Letters to the Editor
View(s):How about cost cutting in Government sector?
However, there is another side to their income and expenditure accounts – income is supposed to balance with their expenditure and if revenues are not enough, the normal practice is to cut one’s cloth accordingly and reduce spending. The point here is that where do you see talk of reducing budgets and so on, in accord with these impoverished times??
Cost cutting is a normal procedure for any enterprise – why not Sri Lanka? Even the Gulf States have to do some cutting of expenditure occasionally – it is absurd to expect the poor masses of Sri Lanka to foot the bill.
The chief benefit of free-enterprise is that all employees work and each one contributes to the success of the enterprise – there is no over-staffing, even for six days a week – no time off for attending weddings and funerals even for uncles and aunts twice removed!
Here we are dealing with overstaffed government bureaucracies – which are a curse on the taxpayer and the common man worldwide.
Government officials resist budget cuts; they dislike them because they diminish their influence and status! But the truth is that ballooning budgets are crippling Sri Lankan society. But who will do the pruning – cutting one’s cloth according to the money available?
On another front, Health Service has teams of doctors, specialists going to the villages to warn about diabetes. There are 75,000 villages in Sri Lanka, so it may take some time to visit them all – several decades in fact. During this time, of course, the number of diabetes cases is spiraling upwards: specialist doctors, nurses, hospital staff are overworked with this never ending tsunami of cases. More hospitals need to be built to accommodate all these cases of diabetes.
But, as everyone knows, diabetes is a preventable disease and if caught in the early stages, can be prevented. Let our food be our medicine! Exercise is also a good medicine.
On the basis of this knowledge it can be argued that it would be considerably cheaper to persuade people over 40 years of age to control their diet and eliminate sweet foods and even carbohydrates, and to occasionally give their pancreas a rest. By persuading people to actively control what they eat, this may save the Health Service considerable amounts of tax-payers’ money in reduced admittance to hospitals and the associated savings on insulin and other drugs.
PH Via email
Will e-cigarettes become a national malady among schoolchildren?
It is crystal clear that some members of the student community appear to have graduated from ICE (Meth amphetamine) and other forms of drugs to electronic cigarettes, commonly called e-cigarettes. The detection of a 17-year-old boy in a leading school during a drug raid by the police and the arrest of 47 people hovering in and around schools portend the severity of the drug menace among the student community of Sri Lanka.
E-cigarettes, heroin, ICE, cannabis (marijuana) are found to be the most commonly used drugs among school children. The laws, regulations, policies designed to control drug usage have not had the desired impact on the student community. Schoolchildren get their regular supply of drugs from the underground drug market which is highly organized with the advent of mobile phones. E-cigarette addiction is preventable and can be controlled if everyone extends their utmost fullest co-operation to the law enforcement authorities.
The sale of e-cigarettes is strictly prohibited in Sri Lanka. But there are no restrictions on use or advertising, promotion and sponsorship of e-cigarettes.
Vaping is the inhaling of a vapour generated by an electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or rather vaping device. E-cigarettes ‘Vape Pens’ heat a liquid and it becomes a vapour, which is inhaled. The liquid (E-liquid or vape juice) can contain nicotine or marijuana distilled or oil. The vapour comes in different flavours. It can be refilled or pre-filled with cartridges containing the e-liquid. The pre-filled i.e called ‘puff-bars’ are designed for one time use only. After taking a number of puffs, the user throws the device away.
E-cigarette refers to a sleek battery operated electronic device designed to simulate tobacco smoking through an inhaler without smoke combustion. It includes cartridges fully loaded with e-liquid or a juice consisting of propylene glycol flavourings, other chemicals and nicotine mainly extracted from tobacco. The widespread adoption of rechargeable cigarettes variants has encouraged manufacturers to provide maneuverable universal serial bus (USB) portals with the item for charging purposes which is favouring market growth.
Apart from the extensive endorsements on social media, execution of marketing tactics and continuous product diversification are creating a positive outlook for the market growth. As a result the senior student community of Sri Lanka is also caught up and become victims.
Parents, principals and teachers could easily convey a strong message on the ill-effects of e-cigarettes and the health hazards arising out of this menace.
Addiction: – E-cigarettes contain nicotine, a drug that is highly addictive. You do not have to vape every day to
get addicted.
Anxiety and depression: – Nicotine makes anxiety and depression worse. It also affects memory, concentration, self-control and attention especially in developing brains.
Impotence: – Studies have revealed that there is close nexus between vaping and impotence.
Chronic bronchitis: – Students exposed to heavy e-cigarette use are prone to lung damage that can be life threatening.
It is thus high time that the government should take aggressive steps to protect the students community of the public and international schools. Although a series of raids have been carried out in public schools, the law enforcement authorities have so far failed to carry out a single raid on international schools.
Parents have not yet realized the inherent danger of not discussing this issue with other parents. There seems to be a considerable reluctance on the part of some principals of international schools to respond to complaints by parents.
According to the parents, e-cigarette and narcotics are delivered to students under the pretext of delivering meals.
The proliferation of e-cigarettes and other narcotics should receive the highest attention of the government in the interest of the student community.
Athula Ranasinghe Colombo 05
Blaming and leaving
Several TV channels showed a long queue of women in front of the Bureau of Foreign Employment at Battaramulla. They were responding to a notice announcing 20 employment vacancies in Japan.
A few in the queue were interviewed and all of them were criticising the rulers of the country and the system.
My question is how many of them made an effort to elect good people as rulers or to change the system.
Most of them are just hangers-on and lotus-eaters – Reality show participants and viewers, musical show participants and if not followers of various religious sects.
When will we – young and old, see the importance of former US President John F. Kennedy’s historic words – “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.
B. Perera Via email
Another New Year
A New Year means another lease of life
To rectify past mistakes -blunders, omissions, commissions,
To turn over a new leaf with resolution and determination
And persevere despite odds.
It’s yet another chance God has given us
To make the best use of
For we pass this way but once.
We know not what’s in store with every passing year
It may be yet another chance
It may verily be the last.
Come what may, whatever the future holds;
Trusting that the Lord holds us
In the hollow of his hand
And all is well be it life or death
For he is the Resurrection and the Life
The promise of eternal life.
Jeannette Cabraal Kelaniya
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