Personal agendas and blocking avenues of ForEx - EDITORIAL

Member of Parliament Ms Diana Gamage is often accused of making outrageous suggestions regarding ways and means through which Sri Lanka can raise foreign
exchange earnings.  
She first suggested enhancing nightlife in the country. The suggestion led to some of our Parliamentarians suggesting that she was encouraging prostitution. Gamage rebutted the allegations saying her detractors had
one-tracked minds.

She also suggested the growing of cannabis be legalised rather than being prosecuted. It gave rise to a brouhaha by those claiming such a move would turn the country’s youth into drug addicts. 
Perhaps Gamage’s detractors did not realise cannabis is used in a range of culinary dishes and is widely used in the preparation of Ayurvedic medicine, in addition to being used as a pain killer for particular ailments including cancer.

She contended that the sale of cannabis on the international market could bring in much-needed foreign exchange to the country.
In May this year, Investment Promotion Minister Dilum Amunugama said that he is in talks with investors to set up a cannabis growing and export processing zone.
Ms. Gamage has earlier suggested turning Mannar Island into a casino resort like Macau, well known as a gambling destination, which could attract tourists and enhance tourist revenues to the country. 

She has also called for the removal of limitations on times for liquor sales at hotels, and bars and called for the lowering of prices of alcohol. 
Gamage, not unexpectedly is looked on as a maverick. Sections of society have been critical of what they see as outlandish suggestions on her part.  
Unfortunately, many fail to realise that tourism is our biggest foreign exchange earner. Unlike in the past, tourism is not confined merely to tourists visiting different cultural sites of the country or enjoying the sun and sand of the island.

Casinos, gambling and liquor are among the major income earners in the tourist trade. Casinos are banned in India, Pakistan and the Middle East and these are the markets major five-star hotels are tapping into to earn foreign currency.
A large percentage of incoming tourists are tipplers, and the availability of a variety of alcoholic beverages at reasonable prices is a must if we are to continue to attract tourists to the country.

Despite the civil war in our country ending in 2009, a majority of tourists entering the country have been categorised as low-end and it is necessary to change this situation if we are to capitalise on opportunities presented to the country. 
Catering to niche markets has been among the proposals to bring in high-spending tourists. 
The setting up of casinos in the country and five-star hotels has been one of the measures adopted to attract these high spenders. 
However, the other side of the opening of casinos has been the growth of sex workers or ‘Escort Services’ which have become an integral part
of the industry. 

While sections of our society condemn sex workers/escorts, neither Lord Buddha nor the kings of yore attempted to punish or ban the profession. 
Buddhist and Pali literature is replete with stories of Nagarasobhinis. The Buddha never looked down upon sex workers and even accepted the invitation for lunch from Ambapali (A Nagarasobhini) for lunch over an invitation from a Prince.
Again the Christian Gospels refer to Mary Magdalene a courtesan - was one of the closest followers of Christ and he permitted her to
anoint him.

Society needs to treat all professions alike, without discrimination and sex workers or escort services ought to be viewed as jobs - where women have the freedom to decide how they want to use their bodies.
Today opportunist politicians and their bands of hangers as well as people of the cloth oppose the expansion of the tourist trade and the setting up of casinos on the grounds of going against our 2,500-year-old culture. 
The reality is that courtesans/sex workers/Nagarasobhinis have been part and parcel of our cultural and religious heritage. 
It is time we stop misusing culture, heritage and religion to further personal agendas at the expense of extricating the country from its debt-stricken state.