{"id":114025,"date":"2021-05-04T22:09:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T04:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114025"},"modified":"2021-05-04T14:52:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T21:52:45","slug":"musings-of-a-concerned-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/04\/musings-of-a-concerned-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings of a concerned citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Quite a few writers, even doctors\namong them, have expressed\ntheir  concerns with regard to the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large numbers of people gathered around shops and\nplaces of worship during the \u2018Avurudhu\u2019 period, casting caution to the wind,\nwas a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I fear that what is turning out to\nbe now is how they said it (or to that effect): A massive number of infections\nthat is now recorded, on a daily basis, which is almost thousand a day.\nNeedless to say, the actual numbers could be much higher than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, many people still don\u2019t seem to\ncare about the extremely grave consequences that we will most certainly be\nfacing, if the irresponsible behaviour of the public at large and some\nreligious personalities\/politicians is not going to change now and with\nimmediate effect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it looks like many people still do\nso, not even giving two hoots about adhering to \u2018rules\u2019 established\/imposed by\nthe authorities to curb the rate of propagation of the viral infections that\ncould sweep across the country like a viral tsunami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now kawum, kokis, kiribath, nakath and\nseveral other customs\/rituals made people forget how close we would be, to the\nprecipice, if the warnings were ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, in a way how could they?\n\u2018Sinhala\/Dhamila aluth avurudhdha\u2019 has a long history of ceremony and\ncelebration, and nothing can possibly stop people from following those long-standing\ncustoms\/rituals\/traditions. Even something like \u2018Covid\u2019 cannot possibly do much\nto change their mindset in this regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet extraordinary circumstances demand\nextraordinary discipline from the people as well as the ones, who govern them,\nand we are now facing such circumstances. The government should have done a lot\nmore than it apparently did to control the crowds during the \u2018avurudhu\u2019 period.\nThey quite possibly didn\u2019t want to lose their popularity or whatever is left of\nit by taking such measures that would have made many unhappy, if not\nangry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pray to god that the pursuers will\nbe able to catch up with  the runaway virus before it gains such a lead making\nit beyond reach and then goes on to create a mega-health crisis in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Alarm bells are ringing, non-stop and\nred lights are flashing. Let\u2019s all do the\nright thing, to save the country\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0\u00a0 Quite a few writers, even doctors among them, have expressed their  concerns with regard to the spread of the virus. The large numbers of people gathered around shops and places of worship during the \u2018Avurudhu\u2019 period, casting caution to the wind, was a recipe for disaster. And I fear that what is turning out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}