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TO THE EDITOR
Save us
On 12 July, 2004 (Monday) at around 12:30pm, a group of robbers (15 to 20 people) raided four Christian minority houses in the village Paschim Padrishibpur and on 14 July, 2004 (Wednesday) the same robbers raided some houses in Durgapur under Bakerganj Police Station ofBarisal district.
’rhe robbers looted all the valuable household accessories, ornaments, cash money and assaulted the house owners. They also harassed the young women and housewives.
There is no police camp in the villages or in any place around them. The members of the Christian community are passing their days amid great uncertainty. The authorities concerned should immediately look into the matter.
Emmanuelle David Rosario BakerganfBarisal
Declare November 13 a holiday
The Holy Eid-ul-Fitr may be observed on November 14 if the Shawal Moon is sighted on the previous evening, otherwise Eid will be on the 15th.
Now the declared Eid holidays are on November 14-16 (Sunday-Tuesday). But if the moon is sighted on the 13th evening and the Eid is celebrated on:the .14th. .travelling, would be highly inconvenient for the service holders.
Besides, due to Shab-e-Qadr holiday on the 11th (Thursday) and the weekly holiday on the 12th, very few employees would attend office on the 13th! Thus it is better to declare November 13 a holiday. ’This would be very logical and convenient
With this declaration a notice can be served that if Eid is observed on the 14th, then offices will open on the 16th and if the Eid falls on the 15th, the offices will start after Eid on the 17th.
MAS Motia
BA/IS, Dhaka
Nepotism in politics
The DS of Oct 28 carried a classical story of nepotism in politics, misuse of power, position and influence in the lobbying for appointment of junior staff in government office.
During the period of the autocratic regimes a couple of decades ago, we senior officers (I am now retired) could recruit lower-level staff as per rules and regulations without any interference from the higher authorities (the higher posts had PSC and other institutional frameworks).
The propaganda experts of the government have to dig deeper into public psychology, and present both sides of the coin for public consumption; simply glorifying the achievements of the preceding years won't cut any ice.
Reveal what is behind the purdah (veil). Formally this is known as transparency, andTl is very much at odds with the government proclamations and denial-Bangladesh is achieving notoriety for governance ofkhatir (nepotism).
What is surprising is that even some of our ministers and MPs are reported to be ordering subordinates to indulge in irregularities, and then firing them for not supporting illegal activities!
Abul M Ahmad
Dhaka
Phasing out rickshaws The cycle rickshaws have to stay in Dhaka metro , till the following conditions change for the better. It would be impractical to follow the standards and trends of the rich, industrialised countries where the
standard of living is 10-30 times higher and the basic salaries, GDP and GNP are vastly different.
The middle class and the lower middle classes have to be provided with cheap transport options, mechanised or non-mechanised, for two main reasons: the huge rate of urban migration, which successive regimes have failed to control; and Bangladesh has the highest density of population in the world (around 1,000 persons per sq km). Our economic fertility cannot match the fertility rates in other natural sectors (waters, floods, corruption, terrorism, etc).
The measures to control road traffic cannot be solved in one step or phase, but has to be phased out into several periods within a decade or 15 years. The international donor agencies have to be more realistic than lure investments with proposals which cannot be tested in the developed countries, because such woeful infrastructures do into exist; and later generation donor officials have no first hand experience of poverty and living under poor conditions.
Increasing the number of buses won't solve the problems; as there is no road capacity for running buses every five minutes on 150 routes daily within the DCC. Even now large buses with huge footprints
have been introduced, instead of small buses at more frequent intervals. How this bright idea was approved, living on mini-streets?
Suburban living depends on fast and cheap rail and launch services every few minutes, which our standard and earning cannot sustain. Even today Dhaka has no circular train or fast and frequent local trains, and the elevated highways have not yet started working. What is the hurry to kill the enemy rickshaw? We forget we have to be labour- incentive during several earlier phases of development (that is the reason our RMG is so popular export-wise).
Our culture is different: the women passengers cannot jostle with the males to handle the nerveshattering traffic conditions. Can the middle class afford to buy a small car on HP? The taxi services (three and four wheels) have not yet been standardised for courteous service even after two years, due to lack of discipline, monitoring, regulatory control, and underhand payments and tolls (by the owners!), and other social, cultural, economic and political factors which have been analysed by the professionals for studies. We are aware that the majority of the drivers and public vehicles and trucks operate with fake documents. About 70-80 per cent would
disappear if the police were honest: Then how to run the transport sector?
Alfa Ahmad
Dhaka
Number game
Numerology intrigues me to no ends. Take the case of Bangladesh which has a preponderance for the figure of seven. The language movement, precursor of liberty was launched in '52(5+2=7); liberation war started on 25th(2+5=7);victory came on 16th(l + 6 = 7); the Mujibnagar Government was composed of seven members(Sheikh Mujib, Syed Nazrul, Tajuddin, Mansur Ali, Qamruzzaman, Mustaque and Gen. Osmani). Savar Memorial has seven facets; SAARC, conceived, formed and launched in Dhaka has seven members; the family of Bangabandhu had seven members (Father, mother, two sisters, three brothers).
The number 19 seems to have special significance for Muslims: there are 114 surahs in the Holy Koran ; prayers have been urged therein 209 times; "Allah" is mentioned 2696 times, "Rahman" 57times and "Islam" 19time&AU these numbers are multiples of 19.The number of mandarins in the higher echelon of hell is also 19.So is the number of letters(in Arabic) in the incantation "Bismillaher Rahmaner Rahim".
Is there some magic in numbers? I wonder!!
BilouGaharpur
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
American psyche
This was the first time I voted in the presidential election of the United States as a Bangladeshi-American citizen. Although not too extensively, I tried to get somewhat involved in the Democratic campaign and followed the race very carefully for the past year or sa There is one thing that I noticed in this year’s election and its eventual outcome, which might change the misconception about America that many people in Bangladesh possess. In Bangladesh, people commonly view America as a modern, western country who are not very religious or do not care too much about religion. Many also think the re-election of George W. Bush is just a mandate on the Iraq war by the American people. However, there are many other things to consider. Even though a lot of people thought either economy
or terrorism will be one of the top issues that people vote on in this election, it just didn't happen. Surprisingly, cultural values topped the voters' list of concerns and that include topics like gay marriage, abortion rights and many such things. A high number of evangelical Christians went out and voted in this year’s election just because they feel very passionately about these issues from their religious point of view. That is why the maximum turnout in American political history appar- ently helped the Republicans more, proving all speculations wrong. I think this clearly contradicts the view of many, if not most, Bangladeshis who assume that America is just a non-religious western country. In fact, a majority of Americans are just as religious as we are, maybe even more in some cases.
Taufique A Mazumder Germantown, MD, USA
An odd picture
One day I was going to my office. My friend was also with me. We were stranded in an unbearable traffic jam. Suddenly my eyes were fixed upon a picture of a rickshaw standing before us. The picture was of an almost naked heroine and a hero with a horrible look. The picture was so odd that I couldn't look at it anymore. I asked my rickshaw puller whether anyone uses this picture as an advertisement He said that owners used these pictures to make the rickshaws more attractive!
Today we can’t find any space even a matchbox where an advertisement is not used. The advertisers can use the space, the backside of a rickshaw, with decent things.
Bipasha
Mass Communication and Journalism Department, DU
DCCandDTCB
The Daily Star rendered a public service by printing (Oct 27) the Star City interview of the former DTCB boss on the hijacking of the DTCB office to DCC Nagarbhavan. To nontechnical citizens, it provides an inside view of the internal tussles between bureaucracy and the overconfident politicians (there is a difference between self-confidence and overconfidence).
The scene is familiar: too much interference by the politicians in official matters, ignoring normal operating rules and ethics. The
routine procedures are disrupted, causing systems losses in the long run. Here the motive is clear enough (unofficially).
The reaction from the donors might be unpleasant, with negative future implications, specially after the TI announcement of its annual findings on the corruption index, where Bangladesh's name is very prominent. Temptation makes a person or group insensitive to public interest and moralities of ethical stands. A habit, good or bad, is difficult to change.
Such tensions are there in other departments, and these indiscretions are open secrets. Megawati (in Indonesia) lost on the same count (arresting corruption), according to press reports.
The GoB has mounted a publicity campaign on three years' achievement. But the grey areas are not touched.
AlifZabr Dhaka
United States and Israel
The United States is the lone superpower and we think it would be appropriate to give Israel a similar name , because it is controlling everything in America; it’s wish is the command. To' please Israel, the1 US administration will go to any length. Israel was afraid of Saddam Hussein so he had to go, an immoral and unjust war was waged on Iraq which created a very tragic situation, people all over the world are deeply upset and condemning this action.
Palestine is bleeding, not only are they deprived of their homeland, they are dying in scores due to the ruthless actions of Ariel Sharon, a devil in the disguise of human being. The atrocities are committed and not a word of disapproval from the United States!
But the United States and Israel should remember that there is a third party, the Almighty Creator, who is watching everything and wrong-doers will be punished in due time. Many mighty nations perished in the past, they should take lessons from history.
Nur Jahan
Chittagong
RAB activities and the intellectuals
The activities of RAB have surely been welcomed by the common people of Bangladesh. By common people I mean the kind of people who do not have any big business, do not pay subscription to all political leaders and do not hire musclemen to ensure the steady growth of their fortune.
I hailed the 'Operation Clean Heart' (although I admit it had some minor problems) and I do support the RAB activities. It is good to see the common people are speaking out and not the minority 'intellectuals’ taking up the most of the readers' opinion column. I was lam-basted by the would-be-intellectuals and human rights sympathisers in this column for supporting the Operation Clean Heart.
But at the same time I want to stress that power corrupts and so the RAB should be accountable to some authority.
Saif
Dhaka
Congratulations, President Bush
Georgo W Bush has beenre-elected/ n in a historic presidential election— and in style! He won both the popular votes, as well as electoral college votes by a decent marginfgreater margin than President Clinton and Reagan).There is no doubt that this mandate proves that Americans wholeheartedly support his policies on the War on Terror, conservative ideas , family values and economy (especially the tax cuts).
The majority of Americans stand where he does on abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research(this election proves that majority Americans cannot be labelled as New Yorker or Californian liberals).The huge voter turn-out(the biggest in American elec-tion history for over 3 decades)proves how people wanted their voice to be heard, and their willingness to keep the Republican in office. The result of this election, as well as the elections in Australia (where John Howard was re-elected) and Afghanistan (where Hamid Karzai won by a landslide), proves what Americans, Australians and Afghans prefer and why they do so.
The Republicans are also going to control the Congress - another indication of the trust that people have on the centre-right political party in the US.
This is indeed a great news for democracy and for those, including me, who have stood by President Bush all the way during his last four years in the White House.
AranyaSyed
London, Britain