Political meddling the cause
Despite millions of rupees being spent for the live telecast
of the week-long celebrations to felicitate the President on her
completion of ten years in office, the Media Minister is unhappy
with the way the programmes played out on the idiot box. Several
directors of the state-run television station were summoned to the
Ministry recently and lambasted by the angry minister for the poor
quality of the programmes which looked more like "funeral houses"
and were not lively enough. The directors in turn summoned the technical
crews involved and lambasted them. The prompt reply from the technicians
was that new entrants to the Corporation with political backing
have been given high posts while the experienced personnel have
been kept languishing in the same old position for years and hence
their lack of motivation to work well.
Anyone's
guess
A reader has written regarding the our Odds & Ends
of last week with regards to Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena turning up
at the airport at the same time that the Sri Lankan who was taken
hostage in Iraq was returning to the country. He writes that as
the departures and arrival areas are separate and because one has
to pass the departure area to get to the arrivals, there was no
need for Dr. Jayawardena to go the arrivals if he was leaving the
country and to suddenly spot Mr. Rajaratnam and speak to him. It
is true that the departures and arrivals are some distance apart
but Dr. Jayawardena did turn up when the freed hostage arrived as
could be seen in many of the television shots taken at the airport.
It was also the same day that Dr. Jayawardena was leaving for Bangkok
to attend a conference. Whether the appearance of the publicity-loving
politician at the arrivals area at the same time as Mr. Rajaratnam
is a mere coincidence or not can be anyone's guess.
Cruelty
to animals
Dogs were also in the news last week. Firstly, some animal
rights groups were screaming foul at the UNF for using canines as
part of their protest campaign to denounce the Supreme Court ruling
that sent S.B. Dissanayake to jail for two years. The dogs were
tied to posts and were adorned with the now famous words used by
the UNF to decry the Court ruling. This was seen as cruelty to animals
by some animal rights groups and was highlighted on state-run TV
along with allegations that the stray dogs used were ones that had
been gathered by the Colombo Municipal Council to eliminate, a charge
denied by the CMC.
Unfortunate
canines
The only dogs to be troubled were not those used in the
protest. The environs of Parliament too had a dog problem but the
Speaker had requested that the dogs be captured and taken elsewhere
and not eliminated as is done in case of stray dogs. Despite the
orders, it now emerges that canines were eliminated. So at least
for a while there will be no dogs barking around Parliament. |
