Oh my feet are warmer than my head: Confounding physics in Sri Lanka

A nation that does not create new things will not rise! So said Munidasa Cumarathunga, one of our great poets and scholars. About 74 years later with another year coming to an end we are looking at the state of our state and see the truth of this statement. He was saying this when there were no MBAs and Innovation Management case studies and well before our independence. Our path over the ensuing years riddled with politicking, corruption and conflicts have unfortunately meant that we have not lifted our fingers to create but to argue and only in pointing fingers, and most of the time to no avail.

I was spending some time in a science centre which was a place full of babies and parents. They do bring their young early and breezily to science centres and I am sure those toddlers really have no clue about what happened with Issac and the apple but I am sure the parents see a purpose. Of course, this did not happen in Sri Lanka as we do not have any such places to go. I was fascinated by an experiment the demonstrator showed to children – demonstrating that the head is warmer than feet! The rationale is that the brain inside consumes so much energy and that is the reason for that physical fact. I thought about whether we can check whether one had any brains or not by a simple measurement on the go! 

As we have been checking temperatures pointing sensors at the forehead for the last three years an interesting dataset must exist in quite a few places. You may exactly need not have temperature readings of the lower anatomy as biophysics is clear. The lesson, of course, is we human beings are scientific species though on this island of ours we run it with quite a low scientific literacy. Perhaps that is exactly the reason 74 years later we only have the declaration of bankruptcy to boast of after we had the chance of managing ourselves. 

The year 2022 is mercifully coming to a close but without any control 2023 is about to start. Nature perhaps had the last lesson of the year for us first by demonstrating how someone else’s mistakes can throttle our respiratory system and then a deluge demonstrating that just because there are at a higher elevation there is no escaping submergence when inflows are greater than the outflows even with sharp gradients being present. 

In the absence of scientific literacy climate crisis is falling on relatively deaf years and many are still following the old rules simply driven only by cash flow statements and short-term ROI mindsets. There is an interesting proposal however from Sri Lanka in establishing a Climate Change University. Quite a few who were financially savvy thought that the US mid-term elections would swing Republican because the gasoline prices were up and the democrats were too climate-friendly. The thinking was also present in the local circles. For the first time in the US midterm elections, US voters did give a lesson in politics. Today there is no real need to convince climate science as climate change is doing that itself. 

Sri Lanka needs a RISE program where innovation is kept central. Easy to understand RISE as that is what we have as the only option that has hit the rock bottom and appears to stagnate there without much of a plan. RISE should recover – innovate – sustain and evolve with innovation at the heart of the process. As an example of what we should not be doing but still appears to follow with no innovation at the centre is the pledge! Come 1 January the news says that we all would be taking a pledge on contributing to increasing food production – produce the food required by the people to ensure food security! Somehow grow more and we would be out of the woods. However, that had been the picture for the last 74 years – we have been losing much of the production from day 1 of production. There is not a murmur on that issue. 

Henceforth we will be putting much more energy into production and definitely will proceed to lose more as well. Marketplaces would support additional garbage mountains and we know the number has climbed up since the Meethotamulla disaster. What have we learned as a lesson? With my feet perhaps firmly planted on the ground, I am feeling more heat there due to these unscientific processes in the display. I feel the process of brain freezing over when you hear about our attempts to raise ourselves.

The year has also witnessed perhaps the largest numbers in migration. The issue mostly is in the migration of professionals and young graduates. In a recent convocation in which I had the opportunity to participate the numbers that were missing – and not even having indicated receiving the degree in absentia – were striking as well as quite disturbing. Some data that had come out has shown the migration of medical professionals numbering 400 plus over quite a short period. Ensuring a medical professional to the society is a long drone out process involving much investment and this loss in droves is really a national security issue of sorts! 

I am not sure whether we have ever calculated the cost of developing a politician but we certainly have a figure for a medical professional running into over a million per person. It is left to us to understand the impact of a loss even though this value still is a lower estimate. However, I am not sure that these losses are getting serious attention either. If we are to think that these personnel are going to start sending dollars immediately upon landing in their favoured destination we are sadly mistaken. 

2022 has exposed us to many an event. Some pictures of such events even make up TIME’s annual collection of the most significant. Wherever there was violence we have to condemn it strongly as violence should never be a means to an end. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka violence has marred the passage of the nation many times and at times with patches of long periods. In some sense with such a history that we are still up and about is also something worth contemplating. Nature striking us back has been the end game of 2022 which we perhaps should consider more analytically. With a highly fragile economic condition, we are simply not in a position to take on any battering from nature. We certainly need to be much more prepared with the population well briefed on options. 

We were told that in one recent case the emerging scenario was not communicated because the people can get scared – certainly not the best way to manage or face any situation. Early warnings have a purpose and certainly scare mongering is not a reason. The well-briefed prepared populace is an asset and that is what a lesson in disaster preparedness would indicate to us. Enhancing steps in that direction should be a priority activity in 2023 as unpredictability is on the rise. How decision-makers understand current Sri Lanka’s position in the climate risk index is not well known and thus is quite worrying. We know we are quite good at preparing meal packets and distribution but much stronger action is required in demonstrating resilience.

I understand that I am living in a country that had been declared bankrupt! The burden of debt is significant and there is no solution in sight. There is still no real plan visible to reduce the burden either. What we hear certainly is not raising my confidence either but I am not in any mood for desertion or dereliction of my duties either. In that context I almost hear Ronald Reagan’s voice – You haven’t seen anything yet! That is why the dawn of 2023 perhaps is likely to bring in the mother of all challenges. How well we face that year is quite likely to make or break Sri Lanka. The optimist in me feels that the latter is not on the cards for us.

All around us multiple disruptions are seen and felt. In this era of exponential innovation Sri Lanka as an island would not be spared. Environmental, societal and technological disruptions are plenty posing us so many challenges as well as opportunities. Both in business and in politics a different breed of thought leadership is required and both sectors and especially in the latter this is not demonstrated. In the absence of such are we heading for another abyss? The country also needs us to respond to the challenges and not hear us whining and complaining. Just a final comment the media to has to behave in a whole new way in responding to this situation. The coming year will show the stuff that we are made out of, for sure.