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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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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.
Valentine's Day - a big question mark It is heartening to hear that the Buddhist clergy has come out hard against the Valentine's Day and have urged the people to resist falling prey to the western culture of celebrating Valentine's Day. It is time the elders and the learned men took decisive action like this, if we are to save our country from going down the precipice any further. It is also sad to note some five star hotel is totally ignoring the advice of these respected men and going ahead with the preparation for the Valentine's Day. Celebrating Valentine's Day is a pagan custom, which has no religious connotation in any religion. Just like stupid morons, people have been falling prey to celebrate anything and everything, whatever someone initiates. Valentine's Day entails unnecessary wastage, false emotions, and unwarranted importance to a day totally alien to Sri Lankan culture. Love should be celebrated everyday, in kind deeds, appreciations and sincere gestures, not by posting expensive cards with words of someone else, exorbitant flowers and gifts. It is very important that we teach our children to respect the correct values and to learn to live according to the proper moral values. Let all other religious leaders too come forward and express their solidarity with the Buddhist monks on this matter. Islam totally prohibits love affairs before marriage or intermingling of the sexes, as such, all these acts done on the Valentine days by the youth are prohibited. On the other hand if the married people want to show the love to their partners, let them do so everyday, in their own privacy. They don't have to publicise it and cheapen it by announcing over the radio, newspapers and TV. Love is something very beautiful and sacred. Let's not prostitute it to the profit of some manipulative money-makers. Let's keep our values clear. Hope the Muslim, Hindu and Christian clergy will come out condemning the practice of celebrating the Valentine's Day, educating the public, specially the youth. Dr. (Mrs.) Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela. Any comment or statement by Bishen Bedi on Murali appearing in any newspaper sounds of utter disdain. He calls him blatantly a cheat, a thief and a dacoit (the smiling assassin for you and me). This coming from a man from a very astute, noble and religious community (all the other Singhs and Sikhs starting from Amar to Harbajan and of course, the amiable Siddhu have been jewels adorning many an Indian team or field). Pure antagonism bordering from simple jealousy against an innocent and charming Murali, really a treasure of our little Isle, beats sane comprehension. It is still more inconceivable that Bedi a non-member, has been nominated by the ICC as a man for the "scan", when cricketing stalwarts like Clive Lloyd, Sunil Gavaskar, Tony Greig and company are at beck and call. To get to the core of his ill-response towards Murali can simply be traced to the exploits of this famous Indian trio of a few years back - Bedi himself Prasanna and Chandrashekar - who used to spin webs inextricably round batsmen, and that ironically though he used to get bags of wickets, the plums had also to be shared three-ways, thus bringing down his aggregate. Murali going on from success to astronomy, and the five hundred magical mark milestones adding to his torment in his retired career with much dismay and frustration can be understood. To every Asian, Murali is a beaming pride for the world to see, except of course, our neighbour Bedi from India. He likens Murali as only a second to Warne along with the media playing up before a series for all the psychological aspect of things. With no malice to Warne, all Sri Lankans wish him back in the fold and fray, especially to see once in a lifetime exhibition of two wizards of opposite sides operating for break throughs and epic roles to be remembered for decades to come. W. Meadows, Nelumpura. Is the CWE swallowed up by capitalists? In 1949, Parliamentary Act for the creation of CWE saw the light of day with the hope of balancing the prices both wholesale and retail to safeguard the small-time retailer and consumer respectively. As you all are aware CWE's assets are sold by auction and some are sold to a new venture constituted by the infusion of private capital. Then what has happened to the balancing of prices that was the sole objective of CWE. The capitalist economists are arguing the prices would be balanced by the operation of market forces. Although theorists say so, the realities are different. What happened to passenger transport? Even with CTB operating as a skeleton service. The concept would go against the market forces and the prices will go up at the whims and fancies of the investors. People who have got into power with majority vote got from the ordinary people are doing things to serve the interests of big investors not the common man. Then UNF is not serving the interests of common man but the business community. Is it not true to say that the CWE is swallowed by the capitalists with the blessings of the government. Winning lotteries - invitation to death Winning a lottery (with a big prize) is getting an invitation to death. The present society is such that the winners are made losers; the long-awaited fortune of a person is turned to misfortune; the joy of winning and the hopes of a secured future are turned to tears and misery. It is often reported in the media that lottery winners are killed by thieves who become rich overnight. The present trend of showing the winners on TV at the lottery drawing programs is the main cause of this tragedy. The public is well aware of dilemma faced by the National Lotteries Board (NLB) which has to ensure both the public credibility as well as the security of lottery winners. In view of the waves of crime sweeping through the country at present, the NLB should give thought to this matter more seriously. I suggest the following course of action regarding the lottery winners. Without being shown on TV, the winners (of, particularly, huge sums) could be offered the choice of getting the prize in private in presence of the same panel of observers who could testify in writing and that their testimonial could be shown to the general public for the sake of credibility and transparency at a subsequent draw. Confidentiality and the security of life has to be guaranteed from the time the winner gets his/her cheque until he/she deposits it. I don't know if most of the winners themselves like to get publicity through the electronic media. In that case let them hold the responsibility. However those who wish to remain unidentified should be allowed to do so. In addition the NLB should announce how the winners, particularly those from distant places could reach the NLB without getting the help of brokers or even the lottery agents. A hotline has to be made available for the use of the potential winners to make appointments and consultations with the authorities concerned. In this case, secrecy and privacy has to be guaranteed. Lottery winners of higher prizes are extraordinary people of sheer fortune. They should live to enjoy their wealth. therefore, the NLB has a great responsibility of creating a secured environment in which the winners are hidden from, publicity. Madduma Bandara Navarathne, Colombo Costly exercise with the pensioners The Director of Pensions implemented, a costly exercise at the expense of the illiterate, literate, partially blind, infirm and sick government pensioners, by sending them 12 blank pension Vouchers, along with the January '04, pension voucher and requesting them to copy out the pension particulars monthly and submit to the respective paying authorities (banks/post offices) on the due dates to draw their monthly pensions hereafter. However, most of the Divisional Secretaries failed to advise the pensioners in their Circular letter the dates of payment of the other eleven months of the year. This exercise, it seems, was to save the monthly postage figure of Rs. 4.50 incurred by the respective Divisional Secretaries. Some of the present day pensioners who joined the public service over six or seven decades back as minor employees in different departments as labourers, conservancy labourers, etc. were not educated as the present day pensioners in these grades. A large number of them were non-plussed when they received these blank voucher forms and the circular requesting them to copy out the particulars as given in the 'specimen' voucher form for January, 2004. Most of the pensioners who have passed their 75th birthday now are either infirm, feeble with poor eyesight and are sick. They will have to seek the assistance of someone to get these particulars entered into the blank form. This new system to be adopted by the Director of Pensions became a big problem for them as they were unable to copy the salary details on to the blank forms supplied to them. Some pensioners came to the banks and post offices with blank forms to get them filled at the banks/post offices through someone known to them. Some pensioners are living away from their children after the demise of the spouse, in 'Elders Homes' or 'paying homes'! I am personally aware of such cases who live on their own in those institutions. Some pensioners were reluctant to fill the blank pension voucher as they feared that in case they did a mistake while copying out the particulars, and had to alter the figure, the paying authorities would have refused to pay their pensions. The pensioners individually and at association level started protesting and making representations on this new system to be adopted by the Director of Pensions. Fortunately for them the protests reached the Prime Minister who understood their plight and requested the Minister of Public Administration to rescind the new circular immediately and revert to the former practice of despatching the pension vouchers monthly by post. The pensioners are thankful to the P.M. for his kind gesture. Since there are about 3,75,000 state pensioners, I think about 4,500,000 blank pension voucher forms would have been distributed among the pensioners to implement this 'pet' scheme of the D.P. Now that ;a vast sum of money has been spent on the pension voucher forms, action should be immediately taken by the Director of Pensions to recall these unused pension vouchers issued to the pensioners, through the Grama Niladaris spread throughout the island. This could be done by issuing the lists of names of pensioners to each G.N. with the address of the pensioner, by each Divisional Secretary concerned. Also, prompt publicity should be given through the electronic and print media and the S.L.B.C., requesting the pensioners to hand over their unutilized pension vouchers to Grama Niladari of their respective areas. This will save an immense amount of money to the Government, for printing a further stock of pension vouchers. This new scheme may have been suggested by the authorities responsible by not being actually aware of the ground situation of the very large number of senior pensioners. To sum up, I wish to quote an adage learnt by me when at school long years ago, viz: "Penny wise pound foolish", which is most appropriate in this case. A senior pensioner, Ambalangoda. Practice of unethical conversions - A point of view Enacting laws against the practice of unethical conversions, thus criminalising it, can cause serious problems not only to individuals but also to the nation as a whole. Some of the problems that may arise will be unforseen. There will be displeasure among neighbours, disruption of family and society, and an unhealthy atmosphere in schools and workplaces where there are persons of different faiths. The possibility of cases being fabricated to falsely implicate a person or groups of persons cannot be ignored. If laws are to be enacted, those who get converted unethically should also be dealt with by the same law, for, these converts would have accepted monetary and other material gains and received other benefits too. Take the case of a man or a woman of a certain faith changing his/her religion solely for the purpose of marriage, only because the other party insists. After the marriage, will the affected party file a case of unethical conversion in the court of law ? There are other unethical practices for which laws should have been enacted many decades ago. If that had been done, the entire system will not be so corrupt as it is today. Changing one's religion for political gains and for power is one. Political parties forming alliances while in parliament, when they had been elected to parliament as separate parties having contested with opposing policies as stated in their separate manifestoes, is yet another. The formation of an 'Inter Religious Body' as suggested by the Catholic Bishops Conference is necessary and sufficient to look into allegations unethical conversions and to ensure that the religious harmony that had prevailed in this land for many years will continue to prevail now and in the future. Joe Muttucumaru, Kalutara North. Conversions - a mixed reaction I have just read with much interest and with even more appreciation the letter of Walter Fernando of Moratuwa, in the Sunday Observer of February 1. He gives the example of how he a Catholic, married a girl whose father was a good practising Hindu; and whose mother a Buddhist, now in her nineties whom he assists in keenly following the readings of her religion. I am a born Catholic, who has arrived at the Biblical span of three-score-and-ten. After a life and career in the world. I have been called by God, to pursue the fundamental option of becoming a Catholic priest in a few months from now. Recently, I have been overwhelmed by the spontaneous response of so many of my non-Catholic friends to the news of my new vocation. Last month, a very close friend of mine, a Hindu, batchmate at Colombo University made it a point to write to me from London, stating how happy he was in fact, congratulating me at what he termed the splendid news, and this more than 50 years after he had lost track of me. He proposed to fly down to Colombo for my priestly ordination. Now, I turn to the example of a genuine spiritually oriented Buddhist friend I met in Singapore over 35 years ago. He became one of my closest and charismatic friends over the years, with his family to boot. My wife and I had close contact with them, visiting each other, even offering reciprocal hospitality in our homes, resulting in their writing (as a group) the most moving, appreciation on the occasion of my wife's death six years ago. Quite recently, I met them all, father, mother, and two daughters (a doctor and an accountant) with their kith and kin. The paterfamilias, an U.S. educated gentleman vowed to attend my ordination in due course, with all his brood. I also have close and frequent associations with several Muslims in business and professional circles, with whom views on religion are frequently exchanged. One of them spares no pains to extol the virtues and holiness of the Jesuit priest, the late Fr. Chirialti, who was one time Rector of St. Aloysius' College, Galle in the former's student days. May all Sri Lankans hope and pray that this should be the spirit in which all freedom-loving religions of our country may co-exist. Deacon Philip Motha, Archbishop's House, Colombo 8. |
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