The rains we had
last week has eased. More help is offered to those affected by the flood
waters. Investigations to determine the impact, extent and the future dangers
of the landslides in several areas are being carried out. The chessboard of Sri
Lankan politics has seen a minor move of a cabinet reshuffle. Watch three
different television channels and you will be left thinking we live in
different countries. Each depicts a different ‘truth’, and we all know that
there can not be more than one truth. Much of all of this is grey, only of
different shades.
I wrote this column
and published it in late June 2011. Not much has changed. Only the specifics of
the events are different. The shades of grey and the ‘truth’ as told, is laid
before us and we must subject it to our critical examination. One thing is for
sure, the glasses most wear of different shades will make them see them in
different ways. The challenges are many. Much work remains to be done.
Yesterday’s news of
school children in Kaudulla, getting out of school, on to the road to
demonstrate against the new principal appointee is most disturbing. Politics in
education, whether of the ‘party kind’ or personal, should not involve
children. They are our future, please do not let them loose faith. Well that
was not a good beginning for my week, but I never give up hope and I urge you,
please don’t, for when the weeks come and go, hope is the thread we have left,
to weave it all together.
How lovely it is when
there is not much news that is bad floating around. This week has been
relatively quiet and how wonderful it will be, if all year round, and year
after year, we heard little of the negatives and only highlighted the
positives, letting the world around us beam with joy. Don’t get me wrong; there
is much that is wrong and we must always seek to fix that what is wrong. We
must indeed strive hard to minimise inequalities, ease pain, empower the
powerless, cure the sick, help the needy and the poor, douse fears of those in
doubt and give our all to make a fair-play field for the living. Yet, it does
not have to be a picture of hopelessness, petty divisive opposing, doom or
gloom. The human spirit is strong and our leaders, our media, and each of us must
venture to harness that to fix what is wrong and bring out the best in each and
every one of us.
Our own doing
I know I am taking a
chance when I state here, that it has been a good week this far, for I am
writing this on a preceding Sunday morning for today. But, I would rather take
that chance and hope the rest of the week will be good, than live in anticipated
fear that it may turn out to be bad. If it does, so be it for I have the
satisfaction that I was not expecting it to be so. Most of the bad news we hear
and see and learn of is of course, made by men and women like you and I.
Even natural disasters
we endure in most instances are the wrath of nature we have brought upon
ourselves. The rest is made by our leaders of nations or people like us, for we
have been senseless, uncaring and/or callous. Some even lack the sense and
sensitivity to understand that we have been the cause of the very situations
and conflicts we dwell in, while yet others thrive in conflict, often benefiting
from the fallouts. Manufacture and sale of weapons, continuance of wars, miscommunication
and exploitation of the fearful and weak and imposition of other instruments of
destruction are examples. More often, conflict and mayhem is needlessly created,
when they could have been avoided if we were able to act with a bit of selflessness,
dignity, tact, care and wisdom.
Have the tools
It is interesting that
we have all the tools needed to stay out of conflict. The Buddha Dhamma, Christian,
Hindu and Islamic teachings and ways of solid peacemakers the likes of Mahatma Gandhi,
Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Each year Noble peace awards are
made, but very few lessons are learnt from the work or the lives of those on whom,
the awards are bestowed.
Wars or attacks
against other nations are waged because there was little or no ethical dealing
among them in the first place. Greedy designs for seeking ownership and access
to resources had bred mistrust and intolerance. Many accidents happen and lives
are lost of children, budding youth, men and women, for some among us are selfish,
resentful, indignant or ruthless. Here I mean not only the reckless drivers on
the roads, but mind-drivers, slave-drivers and drivers of hatred who operate
around ‘leaders’/decision makers, drivers of crooked deals and even drivers of peace
deals.
Turning back to the
week, the Channel 4 ‘Killing Fields’ episode got us to reflect that we needed
to be united and act with resolve, to overcome such accusations. The lesson to be
learnt is that as a nation we have to be morally strong, respect the rule of
law, pay due regard to ensuring dignity for all citizens regardless of race,
cast or creed, and respect the principle of meritocracy. Like was sung by the
chorus upon the famous judgment rendered by Judge Azdak in Bertolt Brecht’s
Caucasian Chalk Circle, “what there is shall belong to those who are good for
it”. The famous line from the same play used to describe the dilemma faced by Grusha,
the maid who takes on to care for the baby prince left behind by the queen and being
pursued by solders of the revolution, is the same dilemma faced by many among
us today; “terrible is the temptation to do good”.
The wonder
When we get some of that
right, there is not a chance for the likes of the producers of Channel 4, their
sponsors and others with vested motives, to even dare bring such accusation
against us. With that episode behind and knowing that it in no way signals the
end of such attempts to bring us down, we now have an opportunity to take a
strong look at our selves. We need to take an almost back to basics view at our
systems of governance, evaluate mistakes of the past to learn from them, refrain
from being autocratic, be willing to give and take, set in place processes of
widespread consultation and move on to create the wonder of the nation, we
desire to be.
In our neighbouring India Islamabad
Nervous breakdowns
I also saw this week, an
interesting ‘You Tube’ clip of a speech delivered recently by ‘the bright new star of Pakistan Pakistan
True bondage
On Monday
this week, I was witness to how nine students from Jaffna Kiula Junior
School Agro-Technical Park
It is mid-year now and
my mind takes me back to a unique greeting in poem, my friend Jaydeep Nath Sur
from India
“Can we all
evangelise & shatter the myth
and mirage
of elusive inclusive growth
in most
parts of this beautiful world
and help
make this planet
A better
place
A smaller
place to live in
bringing a
smile on every face
like the
effervescence
in an early
morning blossoming 'lotus'
on an
ethnic, unkempt pond
in the
middle of a thousand unrealised dreams
looking us
into our eyes...”
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