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Morning Spice by
Ginger Everybody is looking forward to the Workers Charter but few have had a good look at the general framework of the proposed amendment to archaic Industrial and Labour Laws of this country. The most urgent reform needed is a speedier dispensation of justice for those workers whose rights have been violated by unscrupulous employers. At the same time employees should be discouraged from making frivolous charges against employers when they have given good cause for punitive treatment. This is possible because there are too many gray areas in the Labour Laws of this country. One uncovered area is that of the rights of the worker who serves the smaller establishment. That worker is hopelessly exposed to the caprices of the employer. Often overtime is not paid. Gratuity is left to the employer's discretion and they are open to the very summary justice meted out by such employers. What should be the minimum age for employment? Should it not synchronize with the minimum school-leaving age? There are yet small outfits that employ children hardly in their teens. This really is a socio-economic complication common to the Third World. Often parents cannot feed their children and there is no dole. They feel their young ones would be better off working for someone. If such situations do arise won't it be wiser to have such instances recorded with the nearest Labour Office. Crib deaths He attributes many such deaths to an irregular heartbeat that could be congenital but one that could be detected within days of being born and corrected with beta-blockers. The other precaution could be put the baby to sleep with the face up. Sleeping on soft bedding with the face down may mean that baby will be breathing exhaled air retained in the bedding and inhaled in the form of carbon dioxide. Hong Kong tailors The most fashionable place seems to be Manu Melwani's tailoring establishment. Many international celebrity seem to patronise him and one such celibrity seems to be Madeleine Albright, who has been one of his satisfied customers. Even the Clintons were supposed to have bought some outfits from him. I live in Colombo. My house is situated on a small block of land which has two frontages. From 6.00 a.m. in the morning until about 10.00 p.m. in the night, there is a never ending flow of traffic along this road up and down, emitting a large volume of fumes, mostly from diesel vehicles, which covers the entire surrounding. I can feel the smoke. I breathe it. Small particles of dust and carbon settle down on me and on all the objects in our house hold including what we wear, what we eat and the foliage plants we grow. Our cat who has a white coat is almost black now. If my furniture is not dusted for a few days, an ugly layer of black oily dust can be seen covering the surface. In the night a cloud of dust can be seen in the sky. I can therefore hardly see the stars now. I cannot drive without putting the shutters and turning A/C on, adding more dangerous gases to the air. I know that this carbon, dust and smoke is bad for my health. It could cause asthma, lung cancer and complications in the brain, heart and blood circulation. But there is nothing that I can do about it. There is no one in authority who is concerned about this. I have heard that there are fundamental rights in the law books to safeguard my right to breathe good air. There is the Central Environmental Authority, Colombo Municipal Council and host of other State Agencies who should check and control the air pollution. They are still debating on this subject and trying to tell us that there is no serious problem yet. If this is the cost of development I would rather, do without it. Life is not worth living like this. Better live in a quiet village, without vehicles, without TV and without telephones; rather than living amidst industrial waste and pollution. I will live a few years longer, that way. A Citizen of Colombo You have often adverted in editorials and feature articles to the danger of environmental pollution caused by the very heavy motor traffic on our roads. The problem can be solved, if not completely yet very substantially by effecting a reduction in the number of vehicles. This can be done by bannning the import of vehicles (with exceptions for urgent state reasons) over a long period of time and the revamping of public transport system. Together with this, there should be a plan for building new roads capable of handling a large volume of traffic as in other countries. What has happened in Sri Lanka is that vehicles have been imported indiscriminately thereby over-burdening our already fragile roads and making them more and more unfit for vehicular traffic. Our roads should first be made suitable before vehicles are introduced. This has happened due to the short-sighted policy of our leaders. The cart has been put before the horse. Also it should be remembered that in any road development scheme satisfactory drainage should be provided to prevent the periodical flooding that occurs today while by roads which today are in poor condition should not be overlooked. If these measures are not speedily undertaken there will be increasing harm caused by pollution to people's health due to the overcrowding in roads as any pedestrian or motorist can vouch for. Let us then hope that our transport and environmental experts will put their heads together to solve these problems before they reach crisis proportions. E. A. K. Caspersz, Marriage is the bond that ties two loving hearts together. For some, married life is a bed of roses and for others it is a bush of thorns. Modern psychiatrists have analysed the causes and come out with recipes for successful marriage. But it is interesting to know how the famous men of letters looked at marriage. Their experience, insights and wisdom shed side lights on married life, not to mention its light sides. Why do men marry? It is because, according to Cyril Connaly, 'the dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage'. Even the new testament says 'it would be better for you to continue to live alone. But if you cannot restrain your desires, go on and marry - it is better to marry than to burn with passion.' The Dutch even thought that 'it is a duty to marry once', though it may be folly to marry more than once. Of course, one should think of the means of livelihood before he says 'I do. Hence Charles Darwin's warning: 'all ought to refrain from marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for their children'. If one decides to marry he should not rush where angels fear to tread. Marriage is something you have to give your whole mind to. If he 'marries in haste he will repent at leisure'. The advice of Thomas Fuller that 'one should keep his eyes wide open before the event and half shut afterwards' is worth listening to. The Arabs seem to have a soft corner for women when they say 'it is better for the woman to marry a man who loves her than a man she loves'. The Koran is more generous when it comes to men. For it says 'marry such women as seem good to you, two, three or four'! But it also sounds a warning note: 'if you fear you will not be equitable 'then only one'. When a man at last marries his trouble begins, 'Needles and pins! Needles and pins!' he shouts in vain. Perhaps that is the reason why Eisraeli wanted 'every woman should marry and no man'. Marriage is the most expensive way of discovering one's faults. Francis Bacon finds the married man 'seven years older the day after his marriage'. Shakespeare sees him 'a man that is married'. The merry war between man and woman makes one realise that marriage is an evil, but a necessary evil. Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. So love should be the dawn of marriage and marriage should not be the sunset of love. Both sides should not think that they are the 'management'. One is advised that he should be deaf or at least pretend to be so, while his better-half should be blind. Complete frankness will cause disaster a sensible reticence is what is needed for a sound marriage. According to Mark Twain 'what marriage is to morality is a properly conducted licensed liquor shop to society'. All said marriage is a subject that all women agree and all men disagree. Let us contemplate on the words of Shakespeare 'Hanging and wiving goes by destiny'. R.Canagaratnam During the period 1965 to 1970 the last Dudley Senanayake government, when Mr. U. B. Wanninayaka was the Minister of Finacne the country saw the importation of used or second hand clothing commonly called BALE presumably because the clothes came in bales. Whatever the reason be, Bale was the term used country wide. There were all kinds of stories of loaded invoices and smuggling of money etc. but that is not the concern of this letter. The purpose of this letter is to draw the attention of the powers that be to the gross abuse and perhaps corrupt or indecent use of the liberalised economy or open economy and the Open General Licence (OGL) system. The country is now having second hand motor car parts or second hand spare parts coming in at a rate. The Galle Rd, Hospital Rd. Dehiwela and the High Level Rd. and so many other parts of Colombo are now stacked with fronts, rears, bonnets, grills, buffers, windscreens, and also taillights, head lights, door handles and other conceivable parts. Is there a saving for the country by this, is there a benefit for the country by this, some may get a bargain, some may make a profit. Indeed the profits must be very good judging from the TV programmes. In fact there is one advertisement where the salesman says 'there are no two words about it whilst showing three fingers. In my view it should be two fingers that should be shown. The long and short of it is, is the PA Government that critisised Bale now allowing junk being imported in a big way. May be the PA has forgotten what the Coalition stood for in more ways than one and thus allow the import of junk. It seems anomalous when there are so many graveyards of old CTB buses and in some other parts grave yards of railway coaches etc. Now very soon we shall have graveyards of motor car/van/lorry spares. Mangala Gallewlattla, Better light a candle than blame the darkness I wish to express my views on the article entitled 'English that makes you smile' by Manel Fernando which appeared in The Island on August 22nd 1998 and also my suggestion on 'English in Sri Lanka'. She had scoffed at the plans in the English dramas taught by the young English teachers of today. First of all I salute these young teachers for taking the trouble to teach English dramas. Teaching dramas means devoting their leisure hours without being paid a red cent. What our co-ordinators and English inspectors should do is to go and see the rehearsals and rectify the mistakes before a public performance. When I was a young English teacher I used to hold an annual English concert. Our English Inspector Mr. Samararatne and our co-ordinator never failed to come for my rehearsals. Mr. Samararatna sat by me in the front row, whispered to my ears all my plans and corrected me. They both appeared useful suggestions and criticisms that the public performance was good, I will always remember them as Guru Devas. The low standard of English today is due to the switch over to swabasha as the medium of instruction. One period of English is not sufficient. The syllabus and the text books are sub standard. Even if a students gets a distinction in English, she is not likely to gain a working knowledge of it. Politicians are the least worried, because they educate their offspring in foreign countries. What must we do? Better light a candle than blame the darkness. I make the following suggestions. All interviews for jobs for qualified young intellectuals should be conducted in Sinhala. For everyone knows that they were educated in the Sinhala medium. Conducting interviews in English for them is a dirty trick to deprive them of their rights, only in a few situations where foreigners are concerned, interviews should be conducted in English. Almost every Sri Lankan knows Sinhala, Speaking in English among many Sri Lankans is sheer vanity when people question our highly qualified Sinhala educated young ones in English, they feel small and it is a great blow to their self respect. The best thing to do is to request such people to question in Sinhala. After all Sinhala is our mother tongue. Why should we be ashamed to speak in our own language? Correspondence in work places should be done in Sinhala except in unavoidable circumstances, let anyone who wants to speak in English do so as long as it does not demean the respect of the young ones, as they are the future of this country. Due to the faulty system of our education a new kind of broken English has sprung up. That is we can understand what they say though grammatically wrong. This kind of English is so prevalent and commonplace that in the first place, those who know their English well should be very careful. Otherwise they too may automatically get used to this latest style. On the other hand the others can use it in unavoidable circumstances having no alternative. After all unlike a driver making a mistake, or a doctor during an operation this is not that dangerous. As stated by Manel Fernando, employing retired English teachers will help in some way but after retirement we should not crave for high posts. 'As has been said: There is an age for everything, an age to love, an age to die etc. 'We must not deprive the young ones of their posts, We must be contented with ordinary posts and guide the young ones, because we had our days. Retired English teachers should be employed only on contract basis. English in an international language which is very useful but if we have no alternative to gain full use of it, we must use Sinhala as much as possible for our advantage. Mrs. S. Ekanayake Delay in processing of pension application I submitted my application for retirement under PA circular no: 44/90 w.e.f 08.07. 1997 as far back in April, 1997 to Ministry of Rehabilitation, where I had been working last. Since then unto now, for the last two years and six months, I have been undergoing untold hardship without getting my pension. Even the gratuity which was promised tobe paid before date of retirement has yet to be released to me yet. Those public servants who are in service should realize that sooner or later they too will end up as pensioners. I would like to bring to the notice of public, the efficiency, effectiveness and the treatment given to government servants who have worked for the public for decades. D. Ariyaratnam, Colossal loss of revenue to country with so many 'Chinese restaurants' around Even at the time this letter is being written a considerable number of this type of restaurants continues to dot the townscapes of the country. The saddest thing about these places is that with the opening of each such restaurant the country, continues to lose its legitimate revenue and on the other hand the regular bars lose their business after having paid the annual licence fee of about three lakhs, regular bars have in addition to pay income tax, GST, Defence Levy, etc. etc. It is no secret that these 'Chinese' type of restaurants operate under the patronage of politicians in the area and with the 'assistance' of concerned state officials. What lures those who like to take tot, to 'Chinese' restaurants is that their drinks are cheaper the balance and the profit are derived from prepared or ready to-cook food which is not so cheap compared with regular bars. A bar keeper in Negombo told me that around his bar which is licensed and which pays its dues to the government regularly there are at least four of these 'Chinese' type restaurants. He also said that despite this evident heavy drain of legitimate revenue the state officials have regular discussions with them - the Excise and Police Departments, government agent included. At all these discussions finally, the question emerges as to who is going to or should snuff out these irregularities. Would the gentle Professor G. L. Peiris come up with the speedy solution to the problem and not waste his time seeking ways and means to burden the poor masses with all sorts of unfamiliar and unjust taxes? Roger Rambling Notes by Nihal Corea A. P. S. Chairman is supposed to have opposed the opening of a liquor bar in the Senkadagala electorate. Probably he is all for abstinence and prone to some form of ascetism unlike most of today's politicians who are more inclined towards epicureanism than any thing else. They being a jollier breed than this pur-itanical P. S. Chairman believe in making hay while the sun shines. They believe in getting the maximum mileage out of their political careers which is much more than the public do. The reason for his opposing the opening of this bar is due to it being located in the wrong place - close to schools and all that. The tippler on the other hand would be deli-ghted no matter where a bar is opened. In fact he would be a willing member of all cheering squads encouraging these schools in their activities. A drunken cheer leader is always a delight to watch. True his comments and terms of encou-ragement may be a little more ribald than that of those who abstain and are more staid in their approach to supporting schools. But they are a drab lot compared to the more jaunty tippler. He knows how to draw the right response from the participants and also humour their school fellows though the school heads may be a little peeved at it all. We are just skim-ming the surface. The P. S. Chairman's com-ments carried strong overtones of moral concern. He did not like the young to get into the drinking habit. He at least will stand-like Horatius on the bridge as the last semblance of resistance to the forces of Bacchus. He was stamping his foot at the possibility of having debouched youth in his electorate. He has weighed the pros and cons of his actions well. His job is to gather votes, evidently he is a seasoned campaigner. Those who are likely to oppose his views are the more sensible and philosophic types who are concerned about the health of the nation and prefer those who drink to get what the licensed bars serves than what the bootlegger gives. Now he knows that there are less people who have sense and are deep thinkers who vote than those who don't have either. He also knows that there are more kasippu dealers and their gangs than licensed dealers to swell the numbers of votes cast on his behalf. He knows that he has only one licence to deal with and so not worth bothering about. He would like what the bootleggers sell as it would cause more brain damage and he would in all probability get more of these votes than the ones of voters with a clearer mind. Anyone with a clear mind is anathema to a politician. He is the real fly in the ointment and must be squashed at the earliest opportunity. What better ally in this victory ensuring exercise than the kasippu king. It is men like that P. S. Chairman who have it in them to lead from front though they are not too choosy about whom they lead. It may to some who have elitist thoughts seem a motley crowd but then who on earth can win an election with the backing of those who think objectively. Subjectivity is the key to political success. Bhikkuni Order and Maha Maya Devi In my letter under the caption 'Mahanayaka and Bhikkuni Order' which appeared in your publication of 28th July, '98, I suggested and placed for consideration the worshipping Mahamaya Devi, mother of Prince Sidhartha, who later attained Buddhahood. Lord Buddha, or Buddhism, never preached the worshipping of Gods on Devas, but the Dhamma itself for self emancipation by one's own effort. Ignorant Buddhists and Buddhists in general, worship and pray at Bo-Trees and statues of Lord Buddha seeking favours, forgetting that they are taking a vow before the statue of Lord Buddha to preserve the five precepts - Pancha Seela. The Buddhist Clergy too have taken advantage of this practice, borrowed from other religions who pray to God - as in Christianity - Gods in Hinduism to enrich themselves financially, making Buddhist worshippers to perform Poojas with currency as one of the offerings. In the olden days (I refer to over fifty years back), in my living memory, there were pictures of Maha Maya Devi, holding a branch of a Sal Tree looking at the newly born Prince Sidhartha, with mother's compassion. These pictures were prominently displayed or hung in the verandah on the main sitting room, framed in ornamental wood-works . So that anyone walking into a home, first saw the picture which for a moment purified the mind. What do we see today? Half naked western women sun bathing in their bikinis or in embrace. In some village homes, of those Middle East returnees, there are pictures of camels, pyramids, etc. Where have our Buddhist values gone? What have the Buddhist Clergy done to curb this trend? It appears that they too are flowing with the current and making hay while the sun shines. Who could propagate or revive this idea? It is my humble belief, that the Bhikkuni Sasana should take up, if they desire to see a virtuous society to come up in the future. This itself is a meritorious deed. G. A. D. Sirimal |
