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| Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
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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.
Muslims, whenever they begin anything recite "Bismilla Hirrahmanir Raheem" which means in the name of Allah the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful, every chapter in the Holy Quran, except one, too begins with this sentence. Therefore, it is shocking to find a few Friday prayer leaders in their sermons declare that "those Muslims who wear their trousers below their ankle will burn in hell-fire. "To make matters worse, in certain mosques notices to this effect too have been put up. For one, the Prophet Muhummed when he stated this said it in a different context. At that time the rich and powerful Arabs wore their trousers below the ankle to show off their superiority, a sign of arrogance. The point was not just the length of the trousers but the attitude of arrogance. The Prophet emphasised that those who adopted this style to show off their superiority would earn God's wrath. Thus not those who merely wear long trousers going below the ankles but even those who may have long beards and wear long shorts (flood level) will earn God's wrath if they are arrogant and think they are superior to others, think that they are the only ones to enter paradise. Such statements distort the Prophet's saying and disprove God's compassionate and merciful nature. What these people are doing is giving Islam an ugly face and God a terrible, cruel image. by M. Harees Ismail - Their plots are confined to a tight set frame. They revolve mostly around one woman and two men; two women and one man; rich woman and a poor man; rich man and poor woman are the common themes. The scenes of weeping, sobbing, crying, lamenting and such have become a must in almost every episode. The stories shallow too? Producers, script writers, directors seem to think that no episode is complete, without these sad ingredients and whether the actresses demand weeping and sobbing included in their roles is another. The majority fail to bring an incident, a verbal exchange, a situation etc. giving the viewers much needed humour, "laughter is the best medicine," after all. But it is first the opposite in many teledramas. Actually were the script writers, producers and their kin bereft of any hilarity and humour? Or have they not the lease of those? What one sees in many teledramas is a whole lot of discourse, arguments, wordly battles. Please let the Sinhala teledramas make us viewers reveal with laughter and happiness and go to sleep with pleasant feelings. by W. R. C. Costa -- A newly revamped and reactivated bus transport service gone kotauda decades ago since nationalisation (almost 50 years) was felt long overdue by the general traveling public. Getting the gloss back and the qualitative changes planned and envisaged by the new Chairman Dr.Amal Kumarage augurs well. Anyway, we of the poorer classes who have had no other means of transport and who have been time-tested travelers in and out of buses these last 50 years feel genuinely qualified to offer some humble well-informed observations as suggestions too for the newly motivated Board. Priority on the following over all other long based wide-ranged objectives will have the immediate vital impact, we assure! Destination Boards indecipherable and unclear. A simple I" thick black lettering on white background on white background over the near side front headlight and a rectangular black on white destination board on the rear near side body entrance will be most suited. Ironically, speeding does not seem a problem on our short distance buses-BUT, the constant socket-wrenching jamming of brakes and feet sweeping take offs are constant nuisance hazards to all travelers, except the young and the able-bodied. Starting before getting in or out of entrances should be dealt with severely. Above suggestion requires a very active and efficient Learner Driver School with active teams on surprise checks with ensued Driver School lessons for defaulters. This will show much admirable results, we promise! by W. Meadows - Airline staff and travel agents I took a passenger to Bandaranaike International Airport to send her off to Dubai on September 26 2005. I was amazed to see the inconveniences, the passengers underwent at the Bandaranaike International Airport due to the inefficiency of the airline staff and the travel agents, registered with the SriLankan Airlines. Several passengers who were holding SriLankan Airlines tickets were turned off saying the seats were already booked. Among them were several housemaids, who had come from remote villages spending colossal sums of money on transport and subsistence. They were turned back saying their tickets were not reconfirmed. My passenger was also one of them who was fortunately kept on waiting list as she and I had repeatedly pleaded with the Airline staff and finally she was sent off to Dubai. I wish to request the SriLankan Airlines should inform their travelling and ticketing agents to reconfirm the seats of their respective airlines of the passengers who purchase tickets from them and prevent inconveniences caused to their clients. Z.A.M. Shukoor - School admissions and Central Colleges Admissions to schools have become a major problem. Everybody wishes to admit their child to a well-known school leaving doors open for malpractices. To solve even a part of this problem, all scholarship holders should be sent to the Central College at hand. In those Central Colleges, hostels are available and the rural students can do their studies in them in a homely environment. Authorities have to pay some more attention to these schools and improve their facilities further, to admit more students. All island Central Colleges Past Pupils Association has pointed out these things several times. The association is ready to discuss further about this subject with the Ministry officials at any time and assist the Ministry to solve this perennial problem. Though most Central Colleges came to being after the Free Education Bill was passed by the Parliament in 1944, but by 1955, 45 per cent university admissions were from the Central Colleges. Let us give another chance for these Central Colleges to play a major role and shine themselves. By A. W. G. Mudiyanse - The general election of 1977 produced a very clear verdict, that prompted a megalomaniac, to run amok with a thumping majority, to do away with an electoral system that was thriving here since 1931, and instead introducing PR, with fake logistics. At that point if it was made mandatory, in the constitution of 1978, that a Presidential and General Election should be held simultaneously once in 6 years, using the same ballot box, the swing in the country would be one way - for stability. Instead we now have minor groups like the CWC and SLMC fishing in troubled waters. Ranil Wickremesinghe presenting his manifesto, once again surfaces with a 'faux-pas' when he can hardly muster 75 members in the house to carry his proposals into action, even if elected President. Distortion of news in media are bad enough, but fake statements by a candidate must be carefully scrutinised. This is worse than the Parakum Yugaya and the Pandukabaya Yugaya that R.W. has picked up in total disarray. by Asoka Raddalgoda - Complete fourth new edition of the most famous Malalasekera English-Sinhala Dictionary, printed and published by a leading publisher in Sri Lanka has come out and is now available. It is natural to occur some misprints when editing the dictionary year by year. I would like to point out a certain misprint in the newly edited dictionary (2005 edition). When referring to page number 521 of the dictionary, we come across a certain misprinted word, 'indispensible' which is an adjective. This is a wrong word and correct word, according to Oxford Dictionary should be 'indispensable'. It's hoped that the publishers will rectify this error in the next edition as we did not see it in previous editions. by I. W. Gamini C. Kumara - The number of persons who are not selected to universities is being increased annually. They are also expecting employment in the government or private sector when they finish their education. It is highly commendable, that the government has taken speedy action to provide employment for graduates. But no one seems to be aware that, these A/L dropouts are also suffering from the same anxiety as the graduates were. They have also become a burden for their parents and are unable to find jobs due to the high competition and influence for vacancies in spite of having been well qualified. So the government should similarly look into the plight of these persons and mediate towards them in order to solve their problems as done to the graduates. As an affected I am optimistic and hope, that the new President who is going to be elected, in the forthcoming Presidential Election will extend his fullest support to overcome the longstanding unemployment issue. by K. K. Thamal - Mahindarathna, Some media reporters and journalists persistently call the LTTE a guerilla movement. We wonder whether this misnomer is due to ignorance or whether its a deliberate attempt at whitewashing the LTTE, which is nothing but a terrible terrorist killing machine. There is a vast difference between a guerilla organization and a terrorist gang. Although guerrillas may retire to some particular places from time to time, they never operate from a permanent base, nor do they murder the civilians. This type of whitewashing the LTTE should be averted in the interest of the nation, which has already taken a terrible beating from terrorism. Sisira Ekanayake - |
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