Morning Spice by Ginger
Maintenance and upkeep of buildings

Some time ago there were places that undertook the maintenance and upkeep of buildings. They are still around but the business has not burgeoned quite to the extent one expected. There should in my opinion have been quite a few large organizations that undertook the maintenance of buildings and also repairs. The latest trend seems to be to divide the tasks into specialized functions. Some establishments provide the necessary labour to come and clean up your home or office. There are individuals who come and do various repairs, mow your lawn and scape your garden.

Some of them carry out an absolute bluff. Ginger asked a so called specialist to come and repair his overhead tank. He came as promised and when he came in he looked pretty impressive. He had a cell phone and a couple of gadgets that gave the impression that a real professional was at the door. Ginger asked him to go ahead with the job and got a bit of shock when the bloke asked him to get a tall ladder. It was a tall order so Ginger asked him to get the hell out of the place. He got the garbage man who was a general handy man to do it for one sixth the amount. The point I am trying to drive home is that if there are places that offer the gamut of such services. They would have the equipment and the vehicles to transport it and contact would be much easier for the client.

New traffic rules
Ginger was more than a little pleased when he heard that only private vans with a certain capacity would be allowed to ply the main routes after a certain date. When is this date. Ginger has got into rather new vans long after that announcement was made. The Ministry of Transport has come out with some sensible problems and innovative schmes but fleshing them into reality has always seemed a problem.

The other day Ginger saw a luxury bus approaching and put out his hand hoping it would stop but it ignored him and passed the halt and went its merry way. If this is the attitude of crews in buses starved of patronage what would be that of some workers in some depots that are more than a little revenue hungry. They seem to be living on charge and counter charge and not income.

The wheels of justice
The wheels of justice may grind slowly but for Jorge Rafael Videla they did so rather surely. He was supposed to be guilty of a heap of atrocities during Argentinas "Dirty war" that lasted seven long years. He was supposed to have kidnapped all the children of detained dissidents. The presidential pardon he was given by Carlos Menam surprised many.

Finally justice seems to have overtaken him and he may have to pay for the thirty thousand or so disappearances that took place during that time. There was no pardon given however for the kidnapping of children and he has been indicted for these kidnappings in a court in Buenos Aires. He may ultimately have to pay for his crimes as this would help prosecution to get at him through these charges.

The attorney-General talks piffle

The Attorney-General is reported to have said, recently, at the Annual-General meeting of the Alumni Association of the Colombo University that it is "only by an appropriate legal and constitutional order that mutual groups of people could become a reality." (Island of 31st August).

Why do people in high places speak such utter nonsense? Lesser mortals, but more intelligent perhaps, are bevildered that these people are so immature and superficial in their approach to fundamental issues concerning human beings.

Many of those who have chosen law for their academic studies seem to me to have an erroneous view of how to solve what are deeply human problems. Pass a law and the problem vanishes they appear to think. Legislate against terrorism, and the terrorist becomes, 'hey presto'a non-violent and god-fearing human being.

No wonder someone has said that a little learning is a dangerous thing.

What is understanding? When used in relation to an individual or a group, the term denotes a state of comprehending or coming to know, that individual or group, totally and completely, and not in part or fragmentarily. It implies a direct perception of the totality of that entity.

A further implication is that there is communication between the perceiver and the perceived. If there is no communication, there is no understanding. No legal or 'constitutional order' as prescribed by the Attorney-general can bring about such understanding. As a matter of fact, if there is indeed such understanding or comprehension, no legal or constitutional systems would he required. These are required only because there is no understanding. Only an extraordinary individual like the Buddha could, by using his paranormal powers, understand another in his totality, the moment he encounters that person.'

The question then arises, what is it that impedes or obstructs communication. In one word, it is the 'ego'. The "I" the "me" the "mine", with all its accumulated hurts, its memories, its psychological, ethnic, racial, religious and other conditioning will not permit one individual to comprehend another individual or group, totally and completely.

There will always be that barrier which no legal and or constitutional systems can remove. Only an anonymous person that is someone who has seen the falsity of the ego and transcended its inherent limitations, can understand another. Between such individuals there is trust, because there is in them no ambition, no envy, no hatred, no jealousy - in short, no selfishness. Laws and constitutions cannot create anonymous individuals or groups. Only the knowledge of things - as they actually are or the truth about phenomena can do so.

People in high places who pontificate on how to solve the ethnic problem should bear that fact in mind. They had better first become anonymous persons if not experimentally at least intellectually, by seeing the false as the false, before trying their hand at putting 'this country out of the horrible mess in which it is at present. In short, let them first shed their labels. Then they will have credibility and people will listen to them and accept them as their guides and mentors. They would have moral authority.

Stanley Jayaweera,
Avadhi Lanka, Rajagiriya.