Morning
Spice by Ginger
Promotion testsDo they have promotion tests from class to
class these days as they did in the past or are such tests here from in alities nowadays?
The idea could be to prevent bottle necks at certain points in most schools and so
children may be just pushed up for the sake of clearing the way for children to come into
the next class. I am not certain of this fact but this is what I hear from some of the
pedagogues I meet now and then.
Now this could be a good thing in a way as more children are pushed through the
secondary system allowing them to finish that stage of their education as fast as
possible. On the other hand could it effect a student’s education adversely in long
run as one may be going from class to class without a grasp of the fundamentals. They will
be groping their way aimlessly by for the rest of their student days except perhaps for
the late developer who could remedy such situations. Generally the pros and cons of such
policy should be examined rather carefully if necessary.
Our ancestors
Could you imagine that our ancestor had bones as small as our finger nails. Recently
scientists discovered the bones of a tiny primate that lived about forty five million
years ago in the rain forest that existed on nectar and insects. They feel that this
member of the Prosimians species may have a strong link to other primates and humans that
came after them.
A team of Anthropologists had found these bones and ones belonging to some ancient
mammals at a Chinese quarry. These are the oldest members of the anthropoid primate branch
known to date. They may give important information about evaluation and also confirm
recent theories that Promians migrated from Asia to Africa though man originated in
Africa.
Helen Mills
Paul Macartney is the same sentmenal chap many years ago for almost five years he was
dating a girl who was a little different from others. She is not only a vegetarion but
also has only one limb and she had been knocked down by a cop on a motorcycle about seven
years ago.
She is Helen Mills who is a kinred soul as she too like Paul is dedicated to
contributing towards chatty and helping those in need. Ironically she is a former swim
suit model before she lost her leg. She has quite a sense of humour as well. When she
wrote her best selling Outobiography she called it "Out on a Limb".
Sri Lanka should learn from
Britain
The ignominious debacle at Elephant Pass preceded in recent months by a series of
incredible reversals in the Wanni has introduced a new and frightening dimension to the
very existence of the unitary state of Sri Lanka. As Mr. Godage has quite rightly pointed
out in his article - The war and Indo Sri Lanka relations today’ — published in
the Island of April 26 anything can happen now with a confident Prabhakaran planning his
next move.
This is a time for courageous leadership when the interests of the Sri Lankan nation
should transcend all parochial party politics. Some may be tempted to say that it is
already too late but better late than never.
Britain faced a similar situation although to a very much greater degree after the fall
of France and the low countries and the disastrous defeat on the beaches of Dunkirk in the
spring of 1940. Britain stood alone facing the might of Hitler’s war machine. Neville
Chamberlain the British Prime Minister gave way to Winston Churchill, a man of indomitable
courage and supreme pragmatism. Churchill invited his arch rivals in the Labour and
Liberal parties to join him in the formation of a National Government. He assigned
important portfolios to senior members of these parties. He included Labour’s
hierarchy in his small war cabinet. All this proved to be a very courageous move which
paid rich dividends. The whole country rallied round the leader. Party animosities were
buried deep in the ground for the sake of the nation. At page 8 of Volume II of
Churchill’s war memories entitled. "Their Finest Hour" Churchill states,.
"It is probably easier to form a Cabinet, especially a Coalition Cabinet in the
heat of battle than in quiet times. The sense dominates all else and personal claims
recede. Once the main arrangements had been settled with the leaders of the other
political parties, with the formal authority of the attitude of all those I sent for was
like action who go to the places assigned to them at once without question"
I would strongly recommend that President Kumaratunga reads this chapter which will
provide her with .much food for thought. A National Govt. can with one voice give
directions to the Armed Services through the War Cabinet and the Chiefs of Staff
Committee. There would be no place for personal self glorification.
It behoves the President to do something dramatic to arrest the rapidly deteriorating
situation.
"There is not a day nor an hour nor a minute to lose".
Gamini Senerath
Gampola
A ‘Camera
Watch’ system for Colombo
Surveillance has been used in warfare and in the prevention and detection of crime from
time immemorial. Police establishments the world over keep known criminals under direct or
indirect surveillance.
Direct surveillance involves the judicious deployment of police officers trained in the
art of surveillance, whilst indirect surveillance involves the engaging of informants or
seeking the assistance of public spirited citizens.
With terrorism, the role of surveillance has taken on a new dimension of immense
importance. With this threat ever present in the City of Colombo, the identification and
observation of movements of suspected terrorists by efficient surveillance systems, are
requirements of the highest priority.
Electronic surveillance with the use of closed circuit Television is the answer. Like
in all major western cities with high crime rates and terrorist threats a ‘Camera
Watch System’ must be installed in the city and all other highly vulnerable places
and vital installations.
CCTV has today become one of the most widespread technological aids in security as it:
a) Is a deterrent to potential criminals and terrorists.
b) It reduces manpower requirements, particularly static guard points .
c) It provides magnetic and hard copy records of incidents facilitating detection and
d) Above all it provides a higher level of confidence to those under threat.
In my candid view, I believe this is an area where the private sector will ungrudgingly
assist if the Police Department takes the initiative.
Edward Gunawardena
Battaramulla
End of poverty
Judging by the draft WDR, the final version will be a disappointment, an exercise in
futility, an obfuscation of the central cause of poverty: the banking system that is a
classic financial pyramid i.e. a pyramid scheme, corrupt to the core, deliberately
designed to impoverish the many in order to enrich the elite. Of course, the World Bank is
a creature of the elite and its WDR will serve their purpose, diverting attention away
from the evil agenda being pursued by the WB, IMF, WTO, APEC, OECD, BIS, NATO, and every
other elite-organised acronym you can think of.
Understanding microeconomics, i.e. money creation, reveals much, including the solution
to guaranteed, manufactured poverty. However, it would be naive to suppose that the
beneficiaries of the present system are willing to entertain this solution. So we will
continue to be subjected to endless rhetoric about "free trade", "open
borders", "globalization", "growth", "sustainable
development", "humanitarian interventions", ad nauseam. We will be tossed
token hypocritical gestures like the WDR. Meanwhile, the rich will get richer, the poor
will get poorer, and the poorest will die.
Thankfully, we are not all fooled. The growing clamour for truth and justice will not
be silenced. The egregious wrongs of the financial system are becoming known to ever
greater numbers. As Abraham Lincoln said, "Money will cease to be master and become
the servant of humanity."
As I said in my previous posting of Feb. 27, the end of poverty will come only after
the illegitimate global debt is abolished; interest on loans is forbidden; money is
supplied by the public, through their governments, for the good of all. Unless the WDR
includes this prescription it will be a useless document.
Marc Bombois, VP, Canadian Action Party
Garibaldi Highlands
Bopath Falls,
Kuruwita — a few suggestions
The Bopath Falls, or the "Dancing Damsel" as a columnist aptly described it,
is in the news once again. The Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mr. Dharmasiri
Senanayake and the Chief Minister of the Sabaragamuwa Province, Mr. Athauda Seneviratne,
have acted wisely in visiting the place with a view to finding ways and means of
developing it to draw more tourists to the spot. The print and electronic media have time
and again given wide publicity to these picturesque falls. This has resulted in picnickers
and holiday seekers from all parts of the island converging on this spot on weekends,
holidays and Poya Days. Now pleasure seekers from Colombo, too, have turned their
attention towards Bopath Ella, which is only a two-hour drive. As a resident of this area
for the last six years, I wish to make the following suggestions to those officials
concerned:
a) Hotels and restaurants are springing up fast, but basic facilities such as
restrooms, halls for consuming meals, toilets, refuse bins, first aid post/s etc. are
sadly lacking for the less affluent.
b) A spacious car park is an immediate necessity.
c) The road leading to the falls at the turn off to the left near the 85th km. post on
the Colombo — Ratnapura road should be widened to ensure a free flow of traffic
(either way). At present traffic moves at a snail’s pace on holidays and weekends and
it takes as much as 45 minutes or more to cover the distance of 4.5 kms from the main road
to the falls. Regular maintenance of the road after widening is of vital importance.
d) A few additional buses should be added to the present fleet of two, for the benefit
of those who come to the falls on foot.
e) Warning signals about the dangers of climbing the boulders of rocks on either side
of the falls, where so many have plunged to their death, need replacement as the earlier
boards appear to have been removed by vandals.
f) The Kuruwita Police who are indeed doing a fine job by patrolling the area,
especially on holidays, should be requested to keep an eye on inebriated youth who have a
tendency to break empty liquor bottles pose a grave threat to bathers, a number of whom
have sustained serious injuries.
g) Apropos the mini Hydro Electric Project it is feared that once it becomes a reality
it would have an adverse effect on the bio-ecology of the surroundings and thereby change
the face of the falls. The villagers of the area who sell curios, food parcels, shorteats,
sweetmeats etc. are in a quandary as to whether there is going to be a considerable drop
in the arrival of tourists to the site thus affecting their only source of income. Whether
it is prudent to proceed with the plans to build this project is best left to the powers
that be to decide. In this context, I feel it is appropriate to quote the words of Michel
De Montaigne:
"Let us permit Nature to have her way; She understands her business better than we
do".
Alas! When the scheme takes shape, will the "Dancing Damsel" continue with
her rythmic dance or will it be the end of the road for her? Perhaps only time will tell.
M. T. Ahmad
Kuruwita
Ombudsman asleep
It was rather amusing to read the observations made by the ombudsman which appeared in
The Island of April 13 in response to a complaint made by one Daya Wickrematilleke under
the above title for my experience with the Ombudsman too confirms that this is a fitting
title.
Our property at Rajagiriya was acquired by the government for the co-operative
department. I along with the other co-owner submitted an appeal in March, 1996 against
this acquisition requesting the Ombudsman to investigate whether this acquisition was
warranted and whether it had been done properly, adducing valid reasons. Having waited for
over an year I sent him a reminder enclosing a copy of the appeal for which too there was
no response. Subsequently this was followed by several reminders all of which failed to
awaken the slumbering Ombudsman. All these were sent under personal cover and by
registered post. Finally I had to appeal to the Minister of Justice by letter dated 7.8.99
on which the Minister directed the Ombudsman to hold an inquiry. What happened to the
inquiry is also interesting but that is another matter.
In his comments referred to above the Ombudsman accepts that his office does not
acknowledge receipt of petitions, but they are attended to within a reasonable time. It is
a genral rule in government institutions to send an interim reply if a final reply cannot
be sent within a week. I wonder how his office has been exempted from this requirement.
The reasonable time which he says his office attends to appeals, in my case took over
three years and that too after the Minister had intervened. In the circumstances how else
can one describe this inaction other than to say that the Ombudsman is asleep.
W. D. L. Perera
Ja-Ela
Debate
over the President’s educational qualifications
There was a debate over the President’s educational qualifications. It was really
unwarranted and it only exposed our knavishness.
We have been possessed of a cult of measuring person’s standing and suitability
for a post on the school tie or on the western qualifications held. What is therefore
apparent from the debate is that both sides are still possessed of that colonial cult and
take pride in education received in western countries to that of our own.
It cannot be denied that education in western countries was the privilege of the
wealthy who considered such education ‘prestigious’ and of the monied class
whose children were not bright enough to enter our institutes of higher education. Of
course, there were also some who considered that their ‘Baby Hamus’ should not
mix with local children in the education process. Western education, as such, is not
something to be crowed about.
Of the past Prime Ministers and Presidents, who gave political leadership to our
country, only one had a foreign degree and their political performance was very cultured
— their success and failure in good governance being another issue.
Then again, in my assessment, the four politicians who had a vision for the
country’s future, where Mr. D. S. Senanayake, Mr. R. Premadasa, Mr. S. W. R. D.
Bandaranaike and Mr. Gamini Dissanayake.
Upali S. Jayasekera
Colombo 4
Rambling notes by
Nihal Corea
Merry-go-round of deception
Now reader Dr. A. D. V. Premaratne has come out with a home truth that could hardly be
denied though in a general sense of course it has been said a couple of thousand years too
late. The doctor of course has confined his remark to the medical profession. The headline
sounded rather jolly as you read it.
It said everybody deceives everybody in the medical profession. It sounds like a
parlour game. Something like passing the pillow round though it is in reality a treasure
hunt. For that matter who is not on a treasure hunt these days. Ask a politician if he
doubts that statement.
He would turn round and tell you that it is one of the best forms of recreation these
days. Really nothing gives as much satisfaction as this ongoing treasure hunt for the
politician and others. What makes it all the more thrilling is that the treasure has to be
found within a definite time frame. That is from one election to another. There is enough
time really to find a fortune and the politician who cannot do so is not worth his salt.
In other words if he can’t salt it away in time he wpn’t go very far. But
right now we are harping one Dr. Premaratne’s lament that everybody in the medical
department is deceiving everybody in medical profession. In other words it is a happy
merry go round with everybody fooling everybody and of course all joining handss to fool
the patient. An unequal contest if ever there was one.
According to the good doctor "Everybody appears to deceive everybody else so much
so that every one suspects every one else". The Ministry deceives the private sector
by promising to help it evidently. But Dr. Premaratne feels it is a dying force and
nothing has been done to help it.
Now the drug authorities evidently have entered the contest by promising doctors to
take action against errant pharmaceutical firms but do no such thing. Quacks evidently
deceive gullible innocents as they deserve to be. Some doctors deceive the media. Some
puckish doctors deceive colleagues creating rifts among them. Now doctors are arguing with
each other over drug irregularities.
Now I wonder why Dr. A. D. V. Premaratne is so concerned about the whole issue. It is a
common scene in any walk of life in Sri Lanka. He should take consolation in the fact that
there could be no foreign influence on our medical profession here. We staunchly preserved
the characteristics of the Sri Lankan and the culture that is peculiar to us.
Just take a look around you and see whether the medical profession is any different to
any other form of activity. Deception is what pitchforks many a Sri Lankan to the very
heights. It is the very art of deception that sent the Portuguese on a wild goose chase
when they wanted to go to Kotte. If we can stick it into a wine guzzling Portuguese
what’s wrong with us?
The Philosophy of
‘Unfit to Plead’
This refers to the interesting and thought provoking article titled "The
Philosophy of Unfit to Plead", which appeared in The Island of April 19. In his
somewhat lengthy article Dr. J. G. Hattotuwe, one-time Professor of Behavioural Science at
the North Colombo Medical College has severely condemned the horrendous crimes committed
by Hitler and his minions and by the LTTE leadership and their suicide bombers. He has
explained the Plea of Insanity and quoted the McNaghten Rules. By the way when an accused
person who is brought before courts is adjudged insane, is he allowed to go home
scot-free? How does he purge himself of his crime?
Dr. Hattotuwe has raised a number of questions which I believe, in the present local
contest, should engage the attention of all peace-loving citizens.
Needless to say, as a layman, I am not competent to express an opinion the legal issues
involved. Here I would like to advert to a matter "the suicidal and ‘enemy’
or himself but would like To quote destroying mentioned by the learned Professor. To quote
him, "the murderous terrorist is hell-bent on destroying his targeted
‘enemies’ and in this diabolical process destroys not only also the latter and
scores of defenceless and innocent men, women and children". Very recently there was
such a homicidal attack at Rajagiriya when several LTTE suicide bombers launched an attack
bringing death to many innocent persons and injuring many more.
Although suicide bombers of the LTTE have staged similar attacks on numerous occasions
during the last decade and caused death and destruction on a large scale Tamil
organisations and individuals have been very tardy in their condemnation of these
dastardly crimes. Very often the latter’s response has at best been a deafening
silence. Indeed this has given rise to an impression among many Sinhalese that the odious
activities of the LTTE have the tacit approval of the Tamils generally.
It is sad and bewildering to think that a religious and peace-loving people like the
Tamils could subscribe to the destructive and divisive demands of a few murderous
misanthropes who have disguised themselves as freedom fighters. How can a people so
literate as the Northern Tamils, who gave us intellectuals of the calibre of Ananda
Coomaraswamy and the Ramanathan brothers, tolerate and indeed encourage morons like
Prabhakaran and his cohorts?
For centuries our Northern brothers have lived in peace and harmony with the Sinhalese,
barring a few disputes - the kind of tiffs one could expect in any large family. It would
be uncharitable to believe that a majority of the Northerners are hand in glove with the
Tigers in the pursuit of their terrorist aims. But those who value peace in our country
expect the Northern Tamils to offer a more active response and opposition to the Tigers
who are the enemies of all peace- loving people. Our Northern brothers do well to remember
Edmund Burke’s words that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men to do nothing.
G. Dharmawardena
Homagama |
