Pic courtesy www.backofbeyond.lk |
['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is 198th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]
Pristine
ecologies there very well may have been. Maybe there still are places
untouched by human beings. That’s the qualifier: ‘human beings.’ One
species but one of millions upon millions that have at one time or
another inhabited this planet. We are human-centric whether we wish to
be so or not. We can, at best, empathise with other creatures, try to
understand them and their interests, leave as gentle a footprint as
possible and hope for the best.
Hope for the best? That’s like
leaving it to chance, isn’t it? Well, there’s very little we know about
the universe, our planet, our fellow creatures and ourselves, even
though we pride ourselves about knowing much. Arrogance mixed with
ignorance generates tragedies. Humility tends to cause less harm.
Our
planet was not how it is now. We don’t really know how it was aeons
ago. We know a little and we extrapolate but the slightest error can
lead us to wild conclusions. And we need to remember that just as our
species has left and leaves footprints, so do all other species. We seem
to have been the most arrogant and, despite our human-centric delusions
of superior intellect, have demonstrated amazing degrees of ignorance,
it is not the case that other species have by and large been benign. The
play of relativity doesn’t give us an excuse of course, but let us not
gravitate towards the opposite extreme, i.e. we are the only malevolent
species this planet has known.
Throughout history our species,
like all other species, have had to engage with the world around us, the
ecologies we inhabit, the ecologies we move into and the ecologies we
wreck, one way or another. Whether or not our actions are informed by
what they may or may not precipitate, as individuals, communities,
countries and as a global human family, act is what we do. What all
species do, in fact.
Today there’s talk of carbon footprint. A
long time ago there was no talk of carbon footprints, but the evidence
stacks up to an irrefutable truth: the ancients knew more and were far
more conscious of the impact of decisions made on the planet, then and
later.
Can we go back to that time? I don’t know. Maybe we can’t
or at least we won’t but we might be pushed into circumstances we
probably would associate with a different era which we maligned as
backward, unscientific, undeveloped, poor, miserable etc. The question
we could ask and which some people do ask is ‘what do we do now?’ How do
we conduct ourselves or how should we live our lives?
Non-engagement
is not an option, because whether we like it or not, whether we are
mindful of what we take and leave behind from and for the future,
respectively, engage we must. We must eat and that involves foraging of
one kind or another. We must breathe and breathe out, and that’s
‘invovlement’ too.
How, then, is the question.
There’s
been a lot of debate on these kinds of issues. So much that it cannot be
encapsulated. However, sometimes, there’s a small note or observation
that makes us pause, reflect, nod our heads in agreement and compel us
to reconsider how we live, the lifestyles we’ve chosen and the truths
that have fascinated us. This is something that ‘popped out’ a few hours
ago:
‘"Eco" is more than a hashtag. For us, it's the very
ethos of our work. We want to create truly sustainable spaces. From the
materials we use, the food we serve, our activities and engagement with
the community, our goal has always been, to be respectful and to
cultivate that same feeling amongst our staff and guests. The truth is,
any interaction with our environment has its repercussions. It is an
intrusion. This is the reality. But we try our best, to make our
intrusion, and be mindful and as gentle as possible.’
It was a
note on the Facebook Page of ‘Back of Beyond,’ a responsible ecotourism
enterprise launched in 2007 by Dr Yohan Weerasuriya.
Yohan re-grows our nation. All the time. |
[Yohan, an old friend, wouldn’t be too pleased with publicity. He works and that’s all that matters to him. In fact I’m pretty sure that most people who know him and have worked with him know only that particular slice of his life they’ve been exposed to. He will not be interviewed. It must have something to do with genes; it is only after a lot of persuasion that his father, the legendary photographer Nihal Fernando who passed away a few years ago, agreed to tell me his story. That was more than 20 years ago.]
There! Parenthetically footnoted to preempt an inevitable ‘you needn’t have, machang,’ from Yohan.
Just consider this line, which I extracted from the Back of Beyond website a few minutes ago: ‘Touch gently… Yes, we acknowledge we are intruding … but we hope we touch our natural and social environment so minimally that it feels nothing but a gentle touch…’
Caress. Always better than hard grip or callous brushing away. In all things. Most certainly with regard to the earth we live in, which sustains us and which we take for granted. It is possible in the back of beyond and right here where we happened to be, all of us, as individuals and as a collective.
malindadocs@gmail.com
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An island which no flood can overwhelm
A melody faint and yet not beyond hearing
Heart dances that cannot be choreographed
Remembering to forget and forgetting to remember
Authors are assassinated, readers are immortal
It is good to be conscious of nudities
Saturday slides in after Monday and Sunday somersaults into Friday
There's a one in a million and a one in ten
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
Hemantha Gunawardena's signature
Architectures of the demolished
The exotic lunacy of parting gifts
Who the heck do you think I am?
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The songs we could sing in lifeboats when we are shipwrecked
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Mind and hearts, loquacious and taciturn
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Sujith Rathnayake and incarcerations imposed and embraced
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A poetic enclave in the Republic of Literature
Landcapes of gone-time and going-time
The best insurance against the loud and repeated lie
So what if the best flutes will not go to the best flautists?
There's dust and words awaiting us at crossroads and crosswords
A song of terraced paddy fields
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From A through Aardvark to Zyzzyva
Words, their potency, appropriation and abuse
Who did not listen, who's not listening still?
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No 27, Dickman's Road, Colombo 5
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Ithaca from a long ago and right now
Lessons written in invisible ink
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The interchangeability of light and darkness
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Chess is my life and perhaps your too
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Colours and textures of living heritage
Countries of the past, present and future
Books launched and not-yet-launched
The sunrise as viewed from sacred mountains
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The age of Frederick Algernon Trotteville
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Paul Christopher's heart of many chambers
Calmness gracefully cascades in the Dumbara Hills
Serendipitous amber rules the world
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