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Making the use of bottle lamps hazard free
Sri Lankan wins Rolex AwardBy Sumadhu Weerawarne
Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura has come a long way since he first set his sights on making the use of bottle lamps hazard free. He was recently selected as one of the laureates in the Rolex Watch company's annual awards for enterprise. He is one of five persons from around the world who have been honoured for their pioneering work in areas that advance human knowledge and well-being.
Dr. Wijaya
GodakumburaThe awards for enterprise were first created in 1976 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Oyster, the world's first water-proof and dust-proof wrist watch, manufactured by the Rolex company. The awards recognise outstanding initiatives in the areas of Science and Medicine, Tech-nology and Innovation, Exploration and Dis-covery, the Environ-ment and Cultural Heritage. And Dr. Godakumbura is a laureate in the Science and Medi-cine category. The most obvious of questions is the opener, is he pleased with his achievement? 'Well yes, the pleasure is more because of the recognition that my work receives. The international exposure that the work receives and the credibility that is created will help me make international contacts to further the impact of my work,' he says. 'This was the main motivation in submitting an application for the award.' This was no attempt to take refuge behind thin veils of modesty. Dr. Goda-kumbura's manner and indeed his path to recognition bears evidence to this.
Dr. Godakumbura, a general surgeon by profession and currently attached to the National Hospital, embarked on his mission as far back as 1971. Appalled by the number of burn victims he encountered in his day to day rounds as a doctor, he wrote a book in which he detailed the plight of burn victims. He observed that it was only possible to realise the true horror of the suffering of burn victims when seen at first hand. He said that often upon recovering victims questioned why they were not left to die? Such is the extent of the anguish aroused by the severe disfiguring.
His plea at the time was that spill proof lamps be used so that even when toppled they would not cause the surrounding area to catch fire. This appeal fell on deaf ears, or failed to gather sufficient momentum to activate the Health Ministry to stir itself. The state of lull continued for twenty-two years, while annually 150 to 200 lives were consumed in the conflagrations caused by toppling bottle lamps and thousands more were maimed for life. Those who were maimed lost fingers, sight and occasionally limbs. There was little that plastic surgery could do. 'Often the scars are too severe to be corrected through surgery. One has to see the victims, to realise the misery that they undergo,' he says.
A bottle lamp to most of us in the metropolis is part of the romanticised poverty setting. Often the film-maker or the dramatist conjures poverty through the setting of a student at his books by the light of a kerosene lamp. The notion of kerosene lamps being perilous is therefore more intellectual than emotive, to those of us who use electricity. However, to a majority of Sri Lankans it is a very real threat. Despite the seeming relentless march towards development, Sri Lanka has much to achieve in terms of ensuring equity in the provision of energy. More than fifty per cent, 57 per cent of Sri Lankan households literally grope in the dark. The statistics translate into 1.5 million households, which according to Dr. Godakumbura necessarily means that there are three million unsafe kerosene bottle lamps being used.
The lamps are unsafe because they take the form of tall discarded medicine bottles, with a metal contraption in the form of a disk pierced at the centre by a cylindrical protrusion that is just placed at the mouth of the bottle, through which the wick runs. The metal contraption is not screwed on to the bottle and runs the peril of dislodging itself on toppling causing the highly flammable kerosene spill. The events that follow cause misery. It was the witnessing of the distress that prompted Dr. Godakumbura in his book 'A Doctor Speaks' to make an impassioned plea to use spill-proof bottle lamps at whatever cost.
The authorities in question were apathetic. The World Health Organisation in a report by its Injury Prevention Unit identifies this indifference as being contributory to injuries accounting for one third in hospital admissions. The report noting that injuries cause 3.5 million deaths annually worldwide, asserts that most nations do not take injury prevention as seriously as they should. The report adds that 'communities can design and execute excellent injury reduction programmes'. The seeming unconcern of the authorities proved disconcerting to Dr. Godakumbura. He responded to his own plea.
In 1992, he set himself to find a solution. The need was for a spill-free, inexpensive, simple to use bottle lamp. He examined many types of lamps already in use and sought to modify them to his specifications. 'What was required was a lamp that would not topple easily. I deduced that the lamp that was needed was one that was squat and heavy, with the body being flat on two sides to stop the lamp rolling over if toppled. It was also important to stop the kerosene from spilling out which meant that the it had to be closed on all sides. The screw on top was effective because it enabled the bottle to be filled easily,' he explains. The product was ingenious in its simplicity, feasible in terms of the cost of production, and commendable in its durability. 'I got a company in Ja-Ela to make a bottle to my design. It is virtually unbreakable with a tight screwed on top. It is 99.9 per cent safe,' he is confident.
It was at this stage that the Sri Lanka Medical Association, the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the National Committee for the Prevention of Accidents stepped in. Two years later in 1994 the manufacturing began. Initially, due to the funding that flowed in from such varied sources as the President's Fund, the Ministry of Health, the Canadian High Commission, Ceylinco Insurance Co. Ltd., CTC Eagle Insurance Company Limited, Ministry of Plantation Industries, Nawaloka Private Hospital, Colombo Round Table, Dr. Arthur C. Clarke, Rotary Clubs of Colombo Metropolitan and Adelaide West, Australia and Rotary International, 150,000 free lamps were distributed. Once the funds began to dry up the lamps were first sold below cost and then at cost price. (It currently costs Rs 12 to produce).
Dr. Godakumbura is still far from happy with what he has achieved. 'We have only replaced 7 per cent of the 3 million unsafe lamps during the last past years. This is just a fraction and there is much more to do,' he says.
Dr. Godakumbura says that he will use the award money of US $ 50,000 to set up better marketing and distribution procedures. 'Our aim is to have a number of sales outlets so that no one has to go more than 15 miles to buy a lamp. This is very crucial,' he says adding that the Department of Poor Relief and both its Commissioners have been very helpful in distributing the lamps. He adds that production capacity that is currently at half a million a year could be doubled if distribution is streamlined. 'It is in this area that the project is in need of assistance and help from any source be it private or public sector is welcome.'
He also has a propaganda campaign in mind that will use such media as the television, radio and newspapers. Part of the campaign will target school children because they Dr. Godakumbura believes 'are both the cause and victims of many household fires.' 'We hope to distribute leaflets and posters among teachers of rural schools to educate children.'
It is however still a cause of regret to him that the project does not attract the support it requires. He is concerned about the recurring expenditure of the project. To sustain it there is a continuous need to raise funds. The one off donations cannot see the project through to its successful culmination. A steady flow of funds is required if it is to meet its target. This is where the corporate sector can step and even the Health Ministry. It allows the corporate sector to fulfil its social responsibility. The government on the other hand would be doing itself a favour in going all out to prevent as many burn injuries as possible. It would be in keeping with the avowed policy of the state sector to cut costs. Treatment for burns caused by bottle lamps costs the government Rs. 100 million a year, while one million rupees spent on prevention would possibly cause a drastic reduction in costs.
It is also distressing that certain social welfare organisations have failed to account for funds provided by the project to distribute safety lamps. Two branches of a such a club with international connections that had been provided with funds to carry out distribution campaigns have failed to either account for or return remaining funds to the project. They have also failed to respond to queries made by Dr. Godakumbura. Such acts no doubt cast aspersions on the genuineness of the motives of such clubs and are also disillusioning to those of the ilk of Dr. Godakumbura.
A study is currently underway to assess the real impact of the project as it stands today. 'We still have much work to do and far to go,' he says. This project in time to come with the intervention of the WHO and other international bodies concerned with safety may become a blue-print for other developing countries.
Dr. Godakumbura is more concerned about its success here. What target has he set for himself? 'We hope to reduce the incidence of bottle lamp burns by 50 per cent by the year 2001. The success however will depend on the assistance that we receive. But my ultimate aim is to eradicate such injuries altogether.'
And he believes it is possible.
Paintings of artists from three generations
Inherent desire to communicate through artBy Sumadhu Weerawarne
Swarnee Jayawardena, her pupil Chiranthi Gunasekera and her daughter Niloo hail from different generations. Their experiences are different and their modes of expression are different. But what draws them together is their inherent desire to communicate through art. And if not to communicate, to give vent to their experiences through palette and brush. The trio will hold an exhibition of their works from November 13 - 15 at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. The works are too wide and varied to be linked by a single theme. The paintings are in no way reflective of the generational differences of three artists. The diversity is more in terms of form than matter.Swarnee who has carved a niche for herself in Sri Lanka's fashion and artistic scene is now 68 years old. She is a pioneer in the sense that it was she who first introduced batik as an art medium to the school curriculum. Her career never really began. Born with an instinctive reaction to colour and light she grew into it. She studied drawing and painting under the tutelage of Harry Peiris and was en-couraged from childhood by Cora Abrahams, K. S. Perera and Stanly Perera. It was her career at Bishop's as art teacher to aspiring young students that helped Swarnee blossom into a painter in her own right.
She will exhibit 20 of her works, some of which have been exhibited before. She is too much of a professional to reminisce about the growth of her career. But it is still evident that art is the central theme of her life. Her home is a veritable studio with canvases covering every inch of space. She is happy to take one around on a journey into her artistic world. 'My paintings will be in mixed media, both oil and acrylic. There will also be a few portraits,' she says by way of explanation.
Her style is very much rooted in the Sri Lankan cultural tradition. Many of her works deal with life in a de-humanised or reductionist form. The colours are bright and reflective of those in temple paintings of old. The figures do not take a totally stylised and inanimate form, but seethe with life. Her works have an essential Sinhalese character to them. They are in every sense art that is very much home grown.
Chiranthi's works on the other hand are reflective of her personal experiences. They are easily understood and have a certain nostalgia about them. The colours are largely dusky, her media being powder paints. She herself readily admits that she has painted what she saw every day. 'My husband was a planter. So we lived at a number of estates. I saw tea pluckers daily busy at their tasks. So it is little wonder that I fell in love with,' she laughs. There are a number of works of dusky maidens plucking tea in different positions. The nostalgia is evident in the subdued lines which seem to blend into each other. There is an overlaying mist which gives the figures a shadowy form. She too excelled as a child artist, but was never tutored in its finer points. Everything that she has gathered is instinctive. 'It was my teacher who really encouraged me and helped me in my formative years,' she says. Her other works include bowls of flowers, again in muted hues. They have the perennial appeal of art which is easily understood. Chiranthi's works are in an impressionistic mien, her primary skill being her balance of colour and light.
Niloo's would much rather let the viewer figure out what her works mean. Her works are largely in the abstract mould with a few wild life paintings and scenes all of Horton Plains thrown in for variety. Earthy shades predominate. Her works are spartan in their use of figures and create a sense of space. She too has not studied art in its pure form and has a style which she herself has evolved. Her approach too is instinctive.
In all 70 to 75 paintings will be on exhibition and their main allure will be their diversity in terms of style and theme.
The Language Lobby
The breathless range of empire - more on Herber's vile men of CeylonBy Carl Muller
Lareef Zubair of Akurana met me at the University the other day. It was 'Writing the Nation' time. Ah, that's something I have to tell you of later, but in a way, perhaps Lareef did not really consider the significance of the 'detective work' he was giving me, because I feel it would have been a most interesting paper. Especially when there was so much said about 'Writing the Nation'. You see, Lareef was responding to my piece on R. L. Brohier and Bishop Heber and, come to think of it, hadn't Heber, in his celebrated hymn, also 'written the nation?'You recall, I tried to put down what R L Brohier thought about Heber's hymn, that hymn where 'only man' in this country 'is vile.' Well, I did leave things up in the air, so to say, because there were the usual views - no, Heber never wrote such a thing - yes, it was Java and some mischiefmaker switched it to Ceylon - yes, it was Heber who did the switching - nonsense, Heber hadn't even been to Ceylon when he wrote the hymn.... As I said, some detective work was necessary, and mis is why I was so pleased to meet Lareef, because he placed in my hands the result of his own detective work. I think Heber wrote 'Ceylon'. It was later switched to 'Java' and just before Heber's death, it was switched back to 'Ceylon' again. Also, Lareef said, 'Ceylon was a hot topic among the Missionaries who were annoyed at the clause in the Kandyan Convention which declared that Buddhism was inviolate. Its a bit of a dilemma, actually. Heber also made his compromises. He attacked his compatriots for being racist but he never raised a voice about the excesses of the British. I think he had strong views but he also took cover when occasion demanded, if only to uphold his image.'
'You mean he was as weak a man as any other.'
'I mean he could be as glib as any. He could prevaricate and obfuscate. That is exactly what he did when confronted with such moral problems as the revolt in Madras and the looting of the temples in Kandy by British soldiers.'
Let us see how far along this road Lareef has travelled. I am sure this will provoke others to also tell me, if they may, whether Lareef's 'detective work' needs more 'digging'. After all, if Heber really called all men in Ceylon vile, he 'wrote' the nation in the worst way possible, pinned the donkey-tail on us and made of the expression a hitching post for others to also tie their donkeys. As we know, the British and American missionaries contributed significantly to English Literature in Ceylon. In 'English Literature in Ceylon, 1815 to 1872', Yasmine Gooneratne tells us of this contribution. They wrote voluminously, educated children and preached to the adults. The terrain in which these missionaries worked had already been laid by 'imperialism' and the literature of the missionary reflects the manner in which the forces of empire contained both military and spiritual conquest, two hands clapping, the latter depending on a firm military hand. The point is, did the truth get snarled in a web of 'harmless deceit'. These missionaries were not all they were made out to be. They may have ranged the colonies with the best of intentions, but they could also embroider their tales and colour their fancies and weave their own lies and talk to the 'natives' with the patronising air - 'such dear ignorant savages, my dear, but we can tell them about this world God gave us and of the wonders He has prepared. And they believe all we say, my dear. God be praised.'
So, consider this well, wasn't Heber being quite airy-fairy when he wrote about Greenland's icy mountains, India's coral strand, Africa's sunny fountains? How well did he know Greenland? Had he seen 'sunny fountains' rolling down the gold sand in Africa? As Lareef says, he was resorting to neat symmetries of landscape and yet, he pretends to portray specific information. In other words, he lies. Christopher Miller, in 'Blank Darkness' mentioned that this is a show of imperial confidence. It gives the colonial a sense of authority that comes from a declaration of greater know than the native could ever have. This was the imperialistic way. It was characteristic of the imperial discourse which, even through a bit of stretching, portrayed know - and this know gave them power over the land and its people. Colonialism is the rule over the lands of others. Colonial missionary work is the rule over the souls of the colonised. Was Heber cast in the coloniser's mould? He does hint at his complicity with colonialism in these lines of his hymn:
From many an ancient river,
From a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver
Their land from Error's chain.
Now that's insufferable. We, the dark-skinned know-nothings, calling, calling, come you white gods, come and show us the error of our ways, come and pound us for our own good, make us the clay you can shape. Oh, Heber was well aware of the linkages between Church and State. All missionaries did. They frequently canvassed for state support. The argument was: 'Once we convert them, make them feel that they share our faith, they will be loyal to the empire.' This was no ploy. It was accepted by the State as good commonsense. Heber himself canvassed the House of Commons, supporting William Wilberforce's Act to provide state assistance to establish Bishoprics in India and Ceylon. The missionaries were also not very pleased with the British India Company. They did all they could to oppose the Company and seek to have its influence spiked. The British India Company kept insisting that many of the Hindu and Mohammedan uprisings in India had been caused by missionary attempts to convert these people. It was a touchy point. Even the House of Commons was told that the colonies were in a state of unrest because of the missionaries. But Heber supported Wilberforce and eventually Wilberforce won, although, as was known, the man knew nothing of India or Ceylon and was merely going on the glowing reports fed to him by the missionaries.
Heber was also well aware of the native opposition to missionaries in Ceylon. The Missionary Journals even printed scathing reputations and criticisms of the State for signing the Kandyan Convention in 1815. No, as Lareef said, there was little to prove than any native in any land would actually beg the British to come, call to the missionaries to come and show them the light.
Let's get to two lines before those controversial lines:
What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle
Very specific know, but again, no truth in it. In fact, many were the travellers who came, hoping to catch these spicy breezes, and the best some of them could do was to ride to Cinnamon Gardens and sniff the cinnamon. In 'Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World' Mark Twain rhapsodised about these lines (1896):
'What though the spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle...an eloquent line, an incomparable line; it says little but conveys whole libraries of sentiment, and Oriental charm and mystery, and tropic deliciousness - a line that quivers and tingles with a thousand unexpressed and inexpressible things that haunt one and find no articulate voice...'
He added that he found the real Orient in Ceylon, a far cry from the diminished form of it in Egypt. It was all this idea of the exotic, the oriental places away from the dull commerce and industry of Victorian England and, for that matter, Victorian New England!
Then we come to the 'vile' lines. If Heber did write that all the men of Ceylon were vile, I doubt he would have had any supporters. Nor can these lines be supported. In 1985 Derrick Hughes, in 'Bishop Sahib: A Life of Reginald Heber' attempted to redeem the hymn by arguing that Heber invoked the word 'vile' simply to show that the land was contrastingly beautiful. Rather weak, that, but we must remember that Heber, to the missionaries, was very much loved and even considered a martyr to the missionary cause. As Lareef points out, this is no redemption at all. He says: 'First, the line 'only man is vile' does not enhance the appeal of the island conveyed in the preceding line. Second, sentiments such as 'benighted,' 'savage,' 'sinners.' Are repeated elsewhere in the hymn without similar contrasting conjugation. Third, Heber needed to portray the natives as vile to convince the congregations of the urgency of missionary work, as will be explained in the verse that follows.'
The verse is as follows:
In vain with lavish kindness
The gifts of God are strewn:
The savage in his blindness
Bows down to wood and stone.
It is also known that the European missionaries were much in praise of industriousness and the work ethic. They couldn't understand this native mentality to take things easy. They were quick to rebuke the Hindus in India as well as the Buddhists in Ceylon for being 'lazy' and 'easy-going.' They were also quite full of praise for the Mohammedans of India and the Tamils on Ceylon because they found that they were hard-working and enterprising. Naturally, shopkeepers like their hard-working slaves. Dickens has told us all about the sweatshop mentality. And this is no trite observation. In Sarath Pallyaguru's 'American Visions of Ceylon, 1814-1914' (in Proceedings of University of Pennsylvania Conference on Ceylon, 1967' this is quoted from 'Encyclopaedia of Missions, 1904';
'The Tamil is very industrious and enterprising, so far as that word can be applied to any tropical race. Probably few races on the globe possessed of civilization have greater listlessness and indifference, greater torpidity of intellect and conscience than the Sinhalese.
Is this how those early American missionaries saw this nation? In 1894, Maturin Ballou, an American, wrote in 'Pearl of India': 'as one regards the betel-chewing irresponsible children of the tropics idling in the shade of the palms, it does not seem strange that they should lead a sensuous life, the chief occupation of which are eating and sleeping. All humanity seems to be more or less torpid. There is no necessity to rouse man to action - effort is superfluous. The very bounty of nature makes the recipient dirty, lazy and heedless.'
Oh, oh! But who was there to tell these ardent, well-warped sowers of the seed that all the Sinhalese of old needed was a cow, a coconut tree and a jak tree? The problem is that they all marched in with their little pedal organs and their Bibles and shoved their holy paddles into a crystal pool and muddied it with such vigour that the mud hasn't still settled! But let us consider the way this all began. It was on the evening of May 29, 1819 that Heber wrote this hymn and at the request of his father-in-law at that. The father-in-law, Dean William Shipley, who was Vicar of the parish church of St. Giles in Wrexham, England, wanted the hymn to be sung at service the next morning. At the service, there would be collection made for the missionary organisations which were the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), to help in the work in Ceylon and other places.
Heber had, at that time, never visited Ceylon and there is no record of him ever having met a 'native' of Ceylon. But thoughts of Ceylon were strong in the minds of the missionaries. A year earlier, in 1818, the British had annexed the entire island after clever manipulation and causing dissension among the King of Kandy and his Chieftains. The Kandyan Convention had been signed and all the missionary-minded in England were much perturbed. The Convention had a clause that deemed the 'the religion of Buddhoo is inviolate' and this disturbed the missionaries no end. So Heber's hymn was 'highly appreciated' by the missionary movements both in England and America and, as we know, became so popular that it was sung for over a century in the churches everywhere. In America, it was set to music and circulated widely. At least five publishers brought out this hymn. There was W. Crane of England (1830), G & C. Carvill of New York (1827), S. Low & Marston in England (1870), and John Murray of London (1849 -12th edition). It was set to music in Boston and, in 1884, Porter and Coates of Philadelphia used the verses of the hymn as captions to twenty illustrations in a coffee-table book.
H. A. I. Goonetilleke ('images of Sri Lanka through American Eyes') mentioned many American visitors to this island in his preamble, and I will quote these 'images' if only to show how influential Heber's hymn has been:
'Heber's beautiful missionary poem associated the fragrance of this island that one keeps reluctant to break the bonds of genius which have thus bound them together, - but true it is that the spicy breezes are wafting only in the poet's imagination. (William Maxwell Wood, 1856).
'I had been humming 'Greenland's Icy Mountains' for several days previously about all that I knew of Ceylon's isle being contained in one of the verses of that hymn, which I used to sing at missionary meetings, where a minister who had seen the heathen was stared at as a prodigal asked our Ceylonese guide today whether he had heard of our most popular missionary hymn. 'Here is the verse about your beautiful isle.' The guide thought that 'the writer was a fool,,' and asked if anyone in my country believed that there was a man, woman or child in Ceylon who did not know better than to bow down to any power other than God. 'Yes,' I said, .'I once believed it myself and millions believe it today and good boys and girls save their pennies to send missionaries to tell these heathen who worship idols how very wrong and foolish it is to do so, and how angry the true God is to have anything worshipped but Himself.' He said our must be a very curious country, and he would like to visit it and see such queer people. I gave him my address and promised, if he would come to see me, to take him to a great missionary meeting where he could see the best and brightest and most religious people all greatly concerned about the idolators of Ceylon' (Andrew Carnegie, 1879).
'Four centuries have passed since Columbus and prosleytisation) and Christendomn is singing of the vileness of the Sinhalese, the most innocent people people on the face of the earth.'
(Moncure D. Conway, (188-84).
'Often in Ceylon, the words of the old missionary hymn that I had learnt as a child from other children came back to me, Man is not vile.... in this beautiful island, but gentle and patient and good. (Margaret Mordecai, 1924).
'How startled both my grandmother and I would have been if we could have foreseen, when I stood at her knee in the ground floor bedroom back of the parlour in an old New England parsonage, recit that hymn line by line, that would force itself to the front of my mind with a sort of uncanny significance a third of a century later, as I was approaching the spot that it was written about. For I have been to Ceylon's isle, and felt the softness of the breezes, and gazed upon its pleasing prospects, and beheld the lavish kindness with which the gifts of God are strewn. But I do not feel that these gifts are in vain or that any man I saw was vile; and though I have seen the heathen bowing down to wood and stone Ñ as my grandmother, no less the lines of the hymn would have expressed it - I would have put it in a different way.' (Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1926).
In 1992, American journalist William McGawan used the lines 'Only Man is Vile' as the title of his book on the conflicts of Sri Lanka. And, in writing about the Pettah, he said: 'Occasionally, the odour of spice dampened the putrefaction, but most of the time I was nauseated.'
As Lareef said, and I agree, 'This hymn was an example of the images that were constructed of the Orient in the imperial West almost always by the religious-minded. Reginald Heber was held as an exemplary Briton, Oxonian and Christian - ' Perhaps we should draw a picture of this man if only to consider the stuff he was made of. The second son of an aristocratic Yorkshire family, his father was the Reverend Reginald Heber, a conservative monarchist who was naturally opposed to the American struggle for independence and was horrified by the guillotining of Louis XV of France.
Taking a degree from Oxford in 1805, he prepared for the Church and upon taking holy orders, was instituted at Hodnet where he served the Ministry for 15 years. You will find all of the story in Hughes' 'Bishop Sahibu, but some things are worth the saying. When he was 26, he married the 22- year-old Amelia against his parents wishes. They lost their first daughter in 1818 and the grief at the death of the infant child may have been translated into missionary zeal. Heber was also infatuated with Charlotte, a neighbour, and continued to correspond with the girl despite Amelia's silent disapproval. In her account of Heber's life ('The Life of Reginald Heber, D.D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta,' 1830) Amelia studiously avoided mention of Charlotte except when unavoidable. When Heber died, among his possession was a handwritten poem to Charlotte:
Yes, I have nursed a secret love,
And still though weal and woe must bear it,
Death may to other worlds remove,
But from my bosom will not tear it
..........
No more my feelings I'll disguise,
No more my chastened passion smother,
............
Lareef insists that from all the evidence so far unearthed, Heber did write 'Ceylon' - not 'Java'. As he says, with this hymn, written for Dean Shipley and written for the specific purpose of galvanising people to give more and more for the missionary cause, it mattered little what 'heathen' country was castigated. An impression had to be made. People needed to be 'saved', brought into the 'true faith' and, as the final verses go:
Can we whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high-
Can we to men benighted
The lamp of light deny?
Salvation! O Salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation
Has learnt the Messiah's name.
Waft, waft ye winds His story,
And you, ye waters roll,
Till o'er our ransom'd nature
The Lamb for sinners slain'
Redeemer, King, Creator,
In bliss returns to reign.
'Undoubtedly,' says Lareef, 'Heber's beliefs that the West had the monopoly on wisdom, light and truth found resonance in these congregations as did the notion that the blighted heathens needed the providence of those 'with wisdom from on high' to Im them from savagery. Ceylon's isle was changed to Java's isle later as it rhymed better with the metre of the score. It did not matter that Reginald had never visited Java nor met a single Javanese either.'
Appointed Bishop of Calcutta, Heber sailed for India on the 16th, of June. In his memoirs he held strong opinions on the ways of the Hindus: 'many of the ancient and sanctified customs of the Hindoos are marked with great cruelty..... widow burning, human sacrifices at the holy places near Calcutta.
After that, it is hardly worth while to go on to show that the crimes of rape and violence and theft are very common or the tendency of lying. l would urge that the system of religion is greatly responsible... (they should be) encouraged to read and assisted as far as possible... to acquire a custom of our customs and laws and to imitate our habits and examples.' At the same time he deplored the conduct of the rougher Englishmen who were neither habit nor example.
They were, 'the most brutal scamps the sun ever shone on.'
After he made contact with David, a Malabari who had been for many years a catechised in Ceylon, Heber preached, urging his congregation to '...... bear witness Ceylon, where the Cross has in large measure lost its reproach and the nobles of the land are gradually assuming, without scruples, the attire, the language and the religion of the Englishman.'
So, in 1825 he came to Ceylon. No, he could not catch the spicy breezes of his hymn. Amelia and he had to drive to Cinnamon Gardens for the 'spicy aroma' of crushed cinnamon leaf! But what of his hymn? 'In 1819 he could bring himself to describe Ceylon based on hearsay,' Lareef says, 'In 1825, notwithstanding the extravagantly lavish reception he had received from the natives, he did not rectify the portrait of vileness and savagery. One wonders whether it was dishonesty that prevented Heber from attempting to revise the impressions he had propagated or whether he honestly believed his own image of Ceylon or whether it was because such caricatures brought more money in the collections after service.'
On returning to Calcutta, he wrote to his mother (see 'The Lives of Missionaries, Vol. 2: Heber, 1863'): 'Christianity has made perhaps a greater progress in Ceylon than in all India ...those who are still heathen are professedly worshippers of Buddha, but by the greater part reverence nothing but the devil, to whom they offer sacrifices by night, that he may do no harm.'
So what can we say now? Would Dr. R. L. Brohier rethink his impressions of Bishop Heber if he had seen these results of the 'detective work'? It is a fact that in the Christian literature of the late 1800's and early 1900's, both the imperialists and the missionaries had this tendency to portray the natives as primitive and barbaric. As Lareef says, 'the imperialists emphasised the primitiveness and the missionaries emphasised the barbarity. Missionaries needed to exaggerate moral turpitude among the Orientals to justify their overseas operations.' This is also supported by American writer the Reverend Miron Winslow ('Address on the Evening Prior to the Sailing of the Rev. Miron Winslow, Levi Spaulding, Henry Woodward and Dr. John Scudder', 1819). Thus, Lareef adds, 'Heber's hymn deftly accomplishes the agenda of evoking native barbarity and of articulating a divine behest for the parishoners to contribute money.'
F. F. C Ludowyk, in 'The Eighteenth Century Background of Early English Writers on Ceylon' (Ceylon Historical Journal) said that the diffusion of western ideas is a recurring theme in 18 Century literature. Heber evinces Christianity being wafted and rolled in the winds (Waft, ye waft, winds His story/And you, ye waters, roll) and in the waters without external agency. But later, Lareef points out, (and he cites James L. Barton: 'notes on India - Success, Peculiarities, Incidents' 1902) when proselytisation faltered, warfare and destruction became new metaphors. As Barton wrote: 'Christianity, the mightiest of missionary religions, is engaged in a struggle with the greatest of ethnic faiths. Never before did our faith meet so doughty and subtl a foe. Neither Roman law and rule nor Greek philosophy and ideals were comparable to the mighty powers which Hinduism is putting forth today... For centuries, Christianity has conducted this war...'
Yasmine Gooneratne, in 'English Literature in Ceylon 1815-1872 (Ceylon Historical Journal), has quoted a piece from the 'Wesleyan Mission' in this country: '...the idols should be dishonoured and thrown and they who worship them shall tread on them and the worship of demons shall gradually sink into decay and eternal oblivion.'
Heber's hymn, says Lareef, is complicit in the imperial exercise although it pretends to be oblivious of it 'Its representations of geography, its characterisations of natives, its characterisation of the missionary negotiation with the Orient, its prevarications and duplicity, and its strained language arise from missionary engagement with the imperial project.'
It would not be right to dismiss this 'detective work' and ignore all it has to say. My readers will recall that I was remembering encounters with a great man and a scholar and I thought it well to remember him and do him honour. But research will move, go forward, and as the world around us shrinks, more and more comes to light. I welcome all who may have more to say on this subject and help erase, for all time, the way this nation was 'written' 180 years ago. That's a long time to allow the abuse to rankle!
The wailing woman of Namunukula
By Godwin Vitane
Long before we got Independence, I was carrying out a Nutrition Survey at a remote village called Mausagolla, along with four other colleagues of similar-rank as myself. The mountain Namunukula was looming large above the lesser hills in the Haputale Namunukula range, dark green in appearance silhouetted against the bright sky. It is 2036 metres high and presented an imposing sight from where we stayed. The Menik Ganga which is 114 Kilometres long rose from the heights of this mountain. There were many a tale in village lore connected with this majestic mountain.The villagers believed that there haunted a female spirit called Mohini at the summit of this mountain that no one dared to climb it in fear of this ghost. I had a keen desire to climb this mountain but the elderly villagers dissuaded me from taking such a step. The legend goes to say that a certain young farmer boy had fallen in love with the comely daughter of a rich and influential officer of the area. The girl too having seen the young man returning from the field had in turn a liking for the youth and they both one day had secretly fled to the Jungle mountain summit of Namunukula mountain and lived there happily as husband and wife.
After some time the woman had borne a child and soon after the man had got a skin eruption all over his body that however much they crushed various jungle leaves and applied on his wounds there was no cure and he was shouting in pain and was sprawled on, the ground. They lived on jungle fruits, berries and yams gathered from the forest. When the wife returned after scouring the forest for food she saw a heart rending gory sight. The husband was being swallowed by a huge python and there was left only a small fraction of his body to complete the reptile's prey. The woman devoid of any help being unable to do anything ran here and there crying out that she herself fell dead. Finally their bodies became food for the worms and was added to the soil.
The story passed round that this beautiful woman appears as an apparition at the summit of the mountain carrying a child. therefore no one dared to climb this mountain. Inspite of the protestations of the village folk I managed to round up six lads and a grown up man from the village to accompany me in undertaking this arduous task.
On 6th May I941 having had an early lunch we proceeded to the foot of the mountain and crossing a small patch of a tea plantation at the base of the mountain on one side entered the forest at 2.30 in the afternoon. We carried with us a small suitcase containing a few pounds of sweet potatoes, a husked coconut and some buns. We also carried a saucepan, a cup and two mats on which to recline.
It was dense jungle with thick undergrowth and there was no trace of any foot path except the low passage formed by the wild buffaloes that abound in the forest. One could not walk erect through these passages but had to bend low, sometimes walk on all fours except in places where there was rocky terrain from where we could see the sky. The trees were tall and closely entwined,that the sun's rays hardly fell on the ground. The Menik Ganga which started at the woody heights was only a small stream. Its crystal water refreshed us immensely.
After about an hour's walking,we realised that we were walking in a circle, parellal to the base on the body of the mountain. We retraced our steps on to the correct path with much difficulty. There seated by the side of the stream we cleaned a silver coin in the fresh water and tying it in a piece of cloth made an offering to whatever gods to protect us and direct us on the correct path.
Every moment we anticipated an encounter with the wild buffaloa but to our luck no such animal confronted us on the journey. We rested at every thousand feet or so and resumed the climb that by 5.30 in the evening we reached the summit where all around we could see the country in glorious spectacle. At the summit the vegetation reduced to stunted trees with pendant mosses.
There was a flat round table constructed with small boulders of rock in the centre of which was planted a pole. We gathered that it was a trignometrical point raised by the early surveyors who measured the mountain. There was flat land at the summit of about an acre spread with white silicon sand. We also found a few pits in white sand containing crystal clear water at about two feet depth. We were happy over this find as we were thoroughly exhausted. There was a mild breeze that refreshed us and at time small clouds encircled us also some resting on the bushes.
To our surprise there was the framework of a hut the roof of which we covered with small bamboo plants cut out from the thickly grown bushes at the top. This provided us with a roof to rest under. Our next enterprise was to collect fallen dry branches of trees including heavy logs in order to have a bon fire to keep us warm from the chilly and invigourating air. By dark we lighted the bon fire that kept away any wild beasts if any and lighted the whole place. This fire could have been seen by people far away.
We boiled the sweet potatoes and ate it with the broken up coconut. We had icy water from the wells for drinking. The night was spent very happily in front of the fire that burnt throughout the night and some of the boys reclined on the floor over the mats.We got up before the glimmer of day break and looked towards the East to watch the glorious sun rise which surpassed that seen from Adam's Peak.There was a small rusty iron trident fixed on the pedestal.
Before enjoying the balance sweet potatoes left overnight we stuck a boiled potato on the fork of the trident as an offering to the unknown gods. Having enjoyed the remaining potatoes from the sauce pan and drinking cold water we commenced the return journey through the same scrubby jungle and high forest growth that by 10.30 in the morning we were back at the base of the mountain. There were people in the village of Namunukula and Mausagolla anxiously waiting our return. They were happy that we came unscatched after the adventurous climb. The first people in recent times to break the superstitious barrier and invade the peace of this mountain were this motly crowd.
Rise up! sleepy town of Galle!
The Dutch constructed huge ramparts and
an enchanting Fort, which forms a landmark
in Galle, that gives splendour to the town.Centuries ago when Lanka was ruled by the Sinhalese Kings, 'Gaalla' or Galle was the old world's romantic city which owed its glory to its natural harbour. This picturesque seaside resort was the centre of trade in olden days, because of its strategic position, where sailing vessels laden with merchandize from the Western countries of Egypt, Persia, Arabia and the Eastern China, Malaysia and Singapore converged.
The traders bartered their goods with the produce of this country, which was reputed for its spices, gems and pearls. In the markets of the city there were gems comprising of Saffires, rubies, cat's eye and semi precious gems as tourmaline, amethysts and moon stones. The people of Galle prospered with the sale of exquisite curios made of tortoise shell, ebony, porcupine quills and elephants' tusks. Even today a semblance of this trade is found attracting tourists. Besides traders and entrepeneurs, there are records of visits by important personages, such as Ibn Batuta, the Arabic traveller from Morocco, Fa Hein from China and Marco Polo from the West. This town got its name as 'Gaalla' in the native tounge due to the large number of bullock carts that entered there and were stalled in one place. The locality where there were more numbers of carts and bulls stationed was called 'Maagalla' or Magalle.
In 1505, Lorenzo De Almeida, the son of the Viceroy of Goa set foot in Galle accidentally when his fleet of ships on the way to the Maldive islands caught in a great storm at sea was compelled to take refuge in this harbour. Thereafter he wrested the Galle harbour from the Sinhalese and were the first Europeons to set foot on the island and make extensive contact with the Sri Lankans. They constructed a barricade enclosing the projection of the land towards the sea and fortified it with a moat to avoid attack from the mainland. However by and by they conquered the whole of the sea coast border and finally established their government except in the Hill Country. They forced their religion, Catholicism on the innocent natives and ruled with an iron hand until the Dutch defeated them in 1640 and took over reigns of government. The long conquest of the island by the Portuguese and intervention between them and the Sri Lankans has left several sociocultural imprints on this country. The Portuguese stamp is particularly strong in the language, religion, education, administration, food, dress, names, music and drama. The surnames perera, Silva and Peiris and personal names peduru, Franciscu, Juvan, Singho, Don and Dona are some of them. Baila music was first introduced here by the Portuguese.
The Dutch drew away the Portuguese and persecuted them until they left these shores. The Dutch constructed huge ramparts and an enchanting Fort which forms a landmark in Galle that gives splendour to the town. They planned a township inside the fort with criss cross roads and low roofed houses with massive walls and large doors and windows. They constructed an underground system of brick paved sewers, which was flushed by the action of the tides in the sea that surrounded the walls of the fort. They built a large church, which is called The Dutch Reformed Church that stands well even upto this day. It was after 140 years of rule that the Dutch ceded the country to the British in 1876. The British inaugurated a pipe borne water service from Hiyare with a reservoir at Beke to supply the town with water. But electricity was introduced to the town only in 1926 with a power station at Talbot Town in China Garden. The Law Courts and the Kachcheri are situated within the fort while the Civil Hospital is at Mahamodera. A modern Hospital was constructed by Sri Lanka government at Karapitiya to supplement the Mahamodera Hospital as it was difficult to maintain the equipment and the Theatres in good use due to the effect of the sea opposite. Galle is fortunate that nature has gifted it with enchanting natural features in the form of a safe harbour, the mountain of Rumassala, called Bouna Vista by the British and the promontory called Clossenberg jutting out into the sea at Magalle. Bouna Vista affords a magnificent view of the Galle harbour, the Fort and the surrounding area. According to legend Rumassala is a chunk of the Himalayan mountain brought by Hanuman, the monkey General of Rama. When Rama was at war with Rawana, the Raksha king of Lanka after the latter's abduction of Sita Devi, wife of Rama, introduced a poisonous gas to the battle field which caused Rama to faint and fall down. When Rama fell unconscious, Hanuman remembered that on the Himalayan mountain there grew a herb which was an efficacious remedy to revive the striken. Thither he forthwith flew but unable to locate the herb in his impatient hurry tore off a large slice of ground from the Himalayas, which he was sure contained the herb and flew with it post haste to Lanka. After locating the herb it was quickly administered to the sufferer who was immediately revived. Thereafter the chunk of mountain was thrown away which ultimately fell off Galle harbour and this promontory is now known as Rumassala, where a variety of medicinal plant is still believed to be in extant.
Clossenberg is an area of high ground projecting into the sea at Magalle. A British sea faring officer called Captain Bailey in taking a fancy for this delightful promontory bought it from the government in 1859. He built a beautiful house there with spacious rooms and large doors and windows where the lintels are in the shape of half moon, and with low roof covered with local tiles.
In front of this house is a large garden lined with coconut and palmyrah trees and elegantly laid out seats and resting places. Clossenberg faces the open sea and Bouna Vista on the East. From here could be seen the Galle Fort with the towering Light House and Clock Tower and the spire of the Anglican Church. The sea around affords safe sea bathing. After Captain Baily relinquished this house, a local businessman and planter, Simon Perera Abeywardena, son in law of the Moratuwa Philanthrophist C. H. de Soysa bought this residence where he lived until his demise. The present owner is his grand son who runs the place as a popular Guest House. The locals still call this place 'Baly Kanda'.
Present day Galle is shedding its melancholy gloom. The development of the Tourist Trade is bringing in Foreign Exchange that a number of Five Star Hotels have come up within the town. Galle's Cricket Stadium has been recognised internationally affording prominence to Galle.
Freeways and access control roads - Can we afford or do we need them?
Sri Lanka is an island with a maximum length of 435 kilometres in the north-south direction and a maximum width of 240 kilometres in the east-west direction. The country is densely populated with over 18 million living in an area of 65,525 square kilometres. At present except the war zone between Jaffna peninsula and Vavuniya and the protected sanctuaries the country is fairly densely populated.
Hence any road or highway linking A with B has a large population to serve in- between. The country has approximately 100,000 kilometres of road network including 11,147 kilometres of national roads under the Road Development Authority (RDA) while the rest is under the Provincial Councils, Local Authorities and certain government agencies.
Freeways, motorways and access control roads are now mushrooming all over the world in developed and developing countries where larger distances are to be travelled in shorter times and where the countries are sufficiently large in extent so that these high speed roads are geographically permissible. Unfortunately the advisers to the government of this country have not realised the fact that in this country there is no distance between A and B which could not be covered within few hours at a manageable speed of 60 km.
The travel time on a road is governed by the travel speed plus how easily the vehicles are able to pass through intersections and town- centres. When the roads are congested the travel times increase.
Congestion at intersections do not necessarily mean the roads are over capacity
Roads becoming over capacity and traffic congestion at intersections and town-centres are two different scenarios. If roads go over capacity new alternative highways have to be constructed. When the problem is congestion at intersections and town centres the answer is proper traffic management at those congested areas and insisting on road discipline. It seems that advisers to the government have mixed up these priorities. They tend to promote the idea of freeways or access control roads as a solution to congestion at intersections and town centres. But when thinking from a traffic engineering view point there are more economical and better solutions to ease traffic congestion other than building freeways in this country.Following is a list of some available low cost options using traffic engineering techniques to improve our main arterial roads. The rationale should be to concentrate on making the best use of the roads that exist before launching on unaffordable freeways in this country.
1. More over passes and grade separations at congested intersections
2. Introduction of by-passes in busy town centres
3. More road discipline to relieve driver stress
4. Better traffic management schemes at congested areas
5. Measures to improve through-puts at intersections
6. Signalised intersections - (instead of ad-hoc traffic signals coordinated and traffic flow responsive signalised systems at busy city centres)
7. Introduction of area traffic control systems
8. Regularise parking on existing roads; specially in congested areas.
9. Create opportunities for more off-road parking
10. Clear zones and no parking stretches along town centres
11. Stress on parking requirements when approving multistorey commercial buildings (basements and ground floors to be used for parking only)
12. Introduction of heavy spot fines on bus drivers obstructing the traffic flow (blocking two lanes when loading passengers)
13. Implement strict lane discipline (swapping of lanes, driving on two lanes, driving on opposite directional lanes should be strictly prohibited)
14. Take necessary action to phase-out unsafe and undisciplined vehicles (such as three-wheelers which have very sharp turning circles that encourage violation of lane discipline) from our roads.
15. Whenever possible to encourage container movement and cargo handling to be done on railway (Colombo-Katunayake on Puttalam rail line and Colombo-Matara on Matara line).
16. Educate drivers - encourage defensive driving
17. Encourage road discipline
18. Treat black spots and improve bottle necks
Congestion at town centres and poor driving practices seem to be the main traffic problems in this small island. Congestion leads to delays and inconvenience for every body and causes major inefficiency in the road network causing a burden on the economy. Some experts may see this problem as too many motor vehicles and others may see as not enough roads. But unfortunately in this country the advisers to the government seem to be seeing this problem as 'not enough freeways'.
When the real problem is caused due to mix-management of roads specially at intersections the answer is not the freeway. The classic example is the proposed Colombo-Katunayake expressway. One should always think that saving 15 minutes by driving at 100 kmh along the freeway instead of 60 kmh on an arterial road for a distance around 25 kms, what ultimate gain is there when the roads in Colombo are congested and if it takes another 1 hour to travel from Peliyagoda to Maharagama or Ratmalana.
Why freeways are costly than arterial roads?
Freeways are required when connecting large cities sufficiently distant and roads have to run across large areas of thinly populated open extents. This type of situation is scarce in this country. These high speed roads are designed for speeds (in excess of 100 kmh) where the design requirements are much higher than a good arterial road. It should be remembered that these high speed highways are costlier than good arterial roads due to the following reasons:1. High overall construction costs
2. Required quality of the construction materials are high - Hence cost demanding
3. Access control costs (fencing and railing along the freeway throughout)
4. Additional road accessories such as electronic speed indicators, high quality road signs and greater in numbers than required in an arterial road, costly toll booths, lane markings, cat eyes, reflectors, communication systems for breakdowns, and many more
5. Costly overpasses and under passes at all the cross-roads
6. High standard bridges and drainage culverts are much costlier than similar structures on arterial roads
7. High maintenance costs (high level of maintenance is required otherwise may lead to costly accidents)
8. High cost interchanges
9. Excessive fillings and cuttings (large amounts of earth work) to maintain the required gradients enable to have the expected high speeds
10. Costs required for embankment protection treatment is more costly than in arterial roads.
Why the rulers prefer freeways?
The thinking of our advisers to the government is easy to understand. The rationale is simple; when there is congestion, build more roads to accommodate the vehicles. These new roads to be prestigious schemes and politically to be visible, freeways can be the answer. Since small scale improvements are not politically visible the advisers think of the biggest way - the freeway.Freeways can be justified if the country is economically sound and when the majority of people do have vehicles which are fit to travel on freeways and can afford to pay the tolls. Where the majority of people cannot afford to have freeway fit vehicles but only have bicycles, three- wheelers, poor conditioned cars, diesel vans and buses or no vehicles at all, will they ever justify freeways going across their villages for them to be staring at the speeding vehicles on the freeway with gaping mouths.
Freeway from Colombo to Jaffna
Since the advisers to the governmeent seem to be fond of freeways so much, why not plan to build a Colombo - Jaffna freeway (FRIENDSHIP FREEWAY). If the situation of the country can be brought back to normal a freeway connecting Colombo with Jaffna running along the middle of the country (not the RDA proposed freeway along the coast through Wilpattu) might be able to justify the first freeway in the country. If built, this freeway will help to keep a close contact with Jaffna, strengthen goodwill and keep unity of the country as the name suggests. The other main roads such as roads to Trincomalee, Mannar, etc. may be made to branch off from the Friendship freeway.
