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| Sunday, 31 August 2003 |
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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.
With the high-rise residential apartments coming up in the metropolis in almost every by-road and lane in addition to the existing condominium units, it would appear that the biggest menace to the residents is the business of private tuition given by some of the residents in the premises of the complex. It is my firm belief that no businesses can be carried out in residential premises in apartments where over 24-36 units are in one complex. Generally on average there are over 50 to 60 male and female students of all ages who avail themselves of this facility and these students visit the premises almost daily at all odd times. Quite a number of them are accompanied by their parents and the majority of them use the lifts provided in the apartments. Electricity charges and the maintenance of the premises are under the control of the welfare association for which no extra charges are collected from those giving tuition. The other residents have only to grin and bear all the inconveniences caused by the students, who not only spoil the premises but also in some instances dirty the walls. Some of them are a law unto themselves using obscene language and littering the premises with toffee paper, ice cream cups etc. Can businesses of the nature of private tuition in residential premises of a complex be permitted? If not, who are the law enforcing authorities responsible for strict compliance? Some of the residents engaged in giving private tuition are not in the least concerned about the illegal nature of the activity as in most instances it is possible that some of their students are children of the law enforcing authorities. I am a resident in one such complex and has been suffering in silence as many others who dare not bring this to the notice of the relevant authorities. It is an ugly sight to notice outside the residence of a resident giving private tuition to see a whole range of dirty footwear displayed. May I suggest that as an initial step the police inspect these premises and inform those giving private tuition to stop this activity forthwith. It would be interesting also for the Inland Revenue authorities to raid such premises and serve them with assessment notices as the income earned by them is not declared to the tax authorities. The Minister of Housing should also inform the general public in regard to the remedies available for residents in such apartments who have grievances in such premises. Errol Seneviratne, Nowadays, the word 'abortion' has become the main topic all over the world, due to its rapidly increasing rate. So what is meant by abortion? Abortion is the deliberate ending of a pregnancy or a medical operation to end a pregnancy at an early stage. There are two types of abortions and medically they are called spontaneous abortion and induced abortion. Should it be legalised? The most obvious reasons for becoming pregnant without getting married are ignorance and poverty. The best evidence to prove this fact is most women who face this miserable situation, belong to poor families. Most uneducated, poor girls who work in factories like garment factories for a paltry salary, are suffering from youth unrest. To see a change in their monotonous lives, they tend to get new experiences and they can also be easily cheated and misled. They realise the depth of the mistake only after conceiving. To get rid of this shame their only answer is abortion. There are lots of quacks also looking at them as easy victims. They don't have a proper understanding about the human systems and they don't use clean equipments as well. The final result of these type of abortions is death of the mother. Or else there are medical procedures and consequences associated with abortion such as damage to her reproductive system and fertility. Many women become pregnant because of rapists too. They don't have any other alternative than aborting the foetus, because they can't face society, having a baby without a father. Thinking about these innocent women, legalising abortion is a must. On the contrary, legalising abortion may lead to many social problems. In the 21st century, females have much more freedom than they used to have and this causes many problems. At present most females attend night parties and night clubs alone and these things persuade them to behave freely. The final result of this is pregnancy, unless they use birth control devices. Can we forgive them for these things? Nowadays in countries like India, birth of a girl is considered to be a major problem for poor families because of dowry problems. Before child birth, most of them get scanned and see the sex of the embryo and if it is a girl, it is aborted. The population of women is known to be decreasing in India as a result of this. If abortion is legalised, they would surely do what they want to do legally. Killing a baby without having problems for either person (mother and baby) is an inhuman thing. Value of the life would be cheap. Another important issue is that aborting is believed to be a murder by Christians and Muslims. Most people believe that from the moment of conception the foetus has the same right as everyone has after birth. Therefore if abortion would be legalised, they would rise against it. Most people are on the fence when talking about this topic. Sri Lanka is a developing country. Many women face this problem because of poverty and ignorance as I mentioned above. So they can be forgiven. I think legalising abortion is appropriate for countries like Sri Lanka while educating people and abolishing poverty. Dulamani Namaratne, Whom are they trying to hoodwink? Sri Lanka Telecom has informed the customers that they are to get 200 units free but at a higher rental of Rs. 450. Sri Lankans are known for sales gimmicks. When one considers the increase of Rs. 250 of the rental, they are paying for 80 units at the rate of Rs. 3 per call. There are many lower middle class people who are very careful of their calls, who may not be using the phone even this much usually. But now what will happen is that they will take calls just because it's free up to 200 units. Those who won't be using that much also will be paying unnecessarily. Those with less income should be able to have at least the telephone facilities at a lower rate. The new system is helping, pinching from the poor to pay for the rich - rather it should be the other way about. Let the rental be Rs. 200 as it is, but if SLT needs money let them charge an increasing rate from the users of more units, as it happens in water. Let the first 200 units be at Rs. 3 and second block at higher rate - this way those who use the phone more will pay more the less privileged will be able to manage within their income. This way, all will be careful. Dr. Mareena Reffai, Discrimination against vegetarians I read the article in the Sunday Observer of August 24 in the forum page. I am a vegetarian but have learnt to tolerate the smells at the table when I participate in functions. But what I could not tolerate is the interchanging of spoons kept in the curry dishes carelessly by the friends who are with me. Incidentally some people do not understand the word vegetarian. I have seen in vegetarian hotels people ordering beef or mutton. Some people bring non-vegetable parcels from home and eat in vegetarian hotels inconveniencing the others. I have also seen two vegetarian hotels, one in Nugegoda and the other in Pettah owned by Muslims. Any kind of meat is available in these places. These are business tricks cheating pure vegetarians. S. Kandasamy, Re-opening of private zoo - a response It was very amusing to read the article titled "Re-opening of private zoo opposed" in the Sunday Observer of August 3. According to the article, the Gal-Gava Mithuro opposes the reopening of the Ahungalla Private Zoo. The proprietor of the private zoo has been a businessman in Ahungalla since 1982 and been of immense help to the villagers offering them dearer avenues of employment. This village, was desolate a couple of decades ago, came into the limelight only after the opening of the five-star hotel and the Ahungalla private zoo. The private zoo was opened in 1987 and provided direct employment for 70 persons and for a large number of people indirectly. It has also paid the Balapitiya Pradeshiya Sabha entertainment tax. The private zoo was very popular among the foreigners and the locals. To the nature lover it was the only zoo in Sri Lanka, which brought visitors closer to the animals. All were quite impressed by the manner in which the zoo was managed. When the popularity of the zoo rose, the mud-slinging campaign started. It was started by individuals and animal lovers' associations. Now the friends of the cart-bull have also joined in the fray, following the herd instincts of the bulls they say they protect. Opposing for the sake of opposing. According to the newspaper article, the animals were semi-starved, a baseless allegation. How can they substantiate this allegation? Did they observe the feeding of the animals? The animals were well fed and cared for, with veterinary surgeons visiting them at regular intervals. To tame animals they have to be fed well and not drugged well. The proprietor dismissed stupid allegations (that drugs were used to tame the animals) by offering rewards of Rs. 2.5 million for anyone who could prove them. But no one had the courage to accept the challenge. No one dared to, because they themselves know, that their allegations were totally false. Testing of blood, faeces, sputum and urine of the animals would have been sufficient to see of the animals were drugged or not. An unfortunate incident, in which a student was fatally bitten by a lion 3 1/2 years old, caused an uproar. The green-eyed monsters capitalised on the incident. What about the many incidents which have taken place at the National Zoo..? Dr. G. A. B. Alawattegama, There had been articles on criminals taken to custody from many police divisions. The residents of Wattala, Ja-Ela area are not that fortunate. Even the drug lord that was captured recently managed to release adequate stocks to these two areas, probably until he gets himself released thanks to our legal system. The crime rate is increasing at an alarming rate in these predominantly Christian electorates. Wattala was very much in the news recently with the killing of a provincial councillor. People of the area have lost confidence in the police and many crimes are not even reported. As if to combat crime some influential persons have managed to set up an additional police post in front of the church. This police post is not very far from the main Wattala police station. Of course there are those who believe that setting up more police stations is one way to combat crime. But many believe that construction of buildings is no remedy for crime. This only results in the drain of limited resources of the police. Of course the monks at the Wattala church can sleep peacefully now. The identity of the drug addicts is known by every three wheeler driver in these towns. But the people are expected to believe that the police do not know the drug addicts and petty criminals operating freely in these areas. There are prominent politicos from these areas who do nothing about these crimes. People have now adjusted themselves to live with crime. Hopefully at the next elections the people will use their vote wisely. B. M. Gajendra, |
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