Sri Lanka, Sept. 28 -- How does a country bring all of its people together? Despite all the rhetoric behind the idea of national unity, bringing people together is probably merely a rhetorical flourish that is used by writers, and speech-writers.

But is there really such a thing as bringing people together? If there is, history has a hard time discovering examples of national unity. People can be brought together in grief perhaps whenever there is an environmental catastrophe. We witnessed that during the tsunami and its aftermath.

The rest of the time, humans are at each others' throats. But yet, some countries do have a greater proclivity towards tangible unity than others. If a country such as Japan is considered, anyone would have t...