& 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
Outbreak of Influenza
The worldwide outbreaks of Avian Influenza caused by the highly pathogenic Influenza A (H5N1) virus has become a great concern since this has the potential to trigger an Influenza Pandemic.
Awareness on this issue can play an important role in controlling the disease. I am a Microbiologist and Public Health Specialist and have been presently working in the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Dhaka. I have been engaged in investigation and research of emerging and reemerging communicable diseases like Nipah, Kala-azar, Malaria, viral hepatitis (outbreak occurred in Dhaka University last year) and unknown diseases. I have been closely monitoring the Avian Influenza and am engaged in training health officials like civil surgeons and others on this issue. I have drafted a handbook on Avian Influenza to be published by WHO, Bangladesh.
The press should play a role in this campaign against outbreak of deadly diseases.
Dr. Benazir Ahmed
IEDCR, Mohakhali, Dhaka
Useless police and valueless life!
According to a newspaper report, at least five people were killed and over hundred injured as police opened fire on an angry mob protesting police inaction during a robbery at a jewellery shop in Companiganj in Noakhali on Thursday. It can be considered a matter of bad luck for us that we don't get any help from the on-duty policemen when such help is needed.
It is known to us that the police department is corrupt, useless and we also know about their involvement in criminal activities.
They are expected to perform better.
Md Shafiul Alam Emon
London South Bank University, UK
Most corrupt country
I was so ashamed of myself being the citizen of a country identified again at the top of the corruption list. How much it is in its totality is not the matter, but the branding itself impacts on our image and psyche.
What is more shameful is the denial of it, it sounds so disgusting, even the other side's statement is appalling, as if they have been discredited again.
We all know that we do have a serious problem, but the irony is, in general we fail to protest it effectively. Of course, there remains a strong and powerful group, which is the beneficiary of this system. Their barrage of obstacle and manipulation is so strong and fortified that often it becomes difficult to break. Say a tender is floated all the stakeholders make a cartel and reach an understanding and drop only one or few, leaving no room for competitiveness; the winner shares the benefits with the cartel but the per kilometre construction cost of a road goes higher.
We know for a vital installation tendering is going on for the last four years. That is one aspect of the cartel, cronyism and favouritism. But the prevention of it remains elusive. The media often fails to project it correctly. The opposition sees it as a staircase to the power.
What check we have built over the last five years to fight the malice? We say because of this business does not grow, the economy remains
under-subscribed. Then why doesn't the business community rise on its heels, why don't the stakeholders of the economy become steadfast and why doesn't the civil society strike a deal with their people to raise a barrier?
When the leadership is misplaced, it is only the common people who can save our image.
M M Haque
Jeddah, K.S.A
Attention: CityCell
I welcome your recent competitive approach in the mobile market. I am one of your subscribers and want to draw your attention to certain things.
You are giving some new facilities. But every time you give new services in new packages, you ignore your existing customers, which is frustrating.
You have introduced 30-second pulse from the first minute. We, the old customers, are not getting this service. We also cannot avail super off peak service.
Mithun
Dhaka
New education system
For the last few weeks we are observing a mixed reaction from our intelligentsia, civil society about the new education system that would be introduced from the next year. The arguments of those against this system has been expressed by many intellectuals like Dr Jafar Iqbal, who has said that science education would be the worst victim of the new secondary education system and the standard would be inevitably low as a student has to study 18 subjects carrying 1,200 marks with less importance on science and mathematics education. He also said that the provision for studying an additional language (Arabic, Sanskrit or Pali) along with religion would add to the burden of the students. Only by bringing changes in the syllabus of the secondary education, the system cannot be called "unified", as it would not incorporate English medium education and madrassah education,
he added. I strongly appreciate his thought provoking argument but his apprehension about the new system needs further clarification. First, I will pay my attention to his last point especially, whenever it comes about the word 'unification'. What about madrassah education, which is under scrutiny because of the recent spate of, bomb attacks all over the country? As a hot issue madrassah education has been targeted and politicised indiscriminately. Our society is going to be divided day by day and political intolerance and violence are gaining momentum.
With different ideology, mission and vision, madrassah students are being discriminated in terms of their professional lives and career opportunity and employment. So, why don't we talk about the assimilation of our different types of education system in one track? Why don't we think about a homogenous educated generation in near future so that our society and its people cannot be divided? I would appreciate the government's unified education system if madrassah education could be included within the common programme of education system. In rural areas, science, commerce and humanities groups are very difficult to run in every institution because teachers and all kinds of equipments are not available out there in every madrassah. Moreover, there is no opportunity for commerce education in madrassahs. Science education is also a far cry for most of those institutions. So, a common programme for Bengali track and madrassahs can end all kinds of anomalies.
On reservation about religious education, I would say that it can also be an effective way to mend the rupture of trust between these two streams of our education system. The government can minimise religious courses from madrassah curriculum and make a common religious education with few options for all the students at the secondary level. I think this assimilation process can give us
maximum output for the betterment of our society.
Md. Harisur Rahman
Department of Anthropology, JU
Combating corruption
We must work on eradicating corruption. It's amazing how most of the traffic policemen, tax officers, govt. officers are getting more and more corrupt. We must start a social correction process along with the steps by the government.
Remember, we the people, are committing these crimes in the offices, in the streets, and in all other places. Need for moral education was never felt so acutely in the past. Our electronic media can take some innovative steps to combat corruption.
If the most corrupt people are shown on TV regularly - then it will have some impact.
Md. Atiq
Faculty, DU
Voter list
Your commentary on the official stalemate situation in the EC in respect of the preparation of voter list was well timed. We hope that they (The EC and the other two Commissioners) will work as a team to mitigate the sufferings of the voters. You have raised pertinent questions about their autocratic attitude and you have also thought of the right answer that the trouble lies in the present undemocratic attitude of all the political parties and their tendency to undermine the Electoral Office and its authority. The parties are rather focussed to select the Adviser of the CTG thinking that the magic-key to winning elections lies here. In the month of April 2005, your paper put forward a valuable suggestion following the Round Table Conference on Electoral Reforms and Governance and it does continue to do so and the editors of all other newspapers in the country are also relentlessly trying their best to bring wisdom to the
political parties but without any success. Have you and the media personnel ever thought why the problem persists?
May I take this opportunity to bring to your kind attention the "HARD TRUTH"? (I earnestly believe that you won't try to hunt me down to cut off my tendons!).
Everyday the leaders of the political parties just casually ask their private secretaries if the newspaper has carried any news eulogising them for their wisdom and excellent leadership qualities (each party chief thinks she/he is the best of the best). If the answer is positive then they care to read just that portion and highlight the news to all and sundry taking credit that the news media too feels that they are qualified leaders. If the answer is in the negative they just ask them to throw it in their wastepaper basket and feel sorry that seven taka went wasted. THAT IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
Now to answer your last question "How can we build democracy with such behaviour in some of our highest offices"? The answer is we can't build democracy, for we don't have the requisite quality.
In the Book "JYOTI BASU: THE AUTORIZED BIOGRAPHY" Jyoti Basu has said "In Nehru one could sense the mind of a thorough-bred politician." This quality is a result of his own education( highly qualified lawyer) but more specifically of the Lessons he received on Leadership in Politics from the legendary Mahatma Gandhi. The lesson is:"To be in CONTACT with the people, UNDERSTAND the people and KNOW the problems of the people"--that is the KEY to success and BUILDING democracy.
Taking up this advice, the foreign born Indian citizen Sonia Gandhi has become a charismatic leader and wrought a political miracle defeating the powerful Hindu Nationalist Coalition led by Mr. Vajpayee. This victory was a direct result of her study of the political environment, decen-
tralization of the power within the party, selection and placement of the Congress members on the basis of merit and experience etc. If the political parties in Bangladesh follow this system, only then can we hope to establish democracy. Will it be done is the question? The parties don't feel the necessity because they are really enjoying this game of IN POWER and OUT of POWER, for they get paid for this game anyway without realising that there is a halal process and haram process in their livelihood.
Well, you may have a different answer and we hope you will share it with us.
Badrul Islam
Uttara, Dhaka
A pertinent question
The question that our civil society and leaders must ask is whether or not we should tolerate organisations that actively seek to dissolve our identity as citizens of a sovereign nation. How far should we go in allowing the operation of an organisation, which actively seeks to bring down the status of our non-Muslim citizenry, and undo our culture of women's and minority rights?
At the very least, I would hope that the intellectual and moral leaders, as well as our community of journalists would direct some research into the agenda of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Amir Sadiqullah
Uttara, Dhaka
Not-so-beautiful face of our civility
Drenched in mephitic droppings Charu fluttered out of the manhole and washed him up with the water that was coming through a pipe from inside the apartment. He then went inside and came back with a glittery hundred-taka note. Few steps from where Charu was I was sitting in a tea stall with few more unknown people around me. Charu stopped by and asked the vendor to fill the pot with tea
that he was carrying with him. He was waiting for his pot to be replenished while taking extra care about his being distant from the rest of the customers of the tea stall. Out of curiosity I asked about the reason for his carrying the pot. Then in broken somnolent voice Charu answered “We are Methars /sweepers and we are not allowed to sit with the Bhadrolok/ Gentlemen. Nor are we served tea in the cups used to serve you. So I always fetch this pot.”
Such is the treatment persons scavenging the droppings and leftovers are subject to. And they are called “METHAR” in Bengali, a word the very utterance of which carries with it an obvious sense of denigration. The word is also found being used in the diurnal conversation as slang. The popular image of the society about METHARS is they are a bunch of stinky people engaged in inebriation and domestication of filthy pigs. Bangladesh being a predominantly Muslim country the act of sweepers' petting pigs further adds to this ingrained negative image.
Sweepers working in Dhaka city hail mostly from four ethnic backgrounds. These are Telegu (Telegu-speaking Vishakapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh of South India), Kanpuri (Hindi-speaking people of Kanpur region of Uttar Pradesh), Hari/Hela (Bengali-speaking sweepers emanating mostly from Faridpur) and Bengalee sweepers coming from the wider poor populace of Bangladesh. They are concentrated in eight ghettoes spread over Dhaka city.
When asked about the history of how their older generations got into sweeping, Sharma, a Telegu sweeper leader of Mohammadpur, told me that they are a historically cheated people as they were brought from India through middlemen for the British administration in Bengal to be given menial jobs but then they were plunged into scavenging.
However, it is infinitely important to take stock of the fact that it is through interplay of the mainstream society with the sweepers that they develop this sense of fatalism and low self-esteem.
Adnan Hossain
On e-mail
Traffic problem
Mr. X lives in any of the following locations- Mirpur/Uttara/ Gulshan/ Banani/Baridhara/ Demra/ Narayanganj/ old town etc. Every day he has to reach office/workplace at 9:00am. He gets up at six, performs the usual morning chores and rushes to catch a vehicle. A journey, which should not have taken more than half an hour, eats up one to one and a half hour of his time. He hears thousands of honks and develops partial deafness, consumes toxic emissions and his eyes burn and lungs feel heavy, gets stranded in traffic jam and loses his patience, and to relieve himself hurls a few abuses etc. He is already tense, stressed and burnt out even before he has started his day's work. Ideally, he is required to be fresh, beaming and full of energy and gusto in the morning hours. The first hour is spent in settling down and recharging. The whole process takes a heavy toll on his physical, mental and emotional health. In any given day he cannot perform more than one-third of his scheduled work. The end result is two-third of the working hours is being lost everyday due to inefficiency of the government.
The government is supposed to plan and solve the problems. The ministers and the other officials travel to other countries, return home and praise their traffic control systems--metro, sky train, roads, flyovers, overbridges, under-passes etc. But when their turn comes to deliver they fail to act. They falter in taking bold, dynamic and pro-people decisions.
Please remember if you do not deliver you won't get votes and are bound to be forgotten.
SN Mamoon
Dhaka