CHILDREN

Yesterday was a school holiday for you. It was a holiday for your parents too who are employed. Hope you know the significance of yesterday, 1st of May or May Day. May Day is the day which celebrates the rights of the working community. On this day we pay tribute to the labour community worldwide.

May Day celebrations were held worldwide yesterday. In our country also there were May Day rallies held by different political parties representing different views of the community. May 1st is a National Holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries.

It is important to be aware of the origins of the May Day celebrations. May Day or the International Workers’ Day is the commemoration of the 1886 ‘Haymarket Affair’ in Chicago, USA. The Police were in an attempt to disperse a public gathering during a general strike asking for eight-hour work day, when an unidentified person threw a bomb at them. Those days workers had limited rights and they had to work for unbearably long hours. In reaction the police fired on the workers killing many of them. In tribute to those who died in the Chicago Protests May Day was formally recognized as an annual event. Subsequently May Day became a holiday for workers in almost all the countries.

The strength of any nation lies on the efforts and sacrifices made by its working community. One day all of you too would become a part of this working community.

Arthur V Dias A National HERO

Great tragedies deserve great heroes. Way back in 1915 during the tragedy of the Sinhala Muslim riots a young man called Arthur Vincent Dias emerged as a national hero whose name is today, remembered with deep love and respect. Sentenced to death by the British government even though he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, his punishment was later changed to a lifetime in prison. After he was finally granted freedom thanks to the intervention of his mother, Selestina Rodrigo; who was also an iconic figure, for she was the founder of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo, Arthur Dias vowed to sacrifice his life to the independence movement and did everything he could to gain freedom for Sri Lanka.

Born on February 10, 1886, he started his education at St. John’s College, Pandura, (today called Cyril Jansz Vidyalaya) and later moved to St Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia. Though he came from a wealthy family, his father P Jeremias Dias was a rich businessman who owned a large rubber estate as well as several inns which sold liquor, Arthur Dias led a simple life, gave most of his wealth to support educational institutes like Ananda, Nalanda, Dharmaraja and Dharmasoka colleges and wore a simple white banian and cloth when everyone else around him dressed in expensive western clothes. Wishing to do all he could to stop the harmful effects of alcohol on society he joined the Temperance Movement (a social movement against the use of alcoholic beverages, smoking and cattle slaughter). He remained a teetotaler all his life.

A true patriot, Arthur Dias was the first to start signing cheques in Sinhala. He was also the first planter to write his official letters related to business, exclusively in Sinhala.

But the greatest contribution he made to our country was through the role he played as an ardent supporter of the government’s Grow More Food Campaign. In 1918 he started a programme of planting jakfruit seeds throughout the country with the aim of growing a million trees. He bought the seeds from Malasiya and distributed them free of charge. Soon he was fondly called Kos Mama (Uncle Jak). Writer J L Fernando, in an article in the Ceylon Daily News of August 1, 1960 recalls a conversation with the Minister of Home Affairs, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, who said with pride that “at least a million jak trees in our country owed their existence to Arthur Dias.”

He married Grace Salgado, and they had nine children. It is said he declined a knighthood offered by the British government in the late 1930s.

As Nalin Fernando and Firoze Sameer write in their article ‘Arthur Dias - A man for all seasons’ he died at his home, Edmund Niwasa in Panadura on July 31, 1960 at the age of 74.

Arthur Dias “was a man who upheld national freedom, national dignity, national dress and national food. He was a man who lived a simple and austere life inspired by the tenets of Buddhism. A man who believed and lived the Sinhala adage, “example is better than precept.”

Aditha :- [email protected]

Use of trees

Trees are priceless gifts of mother nature. They are very useful to both humans and animals.

Trees help us in many ways. They provide food for the living beings. Trees send out oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. So trees help to control the global warming.

But some heartless people destroy these valuable foliage. Sometimes people cut down trees for farming and set fire to forests. Trees are cut down for development projects and also some times destroyed by natural disasters.

Dinuka Nethsarani, Grade 9, The Language Centre, Medawachchiya

Waterfall

Oh! what a beautiful sight!
The waterfall
I cannot close my eyes
even if I fall
Into the deep water where
the waterfall
Takes refuge after fatigue of rolling like a ball.
Where do you come from to fall into this water pit
I know your birth place where the orphans of plants sit
And shed tears for your lost
parents the tears are not fit
To live there without some one
to chat and enjoy; so you quit.

M R M Shazny, Grade 8, Al-Irfan International School, Kandy

Students of St Jude Pre-school Deduru Oya - Chilaw held their Singithi Bak Maha Ulela recently at the pre-school ground. Here are the winners of Singithi Avurudu Kumariya and Kumara competitions. First place was won by Chamalkha Dulanjali (middle),second place won by Anuhashi Akarsha (left) and the third place was won by Lihini Nimdula (right) at the Singithi Avurudu Kumariya competition while Sasidu Dulanka (Middle) won the first place, Amantha Suwahas (left) won the second and the third place was won by Sadaru Anuhas (right) respectively at the Singithi Avurudu Kumara competition. A P Gunarathna – Madampe group correspondent

Day of the working community