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| Thursday, 24 February 2005 |
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Letters | |
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Please forward your letters to editor@dailynews.lk in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments. I am writing this as a Sri Lankan and a chartered civil engineer who undertook leadership tasks of building homes and infrastructure while working at State Engineering Corp and NWS&DP for over six years. I currently work in the US after earning my Ph.D. I lost my mother, a sister and many relatives in Peraliya, the village that was given world a view due to train that swept away with killing over 1000 passengers. Village lost few hundred people and over 90 per cent of the homes. My family tragedy was published in USA Today on January 3 internet version and on hardcopy on January 4. The government efforts to build houses at least with 500 sq.ft. floor area is commendable. Also, I heard from some families in affected areas that the government has already started building on the original foundations of broken houses giving the families same size houses. This is important because these families have to maintain their social status and it is important to consider everyone who lost homes were not poor. The affected people belong to poor-upper middle class status prior to tsunami. I am concerned that some NGOs such as Habitat for Humanity is trying to raise the number of houses they built by constructing shanties for Rs. 50,000 ($500) each. Every Sri Lankan knows that for Rs. 50,000 what you can expect and I think this kind of activities should be stopped by the government. When the government is preparing to build a decent home, why we allow this kind of organizations to build shanties and bring the families to status we Sri Lankans do not want to see. We need progress and not shanties for them to claim in their advertisement campaigns that they build thousands of homes. I would like this message to be heard by the Sri Lankan government. as
well as people of Sri Lanka and reject their backward attitudes toward our
country. Protection of electrical appliances against lightning A report under the caption, 'Device to protect electrical appliances against lightning',(DN Feb. 2) has been read with interest by the undersigned. The report refers to the possible efforts of the public to take out insurance cover against damage to electrical appliances by the risk of lightning, following the tsunami disaster. There is no doubt that a fire policy covers damage to property by fire and/or lightning. However, damage to electrical appliances by Arcing, Short-circuiting, self-heating and excessive pressure are specifically excluded. Additional cover against such risks, however, could be obtained on payment of an extra premium calculated at 0.5 per cent of the value of such items. Insured have, however, run into problems with insurers over the interpretation of the Electrical clause attached to fire policies. It is a known fact that, in arcing, short-circuiting, self-heating and excessive pressure, there is, often, no visible signs of fire; in arcing and short-circuiting, there are only sparks, unless there is any ignitable material that could promote a fire. In self-heating and excessive pressure, there are no signs of even sparks. Local insurers are known to have repudiated claims for damage to electrical items, even though covered against electrical risks, where there have been no visible signs of fire; a fire as such is a situation where there are flames, presumably. This matter has been taken up even at open insurance forums a long time ago, though presumably, there has been no definite decision. It seems obvious, therefore, that the preventive measures provided by
any special device should be the best option. Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of cancer. From all over the world he received fan mail and one letter asked, "why does God have to select you to get this dreadful disease?' To this Arthur Ashe replied, "All over the world 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis. 500,000 learn professional tennis. 50,000 comes to the circuit. 5,000 reach the Grand Slam. 50 reach the Wimbledon, 4 to the semi-finals and only 2 to the finals. "When I was holding the cup, I never asked God, 'Why me?" "And today in pain, I should not be asking God, 'Why me?" Every moment of the day thousands of healthy babies are born into the world giving their parents tears of joy. But when one baby is born with 5 fingers or when Siamese twins are born, it is flashed across the globe on TV and newspapers and people question God, "why, O Lord?" Daily we were nourished by the countless number of fish from the Indian Ocean, all created by God. Millions of fishermen who went out to the sea for centuries were protected by God while they were there. Millions enjoyed the breathtaking beauty of the sea and the beaches
that were created by the hands of God. Daily we were amazed at the beauty
of the sunrise and the sunset. But when a tsunami strikes and 300,000
people lose their lives it is discussed across the globe and people ask,
"Why, O Lord?" Nations like the United States, Japan, India and Australia are in the process of establishing an early warning centre for the Indian Ocean region on the request made by our President. Although we get the alarm in advance in the future, we should be in a position to manage the communication to each household effectively on time about the disaster which is going to happen in order to minimize or eliminate the negative affects of these types of natural disasters. We should establish task forces in village levels by mobilizing committees with the participation of Grama Niladaris, priests of all religions, principals of schools and members of Pradeshiya Sabhas and should transfer the knowledge of emergency evacuation, rescue and relief efforts to all households and practice those drills vigorously in regular intervals in each village under the guidance of the established Task Force. Those committees that I suggested can be formed now itself and can employ them to rebuild the nation to a strong position with two way communications with the legislature. These task forces can be coordinated through the Divisional Secretaries and contingent of Armed Forces can be earmarked and allocated for each divisional secretary division for emergency deployment. The highest level of the Government too should have this type of task force in order to guide the task forces at village level, and the members of this particular task force should be professionals who have attitude of lending their knowledge and skills voluntarily to build the nation who 'thinks globally act locally'. We should learn lessons from history that nations rebuilt from zero positions to become strong in the world like Japan, Vietnam, Iran which faced the similar situations either man made or natural disasters of this nature. United Nations has nominated President Bill Clinton as their envoy to advocate rebuilding efforts to the nations devastated due to Asian Tsunami, by next summer. So, we urge to build our nation to a strong position leaving petty party politics and should not make use of this disaster in order to derail the democratic process existing in the country. Better tomorrow to my motherland, Sri Lanka! S. P. Weerasekera paying a tribute to Col. Henry Steele Olcott (DN Feb. 17) says that the Colombo Buddhist Theosophical Society established 460 Buddhist schools, including Visakha. Visakha is not a BTS school. Visakha Vidyalaya was founded by Mrs. Jeramias Dias of Panadura, mother of the great patriot Arthur V. Dias. Mrs. Dias may have sought the advice of the BTS but the idea for establishing a school for Buddhist girls was Mrs. Dias' and so was the money spent on renting a house in Turret Road (now Dharmapala Mawatha), and later, on buying land in Vajira Road and putting up buildings for the hostel and school. The BTS has no claim on Visakha Vidyalaya. On the day that the new building was declared open by Governor Stanley - November 21, 1927 - D. B. Jayatilake, the manager of the school made this entry in the log book: "The grand total is no less than 4 1/2 lakhs of rupees. This I venture to think is the largest private contribution to the cause of education in recent times." SUMANA SAPARAMADU, Vice-President, Visakha Vidyalaya OGA The most intriguing aspect and rather puerile claim calling for Presidential Elections seem to be a subtle exercise to put Ranil Wickremesinghe in a precarious position knowing fully well that Mr. Wickremesinghe will be disgracefully beaten at this election, even if the UPFA puts forward a puppet. I challenge Prof. G. L. Peiris to come to Parliament not as a nominated member, but face an election and come to Parliament. People of Moratuwa will give him the verdict that he deserves. To Professor Peiris's scholarly brilliance I bow my head as he carried away all the prizes, barring the prize for Greek, which often went to Vijitha Yapa at almost every prize giving held at the school by the sea. As a member of Chapman House I remember all these memorable events and
the time Lassie Abhayawardene was nearly drowned at the swimming pool.
Prof. Peiris - Esto Perpetua You can be pretty sure that very soon you will not hear that annoying recording "All operators are busy, please try later, or please hold on". At the kind invitation of the General Manager of SLT Call Centre I visited the SLT head office. I spent two hours going round to see the know-how of the place. I was shown the various counters are - 161, 131, 121, etc. They pointed out a board where red numbers were seen thus 7, 6, 5, 4 and so on. I was told that these numbers meant the caller was in the queue for the 'asked for' call. OK I agree, but fail to disagree that we who are calling from our homes or wherever cannot see that board with those numbers. So how are we to know that we are in a queue. So change that recording and enlighten us so - it also be that we should know that even if we do hold on that we will be charged only for 1 unit. This is my suggestion. If they consider this, may be our grievances will be solved and there will be a better service. So let's give SLT a chance to see what happens - then I would proudly
enlighten the general public for an important matter solved and action
taken. Let's hope to hear the new recording 'post haste'. It is a pleasure to see that the registrars have successfully completed the recent initial public issues (IPO) like Hemas, Nawaloka, LIOC etc. to enable the trading in the Colombo Stock Exchange as soon as possible (within a month). This has eased investors to value their shares they got or even to make a quick buck. Further, when LIOC shares were on offer there was a massive crowd in some of the Bank of Ceylon branches to purchase bank drafts to apply for the share. It means that people are willing to pay cash directly. Unfortunately, some were charged with commission of Rs. 250 and some were unable to get drafts (as it became an extra workload for the bank staff, I think.) Even though it was permitted to use personal cheques, all do not maintain current accounts. On the other hand, there was a risk of getting late for realization of the outstation cheques as the cheques were expected to be realized within three days. So I would like to suggest the following: * The issuer/offerer can permit the investors to deposit cash to a separate bank account opened for the issue and attach the receipt/ slip. They can enter deposit date/reference no., instead of cheque no. in the application. This has been practised by big companies to facilitate their customers when a purchase is done by their sole distributors. If the issuer opens accounts in more than one bank which have got linked branches islandwide (eg: Commercial Bank, HNB, Seylan, Sampath), it will make the investor more convenient. This will reduce the paper work of the registrars as well. * The issuer may allow the investors to apply through internet. It will be convenient for both locals and foreigners. Special software programmed for this purpose would enable the registrars to download the details at once to their computer. I put forward this for the authorities for their kind consideration. |
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