• Insignificant political parties and Presidential election

• An old tradition at work (5S)

• Harrowing experience at Developers
   

Insignificant political parties and Presidential election

There is no worthwhile purpose of minor insignificant, unimportant political parties contesting the above election.

They will only eat away into the vote base of the two main political parties and erode their creditability. They will cloud the issues.

Let there be a face to face and direct contest between Premier Mahinda Rajapakse and his allies and the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramesinghe and his allies.

All the minor political parties should dissolve their parties before the elections so that the votes which are very valuable should not be wasted on the minor parties who will I am certain be eliminated and lose their deposits.

V. K. B. RAMANAYAKE, Maharagama

An old tradition at work (5S)

From ancient times Japanese people practised an unwritten code of ethics in the place of work. Even today any good Japanese factory can be a location for a teledrama on cleanliness.

This code of conduct, and rigorous practice is named as 'FIVE-S' '5S' in non Japanese speaking countries. This simple philosophy tells in a nutshell how to make your workplace, office, house or even kitchen, a place of worship.

To quote just one example, school opposite my home, Siddartha Maha Vidyalaya, Ampitiya, sets a fine example of '5-S' principle.

There was a period in the recent past, this school nearly experienced total closure due to variety of reasons. Now, as things are changing rapidly on inquiry, we learned the good story of '5-S' in action.

It is difficult to translate Japanese words into another language because of the depth of Chinese characters. The simplest definition may be jotted down as follows; though inadequate:

Seiri - arrangement

Seiton - order

Seiso - neatness and cleanliness

Seiketus - clean, neat, and honest

Shitsuke- discipline, training, upbringing

Thanks to an important concept; with very limited facilities, this school is doing an excellent job of work.

It is very impressive to notice the names of trees and shrubs, in the school vicinity bear their botanical names written according to accepted international conventions.

NANDA MALALASEKERA, Japan

Harrowing experience at Developers

A family member of mine, has purchased a block of land, the house to be built by a reputed developers company.

The prospective buyers of this Kaduwela land, were 'deceived' by the management, that there is a Government reserved bird sanctuary behind the property. However, the owner, 'the' reputed gentleman in the area, told us, that this is a private road and property which belongs to him and not to the Government.

The customers are deceived in so many other ways. The swimming pool hardly enough for a family or two, does not give room for nearly forty families. The promised gym too, seem to have a few basic equipment.

The excuse the management give for this is that the housing scheme is close to Colombo, and the occupants can easily reach the capital for these needs. We are most disappointed, because the management 'now' does not want to give a listening ear to the buyers who have paid millions of rupees in advance.

We have waited for hours seated in the company reception, unable to express our views, the changes that we want to make to the house, wanting clarification for many other things. The management continues to ignore the customers not willing to talk to them or brush them off, busy working with their 'next' profit making project.

We also noticed that the staff always looked 'very' tired having to handle too many things at the same time. We were told by them that they are expected to work almost 365 days a year.

How can you expect human beings to work without rest, because we know that even a machine needs rest after some time.

The sad result will be less quality and productivity which will lead to a permanent loss to the company and more than anything the 'curse' of the affected staff and customers, which according to the word of God flow from generation to generation.

This is why we ask the company's management please re-evaluate your group of companies, give your staff and customers a fair share, before you give charity to the whole world.

Once again according to the word of God, if you do this the blessing will be carried to hundred generations.

M. WIJERATNE, Dehiwala