Mark Stephen Meadows

“--and in fact, we humans need conflict just like we need language, to help us define who we are.”
― Mark Stephen Meadows, Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey into the Heart of Sri Lanka's Civil War

“The British burned much of what had been categorized and reduced Aluvihara’s libraries—many of the primary (most “pure”) teachings of the Buddha—to ashes. In talking with one of the administrators about it, I asked how much was left, and as a response he raised the palms of his hands and shrugged. I discovered later that some few texts were reclaimed, and then hidden, but the vast majority were lost.25 Which was the British intent. Doing so softened up the Sri Lankan cultural memory and, therefore, reasons for resistance to the British invasion. But this fact isn’t mentioned in the guidebooks, at least not the ones published in the United Kingdom. We English speakers, after all, have our own traditions to protect. The”
― Mark Stephen Meadows, Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey into the Heart of Sri Lanka's Civil War