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| Monday, 1 September 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.
In Nuwara Eliya there is a club which appears to be practising a form of discrimination which I thought, was long dead in the now independent colonies. It is a private club and is entitled to decide who should have entry to its premises. There are many clubs, which restrict entry to members and their guests. I have no problems with that. But the club has a strange policy with regard to access which I find objectionable. Entry to this club is restricted to members, their guests and Foreigners! Why indiscriminately allow in foreigners? This means a drug pusher from Britain, an economic refugee from Africa, a prostitute from East Asia or a human smuggler from India can walk in freely to the club while a decent Sri Lankan wanting to enjoy a cup of tea will be turned back at its gate. I assume its doors will also open to a Sri Lankan who holds a foreign passport. This kind of abjectness in front of foreigners by members of a club reinforces the commonly held belief among European races that dark men are naturally inferior and tend to treat their own kind badly while kowtowing to foreigners. R. Perera, Colombo Protest against fingerprinting Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna seem to think that they have become Self-appointed saviours of Sri Lankan People and Sovereignty of Sri Lanka. They have come to say that the British High Commission is insulting the integrity of Sri Lankan people by imposing a regulation to have the applicant's fingerprints on the Visa to enter the United Kingdom. It is true that all the people of Sri Lanka are not criminals or crooks. But there are a few who resort to fraudulent activity to get through many barriers and negotiate a deal for an illicit immigrant to have a safe landing in the United Kingdom. If one gets caught at some point, is that not an insult to Sri Lanka? I have been to United Kingdom many times and I have experienced their courtesy and I feel it is a crime to cheat them by deceptive tactics and enjoy in their country. I have seen many applicants at this High Commission coming out of the interviewing counter - in pensive mood and with dejected faces. But they do not even think of appealing against the rejection - because they know that they have failed to cheat the officials. Genuine applicants need not fear anybody, and if one fulfils all the requirements to get a Visa, the High Commission officials will politely issue the Visa. Why should anybody hesitate giving the fingerprints if no crime whatsoever has been committed. This is another ploy of the JVP to influence the voters. But how many of our poor voters will want to go to the United Kingdom? Calculating from the time one applies for a visa to UK, and up to the time one lands in UK, genuine money spent will go over Rs. 100,000/- mark. To stay there for just one week it will take another Rs. 100,000/- (average board, lodging, food and travelling). However, the people, for and on behalf of whom they cry hoarse will never want to travel so far when they find it difficult to earn a day's living, here. JVP demands the people's wages be increased and if the Government is unable to do so it should go home. They are protesting at everything the Government proposes. Mainly, the Interim Administration that is now being discussed. They come out to say the Government is granting Eelam and dividing the country. How come? the president, Prime Minister, Ministers, Members of Parliament, and all other officials concerned have taken the oath of allegiance. If all, or few, or one of them breach this oath he/she could be taken to courts and charged for betraying the nation. Unfortunately, we are in a country where people forget and forgive, and are with very short memory. Most of these people like to see the red shirts, and love to hear them crying hoarse, for something that the people will never get the way they want it. The people never ask them - what will you do when you come to power? May be that the people are well aware of the fact that the JVP, will never come to power. A.M.T. PUNYAWANSA, Homagama Almost everyday one is subjected ad nauseam to Ministers or ex-Ministers and their lackeys and supporters on television coming out of the Court Houses to garlands and cheering crowds. The Supreme Court in this country was once revered as a sacred institute, where justice not only prevailed but also the only bastion where people could go, to use a hackneyed praise, seek justice. However, as with everything in this country, the "politicisation" of every institute has seen this august body too being politicized internally and externally. What the general public sees in the media is a politician, MP or some other VIP coming out with his lawyers amidst thunderous applause and cheer. Who permitted these things to happen inside the court premises? Surely does not an iota of decency and decorum prevail amongst our leaders today? Don't the guardians of law and order, the Ministry of Justice, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka or the Honourable Judges have anything to say about these spectacles in the Court House premises? For once let sanity prevail and stop this nonsensical events being played out for the publicity of the servants who have been elected to only serve the people. V.L. GUNASEKERA, via email The following article appeared in a foreign magazine under the above caption. It will be of interest and a topic for further discussions, as we Sri Lankans are also prone to ill-effects as a result of food poisoning due to the use of various chemicals. 'Fruits and vegetables are good for us, but they can increase pesticide levels in our body.' "There was disturbing news for vegetarians earlier this year (1999). Doctors who surveyed 8,000 baby boys in Britain found that those whose mothers were vegetarian were far more likely to have a certain birth defect than those whose mothers ate meat. The study by Bristol University has not yet been published, and there may be some simple explanation for the link. But one theory is that eating more fruits and vegetables increases pesticide levels in the body. These mimic the female hormone oestrogen and harm male foetuses. "It is very hard to find clear evidence that we are harmed by the pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and unwanted microbes found in today's intensively farmed food. We do not even know how much of them end up in our bodies. A supermarket apple might have been treated up to 40 times with any of 100 chemicals, according to research published last April. But in 98 per cent of tests, the traces left on the fruit are either at, or well below, official safety limits. "Scientists examining the remaining two per cent of tests have made a surprising discovery. In the past they analysed residue levels by mashing apples together and computing an average figure. But they have begun to tests vegetables individually and have found that the extra pesticide is not spread evenly across a batch of vegetables. Instead there will be odd rogue in the pile that carries a massively increased amount - sometimes 25 times greater than the safely limit. "So we take a small risk each time we eat a carrot, apple or stick of celery - the three items that have been tested in this way. "Someone who eats an apple a day could ingest one smothered in organophosphates once every three years. This could cause a stomach upset, says the Pesticides Trust. But whether it will cause any greater harm is not known. "Perhaps the best evidence so far against specific pesticide is that against lindane, another chemical feared to mimic oestrogen. Lindane is known to promote cancer in a few statistical studies. It is used widely on such crops as sugar, beet, wheat and maize. In 1996 scientists found its residue in more than 40 per cent of samples of British milk, cheese and butter - though levels have now diminished. "Damage to health from antibiotics in factory-farmed food is a more straightforward issue. Their widespread presence may will be exacerbating one of the gravest public health problems of our times: bacterial resistance. "They are fed to most factory-farmed chickens, not to rid them of disease but as preventative measure to ward off waves of inflections that might otherwise engulf creatures living in such close proximity. Low level antibiotics are also used to promote growth. Those farm animal infections that survive the onslaught of the antibiotics go on to become another contaminant in four food. Cases of food poisoning have risen dramatically in the past decade and there are particular worries about E. Coli, which can kill, and Campylobacter. "But conditions in factory-farms are not the only cause of food poisoning: poor kitchen hygiene is also a problem. Microbiologists argue that improved behaviour in the kitchen would provide a strong defence against the microbes. "It is also important to remember that your chance of dying from food poisoning is tiny: it claims just a few hundred lives a year in Britain. By comparison, 150,000 people die each year from coronary heart disease - one of whose major causes is a poor diet." ALBERT RATNAM, Colombo 2. If we list out the privileged few, whose misdemeanours have been ignored or hushed up by the powers that be, over the past decade, we can logically conclude that the said persons have been treated as being above the law by both the past and present governments. Wither Justice? Today take the case of MPs, Ministers, their side-kicks and kith and kin who have hitherto got away with intimidation, assault of police officers and bandying death and grievous hurt threats, encroachment in both state and private property, attempted murders, misuse of firearms and a host of other illegal acts, and go scot free. The nation is crying to the heavens for justice. But who cares? What has happened to all the politicians and their cohorts who were involved in a number of offences listed above? Have any of them been charged in courts, or suspended from their elevated public positions pending inquiries. It does not appear to be so, except for a few sprats, while the sharks carry on regardless. They are seemingly above the law.In the wake of the above inaction the private bus operators have been emboldened to demand that they be handled with kid-gloves when they blatantly abuse every letter of the motor traffic code. Their lightning strikes in support of their demand to be soft-paddled by the law enforcement officers, leave thousands of commuters stranded on the streets from time to time without warning. Who cares? Unless the government puts its foot down and ensure that every one who commits an offence against the established codes, are brought to book and justice meted out irrespective of position or personalities, we are fast heading for anarchy, sadly at the hands of elected representatives. It is time somebody took a hard look at the current state of affairs and started by cracking the whip against MPs and Ministers who head the list of offences, we will soon be "crying for our beloved country" if we already aren't. MILROY PERIES, Ratmalana "Quick Deposit Box" for instant depositing of cheques at local banks, I presume was initially introduced by M/s BAH foreign consultants when a leading State Bank was reorganised and refurbished under the new reorganisation concept of formation of Front and Back offices. This was initially introduced approximately 15 years ago. This new concept probably was in operation in Banks in developed countries prior to its introduction to Sri Lankan Banks. The main idea in introducing the "quick deposit box" is for the client to have a cheque deposited instantly without staying in a queue. I patronize a private bank in Mt. Lavinia where this concept has been introduced only recently. When a cheque was taken to be deposited a particular teller who obviously a new recruit was in the habit of taking it to a senior officer for verification. The particular cheque I took for depositing was to a "Collection A/C" to the credit of a mobile phone company. Hence naturally I had to draw the cheque favouring. The Manager of the particular private Bank to the credit of that mobile phone Company. I felt sorry for this teller probably, as she had not been given the proper training with regard to collection of cheques. At present all clients who come to deposit cheques have to undergo a cumbersome procedure before inserting the cheque and the paying in slip enclosed in an envelope into the "quick deposit box". The layman also is normally third party who is not conversant in banking procedures is baffled. Very often security personnel come to their rescue and assistance to complete this exercise. I am emphasizing this procedure practised for the benefit of both the Management of the Bank and its clients. If a cheque is not properly drawn for instance "Cash-order", "cash A/c Payee" "cheque without a signature" absence of a full signature of drawer for an alteration and for various other reasons cheques deposited will be automatically returned for "refused collection". Another important factor is that cheques cannot be deposited to saving A/cs unless they are drawn in favour of the payee and in favour of the Manager of the Bank concerned. In this context I suggest that these factors have to be brought to the notice of the layman by displaying a visible notice in front of the "quick deposit box" and also for the tellers to collect the cheque deposits when they are not busy. SUNIL THENABADU, Mt. Lavinia |
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