Live simple Live free

By Renton de Alwis

 

Witten in mid 2010, this is a plea for us to think, plan and act different. A belief that there need be an alternative model for human development to replace the current dominant model based on greed, more greed, choice and more choice that uses up resources to feed the greed of a few and needs of all beings take a back seat.

My work and my interests have taken me to very many places within my own country and around the world. My passion for seeking my life’s dream of being closer to nature and to the rural lifestyle has always got me interested in exploring the lesser-known often questioning dominant beliefs. A quest that began in the sixties and seventies with my initial exposure as a student of conservation economics, today takes me together with likeminded others, to critically examine issues that touch on the very survival of humankind. Global warming, climate change, food crisis, water crisis, pandemics, growing incidence of poverty, terrorism, loss of jobs and livelihoods all around the world, are but some of the major issues that touch hard on our lives and living today. While in the past, these were issues that seemingly impacted on the not so well to do countries and peoples, today the impact is felt on everyone living on this planet earth, no matter which social strata one belongs to or what level of materialistic development one has achieved.

Need not Greed

For a long time, we opted to ignore that there were many lessons to learn from the great religions on self-sufficiency, frugality and on maintaining simple ways of life. We forgot that “Small is indeed beautiful” and that it is the 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.  We have heard of the principles of a “Sufficiency Economy”, a concept brought out by the King of Thailand on the same thread of thinking. We fashionably talk today of the efforts of the former King of Bhutan of his country’s measure of development and success, through the national economic indicator of “Gross National Happiness”.

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 in the past. “Greed is Good” was in fact is a prominent signage I saw recently, not in any big city in America, Japan or Europe, but in Hyderabad, India in front of a modern shopping mall. The fact is that the biggest impacts on many of the failures we have seen in financial and real-estate markets, industries and investment in the recent past has been caused by one or several of the global level issues that we identified earlier. Increased incidence of polarised behaviour and waging of wars on terror over the years, have caused an enormous waste of resources both natural and financial, that could otherwise have served to minimise poverty, conserve water, other resources, mange causes for global warming, prevent incidence of pandemics and to build trust among peoples to eliminate causal factors that breed terrorism. 

Sustainable ways

I remember the days in 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 paved and sheltered bicycle lanes on the sides of our highways and urged that facilities be provided for children, disabled and the elderly when crossing them. We also have the likes of Vidayajothi 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 has 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 the call he makes for sustainable practices.

Our own model

Today under the stewardship of our head of state, Sri Lanka is pursuing a development model that is different to what we have sought for sometime now. Seeking sustainability and self-sufficiency in what can be produced locally are principles that form the core of its execution. While the nation is geared in this direction, it is indeed the summation of each individual citizen’s efforts that will make the success, it will be.

An Asian Brand

Sri Lanka is indeed a land like no other. Though small in size relative to many other lands, she is richly endowed with many natural, heritage, cultural and social resources and has got what it takes to be an example and model to the rest of the world in simple but profound living, where freedom of choice is sought through the strengths of self-sufficiency and sustainability of efforts. Costa Rica is cited today as a clean and green nation. Sri Lanka could do better, with its own Asian brand of sustained success?