***Letters for publication in these columns should be addressed to the Editor and legibly written or typed with double space. For reasons of space, short letters are preferred, and all are subject to editing and cuts. Pseudonyms are accepted. However, all communications must bear the writer’s real name, signature and address.***

The revelations of Soros

Sir, Multimillionaire Soros, after playing for decades with other peoples' money and fortunes. has now come out with some priceless or valueless revelations on how the use of mind and money should be trimmed. It is hoped that the lessons he has learnt will be unlearned by many, and there will be some trimming exercises and loadshedding of the accumulated filth and fat in the corpulent twin of capitalism and materialism. which are supposed to collapse with or without competition, denying the small fries to grow up ana the younger generation to take up the responsibility of running or stalling the global village.

G Soros nas pointed out an indirect cure to the greatest killers In modern civilisation, namely, cancer, hypertension (blood pressure), heart attack, and gastric ulcer. It took him many years to learn that a free society built up on the basis of the cult of strong individualism, cut-throat competition and ruthless monopoly cannot last; because it sets man against man, and the growth of universal brotherhood is betrayed. Life and good governance cannot be surrendered to a philosophy based on marketing. Market the self, not the product. Is the Indirect message. Marketing forces should not run the state, the family and the individual.

Looks like we are coming back to Islamic sociology.

A Zabr Dhaka

Right to protest

Sir. We seem to have developed a hartal culture In our politics. Whenever a hartal call is given l>y any political party, it somehow succeeds. Why does a hartal cal) succeed in our country, even if such a call is Sven at a very short notice?

ur Constitution, of course, Karantces us right to assem-right to participate in public meetings. right to processions peacefully' and right to move freely throughout Bangladesh' subject to certain Srevisions of law (Article 36 and 7). To an ordinary citizen these rights' mean that we have all the rights to protest if we are not happy about something. But these 'rights' do not permit us to cause inconvenience to others who do not support the cause of the hartal in particular and ordinary public in general.

A hartal in our country succeeds because rule of law becomes almost Ineffective during hartal period (no offence meant to anybody or to any organisation). It has. more or less, become a practice for the law-enforcing authorities not to respond even if law is broken during the period. For example, during hartal period, it Is possible for a person or a group of persons to break a gori/puollc vehicle or harass a citizen and block public roads etc., and yet get away with it. It is a period when it is quite OK for anybody and everybody including the tokais to vandalise.

As a result, one has no option but to stay at home and the hartal succeeds! A citizen who is not convinced about the purpose of a hartal call should be able to move freely. Now if he or she is not allowed to move freely i.e.. if he nr she is harassed or if his or her car is broken or if someones shop/ofilce window is broken or roads are blocked then these acts would definitely amount to breaking of law. Right to protest does not mean right to break law.

As is evident, the Constitution gives us all the rights to protest without breaking the law. Rule of law has to prevail and if so, hopefully some day the present hartal culture will change. Law-enforcing authorities have to do everything possible to ensure rule of law even at the cost of some unpopularity and even at the risk of being called tactless.

Sued Farhad Roomy 477. New DOHS. Dhaka-1206

West Indies on the wane!

Str, I have watched with pity that one-time cricket giants West India go down 3 nil Tn the recent 50th Independent Cup in Lahore. All the defeats were humiliating — seven wickets loss to Sri Lanka, five wickets defeat to South Africa and eight wickets defeat against the host Pakistan. Their match against the South Africans was one of stunning and an indication that their dependency on batteries of fast bowlers is over.

In spite of scoring a huge 293, they have hopelessly failed to defend. The mighty West Indies who have always been one of the strongest cricketing nations have equally proved their high class potential in the one-day limited over matches since its emancipation. They arc the

winners of the first ever prudential one-day World Cup cricket in 1975 in England and then again proving their supremacy by winning the second World Cup in 1979 also In England. The rugged Caribbean boys had almost made it for the third consecutive time in 1983 World Cup semi-final.

Incidentally, the fast spread of cricket to newer parts of the globe have on the other hand spells a cast of doom in the Caribbean! The cricketing legends who have produced such great players like the three Ws. Worricl, Walcot and Weeks and some other great like. Sir Sobers, Rohan Khannai, Kalicharan, Gordon Greenidge, Gilchrist, Wesly Hall, Griffth and the world class of spinner Lance Oibbs, who could turn the bat from outside the of stump on top edge of the leg stump! Later, there were others like. Robert, Holding. Marshal. Viv Richards etc.

Today, it is a clear indication that West Indies fast bowling strategy is well mastered to be hooked, pull and driven all over the fence! West Indies have got to seek refuge to new strategies and get some more batsman like Brian Lara.

Khawja Vigor Moinuddin Parana Paltan. Dhaka

The three-wheelers

Sir, It is very much true that tempos, auto-rickshaws and misnuks are of Invaluable service to us, not only in the city but throughout the country as well. There has been numerous incidents where 1 was in dire straits and it was one of these vehicles that saved my day. But today I am not in the mood for praises.

1 want to point out to the authorities concerned how damaging these so-called 3-wheeled public transportation really is. For a country as small as ours, having small carriers like these are damaging both in the financial and health sector.

Though their engines are small in size and economical, the type of petroleum that they use is very Injurious to health. Because of that, the number of patients suffering from breathing problems have Increased dramatically.

These vehicles have only 3 wheels and they become a symbol of hazard and drive maniacally through busy roads, thus creating havoc and results in accidents. What the government should do now is not only to cut down the number of new registrations, but to gradually cut down the number of these "death traps" once for all. They should invest more on mass transport system. Hopefully the future bus services will not be like Premium, because 50 per cent of the Sri Lanka reject buses are at the moment under maintenance because of faulty air-conditioning systems.

The qext time th? gqvfirn-ment looks into private mass transport systems, they ought to pay more attention to The longevity and reliability rather than a short-term quick return investment. Only larger buses can solve our environmental, physical and traffic problems for good.

Masroor Ahmed Deepak Dhaka

The rule of the day

Sir. It was indeed refreshing to note that one cf the sons ol the South Korean president was not spared and was Jailed for three years for tax evasion a:i,d bribery!

How I wish that the people at the helm of affairs learn to appreciate the fact that no one is above the law. and presidential pardons are not meant for corrupt people. We must all agree that having clout does not bestow any privileges.

A Crusader Nayatola, Dhaka

On scientific names

Sir, According to the International Code of Zoological (also Botanical) Nomenclature, the scientific names of animal (and plant) species should be Latin or Latinised English. A name may be binomial (having a generic name followed by a specific trivial name) or trinomial (the third part being the sub-specific trivial name). The generic name should begin with a capital letter and both the specific and sub-specific (if any) trivial name(s) must begin with a small letter.

The name should he printed in "italics" and every part of a hand-written name should be underlined separately.

But it has been noticed in the newspapers that the International rule is being followed. For example, the scientific name of modern Intelligentman, Homo sapiens was published as homo sapiens in my opinion entitled "Purbachal Modle Town" on 7.4.97 violating the capitalising rule. The same name was again wrongly printed as Homo Sapiens in an editorial recently, violating both capitalising ("S of sapiens wro-ngly capitalised) and italicising (neither part italicised) rules.

The name of Gharial (Gartalis ganleticus) was published on 22.10.97 violating the italicising rule.

These may be due to the printer's devil, but these may be human error as well.

MAS Motia

Hfe Member, Zoological Society of Bangladesh (ZSB)