What is this life if full of care ...

Burdened with woes and many to spare?

- By NAN

The foregoing is a pastiche of the first two lines of the Welsh poet W H Davies' poem 'Leisure' (1911), where he mourns the fact people do not stop to appreciate nature. Mine is a groan about the state we in Paradise are in, notwithstanding the vast project to Clean Sri Lanka and bring happiness and decent living to its people. If the mourn is not enunciated, it rankles in the mind of those who remain silent.

with politicians and stubborn leaders being as usual only concerned with themselves and power to their party. Of course, there are officers of the CMC and MOH though the elected members are still to assume their duty-posts. What are the permanent staff doing? Willingly undergoing temporary paralysis.

Scared to take decisions

This brings me onto a related malady that ails this country that we love which could be wonderful in every way. The new ailment is paralysis of many bureaucrats. I have not experienced it but as I wrote last Sunday in this column, in conversation with Razeen Sally and a couple of others, Razeen, particularly with his finger on the country's pulse, said that through the government's commendable effort to apprehend the corrupt, it was however causing present high ups in government service to be over cautious. They take the safe and easy path and make no decisions and take no action.