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Morning Spice by Ginger Ginger read with quite some alarm that a section of the SLTA would be acquired for road widening. A pretty nasty cross court shot to get because from what I read the No. 5 court will have to go as will the terraces behind the number one court. Normally Ginger would not mind a part of a tennis club premises being acquired. I would rather see a few lives being saved than some bad tennis being played. That however is besides the point. The present move will have far more repercussions than many will see on the surface. Any reduction in the playing and spectator area would have a direct bearing on the general level of tennis in Sri Lanka. Unlike in the case of cricket where there are quite a few grounds suitable for tests Sri Lanka has only one set of courts for tennis that could be used for major tournaments other than perhaps the Nuwara Eliya courts. Take away the spectator terraces where the higher priced seats are located and you would cut off most of the revenue the association earns from the major tournaments held in this country. There is nowhere to shift them either as the best tennis is normally played on the number one court. I hope there would be some re-thinking on the issue. Antibiotics helps cure colds Certain researchers feel that antibiotics can help when some one gets a common cold. Doctors did not encourage the use of antibiotics because they felt that antibiotics cannot kill the cold virus. A study made in Switzerland finds that 20 per cent of those who get colds also harbours bacterial infections and therefore antibiotics do help. Chirac's first sweetheart The stricken Chirac used to call her "Ma Cherie" and she in turn used to call him "Honey chile". In fact it was she who taught him to acquire a taste for hamburgers and music. Due to objections from their parents the romance ended. Now Florence has divorced her husband who was in the navy after 37 years. She hadn't forgotten Jacques as she had sent him a note and also a recipe for "semoule de Mais". National Environment Act
1980/1988 (Section 7,56 of 1988
part IVA environmental protection) Part IVB environmental quality 23H So says the law I remember going near the marshy land and to the playground which families came to enjoy the environment beside the Oya at Nawala when I was a child. We used to fly kites in the fresh cool wind blowing from the direction of the Oya. The marshy land on the two sides were full of Lotus, Olu, Manel and various other wetland trees. Quite a number of birds, fresh water fish and lizards lived here also. I pass the Nawala bridge near the Open University each day on my way to work and back. Each time I slow down to see the once beautiful Diyawanna Oya which was treated as royalty by authors of Sandesha Kavya's now neglected, polluted, forgotten by all humans. Fish dying or already dead, lotus, olu, manel vanished. Birds and lizards rarely seen. The water now turned thick back with heaps of garbage floating on the water beside the salvinia plants, the only green visible in the Oya. I do not have much information on how the once clean waters got so polluted during the past years. From what I observed, stone retention walls have been built on the sides of the oya to prevent floods. The main road canals have been turned to the oya, thereby bringing in garbage from shops, houses and various other places into the oya. More houses have been built alongside the Oya. They may be disposing garbage and their waste water into the river which is illegal under the above act. The C.E.A. must investigate into this matter. Each time I pass the bridge I wonder if we'll have a Beira Lake in Kotte too. It's time for the C.E.A. to worry about the Diyawanna. The National Environment Act clearly states the illegality of disposing waste into the Inland waters. If the relevant authorities did not notice the condition of the Oya may this letter be an eye opener. Please clear the mess the Diyawanna Oya is in, punish all offenders under law. Let the beauty we remember of the Diyawanna pass onto the next generation who will see nature in a more positive way. The Diyawanna Oya of Kotte is crying for public help. Sudheera
Wijetilleke, To most people, death is the termination of hope. Some deaths however, create hope. Such was the death of a young Colombo-based woman who died of encephalitis around two months ago in a refugee camp in Kilinochchi. The woman concerned was a member of the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission (CPM), which runs the camp, and was approached by the mission to help administer the camp. Although initially reluctant, she had subsequently agreed, out of a sense of religious vocation. Her initial reluctance may have been due to two factors, arising from the nature of the CPM, which (a) conducts all its meetings in all three national languages in all parts of the country and (b) does not believe in taking medication for illness, believing that God himself will heal directly. Her fears were indeed justified. Many times at the camp (which was for Tamil refugees), she and her colleagues had been questioned by the LTTE as to the need to sing choruses (religious songs) in Sinhala. And then of course, she contracted encephalitis, for which she did not seek any medical treatment. She was dead two months after going to Kilinochchi. How then do we see her death? Was it a waste of a young life? Part of me undeniably thinks that. But then the religious leader this woman worshipped also sacrificed his life, apparently meaninglessly; until he rose again and brought hope to all mankind. So this woman's death also has the similar hallmark of creating hope. In today's abject hopelessness of an ethnic war in the North and rampant consumerism in the capital city, any group that affirms all three languages (even at their peril) and any person who shows a spirit of sacrifice (even unto death) must surely be signs of hope for our land. I have not stated the race of the young woman concerned. Is it important? If so, can the readers guess? Dr. Priyan Dias, Avadhi Lanka and the search for alternatives I have read with much interest Stanislaus Perera’s letter, titled "searching for alternatives", which appeared in "The Island" of May 21, 1998. I myself, am a Catholic but consider a non-sectarian movement like Avadhi Lanka, which by its very nature, has room in it for people of different religious persuasions and can serve the common cause of the moral upliftment of all the people of our country more effectively. That is presumably the reason why Neville Jayaweera has advisedly been "silent" on religion, although he himself is a committed Christian. Morality and ethics are basic to all religions, so far as I know. To date, Avadhi Lanka has found the private funds of its members plus the membership fee quite adequate for its work. A couple of well-wishers have also given us some financial and material help and we would greatly appreciate receiving more assistance, but ofcourse, with no strings attached. It would give us great pleasure and encouragement if Stanislaus Perera and the several others who write in to the newspapers bemoaning the moral decadence prevalent in the country will join us and share in our work. R. M. B. Senanayake, I was amazed and somewhat bemused at the objections raised to the Private Members Bill for the administration and regulation of the Church of Ceylon (now the Church of Sri Lanka). The regulations governing the Anglican Church of Sri Lanka were formulated during the time of British Colonialism in the Church of England in Ceylon Ordinance No. 6 of 1885 to give special rights and privileges to the Anglican Church which was the Church of the Establishment in Britain. The Church of Sri Lanka is now a largely independent church having relationship with the Mother Church in England much like Sri Lanka's relationship with Britain in the Commonwealth. Since these regulations were formulated by the British many many years ago the Church of Sri Lanka, as a church in an independent country, thought it long overdue for the administration and regulations to be changed. The objections as far I can make out are: 1. The fear of the Buddhist organisations that the Church will be able to open more dioceses which they are apparently not able to do under the present status quo, resulting in proselytisation by force or more subtle methods of conversion by promising economic benefits. The Anglican Church in Sri Lanka is at present in the unfortunate parlous state of not having enough priests even to man all its churches and if it does attempt to open dioceses even in the cities in which the Catholic Church presently has them, the church may find that they have more Bishops than priests. If the objecting organisations fear that there will be proselytisation to make converts promising economic benefits, I am afraid the Anglican Church, although inheriting valuable real estate, from the time of the British has difficulty making ends meet in running its day to day affairs. The Church can therefore only offer a Christian like myself, as my colleague Dr. Anula Wijesundera will know quite well, a life of sacrifice, of service without remuneration, of giving the other cheek when slapped on one and having to give one's coat when anyone request a shirt. Economically speaking, a Christian must be ready to sell all he has and give the money to the poor and follow Christ. A hard religion indeed to profess. The Anglican Church can promise its converts only the way of the cross with the blessed assurance of the Kingdom of God, which is not of this world to all who believe. Adherents of all faiths should realise that a Christian though belonging to the Kingdom of God is required to be an exemplary citizen, to treat all beings as Brothers and Sisters, equal in the eyes of God, whatever class or creed, race or profession they may belong to. Christians in Sri Lanka should thank God for being able to practice their religion without hindrance because the majority of the population belong to the two most tolerant world religions, Buddhism and Hinduism and that they have been spared the turmoil now affecting Christians in Faisalabad, although I do not believe that anyone, leave alone a Bishop, has the right to take his own life even in conditions as bad as seems to exist there. Jesus' commandment was "pray for those who persecute you so that you may become the sons of your father in heaven." 2. The fear of some Anglicans that the Bishops will wield undue power, which is something that is absent in the Anglican Church today, where there is neither excommunication nor inquisition and where adherents are allowed considerable freedom in belief and in practice. They also fear that this may allow the Anglican Church to join together with the other established churches as in North and South India, Burma) now Myanmar and Pakistan to form a United Church of Sri Lanka. But if this is the wish of the majority then they should be happy that the prayers of the Lord himself, that all should be one, has been answered and the shame of a divided church is to some extent mitigated. In 1975 unfortunately, possibly well-meaning but eccentric pollticians wielding power were anxious to prevent the Anglican Church joining with the other Protestant Churches in a United Church of Sri Lanka and the Bill was thrown out. We hope that in the fullness of time the Anglican Church could join with the other Christians so that the divisions that exist can be healed and the stigma of the broken body be done away with. Dr. Lalith M. Perera, Upto recent times it has been a generally accepted fact that "a hotel is a home away from home," but does this description of a hotel hold good any longer? Sadly not, the actual facts are far from lending any support to this definition of a hotel here. A newspaper of 19.05.98 carried a story of how a party of six families including several doctors who stopped by a "tourist hotel in Kotmale" to have their meals had suffered from the ill-effects of food poisoning after consuming food containing harmful bacteria and how they were hospitalised. It is also known that just a few days before this incident the hotel had been officially inspected by the health authorities and finding the food in the fridge gone bad, the food was taken out and destroyed. Despite the warning given to this hotelier he had not lifted a finger to improve matters. It is my considered opinion that this hotelier should be ordered to refund the cost of meals as well as defray the expenses incurred by the party for hospitalization. However, one wonders what would have happened if there were no doctors in the party! I hope that the Tourist Board would on their part take serious note of this incident and take preventive action for the future. If such action is not taken forthwith, some of the hoteliers will have to think of including a few "stomach pumps" among their regular paraphenalia. Here is yet another case of the present strange connection of "hospitality and hospitalisation" as far as some hotels are concerned. I was fortunate to be able to browse through a copy of the latest newsletter published on 02.04.98 by the National Tourist guide lecturers’ association of Sri Lanka and wherein there was a snippet titled "Our Members Manhandled" by some executives of a four-star-hotel within the cultural triangle and which boasts of its culture with a vengeance. The manhandling of this national tour guide had taken place due to some argument by the guide for the non-provision of hotel accommodation which is an entitlement of such a guide. Here again as a result of the physical assault on the guide he had to be hospitalised. He was fortunate to go to a place of temporary rest and not eternal rest. In doing so this so-called four-star-hotel has set an ugly precedent which hope the rest of respectable hotels would not follow. The association concerned, following the maximum "once bitten twice shy", has apprised the tourist board of this most unhospitable act in a hotel of this sort. The national tourist guide lecturers’ association states that on an earlier occasion the Tourist Board did not want to compromise on the provision of hotel accommodation for the national tour guide lecturer in the same hotel as the tourists lodge since these guides have to provide a round the clock service to their clients. Traveller, Corrupted and inefficient public servants The PA government and the press highlighted the mismanagement, lethargy and corruption prevalent in the Public Service. No improvement may be made as long as unsuitable, inefficient and selfish (yet good at nothing but corruption) heads of departments hold fort despite whatever administrative reforms are introduced which will either be sabotaged, disregarded or turned into one's own benefit. The best cause of action left to be now done is to issue a cabinet directive to investigate into the assets, affairs and the financial management of each department and its heads. Public Service Commission may be directed to look into how each Head of Department is administering his/her department. The President may direct the Auditor-General and the Commission for Bribery and Corruption to investigate without the theory 'officer who complains will be in trouble'. First clean the Public Service and then take the political hands off. This is the only way. G. C. N. Mendis, |
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