Letters to the Editor
12th March 2000
Nation atthe cross-roads
O Serendib, the splendrous isle,
Ceylon, Taprobane of the erstwhile,
Excelling in culture and ancient art,
Attracting the world's mind and heart.
Thou Pearl of the Indian Ocean,
Now, shorn of the glory and broken,
No more thy beauteous charms,
The ambulance siren only alarms.
Of late, what has happened to thee?
Bereft of thy worth and dignity.
Thou lookest bewildered and shaken
Thy offspring thou hast forsaken.
They have become victims of violence,
Crimes and thuggery in abundance,
Rapes and thefts increasing in numbers,
Our leaders, targets of suicide bombers.
Indisciplined, lacking truth and courage,
Wallowing in uncollected garbage,
Squalid roads with gaping holes,
Engineers seem to forget their roles.
Fanciful promises at elections galore,
But the aftermath we sadly deplore,
Servile, downtrodden and dejected,
We simply stand, bewildered and frustrated.
The future is rather bleak,
Our morale getting terribly weak,
Gauntlet, the people must take,
A bounteous country we must make.
The nation is at the crossroads,
Now's the time to shed loathsome loads,
Of racism, hatred and disunity,
Ushering in progress and prosperity.
Dr. Baptist Croos, F.S.C.
Electrify railways
World crude oil prices will double in ten years. This means that in ten years petrol will be Rs. 400/- a litre and diesel Rs. 160/- a litre.
Hence, only rich people, politicians and officials will be able to travel by car. For workers and needy people, the answer will be public transport. The solution is to restructure and electrify the railway.
The Sri Lanka Government could obtain the services of a senior engineer from the Indian Railway to advise on restructuring and electrifying the ailway.
Ten years is not a long time and the Minister of Transport must act quickly.
Lionel J. Seneviratne,
Mount Lavinia.
Posh hospitals must have good docs
We hear off and on of several fully-equipped private hospitals opening up with the ostensible aim of being a solace to the suffering public. Their intentions are good indeed, but often, as time goes by the goals of serving the people take a back seat and good intentions the soon forgotten. Often 'specialists' in their greed for money register as consultants at several of these hospitals and give appointments to so many patients that they can hardly cope. As a result, in their haste to finish fast they are often rude, off-handish and show little sympathy and understanding patients for whom kind words and the doctor's healing touch can mean so much.
The administrators and owners of new hospitals should only take in as consultants doctors who are not only famous and qualified, but those who have the time for patients, good bedside manners and give patients the feeling they are being given the best treatment possible.
F. Fernando,
Negombo.
Let there be light at Kegalle hospital
The Kegalle hospital, one of the largest in the Sabaragamuwa province coming directly under the central government is a sick giant. Cleanliness is at a low ebb. Labourers are not properly supervised, windows not cleaned for days and cobwebs cover the place as cleaners idle and gossip in corners.
Lighting at the hospital is poor with frequent breaks in the power supply and no one to replace burnt out bulbs. Besides, the road from the medical officers' and nurses' quarters is in darkness and the quarters themselves ill-lit. They also need new coats of paint as they are generally in a dilapidated condition. Auditors may do well to check whether monies allotted for maintenance are being well spent or not. A good many of the staff at the hospital in the absence of proper supervision discharge their duties in a slipshod manner causing a lot of inconvenience to patients.
If this hospital is better maintained it can become a first class healing centre and with its location atop a hill an aesthetically satisfying institution.
Over to you Mr. Health Minister. Why allow the good name of the Govt. to fall into disrepute?
V.Y. Bandara
Kegalle.
Railway's bad ways
A few days back I tendered a 100-rupee note at the Matara railway station booking office for a second class ticket to Colombo Fort.
I was given the ticket but not the balance money. As I knew that it was only Rs. 90/- I asked the clerk what the cost of the ticket was. He told me it was Rs. 90.
I had to stand at the counter till he cleared the queue, though he had plenty of 10- rupee notes in the drawer to give me.
I was a station master and worked at Matara in the good old days under the British and even when Mr. Rampala was General Manager.
Those days every station had a "fare table" indicating the amount to be paid according to the different classes from that station to all other stations.
Now there is no such thing and unwary commuters could easily be duped.
The railway also lacks adequate seating accommodation.
Last week I travelled by train from Colombo to Matara and saw a large number of tourists standing in the corridors.
There were no travelling ticket examiners and third- class ticket holders were in the second class compartment.
P.M. Gunasekara
Matara.
Ringing blow from billing chaos
Telephone subscribers in Polgasowita come under the Piliyandala Telephone Exchange and RTE Ratmalana, but the bills are delivered by the Polgasowita post office.
In the last four months, most subscribers including myself have not received bills promptly.
Some have not received bills from October onwards, while others have got October and December bills, but not the November ones. As payments are not denoted in the bill according to the date of payment, if a bill is not received for a particular month, a subscriber cannot check the current position.
The bills show the date of account against the amount paid, making it more complicated. To add to the confusion there is an invoice date also. What is the difference between the date of account and the invoice date? Subscribers are not interested in these details. What they need to know is whether their payments are recorded correctly with the date of payment.
Even if subscribers pay cash at a billing centre itself, payments are not denoted by the date of payment, but by the date of account. SLT boasts that they have a system of on-line updating of bills.
There are two portions in the bill which are taken by the "paying in counter" banks or Telecom. One portion goes back to the Telecom Billing Department with the date of payment and amount paid printed on it. As they have this information in hand, why can't they make arrangements to print the date of payment under the column "billing date" on the bills, as this is what the customer expects in the column against the amount paid.
It is normal procedure in banks and other institutions, such as the Ceylon Electricity Board, to show the date of payment (not the date of billing) against the payment.
Ariyasumithra Wijeyaratne
Polgasowita.
What are we going to do with our jumbos?
Jayantha Jayewardene's recent article on what ails the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela and the solutions he offers to the problem of overcrowding and the shortage of mahouts, are among the more pragmatic of the offerings.
Clearly if there is overcrowding, Mr. Jayewardene's suggestion, that animals in excess of the orphanage's capacity for proper care be sold or gifted to temples or individuals, should be taken seriously.
It is not too late for the Department of Wild Life Conservation (DWLC) and the Department of Zoological Gardens (DZG) to take note of this and immediately formulate guidelines for the disposal there animals, unless of course they (the DWLC & DZG) have found viable alternatives.
What are the viable alternatives?
- Release into the wild?
- Export?
- Culling?
Release into the wild: Despite claims to the contrary, I for one, do not believe that release into the wild is a viable alternative.
In a recent letter to a newspaper H. Wickremasinghe of Gal Gava Mithuro, claimed on behalf of Dr. Nandana Atapattu of the DWLC, that it has been proved that elephants could be successfully introduced to the jungle in batches. If this is so I believe it is time the DWLC Director places before the public and the scientific community the results of these releases into the wild, because upto now it would appear that the releases have been a closely guarded secret. The public has a right to know what the fate of these elephants has been.
If the releases have been successful and the methodology used documented, let the DWLC publish its findings. It will not only allay our fears as to the fate of these animals, but also provide guidelines for future releases - reducing the pressure on Pinnawela.
If, on the other hand the releases have failed - let us, elephant lovers, conservationists et al support pragmatic solutions like Mr. Jayewardene's and help conserve the few elephants that remain.
Export: Elephants have been exported from this country for centuries. As an alternative to Mr. Jayewardene's suggestions however it has fewer attractions.
The only one of merit (as opposed to condemning the animals to lives of misery abroad in circuses and zoos), would be for breeding programmes; there is already a view (Chadwick, D. 1982) that the tuskless trait in Sri Lanka stems from natural genetic isolation of the island's population. Surely it is worth putting this to the test?
Culling: Culling is not really an option given our socio-religious background. If habitats continue to shrink, if safe havens like Pinnawela continue to be overcrowded and sale or transfer locally or internationally is not an option, what is left? Culling, or the even more frightening prospect of extinction.
Nigel Billimoria
Mount Lavinia.
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