Health Silk Road or Pandemic Silk Road? By Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

The weather was good today and I decided to take a walk along Coogee Beach. I noticed many without masks and also many seated on the benches. Last week I was informed by the Police that sitting down was against the rules. I thought about this and tried to work out the impact of our respective actions on the spread of the virus. As lay persons, most of us take the word of those in authority as right – until proven otherwise. Given that I am not a medical expert – I took the word of the Police as that of the government. It is my belief that any law, made in a ‘free’ environment as per the conscience of the law maker would work for her / his group and the value would spread itself exponentially. Hence Universal Franchise.

Then I thought about the protestors. Do they have the right to oppose and if yes, how is that right earned? The response from within  said that belief in that issue in another form is essential to accumulate that ‘right’. To my mind, it is on this basis that the opposition in parliament is rendered the right to oppose. Hence, where our belief is stronger than that of the person of authority and we are not facilitated to officially demonstrate that opposition, we have the right to expressly oppose. When we do so through the structured pathway, the returns happen through that pathway. Hence in an environment where there is no officer – we are entitled to make citizen’s arrest as per our Common law. Citizens who protest without belief are not entitled to do so.

Later today, I came across the article ‘Is the ‘Health Silk Road’ a ‘debt-trap’ of China’s BRI for Sri Lanka?’ by Yasiru Ranaraja & Maya Majueran. Yasiru Ranaraja is presented as a maritime regulations and BRI developments expert and  Maya Majueran as a Ph.D. candidate at the State University of Kalaniya researching the BRI. The article was published by China Global Television Network which declares about itself ‘CGTN.com is the official website for China Global Television Network, which brings a Chinese perspective to global news.

As per the presentation by Sri Lankans:

[Even though China officially established the “Health Silk Road” in 2017, China’s support in Sri Lankan healthcare can be traced back to 1967 as the two countries worked together on donating corneas. At present, around 1,500 corneas have been flown to China for transplant annually, and China is the second-largest recipient of cornea donations from Sri Lanka.]

It does not make sense that Sri Lanka, with a fraction of China’s population, would donate body parts to China. More interesting was the news about the establishment of  “Health Silk Road” in 2017.

As highlighted on 29 June Wikipedia informs us that ‘Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Road.’

We do not have evidence as to the details of how the current pandemic originated. But, as per Common Sri Lankan belief in rebirth – if we upset the balance that we had at the time of birth – for current benefits – the other side also rises exponentially. I shared as follows recently in this regard:

Messages of wisdom by Saint Yoga Swami of Jaffna include – ‘Eppavoh Mudintha Kaariyam’ / ‘Matter Completed long ago’. To my mind, this means that to be valuable, we ought to observe but not actively participate in an old experience that has been completed by two or more becoming one or one becoming two or more. In other words, when an experience is completed, the visible outcome  is the published ‘effect’ of our karma that cannot be unravelled to restore the old form/s. To my mind the Western parallel of the ‘completed matter’ is the Pandora’s box.  In Hindu culture the picture of our karma at the time of birth is depicted by the horoscope drawn up on the basis of the science of Astrology. The horoscope is the Pandora’s box. If we activated that, we would unleash forces that we would have no control over.

The Silk Road was the horoscope of those who maintained global connections at that time. When this was opened we got the Covid-19 pandemic from that Pandora’s box. Wikipedia confirms the connection as follows:

[The Silk Road trade played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, the Indian subcontinent, Iran, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations. Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods and ideas were exchanged, including religions (especially Buddhism), syncretic philosophies, sciences, and technologies like paper and gunpowder. So in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.  Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Road.]

Each one of us would find our own connections for what happens to us as well as our ‘home environments’. The base is Belief. In belief mode we do not think right or wrong. Belief is part of us. That belief indicates from within. Hence Performance Indicators in Management