I fervently hope that the poem written by a cancer patient "A Dying Man's Wish" which appeared in almost all the national newspapers managed to catch the eyes of the powers that be.
Many times the media have highlighted the shortcomings in the only cancer hospital in Sri Lanka, but nothing worthwhile seems to be happening.
We boast about free health facilities but one has only to step into a government hospital to see what it means. Most of the govt. hospitals are in poor conditions, but the cancer hospital is the worst.
Once a foreigner who happened to visit this hospital had written to the papers expressing his disgust at the sorry state of the hospital and stated that if the govt. appeals to foreign countries they will help to improve the facilities and help make things better for the patients. Unfortunately no person of authority seems to have seen this letter.
The country needs more hospitals and hospices for cancer patients in the outstations as, cancer sadly appears to be spreading its deadly tentacles far and wide, with more and more people becoming hapless victims of this deadly disease.
We seem to have got our priorities mixed. We try to attract tourists with star class hotels, golf courses, swimming pools and all sorts of luxury settings while our own people die painful deaths. Imagine the heartaches of their kith and kin who are helpless? We have so many unemployed people who could be trained to man these hospitals, look after the needs of the patients and keep the place clean. As for the money, we can do well to stop all the unnecessary spending, with politicians topping the list. They can reduce their unnecessary travelling, they can pay for their fuel, and reduce the number of vehicles used, for these are the things that burden the country's economy. The country can do well without these expenses.
As soon as the PA came into power there was talk about auctioning luxury vehicles used by the previous regime. Where did the money go if the auctions were held? If it has not been done as yet they can do so now (they have more now, I understand) and utilise this money to improve the hospital services.
A lottery could be used to collect funds. There are so many lotteries, vilifying every national festival, folk tale, flower, leaf, river, sport, the sun and the moon. So one more exclusively for cancer hospitals would not come amiss. In fact it would be meritorious unlike other lotteries.
If our so called servants of the people - the parliamentarians, provincial councillors, urban and rural councillors - donate at least a day's pay towards this cause at least the toilets could be repaired (a most urgent need).
One may wonder why only parliamentarians should contribute towards this cause. The workers in the private sector pay their taxes. Most of the public servants are so poorly paid. Pensioners are the worst off. These people get together and do what they can in a small but worthwhile way. But they cannot remedy the major problems that need immediate attention, like more hospitals, medical equipment, and trained personnel. The ordinary public who are willing to help have now exhausted their resources with the ever rising cost of living. That leaves only the privileged category, the parliamentarians, provincial councillors etc. They are the only ones who have super facilities at the expense of taxpayers. They are unaware of the hardships people undergo in these hospitals.
A sacrifice by those who scream at the top of their voice, begging to be elected in order to serve the people. Well, here's an opportunity to quench your burning thirst - to serve.
It is almost six months more or less since a new President was elected to the SLTA. He hoped to put the system right and made a statement on the tactics he would use to achieve his motive of improving and developing the game. These he considered the following to be priorities.
Improve and develop junior tennis
Improve and develop outstation tennis
Arrange exchange tours between India
Infrastructure development
Resolution of the Federation Cup scandal
Neville Senaratne and VJ Amirtaraj
ITF Interaction
The following is my opinion on the above issues:
Junior Tennis development for all practical purposes has turned out to be an exclusive club for the privileged.
The point of entry to the mainstream tennis is through the Mini Tennis Program. There one is expected to subscribe for three months before they become eligible to be selected to proceed further. This costs around Rs.2,500.00
Those who graduate in to the mainstream are expected to make a three months subscription deposit in addition to the facility fee. The lowest subscription fee is Rs.900 per month going up to Rs.1,200. The facility fee amounts to around Rs.3,000.
For this the students are entitled to a minimum of 90 minutes coaching sessions. A single court is shared among 6 players. A child would receive around 30 minutes of coaching and an hours tennis a week.
The balls are handed down from the occasional tournament, men's pool and the elite squads. Eventually when they reach the beginner squads nothing more than the core is left. It is learnt the Association has received a consignment of tennis balls from the ITF and it is hoped that the students profit from this concession.
There is much scope for improvement on the quality of coaching. Each coach follows his own style and therefore there is no consistency.
The SLTA is yet to develop a rational scheme for ranking players so that they could be grouped according to ability. Movement of students between squads is subjective for the person responsible for this has limited exposure to tennis. As far as I know he has never played tennis. However his recommendations are endorsed by the Chairman (Coaching and Promotions) on his occasional visits to the National Tennis Centre.
It was believed that the President vetoed Sri Lankan participation in the World Youth Cup qualifying rounds hosted by Japan on the advice of the selection committee. The decision is debatable on the ground that if most of the countries adopted the same premise on standards to send representative teams then there will not be very many teams participating in international events. There cannot be an absolute value for playing standards and the Association has produced the best under the circumstances and it is beyond reason for the selectors to be objective about it.
Sri Lanka has been in the Davis Cup Asia and Oceania Group II for more than two decades and on more than one occasion had gone down 0 - 5. However Sri Lanka continued to be represented regardless of form until Sri Lanka was relegated to the third division. If the same premise of form were to be applied, then it is to be expected that teams will not be sent in the future.
The Association is believed to have taken a decision to not to send a team to play Federation Cup in 1998. To many this appears to be a reprisal invoked by the SLTA against women's tennis for exposing the Federation Cup scandal.
The President of the SLTA had pleaded that he would appoint a committee to look in to the prospect of establishing a training centre. It was claimed that the ITF had allocated US$ 20,00 for the construction of all weather tennis court and another US$ 7,000 for the computers and other equipment. What became of this projects?
Finally what of the joint training programme to be conducted by V.J. Amiritraj and Neville Senaratne?
I, who am an undergraduate in one of the local universities, has been keenly following the nature of ragging which led to the untimely death of Varapragash. It truly broke my heart to know that the life of such a bright and useful student was snuffed out by some low sadists.
Honestly, when are the authorities ever going to wake up to this serious situation? Each year there are plenty of articles accusing the raggers and the very fact of ragging, BUT no action seems to take place. Maybe most of the lecturers are not bothered, as they have the means to send their children to study abroad. So this kind of situation obviously does not bother them I suppose!!
Throughout the years, after the free education system was introduced, there have been horrible incidents reported. Rupa Ratnaseeli of Peradeniya campus is an invalid upto date; there have been students whose legs have been severely scratched and bleeding by them being asked to crawl up and down a staircase. Another incident I heard from a reliable friend made me wonder whether lecturers themselves were encouraging these raggers. A certain ragger whom everybody knew (including the lecturers) to be a vulgar pervert, ragged a Muslim girl from Kandy, who was in her early stages of pregnancy which resulted in her bleeding. However what beats me is, instead of kicking him out of campus, he was rewarded with a SECOND UPPER DEGREE!
Well, I fervently feel that this is a result of free education. If all had to pay for education, none would have had time to engage themselves in such cheap wicked amusements such as these, for anything given to a Sri Lankan free is NEVER appreciated. It is also a sad fact that many who get brilliant A/L results give up University education or either go abroad or divert to other professional courses for the fear of ragging.
Thus, I most humbly and earnestly appeal to the Minister of Higher Education to make one of these Universities a private PAYING University where all decent children can complete their studies in peace while all the others can be open for these ruffians to go to. Those who were caught ragging Varapragash should be given the harshest of punishments This is the only way our people can be disciplined, as I feel that a strict military rule is what we need now.
One last word to Vara's parents - make the most of this situation to put some brains into our backboneless authorities to take full measures against the guilty ones, AND DO NOT LET THEM BE ACQUITTED. Even RIGOROUS LIFE IMPRISONMENT would be an ideal punishment. I feel that the lecturers too should be punished to some extent for closing their eyes to a situation which could have been averted many years ago, if not for their callous attitude and disregard in this context.
More letters to the editor * Are there no safeguards? * Stop these night raids * Control of State land under devolution * It's not a road anymore!
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