Too Much Political Correctness Menace to the Society Today?

Why do some think that one has to be politically correct all the time?

A video doing the rounds on many social media platforms shows a woman being caught red-handed by the owner of a lost credit card.

The gist of the incident was that the lost card was found by someone and given to a security guard on that premises, and instead of trying to restore it to its rightful owner, the guard called his wife and told her to go shopping with it.

When the owner realized the card was lost and it had been used twice, he deactivated the card and identified the woman who was using it after watching the CCTC footage of one such establishment.

Then he rushed to the nearby keels and the woman was caught red-handed trying to use it again for the third time.

When I read many of the comments posted by other users, I could not help but wonder what is wrong with society.

Many posts are in favour of the woman who was caught red-handed because she was poor, and the other reason is that there are many other large-scale scamming and looting happening in the country.

Then why try to highlight, according to most, this small incident?

Further, why use social media platforms to highlight such incidents?

I am sure they are just nave that they are unaware that even the law enforcement agencies, even from developed countries, use the same tactics to catch wrongdoers as well as educate the public.

How come two wrongs make one right?

There are many who try to act philosophically, as long as the problem is not theirs but take a 180-degree turn the moment it becomes one of your problems.

Stealing is stealing, whether the amount involved in the transaction is one cent or one billion in any form of currency, and it is not justified because others with influence and connections are getting away with Scott free.

I believe trying to be too politically correct in all incidents has now become cancer in our society.

Madams in Public Service ?

This morning I went to the department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla to get an amendment to my passport.

It was so chaotic with thousands of people trying to gain access and with no proper arrangements to have any orderly entry.

If people are given online appointments within specified time slots, then why does it have to be so chaotic and disorganized?

The guards who man those entry points are of no help to anyone; they live in their own aloof worlds.

And there is no proper signage either.

After speaking to many in different uniforms, I finally found the right entry point and got access without much hassle.

When I reached the acceptance counter, I was asked by the female staff who was manning the counter whether I had spoken to Madam.

I wanted to enlighten her that there are no Madams in public service except public servants, but knowing well, that antagonizing a government servant means that you should be ready for a big and long battle, and I was not in the mood for that this morning.

Instead, I asked who "Seuvandi Mani" are you referring to, but unfortunately, she did not get the drift, so I had to join another queue to see this so-called Madam.

When my turn came up, I explained my requirement and she points blankly said that they were unable to make amendments to the details on the Bio page.

When I questioned her the reason as to why it couldn’t be done, she looked at me scornfully and placed her signature.

The due amount was paid, and within 90 minutes I got my passport back with the requested amendment stamped on it.

I am still unable to fathom why someone holding a high position in the public service behaves in such a manner.

My only explanation is that most Sri Lankans are very sadistic in nature, and they become more sadistic when they are in uniforms or have a certain level of authority.

වඳ කොත්තු කන්න ගාළුමුවදොර නාවත් කමක් නැහැ.!

විදුලි ජල බිල් වැඩි වෙනකම් ඉන්න එපා අරගල කරන්න.

තමන්ගේ ලඟම කෙනෙක් ඉස්පිරිතාලේ බෙහෙත් නැතුව මර ඇඳේ ඉන්න කම් එපා අරගල කරන්න.

තමන්ගේ ඉගෙන ගත්ත දුවා දරුවන්ට රැකියාවක් හොයා ගන්න බැරි වෙන කම් ඉන්න එපා අරගල කරන්න හිතන්න.

වැඩවසම් යුග වල මුත්තා, සීයා, තාත්තා කරාට කමක් නැහැ.

උඹලත් ඒවාම කරන්න ඕනේ කියලා කොහේවත් නීති පොත්වල ලියවිලා නැහැ, උඹලාගේ හිත්වල මිස.

මේ සියවසේ ඒවා කරගන්න ඕනේ තරම් ක්‍රමවේද දියුණු ලෝකයෙන් අපිට දැනටම ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.

ඒ නිසා පරම්පරා ගානක් කරගෙන ආපු නිසා අපිත් කරනවා කියන මානසිකත්වයෙන් මිදෙන්න උත්සහ කරන්න.

ඔය පැලඳගෙන ඉන්න පාට කණ්නාඩි ගලවල ලෝකේ දිහා ධනාත්මකව බලන්න පුරුදු වෙන්න.

ලෝකෙන් උතුම් රට ලංකාවයි කියලා සිංදු හදලා සම හරක් තව සම හරක්ව ඇන්දුවට, මේක අපායක් කියලා ලෝකේ දැකපු අය දන්නවා.

වැඩි හරියක් ලිං මැඩියන් වගේ ඉන්නකම් අර මුත්තලා, සීයලා වැඩ කරපු අය ඉතා සංතෝස බවත් මතක තියා ගන්න.

ඔය ගම වට වෙලා තියෙන කඳුයාය මුඳුනට දවසක නැගලා බලන්න උත්සහ කරන්න.

එතකොට පුලුවන් වේවි ඔය කඳුවැටිය මෙච්චර දවසක් නොපෙන්නා හංගන් හිටපු අනික් ලෝකේ කොච්චර සුන්දරද කියලා.

තාම පරක්කු නැහැ. අඩුම ගානේ තමන්ගේ දූදරුවන්ටවත් කියන්න කන්ද ජය ගන්න උත්සහ කරන්න කියලා.

මුත්තා සීයා කරපු දේනේ, මේක අපේ කරුමේ කිය කිය ඉන්න එපා.

අරගලය තියෙන්නේ ගාළුමුවදොර කියලත් හිතන්න එපා.

නිදහස් සහ ධනාත්මකව සිතන්න පුරුදු වෙන්න.

එදාට වඳ කොත්තු කන්න, ගාළුමුවදොර හෝගාන පොකුණ බලන්න නාවත් කමක් නැහැ.

A Dead Passenger on Arrival !

Manning the radio transmitter on the company frequency was sometimes fun.

Sometimes it gets unusual requests.

Once, a Royal Jordanian flight over flying Oman airspace had a medical situation and requested a doctor to come on the frequency.

The airport doctor was called in and, after a lengthy conversation, the PIC decided to divert the aircraft to Muscat, and later, the child, who had some issues, was rushed to the nearest hospital.

A couple of times, I had to chip in by providing the latest cricket scores to the Sri Lanka Air crew while overflying Oman territory.

The British Caledonian crew used to call in on approach to give their bar uplift order to the catering unit.

That was one of the most challenging conversations.

One, they speak with a hefty accent, and the second was that most of the names of the spirits they ordered were not so familiar with the guys who are only used to Old Monk kinds of Indian stuff.

There was a KLM flight at the same time, and their Station Manager, Mr Patrick Hennessy, used to help our Operations guys get the order right whenever he was around.

But I think the best call came in from a British Airways flight.

It was during shift changing time that an alert was raised that the flight was landing with a dead passenger.

All necessary emergency protocols were initiated accordingly, and when the aircraft was met with so many vehicles with emergency lights flashing, even the crew were taken back a little.

The CSD asked what the emergency was, and when he was told that we were ready to receive the dead passenger, he could not hold his composure anymore.

"No, we don't have a dead passenger, but we do have a deaf passenger" who will require assistance with formalities, which is why we called ahead on the radio.

The situation was scaled down immediately, and it was the one occasion that a debriefing was not held after a reported incident.

Later, it was revealed that the message was taken in the absence of flight operations personnel by someone who was supposed to be manning the flight information and announcements desk, seated side by side with the operations control.

Call Sign " Mike India Kilo "

India's naval air fleet does long-range training flights and Oman was their favourite place to land for technical support and layovers.

A fleet of at least three to four accompanying Indian-built Dornier aircraft used to come a couple of times a year on their training missions.

Once on such a mission, I went to meet them on arrival to facilitate their requests.

On that occasion, they were on a short transit and the fleet commander informed that they wanted to go to the Duty-Free area to see the place and do some shopping as well.

I had to politely decline their request because all of them were dressed in military fatigues and the Royal Oman Police does not allow anyone in military fatigues to enter the transit area.

Arrivals and departures too were through strict security and with a proper escort only.

I explained the reasons for my decline, and the commander seemed puzzled.

He said, "On our last visit, one of your colleagues’ call signs, Mike India Kilo, allowed us to do so."

I thought that he was fabricating a story to gain access somehow, so I referred the matter to the ROP again.

The request was pointedly denied.

They were not much happy about the outcome and left after a couple of hours.

The incident was forgotten almost, but after some days I was trying to figure out who was my colleague with the call sign Mike India Kilo if the commander’s claim was legitimate.

Then I shared the incident with another colleague of mine and he immediately asked, "You don't know who Mike India Kilo was?"

I had to admit that I was clueless about it.

He said it was Ismail, and have you not seen the back of his high-viz jacket was marked with his full name in Initials’?

Mohamed Ismail Kurshid was his complete name.

So the commander was not fabricating anything, but I was curious as to how he managed such a stunt.

I asked Ismail when I met him next how he managed to give them access while they were in military fatigues.

He said that he told them if they wanted duty-free access, get into their civilian clothes, and a few changed to their civilian clothes and gained access.

He added the coup de grace, that those who love booze will do anything to secure their next fix.

PS.

Ismail was a master storyteller who had a tale or anecdote for any situation. A man with many life experiences, both good and bad, may this serve as a monument to him since he is no longer with us.

A Land We All of Us Can Live in Harmony !

A few who were sent to represent the country in the 2022 Common Wealth Athletic event in the United Kingdom have disappeared without a trace, and that includes an official as well.

This is not a very uncommon incident and it is not only confined to sportsmen and women only.

Some of those who proceed on scholarships and overseas postings for a limited period of time do not come back after their studies or tenure is over.

Many blame those who have taken that route for bringing disrespect to the country and brand them as non-patriotic as well.

I have to agree with some of the concerns, but why does it happen often is it something that no one wants to talk about in public?

We have seen enough of political defections and those who were sent for overseas studies and to represent the country in any sport, even disappearing into thin air.

All political defections are purely for an individual’s safety, but for others, it is more economic than anything else.

So the next question is how to avoid them in the future.

The only way out is to build a country that has law and order and economic prosperity so that people will feel safer and worthwhile staying, not otherwise.

Many people have walked, swam, or ridden through extreme weather and other natural hazards to finally find a safe place to call home.

Until that condition is established here, such an occurrence is something unavoidable and expected to happen more often.

Therefore, instead of blaming some who have decided to take the bold step, we should work collectively to build a safer place for all of us to live.

2022 එක්සත් රාජධානියේ පොදුරාජ්‍ය මණ්ඩලීය මලල ක්‍රීඩා ඉසව්ව සඳහා රට නියෝජනය කිරීමට යවන ලද කිහිප දෙනෙකු හෝඩුවාවක් නොමැතිව අතුරුදහන් වී ඇති අතර එයට නිලධාරියෙකු ද ඇතුළත් වේ.

මෙය ඉතා දුර්ලභ සිදුවීමක් නොවන අතර එය ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ට පමණක් සීමා වූවක් නොවේ.

සීමිත කාලයක් සඳහා ශිෂ්‍යත්ව සහ විදේශ රැකියා සඳහා යන සමහර අය අධ්‍යාපනය අවසන් වූ පසු හෝ සේවා කාලය අවසන් වූ පසු ආපසු එන්නේ නැත.

ඒ පාරේ ගිය අය රටට අගෞරවයක් ගෙනාවා යැයි බොහෝ දෙනා දොස් නගමින් ඔවුන් ද දේශප්‍රේමී නොවන අය ලෙස හංවඩු ගසති.

මට සමහර කාරණා සමග එකඟ විය හැක, 

නමුත් එය බොහෝ විට සිදුවන්නේ ඇයිද, එය ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කතා කිරීමට අකමැති දෙයක්ද යන්න නොවැටහේ.

විදේශ අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා යන  හෝ ක්‍රීඩාවකින් රට නියෝජනය කිරීමට ගිය අය  අතුරුදන් වන අයුරු අපි ඕනෑ තරම් දැක ඇත්තෙමු.

සියලුම දේශපාලන පලායාම් තනිකරම පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ ආරක්ෂාව සඳහා වන නමුත් අනෙක් අයට එය අන් සියල්ලටම වඩා ආර්ථිකමය  හේතු සාධක වේ.

එබැවින් අනාගතයේදී ඒවා වළක්වා ගන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න ඊළඟ ප්රශ්නයයි.

එකම මාර්ගය වන්නේ නීතිය හා සාමය සහ ආර්ථික සමෘද්ධිය ඇති රටක් ගොඩනැගීමයි, 

එවිට මිනිසුන්ට ආරක්ෂිත සහ රැඳී සිටීම වටී යැයි හැඟෙනු ඇත, මිස  වෙනත් ආකාරයකින් නොවේ.

බොහෝ අය අවසානයේ  ආරක්ෂිත ස්ථානයක් සොයා ගැනීම සඳහා ආන්තික කාලගුණය සහ වෙනත් ස්වාභාවික උපද්‍රවයන් හරහා ඇවිද ගොස්, පිහිනා ගොස්  ඇති හැටි කියවා ඇත

ආරක්ශාව මෙහි ස්ථාපිත වන තුරු, එවැනි සිදුවීමක් නොවැළැක්විය හැකි දෙයක් වන අතර බොහෝ විට එවැනි සිදුවීම නිතර නිතර දැකීමට ද සිදුවනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කල හැක.

ඒ නිසා එවැනි  පියවර ගැනීමට තීරණය කළ ඇතැමුන්ට දොස් පවරනවා වෙනුවට අප සැමට ජීවත්වීමට ආරක්ෂිත ස්ථානයක් ගොඩනගා ගැනීමට සාමූහිකව කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි.

One Three One decimal Nine (131.9 MHz)

The Red Arrows, the renowned British aerobatic team, were scheduled to perform their routines above the Muscat sky that evening because it was Muscat Festival time.

I went out with a load control who was interested in trying out live flight dispatching.

She felt sure she could handle things on her own because she had been guided through the process.

I was merely there to watch her first solo performance and to help her if anything went wrong.

As we were getting into the interesting phase of dispatching, she came running, stating that she was unable to get in touch with the boarding gates to get the clearance to board the flight.

I checked my handheld radio as well as the mobile phone, and both were unusable at the time, as the Red Arrows had already got into the air.

My thought on that was that some radio frequencies must have been disabled to stop any interference with communications between the performing aircraft.

We were parked in a far-flung remote bay and driving down to the gates would have lost many vital minutes.

Instead, I asked her to follow me.

We boarded the aircraft and went into the cockpit.

We introduced ourselves well first, and explained our predicament to the Pilot in Command, requesting his permission to use the aircraft radio to do our ground communications.

He agreed immediately to our request, not because the lady dispatcher was a novel thing and or she was a very pretty young lady, but because he understood the importance of on-time departure (OTP) more.

The PIC tuned in the radio to the company frequency, and Carol did the communication part of it well.

Operations Control too responded quickly because hearing a female voice on that frequency was a very rare thing.

While the Red Arrows were doing their stunts over the airport sky, Carol was doing her stunts well, scrambling up a few more times to use the aircraft radio and to attend to other needs.

Finally, that evening, only her flight left on the schedule and all others were 10 to 15 minutes behind their scheduled departure times.

All delays were finally attributed to ground communication breakdowns.

She was good under pressure and performed admirably in that situation.

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, one should be able to think creatively and make use of current resources to meet their needs.

The lesson from the situation is this.

Crisis Management & ARAGALAYA

Crisis management is not in the purview of Aragalaya.

For that, there are specific entities created and when help is needed requesting those who are in uniforms to come is the norm.

They are duty bound to obey and get on with it without any qualm.

අර්බුද කළමනාකරණය අරගලයට අයත් නොවේ.

ඒ සඳහා නිශ්චිත ආයතන නිර්මාණය කර ඇති අතර උපකාර අවශ්‍ය වූ විට නිල ඇඳුමින් සැරසී සිටින අයට පැමිණෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීම සාමාන්‍ය දෙයක් වන අතර කිසිදු චකිතයකින් තොරව එයට අවනත වීමට ඔවුන් බැඳී සිටී.

The Aragalaya was born because of the mismanagement of almost all spheres of life in the country and to find lasting solutions to eradicate such mismanagement.

අරගලය බිහිවූයේ රටේ සෑම ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයක්ම පාහේ වැරදි කළමනාකාරීත්වය නිසාත්, එවැනි වැරදි කළමනාකරණය තුරන් කිරීම සඳහා තිරසාර විසඳුම් සෙවීමටත්ය.

Once the right systems are kept in place and capable people are given to manage them, then anyone will come voluntarily to help in a national disaster situation.

නිවැරැදි පද්ධති ක්‍රියාත්මක කර ඒවා කළමනාකරණය කිරීමට දක්ෂ පුද්ගලයින් ලබා දුන් පසු ජාතික ආපදා තත්ත්වයකදී ඕනෑම අයකු ස්වේච්ඡාවෙන් පැමිණ උපකාර කරනු ඇත.

In fact, these can't be categorized as disasters. If proper management systems are in place, we would not be seeing such perennial disasters. The issue is we have no such long-term plans in place to avert them.

ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම, මේවා ආපදා ලෙස වර්ගීකරණය කළ නොහැක. නිසි කළමනාකරණ ක්‍රමවේද ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ නම් මෙවන් සදාකාලික විපත් අපට නොපෙනේ. ප්‍රශ්නය වන්නේ ඒවා වළක්වා ගැනීමට එවැනි දිගුකාලීන සැලසුම් අප සතුව නොමැති වීමයි.

Let us first put proper and workable systems in place.

After that, we all can distribute rations and helps victims.

අපි පළමුව නිසි හා ක්‍රියා කළ හැකි පද්ධති සකස් කරමු.

ඊට පස්සේ අපි හැමෝටම සලාක බෙදලා වින්දිතයන්ට උදව් කරන්න පුළුවන්.

Most of these disasters are only manmade ones and not the real wrath of nature.

මෙම විපත් බොහොමයක් මිනිසා විසින් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද ඒවා මිස ස්වභාව ධර්මයේ සැබෑ කෝපය නොවේ.

Airport Operations Untold Stories