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Amadahara in Colombo

by Janani Amarasekara

The Sinhala and Hindu New Year celebrations may be over, but another significant festival is just around the corner. It's a religious event which brings happiness and joy to all the children and is also a time for them to display their creative abilities.

The Vesak Full Moon Poya Day is a Thrice Blessed Day, because the Buddha was born, attained Enlightenment, and passed away on this day. This is an important day in the Buddhist calendar, and is the holiest day among all the full moon poya days.

As this year marks the 2550th Buddha Jayanti (the anniversary of the Buddha's Parinirvana or passing away), the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. (ANCL- Lake House) too will contribute in a big way to enhance the significance of this great day.It will organise the annual 'Amadahara' programme, on a larger scale than last year, on May 12, 13 and 14.

There will be a special area demarcated as the 'Amadahara area'; it will be centred around Lake House with its borders spreading upto the Gamini Hall, end of D. R. Wijewardene Mawatha, Slave Island Police Station, Gunasinghepura, and the Presidential Secretariat Office.

The entire area will be decorated very beautifully and colourfully with bulbs and flags to give a festive air to Colombo. All government as well as private sector offices and social services associations in the area will join hands with Lake House to celebrate the Vesak festival.

One of the highlights of Amadahara will be the colourful Vesak lanterns competition, which will no doubt delight you. The competition will be held in two different categories. One will be open to children from schools around Colombo.

One school can submit only one lantern for the competition and the 10 winners will receive prizes worth Rs. 200,000. The other competition is open to all who want to display their creative abilities from all areas of the country. The winners will receive prizes worth Rs.700,000. For more details, contact Lake House or see Lake House newspapers.

There will also be stage plays and bhakthi gee recitals presented by the Lake House employees, which will be conducted by Visharada Tharupati Munasinghe. With the aim of providing 'spiritual food', three bana sessions will be conducted by the ANCL, with the participation of Buddhist monks from around Colombo.

In connection with the Buddha Jayanti Festival, two magazines titled 'Dinamina Vesak Issue' and 'Buddha Pradeepaya' (an English magazine) will be launched at the Sambuddhaloka Viharaya, Fort, on May 2.

So, all you children out there, come and see the beauty of the Vesak Festival put together by the organisation which publishes your favourite newspaper. We'll keep you updated throughout the festival season.

World Book and Copyright Day: Time to celebrate books and authors

You all love books and reading them, don't you? They are a source of education, fun and entertainment. Books and their authors will be celebrated around the world today, when UNESCO observes World Book and Copyright Day.

The Day is celebrated annually on April 23 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyrights.

The date is symbolic for world literature, as it was on April 23, 1616 that giants in the literacy field, such as, Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. The day also marks the births and deaths of several prominent authors like Maurice Druon, Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Pla and Manuel Mejia Vallejo. So, April 23 was a natural choice for the UNESCO General Conference to choose as the day to pay tribute to both books and authors.

The idea for the celebrations was first arrived at in the Spanish city of Catalonia, where on April 23, St. George's Day, a rose used to be given as a gift for every book sold. The official UNESCO celebrations were initiated in 1995.

An objective of the day is to encourage, especially young people, to discover the pleasures of reading, and honour the contributions literature has made to the social and cultural progress of humanity. Now, millions of people including schoolchildren from over 100 countries in the world observe the event.

The day has enabled many to discover, make the most of, and explore in greater depth, a variety of different aspects of the publishing world; books as carriers of values and knowledge and depositories of intangible (not clear or definite) heritage; as windows into the diversity of cultures and tools of dialogue; and as sources of natural wealth and insights into the copyright protected world of creative artists.

The need for books as instruments of economic and moral recovery were especially felt after the tsunami, when they helped many victims, especially children to recover and get back to their daily lives.

However, the success of the world day depends on the support received from all the relevant parties (such as authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, non-governmental organisations and the mass media), which have been mobilised by UNESCO, in this regard. The promotional and awareness raising campaigns, which have so far been held, have already made an impact.

Since 2000, the World Book and Copyright Day, has also inspired the World Book Capital, where one world city undertakes, on its own initiative, to maintain the 'force' of the day until April 23 of the next year. All the regions of the world have already been involved in this movement.

Computerisation of Yala ticketing system

The ticketing system of the Yala National Park has been computerised by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). The new system was inaugurated recently.

Traditional documentation processes, which are time-consuming, will be eliminated with the operation of this new ticketing system, enabling visitors to spend more time enjoying nature.

A complete computer solution with a modern office outlook has been introduced to Yala National Park with the intention of improving customer care. This is the first time that a computer-friendly cash receipt approved by the Department of National Budget has been carried out.

The newly acquired Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities under the Protected Area Management and Wildlife Conservation Project accelerated this venture. The entire solution was designed and implemented by the DWC's ICT Unit as an in-house development, making the cost of the system minimal.

The implementation of this project was quickened by the steps taken to provide electricity to the Yala National Park office. However, the system can operate using solar energy as well, so that uninterrupted services could be provided even during power cuts.

The success of this pilot project will decide whether it'll be viable for the system to be introduced in other Government organisations, so that the efficiency and effectiveness of the Government service will be improved.

The DWC intends to move into an e-government era, by introducing technology into its system, so that wildlife lovers can access its facilities through electronic means during the next half decade. They will be able to reserve lodging facilities, obtain entry permits and access many other DWC facilities through electronic means, and pay for these services electronically in the near future.

Dengue prevention campaign

An anti-dengue campaign was launched recently in the South of Sri Lanka by the Epidemiology Unit, in collaboration with the Government agents and medical officers in the Southern districts. The campaign aims to prevent the spread of this deadly disease and will destroy mosquito breeding places and keep the area clean.

The campaign, which commenced from the South, will be expanded to Colombo and the North and East. Over 500 workers are expected to be engaged in the campaign, which will be completed within two months.

The campaign has been launched in the wake of serious warnings issued by the health authorities regarding a dengue outbreak in the country. According to Medical Officers of the Epidemiology Unit, the number of dengue cases this year were three times higher than the previous year. Unless adequate measures are taken by the Government, the country stands to face an epidemic very soon. Ten districts have already been identified as the worst affected, and measures are being taken to carry out cleaning and awareness programmes.

You too can contribute to this programme in your own way. By keeping your surroundings including your home and school premises clean, you will also be doing your bit towards preventing this dreaded disease.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.