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Vanishing good samaritansPEOPLE, as I remember in the 50s and 60s were polite, helpful, law abiding and decent. Over the past decades these qualities have generally been deteriorating. What we hear now-a-days about our Sri Lankan behaviour is always negative and hopeless. Whether it is a public place or not, nobody is safe any more, nobody helps anymore. Since the start of the terrorist activities that led to a meaningless war with the LTTE, robbery, kidnapping, murder, rape, blackmail, street accidents and all malpractices are on the increase. As a result, the good Samaritans are becoming a vanishing breed. However it is heartening to hear occasionally of the remnants of these people. About one such was heard recently. A young lady in her thirties I believe, originating from an affluent Colombo district, was walking next to a van parked by the side of the street in Panadura town, the engine still running. She saw that the driver, a middle aged person in his late fifties, was laying his head on the steering wheel in an unusual manner. Many persons must have seen this driver in that state but must have just ignored and continued further avoiding any involvement with the police that might entail or even suspecting foul play or trickery. This young lady I shall call by a fictitious name Shammi, however, stopped and inquired him what was wrong with him. When she realized that he was having a health problem and unable to walk even, she called a three-wheeler and took him to the hospital nearby by herself immediately. He was diagnosed as to be undergoing a heart attack and warded straight away at the ICU. With treatment overnight his condition now has stabilized but is still in a critical condition. This young lady of a gem, then managed to contact the patient's wife who lives in Kotte and waited for her arrival at Panadura hospital to hand over the keys of the van and other belongings before she continued on her journey, leaving her contact phone number with the wife of the patient, upon request. She must have spent quite a few hours on this patient totally unknown to her. It was an extremely rare act for a such young lady to initiate such an action. This is the breed that is vanishing from our country. She teaches us how we should help the needy. This patient happened to be my younger brother. I was so taken up by this lady's gesture who saved a life! I immediately called her and thanked profusely. Upon my next visit to Sri Lanka I am determined to meet this caring lady to thank her personally. Thank you Shammi a million times. May the triple gem bless you! A. R. - Austria King Senarat's folly-repeatedIT IS now a sad chapter in the history of the Sinhala history. When the Portuguese barbarians began massacring the Muslims of the Maritime Provinces, King Senarat of the Kandyan Kingdom generously permitted these refugees to settle in the Eastern borders of his domain in Batticaloa. What happened next is the classic story of the camel in the Arab's tent. The original Sinhalese were eased out and this area became the traditional homeland of Muslims and their hired Tamil labourers. Four hundred years later history repeated itself when the Tigers booted the Muslims out of Jaffna. Where did these expellees find refuge? Nowhere except among the generous, but much-maligned, Sinhalese in Anuradhapura and Puttalam districts. The ethnic composition of these districts is steadily becoming tilted in favour of these Muslims. It will not be long that the story of Batticaloa will be repeated and the Sinhalese will become an endangered species in the country once proudly called Sinhale. Let us plead with our Government to send these permanent refugees back to wherever they came from. The sooner the better if we Sinhalese are to retain our identity and our land. R. B. DIULWEVA - Ganetenna Pensioners' allowanceT. SATKUNANTHAN'S letter of March 13 on the subject of Pensioners' allowances deserves the immediate and urgent attention of the Director of Pensions. Many pensioners are in the dark about how pensioners' allowances are calculated and how much they are still owed. In the case of pensioners living abroad, they are entirely at the mercy of the paying office which, because of the tyranny of distance, may be thousands of miles from where they reside and therefore cannot be visited by them for clarification. Talking to the office by telephone, in my experience, serves little purpose. I have been living in a foreign country since 1990 and during this period several changes in allowances have been made without any information being made available to me. On one occasion I received a cheque with a letter simply stating 'being payment of arrears pension (sic) for 8 months. On another occasion I was paid pension arrears for 35 months, again without any details of computation. If, as suggested by Satkunanthan, increases and allowances paid to pensioners are published in the newspapers, they can do their own calculations and satisfy themselves whether they are being paid their correct pensions and allowances. Another matter which the Director of Pensions should consider is the rectification of pension anomalies. Admittedly, this is a complex issue and time-consuming but is it beyond the ingenuity of the Pensions Department to minimise delay? The most equitable manner of dealing with pension files is to work on those of the older pensioners first, many of whom are with one foot in the grave. A. H. P. - Australia Regional office in Akkaraipattu or KalmunaiOUR rural people have been rushed to obtain the passport for the purpose of getting employment visa from the Middle East countries and large number of rural people are travelling to Colombo without any gender and age differences. Most of them who are lacking of education travelling to Colombo with brokers of foreign employment agencies and villagers have been disappointed by them and also fall prey to unscrupulous racketeers. I have read an important news in the Daily News January 31 captioned 'Speedy passport on the way' on the front page. The news says that opening of three regional offices in Matara, Kandy and Anuradhapura for issuing passports from the regional offices in five working days. Facilities to renew passports will also be available at these offices. In this instantce, I request on behalf of our regional people to the perusal of the Controller, Department of Immigration and Emigration to open a regional office in Akkaraipattu or Kalmunai in order to prevent our remote people's grievances, please. M. I. MOHAMED RIYAL - Pottuvil Aruppola municipal quarters for sale?OWING to the lack of housing in Kandy Municipal limits, officers who have been transferred to the Kandy Municipal Council were provided with quarters at Aruppola by the Council during the Mayoralty of late Tilak Ratnayake. He obtained loans from the State institutions and built ten houses with flats to enable the officers to occupy them during the tenure of office at the Kandy Council. He followed the Government procedure to occupy them for 4-5 years until they get transferred on retirement from service or on the death of the officer. This scheme worked well and officers who were transferred to Kandy Council had no difficulty as quarters were available. Kandy Municipal Council follows the Government A.R. Financial Regulations and the Manual of Procedure in dealing with public officers. Unlike in the past, officers from far away places such as Ampara, Ratnapura, Colombo, Galle, Anuradhapura - all State officers get transferable posts at the Kandy Council staff and they are affected by the attempts of those who occupy Aruppola Municipal quarters to purchase them. Most of the occupants have served over 15 years, some have been transferred to other Departments, some are dead, yet their kith and kin occupy the quarters depriving the transferable offices of their due place in the Municipal quarters. Some of those who occupy the quarters such as Municipal Secretary, Chief Clerks, Revenue Inspector and heirs of the dead officers have been using these quarters as their private properties through 'schemes' not transparent to the public and various attempts have been made to purchase these Municipal quarters. If these 'schemes' are successful, no outstation transferable officers with families could get official quarters provided by the Council, during their service period in Kandy. It is hoped that the Minister of Local Government will probe into this matter and provide relief to affected officers and those who will be transferred to the Kandy Council, without delay. A. O. - Kandy Women's empowermentTHIS refers to the article captioned 'Women's rights and tower of silence' (DN Mar. 11). For a long time I have observed the plight of domestic workers working abroad, during my stay in those countries and at home. My view is that, these poor women suffer because they lack good communicating skills (English) and the proper tricks of the trade. If they are made knowledgeable in their disciplines either as nanny, cook, domestic-aid or housekeeper, (let us drop the term housemaid), they could work with dignity wherever they may be. The solution for this problem is for the Government to set up a National Institute, which provides proper training in their respective trades, proper manners and good communication skills. They can be issued a uniform, which they could wear during working hours, which would identify them as (Sri Lankan) domestic staff, which would also make them look dignified (similar to nurses and police officers). It is through educating women in their fields of service - whatever they may be - that true empowerment of women can be achieved. CHANDRASRIYA DE SILVA - Nawala |
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