Your View... Dear reader, the Sunday Observer welcomes your letters. Letters should be brief, legible and contain the name, address and contact number of the writer. Mail your letters to: 'Letters', The Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10. Email: [email protected] Handwritten copies should be duly signed.

All Muslims are not terrorists

What happened in Paris is called terrorism and rightly so. But I wonder what they would call the bombardment of Baghdad, killing and maiming scores of civilians, to take out Saddam. Or for that matter Israel’s attack on Gaza killing over a 1,000 people, mostly children. Surely such acts are not ‘terrorism’? Or are they?

‘Terrorism’ does not happen in isolation; there is always a prior cause, the effect of which is what we generally call “terrorism”. And so it is in Paris.

Watching news that’s coming through Paris takes me back to that Wednesday January 31 1996. It was a beautiful morning in the capital of paradise island Sri Lanka. The time was 10.45 a.m. I was with my colleagues at a meeting in the fourth floor of Ceylinco, when suddenly we heard a ‘fire cracker’ noise. Everyone was curious to find out what was happening outside the building. Somehow my instinct told me to get away from the windows. As I walked away I felt a massive force of a fireball falling and that was it! I may have been unconscious for a few seconds or minutes. I was calling for help. Jaleel, a colleague helped me out of the room and went back in to help others.

I was transported to the National Hospital in the same way the injured Parisians were transported in buses. My parents didn’t know where I was and couldn’t locate me till 6.00 p.m. that evening. My father couldn’t recognise me. I still carry those scars on my face, arms and in my heart.

This was an LTTE attack on the Central Bank. Ninety one civilians were killed and more than 1400 injured.

The number of suicide attacks over 30 years of was in Sri Lanka is well in excess of 300. with an estimated 80,000–100,000 Sri Lankans being killed.

I cannot remember a day the Sydney Opera House or the Empire State Building lighting up in Sri Lankan flag colours. However, I do remember Western countries pressuring the Sri Lankan Government to find a peaceful solution. At times they threatened to withhold financial aid if the government didn’t stop military combat. Sri Lankan’s fought the LTTE terrorist alone for decades.

The West failed to recognise the LTTE as a terrorist outfit until Rajiv Gandhi was murdered by an LTTE suicide bomber in 1991. Then they were banned..in India in 1992, the US bsnned it in 1997, the UK banned it in 2000, Canada in 2006, and the EU in 2006 (Ten years after the Central Bank blast!).

François Hollande declares war on ISIS. Have you tried negotiating for a peaceful solution? No! Terrorists don’t understand the language of peace.

The LTTE is a Tamil separatist group. Yes they are a terrorist outfit. But all Tamils are not terrorists. I have so many Tamil friends and I love them dearly. Yes ISIS is a terrorist organisation but it doesn’t make all Muslims terrorists. I wouldn’t be writing this note if it was not for my Muslim friend Jaleel who helped me out from a burning building. I am so lucky to have so many friends who follow Islam to know that they are beautiful, peace loving people.

Lalani
Colombo.

City traffic going from bad to worse

Traffic in the city roads is going from bad to worse. Soon it will result in a gridlock, if corrective measures are not taken as a matter of urgency.

The police themselves are badly trained and hopelessly understaffed. Given all the above, how or where lies the solution?

In the short term, I suggest:

1. Ban parking [except in designated parking bays] on all main roads. Restrict loading/unloading activities outside business establishments along said main roads.

2. Discourage [with heavy fines] buses trawling for passengers/picking up passengers just about anywhere they please, and racing each other at breakneck speed. Put an immediate stop to buses idling at bus stops [this leads to fuel wastage, adds to wear and tear, and most importantly, wastes passengers’ valuable time]. Why this practice is tolerated is anybody’s guess.

3. A serious impediment to smooth traffic flow is incorrect use of filter lanes. Some motorists deliberately use these lanes to get one or two cars ahead and cut back in, thus causing unnecessary obstruction to the other lane users. In addition, this must be the only country that allows U-turns at traffic lights/intersections. Heavy penalties would definitely reduce these practices.

4. Have an urgent look at the particular problem outside school gates [often using up two or three lanes hindering smooth traffic flow]. This particular issue is a major contributory factor in the disruption of traffic flow. Car-pooling/discouraging single user vehicles can be looked into.

5. Enforce lane discipline. In particular, motorbikes and three wheelers which are a law unto themselves. Often, traffic speed is governed by three wheelers.

6. Educate motorists through the media – short video clips on ALL TV channels and cinemas, instructive cartoon strips in newspapers, audio clips on radio channels can be effective. This has to be a sustained effort and not just for a week or two!

There is a need to deter multiple-vehicle ownership – maybe surcharges for a second and third vehicle, and so on. This would put a brake on the sheer numbers of vehicles coming onto our roads on a daily basis.

Local authority approval of planning permission for future schools, hospitals and businesses tutories must take traffic/parking into consideration. How this has been allowed in the past defies belief. For example, has anyone missed seeing the chaos that an international school adjoining Kohuwala police station is causing on a daily basis?

A serious effort has to be made to cut down noise pollution in the city through curbing the unnecessary use of vehicle horns.

Ainsley de Silva
Kohuwala.

Eradicate poverty

As a developing country, Sri Lanka is still enveloped in poverty. Old men, women, able-bodied, the disabled, young women with babies, little girls and boys of school-going age are seen begging. This is a pathetic sight. We sympathize with them and offer food or money but it’s a nuisance. Some of them are cheats.

Able-bodied ‘beggars’ could earn by doing some job but they continue to beg.

The problem of street children has also become an endless tragedy in Sri Lanka. The government should pay attention to this needy section of society. They don’t have homes.

A beggar is a sign of poverty. We must eliminate poverty. Street children should be sent to schools and educated.

The government has set up ‘The Department of Probation and Child Care’ for the benefit of needy children.

I urge the officers to do more for the care of the needy.

We must lift the veil of inequality.

U de Silva,
Galle.