CRAZY FOR GOLD!

Why should we be so crazy about the yellow metal? Some superstitions and some false conceptions. Tomorrow if we accept the truth that gold is simply yet another metal like aluminium,iron,copper,lead, will Gold glitter as of today? NO.

Why should we exhibit our girls wrapped in gold ornaments like caparisoned elephants at wedding? More gold shows more good the girl or more noble the parents? It only shows the meanness of the parents.

See how much we are spending on gold in marriages. A middle class family gives around 100 sovereigns of gold to the bride. At Rs. 13000 per sovereign plus about 20% taken by the gold merchants as making charges and profit plus tax it comes to 16000 and how much for 100 sovereigns? A whopping 16 lakhs rupees!

The families who cannot afford this are humiliated. The girls remain unmarried. All because of our addiction for gold.

Is it a good investment? It is foolishness.Can a tonne of Gold substitute a glass of water, a piece of bread or anything else? Nothing . Instead we can spend that money on producing food.


We can bring down the prices. Stop buying gold for one month and see the difference. From 13280 rupees of today it will be less than 5000 per sovereign . Create awareness among people.

Let us Spread the message. We can save lives of thousands of girls who are remaining unmarried. We have a social commitment.

POOR PATIENTS

As a sequel to the banning of private practice, the doctors are resorting to taking leave en-masse and seeking voluntary retirement. It is nothing but a pressure tactics and a revenge of denying them chance to extort the poor patient and mint money simultaneously taking salary from the ex-chequer ( the money of the public).

These doctors are seeing lot of deaths daily but still not understood the hollowness of life. They become more greedy and in the race for amassing money just forgetting the eternal truth that life is momentary and that nobdoy takes any thing when they die.

The Government should not backtrack fearing the threat of these doctors. If they want to leave Government service let them do it. Once they leave the government service they will be zero as their private practice was build on the label of Government service. There are lot of doctors outside Kerala who are ready to serve our people. Let the Government look for doctors from all over India who are willingly come forward to serve the poor people of Kerala.

BLANKET SANCTION FOR BIG PROJECTS?

By refusing to budge to the pressure for granting sanction blindfold to big projects, the Chief Minister was declaring solidarity with the nature and millions of poor people of Kerala.

Kerala is a small state densely populated. We are blessed with forests,hills,lakes,rivers, streams and greenery and there is no scope for any largescale projects here. Small projects, without disturbing the trans and serene atmosphere and the peaceful life of the flora and fauna is the only thing ideal for us.

Large projects will help a handful to amass wealth but it will be a great ecological disaster for our state.

People have to come out against such projects.

THEKKADY TRAGEDY

"God's Own Country" has once again came in the lime light for its callous handling of tourists. 45 innocent people lost their lives in the watery grave at Thekkady.

Visuals of the horrible incident,the dead bodies of the unfortunate, the cries and sobs of the survivors and grief stricken relatives seen in the TV channels were really heartbereaking. In the interviews the people who are directly, indirectly or morally responsible for these gory incident as usual put up the stock ex-pressions of shock,disbelief and grief before the viewers. Each was carefully silent about the omission on his part as minister, official, opposition member or politician.

This is the 15th boat accident in the row since the Kannamali incident of 1980. That was enquired by a judge and since then many inquiry commissions were appointed on such accidents. Most of the enquiry report are put in cold storage and the suggestions or precautions were ignored and not implemented.Nothing is done to prevent recurrence. The memories of the accidents will fade away and it takes another accident to highlight the shortcomings of the system. Most of the boats run in tourism spots and on regular tranport services are without the required safety standards and everybody knows it. But action is not taken.We are simply waiting for another accident taking away many lives to occur to initiate an enquiry.

This is God's Own Country and only God can save us.

DOCTORS' DILEMMA

Putting an end to the private practice of Medical college teachers is a progressive and bold decision taken by the health minister which will do a lot in helping the people in getting better service of these doctors. Poor people are the most beneficial as the rich can afford the expensive private hospitals. Teaching and OP are presently done by these doctors as a ritual as their mind is always busy calculating the patients waiting in their private consulting rooms. Some of them even conducting surgery at private hospitals during duty time in Medical college. Now the things will change and the medical college students also can expect better classes.

Stopping of private practice will not affect the private patients as there are enough retired doctors in the field.

With the pay hike the doctors are getting handsome pay packets but they do not seem to be happy. It is quite natural as Government cannot compensate the huge earnings they made from private practice. Other than the salary the doctors have a social commitment as their study was part financed by the people. So they should stop grumbling and dedicate their time to attend the poor patients coming to the medical college hospitals. Most of their private patients are the OP patients of the hospitals who do it as a short cut to enter hospital or the in patients who do this for getting prompt and better treatment there.

First the doctors should realize the REALITY that they are getting a large clientele of private patients only because of their label as doctor in the medical college and the reputation they build throughout their career in Government service. So none of them will dare to resign and start private practice. So the Health Minister can very well proceed. Only thing the minster has to take care is to arrange all the ancillary facilities such as scan etc. and ensuring its uninterrupted and smooth functioning in the hospitals to optimum utilize the extended service of these doctors.

Law may not be forbidding doctors from taking money but the doctors must see that the patients are so poor and coming to their private practice only because they are not getting treatment from the same doctors at the hospitals. Doctors, you are the saviors of the poor patients. “So do not fix your attention on what your fee is to be. A worry of this nature is likely to harm the patient, particularly if the disease be an acute one. Hold fast to reputation rather than profit”.

Sr. ABHAYA MURDER

The visuals of the narco-analysis in the TVs show all the three accused admitting to have committed the murder of Sr. Abhaya. Their statement reveals that one of them opened door for the other two to enter the convent and Sr. Abhaya has seen two of the accused in a comprosing position and so they hit her on the head and thrown her in the well.

Let us go back little. The Indian Express has brought out a news that the test results have been manipulated and corrected at the Public Health Laboratory Trivandrum. The test was smear test and vaginal swab testof Sr. Abhaya to ascertain any sexual assault. The news created a commotion and paved the way for re-emergence of the forgotten murder case.

What was the relevance of the test at the Public Health Lab? What was its bearing on the case? If the result was positive it meant that something happened before she was put in the well. Any mention about any such act was not in the Narco CDs shown in the TVs? There was allegation that the CDs were doctored. The legal adviser of the Church was also strongly arguing in the TV that the CDs have been manipulated. Whether the act for which tests were conducted was the part missing?

Insult to Former President

Honesty is viewed as weakness today. Our former President, Shri APJ Abdulkalam was insulted by a foreign airliner at our airport. How the foreigners dare do it in our own soil? They got the courage knowing well that our politicians are opportunists devoid of pride, integrity and honour. And also knew that if it is US they will even kneel down.

The incident took place on 21st April and the authorities hushed it up for 3 months till the lid was blown up by some patriots when they took up it in Parliament. Why no action was taken immediately and kept it a secret?

The men in charge of Presidents security and his protocol personnel were responsible for this shame. They should have informed the airlines well in advance the journey of Dr. Kalam and his status as VVIP and sorted out all the problems. Secondly once the airlines insisted for physical check they should have immediately informed the Bureau of Civil Aviation or any authority and should not have allowed our former President to undergo this humiliating experience. And another important question. Why was he arranged in foreign airlines rather than in our national carrier Air India? Now the airlines have apologized, stating in the same breath they have not done anything wrong but only their duty. Will their apology wash away the national disgrace?

Dr. Kalam, being a thorough gentleman did not care much but it was our duty to guard the honor of former President and thereby our nation. Our earlier gentlemen presidents, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Radhakrishnan did not have to face such ordeals as the values were not denigrated then. We dont need honest Presidents but shrewd ones who can hold the Bills and bargain for good living and security after retirement.