A complex new year....

I recently had the pleasure of being invited by the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to attend a reception held in honour of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who had been visiting the island.  It was a curious invitation, since I did not consider that my agency or I would fall on the radar screen of the British High Commissioner let alone the Archbishop.

It turned out to be a very nice evening with fellow colleagues from the NGO core and other diplomatic circles plus members of the church attending.  Having been spotted by one of the local bishops who upon finding out which organisation I came from promptly introduced me to the man himself.  There is a certain feeling one gets when one meets a ‘celebrity’, yet the man standing in front of me, obviously tired from his travelling and meetings struck me as warm and friendly with a certain sense of spirituality only masked by his genuine concern at the state of the country, which is probably a hot topic around Sri Lanka nowadays, not escaping the High Commissioner’s soiree.  Here again what was on people’s discussion point was the state of the country from man made and natural disasters.

As we stood around sipping our drinks, one could not help but notice that in the air was a sense of foreboding.  Perhaps it could have been because the British over the last couple of weeks have come under fire from the local press of their interest in Sri Lanka, but most probably what was in people’s minds was the uncertainty of things. 

Interestingly two conversations come to mind when I reflect upon that night.  The first was with a diplomat who was on his second stint in Sri Lanka after 20 years. ‘It’s strange’ he said, ‘It is like time has stood still and we are where were 20 years ago vis-à-vis the war’.

Another colleague told me that despite travelling back and forth to Sri Lanka over the last 20 years ‘every year seems to be bringing new and different challenges for Sri Lanka’.

Interesting yet different observations over the same period of time.  I think that perhaps the truth lies in between these two.  Sri Lanka has certainly come a long way from 20 years ago, but today as in 20 years back, we are staring down a very dark abyss as the security situation gets worse coupled by recurring natural disasters due to climate change.   Yet the challenge is different.  20 years on, we now have a generation that has grown up with such complex challenges being part of their life so much so, that there is a certain indifference and apathy from people in Colombo and those who live in the west and south of the Island and a sense of resignation and acceptance as the norm from people living in the north and east. 

As Dr Williams so eloquently phrased it when he addressed the reception, ‘if this new generation and the one after that continues to grow up in this isolation, surrounded from each other by these huge walls erected by extremists, then  the prospects are very bleak’  What do we want for our children?

Last month, Sri Lanka celebrated the Tamil and Sinhalese New Year.  A time of joy, celebration and hope.  Coupled with the traditional games that are played during this time, important messages for reconciliation and prayers for peace were broadcast throughout the nation.  For once, the nation was hopeful and relaxed enjoying the success of their cricket team bringing them hope.

  Now one month later, those memories of Tamil children playing  ‘ella’ (a local version of baseball) with Sinhalese Children in an interschool competition held in a town in the Trincomalee District (east of Sri Lanka), to promote inter ethnic harmony and cooperation are now long gone.

The air attacks of April 29^th coupled with a defeat in the world cup dampened the enthusiasm.  If that was not bad enough, Sri Lanka experienced the worst rains in a long time over the last couple of weeks, with streets in Colombo virtually becoming rivers, causing about 10,000 families to be displaced.  It was as if God had reminded us not only to take care of ourselves and our relationship but to also be mindful of the relationship with mother earth.

As a bruised Sri Lanka recovers from a two week battering of both man made and natural disasters, it is very important to take stock of our situation. The challenge is upon us now at least for the next generations and do as the Native American’s say ‘I did not inherit this earth from my forefathers, I borrowed it from my grandchildren.