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People and Events
Fashion statements

by Nan
The humble mountain goat and the high altitude antelope are the latest suppliers of high fashion but they are hardly mentioned, though given much more than a thought now; the Indian government banning their exploitation in a bid to converse the species. Result: increase in the production and poaching. This is what usually happens to good intentions and wise decisions when money is the x factor in the equation.

Insatiable fashion fads

Animal skins as fashion wear - minks and others, and crocodile and ivory accessories such as shoes, bags, belts and jewellery were banned but they are all back in the market now, legally allowed again.

I write today of pashmina and satoosh, the latest fashion accessories to hit the market, knock over the fashion conscious and have people gladly forking out USD 2000 for a mere scarf. I suppose that is nothing to the really rich but to yours truly it converts to Rs. 140,000 - 1.5 lakhs! Considering however, the difficulty of production and excellence of the finished product, this figure seems reasonable.

People in Sri Lanka, some of the very rich and very foolish show-offy ones, spend that amount on floral and other decorations at a wedding. I wonder whether any Paradite (to borrow a very apt term from Thelma in a sister Sunday paper), possesses a pashmina or satoosh scarf or shawl. I am sure there are a couple, never mind the fact that we live in the tropics. They could be using it when they ‘commute’ to cooler climes.

The Humble Goat and High Fashion

Pashmina is a fashion sensation - brilliantly coloured, featherweight shawls combining today’s essential elements of style: comfort and luxury. The name is derived from the Persian word for wool. It is also called cashmere - note the letter C. The fibres that it is woven of are from the Changra goat who lives at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 metres in the remote province of Ladakh in India and in the Jammu Kashmir State.

One Changra goat produces a scant 80 to 100 grams of fleece. Thus the finest pashmina shawl requires the annual growth of three goats. To supplement the goats’ hair, silk is added to the almost weightless pure pashmina shawl. Using age old Nepali methods, the artisans comb and sort the sheared hair and weave them into shawls which are coloured, or now even patterned to suit western tastes.

Pashmina weaving began about 400 years ago in the Kashmir valley and the material had been considered the ‘fabric of royals’ with maharajahs having pashmina blankets, mind you, and bed covers. Now it has spread to the fashion centres of the world.

Then and Now In 1796 the Afghan governor of Kashmir gifted a shawl to a guest from Baghdad, who gifted it to the Khedive in Egypt, who gave it to Napoleon Bonaparte who gave it to Josephine. That they say is the beginning of the western enrapturement with the material.

Its big business too in India. Bhagwanti Mohan’s interest in cultural arts led her to an interest in pashmina which eventually had her starting a business making and exporting shawls. She is a supplier to the centres of haute couture. It is also a cattage industry since all worlc connected with making a shawl from de-hearing to embroidery is done by hand. We do hope the actual workers get a fair deal and money to recompense them for their hard labour. A monitoring body exists - the Jammu Kashmir State Handloom Development Corporation.

Good to know of these positives in the midst of the war that is taking place in the region.

An Even Finer Material from Hair

The satoosh is a scarfmade of the antelope’s hair that is supposed to be so light that it seems to float at the wearer’s throat and yet fine enough to keep out the chillest cold. The test fior a pure satoosh is passing the scarf through a ring.

Do you remember that Kashmir sillcs - those vibrantly brilliant and patterned sarees of the 1950s and 60s which could also be passed through a ring. That was how the genuineness of the silk in a saree was gauged. Now there is such deterioration that a thick, almost coarse artificial silk saree, vulgarly patterned, is passed of in some local shops as Kashmir silk.

Satoosh too was owned and used almost exclusively by India’s dynasties. Often a bridal gift symbolising purity, was a satoosh scarf which was used later to coddle the new born baby, to be handed down from generation to generation.

It is in the 1990s that it was forcibly taken to a wider world - the world of high fashion. The price of a satoosh shawl, white or dyed, is double that of a pashmina of the same size. Both these are understated statements of snob value. Poiiticians are supposed to favour the satoosh scarf to the bully wollen variety since the latter could give the candidates the look of a senior citizen, here taday, dead tomorrow! Ihey have to keep themselves warm as they do their rounds of flesh pressing, and throats in good condition to make their speeches.

Today satoosh is outlawed in the US, European Union countries and even in India by virtue of a 1995 international agreement to protect the Himalayan antelope. They are not killed for their hair, but too severe de-hairing could endanger the animal’s life in the cold of the mountains.

Originally for the scarves that were woven, hair was supplied by Tibetan nomads who gathered lumps of hair of the antelope that were caught in the bushes on the hillsides. But as demand exceeded supply, the hunt became severe and the animals may well have been killed for the hair.

Thievery and poaching are prevalent now. The Chinese crave tiger penises to convert to money earning aphrodisiacs. India has an increase in the tiger population due to strict conservation of species. Thus cross border trade or barter is supposed to be going on with the Chinese supplying the antelope hair in exchange for Indian supplied tiger organs.

Politics too comes into the picture. People suspect India’s ban on the production of the fabric as a ploy to hit the Muslims in Kashmir who benefited by the sale of satoosh.

Former Brother leads Sri Lanka's gay battle to come out

By Amal Jayasinghe
The house with gaily painted bamboo slats and Buddhist lanterns seem innocuous at a residential area of the Sri Lanka capital, but inside is a haven for gays and lesbians struggling to come out.

The high priest presiding at the two-storey "Drop-in-Centre" (DIC) located in a cul-de-sac of the fashionable Park Road area is former Roman Catholic Brother/Sherman de Rose, leading a crusade to "decriminalise" homosexuality.

The cherubic de Rose, 28, is taking a firm stand against the Penal Code which makes sex between two or more men an offence punishable with 12 years in jail.

Ironically, in prisons more men, rather than women, are raped by fellow inmates, de Rose said.

Lesbianism is not acknowledged by the 1883 Penal Code but the authorities do not appear to be in any hurry to change the status quo.

De Rose admits that the archaic law has not been strictly enforced in recent years, but argues that its mere existence is enough for the police as well as anti-gay groups to brand them as "perverts" who are breaking the law.

"The Article 365 of the Penal Code is discriminatory and gives a stigma to those who are gay. It leads to a lot of abuses of gay people in our community," de Rose said at his DIC.

He says some 900 gay men and women have made contact with his rights group, "Companions on a Journey" since it was started years ago. He says they have many invisible members who are still afraid to come out openly.

De Rose himself has come a long way since he first dressed in his mother's saris and skirts of his sisters and played with their dolls, shunning the rough and tumble play of his peers.

Introvert and shy behaviour made his parents send him to church. It was at the seminary that he discovered he was sexually attracted to other men and decided to take off his cassock.

During his three-year training at a seminary in Ireland' de Rose said he studied working with handicapped children and learnt to teach children with leaning disabilities.

He claims "there is lot of homosexual behaviour among adult priests" and decided to make a clean break with the Roman Catholic church here and live a life of a homosexual because the religious confines gave him a huge guilt complex.

After two stints as a receptionist in de luxe hotels here, de Rose formed the group which held its second "National Gay Conference" at a secluded hotel called 'Family Park" in the north-central part of the country last week.

''It is remarkable that 60 gay men came out in the open and were willing to discuss openly their problems, fears and concerns," he said. "The consensus was that as an organisation we should be more formalised."

De Rose’s Companions has no paid membership but activists "cruise" public places such as shopping malls and beaches accosting other gays to join the movement and benefit from various services offered.

They give away condoms provided by a government agency and arrange counselling as well as free clinics for sexually transmitted diseases.

The group also conducts AIDS awareness programs and try to encourage safe sex practices among gays and lesbians thanks to funding from a Dutch organisation.

The Companions is male-dominated but there are a few dozen lesbians who work with them and once a week the '"Drop in centre" is reserved for women. That is when all men are asked to vacate the building.

A lesbian who helps other women to deal with their sexuality is Marie (Eds: one name), 41, but she too is afraid to openly declare her sexual orientation for fear that her family will suffer the "indignity" of having a queer member.

''There are dot of women who are actually lesbians but they haven't had sex with other women because of fear and social pressures," Marie said. "What we tell them here is that there is nothing wrong with that."

Both agree that there is homosexual behaviour within Sri Lanka's conservative society but openly declared gays and lesbians are not welcome. They argue that legal reforms as well as social attitudes must change.

But for the government to repeal the penal code would be as good as giving the gay community an official seal of approval and that could invite a political backlash from hard-line conservatives.

In 1995, the government had agreed to consider the gay community's demand but last year, Justice Minister G. L. Peiris made it clear they did not intend to spend time on reviewing laws that were not being implemented anyway.

For the government, he said, there were other more pressing problems like reforming the entire constitution and battling Tamil Tiger guerrillas in the island's north-east. In the meantime, most gays can remain in the closet. — (AFP)

The Public Service — the critical issues

by R. M. B. Senanayake
The public service has undoubtedly deteriorated. The British colonialists bequeathed to us a reasonably efficient public service. They inculcated in public servants a commitment to impartiality of service to the public irrespective of whether the person was a supporter of the rival political party. Decisions made by officials were applied without discrimination to all and sundry. The public servant was politically neutral in his work. Corruption was rare except in the very lower rungs of the service like Village Headmen or Police constables. Many people believe that corruption is now at the highest levels of the public service. The Permanent Bribery and Corruption Commission had received complaints against several top officials before it was crippled. An established principle in the former public service was the concept of service. Officials had to comply with orders made in the exigencies of the service. This concept of service has almost disappeared and public officials now consider themselves masters, not servants of the public. If a member of the public complains to a superior officer against a lower rung employee he is certain to be victimised. So the public dare not even complain. Heads of Departments today are cyphers, who suffer from what Parkinson called "Injelititis" or palsied paralysis. They do not supervise the work of their subordinates. There is no management or at the most department are over-manned and under-managed. Clerks and peons run the departments. The ethos of service has been replaced by distrust. Core values like impartiality, rationality and objectivity in decision making has disappeared. Top official now try to determine their Minister’s or the President’s mind before they take decisions. If they are not sure of the views of the Minister they will play for time. So decisions are not made and files clutter up the desks of top officials. Lower drawn officials play safe and refer files to higher levels. The so-called passing the buck. Top officials do not take decisions because they are not sure the Ministers and the President will back such decisions. If decisions are taken in good faith, on the basis of rationality and objectivity they should be backed by the Minister or the President. This requires a commitment on the part of the Minister or President to objectivity, rationality and merit in decision making. If the top officials doubt such a commitment on the part of the Minister or President, they will prefer to avoid taking decisions and await for guidance from them although the matters fall within their purview. So one of the critical issues in the relations between Ministers and top officials is how to build trust and confidence in each other.

Politicisation

The answer resorted to by our politicians is to appoint top officials on the basis of loyalty. It was the late T. B. Ilangaratne who openly asserted this principle although the first Minister to follow it in practice was J. R. Jayawardene who appointed a secretary from outside the public service. So began the process of politicisation of the administrative and top official posts. The US spoils system crept in slowly but surely. Today all top officials are appointed by the Ministers or the President. Any top official who had acted prominently in the previous regime was suspect and either booted out or shunted to a pool to idle. Ministers are transferring, promoting officials on the basis of personal friendship and loyalty. Selections are not on merit. Each new government brings about wholesale change in personnel at the top. Juniors have been appointed as secretaries undermining morale of the whole public service. Men who have no administrative or managerial capacity, who can’t say "boo to a goose" are appointed as secretaries to supervise large departments. Is it surprising that the public service has collapsed and paralysis has set in. The final stage is organisational coma.

The American Model

The British model is a permanent non political public service staffed by "generalists" answerable through Ministers to Parliament. The British feel this is the recipe for good government. But the Americans follow a different model. An incoming government will choose hundreds of top officials. But America is a large country with a very well developed private sector. There are very large firms like General Motors. IBM,AT & T. Those at the helm of these business organisations have considerable expertise in management and fit easily into government posts as secretaries, under-secretaries or as Heads of Independent Commissions. Even then there is considerable dislocation under the American system with key jobs unfilled for months or years. We have adopted this system although our private sector is small and the large organisations in it can be counted on the fingers of the two hands. Even in Britain under Margaret Thatcher some top appointments to the Civil service were made from outside. But there was an outcry from top officials and their number was insignificant. They were also outstanding men. What we have done is to allow a creeping politicisation to take place with outsiders who have had little or no administrative experience. They are as ignorant of the practicalities of administration as the Ministers themselves. The strength and character of any organisation is set by its Chief Executive. It is proverbially said that Mussolini made the trains run on time. Felix Dias Bandaranaike was an outstanding administrator and had no complaints to make against the public service. He knew how to get work done through his officials. So I am told was Lalith Athulathmudali and President Premadasa. The latters methods of castigation and sacking may have been crude and even inhumane but they were nevertheless very effective. The large bulk of Ministers we have had have been ineffective. The President complains that even cabinet decisions are not being implemented. The Ministers who have assumed total control of their Ministry are not versed in the practicalities of administration.

They do not feel bound to follow the Financial Regulations or the Establishment code of what use are these documents if they can be dispensed with by the Ministers and give orders to their officials which are contrary to them. What do officials who are asked to contravene them, do. Do they obey the Minister and violate the regulations and face the music upon a change of government when they are summoned before a Presidential Commission of Inquiry. Some officials may think it is better to make hay while the sun shines and leave the public service if the serving government is defeated at the polls. Those who are guided by their conscience have a difficult problem. In Britain when top officials are called upon to do irregular things they can bring it to the notice of the Prime Minister through the cabinet secretary, the head of the civil service. "The Duties and Responsibilities of Civil Servants in relation to Ministers", the so-called Armstrong Memorandum issued in the 1980’s states that a civil servant who doubts the propriety of what he is asked to do by a minister, may appeal to the head of the civil service. But this system of appeals has not been much used and not because officials did not have complaints to make. Instead they made such complaints to their trade union. We have to give serious attention to this problem. The first step is to have a statutory code of ethics preferably included in the constitution itself as suggested by the Sinhala Commission. Then must also be an independent authority like the Ombudsman Commission in the Papua New Guinea constitution to inquire into violations of such code whether by Ministers or public officials. As the Nolan Committee in Britain pointed out, a new statutory offence of "misuse of public office" must be included, a form of misconduct not entailing bribery or corruption, applicable to Ministers and officials. In the late 1980’s the Thatcher government found that the labour party was packing local authorities under their control with party supporters, she passed a law making merit the criterion for all local authority appointments. We need to pass a similar law applicable both to the Central Government and the Provincial Councils.

Inertia and Corruption

Inertia and corruption are today the hallmarks of the public service. Why inertia? Because the Heads of Departments and their Deputies and Assistants are not managing their departments. One Director of a hospital never went out of his office because he believed in the policy "see no evil, hear no evil". So he pretended to be ignorant of the indiscipline and neglect of duty by labourers and attendants. Administrators are paid higher salaries because they are expected to be managers. Then who is to guard the guardians. The top officials are not held to account by the Ministers or secretaries to whom they report. Does the Commissioner of Motor Transport know how long it takes to issue a driving licence or to register a new vehicle. There is much chatter about performance evaluation. Does any Head of Department collect statistics of performance, and this is an age when computers are freely available. Management information is the basis for control and management.

Delay in payment of bills is now usual in the public service unlike in colonial period when the government was expected to be a model employer in prompt settlement of dues. Today, bills are not settled for months and even years. The officials take cover under procedure. No Head of Department will look into this matter which is left to the Accountant, the supplies officer and their clerks. A climate conducive to fraud and theft is thereby created. Treasury cash management is like that of a perpetually insolvent business firm. Money is dispensed in driblets although the principle of large departments being given sufficient funds to hold is laid down in the Financial Regulations. Their cash holding limits have perhaps never been changed for years inspite, continuous inflation. In the "Next Steps Agencies" programme in Britain the need for increasing the authority of executive agencies in purchasing, managing, spending money etc. was accepted. Real discretion must be given to innovate and find ways of achieving public goals. Heads of Departments and Agencies must have full authority to discipline their staff. The rules of discipline which were designed by the British to ensure natural justice, are now being used by trade unions and employees to strangle discipline. The Financial Regulations are used to delay and harass the public. Max Weber long ago pointed out the pernicious use of impersonal rules by the bureaucracy. Today, many officials don’t seem to follow the spirit of the rules but only the letter. They would rather accept a false document rather than exercise their discreation. No member of the public is trusted or his word accepted at face value. He is called upon to produce a dominant to substantiate whatever he says. Officials are ignorant of the rationale behind the rules.

Policy Versus Administration

The British model of administration is based on a separation of policies and administration. Ofcourse theorists may quibble that such a distinction is not possible. But a sufficient distinction can be drawn. Ministers are expected to confine themselves to policy issues and not interfere in the internal working of the departments by determining transfers, promotions of staff etc. The permanent secretary was expected to supervise the departments on behalf of the Minister. The Minister was accountable to parliament only for issues of a general native for which he had to take the rap and resign if something serious took place in his departments. This theory worked in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It broke down after the 1970’s when Ministers assumed total control of their departments. The Financial Regulations and the Establishment Code, referred to Secretaries and Heads of Departments only, because Ministers were not expected to dabble in the running of day to day affairs. But this situation is no more. One Minister served on a Tender Board. Many Ministers give directions on financial and establishment matters to Heads of Departments who feel obliged to carry them out. So under the Financial and Administrative Regulations are made binding on Ministers and the Executive President, no purpose is served by having them. As in USA these Regulations must be enacted as laws binding on Ministers and Officials.

Public Auditing

The Auditor General not only audits the expenditure of the government, he also reports or waste and misuse of public funds. Value for money studies are also in vogue now to determine the lost effectiveness of particular programmes of government expenditure. Any department whose accounts are qualified by the Auditor General an investigated by the Public Accounts Committee. The choice of inquiries is entirely upto the Auditor General. This is not satisfactory. There should be a Commission or Board. Serious irregularities should be referred to the Courts and orders obtained to surcharge the Minister or official responsible. Court procedures should be invoked to recover surcharges. As it is, stricttures passed by the Auditor General or the Public Accounts Committee are largely ignored.

Select Committees

The Sinhala Commission has recommended setting up of "Executive Committees" for each ministry or subject. In UK and USA there are select committees. The Thatcher government set up 14 such Committees.

The membership of the committees was to reflect that of the whole House. So, all of them would have a majority from the ruling party. The Sinhala Commission suggestion is to make the Minister the Chairman of the Committee although in UK and USA the Chairmen are drawn from influential members of the House. It is naive however to expect these Committees to be bipartisan and to consider only the national interests. National interests can be defined in different ways and could themselves become a subject of controversy. Nor will party influence be eliminated. The minorities will want to be selected for committees that they consider important. In UK the Select Committees originally envisaged were for subjects like Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry, Social Services, Treasury and Civil Service, Energy etc. Select Committees are useful to extract information from public officials and help in more open government. They could be a useful check on the bureaucracy and improve public administration.

If the Chairman is the Minister himself as suggested by the Sinhala Commission for the Executive Committee system, there the committee is unlikely to be a check on the Executive.

If the whole Committee were to act as the Executive instead of the Minister, then a rule for decision-making such as by consensus or majority vote will have to be adopted. Executive decision making will then slow down and the whole Executive arm could be stultified since the Committee will be composed of different political parties. If the Committee were to advise on legislation, it is likely to be more effective.

There is nothing to prevent select Committees from functioning even now under the present constitution. These Committees could hold public sittings and obtain advice from experts. Presently only the bureaucrats draw up legislation. An input from the public would improve the quality of legislation. But there is the danger that the Chairman and members of the Committees may interfere individually or collectively in the internal working of the departments or meddle in day to day operations such as MP’s have done since 1956. This would worsen public administration.

Bullshit and science

by C. Santiapillai
Whatever may be said of bullshit, it does draw attention. In the words of the faecophile, Ralph A. Lewin, "It seems a shame that the good name of bullshit, a potentially useful product, should have been debased in recent parlance to signify worthless or misleading statements". Lewin ought to know what he is talking about, for he is the author of an interesting and highly entertaining book entitled, ‘Merde: Excursions in Scientific, Cultural and Socio-Historical Coprology" ( Random House, 1999. $ 1 9.9 5). To many people, excrement, be it animal or human, is simply a waste product, better ignored or buried and not something to be kicked about. But as the British mammalogist, Dr. Rory Putman points out, to a wildlife biologist it is a veritable treasure house of information: the amount of facts which can be gleaned from faeces is amazing. Coprology or the scientific study of faeces has become an integral part of wildlife research. Wildlife biologists rely on the mammalian hairs, feathers of birds, cuticles of plants etc. found in faeces as indicators of the feeding habits of animals. Many of the materials in the faeces of carnivores such as leopard, lion, or tiger can be identified macroscopically. But as far as many herbivorous ruminant mammals such as deer, antelope or buffalo are concerned, micro-histological examination of their faeces may help determine their diet. Even the fossilized remains of ancient turds known as coprolites, can be used to predict diet.

The French word, Merde (meaning shit) got its notoriety in the early 19th century. It is what the French General, Pierre Cambronne was supposed to have uttered on learning of his country’s defeat in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Victor Hugo called it, "the finest word ever spoken by a Frenchman!". But today, there is more to "merde" than meets the eye. Rather ironically, Ralph Lewin claims that the words "shit" and "science" have the same ancient Indo-European origin. The Maoris of New Zealand have 35 different words for dung. Chocolate which is often referred to as the "First food of the Gods" is produced from the pods of the coco tree, which Linnaeus named as Theobromo cacao. But cacao is derived from the Greek "kakkao" which means "to defecate"!

Shit has had its uses even in historical times. Herodotus, who has been called the Father of Lies as well as the Father of History, believed that pigeon shit cured baldness, while Pliny thought that hippo dung was a remedy for epilepsy. Michelangelo is supposed to have used donkey turds to give his marble carvings an antique look! Today, sophisticated DNA analysis of shit enables scientists to do extraordinary things, from sexing parrots to "finger-printing" baboons. Here in Sri Lanka, a joint- study by Priyanka Liyanage and Japanese scientists, on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) found in the elephant dung points to the genetically homogeneous character of our elephant population. Genes are composed of DNA and are diploid, half come from the mother and half from the father, whereas, mtDNA comes only from the mother and is haploid. The maternally inherited mtDNA, enables researchers to track maternal lineages over time.

Elephants are not ruminants, and so their digestion is not as complete as that of cattle. Therefore, elephants deposit vast amount of dung per capita. (A German zoo keeper is supposed to have been crushed to death by the dung as a result of an enema that he administered to an elephant! - a load of bullshit indeed). Several workers both in Asia and Africa, have used faecal counts as an index of the number of elephants present in an area. In the dense tropical forest habitats, where elephants are rarely seen even from the air, the only way of estimating their numbers is through dung counts. In Gal Oya National Park, Brian Vancuylenberg estimated that the elephant population was responsible for a daily outpouring of about 7,500 kg of dung, whose recycling was crucial for the well being of the park. The dung is broken down and recycled back into the soil through the action of termites and dung beetles. In East Africa, Dr. Malcolm Coe of Oxford University, noted that during the dry season, the activity of coprophagous beetles on elephant dung decreased, as that of termites increased. The dung can disappear within three months.

Dung beetles have been immortalised by the ancient Egyptians in their funerary art as scarab beetles. The Latin scarabaeus is connected with the Greek karabos and literally means a beetle. On a sunny day, these beetles can be seen forming a ball of dung and rolling it on reverse gear, over sand to their burrows, where the morsel is consumed in the following days. Dung is also a currency among these beetles to acquire the best mate for breeding! The bigger the dung ball, the better are the chances of attracting a female. A dung beetle’s life begins in dung and is sustained by dung. The burial of dung by the beetles also promotes the aeration of the soil, facilitates percolation of rain water into the soil and enhances the overall fertility of the ecosystem.

Furthermore, since termites and dung beetles comprise an important component of the diet of many larger animal predators, these animals, as Dr. Malcolm Coe points out, represent a significant pathway whereby nutrients are recycled in the ecosystem. The ancient Egyptians shared the widespread belief that the beetle lays its eggs in this ball of dung, and saw in the life cycle of the beetle a parallel of the cyclical processes in nature such as the daily rebirth of the sun. In the Serenegti National Park in East Africa, the population of migrating wildebeest shit about 4,000 tonnes in a day, which is essential for the fertility of the ecosystem. Otters usually leave single spraints (faeces), but the social species are also known to use communal latrines. Such communal latrines serve an important role in advertising the presence of the owners to any passer by. Hippos on the other hand, scatter their dung while defecating under water. Their tails function like "windscreen wipers" in scattering the dung around, and thus help fertilize the lakes. Rhinos may scatter their dung in order to enhance their territorial value.

Elephant dung has other uses too: Recently, the Club Concept, Kegalle managed to produce high quality paper out of 75% elephant dung and 25% recycled paper. In the laminated form, this formed the cover of the Proceedings of the First National Symposium of Elephant Management and Conservation held in Sri Lanka in May 1998. It is not inconceivable that some day someone will produce toilet paper from dung!

The dung of herbivorous mammals has many uses. In many parts of India, dried cow pats are the principal source of energy for the poor. In Calcutta, people follow cows and collect their dollops, dry them and make a living out of selling them. The dry, fibrous dung of vegetarians burns well. But for many Masai women in Kenya, cow dung is something that is traditionally worn as a bridal crown. In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, a substantial amount of human excrement is simply thrown out manually to land wherever. But if this comes as a surprise, do not forget that in Scotland, about a 100 years ago, given the absence of proper toilets in the houses, people used to throw human excrement out into the road, but usually took care to draw the unfortunate pedestrians’ attention to the ballistics of flying faeces by shouting, "garde ye loo". On the other hand, as any Chinese will tell you, human ordure is an excellent fertilizer, used extensively to grow cabbages in China. One man’s shit turns up in another man’s salad!.

Excrementum vincit cerebellum (bullshit baffles brains). Some time ago, in a New Yorker article, Salman Rushdie relates a story of an Indian writer of some renown expounding a theory of "Motionism". "Consider water" he advised the group, "Water without Motion is - what? Is a lake. Very well. Now Water plus Motion is, - what? Is a river. You see? The Water is still the same Water. Only Motion has been added". Another Indian poet who was seated next to Rushdie murmured in his ear, "Bowel without Motion is - what? Is constipation! Bowel plus Motion is - what? Is shit!". Sigmund Freud was constipated for most of his life, which according to Fred Pearce (who provides a fascinating review of Ralph Lewin’s book, in the New Scientist), "explains an awful lot". Poor Sigmund must have had only his fart with which to express himself!.

Sumithrayo after 25 years

by Joan de Mel
In 1973 when I was asked by Dr. Hugh Jayasekera to start a branch of The Samaritans Worldwide (Befrienders International as is it now called), I never dreamt Sri Lanka Sumithrayo (SLS) would grow and multiply as it has. In March 1973 there was a small meeting of interested people who were worried by the growth in the number of suicides. With the help of many philanthropists and a go-ahead convening committee, Sumithrayo tentatively opened its doors in June 1973 in a slum area in Colombo. One year later we were given the OK by Chad Varah the founder of The Samaritans to call ourselves a full branch. Now, 25 years later, I look back and marvel.

This was a completely new ethos in Sri Lanka. "Prevention of suicide? But who kills themselves these days? And if they do, they must be mad!" That see no evil, hear no evil and do no evil approach is still around; but thanks partly to Sumithrayo, suicide is no longer a dirty word - though it may still be grubby.

With eleven branches, we should have made more impact on the community to realize that suicide is not grubby but a tragic result of the unawareness and the uncaring of the community itself. Suicide can be, if not eliminated completely, sometimes avoided if there is someone to listen; someone who cares enough to show empathy and compassion to a person who feel so desperate, that it appears there is nobody to care who can help. Usually, for a suicidal person there isn’t an instant solution to their problems and difficulties. But a show of concern and interest in a caller can make a world of difference to a distressed person and help them to realize that some day things may improve, perhaps it is not a road block that cannot be overcome.

Sri Lanka Sumithrayo is now fairly well known in the island. Unfortunately it may be linked in the public’s mind with the assistance for those taking alcohol or heroin or have some other addiction. True that the Colombo branch of Sumithrayo decided to make and effort to combat this menace. True it has and does help. But Sumithrayo is not only for these folks. As has been indicated the main point of Sumithrayo, or Befrienders International, or Samaritan work is to befriend (that is to listen) to those who have emotional problems which may or may not lead to suicide. To people who are desperately lonely, desperately sad, do not know where to turn to talk about their problems, may have ‘distasteful’ thoughts, may not be able to cope with day to day difficulties, someone who listens, does not judge or advise may be one answer. People like this, when they do turn to SLS feel they are helped to express their emotions, their feelings, their innermost thoughts, which does help them to cope.

Befriending or Counselling:

These two words have become prominent in conversation today in the circles where caring, concerned people gather together. Both have different meanings, although sometimes their functions and practices can overlap. Both are involved with human relationships.

For over forty years befriending has been associated almost exclusively with The Samaritan movement all over the world - known in Sri Lanka as Sumithrayo. What is befriending? It is slightly different from the friendship given by a personal friend. Relationship with a stranger can be easier than with somebody who is known. We can interpret befriending as being a friend to someone in need. But it is both more and less than that. More because caring concern given by a stranger is an unexpected bonus to somebody in despair. Less, because that stranger will probably always be a temporary outsider in day-to-day life once the immediate crisis is over. When friends meet they usually have much in common; they may have known each other for years and even if they have not met recently, they are able to pick up where they left off. Those of us lucky enough to have them know the pleasure of meeting an old friend and discovering the joy of being able to netter freely without dotting i’s or crossing t’s. New friends may have become so, because of a common interest. But talking together with either an old or new friend, there can be a certain amount of reticence; the fear of talk getting out; or they could be shy or embarrassed about talking completely freely. Or, these friends may be so close that the one on the receiving end of any confidence might be unable to help because he or she is partisan and therefore may not be able to see the situation clearly and compassionately.

So we come to the ‘official’ Sumithrayo Befrienders: these are ordinary, caring people who have had enough simple training to help someone to talk about anything under the sun with no embarrassment on either side; understand a situation, which even though distasteful, will enable a Befriender to show their care and concern with complete absence of shock or disapproval; they will have learned the principles of Sumithrayo (which all branches of The Samaritans follow) which emphasize the need to encourage a suicidal person to talk confidentially.

They know the difference between empathy and sympathy, because a Befriender is a compassionate person who must be dispassionate enough to help a distressed caller express his sorrow without himself getting emotionally involved. That is part of the basic training all Befrienders have to undergo because The Samaritans say that a Befriender is born not made. Commitment and dedication, punctuality and regular attendance is all important. Befrienders allow a caller to talk and talk and talk - not less than an hour and may be as much as five hours allowing a person to ventilate his feelings, let go of his inhibitions, articulate his fears and relax completely and comfortably with another person, knowing there is strict confidentiality is the main service of Sumithrayo. The Befriender does not glance at the clock, look round the room, fidget, and let his attention wander or show other signs of inattention. He or she learns to listen - listening skills are essential to both befriending and counselling and the art of listening is the same for both. If, in any situation counselling should be thought necessary, this will be offered by Sumithrayo; medical, legal, spiritual, family, marital and sexual counsellors are always available and their services are given free by those professionals who want to help Sumithrayo.

Counselling: This is a healing relationship, which stimulates growth in a person. It is deeper than befriending. A Counsellor encourages a client to grow to maturity. It is a helping process. Helping someone to recognize and use his own potentials and utilize his own resources - perhaps helping him to realize potentials he didn’t know he had. Counselling is a new discipline and many training courses are recent and have been developing in the past thirty or forty years. The training can be long or short - some courses are run in this country from three to six months. Elsewhere they may be a year or two years. Most trained Counsellors have been through either a Carl Rogers or Robert Carkhuff course or abbreviated versions of these. Knowledge of psychology is essential. Most - though not all - counselling trainees are expected to have graduated or at least have a diploma in psychology and this is developed further in counselling training. A first lesson in training is self-awareness and self-acceptance; recognition of one’s own personal sources of feelings and also the conflicts in our own lives and how to evaluate our own improvement. To help someone in distress, one has to aware of one’s own character. Not only the failings, but also aware of one’ assets, talents, capabilities and one’s own limitations.

Relationship between Counsellor and a Client only works if it stimulates change or growth. Perhaps this is one of the main differences in counselling as opposed to befriending — the latter doesn’t attempt to change a person and, usually, a Befriender is unable to help him grow. An experienced Counsellor knows how to help a client improve his own quality of life so that he matures. This cannot be done quickly, but with discussions over several weeks, coping together with setbacks, with a few exercises from time to time if appropriate, gradually perhaps the client perceives wider perspectives which may change his attitude to his problem or problems. But the change must come from within the client, it cannot be imposed by a Counsellor, who accepts the client’s difficulties and frustrations in a non-judgmental way - similar to the acceptance by a Befriender. Then, by suggestions made after rapport has been established, when the client in his turn has accepted the Counsellor, changes in his or her attitudes may appear. Hopefully, as a result of careful and caring probing, this change together with a growth of personality may precede an improvement in his or her quality of life.

A Counsellor has certain basic skills. Some are similar to befriending techniques, such as eye contact and body language (and we have all to remember that both facial and body expressions must be congruent with speech). Empathy is obviously necessary in a Counsellor just as it is in a Befriender. Empathy - the ability to perceive accurately what the client is experiencing and be able to communicate this empathy. Unlike befriending, which as has been said, can last a long while at one session - several hours - counselling sessions are usually about an hour, although the first encounter may extend to an hour and a half. Thus, there is a more professional approach - more like visiting a doctor, or a lawyer.

Out of a hundred plus volunteers in the Colombo Branch of Sumithrayo there are two legal Counsellors, two sex Counsellors and two family/marriage Counsellors. Except for legal work, non-professionals best do befriending. This has always been the concept of The Samaritans as Chad pointed out as recently as 1998 when he gave a pungent comment on the difference between Befriending and Counselling: befriending, he said, is the nonjargon name Chad gave in 1954 to the listening therapy that the first volunteers of The Samaritans were doing.

Both Counsellors and Befrienders have to be themselves, not put on an act, nor be on the defensive. If personal ideals of the Counsellor’s - his politics, or his religion, is knocked by the client, the Counsellor wouldn’t defend it, but go along with the client until such time as friendship and rapport have developed enough for it to be discussed rationally. A Counsellor doesn’t instruct or advise a client, but always encourages him to work out things for himself and then talk it over.

Can we see the similarities and differences between befriending and counselling? Both allow the ventilation of feelings, both offer a hearing to someone in trouble. Befriending is usually in a crisis situation — a person feels they must talk to someone, anyone. Counselling comes at a later stage. A Counsellor is a professional and has had proper professional training. A Befriender is an amateur with a caring attitude, having had a basic learning about people and how they tick. Both have their place. Both are needed in Sri Lanka today.

So after 25 years has Sumithrayo achieved anything? Well, with 11 branches, there must have been some people feeling, a little better for contacting SLS. I hope so! They say we do help, we believe them because they send others to our centres. Our 100 plus volunteers in the Colombo Branch feel comforted by this assurance and as we celebrate our Jubilee, we know the volunteers continue to carry on the same way, feeling reassured in the knowledge that although we cannot help them all, some may feel better for our tender, loving care.

Gullible’s Travails
Those Grand Variety entertainments

by Cecil V. Wikramanayake
The years we lived in Batticaloa were about my happiest ones. Dad was a member of the Child Protection Society, and a good impressario to boot. In Batticaloa he would organise concerts, grand variety entertainments and whatever at the drop of a pin. The Coronation, King’s Birthday, any such thing, to him, was an occasion for celebration, and how better to celebrate than on the stage.

And invariably his family had to chip in and contribute. Oh, the plays he put on, the musical burlesques, the songs and recitations!

On one such occasion, his good friend, Dr. St. John Puvirajasingham of Trincomalee was due to perform, but had cried off at the last moment, via a telegram, as more pressing business in the hospital prevented him making the trip, spanning seven ferrys and causeways, to Batticaloa.

But the programme had been printed and the grand variety entertainment was about to begin when the telegram arrived.

Dad filled the unforgiving minutes allocated to his friend by going on stage with two sons and a little daughter trailing behind him, and the youngest boy Derek in his arms.

We sang, I remember, "Which came first? The chicken or the egg" and followed it up, for an encore with "Keep the sunny side up". And brought the house down!

At one such concert Dad and his friend Dick Rulach of the railway, who years later was my colleague in journalism, gave an item by "Wick and Dick:". It was just after the coronation of King George VI. Also at that time the Australian Bracegirdle had been much in the news, making a fool of the Governor of Ceylon by getting a Supreme Court order reversing the gubernatorial fiat of deportation.

Wick and Dick sang their songs, one singing the first part of each verse and the other completing it. In addition to this, Wick, who stood nearly six feet tall, was just a dwarf on the stage, while Dick, who was around the same height, towered over his friend, standing about nine feet tall.

It was done like this.

Dick stood on a table, while Reggie Wickramasekera, who lived behind our house, stood beside the same table, his body hidden by Dick’s legs. Dick and Reggie wore a special "Sailor suit" made by mum so that Dick looked like a giant sailor.

Wick stood beside another table on the other side of the stage. His hands were placed on the table and were encased in a pair of shoes. Behind him stood Vernon Logan Smith, Dad’s good friend.

Logan, as everyone called him, had his hands under Wick’s armpits and fitted into a khaki uniform, also made by mum, that would suit a soldier three feet tall. Wick’s hands were the legs of the soldier while Logan’s hands were the soldier’s hands.

When the curtain went up the tall sailor Dick and the short soldier Wick carried on a conversation about topics of the hour, interspersing them with song, like:

Dick (sings) The coronation honours list made Batticaloa happy. The party to be honoured was a most popular chappie.

Wick (sings) Our mudaliyar is a grand old sport the rank he’s well deserving. For conscientious work he’s note, and loyalty unswerving.

Both (singing) Ha! Ha! Ha! He! He! He!, That was a good one, you’ll agree. You can search all day with troubled looks, but you won’t find that in your history books.

Dick: When Charles the First came to the throne in 1625 Sir. He did not sit all day and mourn, but kept his court alive, Sir.

Wick: Yes, Charles the First was always first, as people found out later. He was always first to call for drinks. But last to pay the waiter.

Chorus:

Dick: A socialist Bracegirdle was consuming rice and curry. The governor decided to deport him in a hurry.

Wick: Bracegirdle was a wily chap. He bolted like a beagle. And now the Supreme Court’s declared the order was illegal.

At the end of this item by Wick and Dick, there was such applause from the audience, together with cries of "Encore! We want some more!, " that the curtain had to go up again.

But wait ! Where was Dick ?

Wick was alone on the stage, facing an empty table on which Dick had stood with Reggie, his extended legs. The ordeal had been too much for poor Reggie who had to stand in a most peculiar position, not to say an uncomfortable one, all the time. The moment the curtain came down, he had made a dash offstage, with Dick in close pursuit !

But the show had to go on. Dad obliged with a solo, (appropriate actions by Logan). He sang:

There is something about a soldier, something about a soldier, something about a soldier that is fine, fine, fine. He may be a great big General, He may be a Sergeant Major, he may be a simple private of the line, line, line. But there’s something about his bearing, something in what he’s wearing, something about his buttons all a-shine, shine, shine. Oh, a military chest seems to suit the ladies best. There’s something about a soldier that is fine, fine, fine!

And the curtain came down to howls of delight from the audience that had packed the Central College hall that night.

(Next: Farewell dinners — in verse )

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