• An experience I'll never forget
• My toy
• Myself
• Home is where I want to be
• "Peace" a dream?
• Respect for human dignity
• How they talk
• Rearing the young

An experience I'll never forget

Though it was a holiday, I got up early that morning because I had to go for classes. I got ready, had my breakfast and left home.

A few minutes later the bus came and I got in and sat in a corner seat near the door. I showed my season ticket to the conductor. At that very moment I heard a big sound and before I knew what was happening I was thrown back on my seat. I saw passengers falling from their seats. I didn't know anything, I didn't feel any pain. The bus had knocked a lamp-post and gone into a drain. The bus was badly damaged. The people on the street gathered near the bus. My mother and brother also came running towards me. They had seen the accident as it wasn't so far away from my house. The driver and the conductor were badly injured. Blood, pieces of teeth and glass were everywhere in the bus. My mother thought I was injured and rushed me to hospital in a van.

A doctor examined the injured and admitted us to the hospital. A policeman took our statements regarding the accident. The ward doctor also examined me and told me not to be afraid for I had only a minor injury. One woman who was seriously injured was sent to Ratnapura Hospital. I was kept overnight at the hospital so my mother, brother, sister and friends came to see me.

The next day I was sent home. This is one incident that I'll never forget.

Nilanka Deshabandu
R/Ferguson High School
Ratnapura

My toy

My toy is a drum. It is red, orange, pink, blue and brown. My aunt gave it to me. There is a nice sound when I play it. I like it very much.

Rajindu Prabashwera Premaratne
Mahinda College
Galle

Myself

My name is Zameetha Zainulabdeen. I am 12 years old. I am studying at Muslim Ladies' College. I have a sister and a brother.

I live in Dehiwela. My favourite subjects are Maths and English. My best friend is Ruzniya. My hobby is reading books and my favourite cricketer is Anil Kumble of India.

My ambition in life is to become a teacher.

Zameetha Zainulabdeen
Muslim Ladies' College
Colombo 4

Home is where I want to be

The word "home" stands for all that is best in a family. The word "home" originally means where one was brought up. Home is a place where you learn everything, as there is a proverb saying, "Charity begins at home."

There is a song, "Home Sweet Home" which is popular. It was sung by a homeless beggar who tried to earn his living by singing. But some don't understand what it is to have love in a house. Most parents keep their children in hostels and far away places. They don't know how much the children yearn to come home.

You don't get your parents' love and care in the hostel. You cannot compare a home with any other place. The love you get from your home can only be understood by people like me, who are away from home.

The word "home" is even enlarged to mean one's native land. Hence love from a home means the noblest form of patriotism. People first learn to love their home and then extend that love to society.

Nasmina Nawaz
Ilma International Girls' School, Colombo 5

"Peace" a dream?

Through the sunbeams
I saw a light
Shining so bright,
It came nearer and nearer,
and stopped before my window,
Making me blind with its glare,
Through it, I saw,
A soldier with a white dove,
Bringing the message of peace,
Yes.. the end of war!!!
I touched the dove,
Yet... with a crash...
It fell to the ground near my bed,
Making "peace" only a dream to me.

Sunethra Kumari Karunaratne
Pushpadana Girls' College, Kandy

Stamp News 45

Respect for human dignity

By Uncle D. C. R

Fifty years ago, on December 1948 10, the United Nations General Assembly meeting in Paris proclaimed a historic document - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was adopted unanimously without a single dissenting vote as "a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations".

The objective of the 30-article Declaration was to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Among the rights cited by the Declaration are the rights to life, liberty, and security of person; to freedom from arbitrary arrest; to a fair trial; to be presumed innocent until proven guilty; to freedom from interference with the privacy of one's room and correspondence; to freedom of movement and residence, and to freedom of conscience, religion, opinion and expression.

The Declaration identified new challenges to humanity and opened new avenues for development. The UN Commission on Human Rights has directed its efforts to the incorporation of the main principles of the Declaration into various international agreements. Domestic constitutions and laws in many countries throughout the world bear its mark. To this day it continues to provide the standard by which we measure respect for human dignity and quality of life.

Since 1952, the United Nations Postal Administration has been issuing stamps regularly (generally in the month of November) to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration and as a constant reminder to the people on the importance of protecting human rights. Since 1989, articles of the Declaration had been included in the stamps thus providing an opportunity for collectors to have the entire Declaration in an attractive form, as seen in the stamps depicted here.

Releasing stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration, the United Nations reminded that this is a time for taking stock of what has been achieved and for reflecting on what needs to be accomplished in the future. Describing it as a unique moment to once again place its message high on the world's agenda, it was pointed out that in spite of 50 years of evident progress, the anniversary provides no occasion for celebration. "Too many men and women continue to live in conditions which deny them the fundamental rights proclaimed in the Declaration. The gap between aspiration and genuine achievement is too wide for us merely to congratulate ourselves on what has been accomplished."

How they talk

Animals may not talk in the same way as humans, but that doesn't stop them having a good goss by changing colour, wiggling ears, or stamping feet. In fact, as far as animals are concerned, it's a case of rabbit, rabbit, rabbit all day long!

SQUIDS IN!

When a squid's feeling ill and off colour, chatting can be a problem. That's because squids communicate by changing the colour and pattern of their skin. And they have thousands and thousands of colours and patterns to choose from. These colourful creatures even enjoy a bit of TV. Scientists rigged up an underwater camera and taped some squids. When they played it back to some other squids, they began changing colours to chat back!

WATER MUSIC

Everyone knows dolphins are really clever - apparently they communicate by whistling, and have you ever tried whistling underwater? And when these beautiful mammals do chat, they know exactly who's doing the talking - because each dolphin has a particular whistle which is their name. A mother chats to her baby by whistling to it continually until it recognises its own sign, and in time they develop their own sign for their mother - just like us calling ours "mum." But dolphins aren't always making sweet music. Angry dolphins can make really loud noises - ear-splitting enough to kill nearby fish. Flipping scary!

Rearing the young

Most birds work hard to raise their young, tending the eggs with great care and devoting most of their time to feeding and protecting the young ones when they are born. The birds look after the young by instinct. It is instinct that drives a pair of blue tits to make as many as 500 trips every day to gather food for the young, or makes an emperor penguin go without food for two months so that it can keep its egg warm in the bitter Antarctic weather.

How many eggs?

Several birds lay only one egg during the breeding season. They include many birds that raise their young side-by-side in colonies, such as gannets and auks. Others lay many eggs — partridges may lay 16. Obviously, most of these eggs do not hatch into young birds that survive and grow, otherwise the world would soon be overrun with them. It is only the strong chicks that live. This helps the species to remain healthy overall and therefore survive.

Most common garden birds lay about four or five eggs, as do robins, finches, swallows and thrushes. The ostrich, the world's largest bird, lays the largest eggs — as many as 12 at a time, each as big as 24 hen's eggs. The smallest egg is that of the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird. The egg measures just over one centimetre in length, and the bird lays two. However, a huge bird such as the wandering albatross, which has the longest wingspan of any bird, lays only one egg, while tits, which are small garden and woodland birds, usually lay between seven and 11 eggs.

The exact number of eggs that a bird lays often depends on the availability of food. Tawny owls will only lay at all if there are enough mice and moles about to feed their young. Many birds raise one brood and then another if there is enough food for them. In a good year they may raise three broods .

Incubation

Most birds sit on their eggs to warm them so that the baby birds develop inside. Some have other ways of incubating their eggs. Several sea birds, for example, use their warm feet whilst the megapodes bury their eggs in mounds of warm plants or in warm soil or sand. Incubation takes from as little as 10 days in the case of some woodland birds to as long as 80 days for albatrosses and kiwis. The wandering albatross takes so long to rear its young that it can breed only once every two years.

Cuckoo in the nest

Several birds do not raise their own young at all, but get other birds to do the job for them. In Europe, the best-known of these parasite birds is the cuckoo. Cowbirds in America and honey-guides and weavers in Africa behave in the same way.

At breeding time, a female cuckoo selects a nesting female bird of another species and watches it. As soon as it leaves the nest, the cuckoo flies down and immediately lays an egg in the nest, heaving out the other eggs if it has before the other bird returns.

The cuckoo then leaves its egg, never to see it or its young again. The foster bird incubates the egg and feeds the young cuckoo when it hatches, driven by instinct to place food in its hungry mouth even though the young cuckoo may grow larger than its foster parent. The young invader soon hatches and, in its urge to survive, pushes the foster bird's own eggs and young out of the nest. It grows quickly and in only two weeks is ready to leave, already equipped by instinct with all it needs to know for survival.

First days of life

Some birds hatch from their eggs already well prepared for life. The young are covered with downy feathers, and can move about on their own. Ducklings and hen chicks begin life like this. Their parents need only guard them as they find their own food.

However, most birds are born totally helpless. They are naked and blind, and cannot leave the nest. Their parents must bring them food as they grow. However, they grow very quickly, and may be ready to leave their parents before young birds that are born with the ability to feed themselves. Young larks are born helpless, in nests on the ground, but within a week they can get out of the nest and hide in the surrounding grass if danger threatens. They are able to leave the nest only two to 12 days after hatching. The whole process of rearing the young takes as little as three weeks.

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