Lalith Gunaratne

“Fish smells from the head” – Vietnamese proverb.

Therefore, if our society stinks, chances are today’s leaders have gaps in integrity and honesty.

Most people cannot imagine Spirituality and Leadership mentioned in the same breath. To many this is combining two entirely unrelated concepts. Yet, the level of our intelligence and our ability to think and analyze and the fact that the human mind’s base is compassion and goodness, this combination of unlikely bedfellows may create the new story we need for the future.

Father Thomas Berry, the late eminent ecologist said in his book Evening Thoughts; “The old story has ended and we are not quite sure what this new story is all about”.   Read more...

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it,” said Voltaire after reading Rousseau’s Social Contract in 18th century France. We respect the courage and honesty of Voltaire and other leaders of the time for they laid the foundation for an enlightened century. Medieval dogmatism, prejudice and narrow mindedness was set aside at the political level to allow for more mature acceptance of questioning and criticism. This laid the foundation for recognizing the individual and the concept of the democratic ideal.

Contrast that with the 21st century political dictum first uttered by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11: “If you are not with us you are with them,” a line followed closely by the Sri Lankan government as it fought the difficult war with LTTE, the rebel group wanting a separate state for Tamil people. By extension, asking questions is treachery and not condoned through threat driven by fear. The questioners are ridiculed and even silenced by death. Yet the questioners are too few and far between to begin with, as the masses are shaped to be left brained linear thinkers and not encouraged to creatively ask questions. Our logical and rational education ensures that. Who sets this agenda? Most of us have been shaped through specialization to only use the left brain for the purpose of providing centre stage to human beings based on natural selection where the strong few dominate. So, it is the strong few that set the agenda, but they will selfishly guard their right to leadership and hate being questioned.   Read more...

Sitting in the train to Jaffna on that August day in 1973, I discovered a landscape I had never seen before; it remains vivid in my memory. The 4th Kandy Boy Scout Troop from St. Anthony’s College, headed by Scout Master Senarath Basnayake, was on an adventure of discovery. It was an exciting trip, like going to another country - men in white vetties, women in colourful saris, the rickshaws, many Austin A 40s parked in a row, interesting aromas coming from the streetside vendors that aroused my senses to the fact that this was all different.

Our hosts from Jaffna Hindu College guided us through the streets to the school which was going to be our home for the next few days. Each of us was assigned mentors, and P. Thillainathan - wide-smiling and friendly - introduced himself to me. The next few days we had various Scouting activities including an early morning hike to Point Pedro. We woke up around 3:00 a.m. and started walking. Three hours later we walked into the white sands of Point Pedro to a glorious sunrise and a cup of kitul toddy.   Read more...

It was almost a decade since I had been involved with climate change activities, so I was happy when I was invited to a capacity building session held in Kathmandu in July by the Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). CANSA is part of a global network of NGOs addressing climate change issues in the region.

I was eager to learn about the current science of climate change and how well nations around the world are responding to it. To my dismay, I found that global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 70% in the last 20 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that the evidence is even stronger that human factors have exacerbated the climate change process. In fact, we are knocking on the doors of a Climate Catastrophe, if our planet's temperature rises more than 2 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric carbon levels move towards 400 parts per million (ppm), when it should remain below 350.   Read more...

Sri Lanka has been in a conflict for the last 26 years between the government and Liberation Tamil Tigers of Ealam (LTTE), a rebel group trying to carve out a section of Sri Lanka for them for self rule.   The government forces (mostly Sinhala) have destroyed the group and regained control of the area.  However, there has been collateral damage to many civilians in these areas and a cry from the Tamil Diaspora around the world.  This article calls for reconciliation between the two communities - Sinhala and Tamil. 

I am amazed at the mobilization of young people from the Tamil Diaspora around the world to protest against the Sri Lankan government’s purported human rights violations.   When often the younger generation of immigrants forgets the old country to a future in the new one, it is incredibly positive that the Diaspora feels so passionate about this difficult conflict on behalf of their community.   Maybe once the conflict is over, they will come back to Sri Lanka to rebuild the country together.   However, there is long way to go for reconciliation between the two communities as so much hatred has manifested, especially amongst the Diaspora overseas.   Read more...

At least three mornings a week, Samantha (my spouse) and I go to the Colombo Swimming Club, a quiet private place for some exercise and a swim. I enjoy this morning routine and use the back garden to stretch, jog and use the bars. However, over the last two years this routine has been disturbed by a battle that I have with a bunch of crows, which, I presume, are not happy about me entering their space.

It all began when one bird attacked me while I exercised. I then hit back with stones and shooed them away and thought it was sorted. Not so. The next morning was a shocker. As I entered the garden I felt a bad vibe in the air and sure enough there must have been over a hundred crows - they were waiting for me. They got into a noisy formation and dived at me. I have been in some major scrapes in my life with fellow humans, but this scared the hell out of me. The gang leader looked mean, would sharpen its beak on the wire it was on and swoop down on me with others following. I saved myself from a major assault by running for cover under a roof. I reluctantly skipped my exercise routine and jumped in the pool in dismay, but the gang agitated the entire time I was there. It took me a few days to get back to the club again so I thought the dust would have settled, but not at all. This time there were not so many, but they kept diving down at me in intervals, so I had to get aggressive. That morning I got my exercise shouting, running at them and throwing rocks to take control of my space.   Read more...

I often wonder how we can solve the social upheaval we are seeing all over the world. As an individual I feel a sense of helplessness. Yet I see so many good things happening too driven by wonderful people based on love, compassion and sound values. These people seem well balanced emotionally and spiritually. So, how do we reconcile these with those who espouse hatred, who are emotionally volatile and violent ?

It appears that we have to go back to basics – ‘the mother - child connection’.   Read more...

What comes to mind when one hears the word poverty?

Scarcity, shortage, paucity, deficiency, dearth are words that are in the Thesaurus. Yet, the word confuses me in the way it is commonly used.

I live in Sri Lanka, a developing country with GDP of about US $1,000 per capita. In western terms, this is a poor nation. I became a resident of Sri Lanka in 1988 having lived in Canada for 15 years. Economically, Sri Lankans have less material wealth than an average person in the west. In happiness, I am not sure.   Read more...

Glenn Kibble my Thermodynamics lecturer at the Seneca College Mechanical Engineering course in Ontario back in 1980 said there are three “T”s in life. Thermodynamics, Tennis and the other “T” he got away with as it was an all male class.

At that time I was mostly interested in the unmentionable “T”, yet I took the fundamental nature of the thermodynamic laws to the existence of our physical universe for granted as true. However, as I live a life of inquiry, study human nature and spirituality I am beginning to question the laws of thermodynamics as final scientific truths.   Read more...

‘In our minds we have a vision; it’s in our hearts that we make it happen’
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK

‘To inspire the desire to lead, to create one team, one dream, one world’ is a quote on the cover of the Dreams & Teams Young Leader’s Learning Log Book. So, this has got to be a special programme and it is.

As I sit here in the make shift Dreams & Teams secretariat at the Chipasula Secondary School in Lillongwe, Malawi, there are nineteen enthusiastic Young Leaders setting up for their maiden sports and arts festival for sixty young children from two local primary schools.   Read more...

It has been awhile since I sent in a blog to Ode. A combination of travel and busy with family on holidays was one reason. The other was that I have been trying to write an article based on thermodynamics, entropy, self regulating systems and the mind inspired by my engineering education of the past and my current inquiry into mind and matter. The article essentially bogged me down. I was obsessed by the topic for some time that I could not think of anything different to write. I have finally come to terms with it, left it aside for now and writing again.

The travel at the end of June has to be blamed on the Ode magazine as I got hooked on the Shambhala Summer Institute on Authentic Leadership in Action in Halifax, Canada. So, I did not worry about how I could afford the $3,000 fee and $2,000 airfare from Colombo to Halifax and back, I just jumped in. It was made more affordable to me by the good Shambhala folk through their scholarship programme and this was one of the best decisions I made this year.   Read more...

Many of us have handed over our health and well being to an outsider called the ‘good doctor’. In effect, we have given up an innate capability of healing ourselves when something goes out of balance in our body. This capability comes through our own belief system. As with anything, if we believe we can, it may come true and if we believe otherwise, that will come true too. This is true for our health too.   Read more...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, science fiction writer, inventor and a good human being passed away on 19th March 2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, his adopted home. In many ways, Arthur was responsible for us to stay in Sri Lanka and establish a solar power business in the late 1980s. He was always there to encourage and help us even when we would get discouraged by the various obstacles that were in the way. He was a good friend and we will miss him and so will the world.

It was the summer of 1977 and I was on holiday in Sri Lanka from Canada with my cousin Viren. We had just stumbled into the table tennis room of the Otters Sports Club in Colombo and saw this European playing a hard game of TT banishing his young opponents away. As we stood there, he challenged us for a game and sent us away in no time too. After the game when we asked him whether he was on holiday here, he said - �Oh no, I live here, write a few books and do a bit of diving� only to realize he was Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer made real famous recently by �2001, A Space Odyssey�.   Read more...

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