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Tuesday, 19 October 2010

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Bread price and weight

Consequent to the very recent increase in the price of flour, the price of a loaf of bread has again been increased by Rs 3 by the bakery owners as advised by the Bakery Owners’ Association.

It is high time the Minister of Co-operatives and Internal Trade and the Consumer Affairs Authority intervene and fix a uniform price for a normal loaf of bread of 450 grams without allowing unscrupulous bakery owners to exploit consumers by selling bread with different wights and prices.


Dark roads and Police waistcoats

It is encouraging to see police officers at junctions controlling traffic with white arm bands during day time, which is new born of late. Equally it would be both helpful if the police use reflective and effective yellow waistcoats (such as those worn by the British cop in the picture) to be seen at night.

At present, added to inadequately lit and completely dark roads, traffic police are taking enormous risks when they try to direct traffic; regrettably it is impossible to see a traffic police officer trying his best to lessen traffic congestion taking his life into his hands by standing in pitched dark street junctions especially when full head beams of motor cars blind motorists. Junctions opposite Welikada police station on parliament road are living examples.

The type of waistcoats worn by many Sri Lankan police are of inferior quality where neither the yellow jacket nor the faded white line is hardly visible which does not help either the officers on duty at night or the motorists.


Who’s fault is it?

Nowadays we often hear mothers selling their children for a few rupees; and what happens to them? they are taken into custody, as if that will solve the problem.

We must ask ourselves why are they selling their babies? The relationship between the mother and child is a special one. We doctors know that often even a raped mother hates to part with her baby however much she may abhor the fact that she was forced to have this baby.

So if a mother sells her baby it is certainly not because of money alone. (On the other hand the fathers will often sell the babies for a song- they don’t have the same emotional attachment like the mother.) It is only when they are at the end of their tether that the mothers go for this ultimate decision.

What are the common reasons? Often the father deserts the wife with the child, or is a drunkard who does not provide for the family. And if the mother cannot earn a decent living- which is very difficult if she has a breast feeding child, what can she do? Many a time it is in cases of marriages after a love affair that the man abandons the family and then the girl has no other relatives to fall back on. Sometime it is after the death of the husband and when the girl has no family to call her own this happens.

Whatever happens the mother decides to sell the child only as a last resort. So one may ask why does not she gives the child to an orphanage? Most orphanages will not take them without the father’s death certificate. Besides even in the best of the orphanages they are just orphans they are at the mercy of the matrons who come and go, who are just employees. They can never give the love and care that the mothers give.

And Why not give the child for adoption? Because the adoption procedures are too long and tedious. And often they don’t even know how to. What we see in the papers is just the tip of the huge iceberg. There are umpteen number of girls out there who cannot afford to look after their children. And they have no one to turn to. either they have to start begging or turn to the oldest profession. The only alternative is to sell the baby so that they can carry on with their lives.

Instead of finding fault with them we must empathize with them , identify such mothers and do something to empower them. May be the State must provide with free crŠche - childcare centers. May be they all are employed in common places like a factory where the child care is part of the system. Instead of sorting the problem, taking them into custody just give them a stigma and cause more frustration. It is true the social service department provides them with some counselling and vocational training, but that is closing the stable door after the horse has escaped, after the damage is done.

We must find ways to prevent the mothers from committing the ultimate sacrifice of giving away their children for the price of a few meals.


A substitute for wheat flour

Next to rice, Maize (Bada Iringu in Sinhala) is the most widespread food crop in the world. This cereal was first grown in Central America and the northern part of South America.

It was the staple food of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of South America, two very advanced societies in the Aemrican continent before Columbus discovered America. In America it is called corn and most Americans love to eat this corn cob boiled or grilled.

Most African countries use the flour (powdered form of maize) as their staple food. They make a pulp out of it using water and a little oil, which is very similar to our kurahan thalapa) and eat it with a meat curry. I still cannot understand why we cannot make flour from Bada Iringu and prepare bread. At least the Agriculture Researchers should experiment to see whether this can be a substitute for whet flour. Presently Dry Zone farmers are cultivating maize on a large-scale, and they are unable to get a decent price for their product.

So let us see bread made out of maize flour in the near future and save billions of Rupees spent for wheat flour.

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