Some voices to heed

“I categorically refuse to use the word ‘driver’ to qualify the designation of the man sitting in the driver's seat. To call him a driver would surely imply that he knew the appropriate (even minimum) legal requirements of the Highway Code, and possessed the practical skills required to carry the public on the road”.

As much as I detest harping on the same subject, despite the need to focus on a particular topic, I could not avoid two feedbacks I received from 'silent voices' following my recent articles on road traffic and exorbitant charges levied upon tourists.

Erick Pederson: "I am a retired Hotel Manager (67), presently based in Australia. Being a frequent visitor to Sri Lanka (43 times), I agree that excessive fees applied to foreigners in visiting Sigiriya etc are non productive. Many people criticise this. Other countries in the world do not charge TEN TIMES the fees what locals pay! Why is it so in Sri Lanka"?

“I must also say that it is not all high spenders who visit Sri Lanka and seek five star hotels. I spend six months at a stretch in Sri Lanka and pay out approx $ 2,000 a month during my stay. To have this kind of privilege I have to pay a visa fee to go there, and then extension costs another Rs 3,500 for two months, thereafter additional Rs.13, 500 more to stay for three more months. Besides, I rent an apartment and employ a domestic to cook and clean. All that money I spend because my roots are in Sri Lanka”.

Foreign currency

“The authorities want retired expatriates like us to return but to do that first they have to deposit US $ 15,000 into a fixed deposit account and show an income of US $ 1,500 a month. Regrettably, it's not every retired person who can afford to deposit US $ 15,000. If the government wants to help the retired expatriates returning to their roots with their foreign currency pensions converted into Sri Lankan rupees, I believe a more flexible system is vital. I know it's not your department, but you can carry the silent voice of many older people like mine.”

“I stay mainly in Negombo on arrival. Now even the Guest Houses have doubled their prices because of the influx of foreign tourists. As you correctly highlighted in your article tourists on package tours don't help the economy to the extent we, even as pensioners, spend our dollars there. It also astonishes me to note how hotels quote prices in US Dollars in Sri Lanka!

“After all, the currency used in Sri Lanka is Rupees, is it not? Then why do hotels charge foreigners in dollars? Let hotels charge in rupees while banks convert dollars to rupees and commonsense prevail! In Thailand, for example, a better-quality hotel room costs around 1,000 baht, which is equivalent to approx. Rs 3,300. Try that in Sri Lanka and you haven't got a ghost of a chance"!

On the road experience

Val Jayakody, a British citizen now resident in Sri Lanka, summerised her ‘on the road’ experience in a dramatic panache:

“Seated in the rear seat of my vehicle almost dozing off, I casually lifted my drooping eyelids and looked around at the neighbouring modes of transport at rush hour the other day. The double command of a red traffic light and a policeman loudly blowing his orange plastic whistle had halted all traffic!

“It had not been the shriek of the whistle that had stirred me from my near-slumber but the ghastly sound emanating from the monster bus directly off my passenger side. I heard not the soft, whirring of a happy and contented engine in a carriage carrying a load of smiling, joyful and stress-free passengers; it was much more the snarling of a very battle scarred, mad dog pulling, straining and salivating to be unleashed with an overload of crushed mortals hanging in and on it for dear life”!

“I categorically refuse to use the word ‘driver’ to qualify the designation of the man sitting in the driver's seat. To call him a driver would surely imply that he knew the appropriate (even minimum) legal requirements of the Highway Code, and possessed the practical skills required to carry the public on the road while in control of a colossal vehicle. I suspect whether he had either of those qualifications.

“With a mobile phone ‘glued to the ear position' and singly managing the over-sized, fluffy fabric covered steering wheel with the other, he was seen merrily chatting away on the phone with evident disregard for his passengers' safety. He revved his engine throughout warning all other road users that he was au fait to get a head start when the traffic lights changed to amber. I know it is 'green for go' but this minor legality was totally ignored by this motorised imbecile dicing with so many commuters' lives.

“My eyes drifted away from the highly decorated cab to the 'rearing to go' excuse for tyres. Full-size, heavy, bus tyres did not show a sign of any tread, not even just a tiny, very microscopic groove left in them but shiny and bald as a coot! Perilous and treacherous cannot even start to describe the state of those wheels.

“The traffic lights changed and the usual hooting of horns all around from impatient drivers positioned in the wrong lane, with a great deal of undertaking and overtaking as if there exists no tomorrow! The bus with human cargo, driver still on his cell phone, mirrors hanging broken and clanging against the rusting metal bus shell, disappeared into the twilight in a cloud of black, respiratory clogging smog.

The helpless passengers who had no other choice than to put their lives in the hands of fiends would arrive at their destination with a prayer, a lot of good luck and a deep black toxic breath of relief. It is rather pathetic to find that life is so disrespected here on the roads with so many ‘powerful elements' that seem to have a Highway Code of their own with bully boy tactics”.

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