• Hosannas to Karu Jayasuriya

• Diet pills, the silent killers

Hosannas to Karu Jayasuriya

I seldom indulge in praises, hosannas and hallelujahs for politicians as I have been apolitical throughout. Today, I hasten to congratulate the newly appointed Minister of Public Administration.

Dear Sir, you have earned the admiration of the masses with your gentle elegance, intellectual brilliance, sincerity of purpose laced with unshakeable commitment to a cause and absolute integrity devoid of even a trace of sophistry. Above all I admire your sober mode of speech as against the frequent vitriolic and vituperative diatribe of your fraternity which the commoners detest and loathe.

I consider you as the beacon of hope for us at this juncture and venture to pay homage to the president for the adroit move in appointing you to the much coveted position. I hope and pray that your good self will grant redress to the hapless pensioners exuding political maturity and common sense.

I shall not dwell at length but try to be concise and precise as much as possible. Dear Sir, we poor pensioners are experiencing the worst ever period for pensioners. (Perhaps your good self would have come across the numerous letters in the print media) It was the sad creation of your erstwhile colleague in the Public Administration Ministry and the Pensions Department in cahoots.

The Director of pensions graciously fulfilled his own aspiration for upward mobility and ended up as Director-General (No qualms!) probably at our expense without realizing that his institution stands discredited for having ignored the gravity and the magnitude of the problem created in having the indispensable pension receipt withdrawn on the flimsy excuse of saving funds.

It was a shattering blow to the poor pensioners and has evoked widespread public revulsion thereby dissipating the popularity of your Government.

The decision to do away with the pension receipt is so daft that it is reckoned by the discerning as an infringement of one' human rights. The pension receipt consisted of eleven columns.

It furnished the pension, various allowances and above all deductions - the most important item. Some pensioners obtain loans from various beneficiary organizations and are being recovered in monthly instalments. e.g. the Government Officers' Benefit Association and the Public Servants Mutual Provident Association.

The absolute need for a statement of payments and deductions has become elusive in the official chicanery.

It is a parlous state of affairs dominated by inaction and insouciance. The potty potentates perversely persist in the error even though the lapse is plain enough and glaring. They have been deaf, blind and mute about the travesty of justice so blatantly sprung on the pensioners.

Only your good self could extricate them from the spiders' web they have fallen into by their own stupidity.

Up to now they have behaved in a manner suggestive of hubris and chutzpah. Let them realize the folly and eat humble pie. Under your benevolent stewardship, please give us the indispensable pension receipt. You may even recover its cost and postage.

Nanda Nanayakkara, Panadura

Diet pills, the silent killers

Alongside the freedom, access and dispersion of ideas and information the internet phenomenon has created _ an insidious and prolific alteration in morality and values that have emerged worldwide. Although many of these changes have had positive benefits, some have what appear to be corrosive and retrogressive consequences on the health of this and many other nations.

I am compelled to write about one singular aspect of this _ a change in Sri Lanka's notion of beauty and an emerging tyranny of slimness _ and increasing rise in the consumption of slimming tablets.

I write out of concern for the well-being of Sri Lankans, young and old, seduced by the notion that to be slim is both the penultimate in desirability and health, at any cost.

No currently available weight loss drugs have been studied adequately to permit a recommendation by the US Food and Drug Administration - yet they are freely available worldwide and more and more people are taking them guilelessly, sourcing a huge revenue for drug companies.

Worse still there has been a very worrying rise in the incidence of a previously rare, chronic and fatal illness called Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH) amongst people who have taken a combination diet drug, under the pharmacological name Phenterimine.

Previously the incidence in PPH was 8 out of every 1000,000 people, with women between the ages of 20 - 40 most at risk. However, this pattern has changed, possibly alongside aggressive marketing of slimming drugs.

Primary Pulmonary Hypertension is a disease of the heart and lungs caused by the narrowing of blood vessels in the lungs. Aside from a heart and lung transplant, with chronic concurrent conditions, there is no cure for this illness and sufferers have a life expectancy of between 1 and 5 years from its onset. Its rising incidence has been connected to the use of appetite suppressants for more than three months.

There are alternatives to these drugs - diet control and exercise - beneficial and innocuous activities, but ones that rely upon a degree of motivation and self discipline. The temptation to take a tablet is an easy option, but the consequences may be grave.

Although the dangerous consequences of taking these drugs affect both men and women, throughout the world it is women who readily succumb to contemporary notions of beauty and attractiveness (slimness being the passport to desirability and acceptability) - so the prevalence of PPH can be seen most amongst otherwise healthy young women.

It is not my intention to discuss the politics of gender bound body fascism here _ that which serves to oppress and control women. But I am intent on drawing attention to the dangerous and rising activity of slimming tablet consumption in Sri Lanka.

My beloved cousin, who was only 38, died recently as a consequence of taking these drugs. My world has lost a bright light and I write this letter in the hope that others may pay attention to the dangers inherent in these slimming 'aids' and not put their lives at risk.

Shirani Situnayake, Ratmalana