Wanting the Moon
The latest antics of government sector
doctors, or at least those active in their association, namely the
Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA), need some public
reflection. They ask for special privileges over and above those
privileges already granted to them - in this case the automatic
allocation of high standard schools for their children wherever they
might be located in the country.
Two key components of our now world famous social welfare system
were, and yet are, the free education system and public health system
which have been major contributors to this country's social achievements
that long preceded its subsequent economic rise to middle income status.
The medical profession perhaps more than any other profession is
positioned at the conjunction of these two social benefit structures:
doctors attain their career status through free education and then move
on to be key actors in the free healthcare system that has enabled Sri
Lankan citizens enjoy a standard of health far better than other
underdeveloped countries.
For this to happen, more than most professions other than, perhaps
teaching, the doctors have had to fit into strict requirements that
first tied them to state sector careers and further, subjected them to
deployment to wherever the state system wanted them to serve. This
included postings to remote parts of the country often minus basic
modern comforts, requiring long journeying from hometowns, and
distancing from family and friends. Opting out of the State health
system, before completing their mandatory service, meant the payment of
a fee as a token reimbursement of the public investment in their medical
training.
Nevertheless, this has not reduced the decades-long 'brain drain' of
medical professionals fleeing their island home for more affluent
lifestyles for themselves and their families. This exodus continues.
Their yeoman service to their country notwithstanding, this doctor
migration cannot and should not be used as a lever to force even greater
social privileges from the State. The threat of abandoning their
motherland is nothing more than a holding to ransom the very society
that the doctors swear to protect and nurture as disciples of
Hippocrates.
The demand for allocation of high standard schools for their children
is a demand for unfair privilege when other sections of society do not
have such access. Well, not all other sections.
The country's elected politicians actually lead the way in grabbing
and further grabbing such unfair privileges, from numerous special
allowances for basic facilities over and above their tax-free official
salaries, to the right to sell their duty free vehicle import permits,
to the right to give jobs or recommend state sector jobs to their
followers or kin. With our political leaders leading the way with such
social privileging, doctors may well feel justified in demanding the
moon.
Coal versus Development
The recent decision to abandon the Sampur coal power project is being
hailed by some ecology protection groups as a 'victory'. However,
without a viable model of energy production for economic and social
development, this may be a hollow victory.
After all, the dangers of coal-fired thermal power generation have
long been known: from immediate health risks and environmental pollution
to long term increase of heat in the biosphere, namely, global warming.
The perils of global warming are, actually, no longer a 'long term'
hazard but are now a short term prospect, with Earth temperatures
already acknowledged as higher and climate changes already occurring.
As that eminent think-tank, the Club of Rome, warned in the 1980s, if
everyone wanted to emulate the lifestyle of an affluent city like Los
Angeles, USA, then the Earth will not be able to sustain human
civilisation. There are physical limits to growth imposed on us by the
planet on which we have no choice but to live.
Today, even as we abandon the long awaited coal power project in
Sampur, the country faces a shortage of hydro-electric power due to the
lack of rainfall. Actually, as our energy experts will tell us, it is
less the lack of rainfall rather than the huge rise in power
consumption.
Two things have happened since this country saw the successful
establishment of a strong hydel power system in the 1970s, thanks to our
engineers' visionary planning and, the sagacious expediting of power
development projects by the late President J. R. Jayewardene, whose
110th birth anniversary was marked yesterday. By the 1970s we were
boasting of the possibility of excess power that could be exported to
South India.
One of those two things that happened was the rapid expansion of
industry and services - again, thanks to the late J. R. Jayewardene's
market economy liberalisation. The burgeoning of the economy, especially
of the manufacturing sector, resulted in a massive rise in energy
consumption to serve this economy. The second thing was the growth of
the population which rose from 14.7 million in 1981 to just over 20
million by 2000.
Thus, even if the economy's need for energy could have been met by
the hydel power sector, the sheer expansion of the population meant that
both the economic consumers as well as the domestic consumers of energy
need to be now satisfied.
The quick answer to this was cheaper coal power, relying on coal
imports. Even at the time Norochcholai was conceived and then pushed
through, it was already being acknowledged that coal is not the long
term answer. To date, the louder voices discussing energy alternatives
have focussed on alternative sources of energy - sustainable energy.
Wind, nuclear, and solar energy have all been extensively debated but a
solution, in terms of an economically viable energy sources, is yet to
be found, whether in this country or globally.
Far less discussed is the possibility of a brake on energy
consumption and changes in the pattern of energy usage. As the Club of
Rome pointed out long ago, we should not fantasize about affluent cities
that grew by simply ignoring the issue of sustainable energy - as well
as 'sustainable' everything else!
It is time that the national debate begins to include an exploration
of fresh models of 'development' in which social goals of affluence and
wholesome economic life can be envisaged differently with less emphasis
on mere affluence and super-abundance of goods and services and, more
emphasis on sustainable and, reasonably enabling, standards of living.
Our ecology protecting think-tanks should focus on models that
balance both energy production as well as consumption. This means a
radical shift away from simplistic, growth-based models of development.
Let our anti-coal champions lead the way to a solution.
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