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I am surprised that some parties in Sri Lanka, such as UNP Leader
Ranil Wickremesinghe and some journalists play the same tune as that of
the notorious terrorist group the LTTE.
They seem to be unaware that they have simply become another
mouthpiece for the LTTE terrorists. (Reference DN April 20).
Do they not realise that the country is being threatened by a
terrorist group and that everyone has to join hands to save the country
first.
What is their contribution to safeguard the Sovereignty of the
country?
If they have nothing to contribute, they can either keep their mouths
shut or go and jump in the sea.
FREDRICK RODRIGO - via email
The Americans have once again awakened to the horrors of gun culture
in their society following the Virginia Tech Massacre which resulted in
the killing of 33 students, lecturers and injury of scores of others.
Following the Columbine massacre sometime ago there was a public
outcry for tighter gun control but the all powerful gun lobby consisting
of manufacturers, dealers and others with vested interests who gain from
the industry effectively muzzled the mounting anger.
Thirty thousand people die every year in the US in gun related
incidents. Guns can be bought over the counter for personal protection.
The US Constitution provides for that.
In the old days, unlike now, when you had to look after your own
security and also hunt animals for your food supply, guns became an
indispensable utility in the American household without which your own
survival was at stake.
This may be the reason why the lawmakers incorporated in the
Constitution, the right to own guns for personal use.
Since those conditions do not exist any more, gun control laws should
be tightened in order to prevent these lethal weapons falling into the
hands of people like Cho Seung-Hui easily. 40 per cent of American
households own guns and 200 million guns are in private hands.
It is now up to the American public, especially when an election is
on the cards in 2008, to get an assurance from the prospective
candidates both Republican and Democratic to bring in Constitutional
changes for tighter gun control.
It is said that economics drive, politics and the powerful gun lobby
which provide a big slice of campaign funds to the politicians, will do
their best to maintain the Status Quo. (Total raised by Hilary Clinton
for her bid for the white House is 31 million while Barak Obama has 25.8
million at his disposal)
A recent opinion poll has showed 80 per cent of the American public
want tighter gun control and they will prevail in the end, if a
concerted effort is made.
MAHINDA FERNANDO
It is a plausible suggestion by Ismath of Beruwela to suggest people
casting their vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to capital punishment. (Reference DN
April 20).
Even the Executive President of the country does not dare to
re-introduce capital punishment for the fear that he will be castigated
by the so-called human rights activists and certain Western powers, who
are not anyway affected by the rising crime rate in our country.
Therefore, let the people decide what to do about this, and no one
will challenge the people’s power.
It is obvious that heinous crimes committed should be dealt with
severely in order to reduce the crime rate in this country.
What about premeditated murders and contract killings?
The law’s weakness is exploited by these murderers to commit murders
for a few thousand rupees.
It is the sacred duty of any Government to protect the lives of
innocent civilians; hence adequate punishment should be meted out to the
criminals.
N. D. – Kotte
A leading company is running a world cup competition via SMS.
A multiple choice question is asked via SMS and the player selects an
answer and SMS back, if the answer is correct the next question pops up
immediately and if wrong try again.
Each correct answer gets a certain number of points and the winner
will be the one with the highest number of points at the end of the
competition.
Just imagine what will happen in house holds where there are young
children.
They will sit down answering question after question trying to obtain
maximum points running up bills of thousands of rupees daily and the
parents will find bills upto thirty, forty thousand rupees at the end of
the month. Perhaps some of them may even go into debt. This is no less a
scam than the Pyramid game some time ago.
Don’t these companies have a resposibility towards society not to run
this type of competition where there is a risk of putting people into
debt.
M. NIHAL PALIPANE – Kandy
I was the former project manager of the renewable energy project
implemented by the Ministry of Power and Energy funded by the UNDP.
During this period when I travelled through the South during the
drought, the entire region was brown.
I proposed to regreen the region by growing either gliricidia (Makulatha)
or mango as only these two trees appeared capable of surviving in
droughts. Mango fruits and juices can be exported for money and
Gliricidia could be used for power generatiion and save foreign exchange
used to import oil to generate energy.
So power generation projects directed at the Southern region should
be on this basis through Dendro plantations and it will be
self-generated energy implementable easily with committment.
Please note that any power project for the South should be developed
on this basis.
DR. V. U. RATNAYAKE - via email
Time to introduce Journey Management Planning policies to all heavy
vehicles operating agencies/companies in the island.
This is another big challenge for the Minister of Transport who works
round the clock to make things happen. As we have seen in the editorial
(DN April 12) the tragedy happened solely due to the
lawlessness/recklessness of the driver of the prime mover which was
carrying a load of beer bottles.
Recklessness (or rather restlessness?) may not be the only factor
which contributed to this tragedy. As per the reports, he had started
the journey from Colombo around 1 am, just after another trip without
having proper rest.
The question is, who controls these journeys or authorised them. Do
they have a journey plan system? The plain truth is that many of the
operating agencies do not have a journey plan system in place by their
Companies and the country is paying a huge price.
In my view, the real culprits behind these many tragedies are not
only the drivers but their masters too, allowing them to take unsafe
journeys like the above.
By introducing amendments to the traffic laws there must be a
‘Journey Management Plan’ maintained for each trip they undertake before
they start which shall indicate starting time/finishing time of the
journey and route etc. giving instructions to the driver by the journey
manager of the heavy vehicle fleet operator.
Then, the traffic police also have a duty to check to see that these
heavy vehicles are following the safety rules of the land, if not so, to
prosecute not only the driver but the master too.
Therefore, the Transport Ministry should implement a proper Journey
Management Systems urgently to safeguard the other road users.
S. JAYASUNDERA – Nugegoda
Recently Daily News reported an observation by a scientist, that
excessive fluoride in drinking water has caused discolouration of teeth
in children and severe bone problems in adults and even leading to
osteoporosis.This is particularly so in the North Central Province. We
see toothpaste ads asking people to use toothpaste with fluoride!
Shouldn’t the Ministry of Health take action at least now to stop the
distribution and sale of toothpaste with fluoride, particularly in areas
where ground water contains excessive amounts of fluoride - more than
one ppm?
L. B. U. DE SILVA - Battaramulla |
