Morning Spice by Ginger
The new three wheeler

How well or rather how soon do we latch on to new ideas or products? A new three wheeler has appeared on the local scene. A similar three wheeler was introduced some years ago but did not sell partly due to unimaginative — advertising and the reluctance to try out a three wheeler that served a different purpose other than the conventional three wheeler. Like the present one that has just come into the market it was an eight seater. Potential buyers did not know to what kind of use of put it to.

Actually it could serve many commercial and other needs with running costs being very much less than any other vehicle they would come in rather handy to transport children to school and also provide cheap office service for adults. Owners could under cut any other competitor without much problem they would be ideal for catering and delivery services for those who supply lunches and dinners and also crockery cutlery and waiters. In these days of fierce competition where it is necessary to cut costs to a minimum this kind of vehicle would play a very effective role.

Women live longer
Why is it that American women live longer than men? Are American men more submissive than those of other countries or are women there better raggers than their counterparts elsewhere and so work their venom off their systems more completely than women in other countries? Or, could it be that divorce is easier and there is less marital stress be cause of that?

Anyway the figures tell a story though not as happy as we would like it to be. According to a government report women in America live seven years longer than men but the quality of life may not be all that good. They suffer from more chronic and more painful illness like arthritis and osteoporosis than men do.

Advertisers and cricket
Ginger wonders whether some advertisers time their ads properly when test matches and one day internationals are played. At times, Ginger feels sorry for those who advertise their products on T.V. when a wicket falls. There may be quite some percentage in, doing so when the opposing side loses a wicket.

In fact the fans may be in such a happy frame of mind that they may make some kind of resolution to try the product. Bringing on the same add when our wickets fall will have the opposite effect. Quite a few pithy epithets and curses would be directed at that product. I do not know how we rate currently at cricket but we are peerless when it comes to invective.

Airlanka debate - bypassing the issue

Much has been spoken of Airlanka deal which is described as partial privatisation. The gossip developed such heat that the government was compelled to grant the opposition a debate in the parliament and by a strange convergence of events the debate was telecast. Although this whole issue may now be considered as ''closed'' for all purposes, yet as far as the average citizen is concerned, the issue prevails very much unsettled and unexplained.

What struck the average voter, watching the debate rather heavily, was the fact that the Minister-In-Charge wound-up the whole episode without answering any of the serious and most relevant queries raised over the floor of the house. In fact the House would have given the Minister an extra 50 minutes, but he would have none of it, he wound-up in a matter of just less than 20 minutes.

Roughly speaking, the following were the queries that were raised, and those that the Minister chose to by-pass.

(1) What justified the decision to privatise Airlanka, when she had just begun to show operational profits?

(2) Why was a much larger airline such as Continental Airways deliberately wrong-footed?

(3) Why were the Emirates given blue-eyed treatment even by resorting to unbusiness-like ways like changing goal-posts?

(4) Is re-fleeting Airlanka guaranteed or contracted-for in the agreements singed?

The debate itself failed to make the grade. It was a graphic show of the utter lack of discipline within the House and the total ignorance of the subject-matter under discussion on the part of the ruling politicians. Messrs Atukoralle, Rajitha Senaratne, Ranawaka and Congahage debated the issue from a position of knowledge and awareness. They had done some home work. The Leader of the Opposition contributed impressively whilst keeping his cool. His was very much an audit query. He knew that his audience was both the Chair and the citizen. One drawback of his deliberations was the problem of language.

The Leader, however could be excused, for the reason that he was required to be heard not only by this nation. This argument went fair by the government's foremost defence-debater, Professor G. L. Peiris, who would have him heard over the oceans. The professor, as usual, succeeded in maintaining discipline and decorum, although the material offered was poor in quality.

Now we come to the busters. Minister Kingsley Wickramaratne made the country ask ''Are these our ministers?'' He failed to defend his counterpart Dharmasiri. Instead he started calling names and nicknames. He in fact, called some member ''Batti''. Alas, Deputy Minister Athauda Seneviratna took the debate to the market place, closely followed by C. V. Gooneratne. The very act of stripping the debate naked was left to Minister Fernandopulle. He beat the last breath of civilisation out of the debate, requiring even the chair to run out for cover.

They were a set of people made uneasy by a revelation of a massive trait of administrative mismanagement. The question was whether the mismanagement was manoeuvred for personal gain. It was as if the busters were an endangered lot, I mean, by the pattern of their behaviour.

The purpose of this letter is not to list the foregoing, but to question the wisdom of Minister Dharmasiri's unique question to the Leader of the Opposition. ''Will you abrogate this Agreement, in the event of your coming to power?'' My position is that this question is destroying the questioner more than the candidate.

Here is a trading enterprise (coming of age after a lengthy formative interregnum) being entrusted to a party doing the same trade, using equal wherewithals, within the same market. Before the entrusting the smaller of the two was a competitor of the larger. Now the wellbeing of the smaller is truly committed to the fidelity and care of the larger.

There is provision for the supernumerary guardianship of the smaller to change hands. Now the current holder of the guardianship is asking in public and in the ear of the larger the ''question''. What will the larger do? Make the hay whilst the sun shines? Unless the Emirates are a rare variety of exceptionally cultured set of people, they will make hay. Ranil Wickremesinghe attempted to give a business like reply where a witty one would have done better.

The Minister's plan was to escape after creating a smoke screen. The world is not, I suppose, that foolish. The ''question'' was as childish as the Minister was out of context. I appeal to Emirates to run Airlanka with that element of trust and efficiency, the end result of which exercise should make the critics to eat humble pie and redeem the agreement adequately. If on the other hand, the debate did drive Emirates on to a retaliatory course, the prospects of receiving back a heap of derelict metals and a lost market with no avenues for legal remedies are well on the card, within even the currency of the present guardianship. The loss then to the nation would be too huge for Dharmasiri Senanayake to replace.

J. Perera,
Kadawatha.

Controlling monopolies and their employees

The government has at last found some courage to put their own public servants in their places by serving vacation of post notices on those who defied the essential services order. Such action has been long overdue in places such as Postal, CEB, Petroleum Corp and Sri Lanka Telecom which are heavily overstaffed at bottom levels. Most of such categories have got in not because there was work for them but because they were known to the respective Ministers. After having come in through the ‘back door’ they are now telling their own employer — the government — who should do what and how it must be done.

Recent studies carried out by the productivity Unit of the Industries Ministry reveals that, by all accepted criteria, assets per employee, turnover per employee, profits per employee, number of customers/consumers per employee, these organisations are far below world averages. Such inefficiencies cannot be justified because all these high costs are borne by the mere 350,000 or so tax payers who are compelled to ‘look after’ the remaining 17M.

Private sector operators who are in a position to deliver these services at a lesser cost should be allowed to compete with the government service providers thereby passing on benefits to the consumer and reducing burdens on tax payers. Monopolies, whether government or private should not be permitted because it penalises the consumer who is in the majority and thus totally against all concepts of democracy.

The courier companies have shown very well that they can deliver a better service than the Postal Department at a lesser cost. there is no reason why the government should protect this bloated inefficient Postal Department and its employees any more.

A. P. Fernando,
Colombo 3.

A reply to 'shame of a protest'

Before commenting on M. A. P. Bulathsinhala's letter in The Island a few days back I would like to mention that the present day tendency is when a Sinhala political party voices its grievances that party is branded as a communalist party and now the latest is for people like Mr. Bulathsinhala to call Sinhala Buddhist organisation protests shameless conduct.

His long list of eminent people as Sinhala Buddhists contains the names of people who are not living. Gamini Jayasuriya passed away recently. Mr. B. waited for his demise to give vent to his outbursts. Otherwise I have no doubt Mr. Jayasuriya would have given a fitting reply.

I would like to ask Mr. B. what made all these people attend non-Buddhist schools. I would like to answer this question myself. When the Portuguese landed in this country the first thing they did was to kill the national feelings of the Sinhala people and in addition, they destroyed the Pirivena education.Yet, there remained eminent scholars like Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula. Can Mr. B's long list mention anyone in his long list who could have held a candle to Rev. Sri Rahula. The British followed suit in a very subtle way. Yet, there were no Buddhist schools in this country till the advent of Col. Henry Steele Olcott. Schools like Ananda, Dharmaraja and Mahinda came into existence. Yet the British government failed to give these schools due recognition. No substantial aid was given. On the other hand the Christian schools received vast financial aid from abroad. It was left to patriots like Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara to reverse this situation. Before long I hope our Buddhist schools will certainly put Mr. B's list to shame.

Before concluding I would like to mention a small anecdote for Mr. B's reading:

A man was walking along a jungle foot-path with a lion. The man pointed out a statue to the lion. The statue depicted a man strangling a lion and told the lion see what men could do. The lion replied 'Yes, but if we lions were sculptors the statue will be the other way about'.

L. B. de Alwis,
President Y.M.B.A. Matale.

Galle’s clocks have stopped

What are clocks meant for, especially those which are housed in towers in cities and towns? Is not their purpose to tell the time to a vast concourse of persons going about their daily work and fighting in the present day 'rat race' against time? But what is happening in reality? Most of these seem to be playing the role of monuments or landmarks.

Take for example the clock-towers on the ramparts of Galle and the post office some distance away both of which are renowned — one over its being a memorial to a renowned doctor of old and the other ever chiming "Albert" the name of a one-time member of parliament for Galle.

The former overlooks the town and, more important at this juncture, the Galle stadium which has been ear-marked as a test cricket venue. What will be the impression created on the New Zealanders? Will they be allowed to carry away memories of a dud time-piece?

It is incumbent on the Mayor of Galle and the other members of the Galle Municipal Council to get things going, soon, and to use a pithy phrase pertaining to cricket and other sports, not ‘to let the side down’ as far as the prestige of the historic town of Galle is concerned.

S. M. E. Jayasinghe,
Galle.

Rambling Notes by Nihal Corea
The little blue pill

And now it is the little blue pill. Six men they say have died after taking it. But millions are buying it despite its probable lethality. Now this little blue pill called the Viagra is a specific for impotency. The excitement is supposed have been in the little island of San Marino where the pill was being sold. It has evidently raised hopes in million; in neighbouring Italy though it may have lowered a few into their graves.

As far as one can see the casualty rate is nothing to complain. Six may have laid down their lives for the cause of love but this is just a trifling figure when considering the fact that even the most timid of individuals would take their chances in indulging the pursuit of what has given humanity the greatest happiness possible.

The only tragedy could be that they could have pegged off before reaping the benefits of the wonder drug. That of course would have been a terrible tragedy. The very thought that a lover had raised his hopes among other things and then fallen in vain is more than a little saddening. But there is another possibility and one that need not cause so much sadness around the fallen.

The fatalities could have been caused by overuse — not so much of the pill but of self. Many of them no doubt would have been well past their prime and resigned to live a comparatively sexless existence. Knock up their glands with a tiny blue pill and you would possibly send them into a frenzy of action that their ageing hearts cannot cope with.

Millions are supposed to have flown in from Italy and bought the pill and flown back to put it to use as fast as possible. This however has revealed certain unpleasant facts about Italy. It is not a reassuring thing to realize that over a million males in Italy are impotent. It would be even less pleasant for their wives who have first hand knowledge of it.

The millions who flew to San Marino would have got the fullest encouragement from their spouses who would have preferred to have them really dead than dead in bed and hovering around the house serving little purpose to the woman in the house and undergoing immense torture caused by this deadly debility and the taunting of his spouse.

According to this news item the U.S. food and drugs administration were trying to ascertain whether the six deaths were caused by using the drug. The men in Italy and San Marino were not waiting for any such reports. Evidently the mood was "theirs not to reason why. Theirs but to try it and die".

Better take a chance with a lethal blue pill than face the continuous and open contempt of a wife for a man who cannot be put to proper use. In fact one suspects the wives would have been hoping for more deaths. It was much better to put them under the sod than rouse them to action with a pill. Surely they had more than the pill to offer to do that?