Columns

“If Jesus was born today, he would be born under rubble.”- A Christian priest at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

On Christmas Eve, two wars are causing untold misery and death to thousands of people. The long-drawn-out Russian-Ukrainian war has destroyed buildings and injured and killed large numbers of people in the two countries. The more than two-and-a-half-month war between Israel and Palestine has killed thousands of people in Gaza, injured as many, and rendered thousands of civilians homeless.

Conditions

The severity of the conditions in Gaza is such that UN relief operations and humanitarian relief are no longer possible.

Christmas

What Christmas for those who die in the rubble, the injured without medical attention and rendered homeless?

At best, there would be a cessation of hostilities tomorrow for Christmas, and the war would continue.

In Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the affluent would be celebrating Christmas in many expensive ways, while a large number remain below the poverty line, unable to get adequate food, medicines, and essentials for life.

Poverty and unemployment

The country’s unemployment, poverty, and malnutrition have reached alarming levels. Yet this year has been a year of economic recovery when scarcity has been eliminated and a large proportion of the population cannot afford basic needs.

Poverty

Poverty and deprivation of essentials have increased to unacceptable extents in recent years. Sri Lanka’s poor have surged by 4 million to 7 million since 2019. As many as 31 percent of the population is estimated to be below the poverty line.

Starvation

In 2023, according to a recent survey by Learneasia, a third, or 33 percent, of the respondents had skipped a meal, and 47 percent had reduced their meal sizes. About 27 percent of adults restricted their meals to feed children.

Unemployment

The level of unemployment in the country, at 39 percent of the workforce, is an alarming figure. In addition, many informal workers are inadequately employed, with their daily wages inadequate to meet the basic needs of the family, even food.

UN Assessment

The latest United Nations report on poverty paints a grim picture of the island’s living conditions. Sri Lanka is among the poorest countries in the world, akin to some of the starving countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.

In South Asia

Our ranking in terms of living conditions has fallen below that of other countries in South Asia. This is the new status of the country.

Sri Lanka, which led per capita incomes and social indicators in the region, has had a great fall.

Affluence

It is against this backdrop of poverty and starvation that the affluent are wining and dining at exorbitant prices in hotels and restaurants. Holiday destinations are filled to capacity. Enjoyment for the few, penury for many at Christmas.

Silver linings

In this gloomy picture on Christmas Eve, there are a few silver linings and hopes for the future. As mentioned earlier, we are celebrating this Christmas in a better state of the economy, sans the scarcity of essential items. The economic contraction of last year has been decreasing each quarter of this year. The contraction of the economy by 4 percent in the first quarter declined to 3 percent in the second quarter and to growth in the third quarter.

Growth

The economy has grown by 1.5 percent in the third quarter and may have achieved further growth in the last three months. Hopefully, the economy has moved into a growth trajectory.

Inequality

The celebration of Christmas this year, as in the past, exemplifies the huge divide between the rich minority and the poor majority. The expensive city hotels and holiday resorts have been fully booked despite their high prices. While tourists fleeing from a bitter winter have come to enjoy better weather on the island, over 300,000 Sri Lankans have fled to greener pastures.

Many of the Sri Lankans who have left their motherland have weakened the country’s social services and development capacity.

Social services

The plight of the people left behind would be far worse if not for the philanthropy and concern of charitable organisations, religious institutions, and institutional facilities provided by voluntary organisations. Among them are the School for the Deaf and Blind, Helpage, SOS Villages, Homes for the Elderly, orphans, and children of unwed mothers. Inadequate though they are, they fulfil an essential need for the country. Inadequate

The generosity of people has not been adequate over time, and the current food inflation in particular has rendered their services inadequate.

Let this Christmas be a time when the generosity of people will help maintain their facilities.

Government

The assistance of the government has dwindled to negligible proportions.

State-run institutions are without basic amenities such as cooking gas, electric bulbs for lighting, or linen for beds.

The state has failed to provide adequate funds, and the corruption at some institutions has denied inmates provisions provided by charitable organisations.

Food

Many religious organisations have provided food to the poor. Soup kitchens, the provision of dry rations, and even finances to the poorest of the poor have relieved the misery of many.

May this Christmas be a time for enhanced generosity to help the poor, disabled, elderly, and otherwise abled.

Government assistance

It is time for the government to enhance its support for institutions caring for the poor, deprived, and disabled. Such funds would be better targeted than the high expenditures of the government’s poverty assistance schemes, which fail to reach the intended beneficiaries and leak into the hands of the undeserving.

Exhortation

Whatever your religious convictions or lack thereof, extend some help to the poor and needy this Christmas. Any good that you can do, do it now; neither differ nor neglect it, for the needs of the poor are immense.

Hopefully, there will come a time when there will be sufficiency for all Sri Lankans rather than superfluity for some.