A couple of years ago when the country, like the rest of the world, was battling the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a 
surge of volunteerism that is not uncommon in times of trouble. No one died of hunger during this time. People got together to make sure that those who were most needy in the neighbourhood had basic needs met.
During this time, many groups mobilized resources, especially money, to support the efforts of the health authorities. Money was found for medicines, medical equipment and even to expand facilities in hospitals.
A group of men and women who had entered university together more than 40 years before and were connected through WhatsApp decided to ‘do something.’ Someone had posted the requirements of a hospital, I believe a children’s ward to be more specific. Other suggestions were posted. The amount needed was calculated. Arrangements were made to purchase various items. Eventually, whatever was collected was delivered.
Of course there was discussion. People debated the merits of each proposal. Options were weighed. Thus they did go about figuring out how the best value for money could be obtained. Old and not so old personal issues, not atypically, did intrude. In one instance, the proposer rather than the proposed being disliked, the proposal was criticised.
Things got heated. Things got out of hand. Out of the blue came the assertion, ‘all this stuff is what the State should do!’ No one really argued that the State should navel-gaze and twiddle thumbs, but this was a crisis, a pandemic, an unprecedented situation and as such the general consensus was, ‘let’s just do what we can simply because it could mean the difference between life and death.’
It’s an age-old issue. The State and the citizen. The collective and the individual. Rights and responsibilities. The social contract in laws, values and norms.
The laws, as Ru Freeman points out, ‘should be the last resort in our interactions, to be summoned when all conversation is spent, when all negotiation is done — in other words, when we are broke’.
This side of all that, it always comes down to a personal choice. She nutshells it in a collection of essays titled ‘Bon Courage.’ The essay concerned was called ‘Many rights, few responsibilities.’
‘As a Sri Lankan, I grew up understanding that what is given freely must still be earned. A free education must be earned by upholding respect for education and rigorous intellectual pursuits. Free healthcare must still be earned by the purchase and consumption and, if possible, the cultivation of native vegetables, fruits and herbs. The freely given affections of parents and grandparents and extended family must be earned by a willingness to tend to the elderly, a consideration for the dying, and the transmission of those values to a younger generation.’
Education is not free. Health is not free. The people of this country pay for these things, directly or indirectly. Ask students in any university who pays for his or her education and the vast majority would mention parents, an older sibling or a close relative. Ask them thereafter, ‘who pays the person who cleans the washrooms, cuts the grass, fixes technical problems, teaches, counsels, maintains the gymnasium etc.?’ There will be silence. Some might venture an answer.
The reluctance or ignorance can be put down to a flaw in the education system that simply does not inform students about resources, who provides them and in what ways. That’s not part of civic education, sadly, but that’s not something that parents cannot teach their children.
Politicians are frequently and not unjustly berated for wasting public funds. They are irresponsible and that’s a generous word to use on them. It begs the question, ‘am I responsible?’
Responsibility and being responsible are not dead in our country. There are those who do honest work, those who go beyond the call of duty, those who do what they can to cure the country’s ills to the extent of this ability, those who note the warts but are not blinded by blemish to see the incredible beauty of this land, those whose minds and hearts are not warped by wrongs suffered whether real or perceived, those whose success, wealth and power have not translated into arrogance and condescension and those who resist everything that says ‘don’t smile, just frown.’
Such people are not weighed down by ‘rights.’ They make everyone fly on the wings of responsibility. This, I feel, is why we as a nation though downed again and again just cannot be counted out.
[email protected].
www.malindawords.blogspot.com.
