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| Sunday, 31 October 2004 |
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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.
Senior citizens-'be happy, why worry' Happiness is a state of mind. It is within us to achieve this. Think and enjoy what we have and not worry about what we do not have, but others have. Be content. Good Health and Peace of Mind are the two greatest blessings. Let us do our best towards this end. There are many challenges we face in life. They are no longer looked at as problems. Face them. Every problem has a solution. Never feel sad or depressed. If we do we will once again create problems for ourselves. Recall the challenges we have faced with success. Forget the unpleasant - for they will not do us any good anyway. Recall the good times we had with our children when they were small. Do not worry about what they are unable to do for us today, but be happy with what little they do. Be conscious of ones limitation and priorities and do our best to try and maintain good health. If you are ill do not worry remember diet and medication can do wonders. Retirement can and must be spent in a profitable and productive manner. Our limbs may not permit us to run around as we did some time ago. Relax, Enjoy be it gardening, reading, writing, seeing or whatever you like, but do not overdo. Couples - Husband and wife, stop nagging each other, try not to be irritable. Once in a while talk of the good old days and nice times you have had together - recall the pleasant memories. Never talk of the unpleasant past - never argue. If one has tolerated each other's habits be they good or bad during the past years, continue to do so. Let us hope that each individual is prepared to sacrifice for the other even at this late age as time is running out fast. Try not to be a burden on others. Yet do not worry or be sad if we can no longer be an independent person. Be a help to others even if you are confined to your bed or on a wheel chair - soothing words or action can bring light to darkness. Venitia Gamage, Sunera Foundation: a point of view The Sri Lankan body politic needs to appreciate the good work done by the Sunera Foundation. Last year and this year too, I had the privilege of being present at the Foundation's performance on stage. This year's turtles will never fly presented by the Foundation's The Butterflies Theatre Company - Second Wing has already received the deserved applause. The work done by Wolfgang Stange and Rohana Deva must be appreciated. Above all the players who should ultimately be cheered. It was good that both last year and this year too, the curtain call was not the end of the day's proceedings for the audience was invited to meet with all the persons responsible for this magnificent effort. Since I had in some ways known some of the group, it was good to say hello and thank them for their effort personally. When I saw the performance and met with the players, it was indeed clear that here was an attempt at Conflict Resolution. The players are from the various parts of our island home. They represent the plural nature of our society. Through drama, which is also therapy for the differently able who are cared for by the Foundation, we saw and met the plural nature of our Land. How they mingled and performed together. Great and wonderful. What then is the moral of the story? It has been said before, may I repeat, it is Sri Lankan party politics that is refusing to participate in conflict resolution. Moreover, our people have for centuries lived and walked together. I also believe that the 80 percent of our people who live on 20% of the National Product have no problem in being a plural society. It is the 20% who have the problem. Even within the 20% perhaps the old rich have no problems in living and walking in a plural society. It is the new rich, where there is competition to have a large size of the cake. Hence the dilemma. Ultimately it is economics disguised as party politics. The work of Sunera Foundation is one attempt to overcome party politics and work for peace in Sri Lanka. May their work be blessed. Sydney Knight, Assertiveness by policemen with commitment Several reasons are attributed for increase in crime which creates lack of assertiveness and some of them are a) Shortage of staff. b) Non selection of staff who have an aptitude. c) Lack of proper vehicles and facilities to the police, e.g. absence of computer knowledge and computers, fax machine, to expedite issue of certified copies. d) Absence of basic police knowledge. e) Poor supervision of staff by day and night. f) Policemen being involved in business using their positions. But the main reason for the increase in crime and accidents is the lack of assertiveness by the policemen from all ranks. It is quite evident when you see cyclists without lights they ride their bicycles against traffic signals on the wrong side of the road. Pedestrians cross the roads disregarding traffic signals, three wheelers park at bends entrances to roads and disregarding traffic rules blatantly and policemen are 'ON LOOKERS'. Beggars harass drivers at traffic lights with women exposing their breasts feeding children. Lottery salesmen fix loudspeakers to their bikes and disturbing the public peace. Places of worship, compete with each other with loudspeakers at uncontrollable sounds and vehicles blatantly sound their horns in front of places of worship, hospitals. All these go unchecked by the police, why ? Either the police is corrupt, or they are ignorant of the law, or indifferent all do not want to assert themselves, or police are blindly avoiding detection of these offences by just turning a blind eye or conveniently avoiding situations or fear of repercussions in asserting themselves. It is time the Police Department develop a system of supervision and better application of the law, through their Rank and File, and create a sense of assertiveness in applying the law. Nihal de Alwis, Hell or heaven, feeling the same If hell and heaven are eternal for anyone being born there or there is no difference whether it is hell or heaven. The heaven is full of divine material comfort which in the imagination of a mortal is highly seductive. However these tempting comforts are conceived in the experience of what we as humans enjoy here in the extreme and entice them for a pious particular path leads to emancipation. For instance, we are told that when one sacrifices one's life in defence of religion or the country, he will be born in heaven to enjoy all the material comforts which he might have failed to achieve here. All comforts what we as humans think of as the best of comfort is said to be readymade for us in heaven. If one is to be into eternity in heaven, what we call as comforts will become something usual and nothing extraordinary. Once one gets used to these comforts it is like being all rich here, nothing unusual. In the same way suffering in hell too, becomes something usual and once into eternity it becomes normal for all since everyone there in hell lives and 'suffers' alike. A worm or a centipede does not know that it is suffering. For it, its life is normal and comfortable and does not know about any other life which it thinks is comfortable. Similarly, those who are in hell too, do not know that there is a heaven or any other life which enjoys eternal joy of comfort. The blind, the deaf or the dumb lead quite a comfortable life because they are made to enjoy life as it is given to them, and they have not experienced any other mode of life outside what they have experienced. In fact now they are being called 'differently abled', not disabled. However, this is in line with what the Buddha said 'nanaththa kaya nanaththa sanna' (each different body (a person) is with different abilities), which means no two people are alike, or similar in what they do. or think. Therefore, hell, if it is a permanent hell, one needn't be worried to go there because one will in no time get used to it. For him, there is no other life outside it. Once he gets used to it, that is the life for him, however harsh it is to pass a judgement into eternity over one month's or 2-3 years performance here. E. M. G. Edirisinghe, Provocative clothes an invitation? Your feature article in the Sunday Observer of Sept. 12 reported that the Criminal Justice Society of India has made a move to urge their government to either caution or ban women from exposing their curvy figures in public. The Society's secretary-general R. S. Suri has labelled this indecent exposure as 'social evil'. He had further commented that, "When women dress in sexy clothes, it not only promotes lustful thoughts, but it also encourages men to develop a warped vision of all women, a view that can cause men to think of and treat all women as sex objects". 'Sakshi', a feminist legal resource group, interviewed 106 judges to assess their attitudes to violence against women. The study revealed that "68% of the judges believed that provocative clothes are an invitation to sexual relationship." This study confirms what Muslims have been saying all along - there is a direct correlation between what women wear and crime against them. Therefore, the obvious solution for such violence is to wear the Muslim dress (Hijaab). It is one of the best and the cheapest defences against possible sexual abuses. In Islam, rape is treated as a very serious crime and capital punishment is the ultimate penalty. This twin measure of preventing crime against women is unique only to Islam. Provocation is less likely be a mitigating factor for rape in a Court of Law if you follow the Muslim's dress code. Sadly, a piece of cloth (Hijaab) has been a subject of much controversy. Ignorance and media bias are to be blamed. Let me take this opportunity to address this misunderstanding. Wearing of Hijaab, in addition to personal protection, is a sign of modesty. It is not merely a covering dress but more importantly, it is behaviour, manners, speech and appearance in public. A woman who covers herself is feminine and dignified but conceals her sexuality. Modesty in dress code is common to all religions. The decent dress code of Christian nuns is ample evidence to that. Unfortunately, shedding clothes off seem to be less controversial than putting them on. Many readers had commented that Hijaab is a right's issue. However, every individual right comes with responsibilities. Freedom of speech does not give a person the right to verbally abuse and be dishonest. Similarly, individual freedom to dress does not give a person the right to dress indecently. What you do in your own home is your own private matter but when you are out in the public, the society has rights too - to see people dress decently. In Islam, dress code (as opposed to dress design) when in public is decreed. Hijaab is trivialized to the extent of calling it hot and uncomfortable. Firstly, Muslim woman wears Hijaab only when she steps out of the security of her home or in the presence of strangers. Therefore, for majority of the time it is neither hot nor uncomfortable. Secondly, it is no more uncomfortable than wearing a saree or any Sri Lankan traditional attire. So a Muslim woman in Hijaab is dignified not dishonoured, noble not degraded, protected not exposed, respected not ridiculed, confident not insecure, and above all obedient to the Commandment they believe. Tuan Riza Rassool, |
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