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When I entered the Colombo Medical College in 1959, I was astounded
that the Medical College used in its two year physiology training
course, live animals such as frogs for teaching purposes.
I am sure the thousands of animals such as frogs, guinea pigs,
rabbits and cats must have been killed in the medical school for the
purpose of teaching medicos.
I am very happy that animals are not killed in the Department of
Physiology during the last few years. But I understand that in some
other departments of the Medical Faculty, live animals are still being
used for research purposes and training of medical students.
I can still remember how a cat was struggling in pain when its neck
vessels where dissected by a senior lecturer, pharmacology who was
injecting urine samples from patients into the neck arteries of a cat to
do same tests for hypertension patients and the scene was very
disgusting. I was made to understand that the cat would be killed at the
end of the experiment.
This was in 1968 and the senior lecturer, pharmacology was grumbling
that he could not get sufficient number of cats even after paying five
rupees per cat. I am sure that these experiments using live animals must
have been stopped in the Pharmacology Department.
I understand that in certain departments in my alma mater, live
animals are still being used for research.
The present trend in majority of medical schools in the developed
countries such as the USA is to stop using live animals for medical
school curriculum and I understand that only 10 medical schools in USA
are using live animals for teaching purposes at present.
The commonest animals they use in USA are the pigs and pig labs have
been closed in majority of medical schools in the States. Using live
animals for teaching purposes have been stopped in majority of medical
schools in Europe.
When I entered the Colombo Medical College the Professor of
Physiology was (late) Professor Koch who was a brilliant lecturer, who
never read old sets of notes, unlike other professors we had during
those good old days.
We were very uncomfortable with the idea of sacrificing animals and
some of my batch-mates decided to grin and bear it.
We felt it would have been better to show the future doctors how they
can save lives rather than take lives. I don't think it is right to take
an animal's life unnecessarily as medical students enter medical schools
to become good doctors to help people and not to hurt animals.
The students and staff at John Hopkins University (one of the few
medical schools using live animals in its medical school curriculum) are
also starting to recognise the turning tide.
In the John Hopkins Newsletter of February 2008 the editor says "live
animals should not be used for purely educational purposes."
The well-known cardiologist Dr. Jennifer Dankle says, "I was
mortified when discovered that my medical school was using live dogs to
teach surgical schools. I knew the lab is worthless."
Fortunately the tide is turning. More than 90 per cent of all US
medical schools have stopped using live animals to teach basic courses
thanks to innovations in medical simulation technology, increased
concerns of ethical concerns and a growing acknowledgement that medical
training must be human-focussed.
Now students use human-based alternatives such as life-like human
simulators, faculty-monitored teaching opportunities and computer-based
learning methods.
D. P. ATUKORALE,
Colombo 7
The food crisis has already affected most of the developing countries
including Sri Lanka. Even excess rice producing countries who are
supplying rice and other food items are reluctant to supply our
requirements due to impending food shortages in the coming years.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) issued a warning
regarding this and urged countries to be prepared to face this
situation. It was unfortunate that serious attention was not given by
the successive Governments. Countries like Sri Lanka will be affected
mostly, especially the poorer sectors of the population.
It also be noted that the Cost of Living going up and low income
groups whose income levels almost remains the same will be affected
most. We know successive Governments took various programmes to develop
agriculture but the impact is not to be seen to face a crisis like this.
This Government which is facing the twin efforts of eradicating
terrorism and development spending vast sums of money, needs to focus on
the following;
1. To evolve short term strategies to overcome the present situation
by undertaking agricultural production programmes to face this crisis
while seeking outside help.
2. To work out a long term national policy on agriculture with all
major political parties in the country, with a pledge to carry forward
the agreed policies by future Governments.
3. Effective marketing, storage and facilities for refrigeration in
the areas which produce perishable food crops which need refrigeration.
We need to recognise the fact that ours is an agricultural country and
give priority to agricultural production to be self sufficient in
agriculture and livestock and prevent so much of foreign exchange going
out of the country in importing all our food requirements.
It is also necessary to focus attention to small-scale industries in
rural areas making use of natural resources and manpower available in
these areas, thus providing the opportunities for jobs especially to the
rural sector.
ASOKA NAVARATNE,
USA
The Beijing Olympics scheduled for August 2008 will be arguably the
biggest sporting event ever to be held. Just three months before the
event, a big furore has sprung up along some of the routes that the
Olympics torch is carried, over human rights violations allegedly
perpetrated by China in Tibet, an autonomous region of the People's
Republic of China.
Seemingly these protests look spontaneous, but now it has been
established beyond doubt that this programme is a part of a greater plan
by the West using Tibetan exiles and other extremists as cat's paw to
discredit China.
Within the next 20 years or perhaps before that China would become
the economic superpower of the world surpassing the United States. This
is the very thing the West would want to prevent from happening, at any
cost. Using the language of hatred through the partisan Western media,
they not only scuttle the progress of this great nation but also spread
scurrilous rumours to discredit her.
The most potent weapon used against China by its detractors is the
human rights record. They say that the Beijing Olympics should be
boycotted by the West due to China's poor human rights record. Some site
pollution also as a reason to boycott the Beijing Olympics.
I think the world has heard enough of the human rights records of
some of the leading countries of the West. How they invade mainly third
world countries under various pretexts in order to rob the natural
resources of those countries.
Mass slaughter of innocents are taking place daily in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Palestine, with impunity, under the war against terror.
Iraq was never a threat to the USA. But it is being occupied by the
Forces of the USA, UK and other coalition partners.
Anti-war organisations estimate that more than six hundred thousand
(600,000) civilians may have perished due to bombing and indiscriminate
shooting of the Coalition Forces. It shows the irrational murderousness
of the Coalition Forces and the scant respect they show for human
rights. These are the countries that cry foul at China.
China was selected as the host country to stage the 2008 Summer
Olympics about 7 years ago, and that decision was endorsed by most
countries of the world. Then why this sudden change of heart by the
West? Even the Dalai Lama is against disrupting the Beijing Olympics. To
me, all their protests seem to be a part of a deeper design.
Charges of harassment to Buddhist Monks are levelled against China
today. This is a ridiculous statement as China like no other country has
spent an enormous amount of money for reconstruction and renovation of
Buddhist temples.
China spends nearly 4.5 million Yuan annually to maintain and
renovate about 1700 temples in Tibet. During the past years it has spent
600 million Yuan for this purpose. Up to 2002 China has spent more than
330 million Yuan to renovate Pothala Palace in Lhasa. Enormous amounts
of money has been spent by China to uplift the economic and social
standards of the people of Tibet.
In recent years, China has invested 31 billion Yuan and commenced 117
new projects in Tibet. It even opened Tibet to the whole world with the
laying of the Lhasa - Beijing railway line. As a result more than 1.5
million tourists visited Tibet last year, bringing 1.5 billion Yuan into
Tibet.
Tibet which was lagging far behind the other provinces of China
economically has made a tremendous economic progress due to the
assistance received from the Central Government.
The Gross National Product of Tibet which was 327 million Yuan in
1965 had increased to 21,154 Yuan in 2004. The economy of Tibet has been
showing a continuous annual growth of 12 per cent.
It is crystal clear that the aim of the Western bloc is to stem the
economic progress of China and to keep it as a underdeveloped country
forever. Sri Lanka being a Buddhist country should understand this fact
and help China our friend at this hour of need, wholeheartedly.
R. JINITH DE SILVA
As much as pork is debarred from markets in Islamic countries in
deference to religious susceptibilities of the citizenry in those
countries; will our brethren here refrain from slaughtering cattle at
least during the hallowed month of Vesak.
W. SAMARANAYAKA,
Maharagama
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