The Obsession With Colonialism

By Sumith Ariyasinghe -February 4, 2013

A conspicuous Sinhala right wing preoccupation, both in an outside the government, is to attribute all ills that beset Sri Lanka as being rooted in colonialism and its “exploitation”. Among most of these groups the condemnation of colonialism is harsh and expresses a deep-lying hatred and lust for revenge. The public expression of these strong negative emotions poison the receptive audiences, who most often are the under-privileged rural youth, who do not have the benefit of a proper education that would give them the ability to critically evaluate this onslaught. Those rural youth who somehow manage to further their education bring along the prejudices they thus acquire to their undergraduate lives and beyond. The universities themselves have declined precipitously as reflected in widespread local opinion as well international ratings. We thus have a vicious circle of economic and intellectual poverty, and we have a growing number of those who believe that our problems are the direct result of “colonial exploitation”. Part of the anti-colonial rhetoric is a condemnation of the west and its culture labelled “Judeo-Christian”. Never mind that the positions of power and influence the leaders of these groups enjoy are owed to their “Judeo-Christian” education. By denying the same education to the youth of the rural poor, these leaders are ensuring the dominance and security of their class, and their offspring who were or are being educated abroad in these same Judeo-Christian western countries.

The insistent resort to reminding the gullible that all our problems are the result of colonial exploitation is however an excellent opiate to keep the masses of the people enslaved, and denied of means to improve their state. It is an effective device to stand in the way of the ordinary people achieving their goals of advancement for themselves and their children. The obverse of attacking colonialism is the harking back to a golden past now lost, along with an alleged uniqueness of being Sinhala, called “Sinhalatva” by the leadership of these groups, and apeykama or “our-ness” by their cheap journalist minions. These terms in essence depict a tribal identity, now enhanced by the arrogance of “winning the war” and “eradicating terrorism”. “Sinhalatva” is clearly a plagiarization of “Hindutva”, the Hindu fundamentalist label for latter’s alleged uniqueness that has led to violence in India, including the tearing down of the Babri Masjid in 1992, on the excuse that the location of the historic mosque is the Hindu god Rama’s birthplace. It expresses the power fantasy of the Sinhalatva leadership, and their lack of hesitation to resort to violence to achieve their goal.

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BBC falls short of its staff disability targets

Liz Carr joined the Silent Witness cast after participating in a BBC scheme for disabled presenters

The BBC has fallen short of its 2012 targets for staff disability representation, according to its annual equality review.

It revealed that the number of staff with disabilities fell from 4.6% in 2008 to 3.5% last August, less than the target of 5.5%.

Disabled employees at senior manager level (above grade 11) were also down - from 3.4% in 2008 to 3.1% in September 2012. This was significantly short of the 4.5% target.

No BBC division reached the corporate target with BBC Worldwide and Audio & Music having the lowest levels of representation.

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The corporation admitted that it had to 'do more to portray life in the UK as it truly is' and is introducing new diversity goals for 2017, replacing the previous 2008-2012 aims.

The target for staff with disabilities will slightly drop from the current 5.5% to 5.3% for 2017.

But the target for BBC staff from ethnic minorities - set at 12.5% for 2012 and almost met - has been raised to 14.2% for 2017.

Acting director general Tim Davie said the BBC's content had to 'speak to all of our audiences'.

'Bringing in fresh, talented, new perspectives helps us to reflect modern Britain properly,' he added.

The BBC said it will focus on getting more women in technology and on-air in news and current affairs.

It will also concentrate on improving engagement with disabled staff, including developing presenter talent.

Amanda Rice, BBC head of Diversity said: 'Diversity doesn't just exist on the fringe of our thinking - it continues to be truly part and parcel of who we are and what we do.'

The report also revealed the following findings when it came to meeting its 2012 targets, set in 2008:

Ethnicity

• Staff from British ethnic minorities (BME) currently represent 12.4% of the BBC workforce, slightly less than the 12.5% target.
• Around 6.5% of all BBC senior managers are of BME origin, which is three employees less than the 7% target.
• BBC North* and BBC Scotland had no senior managers (SM) from an ethnic minority while Future Media had an above-target representation of 16.7%.
• BBC Vision was considered to be a 'challenging' area with BME employees composing 9.6% of its staff.

*Although there are SM from ethnic minorities in Salford, they belong to other divisions such as BBC Vision.

Belief

• 53% of the BBC workforce have declared their religion or belief status.
• Of all BBC staff, 23% said they are Christian, 15% declared they have no religion and 9.2% described themselves as atheist.
• Staff who said they were Muslim made up 1.3% of the workforce, with Hindus and Jews composing 0.8% and 0.7% respectively.

Gender

• The workforce is split fairly evenly with women representing nearly 49%.
• 37.5% of SM level are female.
• The proportion of women in technology and engineering roles has dropped from nearly 30% in 2008 to the current figure of 25.3%.
• The biggest decline has been in Future Media (17.5% female) and is partly in line with the representation of women in the wider technology and engineering market.
• A new 30% female representation target has been set for the Technology and Future Media divisions to apply by 2017 - similar to the 2008 levels. This goal will be reviewed in 2015.

DQF - impact of the 20% savings in 2013-17

• Disabled staff are more likely to be affected by redundancy procedures
• The 40+ age group showed 'disproportionate outcomes in relation to redundancy processes' partly because they are more likely to be impacted by management restructures.
• BME and 'other White' staff 'are disproportionately more likely to choose to leave the BBC' but redundancy data showed little disproportionate impact.

Recruitment

• Most BBC areas show lower-than-expected rates for BME and disabled applicants gaining job offers.
• However BBC North had higher-than-expected recruitment of BME, female and disabled applicants. The division, established in 2010 ahead of the BBC's arrival in Salford, was described as 'an exemplar approach for other areas of the BBC to emulate'.

Others

• Nearly 66% of staff are aged 30-49, with 40% of SMs aged 40-49.
• The BBC has sexual orientation data for 54% of its workforce, with nearly 4% of all staff stating they are gay, lesbian or bisexual.

The report can be read here.