My Wish for 2016: For an Open Society engaged with the world!

Here are my wishes for 2016, shared on Facebook and Twitter as home-made web memes.

I wish for a truly OPEN SOCIETY in ‪Sri Lanka in 2016
where good ideas flow freely,
public debate is informed, wide-ranging and courteous
and there are no Sacred Cows!

And here is the Sinhala language version:

හරබර අදහස් නිදහසේ ගලා යන,
පුළුල් හා ආචාරශීලී සංවාද නිරතුරු සිදුවන
අධිපතිවාදයන් හා හණමිටි ආකල්ප පිටු දකින
විවෘත ලක් සමාජයක් 2016 බිහි කරමු!

On New Year’s eve, I shared this timeless quote of Mahatma Gandhi, which I felt was relevant for raging debates in Sri Lanka on what constitutes ‘our culture’ and how best to preserve it.

And here is how I rendered it into Sinhala language:

“මගේ නිවස වටා සැම අතින් පවුරු බැඳ,

එහි කවුළු සියල්ල වසා දමන්නට මා කොහෙත්ම කැමති නැහැ.

ලොව නොයෙකුත් සංස්කෘතීන්ගේ ආභාෂ ප්‍රවාහයන්

මනිවසේ නිදහසේ සංසරණය වීම මට අවශ්‍යයි.

එහෙත් ඒ කිසිවකින් මා පෙරළා දමන්නට නම් මා ඉඩ දෙන්නේ නැහැ.”

Author: Nalaka Gunawardene

A science writer by training, I've worked as a journalist and communication specialist across Asia for 30+ years. During this time, I have variously been a news reporter, feature writer, radio presenter, TV quizmaster, documentary film producer, foreign correspondent and journalist trainer. I continue to juggle some of these roles, while also blogging and tweeting and column writing. View all posts by Nalaka Gunawardene