Tidbits from this source and that

So, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year came and went. Cassandra has used a Sri Lankan colloquial manner of pronouncing that an anticipated event was marked and ended. The high temperatures however prevail, though mercifully tempered by afternoon showers. Everyone except drug dealers and politicians were struggling against strangulating pecuniary difficulties, but of course last minutes urges to buy had to be given in to.

Colombo became a deader city than it was in mid-April of recent previous years. A Sri Lankan returned on his annual vacation from foreign climes said driving around was similar to what it pleasantly was thirty years ago. Cass personally is glad the Aluth Avurudhu season is ended since her domestic returned.

One difficulty and inconvenience that should not have been was the congestion in the Fort railway station and Pettah and other major bus stands. This too is an always recurring happening. Exodus from cities to home towns and hamlets is an annual occurrence. It is expected and with increase in population and shifting to major cities, crowds wanting to travel increase.

But is the government and its railway and bus services geared for this need for extra trains and buses? Not at all! In fact this year the boss of one major private bus service announced he was taking buses off the roads during the season. The inconvenience caused to public transport travellers is never a cause for remedial action being taken. It’s almost as if those in power in these services feel that the hoi polloi are destined to suffer and they are agents of causing that suffering. Public departments are hardly ever prepared for anticipated heavier demand on services.

Cassandra decided to draw her attention away from local politics in this week’s Cry. All politicians seem to be concerned about is the expected elections. So the less said the better. She decided to pick points to write about from here and there, so to say.

Diversity not utilised

A video clip by a sensible young man who wants to change systems in Sri Lanka made some very pertinent observations. Cass recognised the good looking, dynamic speaker but since his name was not given in the clip, she cannot name him. What he said was this:

Politicians invariably go back to the tactic of divide and rule by reigniting communal and religious disharmony when they seek votes.

So true! These feelings are ever present below the surface and the slightest ignition can cause tremendous flares. He mentioned national diversity which is a strength and a resource like all other resources we boast of, but this particular resource is not utilised for the greater good of the country. Cass sees it as the good in diversity is ignored while its negative aspect of separateness and competition for supremacy is inculcated from the very start of a child’s life. Segregation in mediums of instruction and schools.

The speaker mentioned that in Colombo alone Ananda, Hindu and Zahira colleges are so apart from one another that children hardly have friendships developing among the schools. He said that during the Aragalaya, this fact of racial and religious segregation being encouraged by governments and political leaders was highlighted. He quoted an Aragalaiya slogan: Mung apita keteuwa.

The Aragalaya proved how religious and racial harmony was so easily possible. The speaker’s thrust was for the cultivation of a truly Sri Lankan identity by all citizens. Older person like Cass who lived and schooled in more civilized, pre Sinhala Only times knew of life lived harmoniously with religious and racial differences not considered or recognized at all.

Cass states that mercifully there appears to be a reawakening of us all to consider ourselves to be Sri Lankan first and foremost. The Rajapaksa introduced Sinhala Buddhist is now accepted as a stupid misnomer, a divider and frankly, as Cass believes – dangerous

She thinks Ranil W has made a positive move to cement unity or at least a give and take compromise among the races and religions by his travels in Jaffna and very recently walking the roads of a tea estate and chatting to the Tamil workers over there. His motive is vote catching, but the move is positive.

Position of Bhikkunis

A niece travelled with a Sri Lankan bhikkhuni who participates annually in an ordination ceremony in Malaysia and was reluctant to travel alone this year. The two are now with the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association at the 6th Theravada Samaneri Novitiate Programme organised by the Arya Vihara Buddhist Society with 35 women between ages 20 to 65 years being ordained. Two monks conduct the ordination ceremony.

Visitors and resident bhikkhunis are in retreat from 6 to 18 April. Bhikkhunis who had training in Sri Lanka are abbesses in the Ariya Viharas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. What Cass’ niece was impressed by is the complete freedom those in robes and lay persons have to follow Buddhism and conduct Buddhist ceremonies in this Muslim country. Buddhist monks and nuns were respected. She contrasts this with what prevails in SL with regard the Bhikkhuni Order.

Some Mahanayakes did not permit the ordination of women ten preceptors. Ordination at the beginning was done overseas; later the ceremony was conducted here in SL by a monk and already ordained nuns. The fourth ‘foundation’ of Buddhist society was finally in place in this country which claims to be the main repository land of pure Theravada Teachings of the Buddha.

Is there parity in status and treatment of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis? No. Most higher ordained yellow robed women in Sri Lanka follow the vinaya rules and help society immensely. But they are not even permitted passports in their ordained names. Cass was once involved in this issue where nuns sought passports as nuns and not as Miss this or Mrs that. Totally embarrassing and often questioned were they, shaven and robed, and noted down as civil status women.

Horrendous torture to girls

Almost impossible to believe that female genital mutilation (FGM) still goes on in some African countries. An email sent by a local woman activist for Cassandra’s signature in a protest against the Gambian Government said the horror of female genital mutilation could become completely legal soon. Gambian politicians want to reverse the country’s ban on it. FGM survivors are trying to save the ban and protect girls … “The present Parliament has 91% male members and has introduced a Bill to rescind the 2015 ban on FGM. A UN survey found that 67% of all females in the age range 15-49 had been mutilated,” the email said.

Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Erithrea and Ethiopia also still carry out this unthinkable torture, mostly to keep girls chaste and for the perverse satisfaction of men.

A Somalian internationally renowned model, whose identity I forget and could not trace through Internet, spoke against FGM at the UN General Assembly, citing her own experience. Another Somalian model, Waris Dirie, is in the battle against FGM and from 1997 to 2003 was a UN special ambassador. In 2002 she founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna to better fight FGM.

Much is written and battled over the travails of our own women. What are our main concerns? Women bear the brunt of rising COLs; inadequate incomes; unavailability of even schooling for their infants in remote areas; enforced strictures and limitation to their freedom; being made servile to husbands after having been controlled by fathers and older brothers. Widowed, they often are dictated to by sons. The worst however is having to contend daily with drunken husbands prone to violence. But all these pale into comparative insignificance against FGM that many women of the Muslim faith in Africa have to suffer. Barbarism prevalent in this 21st century!