• Sri Lanka

• Mind-Body interventions and the heart

• Electricity Bill - May & June 2006

• Loudspeakers

• Equitable distribution
  
  
  Sri Lanka

As a Sri Lankan and proud to be that, and as an observer of the Sri Lankan realities and brokenness, I am glad that on the whole, we as a people have not reacted with violence, in the context of all the violence in our midst.

The authors of The Broken Palmyrah, a book written in the 1980s, are of the view that we Sri Lankans have the inner resources to solve our national problem. The manner in which we are handling the violence is a sign of this inner power in us.

We need to harness this inner strength in us as a nation. This may sound naive, but this is the very stuff of dreams, and visions; hopes and prayers.

The French philosopher Voltaire once said that we must continue to build our castles in the air, but also learn to earth them and give them a firm foundation.

All of us in our nation, I am sure, realize that we have a problem. We also know that we have not really worked hard enough to work out a solution.

We as a people need to organize ourselves, to protest as regards all the violence in our midst. We also need to tell our so-called leaders the need to work out a people-centred and people-powered solution to our problem.

As that dictum says, all violence begins, continues and ends in the hearts and minds of people. We, in Sri Lanka have four of the major world religions. Therefore, almost all of our people belong to one of Faith Communities. We ought to use the resources of our Faiths to eradicate the violence and work for peace.

This process is a long road, a hard road, and a difficult road. But we as a nation are capable of participating in this long road to peace.

We who live in this Global Village ought to be mindful of the South African story. As Nelson Mandela states, it is a long march to peace. Looking at South Africa, it is good for us also to learn from Archbishop Desmond Tutu's classic work on Forgiveness. His book is a product of his work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

We as a people, must learn to forgive one another for our past mistakes.

It is the spirit of forgiveness in us, as Tutu says, that will power us to work to eradicate violence and move towards a solution to our problem.

Sydney Knight

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Mind-Body interventions and the heart

There are a large number of studies which provide evidence that emotions, stress, hostility, depression, faith, hope, companionship and community connectedness have significant correlations to cardiovascular outcomes especially, in case of patients recovering from heart attacks (myocardial infarction).

It is possible that these are due to changes in hormones such as catacholamines and cortisol, glucose metabolism, autonomic and vascular tone, coagulability of blood, pain reception and immune reactivity. Furthermore, these states of mind and spirit are frequently paired with smoking hypertension, obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and sedentary lifestyle. Specific therapies include relaxation, meditation, mindfulness, guided imagery and prayer.

One area of mind-body therapy that has been reported in application to cardiovascular disorders is relaxation therapy where, slowing the heart rate, vasodilatation and changes in the EEG have been described as the "relaxation response."

Relaxation therapies generally involve some combination of relaxed abdominal breathing, quieting of the mind with meditation or related techniques and somatic relaxation of the body. Relaxation therapies are frequently used to reduce stress.

Other mind-body techniques with published experience in cardiology include music and guided imagery.

Anxiety reduction has been observed with music in the coronary care units (CCU's) patients and individuals with heart attacks.

Meditation and mindfulness constitute a broad range of discipline and with practice, one can cultivate personal access to calming of the body and quieting of the mind with a variety of potential healing effects including reduction of angina and improved quality of life.

Many forums of meditation, including prayer, focus not only on the body connection but also incorporate the spirit or mind. Patients suffering from heart disease are often confronted by issues of personal morality and many Christians and Hindus turn to prayer whereas some Buddhists turn to medication and "Bodhi-Pujas" both for comfort and to influence outcome.

Bio-energetics or energy therapies are a series of healing disciplines that claim to harness intangible natural forces to influence physiologic, emotional and spiritual healing.

Practitioners of ancient Chinese healing tradition of Qi Gong use deep breathing, meditation and body movement to capture and focus the life energy Qi. In cardiovascular application QI Gong has been claimed to influence hypertension as demonstrated by changes in heart rate variability. Qi Gong has also been associated with shorter hospitalisation in patients who have had heart attacks and have reduced mortality with stroke.

Healing touch conceptually involves concentration and transmission of bio-energy from healer to patients with restoration and realignment of energy fields in the patient by touching the patient directly or by touching the energy fields around the body.

References

1. Bonson H, Science, 1997; 278-1694-1695

2. Jonas W B and Crawford C C, alt. Ther. Health Med, 2003; 9(2): 56-61

3. Hurst's "The Heart", edited by Robert A O'Rourke, Valentine Fister et al 11th Edition, Mc graw Hill.

D. P. Atukorale

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Electricity Bill - May & June 2006

I would like to bring to your attention that residents of Samagi Mawatha, Ekala, Ja-ela, coming under the Gampaha district, covering areas of Ganga Mawatha, Gemunu Mawatha, Presswatte etc.. have not received the May & June 2006 electricity bills. This is very strange as the Electricity Board has this 'the most valuable rule' where if we don't settle a bill the rule is to send a "Red Notice", and it was mentioned that your board is going to increase the price of a unit by Rs.1..

This now makes sense that you have avoided sending the bill so that you can bill us the new rate by adding the increased amount of Rs. 1..to the total bill..?

Your Department makes the rules and beaks the rules 'making the rule more valuable to your Department' when it comes to setting a bill and it is very unfair of your Department to send us 2 or maybe 3 months bills adding the increased rate.

I would also like to inform you that we have many power-cuts in our area. mostly on a Saturday and Sunday inclusive of week days too (in the nights)..

I would appreciate if you could please look into this and send us the bills asap.

Charmeen Samath

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Loudspeakers

The haphazard use of loudspeakers is uncontrolled and rampant.

There isn't a single town or locality that the nuisance of loudspeakers has spared, for whatever reason, and at all times of the day and night the wailing chanting or singing takes place, without any regard to the other person's discomfiture.

On many occasions the use of loudspeakers hide behind a religious act. I wonder who is responsible for the control of noise levels of nuisance value and shattering noise pollution levels.

Given below are some ordinary noise levels, 60 dBA-Normal conversation, 110 dBA-shouting, 95dBA-electric drill, 125dBA-chain saw. Any noise level of 85dBA and above is damaging.

One can compare the sound pollution that's all around us. This is basically due to lack of awareness and respect for others and more importantly the absence of enforcement of the law.

To cite an example in the hamlet of Koralawella, in Moratuwa a self proclaimed "sami" or religious peer on receipt of compensation for an accident has decided to invest his capital to exploit the religiousness of the local populace, and thus having constructed a small "shrine", unauthorized of course, and to accept collections, advertises by way of a cacophonous assault on its citizens with a blast of undecipherable chants well over the decibel level of a chain saw, between the hours of 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm and 4.00 am to 6.00 am, the timings obviously vary in accordance with the accuracy of his clock.

I have experienced this scenario in other towns and a place that comes to mind is Nuwara Eliya. Religious fervour need not be imposed in this fashion.

Sound pollution is damaging and the nuisance is unbearable. The first part of a decent society is having respect for others. It is evident that this not so and no authority wishes to do any thing about it. I am made to believe that in the state of Tamilnadu, the use of loudspeakers is banned, and living in a country where things are "banned" for whimsical reasons, banning loudspeakers may signal a beginning towards the approach of sanity.

May I invite all those who have suffered in "silence" to stand up to be counted against this social menace.

Dr. Mohan Balasuriya, Moratuwa.

Equitable distribution

Believe it or not, there are eight sweep/lotteries boards functioning to further the accumulation of monies "siphoned" to a very small fraction of the population. A very eminent and worthy Finance Minister of a few decades ago, well aware of the inbalance, went even to the extent of demonetizing as a revalationary measure and expounded that all our monies were just "moth-balling" in the pockets of just thirteen families of Sri Lanka.

Even this start didn't seem to have the desired effect. Simple governmental organized ventures like the lotteries boards helped in this anomalous lopsided distribution and disbursement.

Spread out the largess as Rs. 10000 & Rs. 25000 prizes or any divisable units and all the radiance and glow on a fair cross-section of any Sri Lankan crowd will be manifest. Simple dictum- to multiply happiness, divide it !

W. Meadows, Dehiwala