Letters to the Editor

Who will end this state sponsored female slavery
Any nation depends on the efficient hands of its women who form a major segment of the population. Their contribution to national development is immense.

The responsibility of bringing up children rests with them. Hence their presence at home, viewed in the context of family as the basis of nation building and as a fundamental social institution is essential.

This doesn't mean that women should be confined to the kitchen. Under the present changing social roles they may be employed in any career yet should be in close contact with the families.

When they opt to work abroad they pave the way not only for the ruin of the family but also the whole nation. Getting employment as housemaids abroad, particularly in the Middle East, is becoming a popular option of work and a fashion among many Sri Lankan women today.

Despite the never-ending gruesome stories of those who are subjected to physical torture and mutilation, sexual assault and rape, advertisements are published by private and state organizations to draw more and more females into the net.

Neither the husbands who voluntarily force or encourage their wives nor the state that sponsors their export are ashamed of their selfish act. The women themselves are not alarmed by such nerve-wracking news, instead they are lured by the mirage and myth of greener pastures.

The number of females going abroad for work is rising daily. If this trend continues our nation is in danger of losing its glorious image and identity.

Those responsible are concerned about the immediate material benefits and rewards. The long term, detrimental effects of this quick money making venture, are not considered.

During this election campaign, which party leader is going to show his or her guts in countering this trend?

It’s blow after blow for pensioners
After retirement I dumped all my savings on a fixed deposit in a State Bank with the firm hope of drawing a monthly interest to augment the pittance doled out as a pension. That year the government was very fair and paid me at the rate of 18%.

Since then the rate of interest has come down the matslide from 11% to 9% and now to 6.5%. We were tolerating all these unfair strictures on the poor man as we have no godfathers.

Then the government with a big hue and cry offered all senior citizens a very special rate of 7%. When I got the certificate I found that as promised the rate was 7% (But really the increase was only 5% normal rate (.50%) 6.5 +0.05 = 7%). This was quite a bit of mathematical hoodwinking, but the grand fraud was yet to come. I found that the period of the fixed deposit had been extended for two years without my consent.

In the good old days, interest on fixed deposits was doubled or trebled when the period was for two or three years. Here we old feeble and unfortunate pensioners (senior citizens by name) have been dealt a left handed hook.

Come, come Sirs, you have taken us for a ride by not paying our rightful pension after correcting the anomalies. I am the loser by about Rs. 7500/- a month as I retired in 1982. Now, I have been hit both ways (bank and pensions).

This is the only country in the world where senior citizens are treated as a nuisance and with disrespect. The utterances of our rulers bear witness to this. Our problems have to be solved by a humane administration. We agree that certain fiscal measures are really necessary for a healthy economic state at a future date. But our problem is that we will not be alive in that Utopia. R. B. Navaratne
Ampitiya

New blood and spirit
"The JVP will bring new blood and spirit into politics," it was reported in The Sunday Times on February 22. This is excellent news. They can now replace the blood they shed in 1971 and 1989. What better meritorious deed than that.

The jumbo ride was no cakewalk
We have been in Sri Lanka for two weeks and have travelled almost to all parts of the country. There are certain matters that are disturbing where the safety of foreign travellers are concerned.

While at Habarana we were offered an elephant ride in the forest. There were so many elephants and their keepers and helpers from different places offering various rates ranging from Rs. 900 to 600.

Some of the elephants were really majestic but some looked as if they hadn't been fed for days. We decided to take a ride which costs Rs. 900 per person for one hour. The animal very reluctantly started walking towards the road with vehicles rushing past us.

We crossed the road and proceeded along the main road for another 20 minutes and then we walked through a narrow pathway into a little patch of forest. After a very short ride in the area we turned back on to another little path and back on to the road and along the main road back to the platform.

That was it. I asked why it was only 45 minutes, but they said it was one hour and that it was a cheap ride. We felt like fools considering the suffering of the poor animal walking along the hot burning tar road and the great risk of getting hit by a bus or lorry.

Who is responsible for the supervision of these places offering safaris? Why do the drivers and guides (ours was a driver guide) recommend these places? We have found out that the drivers and guides receive as much as 50% of the cost, just like at the spice gardens.

The mahouts do not care what happens to these poor animals as long as they get their tip. It's an accident waiting to happen. Take action now before it is too late.

Give senior citizens their due place
The National Council for Elders issued National Identity Cards at the Bambalapitiya Flats community centre on February 14, to senior citizens. I too obtained an Elder's Identity Card without much hassle. I was fortunate to have two passport size photographs and this helped me to get my Identity Card quickly.

There were about 150 senior citizens who had to wait to be photographed. I presume that these persons would have had a long wait to get their Identity Cards.

If the authorities had informed us in advance that we needed to bring our photos, they would have saved valuable time. I hope the authorities will inform others who wish to obtain such Identity Cards of the formalities in future at any other forum.

The Identity Card itself mentions that the bearer should be given priority in the health services, transport, postal and pensions, banking, police, legal advice and office work.

The National Council for Elders should take steps to advice all concerned to extend these facilities to elders who hold Senior Citizens Identity Cards. For example, it would be futile if a senior citizen wants to travel in a private Intercity bus from Colombo to Kandy but is not permitted to enter the bus without waiting in a queue.

Accordingly those who hold such Identity Cards would expect that all services mentioned in the Identity Card are available. It is suggested in addition that concessions should be granted in bus and train fares, discounts in supermarkets, free entrance to flower shows and trade firms etc.

The most important aspect however should be to give priority to those who receive low interest rates on their provident fund savings deposited at various finance companies and banks and enable them to get higher interest rates as Senior Citizens.

If one did it, why not the other?
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, is a trite saying, nevertheless, very relevant to the political events of our times. As reported in the press, the President had admitted having taken the oath twice after the second presidential election, one in 1999 and the other in 2000. She has said a valid swearing in had to be done in 2000, when her first term ended - hinting that her second term would end, not in 2005 but in 2006.

By the same token, if the UNF is returned to power in the April 2 election, the government could go on for ten years, with the new term starting only after the completion of the balance four years, of the first term.

On such an eventuality, the need to go to court would not arise as the court of the people had spoken and given the verdict. Legitimacy for such a stand would be given by the renewed mandate which would amount to reaffirmation of faith in the UNF. The failure to capture power by the SLFP coalition would also mean the negation of all what they stood for - their campaign issues and also the very dissolution of Parliament on February 7.

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