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Morning Spice by Ginger
Unemployed graduates and demonstrationsOnce again there was a shemozzle at one of our major universities. About the same time a whole heap of unemployed graduates had demonstrated opposite the Fort Railway Station demanding employment. It all seemed a bit ironic. But had those demonstrating undergraduates read The Island of the 21st they might have realized that a degree is not an 'open sesame' to employment 'ipso facto' as such for good reason. No employer is under moral obligation to take a particular type of employee. The choice is entirely his.
Few employers are likely to risk working dislocations in their establishments by taking young graduates and the tragedy is that many of our undergraduates are prone to violence or rather the most revolting form of hoodlumism. What the undergraduate must realize is that the state no longer is the sponge that soaks in what our education system throws out. So there is absolutely no certainy of employment after passing out. Which way does their path lie? Take the chance of looking for work with a back up self employment plan or vocational training. That is the choice before them. Beyond all university students must realize that their stock is not very high due to the hooliganism that is common to our higher seats of learning.
AIDS victims
There is always a wide gap between those actually suffering from AIDS in any country and the official figures available to the authorities in that country. There may be as many as thirty thousand AIDS victims within our shores as another weekend paper indicated. This makes keeping tab on the course it is taking a little difficult.In that respect Thailand seems to take the lead. A recent study has revealed that for every Thai officially reported as having died of AIDS there have been as much as nine who die of it without the government knowing of it. Often relations attribute the cause of death to some other disease and doctors do not diagnose the disease in time.
Muslim fundamentalists
Iran may have officially softened its stance on Salmon Rushdie who shocked Muslim fundamentalists all over the world with his publication of the Satanic Verses. Britain had re-established full diplomatic relation with Teheran after it ceased to formally punish Rushdie.Rushdie however, does not get off the hook that easily. The khordad is foundation which has quite some influence has decided to offer a three hundred thousand dollar bounty on the one that already exists for the execution of fatwar against the offending another.
Unconditional peace talks with LTTE
With the President agreeing for unconditional peace talks without any ceasefires and with the Leader of the Opposition who had already indicated his willingness for unconditional peace talks, there is now no major obstruction to dialogue between the government and the LTTE.
What is most important at this stage is to decide the composition of the group taking part in the dialogue with the LTTE. The question that would have to be resolved is whether the dialogue should be a sole matter of the governing group and the LTTE or should the group be a composition of the governing and the opposition.
The previous peace talks conducted by the executive proved to be a failure and one of the reasons attributed was the inexperience of negotiators. Another more plausible reason would be that the executive could not offer any proposals that could be negotiated on except ceasefires and other forms of executive capability when the requirement were offers that could have had a chance of Parliamentary acceptance.
As peace talks would involve matters that fundamentally requires Parliamentary agreement the dialogue with the LTTE to bring about a peaceful solution should have to be handled by the Parliament. It is therefore necessary to agree on a method where the selection of the delegates comes through the Parliament without the shortcomings from the hunt for party advantage through this issue between the two major parties that dominate the parliament which could adversely affect these talks.
A method that could be adopted for the Parliamentary selection of delegates would be by treating both the governing faction and the opposing faction as equal to the task, as without either there could be no success and further the issue has to be treated as national priority with no consideration for party advantage. On the basis of the governing faction and the opposing faction being equal both leaders of the two opposing sides of the house should submit equal number of delegates each for the talks.
In today's circumstances of a parliamentary majority to mean coalitions, both leaders would have to be non group discriminatory in their selection of delegates as discriminations would result in loss of votes for their parties in the future. The standing to loose would ensure that both leaders of the Parliament will nominate the best and give maximum representation to the groups through delegates to enter into dialogue with the rebels.
As to who should head such a group of delegates could be decided by secret ballot of the delegates or by the President deciding between the two choices of the two leaders of the Parliament.
A. C. de Almeida
Lotteries, are they legalized frauds?
I have been buying lottery tickets for the last two decades, from Lottery Agents, street vendors and also those mobile ticket sellers with their raucous battery operated microphones, which can be heard a mile away.
Being somewhat of an optimist, I cannot resist buying at least one ticket every day. Over a period of two decades my luck held just once and I won myself the princely sum of Rs. 20 on an outlay of Rs. 10 quite recently! A rough calculation for twenty years (buying 300 tickets an year) made a grand total of Rs. 60,000.
This would apply for millions of foolish people, who buy not one but many, many tickets each day, hoping for that pot of gold which never comes their way. The Lotteries Board, or whoever is responsible for running these gambling rackets, with the blessings of the state, have a tamasha on the TV when the draw takes place and to add insult to injury, there is on the panel, a few people of eminence, including a police officer.
Of course once in a 'blue moon' there is a 'winner' and he is interviewed with a lot of ballyhoo and presented with the winning cheque, which of course runs into lakhs or millions.
Is this type of legally approved gambling (lotteries) carried out with the purpose of filling the government coffers, or creating some sort of employment? My sincere advice to the public at large is to save your money and spend it on something useful, instead of being hoodwinked and living in eternal hope and loosing your hard earned ten bucks daily!
Rexy,
Colombo 6.
I write with reference to the letter of V. P. Vittachi in 'The Island' of 20.11.98 under the caption Kamalika vs David. Mr. Vittachi's description of the manner in which the Jaffna Libr-ary came to be torched is not quite correct. While it is true that the Police mob was running amok. It was a very senior Police Officer who directed the mob to the Library instead of Mr. Yogeswaran's and Mr. Amirthalingam's houses. Some years ago JR clearly identified the particular Police Officer who was then a Director of a Corporation. In any event it is yet not too late for a Commission of Inquiry because the persons who are aware of the facts are yet very much alive e.g. Mr. Ana Seneviratne, the I.G.P. at the time, Mr. R. Suntharalingam DIG who headed the special investigation team that was appointed by the IGP and several Police Officers of that team Incidentally Mr. Gamini Dissanayake had absolutely nothing to do with that dastardly act. He was not an evil genius.
Old Policeman,
Battaramulla.
Prof. G. L. Peiris in his budget speech proposed the setting up of a Commission to codify & simplify the Income Tax Laws of this country. Codification is certainly feasible and may not require much time and effort. Simplification on the other hand could be a much more difficult and challenging task.
It is however simplification of the Income Tax Laws that is of greater concern to the ordinary middle class taxpayer. It will be welcomed by them as they will no longer be required to pay for the services of Accountants, Advisers, Consultants and the like, in their dealings with the Tax Department.
Over the years and more so in the recent past, globalization and the rapid development of Information Technology have made the world of business increasingly complex. This has invariably called for income tax laws to follow suit. The situation has been compounded by powerful business lobbies and vested interests calling for special considerations and concessions. Tax Law Manuals have kept getting thicker and thicker and increasingly incomprehensible and of little use to the ordinary taxpayer.
Many a reformist Finance Minister in both developing and developed countries has consistently expressed their good intentions of making the tax system simpler. Yet none have succeeded to date. The situation is in some ways similar to the good intentions expressed by reformist Law Ministers to eliminate the Law's delays.
The experience of industrialized countries has proved that current economic and business trends cannot but lead to further increased complexity in tax laws. Therefore attempts at simplification of our own tax laws call for an innovative approach.
To wealthy individuals and corporate taxpayers complexity of tax laws is not a serious problem because they can afford to pay for their tax matters to be dealt with by accountants and tax consultants. However completing a tax return form of remains an onerous task for the ordinary middle-class taxpayer. Simplification therefore needs to be targeted to this socioeconomic group. The most straightforward strategy in a developing country such as ours is to raise the tax exemption limit to, say Rs 25,000 or 30,000 per month. Excluding this category achieves the objective of simplification where it is needed most.
N. L. Mendis,
Colombo.
Arjuna, has been and still is a great leader of a great cricket team, a team that has brought the people of this country much joy and pride on numerous occasions, the last being the victories in England. But, somehow, for some unknown reason/s during the last few months, everything seems to have changed for the worst. Kalu is no more the smiling, shouting bundle of energy behind the stumps, Sanath does not carry out his clapping, and enthusiastic responses to a catch or a wicket taken; there is no apparent joy or team spirit visible during the last 2 tournaments. We do not know why. The captain, nor the coach, nor the manager nor anyone from the Board tells us anything. We are left to guess or listen to rumours galore.
Today, the people of this country have many important things to care about - who is dying in the battlefield, who has lost his brother/sister/father/mother in the north-east war, who has lost a limb, his eyesight, who was shot down into the great ocean, who is missing in action, who has been made an orphan in one blast of a grenade or a bomb or from a burnt out village, about the young mothers draped in white, eyes filled with never ending tears, young brides-to-be with their futures shattered, about gang warfare, wedding rags, GST etc. etc. Yet, they all still care a damn lot more about Sanath, Aravinda, Kalu, Murali and Vaas, and even Arjuna, Marvan, Kumar, Hashan and Mahanama and in fact the whole team. They are all heroes and are deeply loved. We want them to do well and if they don't, we want to know why. If we are not told why, rumours are galore. We were not told why we lost in Bangladesh and at Sharjah - only the same old story of knowing the mistakes and correcting them in the future.
Making mistakes is a very natural characteristic of all humans. That is why we fixed an eraser at the end of the pencil - to identify, admit and to rub off the mistake permanently. We feel you did make some mistakes, Arjuna. We are sorry that you do not seem to think so.
Let's take the match against South Africa in Dhaka. It was already a rain-curtailed match, with more rain expected. With memories of what happened to S. Africa in the world cup match in Australia, no other captain would have opted to bat second - there was no gamble there, just a simple decision. You won the all important toss and decided to bat second. The rest is history. There was so much pressure on the batsmen that they went berserk!
What about the matches in Sharjah? Why did you let Kumar bowl that important over instead of Vaas? Did not Vaas complete all ten overs in the other matches that followed? Why? You alone cannot be right - then we should have won the match! In the same match, in your absence, Aravinda brought on Nuwan Soyza to bowl. You came back and stopped him. Why? These actions leave us dumbfounded and confused.
The crisis that Sanath faces saddens all of us. The bowlers in all teams now attack his leg stump, bowl wicket to wicket and they have now started coming round the wicket. How have you, the coach and the manager helped him overcome this problem? It does not seem as if anything has been done. One thing he can do now is to bat on till the last over. If he does so, don't you think we would have at least 250 runs on the board ? Don't you think he would get enough opportunities to score the boundaries he likes so well ? During the last so many matches he has not gone beyond the opening bowlers! If Aravinda too decides on the same lines, surely we should get around 300 ! and the World Cup again!
An important new development we saw in the last few tournaments was bowlers bowling wicket to wicket. It seems to work well. We do have ideal bowlers for this type of cricket, in addition to Vaas, Soyza and Wickramasinghe. Bowlers such as Suresh Perera, Mario Vellavarayan, Pradeep Hewage will perform really well bowling wicket to wicket, especially under English conditions. So, suddenly, our pace bowling department seems to be fine, but equally suddenly, we seem to have problems with our spinners.
Except for Murali, none of our spinners worry even the weakest batsman. Kumar is a great trier but sadly he does not turn that ball enough. All a batsman needs to do is judge the bounce and it will be so easy to play him into the gaps. Upul is the same. So is Thilan. Bowlers such as Paul Strang, Saqlain Mushtaq and Anil Kumble worry the batsmen, Strang with his turn, Kumble with his bounce and Saqlain with turn and flight. Ours don't ! That's the bottom line! We have to find one or two spinners who can turn the ball appreciably or enough to worry the batsmen. If not, Sanath and Aravinda will be burdened with bowling too. This seems to be the only weak link at the moment. Surely we can find a good spinner! and soon!
What do you say Arjuna? Or do you think I am trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs? I have also represented my school and the campus at cricket, although not in the same league as you. So, my 'two-cents worth' maybe worth a bit more.
We may easily make more mistakes in the future if we go on like this. We should have sent the younger players to Bangladesh and Sharjah under the guidance of Arjuna and told the people in advance not to expect the team to win all the matches. In fact, come to think of it, we may have won more! We could have easily rested the more senior players - even Sanath and Aravinda!
The tour to Australia will be a hard grind, a real tough test - with very high quality cricket supported by what seems to be the lowest quality gamesmanship by the players as well as others on and off the field. That's their way. We need the most experienced players for this tour, not a team overloaded with youngsters.
Never mind about Dhaka and Sharjah, the best of teams go through bad patches like this. Great cities and civilizations have arisen from devastations much worse. We can do the same. We have confidence in you, Arjuna - a great captain recognized the world over. You will surely succeed, but ONLY if you do not allow your decisions to be yours alone; ONLY if you do not allow politics, business, club affinities, personal affinities to interfere. We have not read nor heard of great captains of the past such as Richie Benaud, Frank Worrel and Clive Lloyd indulging in such practices. You Arjuna, can be the greatest captain ever, and rebuild our team to be the greatest ever!
Most important of all, Arjuna, you have to get the team together again as one happy family - the coach and the manager should have done this already. You have some wonderful, great players, who together as a happy unit, can destroy any team one can think of. A great leader can create such a team.
Great leaders have their feet firmly on the ground, listen to others, appreciate advice, be impartial but tough and their heads fit the same old cap. Great leaders identify their mistakes, do not deny them nor make excuses, but use the 'eraser' to good effect, find solutions and build even greater teams. The greater a leader is, the more humble he becomes. We expect this from you, Arjuna and wish you and your team all success in Australia. We are with you, yet.
Don't forget to 'pack' an eraser to Australia!
Sporting Don,
Peradeniya.
During the recent Sharjah tour we witnessed indifferent cricket by Sri-Lanka. To say the least, we saw pathetic batting by our leading batsmen. When our batsmen were out for a duck, advertisements were shown sixes being hit. Our fielding was pathetic - picking, ground fielding, catching were in par with school cricket. Our spinners bowled without imagination.
Let us put our captain in his proper place. On winning the toss, he should be taught to arrive at a sound conclusive decision whether to take first lease of the wicket or not. The captain should concentrate on Cricket and not on politics and policies. Do not make his head swell by calling him Captain Cool when lately he has been behaving like Captain Fool. We saw very poor captaincy during the tour. Dropped catches, poor field placement, poor handling of bowlers etc. to name a few.
There was no rhythm or technique in the fielding. They allowed singles where no singles should have been allowed. They also allowed ones to be converted to two's and three's. Some of the cricketers were fumbling and used their hands as tennis rackets to stop the ball. Throw in to the wicket keeper was below standard and evoked sarcastic response from the commentators. Some of the cricketers were faking injuries after dropping catches. Others pointed out to the sun or other illuminations as reasons for dropping sitter catches.
Many times our spinners were shamed, by allowing the batsman to do the reverse-sweep and score heavily.
We, cricket lovers, request the authorities to do the following: -
- Reinstate Mr. Whatmore or Mr. Yardley as our coach. Do not gag them.
- Allow them to voice their opinion and entertain positive criticism.
- Give marching orders to the present cricket coach and cricket manager etc. .
- Change the jokers at the sports ministry who are in charge of cricket.
Until our team is committed to play serious cricket, let us not allow them to shame Sri Lanka again.
Imtiaz Ahamed,
Colombo 05.
Combating the menace of Malaria
Looking for a lasting antidoteby Derrick Schokman
Ever since the dawn of civilization, humans have been looking for a permanent antidote for malaria.Various means have been tried to combat this menace, ranging from drugs and vaccines to burning burning coils, mats, applying anti-mosquito lotions to the body, pouring oil on breeding water and dosing the fever with quinine.
But the death toll continues to be over two million a year while thousands are afflicted by the disease, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
It would appear that the main actors in this drama, the mosquitoes and their plasmodium parasites, have not adhered to the scripts prepared for them by us humans.
They have developed resistance first to DDT and then to other pesticides used to control them.
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, DDT was observed to lose its effectiveness around 1968. It was replaced with Malathion and Fenitrothion was kept in reserve.The practice at present is to rotate spraying these two pesticides with solfaca, a new pyrethroid pesticide containing cyfluthrin, which came into operation in the 1990s.
Needless to say the cost of such a protection programme has escalated, and will continue to do so as mosquitoes develop further resistance.
An immunising vaccine would of course be the best way to tackle the mosquito menace. But no such vaccine has yet been made commercially available. Although some show promise like that developed by Manuel Patarroyo of the Immunological Institute in Bogota, Colombia.
It has been successfully tested initially in Colombia and Tanganyaka (Africa), and if the final tests are also successful, then there is speculation that the vaccine may be ready for commercialisation in the new millenium.
Rainforests
Meanwhile scientists continue to scour the world's tropical rainforests for a lasting antidote for malaria. The Indian microbiologist Debaprasad Chattopadhyay has had some luck.On an expedition to the Andaman Islands in 1993, he observed the primitive forest tribe called the Onge to be free of malaria while their habitat abounded in the malarial mosquito.
This tribe used a better medicinal brew concocted of certain forest plants toward off the disease.
Chattopadhyay persuaded the tribesmen to give him some plants, which, he tested in his laboratory in Port Blair.
He made a remarkable discovery. These plants contained anti-fever properties and were also able to reduce the number of malarial parasites in the blood stream.
Chattopadhyay was able to test the extract from these plants, when on another expedition to the Andamans he came down with malaria. He was cured in three days and the fever has not resurfaced since.
He requested local doctors to experiment with patients having other strains of malaria, including falciparium which can be fatal. And again the brew was effective.
Very encouraging! But unfortunately a stalemate has been reached between the scientist and the Research Institute in Port Blair he works.
Chattapadhyay refuses to part with the names of the plants until he is assured that a reward will be given the Onge who have been the protectors of these plants.
His Research Institute however disagrees claiming that the plants are worthless until they are developed into a patent medicine. The institute therefore does not consider a reward necessary and has accordingly refused Chattopadhyay permission to return to the Onge and continue his experiments.
Rights
This ongoing battle over the Onge magic malaria potion highlights the nagging problem of intellectual property rights.The Biodiversity Treaty (Rio Summit 1992) recognises that indigenous people should be justly rewarded if, say a pharmaceutical company or agribusiness, develops a product based on traditional resources or wisdom. But these companies seldom (if ever) part with a fair share of the profits.
Transnational companies manufacturing medicines claim that plants are valueless until they are developed into valuable products by them.
They say that only one in tenthousand potentially viable compounds end up as drugs. And that the costs of researching and launching such a drug could take 8 to 12 years and cost about $350 million. As such they do not feel entitled to pay any reward.
On the other hand, Third World countries which are rich sources of biodiversity consider such action tantamount to gene piracy, akin to the exploitation of mineral deposits with scant benefit to countries having such resources.
This is an emotive issue. We all stand to gain from these new treatments that will help us live longer healthier lives. But the perplexing question still remains: How to share the profits?
We must hope that the international community will be able to find an equitable solution to this complex global problem. Biological claim - jumping and the theft of biosphere treasures will only hinder scientific progress in the best interests of humankind.
