21st Century Demons & Public Health in Sri Lanka. Plenary presentation made at the Annual Sessions of the College of Community Physicians Sri Lanka, in Colombo, 24 Sep 2013.

1. 21st Century Demons &
Universal Health Access
in Sri Lanka
By Nalaka Gunawardene
Science Writer, Blogger and
Columnist (Ravaya, Ceylon Today)
nalakagunawardene.com
College of Community Physicians Sri Lanka
Annual Sessions: Colombo, 24 Sep 2013

2. My Approach: engaged layman
 Covered science, technology
& environment & public
health in media for 25 yrs
 ‘Bridging’ experts & publics
 Asking many questions…
 Seeking answers & clarity:
 Curious, eager, open-minded
 As sceptical enquirer
 No political agenda

3. Public Health & Public Perceptions
 Dosthara Wisthara: A
Doctor’s Experiences (2002)
 By Dr Ariyasena U Gamage
(MBBS, MD), former senior
lecturer in community
medicine, Univ of Peradeniya
 Stories & impressions from 25
yrs in SL public health service
 Empathetic insights on
sociology, psychology and
anthropology of health

4. Public Health & Public Perceptions
 Most patients coming to public
hospitals have already tried
non-medical (i.e. belief-based)
attempts at healing
 Some of these do no harm
(except delay); a few even
reassure patients & families
 Others do mislead, mistreat
and complicate ailments
YET SUCH PRACTICES ARE:
 Deeply embedded in culture
 Direct dismissals won’t work

5. Confrontational approach:
Favoured by our Chief Myth-Buster
 Kerala-born science teacher
came to live in Ceylon in 1950s
 1959 on: Took to investigating
‘supernatural’ phenomena &
‘paranormal’ practices.
 Found adequate physical or
psychological explanations for
almost all ‘mysteries’
 1960: Founded Ceylon
Rationalist Association, which
continues his work todate
Dr Abraham T Kovoor
(1898 - 1978)

6. Kovoor’s way:
Scientific Method, all the way…
 No absolute truths
 No dogmas
 No SACRED COWS!
But 50 yrs later,
debate still rages on:
 How best to relate to
Indigenous knowledge
 What about those
exploiting IK as a cover?

7. Indigenous Knowledge
or just Romanticised Dogma?
Cartoon by Awantha Artigala, Daily Mirror, 22 June 2011

8.  Kovoor’s approach: investigate, analyse, expose &
debunk myths/frauds
 Amplify findings through supportive media
 Can this work TODAY, e.g. about ‘faith healing’?
 LK Society less tolerant (fraudsters now engage thugs!)
 LK Media less critical (airwaves crowded with black magic!)

9. Can Rationalists Awaken
the Sleep-walking Lankan Nation?
 Op-Ed essay by Nalaka Gunawardene
 Groundviews.org, 12 Jan 2013
 http://tiny.cc/Rat21
L to R: Abraham T Kovoor, Carlo Fonseka, Dharmapala Senaratne

10. Mass media as 21st Century
Pied Pipers!
 TV matters most in LK
 Pipers’ Tunes may be fully
sponsored…
 Freedom to do so can’t be
blocked in open societies
with market economy
 Instead, we can & must
strengthen media literacy
 Timeless advice: Caveat
emptor (Buyer beware!)

11. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
(Steven Spielberg, 1982)
 Lovely tale of a benign
alien being making friends
with Earth kids
 ET had magical healing
powers in his finger-tip
 No such powers found in
humans, despite various
claims of faith healers!
 We can suspend disbelief
for imagined stories, NOT
in real life!

12. Have Lankans
Suspended Disbelief -- Permanently?
 “Is ‘suspended disbelief’
becoming a default setting for
many Lankans? Despite high
levels literacy and schooling, is
our society more gullible and
paranoid now than a generation
ago? If so, why?”
 I asked this in my Sunday column
in Ceylon Today, 22 Sep 2013
 Full text: http://tiny.cc/SusDB

13. Old Demons & New Demons:
Something for everyone?
 As literacy & education spread, less
people accept/peddle traditional LK
demons (Maha Sona, Mohinee, Riri
Yaka, et al.)
 21st Century Demons have emerged:
 Urban myths & paranoia
 Various conspiracy theories
 Growing list of ‘Public Enemies’ said to
be “plotting against fragile Lanka &
her people”
 “Foreign hands” at work???

14. Health-linked phobias/myths
abound!
 Mobile phones (instruments &
transmission towers): harmful?
 Mass panic about Arsenic in rice
 Phobias about all things
‘chemical’ or ‘synthetic’
 So-called ‘contraceptive
conspiracies’ gaining ground
 Etc, etc.

15. New Demons often dressed in
clothes of Pseudo-Science…
 Superficially projected as ‘technical’
BUT without the rigour & self-
correction inherent in real science
 2012 End of the World claims
dominated by pseudo-science
 “Pseudoscience speaks to powerful
emotional needs that science often
leaves unfulfilled. It caters to
fantasies about personal powers we
lack and long for.” - Carl Sagan
(1934-96)

16. Everyone Loves a Good Myth:
We had a good laugh in 2012!

17. Dominant public & media perception:
Lanka as “Hapless Island under siege”
 Projecting a
vulnerable island

18. Image created: “Lanka vulnerable to
evil forces both internal & external”

19. Worth further research by you:
Health Myths in Sri Lanka: 3 Kinds
First Kind:
 Personal beliefs
or habits
 Based on dated
info or hearsay
 Does no harm to
holders or rest of
society
 No health policy
implications or
costs
Second Kind:
 Exaggerations or
distortions
 Repeated by many
without questioning
 Harmful to believer
in certain situations
 May have policy
implications & costs
 No major societal
damage
 Easily debunked
Third Kind:
 Fabrications by
vested interests
 Falsified science
and/or wrong
interpretations
 Actively peddled to
confuse our public
 High potential for
fear & panic
 Can hold up or
confuse policy
responses

20. MYTHS get in the way…
 Discourage individual action
 Feed into apathy & fatalism
 Mislead collective action
 Misguide, distort or paralyse policy
 Can also lead, in some cases, to:
 waste of public funds
 Irreversible damage/loss
 lost opportunities to act in time
 massive costs of repair/restoration

21. From GOSL/WHO/Unicef poster on national
immunization programme of Sri Lanka

22. NOT advocating simplistic,
pure technocratic solutions…
 Like individuals, nations also
not always driven by rational
arguments or scientific logic…
 Emotions & beliefs matter!
 Let’s not look for simple techno
fixes to real world problems…
 PLEA: Open-minded, broad-
based discussion & debate
 Instead of DOGMA or BELIEF!

23. Real Life isn’t a movie!

24. Our Only Defence against Demons
(Old & New): Vigilant Minds!

25. Ceylon Today column:
http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com
Blog:
nalakagunawardene.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/NalakaG
Email:
alien@nalaka.org
Everything here is open to debate
Thanks!