Flip side of Sri Lankan life

Most Sri Lankans are noted for their ingenuity for misusing anything and everything. A keen observer will find enough evidence to prove this point. With the soaring prices, wheat flour has become a luxury item in the common man’s budget. However, every morning we see large posters pasted on city walls protesting against private universities and the spiralling cost of living. The protestors use heaps of flour-paste to display the posters. Those who paste such posters invariably deface the beautiful walls and lamp posts in the city. They are the very people who shout slogans against the high price of wheat flour.

The recently concluded International Book Fair held at the BMICH provides another instance where both book sellers and readers abused their rights and duties. At an exhibition of this nature readers expect to buy the latest publications on their favourite subjects. However, some stalls were selling factory reject copies of well-known books.

A colleague bought a Christian book of prayers adorned with a beautiful cover at one of the stalls owned by a reputed bookshop. She had no opportunity to browse through the pages because of the milling crowds. She made a beeline to the cashier, paid the price and took the book away. After returning home she was eager to read the latest addition to her collection of books. Lo and behold! When she opened the book she found that the contents were about Taoism!

The book seller can always come up with the age-old ‘Caveat emptor’ (Let the purchaser beware) rule. But the stall holders at an international book fair have a moral duty not to cheat customers.

On another occasion a journalist bought a copy of the ‘Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary’ at a stall of a leading book seller. After a few days he found that 16 pages were missing from the dictionary! Such incidents bring discredit to the book seller and the organisers of the exhibition.

Nostradamus predicted the end of the world

This year’s International Book Fair probably attracted more than a million visitors. As the BMICH main hall was closed for repairs, the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Hall and the temporary stalls were jampacked with all types of people. For some visitors it was a virtual carnival. Youngsters had many other interests than buying books. As a result, those who genuinely wanted to buy books were disappointed.

Let’s turn our attention to State universities which look like battlegrounds. Undergraduates spend more time in picketing, organising protest marches and disrupting the administration than pursuing their studies. No wonder they pave the way for setting up private universities sooner than expected. It is unfortunate that university students have become tools in the hands of disgruntled political parties.

Another matter that needs our attention is the misuse of mobile phones. At the beginning, they were fairly big in size and very expensive. Today, evena humble labourer can afford to buy a mobile phone. Instead of using mobile phones to contact somebody in an emergency, they are now used for nefarious activities.

Before the advent of television in the 1980s, people used to listen to the radio for news and plays. Mudalinayake Somaratne’s ‘Muvan Pelessa’ was one of the popular radio plays that appealed to the young and old. People listened to the songs broadcast over the radio with rapt attention. Television has changed the scene. Today people watch songs on television without paying much attention to the lyrics or the music. Moving pictures on the small screen give them immense satisfaction.

Some time ago water taps were seen in selected places providing a much needed public service. However, instead of using the purified water for legitimate purposes, people started washing cars, buses and lorries at road taps. As a result today we hardly see water taps on the roadside.

During an election campaign many societies, trade unions and other groups support a particular political party or an individual. However, when the political party or the individual wins, some of the very people who supported them take a different stand.They begin to put forward unreasonable demands and try to destroy the individual or the party. This trend was quite evident in every election held in the past. Although there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, this leads to chaos.

Why do many Sri Lankans do what they are not expected to do? The question has baffled even seasoned psychologists. According to one authority, “There seems to be something wrong with their genes.” He qualified his statement by saying that such people are found in other countries as well.

Despite great strides in science and technology man has not developed his spiritual life. If people continue to misuse public property and pay no heed to their own welfare, nobody will be able to arrest the downfall of human civilisation. When Nostradamus predicted the end of the world in 2012 he was probably hinting at the downfall of spiritualism more than the destruction of the physical world.