As a Sri Lankan living outside the island, I had to go back. In Canada, I felt I was becoming tangled in a plethora of bias and propaganda, and that I was losing touch with why I am so impassioned by the island in the first place. Three months of lone-traveling through Sri Lanka later, I have some conclusions of what I've observed.
This billboard exemplifies the economic frenzy the country is experiencing in its post-war opportunity. Visiting Sri Lanka almost every year, I was astounded this time with the enormous influx of tourists. All-inclusive resorts to chic boutique hotels seem to be popping up everywhere. Riding through what was a ghost-town last year, Killinochchi has now sprouted commercial banks and supermarkets, and even a hotel. Of course, this economic surge is being profited by the opportunists at home and abroad - it is no indication of nationwide prosperity. I'm glad I do not have to listen to another TukTuk driver complain about how prices have gone up, but it is not just him who complains. Speaking to a young, unemployed educated, middle-class man in Colombo, he states that it is a grim situation for people like him to advance without political links or sizable funds to buy your way.
That aside, it's good to know that somethings always remain true - and Sri Lanka is still utterly gorgeous. In a matter of hours, your train journey can go from hugging the palm-fringed coastline to being within the cold clouds of rolling mountains, to next being amidst ancient ruins, and then back in the throngs of the bustling city. Travelling North, East, South, West and Center, I was mesmerized by such varied landscapes, but also by the commonalities Sri Lankans share. Not to sound all hippy and "one love", but really there is not much difference in the people. Family and religious observances play an integral part in Sri Lankan lives from the South to the North coast. Trips to the beach, a serious perchant for dancing, and male-dominated drinking also seem to be customary. Also, people who you've recently met are very keen on welcoming you to their house, introducing you to their family, and treating you with tea and food, and sending you back with something like mangoes from their garden. There seems to be less segregation between the public sphere and private sphere of people lives, seemingly merging into one.
Technological advancement is not a primary focus of everyone in Sri Lanka. I've noticed that a lot of people given a choice between a bed or the floor, or a shower or a bucket, will readily choose the floor and the bucket. If you remember from previously, the hose I got for the Elder's Home to cut down their work time was still not being used when I went back. Many people outside the city seem quite happily accustomed to their simple lives. It made me question what "developing" post-war areas would really mean. Would we be happy when we see nicely-built houses, more supermarkets, and maybe a movie theatre - like they have in Colombo? My answer is that people have their own values in how they live their life, they don't necessarily want our lives - they just want opportunity and freedom to self-suffice their lives.
Not wanting to change ways of life however, is different from not being able to. I saw in Sri Lanka, a culture of inaction when it came to demanding change. I remember being at the Premadasa Stadium for the World Cup, and drunkards on the higher tier were continually spilling beer on those on the bottom stands. There were several policemen in 10-metre intervals looking out onto the crowd who continued to just stand there. I was so shocked that people in the crowd would just get up to leave their paid-seats without complaining. Those who remained would curse profanities at the culprits as if that would stop them. I could not believe that no one was informing the authorities even after 4 hours, and I became the first and last person to go and talk to the police. Maybe people keep quiet because they do not believe in their systems; made evident by the herd of policemen who eventually went to settle the beer matter, 6 hours into the game. Incidents of a similar nature happened a lot. People would sit on bus rides complaining loudly to one another that the air conditioning was on too high, and then give me the "what are you doing crazy woman?" stare when I went to the bus driver to reduce it. I feel that people tend to just accept things the way the are because they believe to be impotent. You can see how this translates on a macro-scale into politics.
If there is one thing I'd like to convey with this concluding entry, I'd like to stress how it is important not to base your perceptions on news reports. It is easy enough to believe that people in the country are all brainwashed and ridiculous. From my travels, I have gathered this is untrue. Citizens of Sri Lanka are just as stratified in their views as those in the diaspora. There are those who I've met, from Colombo intellectuals to villagers in the South, who are against the current administration. Then there are several of those I've met who genuinely believe that this must be the most amazing time for Tamil people to be free from war, and praise the president for "saving" Tamil people. There are also several who are completely politically apathetic. However you look at it, I hope people don't brand Sri Lankans on the island as one monolithic group. Discussing with a young Sinhalese lawyer about my cricket blogpost, I got offended when he belittled the fact that the national anthem does not include Tamil and that cultural identity was not important. He went on to say that it was more important to campaign for language rights in the courts he works at, because many Tamils cannot understand the Sinhalese legal jargon, and he could not imagine how difficult it must be for them. Someone who I had been so quick to judge as antagonistic to the reconciliation process, turned out to provide me such valuable insight into matters that need attention.
This trip has been about understanding Sri Lanka on an a more intimate level than what is presented abstractly through other sources. I urge anyone passionate about Sri Lanka and it's future to make the journey. To begin to understand the differences and similarities between the worlds that youth from Jaffna, Colombo, and Toronto live in is important for any discussion of re-imagining the future. Out of the hundreds of youth I talked to in Jaffna - only one wanted to leave Jaffna for medical school. This seriously astonished me since my perception was that all Tamils in Jaffna would grab the chance to get out of there if they could.
I think one of the most touching iniatives I saw by youth in Jaffna, was the Hatton trip. Hatton is a town in the middle of the country, famous for it's tea plantations. Most regular visitors to the country would have definitely travelled to the hill country, and many within the country will make annual long-weekend trips. In fact anywhere around the island is accessible within 12 hours, so it is customary to go on trips around the island with the family. It had never occurred to me that youth in Jaffna had never had the opportunity to visit outside their confinement in these previous decades. Any journey outside would have been to move for good, to the South or abroad - certainly not for a jolly field trip. Just recently, a large group of young adults my age had organized a trip to Hatton - their first time outside Jaffna in their lives. They were going to see these wondrous mountains that they apparently live on the same island as.
"How can there be peace without people understanding each other, and how can this be if they don't know each other?" - Lester B. Pearson.
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| Colombo Sunset |
A group of Sri Lankans in Canada, of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim descent, are involved in humanitarian action, and reconciliation through working together, by fundraising for 25 wells in the Wanni region. Please take time to look at the project - http://www.buildchange.ca/
a very nice conclusion...
ReplyDeleteGood stuff mate, we need more people like you:)
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