Well done, cricketers!

Bangladesh played good cricket against India. India lost the second ODL Our players were consistent with the ball. There were fewer infield errors this time around. Mashrafee bowled brilliantly as did other members of the squad. Dave Whatmore did a great job as coach. The crowd enjoyed the match till the end. I enjoyed every bit of the game. Once again, my heartfelt congratulations to the Bangladesh cricket team.

Syed M Muntazir H Zaidi Gulshan.Dhaka

RaborCab?

I would request the relevant authorities to rename Rab to Cab, the C being the abbreviation for ''Crossfire.'11 have not been able to

find a suitable expansion of the let-

Dipu

Dhaka

Circulation of money

We are now passing through the 21st century andournationis already 33 years old! We had governments in the past and also at present pursuing ideologies like Nationalism, Socialism, Secularism, Democracy, and Martial Law, and lately, moderate Islam. No matter whichever ideology is being pursued by the 'elected representative' government or a 'martial law1 government, it has to be accounted that neither the resident dirfetor of the World Bank nor the resident representative of the IMF are in the capacity to make the policies that we will pursue.

Moreover, the primeministersofSin-gapore or Malaysia would never

come to our country and lead us for the overall development of the nation. I am sorry to inform you that altho ugh we have crossed 33 years of our independence, but the prime' duty and responsibility of ensuring the 'circulation of money' among all the citizens of our beloved nation still remains unresolved.

Golam Ashraf

DOUS Baridhara, Dhaka

Future of RMG

The RMG sector of Bangladesh is going to walk a tight rope as MFA will expire shortly. The termination of GSP facility will wreak havoc on the economy of our country. The RMG sector is very productive and lucrative to earn foreign currency. But the quota abolition may impede our sound foreign exchange reserves position. To cope with the challenges of this free market economy.

Bangladesh must be very much competitive in quality textile output. The insouciance of the government perplexes us immensely. After the expiry of the deadline, many small garments factories will have to close their production. Many workers will lose their jobs. The GDP will fall drastically. The society will be destabilised. If Bangladesh wants to survive in the quota-free regime, the RMG sector shouldbereshaped.Thissec-tor should be subsidised enormously. E-commerce can boost this sector. The port facility should be improved. The quality of our fabrics should be updated to vie with China and India. The rudimentary infrastructure should be modernised. The Bangladeshi missions can play a proactive rale in this regard. They can explore and penetrate new markets beyond the EU and the US.They can promote international trade by showcasing the products of our

country. The BGMEA, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of foreign Affairs can work together to forestall the impending catastrophe forour RMGsector.

. I hope the government will address thematterwithdueattention.

Molla Mohammad Shaheen Dept. of English, DU

Eid and media

Eid has become a big celebration as far as media is concerned. Celebrities and luminaries are getting involved in this. New drama serials and tele-films were lined up to air for more than actual Eid holidays. How much it is part of the culture or business is adifferent issue.

Small and medium stories, essays, novels, and poems extended the volume of the Eid editions to one thousand pages. Colourful covers and advertisements made them

attractive.

I was eagerly awaiting the outcome of the print and visual media.

I bought a few copies of the weeklies, browsed through Internet editions of few and off and on watched many of the dramas and serials on myhomeTV.

These flamboyant writers are always critical about politics, governance and social ills. The pitch of their voice, harshness of their speeches, are always in the extreme.

Therefore, my expectations, my senses were lined up for the same theme in their works. But to my utter surprise, other than silly inconsis-tentlovestories.outofthe familyfictions, nothing was there. One can find no representative qualities in terms of pleasure of read-ing/watching.

If you put this against what they have been preaching, rubbing their

shoulders with th6ir mentors throughout the year, is pure nonsense.

So we can easily conclude that only under thepatronage of the business mentors in the media and under the political mentors on the podiums, these celebrities are only doing "what the sponsors are asking for.”

This is the very fundamental reason why the civil society is so weak and ineffective.

MM Haque

Jeddah, KSA

Democracy...

The great sons of the soil fought forour freedom. For their courage and bravery, ours is now an independent democratic country, but is it fully democratic?

The word democracy means it is for thepeoplc. Wemaysaythatwearegct-ting advantages of democracy, but

what about those who are working in our homes, what about the people who are working in the streets and searchingfor jobs, notbeingeducated ? If we ask them -what is democracy? Can they answer?Tliey just think they need to wake up in the morning and work for survival. Democracy also means it is of the people Are the right people running this country? We dq noteven seedebatesorgreatcompeti-tionsamongpoliticians.

Democracy also means that it is by the people but politicians always quar -rcl about fair elections. Another serious problem is that manydonotcareabouc voting, because they have lost faith in politicians.

1 am not saying that the governors do not do theirs jobs, but much more must be done to call Bangladesh a country forits people.

Tahsin Hyder

Maple Leaf International School, Dhaka