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MAN ABOUT LONDON |
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They'll rebound despite
inept, corrupt government
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Robert Taylor was a television producer in Sri Lanka between 1990-1992. |
By ROBERT TAYLOR
of TheColumnists.com
Sri Lanka will bounce back, in spite of its government
Sri Lanka is a teardrop of land falling from India’s southern tip into the ocean. Yet perhaps the most moving tribute paid to the country during the last few weeks came from a BBC reporter, who said that in spite of the trauma and misery of the tsunami he hadn’t seen a single Sri Lankan cry.
That’s a fairly staggering observation, considering that 30,000 people in Sri Lanka lost their lives, that a million people are homeless and that the economy of the coastal regions has been devastated.
Sri Lankans are nothing if not resilient.
That said, they need to be resilient in order to cope with an administrative system that was characterised by sheer madness even before the tsunami, and is now totally overwhelmed. Until this disaster, this administrative madness was a source of amusement to ex-patriates living in Sri Lanka. I know because I used to be one. Government departments appeared to act as though their entire raison d’etre was to create systems that were more bureaucratic than their predecessors. Just getting a local driving licence required the patience of a saint.
And big state occasions were always prone to embarrassing incidents: A 21-gun salute greeting Prince Charles in 1998 sparked a grass fire that injured a soldier--and the military band then played the theme music to "Monty Python's Flying Circus. "(To be fair the music comes from Sousa's military-style "Liberty Bell" but has been internationally associated with dead parrots and silly walks since the mid-70s.)
The administration’s attitude to corruption is also a little eccentric. The director of The Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption recently told a newspaper that his brief was “to nab” hundreds of corrupt government officials, but that his organisation had ceased to nab anyone because the government had stopped appointing officials to staff it.
We laughed at such stories in the old days, when we weren’t pulling our hair out with frustration. But they’re not funny any more--not for a country dealing with this kind of catastrophe.
But who then, if the government is out of its depth, can be relied upon at this time of acute need? International aid will play a big part, but the real answer lies with ordinary Sri Lankan people. They have their faults but, alongside resilience, pure spirit is high among their qualities.
This spirit is so positive that it enables Sri Lankans to describe their recent past--during which the country has been in the grip of a bloody civil war--as “the good times.” If they were good times, it was only because Sri Lankans made them so, refusing to be put off even by a series of massive bomb attacks in the heart of the capital, Colombo. Each of these killed hundreds, and one left an enormous crater across the road from my apartment. Yet within a few days the crater had been filled and buses were passing over it once again. This might be considered insensitive in some countries. In Sri Lanka, however, the attitude is that life can be painful, but life must go on.
And despite the civil war the country developed a thriving tourist industry, with the coastal route south of Colombo packed full of resorts, from five-star hotels to basic backpacker retreats and everything in between. It was teeming with humanity and development--the epitome of Sri Lanka’s best qualities: happy-go-lucky, generous, colourful and vibrant.
These qualities weren’t just for show. British tourists have spoken of the kindness and self-sacrifice of Sri Lankans after the waves struck, and journalists reported no fighting over food parcels, though many people hadn’t eaten for days.
The spirit of ordinary Sri Lankans also manifested itself in a quiet determination to improve life. In the 1990s learning English was the craze, and it seemed as though the whole country was united in the effort. I visited dozens of teaching centres throughout the country at that time, and one third of the population even tuned in to my badly produced language programme on television. The country applied itself to the learning task with dedication and enthusiasm. You couldn’t fail to be impressed.
And that’s why Sri Lanka will surely come through this ordeal--because ordinary people in coastal towns like Hikkaduwa, Beruwala, Galle, Hambantota and Tangalle will make sure that it does. The heart of these communities was washed away by the waves. But already people are beginning to re-build: Children are going back to school; the Beruwala fishery harbour has restarted activities; and trains down the south coast are being put back into operation.
Yes, the country’s resilience is being tested like never before, and the creaking bureaucracy is creaking more loudly than ever.
But owing to a people practiced in responding to hardship without complaint, the good times will surely return.
©2005 by Robert Taylor. The photo is courtesy of the World Vision website. This column first posted on Jan. 17, 2005.
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