Year on the Web
Year on the Web
Rannalhi
Resort
"We have arrack and Coca Cola and Keells' pork sausages,"
announced Rohan Amarasinghe proudly in answer to a German guest's question. "Everything
you like in Sri Lanka is here."
The surprise is that hotel manager Amarasinghe was not talking about Hotel Bayroo in Beruwela which he managed so successfully until October last year, but about an island in the Maldives.
The island, Velidu, is part of an attempt by major Sri Lankan hotel companies to gain a share of the profits from the lucrative tourist trade in the Maldives.
Aitken Spence have their own island, Rannalhi, consisting of newly built, Sri Lankan designed, beach mansions and cuisine much appreciated by the mainly Italian clientele.
Keells have taken over an existing resort, retaining the original rooms and infrastructure. They have transformed the island's image, however, by the genius of good management.
That leading Sri Lankan companies are looking to the Maldives for profits is a contrast to 25 years ago when tourism started there. Then the Maldives looked to Sri Lanka for guests and staff. Even now many of the barmen and chefs in the Maldives are Sri Lankan.
At the birth of the tourism industry in Maldives, Sri Lankan investment was non-existent. Maldivians are reported to have been turned down in Sri Lanka when they asked for help in financing their new industry. Now with the Maldives celebrating the silver jubilee of successful tourism by dubbing 1997 as "Visit Maldives Year", Sri Lankan hoteliers are scrambling to join in too.
An industry observer commented that the profits earned by Sri Lankan owned resorts in the Maldives will help make up for losses sustained by those companies' Sri Lankan properties.
Maldivians are concerned about the downturn in tourism in Sri Lanka. "Strong tourism in Sri Lanka helps us," one Maldivian resort owner said. "More visitors to Sri Lanka means there are more visitors to discover the Maldives too."
It is believed that the 15 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the Maldives in recent years is not due to the drop in arrivals in Sri Lanka. "Tourists are not coming to the Maldives as an alternative to going to Sri Lanka," said an observer. "The Maldives offers a different kind of holiday; the two countries are complementary to each other, not in competition."
At Velidu, manager Rohan Amarasinghe and his team of Sri Lankan executives are trying to match that appeal by concentrating on the creation of what Amarasinghe calls "a solid holiday".
"Velidu has superb reefs and beautiful lagoons for diving, together with one of the best beaches in the Maldives," he said. "Even with full occupancy of 160 guests, each couple can have their own private area and not be disturbed."
The formula for a solid holiday at Velidu relies on the food quality. "We want to give guests the best, although they are staying on half board with set menus or buffets," Amarasinghe said. "We want Velidu to be renowned for its food as well as for the Sri Lankan touch."
[Condensed from interviews the author has had with Dr. Ranil Senanayake, Goviya Mudiyanse Tennekoon, Prof. Gerry Moles, Patrick Harrigan and Swami Siva Kalki/Mike Wilson]
In their haste to consolidate political power, have our politicians ever addressed the thing they seek power over ? A country, a land and its people !
One does not have to be an expert to understand the health of the land. The land speaks to us so very clearly. Let’s look around. The patches of bare land daily increasing while the vegetation cover decreases. Look at the hills on any rainy day. Streams of liquid soil flow towards the sea. The waters of streams and rivers once clean and crystal clear are now cloudy with chemical taints or bacterial blooms. Some rivers are unsafe even for bathing. The air is also getting dirtier and more poisonous. Yet, who speaks for the land ?
Our leaders seem to have grasped firmly ideas of a free economy, the ‘new industrialized country’ (NIC) label as our goal with material prosperity, but where are the considerations, for social and cultural equity, environmental stability or agricultural sustainability ?
In addressing our relationship with the land, we need to question the wisdom of seeing land merely as a commodity to be traded or used in the generation of profit. The issue has deep philosophical implications. What should our attitude be ? One of individual or profit maximization with scant regard to consequences, or one of custodianship, protecting and developing its potential for the next generation ? The need for a land ethic is being voiced in many nations. Yet, why do we, a Govigama-Vellala majority who profess a land ethic produce such a ravaged land ? Is this how we demonstrate our love for our motherland ?
As human beings living in Sri Lanka, we have witnessed the fact that trees have got smaller; the dusty nature of a drought is experienced even in non-drought years; the top-soil has almost disappeared in many parts; the forests are gone; the wild trees refugial in many eco-systems and puranagama villagers with thousands of years of inherited experience turned into refugees. Up to now we have not demonstrated much responsibility for our actions.
This thinking has also produced a poor appreciation of our place in a far larger, very real system; the Planet. We are heir to all its problems and must plan to deal with projected changes.
For instance, according to Dr. Ranil Senanayake, considerations of present global warming trends, suggest that much of Jaffna will become unproductive by the underground acquifier being impacted by rising sea levels. This effect can also see the demise of coastal agriculture through salt intrusion. What does Prabhakaran think of this ?
In a house where the parents are squabbling, it is not easy for the children to draw their attention to a kitchen fire. Yes, it is a sad fact that we have allowed violence from all quarters of our society, to eclipse the violence being perpetrated on the land. A kind of violence which, if left unchecked, will threaten the very basis of life. Bakeries, clay tiles and brick houses - all require timber and trees.
Without our concern or commitment to the land, the process of erosion will degrade many production systems and drive many natural systems to extinction.
Develop, yes, develop we must. We must develop a healthy population, develop a sustainable production system and develop a benign future. The development of cancers, erosion and physical and verbal violence in every home cannot be gains.
When the world is looking to Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) as a valid social and economic goal, we should expand our national focus from the present NIC status we are trying to achieve.
Are we to become a New Industrialised Country (NIC) with centralised computers linking every market on the planet, fixing prices and manipulating information flow, or are we better off with Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD) preserving for future generations our independence to think for ourselves while protecting our natural and cultural resources ? This question must be answered first by every single person, seeking public office and power. Sri Lanka is not the private property of any single individual, family or political party and a change in regime does not necessarily mean a change in attitude.
The Presidency versus Parliament battle is a political crisis. The Eelam war is also a political crisis. If there was peace and Eelam won, can we trust Prabhakaran to consider the environment ? Won’t he too choose the NIC dream?
Unfortunately, with our mass mediated interest in non-issues, we have forgotten or chosen to ignore, the real crisis - that of the land and its culture. Any person aspiring to public office should pledge and demonstrate very clearly their commitment to the fundamental needs of our land and its people.
From President Chandrika to Ranil, from Anura to Dinesh, they must all first demonstrate an understanding of and a firm commitment to the physical reality of the land and the living reality of its culture. The constitution, Pajeros, power and guns must come later.
These considerations transcend matters of State and Constitution. For 49 years, since our so-called independence, our city based political leaders have played with the electorate using every means in their power to hoodwink the public. It is this hypocrisy and double standards that have led to the current alienation between rulers and the ruled and the mass media has always played the middleman.
While we are examining the basis for constitutional change, it is the best time for all aspirants to leadership to proclaim their commitment to a common goal that affects all of us irrespective of the culture we represent or the language we speak. For instance, it seems very plausible that within the next 25 years, we will have over 14 million environmental refugees in our region. Have we thought of such a contingency ? No. The public knows that it is the myopic vision of our political leadership that has brought to us our present debacles, from the erosion of land, to the monoculture of pinus as forests, to the war in the North and the East to frustrated Sinhala and Tamil youth.
Information control vested in the hands of idiots, can do a great deal of damage. However, situations such as we are confronting today is nothing new. We have been told that, once upon a time two contenders crossed swords over who would sit on the gem set throne of Lanka. This dispute needed the Buddha to settle it!
We are now witnessing the disintegration of systems and ideologies introduced to us by various alien cultures. Instead of having the settled wisdom to see things as they really are, our political leadership is once again trying to get the whole nation embroiled in the decadence that results from their own pathological ‘will to govern’ and ‘dominate’. Enforcement and guns follow !
In 1924, Ananda Coomaraswamy made a very important statement about ‘the will to govern’. I refer to ‘Individuality, Autonomy and Function’ (Svabhava, svarajya, sva-dharma) - the last of fourteen essays in his book. ‘The Dance of Shiva’.
Coomaraswamy’s masterly multi-disciplinary perspective in analysing the breakdown of traditional cultures is vital to us today, as we see several contenders to the Throne. How can power be shared ?
The deadline oriented mass media which now informs us often lacks the background vision necessary to analyse the information that confronts it. Without wisdom to operate it, information leads to Babel.
What we are confronting today is self-assertion. Everybody thinks that he or she is right. In addition, to prove purity, someone else’s lack of it is publicly discussed. This makes ........ it sells newspapers, magazines and starts ‘poster wars’ and adds to the chaos that already surrounds us. Every method is permitted in a democracy except supposedly the gun. We must, however, not forget that the pen is always the forerunner. A fight is always over who is right and who is wrong.
What then are the facts ? Do those who want to shape and mould the destiny of Sri Lanka really understand what ‘power’ is or for that matter what Sri Lanka represents?
This we feel is the crucial issue. Amidst this ‘Tower of Babel’ can we have clarity of thought?
For example, can we outline and agree on a resource use strategy that all can agree on? Whether Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay or Burgher, the elements are common to all. If a land and resource use policy can be spelt out and agreed to at a referendum the implementing agency could be anyone. Country managers giving themselves titles like ‘Your Excellency’ is only pandering to individual vanity. It doesn’t help the country much.
I am presenting the options I believe are open to us. Intelligence alone will decide which option we will follow. Historical truth is not what has happened, it is what we judge to have happened.
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