7th February 1999

Learn to play the game

Our congratulations to Arjuna for standing up to that third rate umpire, Ross Emerson, at the Adelaide Oval. This is a well- laid conspiracy by the Aussie and the English teams to demoralise our players, and also ensure their victory in the current series and the forthcoming World Cup matches in the UK.

The Aussies and English still think they are superior races.

They just cannot stomach defeat from a third world country, and from a people whose colour is different from theirs. We all know that the Aussies still practise colour bar, and even a political party was formed more or less on this basis, though without much success.

The biased media in Australia has been co-opted to assist in the dirty work of the Aussie and the English cricketers. Who are these jokers who think they know better than 40 internationally recognised umpires all over the world, who have cleared Murali. The ICC has cleared Murali, but this third rate umpire Emerson thinks he knows best. What kind of toothless body is the ICC if their ruling can be challenged by a third rate umpire? Then, any ruling given by them on any other matter too should be treated with contempt. How come, when Sri Lanka plays other countries there is cordiality, but not when they play the Aussies and the English? Come on you Aussies and English, learn to play the game, even though many countries play the game better than you both. Learn to accept defeat without being boorish about it. Try to hide your upbringing and put on a brave face when you are beaten by a better team.

L.R. Perera,

Colombo 4.

Breaking barriers with emotional intelligence

"There is so much good in the worst of us, and as much bad in the best of us, that it will behove anyone of us, to find no fault with the rest of us."

Finding an amicable solution to the ethnic conflict and the means of increasing productivity especially in the public sector are matters of grave concern to all citizens of Sri Lanka.

Both situations require people to be motivated to think positively and act with a sense of responsibility and urgency.

Emotional Intelligence may be considered as a key to success in arriving at lasting solutions to our national problems.

Whether it is negotiating for lasting peace or motivating people towards productivity, one has to interact with people holding diverse views. Interaction is primarily concerned with feelings and relationships.

The basic concept of emotional intelligence, as featured in the London Times, emanates from sensitiveness to feelings of others and is the ability to monitor and regulate one's own and others' feelings and to use feelings to guide thought and action. Emotional intelligence revolves round managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively enabling people to work together smoothly towards their common goals.

The basic elements of emotional intelligence comprise self awareness, self regulations, motivation, empathy and adaptiveness in relationships.

Acquiring self awareness and self regulation requires one to have realistic assessment of one's abilities and limitation, a well grounded sense of self confidence and the ability to handle emotions such that they facilitate rather than interfere with the task at hand.

It involves acting conscientiously with integrity and taking responsibility for personal performance.

Emotional intelligence also requires the developing of skills in handling other peoples' emotions such as, listening actively, winning people over, providing inspiration and guidance to individuals and groups, recognising the need for change and removing the barriers towards that change and finally the ability to read key power relationships.

None of us is perfect and we each have strengths and limits. Emotional intelligence paves the way to excellence in negotiations involving complex issues and in increasing productivity and ethics at our place of work.

David Balasuriya

Mt. Lavinia.

Lunacy of a high order

I was shocked to read recently about the Tourist Board granting approval for development of four new golf courses at Pelawatte, Muthurajawela, Avissawella and Sinharaja, close to the forest.

This is lunacy of a very high order. Who would dream of destroying the forest cover of Sinharaja? As far as Pelawatte is concerned, everyone, except the Tourist Board is aware of the fact that the Handapangala elephants are harassed, hounded and butchered to protect the sugar cane of Pelawatte Sugar Co. We also know that we are paying artificially inflated prices for our sugar just to keep the local sugar cane growers in business.

Muthurajawela (or what is left of it after Shell Gas got a large chunk of land there) is a bird sanctuary, and also absorbs a great deal of rain water during the monsoon. Probably only the Tourist Board knows what is going to be destroyed at Avissawella.

Bernadine Perera

Colombo 4

What a sorry lot they all are!

The NWP elections have had a predictable victory. But, at what price "victory"? Nobody has really won, but certainly 'decency' lost. What we saw and read in the media has left all decent human beings numb with disbelief at the primitive behaviour of our politicians and above all our so-called "leaders".

Certainly, in the past too, there were incidents of intimidation, impersonation and some level of thuggery. But since the mid 70's, each party is hell-bent on winning elections by any means.

I must commend Lalith Kotelawala for appealing to all political parties to eschew violence. Let there be more such voices. Let us hope the clergy of all religions will appeal to their respective congregations to end violence. More than that, let us pray that our so-called political leaders will openly decry this menace. Above all, it is the duty of the President to issue a simple directive to the Inspector General of Police to arrest all law breakers, irrespective of their political allegiance.

It is most unfortunate that certain sections of the media, who support the government of the day, deny the violence that engulfed the Wayamba election.

This is one country. We are all citizens of this country and we have a right to expect any government to look after all its people, not only party supporters.

Thank God, that during the election campaign, people were far more interested in the Sri Lanka Cricket team's performance in Australia. Nobody gave a hoot about the NWP elections. It seems that now, only our cricketers and other sportsmen and women bring any happiness to our sad nation. Nobody in this country has any faith in any politician, because, sad to say, everyone is trying to take the country for a ride.

L.J. Pieris,

Colombo 08.

Return to the Letters to the Editor Contents

Return to the Plus Contents