President of the Yuthukama organisation MP Gevindu Cumaratunga yesterday said that despite all gloom and doom predictions and statistics of a crisis prevailing in the country there was still a way out of the present plight if the country attempts to find solutions through cultural norms and ancient wisdom.
Addressing the media in Colombo, Cumaratunga said that there was evidence to prove that Lankans could still survive this crisis.The recent data pointed out that immunity of Lankans had gone up in post pandemic times thanks to consumption of traditional food and attempting to face the pandemic through the use of ancient medicinal practices. “One could easily predict that owing to the troubles we had during the pandemic, our situation could turn worse. Instead, we were better off because our people relied on traditional Ayurveda treatments which helped boost their immunity. The data showed that the number of paracetamol sold in the market had dropped,” Cumaratunga said.
He said that the holding of the Colombo International Book Fair was the other example. There were sales over 400 million rupees during the ten day book fair. “That is not possible in a country suffering from starvation. Our people would respect a book rather than a packet of rice. Despite all the troubles, they visited the book fair because they loved to read. These two examples indicate that we can still try and get people out of the present crisis,” Cumaratunga said.
“In addition, while the country was flat on all fours, our cricket team and other sportsmen performed well. These examples show us that we still can have a glimmer of hope that we could get out of the present crisis,” he said.