The comparisons begin as soon as you step on Sri Lanka’s soil. The airport in the capital Colombo is where the surprises begin. The prepaid mobile phone card is not just cheap, compared to Lebanon, but high-speed Internet mobile service, 4G, has been available throughout the country, which is five times the size of Lebanon, for over a year. In Lebanon, it is still under trial and limited to some neighborhoods in Beirut.

The 3G service, which has recently arrived in Lebanon, has been available in Sri Lanka for the past four years. The network does not break, whether in Colombo in the west, Kandy in the center of the country, or Trincomalee in the north. The service is fast and dependable. Nobody curses the Internet like in Lebanon.

Public highways in Sri Lanka are more similar to those in Europe. The white lines on the highways are as bright as snow. The roads are illuminated throughout the night. There is nothing here, in any city, which resembles the dark highway between Tripoli and Beirut.

In a country of 20 million, you rarely hear erratic car horns and might think silence is inscribed in the law. Later, you would find out that the people hate noise and prefer serenity. They have no idea about car gliding.

We ask our taxi driver, Atholinaka, about power cuts. “Employees fix whatever malfunctions occur on the power lines due to the weather. It happens an average of four times a month and only lasts for a few hours,” he answers. He is unaware of what this question means in Lebanon.

Power cuts only occur during emergency malfunctions. Electricity is a given and there is no need to discuss it. In short, electricity in Sri Lanka is not rationed. After a few days spent around the luxurious tea farms, you ask yourself, is Lebanon better than Sri Lanka in anything?

Some might say Lebanon went through a civil war and is today dealing with its consequences. But they would soon be disappointed to find out that Sri Lanka had a 25-year civil war between its two main ethnicities, the Hindu Tamil Tigers and the majority Buddhists who controlled the government. It ended four years ago and Sri Lanka is moving forward.

Thus, there is no excuse for Lebanon. There is no reason for this sense of superiority. If there should be discrimination, indicators point to Lebanon as being inferior. The Lebanese, infamous for their jokes about other nations, are discovering that those nations are more civilized and advanced. Thus, the joke is on the Lebanese, whether they know it or not.

While the Lebanese parliament was extending its term after failing to issue a new electoral law, Sri Lanka was enjoying an electoral process based on proportional representation. The Lebanese cannot dream of such a law, under the pretext of parity, quotas, not to mention the most famous mantra, “coexistence.”

Again, such pretexts collapse at Sri Lanka’s borders, even though the country, like Lebanon, is composed of various religions and sects, mainly Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Moreover, Lebanon does not suffer from ethnic conflicts, while Sri Lanka has several ethnicities, the Sinhalese, Tamil, Moro, and Malawi.

Everyone over 18 years old can vote in Sri Lanka. Do the activists in Lebanon, who have not stopped calling for lowering the voting age, know about this?

In recent years, many people have become aware of the occupation of Lebanon’s public beachfront. Citizens cannot go to the beach without first having to pay a resort for access even though beach access is a legal right for every citizen. However, the corrupt and influential barons are stronger than the law.

This is something you will not see in Sri Lanka. The country’s beaches facing the Indian Ocean outnumber those of Lebanon. Furthermore, they are the property of all citizens. Poor people can walk along the sand across from the fanciest hotels and resorts in Colombo, alongside the tourists and the wealthy. The same goes for all the coastal cities, from Negombo to Galle.

 

 

A visitor to Sri Lanka does not need much time to discover the level of culture and education. Most city dwellers speak English, going back to British colonialism in the island, which ended in 1948. However, the educational system is sophisticated, free from elementary to university, and compulsory until 14 years of age. Therefore, 90 percent of 15-year-old Sri Lankans are literate. In Lebanon, on the other hand, education is not free and not compulsory after the age of 13.

Sri Lanka is an agricultural country of the finest type. People here eat what they grow. Their relation to the land is strong. The country is the number one exporter of tea worldwide, but it is also famous for its rice, coconut, and rubber. Agricultural activity absorbs 50 percent of the workforce, with the remaining work is distributed between industry and services. Today, all that is left of the relationship between Lebanese and their land are chants and traditional songs. If it was not for imports, we would not find anything to eat.

As for transportation, in addition to cars, the use of motorcycles is encouraged by the state (as opposed to their arbitrary suppression in Lebanon due to the inability to organize them). There is also a network of rail that covers the country. Indian-made Tok Toks are also prevalent. Rarely does one find someone on a motorcycle here without a helmet. The percentage of women drivers is almost that of the men. The culture of “breaking the law” is not very popular there. Everyone fears policemen and respects them.

Even animal rights supporters will find what they are looking for in Sri Lanka. Dogs sleep in the street. Cars tend to avoid them, not the opposite. People’s relationship with animals is humanistic. They do not hurt them and provide them with food on the roadside, as part of the popular culture.

This could be the impact of Buddhism, which forbids the harming of animals. There is no need for organizations calling for animal rights here.

This is Sri Lanka, or some of it at least, the country whose citizens do not know much about Lebanon, except that it is an Arab country, “like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.” A tour guide in the Sigiriya region says the only thing he knows about Arabs is that “a Sri Lankan domestic worker was beheaded by sword last month after being falsely accused.”

The man, in his 70s, knows only this about Arabs. You are forced to tell him that you are Arab but not from Saudi. However, you feel ashamed about telling him what happens to the domestic workers in Lebanon, of all nationalities, who are treated like slaves under the oppressive “sponsorship” system.