Morning
Spice by Ginger
Advertising needs plenty of skillFor once some of the
advertisements when the second test was going on were timed properly and would in all
probability fetch some devidends. The Ceylon Cold Stores ad where the young ones playing
in a band get more zip into them after taking either lemonade or cream soda. Some one may
test the veracity of that claim because every one is in a happy frame of mind and may even
give elephant lemonade a try because it comes on when a South African wicket falls. I feel
that the individual who advertises when a local wicket falls would receive some very
vituperative comments from the viewer.
Now advertising needs a lot of skill. An attractive ad or story board does not mean
that they would get results. There are many things that have to be considered firstly.
They must see what type of customer they are trying to target. What type of ad is likely
to appeal to the clientele, it is hoping to get. What are its rivals and how must any plus
points be emphasized? It needs a lot of thinking really and when sporting event where
national pride is involved, they must know when to place the ad.
Maternal depression
If you are a mother with young children make sure you do not look worried or seem
irritated in front of your children. It may do more harm than good. No one knew of the
consequences of fits of maternal depression till a test was conducted on a number of
families.
In the case of a mother, who is always depressed, it can lead to a daughter reaching
puberty much sooner than usual. This may explain how many English girls reach this stage
before ten. Young girls can also reach puberty when a stranger comes into their lives for
instance when a mother marries again.
Poor umpiring
What rotten umpiring. It lowered us to the depths. Mind you, the whole cricketing
world was watching when all this nonsence was going on. At one stage Ginger was so
disgusted that he was wishing that we would lose. There was no explanation for some of the
decisions.
Before we become known for bad umpiring, it is essential that we knock off those who
are guilty of poor umpiring, from the panel. As it is, we are getting rather noted. The
better idea would be to get neutral umpires. Then the host country is not associated with
any bad decisions. I think I shot my mouth off a bit because I just saw Arjunas dismissal
and I was dumb founded.
A case of further
bureaucratic victimization
At the zenith of my career in the Railway Department while I functioned as G M R. I
fell a victim to circumstances brought about by a few misguided members of a pro UNP
Railway Union which instigated my removal from the post consequent to the change of
government from the SLFP to UNP in 1977. The events leading to the situation were briefly
as follows:
A framed photograph of the then premier Mrs. Sirimavo R. D. Bandaranaike has been hung
on a wall adjacent to the stairway leading to my office room and this was resented by the
said union, although I was not responsible for hanging it there.
My removal from office deprived me of the perquisites attached to the post as well as
the job satisfaction enjoyed by me for about nine months managing the Railway with all the
lines of the network functioning satisfactorily without having to cope with any major
derailments or accidents.
In terms of the provisions made by the new government in 1994, I appealed for redress
of my grievances to the Political Victimisation Committee of the Transport Ministry
chaired by the Deputy Minister consequent to my abrupt removal from office for no fault on
my part.
The mental anguish and humiliation I suffered were recognised by the committee which
investigated and recommended to the Cabinet of Ministers that I be granted compensation by
way of placement on a special salary and the revision of my pension, in view of my unjust
removal from office prior to my retirement.
The Ministry, however did not implement the cabinet approval received on the above
recommendation, but for some unaccountable reason had misdirected the Secretary to the
President by stating that I was "paid the special salary and the revised pension in
terms of the cabinet decision" though this was a factually incorrect statement.
Subsequently, at a discussion to which I was summoned along with others by the
Secretary of Transport and Highways on December 28, 1999 I brought to his notice among
other matters that such a fallacious report had been submitted by him to the Secretary to
the President, the contents of which were conveyed to me by the Presidential Secretariat
in response to representation made by me.
Thereafter, I learnt that a second memorandum had been submitted to the Cabinet of
Ministers merely to inform that the previous decision of the cabinet could not be
implemented.
Surprisingly, no implementable alternative recommendation had been made in lieu of the
previous recommendation which was thus set aside. Apparently even the Secretary to the
President has not been duly apprised of the true position in rectification of the previous
misdirection.
In this connection, I consider it pertinent to mention that the representations made on
my behalf by the Speaker of Parliament K. B. Ratnayake and also by the late C. V.
Gooneratne, a few months before his demise, to grant me the redress, I deserved had been
overlooked.
I am constrained to set out the above observations prompted by the apparently
vindictive attitude adopted by a bureaucrat in invalidating a cabinet decision obtained by
the Political Victimization Committee of the Ministry on justifiable grounds and also in
misdirecting the secretary to the president there on.
I hope that these observations will receive the earnest consideration of the
Minister/Secretary to the President/ or other authorities concerned and that justice will
be meted out to me even at this late hour.
S. Amarasuriya
Ratmalana
Umpire bashing—tony
gaucherie
Umpire’s word is law. That is what we were taught in college. Today that is
forgotten by the adult world and everything is so different. When a game of cricket is on
there are as usual the two umpires out in the middle. There is a third umpire whom they
can consult when necessary. In addition to these three, there are the commentators armed
with sophisticated equipment sitting snugly in the commentators box questioning and
criticising an umpiring decision after going through more than one replay and taking all
the time on the world to make their assessment.
This is very unfair, umpires out in the middle have to make split second decisions
depending on what they see and hear, they are not robots, they are human beings. Those
worthies in the commentators box have all the equipment around them and have slow replays
and criticise the umpires.
Yesterday, when there was an appeal for caught behind against Sanath Jayasuriya, umpire
said "not out". Then these worthies in the commentators box had several replays
and even after that could not decide whether the ball had touched the bat! If these
unfortunate things are allowed to happen, the poor umpires whether local or foreign will
find their style cramped because all the time they will have to think of the commentators
box before making a quick decision. Once the umpire gives his decision, it should be
accepted by all concerned without demur. If they are not satisfied with a particular
umpire they could report him to the match referee. Commentators are expected to commentate
not set themselves up as super umpires and ventilate their views to the public.
The best thing that should happen is to send these commentators who talk as if they are
the cats whiskers to the middle and umpire for a while, instead of sitting snugly in the
commentators box and pontificating over a decision. What is happening today is certainly
not cricket, certainly not the gentleman’s game that cricket is said to be. Remember
the umpires word is law and must be accepted without any hesitating. If anyone feels that
the umpire is no good, he can report the umpire to the match referee.
Commentators are setting themselves up as super judges. That is not their job. They
should leave the umpires alone to do their job. Alas! what is this noble game of cricket
coming to?
J. I. Fernando
Mt. Lavinia
Match fixing and finger lifting
The match fixing controversy is raging and spreading like wildfire making the cricket
lovers to loose that respect and enjoyment of this game. Everytime, a good cricketer gets
out due to a poor stroke play, a doubt may arise in the mind of a cricket fan whether he
has been bribed. When a reputed bowler is hammered all over the ground even by tail
enders, a similar doubt could arise in the minds of the onlookers.
Now that investigations are held in various countries to examine complaints of match
fixing to punish such offenders and draft laws to ban such cricketers for life, I would
like to submit another very important person who could be used for match fixing. That
person is the UMPIRE. There has been so many controversial umpiring decisions that could
be attributed to undue influence. The cricket commentators have made bold comments about
bad umpiring, but in this climate of match fixing to fix an umpire would be so much more
easier and effective than fixing a whole team. I am not being frivolous.
I suggest that the cricket authorities examine this possibility and nip it in the bud.
Every possible precaution should be taken to delay the announcement of a panel of umpires
until the very last moment.
Senior Citizen
Cholesterol myth in coconut oil
I had the opportunity of attending the International Coconut Conference held in Chennai
July 24-28 to which Mr. Gamini Wedande referred to in The Island of July 29 . Both Dr. Jon
Kabara and Dr. Dayritt were personally present at the meeting and addressed it emphasizing
on the health and nutritional aspects of coconut oil.
They are only two among a number of researchers/ scientists who have done research and
published their findings in defence of coconut oil. To mention a few Mary Enig, Black
Burn, Babayan, Kaunitz, Rajamohan and Atukorala.
However, we see as Dr. Dayritt states in his paper, "with all the opprobrium cast
against it, it bears repeating again and again that no evidence has ever been presented to
prove that coconut oil causes coronary heart diseases in humans".
Dr. Kabara goes further. He says, "in 1987 a 50 year review showed the anti cancer
effects of coconut oil. In chemically induced cancers of the colon and breast, coconut oil
was by far more protective than unsaturated oils. For eg. 32 per cent of corn oil eaters
got the cancer. Many studies since the early 1920’s have shown an association between
consumption of unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer", soya corn, rape, palm
are among unsaturated oils.
What pazzles me is while we are medically advised not to consume coconut oil, no such
restrictions are placed on foods which have cholesterol on their own. According to
biochemists cholesterol rich food are the yolk of eggs, organs such as liver and brain fat
of animals, such as cattle, goat, pigs and butter and milk. Cholesterol is not formed in
plants and is therefore not present in oils derived from coconut, soya, maize, gingelly
and other seeds and nuts".
P. G. Punchihewa
Colombo 7 |
