Many Westerners dream of visiting Sri Lanka. They imagine it to be an amazing place to see and experience. Middle Easterners and Singaporeans, on the other hand, have often a different view due to the high numbers of Sri Lankan "cheap" workers who struggle to make a living in their home countries.

 

We can observe this pattern in many other countries of the world: financially rich and culturally poor mistreating financially poor and culturally rich people.

 

We may ask ourselves why these culturally rich countries are sometimes so economically under-developed. The answers are many: corrupted governments, poor educational system, the absence of natural resources, natural disasters, the level of public and foreign debt, etc.

 

I think in the case of Sri Lanka the answer might be among other its educational system.

 

After completing a page of Comics Around the World there, I did a quick interview with the teacher who assisted me. My question was: “What do you wish for your students?”

 

She replied: “I hope they will keep attending the school until they get graduated. Then, I wish to see them move to a wealthier country to help their family.”

 

Standing in the middle of the schoolyard, I pictured myself listening to my teachers who would constantly repeat to me that that the only solution to succeed is outside my own country. How would I react to the belief of my mentors that our home is a land of no hope?