{"id":117151,"date":"2009-12-30T18:48:36","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T23:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=8618"},"modified":"2009-12-30T18:48:36","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T23:48:36","slug":"not-quite-paradise-an-american-sojourn-in-sri-lanka-by-adele-barker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/117151","title":{"rendered":"Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka by Adele Barker"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Three weeks after 9\/11, University of Arizona professor Adele Barker arrived in Sri Lanka as a senior Fulbright Scholar to teach Russian literature, feminist literary theory, and American literature to select students at the University of Peradeniya. But her own education about the history and people of the island nation takes center page in her latest title, Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With centuries\u2019 worth of visitors \u2013 \u201c[s]ome were blown off course; some came for the spices; some to conquer and rule; some, much later, simply to sunbathe\u201d \u2013 much of Sri Lanka\u2019s history can be summarized in its names given by foreigners: the Roman Taprobane, the Arab Serendib, the Portuguese Ceilao, the Dutch Ceylan, the British Ceylon, and finally \u201c[i]n 1972, the people who actually live on this island reclaimed the name Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n

Settling into a sprawling home in Kandy with her teenage son, Barker initially insists, \u201cI didn\u2019t want people who are darker than me fixing our meals and cleaning for us.\u201d With her landlord\u2019s gentle prodding, however, she realizes that not employing the locals is more damaging to the tenuous economy than upholding her anticolonialist principles. With its Sinhalese owners, Tamil caretaker, and ever-changing international visitors, Barker\u2019s guesthouse compound is an oasis amid the \u201ccivil war between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil Tiger rebels … [that] had already been raging since 1983\u201d and claimed 40,000 lives by 2001. But beyond the walls are daily reminders of war, from grenades to riots to murders. Sri Lanka, Barker learns, is a land of paradox: the endless violence \u201cagainst the backdrop of something whose beauty is heart-stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of perpetual conflict, Barker observes that she has never lived \u201cwith such a hybrid mix\u201d of Sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers of Dutch and Portuguese ancestry, Moors, and Malays. Surprisingly, religion \u2013 Sri Lanka is majority Buddhist \u2013 \u201chas never been a factor in this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barker\u2019s academic year passes quickly and she leaves with gihin ennam<\/em>, a Sinhalese parting used \u201c\u2018when you are saying good-bye but know you\u2019ll be back.\u2019\u201d While her first trip was marked by 9\/11, her second, three years later in October 2005, follows the devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed 30,000 Sri Lankan lives: \u201cI needed to see things for myself.\u201d As she travels through refugee camps, Barker witnesses the disturbing results of \u201ccompetitive charity,\u201d a term coined by a foreign aid worker, referring to international organizations with too much funding, working without enough understanding of local needs. While Barker\u2019s first trip focused on the experiences of the southern Sri Lankans, Barker is determined to \u201cfind the balance\u201d in the Tamil north, home of the Tamil Tigers, a group labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization. \u201cSuicide missions are part of the ethos of this organization,\u201d Barker learns, and near-daily violence is simply unavoidable. Resigned survival is the only goal. … [click here for more<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, December 30, 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2009<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three weeks after 9\/11, University of Arizona professor Adele Barker arrived in Sri Lanka as a senior Fulbright Scholar to teach Russian literature, feminist literary theory, and American literature to select students at the University of Peradeniya. But her own education about the history and people of the island nation takes center page in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}