Definition of terrorism?

A recent conversation on Twitter with an ex-colleague of mine got me thinking on the definition of terrorism. He called a certain organization a terrorist organization. I've always believed that, terrorizing innocent people is an act of terrorism and the perpetrators of terrorism are terrorists. Isn't this a simple test to determine whether an act is an act of terrorism or not? According to this test, the organization mentioned by my ex-colleague was indeed a terrorist organization.

Anyway, I decided to look up the definition of terrorism. Here is one of the definitions [source]

1. The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.
2. Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.
3. A psychological strategy of war for gaining political or religious ends by deliberately creating a climate of fear among the population of a state.

So any organization, military, country, government or individual that satisfies 1, 2 or 3 is committing an act of terrorism, which is an act against humanity.

As an individual who values life and believes that everybody has to do his/her part for the betterment of society, I'm deeply disappointed over the selective branding of only a few organizations as terrorists, while directly or indirectly condoning the terrorism committed by some other powerful entities.

So let us not selectively brand certain entities and be brave and open enough to call the act as we see it. All types of terrorism need to be defeated to make this world a better place. Trying to combat terrorism using terrorism will only give rise to more terrorists & terrorism.

Live for today & let others live

I'd like to add a few of my thoughts to this.

In the end, when you are dead and gone, only the consequences of your actions will remain. You would have either made the world a better place to live in, created hell on earth for others, or wouldn't have had any impact on the world. Try your best to make the world a better place. Currently there are too many people who are hellbent on making life miserable for others.

When you are gone, if you are remembered for the good you've done for humanity, your life on earth would not have been wasted.

Russel Peters Jr. from Canada

Stop Killing Children!

Sorry for the graphic depictions. But we need to see what is happening in the world. As a father of 3 little kids, it makes me extremely sad to see such pictures. Even when my kids have the slightest illness, my wife & I used to get very upset, I cannot even imagine how the parents of these children can bear such pain.

Sadly, despite so much technological advances, this world has not become a better place. People have not become better human beings.

These are some of the pictures of children killed in Palestine.

Articles on Carbon & Axis2 Clustering

I have written two articles on The OxygenTank explaining the fundamentals & some of the basics in the WSO2 Carbon & Apache Axis2 clustering.

Introduction to WSO2 Carbon Clustering
This article explains some of the basic concepts that govern the WSO2 Carbon & Apache Axis2 clustering implementation

WSO Carbon Clustering Configuration Language
This article is a comprehensive guide to the cluster configuration language used in WSO2 Carbon & Apache Axis2. In order to properly configure a cluster, you will need a good understanding of the cluster configuration language.

Coming up...
Apache Axis2 Clustering Topologies

A Historical Day!

Figure: Flag of my country Sri Lanka

Today will go down as one of the greatest days in the history of Sri Lanka. The heroic Sri Lankan forces were able to capture the terrorist headquarters. It looks like the 30 year old separatist war will soon come to an end and there will be peace once again.

කුරිරු ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ගෙන් කිලිනොච්චිය මුදවාගත් අපගේ වීරෝධාර සෙබලුන්ට මාගේ උපහාරය. මේ ඓතිහාසික මොහොතේදී මෙම ජයග්‍රහණය ලබා දීමට දිවි පිදූවන් මතක් කල යුතුමය. සුළු පිරිසකගේ වියරුව සන්සිඳුවීමට ජීවිත කී දහසක් බිලි දීමට සිදුවූයේද?

Running WSAS 3.0 on Tomcat

http://wso2wsas.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-run-wsas-v30-beta2-on-apache.html