“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
- St. Francis of Assisi
With the ongoing economic and political crises, this Christmas may not be joyful for many Sri Lankans. Though most people around the world have come to perceive Christmas through the materialistic filters embedded in their brains by the market economies that commercialise everything from birth to death, there is no better time to make an effort to change those filters, than the Christmas itself. If one feels less joyful, then the first thing is to explore the reasons for it and find ways to counter them as St. Francis of Assisi says.
For example, politicians, professionals, religious leaders, protesters, anti-protesters, and the law enforcement as the authorities trying to stop the protests alike, have to be careful in their decision-making process, especially since the country is basically at the mercy of donor agencies such as the IMF.
Social unrest
According to the IMF blog there have been reports of social unrest coming from about 130 countries this year including some advance economies such as Canada, France, and New Zealand. They expect it to increase even further due to rising prices of food and fuel around the world and that could pose a risk to the recovery of post-pandemic global economy. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every citizen to refrain from any activity that will work against the economic recovery of his/her own country, not to mention the repercussions of such actions on the world economy.
If Sri Lanka is to receive any support from the IMF or any other international organisation of such calibre, it certainly will have to adhere to their requirements including a visible reduction of corruption, establishing transparency in government activities, and respecting and protecting the rights of all the citizens. If the law makers are only trying to suppress the protest movements instead of trying to understand the root causes of the sentiment or if the protesters’ only intention is to disrupt the government, then outcome, for the whole country, will be negative.
Another aspect Sri Lankans should be thinking of is to reduce the crime rate in the country. When a leading businessman in the country can be murdered in the broad daylight and it takes weeks, perhaps even months to find out who did it the fear any other potential investor may have can certainly be justified. As with some other similar crimes in the past, the world may never find out who was responsible for killing the businessman.
Police statistics show that there have been 435 homicides and almost 1500 reported cases of vehicle thefts in the first nine months of this year. Farm animals and property theft has also seen an increase destroying the livelihood of a lot of small farmers while there have been about 1,500 reported rape cases. In addition to all that there, of course, are all types of criminal activities, including murders, related to illegal drug trade. There can be many more unreported crimes too.
Though people are not much concerned about crime unless they themselves or some relatives or friends/neighbours are the victims, they should understand that, irrespective of the identity of the victims and/or the perpetrators, the effect of crime on the economy will be felt by everyone. Therefore, one of the reasons why people cannot enjoy this Christmas the way they expected is because of the increased rate of crime in the country.
As the saying goes “It takes a village to raise a child”. One may also say that “It takes a village to reduce crime”. People will have to find out what makes an innocent child born in this country grow up to be a criminal and then think about the ways to counter that process. That is where this criminal’s life gets connected with parents, relatives and friends, neighbors, teachers and the education system, religion and religious leaders, law enforcement and the judicial system, vendors, and other service providers all the way to the law makers of the country.
Cyclic process
Studies show that poverty is one of the reasons for an increased rate of crime. What people should understand then is that it is a cyclic process where poverty induce crime and increased criminal activities act as a constraint for economic growth which is needed to eliminate poverty. As people do in many countries around the world, as Christmas is considered as the season of giving, perhaps we can focus our attention on giving non-materialistic things, instead of using the poor economic conditions as an excuse not to give. Perhaps this is the time for all Sri Lankans, irrespective of their race or religion, to focus on the wisdom of St. Francis and create that joyful environment to someone else for “it is in giving, that we receive”. Merry Christmas!
The writer has served in the higher education sector as an academic over twenty years in the USA and fifteen years in Sri Lanka and he can be contacted at [email protected]