Our lifestyle needs entire overhaul:

India, ideal role model for Sri Lanka

By Ven. Galaboda Siri Gnanissara Thera

"It is no secret that the cost of living in many countries has gone up making life bitter. People in most of the countries have adapted themselves to the changing situations. Strictly speaking nothing is produced in Sri Lanka today; everything is liberally imported. Laziness on the part of the people have failed all attempts at cultivating a single food crop in the country.

Our next door India has already become an industrial might. Small as well as large scale industries, manufacture of aeroplanes and harnessing of nuclear power are notable milestone in their road to mega development. India has already become self-sufficient in food.

Though the poverty still lingers on, yet the poor people can eke out a viable living.

The secret behind their success is that the Indians have been motivated to stand on their own and charter their road to prosperity. The government has enlightened them on simple, inexpensive lifestyle and provides them the necessary guidance. Financial assistance provided to the enterprising Indians by their business community and the Indian expatriates have enabled them to invest in small industries as well as in cottage industries.

This has provided the opportunity for the Indians to earn substantial foreign exchange to bolster national development.

Today India is in the forefront of computer technology, electronics and cinema industry. Time is opportune for us also to tighten our belts and explore the means of earning an income for better existence. Income of costs of production and the escalating prices of our exports has led to the collapse of local industries resulting in chronic unemployment.

Investors have begun to leave Sri Lanka and establish their ventures in countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Vietnam and Cambodia where wages are relatively low. Sri Lankans too have begun to leave for such countries in search of employment and better standards of living.

If our expatriate workers as they do in foreign countries double their labour in their motherland as well, the investors could easily cut down their costs of production in their industries and prosper. Consequently, Sri Lanka would be able to attract more foreign investments.

Sri Lankans have to pay exorbitantly for their air tickets and to foreign employment agent. Most of the Sri Lankan job-seekers are reported to be stranded in such countries as Malaysia. Militant trade unionism is another cause for decline of foreign investment in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, speedy action to eradicate frauds, thefts, robberies, bribery and corruption could certainly open up new vistas for the country.

The war waged on anti-social elements such as murders, robberies, narcotics etc. with much sound and fury has ended up in a standstill!. It is time to reflect on its bad consequences. Unscrupulous traders and their anti-social practices can be a part attributed to the high costs of living in the country.

Nearly 40% has to be set apart to the publisher/advertising agent if one is to write a book or publish an advertisement.

In a nutshell, traders are simply exploiting the consumers! At a time when everything is imported to the country it is obligatory on the part of the Government to fix a price to each and every item before goods are cleared out of the port.

The practice of compulsive buying on the part of the consumer has weakened the family economy and brought misery to its members.

Sri Lankans would be able to stand on their own only if they incorporate simplicity and modesty into their lives and also get accustomed to live within their resources. Otherwise inevitably bizarre consequences have to be faced.

It is time for the Sri Lankans to disown the western sophistry and get used to exemplary lifestyles requiring racial, religious or political differences for the benefit of the posterity.

Rainwater ought to be collected and economized for agricultural purposes during the dry spells. It is time to get rid of our dependence on imported chemical fertilizer and revert to the local compost.

Families should supplement their daily food intakes with what they cultivate in their gardens. Extreme consumerism ought to be avoided at all costs. Consumption of sugar has to be cut down to ensure a healthy life.

Bicycles, the common conveyance is fast disappearing from use as it has become beyond the reach of the consumer. The price has shot up to Rs. 10,000 today. The custom authorities must take serious notice of such increases. The bicycle is widely used in the fast developing countries such as Japan, China & India Cycling can improve our health. At least the school children should be encouraged towards bicycles.

What is the future of a country when authorities have failed to appreciate the importance of planing, methodology etc in the context of development? Telephone culture and tinsel life styles have regrettably eaten into the psyche of the rural folk as well!

Silly programmes relayed by the television channels have no doubt a sordid effect on the likes of the people. This practice needs urgent reforms in the interest of the indigenous culture & inarticulate lives of the masses.

People have developed a grotesque habit of preferring artificial makes with callous disregard to what is gifted by the nature!

Prices of Ayurvedic medicinal herbs have shot up. Nobody is interested in cultivating what is possible in the lands.

Workers whenever they are, interest themselves only in what they could earn totally ignoring what is due from them to the country.

Both war and terrorism are devastating. Germany and Japan wriggled out of the debris of the war and achieved supremacy.

We have adequate treasures gifted by the nature. Gems, a precious gift of the planet earth could itself replenish our exchequer but unfortunately they are smuggled by organized gangs to the detriment of the national economy.

Expatriate Sri Lankans, the academics and other professionals who are products of the country's free education enjoy themselves the material affluence in salubrious climes having been alienated from their cultural moorings!

But the Indians are not that inhospitable to their motherland. It is obligatory on our expatriates to remit part of their earnings to their motherland. The rulers do not encourage such moves. Every inch of uncultivated land needs be taxed.

Luxury weddings, receptions, parties and other grand social gatherings should also be taxed. Individuals contributions to welfare programs be encouraged with tax concessive.

Subsidiary food crops be cultivated in large coconut estates. A tax should be levied from each tree felled; simultaneously two trees need to be planted to make up for the one lost!

A subsidy scheme should be introduced to encourage new planting of trees. Laws should be introduced to compel people to cultivate bare lands and subsidiary crops in coconut lands.

Non-compliance be dealt with heavy taxes by imposed against the land owners.

Parents need to take extra care about the food their children consumed with the threat of diabetics in mind.

If the education as well as the spiritual development of the child is left entirely in the hands of the teachers alone the consequences would be certainly disastrous. Parents themselves should devote adequate time to attend to their children.

Similarly, the university students need be protected to from various destructive elements that spoil their brilliant future.

Fee-levying courses for university students be conducted outside universities and separate identity cards be issued to them so that the universities could continue to maintain their high standards.

AT a time when such sublime qualities of human life such as care, regard and respects for parents, wives, children, kindness, equality etc. are fast disappearing and it is time to dedicate ourselves to usher in a righteous society.

(The writer is popularly known Gangaramaya Podihamuduruwo.

Translated by K.D.M. Kittampahuwa