What was, what is and what will be?

A good new year resolution can help an individual to change his or her lifestyle for the better. It can also benefit the society. However, many resolutions go unachieved and are often broken fairly shortly after they are set. Lack of commitment by the individual is the main reason.

However, the society one lives in too has a role to play. Here are five resolutions made by a middle class Sri Lankan last year. In retrospect, he thinks "Things could have been better, but they could have been worse".

1) Enjoy life more.

As it happened in the previous years, life became more hectic and stressful for him last year too. He found very little time to spend with his family and loved ones. His worry was that no matter how hard he worked, even with overtime and extra income his expenses kept going up.

He usually spent more than eight hours at work and wasted another three to four hours on the road cursing the traffic and the stinking heaps of garbage on either side of the road.

After a tiring day at work he was forced to stare at advertisements on the TV screen which are supposed to be his only means of leisure. When it came to news it was all about robberies and murders. He had only four hours to sleep, but often, he was disturbed by nightmares and mosquitoes. His children needed him on Sunday's to take them to classes.

3) Get out of debt.

Without ever realising it he was getting addicted to credit. Living on credit became a way of life for him. He was hooked, like a heroin addict. He was always on the lookout for low interest loans to pay his monthly bills. Banks and leasing companies became his drug dealers and sugar daddies. The TV commercials kept on appealing him and his family to live beyond their means.

4) Help others.

Amidst all these difficulties he didn't forget to help the others. He was proud of the way he helped the tsunami victims and always criticised how the Americans helped their hurricane victims.

He also thought that some international aid agencies extended their help in exchange of the right to interfere with our country's internal affairs. He did not understand why some big companies spent more on publicising their donations than what they actually donated.

4) Learn something new.

He learnt many things last year. He learnt that being an island, Sri Lanka was more vulnerable to destruction caused by a tsunami. But, what he could not understand was why the damage done to the fisheries sector had only a little effect on the Gross Domestic Product.

"Perhaps, the fish in our waters are more cunning than in some other waters" he thought. He also learnt how committed some insurance companies were in `serving the people'. He thanked them for teaching him the terms `an act of God' and `honouring the claims'.

However, it was only in December he learnt the that the phasing out of the quota system could really affect the lives of our garment workers.

5) Get organised.

He always blamed himself and his family members for not being organised. He always thought that if the individuals are not organised the society too will be in disarray.

Nevertheless, little by little it has now occurred to him that living in a society which is not organised can confuse the lifestyle of an individual too.