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Morning Spice by Ginger
Video parlours - the basic cause of all our social ills?If you have a tendency to be a voyeur you will get it clobbered out of your system by the state-a good thing too as a lot of minor (or are they major) sins could follow from this tendency to be tickled by what is lewd and vulgar... According to another weekend paper the government is to come down hard on video parlours. We do not know whether this is as a result of video parlours not paying G.S.T. or because some serious social evils go on under the ''umbrella of these parlours'' let's hope they knock their spokes off in the ''show down'' that is to come.
The public in fact has been a bit remiss in not actively engaging these palour owners in a head-on confrontation. They have been too busy being over anxious over such trifling issues as murder, large scale robbery, rape and bribery and corruption. The main thing is to get to first things, and keep the glands of the average Sri Lankan in check and then everything will fall into place. Visiting sleazy video parlours is not going to help in the war against crime. So we might as well get them raided as often as possible till they close down or pay their G.S.T. depending on the objectives of the state.
Mikail Markhasev
When an unrepentant racist is sentenced to life for murder he will find little sympathy from anyone other than from those who have the same sickness that he has. Take the case of that nineteen year Ukranian Mikail Markhasev. He was convicted of the murder of Bill Cosby's son Ennis.The killer was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole by a Californian court. Now this killer would have few friends calling over to see him as he had told his fellow university students that he was the one who had killed Ennis and that he did it for racial reasons.
Cure for AIDS patients
For a moment hopes were high that the region that first spread the AIDS virus would find the cure for the disease as well. The chief government scientist Professor Arthur Obel claimed to have found a remedy that could not only stop the progress of the disease but also reverse the process.However Obels amber coloured liquid cure did not impress the powers that be and the Kenyan authorities prohibited the sale of the drug on the grounds that so far there had been no evidence that it had any effect on the virus. This charge was backed by other scientists as well.
University examinations - a black hole?
Examinations serve many purposes in our lives. They take us from one step to another by degrees. In the primary grades, each lesson is a kind of informal test and there is gradual upward progress. In secondary school along with informal tests there are half yearly and end of year tests on a more formal pattern. National examinations are also held even for young children around year 4 where a high level of performance qualifies a student for admission to prestigious schools.
The higher national examinations such as GCE O/L and A/Ls determine whether a student could enter university or not. School examinations however insignificant, are carried out under certain organised systems, and the majority of teachers however humble, are guided by a set of unwritten rules or ethical conduct. Once an examination or test is held and the papers marked, the next step is one that every teacher does before the marks are handed in to the office or to a class teacher. The teacher regards it as a sacred duty to hand the papers back to the students and see if all is well. Often a classroom period goes for this exercise but it is a welcome and happy one, which is enjoyed by both students and teachers.
The marking scheme is clearly there to see. They compare the answers and convince themselves. This is transparency at its very best providing an informal method through which students know what they have done wrong and the teacher actively clears any doubts in their minds. The students even go over the additions and see if all parts of the answers are duly marked. For teachers are not infallible and often there are errors. These are rectified in the true spirit of acknowledging an error.
Whatever weaknesses exist, even at the two national examinations, GCE O/Ls and A/L's even where the numbers are very large, there is a laid down system of rescrutiny of papers and the students have the right to challenge the grades they have obtained if their assessment is different. I know at least one student whose grades changed both at O'Ls and at A/Ls; for Sinhala from a credit (C) to a Distinction (D) at O/Ls; and for English from grade C to B at A/Ls. An intelligent student is able to assess his/her performance fairly accurately no sooner he/she sits a test. There must be at all levels in the system of education, the provision for review.
Let the students be even required to pay for such service so that frivolous requests are not made by everyone. Some very learned and highly respected academics of the past always followed this rule of thumb - this unwritten law of all honest teachers' to let the students see the marked papers. It could never be a wrong method. In contrast, we now see a very secretive policy of marking answer scripts at university level. Excuses and explanations cannot hide what goes on. I am aware of how a second marking goes on.
The first examiner marks the scripts and passes them to a second examiner. Often the second examiner is another colleague or the head of the department who puts down the signature at the bottom of the marks sheet as a formality. No real second marking occurs. Sometimes the word is sent around that papers are sent out of the country. It is a highly questionable matter as the places that are mentioned are none other than those where some of the academics have connections with.
Dishonesty reigns supreme, as there is covert handling and cover up tactics. Students are kept in the dark about all matters pertaining to their answer scripts. The faculty have a notion that these answer scripts are their private property and students must dare not trespass. I once knew a teacher in a prestigious school who was in the habit of not marking any answer scripts or assignments. But when it was time to hand in marks to the respective class teachers he would give a neatly done marks sheet. The students never saw their scripts after they were handed in.
As there was strong suspicion about this misconduct, the principal, a highly respected and stately man, set a trap and unearthed the bundle of unmarked scripts from a cupboard. This was after the teacher had submitted a neat marks sheet for these same papers. The master was never seen in that school thereafter. |There is also the story of how marks are interchanged by teachers or other officials. This happened even in the examinations department some years ago and the offender - a top official, was convicted in courts. There could still be such individuals roaming the face of the earth. So long as there is no accountability or transparency in the system of university examinations these offenders will be safe.
I remember a time when ragging was at an uncontrollable level in universities. There was a lot of talk about university autonomy and that law enforcers have no right to interfere. Yet, what is happening now? Offenders are dealt with, the way they should be. So also should it be for examination offences committed by university staff.
The detailed descriptions of conduct expected of students at examinations given in university handbooks is certainly hilarious because of the manner it conveniently omits the other side of the story.
What of erratic questions, how must a student cope with such situations? What allowances will be made for such errors? Students have been penalised because the teacher responsible for the paper was no longer there and the one who marked the papers was unaware or did not care enough.
It is always the students who are at the receiving end of all this harassment. Woe betide the student who challenges a result. He must grin and bear; accept as gospel what the teachers say and not utter a word. That is how most university dons want the young men of this country to behave; without a backbone, without a head
Srima P. Warusawithana
Nugegoda
Who helps these hapless women ?
More indignation has been worked up than most people could contain relative to the murder of Mrs. Rita Manoharan. No one can say anything about it except condemn it in full.
Does it take a prominent person's death and rape etc. for the people of Lanka to stand up and shout. How often do these happen in our remote villages and hidden hamlets, who does anything about it, who cares?
Many a servant girl, fashionably called domestic help undergoes rape, if one has sex against the wife's wishes (legitimately married woman) it too is constituted rape. How many young women go abroad in search of money and are raped by so many. As any Labour Official who has served in the Embassies of the Middleast, will tell you of the unreported and unwept cases of rape.
Anyway lot of folk are shouting their heads off regarding poor late Rita, a new bride on her honeymoon here.
According D. I. G. Kotakedeniya the laws we have are adequate to deal with rapists and so on. But the persons sitting in judgement do not give stiff enough punishment. The jail terms and/or fines, etc. are inadequate. O.K. we will accept this. Take your minds back to a decade or so when the High Court Judge, at Matara, I believe, if my memory serves me right, gave lashes or rattaning to some offender, what a fuss was made about it by so very many. This is where the rub lies. Punishment when meteted out is wicked, heartless, barbaric, cruel and so on. The public of this country are worse than a weather cock, they change as the wind blows. When a cattle thief is brought to the copshop with the head and entrails of a slaughtered animal what a hue and cry our compassionate people make. When a pickpocket is given a thrashing what a sin it is. Brutality is the word, when Rajasingha our last King had the head of the Ehelepola kids pounded in a mortar it was considered cruel, He (Rajasingha) did not invent this punishment, it was in the statute, the Wada Thisdeka (thirty two forms of torture) some would like it introduced now. Not only the busybodies here we may even have A. I. and other humane society types will object from all over the world.
One will recall the recent American Chappie who was to get 6 strokes of the cane in Singapore, the fuss made about this was so great. Mind you it was an American boy who was to be caned, had it been a black, browner yellow fellow it would not have mattered. How many persons are lashed and other cruelties inflicted upon in the Middle East, as long as they Asiatics it again does not matter.
This time the clergy, the saffron robes, white robes, etc. have not a any noise yet, but a bunch of pschychos had picketed against the lawyers appearing for the suspects. Mind you, suspects are not people found guilty. Will these people who picketed do the same for those who defend blackmarketeers, kappan karayans, pagakarayas and other evil doers.
Will those who are interested help the women who have been raped here and elsewhere without taking undue advantage. Will even now these do gooders demand explanations from those who had rapists pardoned by Presidents., if they do so this society will really turn around.
Milroy A. P. Bulathsinhalage
Colombo 5.
According to a news item in the press at the last Special Traffic Committee Meeting chaired by the Mayor, it had been suggested that Dalada Veediya be permanently closed to vehicular traffic and the area declared 'high security'. It was further reported that in view of this suggestion the Mayor had written to the Minister of Highways and Transport to widen and improve alternative routes.
The terrorists who wanted to embarrass the nation achieved their objective when they blasted a bomb in front of the Maligawa some time back. Declaring the area a high security zone now, almost a year later and closing Dalada Veediya is a clear case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Kandy today is a small congested city which cannot afford to keep any roads closed.
The citizens of this town had nothing to do with the bomb blast, hence why penalise them by permanently closing the town's main thoroughfare and adding to its congestion and inconveniencing the citizens and pilgrims visiting the town.
The Mayor was elected by the citizens of this city to look after their interests, hence he should be in the forefront of agitation to get this road opened and bring life back to normal in the city. He should now take up this issue with the custodian of the Maligawa and the Deputy Minister of Defence and get the road opened in the interests of the citizens. We are confident the Deputy Minister of Defence will rise to the occasion and ensure the safety of the Maligawa wiithout closing Dalada Veediya.
Ananda Pilimatalauwe
Pilimatalawe
Silent treatment- university style
How long does it take for a Vice Chancellor of a University to send a reply or at least an acknowledgement to letters sent by a student and his parents on an important issue that affects his whole life?
How long does it take for the Dean of a Faculty to send an acknowledgement or a reply to a letter sent by parents regarding certain malpractices within a department under this Dean? The letters mentioned above were sent over one month ago. They list many serious points which must be taken into account and inquired into. Instead what parents and students receive from those who are considered responsible academics, is total silence. There is callous disregard for the feelings of students who have been victims of a sin-filled system of university examinations. The university teachers as a group do not want anyone to talk or make too much noise.
M. P. Warusawithana,
Maharagama.
A reply to Citizen D
Nail those canards about Indian estate labour'Citizen D' in his very chauvinistic critique ('Gross violation of Sinhala Human rights,' Island 'Opinion' 2/11/98 Page 5) of Nirmalan Dhas' letter, re-exhumes several old canards that are still beloved to intolerant majoritarian hearts.
Kindly allow me to point out the fatal flaws in his arguments. The accusation that hordes of 'innocent Sinhala Buddhist peasants' were thrown off their 'purana' private property by the 'cruel' British colonial government is simply an outrageous distortion and exaggeration of the facts.
The bulk of the land used for coffee, tea and rubber cultivation (plantations) used to be virgin mountain rainforest.
The only 'crime' was the great damage done to the ecology of the fragile regional environment.
It was fortunate that a distinguished visiting naturalist warned the governor of the time and saved our mountain rainforest from total extinction.
There were some semi nomadic peasants indulging in the notoriously soil depleting slash and burn 'chena' cultivation who were forced to abandon their way of life and settle down in villages. This is government policy to this day.
The Tamil labourers were imported from India because the locals disliked the regimented rain drenched hard work that were the conditions of plantation work.
The guarantee of imported rice and the provision of tin line rooms, schools and medical clinics etc were not enough to balance the scales as far as they were concerned.
Another factor may have been the ridicule of nationalist monks that it was 'Infra-Dig' for 'son's of the soil' to work as 'coolie's' for the 'suddha'.
The fact remains that it was the hard, low cost work of these so called 'aliens' which enabled the crown colony of Ceylon to pay for its good network of roads, the excellent Ceylon Government Railway, the modern harbours, hospitals, clinics and last but not least the wide spread system of schools and colleges.
It should not be forgotten that there were no IMFs, World Banks and Asian Banks etc those days!
We were the envy of the natives of less developed Asian nations like Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, Singapore(!) and Thailand etc.
Of course gems, graphite, coconut, spices etc played their part, but it was the 'Indian Tamil' worked tea and rubber plantations that provided the lion's share of our revenue.
This happy situation lasted until about 1956. After that race riots, repatriation, land reform and the disastrous nationalisation started to kill off the 'goose that laid the golden eggs.'
Today there are only a few ancients who were born in India, amongst the plantation Tamils. The vast majority of them (and their parents) were born and bred in this country.
To keep calling them 'aliens' is inaccurate and a gross injustice.
After all did not 'Citizen D's ancient forefather's come from India?
Prince Vijaya and his merryment (royal and aristocratic youth offenders!) were the first 'Kalathonees'.
There are very valid reasons for the upcountry Tamils to insist on separate schools and grama sevaka divisions etc it is a routine occurrence, for these poor people to be treated with indifference, hostility and contempt by government agencies.
Separate GS divisions and even a 'Commissioner of Plantation Tamils' will go a long way in reversing this appalling situation.
The plantation Tamils are a Tamil speaking community and cannot be forced to study in the Sinhalese medium (however they very much like to study it as second language).
Besides which the Sinhalese students and their parents will surely protest if the Sinhalese schools are suddenly swamped by thousands of plantation kids. There will be a similar reaction if the estate Tamils were dumped in the villages. I wish to point out to people like 'Citizen D' who make wild accusations about an 'Eelam' like 'Malayanadu', being secretly planned, that in 1976 when the TULF opted for a separatist agenda (the infamous 'Vaddukodai Resolution') Mr. Thondaman's Ceylon Workers Congress opposed the 'Tamil Eelam' project and broke away and teamed up with the UNP.
I urge all those who are anxious to learn the truth about the history of the plantation Tamils and their sad plight to read the superb classic the 'Undesirables' by the highly respected Swedish sociologists Yvonne Fries and Thomas Bibins.
This is an unbiased, neutral account that is now regarded by scholars as the definitive work on this subject.
They expose the cold blooded and immoral way some majority community leaders started stirring up the dark cauldron of ethnic hatred in the highlands as far back as the 1920s and 1930s.
Ironically most of these 'statesman' (like SWRD) considered themselves to be 'socialist' and 'progressive'.
Paranoid cries about the dangers of a 'Malabar Kingdom' being created in the hills and 'destroying the Kandyans' began to cause the ugly head of racism to bear its foul self.
Incidentally when an estate Tamil innocently talks about 'Malainadu' he literally mean's 'hill country'. It is the same as a Sinhalese using the word 'udarata'.
There is nothing sinister in this.
Over the years there have been anti Indian Tamil riots in 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983 there have been many more small 'mini riots'.
The plantation Tamils have had their pathetic line rooms torched and looted, their belongings robbed, their females gang raped on a mass scale and their menfolk savagely assaulted and on many occasions killed.
Despite all of this they have on the whole refused to throw their considerable weight behind the LTTE's 'Tamil Eelam' campaign. (The Tigers have spared no effort to try and persuade them).
All they have ever wanted was the citizenship of this land of their birth and to live amongst their Sinhalese brethren as equal human beings (nothing more, nothing less).
Many have inter married with the Sinhalese and all are (at the very least) fluent in spoken Sinhalese.
'Citizen D' warns of dire consequences in the plantation Tamils do not accept that they are 'aliens' and give up such absurd demands.
He rumbles on about the Sinhalese being threatened in their 'homelands' and 'forced to fight for survival' in the hills!
He (some what melodramatically) predicts 'volcanic eruption's' in the highlands that the government would not be able to control and that 'the (Kandyan) worm' was about to turn!
He seems to have forgotten (unless he was too young!) that these very same Gobbelsian justifications were used by the chauvinist during and after the July 1983 holocaust.
That particular effort to cowdown the (Ceylon) Tamils and 'teach them a good lesson' had exactly the opposite effect and resulted in some of the most fond 'achievements' of majority hegemonism going the way of the Do Do.
'Sinhala only,' the 'Sri' number plates (what very great benefits were reaped from that!) etc.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution saw provincial councils, the acceptance of the north-east as an area of 'Traditional Tamil habitation' and the permanently 'temporary merger' and the granting of citizenship to the majority of the 'aliens'.
Those self styled 'Diyasenas' who fantasies of a Rwanda type 'final solution' program as the answer to the 'alien' problem of the upcountry should realise that such an evil attempt a genocide would be the national equivalent of political and economic suicide.
The Sri Lankan state's vital need to protect its economic heartland (the tea plantations) and mighty India's crucial Hindu and South Indian caucus will ensure the return of the IPKF (perhaps under UN colours).
The traumatised Upcountry Tamil population will (unlike the North-East Tamils) cling on to them as 'saviours' and appeal to a horrified, sympathetic international community that they should be a permanent presence in the land. They will also want their own armed 'self defense force'.
The answer to the socio-economic problems or the Kandyan peasantry lies in adopting a judicious mixture of 'Sarvodaya' style self help and government welfare measures.
It does not lie in constantly stirring up hatred against the long suffering estate Tamils who are their fellow victims of economic under development and poverty.
They are not their economic rivals as they occupy an economic niche that the Sinhalese Kandyan peasantry have always rejected and refused to kill. Let all the children of mother Lanka unite to build a peaceful, pluralistic and prosperous land.
'Tea - Puthra'
Colombo
