Archives

The role of the public servant

Long denigrated by jaundiced sections as a drain on the public purse and as Lotus-eaters, the government servant of this country suddenly finds himself at centre stage of public affairs. For, on the public servant, primarily, devolves the task of bringing Sri Lanka out of the current tragic predicament.

It is left to the public servant to seize the current moment with unbounded enthusiasm and prove his detractors wrong. The present could be turned, by the government servant, into his most shining hour or be left utterly unexploited to prove the long held prejudices against him. The choice is the public servant's.

We, however, hope the public servants of this country would rally round the State to bring the people out of the current, harrowing nightmare.

We are compelled to focus on the public sector on hearing President Kumaratunga's call to it to redouble its efforts to make the State's targets in regard to reconstruction and rehabilitation, a reality.

"We must forget ourselves and think about the general public, including the thousands affected by the December 26 tragedy," President Kumaratunga was quoted telling public servants.

We hope the public conscience would be roused by this call because nothing short of a collective, gigantic effort by the government sector-the primary producer and service provider - would enable the country to make headway in the reconstruction and rehabilitation spheres.

Right away it needs be said that it is the public sector which has proved a bulwark in times of crisis in the past. In July 1983, for instance, it was none other than the government sector which held the country and people together, providing them with their everyday needs and keeping the basic infrastructure going.

In fact, the governmental machinery has been primarily responsible for providing the people of the North-East with their bare essentials over the past years of war.

So, there is no question of our ever dispensing with the government servant. He will continue to prove an essential cog in the State machinery. However, this time round the public servant would be required to go very much more than the extra mile to sustain the land, given the enormity of our crisis.

Every public servant needs to consider it his bounden duty to give of his best for his country in this its hour of need.

The Sixth Sense

A week after the December 26 tsunami tragedy, one of the most frequently asked questions is, "what happened to the animals ?". Nothing, actually. Animals seem to have escaped unscathed in the disaster which brought death to nearly 150,000 humans in Asia and Africa.

Sri Lanka's own Yala National Park is being cited as the best example for this phenomenon. Park officials have been unable to find a single animal carcass following the tidal wave invasion.

This has augmented the belief that animals possess some kind of 'sixth sense' that enables them to receive advance warnings on impending natural calamities.

History is replete with instances where animals emerged unharmed from natural cataclysms. Elders among us vehemently maintain that the unusual cries of many animals, including dogs and birds, signal bad tidings.

In fact, just hours before the tsunami waves lashed the coastline, many people recall seeing animals heading inland in a hurried, though orderly, manner.

Do animals really have a sixth sense ? Opinions vary on this controversial subject. But a far more plausible explanation is that animals definitely do have acoustic senses that are far more advanced than those of humans. Be it the detection of vibrations, seismic shocks or sound waves, animals have capabilities which we do not.

Elephants, for example, use infrasound (low-frequency noise below 20 Hertz), which humans cannot hear. They can pick up these sounds from several kilometres away.

Experts reckon that animals could have picked up a "ground signature" of vibrations or an airborne noise, produced by the advancing waves, that was inaudible to humans. Most creatures are also able to sense early danger through the soil. The sonar system used by bats also comes in handy to detect any changes in their environment.

Some animals also have non-acoustic sensors. Most birds are very sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure. They also benefit from a highly accurate internal compass that reacts to changes in the Earth's magnetic field.

Once even one member in a herd of animals senses danger, it usually alerts the others through "alarm codes" - special cries which enable the whole community to flee.

It is rather mysterious as to why humans do not have at least one of these abilities. Man is an animal, after all. A possible explanation is that Man gradually lost such faculties as its brain and other senses advanced in the course of evolution.

We now have the benefit of technology that can mitigate the effects of a disaster to some extent, but this pales beside the natural instinct to sense a catastrophe hours beforehand. Further research is certain to elicit a method whereby we may be in a position to sense what the animals are sensing and literally follow the herd.

www.millenniumcitysl.com

www.Pathmaconstruction.com

www.ceylincoproperties.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager