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It is heartening to note that the present Government led by the
President and Minister of Agricultural Development has taken an
initiative to develop agriculture with the inauguration of the food
production drive with the so called ‘Vapmagul ceremony’ few weeks back.
Ours is predominantly an agricultural country where the majority of
its population, more than 75 per cent living in rural areas. Their
economic levels are very low due to various constrains in agricultural
development.
The main problem facing them are not having proper marketing and
storage systems for the Government sector to give a fair farm gate price
for their products, although there is guaranteed price in operation by
the Government, especially for paddy resulting private traders go to
them and purchase their production.
There are many shortcomings in the Government purchasing system which
need Government’s attention too.
Agricultural crop productions are seasonal, during off season avenues
of earnings are limited during this period due to non-availability of
employment in other sectors.
Mostly industries are based in urban areas although there is good
potential in these areas to start agro-based and other industries
utilising the natural resources and abundance of manpower available in
these areas.
We know that since Independence there has been many food production
drives inaugurated by the successive Governments but it is unfortunate
that rural poverty in the rural sector remains the same.
The present President and also the Minister of Agriculture coming
from a rural background understanding the rural populations’ need to
focus their attention to see that the food production drive already
started to focus their attention to sustain it to be success unlike the
previous food production drives.
M. NAVARATNE –
USA
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Recently I asked one of my nieces in Colombo to visit the Department
of National Archives and to send me photocopies of some of my articles
published in Sri Lankan newspapers that I could not bring when I
immigrated to Canada.
She informed me that she located the relevant publications without
much trouble but getting them photocopied was a real hassle.
According to her, there is always a queue of 20 to 30 people trying
to get photocopies but unfortunately there is only one photocopier for
this purpose.
As a result, a lot of time is wasted standing in the long queue. She
also informed me that every now and then the old photocopier has to be
shut down for a while whenever it gets over-heated.
The visitors have to wait until the machine cools down to resume
operations. The Department of National Archives surely can afford to
purchase two or three modern photocopiers and have them available for
public use?
After all, National Archives is there to help the public and not to
put them into great inconvenience. Could someone in the administration
please look into this problem?
ALBERT J. FERNANDO –
Canada
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Recently I received two wedding invitations. One an exquisite card,
printed on gold coloured expensive paper, inscribed with golden letters
overlaid with a transparent white shiny tissue like paper and the names
of the couple inscribed in beautiful letters in gold and a small
delicate rose made of sequence adorning the centre. The inscription
inside said “Mr. and Mrs. So and so invites .....” etc. etc.
The envelope was made of expensive transparent paper. Each card would
have easily cost Rs. 100 or more.
The other invitation was on cream coloured paper, personally
addressed to us asking us to attend the waleema of their son signed
personally by the father of the groom.
The envelope was of normal white paper. Ironically, it is from a
revert Muslim father (whom I know to be pretty rich) who also noted down
at the bottom of the letter why he is sending such simple invitation -
to uphold the true Islamic values - simplicity, frugality and modesty.
It was heart warming to see the reverts understand the religion much
better than the born Muslims.
After noting down the date, time and the place of weddings, I put
both into the waste bin.
Both were from close acquaintances and of course we would attend both
weddings.
The question which arises is: what use is the expenditure on the
card? The cost of this card would have been at least Rs. Rs. 50,000 if
there is to be 1,000 guests. Rs. 50,000 into the waste bin! I do not
know how well off the groom and the bride financially - but Rs. 50,000
by any means is money, specially these days when the Cost of Living has
sky rocketed.
It is time we stopped and pondered on what we are doing. Just because
everyone does it, is no excuse for us to jump into the well.
When preparing for the wedding each couple must think why we are
doing it and what the result of each expenditure is. The cards are
always thrown into the waste bin.
Except one card perhaps which may be preserved by the couple with the
paraphernalia of the wedding. Is the expenditure worth it? What are we
really looking for? An “Aah!” and a “Ooh!” and then the dust bin. In
other words isn’t it done merely for show off? If only the efforts and
the money is spent on some paraphernalia which could be useful to the
invitee.
Is it worth spending thousands on such a waste? It would have been
much more prudent to save this money for a rainy day or even to donate
it to a poor person and obtain the blessings of Allah as the couple
starts their married lives.
The sad consequence is that even the very poor are expected to print
invitation cards. I have seen pretty expensive cards printed by some
hajiars for the wedding of the very poor who come asking for just Rs.
5,000 to have the wedding.
Wouldn’t it have been much more prudent to give the money to the
parents and advice them to just send a letter as invitation? Will the
youth who are getting married think before jumping the band wagon?
DR. MAREENA THAHA REFFAI –
Dehiwela
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The Sirasa Super Star which was one of the most watched and followed
events next to a Cricket World Cup final ended on Saturday night.
However many people were disappointed as Surendra Perera should have
been the winner. Pradeep Rangana should consider himself very lucky to
have won this event.
Many question the validity of SMS and felt that contestants should
have been judged by an independent panel of judges. Furthermore the
telecommunication network that was receiving the SMS in the area where
Surendra came from was jammed for a certain period of time which
prevented thousands of his supporters from voting for him.
It is evident that there has been some unscrupulous persons who
benefited from this event and prevented the best person from winning
this title.
One also wonders whether his faith was a factor that went against him
and thus discriminated.
JENNIFER VAN TWEST -
Athurugiriya
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