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It is great to have the feeling Sri Lanka, paradise or land like no
other is finally giving thought to control pollution. Bold decisions for
benefit of the country and not to please the masses is some encouraging
news.
We the people who want the country to be paradise or land like no
other have to congratulate Minister of Environment, Chairman, Central
Environment Authority and the Government for having the courage to
implement the first dramatic action, banning of two stroke engines.
India, Bangladesh, Nepal had the courage to move them from the street
within a few days of implementation of the ban on two stroke engines.
Instead of Patrol, LNG / LPG, a less polluting fuel is used in these
countries. They are smarter than the Legislature of Sri Lanka as they
had the guts to take two steps forward. We are yet to recognise LPG as a
less polluting fuel.
Those who protested against this intelligent move inclusive of the
assembler of two stroke have now adjusted themselves for the benefit of
country over petty politics, profit and sacrifice of others life.
Leaders of countries who took bold decisions for the benefit of the
country are heroes today. That is why Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, India
and even countries like Costa Rica the same size of Sri Lanka have grown
to be more prosperous than Sri Lanka. Costa Rica gets 1.5 M visitors a
year Vs our 0.5 M and they are one of the largest exporters of
microchips.
We must also take our hats off to Minster of Environment and Chairman
CEA for bringing forward legislature to ban sound pollution from 2200 -
0600. It would have been better if the ban is from 0000 - 0600 as
implemented in most developed countries.
The sound level too should be controlled to less than 80 decibels at
the perimeter as stipulated for industry and be applicable to religious
institutions, musical shows, political meetings etc. Hope religious
groups who have no care for country but petty religious and ethnic
beliefs will not exert pressure on CEA to go soft on this legislation.
There should be legislature introduced to control the sound emitted
by vehicle engines and horns. Indiscriminate use of horns is a standard
practice in this country and some silencers of vehicles do not silence
but emit more noise than they should.
The British left the country demarcating silence zones. Now Sri Lanka
has hardly any silence zones. Where did they go? The Road Authority and
the Ministry concerned forgot to demarcate silence zones.
Next come emissions. Industrial emission is measured at different
times by numerous authorities. Air quality is never measured and public
informed. Most countries have air quality warnings.
India too has a daily report on air quality in major cities and
drastic steps are being taken to educate the public and vehicle users on
their responsibility for air quality. This country was to start vehicle
emission measurement as a joint venture with the private sector and
there was a lot of noise made about it. We are yet to see this happen.
Most petrol vehicles on the street have under performing engines that
pollute the air to a greater extent than a well tuned engine. This
happens mostly in State vehicles that are a majority on the road. State
organisations do not care as they do not spend on the fuel but the tax
paying public does.
The same goes for diesel powered state transport vehicles, service
vehicles. It is a common sight to see State owned vehicles emitting
belching smoke from exhaust and they drive on day after day as they are
owned and operated by the State. Service and Police vehicles are big
polluters. Armoured vehicles in operations emit so much black, grey and
white smoke. These are badly tuned engines.
Most countries that are concerned about the damage caused by poor air
quality to living beings are also concerned by the damage caused by poor
air quality to their heritage sites, monuments, sanctuaries etc.
India has banned vehicles in the vicinity of Taj Mahal. Pakistan too
is following suit to most of their important places. In USA, most of
Europe, Japan, Australia, vehicles have to be parked miles away from
sites.
Authorities offer echo friendly, electric, LNG/LPG operated vehicles
for transport of visitors through the sites with the driver or guide
giving a live commentary about the visited site. I was surprised in
Pakistan the able were made to walk about a kilometer to the sites and
Electric Golf Carts transported the less able.
When will the land like no other get to this level. May it be
Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa or any other heritage site or Yala and other
wild life parks, belching buses overloaded with people are allowed in.
They even use the horn within the park. It is high time those who
love the land like no other looked in to these aspects to enable the
Land like no other to remain a Land like no other instead of being
categorised as a polluted land like no other.
High time the Ministry of Environment/CEA study and implement what
other countries have done to prevent pollution. India too has taken
pollution serious and is converting public transport, taxis to LNG/LPG
and converting the railway to electric.
In the West inclusive of Australia vehicles are being converted from
petrol/diesel to LNG/LPG. There are two carmakers in Australia who make
LNG/LPG driven vehicles as a first step.
The Land like no other is yet to see LPG being recognised as a less
polluting fuel. There is not a single bus operated by LPG in the public
or private sector. If this country is to remain a land like no other or
paradise the leaders have to take bold and unpopular decisions for
benefit of country and all living beings within, for them to survive in
politics.
Take the leaders of Singapore, Malaysia, India, China as examples who
had the vision. That is why the land like no other is still Third World
and the others have reached the developed world.
Minister of Environment, Chairman CEA keep up the good work to
benefit the country. Do not be mislead by soft arguments but hard words.
Stand firm on values. Work for the benefit of people and animals.
TISSA JAYAWEERA
Beginning from my life as a maths teacher, I have been pleased to
note that the level of mathematics knowledge among students is on the
increase. Having seen this as a fine development and to be a stakeholder
in it I am exploring in this column some ways and means to enhance the
skill of doing mathematics in a manner ease of difficulties.
Mathematical principles and concepts have become part and parcel of
almost every area of work. Knowing those principles, the students will
help themselves, not only in schools, but also at the place of work when
they secure employment.
Mathematical ability could help you to learn the mathematical
concepts, skills and principles so important to other parts of your
life. In addition, mathematics skills are tools that can serve you well
in school, workplace and in other learning situations.
Your teachers can be an excellent resources. Besides, your teachers
who were once successful students - are knowing the subject matter
thoroughly and know how to guide you well.
This combination of skills make the point to be well-suited to help
you to improve your mathematical skills. You may pose a question to your
teachers as how they studied when they were in your grades. Their
experience of teaching may enable them to suggest good ways and means
for you to study particular topics.
A first step in developing mathematics study skills is figuring out
where you face problems. One way to figure this out is to keep a
mathematical journal. To start with, a mathematical journal, use a small
book to make notes about problems which are difficult for you, when you
do your home-work or class-work.
For an example, instead of writing, I can't do question number five,
you might write on number five, I could simplify the equation, but I
couldn't solve it because I didn't know what to do with fractions. This
may sound like a lot of work, but it will help you to understand where
you have problems and could be of help when talking to your teacher.
Some students feel like that they are simply not able to learn
mathematics. They would have been unsuccessful in learning mathematics
earlier or might have been told that they could not do mathematics. This
is of course mathematics anxiety. When a student hates mathematics, or
happens to struggle with it, the reason may be he/she doesn't know the
mathematical facts.
Sharpen up with the mathematical tables, so the youngster knows them
by heart. And his/her whole outlook towards arithmetic will change
dramatically. When a student doesn't know the mathematical table well
enough, he loses his trend of thought as he struggles through a problem
and mathematics becomes tedious for him.
But if he knows them very well, it really becomes a wonderful game.
The ability to do fast and accurate sums is the best predictor of who
would go on to higher mathematics.
While some problems, in mathematics may have only one solution, there
may be many ways to get the correct answer. Learning mathematics is not
only finding the correct answer, but also a process of solving problems
and applying what you have learnt to face new problems.
While accuracy is always important, a wrong answer could help to
discover what the child may not understand. The wrong answer tells to
look further, to ask questions, and to see what the wrong answer is
saying about the child's understanding.
Parents have the wonderful opportunity and responsibility for guiding
their children. Like reading, mathematics is a subject, that is indeed
necessary for functioning adequately in society. I am asking you "How do
you feel about mathematics?" Your feelings will have an impact on how
your children think about mathematics and themselves as mathematicians.
Take a few minutes to answer these questions - Do you think every one
can learn mathematics?
Do you think of mathematics as useful in every day life?
Do you believe that most jobs today required mathematical skills?
If you answer 'yes' to most of these questions, then you are probably
encouraging your child to think mathematically. Mathematics is a subject
as problem solving, communication, connection and reasoning for
students.
To communicate mathematically means to use words, numbers or
mathematical symbols to explain situations. Reasoning ability means
thinking logically, being able to see similarities and differences about
things. Mathematics is not isolated skills and procedures.
Mathematics is everywhere and most what we see in mathematics is a
combination of different concepts.
A lot of mathematics relates to other subjects like science, art and
music. Most important, maths relates to things we do in the real world
every day. Connection makes mathematics easier for children to
understand because they allow children to apply common rules to many
different things.
Example, geometry is one of the interesting areas of mathematics,
that involves shape, size, space position and movement. Children can
learn about shapes, solids and angles by looking at the physical word.
In order to make a student complete knowledgable in mathematics,
those abilities should simultaneously be imparted as mathematics play a
vital role in every life in this universe.
SIVALINGAM BALAMURAL (Murali), Colombo 6
In more recent times I happened to come across the use of word
'Islamist' by local and foreign correspondents.
I cannot see any reason why Muslims should be referred to as
'Islamists' instead of being referred to as 'Muslims'. After all, a
spade is a spade for the simple reason that it is neither a hammer nor a
screwdriver.
I consulted the Concise Oxford Dictionary which defines a Muslim as a
follower of the Islamic religion while the Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary defines a Muslim as a person whose religion is Islam and an
Islamist as a person who strongly believes in the teachings of Islam.
I cannot see any difference between the words Muslim and Islamist
especially when a Muslim cannot be a Muslim without having strong belief
in the religion of Islam.
The difference between the two words is suggestive of the difference
between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Can any reader give his/her views if he/she is able to observe any
difference between the two words in question?
FAZAL MAHMOOD, Chilaw
I have become a victim of a non-ending punishment because of my
household telephone. Very briefly I explain it as follows;
1. The trouble started in October 2002, when I received the monthly
telephone bill for the same period registering a six hour long foreign
call alleged to have been taken by me.
2. Some of the electrical items including my telephone and fax
machine were damaged by thunder and lightening during this period.
3. I raised objections in writing about this unrealistic charge to
Sri Lanka Telecom authorities and to the Telecommunications Regulatory
Commission (TRC).
4. In reply, on two occasions the TRC informed me of immediate
inquiry. Fixing of a date is yet to be arranged.
5. All outgoing calls suspended but the monthly bill is presented.
6. The punishment starts. Telecom as a practice, disconnects my
outgoing calls at the beginning of every month even though I pay the
rental and usage charge as usual.
7. The TRC was informed. They issued a letter quoting Regulatory
Clause Act No. 25 of 1991 under Clause 12 and Sub Clause 10.1.6
informing Telecom not to disconnect the phone until the disputed matter
is solved.
8. Telecom ignored this and carried on regardless. I am also a Senior
Citizen and have no other alternative but to inform RTE (Regional
Telecommunication Engineer/Office) Nugegoda, every month when calls are
suspended.
Hope the Minister of Telecommunications would look into this problem.
S. P. T. Jayasinghe, Padukka
Lots of people who watched on TV the crowds that thronged the streets
in a frenzy, from all walks of life, to cheer a 'superstar' agreed with
me the stupidity of it all.
During the contest watching it brought anger, to see the faces of the
contestants, when they were rejected, the humilation, and finally their
financial loss.
It is worthwhile to mention, other TV channels have also chosen
'superstars', but in a more refined manner. We must think of our singers
of yore, like Visharada Victor Ratnayake, Pandit Amaradeva, Visharada
Neela Wickremasinghe to name a few, who deserve recognition for their
services to the country. Also other dedicated film artistes. So all this
is by trying to ape the West, which definitely is not good for our
country, nor for our future stars.
A. KULATILLEKE, Mt. Lavinia
The authorities should protect all the innocent toddlers and adults
from tragic deaths by the unprotected wells wherever they are located in
the country, should fine the owners of the wells or give them a last
warning to put up safety wall right round against the wells to keep the
innocent creatures including humans and animal from this sort of tragic
deaths which takes place in our country everyday.
We see through the media how many incidents take place daily as a
result of these unprotected wells.
The Environment Ministry should take immediate step to ban such wells
or order to close down the unprotected wells, if the owners of the wells
are unable to obey the rules.
M. A. ISMATH, Beruwala
Having returned to Sri Lanka after living ten years in London I was
quite surprised and a little shocked to see the large number of
prostitutes, especially foreign ones, in Colombo, many are Russian and
Chinese.
You find them on the streets. Trishaw drivers offer you their
services and they are found in shopping malls.
A young Russian lady also recently accosted me at a casino in
Colpetty. Overseas Sri Lankans are often approached.
The management of casinos encourages this, so gambling is more
interesting. Tourists also combine visiting the country and sex.
What is the policy on this matter?
SURANJITH KARIYAWASAM, Dehiwela
The home garden poultry house concept has to be championed. The
sooner the better to ease the CoL.
The food habits of the people have drastically changed during last
few years.
The consumption of eggs and chicken have gone up more than seventy
five per cent over the years.
Step into any shop or boutique where there is a deep freezer or
fridge you could buy chicken or any other meat at your leisure. Though
consumption has gone up, production is lagging behind, making way to
import large amounts of poultry products from our giant neighbour India,
spending a fair slice of much wanted foreign exchange.
If every family starts a poultry house for home consumption (where
the space is available) we could be self sufficient in eggs and chicken
in a few years time. That is the need of the hour, I suppose.
The Government too should contribute by making enough day old chicks
available and medical care for old birds.
We should give up some age old concepts and attitudes regarding the
breeding of fowls for food.
We should not wait till the ship sinks.
It's our duty to be self sufficient in whatever the area is possible
for us at home, running a poultry house at home is nothing new. But it
should be done using new techniques and methods to get the optimum
benefit of them.
Even the fresh water fish ponds too is a way to overcome CoL
challenges in the long run. So, say heal thyself first.
Don't be a burden to the State.
D. M. P. B. DISSANAYAKE, Kegalle
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