• New traffic system for Colombo

• Colombo mosquito menace

• I mourn Saddam Hussein's passing

• Appoint an additional Grama Niladari

• SLMM need not re-group - they can pack up and go

• RDA world record

  
  
  New traffic system for Colombo

It seems to a certain extent, that the new one-way system of some of the roads are working fine. But the authorities have not considered the entrances and exits of the Malls when arranging these systems.

For instance how do we go to Liberty Plaza? The entrance is on Duplication Road. We normally come along Duplication Road on the left lane from Bambalapitiya and turn in to the entrance and exit on to Dharmapala Mawatha. But after going round and round last week I just could not get in to Liberty Plaza and gave up and went to another mall.

The problem is not the traffic but how do you get to that lane, as Dharmapala Road is also one way.

I hope this system will work but we need to have a few extra litres of petrol in the car to do the round and round the mulberry bush. And I also hope that by the time the Big Matches come, they will bar the bicycle parades going on these roads making it more congested.

Last year one of the big schools held up the traffic for almost three hours on Duplication Road during the day, at a time of heavy traffic. These parades should be banned from using the main roads like Galle Road and Duplication Road, now that they are one way. Please think of the people who would want to go on their daily business without having to get stuck in traffic because of a silly parade.

I hope the system of one way will work with time, as for now it seems to be a real challenge to get from one place to another.

S. A. - Mount Lavinia

Colombo mosquito menace

I would like to add another dimension to Janaki Wijegunasekera's letter (DN Oct. 14).

In the pursuit of the dengue mosquito, the Municipal Health administrators appear to have overlooked the many other types of mosquitoes that harass the ratepayers. We are informed that the percentage of dengue mosquitoes is fortunately small compared to the total mosquito population and they are most active during daylight hours.

During the late evenings and at night, the other types of mosquitoes takeover. There are thousands of them all over the City, more in some areas than in others. There is no feedback to the CMC from residents, because they do not know to whom to complain. Better than telephone calls, are letters to the Chief Medical Officer of Health at Town Hall Colombo 7. All residents should take the trouble to keep that office informed: flood it with your letters.

When I complained they very promptly sent a 'mist blower' team that went down the lanes. The results were interesting. All the mosquitoes outdoors invaded the houses. The remedy was worse than the disease. To use the 'mist blower' inside houses as well as outdoors is impracticable and risky. Houses have to be vacated for several hours, all food and furniture covered. So then - what is the solution?

We are asked by the CMC to remove all sources of stagnant water. How do we remove the stagnant water in street drains and canals? The CMC many not have the people and the supervisory capability to cover all these adequately, although we see men carrying back packs of containers from which a pesticide is poured into stagnant water in the drains. Nothing appears to be done for the stagnant water in the many canals in the city.

We the ratepayers must help ourselves. But unfortunately the tools are no longer in the market. There are no reliable sprayers for home use. The plastic coloured sprayers in the shops for around Rs. 70 are useless. They fail in a few weeks.

There are no liquid pesticides for mosquitoes in the shops which can be used with the sprayers. Instead we have only heated tablets, wicks and coils that drive the mosquitoes away - to comeback another day. Many persons are reluctant to use these as long-term usage is likely to cause problems in the lungs especially for children.

There are aerosol spray cans at around Rs. 250 each, which may last a month when used adequately daily. How many can afford this monthly addition to living costs? There are mosquito nets - a quality brand costs around Rs. 800 each.

How many homes are ventilated enough at nights, to avoid a bath of perspiration sleeping under a net. How many can add to their expenses the increased electricity bill to run a fan throughout the late evenings and at nights. How many can buy a fan? We are told to reduce electricity consumption, not increase it.

The municipal and national health authorities must address this issue. Can they not promote into the markets an effective pesticide and a long lasting hand sprayer (that sprays instead of pesticide leaking all over the floor)? This will reduce sales of wicks, tablets, coils and aerosol cans. Would they lobby against it?

We the victims must flood the media with our appeals and lobby the administrators.

D. L. J. SENEVIRATNE - Colombo 6

I mourn Saddam Hussein's passing:

does it make me a 'terrorist'?

Despite the gloom on the war front, America and its bloodthirsty allies are well on their way in weakening Iraq through ethnic and religious divisions for easier control of its oil riches.

The hanging of Saddam Hussein by a kangaroo court created by a puppet Government of a Western-occupied Middle-Eastern country is only the latest event in yet another tragedy visited on a poor country where nearly a million of its citizens have now been slaughtered under the auspices of the 'beacon of democracy', America.

In its long trail of infamy and injustice, creation of mayhem and destruction of entire terrorised (shocked and awed this time) societies, the Western alliance has again betrayed one of its former third-world lackeys and killed him for crimes committed while he was their friend.

I was not a fan of Saddam Hussein. To me, he was just another tin-pot dictator like so many of his contemporaries around the world. But seeing the cruel injustices perpetrated on an entire people in a matter of three years and demonising him to boot, makes me mourn his passing.

The perpetrators of vast crimes against humanity will live to a ripe old age in comfort, revelling in the suffering and subjugation of foreign peoples.

Like for many others silently witnessing injustice, this vile act disgusts me. It merely reinforces our view that the lives of dark-skinned people in the third-world are inconsequential in the moral calculus of the west. Many of today's resistance movements are directed against this shameful attitude. I hope they prevail.

Lasantha Pethiyagoda - Australia - via email

Appoint an additional Grama Niladari

Taladuwa is a village not far away from the city of Negombo. There are 1,520 families residing in this area. Due to the various duties entrusted to the Grama Niladari, residents find it difficult to meet him in office.

The authorities concerned should appoint an additional Grama Niladari, so that the needs of the residents could be attended to, in a more efficient manner.

J. T. MIRANDO - Negombo

SLMM need not re-group - they can pack up and go

The print media reported that the SLMM's plan to curtail its monitoring activities for a 'short period' as it re-groups and reconsiders its operations in the wake of continuing hostilities between the Government troops and the LTTE.

The patriotic Sri Lankans want the SLMM to pack up and go as their presence in Sri Lanka in this conflict had done more harm than good.

It' s a fact known to every one that from day one of the establishment of the SLMM under the CFA, they have been mollycoddling LTTE terrorist outfit ignoring and whitewashing the thousands of atrocities committed including murders, abductions, recruiting child soldiers etc,.

There are many instances where SLMM has been very quick in making falsified statements against the legitimate Government. It appears that the SLMM follows suite of the LTTE's strategy looking for breathing space to regroup and consolidate.

The million dollar question is whether they are regrouping to discuss how to intimidate the legitimate Sri Lankan government more aggressively or how to help the recalcitrant LTTE to achieve their goal of Eelam? Of course, more obvious is the latter.

There is no secret that all those who served and currently serving the SLMM made eulogies at Anton Blasingham's funeral services who had blood in his hands as much as the LTTE leader Prabhakaran. Hence, can we expect impartiality from SLMM members? Surely, our forces can handle LTTE better without SLMM's presence albeit Peace Secretariat thinks otherwise.

Malin Abeyatunge - Australia - via email

RDA world record

The Road Development Authority is taking more than three years to construct the Marine Drive Roadway from Bambalapitiya Station Road to Adamally Place which is a distance of 50 yards.

To build a road of 50 yards it takes more than three years.

Can anybody beat this record? This kind of happenings can only take place in our Mother Lanka. I think this record should go into the Guinnes Book of World Records.

P. V. S. RANJAN - Dehiwela