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| Sunday, 7 December 2003 |
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Letters |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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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.
A Sripen of Nugegoda writing in Daily Mirror of November 10 speaks about "Claustrophobic long black dresses" of the Muslim women trying to "Destroy cultural diversity of traditional costumes". This sentence it self is self-contradicting, for the diversity is not destroyed, rather unchanged by this dress. Let the grammar be, but I wonder for who is this dress claustrophobiac? Obviously not to the Muslim women who does it proudly for not only it is a symbol of their identity but also a sign of freedom from gaping eyes as well as from demand to conform to the western half naked obscenity. But it does seem to be claustrophobic to the man who seem to be intend on undressing the women at any cost as explicitly expressed by the so called women's right's activist Nighat at Gandhi (Sunday Observer Nov. 02.2003. In the shadow of inequality) who seem to think "just remove the hijab and burqa of the Muslim women, presto ! They will be empowered to gain all the freedom they need. According to him the Quranic verse asking men to lower the gaze justifies the women to expose the women's body ! By the logic of his reasoning Allah's orders not to steal, warrants leaving all the treasures possession on the road ! Is it a fact that even it's a simpleton will know that Allah's orders will not be followed 100% by human beings ? That there will always be women pondering their beauty, tantalizing men's, thanks to the persuasion of people like him - who think that the half makes huge cutouts of the Dickman's road by a popular brand of pants, is the "real sign" of freedom of women ! He has the audacity to hint that the Islamic scholars would have intentionally concocted the ideas of the Muslim women's dress. This is not only an insult to the trustworthy, much respected, god - fearing Ulemas but also a great insult to the Muslim women as a whole what does he think that Muslim women all and one are idiotic subservient tools ? Just because he is not aware of the Muslim lady scholars who excelled in the Quran interpretation, throughout the ages does not mean they did not exist. My appeal to the non-Muslim men out there - leave us alone ! We are quite happy with our dresses, and very sorry, we will not ponder to you, which and fancies of using women as play tools, advertising gadgets, - please look elsewhere. Dr. Mareena Reffai, I thank G. Ponnukone and Shavindranath Fernando for their (adverse) replies of 26/10 to my article in the Sunday Observer of October 12 titled, 'Calling for coal-fired power...' I am constrained not to agree with both - Authorities in electrical power generation, though I am neither an electrical engineer, nor an engineer of any sorts. But I based by comments on the facts I gathered from reading several letters and articles in the local media published by authoritative persons, some letters in two foreign magazines on 'Coal-Fired Power Generation' and on common sense. Without harping too much on unnecessary details, I maintain that 'Coal-Fired Power' could still be generated at a cost of US$ - 04 per unit. I deny G.Ps prediction that CFP will rise to an astronomically high Rs. 15 per Kwh. This is absurd. It is most surprising that both G.P. and S.F. appear unaware that a very reliable foreign consortium had offered to set up a 300 Mw. Coal-Fired Power Plant in south Sri Lanka and had assured of a level price of US$ -/04 per unit for a continuous period of 30 years. I agree with Mr. G.P. that available alternatives such as 'Thermal/Oil/Gas', 'Solar PV', 'Windmill' and even 'Hydro' in todays context will be exorbitantly high. I refer your attention to the Chart below. For each year of delay the added expenses are gong to be several billions of rupees of tax-payers money. Please note the difference in generation of the various sources. It was reported that the Cabinet has already approved, on principle, three Coal Fired Power Plants (CFPP) for Sri Lanka spread over a period of time, all to be implemented by the Private Sector. No worry, no financial burden on the Government. The stumbling block for the start up of CFP generation in Sri Lanka is the CEB and its Electrical Engineers who are strongly plugging the 'Arab Oil/Diesel Lobby'. We are made to understand that in the case of CFPP not a cent will be disbursed by way of 'commissions', 'bribes', 'santhosam' or in simple terms 'jarawa' and here lies all the objections and obstructions for CFP generation in our country. The general public should see the reality, facts from fiction, the truth from damn lies. Coming to the question of Dendro Power of Sustainably Grown Fuelwood (SGF), although Mr. G.P. promotes the idea of cultivating vast extents of land with Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) or Gliricidia, I ask is there 1.6 million hectares or 6.7 million acres of landmass in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka for SRC cultivation as asserted by him? The whole Island is approximately 65,609.03 square kilometres or 25,429.96 square miles in extent. At 640 acres for a square mile, the whole of this country h as a landmass of 16,275,175.19 acres or 3,875,041.71 hectares and how come a near half of this is in the dry zone, when the dry zone of the country is less than 1/3rd of its total landmass? On the other hand, gliricidia or (SRC) can in no way generate power. It will only replace the use of furnace oil in a boiler with sustainable biomass. Coming to Project Director, Upper Kotmale Project, Shavindranath Fernando, I do not accept his argument either. It is beyond comprehension for one to understand how he can generate power at Rs. 2.79 a kwh. from the 11th to 40th year (30 years) of operation. How about the start up cost, the cost of operation in the first 10 years? Is it not going to be a staggering amount? Is it not the reason you failed to mention the start up cost? How can you be so sure that the costs will come down after 10 years hence? On the contrary, the costs are most likely to escalate then due to market fluctuations. The Shavindranath Fernando theory is amazing that costs will come down ten years hence - food for thought for Economists. If UKHPP can generate power at less than Rs. 2.80 per unit, I am sure all other hydro-based power projects too can generate power at that cost. Why then have the consumer got to pay about Rs. 10/- per unit at present? Yet it is not too late and it is better late than never. So we kindly urge upon the CEB, its Electrical Engineers, the Minister of Power & Energy and the UNF Government to stop this infighting and give the green light to the proposed Coal Fired Power Projects to proceed with the commencement of their projects without any further delay. We warn the Minister in-charge as well as the UNF government not to get mislead or caught up by the strong Arab Diesel/Oil Lobby being vigorously plugged in and pursued by some top notch in the CEB with vested interests to the utter detriment of the welfare of the ordinary electricity consumer. Either we get started and go ahead with the proposed Coal-Fired Power Projects immediately or perish into glorious darkness. Ranjit C. Dissanayake, Several ministers, mostly those turn-coats who joined the UNP in 2001, are vociferous as supremely excellent exponents of democracy when they criticize the President's take over of three ministerial posts and prorogation of Parliament. These self-same paragons have conveniently forgotten that the former UNP regime of late J.R. Jayawardene, in which the present Prime Minister was a minister deprived the former Prime Minister late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike of her civic rights most unreasonably even denying her the right of self-defence. An independent judiciary is a conerstone of democracy. J.R. Jayawardene's government dismissed supreme court judges en masse and interfered with the administration of justice by intimidation of judges when judgements unfavourable to the government were delivered as in the case of Vivian Gunawardena vs AG. Is the erstwhile law professor and now minister who is most vociferous paragon of democratic norms ignorant that intimidating the judges with an impeachment motion in Parliament against them on the eve of a judgement would amount to a denial of freedom of judges to interpret law. Even now some of these paragons of ethics and democratic norms are terrorizing their electorates in a bid to wipe out all opposition in various places, as the daily newspapers report. S. Weerakoon, In the good old days the price of a loaf of bread did not vary from shop to shop, nor from town to town not even from district to district. Everywhere the price of bread remained static and the weight of the loaf of bread. Recently I wanted to buy a loaf of bread on my way home from Colpetty from a very old and popular bakery and I was shocked to hear the price at Rs. 24. Of course only one variety of bread was available at the time and it was sliced and wrapped in polythene. On another day I bought a loaf of bread at Bambalapitiya junction which they charged me Rs. 17. The quality of the bread was so poor which I could not use the following day and I had to dump it in the bin. Bread is a very important food item and consumed by mostly by the poor. Therefore, a strict control on the price of bread and the quality is important. I learnt that the consumer can seek redress for their grievances from the Consumer Affairs Authority which has been set up under the Consumer Protection Act enacted on March 17 this year. If this is correct let this catch the eye of the act and remedial measures taken. M. T. A. P. Fernando, Investments in quoted companies One RJ writing to a newspaper on 23.10.2003 regarding a quoted company where 57% of the shares are held by five shareholders questions asks whether this is a make believe public company. He concludes that this is actually a private company. His conclusion is wrong but of course the readers understand the message he tries to get across to the regulatory bodies. His letter would have attracted the attention of SEC & CSE officials. But it seems it is not their responsibility to comment for the benefit of the public. They are only interested in the continuous climb of the share indices. Let me share my limited knowledge on the issue raised by RJ and hope that someone knowledgeable on the subject will correct me if I am wrong. According to the company law, a public company should have a minimum of seven shareholders. According to Colombo stock exchange rules, a quoted company is required to maintain a public float of 25%. A single shareholder can hold 30% of shares in a quoted company. It appears that a quoted company can continue to remain as a listed company with only seven shareholders. It is also noted that out of the total market capitalization of Rs. 322,500 million only shares valued Rs. 161,000 million are deposited with the CDS. Therefore shares valued more than 50% are not intended for active trading. How do these statistics compare with other markets ? The information should be readily available with those involved in research on equity markets. RJ is also justifiably very critical of the auditors of the company. The allowance paid to trainees who do bulk of the audit work is a clear indicator of the quality of audits that can be expected. But then the grievance of the auditor is that the client is not willing to pay a decent audit fee to carry out a quality audit. At the end of the day the shareholders get a raw deal. Isn't it possible for the auditors to obtain an ISO quality assurance certification ? B.L. Perera, During the past 5 years or so, so much has been written for and against death sentence being reintroduced, but at present there seems to be a lull in shouting slogans etc. May be because no foreign woman has been raped and murdered in recent times. According to a recent newspaper report, a noted criminal is wanted by the Police in connection with some 50 murders committed or engineered by him. This could be a local record for an individual. Inwardly he must be regretting his criminal acts but he is sure of coming out of prison alive, if he does not die in the prison. I wonder what prevents the capital punishment being reintroduced? True, we are a Buddhist nation and one has no right to take away another's life. But does this not apply to all including the murderers? An individual can kill another person but the State cannot punish a man with death in punishment for killing another man. What logic is this? In the Middle East it is known that for rape the sentence is death, but in our country, like rape, killing are not serious offences to warrant capital punishment! Serious consideration should be given to reintroduce death sentence if the crime rate to be reduced. To ensure the safety of women and children physically and morally and as in the Middle East, we should also punish the rapists and other sex related criminals with death. David Williams, Dengue is raising its ugly head again. According to news reports, 64 suspected cases have been reported from the Kandy Municipal area, Yatinuwara and Gangawata Korale. Meanwhile, in the Western Province, Katana, Negombo, Wattala, Mahara and Gampaha, have topped the list of dengue cases in the areas. The disease dengue is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes aegyptii or Aedes albopictus. The first is the principal epidemic vector, while the other has been recognised as a secondary vector. These mosquitoes usually bite during day time (between 6 and 9 a.m.) or in the evening (between 4 and 6 p.m.) and they breed in pure water, mostly in accumulated rain water. According to WHO, dengue fever is of three types: Dengue fever, Dengue Haemorrhagic fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome. This viral disease is said to occur in over 100 countries and threaten the health of more than 2.5 billion people living in the tropics and sub-tropical countries. The most virulent type is Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, which requires immediate medical attention and hospitalisation because it can lead to severe internal bleeding and shock and even death. The Epidemiological Unit of the Health Ministry is on the war-path to combat the disease, but it cannot alone do it, without public cooperation, in eliminating the breeding places of the mosquitoes where fresh water gets stagnant. Public have been warned by mass media as how to control the spread of the lethal disease, but there is no favourable response from the public, which is the principal reason why the disease cannot be controlled or prevented. Therefore, without accusing the Health Ministry, the people themselves must realise the danger and must take suitable action to close the breeding grounds and destroy the breeding places, such as empty tins, discarded tyres, blocked gutters etc. These mosquitoes can fly a distance of 5 k.m., to find its blood meal. Aryadasa Ratnasinghe, Whether the constitution contentious issues were the need of the hour, a disastrous, unprecedent move or a serious mistake, the ordinary man of every ethnic group is unconcerned about all these messy affairs. For some folks, the constitution crisis have become a rib-trickling fun and the world's best masterpiece. The pulse of the masses are - they have lost confidence in politicians. The word politicking is a better substitute for them. Stop all the pontifical sermons and get cracking to re-build the country and the economy. The masses are biting their teeth with tongues out and suffering impatiently for better days. Prices of essential items for their existence are spiralling unhindered. Although the cost of living is the common topic on every pondium, essential food items are skyrocketing. The people are guessing the alternative strategy to all these shambles and scrambles. Who cares whether the government as well as the President equally have the people's mandate; whether the 19th or the 21st amendment should be put into limbo? You politicians are squabbling for power and prestige is what the masses' guess. Even after 50 years of so-called independence, the constitution has become a circus of fun for politicians. It is often echoed from the mountain to the valley that 'cane for cane' is put into effect. Stop all these poppycock stuff and get back to alleviate the suffering of the people - please, please! H. L. D. E. Perera, |
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