Why should frugality be a village?

Just last week during a casual search on Google for some material, I stumbled on an interesting image. It was a photograph of a road signage, which read ‘Village of Frugality’. The first thought that came to my mind was ‘Why only a village, why not the whole wide world?’ I did casually post that on my Face book page, and moved on to other things. Several of my FB friends liked the thought and it seemed to have touched accord with their own thinking. I wondered if that was because we were a likeminded flock or because the idea of being frugal was a basic human instinct.

Avoiding extravagance

Before we explore that thought any further, it would be good to understand what frugality means as a concept and a form of action. According to the Wikipedia “Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioural science, frugality has been defined as the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourceful use of already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal”.

My ‘discovery’ of a ‘Village of Frugality’ continued to haunt my mind and I returned to learn more about it and thought of sharing it with you in this column, for at a time when most of world is affected by crisis caused as a result of imprudent and selfish use of resources i.e. the poverty, climate and financial crisis, ‘frugality’ as a life-style mode assumes even greater meaning and relevance. I thought it was also important for Sri Lanka as a nation to think of what frugality in our ways would mean to us, as we approach this new phase of our drive for development.

Affluenza or ‘Boru Shoak’

The sign I found was real and the little known ‘Village of Frugality’ exits within the Cambria County, Pennsylvania in the USA. Even a web search on the village will not yield any evidence that the village can now be cited as an example of frugal living for times have changed and frugal living has been replaced as a culture, within the dominant Western cultural milieu. Wasteful pursuits of over-indulgence and conspicuous consumption have now replaced the values of frugality once held dear in the pre-industrial revolution Western hemisphere. It is perhaps the early Dutch migrants to the USA and their roots at the village that gave it its name.

Closer to home, ‘frugality’ was a value and a trait that was valued and admired within our own culture in the not too distant past. I remember as a kid the reference to the term ‘Boru Shoak’ (meaningless extravagance or show off) being attributed to individuals and situations where there was imprudent spending on things luxurious. Austere lifestyles were considered a virtue then and people who were less extravagant were considered wise.

Critics of consumerism have coined the term affluenza, defining it as the bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses that can lead to taking epidemic proportions of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the materialistic dream which can be an unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

The Asian way

Most studies on the Asian way show that the success of the Asian ‘Dragon’ or ‘Tiger’ economies of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and that of China are based on the basic value system derived from the Confucius ethic that encompass authority with respect for elders, loyalty, frugality as in saving and innovation and the belief on the value of education and learning, diligence, duty, perseverance, patience and hard work. The over 50 percent personal savings rate in Singapore, surpluses in balance of trade China holds with the Western world and the ability Malaysia had under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed in averting financial crisis in the 1990s are but some examples of these values at work. This placed alongside the other end of the spectrum of the Western value system of individualism, rationalism, human rights, and legalism, allows us to better understand the true nature of the cultural divide in the basic premises on which the current globalised world rests, in spite of the overt similarities we see in the physical infrastructure, city-scapes, lifestyles etc.

In an essay on ‘The Buddhist attitude towards nature’ Prof. Lily de Silva states that “Buddhism commends frugality as a virtue in its own right. Once, Bikku Ananda explained to King Udena the thrifty economic use of robes by the monks in the following order. When new robes are received the old robes are used as coverlets, the old coverlets as mattress covers, the old mattress covers as rugs, the old rugs as dusters, and the old tattered dusters are kneaded with clay and used to repair cracked floors and walls.

Thus nothing is wasted. Those who waste are derided as “wood-apple eaters.” A man shakes the branch of a wood-apple tree and all the fruits, ripe as well as unripe, fall. The man would collect only what he wants and walk away leaving the rest to rot. Such a wasteful attitude is certainly deplored in Buddhism as not only anti-social but criminal. The excessive exploitation of nature as is done today would certainly be condemned by Buddhism in the strongest possible terms. Tenants on the adherence of frugality are no different in many other religious teachings.

In the breach

What is sad though, is that these values are mostly observed in the breach in our midst today. The waste and profligacy, we see in Sri Lanka does not at all fit the Asian system of values and ethics that we should be akin with. Lost in a way, most among us spend extravagantly on luxurious weddings, openings, other tamashas without any regard to the waste and imprudence in the use of material and financial resources.

Unlimited imports of fuel guzzling heavy passenger vehicles to carry individuals, extravagant entertainment options, import of non-essential and luxurious items are all indications that we defy our ways of frugality in embracing remnants of a failed system of economic growth.

These resources can better serve our nation to become the wonder if we use them wisely and keeping with the ethos that is our own. Here political, civil society and business leadership need to set the right examples through the strict adherence of frugality in their ways so the rest of the citizenry can follow that example.

Our strength

We indeed need the expressways, bridges, roads, better and more efficient modes of public transport, sustainable energy options and other infrastructure development to provide for the needs of all our citizens, offering them all, opportunities to better their lives living with dignity and in honour. Yet, if it is done in wasteful ways with corruption and conspicuous consumption taking over, then we would only be defying our ability to become the true wonder we can be, for we possess a land blessed with an abundantly rich diversity of natural, cultural and heritage endowments. Our strength and might as a nation will not lay in the skyscrapers we construct, the numbers of luxurious vehicles we see on our roads, the big shows we put on or the lavish goods we import, but on our ability to care for and prudently utilize the resource base we have with moral responsibility to allow all Sri Lankans to sustain themselves with its use.

There is opportunity for us in Sri Lanka to become a model where our own changed ways can carve out a niche for us to be a ‘Nation of Frugality’ and then present ourselves as a true wonder for others to emulate in creating a ‘World of Frugality’.

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