Paper 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thinking Now Making Sense: Some Socio-political and theological areas to think through during the self- imposed Quarantine period (March\/April 2020)<\/strong>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. God of wholesomeness as found in the Biblico-Christian tradition in the face of callousness of the pandemic<\/strong><\/li>
2. Whose care to depend on (God\u2019s care and Gota\u2019s care: (head of state Sri Lanka)<\/strong><\/li>
3. The diseased, the sick and the quarantined  <\/strong><\/li>
4. Wuhan to Europe \u2013 shift of epicentres of Covid 19 globally<\/strong><\/li>
5. Closure of cities, curfews, no go areas and red zones<\/strong><\/li>
6. Fierce continued battle for global trade between Beijing and Washington <\/strong><\/li>
7. The rest of the world made to rest or arrested in a power gamble<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

   The task for activists, academics, theologians, cultural critics, artists, scholars and those critical thinkers to reflect on the current health crisis in the light of their specific praxis and thinking. Some of us are able to actively engaged with the crisis at different levels while some others will be able to help all of us to make sense of the mess around us. It\u2019s an act of faith, a social responsibility and a theological pursuit as we struggle through. Hope for people is fundamental.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   What you can do with these seven areas (of course one can add to the above litany) is to share some of your thoughts, ideas, counterpoints through a system that you are most comfortable with. Hence, let this A4 be considered a working paper only, while your reflections be written and copied to others both in the light of the original list of names in the email and the network with which you are already working. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Paper 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

   \u2018Identity Politics\u2019 Belittled in the Face\nof Covid 19 Global Assault <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Francis Fukuyama in his Identity:  Demand for Dignity and Politics of Resentment<\/em> (2018)  from particular perspective is a \u2018soft apology\u2019 for a \u2018 miscalculated and misinterpreted\u2019 narrative in his End of History and the Last man <\/em> (1992). Some argue that he more or less provided the ideological foundation to the basically unsubstantiated information in Clash of Civilizations<\/em> by Samuel Huntington, originally proposed in a lecture by him at the American Enterprise Institute (1992), in the same year that Fukuyama published his book (1992) above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Subsequently Huntington\ndeveloped the lecture notes into an article and published it in Foreign\nAffairs<\/em> as Clash of Civilization<\/em>s? (1993) as if a response to his\nformer student Fukuyama. However, Huntington\u2019s actual book appeared four years\nlater to Fukuyama\u2019s, as Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World\nOrder<\/em> (1996). <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Five years later the shia\nMuslim leader of Iran, the then president Mohammad\nKhatami<\/a> in 2001, introduced\nthe concept of Dialogue among Civilizations<\/em> at the global level. Later the\nUnited Nations proclaimed the year 2001 as the United Nations (UN) Year of Dialogue\namong Civilizations<\/em>, and was welcomed as a conceptual counterpoint to the neo\nliberal ideological camp but by then were already devising the new world order\nby the ideologues including Fukuyama and Huntington, later joined by many\nothers in the United States and their ideological allies across the globe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Interestingly what I view as\nFukuyama\u2019s \u2018soft apology\u2019, Identity<\/em>, it seems  to me might also have been on behalf of his\nlate guru Huntington, but appears 25 years later in 2018, too long for an\napology, however better than never. Here, we are in 2020, 2 years after\nFukuyama\u2019s Identity<\/em> (2018) discourse as a self-emulating factor politically\nand socially for identity politics<\/em> and his well-argued politics of\nresentment<\/em>. Both discourses in the same book are once again displaced now with\nthe priority of the assault of Corvid 19 in the heart of Europe. Now across the\nAtlantic in the (in)famous \u2018America First\u2019, resulted in the obsessive\ncompulsive behavior of most political leadership of the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Fukuyama\u2019s thesis (2018)\nlooks like is made redundant, because the identity and politics of resentment\nis gone to the back burner and it is very clear as to what really are the\nfailed states might be at point in time. The US State department\u2019s jargon continued\nand was  campaigned by the INGOs to the\nrest of the world had been to point specific nations as \u2018failed states\u2019 and\n\u2018rouge states\u2019. If a nation cannot protect its people with all the technology and\nthe intellectual capacity in their highest position then what more can be the definition\nof a failure, gross negligence and complacency. What was being risked is the \u2018mandated\npolitical will\u2019 by the people and not \u2018politics of resentment\u2019 but \u2018politics of\npower gambling\u2019 impeding the lives of the people. Both competing power mongers\nof China and the United states over trade and the European Union for its\napathy, negligence and political dissension especially that of the Brexit and\nthe wasted time, resources and energy  were\nunder the spot light. As much as this is not a time to point one\u2019s finger at\neach other, at least something \u2018close to the truth\u2019 must be recorded, so that\nit could be proven wrong as not the truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   It seems not an end of\nhistory<\/em> but almost apocalypse<\/em> (but for some actually now is the end\nof history<\/em> not early 1990s as per Fukuyama, I would like him to respond to\nthis crisis as a political scientist and as an ideological fodder supplier to\nthe neo liberal pandits of both among the obstinate Republicans as well as the\nfailed Democrats)<\/strong> this time, certainly calling for an end of a\ncumulative and solely market and trade led human and their institutional\nconduct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Yuval Noah Harari in his\nrecent publications such as Sapiens<\/em> (2017), Home Deus <\/em>(also 2017)\nthen more poignantly in his 21 Lessons for 21st Century<\/em> (2018), where he\nrefers humbly to the 10 articles written by 10 worlds scholars during 2000-2018\nin the New York Times, accepts and acknowledges their insight adding his own to\nthe final production of the book. He brings some sense to the mess, and\ncertainly we must put all our heads together for a sensible future for all, not\ndefinitely to recommence the old version because that version is already\nfractured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Corvid 19 is before us,\nalive and kicking in most insidious ways, hidden but active bypassing all\nscientific discoveries and G5 technology with artificial intelligence prepared\nto take over many areas in human activity. All such plans are on hold. The\nordinary lives among us are taken over by the overwhelming fear of disease and\ndeath. The virus is silently attacking all sophistication hitherto considered\nhuman progress and development. Humans must pause as most of them are stuck\nwithout answers, locked and quarantined. This \u2018shut down\u2019 could sharpen human\nimagination to rethink human behavior anew and set priorities right here and\nnow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi 30 March 2020 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Paper 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Silent Enemy <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   I watched every single day during the self-imposed quarantine period that a flock of \u2018great white pelicans\u2019 (migrating birds) settling on a Banyan tree (<\/strong>ficus Benghalensis<\/strong><\/em>) \u00a0about 30 meters across from my window. My count of them on their way to settle for the night was at least 20+. I had tried my level best to hear their call, but disappointingly I could only hear the resounding call of the noisy city crows, and the mynahs (which belongs to the starling family). These local breeds dislike the \u2018pelican presence\u2019 and there is a constant commotion over the space of this Banyan tree for the local settlers. Given the size of the pelican there is no way either the crows or the mynahs could possibly have a chance for the night park. Pelicans take priority.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   This pelican community is really scrupulous about their setting out for food which is about 5.45am and settling back on the tree commences about 5pm. The community it seems to me is on the increase by the week. All this happens on their part with a sense of purpose and silently while the rest of the locals make a hullabaloo of the situation. The pelicans with no pandemonium take their place for the night, and by 6pm all is silent but at least a bird population of over 200+ birds might be resting for the night on this Banyan after a difficult compromise. While the silent migrating birds settle down before they make their morning beeline to the Diyawanna Oya (a large water reservoir that connects most of Colombo\u2019s water paths), yet a silent enemy seems also has migrated and settled, as Covid 19 among the human population of this island nation, Sri Lanka. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   The roads are made silent, hustle and the bustle of the cities are dormant. The dominant political voices are numbed and made dumb. The priests, bhikkhus Mavlavis and other religious leaders have opted belatedly to engage in real social responsibility beyond the church, temple and the masjid. The Silence of the Sacred is communicating to the religious that they must not only preach but practice, and this is the real time to work silently for the defeat of the silent enemy among us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Silent enemy is creeping through our beloved land and our people, teaching us that humans might be rational but irrationally lived with greed of the market and trade: investment and profit before people. Humans might have created supersonic instruments but have not listened to the wailing of the natural world. Humans progressed perhaps to a pinnacle of achievements but failed to care for the ones ejected by the very system and institutions operating more powerfully than the elected governments. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Silent enemy still strong and robust, warning the humans right across the globe, obstinate and hard hitting, paralyzing the systems with no mercy. The great white pelicans require no quarantine, no health curfew, no road blocks, they silently fly back and through, gliding, frolicking and seeking their feed to survive. Silent enemy, the Covid19, decides who survives and who succumbs to its intricate maneuvering of the mechanism of the human body – the respiratory system.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Silent enemy is attacking the vociferous nations big and small and their people with a weapon of ill health in an unprecedented way. A silent enemy with equal and unknown ways, unselectively taking the toll on the most vulnerable population. Human intelligence and its sophistication is as if halted because the enemy is also within. All human wars for land, religion, power sharing, nationhood, caste, class, trade, finance are all silenced by the silent enemy. Isolation, physical distance, not visiting grandparents and parents have become paramount activities and non-activities. Strange relationships are being cultured by the silent enemy. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   We have to defeat this enemy publicly because the assault is so public. The culture of scientific research with special attention to biochemical and witness-less laboratory experiments, knowledge creation, information dissemination and the callous handling of that information as power, will have to be mended in all the different modes, from trade to international relations. Values, virtues, cultural norms, religious affiliations and beliefs must be revisited and re-examined thoroughly. We cannot simply go back to the \u2018old edition with its hard cover\u2019 of any of these paradigms.\u00a0 Even though treasured and venerated some of them, may be revisiting and revisioning them will become imperative if those paradigms to be relevant in the remainder of this century. The banyan tree has the capacity to hold all the local and migratory birds and still be relevant and effective as a tree.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Silent enemy, humans will defeat obviously, provided they are willing to learn some bitter lessons at a terrible cost of forty thousand + dead worldwide at the time of writing. About forty Great white pelicans I think are resting tonight on that Banyan tree. The entire tree is in deep silence\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi\/ 01 April 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Paper 1 Thinking Now Making Sense: Some Socio-political and theological areas to think through during the self- imposed Quarantine period (March\/April 2020) God of wholesomeness as found in the Biblico-Christian tradition in the face of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-685","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/685\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}