Point of view from "Specialist - Kegalle" headlined 'Sick giant: is it the beginning of the end' in the feature page of The Sunday Times of September 15 is thought provoking and the assertions made therein should provide ample food for thought and contemplation to the bureaucrats to focus their attention to the hard facts enumerated in respect of the personal difficulties encountered by Doctors in relation to the work load - under trying conditions - thrust upon them, especially on surgeons and specialists.
These should be considered with fairness and the just perspective they deserve with a view to providing relief - both physical and mental - to hard worked medical practitioners. In the same breath, one could say there are some indifferent hard-headed medical men practising their trade on a mercenary angle - who could be termed the black sheep of the profession.
This flaw, however should not lead to the wholesale condemnation of the grade of doctors and to penalise the entire profession by the bureaucrats. Offending cases could be dealt with individually on disciplinary grounds without castigating them en bloc. As correctly pointed out by the Kegalle specialist, any move on a misguided notion by the Administrators to abolish the doctors' private practice as a punitive measure would adversely affect the health care services and the vast multitude of our patients who are now so accustomed or attuned to seek private specialist attention for their varied ailments.
Political heads and their sycophantic bureaucrats should cast away their personal animosities and desist from taking revenge on a collective basis from the medical practitioners which would lead to a state of serious chaos in the already sick giant of an inept and bungled management. Likewise, the doctors at the helm of the GMOA who run the outfit should also as far as possible avoid a confrontationist collision course with the ministry heads, for the flimsiest cause.
The medical profession should never degrade their honourable place in society and stoop low as to resort to irresponsible strike action and thus endanger the patients entrusted to their healing care. Such a course of action could be termed heartless, and if such heartlessness results in the death of even one patient that death would be tantamount to any other political or terrorist killing.Strike action resorted to at the will and pleasure of irresponsible trade unionists of the ordinary ilk should never be the modus operandi of obtaining redress by the elitist and respected profession of doctors who are generally held in high esteem by the average patient who hopefully looks up to the healing hand of the doctors' curative prowess.
Without demeaning their status in society, the doctors of the GMOA should pursue their protest action in an honourable manner by means of incessant discussion and dialogue with the powers that be.The Administrators too, on their part, should come down from their ivory towers and make a well meaning effort to redress the grievances of the medical practitioners whose healing service is essential to all of us. The poor, the rich, the high and mighty, the 'Administrator and Politician all and Sundry - at one time or other need to clasp the healing hand of the Doctor.
TV can have a tremendous influence on Buddhism, on our Buddhist way of life, and also children in their most impressionable years.
Thanks, to a state decision we have Poya as a holiday to observe the Precepts and spend a day of saintly living. The Government of an era past did wisely, to ban fast living on this day.
With Buddhism as the State Religion, the Government should make some effort to bring, not only, material emancipation, but spiritual emancipation too, through the powerful media, they now have in hand, a media that could tremendously influence the younger generation to a more religion-oriented way of life. Generations yet to be born would bless this regime, for shortening their Sojourn in Sansara.
As many would agree, a very large percentage of Buddhists observe sil at home. How well it would be if the state Television collectively or individually re orientate their programmes to start at 6 a.m. on Poya day with relaying the observation of Ata Sil, then have Dhamma discussions, meditation, sermons, pirith and relayed programmes of Buddha Poojas, Bodhi Poojas. The day should be programmed, well by a knowledgeable Board, as is for Wesak and Poson.
When this religious, interesting and informative programme is relayed on Poya day, domestically many parents observing Sil will certainly get their children to join them, and thus will a well disciplined religion-oriented leadership take their place in society. Thus the old and the infirm too, will get the opportunity to acquire greater merit in the seclusion of their own homes. Nearly a decade ago I wrote to the Press regards this but there was no favourable response. Today we have eight TV channels. The Government could utilise singularly or collectively the Rupavahini or ITN channels for this programme. A better, well behaved generation, thus would not permit the high standard of morals to crumble, as is happening now.
May the state TV channels usher in the Dharmishta Yugaya, which past regimes failed to do.
The long letter on "Inland Fisheries and Buddhism" by a correspondent in the name of "Observer" published in The Sunday Times of September 6, has overlooked the cultural antecedents of inland fisheries in Sri Lanka and has focused only on some selective evidence out of context. There is a great deal of evidence in Sri Lankan inscriptions, chronicles and literary records on inland fishing and it is best that misconceptions are dispelled as it is important to understand the issues in a wider canvas and a broader context.The earliest reference which indicates that fishing in reservoirs and canals was an important economic activity of the ancient Sri Lankans is found in the Perimiyankulam Rock Inscription of king Vasabha (65 - 109 A.D.). This inscription is indited on a rock just outside the present urban limits of Anuradhapura. It indicates that the revenues from water and the share of fish caught in the channels of the village tanks Polonakara and Ketavalaka in the district of Tihalaka were granted to two village assemblies for the purpose of spreading deer skins in the meditation hall of the temples in respective villages.The taking of life, of course, is prohibited in Buddhist teachings. But during the course of the development of society various compromises and arrangements had to be made for the sustenance of human life and social institutions. Even in agriculture operations worms and insects living under earth are destroyed. Therefore according to the 'Vinaya' rules monks were prohibited from directly engaging in agricultural pursuits, but certainly the prohibition did not apply to layman. The above mentioned Perimiyankulam inscription of Vasabha shows that income derived from fishing in certain irrigation works were allowed to be utilized for a religious purpose. As shown below there were many similar situations. On the other hand prohibition of eating meat or fish by monks had certain conditions. In the Jivaka Sutta or the Discourse to Jivaka, the Buddha prohibited the eating of meat and fish by monks only if it is seen, heard or suspected to have been killed for the purpose of giving it over to a monk.There is evidence on a tax on fishing from the first century A.D. onwards which indicates that fishing in reservoirs and channels, besides natural streams and rivers was widespread in the early Anuradhapura period. The fifth century Pali treatise, Papancasudani, the commentary of Rev. Buddhaghosa on Majjima Nikaya refers to the term 'maccabhaga' which means the share of fish caught in the reservoirs and channels. This share was claimed undoubtedly by the owners of irrigation works; the king in the case of large irrigation works, village assembles in the case of village irrigation works and individuals in the case of privately owned small reservoirs and channels.The tax on inland fisheries continued until the twelfth century with occasional interruptions and sometimes with limited prohibitions. For example, the Basavakkulam Pillar Inscription of Sena II (853 - 887) furnishes us with evidence that in the ninth century fishing in that reservoir situated by the side of the Mahavihara monastery at Anuradhapura was prohibited. This means that fishing in other reservoirs was approved of by the king. The tax on fishing had been enforced at least until the reign of Nissankamalla (1187 - 1197) of Polonnaruwa. Nissankamalla in several of his inscriptions claims to have abolished the levying of an impost called 'pisamburuvata' or 'visamburuvata' which can be identified as a tax on fishing. In, Southern India at this time a levy charged on fishing in reservoirs was called 'pasi pattam' or 'min pattam'. Thus, all the evidence points to the fact that until the end of the twelfth century a tax on fishing in state owned reservoirs was levied by the king which indicates that inland fisheries were part and parcel of the life of the ordinary people.After the hydraulic civilization had declined around the middle of the thirteenth century the people in the isolated pockets of settlements in the Dry Zone as well as those who lived closer to rivers and streams in the Wet Zone certainly continued fishing in inland waters to supplement their diet. Knox in the seventeenth century and several other British writers subsequently have referred to inland fishing in various forms, but there are no references to taxes charged on inland fishing from the thirteenth century onwards. As to the techniques of inland fishing, the Pali 'Samantapasadika' refers to the hook (bali), net (jala) and the long basket (kumina) as the most common methods. These are referred to in Sinhala literary works as well. In addition Sinhala literary works such as the 'Saddharmalankara' refers to the instrument called 'karaka' which may be translated as the basket. The karaka was made of small sticks which was broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. It was shaped like a funnel and the hole on top was big enough for a man to thrust his arm in and was about two or three feet wide at the bottom.The authors of some of the ancient Sinhala and Pali literary texts display a knowledge of the varieties of fish found in the inland waters of the island. It must be noted that most of the authors of these texts were Buddhist priests and therefore their knowledge and information on fish and fishing must have been limited. Still, the fact that a considerable number of varieties of fish was known to them indicates the importance of fishing in the subsistence economy. The varieties mentioned in literature are Kudamassa (common rasbora), Petiya (puntin), Lula (snake head), Valaya (fresh water shark), gangara (giant snake head), Sunga (stinging cat fish), Teliya (spine eel) and Anda (eel).While several varieties of fish were known to the priestly authors of ancient Sinhala and Pali literary texts, the practice of breeding of fish was also not unknown to them. The fifth century Pali commentator Rev. Buddhaghosa expressly states that some people brought fish from state owned large irrigation works and village irrigation works; bred them in small ponds in the back gardens of their homesteads; and daily caught two or three for their meals. In other instances too, Rev. Buddhaghosa refers to the rearing of fish by individuals in small streams and reservoirs. Nearly twelve centuries thereafter, Knox stated that fish had been nourished and fed by the kingÕs order at a "passage place" near the city of Kandy for the pleasure of the King but not for consumption.In present day Sri Lanka there is no general condemnation of fishing or any stigma attached to inland fishing except in rare instances. In fact, some people of the Vanni Hatpattu fish in reservoirs and on certain occasions send a quota of fish to the Buddhist monks in the village temple. Thus there have been no serious religious constraints on fisheries in Sri Lankan society. In future too there should not be such constraints particularly in view of the fact that inland fishing or shrimp farming could be further developed as viable economic activities.
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