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Dumb friends' leagueLet us enumerate the dumb friends. Cattle, goats, sheep, hogs and dogs of the four footed community and Man of the two legged and double handed fraternity. Man goes onto the same league, for men suggest some inane remedies for keeping down the unwanted animals. Some individuals seek to keep streets clear of strays by sterilizing them to keep down their number. Let us suppose Local Authorities have sterilized dogs and cats that roam and release them back into their habitat. How will the officers ever know the animals that they have sterilized. Collars will not work, for those will be pawed off their necks. Cattle can be branded, but not dogs and cats. How will the dog catcher know, on first sight, which animal has been sterilized and which is not. It is a laborious task. Does the Colombo Municipality or any local body have funds to catch the same animal many times over? It will be categorised as a sin to wantonly kill our dumb friends; but how is man to keep the environment free of the scourge! Humane humans get the animal vaccinated and sterilized and await kind homes to accept them. If no kind home is available will the animal go back on the street or remain in the home of the kind person. The kind one may do it once but will the person venture out again? Most people do not have the wherewithal to keep many pets at home and dump the offspring secretively on the streets. Let good sense prevail and local authorities make it known that unwanted pets will be taken over by them and the citizenry cooperate by handing the animals over. The animals will be exterminated by gassing, for that is the most humane method of killing. Animal lovers say that stray dogs will not bite unless harassed. Approach a stray sleeping on the pavement and it opens its eyes and looks up. Go closer and it will give a low growl. Take another step and it will snarl. Still closer it will stand and bark for its domain has been transgressed. Where on earth is man's domain? I. L. P. SAMARASINGHE, 'Don't touch the clock'Ref. letter by Vidya Jothi Sir Arthur C. Clarke (16.03.2006), I cannot agree on the point that the households will be consuming more electricity for lighting if we put the clock back by half an hour as proposed as dusk will fall sooner. However to be precise I quote Sir Arthur: "the clock was adjusted in 1996 (incidentally the year we won the cricket World Cup bringing light to millions of people all over the world, including the Sri Lankan) during a major electricity shortage, as a measure of daylight saving. A decade later, Sri Lanka is still struggling to meet the growing energy demands, and spending vast amounts on imported oil"..... again in the same para, he says: "So if we put the clock back by half an hour as proposed dusk will fall sooner and households will be consuming more electricity for lighting". Whether in the morning or evening when it is dark only we switch on our electricity lights. It has no bearing at all on the clock being put back an vice versa. We cannot control the sun's rising or setting. So it will be as clear as day that by adjusting the clock we will not be consuming more electricity. However, as the debate is still going on, I would humbly invite more to express their views on this implicated problem and I stand to correction as mine is a layman's view. V. K. B. RAMANAYAKE, IIThe decision to put the time back by half an hour is an excellent move and this will ease the difficulties of parents taking their children to school. Presently, it is dark at 5.30 a.m. and parents have to accompany their children especially the daughters to school as it is not safe to send them alone in the dark. The parents have to leave their off springs in school, get back home and go to their places of employment also in time. With the time being put back by half an hour from April 14, a great relief has been granted to school children, factory girls and other females who have to go to office early. In many instances, the females live in lanes and by-roads and they have to come in the dark to travel by public transport. Since it is dark and unsafe for them to come alone, an elder or a brother has to accompany them to the main road. The safety of the lives of children and young girls come before thinking of easy calculations. W. Ainsley, Sinhala-Tamil animosityI read Mr. Rajakarunanayake's belly-aching columns on Sinhala-Tamil animosity occasionally. He has begun your March 18 column with a pompous statement "I have yet to meet a Tamil who is so genuinely concerned about the Tamils and the discrimination they have been subjected to than Professor Ratnajeevan S.Hoole." Good, may I know, how many Tamils of the professor grade, has he met to arrive at such a loopy gibberish? As a Tamil and an academic who worked in the University of Colombo and University of Peradeniya (between 1976 and 1981), and left the blessed island 25 years ago, I can assure him that there are more concerned and qualified Tamil academics who had served the Tamil community and other communities than his choice. Sachi SriKantha, |
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