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Declining creativity

Whither innovation and self-reliance? This poser would have occurred to many a reader who perused an article we published on the Op-Ed Page yesterday, by well-known Lankan engineer and irrigation expert Dr. D. L. O. Mendis. The principal points made by Dr. Mendis in relation to the engineering field in Sri Lanka, could be found to be applicable to many other areas of public life, where a spirit of creativity and innovation is found to be indispensable for progress.

As in the case of the "Brain Drain" syndrome, the problem of the continuous erosion of creativity, innovation and self-reliance in the Lankan public sphere too needs to be accurately contextualized. A prime focus of Dr. Mendis was the post - 1977, socio-economic environment in Sri Lanka and its adverse impact on our engineering capability.

Special attention was drawn to the stultifying impact, over-dependence on the part of governments on foreign engineering expertise, was having on the local engineering sector.

In sum, it could be said that slavish and parasitic dependence on particularly Western expertise has had a damaging impact on the morale of the local engineering profession besides foreclosing all possibilities of the latter growing in genius and stature through a process of taking on and meeting new engineering challenges, particularly in the area of major project planning and implementation.

Besides, such self-destructive dependence has resulted in a financial loss of considerable proportions. The end result is loss of creativity, innovation and initiative on the part of the Lankan engineering profession, besides the country being drained of valuable financial resources.

Slavish dependence of this kind on foreign expertise has, of course, resulted in the rapid impoverishment of other areas of national expertise too - education being one of these. We utterly dislike facile labelling and generalizing but cannot help noting that successive governments, particularly since the mid-Seventies, have tamely submitted to the neo-colonial control of the Lankan State by expansionist extraneous powers.

However, this is only one dimension of Lanka's multifaceted impoverishment and under development. Running parallel to this process of impoverishment at the hands of external powers is a process of internal stultification and spiritual suffocation. We are referring here to the relentless politicization of the Lankan State.

Today, almost every area of public life and every institution of the State has been politicized. Needless to say, this prevents the fostering of a spirit of creativity and innovation in these institutions, resulting in the undermining of self-reliance and growth. How, for instance, could an aggrieved employee, nursing a feeling of political victimization, give of his best for his organisation? This is the bleak socio-political context of spiritual or inner impoverishment.

More than fifty years into "political independence" one could count on one's fingers - as the saying goes - the number of first rate minds, Sri Lanka has produced in varied fields. All this is in spite of the fact that we churn out a multitude of exceptional students at Secondary School and graduate levels. What becomes of this reservoir of talent and capability? In which morass of disgruntlement and disappointment is it drying up?.

Rice is Life

The Manila-based International Rice Research Organisation's (IRRI) slogan 'Rice is Life' reflects the very close affinity between rice and life, especially in Asia where the 'golden grain' is the staple food. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the IRRI have declared 2004 as the 'International Year of Rice' to highlight the importance of rice for the millions of farmers and billions of hungry mouths in Asia.

The last International Year of Rice was 1966. Nearly 40 years on, Asia has come a long way in terms of farming technology and paddy cultivation remains the dominant land use, occupying 30 per cent to 60 per cent of arable land in most Asian countries including Sri Lanka.

Even though many Asian countries have made vast strides in paddy cultivation, a lot more needs to be done. Paddy yield levels in even the advanced Asian nations are lower than those of rice-growing developed countries outside Asia, such as the United States. Asian nations, under the guidance of IRRI, should intensify rice research with the aim of achieving higher yields and making better use of paddy lands. Developing disease-resistant rice varieties is also essential.

Bigger harvests will enable Asian countries to stop rice imports from the developed world and channel those funds towards development.

Our own Rice Research Institute at Batalagoda has been engaged in this task for a number of decades, directly contributing to the development of agriculture in the country. Asian countries which have such institutions should share technological breakthroughs in paddy cultivation so that Asia as a whole could benefit. Rice typically earns half the income of Asian rice-farming households and bigger yields will help them to raise living standards. They should also be given credit, irrigation and marketing facilities to make this a reality. Rice also provides more than half of the calories and protein of Asian poor. Making rice more nutritious will help alleviate hunger in many malnourished Asian families.

The FAO has warned that food security in Asia will be a major issue in the years to come.

The International Year of Rice is thus an ideal opportunity to work towards ensuring food security for all Asian peoples.

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