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People and Events
Heroes die while pseudos thrive

by Nan
We have had threatened villages being invaded by marauding LTTEers and poor villagers hacked to death before. But never have we felt the impact so severely, the shock so stunningly, the sorrow so immediate and lasting, as when we read about the massacre at Gonagala.

We are told why the innocent villagers were massacred and who did it, but we cannot quite take it in - that humans can be so dastardly. Why had these poor villagers to suffer just because civilians used as shields by the LTTE were killed and injured by bombing in Periyamadhu. That is war and the wages of war that people get killed, both armed forces and civilians. This is so more particularly in a guerrilla war when the army fights according to certain rules, most of them international, which are completely ignored by the enemy. The cunning enemy sets up its bases in the most populated of places within its forcibly held territory. We cannot expect the LTTE to think this way or act with one iota of mercy. What has to be done is that we must demand the threatened villages be protected.

GORY DETAILS

The newspapers gave us minutiae of the bestiality committed, and quite rightly too since the public should know, should sympathize, should get angry and should try to do something to stop these senseless murders, but for goodness sake not more peace marches or whitewashing of what has been done. I have my serious doubts about people rising up and getting the government to prevent such atrocities. We will get shocked, perhaps interrupt our daily routine, specially a lazy Sunday routine to feel sorry for the dead, shed a crocodile tear and then just go on with our safe lives. But there are a few people who ask serious questions and are terribly disillusioned and angry with the way things are being done - not by the LTTE but by our government. The LTTE will continue going on with their orgies of killing. They are far beyond the pale, far, far beyond redemption. But we can improve conditions for those who live on the outskirts of the war zone.

We were told in newspaper reports that two pregnant women and sleeping infants and children were hacked to death. Would even an enraged animal do such injury to sleeping persons? ‘The two pregnant women’s stomachs were slashed by the attackers. One was expecting her first child in December. Police said one of the women was raped before her murder. We were also told there were Tigresses with the marauding Tigers - deadlier by far than the male, they say.

Can a human being kill and hack to death a woman obviously with child? Husbands have been known to abuse, kick and push their expectant wives but there is anger between the two of them, probably a cause for the man to get enraged and his drinking aggravates the situation. Tigers do not take alcoholic drinks. They are dedicated to serve their leader and their cause. So how do they stab, rape, slash sleeping children and disembowel a woman with child? Most of these killers are teenagers. They should be enjoying the rights of childhood such as schooling, leisure time and love of family; not invading villages with blood lust.

A doctor cousin spent a lakh of rupees within a month to save expectant cows from the Kandy abattoir. She is horrified that the butchers show not one iota of concern whether a cow is to calf. The victims, it must be mentioned, are animals and the butchers seasoned slaughterers of animals for money, unlike in the case of the human prey.

A thought that instantly springs to mind, or rather a question, is why aren’t more trained police or armed forces personnel posted to guard these threatened villages. One home guard from Gonagala had gone to the adjoining village for duty. He returned in the morning to find his family packed to death.

The men should be guarding their homes, their part of the village, while the entire village is guarded by trained personnel, professional soldiers and policemen.

GUARD THEM, NOT US

This is not possible since so many of them are in Colombo guarding VIPs and strategic buildings. The day our President was chief guest at the ceremony at Police Park there were, along the roads, uniformed servicemen to civilians in the proportion of 4:1. The question that people asked; those snarled up in traffic jams and missing flights and appointments, and mothers returning home after work four hours late; was why Madam President did not have herself helicoptered to the venue. The roads would then have been free, only the Police Park area cordoned off. People would have been able to get about fairly normally and the threatened villages out of Colombo would have been sufficiently guarded.

If you can see and appreciate the President in a motorcade and have her giving us a queenly wave of her hand, we could understand her riding around. But she is whizzed past at dangerous speed, and miles of roads are blocked for hours, throwing us all into confusion.

BEGGARS AND BETRAYERS

The second thought that comes to mind is of "peace beggars" and groups that refrain from naming culprits, who slide past laying blame, who, like the Women and Media Collective say: "Who killed Rajini (Tiranagama)? The answer to this question is not as important as the answer to the query: why did she have to die?" She had to die because she fell out of favour with those who killed her and to know why she had to die we must know her killers, not hide their identity. Why is this deception and glossing over the guilty ones and not naming them resorted to? For personal gain, for continuation of funding for their NGOs, for ‘hidden agendas’ as some. So succinctly term the covert motive.

The editorial in the Sunday Island of 19 September and Nayana’s Legal Watch column must be read, reread and preserved. In them are sensible, balanced, un-strident, rational thinking and writing on the two issues I have been dealing with: danger to threatened villages and so-called peace makers and do gooders who choose whom to name and whom not to name.

The money spent on peace marches, on seminars held in Colombo in starred hotels, on mass meditation in Victoria Park on celebration of 5th anniversaries could so well have been spent on recruiting more guards to protect our threatened villages or to arm better the persons already there.

FETE THEM

The real heroes of the land are among the armed forces and within the threatened villages who keep out the terrorists from marching southwards. Let the marchers and preachers and meditators go to the threatened villages and give comfort and succour unto them. Give them packets of food and freely distributed money, not to those from the safe South who are conscripted to march, meditate or celebrate. The celebration should have been to fete the villagers living in places like Gonagala who create a buffer between the Tigers and us. How long will it be impenetrable with mass murder going on so consistently?

The hypocracy, the self-centredness, the ploy to do anything to hold position and have the money rolling in, is unbelievable. Believable it is that the true pioneers, the real heroes, the people who are actually doing something to preserve the integrity and sovereignty of the country are being sacrificed and massacred, whether in uniform or otherwise.

Are they disposable sacrifices - to use a cynical phrase in parlance as of now? They certainly and definitely are not, but treated as such. The armed forces and people in threatened villages are the backbone of this nation at war. They need to be treated as such and the villagers protected. Great pronouncements today of the sacrifice they have made and the protection they deserve; forgotten tomorrow. These too are paradisical promises.

Feast of St. Michael the Archangel

by Christy Ferdinando JP.
On September 29 the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, declared the patron saint of Moratuwa in 1644 will be celebrated at Koralawella, Moratuwa. This church which stands sentinel among other churches dedicated to St. Michael celebrated its centenary in 1960 and has entered the annuls of church history.

This beautiful church and the miraculous statue of St. Michael commands the highest respect and honour not only of Catholics of Koralawella and the surrounding villages but also of devotees from far and wide and also of those of other religions.

September 29 was formerly dedicated to all the angels. Pope Boniface II about 530 chose this date to dedicate a church in Rome to St. Michael.

The Hebrew meaning of St. Michael — who is like god, recalls to mind the battle between the Archangel and Lucifer. It is St. Michaels part to continue the fight for our deliverance. He offers to god our prayers symbolized by incense whose smoke rises towards heaven. (Apoc. 8—3, 4). When a Christian has left this world, we pray that the standard bearer, St. Michael, introduce him into heaven. He is often depicted with the scales of divine justice where the souls are weighed. His name is also mentioned in the confiteor after Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Angels.

St. Michael is the protector of the church as in the days of the Old Testament, where he was the protecting angel of the Synagogue. To him also does the liturgy attribute the revelation of the future made to St. John. (Apoc. 1. 1-5)

Early missionaries

Moratuwa was visited by Franciscan missionaries as early as 1519 and the first convert was about the year 1534. These same missionaries evangelised Panadura, Maggona, Beruwala and Galle in 1544. In the following years many more were converted.

Moratuwa had at that time (1610) built a Catholic church by Jesuits and it was the most southerly Jesuit church, dedicated to St. Michael. Tradition has it that would have been the church near the present St. Peter’s Auglian Church and St. Michael was declared the patron saint of Moratuwa in 1644.

This church stood "among the cool and dense woods" along the sea shore says Manuel Barrades S. J. and Andre Lopez. Tradition also says that the first St. Michael’s church was at Lunawa. However, when the Dutch conquered Kalutara fort and Colombo there came the end of the spiritual administration of the Catholic church in this region.

British Period

During the British period, Moratuwa Mission came to life again. In 1800 Daluwala to Matara was one mission. In 1893 Wadduwa mission was created from which were afterwards detached the Maggona, Kalamulla, Matugama and Beruwala, mission upto Alutgama. Thus Moratuwa was restricted from Galkissa to Sarikkamulla. (Panadura being given to Wadduwa). (In 1908 Dehiwala mission was created and took away from Moratuwa, Angulana, Galkissa and Ratmalana. In 1931 Katukurunda mission was born with Koralawella and Sarikkamulla. In 1936 Panadura mission was detached from Wadduwa and Sarikkamulla added to Panadura.

Churches

There were churches during the British period, though not in the same places and form as today. They had to be abandoned due to many reasons and new churches were built in place of the old ones. Thus St. Sebastian’s, Moratuwa was built in 1839, St. Mary’s, Katukurunda in 1863 and completed in 1881 and St. Michael’s, Koralawella in 1860 on a land 3 roods and 25 perches donated by Wannakuwatta Waduge Jusey Fernando and others for the church. The Church was completed in 1894 and was blessed on July 30, 1894 by Mgr. Melizan.

Other churches and institutions dedicated to St. Michael are churches in Yatiyana, Midellavita, Elaly, Kohilagedera and St. Michael’s College in Batticaloa and St. Michael’s Convent at Ganegama. The Anglican church also has a church dedicated to St. Michael and all angels at Polwatta, Kollupitiya.

Koralawella Parish

On 1991, August 15th the Koralawella parish was created with Fr. Sesiri Leonard Warnakula as its first parish priest and he left the parish on September 29 1991. During a short span of four years after Fr. Sesiri there were three parish priests at Koralawella.

On July 7, 1995, Fr. Srian Ranasinghe OMI. was appointed the parish priest of Koralawella and continues to be so to date.

Fun with S. Thomas’ Drama Society

Once again the ever active drama society of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, will present a hilarious comedy, ‘A fly in The Oinment’ by Derek Benfield at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October.

The Drama Society in its 127th year (which is the only school with such a proud history) can boasts, that the entire production is handled by the students themselves. In the recent past the Drama-Society boast of very successful productions like "Playing Doctor" and "The Play".

‘A Fly In The Ointment’ revolves round six of the most hilarious characters which could ever appear in a comedy - An environmental Minister, his virtuous wife, A sex starved mistress, a devious little pizza boy, frustrated police woman and a Romantic doctor. These characters will help to make one of the most unbelievable plots - and a mystery about a lady’s Knickers in the pocket of the ministers jacket.

The cast although relatively young have worked tirelessly during the past 2 months to bring to the theatre audience yet another quality production. The six member cast have performed widely at many productions during this year and have gained maximum exposure on the stage.

Arrvinda Salwatura one of the most seasoned actors of STC, with Playing Doctor, The Play, Comedy Of Errors and Tempest behind him, plays the role of the mistress, The twin brother combination who came to the limelight with an unforgettable performance in the Comedy of Errors, Jayan and Jivan Goonetilleke, play the Pizza Boy and the Environmental Minister respectively. Sanil De Alwis, who was the star in the Playing Doctor comedy, plays the role of the wife, Rajindh Perera plays the most comic role of the frustrated police woman and Thavanga Wimalasuriya plays the role of the Doctor.

The director of the play is old Thomian, Vinodh Senadeera who has shouldered the responsibility of producing dramas for his alma mater for the past 11 years. Vinodh has directed many productions for the local audience which includes Chapter two, Ropes of Sand, The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Play, Playing Doctor, to name a few.

The sets for the production are handled by Nimal Bulathsinhala, costumes by Merian Gunaratne and Lighting by Delon Weerasinghe. The official radio Station for this production is SUN FM.

Box plan and tickets are now available at the Lionel Wendt and at the College Office. So keep the dates free the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October.

Let us be prepared to reduce lightning hazards

Lightning activity over Sri Lanka shows peaks during two Inter-monsoons seasons, March-April and October-November. During these periods convective clouds (Cumulonimbus) develop over most parts of the island particularly during the afternoon or evening.

Second Inter-monsoons season starts in October and hence this is the prime time to turn our minds in the direction of understanding lightning, its hazards and also the precautions in reducing hazards.

It has been noticed that a number of lives are lost in thunderstorms mainly due to the negative response of the people in launching precautionary steps that could be taken in order to reduce hazards.

The electric current of a ground lightning flash is about 25000 Amperes (25000 A) and the potential difference between a charged cloud and earth is about 100 million Volts. Therefore the energy of a lightning flash bringing 5 coulombs to ground is about 500 million Joules.

When compared with the strength of domestic power supply with a voltage of 250 volts and a maximum current of 15 Amperes, one can guess the enormous damage which could be caused by a lightning current.

Lightning damages are resulted in different ways.

a. Direct hit

Lightning flash descending from a cloud hits an object directly.

b. Contact potential -

shock occurs when there is contact with an object like a tree, building or a conducting wire that acts as a part of a conductor of a lightning current.

c. Side flash

shock occurs when one is close to a an object like a tree, building or a conducting wire that acts as a part of a conductor of a lightning current.

d. Step voltage - voltage difference between feet resulted by a current spreading from a point of a lightning strike on the ground.

It is beyond our control to stop lightning. But carefulness in launching precautionary steps may reduce the hazards.

A few precautionary steps to be considered in order to reduce lightning hazards are mentioned below.

1. The earth wires of electrical circuits of buildings should be firmly connected to the earth rods, which should be installed properly to have their electrical resistance less than 10 ohms. Measurements of the resistance of the earth rods of a number of buildings in Sri Lanka reveals that, in majority of cases the resistance of rods is very much greater than the recommended resistance, 10 ohms. It is less than the recommended value only in 10% of cases. This may be one of the main reasons for damages by lightning in buildings with power supply to be considerably high.

When the electrical resistance of earth rod is considerably large, high voltages induced in the electric circuit caused by a lightning flash or any other electrical short circuit may find its way through electrical appliances like TV, Radio, electrical bulbs etc to discharge to earth, damaging or destroying those appliances.

Therefore, the resistance of the earth rod should be measured regularly and efforts have to be taken to maintain the resistance at a low value.

There are number of ways of installation of earth rods to have its resistance low. Two economical and easy methods are mentioned below.

a. Installing a set of parallel rods.

A number of rods installed in a place are connected electrically with each other with a conducting wire like copper or iron. (diagram 1 )

b. Installing several number of earth rods around the building and connecting each to the earth-wire of the electric circuit of the building at several points.

It has been suggested that the second method gives better results since this may cause reduction of damages resulted by step potential induced when high power surges are discharged from earth rods. When a surge is directed to earth through a number of earth rods, potential differences are induced in several directions and as a result, the strength of the step potential may be very low.

2. Do not have any conducting connection (like wires) between houses and the close-by trees. The cloth-line wire and the wire used as supports to old and weak trees are two hazardous examples.

3. Different kinds of conducting materials existing in the environment help in conducting the huge current of a lightning stroke, partly or fully, from place to place. Electric power supply cables, telephone cables and TV antenna cables are good examples. Therefore, in environments with thunderstorms,

(a). Keep electrical instruments disconnected from the main power supply.

(b). Television antennas should be disconnected from the television sets and the antenna socket should be placed close to the earth outside the house.

(c). As far as possible, avoid handling/touching electrical instruments like refrigerator, electric iron, metal frame, TV, and radio.

(d). Avoid touching or standing close to tall metal structures, wire fences and metal clothes lines.

(e). Limit the use of telephones when a thunderstorm is overhead. Best advice is not to touch the telephone in such instances.

4. Find shelter in a safe place to avoid exposing yourself to the open air. If the time interval between lightning flash and hearing thunder becomes less than 15 seconds, move quickly to a protected location, as there is immediate danger of a lightning strike nearby.

5. in environments with thunderstorms

(i). Try to avoid loitering in open areas like paddy fields, tea estates or play grounds.

Specially avoid working in open air holding metal tools like mammoty, knife and iron rods. If this cannot be avoided, crouch down, singly, with feet together. Footwear or a layer of any non-absorbing material, such as plastic sheet, will offer some protection against ground currents.

(ii). Do not seek shelter under or near isolated tall trees and in high grounds. If the vicinity of a tree cannot be avoided, seek a position just beyond the spread of the foliage.

(iii). By sitting down or lying down, reduce the effective height of the body

(iv). If in an open boat, keep a low profile. Additional protection is gained by anchoring under relatively high objects such as jetties and bridges, provided that no direct contact is made with them.

(v) Avoid riding horses or bicycles, or riding in any open vehicle such as a tractor.

(vi). Avoid swimming or wading.

Life of a thundercloud is short as 30 minutes. As a result, fatal lightning occurs during a very short period like 20-20 minutes. If we are careful to take necessary precautionary steps during that period it is obvious that the lightning hazards can be reduced. It should be stressed that the first lightning flash and the flash following a short break of activity cause most of severe damage to life.

First aid

Lightning hazards are not fatal always. The state of the damage depends on the path of the lighting discharge through the body and the intensity of the current. In case of lighting strikes to persons, first aid should be given to the diseased before taking him for medical treatments.

Body should be massaged to treat in case of temporary paralysis due to lightning strikes. If respiration is disturbed, artificial respiration should be tried. This could be done by blowing air into the patients body through his mouth. In many cases, massage and artificial respiration have to be given simultaneously.

* There is no danger in touching, holding or carrying a person struck by lightning.

K R. Abhayasingha,
Department of Meteorology,
Colombo 7.

A Madman from Manipay and the Oxford Dictionary

by Tissa Devendra
"The Surgeon of Crowthorne" by Simon Winchester a recent best seller from Penguin has earned lavish praise from the British and American press - "Absolutely riveting" (The Times); "Masterful" (Independent), "An extraordinary tale" (Economist); "Weird and wonderful" (Sunday Times). As an addict of detective fiction who yet retains a residuary interest in the English Language, studied decades ago in the Age of Ludowyk, I was hooked by the book’s subtitle - "A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Oxford English Dictionary".

It is, indeed a fascinating story of the creation (I believe this is the right word) of the Oxford English Dictionary (QED) by Dr. James Murray, a self-taught Victorian polymath. The crux of the book is the significant contribution to the Dictionary by an American Dr. W. C. Minor "lascivious, charismatic, a millionaire American Civil War Surgeon and homicidal lunatic. Confined to Broadmoor Asylum (for the criminally insane) he pursued his passion for words and became one of the QED’s valued contributors".

Now where does Manipay, a well developed town near Jaffna, come into this story? The "answer" lies in Chapter 3 which, to my pleasant surprise was largely devoted to the country yet called (in 1999!) "Ceylon" by Simon Winchester. I read on, with horrified fascination, as the writer launches into reams of purple prose about our "treasure island, a sensual gift". Before I let loose the reader on Winchester’s florid prose I need to establish the link between Dr. Minor (the homicidal lunatic) and Manipay. His parents were among the pioneer American Congregationalist Missionaries who settled in Manipay, where young Minor (the future madman) was born in 1834. So far, so good - but what astounded me was Winchester’s description (quote) "the mission station (was) in a village called Manipay, on the island’s north east coast close to the British naval station at Trincomalee"!! He proceeds to farther embellish the story when he says they later lived in "a Sinhalese, village Oodoville (Uduvil 8 miles - from Jaffna) where his step mother "ran the local school, learned Sinhalese and taught it to her ... ... ... step child"!! Little does Winchester imagine what prime grist these yarns would provide for the on-going "homelands" controversy.

To pursue the yarn - for that is what it is - to its conclusion ... Young Minor was "just 13 when he first started to enjoy lascivious thoughts about the young native girls on the sands around him". He was packed off to America at 14, studied medicine at Harvard and served as a surgeon in the American Civil War. He seems to have gone off the rails after that and was packed off to London. Here he brutally murdered a poor workman and, after a sensational trial, was found criminally insane and confined to Broadmoor Asylum. His wealth ensured him a comfortably furnished private annexe with access to correspondence, books and journals. This provided him the opportunity of corresponding with Dr. James Murray thus, if Simon Winchester is to be believed, becoming one of the Oxford Dictionary’s most valued contributors.

Surf and Girls

In order to savour the flavour of Simon Winchester’s Florid prose and factual "accuracy I can do no better than let him speak for himself on the Ceylon of Dr. Minor’s boyhood.

"Ceylon is in reality a kind of post lapsarian treasure island, where every sensual gift of the tropics is available, both to reward temptation, and to beguile and charm. So there is Cinnamon and coconut, coffees and tea, there are supphires & rubies, mangoes & cashews, elephants & leopards, and everywhere, a rich, hot sweetly moist breeze, scented by the sea, by spices and by blossoms.

And there are the girls - young, chocolate-skinned, giggling naked girls with sleek wet bodies & rosebud nipples and long hair and coltish legs and with scarlet and purple petals folded behind their ears, who play in the white Indian Ocean surf and who run, quite without shame, along the cool wet sands on their way back home.

It was these nameless village girls - the likes of whom have frolicked naked in the Sinhalese surf for scores of years past, just as they still do now - that young William Chester Minor remembered most. It was these young girls of Ceylon, he said later, who had unknowingly set him on the spiral path to his eventually insatiable lust, to his incurable madness and to his final perdition. He had first noticed the erotic thrill of their charm when he was just 13 years old; it was to inflame, a shaming obsession with sexuality that inspired his senses and sapped his energies from that moment on ..."

Whose Homelands ?

Simon Winchester has had "an award-winning twenty-years career as a "Guardian" foreign correspondent (and) he is currently the Asia - Pacific editor for "The Conde Nast Traveller" and contributes regularly to the "Daily Telegraph" the "Spectator" and the B.B.C. Given this background and antecedents one cannot forgive the shoddiness of his "research" that, inter alia, shows no awareness that "Ceylon" is today Sri Lanka - amazing for a book published this year! The purple prose extolling the giggling naked girls gambolling in the Sinhalese surf (!) is right out of a dated travel brochure - just the slush that was the hallmark of naive travellers to Tahiti and Bali pre-WW II.

On a lighter note, I wonder whether the Tiger diaspora will now consign Winchester to a terrible fate for locating Manipay and Uduvil in a blissful region wafted by "sweetly moist breezes" from the "Sinhalese Surf". On the other hand, Winchester now provides ample ammunition for the foes of the trad homeland concept to prove that Manipay and Uduvil were Sinhalese villages 150 years ago!

The slushy writing and gross inaccuracies of the "Ceylon" section exhibit an unforgivable sloppiness in research and makes the reader wonder how accurate the rest of the book is. A rollicking yarn alright - but so deeply flawed as to make it worthless as biography.

f
To Cut ?... or Not To Cut?

by Jermaine Wickramanayaka
It is reported that a Committee appointed in the early part of 1999 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge has suggested that the government could earn upto Rs 2.5 billion by felling 70% of the teak trees currently growing in our National Parks. Whilst the infusion of this much needed cash will even slightly help a flagging economy it is advisable to take into consideration several factors.

The idea of raising funds through logging is not new. Malaysia and Brazil are two countries that have employed this method to help reduce their respective national debts and to finance development projects. Both countries have had great economic success with logging yet the damage caused to their eco systems is immeasurable.

Teak, scientific name tectona grandis is not an indigenous tree to Sri Lanka. It was introduced by the Dutch during their colonization of our island. The position taken by the government is that teak does not occur naturally in Sri Lanka and that the teak they intend to harvest was planted three decades ago by the Forest Department with the express intention of harvesting them at the appropriate time.

Let us examine some of the effects of clearing forests or in other words deforestation.

(a) Soil erosion and infertility

The clearance of trees means that there will no longer be a canopy to protect the soil from heavy rain nor roots to bind the soil together. Deforestation leads to the break up of the humas cycle with the washing away of existing nutrients in the soil, leaving it barren. This will then deny animals of fodder and also destroy entire Eco Systems.

It can take upto 400 years to form 1 cm of soil. Yet a thick layer of soil, rich in nutrients can be destroyed with one ill-conceived decision. Soil erosion also leads to silting of rivers.

(b) Change of climatic conditions

With deforestation there will be fewer trees. Fewer trees means that there is less evapotranspiration and therefore less water vapour in the air. With less moisture in the hydrological cycle there is evidence of reduced rainfall, which would lead to local drought conditions. A catchment area like Lunugamvehera could suffer greatly through unplanned logging.

The harsh impact of the droughts that our national parks experience annually causes plant and animal life to face severe hardships. The toll that the drought inflicts on elephants alone is alarming. (Elephants are the first animals to wander into human settlements in search of food and water which leads to disastrous consequences).

The felling of trees within national parks will further compound these problems in the long term.

Trees determine the purity of the air. Fresh oxygen is supplied by trees and the absorption of carbon dioxide (Co2) and carbon monoxide (Co) from the air (this action is known as carbon sequestration) is also done by trees.

The burning of forests increases toxic gases such as Co2 and Co in the system and accelerates global warming.

Desertification: Literally means turning the land into a desert. It is a process of land degradation mainly in arid and semi arid lands where the rainfall is unpredictable and also through human mismanagement of the environment. With changes in climatic conditions as explained earlier desertification though not an immediate threat, still remains a very real one.

A cash stripped economy will undoubtedly look for ways and means to reduce its burdens. Every possible avenue of revenue should and must be examined closely. Development is necessary and no one should oppose carefully planned and well executed development. However it is every Sri Lankans right to voice concern over hasty decisions that would lead to short-term economic gain with considerable environmental loss. Thus it is extremely important to minimise the harmful effects of deforestation through commercial logging, should the government go ahead with its plans of felling trees within national parks.

Some suggestions for sustainable forestry:

(1) Methods of logging: Selecting the most eco friendly method/s is important. 4 basic methods are described below.

(a) Clear Felling - Involves the total removal of all trees. Destroys eco systems and habitats. This is the most profitable method of logging and needless to say the most harmful.

(b) Strip Cutting - A variation of clear felling often following the contours of the land. This method minimises erosion, allows easier regeneration, provides constant income and forest replacement, yet destroys sections of the eco system.

(c) Selective Cutting - Involves harvesting of selected single trees and groups of trees. Allows natural regeneration. This is an expensive method yet more environmentally friendly than any other method of logging.

(d) Integrated Cutting - Several different species of timber are harvested at the same time. As poorer quality trees are left behind, the quality of the forest will deteriorate with time. This method is more economical than selective cutting.

Every method of felling trees has its share of evil. Some more than others. Therefore it is obvious from the above facts that we should employ a mix of selective and strip cutting.

(2) The establishment of a clear cut long-term plan for sustainable forestry and the use of forestry experts.

Recorded conservation in Sri Lanka dates back to the period of King Nissankamalla and Sri Lanka is indeed fortunate that her Forest Department officials are dedicated and qualified in the conservation and management of forests. It is important to give these officers further International exposure and to obtain their views devoid of any political influence. NGOs such as GTZ should be tapped for their full potential and for consultants with hands on experience in forestry management and sustainable forestry. We can also learn from the Brazilian (Amazon) and Malaysian experiences, as both countries have now adapted corrective measures.

(3) Ensuring that the felling of trees is carried out in strict accordance of norms laid down for sustainable forestry ie - use only strip cutting and selective cutting methods. The latter would also mean that trees below an established minimum circumference must not be felled. It is also important to impose a maximum limit on trees that can be felled per acre or hectare.

(4) Restricting the use of bulldozers and heavy destructive machinery in commercial logging and keeping their skid trails (entry tracks) at least 1 km apart.

(5) Testing, improving and innovating other methods of logging which are far less destructive to the environment. eg. Logging with tame elephants is eco-friendly but economically unviable in today’s context.

(6) Implementing a foresty development scheme with participation at village level, urban forestry (parks and roadways), forest re-creation and replanting and state and private sector owned commercial timber farms, created exclusively for commercial logging.

(7) A percentage of the funds realised by felling trees in national parks must be spent on the development of these very national parks eg: Improve water holes, staff welfare, etc.

So will it be short-term economic gain with considerable environmental loss for Sri Lanka ? With careful planning we can achieve continuous economic gain with minimal environmental loss through a sustainable commercial forestry programme.

Jack Kotelawala — the rebel son of a feudal landlord

by Kirthie Abeyesekera
The Uva peasantry had resigned themselves to their neglected lot in life until the ‘Same Samaja’’ movement gained momentum in the country’s most impoverished province.

Ironically, the early ’40s ‘revolution’ rose from within the ‘radala’ ranks that held sway throughout the land. J.C.T. (Jack) Kotelawala. who won the Badulla seat for the ‘Lanka Sama Samaja Party,’ LSSP - then known as the Bolshevik Leninist Party - in the first parliamentary election, 1947, was the nephew of Sir Henry Kotelawala who represented Badulla in the 1st and 2nd State Councils from 1931.

The Kotelawalas of Uva belonged to the ruling class of the Senanayakes, the Bandaranaikes and, if you will, the Jayewardenes.. Sir Henry, a feudal landlord called his Badulla residence, ‘Wasala Walawwa..’ His son, Gladwyn, the Uva representative of the United National Party, made his home in Bandarawela, and named it Wasala Walawwa, too

Jack Kotelawala was the son of Sir Henry’s younger brother, James, a wealthy, country squire, built in the portly mould of Winston Churchill, with rounded belly, cigar and cane, and a valet to button and unbutton him. Jack was the rebel son who strayed from the family’s tradition all right-wing role in politics, much to the anguish, if not anger, of the clan.

Jack was in the Badulla prison when I was a student at Uva college, a stone’s throw from where he and comrades N.M., Colvin, Edmund Samarakkody and others were held in detention, fearing they would overthrow the existing regime. At nine,, every night, from their prison cells, their voices rang out the Party song. From outside, we schoolboys joined the chorus lustily - ‘Sadukin pelenawung, den ithin negitiyaw.......’ On their release from prison, Jack set up his law practice in a dingy office near the Badulla clock tower.

I was still a minor (under 21), when I needed a lawyer to watch my interests in the family Testamentary Case - my father, D. D. Abeyesekera,, having died intestate. Like Jack, I too came from a feudal, land-owning family. But early in life, I was drawn to the social philosophy of the Left. Hence my choosing a writing career. But that’s another story.

People said Jack was too honest to be a lawyer. That, and his Trotskyite trademark, attracted me to him. He took no legal fees whatsover from me, although I had inherited a formidable fortune. I accompanied him on his 1947 election campaign trails, in his old, red Austin coupe, Z 9478, which I often drove with its hood rolled down - in style. From a faltering speaker in the early days, Jack quickly matched the oratorical skills of his comrades.

In 1947, he won the second seat in the then, two-member Badulla constituency, yielding first place to S. M. Subbiah of the Ceylon Indian Congress. In 1952, following the disenfranchising of the plantation workers, Jack beat the wealthy UNPer, S. A. Peeris to second place, and held First Spot till March, 1960.

After the 1947 results were announced, Jack was taken on the streets of Badulla in a victory procession led by a bullock cart with a large ‘Jack’ portrait, symbolizing the poor man’s transport. The following night, six of us, his ardent youth leaguers, sporting red shirts, hosted him at a celebration dinner in my home. We drank Tuborg beer that night.

And then, for 13 years, Badulla belonged to Jack Kotelawala. He set to work right away. He went into the villages, taking his socialism with him. The LSSP captured control of many Village Committees - making housing, hospitals, schools, drinking water and roads their priorities to improve the quality of rural life.

Jack built the trade union movement in Uva. He organized bus employees to fight for their rights, to the annoyance of bus magnate, Peeris, his political foe, but personal friend.

He groomed a ‘Badulla boy,’ T. B. Dissanayake,, my classmate, to take over the presidency of the powerful, LSSP-controlled,, General Clerical Service Union from T. B. Ilangaratne who became S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike’s first Labour Minister in 1956. Later, Dissanayake was to become private secretary to Minister Colvin R. de Silva.

Jack was quickly gaining fame as a popular peoples’ representative. ‘Jack Sahodaraya’ to his party comrades, and ‘Jack’ to everybody else, he was a simple man, easily accessible. Warm and caring, you could speak to him on the road, in his cramped office, in the corridor of the Courts where he practised, or in his open house at Pingarawa at the bottom of Judges Hill.

He was retained by the white planting community as their legal consultant. Critics saw this as a conflict of interests. But he defended his position on the grounds that maintaining a good relationship with the planters would help him get a better deal for the workers. The planters’ Uva Gymkhana Club, later, the Uva Club, elected Jack as their president - the first non white to hold the office. He was vice-president of the Uva Young Men’s Buddhist Association, and sponsored its incorporation through an Act of Parliament in 1949, giving the lie to the Marxist myth that ‘religion is the opium of the masses.’ He also assisted in establishing the Badulla Visakha Vidyalaya,, the premier Buddhist girls’ school in the Province.

Jack Kotelawala, politician, parliamentarian, lawyer and trade unionist, was like Caesar’s wife - ‘all things to all men,’ and, like Caesar’s wife, he was ‘above suspicion’ too. In 1960, the two-member Badulla electorate was split up, creating a new seat, Passara, making Badulla a single seat which the Sri Lanka Freedom Party wrested from Jack who had held it with great distinction. The once-mighty Red fortress had fallen. It was the end of an era.

LSSP eyebrows were raised when Jack accepted a diplomatic posting in the Soviet Union from prime minister Dudley Senanayake during the 1965-70 UNP regime. Quick on the track of this politically controversial move, ‘Observer’ editor, Denzil Peiris assigned me to write a piece on Jack. At Katunayake,, I saw Ambassador Jack and his family take off for Moscow, Jack also served as chairman of the Ceylon Transport Board - a situation that did not find favour with the Patty rank and file.

In 1977, the winds of political change blew hard on the LSSP in Uva, as it did in the rest of the country. The Party that Jack built crumbled like a deck of cards. It fielded eight candidates, in the Province’s 12 electorates. All lost their deposits, polling a total of just 3282 votes.

In the dark days of July, 1983, Badulla, reputed for its communal harmony, was ablaze. Leading criminal lawyer, K. V. Nadarajah’s house was set on fire. Jack’s concern for people was still manifest, despite his long-lost parliamentary position. He escorted the Nadarajah family to the safety of his Colombo, Horton Place home where they stayed till their rehabilitation. Nadarajah, a former Member of Parliament for Bandarawela (1947), was later, to tell me, "I had no Jaffna to go to. I’ve never been there. All I had was Jack."

In October, 1991, Jack sprang a pleasant surprise, showing up at my book autograph — signing session at the Lake House Bookshop. It was our first meeting in two decades. I happened to be in a red shirt. It rekindled fond memories of the ‘forties. That was the last time I saw him. Shortly after I returned to Canada, ‘comrade’ Jack passed away.

Four decades since Jack Kotelawala represented the people of Badulla in parliament, he is still remembered with affection as a man who rose above rank in the pursuit of his socialist ideals. To this day, his picture hangs on the walls of many a humble home in the hills of Uva.

1999 — International Year of Older Persons

By Dr. E. S. Thevasagayam
Council Member, HelpAge Sri Lanka

The United Nations has nominated 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons, to once again remind us of the importance of older persons in our community. The first week of October is also nominated by the UN as Elders Week. The UN also has chosen the term ‘Older Persons’ while referring to the elderly rather than the terms in common usage like ‘ aged’, ‘elderly,’ senior citizens, etc.

Sri Lanka has one of the highest life expectancies compared to other developing countries. In a life expectancy survey by the WHO for persons over 65, Sri Lanka was about 14.5 years, even higher than several countries in Europe and even the USA. We have achieved this goal by the welfare state policies of successive governments since independence life expectancy. Life expectancy which was around 47 at independence has increased to about 75 in 1999, and it keeps increasing year by year. This also means that there will be more and more older persons in the community as years go by. The proportion of older persons which is around 8% today is expected to increase to about 25% in the next 25 years. This creates some problems for families and to the country in general.

The very commendable welfare state policies of governments has resulted in these spectacular results. Free health services, free education, subsidised food, and others, unique to any country outside the socialist world, has been a boon to the people of our country. Infant mortality which was around 250 per one thousand live births has now been reduced to under twenty per one thousand live births.

Counties are usually ranked according to their Gross National Product (GNP) or the amount of wealth they can produce. On that scale, Sri Lanka, one of the developing countries is way down the list of about 160 countries in the UN system. About 25 years back, the UN developed a ‘Quality of Life Index’ of the countries. They used parameters, like health care., education, infant mortality, literacy, etc. On this scale, it may surprise many of our countrymen to note the Sri Lanka was ranked No. 1 among all the countries in the UN including the more affluent countries like USA and Japan which top the list on the GNP scale.

Although our policies of the past have added years to life, there was no specific plan to cope with the end result which is to add ‘life to years that have been added to life’ as the UN expects of us. For the families, especially for those who find life very difficult, it becomes increasingly hard to look after older persons. This is more so in the urban situation where the motto is ‘each one for oneself’. In the rural situation where the vast majority of our people live, it does not seem to be a big problem. Older persons are able to contribute to family life as long as they can. And when they become feeble, the family and the extended family takes over their care. Older persons continue to live a respected and useful life most of their lives.

In the urban situation where husband and wife work, lack of space, financial constrains, and other factors make it more and more difficult for older persons to be looked after by children. It is therefore incumbent on society to see what steps should be taken to address this need. In developed countries the social security system of the government is able to address this problem to a great extent. Financial support, housing, medical services, easy accessibility to all necessary amenities to improve the quality of life of older persons in these countries. Unfortunately in a country like Sri Lanka the financial burden would be too great for the government to absorb the expenses incurred in providing such services. When the financial resources are limited, the country has to establish priorities. To give a simple example, a heart bypass operation for a 65 year old may cost up to Rs. 500, 000. This surgery will extend that person’s unproductive life by about 10 - 15 years. The same amount of money may be used to save the lives of 100 children at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, giving a productive life of about forty years each for these children, or four thousand years of productive life to the country compared to a heart by pass surgery which may give just 15 years of unproductive life to an older person. The government therefore has got its priorities right and is unable to provide for older persons as they should.

The social security system in Sri Lanka is the family and the extended family. Parents look after the children when they are young. This is how it should be. When a child is born it is totally dependent on the parent for the first years of its life. Compared to many animals where the young are on their own in a few months at most. Even at 15 the child is still dependent on the parent. May be at the age of 18 or 19 a youngster may become independent of the parents and may start the life of his/her own. If going for higher studies dependency extends to even up to the age of 23 and 24. The best part of the parent’s life is devoted to bring up children. If parents feel it their bounden duty to sacrifice their own comforts and everything else in order to see that the children always get the best that they can afford, and put them on their feet, it becomes incumbent on the children to look after the parents when they reach old age and are unable to look after themselves.

In developed countries older people like to live an independent life on the own rather than be dependent on children. They can live independently as they are provided for by the State. Statistics show that about 80% of the over 80 years old in the UK live all by themselves. Our culture is different. Parents expect children to look after them and children feel it is their duty to do so. But circumstances especially in the urban areas have changed in such a way that it is more and more difficult for children to look after parents for reasons mentioned earlier Another more recent development is the migration, both permanent and temporary, of young people leaving behind their old folk.

It is quite natural to blame children when they do not look after their parents. Sometimes it may be that the parents who are at fault. Parents living with children often do not realise that married children should have a life of their own and parents must let go very early in the son’s/daughter’s married life. It is not always easy. One day you are in charge and the next you are expected to surrender authority to one whom you still consider a child. It need not be sudden but gradual, but it must be done If the parents would be willing to be welcome guests in the daughter’s/son’s home’ then things work out well. Of course in early married life a living in parent is a bonus. The couple is out for work and the mother takes care of running the home. When children arrive, the mother is there to take care which she does gladly. A good cook, house keeper and baby mincer all rolled into one, and all for free too. Compared to this, those who have migrated to developed countries have to pay heavily for all these services. In the UK, a baby mincer costs UK pound 5 (about Rs. 500) per hour. So a parent living in is a tremendous help and a great money saver. Many families take their parents along precisely for this purpose. When the children grow up and the parent becomes feeble, it becomes difficult to keep them and many want to send them to a ‘home’ in Sri Lanka for which they are willing to pay any amount.

Old age is not a disease but older persons have certain health problems peculiar to age. Also it takes longer for health problems to mend in older persons. As long as an older person is in reasonable health and is able to manage daily activities of, life. the main problem faced by them is loneliness. As not only the older persons in need but also those who are able to live by themselves are also lonely. Those who are concerned with older persons should address this particular aspect of the problem. There are many interested groups who would like to visit elders’ homes to make people there happy. Often those who organise these programmes, do not realise what the older persons really need’ - The organisers would like to do something which they think would be appreciated by the older person. So they have games, sing song, some refreshments, which are in themselves good. But few are alive to the greatest problem older persons which is boredom and loneliness. A suggestion one can offer to those visiting older persons in elders homes or even in their own homes, is to spend time with older person just listening and talking to them. Older persons live in the past and therefore they would like to remember incidents and happenings of the past to enjoy re-living them with a lot of satisfaction. So to be able to spend time with them to let them unburden themselves will be the greatest boon to people who are lonely and bored. It may also be possible for the visitor to help the older person to write a letter to a loved one, something they are unable to do by themselves.

Recently there is the great deal of awareness of the new situation that is risen because of large numbers of older people in our society. Many religious and other organisations are planning to do something about. Either to start a residential facility, or a day Centre, or something else so that they too can contribute their share towards promoting the welfare older people.

HelpAge Sri Lanka, a new organisation dedicated to improving the quality of life older persons in this country is always willing to advise any organisation which would like to start some activity.. There is also financial help for those who would like to provide the free service to older persons. Many Organisations think of starting an elders homes as their first priority. But when they find that the capital outlay is so great, they give up. Although the need for residential facilities is great, day care is a viable alternative for those who have a home to go to. This is more acceptable to many older people and to their families to avoid the stigma of placing a parent in an elders’ home. Older persons living in their own homes have something to look forward to each day to go out and interact with their peer group and get back home each evening.

There are many disabled older persons in their own homes and if some service can be provided for them will also be of great help. HelpAge Sri Lanka is training home helps who can be employed by families to take care of such persons in their homes, for a fee. Religious groups also can organise a roster to relieve the care giver in the home for a day of two in the week so the care giver could have the freedom to do something else.

HelpAge Sri Lanka also helps to organise (free eye clinics for older persons if requested by an organisation who will take responsibility to invite older persons on their area to attend such clinic. Many organisations have used this facility and up to 200 older persons have attended such clinics. Their eyes are examined and prescription glasses are provided free. Those who need cataract surgery, are helped to go to the hospital to have this done on special days reserved for older persons .

There is also an Adopt a Gran Scheme (ME) whereby older persons can be helped financially. Any organisation that is able to assemble a minimum of 30 needy older persons, up to a maximum of 200, and provide all the necessary information HelpAge will arrange to get the necessary assistance from Help the Aged, UK under this MG scheme which will provide assistance to the tune of about Rs 750 per month per older person. This assistance can be given in the form of dry rations and some pocket money for elders in need. Already over 2,000 older person are receiving such assistance in Sri Lanka

There are many ways in which community organisations can help older persons in their neighbourhood, within their own means. HelpAge would be able to advise anyone who would like to do something so that organisations can go about it in the right way. The need is great, the enthusiasm is also great The message has got through. Let us do something to make us feel good, that making 1999 the year of older persons been worth the while.

Gullible’s Travails
I arrive at Hotel Yalta

by Cecil V. Wikramanayake
Early the next morning, after ablutions and a slap-up breakfast of Thosai, sambar and chutney, provided by the accommodating Poosari at the Kovil, I set off for what was to be the last lap on my journey to the land where I had spent three happy, carefree years - Jaffna, the ‘land of the lyre-poet’, as we learned in school.

It was an uneventful ride, along roads that had palmyrah trees on either side, with white, dry sand, and very little scrubland. There was hardly anyone on the roads, vehicles being few and far between in those days.

At Elephant Pass, there was a Customs barrier, where I had to stop and explain to the officers there what I was doing on a cycle and where I was going. One of them happened to be Ephraim Jacob, who had been a senior in Central College when I was studying in the Fifth Standard.

Learning that I too was an old Centralite, he was most cordial and I spent quite some time there chatting with the officers there, before I went on my way, receiving their blessings for a happy journey.

I stopped at Mirisuvil, where Dad had left his Baby Austin, several years earlier, when its magneto packed up after a non-stop run from Colombo, where Dad had bought the car.

The man who had befriended Dad, remembered me well, for he recalled how I had come there, one day, with Dad.

Riding into Jaffna town brought back memories of the days when I rode around that area on my first bicycle, with Aries Kovoor or Renton Hannibalsz, my two best friends in those days, on the pillion.

It was around 4.30 in the evening when I reached the Hotel Yalta, where my brother-in-law-to-be, Jaya Pathirana lived. He too had received telegrams and letters from Mum and had made preparations to receive me - a good ear-blasting, which came in from one ear and went out the other.

Jaya Pathirana was at that time still a law-student, boarded with us at 74 St. John’s Way, Mutwal. But his mother and younger brother and sister lived in Jaffna. They remained in Jaffna till the race-riots of 1958 compelled them to give up residence in Jaffna and return to Kurunegala, the original home of the late S. Charles Pathirana, Jaya’s father.

Why was their place called Yalta? Jaya explained that his elder brother Ariya was the one who had started that hotel. It was opened on the day that the Yalta Pact was signed in Europe during World War II. And Ariya, who was a keen follower of politics and world affairs, decided he would call his new business by that name.

Strangely enough, years later, in 1985, when I visited Jaffna as a reporter, and got myself abducted by the "boys", it was in that same Hotel Yalta that I was ‘captured’.

I had gone there for sentimental reasons and to quench my thirst after walking around Jaffna town, taking photographs of old familiar places. It was while having that glass of lukewarm beer that I saw the place suddenly filled with the ‘boys’. But that is another story.

The next morning, after a good night’s rest, Jaya and I went to the Railway station, where he luggage my cycle to Colombo. We would travel the following day, he said, by train, for he had to get back to Colombo to continue his studies at the Law College.

Fourteen days after I left Matara, having thrown up a lucrative job, simply because I had the wanderthirst, I entrained for Colombo and home, that thirst fully quenched. In the train I recalled those lines from the poem "Wanderthirst" that I had studied while still a teenager. I could only remember the first verse of the poem,

"Beyond the East the sunrise. Beyond the West the sea.
And East and West the wander thirst that will not let me be.
lt works in me like madness dear to bid me say goodbye,
For the sea calls, the stars call, and Oh, the call of the sky !"

Do-young men today have the wanderthirst ? I very much doubt it, for they are more engrossed in the day-to-day struggle with the cost of living and how to eke out an existence to succumb to that wonderful disease called the ‘wanderthirst’

They have my sympathy, for I still believe that given the opportunity, I would not hesitate to repeat the adventures that I had during those fourteen days on the road. It is things like that that gives zest to life, don’t you think?

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