Sounds that deafen

Excessive noise can cause alteration in cardio-vascular, endocrine and neurological functions:

Hemjit Bharathan

Did you know that a great deal of our irritation, impatience and short-temperedness might be due to the excess noise thrust upon us?

Rules on ‘Noise Pollution’ are blatantly violated. In the city, sounds from automobiles, railways, aircrafts, loud speakers, amplifiers, construction equipment like bulldozers and piling machines exceed the level considered healthy for humans.

The health hazards are numerous. A burst of noise from a passing truck alters our cardio-vascular, endocrine and neurological functions. Thus prolonged exposure to noise can result in hearing loss, indigestion, heartburn, ulcers, blood pressure and heart diseases.

It would be wise to know some facts and rules on Noise Regulation and Control. Power amplifiers should be directed to the audience only and not into the street as is commonly done.

Music and all other public address systems should be controlled and adjusted to cover only the spectators’ area. It should be restricted to only five decibels above the ambience level.

The Union Ministry of Environment in India has prescribed 55 db in residential areas during daytime and 45 db at night. Loud speakers are strictly prohibited in silent zones.

A silent zone is an area around 100 metres of hospitals, educational institutions and courts.

However, all these laws are blatantly violated.

Ignorance makes us suffer nerve-wracking sounds. Sometimes law enforcers themselves turn violators when they resort to loud speakers and amplifiers.

Next time you are bulldozed remember it is within your right to protest.

Folk tales of Sri Lanka:

How jak fruit became ‘Herali’

Retold by R. S. Karunaratne

The country was undergoing a difficult time. There was not enough food for a great number of people, causing illness and death. Water was scarce as the country did not get rains for many months.

The king received many reports that his countrymen were dying of famine. Thousands of poor people prayed to gods for rain and a morsel of food. When the people were suffering and praying, a strange thing happened in heaven where gods were enjoying perfect happiness.

People believed that anyone who did good deeds in the world and passed away were born as gods in heaven. Millions of ordinary gods were leading carefree lives eating and drinking merrily. However, God Sakra who was the king of gods could not sit in his throne as it was getting hot every minute.

Then he looked down from heaven to see what was happening in the world below. God Sakra saw that people in Sri Lanka were suffering from many diseases and they had nothing to eat or drink.

God Sakra descended from heaven disguising himself as an old beggar. He decided to visit a little hut in which an old woman was praying gods for food and rain.

The old beggar stood in front of the hut and begged the woman for a morsel of food. The old woman who could not speak due to thirst and hunger told the beggar that there was no food or water in her hut using sign language.

“Mother, there is a jak tree behind your hut. Go and pluck one of the ripe fruits and boil it. But you mustn’t eat it until I return,” said the old beggar walking into the jungle.

The old woman plucked a jak fruit and removed its edible parts and started boiling them. After some time the boiling jak fruit gave out a sweet aroma. The old woman could not resist the temptation of eating one or two boiled pieces.

When the old beggar re-appeared at the hut, he sensed that the woman had eaten all the boiled fruit leaving nothing for him.

Then he shouted at the old woman by saying that she was a “Herali” (a woman thief).

The old beggar went away. Soon the news spread in the village at first and in the whole country that jak was an edible fruit. Until then nobody knew that jak fruit was a nutritious food.

Today jak fruit is known in Sri Lanka as “Herali” following God Sakra’s angry words uttered to the old woman.

Young Scribes:

My trip to Kataragama

Thaththi, Ammi and myself went to Kataragama last week. We left home early in the morning. On the way we went to Udawalawa to watch the elephants.

We saw Chandrika wewa in Embilipitiya. We bought dodol from a shop in Hambantota. We bought a toy for me too.

We had soft drinks at a place closer to Salt Pans in Hambantota.

We reached Kataragama at about 1.00 p.m. In the evening we went to Kiri Vehera. Next day, we went to Sella Kataragama. At kovils, we offered fruits. We put up in the Tourist Board Rest House at Kataragama. On the third day, we left for Colombo.

Hiruni Vidanapathirana

Gr. 2

Ceylinco Sussex College,

Kuliyapitiya

Thoughts that helped make the world better:

The colonies revolt

European colonial rulers were often dishonest. Taxes were high and trade with other countries was often forbidden. Most important, colonial people had no voice in their own government.

In 1800, most European colonies were in Latin America. Latin America is a cultural region south of the United States that has been strongly influenced by Spian, Portugal, and France.

Haiti

Revolution against a colonial ruler first broke out on the island of Hispaniola. In the French colony of Saint Domingue, enslaved Africans worked on coffee and sugar plantations. News of the French Revolution electrified them.

In 1791, an army of 100,000 slaves drove out the plantation owners.

This slave army was led by Toussaint’ L’Ouverture (too SAN loo ver TYUR), a former slave. L’Ouverture forced the French to abolish slavery and took control of the colony’s government in 1796.

In 1802, Napoleon sent an army to reestablish French rule in the colony. toussaint defeated the French, but he was captured. Nevertheless, the colonists established the independent country of Haiti in 1804.

1. What separates Haiti from South America?

2. Which European country claimed the most land in the area?

3. Which is the largest island in the Caribbean Sea?

Revolution in Mexico

Mexico was the richest of all the Spanish colonies in the Americas. However, more than half of its wealth was sent to Spain every year, leaving most Mexicans very poor.

The Call of Dolores

In 1810, a poor Mexican priest named Miguel Hidalgo told the people in his small church in the town of Dolores that it was time for Mexicans to improve their own lives.

His speech, known as The Call of Dolores, inspired his listeners. Hidalgo demanded equality for all people,

 including the Native Americans and mestizos, the people of mixed European and Mexican ancestry. Hidalgo also opposed slavery, which gained him support from Mexicans of African descent.

A crowd, armed mostly with clubs or pitchforks, marched out of Dolores. As they marched, they were joined by thousands of others. A well-armed Spanish army stopped them on the road to Mexico City, and Hidalgo was captured and executed.

Another priest, Jose Maria Morelos carried on the struggle. In 1813 he called the first national congress and declared Mexico independent from Spain.

However, in 1815 Morelos, too, was executed by the Spanish.

Independence at Last

In 1821, the cause of the Mexican revolution was taken up again by Agustin de Iturbide He was an officer in the Spanish army that had fought Hidalgo and Morelos.

Iturbide, a skilled military leader, was able to defeat the Spanish. Eleven years after Father Hidalgo first rang the bell of his church in Dolores, Mexico was free.

Iturbide turned out be more ambitious than patriotic. In 1822 he declared himself Emperor of Mexico and dismissed the Congress.

Mexico was free from Spain, but it would be a long time before the Mexican people were given a say in their government.

Independence in South America

The struggle to free Latin America from Spanish rule was long and hard. It was not until 1830 that the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America were free of Spanish rule.

Jose de San Martin

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain in 1808 and replaced the king with his own brother.

This change of government in Spain encouraged the people of Latin America to revolt against Napoleon’s Spanish government.

Freedom came first in the south. In 1816 the people of Argentina drove the Spanish forces out of their country.

An Argentine general named Jose de San Martin led this fight for freedom. San Martin had been a Spanish officer, and he used his skills to win Argentina’s independence.

Another Spanish army was in Chile, which is separated from argentina by the tall peaks of the Andes Mountains.

Spanish leaders in Chile believed that the Andes were like a wall protecting them from San Martin’s army.

San Martin knew what the Spanish leaders thought, so he trained his army to do the impossible - to cross the Andes.

In one of military history’s great successes, he led his army across the snow-and ice-covered peaks.

He surprised and defeated the more powerful Spanish forces and freed Chile.

The grateful people of Chile offered to make San Martin their president. He refused in favour of Bernardo O’Higgins, a Chilean general who had helped San Martin.

Bolivar and Independence

In the northern part of South America, Simon Bolivar started the war for independence in 1810. By 1813 he had driven the Spanish out of Venezuela. A year later, a Spanish army returned and defeated Bolivar, who had to flee for his life.

Bolivar did not let this defeat stop the fight for Venezuela’s independence.

In 1817 he returned to Venezuela and led an army against the Spanish. The Spanish troops were defeated, but Bolivar was not finished. He was determined to free all of South America from Spanish rule. In 1819 Bolivar crossed the Andes into present-day Colombia where he defeated the Spanish forces. In 1821 he returned to Venezuela and won another victory against Spanish forces.

The Generals meet

The only part of Latin America still held by the Spanish in 1821 was the present-day countries of Peru and Bolivia. San Martin attacked the Spanish from the south while Bolivar captured the city of Guyaquil.

In Guyaquil, which is now in Ecuador, the two generals met to decide how to free Peru. What happened at this historic meeting in 1822 remains a mystery. No one knows what the generals discussed. After the meeting, San Martin left Peru and resigned from the army. He lived the rest of his life in France.

Bolivar went on to win freedom for Peru. Despite his great victories, he was a very unhappy man when he died in 1830. Spanish rule had ended, but the people of Latin America were not free. They had exchanged Spanish rule for dictators from their own countries. Freedom was still many years away for the people of Latin America.

To be continued