Opinion
Superstition and early indoctrination
The two articles that appeared in the Midweek Review of The Island, November 10, titled, ‘Nice Racism’, based on Robin DiAngelo’s book, Nice Racism, by Prof. C.P. Sarvan and ‘World Science Day: Appraise nations to dispel pseudoscience’ by Prof. Kirthi Tennakone are timely, stimulating and also complementary. They question racism and pseudoscience, both of which flourish in a climate of superstition and conformism that feed on each other.
COVID-19 has laid bare the latent superstitious character of our collective mindset. Looking at the people, thronged to secure a vial of concoction many moons ago, one would have wondered whether they were feeling the presence of the concerned goddess, hovering above them, to protect all of them against sure infection by physical proximity. The potion received state patronage through ministerial intervention that incorporated a ceremonial swallowing of the brew by some VIPs inside the House; and the dropping of pots of ‘blessed’ water into waterways. It was an embarrassing period of augmenting and celebration of superstition.
Usually, belief in superstition is blamed on lack of education. However, even the educated are not always resistant to superstition. From early days, children start forming ideas that are etched into their undeveloped minds, and they, as a rule, remain undisturbed by cognition, which is a later attribute of our brain development. Before formal education, children begin to imbibe many things as a result of being a member of a family, which forces them to prematurely ‘learn’ some of the most complicated concepts that are well beyond their limited grasp. This process of ‘learning’ is, among other things, the inculcation of religious teachings in the unformed minds that cannot resist this intrusion, which amounts to a violation of their right to learn complex concepts at the right time, when their cognitive faculties are ready for the task. Religion is not different from the first language, in terms of the child’s method of ‘learning’, the only method available to undeveloped minds, which is acquisition. No child can help acquiring the language and the religion in her or his immediate environment.
If an adult tried to formally teach a kid either language or religion, in all their complexity, it would drive the latter insane. The child, in her or his defenselessness against the well-meaning indoctrination of religion, is thus denied her right to learn any religion or religions she would wish to as an adult. Like her first language, the specific religion to which she is exposed from her babyhood, becomes an essential part of herself. However, while the acquisition of language is quite natural, uniquely human and essential for socialising, that of religion is not only artificial but also injurious; in that it lays a firm foundation for the child to simply acquire any notion on the strength of familiarisation through repetition, in other words, continuous exposure to stories, ‘truths’ and rituals unique to that religion.
Here, the important question is not regarding the content per se, but the method of indoctrination, which later makes him or her justify the acceptance of unverifiable ideas under a veil of fake ‘intellectuality’. As such, it is not surprising that even among the educated, one may find those who believe in the ‘truth’ of certain views and explanations that are not testable, but have a ‘solemnity’ attributed to them by tradition or authority. Thus many superstitions may have a surprisingly long shelf-life. In his article, Prof. Tennakone says, “pseudoscience is a social malady akin to superstitions and ideologies, which advocate untested claims, most of them illogical or fake, as science.” He goes on to say that there are those who are rational in their professional life but have no quarrel with pseudoscience “in private matters dearer to” them.
Of course, many of us are hardly aware of, let alone embarrassed by this ‘dual-personality’, an integral element in us, which helps us to navigate smoothly in a world where we have to cohabit with reason and ‘unreason’, with equal ease of grace and conviction.
Come to think of it, we have, in fact, ‘multiple personalities’ one of which is racial identity, a fake label that we carry in our entire lifetime to no useful purpose, other than maintaining an unreal and insidious division. What’s worse, prolonged habituation has made us believe that there is something in us that makes us uniquely Sinhala or Tamil. What is called racial identity can go even deeper than religious identity because, while people can change their faith and assume a new religious identity, the former is almost immovable due to a ‘learned’ feeling that we have in us a ‘racial gene’, which we cannot get rid of at will. Perhaps, ironically, every time we try to entertain high-minded thoughts about ‘racial harmony’ we unconsciously get all the more convinced of our ‘racial uniqueness’. What a mess!
Dr. E.W. Adikaram wrote, “In truth, there is only one human race: what goes as Sinhalese, Tamil, English and a thousand other nationalities are only designations born out of belief and having no intrinsic significance whatsoever.” (Isn’t the nationalist a mental patient?) In fact, he used to say that many people talked about ‘racial discrimination’ and ‘racial harmony’ without realising that ‘race’ is a myth. In his article, Prof. Sarvan says, “…there’s no race but racism flourishes. There are no scientific grounds for believing in race. Race is a human construct…”
What is clear is that we, humans, have a significant capacity for entertaining myths and the inescapable early indoctrination, no matter how sanctified and well-intentioned it may have been all these centuries, can contribute in no small measure towards making us accommodate myths without examining them rationally. Of course, there may be other influential factors.
SUSANTHA HEWA
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
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