& 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

TO THE EDITOR
Potatoes
Consumption of potato as an alternative staple for our country is really a good idea. You can find tons of statistics on its use in the western world as staple food.
The Americans are eating potatoes daily in many ways from breakfast to supper, as hash brown, fries, baked or mashed potatoes. The taste of these food items is good too.
We must find out a way to sur-vive in the event of any crisis. Since the rice prices are high and beyond the capacity- of buying for the most of the people, this should be the perfect time to change our food habit The bumper production of potato can serve as the alternative source of carbohydrates. The less demand for rice will eventually help to lower the price of rice. In addition to that the potato farmers will get their fair price and will be
motivated Io cultivate more. A balancing act is necessary to encourage our farmers.
Mamun Ahmed
LasVcgas.NV.USA
March 26 celebrations in Fiji
Far from the motherhind and thousands of miles away, here in Fiji (popularly known as "Paradise on the earth") we, a few Bangladeshis, celebrated the 37th Independence Day with great zeal and enthusiasm. As 26 March was a working day here, so we decided to celebrate the day earlier on 23 March, Sunday which is the weekend here.
In Suva, the capital of Fiji, we arc about 8 families and 3 bachelors--about 30 Bangladeshis including children. We all gathered at the venue at I 00pm and the function
was opened with the national anthem followed by one minute silence and prayer for all the mar tyrs of the liberation war. Then the famous 7 March speech of Bangabandhu was replayed followed by reminiscences of the nine month long liberation war by Dr. Nozir Ahmad. Dr Ikhtiar. Dr. Ujjal Kanti Dhar and others. Dr. Nozir Ahmad reminded how we united under the leadership of Bangabandhu and what unity could achieve and how miserably we failed to maintain that unity in the post liberation period resulting in the present position of Bangladesh and urged all Bangladeshis to have that unity again, to build a peaceful and prosperous Bangladesh. Dr. Tahmina Mirza narrated her difficult and fearful days in Pakistan as a stranded Bangladeshi and described the dangerous and risky journey she undertook with her family all the way to Bangladesh through Afghanistan and India. Then we all sang some famous nationalistic songs of 1971 with lead singer Sanchita
The programme ended with the hope and oath of building a prosperous Bangladesh for all.
Nozir Ahmed On e-mail
Books
The practice of reading novelsand poems among the students is diminishing day by day. Though every school teacher refers his/her students to read such books, it is very surprising that many of our schools do not have a proper library. Especially, the collection of Bengali books in the libraries of English Medium schools is poor. Adiba larannum
A student
On e-mail
Trial of war criminals
People, who witnessed the days of 1971, can understand how horrible an ever known city could look when it was in the midst of a terrible war. People who lost their relatives and belongings can understand the pain of losing the near and dear ones.
The trial of the war criminals. I believe, is the demand of every single Bangladeshi, living here or
abroad.
When the question of the trial of war criminal comes, everybody should be saying, "Yes, we want the trial of the war criminals, right now".
Cantata Wali Ruhl
One-mail
The indispensable rickshaw
Rickshaws continue to be banned on so-called VIP roads. Have traffic jams eased or ceased? Are the exrickshaw users happy? Arc rickshaw pullers and their families well-fed? Are traffic cops' duties easier? Do motorized transport get free access on rickshaw free roads? The answer to all is a resounding no!
Let us see how those dependent on rickshaws fare because of this irresponsible, dubious, doublefaced and damaging decision of the traffic authorities.
1. In these days of rampant inflation and high prices of essen-tials, earnings of rickshaw pullers have nose-dived. Are traffic bosses proud when the rickshaw pullers and their families often have to go
without a meal as a consequence?
2. At least 25% of Dhaka's population are closely connected to rickshaws on a daily basis as pullers, makers, repairers, users and their families i.e. 25-30 lakh people.
3. What right do the authorities have to restrict the livelihood and mobility of so many people for the illusory 'convenience' of a few?
4. Bicycles, school children's vans (a veritable death trap) and garbage vans are allowed on VIP roads as are cycle goods vans (may be by some palm greasing) but not rickshaws carrying the old, sick, disabled, women & children, goods etc.
5. Traffic cops are in a quandary as they have to face the wrath of an angry populace who find themselves suddenly ejected from the rickshaw in the cold, heat or rain. Some wave me on in sympathy, others lower their eyes in shame for grounding a 75 year old, but a few take sadistic pleasure in forcefully enforcing these orders.
6. Who is responsible for injuries sustained or deaths resulting from being forced to walk on footpathless roads and crossing it in the path of racing cars? I could go on andon.
In the meantime, huge gasguzzling monsters race about empty or half empty with .blaring horns and after dusk with blinding lights. Or they remain parked with impunity on roads and footpaths with fawning cops guarding them while puncturing rickshaw tyres.
This is the 10th letter 1 have written on the subject in the last six months without any response. Till there is an adequate alternative, the rickshaw is indispensable for the vast majority of Dhakaites to go about their business. There is a simple solution to Dhaka's traffic problem and both slow and fast vehicles can co-exist easily. If the authorities have run out of ideas and do not have the will to enforce existing laws, then they should gracefully retire. They can also contact me for the solution.
SikanderAhmed
Niketon, Dhaka
Dual citizenship
I wholeheartedly welcome the judicious decision of the- Chief Adviser of the caretaker government of Bangladesh to amend the existing legal framework on dual citizenship of Bangladeshi Britons, so that they no longer-‘haw-to
forfeit Bangladeshi citizenship as soon as they become British citizens, unless they want to relinquish it voluntarily. Not having to reapply for retaining the Bangladeshi citizenship will, doubtless, be a privilege for the first generation Bangladeshi Britons to avert a bureaucratic quagmire replete with requirements, that oftentimes discourage them from venturing beyond a "no visa-required” (NVR) seal duly stamped on their host country passport before visiting the sending country as veritable outsiders looking in. It may, very well, generate a sense of entitlement among the postimmigrant generation in the Bangladeshi Diaspora and facilitate them to develop a “transnational social field” incorporating their country of origin. I will plead that this privilege be extended to the Bangladeshi-Americans as well.
Current immigration research in a globalised world is shedding new light on how dual citizenship serves the interests of both the sending country and the host country. Taking cue from Benedict Anderson's classic contention that
nity" and Homi Bhaba's no less contentious dictum that nation is "a narrative," some researchers deemphasize the primordial nature of nationhood to render our existence as contingent on a fluid and “translocal" context. Some of them even argue that while most of the host countries are gradually coming to terms with multiple allegiances of their citizens in an increasingly global world undergoing, as Anthony Giddens so aptly put, “dis-embedding and reimbedding of social relations across time-space destinations", the sending countries, in their turn, engage in constructing “deterritorialized" nationhood in the Diaspora by facilitating dual citizenship opportunities among the emigrants to continue to win and bank on their allegiances. Like many third world countries, Bangladesh also must play an active role in shaping the interplay between centripetal and centrifugal forces driving the immigration dynamics for Bangladeshi emigrants, especially in the first world countries.
Faridul Alam
Staten Island
, nation..is “an imagined, commur,,, NeuYark.USAi,