Phil Hughes.
Mahinda vs Chandrika. Feguson,
Missouri. Eric Garner. Akai Gurley. US
hypocrisy. Yes-we-can Obama to
We-are-blind Obama. These are all
possible headlines for an editorial comment this week. We go with something else. Someone else, to be precise. Rukshan
Abeywansha.
Our readers will note in this edition of ‘The Nation’
that the cover pages of several supplements, namely FREE, JEANS and LENS are in
somber colors; black and white except for the name of the section. They will notice that the cover story of the
section FINE is dedicated to an individual whose name you will not find in
Reuters, Al Jazeera, BBC, AFP, AP or any such ‘well-known’ news peddling
outfits. Certain people are not
newsworthy. They are not known.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan Abeywansha for
many reasons. First and foremost because
he was our colleague and clearly the most loved too. Rukshan struggled for five months after an
accident which left him paralyzed neck downwards. He fought.
He smiled through the fight. He
left us lost and utterly broken.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan because his
courage is an example. So too the way he
conducted himself as a professional, colleague, friend and family man. He had his share of woes and at times it
seemed he had more than a fair slice of it all.
It never showed up on his face.
It never intruded on his work.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan because tragedy
should never be measured in the volume of death, the amount of blood, the
height of the flame or how unrecognizable landscapes subject to disaster,
human-made and otherwise, are. Grief is
personal. Every death diminishes the
near and dear much more than the collective.
This newspaper does not belong to Rukshan. It does not belong to his friends, family and
colleagues. This newspaper has a mandate
that is larger than grieving about a personal loss. But this newspaper concerns itself with the
human condition. And the human
condition, as the Buddha said, is made of profit-loss, joy-sorrow, praise and
blame, fame and discarding. These, we
are told, are best treated with equanimity.
Rukshan demonstrated that he was abundantly endowed with this quality.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan because in the mad
rush to find that which is newsworthy, in the excavation of events and
processes to find a story, in the scanning of the world for quote and power
configuration that can impact many as opposed to few, we often forget or
‘peripheralize’ the ‘little story’, the easily forgotten and eminently
forgettable name.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan Abeywansha because
this world is made of Rukshan Abeywanshas in whose names people seek power,
wars are declared, countries invaded, foundation stones for buildings laid and
reckless, racist police officers shoot or strangle to death black people in the
USA.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan, also, to thank
the good human beings who helped Rukshan’s family during his lengthy suffering
to secure the treatment required, to pay for it, to be there for the family
through it all and in their final hour of anguish.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan because he, more
than anyone else, was acutely aware that the world moves on as it should,
forgetting event and personality, tragedy and grief, moving from one bad day to
the next, one joy to another. We dedicate this space to Rukshan because he
taught us that some small something being added to humanity while all this
happens cannot hurt.
We dedicate this space to Rukshan because in his
life and living, in accident and struggle, and even in death, he was able to
gift companionship, forge community and educate.
*The 'Editorial' of 'The Nation', December 7, 2014
1 comments:
worthily hip.
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