& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Friday Mailbox
***Views expressed in this column are the writers' own. The Editor may or may not subscribe to those views. The Editor reserves the right to decide which letters should be published.***
Clinton in an unsafe country!
Sir. Much has been said and written about the reasons behind the cancellation of President Clinton's visit to the National mausoleum to pay homage to the martyr’s of our liberation war. To echo the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, yes. we are hurt more than anything by this decision of the US Secret Service. Thanks to all the precautions taken by the Americans for the safe passage of President Clinton, this country came to a virtual standstill on March 20th. If only the President of the "land of the free and the home of the brave" had shown us a little bit of bravery by exercising his freedom and overruled his advisers’ A small gesture from a big personality would have made us all proud. But alas! An opportunity has been lost.
Considering all that has been happening in India and Pakistan lately, is Bangladesh really very unsafe? We wonder.
Dr Ahmed
USA
US President’s visit, too much ado over nothing
Sir. No nation in this world can afford to command respect from others unless it learns to pay respect to its own self, no matter how resource poor it Is. God probably never wanted the mother earth to be an abode for the so-called super powers alone, with their armoury of super destructive arsenals and still be called ‘civilised"! It is a pity; we have yet to learn to live upright, with enough sense of self-respect.
I do not quite understand the extraordinary hype and sweat over US President's brief stopover here. Amazing and disheartening as it is to observe how our government functionaries and the hapless people had to stomach hassle and humiliation, when we paved and polished roads, painted structures, blocked public thor-oughfares for days, which the US President never visit. And that all at the expense of hard earned public money.
Pity indeed, that our government did not even have the inkling beforehand that those scheduled visits would be clipped or shrugged off. And all in the name of security and where the elite US Marines themselves were in charge of virtually the whole of Dhaka (through, of course, our own defense/security system). They used decoy Chevy Jeeps at airport instead of armoured Lincoln Continental. So much so, that they had their satellites positioned over Dhaka to pry upon any untoward security lapses. The US President traveled with his own range of complete security gears good enough for any small scale war anywhere.
It only evokes laughter to think that Laden people were waiting with their shoulder fired Stinger missiles in the woods near Savar to knock off his Marine One chopper! Our security had combed his entire route for days competently and any such mindless excuse sound like fictions cooked inside Pentagon only.
We have a tradition of treating our guests with utmost hospitality, be It a President or a
commoner from abroad. The disgracing act on our part probably is, we often become over exuberant and tend to overdo things.
Mushtaque Ahmed 17, Lake Circus North Dhanmandi
Jet flying over densely populated areas
Sir. Air test flights are planned in an airspace over sparsely populated area away from civil air terminal, to keep minimum casualty in any eventuality. Such planning also allows scheduled commercial flights undisturbed and with less flight safety hazards around an airport. In fact, even international air terminals are far off from city build up areas in all advanced countries. A jetfighter test flight has other hazards as well. Fighter is normally a single-engine aircraft except MIG-29 which consists of two engines, and its airman has the provision and option to bail out in any unforeseen unavoidable malfunction, but none can predict where that abandoned kite would hit. To declare an aircraft safe for flying, many sharp turn, pull up, dive and low passes have to be performed to evaluate each parameter's full range operation and optimum performance of all related systems in an air test. A Jetfighter, having higher ‘mach number' (Ratio of airspeed to the speed of sound). In test, makes more shrilling sounds of various intensities for above reasons, but those reach us all of a sudden, as if from nowhere nearby. Occasionally a violent high pressure ‘sonic boom' resembling nearby high explosion appears from such flight.
A week ago. origin of big bang (one of such sonic booms) that rocked Dhaka and the suburb caused panic which could not be traced by DMP. Detective and Meteorology depts (Prothom Alo. Mar-12). From ISPR press release (Mar-20) and last few days' unusual noises of Jet, during morning and afternoon hours, it appears, the newly procured and assembled MIG-29s were being flight tested in around ZIA. MIG'S sonic boom was that sensational big bang (DS -Mar-20). Such lilgh pressure and high frequency ultrasonic certainly affect the cardrum of those who live nearby. Even such sound and associated panic, affect infants, elderly people, more so, if they suffer from hearing and cardiovascular ailments. Panic stricken may be source of accidents too. In the capital, around ZIA, besides defence services' establishments (living quarters, schools and hospitals), there are civil residential areas, schools, hospitals, and clinics In Banani. Gulshan. Nlkunja. Joarsahara and Uttara. Therefore, conducting Jet test-flights with low passes and dive, in airspace over these densely populated areas, is an unethical act. at least on public and flight safety considerations. Where, for the purpose, a designated restricted zone available and maintained. In sparsely populated area for test and training flying. ISPR has notified the public about the origin of sonic boom to kill rumors causing panic and cut panic out. Would then, the dept concerned kindly look Into the other aspects of safety factors of test flights over densely populated areas of the capital?
A R Choudhury Uttara, Dhaka