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| Sunday, 09 April 2006 |
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UN Secy. General: new disturbing process As well known, Secretary Generals have been elected to their positions by due quiet processes of one candidate being put up and adopted without acrimony or controversy by the United Nations. It began with Trigvie Lee, followed by Dag Hammershoeld, from then by continental rotation, to U. Thant from Asia, and then on to Latin America, Africa and now back to Asia. While I myself have written on our candidate, we have had here a process now of competitions between two or more candidates, not for eventual consensual selection of one of them, but it seems by bitter rivalry, contest and canvassing. It is very sad that this should have come up now - especially from a continent of ancient heritage and wisdom. In a little personal recall I remember how when my name was put up for Under Secretary General / Executive Secretary, given my record, Australia circularized all her Embassies not to entertain any other, Iran withdrew her possible candidate, India refrained, China came strongly supportive and so on (thwarted only by my own country's then President in some vain belief that his brother would not get the high post which in any case he did not). Going back to our main theme, as an old hand to whom the UN is very important when a person or country makes it separately, - as now - could some leader or leaders of Asia get together, even now - Sonia Gandhi / any other? - and throw up and agreed candidate, so we go into the helm of the UN, come end of this year, with our heads held high - and with tasks, within the UN and outside, to be undertaken in the World that is crying for attention? For myself, one who is old and perhaps will be allowed to mention that the now younger generation should not throw away what has been enshrined in our traditions, as UN, and ourselves as Asians, at a later date which then we may yet regret. Former contestant The following are the views of the late Deshamanya Dr. Kamalika Abeyratne whom I assisted over the last nine years of her life as typist and researcher. The excerpts of her talks is as follows: Vimukthi Fernando, staff writer of the Sunday Observer must be congratulated for pointing out that the major cause of unhappiness at village level is brought on by infidelity and extramarital sex. The important point here is that such behaviour is objected to and not taken for granted. However extrapolating this activity into a major risk of an epidemic of HIV/AIDS and running around flapping hands and crying that the sky is falling is oversimplifying the issue. The major pandemics in the history of the disease have been brought on by sexual misbehaviour on an unimaginable scale. In sub-saharan Africa family units are not as we know them and there is a free exchange of women among the men so much so that a man may be unhappy about failing powers if he does not have at least five encounters in a night. During the Gay Liberation in San Francisco for example a man have have had upto 20 encounters in a day assisted by various chemicals. Sexual activity as determined by the incidence of Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) in this country is the same as in our neighbours indicating that the factors indicated in Vimukthi's article are the same here as in any other part of the world BUT out incidence of HIV/AIDS is low. WHY? This should be the label on the panic button. To use jargon, we have an epidemiological paradox. WHY? Are we missing a large number of positives, so much that we really should have the same incidence as in India and are we living in a fools paradise as a result? Or do we have some factor or factors which protect us. Behavioral, genetic, dietary or what? We can perhaps rule out the behavioral because of the high incidence of STDs. Together with India and the Philippines we consume a lot of coconut but unlike in the other two countries who use grated coconut we use the oil. There was a scientist who spoke of viricidal activity in a fatty acid found in coconut oil and if I remember right was hooted out of the place. Should we have another look at this? Dr. Kamalika also found a genetic disorder of the red blood cell (G6PD deficiency) which gave the victims of the disease a relative immunity to Malignant Tertian (Falciparum) Malaria. This is also true of Thalassaemia. Is it impossible that our people have some hitherto unsuspected genetic defect which protects us from the virus. Your correspondent is quite right. We must press the right buttons in order to clear up this paradox. When young men in America started wasting away and dying in the early 1980s it was the US Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia who with only a handful of researchers not only unlocked this tangle, identified the disease but also traced it down to case zero A Canadian air steward who introduced the HIV virus into the United States ironically during the celebrations of the Centennial. Dr. Kamalika was sure that an organisation of this calibre can easily unlock our problem. Michael Abeyratne Surveillance of our sea and the coast around could be covered simultaneously by thousands of our fishermen at sea and intended coast guards; in addition to reporting their observations and distress messages via inexpensive Sinhala Morse Light or Sinhala semaphore over the sea. The two methods of communication are approved under certificate No. 6284 of the Intellectual Property Office. There are a few students at Rajapakse College, Ahungalla, trained in the use of these methods capable of teaching them to anybody willing to learn. In the open sea, for fishing-craft, this communication is useful when each other's mobile telephone numbers are not available, but parties are within; visual Morse lamp light range, or semaphore visibility. The inventors of Morse, Semaphore are American and French nationals respectively. It is hoped the cultural ties of the two countries with us will promote and sponsor through UNESCO or Red Cross to educate and to use the Sinhala version of these methods in our territorial waters. May the Prime Minister's envisaged dream of an islandwide coast guard service with support of Ministers of Fisheries and of the Defence to eradicate smuggling, illegal fishing robbery, enemy pirates activities etc. come true; having identified fishing craft so combined and Navy informed. Y. Amarasena de Silva |
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