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Morning Spice by Ginger
Wearing clothes in tropical climesGinger went to a wedding the other day. How he suffered! He was stuffed into a suit. First he was made to change his shirt about twice as he had got too fat for most of his clothes. Then he found he could not bend and tie his shoe laces. In sheer revolt he kicked them off and slipped his feet into a pair of pumps. It would have been much kinder to take him somewhere and shoot him rather than make him go through that agony. He strongly suspected it was dirty cabal by friends and relations to give him the works before Christmas.
Any way Ginger goes back to the theme of wearing full lounge suit for all occasions. How odd. It looks at times and though I must admit it can improve the general appearance of someone it certainly tires those who are the down to earth type. How well the Filipinos have got over the problem of over dressing in tropical climes. We too should have some kind of a shirt for special occasions that we can wear over our pants and still look dressy. Some fashion designer here should create such an outfit and then have it on display.
Cyproterone drug
Now many people are not likely to take to this largely because of its name. You would not for instance like to tell your friends that you are taking what is known as the brake drug in common parlance among athletes and largely by female gymnasts. Actually it is not directly connected to weight.What this drug which is called cyproterone acetate really does is to slow down sexual development. Now who on earth would want to do a thing like that. You would be surprised that many a gymnast does it because it prevents her hips and breasts spreading out and making her less agile and elegant than those who are competing with them but have not reached puberty.
Richest business woman
If you are the richest business woman in South America and have the looks that Xuxa Menechel has perhaps the tempation to throw both convention and caution to the winds is a little too hard to resist. She was also a porn queen who turned children's T.V. show hostess but certainly few parents would choose her for a role model.She has been linked romantically with Pele in his soccer playing days. Then she is supposed to have been Senna's regular date till his death. Now she had become the mother of a baby girl but created quite a furore among a certain group of Roman Catholics who wanted her to marry the girl's father Luciano Szafu a male model.
Sinhala Buddhist nationalism - a reply to Heendeniya
I have been reading with much interest, letters pertaining to this subject and also those referring to Gangodawila Soma Thera. Apparently, Mr. Kingsley Heendeniya (KH) is referring to Mr. G. A. R. Dias's letter of 18th Dec. 98 under the heading 'Revolt in the Temple' and says that Mr. Dias's has misunderstood on misleading the others. Either KH is confused on making others confused by his letter of 26th Dec. 98 or does not put down his thoughts correctly or coherently for others to understand. KH in his letter says, referring to Soma Thera, the main target attacked is the Devale in the temple and the worship of god Vishnu'. As far as I could understand is that Mr. Dias's reply is in general against devales in temples and worship of gods, which includes Vishnu.
The other statement KH made was (letter of 10th Dec. 98) 'The government and many leaders in the country are engaged in a herculean task to heal the wounds between the Tamils and the Sinhalese and a sedulous well planned Sinhala Buddhist nationalist crusade of this type can affect the emotionally thinking masses, both Sinhala and Tamil, and widen the ethnic divide in the country'. What Mr. Dias said was that it is not taking away the gods in devales in temples which will arouse the Tamils but if 'Buddhism only' is forced down the throats of Tamils Hindus as in the case of 'Sinhala Only'.
One ambiguous and a hilarious statement KH makes in his letter of 26th Dec. 98 is 'If some pious Buddhists want to venerate Vishnu and other gods, let them do so.' In the same para he says 'worship of gods, statues, icons, rituals etc. is irrelevant to the understanding and practice of the teaching of Buddha'. In one statement he says that if some pure Buddhists want to worship other gods let them do so and in the other statement he says worship of gods in Buddhism is not relevant. I would wish to know from KH who a PURE Buddhist is? Are they the people who make an 'Achcharu' of Buddhism by worshipping other gods, performing other religious rituals, customs etc. such are sacrificing cock-birds, goats to appease and win favours.?
Let me tell KH that we are stepping onto the next millennium soon and with scientific advancements and technologies, the future generations will be more intelligent and will question religions, existance of Gods or Deviyos and if they do not find acceptable, satisfactory answers, religions will be doomed. In this regard Buddhism will stand the test for it preaches self determination, self imancipation and salvation in one's own hands. The Dhammapada in Atta Vagga says:-
Atta hi attano natho
Ko hi natho paro siya
Attana va sudantena
Natham labhati dullabham.(Oneself, indeed, is one's saviour, for what other saviour would there be?
With oneself well controlled one obtains a saviour difficult to find)
Sensing this advancement and man's thinking and questioning of our own existance, the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul has taken timely action and is to make a pronouncement on the 8th of March, 1999 seeking pardon for the sins, falsehood, ommissions and commissions made by the Vatican (the Catholic Church) in the name of God which means that the Catholics had been misled by the Vatican for the last 2000 years. The Pope in his pronouncement is to say (quoting from (The Telegraph Group London 1998 by Joe Jenkins in London - Island paper of 17.10.98) 'mankind must ask questions in order to reach the truth'. This is exactly what Lord Buddha preached 500 years or more before the birth of Jesus Christ. Similarly, I believe, Gangodawila Soma Thera is taking the correct step to weed out false practises, worship of alien deviyos or gods etc., and preach to the world the pure Dhamma which the Thathagatha taught, to resurrect the noble teaching - Buddhism, from the lamentable state it has fallen to because of Temple Mudalalis.
S. Gardiarachchi,
Boralesgamuwa.
The Halal food awareness committee's - 'The Guide' publication of December 1998, states that Halal slaughter is a must.
They say that the method of slaughtering in the United States by stunning animals with a shock to make them unconscious and the head cut is not agreeable to them. By this method the draining of blood is reduced owing to unconsciousness of the animal.
I certainly cannot agree on this argument because:-
1. If one goes to the market place to purchase beef from a beef stall and examines the liver, kidney, spleen, of this flesh killed in the Halal way, a lot of blood will be evident. Therefore according to Muslim Laws this meat is 'Haram' or poison.
2. If an animal is unconscious it bleeds less? Then during operations on human beings and animals under anaesthesia, they should bleed less - which is not so, unless the anaesthetist uses methods to cool and freeze the blood as done in some cases of surgery.
In the above context it could be clearly seen that there is no substance in the claim - 'Halal slaughter is a must'.
Dr. C. Godamunne,
Kandy Humanitarian Society.
From the letters that appear in the press these days, I think that there can be sinister attempts to keep Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thera off the air. But only barbarians will condone such a misdemeanour against millions of Buddhists who need his guidance. Vicious elements who want to keep innocent Buddhists in the dark and exploit them to achieve their ulterior motives are always behind such obstructions to a worthy cause launched by a religious dignitary.
Ven. Soma Thera's mission is most opportune as most of our Buddhist are being misled and consequently stranded and running after illusions. Quite often Buddhism and Buddhist practices are misrepresented to suit the whims and fancies of vested interests. Ultimately there would not be any difference between Buddhism and Hinduism. So this effort has originated with a strong purpose to redeem our misguided Buddhists from the abyss of misconceptions ambiguities. Consequently errorneous practices which are quite contrary to the lofty ideals of the teachings of the Buddha.
Through his convincing sermons and discussions the Ven. Thera is trying to guide us on the correct path according to the Dhamma and thereby promote our right understanding, right thoughts and consequently right practices. Some of us listen to the Dhamma entirely because we want to acquire merit - so listening for merit, definitely not as a means of learning. They are ignorant of the Buddha's way - 'Sunaha, Dharetha and Charatha', the three phase theory.
Today we Buddhists are accustomed to give first priority to rituals and make offerings to various and praying to them, completely neglecting the most important aspect, namely practising the Dhamma. So becoming a Dhammachari is the highest achievement for a true Buddhist. When a person lives strictly according to the Dhamma then that person is protected by the same Dhamma. 'Dhammo havey rakkhathi Dhammachari'. So we need not seek protection from outside deities. But this does not mean that we should not transfer merit on them. By all means transferring merit is our obligation and I think that would be the greatest offering.
So the need of the hour is not one Soma Thera, but hundreds of his calibre to guide us on the correct path enunciated by the Buddha. Ven. Soma Thera has fully realized his bounden duty as a Buddhist monk and has risen to the occasion with dedication and determination.
Nevertheless one might ask the question, 'Why cannot Soma Thera follow suit and keep quiet just like the other monks? Then there wouldn't be an outstanding personality like him, neither would there be an Anagarika Dharmapala or Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera, two conspicuous national heroes who brought about a significant revival of Buddhism in our country.
If they had evaded and shirked their responsibility or 'Enga beragena hitiyanam' there wouldn't be a religion by the name of Buddhism in our land.
P. Lokugamage,
Kottawa.
The letter titled as above appeared in The Island of 23.12.98 in response to letter of 17.12.98 titled 'Who were the original people of Sri Lanka?' I shall adduce new reasoning and logical thinking which were not available to Paranavitana, Krishnaswamy Iyer and Indrapalan in their deductions. I suppose if reasoning was available to them they would have abandoned their earlier conclusions.
Mahavamsa was known as SIKKALAKATHA MAHAVAMSA from the day Ven. Mahanama wrote it. It is also claimed that it was written in Pali using Sinhala letters, in spite of writing in Sinhala language itself. That can lead one to presume that at that time there was no written Sinhala and later on when the Sinhala letters were developed the word ELU SINHALA came in use meaning Sinhala in written form. ELU incidentally is from the Tamil word ELUTHU meaning alphabets or letters. It is also interesting to note that Sinhala letters resemble more of Malayalam and Tamil letters than any other. Besides an educated Malayali without prior knowledge in Sinhala is able to read a few words from the Sinhala daily. Malayalam as a language was possible only after the ninth century A. C. Prior to that point of time they were a Tamil speaking and were followers of Buddhism, today they are Hindus and their language is Malayalam.
This situation would have been possible only if there were problems during the spread of Buddhism by DraVidian Buddhist priests of the different schools of Buddhism Therawatha, Mahayana, Vithulvatha, Jainism etc. Let us not forget the main point that Sinhala letters resemble more of Malayam and Tamil letters. Even the letters of the signatures of the Kandyan chiefs in the Kandyan convention of 1815 reveal the letters to be mixture of Tamil, Malayalam and Sinhala letters.
There are debatable points on why Mahavamsa was written and when it was written. An examination of the word SIKKALAKATHA MAHAVAMSA will throw fresh light. It is claimed that these terms are Pali words. In fact the origin of these words are from Tamil life almost all Pali words originating either from Tamil or Sanskrit. SIKKALAKATHA is from two Tamil words SIKKAL+KATHA and MAHAVAMSA from two other Tamil words MAHA + VAMSAM. SIKKAL means problems KATHAK means protected or saved. MAHA means big VAMSAM means family. Total meaning of SIKKALAKATHA MAHAVAMSAM therefore would be Mahavamsa that saved the problems. What were the problems that were there
a). Serious rivalry amongst various clergy of different schools of Buddhism.
b). Repeated clashes for power both political and economic, as Sri Lanka formed a central trading centre with valuable Gems, Pearl, Ivory, Ebonite etc.
c). Problem of creating a separate written language for the followers of Theravatha Buddhism as all were DraVIdians pronouncing in different ways same DraVIdian language without clear identity as to what school of Buddhism they belonged.
Establishing a legend of more than a thousand years with a symbolic hero Vijayan and a separate language in written form has for a long time solved the problems or SIKKALS till the arrival of the foreigners in a big way for domination. This is evident from the literary risings of Kotte period where one can notice that all leading Buddhist priests and Sinhala authors were proficient in Tamil, Pali and Sinhala. Study of Pali scriptures became easy for one with knowledge in Tamil. Ven. Rahula Thera, Algiawannamuggawatti, Kavisara, Veetagam Thera, Ransagalla Thera, Ven. Hasselle Dharmaratne are some who had sound knowledge in Tamil, which .made study of Pali and Sinhala easy besides it made communication easy to convert many of the Tamil speaking as Sinhala Buddhists.
Examination of the origin of some words considered as Pali will reveal those words to originate from Tamil Therawatha from Tamil words THERIYA + VATHAM meaning Won after debates. Mahayana from the Tamil word MEIYANA meaning truthful Heenayan from the Tamil word ENNIYANA meaning equal to.
Mihintale from the Tamil word MEIYEN+THALI meaning head of truth ISSURUMUNIYA from the Tamil words EESWARA + MUNIVAR meaning saint of god Easwara.
These are just a few examples. Let us consider the name of one of early Pali book of the tenth century namely DHAMPI YATUWA GATAPADAYA originates from Tamil DHARMA ARTHA KATPANI means thinking of the meaning Dharma. This also state SIHAM LUNAVA ITI SIHALA originating from Tamil as SINHA UNNARVULLA SINHALA meaning Sinhala with feeling of the Lion. Giving first written impression to the origin of children of the lion.
Aryan migration was not necessary for creation of a Modern Indo Aryan language or for the creation of the Sinhalese. Besides the Aryans were nor keen on the spread of Buddhism as they were satisfied with their Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The people who spearheaded the spread of Buddhism Buddhagosha, Buddhadutta and Dharmapala are all Drawadians.
I am sure SIKKALAKATHA MAHAVAMSA alone is sufficient to conclude there was no Aryan migration in Sri Lanka before 2500 years from to day. Archaeological evidence is that Drawadians as the original settlers in Sri Lanka and Sir Ralph Pieris admits in his book History of Ceylon that Hindu Temples THIRUKETHEESWARAM and THIRUKONAMALI Temples are pre Vijayan in origin. Let us conclude that the Drawadians are the early settlers in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese are also Drawadians.
Sri Lankan Tamil.
Flash floods in the City of Colombo
On Monday 28th December 1998 it started raining around 4 p.m. in Colombo City. I left office at 5 p.m. to go home. Passed the Kanatte Junction at the Kynsey Road Gregory's Road intersection the road was flooded upto about 2 feet. Situation at the Kynsey Road, Horton Place Junction was also the same. There were long lines of traffic in all the directions moving at snail pace.
Kynsey Road from the Ward Place end to Kanatte Junction was under repairs for nearly a year; and was completed about a month ago. In these repairs one of the main items of work, I observed was the laying of huge hume pipes of about 3 feet in diameter, along Kynsey Road. I thought this was to drain out the storm water that gets collected along the road. In my daily trips along this road I also observed large surface openings constructed to connect the surface water flow into these large hume pipes laid under the ground. All this was done to drain off the rain water that gets collected on either side of the road.
But when I saw the minor floods at the two places referred to above I thought there must be something radically wrong in the laying of underground hume pipes and the connected road repairs done until a month ago. I do not think that this rain water flooding was due to any 'siri siri bags' blocking the surface ducts to the underground pipe system; as is very often attributed to. That probably could happen when such materials accumulate for a long period of time. These ducts were completed only a month ago.
I therefore think that there is something wrong with the laying of underground pipes and the construction of surface ducts for the flow of water into the pipes. I wish the authorities concerned take immediate action to ascertain what has gone wrong and follow up with necessary corrective measures. If the party who laid the pipes is responsible for the mistake, immediate action is all the more necessary to get them to correct the defect, since there must be a contractual obligation for satisfactory performance of the work for a reasonable length of time after completion of work.
I presume under this contractual obligation there must be provision for the party who laid the pipes to attend to whatever defects in the work they have done at no additional cost to the client. In this instance in the final analysis the client is the tax payer. Therefore whoever is responsible please take immediate action.
N. V. K. K. Weragoda,
Rosmead Place.
Walking down Dickmans Road, Bambalapitiya, we come to the intersection of Skelton Road, which is always full of stones and deep potholes full of mucky water. Pedestrians using this road have to risk their life and limbs avoiding this deplorable state which has not been attended to lying there for a number of days. One wonders whether the Road Development Authorities or the Municipality have turned a blind eye and have not taken any action to remedy this road, a clear case of bureaucratic indifference causing great inconvenience to rate payers.
It is no wonder that the residents around this area must be fed up with the lethargic attitude of the authorities and seem to calmly bear the brunt of it thinking that what cannot be cured must be endured.
Over to you Mr. Mayor.
R. Gurusingham,
Colombo 4.
Ombudsman
Tamils in jeopardyI am a Tamil living in Colombo for the past 30 years continuously. Number of my relations and friends have a severe grievance about registering residence from the North and East coming to Colombo for emergencies and the stay lasts from 1 - 3 days only. Most of them come to see a medical consultant to seek urgent medical advise in regard to emergency cases. In many instances their stay lasts only for 24 hours.
Their is a requirement for all Tamils coming from the North and East to register themselves at the Police Station of the area that they would reside during this short period. The recently proclaimed instructions to police stations in Colombo reads as follows:
1. All such applicants to produce two photographs of 2' x 2'
2. To fill up a form giving NIC number, of all persons staying with him including that of the chief occupants of the residence and the other occupants of the house/residence, their full name/s, age, occupation etc and the chief occupant of the residence to be available at the Police Station with the guests for registration.
3. All guests from 10 - 75 years are required to register themselves.
Normally if the registrant is a patients he would be accompanied by someone else as well to help him. Would it be possible such a person to first go to the studio and take two copies of photographs and what would be the time taken by the studio to develop these photographs and return to the registrant? Minimum a police station would require to register a party is at least half a day. How could a patient waste half a day with the photographer and the rest of the half a day in the police station. Would it be possible for the patient to see the consultant or doctor within 24 hours and get back to his destination with all these hassles imposed on a poor patient'? Is this justice or a gross human rights violation? I have experienced at many occasions the officer on duty telling me that the OIC is out and I do not know at what time he would return. Please come in the afternoon and in the afternoon the police officer telling please come in the morning and this riddle goes on. We have no one to express our concern or grievances but have to submit ourselves for all these harassment's for the very reason we are Tamils.
It should be remembered that all the Tamils are not Tigers or Tiger suspects. According to the security forces there are only around four to five thousand Tigers fighting the security forces. Then why this harassment's to the innocent Tamils?
Our only appeal to the authorities is to do away this registration system for people wanting to stay in Colombo for 1-3 days but the Police could require the chief occupant to inform the area police the NIC No, Name, Age, Occupation the purpose of the visitor and the return date of the visitor by writing. That is in a form of a letter in duplicate one to be retained by the Police Station and the other to be with the registrant authenticated by the Police Station concerned. The registrant or the chief occupant should not be requested to fill up a form or bring the original registration form of the Chief Occupant etc. The Chief Occupant could inform the area Police in writing the details of the visitors with him for this short period. In most of the Police stations the registration forms are not available. When you request for a form the police officer would give you a form and request you to photocopy the form and return the original to the police officer. In the night where can a helpless registrant go in search of a photocopier? Why can't each police station have a stock of registration forms? In many cases when every thing is complied with the Police Officer had asked the registrant to purchase a file and come. What a dilemma the registrant has to face? What is the new legal department set up by the IGP to defend the Police Officers charged by various individuals and groups doing? Are they not in a position to advise the IGP to issue a simple directive to all Police stations in regard to persons staying from 1-3 days? The Attorney General's Department and Police Legal Department too could shed new light on this issue.
A person staying for a long period in Colombo from the North East is a different problem from a person staying in Colombo for 1-3 days for genuine reason.
K. Sivalingam,
Nugegoda.
