Independence – the...

It should be pointed out that there are individuals who belong to these groups who are deprived of personal freedom of liberty. Although the needs and wants of the group as a whole are fulfilled those of certain members remain unfulfilled. In the family of a politician who agitates for independence or freedom for the people belonging to a nation, region or an electorate represented by him there may be domestic servants who are deprived of individual freedom. Often domestic servants are prisoners confined to the family for which he or she is working. They too have numerous needs and wants. In most cases domestic servants get food, clothing and shelter. However, very often they are deprived of the other needs such as humanitarian treatment, recognition, esteem etc. Domestic servants are often not allowed to enjoy self satisfaction.

Independence of the Poor and the needy

For the poor stricken persons independence is only a good sounding word. In practice poverty stricken group of people is extremely poor and is suffering as a result of this. Destitute is having no money or possessions and often nowhere to live, especially when there is no possibility of improving the situation even on the independent day. As such for badly off or impoverished persons independence is far away and is out of their reach.

Independence and Poverty Threshold or poverty line

Poverty line is used to differentiate the poor people from the rest of the population. The poverty threshold or poverty line is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. The poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in the developing countries. As such some of those who are above the poverty line in developing countries are poor according to measurements in affluent countries. As such independence is out of reach even for some people in developing countries as well as in affluent countries.

People not allowed to live their own way even though they are regarded as independent.

In the aftermath of the last general elections pavement vendors were removed from the main locations they had frequented in Colombo. This was done against their wishes. More over forty families were evicted and their make shift homes were demolished. The affected people complain that new places promised to them had not been made available. According to the Urban Development Authority these people are evicted in a bid to tidy up the city. Those affected complain that their independence is disregarded for the sake of others.

Independence and income inequality

If a society gets a more equal income distribution the relative poverty will fall. Hence some argue that the relative poverty is misleading and that income inequality should be used instead. They point out that if the society is changed in a way to hurt the high income earners more than the law income earners then the relative poverty would decrease. Then again the high income earners will be deprived of their independence.

Independence and moderate poverty

Moderate poverty is a situation of house hold with a standard of living of level of income that is high enough to satisfy basic needs like food, water, clothing, shelter, basic education and health care but still significantly lower than that of the majority of the population under consideration.

Independence and safety nets

Low income groups can be given a push to get their independence safe guarded through safety nets. Safety nets comprise policy and programme instruments such as food subsidies, targeted income transfers, school feeding and small scale funds. They are designed to reduce poverty and to protect the income entitlements of vulnerable groups. Sri Lanka enjoys the most extensive social protection programme in South Asia and Sammurdhi is the main safety programme implemented by the government. Safety nets are useful in preventing the poverty stricken person falling from pan to hearth.

These are some of the means of making every individual independent. Much more remains to be done to ensure liberty, equality and fraternity to every individual in the society. These are the needs to be contemplated on the Independence Day.

Independence–the Freedom to pursue personal needs and wants

This year we are celebrating the sixty fourth anniversary after gaining the independence. It is, therefore, high time now to contemplate as to whether we have made all efforts to make the best use of the independence which our fore-fathers have won not easily but after struggling much. It was not a gift of God or donation but was something our forefathers wrested from the foreigners. We are the owners of our motherland. Foreigners invaded and snatched it from us. They were not the heirs or owners of our country. Hence it was the responsibility on their part to hand over to us everything which was and which is our own. What they handed over to us on February fourth, 1948 was only a part of what we possessed before 1505. What we received on February fourth 1948 was a country which had been exploited. It was something like the refuse of what had been chewed. We have to rebuild the country to satisfy ourselves that we are truly independent.

What is independence? –The true meaning of Independence

According to the free encyclopedia “Independence is a condition of a nation, country or state in which its residents and population or some portion thereof exercise self- government and usually sovereignty over its territory”. J.R. Turner defines the term independence as “the freedom to separate ourselves from personal ideologies and intellectually challenge ourselves to see the full scope of an issue in order to find real solutions for the good of the whole”. Independence means that we must not depend on the opinions of others but on the factual issues and actions of individuals and our governments.

The United Nations Organization -Dependency of the countries which belonged to the British Empire

In a way UNO is an organization established to keep the countries of the British Empire still dependent. Nonaligned movement was set up by countries which wished to stand on their own feet without being dependent on big powers. The first large-scale Asian-african conference also known as The Bandung conference was a meeting of Asian –African states most of which were newly independent. It took place on April 18-25, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. The twenty nine countries which participated at the Bandung Conference represented nearly one fourth of the Earth’s land surface and a population of 1.5 Billion. The conference was organized by Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The conference’s stated aims were to promote Afro- Asian economic and cultural co-operation and to oppose colonialism or neocolonialism.

Independence- the state of choosing to empower ourselves with the information

Further, independence means the state of choosing to empower ourselves with the information to make up our own minds independently. According to another definition independence means the freedom to create a world society in which the people can perceive nations through a satellite view rather than a microscope view and make value judgments based on what is good for the future rather than for the present. True independence means recogniz- ing that every type of thought and belief system has something to teach, to offer, and that if we learn from those in our world our chances of creating a real change for the betterment of all will be increased. Wisdom demands that we should further our own independence by freeing ourselves from the prison of personal experience by embracing realities other than our own and thereby freeing ourselves from the shackles of ignorance. This is the quality of being independent, freedom from dependence, and exemption from reliance on or controlled by others. This is the state of self-subsistence or maintenance, direction of one’s own affairs without interference which provides sufficient means for a comfortable livelihood.

An opportunity for the people to avail of their rights

In a sense independence is the opportunity for the people to avail of their rights. Jurists and thinkers of France having themselves based on the Declaration 1789 and afterwards have enumerated four rights i.e. I. The right to be treated equally with others in the eye of law and in all legislative acts, ii. The right to be treated equally with others in matters of Justice and in the courts of law, iii. The right to be treated equally with others in matters of taxation so that each man pays the same proportion of his means as is paid by others iv. The right to be treated as equally admissible with others to public honours and offices of employment We have learned to think not only of what may be called political equality, in relation to the general life of the whole of the organized community and we have accordingly come to believe that there are further rights which ought to be added to the rights of political equality. These further rights are still as it were in the process of construction. They are emerging from the social thought and beginning to pass into the common conviction of the political community; but the proper nature of their form and the exact extent of their dimension have still to be determined by the continuing process of social thought and by the method of tentative experiment. They are the right which men are beginning to claim not in relation to governing authority and the distribution of its incidence, but in relation to one another measure of general equality between man and man partly in economic status and the distribution of economic possessions and partly in educational opportunities and enjoyment of the general treasures of culture.

Independence- the freedom to pursue personal needs

It is said that sovereignty is independence of a country, a nation or a state in which its residents and population or some portion thereof exercise self-government. In a sense this is group independence or freedom for a group of persons or freedom for individuals belonging to a group, such as a country, a nation, a state or some portion thereof.