This essay attempts to explain some of
the dynamics of cultures in which we live in and is relevant to Sri Lanka,
still steeped in too much emphasis of the past, with little desire for a vision
of a future, which succinctly explains, Singapore’s success when compared to Sri
Lanka’s inertia. The baggage called HISTORY.
The USA vs Iran war of words is a lesson
in international priorities. The USA a country barely 250 years, and that is
due to the original inhabitants directly or indirectly being massacred by the
conquering invaders, who have no score for culture or history, with waves of
recent immigrants, including both parents of Donald Trump, German and Scottish
ancestry, whose view of the world is to live the American Dream, namely to
acquire wealth as a mark of success. Power only came to him by chance when he
skillfully used his wealth to fill a void and need in society for an outsider
to enter the game, no matter what personality type he displayed, or how many
times he was declared a bankrupt and why.
Iran on the other hand with thousands of
years of history and the cradle of civilization, has been unable to curb state sponsored
corruption that has kept the populace enjoying a much lower quality of life,
which has led its more entrepreneurial and professional elites to emigrate, leaving
a country in the hands of Mullahs and Militarists in the still anachronistic
words of the Revolutionary Guards! Despite being a country that has immense oil
wealth, which could have allowed its population to have a significantly higher
standard of living, the leaders have chosen to follow policies of jingoistic
connotations, and anti-Israeli sentiments to pursue a Nuclear Arms Race, that
has resulted in sanctions and lack of ability to benefit from their resources. All
they needed was to stop their Nuclear ambitions and the sanctions would have
been lifted. It is likely, they would now have a GNP twice or three times what
it actually does.
This pursuit was due to sheer arrogance,
pursuing policies in the Middle East aimed at dominating their neighbors and
spending the little money they have in war games and militias to exert this
control and giving almost cart blanch to a killing machine in the form of Suleimani
to pursue his own foreign policy!
The curse for the rest of us was that we
had never heard of this man until his demise, and question why. Was it a
deliberate attempt of the West to deny him notoriety by suppressing his name
knowing full well he was behind the deaths of countless number of people? I
would love to know the answer to that.
It is clear then that countries mired in
the baggage called history, that created policies that are detrimental to the
improvement in the quality of life of the people, and not tolerating dissent,
has created a closed society not open to growth.
1 comment:
History is a curse, as most of it is not accurate and changes all the time depending on the whims and fancies of the people. Therefore even history that is handed down is also full of half truths and downright lies as they too were written with disinformation in mind.
It is likely that much of written history in Sri Lanka is factually incorrect and when you have a society living in false history you even have a worse position as they are full of lies and hatred of others caused by lies you believe.
Answer is to look to the future, and don't look at history as gospel, just another interesting novel only. You can then concentrate on developing your country for the future and for the benefit of the people living in it. That is the only way for the people of Sri Lanka to have a better quality of life, as envisioned in your blog as the original intent of it.
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