passaram ainda além da Taprobana

Em baixo o artigo que escrevi no quarto número da revista Think South Asia (19 de Novembro), que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum. Principais países em destaque: Sri Lanka e Paquistão. Neste número fala-se também da educação como forma de combater o extremismo e o terrorismo, e temos ainda a honra de contar com Vytautas Landsbergis, o primeiro Presidente da Lituânia após o comunismo.

---

 

Por mares nunca de antes navegados,

Passaram ainda além da Taprobana*

Luís Vaz de Camões, in “Os Lusíadas” – Canto I

 

In this edition of Think South Asia we put the focus on Sri Lanka. With a long history and a very distinctive identity formed by a great profusion of different ethnicities and a meeting point of religions, Sri Lanka has a incredibly rich culture. Its privileged geography puts Sri Lanka in a very central and strategic situation in the Indian Ocean. As in the first stanza of his opus magum “Os Lusíadas”, the Portuguese poet Camões considered Taprobana (another name for Sri Lanka) a transition point for western culture. Of course this 16^th century stance is not exactly the same in today’s globalized world, nevertheless Sri Lanka maintains its role of a commercial passage country with many opportunities to be a motor for improving regional cooperation amongst the countries of South Asia.

 

Concerning Sri Lanka, we have the chance to read an excellent country profile from South Asia Democratic Forum’s Policy Adviser Cátia Rodrigues, which gives the floor to Robert Jan Riemersma’s article on the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. Mr Riemersma is an expert on the issue and conducts his research in the prestigious Heidelberg University. Finally, we have the pleasure to inaugurate a new readers’ section of the Think South Asia magazine, where we recommend an interesting book on Sri Lanka’s history.

 

The hot topic of Balochistan is also an issue affecting South Asia’s peace and stability. Dr Siegfried O. Wolf writes on the current situation in Balochistan and the Pakistani government’s attitude towards it. Meanwhile, on the occasion of the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Pakistan, Mr Mehran Baloch alerted us that the “danger of the nuclear assets falling into the hands of terrorists has already materialised and the world should understand this for if it doe­sn’t the world will have to pay a bitter price for its laxity and complacence”. Mr Baloch is the Permanent Representative of Baluchistan to the UN Human Rights Council.

 

We do not forget education for tolerance in this edition. Mr Amir Mustafa is a Research Officer in the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Human Resource Development Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan, and he writes on “Education for Peace and Prosperity in South Asia”. This is an article not to be missed: Mr Mustafa gives us a very well-informed idea of what is going on in each of the eight countries of SAARC.

 

Finally, last but not least, in the last edition of this magazine we announced the South Asia Democratic Forum’s conference on “The Merits of Regional Cooperation – The case of South Asia” which took place in Brussels on 11 October. I just want to leave here a word saying it was a great success: it really opened the debate on regional cooperation in South Asia, with deep interventions, such as the one from President Vytautas Landsbergis from Lithuania, which we are honoured to present in this edition. The quality and innovation of the academic papers presented in the conference was clear for all to behold. I hope to be able to share further  findings of that conference with you in due course given the quality of the work produced. In the meantime, I invite you to enjoy this, the fourth edition of Think South Asia.

 

*By seas never before sailed

They passed even over Taprobana

---

Publicado no site do South Asia Democratic Forum: www.sadf.eu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthAsiaDemocraticForum

Para fazer o download da revista Think South Asia 04: http://sadf.eu/docs/thinksouthasia04.pdf