Lessons in floods, landslides and freedom
A second wave of floods and landslides has affected many of our
brethren in 18 districts of Sri Lanka. Some are housed in shelters and
more than 1.25 million are said to be among those needing help. Much
effort, energy and resources are spent on the relief efforts and much of
the development work done in the recent past, will be inundated and
damaged by the ensuing flood waters.
Areas and people that were seeing rays of hope of rehabilitation with
the ending of the conflict are also affected. Mannar, Vavuniya as well
as many areas of the East are under water. Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and
much of the Northeast is flooded and people have been evacuated to
safety. So is the situation in the hills. In Badulla, Welimada and
several other areas landslides have damaged homes and other facilities.
Public buildings the likes of universities, schools and hospitals have
not been spared. Mother Nature has unleashed her wrath on us, not only
in Sri Lanka but in many other places on this, our only planet earth.
Next wave
In many instances, it is when the impact of such devastation hit a
people that we begin to think. I remember the mid 1970s. The energy
crisis, with an unprecedented oil price hike hitting the world at large.
Much talk and even some actions were taken on developing alternative
energy sources and on taking on austere living to cushion the impact.
That was short lived. A few years later the world at large had once
again settled into accepting the higher oil prices, forgotten much of
the frugality and it was business as usual. Business as usual, until the
next wave of the economic crisis hit us a few years ago and the impact
of climate change brought us unprecedented waves of natural disasters
and calamities.
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Ray
Wijewardena |
Prof Mohan
Munasinghe |
It is a sad fact that most people only turn to seeking solace in
religion when the going gets bad. There is no doubt that it is important
for societies, nations and the world at large from time to time, to
revisit the very basics of its ways and take stock. There is perhaps no
better time to take a good look at the current state of our own doing on
the development front, in the context of state of the world's social,
economic and environmental health.
Good of many
We forgot that 'Small is beautiful' and that it is a term used to
describe the principles enumerated in 'Buddhist Economics' or the way to
successful living as described in the many teachings of the Buddha. The
orthodox Christian, Hindu and
Islamic ways are no different. Regardless of what we have in our own
belief systems and ethos in the East, the Western world's predominant
stance of 'Big is better' has been the driver of our greed-based
lifestyle and business ethic throughout the modern phase of what is
today, touted as 'development'.
Greed is Good was in fact, a prominent signage I saw about a year
ago, not in any big city in the US, Japan or Europe, but in India very
near the ashram of the man who was the epitome of basic living, the
Mahatma Ghandi. That was in front of a modern shopping mall in
Hyderabad.
We have often ignored the good of the many in preference to those
holding power and access to resources. Offering unlimited choice over
need and necessity is a fundamental fault-line, we need to track in our
social and economic system of today.
Fault lines
Increased incidence of polarised behaviour driven by intolerance and
greed has resulted in tensions never before seen. Terrorism is a
phenomenon we see emerging as a result and waging wars on terror over
the years have caused an enormous waste of resources both natural and
financial. These could otherwise have served to minimise poverty,
conserve water, other resources, manage causes for global warming,
prevent incidence of pandemics and to build trust among peoples to
eliminate causal factors that breed terrorism.
I recall the eighties, when at Sri Lanka Association of the
Advancement of Science (SLAAS) discussions on use of alternative
lifestyles and sustainable sources of energy, how good men the likes of
late John Diandas, the self-made transport specialist and chartered
accountant called for the use of alternative energy sources and
expansion of our public transport systems.
We also had the likes of Ray Wijewardena who has shown us living
proof of how lifestyles can be sustained through the harmonious blend of
the elements of Extension (Patavi), Cohesion (Apo), Heat (Thejo) and
Motion (Vayo) in a holistic organic farm he created in Kakapalliya, a
little beyond Wennappuwa.
Our own Nobel laureate Prof Mohan Munasinghe's research points us to
the negative impacts we will have on our tropical rural agriculture from
climate change and it is a desperate call he makes for us to adopt
sustainable practices.
True freedom
Disasters the likes of what we see around us are no cyclical
phenomena as some would like to think. Climate science, though subdued
by energy lobbies with vested interests is potent and present solid
evidence that all is not well and that it cannot be business as usual
anymore.
Though small in size, relative to many other lands, Sri Lanka is
richly endowed with natural, heritage, cultural and social resources.
She indeed has the potential to develop to be an example and model to
the rest of the world in simple but profound living. Such model will
need to place values such as need, quality, productivity, frugality,
conservation and equity, when freedom of choice will be sought through
the strengths of self-sufficiency and sustainability of effort. That
indeed can be a model of true economic, political and social freedom for
all.
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