Dr. Gunathilake Tantirigama
(This is the shortened version of the detailed report which is of about eight pages. In order to view the detailed report please use the link: https://newhorizonsplus.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/handing-over-of-a-propsrous-sri-lanka-to-our-children-full-report.pdf)
Sri Lanka was a prosperous country a few decades ago but currently is faced with many issues. A survey was carried out among a group of 60 academics and professionals and other thinkers based in Sri Lanka and overseas. The purpose of the survey was to gather information on progress in Sri Lank over time in terms of socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental aspects and to highlight limiting factors. The survey probed on the historical evolution, focusing on two questions: “What went wrong?” since independence in 1948 to today and “what is Sri Lanka good at?”.
The information collected provided a useful starting point to a deeper probe on the questions posed above. According to the survey most of the participants agreed that Sri Lanka is in dire straits in many aspects, including the economy, the political structure, social order and the environment. As revealed from the survey answers, the country is sliding fast towards an abyss with no prospects for improvements in any sphere.
A significant proportion of the survey respondents opined that Sri Lanka can still reach a state of prosperity, provided that the country implements a set of corrective measures without further delay. Most respondents identified that Sri Lanka has several advantages over many developing countries or even comparable to some high-income countries regarding its resource endowment.
What is Sri Lanka good at?
The survey revealed Sri Lanka possesses three main resources namely: human resources, natural resources and man-made resources. Firstly, Sri Lankans are talented, creative and resourceful and the challenge before the country is to harness the innate talents of Sri Lankans at the individual level and design ways to inculcate their capacity to cooperate within the larger society for the greater good.
Secondly, regarding natural resources, Sri Lanka has several climatic zones, ranging from mild temperature to warm weather and wet/dry zones and many natural resources in abundance including minerals such as gems, ilmenite, titanium.
Thirdly, in terms of man-made resources, Sri Lanka inherited an excellent built environment which includes tank irrigation system and road network. According to the survey there is potential for medical tourism, local fruits and geographical locations as foreign exchange earners for the country. There is a functional plantations agriculture sector, most notably, the tea plantations which continue to produce high-quality tea, providing much-needed foreign currency and a stable income source. However, Sri Lanka’s development drive has failed to produce results so far due to the inefficient use of most of the resources mentioned.
What went wrong?
The survey revealed that Sri Lanka as a country has deviated from its true potential for growth and prosperity. Understanding the historical evolution of the issues faced by Sri Lanka and their root-causes or in other words “what went wrong?” is imperative for thinking afresh about bringing back Sri Lanka to a new, sustainable, people-friendly development trajectory.
By classifying all the answers received through the survey, it was possible to identify ten broadly defined root-causes or challenges, which are causing the country to slide fast towards an abyss with no prospects for improvements in any sphere of development. The survey also highlighted the resource-base that Sri Lanka possesses or in other words, “what is Sri Lanka good at?” which can support growth and prosperity.
Ten challenges
(1) Practice of democracy
One respondent summarized the ‘practice of democracy’ as: ”not understanding democracy and freedom”. Another respondent summarized this as: “short-sighted behavior of the majority of the people when exercising their democratic rights”. At a more fundamental level, this could be due to the ignorance of the majority of citizens, which allowed political parties and politicians to exploit citizens’ rights for their benefit. Some respondents also opined that some Sri Lankans believe in the feudalistic system, where the master is supposed to decide and protect the subjects while the subjects offer their loyalty.
(2) Attitudes and ethical behavior
Although Sri Lankans are considered to have historically maintained high standards of ethical behaviour, with tolerance, caring for one another and hospitality, some responses indicated that these qualities have been deteriorating and replaced by greed, selfishness, intolerance and disregard for humans and animal lives.
(3) Economic mis-management
Several respondents identified ‘economic mis-management’ as one of the fundamental root-causes of Sri Lanka’s failure as a nation to advance. As a result of economic mis-management by successive governments, Sri Lanka was unable to generate a liveable income for most people, provide employment opportunities for the youth, maintain price stability, or generate adequate national savings and earn foreign exchange. These failures have led to Sri Lanka’s inability to lift the quality of life in general and many people were pushed in to poverty, food insecurity and destitution.
(4) Environment mis-management
The destruction of Sri Lanka’s rich flora and fauna systems has accelerated overtime, leading to the loss of much-valued bio-diversity and its capacity to regenerate. Sri Lanka’s forest cover is fast declining despite claims to protect them. The so-called human-elephant conflict is simply a manifestation of the declining forest cover in Sri Lanka, as humans encroach natural habitats.
(5) Government fiscal responsibility
Irresponsible fiscal management has led to use of government income and expenditure that ended up in wastes. Many respondents highlighted massive government investments on projects with insignificant returns and that do not enhance the country’s productive capacity leading to a significant imbalance between internal (fiscal balance) and external (trade and foreign exchange) accounts.
(6) Judiciary system
The participants of the survey have mentioned that people tend to disrespect law and order due to various reasons and many opined that there is a tendency to lose peoples’ confidence in the judiciary system. Unless Sri Lanka can restore the supremacy of the judiciary and equality under the law, there is little hope to regain peoples’ trust in the judiciary.
(7) Education system
Respondents highlighting many examples indicated that the current education system has failed to produce creative minds and skilful people with the right attitudes. One example is the failure of government officials to think and act creatively.
(8) Utilization of human resources
Respondents pointed out that a significant reason for the development failure in Sri Lanka is the non-usage of appropriate human resources in key and responsible positions in line with the best expertise and skills, regardless of their social status, family connections, and other favours. This has caused brain-drain, depriving the country’s potential for producing goods and services within the country for domestic and overseas mark
(9) Foreign debt burden
As a result of short-sighted economic and political decisions by successive governments, especially obtaining foreign loans for non-productive projects and activities, Sri Lanka has ended up in a ‘debt trap’, making it extremely difficult for managing the scarce foreign resources.
(10) International relations and geo-politics
It is well-known fact that Sri Lanka has gained interest among the world’s superpowers due to Sri Lanka’s strategic location. The survey revealed that power struggles by foreign superpowers have severe effects on Sri Lanka’s political and economic independence.
Summary
Sri Lanka was a prosperous country a few decades ago but currently is faced with many issues. It has has deviated from its true potential for growth and prosperity. Understanding “what went wrong?”, or put differently, the historical evolution of issues faced by Sri Lanka and their root-causes is imperative for thinking afresh about bringing back Sri Lanka to a new, sustainable, people-friendly development trajectory. Based on the survey findings, ten challenges of current state of affairs of the country have been identified. The survey findings also highlight “what is Sri Lanka good at?” or in other words, the resource-base that Sri Lanka possesses which can support igniting growth and prosperity.
Final remarks
Further delving into ten challenges is required to identify a path(s) to a prosperous future for Sri Lanka. This task is left for the next stage of this study.
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Note:
The author is a member of “Seniors for Motherland”. This is a volunteer social group established in 2019 that wishes betterment of our motherland, Sri Lanka. The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to all those who responded to the survey. He is especially grateful to those who volunteered to review the survey report and made valuable comments. His special thanks goes to W.A Jayasundara (Attorney-at-Law) who was instrumental in design of this survey research.
Email: Seniors for Motherland. Email: admin@newhorizonsplus.org
newhorizonsplus.org 
Well framed research paper covering all important aspects of Sri Lanka.After going through the article,I found that we are far behind civilized society and our rulers have not done any thing for this country after 1948. Hope that the policy makers could make use of the essence of the report at least now to keep the country on the right path for the betterment of the future of this country and the people.But still I am doubtful about our current & future politicians ???
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Thanks for your very encouraging thoughts.
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Jealous inherited when child born in our people so give new solution to that otherwise never come up.
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I fully agree. Thanks for your reply. We all have a role. Is’nt it?
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Highly appreciate your cooments Dr Thanthirigama . You have highlighted very impotent issues that the country is facing at the moment . Thanks for awareing people of the country .
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Highly appreciate your cooments Dr Thanthirigama . You have highlighted very impotent issues that the country is facing at the moment . Thanks for awareing people of the country .
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Many thanks for your very encouraging feedback.
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As long as Sri Lankans cannot get examples from the countries like Singapore, Israel, Cuba they cannot escape their extnction.
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Went through a fantastic, eye opening research paper on the fate of our nation today…! Thanks a lot for the hard work….!
We have been a devided nation for more than two centuries just to sustain a ” devide and rule policy ” put on our shoulders by Colonial rulers. Ironically even 72 years from their departure we are reluctant to free ourselves from that yalk we have been tied to. Dimension of ethnic disunity planted by the old masters kept growing with the blessings of new political heirachy which manage to add a bitter taste of religious disharmoney also to the already boiling ethnic cauldren.
Therefore, among other underlying factors contributed to the current pathetic situation, the country mainly needs to deliberate on remeding ethnic harmoney in order to achieve desired socio economic goals at national level under a new administration.
After all government of the day is under enormous pressure and keeps swaying between super powers due to lack of integrity and diplomatic prudance of its leaders who cunningly mustered the constitutional power into a single hand after rendering the Parliament virtualy powerless while international community is closely watching.
In this chaotic context , recovering the country from present political abyss and restructuring the nation will be a mammoth tusk. It really needs the blessings of all patriotic stakeholders who are determined to sacrifice at any eventuality. No doubt there are many such sons of the soil sharing these views and sentimentals on thier motherland to join the cause at the right moment…!
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Many thanks for your deep uunderstanding and excellent explanation. Enough is enough.
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This is an excellent survey Shri Tatrigama.To my opinion this not only the problem of Srilanka alone but almost every country in the Indian subcontinent has got the same issues. If we really want to bring an end to this chaotic situation, first and foremost requirement is the UNITY amongst the mass netizens. Some might have to sacrifice plenty .but ultimately we can free the country from this political goons. Constitutionally a minimum qualification criteria should be introduced for any political career. Briefly speaking we have to bring radical changes to many aspects mentioned above in the topic . Say for example why we lose our talents to overseas clients?Neither we lure them with right opportunities nor the remuneration they desire for. Our corrupted system doesn’t let them flourish. In the farming sector too,there is no such incentive system whereby you can make the farming sector more lucrative. On the contrary lot of exploitation we find. In sort we have to leave behind this colonial foot print and start using our ancient evolutions more productive ways because we are one of the oldest civilizations on this planet who was the richest in every aspects.
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The research paper brings a comprehensive understanding on the reasons for the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka. While agreeing with most of the aspects covered, I would like to add a point regarding the Education System of the county. Though Sri Lankan’s have an inborn talent for creativity, I don’t find any mechanisms used by the system to enhance creativity among school children. Further to add, Sri Lankan school education system barely focus on diverse abilities of people. So that the education system does not create skill full people in all essential areas needed for the development of a country.
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Hi Risini. Many thanks for your feedback. Your deep insight in to prevailing situation deserves special thanks. Also your thoughtful ideas bring us to think some critical issues. Fully agree with your comments about education. Personaly me too feel through good education system we can fix some other key challenges. Examples: education can make people understand true value of democratic rights and how to exeecise it for their benefits; peoples attitides and belief that are harmful for their day-to-living. Lets take them one by one. No space here. Cheers
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Your findings provide great insight to our people and encourage them to think on these matters again especially in these pandemic times. looking forward to knowing the specific policies to mitigate those challenges. Thank you
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Identifying root causes and splitting them under diffetent sub hheadings (10 in our paper) not so difficult. But to get the full use of it we need to address them seperately and carefully. Thats no easy task. But something we are looking forward. I am ptetty much confident we can do that in the next stage of this work.
If you have more thoughts happy to know. Thanks for your deep understanding of the situation.
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The survey is successful and let us hope our future leadership will have the honesty and capability to implement the correct way the management of all the resources of the country for the greater good of the people and the country.
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This is really an eye opening research paper with a valuable content. Hope that policy makers could make use of these findings for the betterment of the country!
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Thanks for your comment
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I think it’s a timely article outlining the main problems in our country. Everyone accepts these problems exist, but the voice gets amplified when a proper survey is carried out and the results are documented in this manner.
When we go through these problems we also see how they are interconnected to each other – problems associated with ethics or environment improve with the improved standard of living. On the contrary, when living standards go down, the problems become bigger.
It’s good to see the problems in writing because now when reading this article, we have to think of the solutions to the underlying problems. It’s time to brainstorm solutions now that we have figured out the problems. One useful way of looking at solutions is to examine how we can use social media to educate on some of these issues – on protecting environment, educating on economic and political dynamics. Solutions such as these could help in mobilising a movement that’s politically and economically accountable.
It’s also important to consider the role of race and nationalism in our country’s history. We cannot ignore the impact of three decades of war on our people – and the fact that we have not facilitated a wholesome reconciliation process. Instead of healing wounds, our nation has in fact got the wounds deeper – making it all the more difficult to empathise with each other.
Thank you for this timely survey and article again. It’s educative and is a timely reminder for all of us to think of solutions to implement.
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Comments are very thoughtful. Thanks for your deep understanding which you shared with us. Also the lines you mentioned to go forward are very heloful. Hope our effort will add a value to overcome common mans issues. Cheers
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I think they are the two pertinent questions that any educated Sri Lankan ponders these days. Therefore, this is an extremely timely article/report given the current frustration and hopelessness that people are coping with.
I appreciate this survey covers many aspects to a great extent in the ten reasons, but I would specifically like to add two more;
1) Reliance on individuals for salvage than believing in the gradual development of systems.
2) Irresponsible citizen behaviour that tolerates misconduct at all levels.
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Hi Nuwan This is a great comment from you as a down-to-earth person, and a as a person who understand very clearly the background and whats going. Thanks for your very suggestive comments. I noted your two points which are broadly covered in the ten challenges I have mentioned in the paper. Wish to mention that 10 points challenges are not exhaustive. We need to re-think and re-think, whats covered and not-covered when we try to find the solutions in the second phase of this study. With best regards
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The research paper has done a valuable analysis and correctly identified the reality of our country. By now the parents have failed in their efforts in handing over a prosperous Sri Lanka to their children. The young generation is aware of this sad situation and tend to look for countries with good systems and genuine leaders than staying here anymore, which lead to worsen the situation.
The paper has highlighted the resources / capabilities available and identified the challenges and smartly avoided proposing solutions leaving the readers to think and re-think with an open mind.
Wishing the “betterment of the mother land” this team has done their duty providing an opportunity to patriotic / prospective new leaders to find sustainable solutions and look for power if they are genuinely loving to this motherland.
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This is a great feed-back. Kumarsinghe has very preciously outlined everything using only one para. It has put everything together, that took 4 pages for me to explain. This is a wonderful summary (like an abstract). We should work together and share our knowledge and efforts if we are expecting any good for the country. My sincere thanks for your feedback
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Valid analysis as our children are wondering what is there future given the uncertainty.As long as the present system prevails ie in governance, the priorities will not be in the best interest of the country! Blame should not be only to the politicians.
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Hi Asoka, You have very well summarized everything in my article in to a few lines. And raised a very valid point. Whom to blame?
We use to blame politicians, but every five years we as people get the opportunity to select politicians of our choice. This has been repeated every five years during last 70 odd years. One excuse given by many is that they select a group of politicians believing what they say in their election campaign (election manifesto), and they are cheated. How far this cycle go on. When we will realize this vicious cycle. I am reluctant to blame both: politicians and innocent voter. I believe, educating the people of their democratic rights and freedom is the only way out, which we have to begin sooner than later. No easy task by the way.
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Congratulations Dr Gunathilaka you have framed clearly the valuable insights on the present situation of our country based on the empirical findings. Your identification of “What went wrong” to our country is vital for making items to overcome all those barriers. Moreover, discussion on the strengths or resources of our country is a timely valuable topic as there is a necessity to use our own resources rather than depending on everything from other countries amidst of the current COVID – 19 pandemic situation. This is the high time to implement suitable solutions for the survival of our country.
Greatly appreciated your efforts and hope that policymakers could make use of significant findings to boost the development of our motherland. Best Regards
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Thanks for your very encouraging feedback. To be honest these points are not new. They are also well documented even by agencies like ADB (I got one huge ADB doc). Also these issues are known to policy makers, policy implementators and political leadershiop. But those responsible are non responsive as they have other priorities. This happened over the years. Cos of this what I am trying to achieve is to educate general masses who are helpless. I am trying to use English Sinhala and Tamil media and within my limitations. Not sure how far my tiny effort be successful. Finally many thanks again for your thoughtful comments. Best regards
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This is an excellent attempt. The root causes of the crisis facing our country today have been extensively analyzed. In this note, while congratulating the research team, I seek to highlight the failure of the existing education system to produce a spiritually advanced population.
What is education for? To develop the country or to develop the people? We often hear about the significance of developing the country. It is about developing the economy of the country. It is about the need to develop our country to the level of other developed countries. It is about the need for an education that aims to create a workforce armed with the latest knowledge, technology and training to build the country. This has been the goal of every educational reform that has taken place in the country for more than seven decades since independence. But, the country has not developed as expected and it doesn’t seem to be progressing. The question now is whether it is possible to develop a country without developing its people.
Is it the scarcity of natural resources, capital, technology, knowledge and skilled workforce which keeps our country underdeveloped? If not, the scarcity of honest, truthful, disciplined, law-abiding and unselfish people who are willing to dedicate knowledge, skills, capital, technology and natural resources unselfishly for the wellbeing of the common good? It is now becoming clear that the second is the main reason why our country is not yet developed.
Evidence suggests that the current education system has failed to produce the kind of educated people with the aforementioned good qualities needed to build the country. There is no evidence to suggest that the so-called ‘educated people’ produced by the existing education system are more honest, generous, unselfish, law-abiding and ready to dedicate their lives for the common good than the ‘uneducated’: those who were not able to benefit from education. Both the educated and the uneducated seem to be inferior in these qualities.
So what we need now is an education system that aims at developing the country as well as the people of the country. The country needs an education system that provides the modern knowledge, technology and training required for the 21st century and produces unselfish people who are sincere, truthful, disciplined, law-abiding, who love the country and are willing to sacrifice their personal pleasures for the common good. In other words, the country needs an education system that focuses not only on developing the economy but also on developing the people. Because it is now abundantly clear that the country cannot be developed without developing the people. There is a need for an education system that will make a positive difference for school children as well as for students studying in institutions of higher learning.
This is where the need to incorporate spirituality into education arises. When one hears the word spirituality, many people think that this is religion. But it is not so. Scholars of the Sanskrit language believe that the word spirituality (අධ්යාත්මිකත්වය) is a combination of the two Sanskrit words “adhi” (“අධි”) and “athma” (“ආත්ම”). The word “adhi” means higher or superior, and the word “athma” means individual or person. Then the meaning of the word “adhi” + “athma” = ‘adyathma’ or spirituality is expressed as the highest state that an individual can attain. When a person attains this highest state, the higher qualities that are manifested through that person’s behavior are called spiritual qualities. Unconditional love, kindness, compassion, mercy, altruism, honesty and devotion to the common good are widely recognized as spiritual qualities.
This definition of spiritual qualities fits in well with modern science. Experts in Transpersonal Psychology, a new discipline in psychology, point out that the human race (Homo sap.) has not yet completed its evolution and reached the highest level that human beings can reach. They point out that although they evolved physically and became human passing all other living species, they have not yet fully evolved mentally. They call the remaining part of our evolution ‘psycho-spiritual development’. Recent research in neuroscience has also found that the qualities we call spirituality are hardwired in the human brain. This means that those qualities remain indelible in the human brain. This shows that spiritual qualities are a set of qualities that we as human beings have inherited. Our true nature is unselfishness. Selfishness is a temporary trait that later enters our brain and becomes ingrained. What happens in spiritual development is that these spiritual qualities manifest in our lives.
All religions value spiritual qualities. Different religions offer different methods for the spiritual development of individuals. The main goal of every major religion is spiritual development. At the core of all major religions is spiritual development. It means the purpose of every religion is to teach the believer the methodology that must be practiced in order to reach the highest level that can be attained as a human being. In the long period after the death of the founders of each religion, the spiritual development that was the essence of their teachings gradually fell into insignificance and was replaced by other politically and commercially important goals. As a result, many religious organizations and the clergy who lead them today do little to help build a spiritually sound society. It is evident today that religions, rather than producing people who can live in peace and harmony with others, are creating spiritually degenerate individuals and groups that condemns other religions in the name of their own religion. Therefore, spirituality and religion cannot be considered as one and the same.
Hence, it is difficult to imagine that the teaching of religion can produce children who are spiritually developed. Religion has been taught in almost every school so far, but the children who have completed their schooling do not seem to have progressed spiritually. The teaching of religion in schools does not seem to have produced disciplined, law-abiding, truthful citizens who were spiritually virtuous, selfless, and committed to the common good. The country would not be like this if such citizens were born by teaching religion in schools. Good people with spiritual qualities are seldom found here and there, but in general our society seems to be in a very spiritually undeveloped state. It is common to all sections of society, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, all religions and races. It is not surprising that political leaders, rulers and professionals, as well as religious leaders and priests, who are born into a spiritually undeveloped society and live in such a society, are spiritually immature and lack spiritual qualities. It is not possible to expect from such individuals to serve the society unselfishly. So, not surprisingly, they use their positions and power for their own benefit rather than for the common good.
If the teaching of religion does not seem to create a spiritually advanced society, then the next option left for us is to incorporate spirituality into the formal educational process. There are several additional benefits associated with this option. Unlike in the teaching of religion, spirituality can be taught logically and scientifically. Unlike before, the 21st century children think scientifically and logically. They are not ready to accept religious teachings based on irrational beliefs and stories that are incompatible with modern science. Sometimes they accept such teachings due to the respect they have to the teachers, parents and priests, but when they realize the irrationality and falsity of the religious teachings they have learned, they abandon them. They do not absorb such teachings into their life. Furthermore, since spirituality is taught as a non-religious scientific subject, it can be taught in classrooms with children belonging to different religions. This is more appropriate for our multi-religious society.
The inclusion of spirituality in school education will lead to interfaith harmony in the future. When children of different religions study spirituality as a scientific subject, they are able to gain an understanding of humanity beyond the narrow confines of their own religions. The children will soon understand that spiritual qualities are inherent in themselves as well as in the children of other religions, and the purpose of their life as humans is to manifest these qualities through their behavior. They will also begin to understand that different religions represents different methods or pathways to achieve this goal. With this understanding, they will begin to respect all religions. When they study different religions comparatively, scientifically and logically, they gain a broader and deeper understanding that transcends the narrow boundaries of their religious and the religious egoism (the view that only their religion is right and all other religions are wrong) planted in their minds by their own religions. Eventually, they will be able to see the humanity common in all.
They will also be able to understand the futility of the teachings, practices, rituals and beliefs that have been added to their religions after the demise of the founders of their respective religions. Then it will be difficult for religious leaders, political leaders, and clergy who arouse religious conflicts for their personal gains to continue to do so. This will also provide an opportunity for the children to re-discover and practice the spirituality that is the essence of their own religion.
However, spirituality should not be taught as a traditional style class-room based subject of which students’ performance is measured by traditional-style exams, but as a practical subject such as swimming, music, and physical exercise. After imparting theoretical knowledge in the classroom, it is necessary to engage them in practical exercises that will develop them spiritually. Such practical exercises may include religious practices as well as non-religious science-based spiritual exercises. Effectiveness of such exercises has been scientifically proved. One can choose the exercises or methods that suit best according to one’s religion, cultural background and personal tastes.
As mentioned at the outset, the need to incorporate spirituality into the country’s education is now clear if the people of the country are to develop the country. Individuals equipped with spiritual qualities is a prerequisite for developing a country. These days the economy of our country has suffered a severe setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it is no secret that the plague was caused by the indiscipline, lawlessness, dishonesty, selfishness and irresponsible behavior of the people of the country. These are all signs of spiritual immaturity. This is a simple example to show the significance of spiritually developed people for a country to develop. It is necessary to integrate spirituality in education in order to develop the people spiritually. But this is not a short-term solution. This is also not a substitute for short-term solutions. It will take at least another generation or two. But it is necessary for the future prosperity of our country.
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Hi Rohana
Your addition to the conversation is outstanding. It opens the way to think that education plays a critical role in addressing root-causes of all issues. If we can produce a person with high ethical standards and rational and positive attitudes through education, society will never be suffering like this. Because people will start thinking, achieving common well-being as a society is the way, against trying to achieve personal well-being or well-being limited to his/her family.
I agree we can create that type of mentality among masses only through education system. Reformed education system starting from very early ages. Not an easy task, but we can reap the benefits sooner or later.
Many thanks for your time to type a lengthy but very informative explanation. Best wishes for your campaign of promoting spirituality.
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Thank you Tantri for replying to my comment. I am pleased to know that you positively accept my views. Let’s act together to salvage our motherland from the crisis it has faced. Spiritual approach to solve problems requires the solver to grow spiritually and experience its benefits before promoting it and requesting others to use it. In other words, if we are to promote spiritual approach as a solution to Sri Lanka’s crisis, we should grow spiritually first and realize it’s benefits.Only then we can tell others through our own experience how spirituality works. This is a challenging task, but still possible.
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“Handing over a prosperous Sri Lanka to our children”
Is this really possible? Unlikely! As you state, if the country is sliding fast towards an abyss with no prospects for improvements in any sphere, “WE” are to be blamed! “What went wrong?” in the past cannot be corrected in the future unless we at lesast now reconsider very seriously “What is Sri Lanka good at?” for improvements. This can be attempted successfully by an individual, group, corporate and the government.
I have suggested a way forward to improve the present situation in important sectors. Despite the potential benefits and acceptance by World renowned experts, Sri Lankans prefer to ignore them. This is a classic example of the country trying to go forward either in the wrong direction or perhaps backwards.
Please refer, ‘Sri Lanka’s health financing challenge: Outsource to outsmart it’ (https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Sri-Lanka-s-health-financing-challenge-Outsource-to-outsmart-it/14-719002).
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Hi Hemal
Many thanks for very creative idea.s I am particularly interested in your statement “This can be attempted successfully by an individual, group, corporate and the government” that suggests everybody has a role. When we will realize that?
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