Commemoration of the World Post Day

October 9, 2010:

Postal service - Oldest mode of communication and still in the fore-front

It is not possible in the modern world for anyone to live isolated. People are interconnected with each other as family units and bilaterally as groups, races, countries and internationally.

Communication has turned out to be indispensable in this complex web. There are many methods and modes of communications such as the postal service, telephones, telegrams, telex, E-mail and Internet. Despite the fact that, there are so many modern and technologically advanced systems of communication, the postal service is still in the fore-front. It is the eldest mode of communications but it is still the most important form of communication even in this era of satellites. Besides it has no alternative.

The Postal service is free of unnecessary expenditure and is a frugal system of exchanging information. Compared to other modes of communication, the postal service is open to a wide spectrum of people. Fax and other communication systems are limited to people who have those rather expensive equipment. The purpose of communication can be lost because of the distortion of messages owing to various noises, defects and other disturbances and interference.

The different types of the equipment also can be a contributory factor for messages to be distorted. The post is the least affected at times of natural and man-made disasters like floods, storms and wars, civil commotion and others.

The infra-structure needed for other communication system is the easily vulnerable, not the postal service. The other communication systems are sometimes banned by the authorities. There are in the past occasions like that but the post is rarely subjected to such type of restrictions.

Above all, confidentiality is the special feature of the post. In a country where standard postal rules are honoured no one can destroy the post and deprive people from enjoying the freedom of using it. The post is a confidential exchange of original document between the sender and the recipient, in its original form. The other forms like E-mail, fax and telegram are duplicates.

First Stamp

The post has a long tradition of over five thousand years. It developed over five thousand years to be the leading mode of communication. On the suggestion of a teacher by the name of Sir Rowland Hill the first postal stamp was issued on May 6, 1840. It was the origin of the modern postal service.

It is this small strip of paper that was put in sale and people started collecting them. People started collecting stamps for various reasons. In this manner it is a hobby of a lifetime. It is simple way to keep in mind certain historical, cultural and geographical facts. It has been one of the most popular hobbies in the world. On account of this in 1986 UNO declared stamp collecting as an international hobby.

Today letters are delivered at such a speed that from one end of the world to the other end, a letter can be sent in a few days. The mass media like radio television, newspapers, magazines and journals are contacted by the writers of articles through of post on most occasions. The sale of mass media productions are also facilitated by the post. The post therefore does an indispensable service to the people in the world.

For a long time to come, your letter, greeting card or a parcel will move over mountain ranges, oceans, and reach the destination desired by you, through the post. It will claims to be the cheapest and the most confidential.

The Pontamara of Italian novelist Ignazio Silone states that, 'The letters received by the wives of people who live abroad are opened by them with care and respect. The reason is not because they contain money or other valuable items but because they smell the sweat of their husbands.'

Can any other mode of communication imitate this lively feature of the 'post'?

B K N Rodrigo,

Postmaster, Ja-Ela