A thought for Independence Day:

Let us preserve our national identity

BY LIONEL Wijesiri

YEAR after year on 4th of February, we Sri Lankans celebrate Independence Day. Of course, it's true that most of us stay home and watch TV coverage of the ceremony or go visiting our friends and relatives.

The point here - the premise, which allows me to pad this article - is, that many of us treat this day just as a special holiday without fully understanding what it is all about.

One reason for my raising this query is because, I believe our brains have been so softened from watching Western TV melodrama and films that we've all lost the ability to understand who really we are.

It's exactly 58 years since our parents and grandparents fought hard to win us our well-cherished independence from the British Empire!

Well, what should we say on this great occasion? What should one write about? Should we celebrate? Should we be sad? Either route will attract strong supporters and sharp critics.

One thought says, why did they offer us independence when they should have waited until we had become more matured and developed! (as my old neighbour shamelessly asserts!). But that's obviously a bad thought. It will attract scorn from those who believe it to be a display of an inferiority complex.

The other thought is, Thank you for the independence, because it is better to be free and poor than to be prosperous while bound. A poor king is better than a rich slave. Indeed, either thought can flow into a long and passionate discourse.

So, which one to choose? This is an opportunity that should not be passed, after all 58 is such a fairly big number for a writer to miss making a strong statement; but which one to choose?

I will choose neither, but borrow some sentiments from both.

For 58 years we have tasted the sweetness of the independence for our country, which is something that we can be proud of.

For 58 years we have been trying to achieve the real meaning of independence with so many slogans coming with it. But still, many of us seem perplexed by the definition of the independence itself. We then create so many definitions for the independence to suit our own pleasure and lifestyle.

As for me, the independence really means a lot to the people who really value the price of being released from the painful memory of the colonization. Imagine for hundreds of years, we were colonized mentally and physically by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British.

However, after we got our independence from the British on 4th February 1948, did we actually free ourselves from the influence of them, in terms of mentally and physically?

Neo-colonisation

Recently, a new term was introduced in the economic world known as the neo-colonization. A lot of people say that this kind of colonization may bring more destruction rather than being physically colonized like we experienced a few decades ago.

They say that the world is getting smaller. By the year 2020 we will all be wearing LEVI jeans, Alligator sports shirts, Adidas running shoes, eating at MacDonald's, drinking Heineken beer, etc, etc.

Thanks to television, movies, telecommunications and transportation we are headed towards the "global village" vision. This was supposed to happen in 2000 when we were all to become "Europeans".

Yet for most of us this vision is somehow not appealing, if not appalling. In this vision there is the allure of the mythical "melting pot" wherein different cultures are blended.

However, visiting international cities such as New York, London, Paris or Geneva one cannot help but be struck by the clear boundaries of distinct neighbourhoods. Regional tensions in Spain and Belgium, or more dramatically, in former Yugoslavia also challenge the myth.

Thus despite powerful forces for integration, there exist equal, if not more powerful forces for differentiation - to preserve cultural identity and integrity. Rather than a cultural melting pot, we find cultural mosaics.

Lifestyle change

Largely due to the media, western lifestyle has increasingly influenced us in the last three decades. Because of increased international trade, western companies are attempting to export to the emerging new markets and the advertising and other marketing tools, which they employ, tend to export not only food products but also negative aspects of lifestyle.

In their attempts to influence potential customers, multi-national companies use advertising, marketing, consumer studies, psychological and sociological research.

TV advertising is the most powerful tool with which to reach the public. It is said that the amount of money currently spent on advertising may be more than 15 per cent of the final price of a product.

These companies now work increasingly to advance the lifestyle and values that will create future customers. This manipulation of customer perception, expectation and motivation attempts to create a demand for both the real and perceived qualities of the products.

The sad part of the story is that our teenagers are becoming the moving advertisement by these giant western corporate companies.

It does make me sometimes wonder how this true and more effective colonization has taken its place in our society, not physically but deeply rooted in the image and people's self-attitude.

Real independence

We can see how the negative western culture has started to roam rapidly in every inch of the city like mushroom after the rain. What does independence means to us when we could not stand up by ourselves and start to protect our life values?

On this Independence Day, we - the so called the educated people - should dedicate ourselves to start raising our hands and stop this nonsense from keep occurring in our nation.

The young generation should be given an equal chance to develop themselves as intellectual individuals, not as guinea pigs for the western product market or as the living stage in the East World to depict the western society's maddening behaviour.

When that day comes, we can proudly wish - Happy Independence Day, "on" Sri Lanka for only then will we know what it really means to be independent, and how it feels to truly celebrate.