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To the Editor...
Letters will only be considered if they carry the writer's full name, address and telephone number (if any). The identity of the writers will be protected. Letters must be limited to 300 words. All letters will be subject to editing.
An anonymous Tagore?
A few days ago while reading the newspaper a name on one of the headlines caught my attention-- the inside story was about a man who claimed himself a controversial speaker before delivering a speech in a discussion meeting on Plassey Day. In that meeting he said that we are an independent Muslim country but our national anthem is written by an anonymous Rabindranath Tagore!
In Bangladesh it's a very common phenomenon that the political leaders always use the religious belief of the general people as their election weapon. Islam is a great religion and the term 'Islam' literally means
peace. But in our country we often find that some people in the name of Islam are doing certain things to serve their own purposes, which are not and never supported
by Islam. In these cases the bigots always use the religious emotion of the common masses, most of who are ignorant of the basic tenets of Islam.
It's a historical fact that in 1947 India and Pakistan were divided on the basis of religious majority. But after that in 1971 the emergence of the new country, Bangladesh, was on the basis of Bengali Nationalism which was an ultimate consequence of the great Language Movement of 1952. The people of this new country have two identities-one is Muslim and the other is Bengali. Mixture of these two identities has given birth to Bangladeshi Nationalism for which we find an amalgam of Bengali culture and Islamic heritage in our everyday way of living. So along with our identity as Muslims it is impossible to deny our linguistic and geographic identity.
Kamrul Hasan
Dhaka
Mr. Tancredo's solution
How do you define extremism? Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado said that if a terrorist attack were to occur in the uS by Muslim extremists, then the uS response should be to bomb Mecca. Okay, let us get this straight: Does that mean ifan Irish Catholic radical group goes off the deep end and hurts Americans, then the uS should level the Vatican?
Yes, we think Mr. Tancredo was suggesting exactly that.
Does Mr. Tancredo's country want to punish a small group of extremists by doing something so off-the-wall extreme that it would horribly kill millions of innocent people?
Is this the thinking ability of a uS Congressman? I guess he needs some sort of training as a
politician. If training doesn't work, he should receive medical treatment.
Ihtikaf Dhaka
Azan in TV advertisement
A TV advertisement on ATN is composed with Holy Azan of Muslim religion, which is totally against the norm of advertising. I urge the higher authorities of the company to investigate the matter and withdraw the advertisement from ATN, Canada, or recompose the background music of the advertisement excluding Azan from it. According to Muslim religious practice, Azan cannot be mixed with music due to its purity and supreme value, neither can it be used as a commodity of commercial value such as advertising.
I strongly protest this act of
payless2india ( wwwpayless2i-ndia.com) advertising team and urge its higher authorities to investigate the matter.
Mohammad s Jamal
Canada
Why more DC-10s?
Biman management seems to have opted for petty and short-term interests again. Numerous troubles with the vintage DC-10s, and even a recent bad landing (resulting in the loss of the aircraft) did not change the way this airline operates. Th aviation minister , who has claimed to be losing sleep over the 25 year old airframes, have somehow again gave his blessings for acquiring two more of the same. Biman's decision making methodology thus should be scrutinized by the government.
DC-10s were very popular with airlines all over the world and have served their worth.
But it is a very old design and
cannot compete with the 777s and the A330/A340s anymore in this age. The newer airplanes are much safer and carry more people and cargo while consuming less fuel. Also, Biman's DC-10s have a history of maintenance problems and breakdowns in foreign airports and maintaining an old airframe like the DC-10s also requires a lot of time and money, which can be better spent on newer acquisitions.
This is not the first time Biman has taken such baffling decisions. Just a few years ago, it acquired two old F-28s from Indonesia, which turned out very costly in terms of purchase price and subsequent operational difficulties. Before that, Biman leased two B-737s for short periods even though it had no previous experience of operating that type. Time and
again, Biman has taken these decisions over allegations of fiscal mismanagement and trade kickbacks from agents offoreign aircraft operators.
Biman has already selected the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330-200 as part of its future fleet improvements. The finance minister has already given his approval for acquiring four (instead of the ten Biman was asking for) and that process should be completed on a fast track. If at all Biman needs to acquire more aircraft on an urgent basis (in order to maintain schedule), it should have leased two aircrafts of the newer types (777s or A330s) that would have provided better service for the money. And they would also help Biman train and prepare for the arrival of the new aircrafts in the near future.
shafqat
Seattle, USA
DESA grilled over graft
The above refers to a news item which appeared in DS on August 11,
2005.Much has been written in the past concerning corruption in DESA, and each time the question is raised on the above the authorities including the minister himself assured that they had initiated necessary steps to contain corruption and alleviate systems loss. However, no steps have so far been proved to be effective to contain the above, rather all their efforts are going in the opposite direction unabatedly.
I think it is about time that the government does something constructive to get rid of this perennial problem. In this respect the government should immediately issue licence to private entrepreneurs to establish power plants in different areas who will generate electricity or buy electricity from PDB, in order to curb the monopoly enjoyed by DESA.
Humayun Hyder
Zigatola,Dhaka.