Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

08 July  2020

Covid19, Tsunami and War

Performance Indicators are in common use in modern management. As our State of Victoria is resorting to ‘internal’ measures the polls show majority approval for the Premier. I asked both my children who live in Melbourne and they identified with the above approval – as per their own experience and how they received the experience. That to me is how belief works to indicate from the inside. The Victorian Premier Mr Daniel Andrews himself is reported to have stated: ‘This is not a popularity contest; it’s a pandemic and we’ve got to make good logical decisions, and that’s what I’ve tried to do’. This, to my mind, confirms the outcome of the polls. According to the Guardian article ‘Daniel Andrews: Victoria's 'dictator' or just a wildly popular, unstoppable political force?’ :

[To listen to the more vociferous critics of Daniel Andrews – confined mostly to the Murdoch media and a rogue Victorian Liberal MP – he is a dictator revelling in his power, with “a disturbing streak of authoritarianism”, a premier who wildly exaggerated the risk of Covid-19 and is now deliberately hampering the economic recovery.]

To my mind, one who has the ‘need’ would draw on the strength of the Premier at the level of her/his investment in governance. Majority would judge as per their own expectations and how they are satisfied with through their own local reality. My mind connects the additional pain by victoria to the Premier engaging at State level with China on the Belt and Road Initiative which is an disturbance  of the Silk Road Heritage for lesser purposes. Since my prayers in relation to protection against Covid19 gets answered – I feel satisfied that the above is the right connection for me.

 

In the Island editorial ‘Early warnings and second waves’ the editor states:

[Many Sri Lankans perish in disasters because early warnings of such events go unheeded. Moments before the landfall of the Boxing Day (2004) tsunami, the sea rolled back; there was an eerie clam and animals ran away, but people ignored those signs. The second wave barrelled across the ocean and made landfall. The rest is history. Landslides have snuffed out so many lives because people inhabiting vulnerable areas take early warnings such as cracks and tremors for granted. It may be understandable why ordinary people behave in this manner; they lack awareness.]

This is an ‘external’ view of the issue. I worked with those ‘ordinary’ people who did call me from Batticaloa when they feared another Tsunami in March 2005. They called me around midnight on 28 March 2005. Somehow they felt that it would help them. I believe that it does - to the extent I have protective powers. It may not stop the manifestation but it would help the believers ‘cope’ better. Later I learnt about the actual manifestation reported as follows by Wikipedia:

[The 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake occurred on 28 March off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. At least 915 people were killed, mostly on the island of Nias.]

I thanked the Lord for answering my prayers. The folks who contacted me thanked me. In October 2008 also they urged me to come. On 06 October 2008 I took the bus to Batticaloa because the trains were on strike. I was checked all the way to Batticaloa – more than others. Later I realised that it was because Major General Janaka Perera was killed in a bomb blast in Anuradhapura. I did not have knowledge of it until I arrived at Yoga Swami Girls’ hostel. The following day I did go to Mankerni – the home village of the folks who asked me to come. I sensed that they were concerned due to disturbance by armed officers and rebels. They felt better after my visit they said. We did not talk politics at all. We were just with each other. The sharing happens in a free environment.

The editor goes on to state about the victims:

[They pay for their failure to act on warnings with their own lives. It, however, defies comprehension why senior law enforcement officers and political leaders do not care to act on warnings of possible destructive events and are allowed to trot out lame excuses and get away easily.]

The Tsunami victims who ‘believed’ did prevent further pain in 2005. That belief alerted them from within – as an indicator and I believe my belief in them also helped them save themselves.

Belief helps us bring about closure by submitting to higher powers. Where there is no such power – one is left to one’s own devices. The editor reveals the target as follows:

[The Easter Sunday carnage led to the reintroduction of extraordinary security measures. Nobody was allowed into buildings without security checks. Metal detectors became the order of the day. Road blocks were set up and random checks conducted on vehicles. The police and the military went all out to ensure public safety, and the people fully cooperated with them. Such measures have to be relaxed to some extent with the passage of time if the security situation improves, but the question is whether they have been deep-sixed, and the country’s fight against Covid-19 has been at the expense of action needed to prevent a possible second wave of terror. It looks as if temperature guns had taken the place of metal detectors. Security personnel at most public and private institutions no longer conduct checks for explosives, we are told.]

On 19 April 2020, I wrote as follows, through my article headed ‘Aerosols & Covid-19’:

[When I first went into details of the Virus I did register that its infection rate seemed high where there were combinations of liquid and air. Hence the connection I made to Bondi Beach infections, the Cruise ships and also to air travel where aerosols were used before we disembarked from the planes. At mind level – they were about enjoyment of pleasures. At physical level the combination was air and water.

Yet no one was warned – at least to take their own precautions. One who cares would risk the wrong tick. ]

The main reason why I was not heard by the higher authorities is my insignificant status. But to the extent they believed in a ‘common’ area that is ‘home’ to me – they would have been empowered by my discovery. That was how all of us protected ourselves from the health and economic damage of the infection. Those who are self-governing in terms of Health and Finance – would have naturally protected themselves and their home environments. I was for example happy to learn my daughter empathise with the refugee community that is now suffering more than her due to the tighter lockdown in housing towers in her area – demonstrating her belief in Equal Opportunity values.

The editor reveals distress due to fear of  terrorism as follows:

[Meanwhile, distressing news has come from the Northern Province. An ex-LTTE intelligence wing member suffered serious injuries when a bomb went off inside his house, where bomb-making materials were found subsequently. His wife, an ex-Tiger cadre has been arrested. It is suspected that the bomb which exploded prematurely was to be used in a clandestine operation, on Sunday, when the so-called Black Tiger day fell. Some politicians are openly promoting the LTTE and organising events to commemorate dead Tigers, in the North.

One can only hope that the authorities concerned have taken notice of these disturbing developments and adopted measures prevent a possible second wave of terror.]

This ‘risk’ is part of the natural environment of those who had the skills but not the opportunity to earn money and status from wider world outside their community. Tamils in that area have accepted that by sharing in the pain of rebels. Those who so shared would not have expected or taken any benefit due to the sharing. Politicians who profit from disturbing the Peace that such believers contributed to – are like Chinese government that disturbed the Silk Road Heritage for lesser purposes.

 

The fact that it was prevented confirms reconciliation through true belief. Those who recognize that commonness – including through Easter Bombings – would not fear recurrence but would prevent recurrence.

Each nation in its privacy would know why it suffered due to Covid19. The lockdown helps us to believe more in each other – provided we do not reject it mentally and/or physically. This has been confirmed by Victoria’s migrant population suffering more than others. That discovery was made due to lockdown, in the privacy of lockdown – which helped Victorians discipline themselves.

If the mainstream Lankan media had connected to believers in Northern Sri Lanka – they would not fear recurrence but prevent or cope with recurrence more effectively than previously. Covid19 has taught us a lesson that nature is way ahead of us in Medical science. To my mind, the indicators are that the warning is about Bio Warfare. What recourse is available to us in preventing wars? As per democracy – we can prevent war by maintaining our sovereignty.

Where was the Island when Hambantota became  the chip used by this government to ‘show’ economic prosperity? Where was the Island editor when this government kept taking ‘free’ medical supplies from China during the current crisis. Nothing in this life is ‘free’. When we accept gifts – we acknowledge that those giving are our seniors or that they are repaying their debt incurred as juniors. A Sovereign Nation would have closed its borders to such ‘givers’.