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| Tuesday, 22 January 2002 |
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Letters | |
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It is with considerable surprise that I read in page 2 (DN, Jan. 5). "Bin Laden topples Hitler as the most hated" I am really shocked at this and wonder whether these visitors to Madam Tussauds Waxworks have ever been aware of the achievements of Adolf Hitler against humanity. Firstly what had bin Laden done? Yes. He carried out an act of terrorism. (Nobody denies it) in revenge for what he firmly believes that the United States Government was deliberately going against his religion - Islam or were committing acts adversely affecting his religion. What did Adolf Hitler do? He deliberately planned out a strategy to eliminate whole ethnic groups, he considered were sub-human races. he gave priority of elimination to the Jews and murdered not less than 6 million in concentration camps. This is without counting the killing other people of the other groups whom he hated such as Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and Russian prisoners of war. I have not seen in any newspaper any protests against the killing on innocent villagers in Afghanistan by the revenge bombing by the United States. If bin Laden was a Chinese or an Indian or an Englishman would they have bombed these countries? - Bombed the places where they only guessed bin Laden would be? Finally if bin Laden is spotted moving through villages in Pakistan, would they bomb the villages in Pakistan? C. A. M. N. SILVA You will no doubt be surprised if your consultant E.N.T. Surgeon says that your infant baby should be fitted with hearing aids. Well, this is what the advanced countries are doing to their babies if hearing impairment is detected in them, to save them from becoming deaf or dumb life long. The World Health Organisation's team in Geneva, Switzerland dealing with activities for prevention of deafness and hearing impairment estimates that 5.5 million children in the Asia Pacific region are deaf or have hearing impaired. Head of the Hearing and Dizziness Centre at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila is of the view that lack of awareness among parents and some physicians about hearing impairment is a major reason for late detection in children. It is believed that normal babies hear as early as during the first three months in the mother's womb, Researchers say that if a baby does not hear people speak, the brain cells responsible for learning language must be stimulated in the first few months of his life to develop healthy nural pathways that transmit sounds to the brain, and that if this is not done in time the language acquisition will be seriously delayed and in some children linguistic skills may never develop to the full potential. A study published in the American Journal 'Paediatrics' supports the belief that children whose hearing impairment was detected before six months of age developed significantly better language skills than those whose impairment was identified later. In view of the fact that early detection and treatment is essential to normal development the US National Institutes of Health recommend that all babies undergo hearing screening by the age of three months. It is believed that babies up to six months making noises is a natural reflex, and that it is hard to distinguish between a three month old hearing baby and a three month old deaf baby and that infant hearing impairment is an invisible problem. Therefore the screening methods known as A.B.R. test and Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) which are supposed to be - nonevasive are adopted to detect hearing impairment of babies. The expenses involved for these diagnostic instruments are supposed to be less than the amount that has to be spent for remedial training of hearing impairment of children detected too late. DR. T. G. D. CHANDRA PERERA-Veyangoda
Colossal wastage of electricity in the streets ... There is going to be more power cuts in the near future according to news reports. People voted for the UNP hoping that they would be a better job than the previous regime. But it appears that they are also being misled by the bureaucrats regarding the power cuts. Has the CEB Chairman or the General Manager or the Minister of Power taken a ride from Piliyandala to Negombo at the wee hours of 3 in the morning. No I don't think so, probably they have no time to do it. But I did. Lo and behold street/road lights were lighting up the skies like a carnival. Some electric poles had 4-6 high-wattage illumination lamps and the poles were separated by about 40 feet and all the lights are blazing away in the dead of the night wasting a valuable commodity - electric power. For whose benefits are these street lights lit up at dead of the night? And the poor people has to suffer power cuts at their residences. I can remember several years ago, the Sultanate of Oman had a power crisis. In that country streets are lit to give a day light effect with so much of high powered illuminations. During the power crisis they switched off about 20 high-way and road lights in an alternate manner from 10 pm onwards. This had the desired result. If our country's street lights could be switched off 5 lights alternatively we can achieve a similar result in saving power, while keeping the streets illuminated to a certain extent. (Lights on 5 Poles irrespective of number of illuminations in each). Another method for the CEB is to do a night survey of establishments where Neon Lights, name boards and show rooms are lit up after 10 pm and impose a very high special unit rate (fine) for these establishments, if the total usage is over a certain number of units per month. This will make them cooperate with power saving wily-nilly. If these 2 suggestions are implemented we can manage with 1 hour power cut which people do not mind as an interim measure. But certainly not for the recent good days of 4 hour power cuts. ARIYASUMITHRA WIJEYARATNE-Piliyandala |
 
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