Financial Times

Risks blind mice fail to see
The Wise Old Owl perched over the big oak tree at the Hilton Hotel could clearly hear the cocktail clatter coming out of the ballroom.
The focus of conversation of the leaders of governance, business and society attending a cocktail was concentrated on the risks ahead- the presidential elections, its likely outcome, predicting the winner and his policies, consequential winners and losers and how leaders should mitigate these risks.

The owl was bored with this non-value adding clatter and flew deep in to owl territory and perched atop the tree where the owl nursery was in progress.
The teacher was getting the small owls to sing nursery rhymes and one little owl sang the rhyme “Three blind mice”. The teacher asked the kid “who are these blind mice and what risks don’t they see?” and the kid promptly answered, “The leaders of Governance, Business and Society are the three blind mice” and “they do not see the risks of pandemics, tectonic plates and statues”. The teacher owl was baffled and focused on getting the kid to unbundle this encoded message and the possible riddle.

The pandemics related to the potential risks of the avian flu, where extreme predictions estimate the death of 150 million people world wide, (estimate based on 3% of the exposed population dying as happened on a previous occasion).

The World Health Organization predicts that the present restricted impact, where the flu has transferred from the birds directly to exposed humans may change as the virulent virus mutates from the present affected people with the spread beginning amongst people in contact with affected people. It is also predicted that the pandemic will happen with only where it will break and when not being certain at this stage. With the highest potent infective viral period believed to be just before the temperature brings people down from normal activity, the spread of the virus via travelers will be unrestricted.

Sri Lankan leaders who are blind and believe that avian flu is only a problem for Central Asia and Far East Asia are totally mistaken. In addition the way SARS was contained may not be possible in this instance.

Some countries are preparing for the pandemic. Some progressive private sector companies are also preparing to mitigate the potential risks.
They are vigilant with medical research and control/ isolation units standing by, culling potential threats, spraying and awareness building. Designated hospitals stand ready to deal with isolated patients. Any suspected employees are required to work from home and thus limiting exposure. They are building up sufficient stocks of vaccinations and antibiotics.

Tectonic plates refer to the potential danger as Sri Lanka is also exposed to the same plate movement, which in December 2004 originated near Indonesia and the latest earthquake originated near Pakistan. Can the same plate extending to the deep south of Sri Lanka experience a movement that can impact Sri Lankans with a major earthquake? Our buildings are not earthquake protected. Our safety, risk mitigation and disaster management readiness and action strategies against earthquake risks are near non-existent.

Statues relate to the religious statues that appear to sprout all over Sri Lanka mainly on roadsides, by railway lines and every possible place imaginable outside of places of religious worship. There appears also to be a trend to erect a religious statue wherever people are dumping garbage to discourage such indiscriminate dumpsites from emerging.

Leaders are ignoring this trend not recognizing potential future issues when road expansions and other development work necessitate these statues being moved. They are also blind to the past practices of small statues becoming bigger statues and then getting placed on pedestals: then getting covered and ultimately built around, fenced and ending as a new religious site. Some of these sites are later exploited for their commercial value rather than the religious value to discipline the public to build a society of good human beings adding value to the nation.

Wise Old Owl then realized the value embedded in the riddle and how the elite leaders in high society are wasting time evaluating, betting and aligning to manage the risks of elections, whilst blindly ignoring the key risks around them and the nation.

Wise Old Owl decided to fly off in search of enlightenment, hoping that civic conscious citizens and young village leaders will take up the role of the farmers wife and decide to chop off the tails of the blind mice identified by the young bird. Then at least these leaders will be acting their designated role sung in the nursery rhyme – three blind mice running sans their tails!
((The writer could be reached at - wo_owl@yahoo.co.uk).

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