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If the British or the allies can negotiate a peaceful settlement with
Osama and his merry band of Al Qaeda terrorists then they can show the
way for Sri Lanka to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the LTTE
terrorists.
The point is that the Brits or their allies are in no position to
instruct us to negotiate a settlement with terrorists - they gotta
practice what they preach first. (Our attitude should be "Walk the Talk
man we don't want your double talk").
The British are heavily involved in the debacle that is Iraq and they
are also bogged down in the Afghan quagmire. They had to even beg the
Iranians to let go of British soldiers taken captive. There are
terrorists attempting to play merry hell in the British isles.
What a pathetic show for a once great country! The Brits sure have
enough problems, so I am surprised that their officials have time to
poke their snouts into the internal affairs of other sovereign nations.
Do the British give Sri Lanka any military assistance to fight
terrorism? Are they our allies? If the answer is no on both counts then
they should go mind their own business without interfering in ours.
I don't think we Sri Lankan's should even waste any time writing or
talking about this babble from nationals of countries like Britain which
probably harbours many resident LTTE terrorists and is probably one of
the biggest financing bases for the LTTE terror.
Why even bother about comments from the likes of Mr. Chilcott. Our
attitude to folks like this and their superiors and governments should
be "If your country is not directly involved in helping us fight
terrorism then we have no time for what you have to say about that
subject". So please Mr. Chilcott go poke your nose somewhere else where
your government is actively involved in fighting terrorists (Iraq or
Afghanistan maybe).
I. IRUGALBANDARA, via email
I hold an elder's card, but the Agency handling visa to UK refused to
honour it and allow me to hand in my application without being in the
queue.
An agency representing a country where elders enjoy a lot of
privileges, this is uncalled for. (Reference DN May 24).
Over to you the Ambassador for UK.
BANDARA SISIRA, via email
There have been numerous letters from time to time regarding the high
prices of drugs prescribed by doctors for various ailments and the
financial embarrassment poor patients have to undergo resulting from the
prohibitive prices of most of these drugs.
Sometime ago Minister of Health promised to formulate a 'national
Drug Policy' but it has still not got off the ground.
Had the late Professor Senaka Bibile been living today, the State
Pharmaceuticals Corporation would have been completely re-vamped and Osu
Sala outlets opened in every town in the country dispensing generic
drugs thereby helping that lower and middle income groups.
I believe he would have even started the manufacture of drugs locally
in collaboration with Indian Pharmaceutical giants like CIPLA, CADILLA,
Himalaya Drug Company etc.
It is the responsibility of the Minister of Health to see that
patients have access to affordable and effective drugs. As Dr. K.
Balasubramanim in his article 'Unethical promotion of drugs.....'
published in a daily newspaper on March 16, 2007 states "The expenditure
on drugs in the Government sector was Rs. 56 million. On the other hand,
consumers paid Rs. 16.88 billion out of their pockets for drugs
prescribed to them in the private sector.
Had there been generic prescribing, there would not have been such a
staggering waste of money.
Of course, as Dr. Dennis J. Aloysius says in his Dr. A.D. Premaratne
oration "Generic prescribing is said to be disable, since it is presumed
that it is less expensive, but the generic drug should be of quality.
Strict quality control is the answer to this problem."
Will the Minister of Healthcare see that the Quality Control
Laboratory adheres to very strict quality control of drugs?
VERNON, Dehiwela
We see railings being put up, at great cost no doubt, along the
boulards at Wellawatte.
The way they are being erected looks as if some numskull makes the
final decisions. If they are put up to prevent people from crossing from
one side of the road to the other, then there should not be any breaks
in the continuity, except at pedestrian crossings. But at the centre of
every stretch of railings, there is a break allowing people to
crossover, which in turn allows people to cross roads wherever they want
to, even if there are no pedestrian crossings, causing a great
inconvenience to the motorists.
This defeats the very purpose of the railings being put up all
together.
On the other hand, if they are being put up for beauty, then this
purpose too is defeated.
As the railings have been made according to standard measurements,
and because of the gaps, this wise guy has decided to leave the railings
are placed at an ugly angle at the ends.
If they must leave the gaps, why not make smaller railings to be put
at the end? Someone is going to say the red tape will be too long, but
these actions reflect what our nation's attitude to our own country and
speak a lot about what our officers are about.
This sort of stupid alterations are going on, at an important measure
regarding road safety right under the nose of the authorities and the
citizens walking round in broad daylight. But does anyone care? Does not
seem so.
RDA, where are you?
DR. MAREENA THAHA REFFAIE, Dehiwela
So this guy Malinga continues to keep us enthralled, this time around
by not bowling a single ball but just by being a thorn in D. V. Perera's
side.
I wondered if this D.V.P. belonged to my BellBottom and Afro Hair era
or my Father's Buck and Tan Period?... or whatever it may be, my advice
to D.V.P. 'Get a life' let the young people of Sri Lanka make their
statements in any way they please. After all, we have all got 'but one
life to live' (as the late Lou Rawls said).
PRASAN HETTIARACHCHI, Canada, via email
In some countries, spitting is prohibited in public places and some
other countries, it is not prohibited but people never spit in public
places!
I really can't understand why our people have the habit of spitting
everywhere they go, especially on the roads, bus stops etc. It's
disgusting to see people spit phlegm and large mounds of spit when they
walk or even when they travel in buses through the windows and shutters.
Many have met with difficulties with the spit thrown out of the
travelling vehicles. It will be sickening too, if you tread on
somebody's spit or phlegm with your barefoot.
Why our people practise this bad habit which is very unpleasant to
any viewer? This makes people feel nauseating especially early in the
morning when you start the day by looking at this disgusting throw out
of another person's.
It is better if there are laws to ban spitting in public places like
they have already done for smoking.
SITA, via email
Apart from the sand sediment on corals and seaweeds the greatest
threat to the Hikkaduwa Coral Gardens comes from local visitors
damaging, destroying and removing corals as seen each weekend and on
public holidays.
Nearly, everybody walks on the corals even if informed about the
disastrous consequences not only for this eco-system but also for the
protection of the coastal region.
On countless occasions during my annual three months' stays I have
informed local tourists about this problem but often get angry reactions
(being a German national) like: "This is not your country. It's my
country - I can do as I like. Keep your mouth shut." Or statements like
"I like these corals and I want to take them home." Or I'm ignored
completely and people just carry on jumping around on the corals,
laughing at me.
So, the Hikkaduwa coral reef and its marine life is doomed to
disappear sooner or later anyway, be it due to the sand sediment, the
recklessness of its visitors, and also the carelessness of glass-bottom
boat operators.
The latter, for example, often chase the two sea turtles in the reef
till complete exhaustion, damage corals with their boats, or cover the
waters in the reef with a film of kerosine/diesel. There are also
enormous amounts of plastic waste, etc., to be found in and outside the
reef.
Rainer Nedwed, Germany, via email |
