We often overlook
the long term consequences of our short term. One could argue that that is the
nature of the human mind. It is the ‘what’s in it for me now? question we often
seek answers for. Here we forget our children, their children, the future and
the good health of the resources we need to let make good things happen for
them. It often takes good leadership given by thinking men/women to take us
beyond such short-term thinking.
We are country
blessed with the dhamma of Gauthama The Buddha and have been influenced by the
wisdom of the teachings of other religious leaders; The Chris t,
The Nabi and the Sages of India
Written and
published in September 2011, this column was my call for all of us to attempt
to listen, once again and resolve, once again to act. To do what little each of
us could do as individual human beings, to bring to the fore the much needed
long term thinking of the future.
Last Sunday was
the Binara Full-moon day. Around noon ,
I was switching channels on the TV, when my attention was drawn to a Dhamma
discussion. A young Buddhist monk was presenting a discourse different to what
we hear in many similar discussions. The thoughts he shared were down to earth,
practical, and easy to grasp. His call was for us as a nation to rethink the
way we live, based on the principle of Buddhist economics.
Long-term
thinking
He questioned
if we could find the answers we seek for what ails the modern world on the
social and economic front, using paradigm of the dominant Western economic and business
models? He questioned if we should not
adopt a more back to basics approach in seeking solutions for them? Reference
was made to the consequences the human race will face as we were surpassing the
critical threshold levels of emitting CO2, causing global warming and sea level
rises. He queried if we had the resolve to reverse our excessively greedy ways
and questioned if we were ready to look beyond the short-term to the mid and
the long-term in governance and business decision making. His contention was
that we should stop looking elsewhere for solutions and re-examine the models
we use now. The all important question was raised, if we should continue to be
guided by greed driven Western dominant models or seek our own, designed after
principles of prudent self-reliance, such as proposed by the Buddha as later
articulated by E. F. Schumacher, Mahatma Gandhi and the King of Thailand
(Sufficiency Economy). The danger of considering conventional wisdom as
idealistic and ignoring the very core-values that sustained us for so long, was
strongly articulated.
While these Asian ways of economic and business management could
define a new paradigm and model, it was said that we needed to be mindful that
it can not be an appendage to the existing dominant Western model or used as
part solutions, just to get over hard times. The reason for that is the contradictory
nature of the core-values in which the two models are built. One proposes that an
economy must thrive on meeting excessive human greed, choice and craving for
things material, while the other shuns excessive greed, focusing on building
systems based on the collective good and on meeting basic and essential human needs.
Although, thoughts are drawn from Buddhist principles, it is paramount that we
realize that they are equally valid for all religious belief systems and ways
of life as articulated in each of them.
Food for thought
Placed in the context of news we get of
huge development projects of banana plantations, tourism and other
infrastructure facilities within and in the buffer zones of our national parks
and world heritage areas, growing intensity of the human – elephant conflict,
forest clearing and the like, it is important that our policy makers, strategic
planners, investors and business developers consider such discourse food for
thought.
There has been earlier discussion that Sri Lanka Knuckles
Range
Getting it right
What we do not do adequately, is to
appreciate and understand the significance and value of these, for us to be
able to present them not only to visitors, travelers and tourists, but for our
own, with courage and confidence. We need to develop simple but quality facilities
to make these experiences enjoyable such as information signage, comfort
centres, toilets, safe walk-ways and roadways heeding the needs of the elderly
and others with special needs as well.
We should not rush to harness the potential
of the North and the East to meet the fast-paced demand that seems to emerge, if
we are to take on unsustainable models of infrastructure and other development.
Our focus could be on gaining the highest possible yield from each of the
activities we undertake through exercising least pressure on resources. And
that would mean a shift from short- term assessment of feasibility of project
led growth to a long-term assessment of need based social development. Attention
need be placed on gaining direct benefit in foreign exchange earnings for the
country and our people. We must ensure that a substantial portion of the forex we
earn is retained within the country, by both minimizing the need for input
imports and plugging the avenues available for leakage and non-retention of
earnings.
Stand tall
It is important, as the learned monk
opinioned, that we realize that there is much economic value in our natural assets,
when they are left as they are. Many have suggested that we learn from the
complex workings of natural ecosystems to form our ways and offers in the thought
processes of governance and business decision making. That could enable us to
see the immense value propositions we have in protecting the pristine state of
these resources. It can also help us seek ways to celebrate the unity within
our nation’s diversity of natural, cultural and heritage assets. At this time when we seek to be the ‘Wonder
of Asia’, our ecological diversity and uniqueness will stand in good stead to
help us ‘stand tall in the crowd’ in comparison with other many built
environments we find in our midst.
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