The ‘Titan’ submersible was destroyed during an expedition to view the sunken ‘Titanic’ with five rich tourists. As per its operator OceanGate, Titan which destroyed at approx 1.5KM was capable of diving approx 4KM comfortably. The deep sea trip seems to have been a site seeing tour & not a data collection mission for scientific developments for the benefit of mankind. Three years back in November 2020 China’s deep sea manned submersible ‘Fendouzhe,’ (Striver) descended close to 11 KMs in the Mariana Trench. Its mission was to collect data from the 11KM deep point known as ‘challenger deep’. Striver wasn’t the first time Chinese engineers attempted this. China’s first ever deep sea manned submersible was ‘Jiaolong’ (named after the mythical sea dragon) which went approx 5KM down (Ref Chinese sources).

Janasaviya – Samurdhi – Asvasuma

Researching deep into issues & addressing such is vital for crisis hit nation struggling on a forward march. Such approaches prevent conflicts & expose conflict provocative elements to the unarmed, silent majority which can easily get mislead. One may feel that important social issues were never researched deep & those who attended were on shallow water site seeing tours during the past seven decades in SL. According to many academic researches President Premadasa’s ‘Janasaviya’ was an exception. During the same period youth in North & South were on different missions. It is now proven that those missions were shallow water expeditions. Indian diplomat Shivshankar Menon believes that Sri Lankans spent approx. USD 200 billion on those destructive missions. A careful analysis may indicate that successor of Janasaviya didn’t serve the purpose & a new approach using digital technology etc. may help SL to alleviate poverty while saving billions similar to introducing QR for fuel. President Gotabaya deserves the credit for proposing such value additions to the Samurdhi project during the COVID pandemic. Youth may recall the role of some political fronts to create chaos during fuel & gas shortages. They may also read about the fake ‘rice quota card’ (haal potha) circulated to topple Sirima B government (supposedly by her extended family).

Committed Youth

The 19th national congress of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) ended last week in Beijing. With approx. 74 million members its task is to nurture capable youth to take China towards 2049 on a socialist path. In China it has proven a success. In 2023 nearly 1500 delegates from all walks of life had shared their work experiences & exchanged views on the development of youth (Ref. CYLC). Sri Lankan youth may learn from CYLC on the responsibilities of youth. Majority of modern youth are hi-tech. They should analyze in a ‘challenger deep’ approach when different directions are introduced without GPS technology or logical scientific reasoning. They should learn history, theory & study ground reality when taking the country forward.

“Memories have huge staying power, like dreams, they thrive in the dark, surviving for decades in the deep waters of our minds like shipwrecks on the sea bed”  - J. G. Ballard

(Views expressed are personal)