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Obama's “audacity of hope”
Doris Lessing, the 89 year old English novelist who won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, fears that Barack Obama will be assassinated if he is elected as the next US President because of his race. The remarks seemed brazen and mysterious coming from an otherwise respectable, graceful and humble English woman who seems to have lost sight of the fact that the United States gained its independence from her country over 200 years ago and now has its own culture and history. At best, they confused me given Ms. Lessing was once banned from South Africa for taking a stand against its former racist regimes.
Having lived in Britain for over a decade nearly as much time in the US, I am reluctant to endorse the views of Ms. Lessing. My first encounter with America's backwardness
with race and gender equality issues came upon my arrival here in the form of a radio soap ad in Florida in the late nineties: "Ladies, if you buy this washing powder, your husbands will be very proud of you!” - or words to that effect. Being a recent British transplant at die time, I was simply shocked at that sort of derogatory attitude towards women; it would simply not have been tolerated in Britain and the ad would have been pulled following inevitable complaints by the listeners. Thus, it came as litde surprise to me when Florida became the offending state in 2000 to ensure the dubious victory of George Walker Bush, possibly the worst US President in living memory.
Yet, the US has more high profile public figures who are black than Britain: Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice
are just two examples. The only black Member of Parliament in Britain was called a "monkey" during the elections in the 90's that saw the meteoric rise of Tony Blair - who unfortunately turned out to be one of die biggest liars. Britain has had its fair share of racist killings and police brutality under the leadership of that man. I would rather like Ms. Lessing focused on the mysterious death of Dr. David Kelly, the British scientist soon after colliding with Mr. Blair's version of "trudi" regarding WMDs in pre-invasion Iraq dian purporting to be a soothsayer on the possible assassination of a black president in die US in 2009.
The United States, having all but lost its credibility and most of its friends in the international community due to its recent adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan human rights abuses, infamous Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, really does need a change of policy at both home and abroad. The US economy is on the verge of a recession and the financial bleeding from the war in Iraq is hurting the morale of what was once a great nation. The lies and greed have led to the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage lending markets and could soon result in many impoverished people losing their homes. In short, the richpoor divide in the US is set to get bigger. A nation that is divided in that way is a weak nation - just like a sports team where the players do not have a uniform level of skills. One of its greatest assets was the overwhelmingly large middle class US population; battering that core class with its short term policies for the benefits of a few will destroy the cohesiveness necessary for any strong nation^
Even a few years ago, I would have been enthused to
see a woman president in the White House given my rude awakening to offensive attitude towards women in south ern US. My arrival to this country in the late 90's coincided with Mrs. Clinton's campaigns in upstate New York to become a Senator and I had the greatest respect for her intellect. Yet, when I asked myself recently - had I had the choice - if I would vote for Hillary Clinton had she been a man, the answer was a resounding "no!" Voting for someone because of their race or gender is as bad as discriminating against them if one believes that a person is defined by higher and deeper values developed over time than simply their skin colour or sex. Given that the US really does need a major change, can Clinton, who is very much the part of the old school political establishment, give it a new direction? The US needs to be retrospective, instead of spending another decade bullying and lecturing the rest of the world about what they must do.
As for the Republican front runners, there's McCain - an old man still busking in the dubious glories of his Vietnam experience even as US soldiers and millions of innocent Iraqis continue to die in the Middle East - and there's the religious right-winger Huckabee who believes in "miracles". To vote once for Bush junior was excusable - it was a machine read error in Florida; to vote for him twice was shameful but to give the Republicans a third term in office would simply be ridiculous!
Therefore, Barack Obama really is the only hope for the US which needs to come at peace with itself, reconcile and find a new - more graceful role - in an ever changing world. Shabbir A Bashar, PhD Vancouver, USA
Harassment at DTCB
The so-called One Stop Cell of Rajuk has in reality become a centre for harassment of people who approach Rajuk for approval of building plan. According to “Dhaka Imarat Nirman Bidhimala 2007", one has to obtain clearances from 20 different offices of the government to get a development permit! After obtaining the development permit one can prepare a detailed plan & design and submit it for Rajuk's approval. One lias to face great obstructions and loss of time in getting die clearance. Although the above bidhimala specifies that various organisations should complete their observations in maximum 10 days after receipt of drawings and documents from Rajuk, but they take months. One of the government offices is Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB). DTCB has a committee comprising officials from BRTA, Planning Department of Rajuk, BUET, Traffic Department of metropolitan police and the Directorate of Architecture.
None of the committee members attend the meetings regularly. Even if they come they stay for a short time, as they have their businesses in their own offices. They arc even not paid any remuneration. As a result, every thing at DTCB is delayed. The most funny thing is that except BUET all other offices issue clearance certificates for the same building plan independently. So, going to DTCB is duplication of work and intentional harassment of public.
We propose either DTCB be excluded from such business or they should have their own staff who can independently examine drawings and issue clearance certificates in 10 days' time.
Shafi ul Alam
Gulshan, Dhaka
Nation's conscience
The nation's conscience was not so cheap and small that it would be tainted with the trial of a few academics in the court of law. 1116 nation has the deepest respect for academics, irrespective of their
status. One may have aversion or disinclination to a particular Incident or decision but a statement which ultimately created massive unrest warranting direct and prompt Intervention by the law enforcing agencies was not desirable.
A few jurists, fond of pompous lectures, have overshot themselves by expressing expert opinion on the judgment without looking at case records, depositions of witnesses etc possibly to invite admiration of the people as Uicy now have Identified themselves to be members of the civil society.
Therefore, I do hope that our respected academics while delivering impromptu observations, lectures on any political matter at Shaheed Minar and to the media will not be “uncontrollably emotional".
KC Reza ul Huq Lalrnatia, Dhaka
Rejoinder
We refer to the article published on February 27, 2008 on Page 11
(Point Counterpoint) of your daily. We have taken note of Mr. AJi Sheikholeslam’s feedback on our service, and are concerned to hear about his experiences. We are looking into this matter and would welcome Mr. Sheikholeslam to write formally to our customer affairs team (customer, affairs^emiratcs.com), to aid us in our investigation.
Emirates aims to provide the best service possible on all our routes. For our Bangladeshi customers, we try to roster our Bengali speaking crew members on our Dhaka flights, and on our inf! ht entertainment system we also screen Bangladeshi movies.
Recently, we invested in a modern new flagship city office equipped to provide better service to our customers. Dhaka is an important route in our network and we are proud to be able to provide our service to our customers here.
Hani f Zak aria
Emirates' Area Manager Bangladesh