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| Sunday, 24 October 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.
Abortion and the right of the unborn child There is a call for legalizing abortion. The parties who agree for legalizing abortion give reasons as it is a right of women. Yes, force pregnancy violates the right of the women to choose what she wants. Abortion is illegal in Sri Lanka except when there is an imminent threat to the mother during the child birth. But there are thousands of abortions happening illegally in many places, this cause a threat to the mother's life. They argue if abortion is legalized then abortions can be done with good care and proper guidance. On the other hand the majority is against of abortion because it's against our morality. It is against our religions and if abortion is legalized then unwanted pregnancy would highly increase. Rape, unwanted relationships, unmarried motherhood will arise. This would lose the control of the society because the law isn't tightened. Law is to discipline the society. Other than these arguments have we started talking about the right of the unborn child? Recently there was a change in industrial law, removing the restrictions regarding the maternity leave. The purpose of this was to ensure the right of the unborn child. If we can change our law regarding maternity leave why can't we consider on the issue of abortion? Everybody has a right to live. A woman can't violate that right of the unborn child to ensure her rights, women's right. Do you know that most of the abortions are done by the married women? Reasons they give is, wants to postpone childbearing, wants no more children, cannot afford a baby, having a child will disturb the job, partner doesn't want pregnancy. If this is their decision why can't they think before? There are several types of family planning methods. Why aren't our people proactive? How could they kill their own children for their silly mistakes? It is a murder, killing a child who is not guilty. We are not practising the death penalty because it is against the morality. Mostly our women are against of carrying out the death penalty. We as Sri Lankans are against of killing a beast, but there are thousands of abortions happening in Sri Lanka. How can a mother who had an abortion, comes out of these places without worries? Sri Lankans are well-known as people with a wetted eye and soft heart, knows hospitality and treat humanely even a beast, but have they forgot to treat their unborn child. If these mothers can think for a while about the unborn child who is thrown into the garbage, but how could this be when there is an increase of orphanages all over the country? This is not to blame anyone. But if we as a whole community can find out a solution for this, it would help to protect our sacred country as it was. I don't think that the women who go for an abortion knows the reality of the abortion. If the women in our country could be educated on these issues, it would help them to avoid from these things. A mother is compared to the earth because she bears everything for her children. If that is true, and still the definition of motherhood is the same there won't be abortions highly increasing. If a mother who wants to abort her unborn child knows what exactly happens to her child then she won't take a step to kill it. The very reason for such situation is that our women aren't aware of birth controls, abortions etc., which is a necessary in her life. We are in a stage of a change in the society. So the education methods should change too. Subjects taught in school should change according to the necessity. Subjects like health science and science should include these sorts of topics too. We must let the society know the effect of the abortion. This is not a way of birth control. This is a violation of the rights of the unborn child. Zeneefa Zaneer, The Sri Lanka-Canada Scholarship Foundation, a charitable organization registered in Canada in 1998, under the patronage of Dr. Ven. Mirisse Dhammika Thera, to help the excelled but needy students in Sri Lanka, has awarded another 50 scholarships this year on August 21 at Siri Sudassanaramaya, Battaramulla, increasing the total number of recipients up to 272. Annually the applications are called in public through Newspapers & other medias from Sri Lankan students irrespective of their religion, race or the province they live in. The selections are made by the board of directors in Canada, mainly based on the higher performance at the G.C.E. (O/L) Examination of the current year and the disadvantaged family income. The number of scholarships is varied from year to year as it depends on the current number of sponsors. Under these scholarships, the recipients get the relevant cheque worth Rs. 750/- by registered post for each academic month until they sit for the G.C.E. (A/L) Examination. The statistics shows more than 60% recipients enter the Universities annually getting succeeded at the G.C.E. (A/L) Examination. According to the current result of the recipients of 2002 batch, who sat for the G.C.E. (A/L) Examination in 2004, 74% have got through the exam in flying colours at their 1st sitting. Out of them 20% have been placed the District Ranks from 1st to 5th. In 2002 the SLCSF extended its objectives by originating 2 special annual scholarships, under the "Ranjan V De Silva Memorial Scholarship" awarding Rs. 1000/- monthly, for engineering students who study in the 1st year of the engineering faculty in universities. The foundation hopes to increase the number of scholarships in future. Anyone who likes to be a sponsor could contact the Sri Lankan coordinator Mrs. Seetha Goonetilleke, 392/2, Perera Mawatha, Kotuwegoda, Rajagiriya. The UNP is trying to make a political issue of the present situation expecting the government to fail into their hands as early as possible. Power, power is their dream, they had a tasty of it off and on. The oil price hike is not a creation of the present government. Now they say the government does not know economic management. The experts, they say are with the UNP and urges a hand over. The people chased out the UNP because they were not helping the poor people but creating avenues like tax amnesties to their business friends. Essentially the UNP is a capitalist-oriented bankrupt party kept together by racketeers and black marketeers. K.M.V. de Silva, English standard down if Circular No. 842 implemented I refer to the article which appeared in the Sunday Observer of Sept. 19 with the above heading by Mr. Kaleel. First of all, let me clarify the main objective of the M.A. (Master's Degree) in Linguistics conducted by the Department of Linguistics of the University of Kelaniya, which the writer of that article does not seem to be aware of. The main objective of the M.A. in Linguistics is to provide exclusive knowledge of Linguistics to graduates. In his article Kaleel has raised three points about our program. First, as he wants to show that our M. A. program is so simple, he says that the M.A. in Linguistics program is open to any first degree holder. Yet, it is true. What is wrong this that? In Sri Lanka, as well as in other countries, most of the one year M. A. Programs are open to any first degree holder. Secondly, Kaleel says that our M. A. is comparatively the easiest to earn. I do not understand what he compares our M. A. degree to. I would, however, like to give some statistics about the results of our M.A. examinations. In 2001, one hundred and three students sat the above examination and only thirty for students passed. The percentage of pass is 33. In 2003, one hundred and five students sat the examination and 54 students reached the pass level. The percentage is 47. The percentage of pass or fail in examination is not the only criteria to judge whether the relevant examination is easy or difficult. Thirdly, Kaleel says that our M. A. programme has nothing much to do with English language teaching. The M.A. course in Linguistics includes six papers in theoretical and applied linguistics. Principles of phonology, morphology, syntax and historical linguistics are taught in relation to the English Language. Applied linguistics is relevant to English language teaching. It is obvious that Kaleel's article about our M.A. program is incorrect, misleading and baseless, and we hope this will not deter interested students from following our course. Prof. R. M. W. Rajapakse, I am one of those who is happy with this new tax on the import of vehicles. First and foremost, a critical study of our island's economics will reveal that the people of our country who earn the foreign exchange to purchase these vehicles, etc., are basically the workers in our Garments Industry, those on the plantations and the Sri Lankan migrant labour force. These workers are not going to lose by the new tax. In fact, they might gain in the long run. Moreover, this new tax may help in the reduction of the traffic problem on our roads. This tax, coupled with the rise in the price of oil, may reduce the traffic on our roads. Also, about 80% of our people live on about 20% of our "goods". Therefore this new tax is a justice issue. In our global village, with the principles of the open economy operating, it is the 'haves' who become richer and the 'have-nots' become poorer. Today this gulf is ever widening. Hence the need for a tax like this in the first instance. We need to take seriously the dictum, from each according to his/her ability and to each according to his/her needs. All our religions are anti-greed. So why accumulate? At the end of our road, all that we need to get to Kanatte is a box! That is if we are lucky. Otherwise, we may go in a plastic bag! Hence the good in this tax. Good food for thought! Sydney Knight, |
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