Oprah Winfrey Says No
The much-publicized ‘Walk to the Oprah Winfrey Show’ by a group of Sri Lankan Tamils from Canada has gone down as a ‘walk to nowhere.’
A spokesperson for the Oprah Show confirmed there were no plans to feature the walkers on the show. The announcement comes in the wake of an online petition opposing the walk reaching a count of over 16,000.
The Oprah Show became an unwitting Eelam battleground after the group’s six men, claiming to be ‘students,’ declared they had started trudging from Toronto to Chicago, Illinois, a distance of 840 kilometers (520 miles), with the stated purpose of appearing on the Oprah Show ‘to publicize human suffering.’ The first day of the walk was March 4.
While carefully avoiding any reference to the war in the Wanni and the Tigers, the event carries the hallmarks of a well-organized LTTE stunt, with advance media publicity and a website exclusively launched to record the walk. Titled ‘Oprah, Give us a Voice’ and bearing Oprah’s photo in the header, the web site includes a public poll titled ‘Should Oprah Give Us a Voice’ and a comments section, both blatantly manipulated to show an overwhelming number want Oprah to feature the walkers on her show.
In response, the Los Angeles-based activist group, Sri Lankan Patriots (SLP), salvoed an online petition titled ‘Oprah, Say no to LTTE Terrorists,’ warning Ms. Winfrey the walkers were sympathizers of a brutal terrorist outfit and calling on her not to feature them on her show.
Since its creation just a week ago, the petition has drawn a whopping 16,000-plus signatures from Sri Lankans and others worldwide.
“The response has been incredible, “says SLP secretary Gamini Edirisinghe who expressed gratitude to those who rallied to sign the petition. “We did not believe that Ms. Winfrey would allow pro-Tiger elements on her show. We are also well aware of what happens if you don’t oppose giving LTTE supporters a chance on American TV, especially after M.I.A. and the Tavis Smiley Show,” Edirisinghe said referring to the infamous ‘genocide’ charge the Grammy-nominated rapper made during an interview on the PBS show against the Sri Lankan government.
Oprah Show representative Dan Halcombe said the staff has seen the petition asking Oprah not to publicize the walkers.
Asked if the ‘students’ will be appearing on the show he said: “We have no current plans to feature them on the show.”
They are also aware of the ‘Oprah, give 'Us a Voice’ website, he said, adding “…we are not affiliated with or connected with the website. It is the students' website.”
According to the ‘public poll’ numbers given on this site, more than 80,000 people have voted with 81% saying Oprah should give the walkers a voice. These figures look skewed because large numbers of Sri Lankans opposed to the walk are known to have voted on the site, misled by a few expatriates who believed the site was being run by the Oprah show and that the poll would reflect accurate numbers. The numbers have jumped from a mere 2000-some in a matter of a few days.
A review of the ‘Oprah Give us a Voice’ site, raises several other questions of credibility. The walk was planned to take two months, a mere 8 or 9 miles a day, not much of a walk for young, strong men. Are they really ‘students’ and have they walked for 45 days as the site states? The photos documenting the walk are sparse, 57 in all, averaging less than 2 a day.
Today (April 20) is said to be Day 45, but the blogging stopped a month ago, on March 19, Day 16 of the walk. The last location was London, Ontario, about 100 miles from the starting point.
London has a large Tamil community and the local media was at hand to publicize the walk. Despite the fact that they had averaged just a little more than six miles a day, a sympathetic ‘London Free Press’ said the walkers were ‘battling colds, fevers’ and ‘bruised toes.’
“ Before leaving London tomorrow evening for Windsor, they plan to volunteer in homeless shelters,” the newspaper said.
The blog entries blog don’t mention colds or blisters and there is no mention of volunteering at homeless shelters.
As identified by Tamilnet, the walkers are: Vijay Siveneswaran, Kris Balasingam, Marlan Rajah, Kannan Sreekantha, Myron Rajah, and Ramanan Thirukketheeswaranathan.
Sri Lanka Guardian
