December 23, 2011, 7:03 pm , The Island
by Vijaya Jayasuriya
‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ was the captivating title of an English film we enjoyed immensely in our young days several decades ago. Each of the main characters in this movie represented one of these traits inherent in themselves and it was their impact on each other that built up the plot and the story of this creation.
However it is an esteemed theory in the study of literature that there is no neatly defined demarcation between good people and bad ones and the human beings are a mixture of both these qualities. Not withstanding this formal literary theory we in the current social milien often happen to deal with people mostly with atrocious characteristics only concerned with one’s own private gain to the detriment of their fellow beings, while there are also very few good souls who really care for the others’ welfare.
The other day we were looking for a house to be taken on a lease for a friend who is a retired bachelor and needed a quiet place to engage in his religious practices. We selected a house advertised for renting by a fabulously rich man who consented to give it on a lease for six months. As the tenant requested to put up a fence and a gate in front of the house the landlord promised to get it done too.
However when our friend talked to the landlord on the phone next day his wife had said point blank that the house had been given over to another tenant as he did not make a fuss about putting up a fence and a gate. The news came as a thunder bolt to our friend as he had already sent word to his present landlord that he was leaving and had also requested a refund of the rental he had paid for the coming six months. A quick withdrawal of this request saved our friend from having to step on to the road as the house would well have been rented out to another tenant had he delayed the withdrawal of his letter informing his wish to leave the house where he is living currently.
*********************
In any civilized society there is an accepted system of values that guide the people to practice non-hindrance and non-violence. In our traditional society this system is also called ‘Sirith-Virith’ – meaning good actions and those one should avoid respectively. For example when somebody happens to stand hindering our movement in a corridor or on a pavement we say ‘Excuse me’ which displays a knowledge of good values (or manners) which is called ‘sirith’ in Sinhala while the act of carelessly blocking other’s way is bad form (virith) that you must guard against.
Selfishness and the ensuing pursuit of only one’s own welfare caring little for others is the factor that promotes this inconsiderate attitude in most people in our society. The conduct of our drivers is a clear index of this deplorable nature – how they vie with each other to get ahead as if engaged in a never-ending race – infact as part of the rat race many people are engrossed in ad libitum almost in advertently. The most harmful aspect of it is how such senseless behaviour surely on a collision course adversely affect the others who badly need a tranquil mentality to drive peacefully without detriment to the lives of other road-users. What a Sri Lankan doctor’s wife domiciled in Australia whom I met at a family wedding recently told me almost mirthfully is that she would have to stay put in one place on the road holding on to the steering wheel fearing to move if she were to drive a vehicle in Sri Lanka while she very conveniently drives their car in that country!
Also most drivers park their vehicles with not a whit of thought spared for other drivers. With an ever increasing number of these formidable machines vying for space in our public car parks as well as private premises, drivers have to be extremely considerate to allow others to use such places without hassle.
*********************
The underworld elements who deserve both the epithets – the bad and the ugly is a problem that should be treated in a broader socio-educational perspective as it is our age-old and ramshackle system of education that is totally responsible for this unwieldy social problem. With the fast increasing population of school-goers the heavy number of ‘unserviceable’ drop-outs added to the fabric of society year in year out keep aggravating this conundrum of human wastrels who are naturally bound to take to all types of anti-social ‘games’ as a convenient livelihood.
An abortive schooling is the root cause of a society of undesirables with little understanding of social values which a student normally learns not from the formal education through subjects but also via fairly extensive reading of particularly indigenous literature, Guiles of various types, the kind of which I used as my point of departure, that people use to trick others are widely illustrated in both the short stories and novels by our local writers – a simple example being the story of ‘Kiribaba’ in the well-known chronicle ‘Ape Gama’ by our doyen of writers Martin Wickramasinha. While engaged in killing hundreds of fish in the river he refrains from punishing a rogue mouse and also admonishes a boy who tries to put a red ant into water. While the writer defends Kiribaba for his ignorance we also understand the hypocrisy of it if we view it critically.
The task of educating children should encompass a follow-up programme of professional guidance while the actual teaching programme is badly in need of a reorientation and revitalisation to do away with the existing sluggishness in its inherent activities. For example in the current system of education there is little concern for the actual employment of them in the job market except for a haphazardly implemented programme like the computer training.
Every individual student leaving the school should be the responsibility of the local administrative authorities – the Gas and GAs so that records of their future is well-known to the society. Rather than restricting their task to the preparation of voters’ lists prior to each and every election, keeping a tab on every citizen by means of a programme set up with the co-ordination of the police too is one way of avoiding the proliferation of criminal elements in society. It will also reduce the trouble the police have to take in tracing culprits after each secret theft or murder thereby doing away with expenditure involved as well. As it is, the half-baked citizens produced by the school is nobody’s responsibility and thus become undesirables unless they themselves stumble upon some precarious and often nondescript livelihood.
Apart from the top-flight thinking involved to plan out such a comprehensive scheme, what is indispensable in this exercise is an official hierarchy with not only mere academic and admin qualifications but a true humanitarian, patriotic and altruistic turn of mind as well. It is only such personalities who are prepared to go out of one’s way in the discharge of one’s duties that hold the potential for making a success of the type of programme outlined above. As for the vast majority ensconced in their ivory towers today, such a grandiose scheme would be a mere pipedream!
A fine example is an effort made by me recently to focus the attention of a minister on the sordid state of a certain institution meant for training English teachers. Suffice it to say that none of the individuals holding top positions in this English medium college possess qualifications in English, nor can they speak the target language of students cie. (ie. English) adequately well while some are mere monolingual ‘parachutists’ with only qualifications in Sinhala. The lethargy of our officials was so deep-seated that my voluntary offer for specialist guidance in order to extricate this vital institution from the mire of unproductive state it is in at present was only heeded to deserve a routine reply without making it reach the political authority.
Our attitude to public service is yet another case of bad and ugly nature that hardly bodes well for the future of this (still) developing country of ours and a drastic change of this indifference to our duties is vitally required if we are to achieve half the goals being envisaged.
by Vijaya Jayasuriya
‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ was the captivating title of an English film we enjoyed immensely in our young days several decades ago. Each of the main characters in this movie represented one of these traits inherent in themselves and it was their impact on each other that built up the plot and the story of this creation.
However it is an esteemed theory in the study of literature that there is no neatly defined demarcation between good people and bad ones and the human beings are a mixture of both these qualities. Not withstanding this formal literary theory we in the current social milien often happen to deal with people mostly with atrocious characteristics only concerned with one’s own private gain to the detriment of their fellow beings, while there are also very few good souls who really care for the others’ welfare.
The other day we were looking for a house to be taken on a lease for a friend who is a retired bachelor and needed a quiet place to engage in his religious practices. We selected a house advertised for renting by a fabulously rich man who consented to give it on a lease for six months. As the tenant requested to put up a fence and a gate in front of the house the landlord promised to get it done too.
However when our friend talked to the landlord on the phone next day his wife had said point blank that the house had been given over to another tenant as he did not make a fuss about putting up a fence and a gate. The news came as a thunder bolt to our friend as he had already sent word to his present landlord that he was leaving and had also requested a refund of the rental he had paid for the coming six months. A quick withdrawal of this request saved our friend from having to step on to the road as the house would well have been rented out to another tenant had he delayed the withdrawal of his letter informing his wish to leave the house where he is living currently.
*********************
In any civilized society there is an accepted system of values that guide the people to practice non-hindrance and non-violence. In our traditional society this system is also called ‘Sirith-Virith’ – meaning good actions and those one should avoid respectively. For example when somebody happens to stand hindering our movement in a corridor or on a pavement we say ‘Excuse me’ which displays a knowledge of good values (or manners) which is called ‘sirith’ in Sinhala while the act of carelessly blocking other’s way is bad form (virith) that you must guard against.
Selfishness and the ensuing pursuit of only one’s own welfare caring little for others is the factor that promotes this inconsiderate attitude in most people in our society. The conduct of our drivers is a clear index of this deplorable nature – how they vie with each other to get ahead as if engaged in a never-ending race – infact as part of the rat race many people are engrossed in ad libitum almost in advertently. The most harmful aspect of it is how such senseless behaviour surely on a collision course adversely affect the others who badly need a tranquil mentality to drive peacefully without detriment to the lives of other road-users. What a Sri Lankan doctor’s wife domiciled in Australia whom I met at a family wedding recently told me almost mirthfully is that she would have to stay put in one place on the road holding on to the steering wheel fearing to move if she were to drive a vehicle in Sri Lanka while she very conveniently drives their car in that country!
Also most drivers park their vehicles with not a whit of thought spared for other drivers. With an ever increasing number of these formidable machines vying for space in our public car parks as well as private premises, drivers have to be extremely considerate to allow others to use such places without hassle.
*********************
The underworld elements who deserve both the epithets – the bad and the ugly is a problem that should be treated in a broader socio-educational perspective as it is our age-old and ramshackle system of education that is totally responsible for this unwieldy social problem. With the fast increasing population of school-goers the heavy number of ‘unserviceable’ drop-outs added to the fabric of society year in year out keep aggravating this conundrum of human wastrels who are naturally bound to take to all types of anti-social ‘games’ as a convenient livelihood.
An abortive schooling is the root cause of a society of undesirables with little understanding of social values which a student normally learns not from the formal education through subjects but also via fairly extensive reading of particularly indigenous literature, Guiles of various types, the kind of which I used as my point of departure, that people use to trick others are widely illustrated in both the short stories and novels by our local writers – a simple example being the story of ‘Kiribaba’ in the well-known chronicle ‘Ape Gama’ by our doyen of writers Martin Wickramasinha. While engaged in killing hundreds of fish in the river he refrains from punishing a rogue mouse and also admonishes a boy who tries to put a red ant into water. While the writer defends Kiribaba for his ignorance we also understand the hypocrisy of it if we view it critically.
The task of educating children should encompass a follow-up programme of professional guidance while the actual teaching programme is badly in need of a reorientation and revitalisation to do away with the existing sluggishness in its inherent activities. For example in the current system of education there is little concern for the actual employment of them in the job market except for a haphazardly implemented programme like the computer training.
Every individual student leaving the school should be the responsibility of the local administrative authorities – the Gas and GAs so that records of their future is well-known to the society. Rather than restricting their task to the preparation of voters’ lists prior to each and every election, keeping a tab on every citizen by means of a programme set up with the co-ordination of the police too is one way of avoiding the proliferation of criminal elements in society. It will also reduce the trouble the police have to take in tracing culprits after each secret theft or murder thereby doing away with expenditure involved as well. As it is, the half-baked citizens produced by the school is nobody’s responsibility and thus become undesirables unless they themselves stumble upon some precarious and often nondescript livelihood.
Apart from the top-flight thinking involved to plan out such a comprehensive scheme, what is indispensable in this exercise is an official hierarchy with not only mere academic and admin qualifications but a true humanitarian, patriotic and altruistic turn of mind as well. It is only such personalities who are prepared to go out of one’s way in the discharge of one’s duties that hold the potential for making a success of the type of programme outlined above. As for the vast majority ensconced in their ivory towers today, such a grandiose scheme would be a mere pipedream!
A fine example is an effort made by me recently to focus the attention of a minister on the sordid state of a certain institution meant for training English teachers. Suffice it to say that none of the individuals holding top positions in this English medium college possess qualifications in English, nor can they speak the target language of students cie. (ie. English) adequately well while some are mere monolingual ‘parachutists’ with only qualifications in Sinhala. The lethargy of our officials was so deep-seated that my voluntary offer for specialist guidance in order to extricate this vital institution from the mire of unproductive state it is in at present was only heeded to deserve a routine reply without making it reach the political authority.
Our attitude to public service is yet another case of bad and ugly nature that hardly bodes well for the future of this (still) developing country of ours and a drastic change of this indifference to our duties is vitally required if we are to achieve half the goals being envisaged.
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