Before The Spectre Of Idiocy Takes Over Sri Lanka
Kamaya Jayatissa
“You only lose what you cling to.” - Lord Buddha
This piece is a response to Ms. Shenali D. Waduge’s recent article “The Existential Fears of Buddhists in Sri Lanka must be given high priority and addressed without delay” published on August 13th, in Lankaweb. Having read the article and the even more dangerous comments it gathered, I could not help myself but feel outrage at each line, or should I say each word, I had the misfortune to read.
The one and only sentence on which I agree with in Ms. Waduge’s article is when she says that “A spectre is haunting Sri Lanka”. As for the rest of the article, I could only feel disgusted at each argumentative point that was developed in it. According to the author, Sri Lanka is on the verge of getting overrun by Muslims. Sri Lanka is indeed on the verge of getting overrun but not by Muslims. The island is actually about to get overrun by ethno-religious detractors who, instead of talking in their own name, are talking in the name of both the Sinhalese and the Buddhist communities. Unfortunately, one cannot label the author, her article and its like-minded readers as ultra-nationalists or racists anymore because their so-called “existential fears” go beyond any possible form of extremism. In fact, it goes to the extent of becoming pure idiocy; a desperate behaviour that will end up labelling Sri Lanka in the worse possible manner in the eyes of the international community, with repercussions that might last for quite some time –especially among its allies in the Middle East. And, in this sensitive post-war transition, this is the last thing Sri Lanka needs right now. Not to mention that the UN HRCis to meet in Geneva next month; shifting the international focus on Sri Lanka once more before the CHOGMSummit this November.
To Ms. Waduge and her followers, I wish to say that, being a Sinhalese and a Buddhist myself, the only time I feared for survival in my beloved country was when it went through a three decade long protracted civil war. A war which tore apart communities that once used to live together, in peace and harmony. A war in which every Sri Lankan lost one of their own –irrespective of their religion or ethnicity. A war that I never want to see happen again because of the narrow-mindedness of a few. And yet, given the recent incidents and hate speeches displayed on the public sphere (especially through the media), I now fear that the peace we have all been longing for will never see the light due to idiotic and disrespectful behaviours such as the recent Grandpass incident; behaviours which I must confess are quite “brilliantly” illustrated in the irrational figures laid out throughout the said article.
Harmonizing Coexistence And Sustaining Development
Arjuna Seneviratne
All human activity on earth attempts to find safer, more stable and more comfortable environments to exist in and can be broadly lumped under the heading “human development”. The trouble is that every group has its own sweet idea of what comprises “a better way to live” and thus, clashes will naturally occur and equally naturally, the more powerful minorities trundle over everyone else, monopolizing what flies and what dies, what becomes policy and what does not. Mostly, that which flies and that which becomes policy, secures for them the lion’s share of human and natural resources required to um… “live better”. This, despite the obvious fact that it goes against the very grain of natural justice. This, despite the fact that due to brutal exploitation of earth recourses over the last few centuries we are now on the brink of destruction. In order to turn it around, we need to understand what “environment” is, what “development” is and what the current human bias is when it couples these two words together.
This post is rather drawn out, definitely rambling in content and perhaps muddling in meaning but do bear with me. The “things of nature” explained in the previous post requires a bit of meandering and quite a few stops to smell the humus for it to make any sense at all 
As we all know, the “environment” is a combination of three intrinsically bound components, namely, social, cultural and natural environments and “development” is a combination of three more such – environmental, community and economic development.
