Who benefits?

 There were groups who wanted to flip the switch, to practice “shutting off” society for various financial and 

political aims – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Could the Government commit to a core purpose of “Being a vehicle for the well-being and prosperity of all Sri Lankans”? Might a national vision be, “Being the hub for IT, services and human capital for South Asia” in the next three years – so as to get the blood pumping and hopefully the mind and imagination both stirred and engaged?

One way to investigate any ethical cesspool is to ask the timeless question, “Who benefits?” Follow the trail of mendacity that way.

And casting our eyes back at the still accumulating “post pandemic” wreckage in the world, if we look at the absurd follies of “lockdowns” and the repeatedly exposed idiocy of “masking” and all their concomitant insanities from school and business closures to travel restrictions to manically jabbing everything that moves with untested “vaccines” you find quite a consortium of goons at work.

We pine for a world in which we are truly captivated by human rights and public health. Yet elites and industrial interests seem to overtake our priorities consistently and persistently.

We have watched, domestically and internationally, the usurping not only of health and income, but also hope, credibility and trust. It is beyond tragedy. And then there are those feasting on the carcasses, the scavengers availing themselves of the greatest transfer of unearned wealth perhaps in the history of our planet. 

Don’t you love a good shutdown?

There were groups who wanted to flip the switch, to practice “shutting off” society for various financial and political aims. So, a middling pandemic, easily manageable, where protecting the vulnerable a bit more would have readily sufficed, got converted into a global panic of compulsion and coercion, overthrowing centuries of progress, of laws and liberties.

So, who benefited? Let us follow Jeffrey Tucker’s originally assembled list.

Well, there were the tech behemoths, salivating about digital reality, and in their cabal, the online retailers. Of course, people enjoy the physical world after being coddled in a digital pram long enough, and these tech companies are coming thudding down to earth, even Zoom. People have developed an allergy to Zoom gatherings…unfortunately the baby goes out too often with the bath water... 

We had the pharma companies, indemnified, merrily smearing generic drugs and protocols with clearly demonstrated results and value. Guaranteed sales were assured, tantamount to customer conscription, with resulting frantic investment in labs and distribution centres. Masks galore, fetishistic but palpably unreliable PCR tests, ventilators, all the subsidiary “cottage industries” to support the hysteria and clamour.

Ah, there were the modellers, today’s version of the Middle Age theologians. Disease mitigation by extrapolation. They are now not so curiously quiet, back in the bunker. The prophets of doom splattered across the news have now vanished, shamelessly unrepentant for their looting and fearmongering.

Government officials preened and pounded their chests and took extra-constitutional powers out for test rides. Social media became an abyss of censorship, supported by “intelligence” agencies. The national security state got some of their “Cold War” swagger back. Nothing like mindlessly ordering people not to pray together, walk in the great outdoors, be with relatives…no crowds, unless it’s a race riot.

Media companies did what they do in crises, flash panic numbers, seek “clicks” incessantly and found ways to further enrol and enrapture their captive audience. They became ‘founts’ though of terrible misinformation and mercilessly controlled a narrative riddled with holes (censorship of experienced front line practitioners, kowtowing to the infallibility of pharma companies with a history of paying calamitous fraud fines like Pfizer or having been on the verge of bankruptcy like Moderna), and more.

Woody Harrelson…whistleblower!

In the course of an otherwise chirpy monologue on Saturday Night Live last week, actor Woody Harrelson let go with a remarkable summation of the Covidian era. It was flippant, funny, and true. However, the reaction demonstrated that the wounds of mass deception are still raw. 

“Rationalising” or averting our gaze continues, ignoring the sad, mad history of deception lavished upon the populace including “greatest hits” like the Iraq War (those “glaring” WMD!), the swine flu fiasco, the non-accountability visited upon the financial charlatans running our financial markets post the 2008-2009 meltdown, and more. Eventually you just get numb.

So, the audience sat there in stunned silence. Are they even allowed to laugh? Woody Harrelson unflappably moved on; I trust not “shocked” by the shock value. 

A commentator suggested, “In other words, it’s too soon, as they say. Too soon for laughter. But it’s not too soon for truth.” 

I’m not sure that’s it. This was not a raw wound; this was being jolted uncomfortably awake. This was seeing the heinous stupidity that became our global gospel. 

His words were pretty simple. He tells a fictional story of finding a movie script. In the plot, “the biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over.” He finishes by saying that such a movie could not be made because it is too implausible.

And today, it would be “ho hum, been there, done that.” No one would now consider it shocking as a proposition. It is just too shocking to admit as a fait accompli. 

Initially, people thought that the lockdowns extended from a primitive intellectual error, the belief that respiratory pathogens could be made non-vexing by simply eliminating human contact. It’s a preposterous supposition and one deeply dangerous to the whole idea of human society. Moreover, we have never locked up the healthy in human history! And we were to now believe that all our technological advances were now leading us to regress so magnificently! 

And Sri Lanka, followed the chorus, and the pantomime, and continued applying this economic wrecking ball, along with tax cuts and other strange flights from economic sanity. 

When the masks came along, it gave pause to those who realised that even in surgical theatres there is controversy if they do anything beyond dealing with macroscopic particles. Our faces were largely open, we had nanoparticles smaller than cigarette smoke. And we even put them on compulsively outdoors where there are no corroborated documented cases of transmission. All this despite masks clearly having had no effect in reining in influenza in East Asia. 

Their only purpose was to give people a means to believe that they were doing “something” other than stifling their breathing, plus providing an effective symbol of a panicked epoch that many people wanted to bizarrely ceremonialise and extend indefinitely. 

Jeffrey Tucker writes, “Even in April 2020, when the former head of virology for the Gates Foundation called me and told me very clearly that the whole idea of lockdowns was to wait for the vaccine, I could not process the information. This is because I knew based on my reading that there would be no sterilising vaccine for a coronavirus. A new technology claiming to stop infection and spread would require many years of testing, maybe 10. We cannot stay locked down that long. Society would be in ruins.” 

Well, welcome to the after-party folks. We didn’t wait the 10 years, we just rushed untested technology under unpersuasive EUAs (emergency use authorisations) and now see excess mortality and adverse effects continue to stockpile while investigators refuse, dare not “investigate.” But the clamour to have real reviews done will only grow.

Countries like Sri Lanka have to live now by a new evangel, “Face the facts fast.” Facts regarding taxes, cost of government, the need for value-added exports, needing to turn off the printing press (yes Dorothy, printing money does cause inflation!), creating a truly welcoming and profitable tourism value proposition, getting behind assets from gems and minerals to coconuts (we are the 5th largest global producer, and it is already close to $ 900 million per annum as a revenue generator and could with the right targeted investment match tea), to capitalising on human capital. We must leave these frenzied global delusions, no matter if promoted by WHO or others, aside. 

The caller in the quote above, assured Tucker that “the holy” vaccine was coming much sooner than he feared. Anyone versed in real science found that to be ridiculous, even dangerous. But this was the nub of the undertaking: the purpose of the lockdowns and related charades and vilifying generic drugs that clearly were effective in treating this very mildly lethal and highly treatable pathogen, was to buy time for the production and distribution of dysfunctional therapeutics posing as “vaccines”. 

Tucker adds, “An even darker interpretation of lockdowns would be that people need to preserve population-wide immunological naivete in order to demonstrate the value of vaccine technology.” 

As for media and politicians, you just have to see Pfizer’s unwillingness to go to India when India demanded local trials and refused to legally indemnify them, to know that “bought by Big Pharma” is a fact in too many other markets. 

So Harrelson was not just holding forth. He took a devastating critique, and reduced it to its essence, so the moral cesspool was in plain view. 

Overall, the world is being blatantly mismanaged. To wars with unknown ends, to rationing of vegetables in “developed” countries to energy prices soaring, why would anyone gravitate today towards “official” explanations? 

There has been a conspiracy of silence and still is. The trauma was so deep and the politicisation of the episode so intense that major voices are still silent about it. 

What we did in retrospect was lay the groundwork for massive surveillance by government, gross usurping of rights under the guise of “safety”, the militarisation of life where drones were overseeing hikers on windswept hills, and houses of worship were being affronted by police, and people physically assaulted for wanting to move about and to live and interact and be human. 

And the data was there. Median age of death above life expectancy. Virtually no COVID deaths that were not accompanied by multiple comorbidities. Even with death certificate shenanigans, 7 million are purported to have perished from COVID as of this writing, and yet 5 million typically pass from respiratory illnesses per annum. 

And the countries and continents who could not invest in the “solutions” of the vested interests, Africa and parts of Asia, emerged unscathed. However you record them, that many deaths if they occurred could not be hidden, unless the mounds of undocumented bodies are keeping company with all those missing WMD.

And the carnage goes far beyond an annoying year or so or staying home. Education, culture, religion, and civil society itself were smashed. We must find it in ourselves to let new possibilities emerge and to be architects of those possibilities.

And one of the sources to which we have to turn is social re-education.

Re-educating society

Last week at the BMICH, the loftily but justly entitled, People’s Convention for Good Governance, orchestrated a set of panel discussions, taking on the topic of “vitalising” Sri Lanka, helping it arise from its current doldrums and downward spiral.

Eminent panellists took on four areas of focus. 

The first was economics. The key insight was to switch to inclusive institutions, institutions that provide opportunities and mine talent, and mobilise enterprise and enable meritocratic rewards and contribute to the nation’s productive capabilities, rather than exclusive and “extractive” institutions that enrich parasitic elites and plunder national assets. The second is to get value from the 13th Amendment and what it represents as a process. Policy needs to be set in the centre with provincial delegation, and numbers being deployed need to be validated. And finally taxation, the richest paying more of these, say from the top 20% and the value of these raised taxes to demonstrably go to the well-being of the citizens of the country. Good governance has to be defined and has to verifiably abound. 

The second was production and services. There has to be a “people push” for efficiency and effectiveness. External audits have to generate data. Assets of public servants should be revealed to the public if indeed it is the “public” they are serving. Accountability mechanisms need to be set up. Civil society organisations are also needed who can partner with and challenge government and keep the spotlight on accountability and responsibility.

The third was a forum on education. And the focus was “equality,” “quality” and “values”. Education to be established as a true “human right” and it is provided as a resource to the neediest, and we need to sustain this through meaningful standards. Budgets need to be increased, we need far greater quality control in assessments and examinations, and we must eliminate regional or sectorial discrimination. And we must educate children, as the Germans have reminded us, in humanity, in attitudes and values and not just facts, or else we may produce learned monsters, or apathetic academic zombies, accentuating narcissism and conflict.

Then ethnicity came to the fore, how communities can be vibrantly allowed their distinctiveness, but in concert with each other. How civil engagement and dialogues are needed, and how the 13th Amendment could play a part or not towards that. Language can unite us, a joint sense of purpose can bring us together, and we must aim for deep connection, creating a space for a deep dive into mutual empathy not just “surface” reconciliation.

It was an important overture, and as with all such initiatives, the quality of follow-up matters abundantly. I presented the key role of vision in potentially weaving this together.

Envisioning the future

1. Country vision and recovery scorecard:

The country needs more than what glitters, it needs a vision and an aspiration for a larger future. So, one of the suggestions is to create a Recovery Scorecard that captures such a vital vision for growth and recovery. Based on The Balanced Scorecard this would be four quadrants, and in fact, we could just take the four quadrants of the above panels: Education, Living Together, Economics and Production and Services. For each of these we would create metrics and following The Balanced Scorecard, look at lead indicators that tell us how we’re likely to do, proactive actions we’re taking that will build the future if undertaken and then lag indicators that tell us how we have done and how successfully we have executed.

2. Execution and follow up mechanism:

The main issue, beyond credibility and strategic vision, and I’ve written about this at length, is execution. That is an area that Sri Lanka must build and strengthen. There are so many wonderful ideas and initiatives, but they’re never acted upon. We rally, we emote, we orate, and then await intervention. Too many such ideas just lie fallow. Nobody takes ownership. A vision that does not have an execution arm where we finish what we start will mean we don’t really achieve anything. We will continue to underperform against countries that may have fewer assets and fewer opportunities but are committed to taking constructive action for which people are held accountable in time-bound ways. Countries that perhaps pontificate less, but “baby step” their way concretely towards the future. 

And in case it helps to say it, another “executive committee” or “task force” to report every few months will not do it. That is just a rhetorical palliative. Not without clarity of project aims, not without boundaries, not without resource guidelines and clear milestones, and not without publicly affirmed personal accountability and commitment to engage needed stakeholders.

3.Finally, what South Africa did in terms of gathering people of diverse backgrounds and creating scenarios is illuminating. In the first scenario, they clearly depicted what would happen if no action was taken. In other words, the country would have self-destructed. Then in the second scenario they depicted what would happen if only small cosmetic actions were taken, if only plasters were applied, if short-term fixes were all we opted for. Again, they described the actions and policies that would trigger that option: two steps forward, three steps back. 

Then the third scenario was Phoenix from the Ashes. This is what was converged on, this is what stirred their souls and their senses and sensibilities. The convergence around that is what allowed Mandela to emerge despite all the odds and entrenched ennui – as well as of course, the greatness of his own character. And Phoenix from the Ashes showed the policies and the behaviours needed: the quality of communication and collaboration that would need to take place specifically for South Africa to transcend its past sins. 

I strongly recommend a similar exercise be done to communicate Sri Lanka’s options to jolt people awake. Once galvanised by that, something like the afore-mentioned “Vision Scorecard” could be adopted as a compass, building on the themes these passionate panellists addressed, with metrics, providing us a way to pilot the way forward.

Once more, who benefits?

Let it be that our actions going forward locally and globally are such that “more benefit”. The great achievement in China, whatever the fallbacks of their authoritarianism (and these are legion) was the greatest deliverance from poverty in history for masses of people. The “Communist” party declared their commitment to the “productive capacity of the nation.” 

“Communist” Vietnam is a model of enterprise and has showcased innovation in everything from exports to services to tourism. So, the political trappings even matter less than where national energies actually go.

Could we aim for “human capital” to come to the centre of our national aspirations in Sri Lanka? The ongoing re-education of adults, Peter Drucker once suggested, would determine the competitive advantage of nations. Surely world class base-line education would lay the groundwork there. And we must inculcate emotional intelligence as well, so we learn to flourish together, and harness our emotions, and tap them as constructive energy. 

Could the Government commit to a core purpose of “Being a vehicle for the well-being and prosperity of all Sri Lankans”? Might a national vision be, “Being the hub for IT, services and human capital for South Asia” in the next three years – so as to get the blood pumping and hopefully the mind and imagination both stirred and engaged?

And this means we raise our standards and are unwilling to mortgage our futures to mediocrity. And we must continue to face and tell the truth. Paraphrasing George Orwell who has gone from provocative literary scribe to prophet, he reminded us that in moments of crisis telling the truth can be a revolutionary act. Well, we are all called to that revolution today. Everything depends on it. 

(The writer is the founder and CEO of EPL Global and founder of Sensei Lanka, a global consultant with over 30 years strategic leadership experience and now, since March 2020, a globally recognised COVID researcher and commentator.)