A Voice from the Silent Majority

When we are going to think of the time to do something there are two times we have to consider the Actual Time & Sri Lankan Time. (It becomes three if we consider auspicious times/රාහු කාලය as well)

Sri Lanka as a nation is late. We all know it, and all of us contribute towards it. We are late when it comes to bringing on important education reforms, important laws (seat belt law for example), responding to critical situations. But most of all when it comes to going to a place on time we are late (including me).

From the tender years of our lives we are told many things about punctuality and all of us remember the wise words of our elders. One favorite quote is “Value of time is equal to the value of gold/ කාලය රන් හා සමානයි”. So we all know the virtues of working on time. But the thing is we never make an effort to be somewhere on time. Unless we know that we have to make a very good impression. (Job interviews and exams are not the only to be on time.)

There are several reasons for being late, one being our laziness. On a day without traffic I can go to university in about 30mins if I travel by car. So this is the time I allocate for my trip to university every day I go in a vehicle. I’m too lazy to consider factors such as weather, traffic , accidents. So when these factors are adverse I’m late. (so I have to spend the extra time to come up with colorful excuses to tell the lecturers as the reason for being late.)

Another reason for being late (which by the way is very popular) is that we think that others would be late. We see this especially when it comes to departing on a trip. During my whole life I have never left on a trip on time. So most people come late intentionally because they think others will come late. These people even go to the extent of making fun of the people who actually came on time (“අපි දන්න හින්ද තමයි වෙලවට ආවෙ නැත්තෙ”).

(When I was small in about year 7 or year 8, when it was the day to go on the class trip I wanted to leave home as early as possible, I really thought my whole class would come on time and would leave without me. So being there on time was a serious business. I used to freak out, urging my father to get ready saying that he’s going to make me late, and if I’m really lucky I would get to leave the house by the time I was supposed to be in school. And when I got to school I find myself belonging to the few people who came early. I would be so angry with my class mates. I would also find out that I have left some important stuff at home in my haste to leave home. Now it’s my father’s time to yell at me for all the nagging and bothering I did earlier. This is how I picked up the habit of intentionally being late.)

There are also some who think it’s fashionable to be late, and then get all the attention of some place. I think it were the politicians who were the trendsetters this time. When it came to gracing an occasion they were always late. I remember waiting and waiting during prize givings at school waiting for the relevant politicians to come. (I’m sure my thoughts during those moments, which mind you were long, would have brought many ill effects to the parents’ of those politicians.)

Guys used to employ this technique a lot to during A/Ls classes to make sure the girls knew that they existed. (Nowadays we seem to have outgrown that habit. But I’m certain the current A/Ls students have taken up this, to replace us.)

And for all those humble souls who get late thanks to feeble memories, well I feel for you. You just can’t help being late.

Since i myself is guilty of being late, i don't think i'm in any position to offer advice on the matter. So if some one does have advice it would be appreciated.

Remember “Better late than never, but never late is better”.

To get from university to my house I have to take a minimum of 3 busses no matter what route I take. Each day I travel by bus, I lose about Rs.5 – Rs. 15 thanks to beggars. Statistically I meet a minimum of 1 beggar each day during my return journey. Since I go to university early in the morning, in crowded busses I don’t meet any on my way to campus. (this is the time I meet pick pocket guys, so I have constantly touch both my trouser pockets to make sure my purse and phone are still there.)

Beggars come in various shapes and sizes and but usually with the same old story. Some have incurable diseases, others have a big family to feed, and some have just lost their job, these are the common stories. Some have hideous and scary skin diseases that people would give him anything to make him get off. There are also the singers. They get on the bus with some instrument and drive us to the very edge of insanity by singing something which is so out of tune. (Now I know how Asterix a.k.a Suura Pappa and Obelix a.k.a Jim Pappa must’ve felt when Cacofonix a.k.a Kaako Pappa was singing) And beggars even threaten and insult people when they don’t give money. (And all people just let them do it).

Then there is the occasional English speaking beggar. He is usually a security officer or a clerk who lost his job at some government institution. (Well that is according to them.) Sri Lankans think that if somebody can speak English that person has a better social standing. It is this thinking that this beggar wants to exploit. They hope that English will help them to convince people of their story.

The interesting thing about most of these people are that they have the strength in their arms and legs to do something useful to the society other than living off our hard earned money. (Well I must admit that they also earn money through hard work, gosh getting in the right bus with the right amount of people and then yelling away is hard work.) But I guess they earn more through begging than they earn through some other job why else would they resort to begging.

Once a beggar with a very different story boarded the bus I was travelling. This was a young guy dressed in denims and this guy went on to elaborate how he didn’t complete his schooling properly as he got addicted to drugs, and how he was rehabilitated after getting caught to the police while stealing clothes. (At this point I was thinking ok now what is he coming to?) Then he asked the people for money saying it was their responsibility to give him money to stop him from going back on to drugs. (Man, what the hell?) I just couldn’t help laughing.

Until recently I was very careful when giving some change, and never ever gave money to kids because I’m of the opinion that if they go for easy cash they will never know the importance of education which is the only thing that can bring them out of this mess. But a question from a friend made me rethink about the whole thing. What if all these beggars resorted to stealing?

NOTE : While doing A/Ls one of my teacher’s said of a professor who actually lived for about an year like a beggar and then wrote a book about it. Those days I thought the man was nuts, totally jobless fellow. But here I am writing a blog post about them. (But these days I am having a vacation so I have to say that I am a bit jobless)

Sri Lanka is one place where change is looked as something that is always bad. We see so many protests, hunger strikes, petition campaigns that it has become part of our lives. The situation is further worsened due to people who try to exploit this natural resistance to change within Sri Lankans for their own hidden agendas.

Not all change is good, and change for the sake of change is also bad. But we need change to move forward as a nation. Before changing anything else we need to change our attitudes.

One such attitude is that ALL PRIVATE EDUCATION IS BAD. This discussion has come to centre stage again due to talks about a private medical faculty in Malabe. Education is something that is always good, education is not only about learning a profession or a skill but true education is about opening your mind up for new ideas and broadening your horizons. The government universities can only accept a limited number of student and the facilities and resources are also limited. I myself is one of the lucky few, fortunate enough to enter one of the government universities. But what of the others who couldn’t?, should they serve us for the rest of their lives? Well I don’t think so.

People always ask “What Will Happen to the poor?” But look what’s happening now it’s the poor and medium class people that suffer. All the rich kids go abroad and learn whatever they want and the medium class students don’t get to do what they want. So the only option to them who don’t get selected to the local universities and still want to study is doing either IT, Management/Business or CIMA/CIM (Because those are the most popular private education options available). But that might not be what they want.

Ask your self would a child who always dreamed of becoming a Doctor or an Engineer all his/her life and just missed entrance to university by 0.01 marks wouldn’t they be happy to learn what they truly desire even through private education? Wouldn’t private education available for an affordable price right here in Sri Lanka help them?

The real issue is about selection. If all who get 3 passes at A levels are entitled for private education at this private Medical Faculty it would be very unfair for those who studied all those long sleepless nights to get through. (Coz I know that most who fail put a lot of effort in the wrong direction to fail.) So the criteria for selection should be an A level result which nearly missed entrance to medicine, and people with the capacity to reach a knowledge level as that which is required to enter a government university.

The same is true for all other professions, which may be offered privately.

So to me the idea as a whole seems good if executed properly. And as always these are my thought so obviously open for debate.