Making sense of nonsense

By Renton de Alwis

Written and published in late 2009, the backdrop is the lead up to the last Presidential election held in January 2010. Once again these thoughts may serve as a backdrop for our thoughts of the present and the future we desire ...

Learning from History

It was the Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw who once said “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be, of learning from experience”. In seeking answers to the question, the Irish folk idiom adapted by American folk musician Pete Seeger called his song “Where have all the flowers gone?” and went on to raise a further question; “When will they ever learn?”

There is so much said or expressed by literary greats and social activists of all time, where we in this day and age can learn lessons from. When what happens around us makes no sense, these gems, indeed are a great source for us to seek and find some solace. 

A mixed bag

There is talk of a premature Presidential election to be held. There is also speculation of a ‘common candidate’ being fielded. This is an action proposed by what, not too long ago, would have seemed an unimaginable alliance. The dramatization is further juiced up by speculation, if what will be held is a general election or a Presidential one. Interest rates have been pegged low and attempts are made to hold down prices of consumer goods with government intervention. Opposition parties have formed worker alliances and are ‘working to rule’ or threatening to take on strike action to claim what is presented as their just demands. GST plus concession is hanging on a thin thread and there is talk of our depending on a more diversified economy to fill in any void from a fall out. The IDP’s are being resettled surely but slowly and strong calls are being made by the President for reestablishing unity within our diversity through a fast forward programme of social and economic development. The focus is on  affected and backward areas. What we see amidst all of this, is a mixed bag of determination, intrigue, sense and nonsense.

As you like it

William Shakespeare in his play ‘As you like it’ said thus; “All the world's a stage; And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts”. How very true; too many men and women in politics play varied roles, like good and bad actors do and make this world of ours, their stage. We the audience have no choice but to pay dearly to see them play and watch as they make their exits and entrances, only sometimes being able to determine the ‘when and how’ they are made. The Bard in ‘Hamlet’ also quipped “The devil hath power; to assume a pleasing shape”. He made us see how, in Macbeth, the good turn ugly and treason becomes the order of the day. Where friend becomes foe almost overnight, for lust and greed for power is what drives it. We also must not forget the words of poetess Emily Dickinson that “A wounded deer leaps the highest”.

The rascal judge

In the midst of all of this reigns Azdak the rascal judge, the character created by Bertolt Brecht for his play ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’; brilliantly adapted and played by Late Henry Jayasena, who left our midst only last week, in his own version of it, as ‘Hunuvataye  Kathawa’. Announcing Azdak’s entrance Brecht had his narrator sing out loud; “All mankind should love each other; But bring an ax when you talk to your brother; What miracles of preaching, a good sharp blade can do?; His honor of the high court knew; And understood it too!

When the sharks the sharks devour; Little fish will have their hour; Tis fishy to fix the scales of power; Thankfully, he's in the ivory tower; The poor man's magistrate… ;Who's the man to seal your fate; The one, the only potentate; Who's the wise? Who's the great?; Who Can it be? Who can it be? ; Azdak!”. Elsewhere in the play he had Azdak in a court scene exclaim in disgust, at the dichotomy he is faced in his world of corruption and disorder with the lines “Terrible is the temptation to do good..”. He then had him extend his hand to the accused with a gesture of inviting a bribe with the phrase; “I take”.

Guessing games

Referring to war, Brecht is quoted to have said “War is like love, it always finds a way” and again quipped with deep sarcasm; “Why be a Man, when you can be a success?” In his play ‘The Three Penny Opera’ he stated “For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out from underneath him”. Is that not why, we all have had to tolerate our political leaders when they play their guessing games and indulge in their antics, day in day out?  

The Bard; all time great of English literature, sheds more light in our attempt to understand the ups and downs of what happens on our political stage. Some of them are “I hate ingratitude more in a man; than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness; or any taint of vice whose strong corruption; inhabits our frail blood”; “Glory is like a circle in the water; Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself ;Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught” and advised thus with words of wisdom “He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee; If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself”. The American playwright Tennessee Williams touched on the wily depths of human actions with the lines “We have to distrust each other; It is our only defense against betrayal”. 

Get off my back

 

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy aptly described the reality of the world in which we live, where exploitation is rampant, with the words “I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back”.

 

Hearts and souls

 

In the midst of it all, what is most comforting is this thought of Mahatma Gandhi, where he identified that “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”. Given this truism, we can in the least, be hopeful that our political culture must reflect our own collective desire and that we have the courage and the will to steer our own destiny for in his own words “Each of us must be the change, we wish to see in our world”.

A word for peace

In this most complex political canopy of ours, these words of The Buddha from the Kalama Suthra in the Anguththara Nikaya, will be of immense value to us in making sense of the nonsense around us “…don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These things are unskillful; these things are blameworthy; these things are criticized by the wise; these things, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering’ — then you should abandon them”and The Buddha word “Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace”.

 

Some thoughts on tourism development

Written and published in late 2010, may provide a benchmark to look at Sri Lanka's tourism present and the future ...

The writer himself a former tourism administrator, feels that Sri Lanka needs to seek bold and out of the box ways when it takes on this post-conflict phase of tourism development. In a world where tourism demand at the high and mid-end has changed dramatically from a ‘see, do, stay’ type tourism to total immerse and experience seeking travel, talking of volume based-targets and purely beach-stay based conventional tourism development, he feels will not serve the future of Sri Lanka’s tourism well. An island nation blessed with biological and cultural diversity, she needs to make a concerted effort to conserve that diversity through the practice of sustainable lifestyles, becoming an example that can be emulated perhaps by the rest of the world. Seeking to work towards being carbon clean as a country will in itself enable Sri Lanka to make it the core thrust of her tourism presentation to the world. In a world, where its people are becoming more and more conscious of global warming and its dire consequences, such a thrust will make Sri Lanka stand big and tall in the crowd. Such success in itself would then lead to determining how indeed being small and compact can be beautiful, miraculous and desirable. 

Defining potential

There is no doubt that Sri Lanka has the potential to do extremely well in increasing the tourist numbers and foreign exchange earnings in the aftermath of the ending of the war. Since most imagine that tourism in Sri Lanka should also be like what they have seen on a visit to another country, they presume that we should emulate what we see without thought to scale, context and appropriateness. Some even go to the extent of suggesting that we create theme parks the likes of Santhosa in Singapore or the glitzy resorts of Dubai. Others suggest that we must be an ecotourism destination where eco-lodges are built in the wilderness at the most beautiful scenic spots, operated by investors and not necessarily by stakeholder communities. Yet other suggestions include setting up sound and light shows the likes of the Pyramids, Acropolis, Red Fort and Taj Mahal at Sigiriya and other heritage sites of ours.

 

Our charm

The ideas are many and varied and mostly everyone who has travelled abroad has an opinion on travel and tourism development in Sri Lanka. What most do not see is that Sri Lanka, having relatively stood still in time, in terms of big time development within the past three decades, has retained what most other similar destinations have lost as a result of rapid paced growth. We have retained our charm in terms of our biological diversity in most areas. We are blessed with a 50 per cent green cover and a near 29 percent forest cover. The pristine nature of our coastal areas in the East and North are still in tact and present opportunities for offering high quality experiences to both local and foreign travellers. There is a revival of our cultural consciousness and we are looking back to celebrate the ethnic and religious diversity that is Sri Lanka to seek unity within it.

Look to ecosystems

Some thinking writers have suggested that we learn from the very basic but complex workings of natural ecosystems to form our ways and offers, when we celebrate the unity within our own diversity. Some have shown us that Sri Lanka indeed is one wholesome theme park that does not need to have any built structures establishing artificial theme parks or resorts. Our many offerings in a compact space; the Singaharaja, Knuckles Range, Horton Plains, the many pageants and celebrations such as we see every poya day, church and kovil feasts, Kandy Perhara, the various village market places (Pola), the harvesting ceremonies, Sinhala and Tamil Avrudhu, the Pasku passion plays all form the scope of our theme park like diversity. 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 to the world of travel with courage and confidence. We need to develop simple infrastructure facilities to make these experiences enjoyable such as the comfort centres and toilets, roadways, other facilities and take-on serious promotion of these thematic events and activities. We also need to do away with the sad practices we have got used to, in touting, harassment, charging exorbitant entry fees to places of worship and the high levels of commissions added beyond the value of the goods and services offered.

Don’t count heads

Perhaps Sri Lanka’s tourism policy makers should not be bothered too much of what volume of visitors we should have be it 2.5 million by 2016 or 2012. Nor should they rush to harness the potential of the North and the East to meet the fast-paced demand that will come, by taking on unsustainable models of tourism development.

A solid shared vision

What we need to do now, I believe is to get the vision for our tourism future solid and right and begin to work towards achieving it, without diversion and with strong focus. It must be a shared vision made with the participation and buy-in of all our people, done through dialogue and discussion. Thereafter, we need to focus our energies to learn of and work on our potential customers in both conventional and new market places. We must understand and know what they think and expect of us before we can determine what and how we are to talk to them, to present the brand of tourism resources we have carved for ourselves, making it sustainable and beneficial for all Sri Lankans.

 

Climate Crisis; defining a new paradigm

By Renton de Alwis

Written and published in late 2010, it was a lead up to the much touted UN Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen that year. The conference and those held thereafter have all fallen short of expectations of people who have expressed concern of the disaster humankind together with all the earth’s species may face within the context of an impending climate catastrophe. It is reproduced here to both serve as a reminder to us all of the issue (that has been bouncing up and down like a rubber ball) and as a baseline to compare where we were two years ago and where we are now on the action front on issues that matter to us all.

 “Lowáda Sangarawa” is an instructive poetic work done in the 15^th Century authored by the monk Ven.Vidagama Maithriya. Like its title says, it is about “What’s good for the world” and is inspired by the Buddha’s word. A work I read as a child, among the several poems I vividly remember, is one about the crabs in the pot on the fire. The imagery it creates and the substance it presents in Sinhala is amazing and its relevance to what is happening around us in today’s world is profound. The portrayal is of a pot with live crabs in it, placed on a fire yet to be lit. The crabs enjoy the cool comfort of the pot, imagining that it is a state of bliss, until the pot begins to heat-up slowly killing the crabs ending the short-lived state of that enjoyment and happiness.

Still greed driven

We as the human-race have for some time now, lived in a state of enjoyment with the false belief that the pot will not heat on us, consuming our very own existence. What climate scientists tell us is that the ‘developed’ countries need to reduce their carbon emission levels by at least 40 per cent and that the whole world needs to get back to emission levels of the 1990’s, if we are to contain an impending climate catastrophe that can otherwise happen, closer to the middle of this century. Hope is placed on energy efficient technologies, carbon off-setting mechanisms and creating clichés such as ‘eco-civilisations’. New techniques are proposed to replace the old ways of exploiting resources, with some savings in the process through efficiency gains. New greed driven stock-markets for carbon trading are created to continue the exploitation, with crumb-like payoffs held as carrots. The very nations that  presented growth models that led and made all of us on earth believe that ‘greed is good’ and having as wide a choice for consumption of goods and services was the ideal way to create successful lifestyles, are today attempting to provide us, the developing nations, funding and assistance to “go green”.

Solid penalties

At the recently concluded, G-20 summit, Sri Lanka proposed that the developed nations that created the climate crisis, must compensate those who are affected by it by offsetting the debt-burden of those countries, enabling them to make new beginnings. The point made is that handouts such as assistance to set up ‘do good’ initiatives must be replaced with solid penalties for the ‘sins’ committed in the past.

Defining our own model

I am at a loss as to why we as Sri Lankans, leading an alliance of like-minded nations, can not go further and propose a whole new model of creating a ‘new civilisation’ based on the “sufficiency economy” principals, where shunning greed and not feeding on it will form its core thinking. We do not have to look too far beyond, but at the principles of Buddhist Economics enumerated in Schumacher’s 1970’s work of “Small is Beautiful – Economics as if people mattered”.

We of course need to have for ourselves as a nation, the moral authority to present such a model by truly practising those ways. We need to widely celebrate the greenness we already have and put an end to all deforestation. We need to expand on our national programmes for reforestation with the widest possible participation of the people, with our media making it almost a mantra. We need to take on bold efforts to wipe-out corruption, establish the rule of law, meritocracy, human dignity and respect for individual rights to establish a Sri Lanka that we can all be proud of. We need to shun the decadent ways of the dominant culture, but create our own sustainable ways of using modern communication, production, construction and service-based technology tools that are available. Our sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyles must be moulded to be an example to others.  Clean methods of governance our leadership must practise, needs to form the basis for us to achieve that state.

Strong call for action

Many organizations around the world are also calling out for justice and for real change on the Climate Change domain, as the world’s governments approach the Copenhagen negotiations in December this year. Among them some I would recommend are, Sri Lanka’s own Centre for Environmental Justice, the Global Humanitarian Forum, the TckTckTck Campaign, and the World in Action Campaign. President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, a TckTckTck founding partner, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a recent media release said, “We must end the deathly silence around this crisis.” He might just as well have said “deadly silence”, because the voices that have been most effectively silenced in the climate change debate are those of its first and worst victims. “Although developing countries did not cause the climate crisis,” Annan says, “poor nations are suffering the most, as unpredictable weather patterns and the increase in natural disasters affects access to food, water and shelter.”

The ‘Pin- Paw’ Fund

With the impending climate crisis, the world is at cross-roads. What is significant about this situation is that there is not much time left for human-kind to experiment on models.  Creating Carbon-offset funds also to promote greed driven agenda will only make the situation worse and not any better. 

I have long called the carbon-offset fund mechanism the “Pin–Paw Fund” or the “Merit and Sin Fund”. This is for it facilitates enabling the buying of carbon credit from those who practice good sustainable ways, by those who seek to pollute or sin with the credit they have purchased. This mechanism may seem innovative to those who do not realise that it will only leave a negative impact on carbon emissions on planet earth.  The scheme demonstrates the ingenuity of those who innovate within the greed-driven model.

A whole new civilisation

They do not seem to realise that laws of nature have now held us captive, giving us no more room to experiment. Perhaps the only option before us is to take on models that will lead us to a whole new paradigm in defining a whole new civilisation, where our new ways of life will be very different to that we knew before. The option may be to create a civilisation where austerity, sustainability and living in harmony with nature define all else we do. Given the challenges before us and its insurmountable nature, this may be the only way forward we shall have for our future survival.

Useful Web addresses:

(PS. These links are related to the time the article was written. You may need to search within them to find the applicable context)

Center for Environmental Justice in Sri Lanka - http://www.ejustice.lk/

World in Action – http://www.avaaz.org/en/
Time for Climate Justice Campaign - http://tcktcktck.org

 

For us, by us, of us

By Renton de Alwis

 

Written in early 2010, again serves as a baseline to critically evaluate where we are do day ....

Am I naïve? Am I an idealist? Or am I plain stupid to think, that all can and must be well for our motherland in the future and that we can not afford to ‘miss the bus again’ as we have done on many occasions before. Have we not suffered for far too long, staying divided and self-focussed; divided on racial, religious and political party lines that we are unable to look beyond to dream of a better future for ourselves, our children and theirs? While I may be idealistic, optimistic and hopeful, I am certainly not blind to the realities that unfold around me. I also like to think that my optimism can rise above naivety, if we all resolve to chip-in and work on minimising the bad and the ugly in our society and focus on bringing out the good and the desirable.
 

Realities

Focussing on the realities of the past two weeks, it is true that in Angulana, two youths were killed and people of the area have directed their wrath against supposedly corrupt police officers at the station. It is true that a very senior police officer is claimed to have misused his authority in assisting his family settle a score in the most disgusting and primitive manner. It is also true that a very young life of a school girl was lost when she opted to take her own life, reportedly to avoid the shame of being punished for using a friend’s mobile phone in school, where its use was not allowed. These all point to be symptomatic of what is wrong in our body-polity and we must be courageous to realise that it is so.

Still wrong 

We hear reports of devastation of our forests that is still going on. The quest for making the fast buck, pushing the future well-being and sustainability of our national assets to the back-burner, is still prevalent. It is true that around us there still is corruption, non-meritocracy and nepotism being demonstrated. It is also true that our business people just like some in governance resolve to get things done through the back-doors. It is true that lack of transparency in business has resulted in Supreme Court rulings that have reversed deals that were otherwise sealed. It is true that all this leads to weaknesses in our structures of governance and our constitution designed then with hegemonic intent yet allows executive powers to be concentrated at a single focal point. It is true that we have a disproportionately large cabinet of ministers for this moderate sized island nation and the government treasury is taking a big toll in supporting it and the manifold needs that come with it.  It is true that power is often exercised based not on moral authority but on brute force and on ‘who knows whom’.

Caring for needs

It is true that there are many Sri Lankans displaced from their homes living in temporary camps in the North and East, who need to be resettled as early as possible. It is true that with a heavy down-pour last week, IDPs in several areas of the camp had to be relocated due to water logging and the failure of some of the toilet systems. It is true that their current living conditions can be even worse, when the monsoon rains come within the next few months, unless concerted efforts are made by us all to ensure that it will not be so.

Rebuilding efforts

Amidst all of this, it is true that after thirty long years of a reign of LTTE terror, suicide bombs, a string of slain leaders and tens of thousands of other innocent human lives, we are now free of a good part of that fear and insecurity. It is also true that after decades, the A9 has provided access to Jaffna for all and the nostalgic journey to the North on the ‘Yaldevi’ is getting back on track. We are now seeing development programmes such as the ‘Nagenahira Udanaya’ and ‘Uturu Wasanthaya’ bringing back the road linkages, the bridges, houses for resettlement and infrastructure facilities such as water supply, electricity, tele and info-communications, schools, hospitals etc.

The stated mission

 

It is true, that President Rajapaksha as the Head of State has, in many key policy statements he made, has iterated that his mission will be to find unity within our diversity; ending racism, treating all Sri Lankans as equals on this our motherland. He has also stated that there will be an equal-distribution of resources for development among regions and that regional governance structures will have greater autonomy in developing its own locales. He has also pledged that the present cabinet will be down-sized and a more rational and democratic system of governance will be set in place.

Making it work 

To take a cue from these and ensure that the statements are turned into solid deeds,  I believe is the responsibility and the right of all of us, as sons and daughters of Mother Lanka. To do that, simply picking holes, critiquing and speculating on what may be or may not be, is certainly not the way forward. We must ourselves lend our hands, our hearts and solidly contribute in wherever and however ways we can to make it work. To do that, we need to shed our tinted glasses and alliances and affiliations to partisan groups or segments in society. As has been the call, we must only be loyal to the nation and believe that we can indeed make Sri Lanka’s future brighter by working in unity with that singular focus.

After so many years of partisanship and seeing that all is still not well around us, it may be a tough call for most of us. But the reality is that it is by us, for us and of us and no one else. If we fail, all else for sure will fail. We can draw the moral right to hold our leadership responsible for delivering on their promises. To do that we also must take on squarely, the challenges and responsibilities that are for us, by us, and of us.

Sharing our caring ways

By Renton de Alwis

 

Written and published in early 2010, this reflects the expectations we then had and may serve as a baseline to critically evaluate where we are now....

The mistakes we made in the past are many. The lessons we can learn from them are also many. We now are on a development model that focuses more on an equi-distribution of resources and opportunities between regions making it an effort of the many, as against an investment of a few. Here, principles of meritocracy, transparency, fair play and long-term sustainability must prevail.  Bribery, corruption, indiscipline and seeking short-term gain at the expense of long-term sustainability must not be permitted.  It is only then can true unity be built among all races, where we can begin to discover the unity within the diversity we seek as a nation.

Sri Lankan identity

We need to be assertive, be thought of and be treated as ‘Sri Lankan Sinhalese’, ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’, ‘Sri Lankan Muslims’, ‘Sri Lankan Burghers’, ‘Sri Lankan Malays’ and ‘Sri Lankan Addhiwasi’ and not as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays or Addhiwasi of Sri Lankan origin.  While this differentiation may seem subtle, it is a profoundly important distinction which we as a nation must begin to understand and articulate, to ensure that we feel and belong as a nation of one people united, with diverse origins, backgrounds and cultures.

Civil society leadership

Sri Lanka has now begun to move on to the next phase of development looking beyond the reign of LTTE terror. Rightfully, our primary focus must be placed on caring for our Tamil and Muslim brethren who remain displaced and are awaiting resettlement. While the state, several NGOs and an alliance of INGOs are playing their roles to the best of their abilities, there is so much more we as members of civil society can and must do to augment that effort. The needs are many.  Regrettably, the interest levels we saw in providing for their needs during the first few weeks after the exodus of displaced persons, has now somewhat faded. If our business and civil society leadership such as chambers of commerce, media houses and social service organisations were to focus the attention of their members and audiences, about ways in which we can share our caring ways on a continued basis, that would stand us all in good stead as we go on building our future.  

Commendable initiative

In citing one example of such possibility, I focus on three young Rotary volunteers (visit www.unitingsrilanka.com) who were involved in screening a few Charlie Chaplin and cartoon movies for the enjoyment of several hundred displaced persons at the Arunachalam Camp’s sections 1, 2 & 3 in Chettikulum, on the night of Saturday last. While some may scorn at such efforts, portraying them as sugar-coating the suffering of the displaced at the camps, the laughter and joy generated among several hundred children and adults alike, reportedly justified the value of the momentary entertainment. These volunteers sought to borrow the needed equipment, screens and sound systems in Colombo and transported them back and forth to enable the fruition of this commendable initiative. Our salutation goes out to those volunteers and the authorities that facilitated the effort. 

Other needs and opportunities

Other ideas for meeting real and therapeutic needs of the displaced at the camps will extend from the conduct of medi-care clinics, providing nutritional supplements and generic drugs on a continued basis, provision of reading material in Tamil in the main as well as in English and Sinhalese in limited quantities, conduct of activity based counselling sessions and even making available simple musical instruments such as bamboo-flutes, thalams, mirdangam drums etc. to those who play them. The soothing effect of music can be of high therapeutic value for most in the camps.

For the long-term, there are those hard core members of the terrorist outfits that need to be re-oriented to live peaceful and productive lives in the future. Programmes are now in place for vocational training, family support initiatives etc. for meeting this challenging task. The parallel process of clearing of mines, developing infrastructure, allocation of land and other facilities needed for resettlement is also ongoing.

Collective social conscience

These are all initiatives, where the government plays a centric role but need to have the nation’s collective social conscience backing it. That collective social conscience needs to transcend any racial, political or ideological positions. It needs to be formed on the principles and basis of social justice and on a genuine sharing of our caring ways. Right understanding, effort, compassion and loving kindness must reign supreme in that effort.

Celebrate the diversity

With the Head of State paving the way, rest of our civic and political leadership at all levels must be committed to sensitise and mobilise our people in all spheres of activity and social levels on the need for us to celebrate our differences and diversity. They must be able to clearly articulate and act to bring meaning to the need for us as a nation to seek unity within the diversity we in Sri Lanka possess. They must understand and appreciate the value of the diversity of our natural, heritage and cultural endowments, people dynamics and ideological divisions and seek to celebrate its value, protect and conserve them.

The new unified Sri Lanka we envision for all Sri Lankans will then and only then see fruition, as an essential outcome of sharing our genuinely caring ways and our determined efforts at celebrating our diversity to find the unity we seek within that diversity.

 

Sustainability through Good Governance

By Renton de Alwis

Written in late 2010, this perhaps provides another baseline of where we are in our efforts at conserving our forests. A 2013 Budget states that the policy of government is to enhance the current 29% the forest cover to 35%.

 

Clearing the land and growing of tea in areas around our most valued virgin rainforest and natural heritage of the Sinharaja, is observed and reported to cause changes in the forest’s climatic conditions. At a time when we seek long-term sustainable growth, even minor impacts on the Singharaja in particular and our other forests would be a sure recipe for disaster. Such negative impacts should not be thought of as being minor, for they are irreversible.

We must not forget that trees, forests and the water resources they generate to be the very essence of life itself. While some are actively working to reforest areas linking patches of rainforests to bring them to life again, there are others who are in it for the short-term, seeking fast riches in logging, dealing in rare genes or encroaching with unsuitable modes of land use.

There is talk of thousands of acres of land in the East being cleared of its forest cover, in a reported attempt to establish large cashew and other fruit plantations, even creating a tussle between the centre and the province. While we discuss these as issues of governance and attempt to determine whose right it is to allocate land and benefit from it, it will be prudent for the highest in the land to immediately put a stop to any felling of trees outside of a very tight and well-managed forestry and plantation plan for all of Sri Lanka.  

Need to Minimise Uncertainty

Long years ago as a student of conservation economics, I learnt that the most effective instrument available to ensure long- term sustainable development is to minimise uncertainty. While a certain degree of uncertainty will always prevail, what governments, policy makers, strategic planners and project implementers should strive to do, we were taught; is to guide policies to strengthen the belief people have of their institutions and governance structures, to give them a sense of security and a genuine feeling of being in it for the long-term.

The President has hinted that he will seek a fresh mandate from the people around November this year, to enable establish a more effective and desirable base to minimise uncertainties prevalent in the current institutions, structures and instruments of governance.  Thus it is fair to assume, that there will be a relatively high degree of uncertainty created among some of those exercising influence in the current governance structures within the next few months, leading to attempts at seeking shortcut ways to riches. It is possible that such a situation would denude our natural resource base rapidly, even resulting in irreversible outcomes. Having proper safeguards in place to avoid such a situation should therefore also be a prioritised initiative.

A new beginning

We have ended thirty years of deep uncertainty and paved the way for establishing a lasting peace, though a lot more hard and determined work needs to be done on that front. We now also have the good news of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan facility being made available this week, after a long drawn process. The rationale for it to be given to Sri Lanka, with the backing of the majority of IMF member countries, is because the world sees the potential of this nature rich land to rebuild itself to where it deserves to be. Moving beyond the negative expectations of many, the loan facility will now give us, as a nation, the ability to clear up obligations and focus on issues beyond those of short-term survival of the economy. Our leadership can now confidently work on minimising uncertainty by strengthening its mandate, stabilising institutions of governance at all levels, resettling all internally displaced Sri Lankans, taking on long-term infrastructure building, shaping our education, effective establishment of the rule of law, ensuring security, safety and freedom  of expression for all citizens and better management and conservation of our resources. It should give us the ability as a nation to work on the sustainable development model we seek, where widest possible participation of the people in development will be sought.  

Empowerment of the Many

While the dominant growth models of the world focussed on the creation of wealth faster though the entrepreneurship of a class that held exclusive access to capital resources, there is the alternative possible of a slower but a more profound and sustainable model that is based on enhancing the productivity and empowerment of the many. Given the unprecedented challenges the world faces today of global warming, food and water crisis, increased poverty, a depressed economy, aging of population, frequent incidence of pandemics etc., it is indeed time that we looked at alternative ways of facing them. The need perhaps is to stop galloping in unreal spaces of glitzy ways of living to getting closer to the real spaces of nature through prudent management of our water, soil, forest, renewable energy and people resources.

The emphasis in the current model articulated by the leadership in Sri Lanka has been an inclusive and regionally equitable model of development, which can and must take a shape and form unique to Sri Lanka. This need not mean a closed or a protected economy the likes of that we saw in the seventies. It can be a model based on the principles of a sufficiency economy, where the theory of comparative advantage for global resource allocation in production,  taught in the conventional economics curriculum in our universities, may need to be re-evaluated.

Need to Listen

Most of us also need to listen to, read and understand the various policy directions our President as Head of State has articulated. Some of the thoughts may seem alien or even irrational to those among us, who are accustomed to now dominant growth models and have not paused to think of the possibility of alternatives. In my mind, this situation is further aggravated by the dichotomy we face in having a duality in our media communication presentations that predominantly shape our thinking. As a follower of bi-lingual media exposure both in the print and electronic forms, I see almost two different faces of Sri Lanka presented in the Sinhala and English media. While I regret not being able to make this determinant on the Tamil media, it perhaps is a similar situation.

 

Holding Accountable

Why we must dwell deep, understand and envision the thoughts of our leadership, with open minds and without prejudice, is to enable us not only to critique, share and support a shared vision and direction, but more importantly, to hold the Head of State, other people’s representatives and the government machinery responsible and accountable for its effective delivery of sustainable development through good strong governance at all times. 

Useful web addresses:

Sinharaja Rainforest - www.environmentlanka.com/sinharaja.html

Institute for Alternative Futures - www.altfutures.com

Speeches of the President of Sri Lanka - http://president.gov.lk/sinhala/index.htm

Sri Lanka as an Earth Lung - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmanmW0gaMM

 

Our own brand and model

By Renton de Alwis

(Written and published in late 2010. A reflection ....) 

A report in last Sunday’s Newspapers talked about plans of Highways and the Road Development Authority to construct a 81 km highway with dedicated two-way bicycle lanes between Padeniya and Anuradhapura at a cost of Rs. 6,000 million supported by the Korean Government. In my mind, this is symbolic and represents groundbreaking thinking by our highway authorities to encourage use of clean and sustainable modes of transport by our citizens. It is also a step in the right direction in our nation’s desire in working towards being a carbon clean land and its significance need be recognized and highlighted. While on the one hand, our road, rail and water transport networks and public transport systems will need to be much more energy efficient, comfortable and user-friendly to make a significant shift in the passenger and goods transport domain, this move demonstrates that rational and meaningful thinking is being set in place.

 

Sustainable Lifestyles

We can not ignore that in today’s world, it is no longer a state of ‘business as usual’. Beyond the short-term needs of getting over the financial crisis, curbing the loss of jobs, ending the threat of terrorism and stabilizing the movements in investment capital; global warming and the resultant issues of sea level rise, increased incidence of floods, droughts, forest fires, food shortages, poverty, pandemics etc. continue to threaten humankind’s future existence. All evidence shows that very soon, strong and definitive calls will need to be made out to all citizens of all nations, rich, poor, developed or developing, to adopt more prudent and sustainable lifestyles. Perhaps that beginning will come as an outcome of the resolve leading to a Copenhagen Protocol on Climate Change, commencing this December.

Counting on the young

 

Here in Sri Lanka we have a huge opportunity to be a leader and a pioneer nation in guiding the world with a new brand and a model of sustainable living. We are still with a near 50 per cent of our land covered in a green canopy. Even with continuing unmanaged logging and deforestation that must stop, we have reportedly retained a forest cover of nearly 29 per cent. We have, for several decades now sown seeds of environmental awareness among our young.  Our school children have setup environmental brigades in their schools, and are being activists for conservation at their homes and in their villages.

Out of the Box

 

Not only should we as Sri Lankans be looking at reducing our dependence on carbon emission loaded fossil fuels. We will need to seek ways of developing and using alternative energy sources through a process of rural-centric and community-based initiatives. In industry, we may need to think of many more on-scale green factories and chains of home-based manufacturing facilities feeding them. To accommodate our tourists and visitors we may need to think outside the box from the now dominant model of hotel and resort framework of large facilities, to creating new models of visitor accommodation, combining rooms-in-homes or bed and breakfast facilities. These can form area-wise ‘resorts’, with cooperative type management for quality assurance, marketing and sales with direct benefits accruing to the community operators, much similar to the B&B movement in the non-urban U.K.  These can be without the central air-conditioning plants, sewerage treatment facilities and the draw on the national electricity grid. Instead, well managed smaller units can provide facilities utilizing solar, wind and bio-fuel sources meeting the energy needs. Our agriculture must continue to take on more and more sustainable practices with a view to our weaning away from the use of unnatural substances. Our natural and manmade lakes, reservoirs, and waterways offer us huge opportunities for transport and for recreation and tourism.  So are the opportunities we have for taking on a whole new industry of ‘Care Services’, where we can also provide a home-based alternative, to the export of our little or untrained mothers and sisters to far away lands to work as domestic help. 

Defying conventional wisdom

The options and opportunities are many. Yet, for them to be turned into rational and workable solutions, leadership and long-term focus will need be in place. This would mean taking on a sea-change in our thinking. It may even be taking on initiatives that may seem ridiculous and imprudent now, as the tools we use to evaluate them are those from the current model of conventional wisdom.

 

Once as a teenager, I was gifted a book titled “Square Pegs in Round Holes” for my Birthday by my father. I now forget its author, but vividly remember people the book featured. It was about Pythagoras, Socrates, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Copernicus and Galileo Galilee. All of them as scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and thinkers presented new ideas that challenged the conventional wisdom of their time and even defied them placing their own lives in danger. Galileo the Italian scientist and thinker who defied the dominant beliefs at the time on the shape and the motion dynamics of the earth, was placed on house arrest by the Roman Inquisition until his death.  

 

Hard road ahead

Today, more than ever, we need those who can defy conventional thinking and challenge them to show its follies. We need them among our leadership, our thinkers and our social activists. The easy way out is to ‘tag along’ with the dominant system of beliefs and values, without questioning its validity to these times and the new challenges we face.  The hard road is for those who want to take them head-on by being innovative and cause the changes, we as a nation and as citizens of Mother Earth deserve.

 

Useful web addresses:

 Road Development Authority - www.rda.gov.lk

A River for Jaffna - www.dailynews.lk/2009/05/05/fea03.asp

Gama Naguma - www.gemidiriya.org

Sustainable Tourism - www.sustainabletourism.net

 

 

Thinking big to think small

By Renton de Alwis

During the post second world war phase of human development on our Planet Earth, we observed the “Big is better” dictum ruling its direction. Most countries that found riches through extraction of much valued resources of oil, minerals and forests also sought to have the tallest buildings on Earth, the largest shopping malls and the biggest theme parks. Movement of global investment capital and consumer spending based on unreal ‘to be earned incomes’ was rapid and fast with info-communication technology innovations facilitating it. Transferred with the capital flows were the mega models of resource extraction and off- scale development, into some of the developing countries as well.

This was true until recently, when we realised its folly with the crash of the biggest ever real estate boom in the USA, fall of large financial institutions and corporations the world over, massive losses in jobs and livelihoods due to closure or downsizing of large industrial complexes and the like.

Meeting Challenges

We talk today of the merits of green buildings, carbon neutral cities and tourist destinations, foliage gardens on the surrounds and top of high-rise buildings, making available potable water through desalination of sea water, harnessing alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, bio fuels etc. Nanotechnology, biogenetics and the like of more efficient adoptive technologies are being talked about as ‘saviour’ options giving us, humans hope for a future. We are told that this will be a future tougher than the past, with global warming impacting on sea level rises with inundation of low lying areas. Climate change researchers tell us that we will see increased incidence of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, earth quakes and the spread of new diseases of epidemic proportions we today call pandemics, that will impact on the rich and poor nations and citizens of the world alike.


Fast Growth
 
We also are sensitised to how the ages of human evolution that took hundreds of thousands of years of gradual formation until the last century; i.e. the pre-historic, stone, agricultural and industrial ages, thereafter took on a path of exponential transformation. With only decades defining their fast-forward formation, the ages of information technology, globalisation, knowledge and creativity descended on humankind with meteoric proportions and speeds. Several futurists have attributed the phenomena of the rise of fundamentalism and the emergence of terrorism as an outcome of the human mind’s inability to keep pace with the rapidity of these transformations, often creating states of chaos and conflict.  

After 30 years of conflict and a war on terror ending in Sri Lanka, there seem to be some who are bent on thinking that it is time for us as a nation to catch up on lost time. That we must take on projects that will bring fast and rapid returns to ensure that our people will not have reason to doubt the ability of our leadership and government to deliver them the fruits of big time growth. That we must rush into inviting the petro-dollar type capital floating around and go in for mega developments, glitzy and demonstrative of what some may call a ‘developed’ country. We recently read reports quoting our investment promoters and tourism policy makers talk about mega investments from mega sources, for making sure that all of Sri Lanka’s past follies will be put right with it becoming another Singapore or a Hong Kong.

Way forward

On the other hand, policies outlined and statements of the Head of State emphasise the need for Sri Lanka to have a model of development, where a holistic empowerment of communities and their participation in development is highlighted. Correcting the current regionally skewed distribution of benefits of development, attaining self- sufficiency in agriculture to support our food needs with least dependency on imports, better value-addition in our exports and ensuring environmental and socio-cultural sustainability are the other key directions. Such a model based on the ‘Sufficiency Economy’ principles, assumes the participation of the majority to pave the way for a more profound path of development that can be on-scale and sustainable providing direct benefits to stakeholder communities, different to the dominant model of ‘investor takes it all’ operated mainly with wage workers and crumbs of CSR dropping on the communities.

Our own brand

The positives we as a nation have, when we come out of the negatives of the past thirty years of internal strife and conflict, are that we have retained a good part of the country’s green cover and we have a good majority of the citizenry yearning for lasting peace, sensitive to the need for rebuilding unity and for creating a tolerant and caring community. We have retained what most other countries have lost in their quest for fast-paced growth in the past, in uncontrolled urbanisation. We still have our ethos and cultural values in tact, needing a rational stimulus to make them take firm root again. What we need now is to buy-in and share the vision of a Sri Lanka that we can all be proud of. A Sri Lanka that will learn from the follies of others, obtain the support of others who want to genuinely partner in our progress, take the hard road to build on our strengths and shoulder responsibility ourselves for paving our way ahead. We shall need to think big to be able to retain our uniqueness, to think out of the box and think afresh to be able to bring true meaning to what will be valued in the future by the rest of the world; a unique and truly Sri Lankan brand of Sri Lanka.  

Useful web addresses:

International Institute for Sustainable Development - www.iisd.org
Munasinghe Institute for Development (Sustainable) - www.mindlanka.org
Sustainable development (Small is Beautiful) - www.schumachersociety.org
World Business Council for Sustainable Development - www.wbcsd.org

 

 

(Written in mid 2010 as a 'Back to Basics' column in the Daily News of Sri Lanka.)

Earth has enough ....

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?