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The Nobel prize awards were established by the will of Alfred
Bernhard Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and other explosives, who
was a chemist and engineer. He died on December 10, 1896.
The Nobel prizes were originally awarded to significant works in
Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Literature adjudged by Societies of
Swedish learned nationals and to the person adjudged by the Norwegian
Parliament to have rendered the greatest services to the cause of peace.
A sixth prize for Economic Sciences was added in 1969 funded by the
Swedish National Bank. The prizes were awarded annually on December 10
to mark Alfred Bernhard Nobel’s death anniversary, based on the
performances of the previous year on the guidelines invariably set by
the great scientist.
President Barack Obama who himself was surprised at the selection has
certainly not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his last year’s
performance, as should be, as he took over as President only on January
20 this year, just nine months ago.
Whatever the Nobel Prize Awarding Committee may say in defence, the
answer appears to lie in the fact that the final say is with the
Norwegian Parliament. The Nobel Peace Prize therefore, cannot be
considered as an international award but a prize awarded by Norway.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the greatest scientist, may have turned in his
grave having heard of the politicization of his noble ideal, sidelining
his guidelines.
UPALI S. JAYASEKERA - Colombo 4
I write as parent whose son, a Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) had to
sit the above examination consequent to a Court order that directed the
UGC to hold this examination instead of the SLMC. Most children faired
very poorly, the percentage of passes being in the order of six to seven
only, compared to the 20 to 40 when it was held by the SLMC.
It is worth the while placing before the parents of the FMGs the
reason for this change from the SLMC to the UGC. The earlier examination
held for more than 10 years was called the ‘old format’ exam. Most FMGs
completed this examination within a year or two while a few kept on
failing this exam for over 10 years.
Despite the SLMC giving them several ‘grace shies’ to complete the
exam they could not do so as their training has been very poor. The
number of shies given to them was far in excess of the number that is
given by any university at a final exam.
These students numbering about 50 were misled by some retired
professors who were teachers of non-clinical subjects. They claimed that
the standards of the ‘old format’ were too high and that they should ask
some other body to conduct the exam. When at a meeting with the
President Mahinda Rajapaksa they were asked whether they would like to
sit the common MCQ exam held for local university graduates they readily
agreed for this change and a Court order obtained to make the UGC
responsible to hold it. As is evident from the results none of the 50
who asked for this exam passed even a single subject (Whereas about 7
percent of new entrants succeeded). It is now rumoured that ‘old format’
failures are now canvassing to get the exam cancelled altogether.
As parents of new entrants we are totally against cancelling it as
this is the only yardstick available to assess the performance of FMGs
coming to Sri Lanka from countries with widely differing courses,
methods of training and monitoring. It is worth stressing the fact that
none of the ‘new entrants’ complained against the exam conducted by the
SLMC as the questions were fair and of comparable standards to local
medical graduates. It was common knowledge that most of the ‘new
entrants’ eventually got through within one to two years. Hence it is
most unreasonable for the ‘old format’ students to complain about the
standards when the SLMC conducted it as the fault was their own and not
of the SLMC.
Hence I would appeal to all parents to request the SLMC to conduct
this exam as before on its own terms instead of asking the UGC to lay
down high standards for the ERPM as the latter has to be used to assess
merit order, distinctions, classes etc.
M. Weerasinghe - Nawala
It was reported by the media recently that the Government has
presented a supplementary estimate to the Parliament seeking nearly Rs.
11 B for road development activities in the country. Under this project
Rs. 300 m has been allocated for improvement of roads in the Gampaha
district.
However, it is regrettable to note that inspite of this allocation
made by the Government for road rehabilitation work in the rural areas
many roads in the Gampaha district still seem to be in a very
dilapidated condition without being repaired for many years. ‘Jayasiri
Mawatha’ situated at Pahala Biyanwila (Grama Niladari Division 268B) is
one such dilapidated road belonging to Biyagama Pradeshiya Sabha. Even
though money was collected from the residents in the area for additional
expenses in order to carry out the job properly, only a part of the road
from here and there has been concreted.
W. G. CHANDRAPALA - Kadawatha
I received my Telephone Bill dated 04.09.2009 on 26.09.09 (Saturday).
This was for the period 01.08.2009 - 31.08.2009. There was a printed
‘Warning’ on this Bill which stated as follows: “Please settle the bill
for the month mentioned above on or before the payment due date.
Since my bill was received by me on 26.09.2009 there was no way for
me to pay my bill on or before the payment due date which was mentioned
as 26.09.2009. September 26 and 27 happened to be a weekend, when
government officers are closed.
After I paid my telephone bill at the Teleshop, Ambalangoda, on
September 28 (Monday), two middle aged females came to me with their
telephone bills and requested me to make the necessary endorsements on
their bills, which portion was in English language, as they did not
understand what was stated there. Both of them remarked that this
portion of the bill should also have been in Sinhala to be understood by
the customers. The words ‘Amount to be paid’, ‘Signature of customer’
and ‘Date of payment’ were printed in the English Language only. Since
our national language is Sinhala, the Telecom authorities should take
immediate action to print this portion of the bill too in the Sinhala
language, to be understood by those who are not educated enough to
understand English.
I wish to mention here that the President made his Prize Day Speech
as chief guest at Royal College, Colombo, in the national language for
the first time in its history if I remember correct, and our Prime
Minister too delivered his official address in ‘Sinhala’ at the U.N.
Assembly this year, which is a pride to our country. I do not see why
our Telecom officials cannot get the most important portion in their
bills printed in the national language of our country.
L. LEKAMWASAM LEANAGE - Ambalangoda
With Sri Lanka returning to a deserved peace that compliments her
stunning beauty, it is time she entered into ‘Pension Agreements’ with
countries such as Australia, so that expats could return to their land
of birth and spend the rest of their days in the lap of their
Motherland. There are many Sri Lankans who migrated to Australia years
ago, who would love to return but the main obstacle is that they are
unable to transfer their pensions to Sri Lanka because Sri Lanka does
not have an agreement with Australia for such a procedure to take place.
I think it would be a very smart move on the part of the Sri Lankan
Government to look into this matter considering that foreign pensions
will not only bring valuable foreign exchange into the country but also
boost employment and various related services.
At present Australia has agreements with more than 26 countries and
lots of pensions go to countries like Thailand and Papua New Guinea. I
am sure many expats would be delighted and would feel very welcome if
the Sri Lankan Government creates a situation where expats could
transfer their pensions from Australia to Sri Lanka without hindrance.
WILLIAM JOSEPH
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