The Global Perspective of Sadarana Mudalalige Bhumithel Dhansela

Renton de Alwis

 

Written in May 2011, this is about the ‘Mannussakama’ or the humaneness we witness among our folk, which is part of our ethos. Yet today, this seems to escape us with corporate and political greed taking strong root. I thought of reposting this atricle after a visit I made yesterday to Matara, the business capital of the Southern Province, and having got my PC serviced loading it ,with a brand new version of Windows 8, buying it on the Internet. I also salute the creators of Linux, the open source operating system, that is free, but confess that I went with the devil that I know better. We live in a world today, where  ‘Manussakama’ among the corporates has been rested with CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility and the politicians with the jargonic expression ‘Janatha Paramadhipathyaya’ or Supremacy of the People.

In Windows 8, I was happy and joyed to see Microsoft’s attempt to make computer use accessible to the visually handicapped through the ‘narrator’ feature. It tells the user of each action he/she makes in an audio relay. This I believe,  is not part of Mr. Bill Gates’s CSR initiative, but a genuine attempt at brining Mannussakama to the midst of the Real World we know.

I believe that the ‘ Sadarana Mudalalis’ among us shaped by our own ethos and ways of the Dhammas to be the same. What is sad is that they are fast becoming a dying breed. Over to you this morning for critical thought.

A story that appeared in a local Sinhala newspaper just after the Sambuddhathva Jayanthi celebrations was making the rounds on international social media networks and my daughter who lives in the US pointed me to it. I had not seen the story gain momentum here and it was hard for me to determine, in which newspaper it appeared. A scanned copy of it was attached and the story was filed with pictures, confirming its authenticity. While I am not surprised that this remarkable story was lost on most of us here, I am glad that some members of our Diaspora thought it fit to circulate it widely. It certainly made an impact in my mind’s eye and I sought to share it with you this week.

 

According to the report, the village of Polgaha Arawa in the Rideemaliyadde area of Badulla is yet to have electricity for its inhabitants. Tissa Hewawasam, the central character of focus in this story is the caring shop-keeper (Kade mudalali) of the village, who gave away kerosene (Bhumithel) to the villagers free-of-charge in a Dhansela (a place for offering of alms) to light-up their homes, during the period of celebrations of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death. This year the celebrations, also called ‘The Festival of light’, marked the 2600 years of Buddha’s attaining Buddhahood.

 

Trust them

The name given to his modest shop by the villagers is ‘Sadharana Stores’, i.e. fair trader’s shop. Villagers were quoted in the story saying how much they appreciated the gesture of Sadarana Mudhalali in enabling them to light up their homes during Vesak. They were also grateful, for their children could now have a few more hours of study at night, stretching the use of their kerosene lamps.

It was reported that Sadarana Mudalali not only played philanthropist at celebration time, but on a day-to-day basis. His customers are encouraged to weigh and take the stuff they need from the store and leave money behind and even take appropriate change, when Tissa is not around or busy with other tasks. His store is very much part of the village economy and not an imposing appendage.  He is quoted in the story to say “My profits belong to my customers. I trust them and they do me. I always think of them when I pray and offer them pin (acquired merit)”.  P. S. Marketing gurus please note.

A historic first

While, this noble deed was taking place in a remote village in Sri Lanka, the President of the United States of America was making arrangements for his visit to the UK and several other countries of Europe. President Obama was to address the British Parliamentarians and the House of Lords in a historic first at the Westminster Hall, a medieval survivor of the 1834 fire that destroyed much of the parliament buildings. He was only the 10th to address both Houses in a session since 1939 and the first US President.

Just the day before, he was in Ireland, on a visit to reinforce his Irish ancestry from the maternal side. He was also to address the G8 summit and meet with some NATO allies.

Strategic interests

No doubt that on top of the agenda of the visit were items such as ‘protecting strategic economic interests’, ‘selectively supporting calls for democracy among Arab nations’, ‘protecting the interests of the state of Israel while being reasonable with the Palestinians’, ‘protecting the Anglo-Saxon system of values from the threats emerging from alternatives and ensuring the continued dominance and influence of the West in world’s political and economic affairs’. 

While, Sadarana Mudalali’s attempt is to assist the needy in his village by meeting their basic needs and to ‘light up’ their lives in an environment of trust and equality, Barak Obama was gearing up to defend why ‘democratic ideals’ and ‘human freedom and rights’ should be upheld in the Middle-east and north African region, justifying the actions the US and its NATO allies in ‘defending’ them. There was of course mention of terrorists and the need to wipe them out, with unified and determined effort. There was no mention though that some of them were once paid agents of the US, defending the very system they later turned against.

 

Clarion call

As usual his oratorical skills were displayed to the fullest in his address at Westminster Hall and it was more ‘Professor Obama’ that shone there, than the much-strangled and held-back on the home-turf, President Obama. I was glued to my seat watching him speak for a full 35 minutes. It was to me a desperate discourse made, in defence of the values held by the Western world. The clarion call was to further strengthen their dwindling position in the light of the challenges faced from another round of clash of civilisations and the emerging economic power houses of Asia. On the latter, I wondered of the need to be defensive. There is little there for the Western alliance to worry about, except issues of balance of payment, for the system of values guiding these economies are the same at the core, as those of the West. Interestingly, UK’s ITN network chose to give the address the title, “West must lead”.  

In his address he said “in a world where the prosperity of all nations is now inextricably linked, a new era of cooperation is required to ensure the growth and stability of the global economy. As new threats spread across borders and oceans, we must dismantle terrorist networks and stop the spread of nuclear weapons; confront climate change and combat famine and disease. And as a revolution races through the streets of the Middle East and North Africa, the entire world has a stake in the aspirations of a generation that longs to determine its own destiny.


Shaped a world

These challenges come at a time when the international order has already been reshaped for a new century. Countries like China, India, and Brazil are growing by leaps and bounds. We should welcome this development, for it has lifted hundreds of millions from poverty around the globe, and created new markets and opportunities for our own nations”.

In a tone somewhat patronizing he added “And yet, as this rapid change has taken place, it has become fashionable in some quarters to question whether the rise of these nations will accompany the decline of American and European influence around the world. Perhaps, the argument goes, these nations represent the future, and the time for our leadership has passed”.

“That argument is wrong” He said adding that “the time for our leadership is now. It was the United States, the United Kingdom, and our democratic allies that shaped a world in which new nations could emerge and individuals could thrive. And even as more nations take on the responsibilities of global leadership, our Alliance will remain indispensable to the goal of a century that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more just”.


Search for solutions

It is here that I see the relevance and the lessons even he can learn from our ‘Sadarana Mudalali’s’ way of life. He is leading a movement in his village based on trust, mutual respect, fair-play and equality. His is a Buddhist way of living, much like that enumerated by the English scholar, economist and gentleman E. F. Schumacher in his path-breaking essay of 1966 “Buddhist Economics”. It was followed by his 1973 work “Small is beautiful; Economics as if people mattered”.  I am sure that both Professor and President Obama will do well to search for solutions there, instead of being in the same grove of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” for all time.

President Obama, who vowed to make a huge dent in ensuring the sound health of this planet of ours in his attempts to curb climate change, mentioned the challenge but did not elaborate. And no mention was made of the ills of the model that caused much human misery within failed economies shaped by values that were thriving on the human desire for wanting more without focusing much on need.

New challenges need new breakaway solutions. Like was articulated during much of the election campaign of candidate Obama, the need is for a new world order and change we can believe in. That change must be based on the principals of non-dominance, of tolerance and of placing need before greed. In such a world, the issue need not be who leads whom, but of what’s best for the very survival of all.

Perhaps, Professor and President Obama can learn a lesson or two, from the simple ‘Magna Carta’ of our ‘Sadarana Mudalali’ of Polgaha Arawa.