Letters to the Editor
View(s):COVID-19: Don’t let negligence make us another India
How did India come to such a tragic situation?
It is sheer negligence. The government of India as well as the people of India downplayed the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and did not take full precautions. People accustomed to doing their religious rites had a lethargic attitude towards the pandemic.
They did not care to wear masks properly. Most wore it without covering their noses, as if their noses were immune to the virus invasion. They did not maintain social distance; instead crowding into places as before. One wonders if they washed their hands frequently.
Added to this negligent attitude was their belief in remedies unproven by scientific fact. Like our own Health Minister drinking a herbal drink to ward off COVID-19 and throwing a pot into the flowing river, they followed myths believing some mantras would help prevent infection.
We are a nation close to India physically and emotionally. Instead of making their mistakes we should become alert and take precautionary measures before it is too late to stop the pandemic.
Even here, I have noted that most people do not wear the mask properly, but pulled down to expose their noses to the air. Bus drivers, bus conductors, three wheel drivers, vendors, cart pullers, pedestrians and most of the general public have this negligent attitude and this can contribute to the spread of the virus. It is the duty of the authorities to educate the people on this matter vigorously and impose severe fines and punishments on the violators. The Police can have a dedicated number to receive sms in this regard if a conscientious person wishes to complain about bus drivers, conductors or three-wheel drivers flouting the rules.
Social distancing is also not adhered to in many places. Even in popular supermarkets, I have noticed people do not care to stand in the queue maintaining social distance.
Every shop, bus, train station, three-wheeler should carry hand sanitizer solution for the benefit of the commuters.
Members of Parliament have a moral duty towards the nation and the people they represent by taking up the issue to impose severe fines and punishments on those who violate the health guidelines.
We have to take a lesson from the failure of India. We can’t afford to fail.
Even a countrywide lockdown is a better choice to control the current situation. The long-term economic devastation because of uncontrolled COVID-19 will be much more than the short-term economic loss due to short-term lockdown.
Without discipline we cannot win the war against the pandemic. Without strict imposition of health rules and punishments, there is no chance for discipline in society as it is.
S.S.Z. Khan Via email
Look after your planted tree with all your being
Many strategies are adopted by ecologically conscious groups in the name of ‘environmental protection’. While not belittling such inspired projects, I often wonder whether such efforts are thought through to the end.
On retiring from the University, I used my provident fund to buy a small block of land so that I could grow trees. This was to not only reduce my carbon footprint but also learn and feel for real the vicissitudes of a cultivator’s life, first hand. It’s now a decade since and I have learnt a lot. I realize how a plant needs as great a deal of attention as much as a child. Besides the vagaries of the weather, attention to nutrition and disease, it needs protection from ravenous cows/bulls, deer, porcupines and blundering wild pigs that could easily kill the delicate being you planted with so much hope.
I remember how an environmentally concerned Dean of the Medical Faculty, Peradeniya, planted saplings of trees (Tabebuia rosea) with the help of medical students, down a section of William Gopallawa Mawatha in Kandy, soon after it was built some years ago. She must have envisaged the road as being as picturesque in March–April as the Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo. The parking of buses permitted by the Municipality then, on this section of road ‘put paid’ to this dream in double quick time.
The moral I like to convey is; look after your planted ‘tree’ with all your being.
Dr Channa Ratnatunga Via email