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BE KIND!
Be Kind was the watchword of the successful handling of the Covid-19 onslaught on Aotearoa – NZ and the lockdown that contributed in no small measure to that success. The people of this society had to be reminded to be kind as they are (particularly the Pakeha or white people) largely disconnected from their families and live self-centred and even selfish lives. They don’t really stay in touch with their “Whanau” or extended family as in the Maori word for it. Thinking out this in a Sri Lankan context brought back first-hand experiences of what I had seen and done in the Pearl, in the past.
I know of people who took their workmates from the Tamil community home in their personal vehicles (the bosses’ were not willing to risk the company vehicles!) through rampaging mobs, during that terrible day in July 1983. Others visited refugee camps a few days later and took their Tamil friends home to their houses and sheltered them. Of course, so many people simply took affected people in during the riots and when the mobs were looting their houses. During the 1989 JVP uprising, a person I know risked life limb and his precious 4wd vehicle to transport food and salaries to a national park that would have ceased to exist if that trip 
Lending spare vehicles to friends in need during family bereavements and other difficult circumstances. “Lending” money with absolutely no intention of ever getting it back to friends in need even though the lender was not that rich either but simply because the friend’s need was greater, was all “par for the course” in those days. One tended to anticipate a friend’s need and offer help before it was actually asked for and thereby spare his friend the embarrassment of having to ask. I wonder if that happens now. Think about it esteemed reader, have you ever done such a thing? If you have, kudos to you, if you haven’t why not? Surely there have been friends who needed help. Surely those extra cars parked in your garages and gathering dust can help someone to get to a course and develop some new skills or take someone’s child or parent to the hospital. Or earn some redundant worker a living by serving as an Uber cab.
I have benefited from holidays in five-star resorts, trips abroad and memorable experiences (with air tickets thrown in) by friends and relations who wanted to help me through difficult times or had the generosity to invite me to join them for family celebrations. They have got nothing in return, this I admit with embarrassment!! I am eternally grateful and above all I thank them for opening my mind to a way of thinking that encompassed helping others in need.
One point I wish to make is, all the people I know who have done these things, are from the BOOMER generation, born in the 1950s and ’60s. Not from the younger generations who seem to think that they have the right to rule the country now. This is one of the reasons why I think they are not fit to rule. They have not made personal sacrifices and gone out of their way to help people in need. I’m sure some of them have but I have yet to meet one! They haven’t been KIND from a position of being in want for themselves. Certainly, some sons of millionaires may have done some philanthropy, but has it been spontaneous, has it been before they were asked or told to do it? If so “good on them” and it would be nice to hear of it. Just think of it if you ever read this piece and have done such things, simply thinking of it gives you a warm glow all over, doesn’t it? That is the true reward of kindness!
One of the reasons why I left my beloved Pearl, was that I got sick of listening to “businessmen” at cocktail parties boasting on how they exploit their workers and get them to work horrendous hours for less and less money! This type of conversation together with the latest racket and plan to break the law had taken over from the “intelligent” conversation and friendly banter that I had grown up with within the houses of my parent’s and their friends. I am glad to say that those standards have been reintroduced into our lives in Aotearoa and “talking shop” (which incidentally means talking business and not talking nonsense as it is now construed to mean in SL) is banned. In fact, I know parents who have had to stop their children who try to put business deals through during gathering of their friends! I guess most of you younger generation would wonder what was wrong with that….I rest my case.
Even in Aotearoa- NZ, I know of Sri Lankans who make up food parcels, cooked at home, and walk the cold, dreary, and not too safe streets of the inner city, in winter, to distribute them to homeless people who are sheltering in doorways and abandoned buildings. These people are not rich by any means, but they feel for their fellow beings, and they do what they can to help. These are not habits and behaviour’s learned in NZ, these are brought from our own land and inculcated in us by our culture and heritage. Are we still doing those things in the land that was once the Pearl of the Indian Ocean? I know we are at least some of us but shouldn’t more of us teach ourselves to be kind.
The answer to the terrible woes we face in the Pearl has no solutions except within ourselves. We need to be KIND to those around us and to ourselves. We need to empower the people around us and teach them to think for themselves and to grow themselves and our beloved motherland. Grow beyond petty party politics and out of the clutches of corrupt politicians. Learn to choose leaders from KIND, educated, and cultured people, who we can look up to for guidance. People who have proper motives and long-term objectives for the betterment of the country. Can you think of five current politicians who can fit this bill?
If so, I would like to hear those names, because I am sorry, but I cannot!