We have been listening and ruining our lives during the last few decades due to the financial interests of few billionaires and their industries in the world.

They have destroyed the traditional crops, medicine, food, cooking, eating, and entire lifestyles resulting in people with weak immunity systems around the world so that they could market their products and even medicine.

At least due to the COVID-19 outbreak, people are realizing the mistakes they did and now it is high time for us to get back to our old ways and re-build the immunity systems of people and be more healthy.

Some of the things we should do immediately are as follows.  They are not in a particular order but can be done based on the priorities and resources available.

• Promote traditional farming of crops, vegetables, spices, and medicinal plants.
• Government to purchase farming products and deliver them to cities using night-trains.
• Encourage the private sector to build storing/freezing facilities for seasonal farming products.
• Encourage the private sector to make value additions and export them to other countries.
• Reduce the use of artificial fertilizer to the minimum possible and encourage organic farming.
• Encourage the use of traditional medicine and conduct scientific research based on them.
• Encourage the use of coconut oil instead of palm/vegetable oil.
• Encourage the use of rice instead of imported flour.
• Encourage the use of locally produced fresh milk instead of imported milk powder.
• Revive all irrigation tanks around the country to conserve water, environment protection, and farming.
• Protect the river banks and irrigation tank bunds from encroachers who pollute them.
• Protect mountain tops from large scale human habitation and industrial buildings.
• Replace invasive plants such as Pine and Eucalyptus trees with local plants that protect the soil.
• Encourage the private sector to generate electricity using solar, wind, and ocean waves, in addition to hydro energy.

There are many more to be done, but at least these would be a start in the right direction.

This is not against importation of products from other countries, but about self sufficiency which is the only protection during a calamity.

We have been a healthy nation for centuries while eating rice and coconut.  But this was discouraged by adverse propaganda to sell other products such as imported flour and palm/vegetable oil.

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the greatest bliss.” – The Buddha