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| Sunday, 6 January 2002 |
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Letters |  |
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Some people take astrology seriously. They consult astrologers for all significant events in their lives, such as marriage, house construction, business and politics. But some people regard it as a fun game. They do not take it seriously and declare it as humbug. An event took place recently in favour of those who say that astrology is all humbug and cannot predict anything definitely. I am referring to a discussion which took place in a TV channel the day before the recent general elections. They have invited a bunch of people who called themselves as the most reputed astrologers in this part of the world, to answer the simple question, 'Who will win the general elections?' After prolonging the discussion by showing the planetary positions influencing the leaders of both parties (ie. PA and UNP), they all predicted the victory of the PA government without any hesitation or division. But now we all know what happened on the following day. UNP had a landslide victory as expected by the majority of people in the country. Therefore the question arises as to whether astrology is humbug or those so called 'astrologers' invited by the television channel are a bunch of PA supporters who wanted to mislead voters in favour of their party. K. A. W. Angulugaha Was Jesus really born on December 25th? The New Testament clearly states: "And there were shepherds in the same country (Judaea) abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flocks." (Luke: 2:7,8) Commenting on this statement of Luke, Bishop Barns in his book: Rise of Christianity, on page 79 says, "There is, moreover, no authority for the belief that December 25 was the actual birthday of Jesus. If we can give any credence to the birth-story of Luke, with the shepherd keeping watch by night in the fields near Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus did not take place in winter, when the night temperature is so low in the hill country of Judaea that snow is not uncommon. After much argument our Christmas Day seems to have been accepted about A.D. 300." This view of Bishop Barns is supported by writers of the articles on 'Christmas' in Encyclopedia Britannica we have: "The exact day and year of Christ's birth have never been satisfactorily settled; but when the fathers of the Church in A.D. 340 decided upon a date to celebrate the event, they wisely chose the day of the winter solstice which was firmly fixed in the minds of the people and which was their most important festival. Owing to changes in man-made calendars, the time of the solstice and the date of Christmas Day vary by a few days." (15th edition, Vol. 5, pp. 642 and 642 A). Chambers Encyclopedia says: "In the second place the winter solstice was regarded as the birthday of the sun, and at Rome 25th December was observed as a pagan festival of the nativity of Solinvictrus. The church, unable to stamp out this popular festival, spiritualized it as the feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness". These statements of the two Encyclopedias are further supported by Peake's "Commentary on the Bible". In this book on page 727 Peake says: "The season (of Jesus' birth) would not be December; our Christmas Day is a comparatively late tradition found first in the West." Thus recent historical research into the origins of Christianity has established the fact beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus was not born in December. How in the light of historical research into the origins of Christianity and Luke's statement that Jesus was born at a time when "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night" (Luke: 2: 7,8) the belief ever came to be entertained by Christians that Jesus was born in December, seems very surprising indeed. According to this statement of Luke, Jesus certainly was born in Summer when shepherds abide in the field in Judaea, keeping watch over their flocks at night which is only possible in summer. The incident referred to in Luke very probably took place in the month of August or September when fresh dates are found on palm-trees in Judaea. Let us now turn our attention to the Holy Quran. In Chapter Maryam Verse 26, it says: "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree; it will cause fresh ripe dates to fall upon thee". (Holy quran: 19:26). According to this verse the birth of Jesus took place at a time when fresh dates are found on palm-trees in Judaea. That season evidently is in the month of August and September but according to the view generally accepted by Christians, Jesus was born on 25th December which day is celebrated all over the Christian world every year with great fervour. Now this Christian view is contradicted not only by the Quran but also by history and even by writers of the New Testament itself. This is the time when according to the Qranic verse under comment Jesus was born and when his mother Mary was directed by God to "shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm=tree; it will cause fresh dates to fall upon thee." Thus the Gospel of Luke inadvertently has lent wonderful support to the Uranic view about the birth of Jesus having taken place in the month of August or September which is the season of fresh ripe dates in Judaea. Moreover, there is ample and very reliable historical evidence also to show that Jesus was born in the month of August or September. In his, "Dictionary of the Bible" Dr. John D. Davis under the word "year" writes that dates become ripe in the Jewish month of Elul; and in Peake's "Commentary on the Bible" (Page 117) we have that the month of Elul corresponds to the months of August-September. From the above statements of the two Encyclopedias supported by the quotations from the "Commentary on the Bible" by Dr. Arthur S. Peake, the fact becomes quite clear that Jesus was born in the Jewish month of Elul which corresponds to the months of August-September when dates ripen in Judaea, and not on 25th December as the Christian Church would have us believe. And that is the view expressed by the Holy Quran. With all these clear evidence in the Bible, the Holy Quran and history, the Christian world continues to celebrate Christmas on 25th December. I therefore, request the Christians to ponder and follow the correct Biblical evidence on the date of birth of Jesus Christ. A. Abdul Aziz, sLooking at the computer viruses created and sent around even faster than biological viruses, it makes us wonder what sort of sick society is out there. Thanks to the modern technologies these perverts hide behind anonymity and cause havoc in other people's computers. What makes people enjoy such vicarious pleasures, I will never understand. Another kind of pervert is the one who initiates chain letters. One such letter is: "If you really have friends, send this to 8 people within the next 5 seconds and if it comes back to you, you know you have a circle of friends. Surely, one need not do this kind of stupid thing to find that he had friends and if he values friendship of this kind, his own friendship is a pathetic one indeed. Another common one is: 'send this to so many in 5 secs, you'll have a miracle happening within the next three days'. The most pathetic responders are, who say. 'I don't believe in this sort of thing, but what the heck, I am just forwarding anyway - their thinly veiled desire for the 'miracle' though ashamed to acknowledge up front. A common one is a fear stained letter. I'am a father of a child who needs surgery urgently. If you will send this to people. AOC (or IBM or whatever) will pay 32 cts. For each mail...' I have had the same letter resent to me 8 months later where the child needed surgery within 24 hrs. Surely, we as fellow human beings can help a needy child better by sending money directly. But the catch is, if you (ever) write to the originator of the e-mail offering money, either there is no reply or a letter announcing they have nothing to do with this hoax. Offer of a free computer from IBM is a frequent trick. Whenever one checks with the parent company, it is found to be false. All what we are doing by forwarding these letters to everyone on our address book is flooding the cyberspace with junk, clogging the system. Some pervert is sitting and laughing his or her guts out. People who have access to e-mail are supposed to have at least average intelligence. So please exercise that underused commodity that God has gifted you with before you hit that 'forward' key. Stop being just a cog in the wheel, but be responsible for every letter you send, for you infringing on others territory every time you send e-mail. Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Long live, the great courageous lady! (Dr. Mrs. Karmalika Abeyratne) You have been a goddess No words can ever say, It wasn't your fault When your appeared on TV You treated my loving child We are sure we can't forget The whole nation lost the service Kamala de Zoysa, At present, Muslim ladies and young girls are expected to wear the Partha (Abbaya). It is a general belief that this Partha covers the person from head to toe, leaving a space for the eyes only. Fortunately, in Sri Lanka there are no religious fanatics who use violence against ladies who do not wear the Partha. It is reported that in Kashmir, recently a religious group had thrown acid on college girls who did not wear the Partha. In Afghanistan the Taliban group had warned muslim ladies not to go out without wearing the Partha covering them from head to toe. They say the female beauty should not be exposed. In an interview given by a Muslim lady principal of a leading school in South India, it was mentioned that only the hair is the sexiest part of a female body and Prophet Mohamed had insisted that it should be covered. In the desert countries however, partha or specifically the Abbaya is worn covering from head to toe to give protection from the scorching sun and the sand storms. Therefore, this principal had mentioned that ladies in other countries have to cover only their hair and need not wear the Abbaya from head to toe. This Partha covering the entire body worn by some Muslim ladies in our country causes the following problems. It is difficult for the armed personnel at the security points to check such ladies with the help of their identity cards only. Female officers may have to be deployed at every security check point. It could be misused by rogues and criminals. Few months ago I heard that three escapees from the Bogambara prisons were travelling in a bus wearing the full Pathra. Fortunately, their movements aroused suspicion and they were arrested. During the hot seasons it may cause lot of inconvenience to the ladies especially when the Partha is in black colour. Therefore, I appeal to our Muslim leaders to scrutinize this opinion and issue directions requesting the Muslim ladies and young girls to wear the Partha covering only their heads. Secondly, some movements and country leaders use the word 'Jihad' (holy war) against their enemies. The word 'Jihad' had emanated from the words 'Jithoh Jihad' which means 'fight against the enemy within oneself' Unfortunately at present this word 'Jihad' is being used to justify acts of violence. I hope our political leaders do not misuse this word and act sensibly. KANORJI ANGARE, Amaradeva - typical Indian voice Premil Ratnayake in his article on Amaradeva in last Sunday's Observer has several untruths. Amaradeva's voice is not at all a Sinhala voice like Sunil Santha's. It has the typical characteristics of an Indian voice. Ragadhari music just flows from his mouth. All his music is deep-rooted in Indian music. Ratnayake writes that Sunil Santha copied Bengali songs. This is a downright untruth. He wrote and sang only one song - Sumano, Sumano - which was slightly based on the Hindi tune and song: Deere, Deere but that was long before, as Sunil Santha wrote in one of his books before he realised that we had no music which we could call our own. Upto date Sunil Santha was the only musician who had the personality, the voice and music of a true son of the soil. None has reached the summit that he reached in Sinhala music. This, of course, is an age where Visaradhas are found by the dozen. Most of them, if not all cannot compose an original song. They can only sing other's songs! EUGENE MICHAEL DE SILVA,, Undoubtedly it's encouraging and welcoming news to note, that one of our former Test skippers, stylish-batsman and all-rounder, (present match referee of the ICC, and cricket TV commentator (of Tests and ODIs) as well - Ranjan Madugalle has been appointed as the Chief-Referee, by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is a rare, unique-tribute (honour) to him, and our country by at large indeed. He is a fine internationally recognised, disciplined, outstanding cricketer of his repute! We should be very proud and happy over Ranjan's personal achievement and splendid progress in the cricket world, that brought fame, name and glory to his own Motherland! Heartiest Congrats and well done, Ranjan! - Keep it up! S.T.ARASU, I am sending this letter from the Maldives. I would like to bring an important matter to the Sri Lankan sports authorities about a very bad attitude by the Maldivian police and the sports bodies towards our soccer star Kasum Jayasuriya who is in contract with the Island Football Club (IFC) in the Maldives. There was a football match played between the IFC and the Club Valencia on 09.08.2001 Kasum was performing well in this match. When he scored a goal against Valencia he jumped far joy and took a policeman's cap and wore it as it is done in the latest Copa America soccer tournament. The referee of the match showed a yellow card to him and allowed him to paly on. At this stage, police entered the playground and took Kasum Jayasuriya to the police station and they are not allowing anyone to visit him at the police station. We, some Sri Lankans tried to meet him at the police station but were not allowed to do so. Now my clarifications are as follows: * Ca n police enter into the grounds and take a player? * Isn't it the usual way for the police to have contacted the sponsoring club management before taking any action against him? Therefore it is up to the Sri Lankan sports authorities to take this issue to the FIFA to take action accordingly. As we feel this kind of acts are considered as human rights violations. A well-wisher, It is understood that the preferred site for the coal power plant has now been shifted from Norachcholai to the South. Contrary to popular beliefs, coal power plants are in operation in countries with very stringent emission standards. This is a golden opportunity for the Ruhuna. The volume of the investment for the coal power plants is said to exceed that for the entire Mahaweli Project. This writer sincerely hopes that sanity prevails with the Maha Sangha, the environmentalists and those who normally protest for the mere sake of protesting. Go grab it Ruhuna! PALITA P.S. , Poor service by Sri Lanka telecom I am addressing this letter to Sri Lanka telecom Ltd., through the medium of the Sunday Observer. My telephone No. 350852 went out of commission on 21/09/2001. The very morning I reported the fault to the Telecom repairing unit followed by several reminders including 121, Kandy, finally to the engineer in charge twice but up to date (09.10.2001) ie. 19 days the telephone has not been repaired for unknown reason. I do not know when this will be repaired. I trust any responsible officer of the Sri Lanka Telecom Limited will take action to repair my telephone. Trust the Sri Lanka Telecom Limited will not charge me rental fees for the duration the telephone was out of commission. S. PERIYAN, EPF/ETF contributions and gratuity payments There is a tendency on the part of some deceptive Managing Directors of companies to be carried by a sense of self importance, when calculating EPF/ETF contributions and gratuity payments not taking into account an employee's monthly regular earnings. He satisfies himself that a wage earner's monthly basic salary is the unit of reckoning his EPF/ETF contributions and gratuity payments whereas the labour law clearly defines that all regular monthly allowances of an employee except bonus, overtime, rent and travelling allowance only should be exempted from the total earnings mentioned therein. Also the gratuity act specifies that employees who have completed five years or more of service without a break are entitled to this payment, worked out at half a month of his or her terminal salary, for each year completed. Irrespective of the legal conditions laid down by the Labour Department some bosses display a proclivity to take the law into their own hands. Then things tend to go haywire and they consider themselves selfishly important. This attitude should be shed for it earns a bad name for the management and comes in for public rebuke. Some of these errant employees tend to be unconcerned about an employee's retirement, his old age and future livelihood and these employers blunder very badly which is a sin, un-pardonable and crying for vengeance. It is my conviction that a stray employer should be taught that there are strict limits to the exercising of their authority over his employees regarding their legitimate dues on retirement. Shop and Office Act rules and regulations governing employees are clearly defined and laid down by the Labour Department. Any employer over stepping these legal bounds is guilty of misuse of his administrative power and should be taken to task by the Labour Department, and redress granted to hapless employees. All employers should think of a better tomorrow for their employees who have sweated for years for them, instead if ill-treatment is meted out, the Department of Labour should think deeply of how grievance of those affected employees could best be redressed. It is undisputed that disgusted employees sometimes resort to violence when their grievances go unheeded. The Minister of Labour, let justice and fairplay prevail always and let not the employer be a bloodthirsty vampire on the verge of retirement of an employee. M. Peiris, |
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