BS: Please help save the life of my friend

Subject: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: InOBU
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 10:11 PM

Here is my letter: what can be done, well, you can write to the Swedish consul in NYC as well... if you feel led.
Cheers
Lorcan

Consulate General of Sweden
One Dag Hammearskjold Plaza
885 Second Ave.
45th Fl.
NYC
10017-2201

Dear Friend, the Consul General of Sweden:

I am writing to you under the weight of my terrible concern for Vijay Wijesundera. In his application to be resettled in Sweden, his dossier number is: 9360718.

He is an attender at the 15th Street Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.

Vijay came to us when he arrived in the United States as a refugee from Sri Lanka. He is a talented, well educated, young man, who feels completely devoted to the cause of peace. In my understanding of his present torment, the fact that the United States makes war on other nations which have not attacked this nation makes it impossible for him to live a complete life here. He will not work and pay taxes to further the war effort, nor will he marry or do anything to deepen his ties here, so as not to be drawn into being, in essence, trapped here.

Today, 02\06\2008, Vijay is now on the fortieth day of a fast and I fear for his life. It would be a great loss to the world to lose this young man as a result of his objection to war. I pray that your peaceful and good nation will reconsider and welcome this young man, quickly, as there is little time left to him.

In the light of God's love,

Lorcan Otway
Member of the Committee of Ministry and Counsel
New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Member of the Pastoral Care Committee
of the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the same.

cc: [e-mail]
Anne-Marie McGranaghanUNHCRRe:case# ROW # 68859

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 10:21 PM

?? I am not sure what the issue is. Seemingly, he applied to Sweden and been rejected once. If so, I am at a loss as to what some letters from us would mean to Sweden. If his case has not even been heard, that is a different matter.

I am also not sure what just BEING in this country does to cause him to need to protest in this way.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Padre
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 11:58 PM

I'm with you, Bill. What possible influence could we have on the authorities in Sweden, who are known to be generally favorable to amnesty for those who may have suffered persecution in their home countries. If Vijay does not wish to remain in the United States, because he feels 'trapped' here, why does he not simply decide to return to Sri Lanka? There is not sufficient information to allow us to make a reasoned decision about this person.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Big Mick
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 12:09 AM

Same here, Padre. I am not sure what the issue is.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Beer
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 12:13 AM

Yeah? What is happening?
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Beer
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 12:18 AM

You are a long time member and help is here but you are un clear. I just re read your thread and again I am not sure of your intent.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 06:13 AM

I'm confused, sorry....

(I admit that may not be hard sometimes...)

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: GUEST,Saltz
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 06:45 AM

Any chance of telling us what this is all about, it´s not very clear. Also I understand your concerns, but governments cannot be blackmailed into giving into demands because someone threatens self harm.

If their case is valid, seek legal advice, sorry I could never support anyone who tells the government of whatever country they are about to be deported from, let me stay here or I will kill myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: vectis
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 11:40 AM

I thought he had intended to end his fast a few days ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Peace
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 11:44 AM

http://vijayupdate.blogspot.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Padre
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 03:13 PM

As I read the blog, Vijay has been fasting (drinking only water) for a three-week period each year since 2001, as a spiritual exercise. For some [unexplained in the blog] reason, he has extended the fast this year, and has been fasting for 38 days as of the last blog entry.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 05:56 PM

I'm still confused as to what we can do to help and why he needs it. Sorry, I guess I'm dense at times. Neil

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: GUEST,Sparkles
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 08:56 PM

Can't get that link to work.

I'm as confused as everybody else - why are his only two choices, go to Sweden or die? Nobody's forcing him to stay in a country he disagrees with and doesn't want to deepen his ties to - and to which he pays no taxes. So HOW is he going to be "trapped" in the US? That kind of inflated language just bugs me. The letter does not really tell the whole story and I feel it's trying to emotionally manipulate me.

If he can't live a complete life where he is, he has choices. He seems to be making a suicidal one of his own free will, but I can't make out why.

BTW, "refugee" from what?

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Bee
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 01:02 PM

InOBU, as others have stated, this is a very unclear cause.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 01:07 PM

I tend to share the doubts and questions expressed by the others, and feel that it might strengthen the letter if it gave some information as to what this man actually does for his lifework, instead of simply telling us what he's against. Also, I don't think that "He will not work and pay taxes" is going to impress any immigration official, no matter what clause follows this statement. It's bound to make them wonder what else would stop him working or paying tax, and is that (or suicide) his customary reaction whenever he objects to something? Sweden is unlikely to welcome another unemployed non-contributor, however laudable his motives. The rest of us have to pay into the society we live in and derive the benefits of, like it or not - and taxes do also keep the roads paved, public places lit at night, and the emergency services running.   

It would help to know more about why he had to leave Sri Lanka. I'm sorry but I too don't feel able to lend support based on the amount of information given above.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 01:34 PM

Frankly, it sounds like he needs therapy, Lorcan. It's a fairly short trip to Canada if he feels that bad about being here, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 05:37 PM

If he is devoted to peace, then he wasn't fighting for the Tamil rebels; how does he qualify as a 'refugee' from Sri Lanka?

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: GUEST,Sparkles
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 06:25 PM

> On Dec 19th I finally moved out of Christ House in Bronx, NY. After spending a couple of nights with a friend, I'm now in a shelter on Wards Island. It's possible that I could be in Manhattan soon.

If he doesn't want to stay in his sheltered housing, there are plenty of needy New Yorkers out there...

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 04:53 PM

Well.........I wasn't going to and probably shouldn't post to this thread but what the hell............

When Larry first posted this I happened to be on and read it. My printer is fritzed at the moment so I looked up the e-mail addy ([e-mail]) and sent a letter of support:

I am writing to you in support of the application of Vijay Wijesundera. He has an application to be resettled in Sweden, dossier number 9360718.

While I am sure others have offered you compelling reasons for your reconsideration of his application, I can only ask that you do so for humanitarian reasons. Please review his application along with other information you may have received once again before passing a final judgement on his case.

I thank you for your time in this pressing matter. Best Regards,

Patrick F. Patterson
411 Purvis Avenue
Bremen, Ohio 43107

I didn't bother checking back in here until the next day when a number of you had rightly posted your concerns and requests for additional information. I read through the thread and decided not to post because I do certainly agree with you as I don't understand the issues here myself. I've been thinking about it for a couple of days now and finally thought what the hell.........

I understand how all of you feel and I too may have been better off to forego the letter but Larry is a friend who has always been around with thoughts and support when needed and sometimes my heart tramples my brain into submission.....not too hard with a pea-sized brain. So I sent the email that night, which probably will do no good anyway, as a favor to Larry and not Vijay.

But Larry? It'd be nice to have some more info........(:<))

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:36 PM

I really am sorry for the pain this thread is bound to cause Larry (is that Lorcan?) and have been watching it slowly sink down to the horizon undefended. But I need to understand things that I don't understand before I can even consider writing to anyone. And, while I stand by everything I wrote above, I see now that it sounds colder than I meant it to. Larry comes across as true-hearted and compassionate, and I can only imagine what he must be feeling as he reads this. (Like you, I find myself responding to him more than to the thread's subject, whom I can't get a clear focus on.) I can't help being irritated that Vijay has been given - and appears to accept - so much in the way of support and material necessities from a country he then publicly criticises and won't contribute to. And I want to know the exact nature of "refugee" as the term applies to him. The USA must not have been so distasteful to him at one time, when he needed it.

This is the trouble with knowing so little of the story: the human imagination is never unduly worried by lack of hard fact and will quite merrily supply material of its own to fill in the blanks - so these judgments may be wide of the mark.

I have identified another thing that's been bothering me: It just sounds like Vijay is wilfully throwing his life away, and try as I might, I can't regard that in any inspirational light. In the past couple of years the Angel of Death has indulged in a damned feeding frenzy, and I have said Rest In Peace to or about way, way too many people who had no choice in the matter. Vijay does (or at least did), and I have a hard time with his willed decision to destroy his life in what is inevitably a futile gesture. He could turn it around. My friends could not.

I'm still in agreement with every word of what people have written above, and I am not not signing any letters until I have some clear info - and perhaps not even then. But I should have added before now that I have huge respect for Larry, who is speaking out for what he believes in, and is willing to put himself on the line and not just Talk, but Do.

Spaw, I'm glad you posted.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Peace
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:41 PM

I am of the same mind. WHAT is it all about?

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 07:30 PM

Spaw, luvya...thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 07:52 PM

Bonnie's right. InOBU has a very big heart and cares about people very much. That's certainly something we need more of in this world. I think his friend has more options than killing himself to protest a country that has at the very least offered him a sanctuary. Would he suicide as a protest against the US if he lived in Sweden? Or is his protest mainly against not being able to live in Sweden?

Sorry. I really feel like this guy is either disturbed, or he is playing on the sympathy of his friends. I won't write a letter for him.

Subject: RE: BS: Please help save the life of my friend
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 08:55 PM

Good point Leej (Bonnie too)......As far as Vijay is concerned, you sorta' hit the point that was rattling around in my mind but couldn't phrase. If indeed he has the level of belief which allows him to take his own life to make a point, I'd like to understand a helluva' lot more about what that point is. But then again, I was supporting InOBU and not Vijay which I suppose makes me a whore to some extent.........Hmmm, can you only be a whore to some extent? Anyway...........

Quakers have a long standing commitment to non-violent protest of course but I have never understood the mentality that uses up their own life to make a point. In the western world of thought, it makes no sense. And its not unknown in Quaker history either. A devout Quaker and a father of several young children, Norman Morrison, set himself afire and burned to death outside of McNamara's office in the Pentagon back in 1965. McNamara later admitted the profound effect it had on him but it certainly wasn't sufficient to make him act differently immediately. Morrison has come up before in a discussion with Larry and I remember several interchanges about that.

In any case, I'm not sure what's lost and what's gained in all of that and I know that to me at least, it's a mental problem. In other cultures it is a time honored tradition. If anyone sees ol' Lorcan out wandering around, tell him to drag his ass back here for awhile, huh?

Spaw