On rumble strip

Editorial- April 11, 2014

The government had apparently been cherishing many delusions until the last PC polls, one being that the people would keep giving it thumping majorities in spite of their economic difficulties simply because it defeated terrorism. The outcome of those electoral contests shook it awake, jolting it to go into damage control mode though there is no imminent danger of its collapse. The Opposition is still struggling to get out of a political mire of its own making and whether it will be able to regain lost ground and make a comeback in the foreseeable future remains to be seen.

However, the ruling UPFA has realised that something needs to be done urgently to grant the people some relief so as to arrest the erosion of its support base if trouble is to be avoided. It is against this backdrop that the much-advertised reduction in expressway tolls during current festive season should be viewed.

The government has hit the rumble strip. If it tries to speed away without heeding the warning, its journey is bound to end in disaster. It needs an immediate course correction.

Infrastructural development does not necessarily translate into votes unless the ordinary people benefit from it. Else, the UPFA would have been able to bag Hambantota with a record majority because it is there that the government has carried most of its mega development projects including an inland harbour and an international airport. In Colombo, people use the newly-built modern jogging tracks, repaved sidewalks, re-laid roads, promenades but vote for the Opposition. The expressways are too expensive to be of any use to the ordinary people who continue to crawl on old roads in their old vehicles.

The challenge before the government is to enable the common people to benefit from its expensive development drive. Ad hoc measures such as temporary toll reductions, however welcome they may be, won't work in the long run.

We suggest that the expressway tolls be brought down to realistic levels so that the ordinary people, too, would be able to use them. Moreover, people need food and other essential commodities at affordable prices.

Let the people of the Southern and Western Provinces be thanked for having knocked some sense into the government.

To nap or not to nap

Researchers preoccupied with increasing productivity put forth various theories from time to time, the latest being that workers' performance could be greatly enhanced by allowing them to catch forty winks in the afternoon. They declared a few months ago that their method had worked, and some companies adopted it. But, it is now being claimed that workers spend an hour or so to overcome grogginess due to napping. Besides, most workers are said to be abusing the so-called screen breaks.

Some international companies went so far as to set up nap rooms with a view to increasing the productivity of their workers, but they are reported to have imposed restrictions on relaxation breaks.

If naps help improve workers' performance, Sri Lanka should have the highest level of productivity in the world. For, most workers doze off fitfully during working hours, snapping back to work from time to time. They also nap, nay sleep, in buses and trains on their way to work. Their batteries are fully charged at any given time, so to speak. But, there has been no discernible increase in their productivity; the country is lagging behind the rest of the world.

Workers, no doubt, need breaks to beat stress and regain energy, but the wisdom of allowing them to nap at work stands questioned. Sleep not where you work and work not where you sleep!