A new invasive species threatens Yala!

A new alien species is invading Yala and threatening to ruin the park. They behave like animals but move about in four-wheel drive vehicles with names such as Land Rover Mahindra and Toyota.
“Why are you bringing this party down this track?”
That was the question posed to our tracker as we were doing our evening round in our own vehicle.
The underlying tone of this accusation was “What right do you have to bring these guys who are traveling inside Yala in their own vehicle without hiring a Safari Jeep from one of us?”
It's as if we were encroachers into their territory.
These jeep drivers believe that they are the authority when it comes to the park. Way above the pecking order than the employees of the Wild Life Department.
In fact, they are a law unto themselves.
They drive around at high speeds.
They block the roads.
They do not follow the simple etiquette of moving your vehicle after five minutes of a sighting. Giving another person an opportunity to see the animal as well.
All this was something I have experienced for quite some time. Without making a fuss.
What got my ire and motivated me to pen this article was when I saw them blocking the path of animals.
Elephants to be precise.
It was a herd of elephants with a baby wanting to cross the road and go back into the jungle after drinking water from the tank.
When one of these Safari Jeeps drove in and purposely blocked the very path they were going to cross.
Then more jeeps came and quite literally piled up one on top of the other.
Giving the herd no room to move at all.
This disturbed the elephants. So much so that two elephants stood guard blocking the vehicles till the others crossed.
One jeep even tried to push against the elephant and was head-butted as a result.
Which serves him right.
But this driver was putting his passengers' lives in danger as well. The vehicle could have easily toppled over. Or a passenger attacked. Since they were tourists it would have created a negative image about visiting the park. Which would ultimately affect not only the park but the Jeep Drivers as well, financially.
This situation has come about due to two facts.
One being not enough trackers to accompany every vehicle.
The second being the enormous political power that the Jeep drivers wield. The Wildlife Department officials are powerless in the face of it.
I do not trust the government to step in and correct this situation. After all it's the two-legged mammals that vote not the four-legged variety.
My hope is an organisation such as WNPS will come forward to provide training for these drivers along with an endorsement system that has to be renewed yearly. Those drivers who qualify can display a sticker similar to a license on their vehicles assuring the passengers of a civilised experience within the park.
Finally, people will be able to choose safety and decency towards animals over danger and cheap thrills.

The Peak End Rule and Private Hospitals

People remember past events through intense positive or negative experiences (the Peak) and the final moment of an experience (the end).

If the final moment is negative then his memory of that experience would be negative.

This is the Peak End Rule developed by Daniel Kahneman the only psychologist to win a Nobel Prize for economics.

Now let me share my experience about discharging a close colleague from a reputed private hospital post-surgery.

Frustrating, Horrible, and Nightmarish would be some of the words which come to mind.

The doctor discharges the patient at 5.30

It takes more than 2.5 hours for the bill to get ready. The main reason being that the consultant has not given his fees.

He is in surgery. He will give his fees only after he knows what the total hospital charges are. 

Once this is done the insurance takes another two-three hours to process the payment.

In the meantime the nursing station has quite literally forgotten about the patient who is still suffering from post-surgical pain. 

It's understandable. Technically the patient is discharged.

We had to go and ask to remove the Cannula. 

The night medicines were given only after we asked for it.

The patient had asked for a banana to eat to take the medicine.

Asked one nurse there was no response. Called the F&B Section, and they say to call the nursing station. Tells the nursing station once more. The Banana comes after nearly 1.5 hours. Sadly everyone scolds the waiters though it is not their fault.

The final nail in the coffin was that the accounts department told me to come to the first floor to settle the bill. But did not have the foresight to tell me that I need to take a different lift. As the usual lift takes you to a car park. You are left scratching your head wondering where to go.

Once everything is done and finalized. The patient left the hospital only at 10 p.m

4.5 hours after the discharge.

No one really wants to be stuck in a hospital for 4.5 hours. 

It seems that no hospital is looking at this from a client experience point of view. I have heard similar complaints from patients across most private hospitals in Sri Lanka.

The biggest problem is the lack of communication and the passing down of information.

No one bothers to keep the patient appraised of the situation. So they are in their room, wondering what is happening. Anxiety levels rising as each moment passes.

If you look at it, all that is required is a simple step to make the discharge process less frustrating.

Having a Guest Relations Officer (GRO) take over the patient from the moment of discharge. Keeping the patient informed and making sure she/he is cared for. Along with an accounts department that would bring the bill to the client's room along with a wireless credit card machine.

But no one has thought of it.

Thereby ensuring most of their clients leave with negative memories of an unpleasant experience even though they are healed of life-threatening disease.

Warning: We Humans can be easily manipulated.

They say seeing is believing.

I guess for hundreds and thousands of years this was true.

But our eyes can be easily tricked.

Hence the reason why magicians have been making money since time immemorial.

But in today's modern world of ai, deep fake and being able to splice together a video on your handphone, this is no longer true.

This is what I saw happening when a video started going viral about the Dalai Lama asking a boy to eat his tongue.

I saw the outrage turning into a giant inferno.

I held back from commenting on it. Mainly because I did not want to add fuel to a burning issue. And something kept holding me back.

A deep gut feeling saying all that you see may not be true.

I know for a fact that it is a custom in Tibet to greet someone by putting their tongue out at them. Also if you go to Europe, virtually everyone kisses on the lips.

Fortunately for me, I came across this video which outlines the context of this entire situation whilst showing the complete unedited footage.

The fact that the boy's mom is also present, sitting on the stage, just a couple of feet away from Dalai Lama, and her expressions right throughout also helped me to understand that this would not have been a threatening situation for the child.

It was only then I realised how easily we can be manipulated. Even I am guilty of jumping into conclusions hastily. Without realising that there are three sides to a story. The actual truth, what one person says and what the other person says.

Because we have been conditioned through many thousands of years that seeing is believing.

Its all about Perspective

 

They say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Recently I experienced a situation that brought out the truth of that statement in the most amazing manner.

The story begins many decades ago.

I was not a very rich kid. Which meant that I did not have that much money to spend on the school canteen.

The food in that school canteen seemed as attractive as gold to me.

Seriously.

The rolls and the patties and the egg buns were something that I could see but could not touch. It was unattainable in my eyes.

I used to envy the boys that had money and used to eat constantly from the canteen.

Sometimes they would share a morsel with me. 

I would feel extremely sorry for myself.

And feel ashamed of the sandwiches which I brought from home that my poor mom made every morning.

Two slices of bread. With Jam or pol sambol or seeni sambol and boiled egg.

It was spicy. It was homemade. It was fresh.

And most importantly made with love.

Attributes that I was blind to.

Till I met some classmates many years later.

They were the kids who used to eat from the canteen all the time.

We were chatting and reminiscing about our school days. 

When one of them said. “You know we were so envious of the food you used to bring from home. Whilst we had to eat from the canteen”.

“Your food looked so good”.

I resented the fact that I had to bring my food from home.

They resented the fact they could not bring food from home.

The grass is definitely greener on the other side.