& 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

TO THE EDITOR
Who rules the government hospitals?
The ayahs and the employees of the lower rungs are the ones who enjoy the highest authoritative power in government hospitals. It sounds a little weird, but this is the case in all the government hospitals in the country. Even the doctors and the higher administrative officers do not bother to 'annoy' them as they have the blessings of some political quarter and the local thugs. They decide their office hour. Selling of the medicine allocated for the hospital, taking extra 'charges' and 'bakshis' from the patients, otherwise harassing them, working as middleman for private hospitals and pharmacies, even engaging in extortion and other anti-social activities are some of the widespread allegations. The indifference has encouraged them to go too far.
Three ayahs of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) offered them as midwives and allegedly
killed a new-born and put the mother's life in danger while trying to deliver the baby. They also demanded Tk 4000 from the couple. Now the mother may not conceive again due to the damage done to her body by the inexperienced ayahs. The nightmare the couple had gone through is there to stay with them for the rest of their life. I offer my deepest sympathy to them.
We hear the PG hospital is not fully government anymore. The only change is the increasing fee and the ayahs and other employees are still making business out of peoples' life unhindered. So it was not a viable solution. In Bangladesh the rouge elements is not easy to eliminate. Some pragmatic steps have to be taken to put an end to this. I believe we have something called the ministry of health.
Sumon
Dhaka
Attacks and our helplessness
A few days before his death, Dr.
Humayun Azad denounced the so-called civil society for being a helpless spectator of violence in the country. He rests in peace after a sequel of attacks but we, the living, still pass days under the threat to be blown up by the fanatics. On 21st August we witnessed our helplessness again. Perhaps our police are more helpless, the ordinary people claimed to see the attackers fleeing but the policemen on duty could not nab them. Had they shown more their efficiency in catching the criminals, some clues would have been found for the apparent Perfect Clueless Crime. Now Bangladesh is at war with religious bigots. If things get worse, we could find ourselves in a civil war.
As long as terrorism is concerned, the link of Islamic terrorists is suspected without much difficulty. Even Mufti Amini threatened against the burial of Humayun Azad in Bangladesh. Does Islam permit such hatred against a dead person? I believe that not all religious people are zealots. Some of course are
Islamic philosophers and scholars. They should come forward right now to stop the mindless criminals. Many of the zealots are driven by provocation from their illiterate clerics without having any idea of the Prophet's teachings on Jihad. If they can be given the correct meaning of the Prophet's message, the number of bigots might decrease. The media should play an effective role to teach people tolerance. The misled extremists might listen to the convincing ideas of the Islamic philosophers. This approach from anybody else results in death threats.
Syeda Towhid
On e-mail
Attention:BBC
It is a matter of grave concern that the broadcasting time of BBC world service on FM 100 meter is gradually reduced. We could hear the news and programs from 4 pm to 11.30 pm (Bangladesh standard time). But now it has been reduced to 5 pm to 11 pm.
We also hear the adverts of some interesting programmes but miss them because of the time restriction while we hear the same programme over and over again in different time slot.
It is better not to talk about the BBC Bangla news service. It is a galore of harsh voices. Sometime a kind of hostile too, as if the listeners are their sworn enemies. The freestyle presentation methods will make any professional broadcaster ashamed. (there is one, I like to call Mr. Interrogative, he ends every sentences with a sense of questioning. The details of the other weird presenters will take pages.)The translation from English to Bangla leaves a lot to be desired. The pronunciation of some presenters is worse than any class two student (Pobaho in case probaho etc)
The news presented can also be questioned. During the push-in attempt of the BSF, the correspondent in the English news of BBC said the people gathered for push in
near the Indian boarder are Indians while the correspondent in the Bangla service termed them as Bangladeshis who came to India illegally.
It seems that there is no one to monitor the standard of the Bangla service, which does go well with the reputation, and goodwill of the BBC. I don't know what kind of criteria BBC follows to appoint its news presenters and reporters. I fell they should take a close look at it.
I hope the standard of the BBC Bangla service will at least come close to the standard of its English version.
Saif
Dhaka
Stem cell research
A few weeks ago Britain granted its first license for human cloning for stem cell research.
Contrary to the claims of many there is no scientific evidence to suggest embryonic stem cell research has more potential to lead
us to viable treatments for various diseases than non-embryonic stem cells. There is, however, strong evidence to suggest the opposite is true.
Leading stem cell researchers Robert Lanza and Nadia Rosenthal have concluded that embryonic stem cells pose the problem of spontaneously differentiating into a hodgepodge of tissue types and need "coaxing'' to differentiate into desired cell types. In addition, embryonic stem cells carry the likelihood of immune rejection in humans, which makes embryonic stem cell research an extremely dangerous if not impossible, prospect. It is little wonder that no therapies in humans using embryonic stem cells have ever been successfully carried out. It is also becoming clear that cloning is the only viable method of overcoming these restrictions.
However, efforts to produce live animals through cloning have also met with an unusually high rate of
deformities and mortality.
Tests using human adult stem cells, however, have produced significant and encouraging results in the areas of Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, cardiovascular disease, sickle-cell anaemia, and dozens of other conditions without posing any moral problem.
On a biological level the pre-natal being is not like any other tissue: it is human with its own DNA indicating that -- as a human -- it has the same fundamental and moral rights as any other human being.
In light of these facts the cry should be not for an increase in federal funding for embryonic stem cells, but rather an aggressive expansion of adult stem cell research.
Paul Kokoski
On e-mail