Letters to the Editor

Bureaucratic bungling at pensioners’ expense
Even though all other Divisional Secretariats in the Galle District had accomplished the task of payment of arrears of pension long before the end of last year this process seems to have turned out to be a veritable fiasco at the Divisional Secretariat Hikkaduwa.

Thus a significant section of the pensioners including the writer himself yet remain to be paid the long overdue pension arrears, not withstanding our appeals submitted ad nauseam apart from numerous discussions the delegation of Ratgama Government Pensioners' Association had with the Divisional Secretary (a lady), who should be well aware of their plight amidst the sky-rocketing cost of living.

If and when an inquiry is held into the imbroglia prevalent in this Div. Secretariat it would reveal that all in all the process of payment of pension arrears per-se is in a complete shambles. The two female officers assigned this job are handling it in a cavalier manner according to their whims and fancies.

On one occasion somewhere in June or July last year (sorry, I cannot recollect the exact date at the moment), the Div. Secretary instructed these two officers in the presence of the delegation from the Ratgama Govt. Pensioners' Association, which included me as well, to attend to pension cases thenceforth, strictly on the basis of pension numbers in order to ensure justice and fair play especially to seniormost pensioners without any discrimination - a strategy mooted by the delegation and accepted by the Div.Secretary as pragmatic.
However, they jettisoned these instructions and continue to persist with their modus-operandi to this day. Strangely, the Div. Secretary's response is to maintain stoic silence.

On the other hand, the Accountant, has chosen to remain oblivious to all this malfeasance taking place under his very nose. What is worse than all other woes besetting this set of pensioners, is the disdainful manner in which he treats them, whenever they dare to meet him.
Be that as it may, if this status-quo is allowed to continue unabated, the section of wistful pensioners adverted to above would languish in this bizarre predicament indefinitely with bleak prospects of most senior pensioners ever getting their elusive enhanced pension before they breathe their last. This is a fact of life we pensioners live with.

At this crucial juncture, albeit belated, it bodes well for the government to intervene in this vital issue forthwith and hasten to take stern remedial action to ensure that this hapless group of pensioners receive the enhanced pension and live the remaining short span of their lives in dignity and equity.

Was this our national dress?
Every year, a young Sri Lankan lady of beauty and brain is crowned Miss Sri Lanka and has the privilege of representing our country at the Miss World beauty contest.

This international beauty pageant consists of several other mini contests such as Miss Personality, Miss Photogenic, Best Smile and yet another called the National Costume contest.

Watching a T.V. news item of this National Costume contest, I felt I missed a heart beat! In response to the announcement of the name Sri Lanka, the lady who walked down the catwalk was wearing an odd dress that we had never seen in this country. It revealed most of her body and it had a huge head dress. Since the costume belonged more or less to the tribes of South America, at first, I thought the announcer had made a mistake. But it was none other than our Miss Sri Lanka, Rozanne Diasz.

The picture published in The Sunday Times Plus on May 29, 2005, gave us a clearer view of this costume. It would be more appropriate to call this a peacock dress, as it consisted of a huge head dress of peacock feathers, a scant upper bodice and a skirt that ran from waist to toes, but revealed bare legs with every step.

The national dress of a country is something that identifies that nation, something that has come down from generation to generation. It is not an outfit designed overnight by some one who knows nothing about his/her cultural background. It should also be acceptable to everybody.

Even a small child knows that the Sri Lankan national dress is the sari, or to be more specific, Kandyan sari. Some year ago, the Sri Lankan contestant won the first place at this National Costume mini contest wearing the Kandyan bridal dress with appropriate jewellery – seven necklaces and head dress.
An international event of this nature is watched by millions of TV viewers across the world. Tourism gets a boost at no additional cost in such an occasion. Why could not Sri Lanka use that opportunity to the maximum? What has happened is Sri Lanka has become a country with no culture of its own.

One could have justified this peacock costume to a certain extent, if the Sri Lankan national bird is the peacock, but it is not so, our national bird is the peafowl.

Net in culprits behind slaughter in sanctuary
The photograph of the elephants slaughtered inside Wilpattu Sanctuary was truly shocking. This matter should not be hushed up. Wildlife sanctuaries are meant for the protection of animals and not for them to be gunned down by trigger-happy politicians.

While the politician concerned has denied the allegation, he has absolutely no business clearing a path to the Kele Palliya through the sanctuary. If devout pilgrims wish to visit the church they will do so even if there is only a footpath.
Who authorised him to go into a wild- life park with others and start clearing the place up?

Rigorous imprisonment should be the punishment for the slaughter of any animal in a sanctuary.

The people behind the Kalametiya project
Thank you for your article ‘Kalametiya reborn’ (Sunday Times June 26) which captures the efforts in the past six months to help rebuild the homes and livelihoods of the 31 tsunami-affected families.

We would, however, wish to record the contributions of a few important partners – the people of Kalametiya, whose strength and courage inspired us and continue to be the driving force of the entire project, and 21 young volunteers and three professors of Cap Asia, an architecture programme of Ball State University in Indiana, USA. They cut short a field trip in India and came to Sri Lanka to help in whatever way they could. Their two weeks of hard work, digging trenches for the foundations in the rock-solid earth, were an important catalyst that kick-started the project.

The credit for one of the pictures used should go to Prof. Wes Janz of Cap Asia.
Although the Green Movement of Sri Lanka is mentioned in the article, it is important to stress that the Green Movement has taken overall responsibility for the project, including fund raising through the Sahana Project in Maine, USA.
While complimenting the writer on a well-written article, we wish to point out that the strap line is misleading: this is not an architect-driven community effort – it is entirely a community-driven effort. As architects, we have played a very small role as partners and facilitators.

'Letters to the Editor' should be brief and to the point.
Address them to:
'Letters to the Editor,
The Sunday Times,
P.O.Box 1136, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Or e-mail to
editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk or
features@sundaytimes.wnl.lk
Please note that letters cannot be acknowledged or returned.