JUNIOR POWER HOUSE OF ENERGY -1967

“The shame of these ugly spots on the landscape is not those who built them, but on you and me who cannot get together to change the face of fair Lanka.”

JUNIOR POWER HOUSE OF ENERGY -1967

By The Very Rev.Fr.Theodore A. Peiris (Parish Priest, St Xavier’s Church, Nuwara Eliya)

Man who during the past centuries progressed at a snail’s pace has during this century run like a fleet-footed deer.

A man of a century age would find today’s civic, political social and economic life has nothing in common with his. Yet if one examines carefully the vast changes that have taken place in the history of man’s development, (or volution) he will find that certain fundamentals of human relations remain unchanged or they come back with greater force.

From a simple barter system, man worked out a system of permanent values in metals. Gold Bullions is gone, and gold standard is only in name while credit and banking systems have become highly efficient and contribute to greater and faster progress, but at the highest level of international trade, we are still batering.

So also in social understanding and civic life, in the midst of highly organized social ministries and the welfare state, the first gift that man gave to society –the gift of strength has come back. We call it today ‘Shramadana”, but the danger is that like many another thing it would be dissipated energy unless well directed. What has happened to scouting in certain places could happened to Shramadana. Some Scouts are seen only during the chip-a-job week, when they aim at doing the least amount of work and get the most amount of contributions. Unless well-directed Shramadana will lose its beauty and character and young hearts and noble youth will only reap frustration. Unless they see the fruit of their labour and its repercussions on society, the glamour would soon wear away.

Where then could this energy be best directed today? Perhaps in the school itself? At first sight, it may be that we imagine that the major problems of school is the buildings and accommodation and therefore the Shramadana should be directed to the building of more spacious class-rooms and the making of better furniture. Yet the school problem is deeper. Even in schools that have become the apple of the eye of an M.P. or has been otherwise endowed with benefactions, why is the standard of teaching low? Maybe there is a lack of the ideal teacher. But why should hard-working and self-sacrificing teachers who have not become pawns in any political game become frustrated? Without denying the existence of other corroborating causes and making a thesis of one, it could be stated that the root of the evil is that most school-going children have no background. The child goes back from a healthy, hygienic cultured and civilised surrounding of a school to the squalor disorder wildness and the cramped surrounding of a slum or to the makeshift of a temporary hut. Lessons in hygiene have no relevance because they are impossible to practise. History may speak of noblemen and great achievements. But the leaky roof and the sodden floor damps all enthusiasm and all that is heard in the classroom atmosphere is of a dream world.

It was said of old “Primum vivere deinde philosophizare”. Before you could imbibe the exalted thoughts of great men, you must live. But many of our school children do not live –they only exist. Let us take a look round the colonies that are growing in the district of Nuwara Eliya. The reformer once upon a time cried: “three acres and a cow” but what we see is a quarter acre and a shack. 

There are a few of these colonists who have put up decent American type cottages. The man who deserves the free grant of land from the Government is unable to put up a decent dwelling, and the man who has put up a decent home is the man who did not deserve to get the land free.

The Government gives a grant of Rs.1000/-, but the payment is made as the house is being completed. 

The poor man must get into debt and build in order to get the grant. A thousand rupees may be enough in the plains in the metropolis. But up here in the hills, when every building material has to be transported at the special rate charged for climbing up Ramboda- pass the building of single room might cost as a whole house in the plains. Further, verandas are out of question in these parts, the house must be lived in through the cold spells and the rainy seasons.

The geography books say that we have three maxima of rain. Our’s not a downpour followed by sunshine.

It rains for days. This looks a sad state of affairs, and incurable decease of the community yet the solution is at hand and the unimaginable wonder is that the school children can solve it. The energy that is dissipated in the school by children who work for three periods, a week on vegetable beds that are neglected during the holidays ( unless a teacher living in the vicinity finds a private income in the undertaking) could very well and more usefully be directed: instead of the lesson in agriculture ,which is a lesson of what should not be done and which is a distraction in the school curriculum, let the school work during the week go on undisturbed, but instead let there be every term a Shamadana week. Not for the whole school at the same time, but for a class or two at a time. Preparing sites making bricks, cutting foundations and helping in the building works is all within a child’s ability. The seniors would be able to do more skilled work.But within a week a well organized Sramadana can put up a concrete brick house of 360 to 400 sq.ft. and look with pride upon it as a job done.

One could look at the problem from another aspect that of the colonists themselves. Here are a set of people who have come from different areas and environments to form a new community. Unless they are knit together into a tight community. There is bound to be juvenile delinquency in these colonies, for surveys have proved that what keeps the young here in Ceylon out of mischief is community pleasure. If the housing projects are planned and the families are united in the effort of building a good home instead, a community could be formed. It will bring about the unity of the nation that cannot be imposed by authority from above must grow from below and within.

It will also reduce an amount of red tape and labour for the kachcheries if there are 100 houses in an area, instead of 100 vouches being made by several clerks and distributed by several officers after several inspections, once the sites are made, the foundations laid, Rs.5000/- will be available and Shamadana work can turn out a minimum of 42, 330 cinvaram blocks of 12’X6”X4”. With such a start there is going to be an enthusiasm not only in those for whom the work is done, but also in those who are engaged in the work. The work experience children gain would in itself justify the project is no other good came out of it.

In January this year, the schools will have thousands of children who have sat the GCE and await results, if the arrangements are made in time. They can be the first batches of Shramasada workers. They can lead the way.

Chesterton said that the greatest joy in going out on a journey is the joy of getting back home. Anyone who has travelled around the world will tell there is nothing anywhere to compare with the scenic beauty of Ceylon, but why should its landscape be dotted with ugly shacks. The nests of the birds are better homes for themselves than the house built by ingenious man. The shame of these ugly spots on the landscape is not those who built them but on you and me who cannot get together to change the face of fair Lanka.

(Extracted From the Nuwara Eliya Holy Trinity College Magazine published in 1967)

Post Script: 

THE LATE VERY REV.FR.THEODORE A.PEIRIS: Parish Priest of St Xavier’s Church (1965-1973): THE LATE VERY REV.FR.THEODORE A.PEIRIS had been a well-read priest and his publication of the SXC 125th Jubilee Magazine talks volumes about the wealth of his knowledge and skills. It was this Magazine that inspired me to a great extent to learn the history of modern Nuwara Eliya and the History of SXC. Apart from being the Parish Priest of SXC, he had been a generous, prudent, and practical thinker. Going above and beyond his boundaries, VERY REV.FR.THEODORE A.PEIRIS built an entire housing scheme utilising his personal funds at Bangalahatha, Nanuoya for the deserving people irrespective of caste, creed or ethnicity. Still residents at Bangalahaytha worship him with great honour.