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There is an attitude among private hospital staff to refuse beds for older patients. I don't know why they refuse - may be they think the older patients don't bring much income as the young ones.
When my family members who wanted to admit my father who was in severe pain (difficulty in breathing) inquired from some private hospitals in Colombo, the first question they asked for was his age. The moment they heard that he was 82 years, they said, "sorry there are no beds". But if it is a young person, they are quite happy to accept.
One kind-hearted young doctor in a private hospital noticed what sort of an agony he was undergoing and he urged the hospital staff to admit him immediately as the patient needed urgent medical attention. In a country where Buddhism is the main religion, I don't know why these private money eaters refuse to accept older patients. Ultimately my father was moved from one hospital to another and finally discharged saying that he was suffering from cancer and there was no use of keeping him in the hospital. Sadly my father passed away in January this year. I don't know whether these instructions are given by the owners of these private hospitals or by the staff who work there who want to charge more money keeping younger patients who can stay there for longer periods and pay a huge bill through their noses.
This is discrimination and this exists in our wonderful land where Buddhism is the main religion.
I hope the owners of private hospitals would take necessary action to prevent this kind of cruel attitude.
Very recently I happened to drop in at the Passport Office in Colombo to get a name changed. First of all our car was not allowed to go beyond the Galadari-roundabout and we had to park the car about a mile away and had to walk. We tried our best to get a three-wheeler but were told that even three-wheelers are not allowed to go beyond a certain point and had to walk about another mile to the passport office.
We, my daughter and myself, (an old man) somehow reached the office quite exhausted after a tedious foot journey in the hot sun around 1 p.m. but was told at the entrance that only the person concerned or the owner of the passport is allowed to go in - fair enough. While my daughter entered the office after showing her ID and passport I had to stand in the hot sun along with so many others for more than two hours. There is no shade anywhere in the vicinity and had to shade ourselves with newspapers or whatever we had in hand. Added to the misery, there is no place anywhere close by where we could even quench our thirst. Even the thembili and pineapple vendors are not allowed in this area, leaving the waiting public with much inconvenience. I saw several high officials entering the office in limousines but turning a blind eye to the suffering of the public. They are very well aware of the inconvenience caused to the waiting public.
Will anyone in authority seeing this letter please be sympathetic and take some action to (1) provide some sort of shade to the waiting public against sun and rain, (2) provide drinking water in the vicinity, if thembili and pineapple vendors are not allowed in this area, (3) provide some sort of transport, preferably a bus from the Galadari roundabout to the passport office, thus giving a little relief to the public especially the elderly.
According to a headline in a recent daily newspaper, felling and transport of Jak, Breadfruit and Palm trees like coconut has been banned. This extreme measure has been necessitated according to the news item due to a predicted global food scarcity by the year 2000. The report goes on to say that 200 Jak trees, 700 Palm trees and 100 Breadfruit trees are felled daily and these valuable trees will completely vanish from the country in a few years time.
Whilst conservation and food production should be encouraged, and assuming these figures are correct, let's pause for a moment to ponder who planted these Kos, Del and Pol trees the felling of which the government so conveniently bans. They are all planted by small private investors. The Kos and Del is mainly a peasant's investment for his children, for building construction and a hungry day. In an open democratic society isn't this legislation a restriction on the individual's right to exploit his investments when he wants it the way he wants it?
Legislation to restrain people from felling their own Jak and Breadfruit trees might finally be counter productive. Restrictions and barriers are anathema to an open economy and free society. Therefore are these extreme measures necessary? Or are they the result of government's inability to control the illicit logging of State Forests?
As for the assumption that Jak and Del trees should be preserved for their food value, it is not the popular food they were a few decades ago. It is only the over forties or fifties that still relish Jak and Del which they enjoyed in their youth. The younger generation unfortunately have been progressively weaned away from these valuable items of food by the short-sighted politicians offering wheat flour used for bread, noodles and other instant take away foods at subsidised rates.
Food production campaigns will never be a success with government wielding a whip with threats of take over of lands. Instead, there must be more persuasive motivation with provision of fair priced inputs and proper collection of produce, marketing facilities and remunerative prices. The bane of small time farmers and peasants today are the free roaming monkeys and wild boar which are doing immense harm to their crops, and is a formidable disincentive to production.
In food production, government's contribution should be to ensure the availability of fair priced inputs and to act as a catalyst to get the private sector, the co-ops and government departments involved in collection, adding value, and export marketing of the produce. In the old days the Marketing Department and Markfed played a very useful role in collection and local marketing.
Coming back to Jak and Breadfruit, the banning of felling and transportation will definitely act as a disincentive to planting and have its adverse effects on the wood-working and construction industries as well. Hence Jak and Breadfruit being the small entrepreneur's investment, should be taken off permits. Felling and transport should be allowed without any hindrance coupled with an intensive and incentive plan to popularise its cultivation by peasants and in large houshold gardens, school compounds, road sides and compounds of government institutions. Government agencies should get actively involved in supplying planting material and inviting NGOs like the Lions, Rotary, Jaycees, Oisca, 'Y's and women's organisations and others who have access to foreign funding to handle the extension work in selected areas like Grama Seva divisions.
If such a programme could be organised and spearheaded by the Ministry, in a few years time we will have more Jak and Del for consumption, more timber for construction and more money in the hands of the peasantry.
Our attention has been drawn to a letter to the editor appearing on The Sunday Times of February 16 under the caption "Are Christians being dis-enfranchised?" written by A.R. De Mel of Kandana.
In his letter, Mr. De Mel contends that the proposed holding of Local Government elections on the March 27 which is Maundy Thursday, would amount to an exercise of dis-enfranchising the Christians and he takes to task the hierarchy of the Christian denominations, especially the Catholic Bishops Conference for not protesting about it to the relevant authorities.
For the sake of clarity, I wish to inform that the Catholic Bishops' Conference did make representations to the President and the Commissioner of Elections, concerning the difficulties the Christian Community would face if elections were held as planned on the March 27.
Subsequently, Her Excellency the President assured us that our concerns will be taken into account when fixing the definite date for the elections and we are thankful to the Government for having shifted the elections away from the Holy Week to the March 21. Thus, the problems spoken of by Mr. De Mel do not arise any more.
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