Letters to the Editor
View(s):Let us go back to pre-2016 practice and get our pensions through respective embassies
I am a Sri Lankan pensioner who lives overseas with my children. Before 2016, even at the height of the war, I always received my monthly pension through the closest Sri Lankan embassy. Every three months I had to send a life certificate, witnessed and signed to the embassy. They, in turn, conducted business with the Dept. of Pensions. With no problem, I received my full pension at the end of each month.
Things changed in 2016. Our pensions were suddenly stopped. We were asked to open Bank Accounts in a Sri Lankan bank in Sri Lanka (only four branches recommended by the Dept. of Pensions). These accounts cannot be joint accounts. They have no access to ATM facilities. Only the pensioner has access to them, even if they are unable to use modern technology. The Dept. of Pensions then sends the pension to their selected bank branch. I have to send a witnessed and signed life certificate together with a transfer pension form to the bank.
Added to this, I have to send scanned documents each time to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Deputy Commissioner to get their approval without which the bank does not release my pension. Most people are aware that we pensioners of over 80 years are not very computer literate and I have to request my children for help. This unjust new system, which originated under the Minister in charge of the Pensions Department during the Yahapalana regime, has harassed us enough.
The Sri Lankan Bank deducts a commission at their end and the local bank here in New Zealand deducts another $15 at the end of each withdrawal. When two banks deduct commissions at both ends, what do I get out of the paltry pension which I earned after hard work, years ago?
Please sir, let us go back to the pre-2016 era and get our pensions through the respective embassies. They will send us each month, the full pension with no deductions. The embassy officials at the Australian Pensions Branch were an efficient lot.
Any letter or email sent to Director General Pensions is NOT EVEN acknowledged. If you telephone him, someone at the desk says “Mahattaya meetimaka”. Do all these so called meetings bring any benefit to us?
J. Amarasekara New Zealand
Beware of a trishaw missile! A flying gob of spit
I wonder if it’s only my misfortune but it seems every time I get into a trishaw ( a frequent occurrence for me) , we don’t travel more than a few metres before the driver starts spitting. It seems this is a common pastime for Sri Lankan trishaw drivers. Never mind that it places other travellers – cyclists, motorcyclists in peril for they are likely to be hit by a flying gob of spit – most likely betel stained, for the drivers seem to think spitting on the road is perfectly acceptable behaviour.
This unhygienic practice goes on with the driver continuing to spit every few minutes. Considering my journeys are usually about one hour’s duration given Colombo’s horrible traffic, the reader can picture the feeling of how revulsion grows as the journey progresses.
With the current health situation, isn’t it time the authorities launched an anti-spitting campaign to educate people on the dangers of spitting so indiscriminately in public places. Even a poster campaign in buses and trains and in trishaws may be a good place to start.
R.S.
Are our ‘parayas’ descendants from Portuguese times?
This is a line of thought with reference to a ‘somewhat humorous’ newspaper report published in the ‘Island’ newspaper last month, where it was stated that a stray dog had carried a pistol concealed in a bag to a policeman thereby preventing a murder!
Stray dogs without a known pedigree in Sri Lanka have long been considered a menace and a health hazard with few animals taken in as pets and those too often by the lesser fortunate. They are, however by no means stupid but well known for their alertness despite their mangy appearances and the constant rummaging for food.
The healthier of these are often of smooth brown body supported by muscular legs sporting a noticeably curly ‘murrukku’ tail.
The Portuguese language refers to the famous Greyhound breed as ‘Galgo’ which sounds close to the Sri Lankan meaning for dog – ‘Balloe’. What is however most intriguing is that the Portuguese animal has some very noticeable similarities to the ‘non pedigreed’ canines of Sri Lanka .The former too are described as being of ‘reddish brown skin with a white patch on their chests, sleek and muscular’ . Their exception is the taller and the larger stature against which our local stray hounds differ, being exposed to the elements of nature for centuries with little or no nutrition in a notably vegetarian country.
It could hence be argued that our ‘paraya’ meaning alien dogs are the descendents of an important high breed that were once imported for the purpose of security of their masters.
Ironically the word dog in Portuguese is referred as ‘cachorro’, a close similarity to Sinhala colloquial word ‘Cachada’.
Sujeewa Nugawila Via email