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| Sunday, 8 December 2002 |
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Letters |  |
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
My daughter and son-in-law and their three children living abroad had applied for Dual Citizenship and were informed by the assistant secretary of the citizenship division "to pay Rs. 400,000 in cash or bank draft to the Controller, Immigration and Emigration at the 3rd Floor, Unity Plaza Building, Colombo 4 and forward the original receipt to me to enable me to issue the declaration to you." This particular letter written in English is woefully lacking in clarity and consists of several mistakes both roneoed and hand written. Therefore I have very carefully preserved it for what it was worth. On November 11, I proceeded to Colombo from Matara with the required cash along with a nephew of mine. I paid the stipulated amount into the Account of the Controller of Immigration and Emigration, at the Bambalapitiya Branch of the Bank of Ceylon, as I had done the same thing in the year 1992 when my son was granted dual citizenship. Nevertheless I also interviewed the Public Relations Officer of the Bank and ensured that the cash was deposited into the correct account. Thereafter, I went to the Citizenship Division a few yards away and produced the copy of the paying-in-slip duly certified and signed by the Bank Official. Lo and behold! The Assistant Secretary curtly refused to accept it as I had not seen her prior to payment. I very politely pleaded with her to cross check with the Bank as the payment was made a few minutes earlier still fresh in the records of the computer. Her brash and cocky reply was that she is not there to cross check. Her erratic behaviour was most unbecoming of the position she holds. I also implored her to carefully go through the letter which emanated from her office. (I am not certain whether she had signed it) in which no specific stipulation of the purported requirement was made. However, the official receipt acknowledging the payment was not issued to me till then. In utter desperation, as I had to return home to look after my sick spouse living all alone (both my children are abroad) I finally decided to present my grievance to the Controller himself. I interviewed him. Mr. Mervyn Wijesekera asked me for the letter of request for his perusal. Having carefully listened to me and having gone through the photocopy of the paying-in-slip which I produced (I am in the habit of keeping photocopies of important documents) he promptly ordered the Assistant Secretary concerned over the telephone to accept payment and issue me with the official acknowledgement of the payment. Let this comment also serve as a panegyrical appreciation of the ineffable cordiality displayed by this top bureaucrat in my moment of distress due to no faulty of mine. I also wish to add that this is not the first occasion that I visited the Citizenship Division. The erstwhile females who occupied the very same chair were embodiments of virtue and public servants par excellence in utter contrast to the present incumbent. The fact that the grantees of dual citizenship bring in the much sought after foreign exchange to swell the government coffers must always be borne in mind by those concerned. The visitors to this institution specially should never be bullied by pen-pushers. Nanda Nanayakkara, Heating water in microwave can be dangerous I was very glad to get this e-mail from a friend, because I have been guilty of heating water in a microwave many times. You'll be glad you read it. I also suggest passing it along to friends and family. About five days ago, my 26-year-old son decided to have a cup of instant coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for but he told me he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the over off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup he noted that the water was not boiling. Then instantly the water in the cup "blew up" into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand but all the water had flown out into his face due to the buildup of energy. His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face, which may leave scarring. He may also have lost partial sight in his left eye. While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this is a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something such as a wooden stir stick or a tea bag should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy. Here is what our science teacher has to say on the matter: "Thanks for the microwave warning. I have seen this happen before. It is caused by a phenomenon known as super heating. It can occur any time that water is heated and will particularly occur if the vessel that the water is heated in is new. What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapour bubbles can form. If the cup is very new then it is unlikely to have small surface scratches inside it that provide a place for the bubbles to form. As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat that has built up, the liquid does not boil, and the liquid continues to heat up well past its boiling point. What then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred, which is just enough of a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly form and expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of bubbles is also why a carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken. Rohan Fernando The officers in the Registrar of Persons are praiseworthy citizens unlike many other officers in government departments as they attend to their duties promptly. When I visited the department recently I had a first hand experience of their courtesy and promptness and was able to get my National Identity Card within one week. A. Joseph, Pedestrian crossings or flyovers? Pedestrian crossings can be made safer by scraping the road surface slightly for a width of about 8 feet across the road, 25 metres before and after the pedestrian crossing (in addition to the yellow strips) so that when the wheels run over the rough surface the slight vibration can alert the driver. This method involves only the labour cost and can be done without causing damage to tyres. This system is followed by Middle Eastern countries by paving with glass blocks before and after pedestrian crossings and also after every 15 kilometres or so, on long distance routes in desert areas to prevent the driver falling asleep at the steering wheel. This method is more reliable than the 'yellow strips' and the blinking globe system as it needs continuous maintenance. Flyovers can be made less costly by following the century old Grandpass railway underpass system especially for the Kelaniya Railway crossing. Instead of making the full length of the flyover look like a long bridge, filling with hard material can be done up to the railtrack with two concrete retaining walls on either side and in the middle and then making three tunnels for the three rail tracks with over-head bridges similar to Grandpass and Biyagama Road over-head bridges. At Kelaniya two ground level roads can be retained on either sides for extra-heavy traffic and Vidyalankara Pirivena and other nearby road users. This is definitely less costly than the present type of flyovers at Baseline Road and Ragama. It's a pity that the engineers did not take the example of the existing flyovers at Grandpass and Biyagama Road before constructing the Baseline Road flyover. Anthony J. Perera, The death anniversary of Dr. K. Subramaniam, was on Sept. 5, and when I read some appreciations in the press I thought of writing this episode Due to various problems (mainly financial), I was in a terrible state of mind. When I read the review of his book titled "Laugh Awhile" published by the State Printing Corporating and sold for only Rs. 60 a copy as a matter of social service. Unfortunately when I went to that Corporation to buy it, I was told that all copies of that book have been sold like hot cakes and to await the second edition then already in print. As I did not want to wait that long since my condition was deteriorating, I went to see Dr. Subramaniam personally and that erudite doctor gave me, the following advice: "Read the book "Laugh Awhile" as soon as the second edition is out and recite the following prayer daily: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I can't change, courage to change wherever necessary, the things I can change and the wisdom to know the difference." Suffice to say that I, who wanted to commit suicide at one stage, am living today to tell this tale owing to that good doctor. May his soul attain supreme bliss! Lucian, I refer to the letter by Dr. S. K. Vadivale in the Readers Forum of the Sunday Observer of November 3 commenting on the historicity of the age of Sinhala language. I am genuinely surprised as to on what authority he dismisses, the claim of Assif Husein on the antiquity of the Sinhala language, by a single unsubstantiated sweeping statement. He did not produce even an iota of historical evidence to support his flimsy statement. Any advanced student of early Sri Lanka history would know that the extant historical document Paliattakata, which predates the Mahavamsa, mentions that it was based on Sihalaattakata. This fact lends credibility to the antiquity of the Sinhala language. Sinhala language is an Aryan langauge and Aryan immigration could be surmised originates with the arrival of Aryan prince Vijaya to Sri Lanka, named thereafter Sinhaladvipa. The great migration of Aryans the volkerwanderung into the northern India and from there to Sri Lanka was the wave of migration that took place thousands of years ago from the northern European continent and it is the same people that submerged the Roman civilisation. European historians named it barbarian invasion in view of its destruction of the Greco-Roman civilisation. Aryans were essentially agriculturalists and they settled down along river valleys. Great Mesopotamian civilisation on the beds of two major rivers in the Middle East is to their credit. These very same Aryans on their first arrival in Sri Lanka settled down in the Mahaveli river basin. Due to the insignificant size and relative unimportance of Sri Lanka in the political and economic map of the world, the western historians and archaeologists did not lay emphasise on the vital significance of the historical perspectives of Sri Lanka. It is for the Sri Lankans irrespective of communal feelings to appreciate and highlight the glorious past of Sri Lanka, as a common heritage. It appears that Dr. Vadivale when he made the sweeping comment on the Sinhala language might have been under a spell of prejudice emanating from his reverence for his mother tongue, which obviously cannot be Sinhala. S. Sathyapala, The newspapers here recently disclosed that a large number of Sri Lankans are infected with HIV/AIDS, most of them going unrecorded and undetected, thus posing a bigger threat to society carrying the possibility of infecting more and more people. AIDS is caused by a tiny germ known as Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus or HIV. This virus destroys the body's natural ability to fight against all infections, thus clearing the way for various opportunistic infections which lead to the disease AIDS. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that the major mode of transmission of the disease AIDS is through sexual contact with the infected persons. The disease, therefore, can be transmitted from woman to man, man to woman or man to man. Islam requires all men and women to get married when they are capable of doing so. The institution of marriage, which furnishes a basic solution to the problem of AIDS, is a sacred institution. Islam advises its followers to give preference to righteousness and chastity of a woman while selecting one's wife. That is to lay a firm foundation of an ideal healthy family.Similarly, there is adequate guidance, admonition and counselling in the Holy Quran and the saying of the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) about our moral conduct which, if faithfully followed, would eliminate any possibility of deviation which can, in any remote way, lead to sexual perversity or AIDS. We read in the Holy Quran: "Say to the believing men that they restrain their eyes and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Surely, Allah is well aware of what they do". (Ch - 24, V.31) "And come not near unto adultery: surely it is foul thing and an evil way". (17:33) It is also a universal phenomenon that drinking too leads, inter alia, to such a loss of senses which accelerate sexual perversity. In short, the excellent teachings of Islam provide such a perfect code of conduct for human beings which preclude any possibility of moral degradation is averted, it would be a natural and real solution to the problem of AIDS, which is haunting human fancy today in our posterity. Dr. A Abdul Aziz |
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