Letters
View(s):Historic strings attached to Deloraine Brohier’s pearls
The pearl set that Deloraine Brohier wore because she valued its history of the pearls being hunted by the Aboriginal people of Australia (“The knight with the pearl earring”, Shamalee de Silva Parizeau, The Sunday Times Plus, March 5) in olden times might, in fact, have been the work of Sri Lanka pearl fishermen, who knows?
These “Cinghalese” divers came to Australia in large numbers from the late 1800s to join the Aboriginal divers who traditionally valued the mother-of-pearl shells rather than the pearls, especially from the foot-wide Pinctada maxima oyster.
Initially, the fishermen dived naked; then diving suits were introduced and there are stories of the slightly-built Sri Lankan and Japanese divers bent forward almost horizontal in the heavy suits and helmets, searching the seabed.
Galle master craftsman jeweller Thomas Bastian Ellies left Sri Lanka in 1897 to join the pearling boom in Broome, northern Australia, where he became known as the Pearl Doctor for his unrivalled skill in cleaning pearls. A Lankan touch: he is said to have calmed nervous merchants with a drink while he delicately shaved off imperfections from pearls of extraordinary value without ruining them.
The Carnarvon Times of 17 July 1937 reports Ellies’ death in June 1937, stating he had been a devout Buddhist and that Japanese women had chanted a dirge as his coffin was lowered into the grave. He was world-renowned, a great philanthropist and “supporter of every sporting body in town” and his funeral had been the most impressive seen in Broome for years.
The Sri Lankan pearl fishermen and other Sri Lankans who came to work on Australian sugarcane estates and Australian-owned coconut estates in the South Sea islands came, in the main, without their families and intermarried with the Aboriginal people.
Names such as Fernando, Silva and Peiris are still extant. In 1994, Aboriginal cousins Brendan and Vester Fernando raped and murdered a nurse. The Aboriginal Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner and later senator bears the intriguing name of Nova Peris. A tearful man once wrote to The Australian when I was Letters Editor there around 1995 that some Aboriginals used to take on Sri Lankan names in earlier days to lessen the racism they faced and he had just found out that an apparent Sri Lankan trace in his otherwise white ancestry was Aboriginal, to the horror of his family.
So either way, Deloraine Brohier’s pearls have a rich history.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, I remember that Aunty Deloraine gave me a wedding gift of The Daily News Cookery Book that served me well until our bullmastiff munched a third of it. I struggled by on two-thirds (thankfully minus the albumen puddings of cooking for invalids), until a new one appeared.
Vale a grande dame.
Dinoo Kelleghan
Sydney
Mulachari’s amazing bridge over the Kandy Lake!
Reading last Sunday’s article on Devendra Mulachari’s achievements reminded me of another of his “creations” that is almost unknown – the collapsible bridge to the island in the lake. In his Diary British Spymaster John D’Oyly writes – “In the middle of the ‘weyva’ lately built by the King, a square ‘kundasalawa’ has been built and covered with ‘koku ulu’. There are also built, & in the same ‘weyva, 2 ’Yatra Donies’ [little boats]with 1 mast each, and 2 ’pades’[flat bottomed boats or paddles].
The Bridge built for going to the ‘kundasalawa’ in the middle of the ‘weyva’, is made to fold up and open.”
This would have been a unique and outstanding engineering feat of Devendra Mulachari .
Tissa Devendra
(no kinsman)
The evolution of ‘channelling’ and the extinction of the GP
The hard-hitting and candid address given to the Ceylon College of Physicians by its President Dr. S.D. Jayaratne (courtesy the Sunday Times) provoked me to elaborate on some of his comments.
The evolution of ‘channelling’– a term surely unique to our country– is partially responsible for the situation he described.
From the mid-seventies the Government decreed that patients had to go through an intermediary–the private hospital/channelling centre–in order to ‘channel’ the doctor of his/her choice.
Gone were the days when a consultant would see a patient in his own consulting room, which was often in his house. It was a fairly intimate affair where one would find 10-15 patients or less sitting in an ante-room/verandah.
The patient was not faced with the bewildering choice of a number of specialists in an impersonal atmosphere, where around 25% was added on by the hospital/channelling centre for the privilege of channelling.
A few years later, in the ’80s another situation arose which resulted in the traditional General Practitioner (GP) becoming almost extinct.
During this period the Govt. granted an increase in salary (around Rs. 10,000 per month) to the consultants, but could not afford to extend this largesse to the junior staff. Instead, the Govt. tempted them with private practice which meant that the M.O. OPD, the House Officer working in the wards and occasionally doctors from non-clinical specialities could see patients after working hours (private practice until then was limited to the consultants).
With this the family GP went out of the window and the referral system from GP to consultant ceased to exist.
I also feel it is unfair to blacken all specialists (to quote from the article… “when private practice enters through the front door professionalism disappears from the back door..”). There are still a number of them who maintain a high standard.
I have to agree that the problem of the ignorant patient being mis-directed by non-medical employees happens all too often.
Our patients too have the misconception that doctors in the big city will give them a better deal.
I experienced this personally recently. I was waiting to see a consultant friend of mine in a private hospital over a minor issue, when I realised the waiting crowd was getting restive.
On their discovering that I was a doctor I found myself the centre of a ‘mini clinic’.
One patient from Polonnaruwa had been advised by the receptionist at the hospital to consult my friend, a recently retired consultant whom she had no knowledge of. She had been unhappy with the doctors in Polonnaruwa. Her clinical history indicated that there was no ‘quick fix’ to her symptoms. She required admission and investigation. My friend had no connection with a Govt. hospital and the patient was in no position to pay for treatment in a private hospital.
I hope I convinced her that there were equally good specialists attached to the Anuradhapura Hospital– not far from her home.
One way to solve this problem is to refer the patient who wants advice on whom to consult, to the M.O. OPD first, who is expected to sort out the problem without bias.
Private practice is not the root of all evil which has to be eradicated. As long as our doctor/patient ratio remains low, it is a necessity.
Patient education is much to be desired. Maybe by more medical matters being discussed on radio and T.V. and lectures being given to certain social groups such as “senior citizens” groups this problem could be addressed to some extent.
Unfortunately, a good GP, who more than suffices for over 50 percent of illnesses, is a rare commodity.
A much-retired Consultant
Kandy
The never-ending traffic mess
It is really frustrating to drive because of the never ending traffic blocks on our roads every day, everywhere. It is immaterial whether it is peak hour or non peak hours or weekdays or weekends or holidays, the traffic is so heavy. It is only after 11 p.m. or before 4 a.m. that one can drive peacefully.
The main culprit is the government for not stopping the importation of vehicles or at least putting in place a workable plan to solve this mess.
Protest marches and demonstrations are on daily creating even a bigger traffic block.What a lot of man hours and funds are wasted as a result of these demonstrations. It seems the government does not really care.Is it because the politicians are not affected?
Our road network is not improving and yet vehicles are being imported at a rate. The police is also not effective and there aren’t sufficient policemen on the roads to control the traffic.Some times these cops on traffic duty don’t seem to be traffic trained and make a bigger mess!
Traffic offenders are having a field day as a result.If sufficient cops are put on traffic duty and offenders are punished at least this mess could be sorted out to some extent.
In my view the government should put an immediate stop to importing vehicles and sort out this problem.
One more recommendation: long vehicles and containers should not be permitted to ply on the streets at all times. Like in other countries they should be permitted only at specific times so that they do not add to the already prevailing mess.
Brig. Neville Fernando
Colombo 6