Ceylon Today Editorial

Handling talent with care

01 October 2016

 

The under fifteen inter-provincial cricket tournament was played over two days and can be heralded as a filling of a long-standing vacuum. It is something that should have taken place as soon as Sri Lanka began their Test cricket in 1982. Without this most needed training since 1982 for Sri Lankan schools to have kept on producing such talent is highly incredible. It is only playing a two-day game that gives the schoolboys the opening to think on their feet instead of getting wins on points.

Of course the system was such, that there was always those opportunities open to all talented Sri Lankan schoolboys to join clubs playing in the Premier Tournaments. But this opening with a few more adjustments and additions could make these players much better in future. Both with their choosing with bat and ball and leadership qualities these players coming out of the school system will become more matured.

This provincial tournament was played on a league basis as one-day matches coming down to the final and that was played as a two-dayer. These games were played in two groups with twelve provincial teams participating in the 30 matches that were played against each other of the group that the teams were allotted to. This could be seen as done for the convenience of the organizers.

All matches were played in Colombo and its suburbs, when it began on 17 September. We feel, that here that all the five Colombo based teams were at an advantage. It could be seen how it went on to favour them when both teams in the final came from the Western Province.

This inter-provincial tournament is a good way to get the youngsters exposed to many aspects of the game. The more important areas could be building relations at a different and more important level that such a tournament would be aimed at. As they usually come out after playing in inter-school cricket where the game impacts them at a lesser degree, the provincial level cricket makes a big difference. This is due to the fact the youngsters now represent their province and the teams are made up of players from other schools as well. In the thoughts of these youngsters, it gives them more responsibility and its importance placed on their talent.

When it is the first time they get exposed to such and it is the time to have a closer look at their whole make-up of a player. This is why it is important to make them feel more at home. That is why these tournaments have to have those humane thoughts around them. It is, therefore, our feeling that the game itself has to be played around the country giving the youngsters the ability to showcase their talents to home crowds also. The feedback coming out of the home crowd plays a big role in the building of their morale and talent, instead of them fading off into non-existence in a place foreign to them that they are not comfortable in.

While these games are on, there is another happening in its backdrop. That is the hunt for talent which is now a given because it is one way that paves the way for youngsters to get into the so-called big schools of Colombo. While it gives cricket, as a whole, the chance to develop good upcoming youngsters, it should be turned around for that to take place in the wilds where the talent is robbed from.

These tournaments where these youngsters are given the chance to have their talent go under the gong can be seen as non-interference but in actuality it slows up the process of developing the game itself in those areas. The best analysis could show how certain Colombo clubs were made to survive with them losing talent to the bigger clubs. And they were made to fulfil their obligations with talent flowing into Colombo from the outstations. This ultimately resulted with places like Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala, Matara and in many more areas that had clubs ready for the premier tournaments dropping to lesser levels.

No game can sustain that kind of evaporation for too long and the end result is the game that is finally going to suffer, as seen from the Sri Lankan experience. In Sri Lanka people take things for granted hoping the next would be a better day, which sadly is taking place here in this under-15 cricket tournament that ended yesterday. It happens when people look at the game from different perspectives that fulfil their agendas. Talent like the environment should be handled with care.

Daily News Editorial

Critical times for SAARC

01 October 2016

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is clearly facing a crisis with the cancellation of the next Summit. In the wake of India’s decision to stay away from the Summit which was to be held in Islamabad, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan followed suit. Nepal, the current SAARC Chair, has confirmed the cancellation.

India cited “cross-border terrorist attacks in the region” as a reason for not attending the summit. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan too expressed concern about the same issue in official notes to Kathmandu.

“We wish that a diplomatic breakthrough could be found with a possible change of venue but no one can guarantee success of such steps as four countries have already declared their inability to attend the summit without seeking an alternate venue,” a Nepali SAARC spokesman said. These countries have stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan after the September 18 attack on the military base in Uri. Several members of the International Community outside SAARC have also expressed their concern over the SAARC stalemate.

The cancellation of the summit is unprecedented, as the four member-states have cited “terrorism” and “imposed violence” while withdrawing from the summit. All eight countries had earlier accepted Pakistan’s invitation to attend the Summit.

This is a watershed moment for the SAARC, which was established in 1985 on a proposal made by Bangladesh and several other countries. The grouping initially consisted of seven countries – India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal. Afghanistan was added later. South Asia is home to 1.8 billion people and covers almost 11 percent of the wider Asian continent. Despite the various advancements over the past 30 years, South Asia is still one of the most impoverished regions in the world home to 50 percent of the world’s poor.

When SAARC began more than 30 years ago, the founders envisioned a South Asia which was politically united and where people moved across freely across borders. There was even a suggestion for a single currency. Although there have been previous instances where the SAARC Summit has been postponed to another time slot or even to a different country, on this occasion the circumstances are much different. The spectre of terrorism has cast a shadow over the event with most SAARC countries with the exception of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, facing terror acts frequently.

While the SAARC Charter expressly prohibits bilateral actions in its deliberations, it is somewhat ironic that such bilateral concerns form the very basis of the present cancellation. SAARC was envisaged on the lines of the European Union (EU) which is still the single most successful union of different nations despite its recent troubles over immigration and terrorism. Thirty years later, it is doubtful whether SAARC has achieved any of those goals. If citizens of one South Asian country still need visas to go to another South Asian country, little progress has been achieved in the meantime.

Today, SAARC is facing multiple challenges. The biggest challenge is terrorism. All SAARC countries, with the possible exception of Bhutan, have faced terrorism and acts of violence. Only Sri Lanka has seen an end to terrorism while most other countries are still fighting it. However, no country can be completely immune from the effects of global terrorism.

It is a global problem as much as it is a South Asian one. It is clear that SAARC cannot go forward without addressing this problem in the region. Both India and Pakistan, the two nuclear powers in the region, must resolve their differences and address mutual concerns. An unstable South Asia is clearly not in the interests of the wider world.

Poverty is another major issue confronting the entire region. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said South Asian countries should wage a different kind of war – a war against poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, infant mortality and maternal deaths. This is essential in the light of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries have been committed to achieve by 2030, just 14 years away. Sri Lanka which recorded excellent progress with regard to the earlier Millennium Development Goals is well on track to achieve the SDGs as well. In fact, international affairs commentators have urged other South Asian countries to take a leaf out of Sri Lanka’s free health and education initiatives, as exemplified by its recently awarded Malaria-free status.

Economic development and trade remain elusive in South Asia. The South Asian Free Trade Area envisaged in 2004 has not been a raging success. Trade within the South Asian bloc is minimal and its trade with the outside world has seen only minimal gains. This picture should change.

South Asia must forego strife and discord – instead, there should be an accord on eliminating the factors that hold it back from becoming a leading member of the global community. We hope SAARC would soon be able to recover from this blow and give its populace greater prospects ahead.

The Island Editorial

Jekyll vying with Hyde

01 October 2016

 

Humanity is dual in nature as one sees in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll maintains that man is not truly one but two and human soul is a battleground for an angel and a fiend, engaged in a fierce contest to assert dominance over each other. This kind of duality is present in governments as well.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration did a Dr. Jekyll immediately after capturing state power last year; it provided much-needed economic relief to the public and took some progressive steps to strengthen democracy. It slashed fuel prices drastically and increased the public sector salaries unprecedentedly. Thereafter, Mr. Hyde asserted supremacy and taxes were jacked up and not even the sick were spared when the unconscionable VAT increase was effected at the behest of the IMF.

Yesterday, we reported another instance where the government demonstrated its Jekyll-Hyde duality. Our news item said Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had imported a stock of stents to be used to repair damaged hearts free of charge at state-run hospitals. This, the government has done while taxing the sick. Our report must have warmed the cockles of many a sick heart. It is in deed a meritorious act which should be appreciated by one and all.

Our report quoted Health Ministry spokesman Nipun Ekanayake as having said that Dr. Senaratne’s decision to make available stents free of charge had been consequent to a series of discussions the latter had had with cardiologists. Let the good doctors also be thanked for being so concerned about poor patients most of whom cannot afford costly heart operations and stents.

The Health Ministry’s announcement of free stents for heart patients has come at a time the Joint Opposition is screaming from the rooftops that the government is fleecing the sick. The Opposition MPs point out that heart patients are also burdened with higher taxes though treatment for kidney diseases has been exempted from VAT. The government needs to be told that hearts are as precious as kidneys.

The Health Minister is said to have been irked by huge profits being made from stents in the private sector at the expense of hapless patients. His consternation is understandable. Private companies and some unscrupulous doctors are thriving on the suffering of the sick. Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity as Bernard Shaw has said.

It is alleged that instances abound where unsuspecting patients are made to undergo operations unnecessarily so that private hospital owners and doctors working for them can laugh all the way to the bank. Most babies are born by Caesarean section as doctors make the most of the present-day mothers’ fear of labour pains.

Nuts, bolts, screws and other such things used in orthopaedic and reconstructive surgeries cost patients an arm and a leg. There is no state mechanism to control the prices thereof and doctors pocket huge commissions. Worse, after expensive operations patients have no way of knowing whether what they have got is the real McCoy. In this country, patients are without rights—they cannot even ask doctors questions—and the government ought to ensure that the sick are not exploited in this manner.

The quality of some drugs purchased by the government has been called into question. The Health Ministry and oncologists have locked horns over a new cancer drug imported from Russia. The latter say they cannot vouch for the efficacy of the drug concerned. It is hoped that the stents imported by the government conform to the international standards and they are good enough to be inserted into the hearts of ministers and other government grandees as well.