RUN A RED LIGHT AND GET A BROKEN LEG.
By Dr. Tilak S Fernando
Picture credit: Wikipedia
Although
it appeared to be somewhat complex to understand the underground railway
network and the sophisticated time tables at major British Rail stations such
as Paddington, Victoria, Kings Cross, Charring Cross, London Bridge and
Waterloo, where Flicker Row method with flipping train time tables operated,
one could build up confidence and familiarise with the system with ease, but
one thing that took me some time to come to grips with was the old English
money, which was in Pounds (£), Shillings (‘s’) and Pennies (‘d’) - 20
Shillings or 240 pennies making one Pound, and the penny further sub-divided
into two halfpennies or four farthings (quarter pennies).
After the
decimalisation in 1971, it was much easier with Pounds and the new Pence (100
new pence making one Pound), while various other denominations such as
farthing, h’penny, penny, three penny bit, sixpence, shilling, two bob bit,
half crown ten bob note, pound note, five pound note and the guinea (which was
just a value and not a coin) died a gradual death. However, the British public
took a long time to get accustomed to decimalisation; equally with metrication
coming to force ‘old fashioned’ English traders preferred imperial units to
metric for a long time.
Foreign
exchange
Petrol was
sold in gallons and cost only 32 pence. Motorists could fill up their Austin
Mini fuel tanks with only £1. A pint of milk (home delivered),
which has seen a gradual death after UK joined the European Union cost 2 ½ d, a
telephone call (from a red pillar box) cost 2p for a three minute duration. A
cinema ticket cost only 55p and most importantly, a week’s grocery bill, out of
a local corner shop, cost less than £2!
Students,
who could not obtain foreign exchange due to stringent Sri Lankan Exchange
Control systems, which were in force during Mrs. Bandaranaike’s regime, could
not afford much to spend lavishly, but had to find liberally available part
time jobs, particularly security guard jobs or at Super Markets for a payment
of £1 an hour (£1= Rs.15). In rented out rooms where students lived, coin-operated
electricity and gas meters (installed by landlords) cost 20p-30p a week. One
needed to use electricity or gas to heat up the place, and in certain cases the
only other alternative to heat up a room was by using a paraffin heater, where
one had to put up with kerosene oil fumes and the stench!
At early
stages, no one could afford a house mortgage for two reasons, one due to the
conditions attached to a student’s passport, secondly while doing part time
jobs, it only appeared as building castles in the air! However, with the
passage of time, many immigrants and students have found loopholes in the Law
to bypass these barriers and become house owners and rich mudalalis by renting out rooms to other students (while being
students), and for those on refugee queues! This ‘revolutionsed’ trend has
shifted the status of a ‘student’, and the British authorities looking at the
problem through hawk’s eyes have managed to plug many a loophole that existed
in the immigration law.
With the
decimalisation, prices began to increase seemingly where bus ride which was
originally 3d went up to 5P (new pence) and 10P. When one travels in London
today, it will shock an ‘old timer’ to find how the transport charges have sky
rocketed, leave along other consumer goods, compared with our first memories of
old ‘thrypenny bit’ (3d) rides in the
underground railway and the 10 shillings that helped to buy a whole frozen
chicken from a ‘corner shop’.
With the
escalation of immigration and the arrival of Indian community ‘corner shop’
operation became popular, and went into a major franchise maneuver. The British
are usually crazy over soccer, which has become a national game where there is
big money for the players. Soccer has certainly superseded the national game of
Cricket in England now. With the sudden increase in the volume of Indian owned,
‘corner shops’ (later spreading into
other nationalities), the phrase ‘corner
shop’ seemingly entered the British TV comedy programmes too when some
comedians chose to make pun out of making audiences laugh by asking: “Why don’t Indians play football”? As the
audience kept on guessing for a few seconds, the answer came out swiftly from
the comedian himself saying: “Because,
every time there is a corner kick there would be a corner shop’! which lead
to a roar of laughter! That was British humour!!
National
insurance
Next vital
thing for a new arrival in the UK was to obtain a National Insurance number,
which was the legal passport to healthcare. One had to apply for a National
Insurance Number from the Department of Employment and Productivity, which has
now transformed into ‘Job Centres’. Bona fide students required a letter from
their seats of learning confirming their status as full time students, without
which there was (is) no hope of registering a name with a General Practitioner.
Many Sri Lankans do blindly travel to England without thinking much about
health insurance covers
It needs
to be emphasised that unless one holds a British National Health Insurance
number one cannot seek any medical attention as a visitor, except in the case
of a deserving emergency situation. Today in a much-sophisticated Sri Lankan
society there are facilities for one to obtain a health insurance cover before
travel, and popular credit card companies offer health insurance packages
linked to air tickets.
Once there
was a ‘touch and go’ situation with regard to a Sri Lankan who visited London.
Two business colleagues booked into a hotel and decided to do some ‘window
shopping’ and tried to cross the road on a yellow zebra crossing controlled by
‘pelican’ lights. As they stood on the pavement lights turned green for
pedestrians and dozens of people started to cross the road. When the green
light turned amber with a bleep followed by Red, one visitor managed to cross
over while the other became panic-stricken and started running across the road
in a typical Sri Lankan fashion through the red light flashed for pedestrians,
thinking perhaps he might miss his friend. A motorcar travelling at speed hit
the guy right on the crossing breaking his leg into three parts. Police did not
arrest the driver for reckless driving as the pedestrian ran across the road
when red light was on. There were no ugly scenes at the point of the accident like
in Sri Lanka where the driver is normally pulled out and beaten up, by
bystanders. Obviously the pedestrian was in the wrong.
An
ambulance rushed him to the nearest hospital for ‘emergency’ treatment, but he
had to undergo two operations. The third major operation had to be done in a
different hospital and he was advised that it could cost up to £20,000 (Rs.
4,120,000) as he did not come under the National Health scheme, and had to be treated as a private patient!
Being a
businessman and using a Gold credit card, he managed to pay hospital bills up
to two operations, but could not afford the final surgery as the Card Insurance
did not cover up to such limits. He had no option but to fly back to Sri Lanka
with (a stretched out leg in plaster and metal rods in place) and my wife and I
helped him to arrange a SriLankan flight to get back.
Health
risks
This goes
to show how risky it would be to travel to the West without any health
insurance as all doors are now closed for free treatment. The abuse of the
National Health Service has been the cause for Health Authorities to block all
loose ends in the system, which at one time were cleverly exploited by many
foreign women who came to England for abortions and confinements to deliver
babies in the UK. Gone are the days!
Daily News -2013
Daily News -2013