Opinion
Covid, concoction and complacency
The Island editorial on the 14th of December, 20, titled ‘Putting the cart before the horse’, and the following little story, made me pen this short letter.
My sister happened to travel in a three-wheeler, a few days ago. And, the driver, who lives close to her residence, remarked, during the casual conversation: ‘Nona, mamanam dhan baya nehe. Mama ara paniya gaththa (Madam, I am not afraid now. I took that syrup). And, that probably sums up what many, who have acquired the ‘miracle herbal concoction’, felt.
They might have been driven to complacency and made to ignore the advice of the health officials, regarding precautions that ought to be taken to contain the pandemic. After all, is it not said to have a divine origin, as claimed by its earthly (specifically Sri Lankan) recipient?
For a few days, idiocy, lunacy and gullibility reigned in that part of the country, where the ‘syrup’ was freely given, and people were lining up in many hundreds (altogether around 15,000, they say) with hardly any ‘social distancing amongst them’. And in their haste to grab one (as the saying goes, ‘our people would run to grab even a headache, if it is given out free’), they must have forgotten to ask themselves one single, yet very pertinent question: what if this doesn’t work and someone around me is infected?
And then what would have happened to all the bee hives in the country? The syrup is said to have ‘bees honey’ as one of its ingredients and how in god’s name (?) did the Weda mahathmaya find that much honey to produce such a large amount of ‘syrup’?
Be that as it may, the sanity apparently seemed to have managed to prevail, finally amongst the authorities, and there are no more hundred-metre-long queues of people lining up to get the syrup. Had the ‘syrup frenzy’ continued, the Covid would have had a free run like a runaway loco, spreading the disease at will. It would have been only a matter of time (if it hasn’t happened already) for one or two infected people (knowingly or unknowingly to themselves) were going to be present amongst the crowd, and the Covid would have taken care of the rest of the operation of its community-wide propagation! I sincerely hope that there weren’t any.
Finally, my sincere appeal to all the authorities concerned: Please do not let religion and tradition get in the way of your duty to the country and its people. Faiths, beliefs, traditions, monks, priests, gurus, swamis, astrologers and even self-appointed weda mahaththayas, are a part and parcel of our society. And anyone is free to pour water into rivers from pots containing liquids or tasting any syrup (obviously not containing alcohol) in public. However, those actions should be confined to outside of your working hours. If not, they would be seen by the public at large as instances of giving official recognition of the action/object concerned. And they would also be taken by many concerned citizens as attempts to gain cheap publicity. Lastly, wouldn’t it also paint a poor picture of the quality of our government officialdom, including the ministers?
Now, is something not quite right in the last sentence of the above paragraph?
LAKSIRI WARNAKULA
The proposed expansion of the Kelani Valley railway line has prompted the squatters to demolish the buildings and the above photograph depicts the ad-hoc manner in which a building in the heart of Nugegoda town (No 39 Poorwarama Road) has been haphazardly demolished posing a risk to the general public. Residents say that the live electric wire has not been disconnected and the half-demolished structure is on the verge of collapse, causing inevitable fatal damages.
Over to the Railway Department, Kotte Municipality Ceylon Electricity Board and the Nugegoda Police.
Athula Ranasinghe,
Nugegoda.
On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 departed Denver, Colorado for Chicago, Illinois. The forecast weather was fine. Unfortunately, engine no. 2 – the middle engine in the tail of the three-engined McDonnell Douglas DC 10 – suffered an explosive failure of the fan disk, resulting in all three hydraulic system lines to the aircraft’s control surfaces being severed. This rendered the DC-10 uncontrollable except by the highly unorthodox use of differential thrust on the remaining two serviceable engines mounted on the wings.
Consequently, the aircraft was forced to divert to Sioux City, Iowa to attempt an emergency crash landing. But the crew lost control at the last moment and the airplane crashed. Out of a total of 296 passengers and crew, 185 survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declared after an investigation that besides the skill of the operating crew, one significant factor in the survival rate was that hospitals in proximity to the airport were experiencing a change of shifts and therefore able to co-opt the outgoing and incoming shift workers to take over the additional workload of attending to crash victims.
One wonders what would have happened if an overflying aircraft diverted to MRIA-Mattala, BIA-Colombo, Colombo International Airport Ratmalana (CIAR) or Palaly Airport, KKS during the doctors’ strike in the 24 hours starting March 12, 2025? Would the authorities have been able to cope? International airlines (over a hundred a day) are paying in dollars to overfly and file Sri Lankan airports as en route alternates (diversion airports).
Doctors in hospitals in the vicinity of the above-named international airports cannot be allowed to go on strike, and their services deemed essential. Even scheduled flights to those airports could be involved in an accident, with injured passengers at risk of not receiving prompt medical attention.
The civil aviation regulator in this country seems to be sitting fat, dumb, and happy, as we say in aviation.
Guwan Seeya
Plans to resurrect the Nanu Oya – Nuwara Eliya rail track are welcome. The magnificent views from the train have been described by H W Cave in his book The Ceylon Government Railway (1910):
‘The pass by which Nuwara Eliya is reached is one of the most exquisite things in Ceylon. In traversing its length, the line makes a further ascent of one thousand feet in six miles. The curves and windings necessary to accomplish this are the most intricate on the whole railway and frequently have a radius of only eighty feet. On the right side of the deep mountain gorge we ascend amongst the tea bushes of the Edinburgh estate, and at length emerge upon a road, which the line shares with the cart traffic for about a mile. In the depths of the defile flows the Nanuoya river, foaming amongst huge boulders of rock that have descended from the sides of the mountains, and bordered by tree ferns, innumerable and brilliant trees of the primeval forest which clothe the face of the heights. In this land of no seasons their stages of growth are denoted by the varying tints of scarlet, gold, crimson, sallow green, and most strikingly of all, a rich claret colour, the chief glory of the Keena tree’.
However, as in colonial times, the railway should be available for both tourists and locals so that splendid vista can be enjoyed by all.
Dr R P Fernando
Epsom,
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