• Fuel crisis

• Privatizing State Insurance Corporation

• Reciting Gathas in Pali

• Dog bites

• Court security

• Stamp duty on Credit card operations

  
   

Fuel crisis

Our cost of living is highly hampered with fuel crisis i.e. due to the increase of petrol in the world market the prices of our products too have been increased. Petrol prices are always higher than the cost price due to the inclusion of Government Taxes.

However, this income from taxes is used by the Government to subsidize items like Kerosene. No government is prepared to reduce the taxes on Petrol. The same principle is applicable in India.

Therefore, the requests for reduction in taxes from the Government serve no purpose.

We must have a concept to solve this fuel crisis and the best way is to search for substitutes. I gathered from a magazine, that India is adapting the following principles, which are advantageous.

1. Ethanol

- The production of ethanol will reduce the consumption of petroleum products.

This is a close substitute for Kerosene and is made out of Maize and could be available at a cheaper price. Unlike petrol, we could mix water with ethanol and use to operate stoves, which are specially made for this;

- Even lamps are available which gives light equivalent to 100 watts utilizing this;

. Electricity also could be produced using two wheeler engines with small modifications;

2. Plastic waste

- It has been invented that you can produce fuel utilizing plastic waste. If you use 4,000 tons of plastic waste twenty lakhs litres of fuel would be available. This is already in production now.

I understand Private Companies in America and Japan had already sent their requirements to this particular factory.

3. Bio Power

- Using a particular type of trees, electricity could be produced by gasification. This has no adverse effect to the environment. This is also already in production.

4. Bio Gas

- This production has commenced on a mass scale and the President of India, had announced that they would be self-sufficient by 2016, overcoming the energy crisis.

In view of the fact that India is our neighbouring country assisting us in several aspects, the following steps are suggested:

- Purchase the above substitute products at a cheaper price;

- Send our officials and study the 'know how' for production in our country on payment of royalty;

- Have a joint venture with India to produce these items in Sri Lanka;

Fuel, electricity, water etc. are our basic requirements and all parties should co-operate without any differences or criticizing each other for the past mistakes, which serves no purpose. There is a famous proverb....... "It is better to light a candle than blaming the dark forever."

S. R. BALACHANDRAN, Council Member,
The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka

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Privatizing State Insurance Corporation

One must be thankful to your newspaper for reporting the case where the new management of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation is refusing to honour commitments of its predecessor entered into during its Government ownership stating that those who signed the document are no longer in service and that he had no authority.

If privatization is going to happen this way where the commitments and undertakings of the previous entity are going to be dishonoured, then privatization is not going to work in Sri Lanka.

The most important thing and more so far for a financial organisation, is that things should improve and new owners must meet all obligations undertaken. The SLIC privatization was keenly contested and the final winner is said to be still in arrears of the agreed payment. When that is the case, it is surprising to see them refusing to pay even under legitimate claims.

If new owners of privatized ventures are going to deny liability on obligations without any valid reason, Government's 'rationalisation' programmes for the state sector are going to end in failure.

PARAKRAMA WIJESINGHE,
Kandy

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Reciting Gathas in Pali

Words that we speak out are oral sounds we make in different characteristic forms. To these various forms of sounds we make, we have given specific meanings. When we want to put these sounds in writing we make a collection of accepted letters which will match these sounds when we pronounce them, which we called words. To give the desired meaning to a word that word has to be pronounced properly in the commonly accepted manner.

This idea is to communicate with each other, so that another person can understand what is meant by the sounds one makes. A large collection of such words accepted by a group of people is called a language. So one has to know the language he speaks to give the correct meaning to the words he utters.

Now as Buddhists we know that Gathas are written in Pali. We learn these Gathas by heart and recite them like parrots when we worship. How many of us Buddhists know Pali to pronounce the words in Gathas properly to give the intended meaning? Undisputedly one can come to the conclusion that 99.9 per cent of present day Buddhists do not know Pali. When one does not know the language, can you expect him to pronounce its words meaningfully.

Then what do we do when reciting Gathas written in Pali? We go to the temple and make some sounds which have no meaning at all and you certainly cannot get the desired results. You simply have taken yourself for a ride in the process of worshipping. A simple example is, a person who does not know Sinhalese properly may pronounce biriya as buriya; you can see the difference.

So now, what do we do to overcome this situation? I suggested that scholarly Buddhist monks and university dons who excel in the relevant subjects should get together with the blessings of the Mahanayakas and translate these Pali Gathas, at least the ones which are commonly used in day to day worshipping, to simple Sinhala, so that any average person can understand them.

Then the Buddhist priests should take the initiative to encourage the Buddhists to recite them in the Sinhala version and not the original in Pali.

Of course, there are Buddhists who are not Sinhalese and do not understand Sinhala but we know that the large majority of Buddhists are Sinhalese. So, let us start with Sinhala first and may be with time we can similarly translate the Gathas into other languages as well.

This way we can expect at least a certain percentage of Buddhists to mean what they expect by reciting Gathas when they worship.

DON ABEYRATNE,
Kottawa

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Dog bites

I read the article appeared in the newspaper recently regarding dog bites and the amount spend by Government to eradicate this problem.

While appreciating the action taken, we would like to know how we should contact the relevant authorities to inform about the stray dogs for sterilization purposes. This is due to lots of stray dogs seen in our area where we live. i.e. Battaramulla. If telephone number or contact details could be given, we would highly appreciate it.

P. HEWAVITHARANA,
via email

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Court security

I have a case at the Magistrate's Court - Hulftsdorp and attending Court every month since October 2005. Except for the legal profession and law enforcement personnel, all others are given a superficial body check and allowed into the Court premises.

All Magistrates' Courts are packed to capacity with the crowd spilling over to the outer perimeter which it is sad to say is flooded with a flotsam and jetsam of antiquated Court productions.

Some of the people standing in the outer perimeter of the Court are also litigants. When a case is called and whatever the decision, it is observed that litigants from both sides meekly walk out of the Court accompanied with about 4-5 people.

A general survey of the scene shows that most of the crowd are supporters, stragglers, touts, etc. At the same time police personnel inside the Court occasionally look around and rudely order out people collected near Court main entrance without checking whether they are litigants summoned to Court. Even the seating arrangements are sometimes occupied by non-litigants.

It is also observed that hangers-on communicate freely with prisoners brought to Court. This is a very dangerous situation.

Outsiders should not be allowed to enter the Court premises or Court House.

With the current security risk we are now facing, the free movement of unwanted people within Court premises should not be allowed as criminal elements lurk in all corners.

The other issue at risk is the cash that litigants bring to Court connected with their cases. Criminal cases also attract criminal elements. Tours are another nuisance.

All rolled into one Court authorities should address attention to ensuring safety of all whose presence is essential in Court.

Parties involved in cases should have a certified copy of the summons for entry. Others should produce a police permit from the home police station indicating purpose of visit.

BERNARD SILVA,
Colombo 4

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Stamp duty on Credit card operations

The recent letter by S. R. Balachandran is somewhat lopsided. Most people who use credit cards do so as an extention of cash - because they are not as affluent as the writer.

They are not in the class of highly paid executives. Simply put, they do not have the cash to spend to live in frugal comfort.

The prices go up but their income remains more or less fixed. Same with other expenses such as children's education, housing, utilities etc. Neither do the majority of these individuals pay the entire balance when due.

They then incur a levy from the financial Institution of exorbitant interest and/or a late fee. It is easy for someone with an Axe to grind to sing the praises of the levy of 1 % added to credit card statements.

In short, this is a totally ludicrous tax that simply swells the coffers of Government at the expense of the middle class. The writer adds that "they could very well switch on to cash operations". Easier said than done for reasons outlined earlier.

Such arbitrary decisions by Bureaucrats should be closely scrutinized and vetoed for "the greater benefit of the greatest number".

PORIFRAN,
USA