Is the street lighting system any better than it was a few years ago with some very queer criminal activity going on. It is imperative that all lanes and roads in residential areas are properly lit. Ginger’s reference to some queer criminal activity was not because the murder and mayhem reported with alarming frequency was in any sense rib-tickling but because many of the more daring types of hoodlumish and gangsterism seem to go on with far more impunity than one would expect in a city where the authorities have any control over crime. May be drugs and other factors are also contributing substantially to the tally.

That is all the more reason why the city and particularly the more exclusive areas where houses are some distance away from each other should be well lit. Very often it is dark enough for these elements to vault over one wall and take cover in the darkness of a neighbouring garden till it is safe to make a getaway. This will not be easy if the whole area is properly lit. The same precaution is necessary for more lonely areas in the suburbs where some residents are constantly exposed to the danger of being burgled. The tragedy is that today the burglar believes in not leaving witnesses to the crime or rather takes no chances. Often acts of revenge are also made to appear like burglaries.

Maoist guerrillas

What ever the world may say about the Maoist guerrillas and their activities in the Himalayas around Nepal they have done one good deed by the animals in the Dopatan Hunting Reserve which is sure to earn the encores of animal lovers all over. Every year around twenty big game hunters enter the reserve to hunt game.

An American hunter was robbed of his cash, his equipment and expensive hunting rifle and told to tell the government not to send anymore big game hunters to the reserve. Even the police have told foreigners to quit the park because they could not be responsible for their safety. We only wish there is a group here who can chase off poachers who go for elephant tusks.

Behaviour of cabinet members

Now a cabinet member who likes to get naughty once in a way is just human one supposes. The old axiom of not being a fool if you can’t be good is best applied to situations like the ones that got a senior politician in Papua New Guinea into a bit of an embarrassing situation and caused quite an uproar in parliament.

For sometime now Prime Minister Bill Skate's government had been under fire for its sex and corruption scandals. The opposition brought the whole thing to the fore when it said it was willing to show videotapes that shows the sex romps of a member of the ruling government.

Compulsory English

English is to be made compulsory for GCE (O/L) examination under the Education reforms which will be in force from January 1999. It is good to hear this. Sure those who got such plans ready know very well that English will be a boon for the present and future generations. The world is becoming a global village. Globalization in education, social sciences and technology cannot be held back. To march hand in hand with other nations, vast strides made in this language can be a convenient tool for many other development schemes.

At the beginning of last four decades much emphasis has been laid on swabasha. English was relegated to the background. Commerce, Arts and Science degrees were obtained through this medium. Gradually the country was flooded with graduates who would not fit into mercantile sector, lucrative jobs abroad or even coveted local posts.

Compulsory English at the examinations might be an upsurge to extricate ourselves from long standing education policies which immersed the nation in the deep mire.

Scientists, professors, doctors, engineers and lawyers of the calibre of the days of yore became a mere trickle. A sprinkle of elite sent their young ones days abroad for schooling. Quite a number left the shores looking for greener pastures elsewhere.

Due to stepmotherly treatment of English, the Swabasha scholars acquired a blurred vision. Rural women flocked to Middle East countries looking for work, and ended up as maids or embracing the oldest profession on earth well known to all. Sri Lanka has got quite a name for it. Large scale child prostitution too is pretty popular here. It is mainly due to the system of education and resultant poverty. Sri Lanka has the highest number of suicide cases in the world. Terrorism has raised its ugly head, and destruction and murder seem to be their number one priority. Now we are trying to extricate ourselves from a position which we have conveniently created.

Our culture, customs and traditions should never be forgotten in studying an international language. Proper Asian values should be retained. In short, balance, judgment and discretion are a must. Yet it is not necessary to hark back to Anuradhapura or Polonnaruwa periods. In some far flung areas there might be pundits who neither know English nor want others to learn it. Such species are not rare and includes a variety of breeds.

By making English compulsory will it solve our real problems. These examinations with new type questions can be so arranged to fill in blanks, cutting off inappropriate words, choosing the proper sentences, etc so that the candidate can pass the examination even obtaining high marks, without a proper command of the language. Also the tutories will devise ingenious contrivances to have the right question in the right paper. So far as the correct and right use of the language is concerned, they will remain in square one.

There should be a breakthrough for the proper study of English. We should tap our personnel, resources and funds to achieve our target. It should be to speak, read and write English fluently. Otherwise it will lead us nowhere.

Let all the avenues for sound study of English be explored. How should our younger generation be motivated to study? How should our teachers be well-grounded in the language to teach it? To make the language really worthwhile teaching what efficaciousness should be adopted?

In addition to the written examination an oral examination should be made compulsory. It will go a long way, and have far reaching effects. The candidates will leave no stone unturned to study it well. Also the teachers will have no room for bluffing, and measures will be taken for genuine teaching. It is the most natural way of studying a language when it is spoken first before it is written. A child speaks the language for a few years before he comes to school, and then starts writing the first letters of the alphabet. Without acquiring a genuine speaking power, mere emphasis on written language is like walking before crawling. Communication experts estimate in fact that only ten percent of our communication is represented by the words we say, another thirty percent is represented by our sounds and sixty percent is represented by our body language.

In this computer age with blitz like transportation, nuclear science and sophisticated technology, it is not possible to hang on to a little dialect. It has already brought us enough misery and degradation. Let English be given a proper place, and our younger generation may learn it with delight, enthusiasm and zeal. It is widely believed, that a young person with Ordinary Level only but with a good command of the English Language, fits in far better in the job market than a vernacular graduate without English.

Osmund P. J. Senewiratne
Imbulgoda

They couldn't shoot straight ...

The H.Q.I. Moratuwa in his statement published in The Island of July 24 has given reasons justifying the shooting at the van carrying little schoolchildren. This is a very serious matter as lives of little children were involved and has to be investigated thoroughly to ascertain whether the shooting was justifiable. But what is significant in this matter is the most astounding statement made by the H.Q.I. to The Island newspaper.

When he was asked why the police had directed gunfire at the body of the vehicle when they should have shot at the tyres to bring the vehicle to a halt, he is alleged to have said that he cannot fault his constables for the way they fired as most of them could not shoot straight as they were new to the department.

This state of affairs is not only shocking but also frightening. If what he has said is true a gun in the hands of a constable is a potential danger to the general public. One cannot understand with what sense of responsibility the Police Department is issuing firearms to police constables who are not competent to use them. The understanding of the general public is that police recruits are given extensive training in all aspects of duties expected of the including the proper use of firearms for the efficient maintenance of law and order.

I hope the Police Department will ensure that repetition of incidents of this nature will not take place in future.

Concerned Parent
Moratuwa.

Ban on television by Afgan Telebans

A recent news story in 'The Island' told us that the Teleban Islamic movement in Afghanistan has asked the people of the country to get rid of their television sets, video players and a satellite receiver within 15 days since watching them is damaging to morals and causes mental disorders", among other things. In this day and age of phenomenal advancement of technology and communication, this kind of attitude will undoubtedly seem extremist or even crazy to many. But is it really so?

Talking of morals and mental disorders is not confined to the Teleban Islamic movement. Moral degradation has been a popular and regular theme of discussion in our country as well for quite some time now. It can be safely assumed that cruelty and brutality, immoral conduct and criminal behaviour, though they may have existed from the arrival of mankind on earth, have never been seen in such enormous magnitude in the past as they are today. No one can contest this statement since it is true and valid with regard to Sri Lanka taken in isolation or in relation to any other country. In other words, it is a global state of affairs.

There cannot be controversy either that taking of drugs and alcohol, bloody violence, large scale organised robberies and all other forms of man's cruelty to man would ever have taken place on such a vast scale as it does today. Grandparents raping their infant grand daughters or brothers raping their sisters is a subject which I feel shy to talk about but which is heard of frequently all around us.

The massive contribution by television to this scenario will at once be conceded by any person of average intelligence. But strangely, we all seem to think that a total ban on television is an extremist stupidity. It appears that we all including those with a very high intelligent quotient and/or an exemplary morality are made to believe that there can hardly be human existence in this day and age without television. In my view, this notion has resulted from we all being victims of a world-wide propagandist upbringing.

Television in any part of the world is aimed at man's base instincts be they programmes of art, music and drama or commercial propaganda. Television creates excessive wants in us and promotes unhealthy competition and greed that leads to jealousy and ill-will. It incessantly acts as a sexual stimulant thereby creating motives for sex crimes, including violent sex, among other things. To put it differently, television attempts to activate the latent and potential brute in man.

I believe, no one will quarrel with me when I say this because it is a statement of self-evident truism. I am in a way surprised that even that be the patently obvious case, we still seem to wish that television be promoted in whatever possible manner.

Take for example the message conveyed to the children in Sri Lanka by the state-sponsored lotteries of diverse brand names which are brought to the youngster in his own sitting room during the prime time several evenings a week. The young one in his impressionable immature young age is told that success in life depends upon random luck and not on honest hard work.

He is made to think that it is a good thing to stake a few rupees and expect millions of others' money. He is in this manner brainwashed of the virtues of gambling which, to my mind, is the yougner brother of highway robbery. Can we then expect the next generation to be moralistic or humane? Is television not guilty of committing this grave crime right at this moment?

The one motivating factor in human conduct is seeking after happiness whatever that word may mean. But can we say that today's man with all this sophisticated technology is any happier than his ancesters without it a century ago? Has television contributed to man's happiness? I would have been glad if I were able to answer that question in the affirmative but unfortunately no. If so, is the Teleban Movement not justified in their decision?

Whatever other policies of theirs that I may disagree with, I for my part raise my hat for them, the so-called Muslim fundamentalists, on this issue of ban on television and videos.

Dharmapala Senaratne
Attorney-at-Law

Recycling garbage and British consultant

I read with much concern the article titled "Shifting Garbage To Another Backyard" in "The Island" of 30/07/98.

The British Consultant, Environmental Resources Management Consultants of London, UK has proposed transporting raw garbage from Colombo to Meepe to a landfill instead of recycling the bulk of the garbage. Eighty percent of the garbage is bio-degradable and can be converted to compost fertilizer and bio-gas. The balance consisting of polythene, plastics, metals, glass etc. can be separated by a labour intensive method using female labourers. Polythene and plastics can be recycled, metals mostly iron and steel sold to the Steel Company and glass to the Glass Company.

The President should carefully read the article in "The Island" and take appropriate action in respect of this British consul.If British aid is involved then the Government should seek aid from Japan for small garbage trucks and appoint NERD as consultants for the project. Solutions to Sri-Lanka's problems do not always come from the west.

Eng. Lionel J. Seneviratne,
Mount Lavinia.

Unfair GST charges

I obtained a Motor Vehicle on lease four years ago from a Finance Company. As is the custom the first instalment and the last four instalment inclusive of BTT were paid.

I have now finished paying the lease but I am now called upon to pay GST on the last four instalments collected from me four years ago. This is very unfair. If I am to pay the GST I must be paid interest for the money held by the Finance Company for four years.

The Central Bank should take a closer look at the Finance Companies collecting GST.

Sadder But Wiser

W and OP funds should pay those deserve

I fully agree with that writer who says that W and O.P. refunds must be made to those persons whose spouses have died before them and who have no dependent children. It is morally unfair for the government to retain their money especially when these pensioners are having a hard time.

I hope some young pensioner (1 am 80 years old) will consult a lawyer to take legal action against the government, to recover this money and I am sure there are several of us who will share the expenses.

S. Perera,
Dehiwela.