Young or old everybody wants to have some sort of family. Relatives play a big part in our lives. If we don't have a mother or a father, we turn to our relatives for support and help.

But now with changing lifestyles and people working hard to make ends meet, it's very difficult to keep in touch with our relatives. Sometimes they too don't have the time to sit and chat, let alone visit. It was different when your parents were growing up, but now things are getting harder and there is so much to be done that your parents don't have the time to keep in touch with their sisters and brothers.

But as young children we must try to set aside one day of the week or two days of every month to visit and spend time with our cousins, because one day you will need their help. So if your parents say, 'No time, we'll do it next week,' insist that you would like to do it that very day. For if you postpone, things will never happen.

So try your level best to keep in touch with your relatives.

Until next time
Aunty Sunshine

• Family and relatives
• How we saved a calf's life
• Thank you!
• My beloved mother
• Waterfalls of Sri Lanka
• Threatened animals

Family and relatives

Family is the most precious thing in the world. If a family lives happily, everybody is happy. Why? because there's unity and peace.

In addition to the family, relatives are the second family. Relatives help us at funerals and weddings. In happy and sad moments, they share our happiness and sorrow. When family and relatives are combined they can do anything. I hope you all know the famous saying, "Unity is strength."

But this situation has deteriorated a lot. Now the world has changed. Good things are gone forever. Families are under threat. Fathers and mothers are breaking up. Their children are lost. They enter society without the protection and love of their parents. Love of a family is only a dream for them.

Family and relatives- that is how the world began. Family is the most precious thing on the whole lonely planet.

Kushani Abeyratne
Southlands College
Galle

How we saved a calf's life

The sun had not risen yet. It was only 4 o'clock in the morning when I was woken by my mother. At about 5.30 a.m we arrrived at the yard of death where a large number of cows were to be slaughtered. I saw a cow being pulled by a butcher to the yard. The place was covered with blood. I felt so sorry.

There was a line of cows just waiting to be killed. Some cows started screaming. Even a cow understands what the end of life means. I saw how the people killed the cows. It was so painful to look at. The butchers first hit the cow's head with an axe, then the cow fell to the ground. Later they chopped the head off and carved the meat.

Since it was my sister's birthday and my dear father had died a few months before, we decided to do a good deed instead of having a celebration. We saved a cute calf's life. My sister, brother, mother and I were very happy because we did a good deed.

Later, we all went to the temple happily. We gave the little calf to the temple where anybody could adopt it and give it a home. We said some prayers and went home.

Thinking about this incident, I don't want to eat meat because it is really the meat of innocent animals killed in this cruel manner. To kill a defenceless living thing is an act unworthy of human beings who claim to be supreme among all living creatures.

Nisansala De Silva
Royal Institute Primary
International School

Thank you!

You'll always shine in my heart.
Aunty Kamala and Glen Uncle,
When I come there, I like most of all,
Your hugs and kisses.
Kandy will be no place to holiday
Unless you are there.
We always enjoy your hospitality
Love and care.
When we come to Kandy
It's always bright and breezy
For I know the reason is you
And I offer you a bouquet of thanks.

Romanthi Fernando
Ave Maria Convent.

My beloved mother

Mother.......
When you heard my first cry
you laughed and smiled happily
Because you expected hopefully
I will be loving and useful kid.

Mother...
Day by day I grew up
Your advice constantly I heard
Your love constantly I received
Your sincere smile constantly I got.

Mother....
Do you still remember my promise to you
That I will cherish you
With my love and care
When your grey hair is seen
I will give what you've given to me?

Mother .........
Now you are sleeping under these temple trees
Without your sweet voice and fresh breath
Only the shadows of the gravestones accompany you

And........
The fragrant flowers mount on your grave
Your living story is now only a beautiful memory.

Mother ...........
I know you won't come to meet me again
Yet, let me pray for you
May you attain happiness in your new world
And.......
May I be a useful kid for the country and also humanity.

Chanaka Wickramaratne
Sri Palee College, Horana.

Waterfalls of Sri Lanka

By Uncle D.C.R

Visitors are at tracted to Sri Lanka for many reasons. A heritage spanning a period of more than 2500 years with plenty to see, in terms of natural attractions. Sri Lanka has lovely mountains and beautiful rivers. Where there are hills and rivers, there are also waterfalls, which add colour and glamour to the beauty of our country.

A set of stamps issued on August 11, 1989 featured four of the most attractive waterfalls in the country. The stamps were designed by S. S Silva.

Dunhinda, possibly the best known waterfall in Sri Lanka, featured in the 75 cent stamp is 63 metres high. Just 3.2 km north of Badulla (capital of Uva Province), the falls are situated off the Badulla-Taldena road. Dunhinda is the biggest in the Badulu Oya which rises in the mountains south and west of Hettipola Ella above the Ella gap on the border of Uva highlands and flows into the Mahaweli Ganga.

Diyaluma, the second highest waterfall in Sri Lanka appears in the Rs 8.50 stamp. 220 metres high, Diyaluma is situated between Koslanda and Wellawaya and is easily accessible being close to the main road. It is on the Punagala Oya which rises in the Mahakanda Pass and flows into the Kuda Oya, a tributary of the Kirindi Ganga which, in turn, flows into the Indian ocean close to Tissamaharama.

Ravana Ella, seen in the Re 1 stamp, is described as one of Sri Lanka's wildest looking waterfalls. Situated around 6 km south of Ella, it is close to the road from Ella to Wellawaya. The stream, a tributary of the Kirindi Oya, cascades with a foaming spray over a series of ledges into the valley close to a bend in the road. It is believed that the villain of the Ramayana legend, Ravana lived in a cave close to the waterfall.

Laxapana, (Rs 5.75 stamp) is a waterfall of the Maskeli Oya and is well known because of Sri Lanka's first major hydro electric scheme when the combined force of the Maskeli Oya and Kehelgamuwa Oya was harnessed. It is 115 metres and is situated in an area with the largest concentration of waterfalls in the entire country.

Threatened animals

Extinction has always been a part of the pattern of nature. When new animals evolved, more successful at some particular way of life, their more old-fashioned competitors became extinct. But the evolution of man brought a new type of extinction into the world. For many millions of years, man was not particularly important or widespread. But he has now become so successful that his activities have a great effect on all other forms of life. Other animals are crowded out of existence by his need for space to live and grow crops, or are killed for his food or his pleasure.

Man, the killer

When man was merely a hunter with primitive weapons, he did not wipe out a vast number of herbivores. But the weapons became more and more deadly. The arrows of the American Indians could not kill very many bison. But the guns they bought from the white men soon killed nearly all the millions of bison that had once thundered across the Great Plains. Man was also greedy for space for his own domestic animals, so he killed the wild grazing animals, or fenced them off his land. In the end, that was even more deadly to them than his guns.

The wild carnivores were even more of a threat to man, for they killed his herds. So man hunted the tiger and the leopard, the cheetah and the wolf, till they too became rare and close to extinction.

Crop spraying

Other animals were a threat to man, because they ate the seeds that he sowed in his fields, or ate the growing plants. So man added chemicals to the seeds, or sprayed chemicals on his crops to kill the insects. But not only the birds and insects that fed on his crops were poisoned, for their deadly flesh killed the falcons and other birds of prey that hunted them.

The chemicals and the fertilizers that man had sprayed onto the fields were washed into the streams and rivers, and into the lakes and seas. There they poisoned the water and killed the fish. Even the sea birds died from eating the poisoned bodies of the fish. In the seas themselves, man hunted the great whales for the oily blubber in their skins.

There was at least some excuse for man's hunting as long as he killed to eat or to protect his domestic animals and plants. But he has not stopped there. He takes pleasure in killing for its own sake.

Sometimes the excuse is that the animals he hunts are so dangerous that he is risking his own life in hunting them, as when he hunts lions or tigers. Other animals bear beautiful horns or antlers. They are killed so that man can mount their heads in his home as trophies. Some, like the rhino, are killed because their horns are used for a medicine that is supposed to make men strong and virile.

Animals with glossy or patterned coats are killed so that men can make them into fashion fur coats. Many animals, such as gibbons and monkeys, are captured to be flown around the world to be kept as pets.

A late awakening

In all these ways, man has been gradually reducing the numbers of many types of wild animals. Many have already become extinct and a great many others have become so scarce that they will soon disappear, unless we take speedy action to save them. Each year, at least one animal becomes extinct.

In many parts of the world, game reserves have been set up, in which hunting is not allowed. But illegal poachers, who kill rhino and elephants for their horns or tusks, are still a danger.

The great hunting cats have always been rare and they may hunt over wide areas. So it is difficult to protect them from poachers. Several types of leopard and tiger are also close to extinction.

Why kill?

Many animals are in danger from man's individual greed. Some of the great whales are in danger from the greed of nations that will not stop hunting them because of the valuable oil that they contain.

At first, man killed to survive. Now he must stop some of the killing, before he clears the earth of some of its most beautiful creatures. Man has a right to life. So have they.

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