Waste is a
most talked about topic in Sri Lankan politics today. Bribery, corruption and extravagance
within our process of development are seen as the key factors that generate
such waste. The mounting volume of borrowings of funds for investment in that
process from international lending institutions and friendly countries has
created much concern. Even those opposition politicians, who had a similar
record of sourcing such funds in the past, are complaining of a rising debt
burden.
The
objective of this column written in January last year was to examine the concept
of waste and its close opposite frugality, placing them in a cultural context.
My contention is that, the unwarranted waste we see among us in our society to
be the outcome of the now somewhat ‘lost’ system of values within our ways of
living. The factors that generate waste, or keep us away from being frugal, are
now institutionalized in our society, to the extent that we have begun to
accept them as norms, when our conventional wisdom and our ethos points us in a
different direction. The question we should ask then, is if we are indeed a ‘lost’
nation and if so, if we both as individuals and as a collective, should not be reexamining
the very core of the norms of ‘modern living’ within the context of the values
and ethos that we seem to have lost along the way in our attempt at embracing the
dominant global ways?
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 Facebook 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 behavioral
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% 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 1990’s 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, dreams of setting up fast car racing tracks, 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’.
Free Google Image
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