A score of hundred ‘Back to Basics’

It was two years ago, just before Sinhala/Hindu Surya Mangalya time, when I was first invited to write this column. Believe it or not, I did it for over one hundred weeks since. There were three weeks in between I had to take a break, mostly as a result of bouts of ill-health. Otherwise it was a straight innings of my attempt at bringing you thoughts that I thought, were worthy of sharing.

There are a few debts of gratitude I owe. First, is to Chairman ANCL and media-man Bandula Padmakumara for inviting me to write this column. With his invitation was the response to my condition of ‘no editing, no deleting and no meddling with what I write’, with a “be responsible and we will agree to your conditions”. “Fair enough” was my response and we were in business. To the former editor of the Daily News, Jayatileka de Silva, and the editorial team past and present for honouring that condition both in spirit and in action and to the team of illustrators, who added that extra bit of charm, sometimes in full colour, to make the columns look good. For over two years, each week Wednesday, they published what I wrote, just as I had sent it to them. All column titles, sub-heads and content were as I had crafted them, except for one single day, when an opening paragraph of mine was deleted. In an email prior to publication I was informed by the editor, that it would be ‘edited for lack of space’.

Last but not least, a big thank you to all of you readers of the column. Some among you even took time to contact me to share with me, what you thought of the issues I wrote about. In these times of intense interactivity and bold exposure of the ‘Wikileaks’ type, that I guess is what enables strengthen a writers wrist, to make those key-board strokes more meaningful and count for something.

Feet on the ground

I believed that my chosen column title ‘Back to Basics’ to be a strong ‘feet on the ground’ statement. In my quest in seeking meaning and in looking for things that were basic by its nature, but had a profound impact on our lives, I came across some very interesting definitions for the term ‘Back to Basics’. “A return to previously held values of decency”, said the Phrase-Finder on the Web. “Stressing simplicity and adherence to fundamental principles, with the addition, that the movement suggests a back-to basics approach to living for those whose lives have become complicated” was how the term was described in Dictionary.reference.com.

On another sphere, ‘Back to Basics’ was a recent concert tour and the title of a collection of songs on a compact disc by singer Christina Aguilera. I later learnt that ‘Back to Basics’ was also the campaign title of the ill-fated attempt to re-launch the government of British Prime Minister John Major in 1993. In the important area of education reforms, the Wikipedia, points to the term being used to describe how students should be reintroduced to understanding basic human values through fundamental changes in school curricular.

My first column title I recall was “Creating sustainable businesses” and was followed by “Small is beautiful; is big better?” The concurrent theme I sought to develop throughout the 99 percent columns I wrote this far, I believe is summarised in the following three paragraphs, from my second column written in the first week of April 2009. I beg your indulgence in my attempt to share it with you once again.

Lessons from history

“The value we draw from learning history is what we must learn from it. Sadly though, there is very little learning we do from the annals of history, be it of the world, our own region or country. History tells us how large and vast empires were built by leaders and peoples who sought to conquer others, to meet power and greed driven agenda. We have learnt of how these very empires could not be sustained for too long, faced decay and tumbled. We also learnt of an exception of an empire built by King Asoka of India, which through self-realisation by the emperor himself, was transformed to seeking the way of conquering minds with righteous ideas. Thankfully today, it has left us with a lasting empire of Buddhist thought and practise. The empires built on the thoughts of Christ and of Islam are indeed no exceptions. Many wars were fought with weapons, in the name of religion. But most of it was to do with the organisations or institutions associated with religion and not with the words of wisdom or thought processes.

Sustainable models

What is important about small, self-motivated and sustainable models of governance of people or business is that they are all based on the premise of looking inward at our own selves and not on using might and muscle. They were all based on sufficient social and economic principles of thriftiness, simplicity and good governance always shunning thoughts of excessive greed.

As we look around at the current state of our world, economies, institutions and organisational models and businesses, we see that they all predominantly portray the exact opposite. Simple ways have been replaced with tentacle laying empire like networks of financial institutions, outfits for extracting natural resources and rapid movement of capital funds, all based on the principle of ‘Big is better’ and ‘Fast meets greed’. At most business schools we are taught of principles of economies of scale and volume discounts. Principles of self-sufficiency, conservation and the greater good often take a back-seat or form the elective list of courses. Info-communication tools that can serve humankind well, to alleviate poverty and better distribute income are used by many for not so useful pursuits of shallow entertainment and/or for the promotion and sustenance of opulent lifestyles of useless consumption”. The global economic downturn that began concurrently was dissected to be the folly of non-sustainability in the use of natural resources, in placing greed before need, lack of caring for sound values and absence of fundamental practises of greater good, transparency and good governance in both public and private sector domains.

Unite not divide

As a nation, we saw the wiping out of the bloody terrorism outfit of the LTTE that brought this nation endless suffering, for nearly 30 years. The challenges were many in the aftermath of the end of that era and I sought to trace the work done by good human-beings at the transitional camps set up for the many thousands of our Tamil brethren who were displaced as a result of that bloody conflict. We saluted the armed forces and the many civilians, who sought to unite and pounced on those who sought to divide.

During the time of my developing the columns, I also sought to slow down on my own life. For more than year and half now, I have chosen to live away from the big city in a cosy village called Kiula, bordering the Kalametiya Bird Sanctuary in the Deep South of Sri Lanka. Each week, I file my columns connected on the virtual domain and stay connected with the rest of the world through satellite TV, Skype, Facebook and the many other platforms that are on offer to me. Unlike when I lived in the big city, I now have access to a most valuable resource enabling me to stay in touch, learn and continue to be the humble student that I seek to be. That most valuable resource is TIME.

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