As Good As Having No Data

Immediately after the Easter bombing incident, public announcements were made locally requesting residents to report to some public location for an important Police briefing.

Lucky for us it was a nearby temple and that too walking distance.

Well before the start-up time, Chief Occupant of most residencies have reported and was given to fill up a form by very junior police officer present there

There were no arrangements made to supply writing materials and or a proper place to enable people to fill their forms up.

Once that was over, all were asked to wait till the arrival of the police high up who was supposed to be giving the briefing to the public.

Many people waited long enough and left the place leaving the already filled up forms with the members of Community Police members of their particular wards.

The actual time of the officer’s arrival and the contents of the briefing done to the people who were available at that time are no secrets.

Fast-forward to the time of this Corona epidemic, again announcements were made but this time an officer was visiting from door to door with a member of the community police of that area, handing over another form seeking the same sort of information sought after the Easter bombing incident.

Except for the details of temporary residencies taken up between last April to May this year, very little would have changed in the information that is being sought and further they are already readily available with the government machinery in one form or the other.

If it was a concern of those who seek temporary shelter for some reason or the other and to verify the facts, some random checks should have been done after data was collected after the Easter incident but that was not the case.

What would happen to the new set of data collected is no secret to many.

If any data collected is not sorted, filtered and verified is as good as of having no data at all.

Why waste public money for something finally going to end up on another shelf a few days later is hard to fathom.

That is one of many sad such realities of this country.

මට විතරද මෙහෙම හිතෙන්නේ

• අලි මිනිස් ගැටුමට විසදුමක් නැද්ද ඇත්තටම? චන්ද්රිකා ඇරපු, වේගා හදපු, කොරෝනා හොයන රෝබෝ හදපු විද්වතුන්ට මේවට පිළිතුරු නැද්ද? තුවාලේ තියෙන කෙනාලු ඒකේ අමාරුව දන්නේ. ඔය නූගත් කියලා හිතෙන, අලි එනකොට දරුවෝ කර පින්නන් කැලා වදින මිනිස්සුන්ගෙනුත් අහල බැලුවොත් නරකද. ඔබේ උගත් කමට එය හානියක්ද?

• චීවරය කියන්නේ ඇදිරි නීතිය වෙලේ ගංජා කසිප්පු අදින්න දෙන අවසර පත්රය වුනේ කවදා ඉදන්ද? බඩගින්නේ ඉන්න අයට මොනවා හරි දෙන්න ගිගින් අල්ලගත්ත නම් අපිටත් ආඩම්බරයි හාමුදුරුවනේ.

• 5000 දෙන්නේ අවශ්ය අය බලලද නැත්නම් පාට බලලද? ග්රාම සේවකයි, සමුර්දි නියාමකයි හිටියම මදිද? පොහොට්ටුවේ එකෙකුත් ඔතනට මොකටද?

• සිල් රෙද්දෙන් මිග් වැහුවත් ලසන්තගේ මරණය වහන්න නම් බැරි වෙයි මේ සසරේදී වත්.

• කෑදරකම වැඩිවි නැවත ඉල්ලන් කෑමට සූදානම්.

• පරක්කු වෙලා කරගත්ත හදියම ඉක්මන් වෙලාත් කරගනී වගේ? රෑ වැටුන වලේ දවල් වැටෙන්නේ කව්ද?

• බාලගිරි දෝසේට කරන කෙම කොරෝනා වලට අවවලංගුද? කරලා බලමු. කොරෝනා රටින් පන්නමු.

• දෙරණ පෙන්නන බා චාර්ට්ස් හරියට බාර් එකට ගිහින් ඇවිත් ඇදපු චාර්ට්ස් නම් වගේ තමයි. මේවට කියන්නේ බයි චාර්ට්ස් කියලා.

• හැන්ද අතට ආවම පරම්පරා ගානකට ඇතිවෙන්න බෙදා නොගත්ත එකාට මෝඩයා කියන මිනිස්සු ඉන්න රටක් මේක.

People First or Face Their Wrath Later

Just like after the Tsunami striking Sri Lanka, foreign aids have started arriving again this time too during this world pandemic situation.

The last to hear was the 22 million Euros grant received from the European Commission.

Eventually where the large portion it will end up is everyone’s guess but I am sure yours is not that far off from the most others.

People in some parts of the country are placed under curfew and lockdown for a couple of weeks now.

Despite miserably failed government efforts which were only good during media briefings to send essential food and other items to areas where lockdowns are in place, some entrepreneurs have stepped in to make some fast bucks by providing food and other items by visiting door to door.

Despite the government’s assurance that assistance will be given, banks, leasing agencies and other lenders have still not heeded to those promises and are going about doing their business as usual.

So far things are working out relatively good that helps to keep proper control over the crisis situation.

However, cracks have started appearing when most have realized that they have no proper income but sustaining only on their reserves now.

Imagine the plight of daily wages and small and medium businesses with not much of reserves with them but so many obligations to fulfil.

Soon, instead of food, we will be having money scarcity in the country and it could lead to so many bad things.

I do not wish it ever to happen but the looting of food from those who go door to door is a very likely possibility unless the authorities do not take any corrective measures to maintain that people will still have their old spending powers despite the crisis situation.

If the door to door services disappear, it could lead to further complications and I do not even to think of a worst-case scenario.

I am sure we will get more grants from our friendly countries and therefore the authorities should do more to restore the confidence in the people first.

Forget about how to recover later if a need arises but this is the time to pump in more cash into people’s hands.

That will not only be a morale booster but help to keep the commerce going and keep tight control of the spreading virus too.

If the money received as grants are not spent wisely for the benefit of the affected people now and allow to disappear like in the past occasions like the Tsunami, what consequence we will have to face in the days to come is my biggest worry.

Chickens Come Home to Roost

This is in no way to endorse and or to condone the proposed and impending health workers work stoppage to force the authorities to give in to their demands in the middle of an epidemic situation not only in the country but all over the world.

Their demands may be all legitimate and reasonable but emphatically and unequivocally that it is bad timing, unethical and action not called for at a crisis time like this.

This reminds the old English saying that “The chickens come home to roost” and it will be a good lesson not only for politicians but all of us.

Sometimes, we and mostly politicians restore to use some deceitful ploys to force others to give into our demands or whims.

When people of the present government were in the opposition, that was exactly what they did to slow down and or to scuttle the development plans by orchestrating transport services disruptions, medical service disruptions, port disruptions to name a few.

Now they are in power with a very serious health, fiscal and financial crisis in the country, their very own old ploys are coming back to haunt them now.

This is a good eye-opener for all.

Right to Kill & Right to Bury

Many people debate two things these days.

One is the xenophobic suggestion by a Television journalist of having the right to kill one segment of the society and the other is to have the same segment’s rightful burial rites.

First thing first I cannot endorse and or approve if anyone advocates killing and or condoning such brutal advocacies.

Now to the second issue of whether someone should be able to bury a dead body according to their own believes.

Yes, they should not be denied that under normal circumstances and otherwise it will be a case of suppressing someone’s religious freedom.

However, having said that let me add that this situation of CORONA virus causing havoc cannot be considered as a normal situation when the whole world (except China of course and many know the reason why as well) is battling this deadly virus spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a world body and represented by almost all nations in the world and they have come up with some recommendation on how to handle and disposing of a body of a person died due to this deadly virus infection.

And based on those recommendations, the Sri Lankan government has issued instructions accordingly.

A few politicians have objected to those recommendations simply because some conditions therein are violating their usual burial rites.

And let me be honest that I am not a religious scholar so I deal with things using my common sense.

This is a world crisis situation and what is important and has to adhere is to are to the systems created with the notion of “Good for All Mankind” and not one segment of the society in mind.

All crises are dealt with differently.

Those who profess, advocate and endorse even to have their own burial rights no matter what the prevailing situation is should be reminded that it is not acceptable and tolerated anymore by the majority who believe that the recommendations are for the benefit of all mankind and they too are part of the big picture.

Either comply voluntarily or the authorities will force to comply.

Same goes with those who advocate killing.

Either keep your inner feelings to yourself than creating disharmony in society.

Or the authorities will have to step in and deal with it too.

I am not a legal expert too, so I will keep it this simple not knowing what entails such xenophobic vitriols.

Ps.

The sad thing about our so-called professionals is that they don't have the shame of going back on their own words a few days later.

Now they say that the WHO recommends burying is another acceptable way of disposing of a body of a person who had died due to the Corona infection.

Then, in the first place, why did you opposed to it and waited till some discord in the society to check the proper details.

My initial reaction when I read their retracement was to take down this post totally but later I decided instead to add a further note to it or otherwise, it will not be fair to those who patronize and read my blog often.

As far as the xenophobic comment made, some still try to defend him by saying that he did not use the very word KILL.

Yes, I fully agree with that but what he really meant was to HARM and that too is in no way acceptable in this century.

We are now not living in an era, where killing (or read beating) someone because they do not fit into our (perfect) way of thinking, is acceptable.

Looking for a Scapegoat is not Real Forward Thinking.

Looking for a scapegoat is not real forward-thinking.

At a time when the rest of the World is looking for answers to deal with the Corona epidemic, looking for a scapegoat is not going to solve the issue.

If the person who has returned to the country from Italy a few weeks ago and sought treatments for some other ailment from a government-run medical facility but alleged to have failed to divulge full details is found, he will be lynched by many.

Even the authorities are on the same page with those who are calling for his blood but they have gone a step further by suggesting all his immovable properties to be confiscated even.

Is this the way forward?

I do not think so.

If the failures are to be counted, then the number one citizen of the country should be on the top of the list for failing to close all borders immediately when the experienced professionals were asking him to do so but waited for all his family & friends' kith and kin to return from aboard to go ahead.

So is that member of the parliament and well-known drug dealer for instigating and stopping the efforts to turn one of the government-run hospital facility to a quarantine facility to deal with suspected corona infected cases.

Despite the curfew and ban of people gathering in numbers, many politicians have organized their political rallies.

Some have even conducted Bodhi Puja, some went on dispensing Holy Water and some others distributing face masks and finally given the one he had been wearing all day to another person.

The way forward is to admit failures and to address them in such a way not to repeat them again in future.

Do not just look for a lower place to let the water flow.