Ceylon Today Editorial

Beware of H1N1 influenza!

28 March 2017

Following many news reports that surfaced in the last few weeks, there has been an increasing interest in the H1N1 influenza virus among the public. With 400 patients reported from the North alone earlier this month and two deaths reported from Kandy last January, this is the second outbreak since 2015.

Moreover, authorities have been on alert since the number of patients tested positive for the H1N1 influenza virus in the Maldives rose to 176; the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) quarantine division has stepped up surveillance for passengers from the Maldives.

H1N1 influenza is a flu-like illness which spreads from person to person through coughing, sneezing, or touching infected surfaces. Although H1N1 was earlier referred to as "swine flu", this term is rarely used anymore because the illness does not spread through contact with pigs. Furthermore, because this virus is relatively new, many of us are not immune to it. This is one of the main reasons this influenza spreads very fast, and it is believed to be more common among children and young adults.

With its discovery back in 2009 and its eventual spread to India and the South East Asian region later in 2015, the H1N1 influenza has been tested as the most prevalent influenza in the region. However, according to most authorities on the matter, the situation in most parts of the country where the disease was reported – Kandy, Kilinochchi, other parts of the Northern Province and Bibile – has turned relatively better, with the patients recovering successfully.

H1N1 symptoms start three to five days after a person has been exposed to the virus, and can last for about eight days. Symptoms may include fever, sore throat, cough, muscle aches, headache, chills, fatigue, a runny or stuffy nose, vomiting and diarrhoea. Of the complications that could arise, H1N1 is only fatal if it develops into pneumonia – which only has a small possibility of happening and is also treatable.

The BIA set up a health desk last week, after it was reported that there was an outbreak of the virus in the Maldives. Accordingly, during the week, up to 300 incoming passengers were referred to the health desk, and about 105 showed symptoms of H1N1 influenza. Meanwhile, SriLankan Airlines has activated Communicable Disease Procedures on its flights that are operating in and out of Male.

Wear a mask when moving around in crowded places; particularly if there have been reports of the illness from the area. If you feel that you have any of the symptoms mentioned earlier, the Health Ministry advises plenty of bed rest and avoiding large crowds, to prevent spread of the illness.

Furthermore, it is advisable to wash your hands regularly with soap and water in addition to drinking plenty of liquids.

Seek advice from your family physician if you think you might have fallen victim to the virus. Special investigations or admission to a hospital is not necessary for mild cases.

Always use a handkerchief or a tissue whenever you sneeze or cough. If you do not have either, you can use your elbow to cover whenever you sneeze. Don't use your hand as you could spread the illness through anything you touch.

But most importantly, it's the fake information that spreads alongside the disease itself that can be deadly to the public. With the growing public interest in the subject, it is obvious there is false information about the disease being spread throughout the country – from incorrect details regarding symptoms to inaccurate mortality rates – making matters worse for those who have not yet been diagnosed with the disease but might be facing its symptoms. The spread of false information can be similarly deadly as the disease itself, given its severity.

Therefore, it is vital for you to be aware of the disease in order to avoid taking rash decisions based on false knowledge.

Prevention is better than cure, as we all have heard. And accordingly, the best way to prevent the disease as well as the negative implications of false information is to be aware.

Daily News Editorial

Mobs opposite prisons

28 March 2017

The public have been treated to the most bizarre scenes since NFF leader Joint Opposition firebrand Wimal Weerawansa commenced his hunger strike last week. While supporters of the MP were demonstrating outside the Welikada Prison, urging the authorities to release the MP, a group of Buddhist monks were shown chanting seth pirith on a makeshift stage to invoke blessings on the remanded politician. The MP is on a hunger strike protesting against what he calls government interference in his case. This amounts to a direct accusation against the court, the implication being the courts are taking direct instructions from government politicians. How the court will view the MP's claim will be eagerly watched in legal circles. Has the MP let himself in for a contempt charge?

Be that as it may, Weerawansa who prides himself as a true socialist should not hesitate to take the rough, not losing sight of the fact that he is not alone in his predicament and that there are countless fellow inmates who are made to suffer for their follies. By staging hunger strikes the MP has exposed himself badly and has shown himself to be a person who cannot stomach the discomfiture of a remand cell. Perhaps, the luxury living Weerawansa is said to have indulged in when he was a powerful Minister under Rajapaksa, has made him soft.

The MP should submit himself to the law instead of trying to wriggle himself out of his present situation by staging hunger strikes and getting crowds to protest on his behalf. The MP was placed in remand custody following a court order for alleged misappropriation of state property that caused a Rs 90 million loss to the government. This was after a due process of investigation by the law enforcement, as in the case of any other investigation, following a complaint. Weerawansa cannot claim that he was being subject to a witch-hunt because he was put through the due process of law. His plea to the court to consider his daughter's mental anguish as special circumstances too is untenable given that a majority of our prisoners too have left behind their loved once who in all probability would be going through the same trauma. The MP had the opportunity to defend himself through his lawyers and in fact even made a dock statement in court where he accused the government of politically victimising him.

Hence, the Buddhist monks, now chanting seth pirith opposite the Welikada jail, cannot complain that the MP was denied an opportunity to present his version of the events, unlike in the case of war winning former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka who was subjected to a Kangaroo court trial. Neither was there any seth pirith chanting, then, by any of the Buddhist monks now active to secure the release of a politician who was afforded every opportunity to defend himself but refused bail after the court found the evidence sufficiently serious.

The monks may have only been invoking blessings to ensure no harm may visit the fasting man. But it also amounts to an attempt to secure his release. The chanting crowds and the slogans they shouted were indicative of this. If that is indeed the case, the action of the monks in trying to secure the release of an individual who has been subjected to the laws of land, through divine intervention cannot be accepted. It certainly is going to send the wrong message to would be felons that crime pays and that the gods will be at hand to secure their release. Today, some of Buddhist monks are seeing chanting seth pirith for the wrong reasons and at the wrong places. It would not be surprising if another group of monks repeat the Welikada prison act, to also secure the release of Duminda Silva, now on death row, or some other criminal who have fallen foul of the law and serving time behind bars. All religions enjoin that one has to suffer the consequences of once actions. Besides, no god would condone theft or felonies and by seeking the intervention of religion to attempt to set wrong doers, who have been duly punished under the law, free, those involved in the whole exercise would only be causing disrespect and dishonour to that religion and its founders.

It is time that the government takes firm action against those trying to challenge the due process of the law being implemented. If crowds are allowed to converge opposite prisons, accompanied by members of the clergy, to create scenes, demanding the release of convicts, there will no knowing where it will all end up. The day will not be far when unruly mobs will be seen going berserk in front of the country's prisons to secure the release of inmates. The public, was not so long ago, witness to similar scenes near our court houses. Now the scene apparently has shifted to our prison houses.

The Island Editorial

When sailors buoy coffers

28 March 2017

 

The government, caught in a mega debt crisis, is desperate for funds and apparently doesn’t care where they come from. Time was when the traffic police considered it their bounden duty to make roads safe by preventing accidents. They did everything in their power to discourage reckless driving and jaywalking. But, today, they seem to think their raison d’etre is to raise funds for the state coffers by way of fines instead of preventing road mishaps. It looks as if they waited patiently behind wayside trees etc for traffic offences to be committed so that the culprits could be fined.

Now, the Navy brags that it has helped the government rake in as much as Rs. 3 bn by facilitating the On-Board Security Teams (OBST) operations for the last one and a half years. Acting on a presidential directive, consequent upon the Avant Garde floating armoury controversy, it undertook to receive, store and issue weapons, ammunition and equipment from local and foreign OBST teams, tasked with protecting merchant ships against Somali pirates.

The government ought to reveal how much the state has lost owing to the cancellation of UN-sanctioned anti-piracy operations, carried out by a group of ex-military personnel under the previous government. Alleging that Avant Garde and the state-owned security firm, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka, had run afoul of the law, the incumbent administration instituted legal action against them as well as some heavyweights of the Rajapaksa government connected thereto before handing over the OBST operations to the Navy.

If it can be proved that there have been any transgressions on the part of Avant Garde, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka and the politicians as well as public officials associated with them, deterrent punishment is called for against them. But, it boggles one’s mind why the former Sri Lankan military personnel should ever be prevented from making use of their expertise to ensure the safety of commercial vessels, threatened by pirates, and bring in the much-needed foreign exchange in the process.

The Somali pirates have, through the recent hostage drama, proved that their striking capability is far from diminished though they have been lying low. Sri Lankan military personnel, who decimated the LTTE’s naval arm and are now in retirement, will be able to help remove the scourge of Somali piracy; their support should be enlisted under proper state supervision.

Some western nations have made no bones about their opposition to the involvement of Sri Lankan armed forces in what they describe as commercial activity. The yahapalana government has put the kibosh on some of the army-run shops in the former war zone as a matter of policy under international pressure.

Ideally, armed forces or police must not be allowed to get involved in business activity lest their members should develop a taste for dosh and succumb to its corrupting influence. But, the question is why the aforesaid nations have not raised any objections to the Sri Lanka Navy facilitating the lucrative OBST operations. They have, while making a hue and cry about accountability issues, secured Sri Lanka’s backing for extraordinary renditions, which, in plain English, mean abductions on foreign soil and transferring the captives to torture camps.

Rewards for the Sri Lanka Navy’s cooperation in helping tackle the problem of Australia-bound illegal immigrants have come in the form of two naval vessels from down under. The Australian coastguard takes into custody the economic refugees who embark on perilous voyages from here and hand them over to the Sri Lanka navy for onward action. This, Australia does while accusing the Sri Lankan armed forces of having committed war crimes and denying their officers visas!

The present government’s propensity for public-private partnerships even in respect of state ventures which are either profitable or can be turned around with little effort, is only too well known. It has called for private sector participation in the domestic air services currently provided by the Sri Lanka Air Force. But, it has left the OBST project entirely to the Navy. Is it because the yahapalana leaders act out of expediency, not principle?