It’s a good life after all – Sri Lanka still remains truly a paradise Isle

Kalpanakaranna, I say this time and time again and then you will really be able to see the wood from the trees and analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If we in Sri Lanka spend half as much time, as we spend of cutting this country down, in looking at how fortunate we are, I am sure in time we will learn to be more positive about the prospects, have courage to remove the unsavory people in positions of power, and take control of our destiny and maximize the Island’s potential.

The GNP per capita is now at Rs170,000 for every man woman and child. Granted that half of GNP is just in the Western Province and the uneven distribution means the rest of the country still suffers from a substantially lower figure. In terms of purchasing power parity this is equivalent to US6,000, which is a very respectable figure, as there are many things we do not need for basic living like warm clothing, heat and insulated homes.

Due to the nature and graciousness of our society no one really starves, and there are many who at least offer to share there last meal even if they don’t know when or from where the next meal will come. I have been both the recipient of such assistance and the provider of such assistance and can at first hand state that there are hardly any people who are actually starving.

We must therefore get away from the siege insecurity and get above this beggar mentality to look at ourselves as one of the most fortunate nations on earth in most respects. It is only the humans who live in this land who have made life difficult, and not acts of God or lack of fertility for growing anything we care to imagine.

People are very spoilt in believing that three square meals a day is their right and not a privilege and live gratefully that they get to eat at all while much of the world even the western world, where more calories are required just to stay alive, go hungry and more so due to the lay offs and lack of health care.

With no unemployment, no hunger, is it no wonder that most people prefer not to work if they have a choice. We are therefore swimming in the senses of satisfaction, contentment, and adequacy to want to do anything about it except complain for the sake of it. I am no heartless wretch for saying all this, as if you really know me and see how I live, you may wonder how I survive on so little, but remain positive in being able to overcome the void.