Amidst the pealing of church and temple bells, revelry and cheers of good wishes and burst of crackers, the Year of Grace 1998 will be born.
Let us for a moment look back at the year that has passed, at the year that has witnessed triumphs and disasters, at the year that was dotted with joys and sorrows alike, but let us not dwell upon the past failures which will avail us nothing but sad memories of grief and frustration.
If we have any good intentions, let us begin at the beginning of the year to put them into effect.
Let us wish that all races living in our planet be united and live in peace and social harmony as members of one large family.
Let us wish that there be lasting peace in our motherland and all form of violence and hatred vanish for ever.
Let us wish that the leaders of the world unitedly and sincerely strive to banish those forces of terrorism and violence to enable the people to live in peace and harmony.
Let us also be kind and generous to our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than ourselves. What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done to others and the world remains immortal.
Let us not forget for a moment, sooner or later we all have to stand before God to render an account of our doings here and then He will not ask us.
"How popular you were during your life,
How many parties you attended;
How well dressed you were;
How many clubs you belonged to;
How big a bank account you had.
But, He will ask what you did for others.
Numerous letters and articles have appeared in the papers condemning, and in some instances ridiculing Muslim politicians for the successful banning of the BBC film 'Midnight's Children'.
However I feel that these have not been written with an intention of uplifting any sort of intellectualism but with an intention to bring the Muslims into disrepute, placing them in the dock as the guilty party.
The Muslims stand convicted as not only offenders, but I suspect, as parasites and being unpatriotic.
We must view this episode in all fairness to Muslims. Many just like to take shots at them following the tirade against them by the western media. It seems like as if it is an open season against Muslims.
How would we Sinhalese feel if some big TV company like the BBC was to make a film on the July '83 riots with a slant in favour of the Tamil Hindus? Conversely speaking, how would the Tamil Hindus feel if such a movie was made with a slant in favour of us Sinhalese, laying all the blame on the Tamil Hindus as being the cause of the riots? Not a pleasant thought, one would say. How then can we be so insensitive to the Muslims?
We Sinhalese must face ground realities. Muslims may be a minority in the country, but remember they are a huge majority in the region. There are roughly 300 million Muslims in the SAARC region. I am sure we would have hurt the feelings of an overwhelming majority of them had we gone ahead with Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children'. True, there may not be anything against Islam in the movie, but the fact remains that Rushdie is a dirty word in the language of all Muslims.
We must cherish the fact that Pakistanis like Sri Lankans and treat us as friends. We must reciprocate in kind and strengthen the bonds of friendship with not only Pakistan but all countries in the region. Our future lies in the unity of the SAARC region.
We won't achieve this if we give into the silly intellectualism of a few, and give into permitting propagandist movies like 'Midnight Children' to be filmed here, especially after both Pakistan and India refused the B. B. C. permission.
We must give up our petty intellectualism just as much as we should have given up the futile ideologies of 'minorityism' and 'majorityianism' fifty years ago.
It's not too late even now to make a fresh start. But for starters, we must treat all Sri Lankans as Sri Lankans and not as minorities living by the grace of the majority. Also we must bring into our focus a broader picture - one of prosperity and happiness for all those who call Sri Lanka their home, so that our children will be content and have a good word for us.
There are a number of steel rolling mills in Sri Lanka, put up by foreigners in collaboration with local companies. They manufacture structural steel for both high and low rise buildings, bridges, etc. Many more are coming up!
These rolling mills are only concerned with quantity and not quality. This is evident as hardware shops are stocked with substandard Merchant steel. They import cheap steel billets from Ukraine which are not in accordance with Sri Lanka Standards No. 375 of 1996. The diameters are less than that is stated in the steel bars, and they crack when bent.
This poses great danger to any Civil Engineering works. Trade Marks are absent in some Mills and the diameters are not stated on the steel rods.
This is a fraud and cheating the customers. Our very economy is in danger.
Most of the builders borrow money at exorbitant interest from the Banks. After 5 -10 years, the structures begin to crack, and the pillars are likely to collapse.
Both the hardware merchants and the manufacturers are liable for prosecution.
The most helpful method in detecting this is using a laboratory test.
This should be compulsory before the goods are put out in the market. A tensile machine should be used to test the quality of the steel, on a daily basis. In Sri Lanka, there are nine rolling mills, and it is sad to note that none of them have laboratory facilities.
What is the government doing about this dilemma? Institutions like the Ministry of Buildings and Construction and Ministry of Industries and Industrial Development, should be actively involved in this situation.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, under which the S. L. S. I and C. I. S. I. R. function should do their duty to protect the customers.
The S. L. S. I. officers rarely go on random checks to test the quality of the steel. Those companies which send their samples for testing to the S. L. S. I., have to wait for months before the laboratories complete their tests. On the contrary, the same number of samples are tested in private factories within a few hours.
It is the duty of the S. L. S. I. to warn the public through the Radio, Television and the newspapers about the 'substandard steel' in the local market.
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