{"id":71997,"date":"2017-11-24T17:38:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T00:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=71997"},"modified":"2017-11-24T17:38:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T00:38:16","slug":"culture-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/11\/24\/culture-shock\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/span><\/h2>\n

In my opinion, two visiting British women were made to experience different forms of culture shock in Sri Lanka recently.\u00a0 Both were subjected to discrimination and harassment, though in the later or the second case described here, these elements were almost totally concealed by melodrama. The reference here is to tourist Naomi Coleman, a mental health nurse from Coventry in England, who was arrested on arrival and deported from Sri Lanka in 2014 for wearing a Buddha tattoo on her upper arm, and to Sheree Atcheson, an influential IT business consultant in the UK, who visited Colombo in search of her birth mother. From their stories it appears that their visits were highly emotionally charged events for both of them in their differing individual circumstances, and that therefore they particularly deserved much more humane treatment than they actually got on reaching their dream destination.<\/p>\n

Naomi Coleman seems to have got a real taste of culture shock when her dream turned into a nightmare on arriving at the Katunayake International airport on April 5, 2014. The then 37 year old mental health worker \u00a0was arrested at the airport and was later ordered by\u00a0 the court to be deported for the alleged offence aforementioned. She had told the police that she practiced Buddhism, had participated in meditation retreats and workshops in Thailand, India, Cambodia and Nepal. It could be that she was visiting Sri Lanka, known as the centre of Theravada Buddhism, in fulfillment of a special dream she had. After her deportation order was made, she had to spend three nights\/four days in detention. She claimed that she was verbally abused by the officers, and that they even demanded bribes. Probably she exaggerated her case. But it appears that her apparent ill-treatment was due to a miscarriage of justice that resulted from the overzealousness of the police officers who decided to arrest her. It could also have been due to the authorities\u2019 fear that the woman\u2019s Buddha tattoo could be offensive to local Buddhist sensitivities. There were then as there still are occasional instances of the Buddha image being deliberately desecrated by religious mischief makers to provoke Buddhists. Although the constitution gives Buddhism, the religion of 70% of the population, the foremost place\u201d, there are no special restrictive laws privileging Buddhism over other religions. There is no ban on Buddha tattoos, either.<\/p>\n

On her return to England, Naomi instituted action through her lawyers against the Lankan authorities in a Sri Lankan court for her alleged ill-treatment. A week or so ago, the case was decided in her favour, the woman\u2019s lawyer arguing that her arrest was contrary to the immigration and emigration laws of the country. She was awarded a compensation by the government. The policemen responsible for her unlawful arrest were ordered to pay her compensation, too. \u00a0That is justice restored.\u00a0 So it seems that the buck ultimately stopped\u00a0 with the government (more correctly, with the state).<\/p>\n

I mean to dwell longer on the newer case of culture shock that we witnessed in recent times. Sheree Atcheson is a Sri Lankan-born young British woman who was legally adopted as a baby of three weeks by an Irish couple.\u00a0 She attended school in Belfast and later studied Computer Science at Queen\u2019s University Belfast. Having qualified as a software engineer at 23 (in 2014), Sheree joined Kainos Software. \u00a0While working in that company, she founded the first UK branches of the global non-profit organization known as \u2018Women Who Code\u2019 in Belfast\u00a0 and London. This organization aims to eradicate gender bias in the IT industry. For this purpose she pioneered local centres for empowering\u00a0 tech women through free hack nights, tech talks and career trainings.<\/p>\n

At present she is working at Deloitte UK as a Tech Business Consultant. She also works as the UK Expansion Director of Women Who Code UK and Belfast, of which she is founder. She played an important role in designing the online voter registration system in the UK. She has addressed many global events such as the World Economic Forum as an expert in the IT industry. She writes a blog for the Huffington Post UK, which she has been associated with in that capacity since September 2015. In addition to all these and more, she works as a professional fashion and commercial model.<\/p>\n

Sheree says that she founded what she named the I Am Lanka (@IAmLankaOrg) organization last month (October 2017) in order to highlight Sri Lanka\u2019s local and global role models who have accomplished great things in their lives and careers\u201d by empowering and inspiring our people through showcasing the current Sri Lankan change makers, in order to foster innovation and change in our and the next generation\u201d. She appeals to young Sri Lankans of her generation to Be what you can see \u2013 because you are us & we are Sri Lanka.\u201d At 26 years of age, already a celebrity in her chosen professional domain, the versatile young Sheree has been listed as one of UK\u2019s top 35 Most Influential\u00a0 Women in Tech \u201917 (by Computer Weekly) among a number of other similar listings. (The source for most of this sketchy account of Sheree\u2019s education and work background is her impressive full professional profile in the linkedin.com website, which is free for view.)<\/p>\n

It seems that a few weeks back Sheree initiated a plan to find and meet her biological mother in Sri Lanka. She contacted a private TV channel in Colombo and requested them to help her in this connection. They responded with great enthusiasm, devoting a lot of airtime for broadcasting available clues and bits of information about Sheree\u2019s infancy and her present that would help divulge the whereabouts of the woman if alive who gave birth to her. For a few weeks, the topic dominated the newscasts of the channel concerned. Their dedicated efforts produced the expected result. The woman was found, her motherhood of Sheree was scientifically established without a trace of doubt, and Sheree arrived in Sri Lanka with her British husband to a warm reception at the airport, and at the news office of the TV channel. She had already been warmly greeted aboard the Colombo bound Sri Lankan Airlines plane by the other Lankan passengers who were already familiar with her story. We as Sri Lankans should be grateful to the TV news \u00a0team involved in this delicate operation which is personally so sensitive and consequential\u00a0 for both women (i.e., mother and daughter). \u00a0The success of the TV channel\u2019s prompt response to Sheree\u2019s urgent call for help in her attempt to find her birth mother was, no doubt, greatly facilitated by our people\u2019s natural inclination to be actively concerned when a person is in distress as well as by the tireless exertions of the search team.<\/p>\n

However, the altruism of a business concern like a private TV company is not unlimited. Sooner or later business interests take charge of even an altruistic operation. It appeared that the particular TV channel indulged in a coldly mercenary type of journalism in this instance. (I sincerely believe\u00a0 that my criticism will not, in any way, detract from\u00a0 the general public approval that their dedication to the project has justly met with.) The broadcaster\u2019s constant focus appeared to be on the inherent newsworthiness of the story, rather than on the need to help the two women rediscover their vital connection, without unnecessarily encroaching on their personal space, their privacy, which is their inalienable right. Of course, to the discerning viewer it was obvious that the news team took care not to highlight certain little pieces of information for suitably protecting them from unwelcome public attention. But they were not concerned about the privacy factor overmuch.<\/p>\n

Yet, in that context privacy was particularly important for the mother, who was probably a much abused woman, at least in the past, considering the clearly bereft conditions of her past and present life. It is strange that apparently none of the news team members felt that it amounted to a cruel violation of the privacy of the two women fraught with anxiety to have them confront each other for that intensely emotional meeting in their particular personal circumstances in an unfamiliar cluttered office-room, that too, live before the cameras. Wouldn\u2019t it have been better if the meeting had taken place in the privacy of a hotel room or a special room of the news agency itself or elsewhere with one or two members from the news team , a responsible relative of Sheree\u2019s mother, and Sheree\u2019s husband in attendance? A scene subsequent to such a prearranged private rendezvous, featuring\u00a0 a happier, more relaxed mother and daughter pair could have been casually videoed for broadcast. But that didn\u2019t happen. Instead, they were made to set their eyes on each other for the first time in their life in those unfamiliar surroundings. When that meeting was about to take place the TV anchorwoman revealed that although Sheree knew that she would be interviewed on that occasion, she had not been told that she was going to see her mother at that very moment. I for one failed to understand why she had to be treated to such a surprise\u00a0 in that context. I suspect it was for the sake of increasing the entertainment value of the \u2018reality show\u2019 element of the whole exercise.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I must immediately qualify it with the following: I do not have a shred of doubt about the sincerity of the TV news team. I have nothing but praise for them for projecting to the world, through their professionalism enhanced by their dedication to a humanitarian cause, a positive image of Sri Lanka. They didn\u2019t confine themselves to just \u2018doing their thing\u2019. They went out of their way to make it a truly compassionate operation. They did that out of a genuine \u00a0sense of humanity, which is characteristic of our culture. It was quite clear that the TV news team were required, as in any normal situation, to act according to the wishes of their narrowly profit-focused employers. For this, they had to turn the mother daughter reunion into the kind of reality show suggested above, designed to attract as big a proportion of primetime TV audiences as possible across the country.<\/p>\n

Whether or not Sheree experienced any angry disappointment or serious disorientation when she realized that she was misled to appear for a reality show instead of the interview they had requested is not clear. If she did, she successfully concealed it. She looked unfazed by the \u2018surprise\u2019 part of that very significant moment in her young life. Sheree\u2019s response to the anchorwoman\u2019s question whether her search for her birth mother was about finding her real identity was a confident but polite dismissal. No, she replied, she already had her own identity. Well said! I thought to myself when I heard that.<\/p>\n

The culture she comes from supports the idea that nothing external to you can define you: your birth circumstances, social background, caste, race, economic status, etc. are all insignificant distractions, when it comes to defining your identity. What matters for young women (and young men) is realizing your inborn potential through education and hard work. Sheree is very unassuming, but is appropriately aware of her own abilities and importance. She offers herself as a role model for young Sri Lankans. She is eminently eligible for that. Even in that society there is this problem of gender bias. A lesson that Sheree demonstrates for her young Sri Lankan counterparts to imbibe is that in situations where gender bias manifests itself, women should not passively accept the victim position. Her answer to discrimination based on gender is fighting for equality by empowering women through education.<\/p>\n

When her birth mother asked her for forgiveness\u00a0 for \u2018the great crime\u2019 she said she did (by giving her up for adoption when she was an infant), Sheree consoled her saying that there was no need for her to ask to be forgiven. For she had given her the life she has now. It is the sort of life that the \u2018wealth of opportunities\u2019 that life in Ireland gave her (as she said in a different context). Sheree seems to have a special warmth towards her country of birth, although she lived there only the first three weeks of her total 26 years. It must be something in her genes, I wonder. What Sheree\u2019s story reminds us is that, given the necessary opportunities, young Sri Lankans can make great achievements. Be what you can see \u2013 because you are us & we are Sri Lanka.\u201d Is her message, after all.<\/p>\n

Sheree says that already she has got hundreds of messages from young Sri Lankans expressing goodwill, and telling her that they have been inspired by her. The many negative comments made \u00a0by her young fans on the TV channel\u2019s perceived culturally revealing lapses in the covering of their own \u2018help find birth mother\u2019 operation suggest that she won\u2019t be disappointed in her voluntary role model mission that she has launched on their behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala In my opinion, two visiting British women were made to experience different forms of culture shock in Sri Lanka recently.\u00a0 Both were subjected to discrimination and harassment, though in the later or the second case described here, these elements were almost totally concealed by melodrama. The reference here is to tourist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}