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| Sunday, 30 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.
This is in response to I. Ahmed's article, "SLMC and foreign doctors" which appeared in the Sunday Observer of November 2. He has mentioned indigenous medical graduates who illegally practise allopathic medicine. It's quite true that this category of quacks practise allopathic medicine throughout the country, endangering innocent lives. For example, in the Deraniyagala town where I live, there are three such quacks who practise allopathic medicine without being checked by any health authority. As Mr. Ahmed had pointed out, it is quite true that MOH has the authority to check and sue against these practitioners in his MOH division. Although they are the authorised officers to probe into such malpractices they have turned deaf ears to the problem and the quacks earn money very freely. Recently, we informed the AGA of Deraniyagala to look into this matter as the requests we made to the MOH were useless. But according to the AGA he has no powers to act against quacks and he will inform MOH to take necessary actions. It's pathetic to note that almost all authorised officers (MOHs in this matter) together with quacks, exploit our poor people and engage in their private practices. Jinadasa Vitana, Ridiculous, disgusting advertising on TV Things have definitely got out of hand with advertisers on TV, Radio as well as outdoors. It is not possible to watch a film, listen to radio musical or newscast without having to take a dose of decadent, nauseating advertisements. The advertising pioneers are of the opinion "to sell you must tell" but never "yell". Yet the height of absurdity has now been reached by advertisers. For instance TV newscasts being a public service are subjected to soap, lotteries, biscuits, detergents, between breaks and the malady irritates the viewers since it's not in moderation or refined taste. Those empty jugs advertising a malt drink lying at the elbow of the news-reader with the logo pointing dramatically towards viewers is a case in point. I suggest that local stations take a cue from foreign news stations whose broadcasts don't make viewers captive to cheap stunts. Needless to say, with the exception of one TV station the rest make horrible viewing - even on holidays or after-hours. See those Tamil and Hindi films filled with violence, blood-letting and thuggery with impossible fist-fights everyday - 7 days of the week? Or those films with gyrating men and women whose acts defy gravity? Included too are such cheap, soap and musical shows targeting youth some of them whose dialogue is way beyond the reach of a youth population with poor English education. What really disgusts the public is that most teledramas - Sinhala or English are interrupted constantly with bits and pieces of ads run over and over again. Of the 30 minute it's 12 mts film and 13 mts advertising while the rest time is caught up in same film credits run every time. What is the Child Protection Society doing about the exploitation of children in advertising? Now you can even see senile, grand-parents jumping up for joy to catch a lottery ticket, eating a sausage or chocolate. Let me also call attention to a TV station that daily has about six hours of programming of which approximately three hours are advertisements - the weekend being even worse! Sinhala dramas are not what they should be - you will hear our Sinhala teledramas' dialogue is 'achcharu' - every three or four words is "English". The advent of TV in Lanka has brought about a new "order" (that chronic malady that has ruined many a family in the West). The measure of 'censorship' both for films and advertising clips is mandatory even for the TV world. Showing crime and the punishment (if caught) is no deterrent to the malady. Effective controls and especially censorship for "all" advertisements is necessary. Who is responsible for all these shortcomings? Everybody wants to change the Constitution of Sri Lanka but no one cares enough about the constitutional rights of the people who are citizens of the country. So we suffer due to the disingenuous, hypocrisy and utterly indiscriminate, machinations of "clients" and their foraging "advertisers". BRIAN JANSZ, Christianity and vegetarianism This is in response to Y. M. Faleel's letter in the Sunday Observer of November 2, in which he stated that "Muslims and Christians can never be vegetarians." Mr. Faleel is obviously unaware that according to the Holy Bible God created humans to be vegetarians. Even animals were created to be herbivores. Meat eating started because man used the free will given to him by God, to choose evil over good, otherwise we would still be vegetarians living in a paradise in peace and harmony with one another and with animals. While some Christians believe that God gave man permission to eat animal flesh after the great flood, many Bible scholars believe that the story of the great flood is allegorical and shows what would happen if man continued to be evil. However since it is impossible to drain the sacred lifeblood from the carcass of an animal before eating, it is impossible for man to eat flesh. In Christianity no special animal is held to be sacred. All animals were blessed by God when he created them, and possess the breath of life that comes from God. Many Christians like the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses are vegetarians. St. Francis of Assisi was a great lover of animals and had the power to speak to animals in their own languages. He called the birds and beasts his brothers and sisters. This proves that all creatures of God possess intelligence and have the ability to communicate with humans if we can only understand. Will anybody kill an animal or other creature if it can speak to him? If human beings can be cannibals and eat other human beings what can one expect. People who are soft hearted and sensitive love God's creatures and don't eat them. Animal lovers can take heart that the day will come when there will be peace and harmony once again and - "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together and the little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear... and the lion will eat straw like the ox. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord." Isiah 11:6-9 (Holy Bible). A. S. Perera, Unfortunately, Muslims are heedless of the significance of the prayer and negligent towards fulfilling its obligations. This is one of the pillars that distinguish between Islam and disbelief. Allah's Messenger (sal) said: "The covenant between us and them is the prayer. He who abandons it, becomes a disbeliever." (Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, vol. 5p. 346, and At-Tirmidhi). Moreover, prayer is one of the pillars of Islam upon which the religion is founded. Nevertheless, many Muslims are inattentive and unmindful of fulfilling such tremendous obligations. Some of them fast but do not offer prayers. Beware! Such people's fasting is futile and in vain, since those who abandon the obligatory prayers are disbelievers, then how could fasting be accepted from such disbelievers? As for a disbeliever, all of his deeds are unacceptable to Allah, how could it be possible to accept the fasting from one who abandons the prayer? Fathima Inneth, NSB's 'suicide pill' for senior citizens President ordered an increase of salaries of government servants by 50 per cent and pensioners are also to be benefitted through this scheme. PM promised to implement this through the budget. The prime minister ordered "reduction in interest rates". NSB - reduced the interest rates for fixed deposits of senior citizens from 9.2 to 8.2 per cent. This is the second reduction of interest rates within few months. Now there is no way for senior citizens (retired private sector and retired Middle East workers) to live on their hard earned lump sum payments deposited at NSB. Fixed deposit accounts interest rates have been further reduced and the fixed deposit account holders receive low interest rates. Only solution would be a "respectful death" for senior citizens. The death pill (cyanide) should be made available at all NSB branches so that senior citizens could obtain the pill and any balance left in the FDs could be taken to the government coffer! Senior Citizen, We ordinary citizens walked and trudged, sometimes for miles long to cast our precious vote. Many of us have been out of pocket, fulfilling these obligations. But what have we as ordinary citizens gained from these exercises? Before our independence, (according to Sri Lankan mentality), it was convenient and rational to blame the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British for all our ailments. Now, who do we blame for the breakdown of our political order, our economic ills, mess in the educational system, chaos in the transportation, deterioration of facilities in hospitals, frauds in the privatisation, lack of will to enforce law and order, in the procurement of arms and ammunition? You will see a mess in its totality, which will go on unabated, until the destruction of the common man. The outright gift to the Jaffna Tamils, on the so called ethnic issue, is the plum in this chaos. I am no advocate of fundamentalism, whether religious or language. Fortunately I belong to the minority, but I am proud and privileged to claim a stake with the majority as every fortune and misfortune keeps on affecting me, along with the majority of my countrymen. Wake up my fellow countrymen, at least for the sake of your dear progeny. Forget the past 2500 years, look to the present and the future. Mother Lanka is dying, due to your total negligence, lethargy, and vacillation overgrown with rhetoric. We are a confused and confounded nation, otherwise why would we have more than 50 registered political parties? Because we are a Nation, unable to identify our left foot from our right. Walter Fernando, Celebrating the Portuguese arrival According to information made available through media, the Roman Catholic Church seems to welcome the arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka in 1505, by celebrating the event with state participation. The Portuguese ruled the maritime settlements of the island for 153 years, until they were driven away by the Dutch in 1658. To celebrate their arrival, what actually have they done for the development of the country, either culturally or socially, than to go on the warpath and convert Buddhists and Hindus to their religion? The Buddhist Commission Report (1956), gives an account of their animosity towards Buddhism. What remains today of the Portuguese rule is the Roman Catholic religion and the habit of eating beef shunned by the Buddhists and Hindus. Needless to say that they have enriched our vocabulary with Portuguese words, which are still in use, e.g., janelaya, annasi, viskotu, viduru, lensuwa, bottam, kamisa, sapattu, almariya etc. Among the atrocities which they levelled against Buddhism, was the removal of the Tooth Relic to Goa, to be pulverised by the Bishop after placing it on an anvil. But what they had removed was an ivory replica of the Tooth. The sacred one was kept hidden at Beligala for safety, which was later removed to Kandy. The Portuguese expanded their missionary activities aimed at converting people to their faith, sometimes "with sword in one hand and the Cross in the other". Sometimes, they took over temple lands and built their churches thereon. The barbarity of the Portuguese towards other religions was that conquista temporal was the guarantee of the conquista espiritual. In view of the above facts, celebrating the arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka 498 years ago, has to be weighed in the balance. Aryadasa Ratnasinghe, |
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