Play both sides against the middle

No fertiliser from China, India airfreights it in! Supposed to be too late for the ‘maha’ harvest but “better late than never” is a valued adage. Lanka scrapes through yet again and a possible disaster averted … or has it? I think we can acknowledge the fact that we will never face the type of hunger and famine experienced in countries in Africa or even in parts of the Indian subcontinent. Our thrice blessed land has lots of fertile area and edible fruit trees and the ever present ‘Kos’ and ‘Del’ trees abound and supplement the versatile coccus nicifera – coconut palm. Almost everybody has a vegetable patch and access to edible herbs and nutritious local vegetables.

Besides, we are a generous ‘giving society’ and we share what we don’t consume. What if we run out of rice? What if the ‘maha’ season does not deliver the abundant volumes that we have had in the past. We could, of course, play both sides (China and India) against each other again as we certainly do not seem to have enough hard currency to buy any shortfall in stocks for ourselves. We may even find a player in the middle in the form of the USA who would appreciate a chance to get a foothold and some influence in the Pearl. It looks like we could get out of this scrape too if the worst-case scenario does materialise.

We ‘know’ this is not the long-term solution. We have however never prepared ourselves or even based our decisions on the possibility of the worst-case materialising. An amazingly accurate description of the Sinhala race and their inability to prepare for inevitable events, once told to me by one of my dear Burgher friends had something to do with the urge to evacuate one’s bowels and the lethargic search for a toilet until far too late, the rest of which I leave to the imagination of my more crude minded readers to work out! This is so accurate. We never plan for disaster, and we have somehow survived to date. Maybe the ‘thrice blessed land’ (three visits from the Buddha) or the hundreds of deities charged with protecting most facets of life in the land, play a part. Do not however, forget the curse of Kuveni which so far has borne only small fruit.

Will a black marketeer who pays commissions to the correct parties be charged with the distribution of the Indian airfreighted fertiliser (will it be given only to ‘Apey Man’s’, political catchers and hangers on), all this is up in the air. Will the ‘rice mafia’ get hold of it and hide it to boost the prices of their stashed stocks. Or will the rice mafia bite the dust and have all their hoarded stocks seized by the government (fat hopes!) and distributed among the starving populace. On the other hand, why do we need so much starch in our diets in the form of rice; a simple fare of vegetables (preferably organic) will suffice to keep people alive until better times arrive. After all, ‘Diyasen Kumaraya’ is on the way and some ‘wise men’ have gone to the extent of predicting a date for the end of this regime. Search YouTube diligently and you will find the predictions.

Over here in Auckland, Aotearoa – New Zealand we are anxiously poised for an increase in freedoms. The possibility of being able to get out of the confines of this concrete jungle in time for the Christmas break or just after, is eagerly anticipated. However, the number of cases in the community is over 100 per day and the virus is spreading to other parts of the country. The Opposition is setting about causing confusion among the populace and preaching with the 20/20 vision of retrospect. The Prime Minister, who in the eyes of some has kept the Country safe and minimised deaths and hospital admissions, is being accused of lying and imposing her will on the people by others. Democracy prevails, and one wonders if the function of an Opposition is simply to spew rhetoric and create confusion!

The labour government that is in power has identified their vote base and is rather unashamedly pandering to them. Those who have backed the wrong horse in this democracy (mixed metaphors I’m afraid) are gnashing their teeth and small business mainly are suffering from a lack of favourable terms of business and handouts at the cost of their workers, which they took for granted and treated as their just dues under the previous regime.

All we can discern from the reams of largely empty rhetoric seems to be that a large percentage of the population being vaccinated, or ‘vaxxed’ as the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary has it, is the key. The anti-vaxxers are also having their say but the country is surely and steadily working its way up to 90 percent of eligible people being vaccinated. I am even led to believe that certain members of the younger generation who expressed vehement objections to being vaxed when appointments had been made for them by their parents, have got the jab in secret!

The last word on the pandemic seems to be that it will be part of our lives and whether we get it or not will depend on our personal choices (vaccinations, reverting to our old lifestyles when freedom comes) and whether we survive or not will depend one our health and the strength of our bodies and immune systems. Words of wisdom on these lines were told to me by a much-respected doctor friend of mine around two years ago. If more heed had been paid to thinking of this nature much heartache and strife may have been avoided, but then again, this judgement or assessment on my friend’s words has the benefit of hindsight too, doesn’t it? Would or could anyone governing a democracy and responsible for millions of lives have had the cohunes, (in the case of men) and whatever gives them strength, in the case of women, to make this call? That my friends is the multi-million (in human lives) and multi billion (in monetary terms) question!