A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, June 3, 2017
I’LL DO MY CRYING IN THE RAIN: While the heavens weep, and
people go to watery graves, politicians and planners whose principal
duty is the welfare of their electorates drown in hypocrisy and
cupidity. Then, as the flood waters recede, struggle vainly to defend
their ignorance and apathy or salvage their sorry soggy reputations.
Now, we the people are asking harder than ever questions of cabinet and
committee. Still it may not suffice until the political culture – and
not just the countenance of patina of governance and state
agency/instrumentality – undergo a sea-change – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
Have you heard the one about the two idiot meteorologists who were leaving the Met Dept after work?
Said one to the other, “Shall we take our umbrellas?” And the other
replied, “Yes, because you never know when it is going to rain…” – well,
just substitute ‘idiosyncratic disaster managers’ for ‘idiot
meteorologists’ and you’d be in the same boat… as an entire demographic
of sad, angry, tried, Sri Lankans on social-media.
Today, just about everybody (who have blood in their veins instead of
blessed ichor or embalming fluid) is bleeding all over the show with
rage… and outrage – because of the idiosyncratic idiots who begin to
shut the stable door only after the horse has bolted, or after benighted
hundreds have drowned, or died from the entirely avoidable disaster
ravaging the nation – again.
By now, the flood waters may have begun to recede together with a
stress- and sorrow-drowned nation’s pique or ire. Good. Not so ‘good’
that we’ll forget, and forgive the criminals who can or must be held
culpable for their failure to alert and then inform the potential
victims. And ‘bad’ that after years of the same or similar disasters –
tsunamis, landslides, annual floods come which May – the relevant
authorities have yet to appropriate and appreciate and act on the
aphorism that “a hazard is a potential disaster that can be prevented
with the proper information and helps”.
There is also the ‘ugly’ element in all of this… that while helpless
people flounder and many go to watery graves, and while sundry seemingly
uncoordinated under-resourced ill-prepared disaster-related agencies
founder in hapless panic at best or apathy at worst, the water-hating
fat-cats in state and government sit pretty – safe and dry, silent as
the watery graves to which so many members of their respective
electorates go, subversively muttering about considerately deferred
supplementary estimates that will delay the delivery of their
super-luxury cars, designed to enable smoother visits to the very
electorates where the same watery graves have swallowed the babies and
grandmothers they consider it their bounden duty to kiss and coddle!
So there! I’ve worked off some steam on behalf of a soggy, sodden,
national conscience. Now – keeping in mind that average citizens who
mindlessly practise poor environmental control are as much to blame as
heartless corporate entities fixated on the bottom line or state
agencies unfocussed on any line – let us turn to the res. Seems that
there are a few thoughtless eventualities that can or must be set right
in the future interests of the weeping seeping sense of national
welfare.
The past
The
tsunami showed lacunae. Scared animals sensed it coming;state agencies
were slow to deploy contingency planning and crisis management measures.
Lamentable preparedness by line ministries as much as sundry
departments resulted in the unnecessary loss of lives and preventable
damage to property. Even specialist-driven initiatives such as P-TOMS in
the aftermath of the unprecedented disaster of 2005 only showed that
amidst the outpouring of international goodwill and the extraordinary
largesse of a broad swath of Sri Lankans to their fellow citizens in
dire need, divisive politics held sway and squandered an opportunity for
true national reconciliation at a deep water level – to say nothing of
scuppering relief and rehabilitation efforts on behalf of the
distressed.
The torrential rains of the past three years in quick succession have
highlighted the lapses in the state of the state’s preparedness and
proactive response to predictable hazards. Then as now, the largesse of
local populations have drowned out the damnable lassitude of government
departments mandated with a vital service, save elements of the military
and a few surprising heroes in the shape and form of previously suspect
thug-politicos (maybe it’s just propaganda). There was then as now a
regrettable concern among the senior echelon of so-called statesmen for
their own sorry reputations and the widespread philosophy that the
demigods of weather were displeased with the present dispensation.
The present
Today, nothing much has changed. While concerned citizens step up to the
plate to spearhead relief efforts or partner the military in rescue
operations, ‘responsible’ politicians (they must be held responsible)
remain overseas at their leisure – or fly out for personal reasons after
superficial enquiries after the electorate’s well-being. True, stout
hearts bleed behind the scenes – this writer among others being witness
to the spontaneous breakdown of people-oriented leaders at the plight of
their wards and charges. But, emotion to be recollected and praised in
tranquillity is cold comfort to the half a million who got more than
their eyes damp… and it won’t raise the ten-score dead so far, leave
alone restore house and property or recoup livelihoods. It is with mixed
feelings of admiration commingled with anxiety at what it portends that
spectators observe media houses among other private enterprises take on
the mantle of national agencies.
Today, something has changed in the limit, however. This is that after a
rain-lashed battering of a trio of bad years, certain state agencies
are beginning to capitalise on technology and the not-so trivial reality
of ‘a phone in every hand’ to issue early warnings and alert affected
populations of developments through text updates and even tweets. Still,
the messages sometimes come at the eleventh hour… or too late… But it
is heartening progress in a milieu where even available technology was
not availed of to pre-empt preventable disaster, and ensuing tragedies
of death and destruction.
The future
Trusting in the clemency of the weather-gods to spare our blessed isle
because our rulers are potential bodhisattvas or pretend bhikkus is
about as perilous as trusting ‘good governance’ to deliver the goods of
governance – and about as efficacious. There are charts and graphs of
past weather patterns for what they’re worth, which is not much, as
mundane meteorology as much as good governance is subject to chaos and
entropy. The usual suspects – National Disaster Management Centre,
National Building Research Organization, Department of Irrigation and
Waterways – seem to be working better together than ever before, and
perhaps ‘the farmer in the field’ could begin to trust their agency and
the instrumentality of available technology to avail themselves more
efficaciously of hazard warnings before disaster ensues.
Trusting in the conscientiousness of the demi-gods who rule our daily
lives to spare our benighted island because our people are frail and
their plight is frightful is about as foolish as expecting ‘good
governance’ to be any different from authoritarian antidemocratic
regimes – except that the regime actively took lives while coalitions
let them pass into oblivion by default. The rest of the overall design
of the way government interacts with state and agencies are instrumental
in saving the lives of imperilled citizens remains the same.
This is not surprising, as the DNA of what passes for democracy in the
national arena has not undergone that desired sea-change or been swept
away by any tide forceful enough to cleanse the Augean stables of
corruption and criminality and cupidity that grows like a cancer in
cabinet and committee. There is something macabre in the sensitive
ethosof our leadership’s decision to defer the purchase of super-
luxury vehicles for its government prop-ups, when the cords of life are
fraying at the edges year after year for the people who still worship
their local politico when they blithely visit flood-affected areas to
kiss babies and coddle grannies.
As Sir Arthur C. Clarke once said, we can expect clemency from a human
judge; but nature is a blind force. May it judge our politicos.
The ABCs of a Flood Water Mark
- Accuweather can predict rainfall
- But not even Doppler technology can control flooding
- Concerns must centre on harvesting heavy precipitation in the Central Massif
- Discontinue several conflicting existing agencies with no clear mandate, shoestring budgets, yesterday’s technology
- Empower a well-funded Central Agency embracing the remit of NBRO, NDMC, etc. to monitor weather, survey construction land, inform people in hazard zones, alert state agencies on time, mobilise relief efforts
- Fire the culpable ministers, secretaries, department heads, et al. – to show this government is serious that those commissioned and paid to ensure public safety and health are held responsible, shame culture notwithstanding whereby cabinets and coalitions play the realpolitik game