A DIRECTION….FOR DEVELOPMENT

 

As yet another February 4^th passes each year, Vidya Jyothi Dr Ray Wijewardene, Scientist, engineer and presently Chancellor of Moratuwa University, suggests that even after 55 years, ‘ independence’ is still a confusing word for most of us, Sri Lankans.

 

On ‘globalisation’ and ‘…dependence’.

Ever since the late ‘40s, the word ‘independence’, - and indeed its source in the word ‘dependence’- have special and troublesome meaning for us Sri Lanka as in much of the ‘developing’ world. Are we independent?…to what extent?....and of whom?...and of what? Clarification of this dilemma would, I believe, greatly help define directions for national progress…And thereby the direction which development programs should take for achieving those national objectives.

 ‘Globalisation’

Recently another troubling and - iniquitous- word’ globalisation’ has emerged as a turbo- charged re-incarnation of the colonial era, to further confuse the context of dependence….But perhaps the word ‘globalisation’, needs to be better understood as ‘inter-dependence’.

 Inter- dependence

No- one ….neither person nor nation …..is truly in-dependent . We are all ‘ inter-dependent’ upon each other. Parents and children,- even when adult, - are usually happily inter-dependent upon each other. It constitutes a warm bond of mutual understanding and is healthy. As Shakespeare wrote of ‘ the quality of mercy ‘ . It ‘ is not strained. It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. ‘ Friendship, likewise , is a happy state of mutual ‘ inter-dependence’.

 Non - dependence

Yet, despite the warm and mutual desirability of inter-dependence , we all need , strictly, to preserve areas of non-dependence. Should either parent or children,.. or even friends…become over- dependent upon each other, then the bond suffers. It becomes ‘strained’.

 Like wise… while nations strive mutually to preserve the one-world (globalisation) principles of inter-dependence , there are certain areas in which it is expedient- and desirable - for each to be non-dependent. Such desirability has had to be faced by each nation from its very beginnings. By South Africa…by Israel,,…by India…by Cuba,…and by Pakistan to mention just a few. And for each, the particular areas and their corresponding degrees of non- dependence have necessarily and critically to be defined according to their own perceived sensitivities and vulnerabilities.

 World authorities on international relations within our midst , Garmini Corea , and J.B. Kelegama to name just two, have long explained that the ideal of ‘ globalisation’ could only prevail between nations of comparable resources and opportunities…. that those less privileged would necessarily have to safeguard and protect their integrity in well- defined, critical and vulnerable areas. In fact most new nations have been very firm in defining the areas in which they would - for strategic reasons - preserve non- dependence …For to compromise in these would mean compromising their integrity and a need to succumb to greater and greater external pressures. Beggars are never choosers!.

 Directions for Development.

 A clear definition of these areas of ‘non-dependence’ is essential for providing a direction for national development…and thereby to provide a direction for national development programs. While there must also be the societal( political) commitment towards these objectives, such needs to be initiated by groups such as yours, rather than dictated to them by the politician.

 Defining ‘ Non- Dependence’

While accepting the broad ideals of ‘globalisation’ of mutual ‘inter-dependence,’ - we in Sri Lanka need, as mentioned earlier, to be aware of a re- incarnation of the colonial era… now in more subtle form. We need clearly to define those areas in which- for national integrity- we develop and maintain strict non- dependence….Areas such as:

                         a. Food and nutrition for all our people.

                        b. Health and wellness for our people

                        c. Energy for national development

 

Food & Nutrition

In this area one necessarily refers to the basic principles of nutrition for all….Not the ‘ corn-flakes’ nor the “Scotch’….nor the ‘ marmalade’….but rather the ‘bread- and butter’…or more specifically the ‘ rice and curry’ basics for sustaining very adequate levels of national nutrition. And these basics need to be both available and affordable.

 Both agricultural scientists as well as nutritionists have affirmed the technologies by which such basic needs can be achieved….provided a political and national commitment is made. And commensurate with such an objective would be non-dependence for the ‘inputs’ for achieving such a state of nutritional non- dependence. But no such commitment, nor direction, presently exist! Our scientists, too, have failed to assert that such objectives ARE achievable. It has been easier to acquiesce…to accept the dictum that food , and the inputs therefore, would need to be imported…..History has, however, proved this untrue,- and non-expedient!

 A firm political commitment towards non- dependence for food and nutrition would very quickly galvanise the re-direction of development endeavour towards this end. As it has in Israel, in Cuba , and in the host of other counties when their backs came against the wall. But is it necessary that we wait until…..?

 Health and Wellness

Sri Lanka was once justifiably acknowledged to have a high index in Quality- Of - Life (QOL) and we were proud of our standards of ‘health’. But the most erudite in this area would sadly affirm that our sate of ‘ wellness’  has declined since then,- even over the past half century, and this despite heavy (and often misdirected) expenditure on ‘health’!...Most  crucial is the growing awareness that even such decline in ‘wellness’ is poised critically upon an imported technology and inputs which we, as still a ‘ developing’ nation, are pressed to maintain.

 We in Sri Lanka, have a lot to learn from India which faced a similar predicament and circumstance several decades ago. A firm but subtle political commitment toward achieving EAL self-sufficiency in health has supported a rapidly growing restoration of both indigenous as well as nationally-sustainable technologies, despite the endeavours of the World-Trade-Organisation (WTO) to topple them. But India has proven too large to topple that easily.

 By no means is the medico-health technology of the west inappropriate ….. What IS inappropriate (and dangerous) is the tendency for its adoption in a non-sustainable manner, rather than its adaptation towards the goal of sustained national wellness. A clear definition of, - and political commitment to, - such ideals is necessary for a re-direction of development endeavour towards non-dependence upon external resources for the wellness of the nation. We should also remember that pollution, the pollution on our roads for example, is sourced almost entirely from ‘imported’ – petroleum – commodities. Hence ‘Majang’.

 Energy for national development.

There can be no argument but that in the present era ENERGY is very necessary for national development….for domestic lighting, for industry, for transport. But the present tendency for increasing dependence upon external sources for a major – and critical – portion of this energy makes us most vulnerable….. It is inadequately appreciated that while ‘hydro-power’ is a nationally renewable resource, its availability has peaked. A very limited quantum of solar-energy (photo-voltaic) and wind-power can be harnessed – albeit at very high cost – for remote areas…. However, this does not yet, nor for the foreseeable future, appear to be available in the larger quantities and at prices needed for national development. Therefore our future increases in energy will necessarily be ‘thermal’. (i.e. some fuel will have to be burned.)

 Two options – oil and coal – for thermal energy have been heavily debated for propriety as well as location. Both are heavily polluting of the environment. And the cost for the imported coal (now acknowledged as the cheaper of the two) to meet the country’s future (and even present) needs of thermal generation would require the expenditure of VAST amounts of foreign exchange. In fact, the foreign exchange required for imported coal to meet the country’s anticipated grid-electricity requirements by 2010 would utilize ALL the country’s earnings from the export of tea, rubber and coconut, combined! … with nothing left for food; even for transport..

 Short-Rotation-Coppice (SRC)

Fortunately for Sri Lanka there IS a local fully sustainable source for thermal energy from fuel-wood. Termed SRC (Short-Rotation-Coppice.), not to be confused with the cutting down of forest trees, it is the systematic and dense growing of identified, fast –growing, trees (nearly all are indigenous and nitrogen-fixing such as gliricidia,) in which only certain branches (coppices, or prunings, or pollards) are rotationally lopped. Most of the green-foliage of the tree is retained to continuingly absorb all the CO2 which would be produced from their combustion. Loppings also provide valuable fodder and soil-protecting mulch. Such environmentally benign conditions do not pertain to thermal energies evolved from any of the imported fuels, either coal or oil. Further, the costs for generating thermal energy from these (sustainable) fuel-wood plantations is LESS than the costs for coal-powered electricity… and will be even LOWER in the future with the costs for these imported fuels continuing to escalate dramatically.

 Interestingly, the growing of SRC for fuel is now recognized the world over as a highly appropriate farm crop (rather than just as ‘forestry’) … And particularly in the humid-tropics with year-round sunshine yielding year-round growth. It provides an ideal source of steady ‘background’ income for farmers (in the order of Rs. 90,000 per year per family on a three- hectare fuel-wood-lot) in those parts of the country which are the least developed; and without any interference, whatever, with their traditional cultivations. It is also a very viable industry for the vast areas (over 150,000 hectares, in fact) of our lesser-developed dry-zone regions, as most SRC fuel-wood trees thrive even where food-crops do not!

 The availability of cheap fossil fuels over the past century has deluded even the developed nations! Renewable energies fuelled the needs of the world in easier times, and will certainly be relied upon in the future. In all of the ‘developed’ world….in Europe, USA, etc. as well as in major counties of the developing world…in China, Brazil, India etc……very considerable incentives are being directed towards the use of renewable energies in place of fast – declining fossil fuels. And let us also remember that major world powers have shown willingness even to go to war to preserve their own access to dwindling fossil – fuel resources! …and we in Sri Lanka are at the remote end of that ‘pipe-line’.

 A political commitment towards the goal of non-dependence for energy could well accelerate such achievement in Sri Lanka too. But this needs that our public development programs, as well as our scientists and engineers  to whom politicians naturally turn for guidance , themselves acknowledge the need for re- direction of policy towards this  very desirable….and achievable goal.

 New horizons…..

We in Sri Lanka are truly blessed with resources. We do NOT need to bemoan our lack of fossil fuels… That was ancient ‘sun shine’ captured in trees and vegetation billions of years ago. For, you will all recall that sun shine is the source of ALL energy. How-ever, we in the humid – tropics are blessed with ‘ present day’ sun shine…. year –round sun shine in perpetual summers.

 I must admit that our scientists in Sri Lanka have failed to take a lead helping exploit the vast resources with which this country is blessed…  and not only to the extent of ‘ writing a paper’  for some foreign journal… or publishing pious recommendations; but ensuring that their research is both socially and financially sound in the context of this (their) country. While VERY few of our scientific research effort meet this criteria, it needs also to be accepted that there has NEVER – SO FAR , been a clear statement of national development policy nor complementary goals towards which science and engineering can be directed. It is people such as you ….leaders in a wide range of social circles,… who can help define those goals towards which our nation should, and can develop.