We are a nation ....

Just two weeks ago as a nation we celebrated Vesak and during last weekend, joined the rest of the world to mark World Environment Day. With both events we celebrated values of compassion, rightful and simple living redefining our relationship with Mother Nature, in our attempt to support her to retain her diversity.

Yet, during that same time, we heard of an elephant slain in the wild and another hurt by bullets that had blinded him. The elephant - human conflict goes on unabated. We did witness events where some trees were planted and in the name of tourism promotion, our leaders celebrating life-style features that are opulent, extravagant and wasteful, with the Bolywood spectacle of an IIFA awards weekend.

Regaining our ethos

All this got me thinking of the dichotomy we face as a nation. We talk of the need to be self-sufficient, sustainable and about having our own national identity. Yet at defined moments, with our actions on the ground, we demonstrate quite the opposite when we subjugate the opportunity we now have, to cultivate, build and promote a unique brand of Sri Lanka that will enable us to regain our own ethos of humaneness, tolerance, frugality and sustainability. Values we learnt from the Buddha.

It is ironical how the events of the past weeks and thoughts about them recurred to haunt me, when I received a spam e-mail, a few days ago, origin of which I can not determine. Its subject title was ‘We live in a nation ...’ and I was eager to learn of what it said especially in the light of our proclaimed attempt at being the nation that will be the ‘Wonder of Asia’.

It read “We live in a nation where a Pizza (in some towns) reaches home faster than the Ambulance or Police; where you can get a car loan at five percent interest and an education loan is at 12 percent; where rice is Rs 60 per kg but a telephone SIM card is free; where the shoes we wear are sold in air-conditioned showrooms, but the vegetables we eat are sold on the roadside; where everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to follow the right path to get there; where we make lemon juice drinks with artificial flavours and use dish-wash liquids with real lemon”.

Learning lessons

I did make a few improvements on the text of the original message I received for the sake of clarity, but was careful not to harm the core-thoughts in any way.

My Facebook friend Daya Dissanayake (I am yet to meet him face to face) added a little more spice to this email, for we were at the time discussing issues involved in ‘learning lessons’ on sustainable development and what we can offer the rest of the world, if we get our act right on this front.

We agreed on that facebook dialogue that we needed to have confidence on what is our own, if we were to ‘stand tall among the crowd’. The issues discussed were our dependence on things alien to us, embracing what is decadent instead of the good from other cultures and what each of us can do to get there, without forever waiting for the leadership in Government and its machinery to deliver on the promises, they go on making.

The additions Daya made to the “We live in a nation...” exchange read “one week we talk of the teaching of the Buddha (Vesak) and next we host IIFA awards; where duty on luxury cars and air-conditioners are reduced, and bus fares go up; where school admissions are done based on the proximity to the school, but school vans bring children from 30 - 40 km away; where our prime sporting body, the Cricket Board is cited by the Minister-in-charge, as the third most corrupt institution (education was cited the first) in the country; where farmers sell their fresh milk at a price below that of a bottle of mineral water, and then take home a packet of imported powdered milk”.

Solid determination

I am sure that each of us will have interesting additions to this “We live in nation...” menu. These aptly touch on the humourous realities, like the creators of the many cartoons do, each day, in our newspapers. The sad reality though is that there is very little that is done by each of us and our leadership to truly understand and act with solid determination to correct them.

It is also unfair for anyone to conclude that it is ‘Nation Sri Lanka’ that condones such practices. I often listen to live programs on the vernacular radio, where listeners are invited to comment on issues such as those raised in the “We are a nation..” spam e-mail. It often makes me proud to realize that we have many sound thinking, rational and brave Sri Lankan folk who present their considered opinions on what, where and how we should be addressing these issues to seek solutions.

Well, there is also a minority that indulge in petty talk directed at individuals, much like we see most of our politicians do when we watch them with comical amusement on some of our evening TV news under a special program titled ‘Kiyu Katha’ (what is said).

It is honest and sincere policies and effective, consistent action implemented based on these will make us win the war on the development we profess and desire.