Letters to the Editor

School discipline: Is it at crossroads?
In the good old days, teachers were allowed to punish children in order to direct them to correct their path. But today's situation is completely different. Today, if a teacher punishes a child, the parents of the child will come to school the next day and make a complaint to the Principal regarding the punishment.
Sometimes this type of cases leads to attacks on teachers.

It has been reported that three teachers of a leading school in Colombo (one is the vice-Principal of the school) are in big trouble after punishing a student who had come to school wearing coloured clothes for a swimming event. According to media reports they had been accused of assaulting the student in the presence of his mother who had also come for the swimming event.

The student may have violated the disciplinary code of the school and the teachers would have punished the student in the presence of his mother for the offence. But this incident has come to end in tragedy with the teachers receiving a jail sentence.

Parents should be mindful regarding the behaviour of their children in school.
Standards of discipline among present-day schoolchildren and university students are rapidly deteriorating. Murders and criminal activities that have occurred in the recent past are examples of this deterioration. Children should be directed to the correct path at the beginning of their childhood.

Teachers and parents have a responsibility because they are the future leaders of our country. There is a saying among our rural folk that hendi noga uyana hoddath ekai nogaha hadana lamayath ekai (the curry which is made without proper mixing of ingredients or child brought up without punishment will be the same).

If the Ministry of Education does not take any action to solve disciplinary problems within the school, teachers will not take any action against the children even for major offences being committed during school hours.

Let’s learn the Baas’s work
The baas is "a skilled workman" who undertakes carpentry, masonry or any other work relating to building construction. Anybody who has dealt with this category of workers will undoubtedly end up depressed. They rarely keep to an appointment, they swear they could do anything but will not know what they are doing and most terrible of all, they leave jobs half done and go missing for days.

I have spoken to many people, the executives of big building construction firms down to my friends. "Aiyo Harima Amarukarayo" they all say. The baases cannot be trusted with regard to the quality of work, time or integrity.

I wish we had learnt this subject in school. As every one of us will one day grow up to have a home, it is sad that we are ignorant of the knowledge of electrical circuits, plumbing, carpentry, painting or how to lay a few bricks.

This would be an opportune time to start a programme or teaching school for building construction. The baas learns on the job by trial and error methods at the cost and expense of the builder. Schoolchildren should be given a basic knowledge of the above. During my visits to many tsunami camps, I have seen men playing cards or idling while women request machines to sew for they have learnt sewing in school.

If the men were educated in simple building construction they would surely ask for masonry or plumbing equipment. Today we have got rid of the ordinary dhobi and our clothes can be dry cleaned without a problem. I wish the day will come to phone a company for masons, plumbers or carpenters. The time is right for women to take over the baas’s job. I am sure they will do a better job even conduct better training programmes with the right tools and equipment.

Why was Ravibandu left out?
On Sunday at the Galle Face Green, audiences watching the WOMAD Festival of Drums gave Sri Lanka’s Ravibandu a rousing welcome. They were hysterical as he appeared on stage. As his troupe performed, the Green reverberated with shouts of ‘Ravi’, ‘Ravi’.

He was the best among all the artistes who performed that night. Among the galaxy of international drummers performing, Ravibandu did us proud.For the final item of the evening, all the drummers were called on stage. The elderly Indian drummer was given the baton to conduct this ‘orchestra’.

He signaled to the drummers from the Ivory Coast, Punjab, Singapore, USA etc to give solo performances. Yes, every group on stage got a chance to play solo for this grand finale. Everyone except Ravibandu!

A deflated Ravibandu left the stage at the end of this session. Perhaps his popularity was too much for Mr. Baton.

Save our coconut lands
How is it that Environment Minister A. H. M. Fowzie and politicians of all hues have ignored the fact that a business tycoon is destroying vast acres of coconut in every part of Sri Lanka. He has even dared to turn fertile estates in the coconut triangle area of Kurunegala into barren building blocks.

A fortune is made every time a coconut estate is chopped down. The profits are so vast that he was offering gold throatlets valued at Rs 120,000 to the first ten purchasers. Earlier it was gold sovereigns which were on offer.
His octopus tentacles spread everywhere. How is it that the Environment Minister and politicians of all hues permitted the rape of coconut land? Could the presidential candidates take a stand on this issue?

Adam and Eve never signed on the dotted line
Our forefathers, great greatgrandfathers of most countries the world over, never entered wedlock by both parties signing a register before a registrar of marriages.

There were marriages by custom, for example, in Sri Lanka, in the days of yore. A young man from a village would go to the adjoining village, choose a beautiful damsel and bring her home as his wife.

There were instances where a number of brothers shared one wife and this act was not classified as adultery. There was observance of customs in all communities in Sri Lanka, pertaining to marriage, but all these were sans signing on a dotted line.

With the advance of civilization, industrialization and globalization, the sanctity of marriage deteriorated. Men and women began to distrust each other and then came the era of legalization of marriages in that a man and a woman had to sign a register on a dotted line before a registrar and the marriage had to be attested by two witnesses who also had to sign the register. In all, five persons had to sign a register to call it a legal marriage.

It is my considered view that such a legal marriage is the most uncivilized act in this so-called civilized world. In the first place, it is a symbol of the distrust that is prevalent in the present society. Society feels that the man and woman should legally get married by placing their signatures on a register.

Thus they begin their life at the very outset with the legal marriage which is a symbol of distrust. Legalizing a marriage is the outcome of many causes, mainly pecuniary. In the first place, the wife becomes the owner with the children of all properties whether movable or immovable soon after the husband's death and vice versa, so that the legal marriage is a ruse adopted to own the property of either party at his or her demise.

If the husband is a pensioner, the wife gets his pension after his death. This is also the same with E.P.F. and E.T.F. money in the case of an employee in the private sector. As such, legal marriage could be termed as a ploy to get the money due to husband/wife after his/her death. Is this not an indictment on the false pretences of a legal marriage?

Perhaps the reader may have noticed the large number of legal marriages contracted between elderly foreign males and local young women. The motive for marriage for these young women is crystal clear. Similarly, there are young Sri Lankan males who go in search of elderly women in foreign countries for legal marriages for similar reasons.

At this stage it has also become necessary to consider whether the present day legal marriages are as successful as the marriages by custom during the good old days.

The other day, I happened to pass the Colombo District Court which is called appropriately, the Divorce Court. To my amazement, there were a large number of couples, may be over 75, waiting to annul their marriages. There were also a large number of small children. The Interpreter Mudliyar called the names of the parties by the use of a microphone.

I experienced the same thing at Ampara Courts, an out of the way town, which was also full of estranged couples. In the present day, whether they have children or not, parties rush to the Divorce Court on the slightest pretext or at the drop of a hat.

Considering all these facts, it is worthwhile to ponder whether legal marriages of the present day have met with the same degree of success that the marriages of yore by custom were accustomed to.

During the bygone era, divorce and adultery were unheard of, which is the contrary in the present day. To break up a legal marriage, one has to go to court and incur heavy expenses. Moreover, it is a time-consuming process, where the gentry of the black coat get richer and richer.

Though, I will be the target of missiles, rotten eggs, tomatoes and brickbats, I in my twilight years, in hindsight, wish to say "Aye" to the theory of "living together" for healthy couples.

This practice has several advantages, the most important of which is the ease with which the couple could break up and go their separate ways. I wish to invite the readers who disagree with me or hold a different view, to put it down in writing, to be considered for publication.

I may be permitted to add in conclusion, that the women of the Middle East, encourage their Asian counterparts to cohabit with the men of the Middle East, to prevent division of wealth, which I am inclined to think is a byproduct of the so-called modern civilization. There is no legal marriage in this instance too.
Adam and Eve never signed on the dotted line.

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