Friday 12th March, 2010 9

When one flies over this fair islandof ours, one is astounded by thelarge number of telecommunica-

tion towers that have sprung up duringthe last few years. Not only are they aneyesore but they are a hazard to GeneralAviation (GA), as they are not marked inany map or chart available to aviators.Known as ‘man-made relief ’, they stickout over and above the ‘natural relief ’, astelecommunication signals rely on line of

sight for successful transmission. Forinstance on mountain peaks.

Is there really a need to have so manytowers in the first place? There are fivemobile telephone providers in the land,and I believe they all have their own tow-ers. Like other countries, they shouldminimise the threat and have only ONEtower to serve all five service providers.

If and when GA is liberalised, therewill be two types of rules under which

light aircraft will be required to operate.The first is Instrument Flight Rules(IFR), and the second is Visual FlightRules (VFR). Under certain weather con-ditions, light aircraft will be dispatchedunder ‘Special Visual Flight Rules’,which essentially means that the pilotflies his aircraft clear of cloud and insight of ground or water. This type ofoperation is the most vulnerable, as dur-ing the day these towers cannot always beseen because the automatic red warn-ing/hazard lights will be turned off andnational regulations and requirements donot call for the towers to have whitestrobe (flashing) lights fitted on them.

The Telecommunication RegulatoryCommission (TRC) and Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) should take action toquickly eliminate this menace beforesome hapless pilot collides with one ofthese towers because he/she failed to seeand avoid it.

Lankawe Flying Porak

As an avid reader of crime andcomic fiction I derive muchpleasure from your

columnist Norman’s “PoliceScene” and its cartoons.Today[11/3] he describesa Police raid on agambling ‘den’ forwomen inMaligawatte - car-ried out mostunsportingly onInternationalWomen’s Day! Inspite of whatsome nationalistsproclaim about our virtu-ous matrons of yore, it isan undeniable fact thatwomen-run gamblingdens have been aroundfor centuries in SriLanka. Parker’s collec-tion of Sinhala folk tales,mostly fromWayamba vil-lages, refersto [at least]one suchnaughtydame. I havere-told thestory in my“More Princes, Peasants & CleverBeasts”. “ [the prince] came across abrightly lit house full of music andpeople enjoying themselves. This wasthe gambling house of the cunningand beautiful woman Diribari.” It is

thus clear that the Madam fromMaligawatte was just carrying on acenturies old self-employment proj-ect.

TissaDevendra

At the inauguration of Galle’sMaritime Museum, the Presidentbemoaned the lack of historical

knowledge among students of today. He cor-rectly placed the blame squarely on theshoulders of those who abolished the sub-ject of History from the school curriculumabout 40 years ago. I wonder whether H.E isaware of the delicious irony that this verygovernment appointed the bureaucratresponsible to a hallowed position in ouroldest University. Not much hope for theHistory Dept there, I am afraid.

A more recent example of the lack ofhistorical sense was shamefully exhibitedwhen the organisers of the function com-pletely ignored the pioneer maritimearchaeologist , who ‘fathered’ underseaarchaeology in Galle and founded the firstMaritime Museum there. A “Hamlet”minus the Prince !

‘Herodotus’

Iwas intrigued to read IzethHussain’s comment in a recentissue of The Island (‘A Govigama

Burgher etc.’) that “arguablyBuddhism, because of the rebirth the-ory, gives the Sinhalese caste systema quasi-religious validation”. Could hekindly throw a little more light on thisthesis for the benefit of those like mewho are less versed in the subjectthan him?

Pericles

Following Mervyn Silva’s decision notto draw this month’s salary, SomapalaGunadheera(Island March 8) can add

one more factor for the elimination of can-didates. It is easy. Those MPs of the lastParliament who drew the full month’ssalary for attending Parliament for one day,do not deserve to be in the next Parliament .

A voter

The Island reported on 10 Marchhow some Colombo politicianshad brazenly removed the

name- board of a certain philan-thropist of yesteryear and replaced itwith that of a petty politician of today.If this story is true it speaks volumesabout the calibre of the politicians wehave at the moment.

Nothing seems to be sacred forthem and they seem to have no scru-

ples at all when it comes to promotingself-interest.

The benefactors may be dead andgone, but can any civilised personremove their names and replace themwith another’s? Our ancients were per-haps aware of the fact that such per-version could take place in society andtook steps to warn and prevent suchthings taking place.

Thus we have ancient inscriptions

recording acts of munificence with afinal statement of warning “Anyonewho causes disruption of this shall beborn as dogs and crows (meyataviyawul kala kenek wet nam balukavudu wet way)See the Rambeva,Medirigiriya , Bilibeva Inscriptions inVol.2 of Epigraphia Zeylanica.

Fairplay

Izeth Hussainon Caste andBuddhism

Hijacking Philanthropy

Farewell toHistory

Jolly Somasunderam’s advice tothe Tamil community as to thepolitical line they should take

after the elections should be takenvery seriously. As it is, many com-mentators have pointed the way theSinhala people should act in orderto win the peace after successfullywinning the war.

I would like to suggest thatPresident Rajapaksa should form anational government. The cabinetshould consist of representatives ofall the major parties proportionateto the number of elected members.If Tamils and Muslims are givenimportant Ministries, that willincrease their confidence.

We have followed the Britishform of parliamentary democracywith a government and an opposi-tion. British parties are howeverbased primarily on economic policywhereas in Sri Lanka parties arebased on racial lines. It is timetherefore that we dispensed withthis essentially two-party system,replacing it with a truly representa-tive national government to suit themulticultural nature and racialdiversity of our country. This is theonly way that law and order and dis-cipline could replace the acrimonyand conflict that has become endem-ic to politics.

In adopting and continuing theinstitutions of our colonial mastersinstead of adapting it to suit theneeds of our people we have laggedbehind most Asian countries. Thefuture development of our countryis dependent on unity among all theraces in it and only a national gov-ernment can bring this about. It willalso pave the way to obtain the good-will of western nations which isessential for our development inthis age of globalization.

There is also an added advantagein having all parties represented atthe centre of power - provincialcouncils which are millstones roundour necks can be done away with.

N. L. MendisColombo 6.

The need fora NationalGovernment

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tttthhhheeee wwwwrrrroooonnnngggg ggggaaaammmmeeee aaaarrrrrrrreeeesssstttteeeedddd

Maligawatte’s gambling ladies

A land of telephone

towers

by Devanessan Nesiah

Large and unrestricted numbersof pilgrims are travelling fromthe South to the north, especial-

ly to visit Nagadhipa, Nallur Kovil,Madhu Church and other places ofreligious worship and the infrastruc-ture facilities in the north is inade-quate for this level of inflow.

During the sightseeing toursvisitors do not effectively engagewith the people of the area, donot respect their need for privacynor empathise with their presentstatus. They look at them in amanner that makes them feel thatthey were once captives of theTerror groups, then displacedpersons and now destitute andlooked on by their southernbrethren as animals in a cage orhelpless people in a hopelessstate.

Large numbers use the DuraiappaStadium and areas in the vicinity andthese areas are not capable of provid-ing the necessary housing, waste, san-itation, garbage clearance facilitiesfor the present number of visitorsand they leave the area totally pollut-ed with garbage, polythene, and wastecausing great inconvenience to resi-dents

These pilgrims indiscriminatelyuse the water and other resources ofnearby temples, kovils and Churchesand use water for washing, withoutconsideration for the cultural andreligious values of the residents whouse the same facilities thereafter.

Visitors who are not actual wor-shippers crowd temples/kovils during

pooja time and crowd out actual wor-shippers and disturb the sanctity ofthe poojas

These pilgrims use religiousplaces and culturally significantplaces like the Jaffna Library disre-spectfully (in shoes) and use theselocations for relaxing and even theconsumption of alcohol.

Ladies and Young Girls on bicyclesare subjected to harassment,whistling, and comments by visitors.

I have not been to the North postwar, but vividly remember my postcease fire (2002) visits to Jaffna,Batticaloa, and Trincomalee where Iencountered scenes and reactionsvery different to those described

above. Those scenes were of the joyfulmingling on equal terms of thousandsof visitors and locals. Now, it appears,the meetings are between the victorand the vanquished. The primaryfault is with the manner in which theend of the war was treated by thenational leadership and the media.The atmosphere of triumphalism, is

deeply damaging to inter eth-nic harmony. There is muchphysical construction work,in the north, but the localsremain marginalized.

Under the Apartheidregime, South Africa hadbeen burdened with incompa-rably greater inter-ethnichostilities and institution-alised racism and oppressionthan Sri Lanka ever was. Butwith the inspired leadership

of Mandela, Tutu, and the others,they successfully met those chal-lenges in a manner that few predict-ed, and achieved a level of successthat seemed impossible. Leadership ofthat quality may not appear any-where on our planet for decades tocome, but can we in Sri Lanka notfind ways to bridge our much moremodest ethnic divide?

RebuildingSri Lanka

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