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| Sunday, 2 November 2003 |
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Letters |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
I happened to read several letters written to the Readers' Forum regarding the way the elephants were treated. Those letters reminded me of a recent 'Sandesaya' programme broadcast over the BBC expressing, the producer's concerns about the use of elephants at the Kandy Sri Dalada Perehera. The letters that appeared in the Readers' Forum expressed identical views to that of the 'Sandesaya'. The question arises why identical views appear simultaneously and repeatedly through media. This type of occurrences are not coincidence. Most agendas are pushed through in disguised form and the sensitive reader is misled Distorted facts give credence to the misconception of a non existing cruel treatment to the elephants by their owners. This majestic animal was a treasure with the ancient kings and they were kept in the royal palaces with so much of love and care by the great kings. The elephants were not treated as beasts but as an invaluable symbol in the royal palace. The elephant owners do care for these animals with love. Elephant and man, cattle and man have lived in harmony for generations in our culture. If an elephant is handled with cruelty it will in turn punish the perpetrator instantly, or on a subsequent day even after many long years. I wish to draw the attention of the people, who are concerned about the domesticated elephants tied with steel chains, towards the situation of the other animals. It is difficult to understand why they fail to be concerned about the cruel treatment to other animals in general. The writers have not observed the people who are handcuffed. Sometimes several men are chained together or kept behind iron bars. How do the writers feel about the dogs tied to steel chains in many homes? What about the beautiful birds kept in cages as pets? The many varieties of animals confined to cages in the Dehiwela zoo and the private zoo at Ahungalle or anywhere else? The fish tanks kept in homes with fish in them? Most of the people who commit these acts do not realise the seriousness of the suffering caused to those animals. Consider the cruelty to cattle; slaughtered for food. Many other animals like pigs and poultry are killed in thousands daily, for food. The innocent animals sacrifice their lives for research work in the cosmetic industry. These dumb and innocent animals die helplessly for want of sympathy. Why talk only about elephants? What about horses used by people for different purposes? The police force keep their horses for their service requirements. People use horses for their sports and horse racing as a popular entertainment of the rich. A large number of horses are used at the coronation of kings and queens to glorify these ceremonies. Without expressing sympathy and kindness towards animals in general, why stress this attitude towards the elephant only? The elephant is a symbol of our culture for thousands of year. Even today it plays an important role in our cultural activities. I think our culture should not be tampered with through biased notions. Padmasree Samaranayake, Provide pensioners with a stable fund I write with regard to retired employees depositing their provident fund money with finance companies and banks and the in fact that they receive a very low interest rate at present. I retired recently and withdrew my savings in order to place in Fixed Deposits anticipating a reasonable interest payment as was paid by my provident fund society prior to my retirement which was around 15% per Annum. However, the present interest rates range up to 10% only annually. The present interest rates paid by the Finance Company and Banks are hardly sufficient for a pensioner to exists in today's context of high cost of living. For example if a person had a balance fund of Rs. 500,000 at the time of his retirement the highest interest rate that could be obtained is not more than 10% annually. Therefore on a capital of Rs. 500,000 he or she would get a total interest of Rs. 4166 per month which is hardly enough for a person to live by spending on house rent, meals, clothing, medical etc. The government should intervene and give solace to the retired, relief by way of having a special provident fund schemes to those retired by giving a substantial interest rate to overcome this difficulty of receiving low rates from Finance Companies, Banks etc., as at present. This would help the government too to benefit, since, they will be retaining the savings in bulk as done by the Central Bank on account of employees provident fund. To overcome any malpractices the government could ask for a certificate from the provident fund authority with regard to the date of retirement, amount released by them etc., in respect of those retires. Who intend depositing with the suggested Retirees' Provident Fund. M. T. A. P. Fernando, A few years ago the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) allowed local rugger playing clubs to include a few foreign players in their teams. This move was made solely with the idea of enriching the techniques of our local ruggerites by learning from their foreign counterparts. However during the semi-finals and finals of the recently concluded Premier Trophy Rugger Tournament it was observed that the culprits for most of the infringements and rough play were the foreign players. International rugger referee Dilroy Fernando had the courage to show the yellow card and send off foreign players of both the Havelocks and Army Teams in the semi-final match. In the final the foreign players of the Havelocks Team were seen dashing the CR & FC players on the ground. The referee only warned the foreign player. TV re-plays showed this ugly incident several times. The CR & FC Team sans any foreign players had a wonderful display of open rugby. They nearly won the match. I feel it is time the SLRFU re-considers its decision in allowing foreign players to play for local clubs. By allowing these heavy weights to virtually bulldoze if not bully our young ruggerites schoolboys will think twice before playing club rugger next season. It is also a waste of valuable foreign exchange spent on getting foreign players. Over to the SLRFU and the Minister of Sports. Binara Panapitiya, Vegetarian hotels - a response This is in response to S. Kandasamy's article in the Sunday Observer of August 31, where he has written about two Muslim vegetarian hotels, one at Nugegoda and the other at Pettah. Hasn't he observed Hindu vegetarian hotels in every corner in Colombo having all sorts of non-vegetarian food except beef. Should these hotels be called anti-vegetarian or only beefless vegetarian? Kandasamy points his finger at Muslims while Hindus who are supposed to be vegetarians, flood the market with anti-vegetarian or only beefless vegetarian hotels. He should know that Muslims and Christians can never be vegetarians. I feel non-vegetarians discriminating against vegetarians is not reasonable because everybody has a right to choose their food. Today true vegetarian hotels are very rare they are managed by "Saivasam or Brahamins". Y. M. Faleel, Since taking over as the Chairman of ETF Dinesh Weerakkody has carried out his duties well at this institution for the benefit of both ETF members and employees. There should be absolutely no dispute over that. But whom is he trying to deceive when he says that "the public outcry, annual member statements (AMS) were not issued on time was quashed and AMS issuance percentage has now risen by 154.27 percentage ? (Business page of a newspaper on Sunday October 12). The ETF members are simply "jolted and awakened". Mr. Chairman would you please care to explain how you arrived at this percentage worked upto a second decimal point. The truth of the matter is ETF statements have been issued only up to the year 1999. Most institutions where your members deposit funds issue statement on a monthly basis within two weeks of month end. Even EPF has issued Half Yearly Member Statements (HYMS) upto June 2002. They are on HYMS frequency whereas you are still on an outdated AMS frequency. The public outcry, not necessarily through the print media, will continue at least until you catch up with EPF. Why not prevail upon EPF to slow down so that you can catch up with them during your term of office. Incidentally with the over heated share market ETF should have made massive profits. So why don't you declare a dividend to us as provided in the ETF Act ? May I also suggest that an annual general meeting be introduced so that the members could express their views over management of their funds ? This is extending true democracy to main stakeholders of ETF. Asoka Rodriguez The above tax has become a headache to many Sri Lankans who travel abroad. Being a frequent traveller I face this problem. Authorities think those who travel abroad are very rich. They are not aware about difficulties people face when travelling abroad, especially financial difficulties in obtaining air tickets, visa etc. Three years ago the tax was Rs. 500 and it was later increased to Rs. 1000. Within a short span of time it has gone upto Rs. 1500 and this money is supposed to be transferred to the treasury. If the tax goes on increasing like this "sky will be the limit" for airport tax. This tax is nothing for the affluent but for students and ordinary travellers it is too much. If authorities can reduce the tax it will be a great relief to travellers. D. Murthy According to September 29, issue Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has asked two foreign doctors to leave the country as they were practising here without SLMC licence, thereby violating Section 67 A of the Medical Ordinance Act. Indeed the SLMC has acted correctly and according to rules. In fact when it comes to medical graduates qualified abroad in allopathic medicine, the SLMC is perpetually breathing down their necks to ensure that they don't practice without a licence. The GMOA too is active in ensuring that these foreign medical graduates do not practise without a licence. All this is well and good and even commendable. But what is extremely difficult to comprehend is the contradictory attitude of these organizations when it comes to the issue of unlicensed medical practice of allopathic medicine by unscrupulous graduates of the indigenous medical system. Medical Officers of Health have the powers, under Section 69A (2) of the Medical Ordinance (Medical (Amendment) Act No. 25 of 1988) to check any person illegally practising allopathic medicine. For this purpose MOH was issued a certificate of approval by the Ministry of Health. The medical officers were by and large investigating such cases. About 10 years ago, in the mid nineties, the Ministry of Health in a strange move issued a circular, the number of which I do not remember, which prohibited the medical officers from checking only indigenous system medical graduates who were illegally practising allopathic medicine. The medical officers could continue checking other quacks. When this circular was issued, I cannot recollect the SLMC or the GMOA raising any objections. These two organizations were silent about the issue. They were far too busy hounding foreign medical graduates whom they perceived as a threat to local allopathic graduates. On the other hand as the indigenous medical graduates posed no such threat, their illegal practice of allopathic medicine was conveniently ignored. I think it is time that the SLMC (and the GMOA) got its priorities right. Quacks who ever they may be should be checked. Hounding a particular group is not professional. I. Ahmed, Increase of service charge: is it justifiable? The leading state bank, Bank of Ceylon has increased the monthly service charge on current account holders who fail to maintain a stipulated minimum balance from Rs. 25 to Rs. 50 w.e.f. July 2003. is it justifiable to do so without informing their valued large clientele in writing?. A constituent of Bank of Ceylon, Piliyandala branch who has opted to remain anonymous has blasted the authorities of BOC in a local English daily under the caption, "shock from BOC Piliyandala." As a policy they probably have increased the service charge by 100% in respect of all its constituents in their network of branches scattered throughout the island. But for courtesy sake at least why didn't the authorities give one months' notice in writing. He had confessed that the bank is not a "kalu kade" to increase its charges at will. I am an ex-banker who maintains a joint current account at Bank of ceylon, Metropolitan branch, York Street, which was incidentally from where I opted gladly to retire prematurely two years ago. I knew how the institution really functioned and through sheer frustration decided to terminate my service without any hesitation of seeking even a day's extension of service, which I was entitled to. I too received my monthly bank statement for the month of July. I was shocked, alarmed, astonished, amazed and bewildered to learn that a sum of Rs. 50 have been forcibly debited as service charge without any prior notice. Isn't the rules and regulations governed and monitored by the relevant authorities of Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Ethics, morals, courtesy, code of conduct etc are currently non-existent. It is only their survival they are concerned about. Attitudes and approach of most members of staff are totally negative. The customer of Piliyandala branch had even contacted the Bank's Internal Audit Department for clarification. They too had been clueless to give an answer. In short nobody really knows what's going on. Sunil Thenabadu, Central Bank should supervise bank activities It is the duty of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to supervise all the activities and businesses of all licensed commercial banks operating in Sri Lanka. This includes the advertisements of these financial business establishments. One bank began the year with advertisements including a clause "150 years with you" in their newspaper advertisements. Subsequently there were a few readers who voiced their opinion in "Readers' Comments" columns. Suddenly, this clause was omitted in the similar advertisements which followed. However, this financial institution was highlighted in the "100 years in business" feature section. This bank has been in Sri Lanka for over 111 years and the Central Bank should investigate why this sudden change in the wording of its newspaper advertisements. The public should be safeguarded at any cost! Pramuka debacle was a lesson for everyone. To add insult to injury the bank put out a customer circular in which it states as follows: "150 years of creating the difference! The first quarter of this year focused on our staff where we strived to "be the difference" in our expanding business". Alas! How many staff have been sent home in the most unethical manner? This workplace has also been made "out-of-bounds" to them. Further, "in the third quarter we will take the theme into our community where everyone will 'feel the difference' through our contributions towards the growth and goodwill of society. All in all 2003 will be a year of living the difference". It is true that everyone "feels the difference". Able employables are idling at home, languishing as to what happened to them overnight. Yes, I am one of the unfortunate (former) employees. Now, I have to forego one meal daily to beat the spiralling cost of living without neither a salary nor a pension. My children are attending school on empty stomach. When we began the career we signed on to get a pension at 55 years of age. We have loyally served this foreign bank for 30 years. We feel we have been cheated! Over to Central Bank of Sri Lanka - for supervision. D. A. M. Ayantha, |
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