Image courtesy Colombo Page
From around 5pm to 5.30pm today, Ass. Sec. Blake took questions from those on Twitter in South and Central Asia. Ass. Sec. Blake is the Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka. South and Central Asia is a large swathe of physical as well as ideological terrain. Fearful that Sri Lanka would be forgotten in the deluge of tweets under the hashtag #AskSCA, we published a story on Groundviews flagging our own questions, and what at the time were a few other questions to Ass. Sec. Blake posed by others on Twitter.
The session didn’t see Ass. Sec. Blake answer many questions. It started by his office noting that,
This was followed by a few tweets on Nepal, and a congratulatory tweet on the new US Ambassador in New Delhi. The first tweet responded to was on the Maldives, followed by one US foreign policy goals in Central Asia. Then ones on Bangladesh, the Maldives, Uzbekistan, the US lease of Manas Base in Kyrgyzstan, LGBT rights, the border security of the 5 Central Asian states and how the lack of secure infrastructure in CA affect New Silk Road strategies.
Sadly, and for reasons best known to Ass. Sec. Blake and his office, not a single question on Sri Lanka was taken up.
This wasn’t because there weren’t enough good questions. Sri Lanka’s BBC correspondent echoed the tweets posted by Nigel Nugawela, the co-editor of Groundviews. Even though the Reuters Sri Lanka correspondent chipped in with his questions a tad late, they are vital ones to ask, and not just from Amb. Blake, but from our own political leadership. Revealingly, many Sri Lankan mainstream media Twitter accounts (e.g. @DMBreakingnews, @Adaderana and @Sundayleader) failed to ask a question. Colombo Gazette, a web based news outlet, posed a single tweet. Bizarrely, Ceylon Today (@Ceylontoday) posted two tweets to Ass. Sec. Blake but then proceeded to delete them.
We have collated in a Bundlr bundle the tweets we could find addressed to Ass. Sec. Blake under the #AskSCA tag. Please leave a comment if we’ve missed out any. Even though they were all unanswered by Amb. Blake, the questions can be taken up in other physical and virtual fora, including with the new US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, others in Washington DC and US Embassy officials in Colombo. These tweets are succinct tableaux vivants of Sri Lanka today, with concerns over the freedom of expression, human rights, the rule of law, reconciliation and indeed, coherence and continuity of US policies and practices over Sri Lanka.
We urge readers to not forget them, and keep asking.
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Update, 8.39pm: Ass. Sec. Robert Blake lamented on Twitter the limited amount of time he had to take any questions on Sri Lanka. We responded noting that it would be great if he had more time to spend on these interactions, and perhaps to have them with South Asia and Central Asia as two distinct regions, which would allow for more focussed exchanges around each region. Ass. Sec. Robert Blake agreed, and we then also exchanged thoughts on USAID programming in Sri Lanka and the possibility of Peace Corps volunteers coming to teach IT skills and English.
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Conducting a census is an important activity for any country as the data gathered from it would serve as the foundation for policies, development related activities and future planning of not only government institutions but also non state actors such as academics, development and aid agencies. The idea behind collecting feedback on the 2012 Census in Sri Lanka is to identify the positive and negative aspects of the census, and to encourage discussion on how it can be improved without merely identifying the faults. This year’s census was held after 30 years and covered the entire island. The importance of this census and the data it gathered is obvious to us all. Feedback on Census 2012 was launched in late March. Some initial feedback from people who shared their comments via the site and also via email follow.
Enumeration stage – Enumerators for the Census 2012 underwent a training whereby they were briefed on the questions in the data collection tool and the methodology. Each enumerator was also given a handbook which they could refer to should they have any doubt during the enumeration stage. While there was some positive feedback with regard to the professional manner in which data collectors gathered information from each household, most of the feedback received indicates several flaws in the enumeration stage.
One key issue that was evident from the comments was that it appears that many enumerators have taken the liberty of filling out some of the answers themselves. The census questionnaire is a lengthy one and in a household where there are a lot of people, it would take a fair amount of time. However that is not a valid reason to assume the answers and select an answer on behalf of the people in the household. Not only does it create a bias based on the enumerators own opinion but they could also be filling out the wrong answers.
An example for bias was flagged by an individual whose parents were of two different ethnicities and religions. The enumerator had not asked her what her religion and ethnic group was and instead filled in the same answers as her father’s, when in fact the religion she follows is that of her mother’s. The enumerator assumed that the children’s religion and ethnic group is the same as the father’s and it was only because she was observant that she noticed the enumerator had filled out these two questions on his own that she was able to point out the error.
Another question posed on the Feedback on Census 2012 website was on what questions should have been asked by the census, but were not. One person commented saying that they should have asked about Internet usage. When asked to clarify her point as internet usage was a question that was asked in the census, the answer given by the individual – “I’m sorry, it’s just that our enumerator didn’t ask us where we access the internet from, so I was under the impression that there wasn’t a single question with regard to internet usage. He did ask us about our computer literacy though. He might’ve made an assumption based on that.” – was an interesting one as it highlighted the same issue of the enumerator assuming the answer and not asking the question at all.
There were several people who said that their households were not enumerated at all. This included people who lived in apartment complexes as well. Some households had not been visited at all whereas some had been visited when no one except the domestic worker had been home and afterwards never revisited at a time when everyone was home. While there were articles that ran in the print media that stated that those who have not been visited by a census enumerator should contact their relevant Grama Niladhari officer, it is not a practical option as a) not everyone reads newspapers b) some people do not even know who their GN officer is and therefore would not take the time to personally go meet him or her to provide information. A more realistic approach to ensure that every household is counted would have been to provide enumerators with official printed notes which they could put in a household’s post box or leave with whoever that was at home stating that that household had been visited by a census enumerator and to contact the enumerator using the provided contact details so that a revisit can be made at a time when everyone in the household was at home.
Enumerators did not have to visit the households of people who had opted to fill out the census form online. However a comment made by an individual on the 6th of April 2012 – “Information was submitted on-line. Hope they received it since no acknowledgement. When I phone them on 24 hr line, the officer answered said it should have been OK. But up to now, no response from the Dept.” – indicates that better monitoring of online submissions should have been in place to ensure that every single household was counted in the census.
Questions that should have been asked – The 2012 census asked a wide range of questions that have not been asked before in Sri Lanka’s census history. From educational qualifications to detailed questions about occupation, disabilities, literacy and household information, the data gathered would give valuable information about Sri Lankans. We asked the public whether they thought there were any questions or sections that should have been included in the 2012 census in order to identify missed opportunities which can hopefully be included in the next census.
One question that several people felt should have been included was a question about number of vehicles and type of vehicles owned by each household. The number of vehicles on the roads increases significantly every year and this has an impact on the traffic, road infrastructure, parking facilities of each city and therefore it would have been useful at a district level or even a DS level to know the number of vehicles to identify what infrastructural gaps would need to be filled in the years to come.
The census 2012 did not include any questions with regard to documentation – whether each individual had a birth certificate and where relevant, a National Identity Card, deeds for land owned by them, marriage certificates and so on. Birth certificates and NICs are the most important documents that an individual should possess and including a section on documentation would have proved to be invaluable to ascertain whether there are particular districts or regions that the state should focus on with regard to setting up or improving existing institutions to ensure a better documentation system of the country’s citizens.
In addition to any comments you may want to leave on Groundviews, please leave your feedback on the Feedback on 2012 census site as well.
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Photo by the author
There is a vision of our land that has persisted over three millennia and is ingrained in the heart and soul of every citizen. A vision of a land, resplendent, beautiful, safe from violence, disease and famine and a land where the tolerant and compassionate philosophy of the Buddha guides human interaction. But today, the ecomomic and political winds from without and within, seek to blow us further and further from this course.
The future for our children develops into the proportions of a nightmare. We have brought mindless violence upon ourselves and upon the very land itself. From the top of Siri Pada to the coast in the four directions the nation grows increasingly barren. The rivers run our precious topsoil to the sea. The cities and industries turn the very air we breathe into poison. The cancer that has been released on the country as ‘mindless progress’ now visits our homes as cancers, emphysema, and other non-communicable diseases, in disturbing numbers.
Driven by the hate filled words that comprise politicking today, blinded by consumerist greed, we have fallen on each other, son against father, mother against daughter to splinter the family, the home, the village and the nation that once took so much pride in equanimity and compassion. If we are to survive, the mantra has to change, ‘Looking after number one’ the mantra of consumerist development, has to be replaced by ‘Looking after everyone’. In the society of the thug and criminal, single individuals are easier prey than organized communities.
In such a degrading society, if there is no vision of a future, there is no hope for for tomorrow.
Thus, we must create a vision based upon our needs, but also reflected in the context of the goals of the ‘New World’ unfolding before us. We must create a vision that sees us an important actor in this emerging future, contributing as a responsable member of the world community.
A vision is not a set of economic policies that assist in the growth of the global economic system, nor is it an excuse for business or politics to increase their capital. A vision is something that can be shared not only among ourselves but also with the future, a future that can judge the realization of the vision around them with each passing day.
This contribution is offered for discusion, in order that we can all comment on a collective vision. A list of possible goals are presented, they are, by no means exhausive, they are intended to make us imagine the future we could bequeath to the next generations.
- A land where the rivers flow clean.
- A land where citizens can breathe the air without being poisoned
- A land where food security and public health form the cornerstones of development
- A land where the well-being of the poorest is a national priority
- A land where health, education and mobility are vital indicators of progress.
- A land where parents are given the opportunity of raising their children without fear.
- A land where tradition is respected and defended
- A land where local enterprise is not penalized in order to attract foreign resources.
- A land where ethnic or religious differences do not constitute a barrier to national progress nor create social tensions
- A land where all are treated equal under the law and the legal structures protect the consitutional rights of the citizenry, without fear or favour
- A land where development is not measured by greed and consumption but by contentment and happiness
- A land where fossil energy addiction is seen to be antithetical to development
Such a vision could be respected and agreed upon by all, irrespective of their cultural, linguistic or religious differences.
Such a vision protects the national wealth from opportunists who embark in politics or administration for the purpose of converting this into personal wealth.
Such a vision encourages national dialogue and discourages the hubris of politicians being being forced down our throats as ‘unquestionable wisdom’
Do we have the courage to escape the ‘idiot development’ syndrome that is sinking this nation in debt and destroying its life support functions, do we have the courage to debate new directions?
These goals are those that most of us subscribe to. They are ethnically and linguistically transparent. They are commonsense and reflect the aspirations of all of us . But can belong to us only if we contribute to them, consider them, and accept them as being personally valid goals. If these goals become important to the majority of us, they will manifest.
Can we dare to dream of the kindness, compassion and tolerance, that we were so proud of, not so long ago? Can we dare to dream the dreams of our ancestors, rather than the nightmare of violence, arrogance, greed and delusion, today?
Can we be true to the words of the national anthem when we so blithely sing “Piliganu maner apa bakthi pooja” ?
Where is the bakthi ? What is the pooja?
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Photo courtesy Sampath Wijenayake
It is no secret that many members of the Tamil diaspora are actively involved in helping the victims of the war in Sri Lanka in some way or the other. There are those who send assistance direct to known or identified victims. There are others who respond to calls from various organisations for funds to help them. Such organisations are now available in abundance both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
However, only a few of such organisations would be able to render accounts to benefactors on how much they have collected and what amounts have been spent to provide relief and even on what kind of relief or assistance have provided using their funds. Occasionally we hear about organisations that collected monies and duped gullible sympathisers. In any case in most instances the victims are mere receivers of assistance and have no say whatsoever in deciding the nature, the extent and the kind of assistance they need. It is in the light of such situations that this suggestion is being made that co-operatives are a better option to provide relief to uplift war victims in Sri Lanka and make them self reliant.
No talk or write-up on co-operatives will be complete without referring to the famous Rochdale Pioneers of England. Though they commenced their co-operative activities in the middle of the 19th century, the principles they enunciated were officially adopted by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in 1937 as the Rochdale Principles of Co-operation. These principles were adopted by the ICA in 1966 as Co-operative Principles. It is a known fact that after the devastation of the second world war co-operative societies formed on the basis of these principles played a key role in Sri Lanka and other countries in easing the problems caused to the people following the devastation during the war and the economic depression that followed the war. It is in the light of the experience gained during that period that one has to consider the benefits of co-operatives to help the victims of the recent war in Sri Lanka.
It would be relevant at this point to mention that there are different kinds of co-operatives in various parts of the world. Sri Lanka has a three tier system of apex co-operatives, secondary co-operatives and primary co-operatives. Primary co-operatives are grass root level societies which can band themselves together and form District Unions or District level societies which in term join and form apex co-operatives at a national level, often referred to as federations of co-operative societies. While the apex societies can link themselves with co-operatives in other countries, the primary level societies link up persons at the village level who have a common interest. There are agricultural co-ops, fishermans’ co-ops, employee’s co-ops, dairy co-ops, welfare co-ops, thrift and credit co-ops, etc. These co-operatives are formed in Sri Lanka on the lines set down by the Co-operative Societies Law. The Department of Co-operative Development has the function, among other things, of ensuring that co-operative societies are registered and function according to the law and their accounts are audited annually. The Department has Assistant Commissioners in every district and they have a team of the Co-operative Inspectors through whom the Departments functions are carried out.
According to a report issued by the Office of the Governor Northern Province there are 1359 thrift and credit co-operative societies are functioning in the North.[1] They happen to be the largest number of primary co-operatives functioning in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Many more such societies which had been functioning before the war may now be defunct. Yet these thrift and credit co-operative societies (TCCS) are the best means available now at the grass root level, to channel assistance to the victims of the war in those areas. Many of them are already members of these societies. There is nothing to prevent war victims becoming members of the TCCS in their areas if they are already not members. If none exist in their locality, they could get together and form one. A few words about the TCCSs, how to form one if there isn’t one nearby, and, on how they function, would enable one to understand why they are considered a better option to channel assistance to uplift the victims of the war.
About ten persons living in a particular area could get together for the common objective of promoting thrift and savings among its members. They can pool their meagre savings into a fund to provide micro-credit to its members at a nominal rate of interest, as decided by the members themselves, when the need arises. This would make one ask the question, how could a person who has hardly any income, save. The oft repeated example is that of saving a spoon of sugar or a fistful of rice per day which could be a substantial quantity at the end of a month. They have to meet at regular intervals, pool what little they have saved, discuss matters of common interest relating to the objective of the organisation, maintain minutes of the meeting and render accounts at every meeting on the monies collected and loans granted, if any. Applications for assistance or loans are considered by the members at their meetings and depending on the availability of resources or funds, Such applications are considered by the members themselves and approved depending on availability of funds and the urgency of the request. Since at least two members should stand surety for any loan granted, it becomes the responsibility of the sureties to ensure that the loan is re-paid without default as agreed. For such a society to become a legal body, it has to be registered with the Department of Co-operative Development where the Commissioner is also the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. The society becomes eligible for registration only if it can be proved that they have been meeting regularly and have been carrying on the functions of the society informally, at least for a few months, systematically. The Department would verify these matters through its officials known as co-operative inspectors. The request for registration should be based on a motion approved by the members who have also to agree to abide by the by-laws, models of which are available at the Department. Additions could be made to the by-laws if two thirds of the members so desire. They could also add to the objectives of the society matters like for what purpose loans could be given and how they should be recovered in the event of default. Since only loans are given for specific purposes and no out right grants are given, the capital of the society does not melt away but keeps multiplying as days go by from the savings of its members and any donations they receive. Once an application for registration is accepted by the department, the society becomes a legal body entitled to own properties, including land, open a bank account with a state bank and take such other measures as may be necessary to secure the funds of its members. Usually State Banks are obliged to provide loans to such societies at the rate of approximately 20 times the amount of savings of its members, lying with the bank. The important point to be noted is that these societies being legal bodies, they are entitled to receive bigger amounts as deposits by its members or other amounts that could be donated to the society by well wishers for the uplift of its members. They function as mini banks at the grass root level just like the famous Grameen Banks of Bangaladesh.
It should be noted that since 1359 thrift and credit societies are already available anyone desirous of helping its members could deal with them straight away. The necessity to create new societies may not be an immediate need.
This provides an opening for members of the Diaspora to make donations to these societies with a condition that such funds be used exclusively to grant loans to members who may have been victims of the war and who may be in need of assistance to start life afresh by indulging in some income generation activity or the other. Since the applications for loans are going to be considered by the members of the society who are living amongst them, they would know better about the feasibility of the venture concerned and the capability of the applicant to indulge in such a venture. Thus the responsibility for the proper disbursement of the funds rests with their own brethren and not with any higher authority. As stated earlier, it is a widely known fact that many in the diaspora are now involved in providing funds to help war victims. But often these monies get expended in projects identified by the donor or implementing agencies. When such funds reach a TCCS, the membership would be held responsible for the proper management of the funds as they themselves would be deciding who should be granted loans (not donations) for which income generation activity and whether the applicant’s venture would be feasible. Once the recovery commences, fresh loans could be given to others in the waiting list from the amounts that get collected every month. In other words, a donation provided to the TCCS rotates and assists several persons instead of getting expended on one person. While the management of the funds are supervised by the membership as a whole and the Co-operative Inspector is obliged to supervise its activities and regularly check the books of these societies to ensure that funds are used only for the approved purposes and whether the figures tally with the bank statements. That way misuse of the funds is minimised and the monitoring of the funds disbursed is done systematically. It should be noted when donations of bigger amounts are made to societies, it is customary for such money to be granted to a Union of these societies at the District level with a condition that the donations should be made available for specified purposes only. A memorandum of understanding could be signed between the organisation that is donating such funds and the District Union concerned . This would perhaps suffice for the time being to understand how secure the funds provided to a TCCS to help war victims, could be. Every district in the North and the East have District Unions of TCCS which are equipped to handle and disburse large amounts of monies to its member societies. Non-governmental organisations are using them for similar purposes. The Department of Co-operative Development is closely involved in supervising and providing technical assistance to the District Unions by way of auditing their accounts regularly and conducting training programmes to members on related topics such as leadership, accounting, and the management of societies according to co-operative principles.
A few words on what these co-operative principles are, would be appropriate at this stage. They are guidelines by which co-operatives should operate and put their values into practice.[2]
- Voluntary and Open Membership – Co-operatives are voluntary organisations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination
- Democratic Control - Co-operatives are democratic organisations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary co-operatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and co-operatives at other levels are also organised in a democratic manner.
- Members economic participation – Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their co-operative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the co-operative.
- Autonomy and independence – Co-operatives are autonomous, self-help organisations controlled by their members. If they enter to agreements with other organisations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their co-operative autonomy.
- Education and Training - Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives.
- Co-operation among co-operatives - Co-operatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the co-operative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.
- Concern for the community - Co-operatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.
A few more questions relating to this matter need to be answered.
a) One may ask why it is better to provide assistance to war victims through TCCSs and not through other co-operatives. You would have seen that this is one kind of society which functions at the grassroot level where the members have full control of its activities. When it is a industrial cooperative, as for instance a fishermen’s society or a farmer’s society there is always a possibility of larger numbers of members being involved and political interference creeping in. With political comes in possibilities of state funds being channelled in. Along with it comes the taking away of the rights of its members especially on who should be its beneficiaries and who should have control over the funds. The government has formed an organisation called the CLCMS Centre for Livelihood Credit Management Services (CLCMS) which acts as viable institution to implement the Government and Provincial Council Policies through accomplishing its mission. [3] Any society that has received financial assistance from the state comes within the purview of the CLCMS which ensures that the policies of the Government are accomplished – and not that of the members of the co-operatives which could be different. Since the TCCSs have not solicited or opted to receive such funds, they are still free to act independently.
b) The other question that could arise is how does one reach the war victims through TCCS. While there is nothing to prevent a benefactor identifying a TCCS which has a number of war victims in its membership and donating directly to such society, it would be desirable for such benefactors in the diaspora to find out which of the organisations in their own country are working with TCCSs in Sri Lanka and provide the fund to that organisation with a specific request to make the monies available to war victims through TCCSs. At least two such organisations are known to be working in the North and East by linking up with the District Unions in these regions and channelling funds to their member societies.
c) The other question that may be asked is, how safe are the funds so provided. TCCS are expected to conduct all their financial transactions through their bank. So funds should be provided directly to the bank account of the TCCS concerned after signing a memorandum of understanding with the society concerned with a condition that copies of the financial statement of the society certified by the co-operative department should be provided to the benefactor regularly. It is a requirement that at every meeting of a TCCS its financial statement should presented to the members. At the end of the year the Auditors of the Department of Co-operative Department are obliged to prepare an audit report of the organisation. So this does not involve extra work and the benefactor could demand a copy ot these statements be sent to them regularly to enable them to keep track of what is happening to the funds they provide.
d) The other option benefactors have is to form co-operatives of their own in the respective countries where they reside with the objective of providing help to their brethren back home in Sri Lanka. Once such a body is formed and is registered under the co-operative laws of their respective countries, they could avail of the internationally accepted principle of co-operation between cooperatives and directly link up and work with the co-operatives in Sri Lanka. Besides such a co-operative could be a non-controversial means by which the already divided factions among the Tamils in the diaspora could be brought together for the common and undisputed objective of helping the victims of the war back home in Sri Lanka. That would eventually become the best and the most viable means of helping the war victims without any political bias as they would be recognised as a legal, non-political co-operative institution in their respective countries. They would also be able to interact with the other co-operative institutions of different countries too and help to share information on the plight of the people for whose benefit they have formed the co-operative.
Thus it could be seen that helping war victims in Sri Lanka through their TCCSs is the best option available to ensure that funds provided by interested persons or organisations in the diaspora could be efficiently and effectively channelled to such victims. The best thing that could happen to make the diaspora play a key role in the uplift of the war victims is for them to form co-operatives of their own in their own countries and liaise with the cooperatives in Sri Lanka.
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The author was formerly an Assistant Commissioner in the Department of Co-operative Development in Sri Lanka.
[1] A Report on Co-operatives in the North , News Desk – Media Unit – Office of Governor ,Northern Province, Sri Lanka – http://www.np.gov.lk/pdf/cooperatives.pdf
[2] Vide http://www.ica.coop/coop/principles.html from a statement issued by the International Co-operative Alliance.
[3] This is a statement extracted from the website of the Governor , Northern Province- vide http://www.np.gov.lk/pdf/cooperatives.pdf
Indigenous people know the reality of fossil energy. The Shuar peoples of Amazonian Ecuador, under whose territories lie huge reserves of oil. Unlike those eager to find oil in their territories, have rejected exploration, they do not want to get rich on selling oil. They have a saying “Oil’ represents the sprits of a long dead world, that we use to satisfy our greed for power and sacrifice and our children in return.” (CESR 1996). Here lies a truth that cannot be escaped when looking at climate change. But in this statement there also lies wisdom, a truth, which if appreciated will clarify the actions needed to address the spectre of climate change. Their wisdom is that, they are aware of the difference between the spirits of the living world and the dead. They know that, asking for power from the spirits of the dead world has a great price, often they seeking the lives of our own children.
What does this dead and living world mean? Does it have any relevance in modern science?
Carbon that cycles through living systems represents a fixed proportion of the planetary carbon. This carbon called ‘biotic’ or living carbon has a very different makeup to other sources of carbon. The biotic carbon cycling in the planetary biosphere is measured in time cycles of thousands of years. This carbon is activated by the energy of the sun fixed by living things. There is another pool of carbon, which is the ‘lithospheric’ or fossil carbon. This is carbon that once existed in the biosphere, but died and was buried underground where they reside for time periods measured in millions of years. This ‘dead’ carbon has no contact with the world of living carbon. Over geologic time vast quantities of carbon sequestered by living forms became fossilized and removed from the biotic/atmospheric cycles to become distilled as the ‘spirits of a long dead world.’
It is the failure to recognize the two significantly different pools of Carbon and their functions and values within the biosphere that has led to much of the confusion when considering the utility of biotic systems under the current rules that determine carbon markets.
Carbon from biotic pools can be accommodated under the current trading agreements, as they will help to slow down the turnover rate of carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon from fossil pools can only be considered under the current trading regimes by technologies that curb emissions at the source or by a financial mechanism that accounts for the time differential between the two pools. In other words, carbon dioxide emanating from forest or other ecosystem destruction can be compensated for by planting trees at the current cost, but carbon dioxide emanating from the burning of fossil fuels cannot pay the same price to compensate.
It is now clear that fossil Carbon and biotic Carbon have extremely different sinks and need to be valued differentially when considering the impact on the global biosphere. While the carbon balance of the planet has been greatly modified by post-industrial human activity such as massive deforestation, it is the ‘fossil injection’ that introduces the disruptive, increasing, increment of ‘new’ carbon into the atmosphere.
These facts, underscore the great danger of accepting the consumption on fossil fuels as a tool for ‘development’. Once a nation or economy has become ‘fossil addicted’, they are willing to sacrifice their own well-being and the well-being of others to feed their addiction.
Here the sayings of the Shuar are pertinent. “Oil’ represents the sprits of a long dead world, that we use to satisfy our greed for power and sacrifice and our children in return.” The consequences of addicting ourselves to oil dependency, are already clear, the soaring price of living and the soaring rates of non-communicable (development) diseases, are clear indicators of the price that we and our children will have to pay.
Recognizing the distinction between fossil and biotic carbon and placing differential values on each, will go a long way to expose these addicted economies and assist nations such as ours to avoid the pitfalls. The amount of oil, coal or gas required for the creation and operation of future ‘development’ projects should become basic criteria for acceptance or rejection of future ‘development’ projects.
Thus, in evaluating all ‘development’ proposals, it will be good to consider a caution expressed in all traditional societies: ‘Oppose serving of the spirits of the dead’ (boothyas), or in today’s words, do not get trapped into the belief that the consumption of fossil energy and resources means development (promoted by modern boothyas), Such actions will bring the spirits of the dead (fossil) into our living world (biotic) and degrade the quality of life for our children most horribly ! Development diseases such as cancer, stress, lung diseases, heart diseases and diabetes have not only reached epidemic proportions but are now also reaching down to the children. The rate of growth of these diseases amongst the younger segment of our population should create some national soul searching and response, Is this growth in fossil addiction the right development model for Sri Lanka ?
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Introduction
Newly initiated development projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in post-war Sri Lanka are expected to open new avenues towards ethnic reconciliation, as proclaimed not only by government media but also by the mainstream development scholarship. However, this popular perception about opening up new avenues for reconciliation through development seems to foreclose certain barriers and obstructions existing within the so called development highway itself, especially with regard to ethnic minorities. To understand the possible political and other forms of repercussion of the currently existing development-community encounter, one should turn one’s ears not only to the subject-agents of the development discourse but also to those who are subjected to the development industry, considering the fact that the subalterns also are involved in creating meanings (or counter-articulate the dominant discourse, as Laclauian discourse analysts would suggest) in their own way. This piece explores the ways in which the local communities in the Northern fishing villages receive the messages enunciated by the dominant or official discourse of development and counter-articulate meanings in a different, competing manner and the ways in which this community-development encounter would affect the wider problem of post-war ethnic and social reconciliation.
Jaffna’s fishing industry
The Fishing industry, being one of the main sources of livelihood of a large number of people in the Jaffna Peninsula, happens to be a sector that was severely affected by the thirty years ethnic civil war. Before the war, Jaffna was the largest fishing production district and contributed about 48,000 metric tons per year comprising almost one fourth of the total production of the country. However, this significantly developed fishing industry was severely affected by the war. “While the Jaffna District alone provided 20-25% of the total fish production in Sri Lanka before 1983, its contribution was reduced to 3-5% by the end of the third Eelam war.” The annual fish production in the District numbered around 2000 metric tons during the war. Although this got recovered to some extent in two years after the war, it is far from pre-war levels.
Current Problems and Challenges
Many problems regarding the fishing industry in the North in many ways related to the militarization that was strengthened during the last phase of the war but not completely relaxed even after the end of the war. For instance, some coastal areas, which are very significant to fishing, still remains as High Security Zones (HSZ); and therefore fishermen are banned from engaging in their livelihood activities in those areas; in many areas, fishermen were allowed to go to sea only within a permitted corridor, and even for that they had to get passes from military forces. Currently, although some of those restrictions have been removed or relaxed in some coastal areas, the Northern fishing community, CBO leaders and civil society representatives remain concerned about the continuing stringent security arrangements even after two years after the end of war, in the areas where Northern fishermen used to do their livelihood activities.
Although the authorities are claiming that the situation in the Northern Province has largely been normalized in terms of de-militarization, this claim was highly contested by the special situation report on the Northern and Eastern Provinces presented to parliament by M.A Sumanthiran, a TNA parliamentarian on October, 21, 2011. The report explains the situation of the fishing industry in Jaffna within a militarized context, as follows,
Severe restrictions are placed on members of Tamil fishing communities, resulting in a drastic impact on their means of livelihood. The report tabled by me in July of this year detailed the restrictions placed on members of the fishing community in Mullaitivu, especially in the areas of Kokkilaai to Chundikkulam in Kilaakaththai, Maathirikkiraama, Uppumaaveli, Thoondai, Alambil, Semmalai, Naayaaru, Kokkuththoduvaai, and Karunaattukkernee. These restrictions are still in place and of serious concern is the fact that several Sinhala fishermen in the area have received direct permission to fish in this area from the Ministry of Defence.
Apart from the militarization, Jaffna based researchers and civil society members highlight a series of other issues related to the development of fishing industry in the region. These issues include illegal fishing in the Sri Lankan waters by Indian fishermen, which is popularly known as ‘Indian Trawler’ issue. Other contentious issues include an increasing number of seasonal fishing in Northern and Eastern regions by Southern fishermen; illegal fishing methods used by Indian and Southern fishermen that has negative impacts on resources; lack of sophisticated boats that are essential for deep sea fishing; lack of stock assessment; specific problems in the island areas like transport problems and dependency on big mudalalies who have political patronage; lack of infrastructure facilities; institutional support and insurance facilities etc.
Potholes, Checkpoints and Cattle in the Development Highway
Although recently initiated development projects in the Northern Province have addressed some of the issues discussed in the preceding part of this article, they have not contributed to make a significant breakthrough. Structural problems that barricade the development of the fishing industry such as regional disparity, dependency relations, political patronage structures and related socio-economic issues remain to date. On the contrary, sometimes, these development initiatives seem to contribute towards furthering of some of these issues. For instance, the merchants from the Southern Provinces who have coolers, sophisticated techniques and market networks are now being facilitated to come along the ‘development highway’ into the Northern fish market, to strengthen their dominance over the Northern competitors, whilst the perceptions of the Northern fishing community over this new development is not yet publicly heard. Some sectors of the Jaffna civil society members expressed their feelings on this aspect of regional disparity in the highly propagated post-war development, by comparing and contrasting the current situation with the ‘good old days’ of the Jaffna fishing industry. Signs of uneven development between North and South become apparent by the way Southern fishermen get all the advantages in the competition for limited resources in the sea because of their technological and economic advancement.
Fishing and Development
The fishing industry which is a large source of livelihood in the Peninsula, seems not to get its due prominence in the government’s development agenda, although there is wide expectation that the fishing communities stand to reap benefits from the ending of the war and the post-war development activities. Government representatives especially highlight the significance of these general infrastructure developments such as transport facilities. They emphasize the fact that newly constructed Mannar Bridge and Kallady Bridge and road developments in the coastal areas have benefited the fishing communities and encouraged merchants in other areas to expand their market relationships to Jaffna.
Special initiatives with regard to fishing sector are also in the pipeline. They include opening up of a new office for fisheries-related issues named District Fisheries Exchange Office; distribution of some equipments; establishment of new fishing villages under the post-war resettlement programme; introduction of new laws regarding illegal fishing methods etc.
However, a different form of articulation of a ‘development discourse’ can be observed when one listens to the fishermen in the Northern Province. Many of them interviewed for this study said that although the government has performed erratic development activities those activities don’t address concerns of fishing communities. The Northern fishermen do not go to the South for seasonal fishing, basically owing to their lack of resources and technological capacity required. It can also be observed that they sometimes tend to perceive this in ethnic terms. There were some allegations that especially in Manner area Southern fishers are supported by military forces. Some fishermen in Karainagar explained the negative impact of the Southern fishers’ arrival to the North. The low income categories were mostly affected by some environmentally harmful methods used by them such as blasting of shells; using cylinders to catch conches and using ‘small eye nets’ to capture prawns by the fishermen coming from Negombo, Beruwala and Matara areas. A community leader claimed that “if this happens in their areas, the government’s response would have been different. But here they are able to destroy our resources, without facing to any charge.”
Periphery within periphery: patronage strengthened
In the case of the current development initiative in the Northern Province, it can clearly be observed that some dependency structures supported by relations of political patronage are being reinforced and strengthened. The situation in the island area in the Jaffna peninsula, which can be considered as a periphery within a periphery, both in geographical and in socio-economic terms, provides a fine example for this. Many islands do not have roads to link with the mainland and therefore the fishing communities are depended on businessmen who own transport facilities and linkages with the market in the mainland. For a long time, a large number of poor fishing families have been exploited by this economic dependency structures, against the background that they all are become debtors to a few businessmen who could control the market and transport facilities.
These dependency structures facilitated by political patronage have significantly developed in the island region during the period of the war because of certain strategic reasons in the area.
To make development really affective on a community, there needs to be a broader approach for addressing not merely the minor technical issues, but more structural issues as explained above.
Concluding Remark
The case of the fishing industry in the Jaffna Peninsula suggests that the current development strategy can reinforce and reproduce some existing social hierarchies, power relations and suppressions among people in the war affected areas. The manner in which post-war development is being framed by mainstream nationalism strengthens uneven development among different ethnic communities that would lead to more tension amongst inhabitants in the war affected areas. In other words, against the popular belief that development is the solution to the ethnic problem, a politically articulated discourse of development can also fuel the conflict, by unevenly distributing the benefits of economic growth among different ethnic communities.
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This essay is part of a series on the theme of post war reconciliation, justice and development initiated by the International Center for Ethnic Studies, (ICES). Colombo. The views expressed are the author’s own and does not necessarily represent the views of the ICES.
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Asoka Abeygunawardana, is the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Energy Forum and an Adviser to the Minister of Power & Energy. Asoka’s articles on the Energy Forum website clearly outline the challenges facing power generation and energy policies in Sri Lanka today, the result of many years of ill-advised strategic planning, investment and delays in infrastructure construction.
Asoka talks about Sri Lanka’s overwhelming dependence on oil based power generation, and referring to it as a ‘severe crisis’ notes that there isn’t a quick and easy fix for this. Speaking about the transition from a primarily hydro-electric based power generation to what is now a non-renewable fuels (oil, coal) based power generation, Asoka notes that this is not an energy mix Sri Lanka can sustain in the years to come.
With the Meteorological Department forecasting that 2012 will be drier than 2011, the power generation over the course of this year will get much worse before it gets better. And this includes utility costs as well. Asoka address the fall out of the Iranian oil export sanctions and also the possible attack against Iran by Israel, which inter alia has the potential to greatly disrupt oil markets.
Talking of a longer-term, more sustainable energy mix and set of policies, Asoka explores options around renewable and clean energy generation (wind, wave, solar), energy conservation (including introduction of smart grids, smart power metering and LED lights), pumped water storage (to help with non-monsoonal hydro-electric power generation), importing electricity from India and even nuclear power generation two decades hence.
Asoka also talks about the true costs of power generation and passing this on to the consumer, and the complexities of determining tariff bands so that those who consume the least amount of electricity don’t end up essentially subsidising the power generation costs, per unit, brought about by those who consume the most.
The full video is essential viewing if you want to find out more about Sri Lanka’s energy problems today, how they can’t be wished away in the immediate future.
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Photo courtesy JDS
Thank you madam, for being the voice for the voiceless. The poverty stricken, wounded, displaced and marginalized Muslim and Tamil victims of the brutal thirty year war in our country have been forced into submission by the ruthless and racist Rajapakse regime which has gained a stranglehold over power through a deliberate and well planned conspiracy which was plotted out with impunity and arrogance to deny its citizens of democracy and justice. The regime is firmly entrenched through constitutional amendments passed in stealth and haste despite objections raised by an educated few for extended public debate and discussion warranted of significant changes. The Sinhala majority have also been hoodwinked with the glorification of the war and masking of human rights violations through the regime’s uniting call for patriotism against international conspirators who wish to destroy the country’s onward path to progress – which no one dares question why?
The truth is that only a few have the courage to speak on behalf of the beleaguered community due to fear of reprisal, lack of communication/empathy or due to total disinterest in a powerless group which will compromise their positions in the status quo. Not surprisingly, the majority of the powerful Tamil political elite, as well, wish to distance themselves from the war victims and remain in denial as to their dire circumstances for the same reasons.
The victims themselves are so severely traumatised that they would rather live in anonymity than draw attention to their plight fearing reprisal and suffering at the hands of the forces and state apparatus which watches their every move with suspicion and interferes in their daily lives with impunity.
Most youth are living in a state of apathy and only looking for opportunities to leave their homeland in the hope of seeking a fair deal in a democratic and just society. Although funds flow into the war torn regions from sympathetic Diaspora which helps sustain the affected communities, it is creating a culture of dependence as the beneficiaries are deliberately precluded from participating in the development process by interlopers who prosper as a result.
Every sector of the economy in the North and East is dominated by the army, navy or air force who have been authorized to do business and compete with civil society utilising state funds and facilities which, doubtless, gives them a huge edge in conducting profitable business by sidelining small local businesses and denying employment to locals in preference to sinhalese migratory workers.
With development opportunities aplenty, corruption is rife in the region. Both the state and leading private sector companies are complicit in sharing the spoils realized through illegal and unethical practices which are deliberately ignored by the state.
Sadly, the deprived and denied local population have no recourse but to remain as onlookers with little or no participation in the development process.
Thank you, madam for intervening in the interest of the war victims of Sri Lanka by invoking the universal principles of human rights laid down by the august body of the United Nations which seeks to protect the well being of all peoples.
Your perseverance in seeking redress is greatly respected and appreciated by the silent majority of this country who are voiceless due to political repression.
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The ecological impact of increasing energy input into a system has been well documented. In any ecosystem an increase in the flow of energy tends to organize and simplify that ecosystem, with the destruction of many homeostatic mechanisms of the original system. The loss of the traditional, rice production systems and its simplification, being an example. Further, diversity is now being realized as being important to sustainability. In agriculture, studies of insect communities have shown that pest outbreaks are characteristic of systems with lowered species diversity.
An increase in the input of energy to an ecosystem often provides a useful measure by which ecosystem modification can be addressed. Thus in a heavily energy dependent agricultural system, the natural or biological system has been dispensed with and an artificial environment has been created to allow high levels of production. While it can be argued that such a system of production is sustainable as long as the inputs are provided, it raises biological questions, for this system is clearly not sustainable in a biological sense. It also raises economic questions, especially in regard to input costs and subsidies.
This brings us to a painful reality, is Sri Lankan agriculture independent ? Can we produce food in this country without external (fossil) energy ? Are we on a sustainable trajectory in our planning for growth ? The answer to all these questions is a resounding no ! Just in fertilizer alone, there is an unbelievable subsidy of Rs.50 billion add to it the subsidies for gas and transport and a very disturbing scenario unfolds.
Further, this process has been demonstrated to be increasingly dependent on a steadily increasing quantum of energy input to produce a same unit of output, so once hooked, the subsidy will go up and has to be maintained in the name of political interest.
However, need this be so? History demonstrates that the farming systems of Sri Lanka has concentrated on the same crops and cropping techniques since over 500 B.C. this length of interaction with the environment had produced a co-evolved agro-ecosystem where many components of wild species acted to provide community stability as well as ecosystem stability.
The belief, knowledge and value sets that manifest as culture are also reflected as the artifacts of that culture, be it art, music, dance, myth or literature. These artifacts in turn, reflect the sensitivity of the culture to the environment that it existed in. Thus, societies that have successfully maintained themselves over long periods of time often demonstrate a great sensitivity to the functioning of the local ecosystems. These stable, sustainable, co-evolved ecosystems are very much a characteristic of traditional societies.
This diversity of local cultures and their associated ecosystems are now in a state of decline. In agriculture, the introduction of fossil fuel energy dependent crops ensures the collapse of both. This insensitivity of ‘modern agriculture’ to the complexity of natural systems may stem from the model of reality that it is based upon. Two philosophical models hypothesized by Cobb (1984 ) may be useful in addressing this problem. The mechanical model where a thing in itself is independent of its relations to other things and the ecological model where a thing in itself is the product of its relations to other things. Unfortunately modern management would seem operate on the mechanical model generating management responses without any regard to the consequences of changing system parameters. But unless an ecological model is utilized, such mechanistic approaches often lead to environmental decay.
Studies on agricultural diversity suggest that high measures of diversity are often correlated with environmental stability. A rapid loss in the degree of biodiversity, for instance suggests a loss in ecological stability. Therefore, the measure of biodiversity is a useful indicator of the health of an ecosystem.
The pattern of increasing ecological stability with increasing diversity in land use is also corroborated by studies of both traditional and modern land managers, whose management systems are sustainable and conserve a much higher level of biodiversity than through mechanistic responses. They have recorded that higher levels of diversity in the agricultural field produce positive effects of biological control, spread the risk in marketing and production, as well as distributing labor needs to fit with a single family unit. These traditional methods of land management, have much to contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation.
However, the much touted ‘development’ in agriculture in Sri Lanka has produced great yeilds that require a huge inflows of foreign energy and outflows of national wealth to sustain it. In this way, we will loose not only our seeds (genes) and our ecosystems, but also our health and the knowledge of who we are. As the 1998 farmer statement to CGIAR noted
“ we farmers, producers of food, respected for our ability to feed populations, were turned into the poisoners of land and living things, including fellow human beings.”
Profit is indeed a great altar to sacrifice humanity on.
References:
Cobb, J. (1984) Theology, Perception and Sustainability of Agriculture In Agricultural Sustainability in a Changing World Order (G.K. Douglass, ed). Westview Press; Boulder, Colorado.
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The discussion on ‘ Economic Development’ as a national goal, must demonstrate a perspective strongly rooted in modern science. However, the goals of today suggest that our appreciation of the scientific method of evaluation is a little short. Nevertheless, it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s contribution at the Rio + 20 and at other international conventions thatdiscuss the common future of mankind can propose something innovative rather than the mediocre dribble of the past. Having been party to these processes, the probability of a repetition of past mediocrity is great. Thus in the interest of the profile of this nation and in the interest of a benign future for our children, the following reasoning is advanced. One hopes that the Sri Lankan delegates to the various international conventions this year will raise the need to ‘value photosynthetic biomass’ at all plenary sessions as a national contribution.
Life on Earth learnt how to maintain gas and material flows, optimum for the evolution and sustainability of biodiversity. Carbon Dioxide, although essential to the process of life, was often introduced into the atmosphere by volcanic processes at disruptive levels, throughout geologic history. But the gas has not concentrated in the atmosphere, because it was sequestered by living things and put away out of circulation from the biosphere of living carbon, so that the environment was stable for life. This store of carbon was fossilized and has been slowly accumulating over the last few hundred million years and has acted as the storage of excess carbon.
In our rush to create the new petroleum and coal driven economy, this very simple and fundamental fact has been ignored. Carbon that cycles through living systems represents a fixed proportion of the planetary carbon, one part solid, like the carbohydrates in trees and one part gas, as in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide gas. If excess Carbon Dioxide enters the atmosphere through tectonic processes such as volcanism, photosynthetic activity removes this excess carbon dioxide from the biosphere and that excess is deposited as fossils to enter the lithosphere (rocks), never to interact with the biosphere again. This deposition is translated into vast quantities of fossilized carbon that has been removed from the biotic/atmospheric cycles. Unlike the biotic cycles of Carbon that stay deposited for tens of thousands of years. The fossil pools have deposition lifetimes of tens or hundreds of millions of years.
There have been fluctuations of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere in the past but equilibrium was gained and balance was restored. All this was long before humans.
The first human driven change that affected the local and regional climates was the massive loss of the global forest stock with the advent of colonization. This loss represents a debt to every nation that lost its forests as well as a debt to planetary atmospheric equilibrium. This debt can be settled by re-establishing the sequestered stocks of carbon that were lost by reforestation. But once this debt is settled there will be no more room on this planet to plant more trees to sequester the fossil carbon that is currently being released so irresponsibly.
Fossil carbon is the principal driver of climate change. As a substance that is over at least twenty million or more years older than the timber of the forests that were lost, it represents a material with a far higher carbon cost than a forest. It is also a fact that the levels of Carbon Dioxide, a major atmospheric gas are increasing in the atmosphere. This increase is linked to the destabilization of the climate, the burning of the fossil stock of Carbon being the principal driver of change. It is now very clear that the stability of planetary climate cycles are in jeopardy and a very large contributory factor to this crisis is the profligate activities of modern human society. It is the same activity that fuels the current vision of ‘Economic Development’ in Sri Lanka. The entire infrastructural investment, be it stadia, complexes or towers, require enormous amounts of energy for their operation. As our sustainable energy production is abysmally low, we will have to provide fossil energy to maintain this infrastructure, an activity patently destructive of the global climate equilibrium.
Another area of concern is that the system of agriculture that our farmers have been lured into. Through this type of agriculture they have been made addicts to fossil fuel energy for motive power and fertilizers. Not only do we loose vast sums of money and add to a decline in health, both human and environmental; we also have this nation adding yet another burden to the planets climate stability. In short we are ‘bankrupt’ as an independent, agricultural nation, also very cynical if we ever claim to be ‘green’ on any international stage.
On the wider picture, it is common knowledge, that there is a value difference between fossil derived Carbon Dioxide and biologically cycling Carbon Dioxide, but this fact has been ignored by the so-called ‘scientists’ who run the IPCC. Any high school child will know this fact, but it is ignored by the ‘climate scientists’ who claim to know best. Whatever their motives, the value differential of these cycles, biotic and fossil, must be recognized. Biotic carbon operates on time frames of tens or hundreds of thousands of years and fossil carbon in tens or hundreds of millions years. Further, fossil carbon never interacts with the living or biotic cycle. Fossil carbon entering the biotic cycle is the fundamental reason as to why there is an accelerating climate change effect. However, the growing of trees to compensate for fossil carbon and paying the same price as for biotic carbon is unfair and tantamount to ‘carbon laundering’. There is no way to equate the carbon from oil and coal with the carbon from a forest. One has a space in the biotic cycle the other does not. Carbon that cycles through living systems represents a fixed proportion of the planetary carbon thus there is no space in the atmosphere for fossil derived Carbon Dioxide.
Carbon Dioxide is extracted from the atmosphere by plants and converted into a solid form. This process has been hailed as a tool by which the problem of increasing gaseous Carbon can be addressed. ‘Plant trees which soak up the carbon dioxide’ the reasoning goes ‘and you can contribute to reducing the atmospheric burden of that gas’. Living woody biomass has been the first and logical candidate to be used as a potential tool in sequestering atmospheric carbon and has been featured largely in ‘Carbon capture’ projects. Although the volume of living biomass has now been measured on most global models of carbon cycling and this measure is being used in the evaluation of carbon stocks, there is a an urgent need to address the fundamental differences between the components of living biomass, photosynthetic biomass and respiring biomass.
Photosynthetic biomass performs the act of primary production, the initial step in the manifestation of life. The biomass so termed has the ability to increase in mass through the absorption of solar or other electromagnetic radiation while releasing oxygen and water vapour into the atmosphere. Respiring biomass is that component of living biomass that uses the output of photosynthesis to make the complicated biological patterns of life; it consumes oxygen to power its functions, and does not have photosynthetic functions itself. This distinction would seem to be fundamentally important when assessing the value of biomass that is being addressed. It is only this photosynthetic biomass which powers carbon sequestration, carbohydrate production, oxygen generation and water transformation, i.e. all actions essential for the sustainability of the life support system of the planet.
Yet currently, it is only one product of this photosynthetic biomass, as sequestered carbon, usually represented by wood/timber, that is recognized as having commercial value in the carbon market for mitigating climate change. The ephemeral part, the leaves, are generally ignored, yet the photosynthetic biomass in terrestrial ecosystems are largely composed of leaves, this component needs a value placed on it for its ‘environmental services’
It is not difficult to place value on photosynthetic biomass today. Initial computations are based on the current values of the carbon market are currently in excess of 125 billion dollars, assuming that the global market would pay at least a similar amount to maintain our life support system, the 93.1 billion tons of photosynthetic Carbon currently in stock would be roughly worth about 1.35 dollars per kilogram.
It is this biomass that has to grow in order to sequester the lost biotic Carbon. With such growth we will see more Oxygen, Carbon sequestering and water cleansing, throughout the planet. Much of the biomass to be gained is in degraded ecosystems around the planet, these areas are also home to the worlds rural poor, but what these degraded ecosystems do have, is great growth potential for generating photosynthetic biomass. If the restoration of these degraded ecosystems to achieve optimal photosynthetic biomass loads becomes a global goal, the amazing magic of photosynthesis could indeed help change our current dire course, create a new paradigm of growth and make the planet more benign for our children.
Instead of flogging the dead horse of fossil energy based growth as ‘Economic Development’, will we have the commonsense to appreciate the value of photosynthetic biomass and become the first country in the world to propose setting such a value? The realization of which will enrich not only our rural population but rural people the world over !
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Image courtesy Mercy Corps
Today, in an integrated and inter-dependent world, Sri Lanka does not have the leverage to reverse climate change but mitigate and adapt. Climate change is caused mostly by human actions which began with the industrialised West and followed suit by emerging economies exacerbating this. Some consider climate change to be a negative result of human efforts for development whilst others consider it as irresponsible efforts for profit making at the cost of the planet. Wherever the argument lies, Climate Change is real and an effective response is very urgent.
Human development is a necessity irrespective of one’s bearing towards the West or East. The economic & development planners and the political leadership should seriously consider the sustainability of the society, region, country and then the world to achieve development that satisfies human needs without tipping the ecological balance that supports us. Overriding market capitalism that drives on the seats of global power today is an obstacle to sustainable development. This is evident in the failure of missions of the climate conferences hitherto held. This is because large corporations in their profit centric drive for hyper consumerism generate insatiable needs and greed that are beyond the limits nature could provide. This tips the ecological balance to the detriment of mankind whilst giving profits to corporations that are masquerading as Angels of sustainability.
Sri Lanka is economically linked and inter-dependent with the world economy but physically it is an island nation. As an island nation, it has opportunities to be independent as regards its sustainability policies to protect its ecosystem. In an inter-dependent world, flow of goods by way of imports and exports do lead to over extraction and exploitation of nature and at the same time a country becomes a dumping ground for imported waste which is harmful to the ecology. Sadly, the economists and development planners’ yardstick of measurement is the GDP. If the GDP is high and derives a high per-capita income, their bottom-lines are met. Unfortunately the environmental and social cost incurred to achieve such GDP is not reflected anywhere. This leads to a situation of one step up and two steps down in respect to the sustainability of a nation. This is the reason why in spite of all the attractive and indoctrinating rhetoric by planners and politicians, the ground reality has not changed. More often than not, modern market economic concepts are more destructive than otherwise. Professor Stuart Sim of Northumbria University in his book The End of Modernity: What the Financial and Environmental Crisis is Re-ally Telling Us says: “modernity has reached its limit as a cultural form, all because it is ―destructive of both the planet and…socio-economic systems”. This is an incisive edict by a Western scholar on the imperative of an alternative economic philosophy to answer the current situation.
Climate Change
Climate change influences human behaviour in their lifestyles, consumption patterns and migratory patterns. As a cyclic effect this influenced a host of other things like urbanization, industrialization, wars, colonization and the resultant destruction of societies: all in the name of development and civilization in an unsustainable way. The last three centuries of unsustainable development globally snowballed to what is to become now ‘the climate change’ threatening mankind and the planet.
Climate change if not successfully addressed can create havoc in society. It can have cyclic effects influencing our micro climate; impede our agriculture by flood, depletion, temperature change and scarcity of water. Socially, it can influence internal migration to resource rich and safe areas creating new socio-economic and political issues. This can also possibly deplete the forest cover by human settlements that exacerbate conflict with animal habitat and flooding and scores of new problems hitherto un-confronted. This can also create the problems of food insecurity, water scarcity, extinction of businesses & industries and consequent unemployment, the issues of energy, power etc.
In reality, this can potentially change our lifestyles to keep up with the changing scenario brought about by climate change. Therefore, we cannot face this problem in the ‘business as usual’ way, instead we have to frame policies, educate people, lead societies and set examples of sustainable living to make this a positive change.
The pitfalls that climate change could bring to Sri Lanka are many and need serious and urgent deliberations. However, dwelling on them all is beyond the scope of this article and hence this attempts to dwell on the problems of food security and virtual water that is newly emergent.
Food Security
The issue of food security in the world is not a new phenomenon. It varies from country to country due to climatic and geographic factors. In an inter-dependent and peaceful world, exchange of goods between countries sustains the whole of mankind in terms of satisfying the needs for food. However, today due to population increases, affluence and climate change, sustainable sources of food is becoming a major issue that threatens the security of nations in a geopolitically unstable world. Compounding this, more attention to production and consumption of consumer goods and other ephemerals have rendered agriculture and food production secondary. Also industrialization, urbanization and consequent profit motivations have driven food production to the third or fourth place in some economies. Most developing economies prioritize investment in non food producing industries seeking economic growth without realising the fact that dependency for food threatens their national security.
Hierarchically, water and food are fundamental for human survival and all other goods come later. Therefore it is prudent to give priority to water conservation and food security over and above other needs. All other secondary goods are obtainable in a competitive market but food and water are vital assets to be secure within the domain of a nation state. Dependency for food and water on external sources are not sustainable to a nation even if they are industrial giants. At times of crisis, food and water as commodities can be withheld to make a country subservient. Therefore sustainability of water and food becomes almost important as having a standing army protecting the boundaries of a nation. The command of these resources cannot be delegated to outside sources.
Responding to this emerging crisis of food insecurity, resource rich countries which are having resources other than food are buying large tracts of agricultural lands in the form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in other countries. They are maintaining these as their national assets as contingencies vis a vis food insecurity. The host nations that focus on increasing their GDPs are rarely aware of this emerging new trend that casts potential food insecurity to the host nation in the long run.
Host nations catering to the food security of other nations by permitting FDI in the food and agricultural sector would possibly face severe political problems within the country when food is exported whilst the citizens are starving. This would define very clearly the rich and the poor gap in a society and would set one against the other in their quest for survival. Therefore it is imperative for a country like Sri Lanka to have policies that ensure food security to its citizens first and then concentrate upon economic growth that uplift other sectors.
Discussions on food security cannot be discussed in isolation of the water management of a nation, since water is the source of life that underpins food production. Sri Lanka is blessed with abundant water though there are regional disparities. It was this source of life that once made Sri Lanka the ‘Granary of the East’. Today, we are dependent on imports for some of our food items creating a potentially unwarranted security breach impinging on our national integrity.
This is common in most of the developing economies, in their rat race to achieve high GDP they forge ahead focusing more in the development of technological, industrial and service base of the economy at the expense of the development of the agricultural sector. In line with this, our economists and development planners too were keen on merely achieving higher GDP and per-capita income derivatives and focussed on economic growth. Surprisingly, to an average citizen, economic growth makes no sense unless it reflects food security or self sufficiency in food. How many citizens’ basic needs are satisfied in this country by the so-called increase in the per-capita income? In the contemporary Sri Lankan economy, the middle class sector is narrowing whilst creating a wide gap between the rich and the poor. This is unsustainable and is a clear proof of a majority living below the so-called stated ‘per-capita income’.
Economic growth increases only the profit of the investor with extremely marginal upsurge in the income level of a worker or a citizen. Apart from this, the per-capita income varies from province to province within the country and it serves only a small percentage whilst a large population is below the per-capita income level and some are below the poverty line.
Therefore considering the current economic status, it portends that, if climate change and consequent food insecurity is not addressed prudently now by adjusting our economic policies to strengthen the food security of the nation, the results would be catastrophic.
For Sri Lanka, the potential food insecurity currently experienced is reversible to ensure food security and to attain self sufficiency. The expertise and the resources as an agricultural nation that we have is still dormant and once the right atmosphere and incentives are provided, would spur an agricultural revolution in a very short time. Directing us towards being a successful agricultural nation is possible but it is dependent upon how we manage the following emergent issues:
Water Management
Being abundant in water, Sri Lanka receives rain from the sky and is surrounded by sea. We have an annual average rainfall of 2,000 millimetres covering a total area of 65,610 Sq.Km representing a total volume of 131,220 million m³. This gives an annual rain water per-capita of 6,165m³/person.
Generally, rainwater is stored as blue and green water. Blue water is what is stored in the rivers, lakes and ponds and green water is the water that saturates the soil. In managing this vast reserve of water that we get annually, we are very much behind in making optimal use of this. Considering the usage cost of this water, green water generally has zero cost since it is saturated in the soil and can be harnessed for agriculture directly whereas blue waters require irrigation and therefore incur distribution and management costs.
In addition to the above, according to studies by the UNEP, Sri Lanka has a ground water potential of 78,000M³ per annum.
Therefore, considering the availability of water resource in plenty and ready for direct use, the policy makers must frame policies encouraging the citizens to make maximum use of the green water and ground water available to produce food by engaging in home gardening and informal agriculture. This would make the cost of food cheaper; reduce food miles and its carbon-foot print to sustain the economy of the people whilst enhancing food security of the nation. Remarkably, the traditional Sri Lankan ‘Chena’ cultivation is a success story, as this makes best use of the green water and does not rely on inorganic fertilizer producing healthy and nutritious food.
Similarly, the blue water that is used for agriculture through irrigation requires strict water management due to the following factors:
- Irrigation systems require proper conveyance and distribution system that does not waste water.
- The system should solve the instances of excess water use in the upstream which preclude sufficient water reaching downstream.
- Encourage responsible and frugal use of water by famers and cultivators.
Noting the above, it should be emphasised here that successful water management especially of the blue water would help double-cropping in the paddy lands and would potentially make us self sufficient in rice.
Apart from rainwater being used in agriculture, successful harnessing of waste and grey water with proper recycling can be a potential renewable resource to augment water supply for agricultural and other uses
Soil Contamination
Soil contamination in Sri Lanka is becoming a major threat to the food chain. Intensive use of inorganic fertilizer is denuding the soil of its nutritive elements and thereby rendering them barren. Therefore to overcome this negative soil development, it is becoming ever dependent on inorganic fertilizer to invigorate its capacity to produce. Apart from this, contaminants such as the residues of inorganic fertilizer leach into the ground water thereby contaminating the drinking water sources.
In developed nations, soil decontamination is widely used as a mandatory process of environmental protection and unfortunately in Sri Lanka this is nonexistent. Instead, soil remediation is done only to improve its productivity.
With the advent of Climate Change, its influence on hydrology can potentially exacerbate the problems of soil contamination caused by excessive inorganic fertilizer use. These can also potentially impact the future of agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka and therefore strict governance and regulation is required on inorganic fertilizer use.
Dependence on Inorganic fertilizer
Sri Lanka was once a successful food producing nation. Sri Lankan farmers were once evidently successful in producing food using their centuries old traditional expertise in agriculture using organic fertilizer. Their methods had high productivity, high nutrition and were environmentally sustainable. With the introduction of modern methods and in particular the reliance on inorganic fertilizer has diminished the traditional knowledge of the farmer on one hand and on the other, has made the farmer ever dependent on the imported inorganic fertilizer.
Compounding this, next to imported food, Sri Lanka relies on imported inorganic fertilizer to sustain its agriculture. If the current trend continues, our farmers may become reliant on imported patented seeds, thus putting the last nail on the coffin by surviving on external sources of sustenance for food.
Facing the future in particular in a divided and geopolitically threatening world compounded by the on setting Climate Change, Sri Lankan policy planners must be cognizant of the impending threats not just from terrorism but from the ever expanding Corporate Business Organisations that are aiming at owning the sources of human life like food and water in the name of development and management. The collapse of Ireland and Greece are lessons in modern economies and how such collapse is substituted by corporate leaders who are unelected rulers in the name of stabilizing the economy. This evidences how Corporate Business Organisations takeover national economies.
FDI in Agricultural & Water Sector
FDI in these sectors should be taken cautiously as this has potential threats to the nation considering the evolving scenarios of domination by global giants in business. As mentioned before, investment in and the ownership of food production and water by foreign companies in a country with untrammelled freedom, can potentially withhold food supply to the producing nation when faced with food shortages but export to profitable markets overseas. This should instead be on the other way round by supplying first to the producing country and only exporting the surplus. National agricultural and water policies should prioritise on national sustainability as opposed to opening up the vital resources to foreign extraction that threatens sustainability. Mismanagement of this would create serious political repercussions in society, as these can worsen food and water poverty already experienced in some regions of the country.
Virtual Water
Virtual water is said to be the amount of water required to produce a unit of crop. Virtual water is measured in cubic metres per kilogram M³/Kg. Sri Lanka compared to most other countries in the SAARC Region is water rich and its population density derives a per-capita water availability of 6,165m³/person per annum. Apart from this, forecast of per-capita water availability by the year 2025 on a District basis gives a bleak picture needing prompt action by all concerned.
The above table shows that water is a dwindling resource in Sri Lanka and some districts would experience acute water shortage. It should be noted that the impacts of climate change is possibly not accounted for in the above table and therefore needs corroboration with latest forecasts.
Colombo and Gampaha districts are highly urbanised with high population densities where major services and industrial bases of the country is located, the forecast of 449 and 971 cubic metres/ person respectively is threatening. This is due to the ever increasing use of water for industrial and other purposes which can potentially aggravate this situation affecting the environment and the population living in these districts. Location of industries with intensive water use or of high extraction can potentially make these districts environmentally vulnerable to the extent of damaging the region’s water supply. Similarly, Jaffna, Puttalam and Kandy would experience acute shortages requiring effective water management. Since major industries are not located in these districts it is less concerning, however population growth and regional developments would impose a strain on this and therefore would require strict environmental regulations to mitigate this.
Considering these evolving scenarios, future-proofing sustainable food production and water management would require well defined policies and regulations that direct not only sustainable use but also caters to the national demands.
Having understood the potential scarcity of water predicted in the ensuing years, national policy planners should take note of these new issues that virtual water can impose on the already unsustainable water availability.
In an inter-dependent free market led world, virtual water plays a bridging role between the ’water surplus’ and ‘water deficit’ countries. For example in ‘water deficit’ countries, investing in agriculture is exponentially high due to water scarcity. Therefore importing food from ‘water surplus’ countries are cheap and a prudent choice. This does not endanger their indigenous agriculture if available due to import of foods. However, in ‘water surplus’ countries, importing food is unsustainable as it destroys the indigenous food production. Producing food is cheaper in ‘water surplus countries than in ‘water deficit’ countries.
Exporting crops contains virtual water, similarly, the beverages and mineral water bottling industries contains real water. This also aggravates the water scarcity in Sri Lanka due to extraction of water from aquifers and streams for export overseas. These extractive industries impose a severe strain on the nation’s dwindling water supply sources. Notwithstanding this, export of crops from a ‘water surplus’ country is analogous to exporting water in ‘virtual form’. Therefore virtual water and its much tangible cousin, the mineral water that are exported should serve its citizens first and only the surplus should be exported. This would give an asymmetrical advantage to a country like Sri Lanka if it is used as a commodity to counterbalance the importation cost of fuel and energy etc.
It should be noted here that future wars are going to be fought over water and not over oil, therefore it is vital that this resource is conserved, protected and the system leak proofed so that it will be available to Sri Lanka to serve in a sustainable manner.
The threat of peak oil and having secure and sustainable sources of energy to run our economy is very expensive. But paying for such an expensive commodity would in the long run be possible if Sri Lanka regains its status as the ‘Granary of the East’. So that energy producers in turn would be dependent on food producers.
Today, as global scenarios evolve, inspite of the world being inter-dependent, it is also multi polar and asymmetrical when it comes to the survival of nations. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each nation to be on guard about its own survival. Sri Lanka taking advantage of being an island, developing robust sustainable policies and achieving self sufficiency in food and water would definitely get an edge to survive as a sustainable nation. Achieving this by using sustainable food and water as an asymmetrical tool would also create a sustainable balance of power in real politick in the region.
Investment in education & training in Agriculture and Water Management
Ensuring self sufficiency in food and sustainable water cannot be achieved without formulating policies, producing personals and relevant infrastructure. Our investments should not only be in imported technologies but also in recreating the traditional balance and the relationship our people had with our environment and its people. Our centuries of agricultural traditions and knowhow’s should be improvised to answer current needs and the farmers should be provided with training and practical education thereby binding them with the land they till. They should be recognised for contributing for our food security like the security forces for our defence against our enemies. Farmer education should have academic & professional recognition for their expertise and economic & social recognition for what they are, so that sound farmer education, training, motivation and recognition & facilitation would spur an agricultural revolution to give Sri Lanka a sustainable food security.
Responding to the foregoing factors is an imperative to resuscitate our food security. To bring about this response, the policy planners should develop policies and regulations that ensure national security in respect to our food. The policy makers and other stakeholders in areas of Food & Agriculture and Environmental Protection and Sustainability must work in tandem to bring about this security and give the nation this asymmetric tool.
The writer is a Chartered Environmentalist, Architect and Sustainability Consultant. He can be contacted on rizayehiya@gmail.com
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Photo courtesy World Bank
“If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a politician, even if you can’t hear the tree or the screams, I’ll bet you’d at least hear the applause.”
Paul Tindale
Something is of universal value if it has the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. This claim could mean two importantly different things. First, it could be that something has a universal value when everybody finds it valuable. This was Isaiah Berlin‘s understanding of the term. According to Berlin, “…universal values are values that a great many human beings in the vast majority of places and situations, at almost all times, do in fact hold in common, whether consciously and explicitly or as expressed in their behavior…”. If such were the case, it would seem logical that ‘a benign quality of life’ would constitute a most fundamental universal value. From there arises the various issues of fertility, pleasure, or democracy as universal values.
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income.
The quality of life may be benign, free from perturbation and stress or malign, constantly exposed to perturbation and stress. These two states are two poles of a continuum that describes this ‘quality’. Thus the maintenance of a benign environment that protects the human being should be the primary concern of any development programme. After all, it is for the benefit of humanity that all development programmes are mooted.
The human being is a biological entity. The ideal state for such an entity is when it is healthy and free from any harmful or injurious input. Both science and tradition have identified many inputs that are harmful or injurious to the biological being. Since the ideal conditions for biological organisms are being free from these negative inputs and since development must be a movement towards the ideal state that enhances our quality of life; we can summarize that ‘Any process or activity that leads to the reduction of the biological quality of life cannot contribute to real development’ or that ‘any process or activity that produces physical or chemical inputs demonstrable to be injurious to human well being leads to mal development. Such a stand will allow people rather than abstract concepts to attain greater importance in the assessment of ‘development’. Thus no amount of economic gain, media or propaganda should be able to justify the erosion of the well being of people.
Development, beyond the provision of human well-being, becomes a particular word view or set of values. In today’s declining quality of life, the development paradigm addressing public health or agriculture is still driven by the same values that created the problems. How to incorporate the scientific reality of the erosion of public health and environmental sustainability in setting development goals? Will certainly be a question that calls for urgent answers.
Traditional society worldwide represents a wide diversity of expression, reflecting a long history of co-evolution with the local landscapes. The product of these incredibly long processes of ‘informal research’ is codified as traditional knowledge and practice. The inroads of modern consumerist society, the present claimant to globalization, are rapidly homogenizing many traditional societies, in pursuance of development. Often it is neither democratic nor requested by traditional people. There is no recognition of the fact that each society has a worldview that must be recognized and incorporated into the international agenda of development.
In addition to being sensitive to the needs of the land, there must also be recognition of the fact that agrarian societies with long histories, posses the credibility of having sustained themselves successfully under the rigor of survival in the natural world. The concern for the future is that the model chosen for sustaining future global agrarian society is an energy and resource demanding production system. The sustainability of which is dependent on the timely delivery of external inputs.
Agrarian societies have existed on this world for a very long time. Many in existence today have historical records that attest their capacity for sustainability. The challenge is to understand their structure well enough, so that it provides the paradigm for development. Development, in this context will mean capacity building within the traditional paradigm. The aspects of globalizing such a plurality are challenging, it requires addressing phenomena that have meaning to all members of such a plurality. For instance, climate change is a global phenomenon that has the potential to affect all agrarian society. Sustainability of the production base is another. Yet no investment is being put into developing the traditional approaches to agriculture. Development funding is still narrowly focused towards ‘Economic Development’ and ignores all other considerations of ‘Development’.
Perhaps it is time to revisit development once again. Economic yes, but it must also be ecologically and socially valid. In Sri Lanka the tragedy of uneducated and greedy politicians, tutored by conniving bureaucrats mindlessly cheering the process of ‘economic development’ is evident. The fact that they do not consider any other aspect of sustainability, must demonstrate the bankruptcy of a national vision and of any responsibility to the nation.
A development process that creates massive infrastructure, mega buildings etc. requiring enormous quantities of energy to maintain them, without considering the long-term cost of providing fossil based energy, cannot contribute to sustainable development. It will result in the construction of more and more polluting energy plants dependent on external sources of fossil energy that we will have to purchase from an ever-expensive market. Borrowing money for such an extravagant lifestyle is no way to make the future sustainable.
Our political pundits are fond of using terms such as Universal Values and Accountability to window dress the ongoing charade. It is even more tragic to read the words of politicians who claim to represent the Buddhist view when they state:
“The so called development based on greed and excessive utilization of the natural resources of the world, …Excessive consumption of meat is a sacrilege of vegetation and animals… To build artificial towns that are only a travesty is the motivation (of developers).”
And then go on to support enthusiastically the addiction of the nation to energy consumption. What hypocrisy!
To see the consequence of the current ‘ Economic Development’, that our politicians so unquestioningly participate in, should be obvious to the educated. Energy addiction is the worst form of addiction as it impacts a whole nation, not just the individual. To miss the obvious connection between ‘Economic Development’ as sold today and the need for ever-increasing deliveries of power, is to blind or ignorant.
As for accountability in Sri Lanka, the response of Mahatama Gandhi to the question of what he thought of ‘Western Civilization’, might be well applied. His response was ‘What a good idea !”. The challenge before us is, how to make manifest this ‘good idea’ of accountability in the sea of impunity and corruption that we are mired in.
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Editors note: Groundviews is very pleased to host the web premiere of Longing and belonging series: Diaspora shorts by Kannan Arunasalam. We’ve featured Kannan’s visually stunning and compelling work before in Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience, part of the Moving Images series commissioned by Groundviews. Over the coming week we’ll progressively upload Kannan’s short videos, so check back often. Finally, if you have a good broadband connection, we highly recommend that in the trailer below, you turn on HD and view it full screen.
Please see From London to Jaffna for the first time, The science of planning in Jaffna and Returning lives, rebuilding limbs.
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August in Sri Lanka is a month of religious festivals in the north and also a chance for the diaspora to return and reconnect with their homeland. What better time I thought than to try and meet members of the diaspora returning to visit Sri Lanka.
My own journey started six years ago, and since then I’ve made Sri Lanka my home, putting down new roots in the country of my birth. It’s fascinating for me to observe others go through what I went through years ago.
I’m was now looking at ways in which the diaspora are engaging with development work in Sri Lanka, to find out what challenges they face and how their experiences might help others who are also thinking of returning.
I began my assignment for International Alert in Jaffna at the annual Nallur festival. Last August it drew thousands of devotees. This is my hometown and the sights, smells and tastes took me back to my own childhood, growing up here. Jaffna is also home to some Tamil Diaspora and I could understand why they return to experience these things that are still very much a part of their culture. It was nice to see they were back, tracing lost roots and reconnecting with family and friends. I wanted to meet them, to understand what it was like being back.
One of these visitors was a young Tamil family from London. For the two daughters, it was their very first time in Sri Lanka, visiting what they called their mother’s “home country”. The family had been helping a local charity from afar and were in Jaffna to visit the charity, as well as to take in the “carnival” atmosphere of the Nallur festival.
I also met Dr Narendran, an associate professor who had worked for many years in Saudi Arabia, but who was back in Sri Lanka with ambitious plans for agriculture and animal husbandry on the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. We talked over coffee at the famous Malayan Café about his plans and later he took me along to the arid environment of the islands, which he compared fondly to the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
From Jaffna I travelled to Mannar where I met Dr Panagamuwa, a Sinhala doctor from Birmingham and a specialist in rehabilitation medicine. He had set up a limb-fitting workshop at the Mannar Hospital, coming under his British based charity, the Metha Foundation. Together with his team of technicians, he attended to the needs of amputees and the disabled. The vast majority were victims of war, but there were also polio sufferers and injuries caused by everyday accidents.
The three individuals have very different stories to tell as were their connections to Sri Lanka. Meeting them underscored what Dr Naredran had told me, that the diaspora is not a homogenous entity – it is a diverse group, with myriad perspectives, motivations and experiences. There were others too, with very different views, and who were not willing to return. Even the ones who are returning to visit seemed to have reservations. I met many who were engaging with projects here, but who were uncomfortable being open about their views, preferring instead to keep a low profile.
They ones that were prepared to be filmed, inspired me to capture their reflections on being back and engaging with the needs of the north of the country. The three short films under my Longing and Belonging series on the Sri Lankan diaspora aim to encourage constructive discussion on what is no doubt a complex and sensitive aspect of Sri Lankan politics. Tapping into the large resources of the diaspora would greatly benefit the people of Sri Lanka. Not all will be willing to come, but those that can be won over, need to feel more welcome.
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When we ask the question, who uses pesticides? Followed by the question who promotes pesticides? It is relatively simple to see who gains and who looses by the promotion and use of these poisons. In Sri Lanka the farmers are asked to indulge in prophylactic spraying i.e. spraying in advance of any pest appearance. Such practices have to be held responsible for a sinister malaise that affects almost everyone; the malaise of Pesticide Accumulation.
Pesticide Accumulation refers to the tendency of some biocides and heavy metals used in these biocides to concentrate along the food chain. The biocide residues that are diluted as they are washed by rainfall are slowly taken up by simple plants, which are eaten by small animals, which are in turn eaten by larger animals. The toxin concentrating more and more as it rises in the food chain. This is particularly evident in aquatic systems, so producing or consuming fish from areas that have a large amount of biocides leaching into them, should be done with care.
Of even greater concern is the cavalier use of these toxins when processing fresh food for the market. Many vegetables are harvested soon after an application of biocide; often these are washed in unhygienic drains that add a bacterial load onto the produce. In some sinister cases, chemicals are applied directly onto the produce (fruits, vegetable) before they are sent to market as it ‘keeps it tighter’. The absence of support for a robust checking on the quality of food that enters the local market means the sub lethal poisoning of many of us. We do not feel the effects now, but as the substances concentrate within our bodies, we will feel the illness.
The monster of direct deaths by pesticide poisoning has yet to be effectively addressed. These toxins have been promoted as ‘Beheth’ (medicines) and the true toxic nature is never addressed in use and storage responsibilities. One result in Sri Lanka is that suffer the highest pesticide related death toll on the planet! Not a nice statistic by any measure.
The environment that we create for ourselves in urban areas is not very salubrious. The ‘pest control’ of mosquitoes and cockroaches and other ‘pests’ release vast quantities of toxins into our living spaces. If we consider just mosquito coils, it has been estimated that over seven containers worth of mosquito coils are burnt daily, in the Western District alone. Scientific studies indicate that the burning one mosquito coil would release the same amount of particulate matter as burning 75-137 cigarettes and the emission of formaldehyde from burning one coil can be as high as the amount released from burning 51 cigarettes. The rising incidence of lung cancer among youth who never smoke cigarettes can now be better understood.
As if this was not enough, there is an increasing rate of ingestion of chemicals through the advent of food processing and colouring. Often one chemical by itself is not too dangerous, but in combination they become a deadly cocktail. An example can be drawn from a study in the US that looked at the effects of Sodium Cyclamate (a sweetener), FD&C Red No. 2 (a food colouring agent) and polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monostearate, (a food emulsifier). In animals tested, each substance given individually did not produce ill effects, but given in combination resulted in the deaths of all test animals within fourteen days. If one reads the labels of the food and sweets that we consume today the varied combinations are obvious. For instance, one study on a popular cereal, Keloggs berry yoghurt crunch, demonstrated that it contained more than 13 different additives, preservatives, and food dyes, including Red 40 and Blue 1, which are known to cause allergic reactions in some people and mutations leading to cancer in lab animals. It also contained BHT, monoglycerides, and cellulose gum.
And it’s not just food. A number of additional toxins also enter our systems from other industrial sources and often come in the form of phthalate plasticizers and parabens both of which are widely used in personal care products. According to a recent (2010) study, parabens and phthalates can clear our bodies relatively quickly but only if we are not exposed to them on a regular basis. If used regularly, these substances accumulate in the body. Phthalates are associated with infertility, obesity, asthma, and allergies, as well as breast cancer; parabens are suspected of causing breast cancer.
The tragedy is that, chemicals used in all of these industrial products are big business. Food corporations own some of the largest personal care companies so that they can profit on multiple fronts with cheap, industrial ingredients. For example, Nestlé owns 30 percent of the world’s largest cosmetic and beauty company L’Oreal. Tightly regulating these substances and evaluating potential harm could mean a loss of profits.
The other spectre rising in the field of public health are prescription drugs. In Sri Lanka the word ‘prescription’ is a misnomer as most commercial drugs can be obtained over the counter. In the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported that in 2009, legal drugs were responsible for the deaths of more than 37,485 people—which equals one person killed every 14 minutes. Many of the deaths are related to prescription pain and anxiety medications, which are readily accessible and often misused, and these types of drugs now cause more deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. The abuse of legal drugs in Sri Lanka is exasperated by unscrupulous ‘doctors’ who act as promoters, for the multinational pharmaceutical companies. We need to watch the statistics of drug poisoning in Sri Lanka very closely indeed!
In discussions on national health, a process vital for the sustainable development of any nation, there are some disturbing trends that seem to cry out for immediate attention. The Health ministry has stated that ‘between 300 to 400 persons die from Non Contagious Diseases (NCDs) in Sri Lanka daily’, it is reasoned that ‘negative changes in the lifestyles of people, bad food habits, stress and urbanization are some of the main reasons that stand behind this situation. To this list must be added agrotoxins, food additives and domestic pest control inputs.
The Health Ministry has appointed a National Steering Committee to inquire into the situation. This is a laudable action; they should embark on a public discussion on the toxins and dangers that we are being exposed to and how we can minimize personal risk. In the face of the gauntlet of risk, that we are all supposed to endure under the label of ‘development’, it would be charitable to inform us on how we can mitigate our personal risk. The Sri Lankan State is after all, the Sri Lankan people, of what value is ‘economic development’ if the price is a sick state?
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I was delighted when asked to review Right of Way: A journey of resettlement by Sharni Jayawardena and published by the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). Sharni’s skill in photography is enviable, and was the co-creator of Walkabout: Slave Island, supported by Groundviews. At the time of review, the publication was not in the public domain, and given what I had seen of Sharni’s previous work, I expected it to be a largely photographic record, in a coffee table book format, of the human displacement that occurred as a result of the E01, Sri Lanka’s first highway. And yet the book features few photos. 72 pages long, the book has just 8 photos included in it. I’ll come back to why I think this makes for a less compelling way of grappling with what the book sets out to do.
Thousands, since E01 opened late last year, have taken the highway to Galle from Kottawa. The focus when on the road, particularly if one is driving, is on safety at 100kmp/h. In its early days, the highway was a high-speed slalom of road kill and stray dogs. Today, even a driver is more at ease to take in, especially if driving around sun-rise, the spectacular beauty of the countryside the E01 snakes through, without the visual pollution of billboards. Few if any would have given even passing thought to the issue this book deals with – the displacement of thousands to make way for the highway. The book’s aims are three-fold. One, it “is an attempt to document what happened to the people who had to move, and the different impacts the project had on their lives. It is based on a structured monitoring process carried out over four years, that involved a survey of 400 households, more than 30 group discussions with affected households, and over 450 individual interviews with residents, experts, local government officials and donors” (page v). Two, it attempts to show how “the Road Development Authority, comprising engineers whose primary task was supervising the road building, also implemented the project’s social programmes, often under difficult and contentious circumstances, working with a diverse group of people who, as in any real-life situation, acted and reacted in diverse ways” (page v). Finally, “it attempts to visualise the place and circumstances as it used to be, before the road came” (page vi). The first and second aims are achieved far more than the third.
Sharni’s style is easy to grasp, avoids jargon, convoluted sentences or arcane references. Right of Way is very readable, well researched and insightful. It sees the E01 through the perspectives of those who are affected by its development – the families forced to relocate and in some cases, live close to a highway on which traffic volume will continue to grow with little or no benefit to those passed by at 100kmph. Sharni quotes the statistics, but what the book does is to go beyond the numbers and through personal narratives, humanise these vexed issues. The statistics alone are revealing. As the book notes,
“An estimated 1,338 families were displaced by the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP), of which 509 families obtained land in 32 sites provided and developed by the Road Development Authority (RDA). This figure would have been much higher if the project had not made a deliberate attempt to avoid highly populated areas, sometimes though at considerable cost to the environment as well as to agriculture. Much of the land acquired was agricultural; consisting of paddy, tea, rubber and cinnamon cultivation, and close to 4,000 households were affected due to loss of their landholdings. In addition, about 550 households were indirectly affected.” (Page 3)
Even approximately, the number of those affected in some way by the development of the E01 is mind-boggling. At a conservative 4 members per family, around 5,300 children, women and men were displaced. Another 4,000 had their incomes disrupted, and their livelihoods placed at risk. It’s currently 400 rupees one-way from Kottawa to Galle or back on the E01. Few of us give a second thought to paying that amount. Sharni’s research highlights the hidden costs of E01’s development, where to date, families that had for generations lived where they did, had stable income, well-established business and fecund land were forced to give it all up. It’s a humbling, vital narrative. Sharni deals with the history of how the E01 came about, but the process and politics of compensation, relocation are the book’s most important contribution to public record. It is unclear, as the book itself notes at the end, how much of what was employed during the construction of the E01 to deal with displacement feeds into current and future mega-development projects. Recording and sharing failures as much as lessons learnt is vital, but it’s also quite obvious that neither is done well in Sri Lanka. And yet, the book flags what was done well, and the innovation – not just in terms of mechanical engineering but also in terms of compensation and responsiveness to human displacement – seen during the construction of the highway. As it notes,
“The project’s Resettlement Implementation Plan (RIP) took a radical departure from Sri Lankan law on land acquisition, compensation and resettlement and the Land Acquisition and Resettlement Committee (LARC) could be considered its most important mechanism. LARC was notably different from the instrument the State usually turns to when it wants to acquire private land for public purposes – the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) No. 9 of 1950. A key difference is that the LAA does not deal with the broader issues of restoring livelihoods or living standards of the displaced people.” (Page 9)
The book goes into great detail about LARC, and the legal aspects aside, it’s interesting to take-away from this example how, if government authorities set their mind to it, they can choose to be more citizen-centric and less heavy-handed in their approaches. The research brings out some notable facts with broader implications. For example, in negotiating compensation, the report notes that the LARC process “especially benefited two contrasting groups: households seen by the Committee to be particularly vulnerable and households with well-informed family members who were able to convincingly argue their cases.” This has implications for Right to Information legislation for example, where vulnerable people through access to information are better able to negotiate with higher authorities, and all communities stand to benefit from more accessible information on governance. Perhaps more expensive for government in the long run, but the fear of heightened public spending over compensation is its own potent mechanism for better developmental planning and strategies. Sharni deals with the complex process of compensation and appeals, particularly for those displaced, extremely comprehensively. Particularly with regard to the exact sum of compensation, there is great scope when reading through the book for the development of decision support systems that aid both government and citizens, on the lines of Smartsettle.com for example. Sharni examines in detail the constitution, efficiency and effectiveness of bodies like the Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) and the so-called Super LARC, a process of appeal. On page 17 there is a very interesting breakdown of the type of households that fed into the sample that the report is based on. More could have been done with this data. For example, there’s no comparison between the compensation first offered to and subsequently agreed upon by male and female headed households, the working assumption being that a male headed household would have a higher median than a female headed household. The report itself flags this,
“But there were some instances where female householders perceived that they were not taken seriously simply because they were women. “My husband was abroad when the acquisition took place and I had to deal with it until he came down. I think they paid us less compensation because I am a woman.” (Householder, female, age 39, 2006)” (Page 21)
There is however no further study of this in the report, which is a gap. I could also find no explanation as to how and who exactly, for the E01 project, defined what was an ‘extremely vulnerable household’. The term is often used by never clearly explained. There are other shortcomings. A trivial one is the strange inclusion of a Sinhala phrase (Honda sahayogayak dunna) in the excerpt of two female householders on page 22, when the entire book is in English, even though the responses would have been largely if not all in Sinhala. Not clear why Sharni thought it fit to keep this one phrase in. More seriously, gaps emerge in comparative analysis. On page 22 the book notes,
“About 60% of the displaced householders opted to move into other plots they owned or to buy a new plot. The project also provided 32 resettlement sites, which was the preferred choice for relocation of the balance 40% of displaced householders, who did not have a viable alternative or could not afford to purchase land.”
There is however no study into whether the resettlement sites identified and offered by the RDA where better (infrastructure facilities, quality of construction) than the plots and areas selected by the affected families, that on their behalf, the RDA negotiated the purchase of. Again, Sharni deals with what appears to be significant variance in passing, noting on page 33 that,
“The infrastructure facilities at resettlement sites are generally well developed, even if this development did not always take place at a consistent pace. However, there seems to be some differences in the quality of the infrastructure provided both within and across sites, often due to factors that could not be immediately dealt with by the project.”
Highlighting the nuanced interplay, the study of caste, gender, profession, skill, neighbours and a sense of home by Sharni make the book more interesting than just a cold survey of numbers and statistics. Yet we don’t find the voices of youth and children. From memory, the youngest voice reflected in the book is 30. How the youth feel about development and displacement is vital to how the E01 will be perceived and used in the years to come, and arguably more important to record than the opinion of a septuagenarian farmer. Through the book, graphs underscore points Sharni flags in the text, but on page 36, there is an illustration with smiley faces that is impossible to fathom. Some of the smiley faces are truncated, it is not clear what the two stick figures holding hands represent or what the unit of measurement is for a smiley face that is whole. It is noted in the book that there is a definite drop in productivity related to all crops as a consequence of relocation. This is a major economic and existential challenge, and yet the book doesn’t explain, how, if to any degree, local chambers of commerce and industry have stepped into help and support SMEs and farmers during and after the construction of the E01.
Sharni notes that during the 10+ years it took to build the E01, “People had to live for an extended period of time with severe air and noise pollution, and vibrations caused by blasting, compaction, pilling, and heavy vehicle movement.” Driving down it now, you don’t even think of this. But the scale of this air, noise and visual pollution is many times more than the ruckus and fuss we create when there’s a pavement been made, or a road re-tarred in our own neighbourhoods. It’s hard to imagine how it must have been for those close to and living in this maddening environment for so long. The last chapter deals with how the best features of dealing with resettlement, relocation, displacement, compensation and grievance mechanisms around the E01 can and must be more broader applied. It is unclear whether author or publisher intend to follow up on the E01 development beyond Galle, and revisit this study and the sample base say 10 years hence, to ascertain to what degree lives, livelihoods and perceptions had changed.
Right of Way is a genuinely useful contribution to the sadly sparse debate on balancing infrastructure development with human development, and how the former is often ill-secured by an insensitive, centrist, obdurate approach to the latter. I do wish however the book played to Sharni’s strengths as photographer more, or as much as her skill in writing. CEPA itself has the model. As Kannan Arunasalam notes, “CEPA’s photography ‘policy’, an informal understanding which came about as a reaction to the way ‘poor people’ are generally photographed by photojournalists and development organisations, taken without thinking of their rights to privacy and profiting from the use of their ‘faces’, was another challenge that we needed to creatively work around.” Kannan went on to create To Escape or Maximise: The estate worker’s dilemma, CEPA’s first audio visual ‘think piece’, aiming to communicate the findings of its substantial research on the plantation sectors of Sri Lanka to a wider audience. It is a compelling presentation of a complex issue through photography. I wonder why a similar model wasn’t used for this book. CEPA and Sharni could have also gone beyond, and given those affected their own (cheap) cameras to document, through their own eyes and process of selection, the change in their lives brought about by the construction of the E01. Juxtaposed and curated, this could have been a marvellous photographic essay and collection, mediated not through Sharni’s occasional visits and eye, but by those at the heart of the issue the book deals with. Such an approach would have made it far more effective in the book’s avowed goal of being a visual record of the E01’s development.
Yet warts and all, Sharni through this book brings to light a distressing world beyond the dotted lines usually followed on the E01, and the blur of lush green. Sharni ends the book by noting that,
“When we take to the expressway, perhaps we should spare a thought for the many who gave up their rights over this land – their right to use it as a home, a business a cultivation – to allow others the right to travel on an expressway.”
I couldn’t help but think after I read Right of Way cover to cover that it’s not really our right to travel on the E01, but more a privilege we enjoy only because of the real, incredibly hard and on-going sacrifices of those who lands we traverse in our vehicles.
Let they not be forgotten.
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Assorted charlatans and religious zealots across the island of Sri Lanka must have heaved a collective sigh of relief when they heard that Dharmapala Senaratne was no more. He had made it his business to make life difficult for those preying on the gullible public.
Rationalist and myth-buster Dharmapala made his final exist a few days before 2012 dawned. At 67, he still had a few more years of the good struggle left in him. He would surely have enjoyed countering the false prophets of doom — and their credulous followers — who predict the end of the world on 21 December 2012.
Although Dharmapala was also a teacher and lawyer with decades of experience, he was best known for his public activism as a rationalist. His was a determined and sceptical voice questioning fanatical peddlers of all kinds of dogmas, faiths and (mutually exclusive) brands of ‘salvation’.
Even more importantly, he fearlessly took on confidence tricksters hoodwinking superstitious people with black magic and cheap conjuring tricks. He was a courageous public intellectual in a land woefully short of their kind.
At its core, rationalism involves nurturing the spirit of enquiry and critical thinking in every aspect of life and living, at both private and public levels. In short, rationalists and sacred cows are mutually exclusive.
Dharmapala was President of the Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA), a small group of earnestly sceptical enquirers who won’t take anyone’s word about anything. They want to investigate and debate.
The voluntary group was originally set up in 1960 by the late Dr Abraham Thomas Kovoor (1898 – 1978), a Kerala-born science teacher who settled down in newly independent Ceylon and, after his retirement in 1959, took to investigating so-called supernatural phenomena and paranormal practices. He found adequate physical or psychological explanations for almost all of them. In that process, he exposed many so-called ‘god men’ and black magicians who thrive on people’s misery and superstitions.
In 1963, Kovoor issued an open challenge (with the then princely sum of LKR 100,000 tagged to it) for anyone who could demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions. He also challenged the high profile Sathya Sai Baba of India, arguing that the latter’s ‘materialising’ of holy ash (vibuthi) out of thin air was nothing more than a sleight of hand. Kovoor’s challenges were consistently dodged by Sai Baba – and all others of his ilk.
Kovoor was fond of saying: “He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook; he who does not have the courage to investigate a miracle is gullible; and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool.”
These words, and the far-reaching influence of other well known rationalists like Bertrand Russell, inspired young Dharmapala Senaratne to promote rationalism in his spare time. Two other young men who joined Kovoor in the heyday of the Ceylon Rationalist Association: Amunugoda Thilakaratne and Ajith Thilakasena, both of who became writers of their own merit. Pooling their talents, the trio popularised Kovoor’s thinking and work among the Sinhala reading public.
Sri Lanka’s rationalist movement lost its lustre after Kovoor’s death in 1978, even though (lawyer and poet) Mervyn Casie Chetty kept it going for some more years. When the sceptical flames were reignited in the new millennium, Dharmapala became its new President by popular choice.
“Dharmapala was the bridge between generations when we set out to revive the rationalist movement of Sri Lanka in 2005,” recalls Tharaka Warapitiya, general secretary of SLRA. “He helped enormously to connect us with activists who had been heavily involved in its work during the Kovoor era.”
Different Times
By this time, however, the island of Lanka had been completely transformed. The Children of 1977 – products of economic liberalisation and Sri Lanka’s first television generation – had come of age.
Partly reflecting this new reality, Dharmapala’s style was different. While Kovoor had been charismatic and flamboyant, Dharmapala was measured and studious — yet no less passionate when it came to separating the wheat from the chaff.
He was astute enough to realise that the public moods and media attitudes had changed drastically from the more conducive 1960s and 1970s.
That was when a recent Indian immigrant (well, aren’t we all that, historically speaking?) could speak truth to power and command a sizeable audience of discerning Lankans as well as attract sufficient attention of the island’s media.
That was also a time when an eager young medical graduate (Dr Carlo Fonseka) could debunk the much-hyped ‘spiritual base’ for the ‘holy’ practice of fire walking. His finding – that ‘it’s the thickness of the sole and not the soul’ that matters in walking over red hot coal – shattered a core myth that propped up sacred cows of Kataragama.
While such acts elicited predictable resistance and threats from those afflicted, societal support at the time was more open and forthcoming. Many intellectuals and newspaper editors accommodated Kovoor, Fonseka and fellow sceptics, with a gleeful Arthur C Clarke cheering from the sidelines (he would later feature them in his global TV series).
It was the song — not the singer — that mattered then. Alas, not now.
Paradoxically, we now have far more communication channels and technologies yet decidedly fewer opportunities and platforms for dispassionate public debate. Today’s Lankan society welcomes and blindly follows an entirely different kind of Malayalis who claim to know more about our personal pasts and futures than we’d ever know ourselves. And when we see how our political and business elite patronise Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy and other gurus so uncritically, we must wonder if there is intelligent life in Colombo…
Sacred cows, it seems, have multiplied faster than humans in the past half century. Our cacophonous airwaves and multi-colour Sunday newspapers are bustling with an embarrassment of choice for salvation, wealth, matrimony, retribution and various other ‘quick fixes’ for this life and (imagined) next ones.
Embarrassment, indeed!
So Dharmapala had to adopt different strategies to reach the same goals.
He was well versed in scientific thinking and principles, to which he added his own legal perspectives.
His position was unequivocal: “Let anyone believe in anything privately if they choose to — but no one has the right to mislead others or to hoodwink them into parting with money. That’s fraud, which is against the law!”
As he repeatedly pointed out, Sri Lanka has strict laws dealing with fraud. If anyone has been tricked into paying money on false promises, the affected may take civil or criminal legal action.
In reality, however, very few do so – lest it exposes their own gullibility! Apparently, when it comes to the occult and paranormal, many ignore the time-tested caution of “Caveat emptor” (Latin for ‘Let the buyer beware’).
“This is the very weakness that fraudsters exploit,” Dharmapala said. “These are organised rackets to rob people of their hard-earned money.”
Confronting conmen
Dharmapala took on the assorted charlatans by publicly exposing their conjuring tricks and bogus claims. He also used the media (especially television, not available during Kovoor’s time) to counter the mesmerising hype peddled by the other side.
A memorable example was when, in 2010, he pooh-poohed the hilarious practice of a ‘possessed’ wooden stool (kanappuwa) ‘walking’ down the streets in search of thieves.
“Inanimate objects are completely incapable of self-propelled motion,” he argued citing the laws of physics. “These furniture items are being manipulated by the humans involved. Kanappuwas most definitely can’t catch any thieves, or the police would employ them for their own crime investigations!”
On prime time TV, he offered LKR 100,000 for anyone who could prove beyond any doubt that a stool could ‘walk on its own’. He added: “This is a complete rip-off – further victimising persons who have already lost their belongings. It’s cruel to exploit such misery!”
He also cautioned against community divisions and hatred nurtured by dubious practices like walking stools and light-readings (anjanam): those falsely implicated are immediately (and unfairly) maligned by neighbours.
As an antidote, he called for more scientific thinking and attitude at all levels of society. “If we can get our people to think more logically and critically, we can easily dispel many myths and superstitions.”
But that is just not happening enough in Twenty First Century Lanka: a majority among its 20 million believe in a broad range of superstitions, some more harmful than others. Confronting conmen can be hazardous in a post-war society where trigger-happy goons are available for cheap.
Dharmapala reserved his most scathing criticism for (apparently) educated Lankans dabbling in unproven or fraudulent practices. This includes a number of credentialed scientists trained in disciplines such as astrophysics, geology, atmospheric physics or nuclear chemistry.
“Tragically, certain individuals with legitimate Ph Ds in various branches of science also engage in peddling pseudo-science and bogus practices. Some are doing it with commercial motives. Others, for cheap popularity,” Dharmapala said.
As we saw during the 2011 controversy over arsenic in rice, some of these learned men and women won’t allow hard evidence get in the way of a good conspiracy theory! And large sections of our media (especially in Sinhala) hero-worship them uncritically, labelling them as ‘patriots’ and projecting them as ‘defenders of indigenous knowledge’.
Dharmapala entered many contentious debates when a majority of our intellectuals diligently avoided them. He didn’t mince words when taking on scientists indulging in pseudo-science or complete non-science. He wrote in one such debate on hypnotism as ‘proof’ of reincarnation: “When learned people like Dr. J propagate and disseminate misconceptions, ordinary folk tend to be misled and embrace wrong notions thereby rendering their thinking faculties blunt.”
Rational communicator
Frustrated by the limitations of our uncritical mainstream media, he also communicated through books and the new media, so that discerning readers can make up their own minds.
His lasting contribution to rationalist literature was translating two seminal works by Kovoor: Begone Godmen, and Gods, Demons and Spirits. He also penned three original books: Kovoor saha Hethuwadi Darshanaya (Kovoor and Rationalism); Sai Baabage Anduru Paththa (The Dark Side of Sai Baba); and Elowin Aa Jeewakaya saha Wenath Hethuwadi Lipi (The Healer from Outer Space and other Rationalist Essays).
Unlike many others of his generation, Dharmapala kept up with the march of communications technologies. Early on, he recognised the web’s potential for nurturing public debate and promoting the public interest. He joined the Secular Sri Lanka group blog, well aware how its thematic focus evokes the wrath of Sinhala Buddhist nationalists. He was also active in various online discussion forums and social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, All Voices and LinkedIn), and was fond of sharing interesting weblinks.
While engaging the new media, Dharmapala never gave up on the old media. He was a prolific writer of letters to the editors of English newspapers in Sri Lanka. Whatever the topic – from faith healers and vegetarianism to demons and reincarnation – he was an indefatigable practitioner of this quaint craft: he would doggedly pursue an exchange until editors intervened to close a prolonged debate.
Hopefully, these multiple communications woke up a few from their culture-conditioned and society-enforced slumber. But how do we awaken those who only pretend to be asleep?
Why do otherwise moderate people turn emotional and fiercely defensive in any discussion about their religious faith? Why is it that a majority of Lankans seem so threatened if anyone were to even mildly question the ‘certain certainties’ of a dogma randomly assigned to them at birth? How come any discussion on secularism in Sri Lanka elicit so much vitriolic comment from the virtuous defenders of a religious state?
Could it be because, as Mark Twain once remarked, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t true”?
Sure, it’s a free world: every individual may choose what to believe in, and also change beliefs from time to time. That’s fine — as long as believers confine it all to their own private lives. But when some try to force their beliefs on everyone else, or institutionalise these as state policies, it becomes hegemony.
In a heated newspaper exchange on the ultimately unverifiable existence of an afterlife, Dharmapala said December 2009: “Having been brainwashed from the very first day of birth and then throughout a lifetime, different religionists hold a deep rooted conviction in mind that only the particular dogma, taught by their respective religions, is the absolute truth and what is taught in other religions is false. Thus, while Buddhists and Hindus are absolutely certain of rebirth, Christians and Muslims are equally certain of Almighty God and Creation.”
Associates confirm that Dharmapala had worked on another Sinhala book, a critical look at reincarnation. Its posthumous publication could restore some sanity to the emotionally charged debates on this topic.
Credulous Nation?
Meanwhile, true Buddhists – may their tribe increase! – could finally start following what the Buddha taught. For half a century, Lankan rationalists have been citing, as one of their favourite quotes, the Buddha’s well known advice to the Kalamas, captured in the kalama sutra.
Kovoor used to quote this regularly at public meetings, as do his successors to this date. The Buddha’s rejection of authority, tradition, hearsay and dogma, and his position that one should accept something as true and valid only on the basis of verification by oneself, is probably one of the earliest rationalist principles expressed in history.
But as Colombo University’s historian and public intellectual Dr Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told a rationalists’ meeting in Colombo last week, a majority of today’s Lankan Buddhists would rather not follow that sound advice. Doing so risks shattering too many dogmas and contradictions on which their history and current political posturing are based…
It remains to be seen who among our rationalists would take up the daunting task of keeping the sceptical flame alive. Doing so now is even more critical than when Kovoor founded the movement. At stake is much more than debating religious faiths, or safeguarding the public from exploiters of ignorance and misery.
As astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan put it so well in his last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995): “If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”
Early in life, science writer Nalaka Gunawardene was influenced by educator and free thinker Dr E W Adikaram, and later worked with Sir Arthur C Clarke as his research assistant. He thanks Dr Kavan Ratnatunga and Tharaka Warapitiya for some information used in this essay, but the opinions are entirely his own.
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(Photo credit: Claude Dupuis, IDRC-CRDI)
The current ‘development’ madness that affects agriculture also prevails over agricultural research and does not bode well for this nation. It begins with the fact that, young agricultural scientists have to find support for the projects that will ensure their career from the only available source, the ‘chemical agriculture’ companies. Thus they are forced to carve out their futures supporting the only system that they have been trained in. In this way agricultural science in Sri Lanka has largely ignored the knowledge and wisdom that had guided our agricultural traditions for the last three thousand years or more. Although politicians and bureaucrats, in search of money or foreign jobs, have been insensitive to this destructive process, farmers have regularly questioned this approach to agriculture:
For instance, in 1998 a meeting of farmers convened by the CGIAR (Consultative Group in Agricultural Research) to ascertain the farmers viewpoint of agricultural development, submitted the following statement.
“We, the farmers of Sri Lanka would like to further thank the CGIAR, for taking an interest in us. We believe that we speak for all of our brothers and sisters the world over when we identify ourselves as a community who are integrally tied to the success of ensuring global food security. In fact it is our community who have contributed to the possibility of food security in every country since mankind evolved from a hunter-gather existence. We have watched for many years, as the progression of experts, scientists and development agents passed through our communities with some or another facet of the modern scientific world. We confess that at the start we were unsophisticated in matters of the outside world and welcomed this input. We followed advice and we planted as we were instructed. The result was a loss of the varieties of seeds that we carried with us through history, often spanning three or more millennia. The result was the complete dependence of high input crops that robbed us of crop independence. In addition we farmers, producers of food, respected for our ability to feed populations, were turned into the poisoners of land and living things, including fellow human beings. The result in Sri Lanka is that we suffer from social and cultural dislocation and suffer the highest pesticide related death toll on the planet. Was this the legacy that you the agricultural scientists wanted to bring to us? We think not. We think that you had good motives and intentions, but left things in the hands of narrowly educated, insensitive people.”
The statement was listened attentively by the top agricultural scientists from the around the world. Hopefully some were sensitized to these realities and are addressing the stated problems internationally. But for us in Sri Lanka, what has transpired? From 1998 to 2012 have any of the stated problems eased? Has the rate of pesticide poisoning gone down? Do we have a national campaign to sensitize our rural population on the dangers of pesticides? Have we reduced the huge volumes of toxins being applied on the country? Have we instituted a monitoring system for pesticide residues vegetables to protect the citizen’s health? The answer to all these questions is a resounding no! We need to ask why? Could it be a result of a lack of interest in creating a healthy and sustainable agriculture for this nation?
It is patently clear that agriculture must begin to look at the long-term health of the consumer, the energy cost of production and maintenance of biodiversity as three clear goals of the production system. In a fossil fuel energy deficient country like Sri Lanka, a national composting program and a reduction of external inputs should be instituted, but this cannot be done without a planned, phasing exercise. Just giving a farmer a bag of compost without the requisite seed and knowledge’ is a recipe for disaster,
The other major concern as stated by the farmers is the rush to get our farming systems addicted to fossil energy. The statement that current trends in agricultural research were creating a “complete dependence of high input crops that robbed us of crop independence” is an indictment of this trend. ‘ It demonstrates an erosion of our traditions and of our humanity. Today, much of the traditional rice agroecosystem has disappeared to pave way for new varieties and management measures. With this new ‘vision’ the quantity of toxins sprayed into the environment begins to increase and the component of fossil energy used in agricultural production continues to rise.
In today’s world, energy accounting must accompany economic accounting or dealing with the relative value of goods and services. It allows for predictions of change in state of ecosystems as well as trends in cultural changes. For instance, the ecological impact of increasing energy input into any ecosystem has been well documented. In any ecosystem, an increase in the flow of energy tends to disrupt that ecosystem. Field studies on identified agricultural systems at various levels of organization have confirmed the loss of original stability following a large influx of fossil energy. Studies of insect communities have shown that pest outbreaks are characteristic of systems with lowered species diversity, requiring the application of ever increasing quantities of agrotoxins to obtain a good crop
Thus an increase in the input of energy to an ecosystem does provide a measure by the model of agriculture can be evaluated. In heavily energy dependent industrial agricultural systems, the natural or biological system has been dispensed with and an artificial environment has been created to allow production. While it can be argued that such systems of production is sustainable as long as the inputs are provided, it raises biological questions, for this system is clearly not sustainable in a biological sense. It also raises economic questions, especially in regard to input costs and subsidies. Further, this process has been demonstrated to be increasingly dependent on a steadily increasing rate of energy input to produce a unit of output. In the United States the energy return from corn went from a +3.70 energy return for each unit invested in 1945 to -2.50 by the year 2000. This has led to the comment that in the US “all the energy one derives from eating comes from oil”. Is this where we are heading towards ?
While sunlight provides the primary source of energy for agriculture, the present levels of productivity are biased on a technology, which is totally reliant on fossil fuels. In Australia for example, by1988 two billion liters of fuel oil were being used every year for agricultural production. This is not accounting for the other inputs such as fertilizer etc.
In Sri Lanka getting farmers addicted to fossil energy seems to be regarded as a good thing. There is no plan for transitioning towards optimal production with little or no external inputs, just the distribution of more of the addictive fertilizer. Concomitantly, no subsidy given to farmers who opt to generate their own fertilizer, however there is great interest in maintaining the massive fertilizer subsidy of Rs.50 Billion and increasing it. 50 billion is a lot of money, there is no questions raised as to who receives it, nor what commissions are paid to keep us addicted
Change we must, but it needs to be done in a judicious manner, incrementally, building our farmers to the goals espoused by the Hon. D.S.Senanayake in his book “Agriculture and Patriotism”.
“ Agriculture is not merely a way of making money by raising crops; it is not merely an industry or a business; it is essentially a public function or service performed by private individuals for the care and use of the land in the national interest; and farmers in the course of securing a living and a private profit are the custodians of the basis of the national life. Agriculture is therefore affected with a clear and unquestionable public interest and its status is a matter of national concern calling for deliberate and far-sighted nati0onal policies, not only to conserve the national and human resources involved in it, but to provide the national security, promote a well round prosperity and secure social and political stability.”
The farmer statement to the CGIAR would seem to signify that we have wandered far from these goals. Our farmers are amongst the most poorly looked after, their traditions are being broken and their contribution to society ignored. Their economy is in ruins; Farmer suicides have become commonplace, one consequence that effects everyone is the poisoning of the nation. It is time to become more aware that the old saying “you are what you eat” and begin to look after our children and ourselves
If the increasing rates of cancer, diabetes and organ failure, are not seen as a sign of the quality of the food and air that we ingest and we choose not to act on this knowledge, we will have no-one else to blame but ourselves when we ourselves become afflicted. With the statistic that 78% of us will die from such non-communicable diseases our individual chances are high indeed !!
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When Sri Lanka vied for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, there was a telling photograph taken at one of the bashes the regime threw in the Caribbean, the culminating event of a labour intensive, extravagant self-indulgent exercise. The photograph has Hon Namal Rajapaksha MP leading a conga line followed by the Governor of the Central Bank. They both seem…well, happy. However, though a good time was had by all no doubt, that conga line led nowhere. We did not win the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games; agnostics and atheists alike were put on notice about the existence of the divine. The country was saved. Yet the conga line as both a metaphor and description of the structure of power and the ruling regime remains. Into 2012, where will it head?
The old year 2011 like all others before was interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse. It saw the steady decline of governance and the Rule of Law, the steady rise of militarization and the interminable decline of the opposition; more attacks on the freedom of expression and association and the re-emergence of disappearances; grease yakkas, plastic crates and the fatal private pension plan; an unnecessary, yet revealing controversy over the national anthem; the release of a COPE report confirming losses by state enterprises running into billions of rupees and at the same time legislation deemed urgent in the national interest to take over underperforming and under utilised private sector enterprises. Sarath Fonseka continued to be harassed and is now to be written out of the history books Soviet-style, including the revamped version of the Mahavamsa; monitoring MPs and presidential advisors fought to the death and probable permanent disability, High Noon style, and in the dying days of the year, a Pradeshiya Sabha chairman alleged to have engaged in fatal political violence during the last presidential election, is now implicated in the murder and serious assault of tourists. There is of course the fiasco of the release of exam results and the sham/e of Sri Lanka Cricket.
Significantly, some 40 years on from the last pre-war election in 1977, one party was overwhelmingly returned in the south and another likewise in the north in local government elections. The regime – TNA talks are more and more reminiscent of the lines from Macbeth – tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow… it is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
On a positive note, the economy is supposed to be booming. Every index is up – number of tourists, remittances, exports, and foreign direct investment (FDI). Inflation, indebtedness and the cost of living too! The trade deficit remains in billions of dollars despite the increase in remittances, exports, tourists and FDI. The capital city is being beautified – a direct boon of the pairing of defence and urban development we are told and many believe, irrespective of the number of city dwellers who have paid the cost in eviction. There is a highway to the south and an aptly though controversially named Mahinda Rajapaksha Performing Arts Centre with state of the art facilities, as well as night racing to boot.
And there is the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report, the document, which, the regime has maintained, will answer its critics and lay to rest the charge of war crimes and the call for accountability in respect of them. This the Report does not do, thereby lending credence to the criticisms leveled at it in terms of mandate and composition and most importantly, thereby reinforcing the call for international investigation. The LLRC concludes that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians by the armed forces or use of siege tactics by the regime with regard to the provision of food and medicine to civilians in the Vanni. It acknowledges that, “…material points towards the implication of the Security Forces for the resulting death and injury to civilians, even though this may not have been with the intent to cause harm”.
This is largely based on the testimonies of the security hierarchy and suffers from the lack of witness protection, which would have facilitated a more comprehensive account of what transpired. The LLRC makes reference to the technical difficulties in reconstructing what happened and notes the near impossibility of doing so, now. On the key issue of war crimes and violation of international humanitarian law, the report is a whitewash of the regime. This is very disappointing given the urgent need for accountability at the community level in particular, as demonstrated by the number of civilians who testified before the LLRC despite the difficulties and subsequent dangers they faced in doing so.
It is a curate’s egg, however. Its conclusions on reconciliation, the atrocities of the LTTE, militarization, a political and constitutional settlement based on devolution, the politicization of governance, the erosion of the rule of law, the naming of para-militaries and the call for further action on this and on disappearances and detainees as well as the Channel Four documentary, on right to information legislation, are all to be welcomed. All of this begs the question of how any “independent’ or “proper” investigation the LLRC recommends can be done nationally. None of this is new; most of this has been championed by civil society for quite some time. That a regime appointed commission reiterates all of this, underscores both the scale and nature of the challenge the regime faces and accordingly, the scale and nature of the paradigm shift it has to undertake if it is to, as it must, implement these recommendations without delay.
Quo Vadis, the Conga line in 2012? Can the tiger change it stripes; the leopard its spots?
Can pigs fly?
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Photo courtesy Arsenic and toxins found in baby rice food – what you need to know
Suddenly, scores of packets of white powder began appearing in the homes of many farmers we were working with. They were organic farmers, who respected their field and soil. They would never poison their farm knowingly. When questioned, they made a wry face and declared that ‘the stuff was forced upon them’ as a part of some government program. Some resorted to putting it onto their home gardens to get rid of it. This means that, the poisoning of our soils is extending from the agricultural field to the very home garden and the farmer’s enslavement to the chemical salesmen becomes further confirmed.
Addiction is an easy ploy for enslavement. In a port city in France, goes a story; there used to live some of the most unscrupulous criminals. They were the drug traffickers who deal in the cruel drug heroin. Heroin is addictive, it creates a sense of well being; but one requires increasingly large doses to maintain this sense of well being. The victim who begins to take it becomes even more dependent on the drug and freedom from it becomes increasingly difficult. The traffickers it is alleged, give free doses to children in the 12, 13 age group, in packets of white powder, knowing well that the gullible, naïve, children will soon become addicted. When they become addicted they have to pay and the price they will have to pay increases with the addiction. They are trapped in a vicious dependency cycle and there is no way out. They end up being the chattel of the criminals.
To understand the game being played before us, it is important to understand soil. To many of us soil is the stuff that holds trees up. We see it as a solid surface for us to walk, ride or construct upon. Its usefulness in our daily lives does not exceed much beyond providing a substrate and nutrient for our crops. On closer examination this ‘solid mass’ is home to thousands of species, it acts a sea to thousands of species that travel through it. It is also the biological filter that detoxifies a large proportion of the poisons that we apply to the environment we live in. It is a world as complex as, and most certainly older than, the world that lives on its surface. It lies continuous over most of the land surface of the planet it is in a very real sense the ‘living skin’ of our planet.
The world of soil is bizarre to us who live on the surface. It is opaque to light and mostly solid. Communication is by chemicals, such as pheromones, or physical, such as vibrations. Movement is slow; the faster organisms like the worms are the giants of this world, tunneling through at a fairly rapid rate measured in centimeters per minute. More common are the fungi that move by growing through the soil at rates measured in centimeters per month, or the bacteria, which have rates, measured in centimeters per year.
It is a busy world, one gram of ordinary farmyard soil can contain over 1 billion individual bacteria, over 100 million individual actinomyctes and over 1 kilometer of fungal hyphpae, notwithstanding plants like algae and animals like collembolids, nematodes or worms. But most importantly it provides the energy for the plants that grow on it. It is estimated that a hectare of good farm or forest soil provides over 10 Horsepower in energy to the system daily. When chemical fertilizers are added to such soils, the ecosystem is destroyed, biomass is lost and the productive capacity goes down dramatically often to less than 1 horsepower. To maintain productivity in these soils will now require the balance to be provided from outside in the form of chemical fertilizer. Once destroyed the soil ecosystem is slow to recover. Thus the farmer is trapped! As the nation needs to produce its food the government is trapped! It has to provide the drug (fertilizer) to the farmer at a subsidized price. Currently over 50 billion rupees and we are increasing the land area addicted by distributing free packets of white powder ? Where is the gain? To answer that question one has to ‘follow the money’, one has to answer the question as to ‘where does that 50 billion rupees go?’ After all, someone must benefit from it.
But one thing is clear it is certainly not the farmer or the nation.
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Prof. Gupta teaches at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and was in Sri Lanka recently to deliver the first Ray Wijewardene Memorial lecture. Prof. Gupta is one of the world’s leading voices on social innovation, and the development of social capital. We began our conversation with Prof. Gupta defining what he sees as social entrepreneurship, and why it is important to recognise and nurture it. He then talks about the difference between big science and small science, and how the support of the former through national budgetary allocations does not necessarily address or strengthen the latter. Prof. Gupta also shares some insights into how grassroots innovation can be supported and through the blending of what he calls formal and informal sciences, development made more sustainable and equitable.
Prof. Gupta’s multi-disclipinary background holds him in good stead when he talks about the double-helix of language and culture, and how the preservation of one is to support the development of the other. He speaks of the knowledge rights of people and how at the grassroots, innovations that address common problems and shared socio-economic challenges exists that multi-national companies and even national governments are often unaware of. Prof. Gupta also has a rather unique take on Intellectual Property rights!
Given that so many today use the phrase ‘grassroots’, Prof. Gupta explains what it means to him, and notes that when he started to use the phrase, it was one that was rarely used or recognised.
Throughout the conversation, Prof. Gupta brings up a number of examples from India and elsewhere to support his argument that innovation exists in the unlikeliest of places, and that these innovations often have a broader applicability and in some cases, even push the frontiers of established science and technology. To listen to him is to realise the untapped potential of this innovation, and in fact, how much of it exists even in Sri Lanka. The other important point Prof. Gupta flags is that this innovation often exists amongst children and youth.
Towards the end, we talk about what impedes innovation of the kind Prof. Gupta’s most interested in. Prof. Gupta also ends with five key points, or lessons if one chooses to see them thus, on how a country can strengthen grassroots innovation, and why doing this is vital to its growth.
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