Letters to the Editor

3rd March 2002

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'Letters to the Editor' should be brief and to the point.
Address them to:
'Letters to the Editor,
The Sunday Times,
P.O.Box 1136, Colombo.
Or e-mail to 
steditor@wijeya.lk or 
stfeat@wijeya.lk
Please note that letters cannot be acknowledged or returned.

Are we aliens?

Sri Lanka's Independence Day was celebrated in the Maldives on February 4, with the Sri Lankan High Commission here hosting a dinner party in Male.

Sri Lankan officers and employees working in high positions were invited to this party, while the High Commission totally ignored and did not think it right to invite most of the senior Sri Lankan expatriates such as teachers or anyone from the large labour community working here. Aren't the Sri Lankan masons, carpenters and municipality workers, who toil long and hard to send foreign exchange back home, citizens of Sri Lanka? Why is the High Commission treating us like aliens and discriminating against us?

Another incident which has shocked the Lankan community here is the death of a Lankan on board a ship. A minor employee in a bicycle shop in Male , this Lankan was found dead on a ship on February 9.

The questions being asked by the Lankan community are:

* How can a minor employee be sent to work on a ship without a certificate?

* Why hasn't the High Commission conducted a proper investigation into this death?

Sri Lankan worker
Maldives 


Ban sand mining

It is a pity that sand mining is done on a large scale along the picturesque Mahaweli, the longest river in the island. 

In Katugastota, Peradeniya and other areas of the Central Province, mining is taking place for commercial purposes, despite warnings by environmentalists and geologists. Hope the UNF Government will ban sand mining.

S.M.J. Deen
Tennekumbura


Stunning disclosure!

Amid consumers battling sky-rocketing rice prices and the government's intervention to import rice to meet the shortfall and stabilize the market, comes the news that an MP has discovered 3.5 million mt. of paddy at CWE warehouses. Everyone who heard this would have been stunned! 

Why didn't the CWE release his massive stock to the market to give some relief to consumers by way of reduced prices. It would have prevented the import of rice and also made the warehouses available for the Maha harvest. 

U.M.G. Goonetilleke
Polgasowita


Peace is fine, but don't drop defences

When former American President Ronald Reagan struck an arms control deal with the then Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, his scepticism was summed up in the now famous phrase, "Trust, but verify".

Following last week's ceasefire agreement with the LTTE, the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would be well advised to remember the Reagan philosophy in its dealings with the shifty Tigers. Unfortunately, judging by recent trends, the government seems to be guided by a new dictum, "Trust, but de-militarize".

Last week the govern-ment also announced it was planning to reduce the country's military budget by about $100 million this year. And according to The Sunday Times Defence Correspondent, Iqbal Athas, the army has shelved plans to recruit 10,000 personnel. His reports also indicate that the LTTE has made four mid-sea transfers of weapons since the ceasefire came into force in late December.

If these reports are true, the government is probably going overboard placing too much faith and trust in the LTTE.

Let us certainly negotiate for peace which the country is dying for - metaphorically speaking. 

But, at the same time, let us not drop our defences and be caught with our pants down - if not literally, at least militarily.

Mithila Gunaratna
New York


The fishy question that begs an answer

It is encouraging to note the protests against the modern slaughter house proposed by the CMC. While this is commendable, the protest is an indirect way of responding to the issue. The primary emphasis should be to stop, abolish and terminate slaughter, in fact, all killing. 

It is unfortunate that all those who talk about animal slaughter restrict themselves to the slaughter of cows. This is clearly a result of Hindu influence, which deifies the cow. On the contrary, we must strive to put an end to all types of killing.

We must remember that ultimately all types of killing, destroy life. There is no way we could give more value to a life that is 'housed' in a physically larger mass of flesh. If we go on this basis, all those Sumo warriors would be considered more valuable than citizen Silva. This seems to be the perception held by many Buddhists. A person who thinks nothing of eating small fish, will be horrified at the death of a stranded whale, or at cattle slaughter. Unconsciously, he has linked the value of life to physical mass. To this day I have not been able to verify whether this line of thinking has any support in Buddhist philosophy.

Once in a while, you come across the odd individual who has grappled with this problem and come to his own conclusions. Thus you find the Buddhist who has decided that the value of life has nothing to do with the size of the physical body. I heard of one who proudly announced that he prefers beef to fish as a Buddhist, as the former involves destroying one life that can satisfy the food requirements of many, whereas the latter option, i.e. eating fish, involves destroying a large number of lives.

This man has recognised the problem for what it is. There is no escape from destroying lives. Therefore, it is better to kill the minimum for the maximum benefit rather than destroying a large number and becoming more sinful. 

Talking of sin, if destroying life is essential, how come it is a sin? In other words, why is something that is part and parcel of nature considered sinful? Are all the big fish that gobble smaller fish or the carnivores that have to kill for food if they are to survive, all sinful? But I am digressing.

The fact is that the sooner we can find a convincing anwer to this question whether life value is linked to body mass or not, we can approach the issue in its proper perspective. If the answer is, "Yes, life value is related to body mass", then we can maintain the protest against killing larger species. 

The intensity of protest, too, should then be on par with the mass of the species involved, while ignoring, in a way, the killing of smaller forms of life such as fish and poultry.

But the criteria to be exercised are somewhat vague at the moment. I mean whether we should link the importance of life only to the weight of the animal involved, only to the size, or to both, that is to the mass (scientific meaning intended). Or should we also take into account other factors such as the level of usefulness to man, the animal belonging to an endangered species, it being a harmful animal etc?

These fine points are left to experts, but the sooner we can clear this matter up the better it is for future Buddhist generations.

On the other hand, if the Buddhist principle is found to be that life value has nothing to do with the mass etc. of the animal, the outcome would be that all life is of equal importance irrespective of size. In this case, we have a massive task at hand. Cattle slaughter pales into insignificance in front of the enormity of killing fish in their thousands, and mosquitoes in their millions. 

I am at a loss to understand how we can tackle the implications of this. All of us who are appalled at bovine slaughter would have to get involved in the more serious task of protesting against the fishing industry.

To dissuade the fish eating public, we will have to come up with dramatic write-ups on how the fish is lured towards the net or the hook as the case may be, how it gets hooked, how the sharp iron hook pierces through its body cutting the intestines into pieces. Come to think of it, killing fish is done in a crueller manner. We may even opt to explore ways to make fishing humane. The first step is finding out whether the value of life is related to the body mass of an animal.

Anura Kuruppu
Narahenpita



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