Letters to the Editor

Remember the tsunami victims: New Year with a difference
Come April and everyone is preparing to celebrate the national New Year in the usual manner with festivity and pomp. Shops are displaying "sale" signs to attract as many buyers as possible. Roads are congested with vehicles and people are doing their last-minute shopping.

Even those who do not celebrate the New Year will take the opportunity to make discounted purchases. Both in villages and urban areas, various events such as cycle races and Avurudu Kumari competitions are organized to celebrate the harvest festival of Sri Lankan farmers. Politicians try to gain points by patronizing such community activities and encourage Pradeshiya Sabhas to spend money to sponsor these events.

Unlike previous years, New Year 2005 has a special meaning. It is the first Sinhala-Tamil New Year after the December 26 tsunami which killed tens of thousands of people and still traumatizes the survivors who have been rendered homeless. Most of the survivors will be spending the Sinhala-Tamil New Year in hot and uncomfortable tents in relief centres. For them, there will be no auspicious times to prepare their first meal or partake of it. Neither will there be new clothes for them to feel they are celebrating a new year.

These helpless people have lost all or most of their worldly possessions. They are dependent on kind-hearted people even for their daily needs let alone to celebrate the New Year! If the atmosphere of the country changes to one of celebration during this time, it will naturally make the tsunami survivors feel neglected and sad. Their feelings are all too natural and should be understood by those who are fortunate enough to have escaped the disaster.

I would appreciate if all politicians and leaders are extra considerate and sensitive enough to ensure that no festivities are organized in any form to celebrate the New Year. It is time for us to think of helping those affected by the tsunami. It is time for us as a nation to put aside our petty political agendas and for once think of others - those who are extremely unfortunate not to be able to enjoy the environment of "their own homes" with family, to sit together and partake of the first auspicious meal dressed in new clothes.

Instead, would it be possible for the leaders to make a sacrifice of their own celebrations for once and spend time with the suffering tsunami survivors? Please stop all lavish celebrations until the government has been able to provide decent housing for all the victims! This is the least that we can do to show our concern, isn't it?

Tsunami early warning and the wartime siren
The untold destruction caused by the December 26 tsunami has alerted the authorities to the urgent need for an early warning system. This should be given top priority before another tsunami takes us unawares. It is most important that the warning should reach the people well in time.

Speaking of early warning systems, the Japanese bombing of Sri Lanka in World War Two comes to mind. Here too the need for an early warning system was considered to be of the utmost importance.

When the Japanese threat was imminent, a civil defence commissioner was appointed. It was his responsibility to set up an early warning system to alert the people of an impending air raid. Almost every town had an air raid warden. People were instructed on how to respond to an air raid warning and had to go through drills. According to the early warning system adopted, within minutes the whole island would be alerted and the people would have ample time to get to safe places.

There were sirens in every town. These sirens gave out an extremely loud sound - much louder than the ambulance sirens, that could be heard for miles when activated.

May I suggest that similar sirens be installed in every police station along the country's coast. When a signal arrives at the main satellite station, police stations could be advised to activate these sirens, alerting the people so that they could get to safer ground well in time.

It is also necessary to educate the people on how to act in response to the warning. The police using a public address system will be ineffective as it will not be quick enough. Thousands of lives could be saved by adopting such an early warning system.

Act fast to save 3 Lankans facing death in Saudi Arabia
Sri Lankans who read the story in the Daily Mirror of March 23, would have reacted with utter dismay to the fate that has befallen three Sri Lankans who are facing death in Saudi Arabia after they were convicted of armed robbery.

Whether the case against them is true or fabricated is not known because the Foreign Ministry appears to have not carried out any investigation or prepared a dossier that will enable the government to appeal to the Saudi government to mitigate the death sentence.

The three Sri Lankans were denied the right to retain a lawyer. When the case came up they were only provided with a translator. They say they were compelled to sign documents -- presumably the charge sheets -- in Arabic, admitting their guilt.

For the past few months. the wife of one of them has been visiting many government officers and persons in seats of power, appealing to them to do something to save her husband but with no favourable response. This is appalling. Even after six months, the ministry had not even brought it to the public notice until the Daily Mirror splashed it on the front page.

The Foreign Ministry should have taken immediate action and retained an able lawyer to defend the three Sri Lankans. If the Philippines could do it, why cannot Sri Lanka? Sri Lankan workers who are toiling to swell the country's foreign exchange coffers need to be given some form of protection.

The President and the Foreign Ministry must understand that there are human lives at stake and the situation calls for prompt action. The ministry should at least now prepare a dossier and submit it to the President, strongly recommending a plea for clemency or mitigation of the sentences and asking her to take the matter up at government-to-government level.

It appears as though the Asian Human Rights Commission has done more for these Sri Lankans than the Foreign Ministry. The public has a right to know what action the Foreign Ministry has taken from the time the death penalty was passed. Time is running out. The time has come for the President and the Minister to act and act fast to save the three Sri Lankans.

Post-tsunami miracle on the track
Three months after the worst natural calamity faced by our country, the reconstruction of tsunami-hit infrastructure is being carried out by the government, NGOs and foreign countries.

Several projects which have been started are going on apace. But one project warrants praise. The devastated coastal railway track was restored within just 57 days - a feat that could be termed a miracle - much to the surprise of the railway commuters, the Cabinet Ministers and the public.

The general consensus was that the restoration of the railway service beyond Kalutara would take many months as the damage caused to the track at Payagala, Kosgoda, Akurala in Ambalangoda, Peraliya in Hikkaduwa and other areas appeared beyond repair. Along with the restoration of the devastated track, several stations, bridges and other infrastructure facilities were also redone.

More than one thousand railway workers, including engineers and inspectors, from the Permanent Way Sub-Department along with a large team of volunteers from several railway trade unions put their shoulders to the 'wheel' and rose to the occasion willingly, to restore the service within eight weeks.

I took the opportunity of visiting the devastated track at Akurala and Peraliya sections, as an ex-railwayman, to witness this massive restoration project. The inspectors, foremen and the Permanent Way workmen in their hundreds were seen working in the scorching sun gulping down water from plastic bottles to quench their thirst.

Moneywise, too, I presume the workers would have saved several millions of rupees for the department/government by completing this project in record time.

Catch the dogs and put them in a welfare home
I would like to draw the attention of the health authorities, especially Aranayake's PHIs, to the stray dog menace in the towns of Dippitiya and Aranayake. They are a tremendous inconvenience to the public, mostly in the nights.

Aranayake Hospital records show that several schoolchildren have been bitten by rabid dogs. Earlier, stray dogs were gassed to death by health authorities but now it has been stopped after the intervention of animal welfare organisations.

These organisations should not only sterilize the dogs but also provide them a welfare home so that people could freely move about without being bitten by them.

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