Features
Medical Humanities:an interdisciplinary approach to holistic health
The Department of Medical Humanities at the University of Colombo’s Medical Faculty is another groundbreaking initiative by the institution as the pioneer of the discipline here at home and in South Asia. In an interview with the Sunday Island, Clinical Psychologist and Head of the Department of Medical Humanities, Dr. Santushi Amarasuriya elucidates on how this discipline, which is gaining momentum the world over, explores human experiences of health and illness drawing from a spectrum of other social and aesthetic branches.
Following are the excerpts:
BY RANDIMA ATTYGALLE
Q: Could you please share the ‘story’ behind the establishment of the Department of Medical Humanities at the Colombo Medical Faculty?
A:The Department of Medical Humanities was established in 2016 in response to global trends which recognize the role of medical humanities in medical education. It helps medical practitioners to reorient themselves into a holistic and person-centered approach to health care. There was also a general recognition of the impact of burnout and resultant empathy-deficits among medical practitioners, with medical humanities seen as a mechanism through which doctors can understand, reflect upon and deal with such issues. It is in recognition of all this that our Department was established.
Medical humanities lies at the intersection of medicine and humanities. It draws from various disciplines; from literature and philosophy to ethics and arts. The scope of medical humanities is very broad and therefore we find varying definitions of it. How we define it here at the Colombo Medical Faculty, is as ‘humanities in the pursuit of improving the well being and achieving goals in medical education.’ Our goal is to use medical humanities to foster compassionate care, professionalism and ethical practice among medical and other health care professionals, whilst also being sensitive to the socio-cultural context in Sri Lanka.
If we look at the specific history of how the department came into being, one of the highlights was when a brand-new stream called the Behavioural Sciences Stream, first conceptualized by Prof. Nalaka Mendis, was established within the curriculum of our Faculty in 1995. This was a pioneering effort that recognized the transition of the medical model of illness, which focused primarily on biological factors, into what is known as the bio-psychosocial model of health and illness in the late 70s. This latter model takes a more holistic approach and recognizes that there are psychological and social elements that also determine the outcomes of an illness.
Then, during a revision of the Behavioural Sciences Stream curriculum in 2013, Prof. Panduka Karunanayake proposed the establishment of a Medical Humanities Unit. The ensuing discussions led to Prof. Godwin Constantine proposing the establishment of a department. Subsequently, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, who was the Chairperson of the Behavioural Sciences Stream at the time became the driving force in establishing the Department in 2016, becoming its founder Head.
I was the first permanent academic staff member to have been recruited to the Behavioural Sciences Stream in 2006 and after the establishment of the Department of Medical Humanities in 2016, I came on board as its first Senior Lecturer.
Q: Could you elaborate on the nature of the learning enabled for the medical student by the Department and how medical humanities help students to brave a demanding curriculum with empathy and kindness?
A: Our main teaching input is through the Humanities, Society and Professional Stream, previously known as the Behavioural Sciences Stream. We provide input into areas of personality development and psychology, communication skills, ethical practice, professionalism, and humaneness, utilizing different teaching methodologies.
If I were to address the topic of empathy that you highlighted, many of our activities try to cultivate this skill in students. However, I would say it is not easy to develop. Many studies have shown that when medical students reach the third year, which is when they start their clinical rotations and need empathy the most, there is actually a decline of it. This is referred to as the ‘devil in the third year’. Many reasons are attributed to this. For example, what was hypothetical is now actually real and students are suddenly overwhelmed with a higher level of responsibility because now they are taking care of real people. There is also a marked increase in workload and it could also be the lack of role models. All this might lead to a decline in empathy. But we must remember that empathy is a hard job, stepping into another person’s shoes and understanding their problems, such as what is making them distressed. To make it even more challenging, it would be multiple patients whose shoes they have to step into and that can be really exhausting.
As a human being, your natural defense mechanism would be to detach yourself and not be empathetic. Therefore, what we try to do is to recalibrate, talk about and reinforce the importance of it.
Q: Could you please explain how the wide range of disciplines coming under medical humanities is translated into actual practice by physicians?
A: One of the methodologies that we have adopted is to use narratives in medicine. Very early in the students’ career, we ask them to go and draw from patients their personal story, and NOT their clinical history. This helps to cultivate a holistic approach to medicine. As a clinician, when you take a clinical history, you are very cognizant that there is a lot more going on for the patient than merely their disease.
A simple exercise that some international institutions utilize is to take students on a gallery visit where they are asked to study portraits to sharpen their finer observational skills; they start learning to notice certain physical signs or certain subtle cues that may have escaped attention. Therefore, at the point of their interaction with patients, they become more attuned to reading many nonverbal cues. For example, take a well-known painting like the Mona Lisa. Closer observation reveals her pale complexion, swollen hands and puffiness around her eyes, which can be used to hypothesize possible ailments she may have suffered from.
Dr. Santushi Amarasuriya
Similarly, certain films can be used to create a stimulating dialogue about patient-experiences. They are able to trigger strong emotional reactions and then also provide a safe space to discuss difficult topics which may be inaccessible if only relying on personal experiences. Another tool that I personally find fascinating, that is adopted by some of our colleagues in the region, is the use of the ‘spectator’ concept within forum theatre, where the spectators have the opportunity to intervene and become the actors to change the outcomes of stories depicting difficult situations.
This highlights and empowers the students in their future roles as reflective change agents. Medical students can also be helped to actually step into the patient’s shoes and share the experience of the patient. For example, what is it like to be wheelchair-bound or lack the use of a limb so that they could relate to a patient’s situation better. There is a wide array of methodologies, and this is important given the diversity of student preferences.
Q Is it justifiable to say that this interdisciplinary approach has gained momentum today as the innate ‘humane humaneness’ coupled with professionalism which was found in the good old doctor of yesteryear is largely eroding today, replaced by a stereotypical fact-finder?
A: The importance of humaneness in medical care is well recognized now. The concept of person-centred or patient-centered care is known to a medical student and medical curricula all over the world are adopting these concepts now. If you ask a medical student what empathy is, they will regurgitate the definition and they also know it is important. I would argue that maybe in the good old days these definitions might have been rather alien, but the values these definitions entail may have been innate in most physicians.
That is not to say that there aren’t many students with such skills today. But previously, medical professionals might have had time to actually cultivate these abilities and skills; they might have been able to immerse themselves in the arts. Whereas now, the landscape is very different due to the sheer volume of information to digest, too many competing demands and so forth. Therefore, it becomes a matter of prioritization and many are driven to only focus on the more tangible and measurable elements.
A second reason is the structure of our education. If you take the A-Levels, it’s a rat race to get into the medical faculty and how you get there is by knowing all the information to answer the questions. Along the way you may not have had time for extensive reflection or contemplation. The student who comes to us is trained in that way. So, when they take a clinical history, they may be more driven to simply gather data and make a diagnosis. They forget the holistic nature of the interaction along the way.
Q: Do you think the relevance of medical humanities is unprecedented today given the shift in socio-economic dynamics in society?
A: As a country we have faced several calamities and the most recent one is the economic crisis. Along with it there are several other problems that our people have to face: a significant number is impoverished and there has been a lack of medical supplies and an exodus in the medical profession itself. So, if you think about the professionals working today, they are overloaded with work, and this can lead to a sense of helplessness and frustration.
If you place it within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they may be struggling to meet basic needs. So higher-level needs like compassion and empathy start to look more like “nice-to-haves” than necessities, given that they are trying to deliver in a context that is resource-poor. It really is a balancing act. Therefore, it is often all too easy to satisfy ourselves with aggregate numbers. For instance, we say there are low rates of infant mortality and few maternal deaths. But what we might overlook in those aggregates is the experience that the patient has had in this whole process. What we do in our curriculum is re calibrate and remind them of what is finally needed.
Q: Today many patients lament that doctors are ‘poor communicators’, that their body language often doesn’t foster a sense of comfort and security in a patient. How does medical humanities envisage to address this so that doctors can be better communicators?
A: As a Faculty, we all endorse the importance of communication skills, and the input is given at different stages not only through our Humanities, Society and Professionalism Stream (HSPS) but through the other teaching arms as well. Interestingly, many students know the science behind communication practices, such as starting with an open-ended question, but they may not know HOW to do it. There’s a lot of art in asking a question. Although they may not have the innate gift of being effective communicators, with the right training, they can be developed into very successful ones.
In some of our activities we use different works of art, such as movies, paintings, poems, stories and so forth. In the recent past, we have used the painting titled ‘The Doctor’ by Luke Fildes. In the painting, a doctor is hovering over an ill child and we ask the students to interpret what’s going on. A lot is being communicated in this visual such as the stance of the doctor, the nonverbal behaviour, and in the background are the child’s parents who have entrusted the child to the doctor’s care. So just asking the students to analyze it and talk about it helps them to reflect. We use many other such methodologies to foster good communication in future doctors.
Another tool we often use is role-play. We recently launched a Communication Skills Master Class under the guidance of Prof. Dinithi Fernando, the current Chairperson of the HSPS, to give more muscle to the enhancement of communication skills.
Q: What are Sri Lanka’s strengths as a multi-cultural and a hospitable nation that medical humanities could draw from?
A: We are a collective community and helping another human being in distress, is very much a part of our culture. It comes very naturally and that translates into the process of healing a patient in distress. Kindness and compassion are key messages that are collectively shared by all our religions practiced here at home. If you consider kindness, I think of it at two levels: people whose core is kind and those who superficially reflect kind behaviour such as talking in a nice way and similar social graces. But this second category may not be kind deep down. Now if you think about our cultural orientation, it is that first one which is emphasized- kindness at the core. What we are trying to harness is a natural or deeply culturally-endorsed tendency.
Another example is the cultural sensitivity that we may already possess. We have students coming from different contexts and different experiences. They already recognize the existence of ‘health pluralism’ and that the patient’s conceptualizations of illness and treatment encompass a wide range of practices and beliefs that are not directly relevant to western medical practice. Therefore, it is just a matter of reminding them of these to help them to be more empathetic about patient experiences.
Q: What are the collaborations the Department has forged with professionals outside the medical stream to cultivate a sense of appreciation in aesthetics in future doctors?
A: One good example is our Humanitas programme. This is the brainchild of Prof. Panduka Karunanayake. The Latin term humanitas translates into human nature, civilization and kindness and relates to what it is that makes us human. In this programme we address various human issues – be it a current crisis or a problem like a heart break.
Prof. Karunanayake’s objective in launching this programme was to trigger an emotional reaction and let the other cognitive processes occur on their own. The Humanitas programme is solely directed by Dr. Santhushya Fernando who is a Senior Lecturer in our Department, where she gets in different artists from musicians to poets to talk about such issues and reflect and share their vulnerabilities, giving flavour to the programme. The programme has received very good reviews and all credit for this must go to Dr. Fernando who has spearheaded this programme with passion and enthusiasm.
Similarly, we have been fortunate to receive generous support from the academics of the University of Visual and Performing Arts who have not only made wonderful contributions to the Humanitas programme but to many other activities of the Department.
Q: What inspiration does the Colombo Faculty offer other medical faculties in the country in terms of recognizing medical humanities and what are the future plans of your Department to give a further thrust to medical humanities?
A: Even in terms of the Behavioural Sciences Stream, we were pioneers and all other faculties have now adopted it under different names. It is heartening to note that many of the medical faculties here have taken a cue from our experience. Although they may not have a dedicated department to the discipline, many have incorporated these ideas into their curriculum.
In terms of expansion, we have many plans which are aligned with the goals of our Department such as using the humanities to facilitate health education and training, initiating research by drawing from best practices which could be replicated here at home and also to enrich our curriculum. We plan to explore on how to enable more patient-friendly environments so that our future doctors can actually translate the concepts espoused by the humanities, into actual practice and also explore the role of the discipline in developing therapies or interventions to promote health.
The department has now been allocated a larger space within the Faculty to grow and expand but lacks facilities to make it an occupiable space. We are seeking donations from philanthropists and wellwishers to make this project a reality.
The US-China rivalry could be said to make-up the ‘stuff and substance’ of world politics today but rarely does the international politics watcher and student of the global South in particular get the opportunity of having a balanced and comprehensive evaluation of this crucial relationship. But such a balanced assessment is vitally instrumental in making sense of current world power relations.
Thanks to the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo the above window of opportunity was opened on December 8th for those sections of the public zealously pursuing an understanding of current issues in global politics. The knowledge came via a forum that was conducted at the RCSS titled, ‘The US-China Rivalry and Implications for the Indo-Pacific’, where Professor Neil DeVotta of the Wake Forest University of North Carolina in the US, featured as the speaker.
A widely representative audience was present at the forum, including senior public servants, the diplomatic corps, academics, heads of civil society organizations, senior armed forces personnel and the media. The event was ably managed by the Executive Director of the RCSS, retired ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha. Following the main presentation a lively Q&A session followed, where many a point of interest was aired and discussed.
While there is no doubt that China is fast catching up with the US with regard to particularly military, economic, scientific and technological capability, Prof. DeVotta helped to balance this standard projection of ‘China’s steady rise’ by pointing to some vital facts about China, the omission of which would amount to the observer having a somewhat uninformed perception of global political realities.
The following are some of the facts about contemporary China that were highlighted by Prof. DeVotta:
* Money is steadily moving out of China and the latter’ s economy is slowing down. In fact the country is in a ‘ Middle Income Trap’. That is, it has reached middle income status but has failed to move to upper income status since then.
* People in marked numbers are moving out of China. It is perhaps little known that some Chinese are seeking to enter the US with a view to living there. The fact is that China’s population too is on the decline.
* Although the private sector is operative in China, there has been an increase in Parastatals; that is, commercial organizations run by the state are also very much in the fore. In fact private enterprises have begun to have ruling Communist Party cells in them.
* China is at its ‘peak power’ but this fact may compel it to act ‘aggressively’ in the international sphere. For instance, it may be compelled to invade Taiwan.
* A Hard Authoritarianism could be said to characterize central power in China today, whereas the expectation in some quarters is that it would shift to a Soft Authoritarian system, as is the case in Singapore.
* China’s influence in the West is greater than it has ever been.
The speaker was equally revelatory about the US today. Just a few of these observations are:
* The US is in a ‘Unipolar Moment’. That is, it is the world’s prime power. Such positions are usually not longstanding but in the case of the US this position has been enjoyed by it for quite a while.
* China is seen by the US as a ‘Revisionist Power’ as opposed to being a ‘Status Quo Power.’ That is China is for changing the world system slowly.
* The US in its latest national security strategy is paying little attention to Soft Power as opposed to Hard Power.
* In terms of this strategy the US would not allow any single country to dominate the Asia-Pacific region.
* The overall tone of this strategy is that the US should step back and allow regional powers to play a greater role in international politics.
* The strategy also holds that the US must improve economic ties with India, but there is very little mention of China in the plan.
Given these observations on the current international situation, a matter of the foremost importance for the economically weakest countries of the South is to figure out how best they could survive materially within it. Today there is no cohesive and vibrant collective organization that could work towards the best interests of the developing world and Dr. DeVotta was more or less correct when he said that the Non-alignment Movement (NAM) has declined.
However, this columnist is of the view that rather being a spent force, NAM was allowed to die out by the South. NAM as an idea could never become extinct as long as economic and material inequalities between North and South exist. Needless to say, this situation is remaining unchanged since the eighties when NAM allowed itself to be a non-entity so to speak in world affairs.
The majority of Southern countries did not do themselves any good by uncritically embracing the ‘market economy’ as a panacea for their ills. As has been proved, this growth paradigm only aggravated the South’s development ills, except for a few states within its fold.
Considering that the US would be preferring regional powers to play a more prominent role in the international economy and given the US’ preference to be a close ally of India, the weakest of the South need to look into the possibility of tying up closely with India and giving the latter a substantive role in advocating the South’s best interests in the councils of the world.
To enable this to happen the South needs to ‘get organized’ once again. The main differences between the past and the present with regard to Southern affairs is that in the past the South had outstanding leaders, such as Jawaharlal Nehru of India, who could doughtily stand up for it. As far as this columnist could ascertain, it is the lack of exceptional leaders that in the main led to the decline of NAM and other South-centred organizations.
Accordingly, an urgent task for the South is to enable the coming into being of exceptional leaders who could work untiringly towards the realization of its just needs, such as economic equity. Meanwhile, Southern countries would do well to, indeed, follow the principles of NAM and relate cordially with all the major powers so as to realizing their best interests.
Tropical Cyclone Ditwah, which made landfall in Sri Lanka on 28 November 2025, is considered the country’s worst natural disaster since the deadly 2004 tsunami. It intensified the northeast monsoon, bringing torrential rainfall, massive flooding, and 215 severe landslides across seven districts. The cyclone left a trail of destruction, killing nearly 500 people, displacing over a million, destroying homes, roads, and railway lines, and disabling critical infrastructure including 4,000 transmission towers. Total economic losses are estimated at USD 6–7 billion—exceeding the country’s foreign reserves.
The Sri Lankan Armed Forces have led the relief efforts, aided by international partners including India and Pakistan. A Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter crashed in Wennappuwa, killing the pilot and injuring four others, while five Sri Lanka Navy personnel died in Chundikkulam in the north while widening waterways to mitigate flooding. The bravery and sacrifice of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces during this disaster—as in past disasters—continue to be held in high esteem by grateful Sri Lankans.
The Sri Lankan government, however, is facing intense criticism for its handling of Cyclone Ditwah, including failure to heed early warnings available since November 12, a slow and poorly coordinated response, and inadequate communication with the public. Systemic issues—underinvestment in disaster management, failure to activate protocols, bureaucratic neglect, and a lack of coordination among state institutions—are also blamed for avoidable deaths and destruction.
The causes of climate disasters such as Cyclone Ditwah go far beyond disaster preparedness. Faulty policymaking, mismanagement, and decades of unregulated economic development have eroded the island’s natural defenses. As climate scientist Dr. Thasun Amarasinghe notes:
“Sri Lankan wetlands—the nation’s most effective natural flood-control mechanism—have been bulldosed, filled, encroached upon, and sold. Many of these developments were approved despite warnings from environmental scientists, hydrologists, and even state institutions.”
Sri Lanka’s current vulnerabilities also stem from historical deforestation and plantation agriculture associated with colonial-era export development. Forest cover declined from 82% in 1881 to 70% in 1900, and to 54–50% by 1948, when British rule ended. It fell further to 44% in 1954 and to 16.5% by 2019.
Deforestation contributes an estimated 10–12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond removing a vital carbon sink, it damages water resources, increases runoff and erosion, and heightens flood and landslide risk. Soil-depleting monocrop agriculture further undermines traditional multi-crop systems that regenerate soil fertility, organic matter, and biodiversity.
In Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, which were battered by Cyclone Ditwah, deforestation and unregulated construction had destabilised mountain slopes. Although high-risk zones prone to floods and landslides had long been identified, residents were not relocated, and construction and urbanisation continued unchecked.
Sri Lanka was the first country in Asia to adopt neoliberal economic policies. With the “Open Economy” reforms of 1977, a capitalist ideology equating human well-being with quantitative growth and material consumption became widespread. Development efforts were rushed, poorly supervised, and frequently approved without proper environmental assessment.
Privatisation and corporate deregulation weakened state oversight. The recent economic crisis and shrinking budgets further eroded environmental and social protections, including the maintenance of drainage networks, reservoirs, and early-warning systems. These forces have converged to make Sri Lanka a victim of a dual climate threat: gradual environmental collapse and sudden-onset disasters.
Sri Lanka: A Climate Victim
Sri Lanka’s carbon emissions remain relatively small but are rising. The impact of climate change on the island, however, is immense. Annual mean air temperature has increased significantly in recent decades (by 0.016 °C annually between 1961 and 1990). Sea-level rise has caused severe coastal erosion—0.30–0.35 meters per year—affecting nearly 55% of the shoreline. The 2004 tsunami demonstrated the extreme vulnerability of low-lying coastal plains to rising seas.
The Cyclone Ditwah catastrophe was neither wholly new nor surprising. In 2015, the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) identified Sri Lanka as the South Asian country with the highest relative risk of disaster-related displacement: “For every million inhabitants, 15,000 are at risk of being displaced every year.”
IDMC also noted that in 2017 the country experienced seven disaster events—mainly floods and landslides—resulting in 135,000 new displacements and that Sri Lanka “is also at risk for slow-onset impacts such as soil degradation, saltwater intrusion, water scarcity, and crop failure”.
Sri Lanka ranked sixth among countries most affected by extreme weather events in 2018 (Germanwatch) and second in 2019 (Global Climate Risk Index). Given these warnings, Cyclone Ditwah should not have been a surprise. Scientists have repeatedly cautioned that warmer oceans fuel stronger cyclones and warmer air holds more moisture, leading to extreme rainfall. As the Ceylon Today editorial of December 1, 2025 also observed:
“…our monsoons are no longer predictable. Cyclones form faster, hit harder, and linger longer. Rainfall becomes erratic, intense, and destructive. This is not a coincidence; it is a pattern.”
Without urgent action, even more extreme weather events will threaten Sri Lanka’s habitability and physical survival.
A Global Crisis
Extreme weather events—droughts, wildfires, cyclones, and floods—are becoming the global norm. Up to 1.2 billion people could become “climate refugees” by 2050. Global warming is disrupting weather patterns, destabilising ecosystems, and posing severe risks to life on Earth. Indonesia and Thailand were struck by the rare and devastating Tropical Cyclone Senyar in late November 2025, occurring simultaneously with Cyclone Ditwah’s landfall in Sri Lanka.
More than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions—and nearly 90% of carbon emissions—come from burning coal, oil, and gas, which supply about 80% of the world’s energy. Countries in the Global South, like Sri Lanka, which contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions, are among the most vulnerable to climate devastation. Yet wealthy nations and multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, continue to subsidise fossil fuel exploration and production. Global climate policymaking—including COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, in 2025—has been criticised as ineffectual and dominated by fossil fuel interests.
If the climate is not stabilised, long-term planetary forces beyond human control may be unleashed. Technology and markets are not inherently the problem; rather, the issue lies in the intentions guiding them. The techno-market worldview, which promotes the belief that well-being increases through limitless growth and consumption, has contributed to severe economic inequality and more frequent extreme weather events. The climate crisis, in turn, reflects a profound mismatch between the exponential expansion of a profit-driven global economy and the far slower evolution of human consciousness needed to uphold morality, compassion, generosity and wisdom.
Sri Lanka’s 2025–26 budget, adopted on November 14, 2025—just as Cyclone Ditwah loomed—promised subsidised land and electricity for companies establishing AI data centers in the country.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Parliament: “Don’t come questioning us on why we are giving land this cheap; we have to make these sacrifices.”
Yet Sri Lanka is a highly water-stressed nation, and a growing body of international research shows that AI data centers consume massive amounts of water and electricity, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
The failure of the narrow, competitive techno-market approach underscores the need for an ecological and collective framework capable of addressing the deeper roots of this existential crisis—both for Sri Lanka and the world.
A landslide in Sri Lanka (AFP picture)
Ecological and Human Protection
Ecological consciousness demands
recognition that humanity is part of the Earth, not separate from it. Policies to address climate change must be grounded in this understanding, rather than in worldviews that prize infinite growth and technological dominance. Nature has primacy over human-created systems: the natural world does not depend on humanity, while humanity cannot survive without soil, water, air, sunlight, and the Earth’s essential life-support systems.
Although a climate victim today, Sri Lanka is also home to an ancient ecological civilization dating back to the arrival of the Buddhist monk Mahinda Thera in the 3rd century BCE. Upon meeting King Devanampiyatissa, who was out hunting in Mihintale, Mahinda Thera delivered one of the earliest recorded teachings on ecological interdependence and the duty of rulers to protect nature:
“O great King, the birds of the air and the beasts of the forest have as much right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the people and all living beings; thou art only its guardian.”
A stone inscription at Mihintale records that the king forbade the killing of animals and the destruction of trees. The Mihintale Wildlife Sanctuary is believed to be the world’s first.
Sri Lanka’s ancient dry-zone irrigation system—maintained over more than a millennium—stands as a marvel of sustainable development. Its network of interconnected reservoirs, canals, and sluices captured monsoon waters, irrigated fields, controlled floods, and even served as a defensive barrier. Floods occurred, but historical records show no disasters comparable in scale, severity, or frequency to those of today. Ancient rulers, including the legendary reservoir-builder King Parākramabāhu, and generations of rice farmers managed their environment with remarkable discipline and ecological wisdom.
The primacy of nature became especially evident when widespread power outages and the collapse of communication networks during Cyclone Ditwah forced people to rely on one another for survival. The disaster ignited spontaneous acts of compassion and solidarity across all communities—men and women, rich and poor, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. Local and international efforts mobilized to rescue, shelter, feed, and emotionally support those affected. These actions demonstrated a profound human instinct for care and cooperation, often filling vacuums left by formal emergency systems.
Yet spontaneous solidarity alone is insufficient. Sri Lanka urgently needs policies on sustainable development, environmental protection, and climate resilience. These include strict, science-based regulation of construction; protection of forests and wetlands; proper maintenance of reservoirs; and climate-resilient infrastructure. Schools should teach environmental literacy that builds unity and solidarity, rather than controversial and divisive curriculum changes like the planned removal of history and introduction of contested modules on gender and sexuality.
If the IMF and international creditors—especially BlackRock, Sri Lanka’s largest sovereign bondholder, valued at USD 13 trillion—are genuinely concerned about the country’s suffering, could they not cancel at least some of Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt and support its rebuilding efforts? Addressing the climate emergency and the broader existential crisis facing Sri Lanka and the world ultimately requires an evolution in human consciousness guided by morality, compassion, generosity and wisdom. (Courtesy: IPS NEWS)
Dr Asoka Bandarage is the author of Colonialism in Sri Lanka: The Political Economy of the Kandyan Highlands, 1833-1886 (Mouton) Women, Population and Global Crisis: A Politico-Economic Analysis (Zed Books), The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy, ( Routledge), Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy (Palgrave MacMillan) Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World: Colonial and Neoliberal Origins, Ecological and Collective Alternatives (De Gruyter) and numerous other publications. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate and Critical Asian Studies.
Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin’s reunion concert at the Riverside Theatre in Perth, Australia, on 01 November, 2025, was a night to remember.
The duo, who first performed together in the 1950s as part of The Shadows, brought the house down with their classic hits and effortless chemistry.
The concert, part of Cliff’s ‘Can’t Stop Me Now’ tour, featured iconic songs like ‘Summer Holiday’, ‘The Young Ones’, ‘Bachelor Boy’, ‘Living Doll’ and a powerful rendition of ‘Mistletoe and Wine.’
Cliff, 85, and Hank, with his signature red Fender Stratocaster, proved that their music and friendship are timeless.
According to reports, the moment the lights dimmed and the first chords of ‘Move It’ rang out, the crowd knew they were in for something extraordinary.
Backed by a full band, and surrounded by dazzling visuals, Cliff strode onto the stage in immaculate form – energetic and confident – and when Hank Marvin joined him mid-set, guitar in hand, the audience erupted in applause that shook the hall.
Together they launched into ‘The Young Ones’, their timeless 1961 hit which brought the crowd to its feet, with many in attendance moved to tears.
The audience was treated to a journey through time, with vintage film clips and state-of-the-art visuals adding to the nostalgic atmosphere.
Highlights of the evening included Cliff’s powerful vocals, Hank’s distinctive guitar riffs, and their playful banter on stage.
Cliff posing for The Island photographer … February,
2007
Cliff paused between songs to reflect on their shared journey saying:
“It’s been a lifetime of songs, memories, and friendship. Hank and I started this adventure when we were just boys — and look at us now, still up here making noise!”
As the final chords of ‘Congratulations’ filled the theatre, the crowd rose for a thunderous standing ovation that lasted several minutes.
Cliff waved, Hank gave a humble bow, and, together, they left the stage, arm-in-arm, to the refrain of “We’re the young ones — and we always will be.”
Reviews of the show were glowing, with fans and critics alike praising the duo’s energy, camaraderie, and enduring talent.
Overall, the Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin reunion concert was a truly special experience, celebrating the music and friendship that has captivated audiences for decades.
When Cliff Richard visited Sri Lanka, in February, 2007, I was invited to meet him, in his suite, at a hotel, in Colombo, and I presented him with my music page, which carried his story, and he was impressed.
In return, he personally autographed a souvenir for me … that was Cliff Richard, a truly wonderful human being.
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