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| Sunday, 16 May 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.
With reference to the news item published in the Sunday Observer of April 25, I wish to bring to notice of a similar incident that happened to me. I have been maintaining my Current Account at bank in Mt. Lavinia from the inception of it. When I went to the bank to withdraw some money from the ATM on the January 2, I found that Rs. 6000 had vanished from my account. When I informed the management, I was told that there had been two ATM withdrawals one on January 1 Rs. 4000 at 5.30 p.m. and Rs. 2000 at 7.30 p.m. I explained to them that this was impossible as I always carried my card in my purse and my pin number was not known to anyone. Furthermore, I did not get out from home on January 1, and the Card was in my possession. I was asked to make a request letter to conduct investigations. After more than a month, I received a letter from the bank on February 13, signed by the Senior Manager to say that the Card Centre has confirmed that the funds have been withdrawn from my card. For me this is a mystery. As the writer Mrs. P. N. K. Gamage of Dehiwela had stated someone from the Bank has manipulated some sort of a fraudulent way to withdraw this money. Since this happened I have stopped operating my account with this bank with a heavy heart. S. N. V. Fernando, Ratmalana. Customer duped at bank in defence I write with reference to the letter published under the above heading in the Sunday Observer of 25.04.2004. Though many frauds have been committed using plastic cards including credit cards, this is the first time I have read a complaints of this nature by a card holder though similar frauds committed by bank employees on card accounts of customers especially resident overseas had been detected by the bank's management. As the life pattern of such errant employees obviously change after committing fraud, they could be detected by sharper eyes within the bank. Furthermore, such withdrawals involve large amounts of money and several card-holders, and cannot be kept a secret for two long. An A. T. M. card does not need a signature as in the case of a credit card and a person holding a card belonging to someone else cannot be immediately detected. When a bank issues an ATM card to a customer, it gives the card personally to the customer and the Personal Identification Number (PIN) is generally posted to the customer under registered cover. The mandate signed by the customer when applying for an ATM car clearly explains the risks and possibilities that would be experienced by the card holder. Though a finger is pointed at the bank staff, it is very unlikely that a bank employee they are the highest paid employees in Sri Lanka with lavish credit facilities and numerous benefits would risk his/her job for a paltry sum of Rs. 600. However, though many customers say that the PIN codes are under their personal custody, many card holders have this number written in diaries and the cards have been found in their pockets by servants who do the washing. Many women keep these cards in their hand bags which are accessible to their servants, children and grandchildren. It is in this point that the Manager at BoC Dehiwala is very correct in requesting the offended to make a complaint to the Police as any bank manager's scope of investigation in an instance like this is much limited. Plastic cards and new technology brings in many risks, but they could be minimised if instructions are followed and common sense is used. However, a complaints to the Police is not out of place as if the card holder thinks that it is an inside job, a complaint to the management might not go far and they might sweep the matter under the carpet. Please publish the letter in fairness to the Bank of Ceylon Dehiwala in particular and to all other commercial banks and for the benefit of all card holders. Mervyn Herath, Ragama Sinhala Glossary of 3 cent BC to 1 cent AD The glossary of words in The Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol I by Dr. S. Paranavitane which contains all the words including proper names, places, monasteries, tanks, villages and tanks that are attributed to that period, are all local derivatives from Indo-Aryan languages i.e. Sanskrit and Pali. Dr. Paranavitane dates them to this period because names like Devanampiyatissa, Uttiya and his brothers, Dutugemunu, Saddatissa and the whole generation down to their grandchildren, as mentioned in the Mahawansa, have donated caves to the Sangha. This makes interesting reading to anyone who has any doubts about our history. The absence of words other than those of the Indo-Aryan language may be due to two reasons. First, that inhabitants of the island [Raksha, Naga, Deva and Yaksha] before the arrival of Vijaya were of Indo-Aryan stock or the language of the early inhabitants had little or no influence in the development of the early Sinhala language. The absence of any Tamil loan words in the Inscriptions during this [3 cent BC to 2 Cent AD] period is of special significance. These inscriptions were mainly donations of caves to Buddhist priests by kings and common folk. It is interesting to find out the earliest inscription where the first Tamil word appeared. Most of these inscriptions are chronologically arranged. It is a different scenario in South India. The earliest inscriptions found there are those between the second century BC and first century AD, have now been analyzed by I. Mahadevan, an expert on Tamil Brahmi script of South India. The glossary of words in the book pulished in 2003 show that about 40 per cent of the words are exclusively Tamil words, 30 per cent are loan words from Indo-Aryan and the rest are inconclusive and may be from languages of the people in the adjoining lands. Surprisingly, a few of these are suspected to be from Sinhala i.e. the derivatives from the Indo-Aryan language. Of course some of these inscriptions describe donation of caves to Jain priests who were of Indo-Aryan stock. But the later inscriptions which were written in a similar, but developed script continued to have a similar mix of words. The present Tamil script evolved gradually and the evolution completed by the 10th century AD according to Mahadevan. The Sinhala Brahmi script gradually became adapted to writing on Ola leaves and attained the likeness of the present alphabet. How people adapt and go their separate ways as time goes on! Perhaps historical facts will bring our people closer together when time appears to divide us. Siri Munasinghe Different working days for different institutions? Why do people take leave? The reasons may vary from highly personal - (taking part in weddings or funerals, attending pre-natal post-natal or other health clinics, childbirths, law courts, taking care of parents, construction of houses, land purchases and cultivation) to obtaining a host of public services - (such as going to the Divisional Secretariat, Pradesheeya Sabha, Banks, Insurance and Finance companies, Water Board, Electricity Board, Telecom Office etc for giving applications, making inquiries, bill payments, getting reports, licences, registrations and so forth. The trouble here is that all these work places are open only on the same five week days. We are used to having - Monday through Friday-as the five working days and Saturday and Sunday as the weekend: particularly, the government departments, banks and corporations. Most private organizations too follow the same procedure. Even hospitals follow the five day work policy with the OPD closed. However just a few private establishments and banks work on Saturday. Instead of applying the working week of Monday through Friday for all work places wouldn't it be better to have an alternative arrangement for the reciprocal benefit of all working people in all organizations and for the development of the country as a whole? As schools have a large student and teacher population, it is good to continue to have the same week for them but other key institutions, mainly the government establishments should have a working week of different days One may argue about the practical difficulties in carrying out such a course of action and the requirement to conform to the international standards. Still we must explore new ways and means of increasing productivity. The whole country, the whole society would be full of action in such a system if all seven days of the week are busy but each person working on five days a week. Madduma Bandara Navarathne, Embilipitiya Let us, the peace loving citizens of our country pray and hope with true confidence, that the present government will go ahead with peace process, at the earliest, and do the very needful, necessity of the Interim administration just be amicably introduced in the first instance, in order to bring much understanding, love, cordiality and unity amongst all people of our mother country, and establish a very healthy, peaceful and harmonial atmosphere for ever! "United we stand and divided we fall". S. Tarasu, Kalubowila. There are 55 Muslim countries all over the world. Some of the Muslim countries are contiguous having common borders, some are separated from each other but located closely and others are situated far away from each other. We have observed and found that most of the Muslim countries are living in isolation and separation from each other having no link or contact with one another, no help and cooperation. They have only accorded diplomatic recognition and posted highly paid ambassadors to each other's country. The Muslim countries mainly maintain their relations and connection among themselves with news and reports of Western and American press, BBC and CNN telecasts. They depend on foreign aid and assistance, IMF and World Bank directions for all sorts of financial, economic, industrial development and political activities. The Muslim countries purchase billions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition from the USA and Western countries in the name of safeguarding their countries from foreign aggression. I strongly feel that neither the Arab League nor the OIC has ever been able to solve and mitigate any socio-economic or political problems of the Muslim countries. The Arab League and the OIC have failed to build a bridge of amity, unity, common interest, safety and security for the Muslim countries like NATO or EU. This is why taking advantage of the lapses, omissions, feud, and differences of the Muslim countries, Israel is unleashing a reign of terror in Palestine for over half a century and the USA has invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq very recently. In the meantime, 'al-Qaeda calls for killing Americans' was the title of a recent news item. Killing is no solution. What will the lives of Americans bring to the Muslims ? America provided support to the young Saddam and his party. Ironically, the present US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had the assignment of aiding Saddam. Can al-Qaeda or Hamaas solve the problems of the Muslims, while they are calling them towards a form terrorism, which totally rejected by the Islam. Or, can we say that the present day 'Jihad' will solve the problems of the Islamic World ? Never. Then, what is the solution for the safety and security of the Muslim Ummah ? Someone must lead the community and provide spiritual, social, legal and political direction. Is there any possibility for it ? Yes. So, the system of Caliphate established by Allah is the only source to unite and guide the Muslim Ummah (Community) even today. Let me call upon my Muslim brethren to come under such leadership existing today. A. Abdul Aziz, Negombo. Full frontal - order of the day in print This is just one incident that took place in Pettah near the Moratuwa - Panadura CTB bus halt while I was on my way on some personal matter, during this holiday season (Easter and the Sinhala and Hindu New Year). A family also was on their way, to their village at this bus halt when curiosity got the better of the eldest boy most probably in his early teens to flip the page of an X rated paper that was in plain sight on the news stand just behind us. This boy had flipped the front page and was happily reading the article with also a 100% nude female picture with only her private parts censored with a flimsy square black strip printed there in, when his father noticed this and slapped him thus making him, jump out of his skin in fright and shame. The father's action was correct in order to guide his son from wrong but however I see it as not the child's fault but this vendors and so some of us present advised him on the matter. But he accused the parents for standing so close to the news stand and did not admit his fault in having displaying a number of these papers on his stand in various places. The bus halt is a place for the passengers and not for these vendors to run their business. During the eighties this sort of publication, porn films, jackpot machines and also casinos were banned and closed down by the then ruling party and government but as time went by all these have made an even stronger and more stable comeback and every one concerned has turned a blind eye to all of this. Quick and stern action has to be taken on this matter. The customs officers do quite a good job by nabbing all those entering or exiting the country with any sort of porn films or books but this is not enough has there has got to be some one who looks into these things internally and stop this sort of publications at least to some extent as complete irradication will be impossible. The total irradication of this will be possible only if everyone pitches in including the educational institutes but will be hard due to the nowadays youth. Anthony De Souza, Kandana. In Sri Lanka, we have several accountancy institutes providing quality education at affordable cost to local students. The local accountancy qualifications are the most suited for the country because their curricula are designed taking into account the local business and commercial environment. However, in the recent past, CIMA has started to dominate accountancy education in Sri Lanka. Only rich and affluent students can afford to do CIMA. The massive publicity and advertisement campaign carried out by CIMA has almost shut the doors for talented underprivileged students who do the local accountancy courses. Even fully qualified AAT students cannot find jobs because CIMA part qualified persons get priority in the job market due to the massive advertisement campaign carried out by CIMA. Allowing CIMA and other foreign accountancy bodies such as ACCA to operate here without any restrictions or regulations is defeating the very purpose for which local accountancy bodies have been set up. It is a shame for the country that the politicians of the previous regime rushed to patronise most of CIMA's public events. CIMA's syllabus is entirely related to British business and financial environment. It has no place in other SAARC countries. Annually, we lose foreign exchange to the tune of around Rs. 100 million for keeping the students' registration renewals alone. Another Rs. 250 million is squeezed from the students for the examinations. CIMA charges various other fees, which would be around Rs. 200 million. I request the authorities concerned to immediately investigate the activities of CIMA, prevent the loss of job opportunities for thousands of underprivileged students following local accountancy courses and stop the colossal loss of foreign exchange. S. G. Tilekeratne, Colombo 6. We have red many letters, articles, news items, opinions and columns about various accusations and allegations about the illegal delivery action of our star bowler. I am sure that everyone has noticed that these allegations, accusations, sneering comments and insinuations have originated from the Australians and or their ardent bootlickers. That said, I am at a total loss to understand why our Cricket Board, Sports Ministry and all top notch officials are so bent on getting Murali tested in Australia. They are always sending him to Australia for testing. Why cannot Murali be tested in some other cricket playing country? Why Australia for God's sake? Why not India, or Pakistan or South Africa, or even England who are considered as 'gentlemen' and can be expected to be unbiased. A cricket Lover, Mount Lavinia. |
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