Swallowing reports, the govt. way

May 16, 2013, 8:45 pm 

Sri Lanka is famous for fire-swallowers. They thrust flaming torches into their mouths and, hey presto, fire disappears. But, those traditional dancers playing with fire for a living cannot hold a candle to our politicians who have got swallowing things down to a fine art. A beleaguered president once accused one of his detractors on a campaign to impeach him, of having ‘swallowed ships’ while the latter was the minister in charge of shipping. He also claimed that another political enemy of his had ‘chugalugged the entire Mahaweli Ganga in a few gulps’ during the latter’s tenure as the minister of irrigation. Politicians’ ability to swallow public funds is also amazing. Those currently at the levers of power, from top to bottom, have the proclivity for gobbling reports—voluminous ones at that!

Nobody knows what has become of the reports prepared by several presidential commissions. The Opposition claims they have all been swallowed! Ministers have also mastered that art. The government told us the other day that it had received a report from a laboratory in Singapore which tested the samples of some allegedly contaminated milk powder and action would be taken against the importers concerned. But, now it tells us that milk powder samples will have to be sent overseas for testing again. Tests may be repeated to ensure the accuracy of their results, but what does the report from Singapore say? Mum’s the word on the part of the government as regards that document. Someone seems to have swallowed it in one piece!

If there is an iota of suspicion that any consignment of milk powder, imported or otherwise, contains toxic substances its distribution and sale must be suspended immediately pending laboratory testing. But, nothing of the sort has been done where the milk stock at issue is concerned. All signs are that testing will go on till the cows come home and dollars and pounds will jingle in someone’s pocket.

While steps are taken to ensure the quality of milk people consume, it is high time something was done about misinformation campaigns claiming that the cow’s milk is better than mother’s. A team of British scholars has found that reading classics boost one’s brain power and a local minister tells us that balaya fish helps humans with innovative thinking. Besides, it is being drilled into the heads of the gullible public that bovine lac lactis enhances children’s thought process and problem solving as well as mathematical skills. If so, then calves must be more intelligent than children because they drink more cow’s milk than the latter!

Ordinary Sri Lankan’s survival is a miracle, given the amount of toxins found in their food. Time was when farmers used to swallow poison to commit suicide in the North Central province, unable to make ends meet. No longer do they have to spend money on purchasing chemicals to end their lives. They only have to keep drinking water from tanks and wells in that part of the country! Moreover, textile dyes are used as food colouring and plaster of Paris goes into hoppers baked in some wayside eateries to keep them crispy. Dirty sweepings neatly packed and attractively labelled pass for tea. Various chemicals are used to ripen fruits. Fish is ‘embalmed’ with formalin. Urea is mixed with rotgut to boost the kick. Kerosene is sprayed on gram and Malathion mixed with green gram as preservatives. Vegetables are doused with agro chemicals containing heavy metals. Commercial poultry are injected with growth enhancing hormones and fed with antibiotics and prednisolone. It is an open secret that most parents do not allow their little daughters to consume chicken lest they should reach puberty prematurely at a tender age when they are not emotionally ready for it. But, nobody cares!

While the hapless public is gulping down food replete with toxins, government politicians and their bureaucratic lackeys keep swallowing laboratory reports on contaminated food items. The public has a right to information about milk powder or any other food item they consume and they must not be kept in the dark. The contents of the report the Consumer Affairs Authority has received from Singapore on allegedly contaminated milk powder must be made public forthwith. Let no lame excuses be trotted out!