Letters to the Editor

19th March 2000

Planning needed on how to date next year

From next year there is bound to be confusion when dating documents using the shorter form, unless there is some consensus on a set of guidelines. In Sri Lanka we are used to dating documents in various ways such as: day-month-year (e.g., 23-12-99); year-month-day (e.g., 99-12-23); and year-day-month (99-23-12). Perhaps this usage has linguistic undertones.

For the past several years up to the year 2000, the year was distinctly identifiable, (e.g., 01-03-99 or 01-03-00). From year 2001 unless there is prior agreement on a uniform procedure, there could be much confusion and inconvenience. This may entail financial or other losses to some and/or even involve others in unnecessary litigation. For example, the first day of next year is 01-01-01. The next Bandaranaike birth anniversary may be written as 08-01-01, 01-01-08 or 01-08-01. The next independence commemoration day may be written as 04-02-01, 01-02-04 or 01-04-02.

Our grandparents may have had this difficulty at the commencement of the 20th Century. However, at that time the volume and speed of transactions entailing documentation would have been insignificant compared to those of today.

One solution is to insist on four figures for the year. However, it would be preferable to use the shorter form by prior consensus or on the basis of an international standard, if there is any.

I feel that some responsible authority should look into this matter and give appropriate directions to the public.

Zeno Rodrigo
Colombo 15

Traffic chaos at Dehiwela junction

The Dehiwela junction on Galle Road is a motorists' nightmare with traffic piling up at most times of the day. Earlier there was only a roundabout and there were no jams. Later traffic lights were installed, but the roundabout remained. This has led to severe traffic jams.

Nowhere in the world do traffic engineers provide both a roundabout and traffic lights for the same junction.

The National Savings Bank has provided a clock tower for this roundabout. The clock tower can be shifted closer to the Dehiwela Railway Station and the roundabout demolished.

Only the traffic lights need to remain. Then there will be no more congestion and no more traffic jams.

Lionel J. Seneviratne,
Mount Lavinia

English: Is it the blind leading the blind?

English should be made a compulsory subject at the GCE A/L Examination, so that students can continue their studies at university with ease.

Most students who obtain distinctions and credit passes in English at the O/L Examination cannot express themselves in English properly, nor can they write a simple sentence in English correctly. If the teaching of English, is ineffective at this level, will its continuance at the GCE A/L stage show better results? This is a fault of the system.

I recall that in 1975,teachers were recruited to be trained to teach English by the Education Department in Galle. They had credit passes in English at the GCE O/L Examination but were interviewed in Sinhalese because they could not express themselves in English.

The required number was selected and trained and they are now teachers of English at various schools. Isn't this a case of the blind leading the blind?

P.A. Binduheva
Panadura

Ruse to get phone bills paid

Since December we have been bombarded with advertisements telling us how to collect the telephone directory for 2000 which should in fact have been delivered to us.

On Friday January 28, I received my telephone bill for December, along with a flyer setting out the procedure for collecting the directory. On January 31, I paid the bill and went to the Teleshop in the Sausiri building in Nugegoda to collect the directory. The staffer I spoke with asked me whether I had to pay my bill. When I told her that I had paid it already and was there to collect the directory, she told me they had not received any directories and to check in March.

But in February too the newspapers had a half-page ad saying the directories would be available after February 21 on production of the receipt for payment of the January bill. It would seem to me that Sri Lanka Telecom has devised an ingenious method of securing prompt payment of bills. I have a question for the senior Japanese Executives running SLT. What would have been your fate if you had tried this stunt on customers in any Japanese city?

G.H. Wadinambiaratchi
Dehiwela

Shift the Bandarawela clock tower

Salubrious Bandarawela town though not the capital of the Uva Province has nevertheless acquired importance as an upcountry resort town, popular with tourists and holidaymakers. However, with the black July riots of 1983, a good part of the town was burnt by goondas.

Today it has been built up with shops, supermarkets, wide roads, pavements and a link road connecting either end of the old town leading on to the Badulla road known as 'Dharamawijaya Mawatha'. Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the clock tower, built on the orders of the late President Premadasa, which now stands adjoining the supermarket on this link road, to be shifted to the main roundabout at which the Colombo road falls and roads branch off to Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, Welimada and Kandy ?

The clock tower is a public utility and it should hold a central place and be a thing of beauty in the town.

Don Sarath Abeyesekera
Bandarawela

Birds' nest thieves are free birds

Collecting birds' nests from jungle areas and selling them to urban visitors is a lucrative business in some areas, especially near the Yala sanctuary.

Weaver birds' nests are the worst affected since they are expensive and in high demand. When I asked one seller what he does with nestlings and eggs, he said he throws them away. This is, besides being a serious offence, a great sin.

Those who buy nests hang them in their sitting rooms as wall decorations. According to wild life conservation laws the sale or purchase of birds' nests is illegal, but the law is often blind and nature lovers silent.

Nandalal Nanayakkara,
Matara

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