Opinion
PRISCILLA SENARATNE , MY MARVELOUS MOTHER
August 6 was mummy’s birthday. If she was alive she would be a 100 today. She really was an amazing woman and so ahead of her time. A career woman who wanted careers for her daughters not husbands, and she did not mince her words on this!!
She physically went to work till she was past 73. Nobody would let her retire. The Corporates she worked for, Walkers, the Mahaweli Authority, kept begging her to come back to work until my sister and I put our foot down and said enough. She was a chef who turned out the most exotic dishes even in Mrs Bandaranaike’s time when we couldn’t even buy bread; and she even made bread buns and cake for all the children down Joseph Lane who waited eagerly to see what Aunty Priscilla would turn out for them with one tin of sardines and one tin of ghastly condensed milk.
She sewed all our clothes, there was no Odel or Little Smockers, or any of the many many choices kids have today; even our little panties were trimmed with lace. She sheltered a family of four during the 83 riots for six months until they went to Canada . She as absolutely fearless and felt it was her Christian duty to do so [ daddy was dead by then ].
Both my sister and I were not at home as we being half Indian we had to leave or rather were told by the rioters that we had to leave, else our safety could not be guaranteed. Mummy being Sinhalese was safe.
She was a champion ballroom dancer, loved amateur theatricals, was one of the first to wear trousers and spoke the Queen’s English unlike it’s spoken today , in fact she would correct everyone’s pronunciation, grammar etc, not just at home but at work to . The two books that never left her bedside table were the Bible and Roget’s Thesaurus, along with her pack of cigarettes of course.
If she didn’t like something or someone she would tell it to the person’s face and would show her displeasure . She didn’t believe in mincing her words and was a true Iron Lady. She used minimum make up and had a skin like a rose petal, went grey only past 70 and never dyed her hair.
She would chastise my sister over her plumpness and me on the fact that I had no bottom or bosom . She had a legion of friends and three proposals of marriage even when she was in her 70s !!!!
She was truly an amazing woman. She was my confidante – got me my first halter when I was 18 and my first black dress, packed them both in a bag and said “dress at Nitus house , don’t let your father see you” .
I miss her to this day and thank god for the values she instilled in us . “Tell the truth and shame the devil ” , ” a stitch in time saves nine”, ” count your blessings not your losses”, “cleanliness is next to godliness”, ” manners maketh a man” , ” don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today” , “a woman has only one thing – her reputation “, and so many many other sayings that I try to live by to this day.
As daddy worked out of Colombo all his life mummy was both mother and father to my sister and me most of the time and had the onus of bringing up her daughters by herself, though daddy would always come to Colombo in time of need.
As she always said daddy spoiled us. She was the disciplinarian in the family and there was never any nonsense with her , but she gave us TREMENDOUS love and care, so much so that every day when she returned home from work I would greet her with a bunch of flowers plucked from our garden. In fact I was her little tail and the highlight of the school holidays was accompanying her to office and tapping away at her typewriter.
The list of what she did for us is unending, which included little dresses hand embroidered and smocked – Noah’s Ark and almost all the Nursery Rhymes adorned my clothes, an edible Christmas tree made of marzipan and decorated with marzipan baubles was unfailingly placed on my bedside table and nibbled on at night every Christmas. This was when I was all tucked up in bed [not the best thing for my teeth but they are more or less still intact ]; and so very much more .
Therefore when I was due to get married, my one thought was ‘ how on earth can I give my children what my parents gave me ‘. I had such big shoes to fill and it literally scared me to death as I was convinced I couldn’t do a hundredth of what my parents did. It was another time , another era when people had time for each other, talked to each other, bonded with each other and life didn’t revolve around technology or gadgets.
But no matter how fast paced and technology driven life has become, some thing’s don’t change, such as values and good manners and I thank my parents for that. Not money and property – those are ephemeral, but what mummy and daddy instilled in us lives on forever.
Anusha David
August 6, 2024
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
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