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Morning Spice by Ginger
TV stations errI hope I heard it wrong. One of the TV stations on its news cast said that public transport following its three any desruption was back to normal. Bus crews belonging to private operators were back at work having extracted the promise that the two officials who are alleged to have assaulted a driver and a conductor would be remanded. This in effect is tantamount to tampering with a legal process asking that the officers who were alleged to have used force be prosecuted if there was evidence that was justifiable.
They however went further than they were entitled to and asked that someone be remanded. Here they exceeded their legal rights. The decision was up to the police and if this trend continues it could well lead to serious miscarriages of justice in the future. The legal processes are entirely in the hands of those involved in the administration of justice. Deciding whether the prosecution should ask that the accused be remanded or granted bail is a matter for the police going on the same premise. Then unions will dictate next what specific charges the police should make. It is curiously a joke that has gone beyond a joke.
Tasty snack
Ginger wonders whether the kids here would like it or not but the children in Hong Kong just love it. The great thing about this snack is that it is almost sugar and fat free. Roasted sea weed is a great favourite among school children in Hongkong but there are dangers in eating too much roasted sea weed.These strips of roasted sea weed have a lot of iodine in them. Some types contain as much as 400 times what certain vegetables have in them. Doctors in Hongkong feel that eating more than seven stips of the roasted sea weed a day may on the long run lead to thyroid complications.
Soto noodle soup
Whenever a tourist who has epicurean visits a foreign land, his first reaction is to wonder around the eating houses of that country to get a taste of the real ethnic fare that country can put out. In that respect the east is fast becoming the region that offers perhaps the most exciting food the tourist can look for.Now if you go to Indonesia don’t forget to ask for its soto. It is something like the kind of ready to serve noodle soup that we have in the sense that the meat that goes with it is cooked with the soup. Really, it is a noodle group. Soto Ayam is the chicken noddle soup and is with mutton cooked with it.
Duty free vehicles for the disabled
Let me express in brief as a disabled person myself, the difficulties we have to face in our daily travel when we take the public transport — bus or train.
At a time when able-bodied persons are finding it difficult to travel in public transport, the disabled experience immense difficulties and inconvenience in boarding a bus or train in squeezing themselves to ‘get in’ when other able-bodied persons elbow you out and many a disabled person have been shut-out in their daily travel.
The bus drivers are so indifferent that they even won’t stop the bus, if they see a disabled person at a halt. Getting to the train is also a formidable task and they cannot compete with able-bodied persons.
Therefore, to overcome this problem of transport for the disabled, we wish to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to allow duty free vehicles (such as Trikes, hand-propelled vehicles and small converted cars for the disabled) as a solution to their mobility problems, in having their own modes of transport and ply themselves on the high roads.
May this catch the eye of the President as the Minister of Finance and grant this concession which is an urgent need to solve the mobility problem of the disabled.
Patrick de Silva
(A disabled)
Who were the original settlers of Lanka?
A storm in a tea cup is presently a raging over a statement made by the President to an interviewer in South Africa that a minority who were not the original settlers are fighting for a separate state of "Eelam".
I find no reason for anyone to take exception to this statement as many of the present day settlers belonging to the various communities inhabiting modern Sri Lanka are certainly not the original settlers as their forebears are illegal immigrants to this island.
Prince Vijaya, sired by a lion, and his band of about 700 bandits came to this island after being banished from some kingdom, in Bangladesh, by the king, his father. As Prince Vijaya and his men did not come with their womenfolk it can be assumed that after Vijaya married Kuveni, a queen of the original settlers, viz, the Yakkas or Nagas or Veddhas, that his followers too would have co-habited with women of the aforementioned original settlers and the intercourse between the invaders and the subjugated original settlers would have given rise to the Sinhala language.
For if the language of Prince Vijaya and his followers had been Sinhalese then there would still be at least, a small community in India who speak this language.
As this is not the case, it can be deduced that Sinhala was the language of the Yakkas or Nagas or a new language born as a result of the interaction of Vijaya and his men with the original settlers. Perhaps, it was due to this misty past of the Sinhala race that the President did not tell the interviewer in South Africa that the Sinhalese were the original settlers. In the circumstances, the minorities should not create a furore regarding the statement made by the President.
What is important is to focus on present day reality and evolve a suitable constitution by the civilised process of negotiations and consensus by all sections of Sri Lankans including the LTTE so that all Sri Lankans, the present and future generations, could live in peace and participate as equal partners in developing the country.
R. Ponniah,
Colombo 4.
I read an article in the Island paper of 12.11.98, by one Mr. Amanath Paul of Dubai. He says that the death sentence should be reintroduced in Sri Lanka, His reason being to stop the increase of crime.
He says these things can be only reduced by inflicting pain on the culprits. His principle seems to be "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" Doctrine.
According to Buddhist principles, we are in no way permitted to take the life of another or inflict pain under any circumstances. The doer will have to suffer some day for his deed.
"The Paticha Samupada" (1a) Principle in Buddhism "Cause and Effect" I have always maintained that the rich murderer often escapes by retaining clever lawyers. Whereas a poor person will have to suffer and even a rare innocent person may end up in the gallows. They have reported such cases in the past.
So, I suggest a punishment such as banishing them for life to a distant island. If the government really wants to perform the death sentence, they should adopt a more Humane Way, such as the ‘Electric Chair’ and not this gruesome way of hanging with a rope.
Dr. C. Godamune,
Kandy Humanitarian Society.
Rambling Notes by Nihal Corea
Bus users, nation’s social eliteThe recent bus strike that ended last week after a hectic pow-pow between bus crews, operators and the dapper Mr. Fowzie would have had far reaching consequences no doubts.
Firstly, it established once and for all that the dog wags the tail here. Secondly, it was proved that bus crews form the social elite of this country and all others must bow to their wishes.
Bus crews shall decide what punishment should be inflicted on any one checking their work or having the brass to trying disciplining them. In other words they want an unfettered run from starting point to terminus We will not go into the details of the incident, we know that the negotiation appear to have been one sided with the unions getting what they wanted and Mr. Fowzie’s tailor getting full marks for his style and cut.
Mr. Fowzie should have realized that shifting from health to transport was merely jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The medics are tough birds in their own rights no doubt but they dont even compare with the bus crews when it comes to the real rough stuff. One fact stands out rather clearly. Bus crews don’t need public sympathy as opposed to the GMOA.
The GMOA normally rides to its objectives on the wave of public sympathy though for the last few years the public have been a little cheesed off by its surfing tendencies and not responded as much as it might have otherwise. The transport boys on the other hand don’t need much public sympathy nor do they ask for it.
They have neatly turned the tables on the public. A fat lot of good the public can do by being critical of the transport boys. All the boys have to do is to keep off work and ask the public to curse all they want which is precisely what they did this time. The public were shown where they stood on such a stand.
Perhaps, this was not the best choice of words to describe the situation. They were standing in the bus stand for hours and the words used would be rubbing salt into their wounds when lotions and creams were what they needed. But it has to be stressed that the more you annoyed the bus crews the less mobile you were likely to be.
True they don’t know much about the spirit of our constitution which says that one cannot take the law into your own hands. These boys would just pooh-pooh the whole boys suggestion and say that it was as stupid as asking them to issue tickets to passengers. Who was there to make them do it? Certainly not ticket checkers.
Now who on earth had the stupidity to insist that bus drivers should observe the rules and not endanger the lives of other road users. It is a good thing they dont or can’t read the papers or there will be a strike on such a scale. Mr. Fowzie will not be able to settle even if he pulled out every suit in suit in his wardrobe.
Appreciation
Kenneth Amerasekera
Eriq Dewanarayana.Just about a month back I heard the laughing berating sound at a bank in Battaramulla. I looked around and saw the burly form of Kenneth Amerasekera.
He was in his usual form. Although he had a complaint to make for keeping him long he made it a joke that caused no anger or animosity in anyone.
We met after several years and we had much to talk about. We spoke about the yesteryears of newspapering and the whereabouts of our old friends like Noel Seneviratne, Rex de Silva and Noel Crusz.
When I told him that Noel Seneviratne was back in the country for good he made me promise that I would bring him and meet at his house for a drink and a chat about the past. But that drink is never to come. He is now gone. The old reaper has seen the sands of time run out for him Kenneth, the last time I met him, was his ebullient self and was ready to show not only his physical self gained from the Navy but the mental as well, as he was wont to do after a drink. Had we met, it would have been fun.
We met and worked together at the now defunct SUN. Despite the fact the newspapering world had its detractors who did not believe in the old adage "Dog does not eat Dog", he was never depressed. Nor did he allow anyone else to be. He was witty to the extent of sending our cares away.
When around 18 years back I came on to ‘The Island’ he was not with us. He had a taken leave on health reasons. Yet black ink was there under his skin. He joined the then Times of Ceylon. It was from there I lost track of Kenneth.
But one day I met him on the road and he told me how he had had a heart attack and had to go to London for a by-pass operation. Yet I did not see him sickly. That was the measure of the man. Nothing could put him down.
If I were to write about him it would be the longest appreciation I would ever do. The only regret I have is that I did not have that last drink with him nor did I hear of his death before his remains were consigned to the Medical College morgue.
Maybe some time in Sansara we would meet somewhere and have that drink we missed.
Till then, au revoir, my friend.
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