Ceylon Today Editorial

HUMAN ERROR HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR CURSE

Monday 30th November 2015

 
Aldous Huxley once wrote "Man is so intelligent that he feels impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic." Human error has always been our curse and it's not going to go away soon.

In recent reports from several parties, which included the Police Traffic Division and the National Hospital. According to these reports, the number of road accidents had soared to over 6,000 in the past three months. According to the National Coordinator for Training, Accident Service of the National Hospital 80 per cent of the victims, in these reported cases of the last three months, are female while the remaining 20 per cent were males. According to their report proper helmet use for all motorcyclists were made compulsory in order to prevent serious head injuries. Regardless of the recommendations and the concluding statistics of the report being subtly sexist, it clearly shows that none of these recommendations are noticed by the general public.

This is where the human error lies. No matter which authority, sexist or otherwise, presents information or disseminates, the general public would not dare heed the free advice. These statistics and preventive measures have the potential of saving one's life one day but no one seems to pay attention to them. What is more surprising is that the general public would sell off a hand or limb to listen to a politician, who would talk for more than two hours but never say anything worth our while. Human error!

Over 2,365 people died and 6,042 persons were seriously injured in road accidents islandwide from 1 January to 31 October this year alone. Minor injuries in road accidents this year including damages to 11,200 buildings due to reckless driving, was 31,120 according to the stats of Police Traffic Division. There were 1,820 fatal accidents and 4,985 grievous injuries from accidents and 9,350 minor injuries from 1 January to 31 August.

Compared to these figures from the police stats, the number of road accidents in the past three months up to 31 October soared by nearly 6,000. Police claims that the main reason behind this alarming increase in road accidents is the recent rapid surge in the number of vehicles on the roads. New registrations per year are now over 600, 000.

The Traffic Police Division gained unnecessary attention when they introduced a ludicrous traffic plan that created more traffic than it was supposed to lessen. Now, it has come up with another alternative, which has enacted stricter lane laws for all motorists and commuters. This latest amendments to traffic laws come welcomed in the jungle out there, where motorist act like animals in a wild, attempt to kill off one another in an unruly race to nowhere. The strict lanes confused several motorists, who were later on arrested on charges of traffic law violations. More than 725 individuals were taken to courts, which saw a massive hike of motorists cutting down on violating traffic laws. But actual progress takes time and it would take centuries to improve the general quality of road discipline in Sri Lanka.

More so, it is not always the motorists who are to be blamed in these matters. The general quality of the roads that are used is in a poor state while some are blatantly neglected. This leaves us with the risk of seeing the dilapidation of the highways and flyovers we are fond of and the politicians boast of. Commuters make mistakes for they are not aware of the rules and regulations that they must adhere to when they are out and about. One can argue that even though people know about the laws that they have to follow, most of them are reluctant to follow them. This calls for nothing but stricter imposing of stricter laws.

Human error has always been our curse and it's not going to go away soon. But if we are to be given the proper reinforcements even that is possible in the long run.

Daily Mirror Editorial

D-Day for environmental justice

Monday 30th November 2015

 

Today is perhaps the most important D-Day in the history of the world. As more than 130 world leaders -- inspired by the exemplary leadership of Pope Francis -- meet in Paris for the 21st Climate Summit.

We are confident this D-Day would not lead to doom or disaster but to a day of destiny for a turnaround and transformation, whereby, individually and collectively we become just towards Mother Nature and Planet Earth.

Hopefully this new spirit of selfless, sincere and sacrificial service to each other, to all creatures big or small, to the trees, rivers and other manifestations of nature, will lead us to a new age. Such an age is symbolically portrayed in the imagery of where the bear will be gentle, the wolf tame, the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the beast of the wilds shall be led by a child.

Such imagery is also portrayed in the United Nations headquarters where we are told of a new age where swords shall be turned into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, though the modern day version may have to include nuclear energy also being transformed from sources of destruction to sources of sustainable, eco-friendly developments based on the values and virtues of a Just Society.   
President Maithripala Sirisena, who as Minister of Environmental Affairs has pledged he would personally lead Sri Lanka in the battle to save Mother Nature, will also be at the Climate Summit in Paris, going there directly from Malta where he handed over the office of the Chair of the 54-member Commonwealth to Malta’s Prime Minister.

The tropical Sri Lanka has been blessed with six major rivers, canals, streams and marvels of modern engineering, more than 10,000 Wewas which have unfortunately  been allowed to go waste, though we often quote our great king Parakramabahu’s immortal words that not a single drop of rain water should be allowed to go waste without being used for the common good of the people.

Sri Lanka has also been blessed with a sea all around us and hundreds of marine species. In addition we have hundreds of varieties of nourishing and tasty fruits and vegetables. We need to be thankful for all these, for every new born day where we can do whatever work we are doing with commitment, ingenuity and creativity. We need to be thankful and grateful for the sun, moon and the stars, the air that we breathe, the sweet fragrance of rose petals  and a multitude of other things -- bright and beautiful, great and small -- most of which we often take for granted.

Instead of being thankful and grateful for the glorious beauty and benefits of mother nature, we are indiscriminately polluting the air without measuring our carbon footprints. During the past 40 years especially, we have polluted mother earth mainly through the excessive use of highly expensive and imported agro-chemicals, some of which are toxic. These have also polluted our ground water and rivers. Selfish and wicked traders have also polluted and are continuing to pollute most of the vegetables and fruits and grains that we eat by using various chemicals during cultivation and toxic preservatives during marketing. As a result, most of our fruits have become forbidden fruits like the symbolic forbidden apple and our innocent children who relish these may be swallowing poison every day.

In the equally vital energy sector we have in recent decades allowed ourselves to become dependent on coal power which has been identified as a major source of carbon emissions. Though we have several huge reservoirs such as Victoria, Castlereigh and Laxapana. Much of that water goes waste in the regular periods of excessive rain or excessive drought caused by climate change and unpredictable variations in our weather patterns.

Thankfully the new National Government is focusing attention on alternative eco-friendly sources of energy such as solar power and wind power.  As for agriculture, the government is also quietly but gradually encouraging farmers to turnaround to organic, regenerative and sustainable farming without imported agrochemicals -- though the government appears to be for some reason afraid of transnational companies. Essentially what we and the world need is environmental justice and we hope the political and other leaders will listen and act according to what the prophets of environmental justice are telling us.