Funny Business

In pursuit of fitness

By Royston Ellis

Normally I avoid gymnasiums but sometimes I am compelled to look at them as I tour a hotel's facilities (I still haven't understood why people on holiday should require a gymnasium, or sports centre, as part of a hotel's amenities. Surely a holiday should be a rest, not a workout?)

I have a suspicion that those people in glass walled gyms delight in showing off what they are doing to slobs outside, such as myself. The gym at the Colombo Hilton is typical. It is placed at the entrance to its Il Ponte Restaurant and it makes you feel you are being admonished by the fitness freaks there, every time you head for a slap up Italian meal.

Once in that gym I saw a sweating expat sitting upon a bicycle that was going nowhere, reading his International Herald Tribune as he pedalled valiantly up and down, up and down. What a boring life that represents! Such a shame he could not find time to ride a real bicycle along Sri Lanka's country lanes. On the other hand, perhaps he just wanted to be seen by all those heading for the pasta and pizzas so he could feel morally superior.

At a gymnasium in Singapore, I glimpsed some muscular men doing curious things with heavy weights before a mirror. It occurred to me then that the object of their exercise was to gaze adoringly on what they thought was their own beautiful form, rather than to develop it.

However, when I read in a doctor's advice column in a local newspaper that exercise should be enjoyable, I realised I had found a doctor who agreed with me (I like everything to be enjoyable). This doctor further endeared himself to me by writing that even 30 minutes of exercise a day, in three 10 minute periods, can do good.

In my profession as a busy writer, I get much more exercise time than 30 minutes just by following my normal routine of rushing hither and thither in search of a story, or a free lunch. The idea, I learned, is to engage in activity that "increases the heart rate," but it "does not have to make you pant or become breathless". Huh? Most of what I do (or see) makes me pant, and I am breathless with amazement whenever I manage to write a paragraph of good prose. 

The doctor recommended walking, which is an exercise I approve of since it doesn't require machinery in a human aquarium and an expensive club membership to do it. So I decided to take the doctor's advice and headed for the beach for a 30-minute stroll.

Have you ever tried it? A whole new social life opens up the moment you step onto the beach. Unknown people appear from the bushes with the most remarkable offers. I declined them all as they would certainly have left me panting. My attempt to walk resulted in as many misunderstood encounters as one could have at a Colombo cocktail party.

So I changed my schedule, appearing on the beach at 6.30 in the morning, much too early for the touts to be up. But the beach wasn't deserted. My perambulation disturbed the meditations of men crouched in the sand answering nature's call. I left them to it and tried to walk around my own garden instead. 

Alas, my dog assumed this odd activity was a game for his benefit. He nipped at my ankles as I walked until he got bored and went to chase the dog next door. After huffing and puffing up and down mountains (well, little molehills really) doing five laps of the one acre garden, I needed breakfast. Actually, I had generated such a large appetite I needed an extra large breakfast. Then I felt so tired from all that walking, I had to have a siesta. Keeping fit that day resulted in me being fit for nothing.

Where do we go from here?

By Professor Arjuna Aluwihare

The subject of political rights of a population or individuals is an interesting one. The chance the people of a country have to choose a government, from time to time, without pressure, and with the full participation of the adults in the population, is an important aspect of political rights. We have such a chance again now. 

During a period before the election, it is suitable that there should be competition between the different parties. After the election is over however, the parties must recognize that they are all equally part of the governing system, and must work together for the good of the country. If only this were recognized, then may be this country would have not slid from disaster to worse disaster since independence. If this is not accepted even now - when the 'war' ends, we will continue to degenerate as we had done before the 'war' - and this will foster another war (amongst the Sinhalese as in 1971 and 1989-90 or amongst different ethnically based terrorist groups). 

If the parties in the election and the public really respect the concept of political rights, then there should not be violence before, during or after the election. Equally there should not be corruption, cheating with votes, deliberate abuse of election laws, and so on. 

As regards laws there is the simple example of how they are often broken in letter and spirit. In many systems including ours, posters are forbidden. The walls of the town and the sides of the vehicles of public transport show how badly the rule is broken. 

Violence before elections is mounting. I believe that if the leaders of parties are sincere they can stop this by summarily removing the party backing, after summary inquiry, from anyone who might even be involved in breaking the law, or allowing violence. 

The transport of voters in cars is forbidden. But on election day the abuse of this rule is obvious. Violence after elections when the supporters of the winners punish the supporters of the losers is also sadly common. If party leaders were sincere, I do not think party representatives at polling stations are needed, as no one would be trying to cheat. Foreign polls observers are also welcomed by the main parties as it legitimizes cheating in such a way that the observers cannot spot it although the local population can (but are powerless to intervene or are too fed up to act afterwards). If party leaders are sincere, we do not need observers from abroad! 

When the politicians involved permit these offences, or allow them to go unchecked, and when the police forces of a country appear to favour the ruling party, then one cannot say there is true respect for political rights. Such lawlessness fostered by the creators and guardians of the law spawns lawlessness in general! We have a literate population and if the democratic systems are so corrupt another revolution will surely come. 

The electoral process itself must be conducted with due secrecy and in such a way that there is no pressure on voters. Voters too must not terrorize each other.

They must respect the fact that differences of opinion are part of the democratic process as is winning, losing, and fair competition. 

As regards political rights the matter does not end here. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the covenants on Political and Civil Rights, the covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and all the other covenants must now be taken together in a balanced way. This means that the government system has a responsible job in seeing that all these different rights are fulfilled for all of the population as best as possible within the resources available. 

Unfair distribution of resources only to the electorates in which the ruling party has power, or siphoning resources into politicians pockets, and anything else that prevents the fulfillment of the rights of the population, must constitute an infringement on the political rights of the people. 

The political system in a democracy, must fulfil the expectation of the public of good governance.

It is only then that one can say that the political rights of the population are being observed. 

The further politicization and prostitution of a political and administrative system by politicians for short term gratification cannot be good for us now or for the youth of today or tomorrow. In their behaviour in Sri Lanka today no major political party can exonerate itself from a charge of blind opportunism. It is difficult to know to whom to turn. 

People expect a lot from a democratic governmental system and if they do not have their expectations fulfilled, then they really want to destroy the system which they feel has betrayed them. The ensuing violence, with or without formal armed insurrection, can ruin the good that may have occurred during many previous years. In a cauldron of armed conflict, politicized and ordinary criminality, divisiveness, we go back to cycles of abuse of all kinds of civil rights by governments and armed political opposition. This is something that no country wants - no country can afford the waste of emotional and human or economic capital this kind of violence entails. 

I have to urge and plead in conclusion that it is fundamentally important that a holistic view of political rights and political responsibilities are accepted by all parts of democratic countries. 

Let us in our age, and more precisely before, during, and after the election due in a few weeks, prove Samuel Johnson wrong. 

The writer is Professor of Surgery, University of Peradeniya and former Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, Sri Lanka

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