A No-Choice Society, Food To Politics

By Ravi Perera

Are you more of a starter, main course person, or a main course, dessert person?”
My fellow diner’s tentative probe, thrown less to investigate my culinary inclinations than to kill time with a mildly challenging topic, got me thinking. His preferred order of courses needed no subtle analysis. He was a full service diner, a starter-main course-dessert   and make it double please, type.
But what do I really prefer? Our Sri Lankan meals in the indigenous form generally do not have the structured approach of other culinary cultures. We have through the years developed a taste for a large helping of rice accompanied by a number of curried vegetables and the occasional addition of fish, flesh or fowl for protein. Finances permitting, fruit or curd may follow as dessert. Not for us, the different courses with a sorbet to clear the palate in between, finally ending with coffee, cheeses and perhaps liqueurs, all done in a certain manner.
The food culture of a given society is obviously influenced by factors such as its wealth, range of its food production, foreign culinary influences, prevailing cultural/religious attitudes and even the climate. The strength and the depth of their economies have enabled those living in the Developed countries to embrace the idea of a wide selection in their diet. A cup of tea is not offered without a choice of milk and sugar to your taste. Even in the tea there is an impressive   range of flavours available. Here in Sri Lanka, a country famed for producing the popular beverage, it is taken for granted that no one with a sane mind will refuse a cup of tea overwhelmed with powdered milk and heaps of sugar.
The idea of a choice in our general diet is a relatively recent phenomenon. A hunter-gatherer killed the easiest prey he chanced upon. When man learnt to plough the land, what he consumed was what he produced. The concept of variety came in with the forming of complex social units and of course bartering, ‘your yams for my bananas!’
Today, especially in developed countries, the availability of a choice has given human existence a new dimension. From the multifarious flavours of the ice cream to the study courses at the universities, from the tremendous career options to places of residence, from literature to music, the choices available to the present day homo sapiens would blow the minds of our ancient ancestors who had to get by with what was foraged from the immediate neighbourhood of their caves.
In the course of our long journey from that primitive battle to survive to today’s relatively sedentary state of existence; we the primary species on the planet have undergone a deep social and psychological transformation. The possibilities that lie ahead of a child of today, circumstances favouring, are almost limitless. Even if he were to lead a most uneventful life, the range of experiences the modern man would be ordinarily exposed to would be considered excessively hedonistic even by a patrician of the Roman era.
But here there is a huge caveat. The kind of choice rich society we discuss is mainly the inheritance of   those living in what is called the developed world and of course a small minority in the other countries. For the teeming millions inhabiting the rest of earth’s space the idea of a meaningful choice is a rare luxury attributed mostly to divine favour rather than human achievement. In South Asia, where Sri Lanka is geographically placed there are more than 500 million who fall within the definition of abjectly poor. In many countries, particularly in the continent of Africa, the number of those who are considered poor has increased in the last decade. For them and many more in these countries, the question is not deciding on a breakfast menu but is there any breakfast at all?
Although we Sri Lankans now do not fall among the poorest nations, it cannot be said our citizens are overwhelmed with choice either. In many spheres of their daily life deprivations imposed by personal poverty, national underdevelopment and cultural limitations deny them the enjoyment of the fruits of human progress. The protein intake of many here is considered below the required dietary standards, leading to wide spread malnutrition. In the availability of study courses and career choice we are still a good half-century behind the developed world. Leave alone selecting a stimulating course of studies, the majority of our students cannot even gain entry to institutions of higher learning because of the absurd shortage of placement, a situation of supply not responding to demand in a vital area of nation building. The limitations imposed by language in the access to literature, the arts and knowledge are evident in our lack of achievement in such areas.
Inevitably this denial of choice extends to even the area of politics, where it could be argued that the mechanism of voting gives us a choice in electing whom those we desire. But like many things in our country this is a mere illusion. Very few of those who can make a difference would want to jump into the cess-pit our politics has become. A good example being the on-going contest for the Mayoralty of Colombo, an M and M battle, between two not so popular   personalities. It is like asking the Arab people to choose between Saddam Hussein’s son and Mohamed Kaddafi’s son! Such a choice is no choice in deed.
Politics in our country has debased every principle of public service. In this country those who get elected ensure first the   availability of a wide choice of services and comforts for them and their families. The best that this society can give in housing, vehicles, security and other comforts are secured for themselves. In life style, our so called elected leaders have choices, which will only be available to the very rich even in the developed world. By doing politics most of these leaders who were nobodies have become somebodies!
The rest is mere window dressing for the consumption of the public. All the frenetic activity and breathless propaganda notwithstanding, we remain a poor underdeveloped country. Come back in 20 years, there is no doubt our standing among other nations would be more or less the same. Despite all the hot air, people here recognize this reality. Therefore whenever a foreign job is dangled before any group of Sri Lankans, there is soon a riot there!
It is clear that the befuddled Mr. Average Citizen in our country is doomed to live a life of little or no choice. From the basic lunch packet to the half baked tuition master conducting a “class” for his child, he is offered a choice which in relative terms   is extremely wanting.  National politics to our humble cup of tea, we   seem to have the Hobson’s choice.