the survey in the Island and assessing the difficulties we would face when in the LTTE-controlled territories as they are very strict on surveys, without their permission.



We decided to identify some local NGOs from the war-torn areas and coordinate with them our survey. The hours-long venture had come finally to an end. I left the Aquarius with a new understanding of many European and worldly issues. We selected a few people from a church in the eastern province of the Island to participate in our survey of the tsunami disaster.


We all came to the Aquarius for a meeting. In a while, Pascal also joined us. We then joined the other surveying team at a meeting. Stefani, Romy and Mike also were also there with Dietmar Doering who presided and lots of controversial issues came in for discussion. The recent breakaway within the LTTE also came up for discussion and caused a lot of confusion among the German participants.

Though internal rivalries are not common to the world within liberation and other organizations, it always appears hard and complicated a topic to discuss and is a matter of debate as to how it could have been averted.

German Memories in Asia - The German Hamlet

I once again came to the German hamlet of Asia.

I was invited by Dietmar Doering for the AGSEP's largest get-together at the discotheque and this time with a difference.


My visit to Aquarius this time was many-faceted.


I was supposed to meet Gunder Wagnar, a director of the International Institute of Ratings and Consultancy. Gunder Wagnar served the then East German Air Force as an officer and later started his entrepreneurial activities in the field of insurance. Pascal said he played a key role in insurance for Munich. Latter he directed his interest on the assignment of surveying the tsunami disaster which paved the way for concentrating on the activities of the IIRC.



While I was entering Dietmar Doering's room, I saw a well-built person and I guessed he was Gunder Wagner. I introduced myself. Gunder Wagner was surprised and asked me whether I was the one who wrote those articles. I had sent some of my articles which appeared in the local newspapers, the 'Ultimate Peace or War Again' and 'The Messed Paradise' where I had discussed local politics and international affairs.



Later we both went to our usual meeting place, the restaurant of Aquarius Hotel. While talking I sensed his disappointment with the US Administration of the present and past over several issues.


He is a less-talk and think-more person like his daughter Fredrike and left me to talk more and listened patiently and carefully all the time. His analytical and fact-finding mind kept the flow of information within him.



After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, the Russian troops had been completely withdrawn and Russian influence in Germany was a forgotten matter, but the American bases were still occupying German territory under various acts or NATO agreements, giving the impression that Americans are aggressive and intruders.



A similar was felt some time back in Japan after some incidents where US soldiers from the US base in Japan misbehaved with some Japanese girls. There are generally suspicions on countries which have military bases in other countries. There are misunderstandings over even the UN Peace Keeping Forces, though they are under multilateral decisions and their operations were executed by the UN Secretariat and its chief independently. But the misunderstanding over the IPKF in Sri Lanka led both confronting forces join together to pull out the Indian Forces under the Peace-keeping flag.



After a lengthy discussion with Gunther Wagner, I left to have a small nap. The discussion with Gunther Wagner kept recurring, especially the issues on greater European Union and the United States and the future of world peace and harmony in the coming centuries. It is a truism that all major world wars started over minor or even unrelated issues. Hostility on many issues such as economic and military superiority went to create another cold war between the major economic blocs by aligning with some of the Asian and Latin American economic blocs.



After the tsunami disaster, I was extra cautious with the sea, though I could swim fairly well. The sea has more density than tank water, but the waves are always turbulent. I enjoyed sea swimming at the Mount Lavinia beach on the western coast of the island, which is famous since Dutch times. Maritsha was telling some jokes and Stefani, Romy and other Praktikum (Internship) students were laughing all the time. I was laughing without knowing what the jokes were all about. But one knows that laughter is infectious.



Romy spoke once in a way in English and in return I told Maritsha seemed a good joker. I met Maritsha at dinner yesterday. I never met or spoke to her, but gazed at her contemplative expression while she was having her meals. But now looking at her in swim suit and the hectic joking, I thought was work-hard and play-well type of character. My guess was confirmed in a few minutes.


She was a good belly-dancer also, and she was dancing marvellously for a while. The ocean's roaring sound gave good music and melody to her dancing and the beach-sand stage with the surrounding greeneries of coconut trees made it a fascinating time for all of us. Her belly dance took me back to the belly dance performances of Lebanon and Egypt



The German hamlet of Asia is a fascinating for both intellect and fun, giving a sense to life!

German Memories in Asia - The Unsafe World

Still in South India, some tribal groups who have been marginalized heavily by the rigid Hindu religion and cultural system and caste orthodoxy are still eating rats for their protein as other sources are beyond their means. In India there is competition in every field though one would think the vast Indian Ocean's Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea could give some employment by way of fishing as a source of food. The level of competition could be understood if one moved closely in Indian society. Colonial invaders from Europe and the rest of the world to unknown places of the world from time to time was only part of the problem for those native inhabitants. The world is at times not a safe place for living and creates tragedies and costs lives.