Lalith Gunaratne
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It was almost a decade since I had been involved with climate change activities, so I was happy when I was invited to a capacity building session held in Kathmandu in July by the Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). CANSA is part of a global network of NGOs addressing climate change issues in the region.
I was eager to learn about the current science of climate change and how well nations around the world are responding to it. To my dismay, I found that global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 70% in the last 20 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that the evidence is even stronger that human factors have exacerbated the climate change process. In fact, we are knocking on the doors of a Climate Catastrophe, if our planet's temperature rises more than 2 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric carbon levels move towards 400 parts per million (ppm), when it should remain below 350. Read more...
Sri Lanka has been in a conflict for the last 26 years between the government and Liberation Tamil Tigers of Ealam (LTTE), a rebel group trying to carve out a section of Sri Lanka for them for self rule. The government forces (mostly Sinhala) have destroyed the group and regained control of the area. However, there has been collateral damage to many civilians in these areas and a cry from the Tamil Diaspora around the world. This article calls for reconciliation between the two communities - Sinhala and Tamil.
I am amazed at the mobilization of young people from the Tamil Diaspora around the world to protest against the Sri Lankan government’s purported human rights violations. When often the younger generation of immigrants forgets the old country to a future in the new one, it is incredibly positive that the Diaspora feels so passionate about this difficult conflict on behalf of their community. Maybe once the conflict is over, they will come back to Sri Lanka to rebuild the country together. However, there is long way to go for reconciliation between the two communities as so much hatred has manifested, especially amongst the Diaspora overseas. Read more...
At least three mornings a week, Samantha (my spouse) and I go to the Colombo Swimming Club, a quiet private place for some exercise and a swim. I enjoy this morning routine and use the back garden to stretch, jog and use the bars. However, over the last two years this routine has been disturbed by a battle that I have with a bunch of crows, which, I presume, are not happy about me entering their space.
It all began when one bird attacked me while I exercised. I then hit back with stones and shooed them away and thought it was sorted. Not so. The next morning was a shocker. As I entered the garden I felt a bad vibe in the air and sure enough there must have been over a hundred crows - they were waiting for me. They got into a noisy formation and dived at me. I have been in some major scrapes in my life with fellow humans, but this scared the hell out of me. The gang leader looked mean, would sharpen its beak on the wire it was on and swoop down on me with others following. I saved myself from a major assault by running for cover under a roof. I reluctantly skipped my exercise routine and jumped in the pool in dismay, but the gang agitated the entire time I was there. It took me a few days to get back to the club again so I thought the dust would have settled, but not at all. This time there were not so many, but they kept diving down at me in intervals, so I had to get aggressive. That morning I got my exercise shouting, running at them and throwing rocks to take control of my space. Read more...
I often wonder how we can solve the social upheaval we are seeing all over the world. As an individual I feel a sense of helplessness. Yet I see so many good things happening too driven by wonderful people based on love, compassion and sound values. These people seem well balanced emotionally and spiritually. So, how do we reconcile these with those who espouse hatred, who are emotionally volatile and violent ?
It appears that we have to go back to basics – ‘the mother - child connection’. Read more...
What comes to mind when one hears the word poverty?
Scarcity, shortage, paucity, deficiency, dearth are words that are in the Thesaurus. Yet, the word confuses me in the way it is commonly used.
I live in Sri Lanka, a developing country with GDP of about US $1,000 per capita. In western terms, this is a poor nation. I became a resident of Sri Lanka in 1988 having lived in Canada for 15 years. Economically, Sri Lankans have less material wealth than an average person in the west. In happiness, I am not sure. Read more...
Glenn Kibble my Thermodynamics lecturer at the Seneca College Mechanical Engineering course in Ontario back in 1980 said there are three “T”s in life. Thermodynamics, Tennis and the other “T” he got away with as it was an all male class.
At that time I was mostly interested in the unmentionable “T”, yet I took the fundamental nature of the thermodynamic laws to the existence of our physical universe for granted as true. However, as I live a life of inquiry, study human nature and spirituality I am beginning to question the laws of thermodynamics as final scientific truths. Read more...
‘In our minds we have a vision;
it’s in our hearts that we make it happen’
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK
‘To inspire the desire to lead, to create one team, one dream, one world’ is a quote on the cover of the Dreams & Teams Young Leader’s Learning Log Book. So, this has got to be a special programme and it is.
As I sit here in the make shift Dreams & Teams secretariat at the Chipasula Secondary School in Lillongwe, Malawi, there are nineteen enthusiastic Young Leaders setting up for their maiden sports and arts festival for sixty young children from two local primary schools. Read more...
It has been awhile since I sent in a blog to Ode. A combination of travel and busy with family on holidays was one reason. The other was that I have been trying to write an article based on thermodynamics, entropy, self regulating systems and the mind inspired by my engineering education of the past and my current inquiry into mind and matter. The article essentially bogged me down. I was obsessed by the topic for some time that I could not think of anything different to write. I have finally come to terms with it, left it aside for now and writing again.
The travel at the end of June has to be blamed on the Ode magazine as I got hooked on the Shambhala Summer Institute on Authentic Leadership in Action in Halifax, Canada. So, I did not worry about how I could afford the $3,000 fee and $2,000 airfare from Colombo to Halifax and back, I just jumped in. It was made more affordable to me by the good Shambhala folk through their scholarship programme and this was one of the best decisions I made this year. Read more...
Many of us have handed over our health and well being to an outsider called the ‘good doctor’. In effect, we have given up an innate capability of healing ourselves when something goes out of balance in our body. This capability comes through our own belief system. As with anything, if we believe we can, it may come true and if we believe otherwise, that will come true too. This is true for our health too. Read more...
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, science fiction writer, inventor and a good human being passed away on 19th March 2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, his adopted home. In many ways, Arthur was responsible for us to stay in Sri Lanka and establish a solar power business in the late 1980s. He was always there to encourage and help us even when we would get discouraged by the various obstacles that were in the way. He was a good friend and we will miss him and so will the world.
It was the summer of 1977 and I was on holiday in Sri Lanka from Canada with my cousin Viren. We had just stumbled into the table tennis room of the Otters Sports Club in Colombo and saw this European playing a hard game of TT banishing his young opponents away. As we stood there, he challenged us for a game and sent us away in no time too. After the game when we asked him whether he was on holiday here, he said - �Oh no, I live here, write a few books and do a bit of diving� only to realize he was Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer made real famous recently by �2001, A Space Odyssey�. Read more...
I made one of the best decisions in my life when I enrolled in the MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath. It was an enlightening 2 year programme with eight workshops covering areas ranging from economics, world trade, sustainable development, ecology and the environment, to self and the future of the world, much reading, discussions and consultation in between. Action research and inquiry based on how we learn, work, reflect, change and live was the basis for the programme. It was a way of consciously learning through mindfulness. Read more...
In December 2006, I participated in an interesting workshop called “Beyond Schumacher: alternatives approaches to economics and sustainability perspectives for the 21st century” in Northeast of Thailand. This seminar was aimed at bringing together theories of sustainable development, and lessons learned from lived experiences in juggling social, environmental and economic priorities. It was organized by Ales Kauffman, a sustainable development practitioner and former graduate of the Bath School of Management, Responsibility and Business Practice MSc.
My friends and colleagues working together in training and human resources development in Sri Lanka, Ineke Pitts, Mihirini De Zoysa and Robert Vanderwall developed an interactive inquiry session based on World Café called How Much is Enough ? Read more...
A few days ago I was woken up at about 5 in the morning with a power cut. The fan stopped circulating the air and the room got really hot. As I could not sleep anymore, I got out of bed and went to the lounge. Then I thought how dependent we have become on electricity, fans and air conditioning to keep us comfortable and how spoild we have become not being able to put up with the inconvenience of a power cut. Read more...
Certainly, there is a lot for the west to learn from the rest in order to create a better balance in the world.
The problem is that the rest is fast becoming like the west thanks to technology. This is not surprising with 300 years of domination based on the famous words “Cogito, ergo sum” - “I think, therefore, I exist”. We need to understand the history of all this in order for us to reorient our thinking which may enable us to learn from the rest. Read more...
If so, do look at this MSC in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath, UK.
This course addresses the challenges currently facing society as we seek to integrate successful business practice with a concern for social, environmental and ethical issues. It looks at the complex relationship between business decisions and their impact on local and world communities and economies, on the environment and on the workplace itself. Participants will develop management practices which are responsive to pressures for greater awareness in these areas. The course offers a wide range of alternative perspectives on business, all of which challenge ideas about where "responsibility" begins and ends. Participants will learn about management techniques and approaches being developed in leading-edge organizations, and will test the relevance of these ideas and practices in their own workplaces. Read more...
When my friend, publisher of Ode, Jurrian Kamp asked me to become a contributor to the Ode blog, I was thrilled. I have so much to say, yet I was concerned by the fact that I am not connected very well to the worldwide web, not for the lack of technology in Sri Lanka, but for lack of time. Spending much of my time in the front lines in the field and with people facilitating workshops and some of it for days away from home, leaves me little time to browse the web. When I am at home, I like to spend that time with my four children and wife, Samantha. As a result, I end up barely managing my e mail.
So, I am concerned that I may not have time to enter into dialogue and debate about the things I am going to write. Yet, I want to become a part of the global dialogue about the need to change our world. I am sure there are many out there with so much knowledge and insight who should become a part of this dialogue, but for lack of access or time, are not connected. Read more...
Twenty eighth April was a great day of anticipation for us in Colombo. Something was going right for Sri Lanka for a change. Sri Lanka had worked its way to the finals and was facing Australia at the Cricket Word Cup played in Barbados. Australia turned out better beating Sri Lanka in a rain sodden game. Losing the match that night would have been ok, but to have Colombo pounded from the sky by terrorist bombs took the cake.
It really hit home again the next night when our second daughter Aitana (11 years) came to our bed and said she is scared to sleep. The day had gone ok, but night time brought her terror. Read more...
