Morning Spice by Ginger
Male harassment

Ginger was reading about the sexual harassment of females the other day in the Saturday Magazine and does not contest the veracity of what it tries to convey. Recent laws in sexual harassment however in many countries weighted the advantage heavily on the side of the female. Ginger was wondering why nobody ever talks about male harassment. It was easy to fight the battle on behalf of the female. She had what they misguidedly thought was a male dominated society as a peg to hang their battle plans on. The male, besides not being able to match female craft, can only go and hang himself.

In fact the male who cannot harass the female a wee bit in a subtle form will only be considered a bit of a bore. After all Don Juan and Cassanova would have stood little chance under the present legal system. For that matter isn't the male subject to harassment from the start to finish. That however is all well and good because he is a masochist who doesn't realize he is harassed most of the time and a glutton for punishment. All those facts apart Ginger has to admit that he has seen many school girls harassed in buses and bus halts and even subject to all kinds of vulgar conduct even when they are at home. Parents if they are the meek and timid type dare not do anything about it as it will result in reprisal and physical risk for them. Complaints of this nature should be not only looked into promptly but the culprits dealt with most severely.

Cholesterol count
What is the answer if your cholesterol count has risen to unhealthy levels. Many people feel that taking it easy on your food or rather avoiding certain types of food may be the course available if you want to avoid a heart attack. This precaution by itself may not do according to a recent study done on the subject.

A low fat diet by itself may not do by itself but combine exercise with your dieting and you could bring down the rate fairly rapidly. Men who did both brought it down by as much as 13% and women reduced their cholesterol by a shade under 10%. Those who only dieted brought down their cholesterol levels only by 50% of that amount.

Why shoot the wolf
Who would want to kill a wolf? No body eats wolf flesh but what makes wolves game for the hunters bullet. The only conclusion one can come to is that it is pure and simple blood lust and a very sick man behind the sights of a gun. Now say wolves in certain parts of America were considered to be an endangered species and therefore protected.

Recently however it was proposed that the wolf be removed from the endangered species list. Some conservationists are worried about the move saying that the next step would be to give it game status. That however is not the issue. The flesh of the wolf is not eaten. They don't use its fur much any more. Why shoot it?

Cries yet gone unheard

Ajith C. S. Perera's thought provoking appropriate article which appeared on 04th August in your paper on "Hidden Killers on our Highways". needs immediate and express attention from the relevant authorities. I have myself experienced much fear and vulnerability whilst driving along these Colombo roads on wind swept rainy days. The trees no doubt are beautiful but some are very very old and neglected. Has anybody cared to inspect them for decay? Is the CMC responsible for their maintenance? Will not lives and limbs be saved if regular inspection and maintenance are carried out? The way it is, it seems as if these trees are being left to fall when they should and the destruction they cause must be accepted as just "bad luck" to be around at that time. No more time and precious lives must be lost. I read two weeks ago that a young man in a car driving along these roads lost his life when a tree fell across his vehicle on a rainy day. Must we only wait until somebody close to us, is a victim to raise a cry? How many schools are there in these areas? Imagine the plight when such happens onto a school bus or a van!

I am not an expert on fauna and flora but, I do know that there are many who are - who would be only too happy to advise the CMC on how these trees should be inspected, and brought down or propped up if necessary. Please, no more tragedies by falling trees.

The writer of this article, Mr. Ajith Perera, I have learnt, is himself a such victim, now confined to a wheel chair in his youth itself. He has acquired wealth of experience and knowledge in being at hospitals here for over an year, on matters he has very appropriately highlighted. Apart from being a Chartered Chemist, he was a Test-Match Panel competent Senior Cricket Umpire extremely knowledgeable on the game. It's a great pity that his expertise and experiences, just like with all our other professionals who are now disabled in this country, are permitted to go waste. Will all these painstaking efforts also, continue to fall on deaf ears?

His point that handicapped people still do not have access anywhere in public is both true and very sad. Even many a developing country now have wheel chair access to public buildings and toilets, waiting rooms, shopping malls, sports pavilions and whatever. Sri Lanka sadly lacks this basic facility. The disabled must be respected, and their dignity and freedom of restricted movement must be facilitated. I really hope that the "wheels" start turning in this direction very soon. It is now or never, the government and all service oriented organizations in this country give immediate necessary attention to those falling trees and also for the basic facilities and possible encouragement towards gainful employment of the handicapped people in our society.

Jomo Vouman
Etul-Kotte.

Electricity bills and BTT

Through your news-paper I would like to bring to the notice of the relevant authorities the unfair increases in electricity charges by the C.E.B.

Prior to the intro-duction of GST on electricity charges we the consumers paid our bills inclusive of BTT although not shown separately in the bills submitted as was done by Sri Lanka Telecom in their bills. The present electricity bills show separately the 12.5% GST in addition to the unit charges for the month. (of course inclusive of BTT).

At the beginning of the year there was an increase in the unit charges by more than 20% on the average. The CEB would have included BTT to the increased rates.

Unfortunately for the consumers the present unit rates do not show a decrease to account for the BTT charged earlier.

The average con-sumer, as a result is now required to pay about 70% more than what they paid at the end of last year for the same units consumed

The CEB should either refrain from charging GST or adjust the unit rates to reflect the removal of BTT charges. Otherwise the CEB will be making the PA government un-popular with this kind of unfair treatment to the general public. Remember we are already burdened with increased Telecom and water bills as well.

N. Liyanage
Colombo 5.

Wasted postal seals

During the postal strike, I received a few letters together from several parts of the island, and being anxious to know how long they have been delayed, I looked at the seals to find that the postmarks were effaced and I could decipher neither the date of the posting nor the post office of posting.

When a seal gets worn out is it not the duty of the Postmaster in charge to take immediate action to get a new one? Isn't this proof for lack of a sense of duty and responsi-bility?

Pro Nono Publico
Mt. Lavinia.

Privatisation

When I read so much uninformed criticism of privatisation I feel compelled to make some comment on it.

The first thing that everybody should realise is that regardless of who loses by privatisation, one group always gains. And that is the consumer. Consumers, who constitute the majority in any country, must gain from the increased competition and change of management that every properly implemented privatisation ensures.

I say 'properly implemented' because there could be a privatisation where all that happens is that a public sector monopoly is converted into a private sector monopoly. I shall touch on this later. Meanwhile it cannot be gainsaid that in the vast majority of privatisations, consumers must benefit from lower prices and/or better products and services.

A case in point is the palpable improvement in telecommunication services in Sri Lanka after the industry was de-regulated: which is another type of privatisation. It is competition with the private sector that has galvanised Sri Lanka Telecom into action. It is the consumer that is benefiting from it.

The complaints from the erstwhile public sector monopoly of unfair competition are to be expected, and should be ignored by the public, while they are looked into by the Regulator. The Regulator of such a one-time monopoly must be an independent, strong, competent individual who can withstand pressure from the institution that has lost the power it once had.

What the consuming public must realise is that every privatisation will be opposed by three different interested parties. The first is those politicians who wielded influence over the State Owned Enterprise (SOE) that are to be privatised. The second is the managers of the SOE. These two groups fear a loss of power and influence which, in these unfortunate days when corruption is very much a reality, can also mean a loss of income.

Managers tend to oppose privatisation because in addition to loss of power they fear the added pressure that they may have to face under private sector. Management where they could expect greater concern with the bottom line.

Of course both these groups tend to oppose privatisation covertly because it would be unwise to be seen to openly oppose government policy. The third group that usually opposes privatisation, and does so quite openly, is the trade unions concerned. They perceive a threat to the easy lives (as far as hard work is concerned) that they have grown accustomed to under lackadaisical public sector management.

In institutions such as Telecom they may even perceive a drop in the type of income they used to earn by obnoxious means. In any event traditionally Unions have opposed privatisation. My advice to government is to ignore this opposition because for every employee who opposes privatisation there will be a hundred thousand consumers who benefit from it.

Therefore if votes are the things that matter, privatisation will necessarily be a political success.

The point I have made is that while there may be a lot of opposition to privatisation from those who perceive it as a threat, consumers who constitute the vast majority of the population will wholeheartedly support it. It is for this reason that, as far back as April 1995, I strongly recommended to the president, at a gathering of businessmen brought about by the World Bank in Paris, that she should ignore the opposition from the trade union of Telecom and de-regulate the industry thereby introducing competition. She did so, and the people of this country have benefited and are grateful.

When I read the allegations about the privatisation of Airlanka, I cannot help reflecting that regardless of how it was done, passengers are bound to benefit from it. I was constrained to write a letter to the newspapers some years ago recommending strongly that Airlanka should be privatised because it was being run largely as a source of perquisites for politicos and VIP cronies. Routes were determined to suit powerful interests, and confirmed reservations were cancelled to accommodate VIP's. As long as the privatised airline is managed without interference from politicos, customers of the airline are bound to benefit. So, while leaving it to the proper authorities to determine whether there has been any chicanery in the privatisation of Airlanka, let us all (at least those who need to fly) heave a sigh of relief that it has been achieved.

This bring some to another recommendation I have always made. A privatised SOE will not be able to function at peak efficiency unless the majority of the board and the Chairman himself are private sector men with a proven track record. The problem with public sector chairmen is that the vast majority, while they are usually clever, capable, individuals in their own right, are not used to making decisions under conditions of uncertainty - which of course are the conditions that always prevail. Their entire training and experience inclines them to being averse to making mistakes, which while damaging to reputations and careers in the public sector, are accepted as unavoidable in decision-making in the private sector. Decisiveness is not a quality one usually finds in the public sector. It is the very essence of success in the private sector.

I shall end this brief comment with the hope that all SOE's involved in commercial activity will be privatised sooner or later. Meanwhile it is also important that public sector monopolies that are converted into private sector monopolies should be properly regulated. Private sector monopolies that abuse their monopoly power to the detriment of the consuming public should be dealt with appropriately.

Desamanya G. P. de Silva
Rajagiriya

Wijeweera - should he be - remembered? a reply

I agree with Anti-Terrorist of Colombo that the state controlled TV stations acted quite correctly by refusing to telecast a programme commemorating Rohana Wijeweera and hope that other TV stations too would follow suit.

Since he has not answered his question - should he be remem-bered? I would with an emphatic yes, say he should be remembered, but not commemorated, for generations to come. He should be remem-bered for all his atrocities on two occasions causing the deaths of politicians, members of the police and the security forces, university professors and other learned men, writers and other professionals, innocent citizens who had no political ideologies or any political connec-tions whatsoever, large numbers of youth, the destruction of billions worth of both public and private property, untold inconvenience and suffering to the ordinary public by imposing curfews on numerous occasions, sacrificing the lives of many youth both male and female, who were brain-washed to join his utopian ultra modern socialist party while he himself lived in safety leading a luxurious life with his family with the loot brought by the foolish young men and women who had to face the wrath of the forces and the general public.

RW with his twin brother Prabakaran has put the country back by at least fifty years and caused the deaths of over 100,000 youth of this country who would have been an asset in a country with the problem of an ageing population.

Today's younger generation who know Wijeweera only by name and those to be born should be made to know all about the crimes committed by this so-called socialist leader. Everything possible should be done to keep the generations to come informed of what he did so that they will not fall prey to movements like the JVP or the LTTE.

S. Abeywickrama
Nugegoda

Ayurvedic cardiologist

An ayurvedic physician in Polon-naruwa is gaining fame as an ayurvedic cardiologist for his treatment with ayur-vedic drugs, of patients with coronary artery blockages.'

These patients who have been advised heart by-pass surgery by cardiologists on the confirmed evidence of E.C.G., stress E.C.G. and angiogram, seek his treatment to by-pass the surgical by-pass.

Allopathic medi-cation has to be discontinued. His treatment, lasting three months, with ayurvedic pills, decoctions and a paste to be applied on the chest, costs Rs. 15,000. The paste is the equivalent of the nitroglycerine paste or plaster.

Patients who complete the treatment are said to be free of the symptoms of breath-lessness and anginal pain. Abnormal E.C.G's before treatment return to normal after treatment; so do lipid profiles it is said.

Here I think is an ayurvedic phenomenon for cardiac investi-gation.

Mervyn Burrows
Pharmacist
Moratuwa.

Pavements

Several letters have appeared in the print media against the police not taking action whatsoever to prosecute or at least to warn these selfish and unscru-pulous elements who obstruct pavements compelling pedestrians to walk on the highway at the risk of losing their life and limb.

The situation is much worse in the Dehiwela - Ratmalana areas where particularly the vehicle owners and drivers use pavements to park their vehicles.

I suggest that the Mayor appoint some traffic wardens to recover at least a portion of the large sum of the ratepayers' money he has spent on constructing pavements from those who are misusing pavements. You may call it a fine or use a less offensive word fee".

A Ratepayer
Mt. Lavinia.

U turn or no U turn?

Someone is playing hide and seek with the "No U turn" boards along Galle Road in Wellawatte. On some days, there are no U turns all the way from the junction before Delmon Hospital up to Bambalapitya. The junction in front of Savoy is blocked by barricades. So a patient taking a three wheeler from this hospital has to go all the way to Bambalapitiya in front of the flats to turn and go towards Dehiwela.

Then on other days there are no "No U turn Boards" at all. So when one tries to turn through a gap on the boulevard, the motorists who has seen the U turn on an earlier day get annoyed.

Why cannot the authorities make up their mind once and for all and place permanent boards so that the motorists also can plan to park their vehicles at convenient places accordingly?

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai
Dehiwela

Cricket news and blood pressure

Writing to The Sunday Island of Aug. 16th. F. Gunasekara of Dehiwala appeals to the Sports Minister and the President to prevail upon the SLRC to refrain from interrupting the cricket coverage in order to telecast the news bulletins and save cricket fans from losing their temper and increasing blood pressure.

I do watch, specially the one day matches, myself and find it a bit annoying to be interrupted at crucial times. But one has to understand that there are thousands who wait anxiously for the news bulletin, and that they outnumber cricket fans. Among them are family members and relatives of soldiers fighting the war in the N & E to make it possible for us here in the South to live with relative ease of mind and comfort and watch cricket matches.

If, consumers mean TV viewers, those waiting for the news bulletin are also consumers and beging the majority, their rights outweigh those of cricket fans. True, we lose less than one hour of enjoyment part of which may be the lunch interval, but we have to leave a broad margin for those yearning for news of their loved ones. Being the national TV, SLRC has also a duty by all Sri Lankans.

A few years ago a cricket fan collapsed on hearing that our team had lost a match probably because he failed to realise that only one team could win. And if players themselves lose tempers and develop blood pressure when they lose matches there would be no cricket or any other games for us to watch or be interested in. This is like supporters at grass roots level killing each other while politicians of rival parties limit their rivalries to debates, public meetings and some mud-slinging of course and continue to be friends.

We should cultivate more patience and restraint and avoid blood pressure because it is not worth suffering for life just because one loses a few minutes of excitement and enjoyment.

Some years back my blood pressure shot up a little for no known reason and though it has remained perfectly normal since neither my doctor nor my near and dear ones would allow me to discontinue the drugs and willy nilly I keep on swallowing tablets. So, avoid blood pressure; it is dangerous and can be fatal.

S. Abeywickerama
Nugegoda.

Pensioners and elders

It is a pity that in Sri Lanka, the pensioners are regarded as lazy owls, who draw the highest rates of pensions and wine and dine, doing no work. On the contrary, in other countries, the pen-sioners who in their heyday ran the government administ-rative machinery efficiently and smoo-thly, are never forgotten and no stone is unturned to ease their aches and pains of dotage, regarding them as elders, who deserve every respect.

For example, I give below some excerpts from the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" of 2.4.98 to show how the Australian government is doing everything possible to ease the burden of not only pensioners but also of other elders who have one foot in the grave.

"Prime Minister John Howard has already announced increases to the aged pensioners and benefits for the wives of ex-servicemen.

The Australian government will also spend $ 250 million to keep the elderly in their own homes rather than enter hospitals or nursing homes, which have recently increased their fees. The package is also expected to fund home care for the elderly living with relatives. The Prime Minister Howard has also indicated, he will help the 8000 parents over 65 who have to look after disabled children."

Pensioners, of course do not have at their disposal "strike weapon" but they very well have the 'vote weapon" to use effectively when time comes.

George
Mt. Lavinia.

To whom do we turn for mercy

I have read quite a number of unfortunate deaths and mishaps at the Kalutara Hospital in the recent past. These were highlighted in the print media. Anguished parents and relatives of those unfortunate victims have poured out their hearts making desperate calls for action - better treatment at the hands of the medical personnel at this provincial hospital. But, why has there been a deafening silence on the part of the Ministry of Health?

It is almost three months since I wrote to the Minister of Health and all the newspapers, about the callousness of the medical personnel at this hospital. Before and after my exposure, I have read quite a number of letters from affected parents, public spirited men and also a former doctor of this same hospital, now residing in a foreign country.

It is true appeals will not bring back the lost lives of those dear ones but would it not give confidence to those who seek medical remedy at this hospital? Would not these personnel be more careful in handling human lives? I had expected at least an enquiry by the Ministry giving me an opportunity to place my case in person. This would allay the fears of future patients going to this hospital.

In the recent past, I had seen both in the electronic media and the print media notices from the Minister of Health asking affected parties to bring their cases to his notice.

Aren't these letters in the press sufficient notice for the Minister to act. To whom do we turn for mercy? Isn't this government a People's Government?

F. R. Ragel
Kalutara North.

Plants on roads

It is nice to notice that right along the Galle Road provisions are made to have plants on the boulevards.

But it is horrible to notice that the choice of plants are from those who have no idea of gardening whatsoever. In Wellawatte most pots have the spiky pineapple like plants - (AGAVES), which not only will grow to large sizes but also have spiky leaves. If the idea was to prevent people jumping over them, it is a poor choice indeed.

It is a pity that the planned beautification of the city is indeed poorly utilized. It would be simple to obtain expert advice on what plants to choose, in order to provide a luscious growth with minimum care with round the year flowering. Those who get the tenders must be held responsible for maintenance, even at a little extra cost. Nowadays it is a simple matter to have continuous controlled watering and manuring through submerged porous hoses.

Even when the skyscrapers and road widening are destroying the fauna, our country has the most suitable climate and weather to provide beautiful greenery. It only needs a little consideration and a careful planning to provide comfort to the eyes of the road users.

Would the Ministry consider this matter seriously?

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai
Dehiwela.