World: One shock away from a crisis... Express no evil!

The three wise monkeys of yesteryear were supposed to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. This expression stemming from Confucius’s code of conduct was articulated by a Japanese carving in a shrine where it originally appeared in the 17th century.

The expression and what it means is now known in both Eastern and Western societies. The Western world however uses this expression to relate to those who look the other way in times of an impropriety.

Modern society is built on expressions; expressions of physical as well as mental models of human beings on how one should change and how countries should be developed. Stronger models can overlap the weaker and domination can be a key element in your mental model.

We can be quite infatuated by the models that we hold dear. The world perhaps was always like this as stories of Hannibal and Alexander the Great may tell us. Theirs was a domination by a forceful model while the current models in a globalised world are more connectivity oriented.

It is the sheer speed of things that is slightly dizzying for most of us and we think this to be a modern phenomenon. Yet the old fashioned rights and wrongs have not changed. It is the addition of mobile phone etiquette, email etiquette and social media etiquette extending to international politics in a connected world that we have to understand.

Today the spread of information is so fast we are not in a position to make more than one mistake and that too can be a luxury. The technology is subjecting the masses to understand many more things in a lifetime than one is ever used to.

Expressing an opinion

As human beings we like to express our feelings and ideas and turbulent times result in even more such exchanges. Expressing an opinion is always fraught with some danger. An interesting excerpt was taken by Prof. Sivasegaram when he addressed the SLAAS as Section C chairman in 1975. He took as his sectional address ‘Expressing an Opinion’. His selection is worth rereading, though finding archival information of this nature in Sri Lanka is difficult.

We as a nation can perhaps say with confidence how many catches were taken by a person in his lifetime of service to cricket but statements of scientists and engineers are not that neither well captured nor accounted for. One may then point out that our players have been spectacular on-field and the same cannot be said of scientists, thus removing the necessity of remembering any of their comments and actions.

Prof Sivasegaram had an insert from a book – ‘Wild Grass’ by Lu Xun written in 1925. It was on expressing an opinion and is worth repeating here. The excerpt goes as follows:

I dreamed I was in the class room of a primary school, preparing to write an essay and asked the teacher how to express an opinion ‘that’s hard!’

Glancing sideways at me over his glass, he said: “Let me tell you a story. When a son is born to a family, the whole household is delighted. When he is one month old they carry him out to display him to the guests – usually expecting some compliments, of course.

One says: ‘This child will be rich.’ Then he is heartily thanked. One says: ‘This child will be an official.’ Then some compliments are made on him in return One says: ‘This child will die someday.’ Then he is thoroughly beaten up by the whole family.

“That the child will die is inevitable, while to say that he will be rich or an official may be a lie. Yet the lie is rewarded whereas the statement of the inevitable gains a beating.”

“I do not want to tell lies, Sir, neither do I want to be beaten. So what should I say?”

“In that case say: ‘Aha! Just look at this child! My word… Oh, my! Oho! He he! He, he he he he he!!”

Lu Xun wrote this in the first quarter of the last century. Has the situation changed or has the number who wants to express in any way frank and factual declined? A question we can ask from ourselves and by looking at our own behaviours. Purely frank expressions without an intention of doing good may not really be termed a frank expression.

Learning from cricket

It has been stated recently that we should celebrate and learn from the cricket industry in Sri Lanka. One goes into state the extended player development programmes present, extensive infrastructure and coaching, sponsorships for one to pursue the sport of their choice, support in attending overseas events and planned itineraries, etc.

I think there is much to learn from especially the passion and the singularity of purpose of players. Also for some the mass mobilisation of humans to see and do nothing else except watch must be interesting when you understand how to make maximum impact and grab the attention span for a long period of time.

In this day and age capturing attention is all what you strive for at times – positioning in the mind. Again it is bit confusing that we hear at the end that there is a significant debt attached to the whole exercise. However, authorities are quick to point out that it is worthwhile as an investment for the future.

The idea here is to emphasise that when we believe in a cause, investments do have to be made with the future in mind. However, we must apply this thinking into other sectors as well as a nation cannot prosper with one or two growth segments. It is our ability to ensure that all relevant sectors get attention and with a commitment to enable success in well chosen spheres that will differentiate this country from good to great!

Support for science

The sector that I would make the passionate call for support and development is in science. As with cricketers that you cheer, the scientists too need their cheer leaders from among policymakers, nation’s leaders and of course the younger generation. If the latter group is switched off, science is in for deep trouble – a fact that we only too frequently observe these days.

The enormous benefit that can accrue from a motivated science and technology cadre is tremendous. This is simply not understood here. At times we speak with much pride what scientists who have left the shores of Sri Lanka are doing when they are in news after some significant contribution.

The expatriate scientist is usually operating from a state-of-the-art lab or an industry. It is pertinent to note here a person has to be more pioneering than a person who would be placed in a lab elsewhere. One needs to create systems ensure their sustainability and run simultaneously. This calls for tremendous dexterity in coping with diverse views and plenty of bureaucracy coupled with a lack of resources.

One must be prepared to meet many road blocks and many a map is not even available! To cite an often stated but less understood situation, a chemical needed in Singapore will be met within 24 hours whereas the same request may take six months to be fulfilled here. Like the straw that breaks the camel’s back this single request may delay a progress completely though the person may have to be kept on the payroll; hardly enabling a productive and satisfied work life.

While an empty stadium will not be requested to yield monthly report of turnover, expensive laboratory equipment may have a string of questions to be answered even prior to being considered. We all too frequently ask the question of when we are going to get returns and in my view this is totally wrong and unproductive.

This type of backwardness in terms of analytical ability is what presents us from understanding quickly some serious situations such as the renal failures in the North Central Province to quality enhancement in industrial processes.

One shock away

The World Bank President recently made a headline grabbing statement: “We are one shock away from a full blown crisis.” He did not elaborate on the one shock that may herald the tipping point, but did point out the currently developing fuel and food crisis as a root cause for many issues to come, with poverty being one. What poverty may lead to when that permeates down to large numbers in one society, one need not speculate much.

Now obviously Robert Zoellick was speaking in good faith, asking for action. His was a case of speak no evil! His was a frank statement. His effort was to get attention and then to articulate the need for action, which he did.

Action may well begin from his own organisation. However, we hope that his views are given some consideration. Among the planners and decision makers, however, we cannot have everybody emulating the three wise monkeys in the Western fashion – looking the other way; the impropriety in this situation being inaction and more concern about leisure than on learning and enabling the nation to grow.

(Professor Ajith de Alwis is Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. With an initial BSc Chemical engineering Honours degree from Moratuwa, he proceeded to the University of Cambridge for his PhD. He is a Science Team Leader at the Sri Lanka Nanotechnology Institute. He can be reached via email on [email protected])