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To the Editor

at anv) The identitv of the writers will be protected. Letters must be limited to 300 words. All letters will be subject to editing. Letters will only be considered if they carry the writer's full name, address and telephone number (if any), i ne loentuy oi me r
Environment
This is a letter about something really simple that you can do to help the environment greatly.
We should cat locally. What is eating locally? It's eating food that is grown in Bangladesh. This will saw the environment from pollution. The following are some reasons why you should cat local foods.
1. Foodswill need less transportation (air. land, and water) to get to us.
2. By using less transportation, we will be helping the environment. because it won't be polluted by cars, planes and ships.
3. If we eat seasonal fruits and vegetables, we can grow more plants to grow more fruits and wgetables to make a greener environment. Mother Earth will be healthier if we grow more plants
and trees. You'll be healthier too!
I hope this letter will encourage you all to do this one simple thing to help make a greener environment for the future.
Aarambh Pradhan
Grade5
American International School Dhaka
London Mayor
It was so nice to sec the graceful exit of Ken Livingston, the valedictory handshake of two opponents and the speech of Boris Johnson praising Ken for making the office of London Mayor such an important one for the land.
Why can't our politicians be like that? Why this insatiable urge for power and money?
Engineer Shafi Ahmed
London, UK
Political dialogue
In BBC BanglaSonglap, one panellist very rightly said that the predialogue was a monolog. I think there is every reason to believe that, if you look at the media briefing by the advisers and the reaction of the political party to the same media.
The pre-dialogue was not transparent , and not necessarily covered the total aspects of the predialogue. If you listen carefully, then you will realise that the advisers were giving priority to their own agenda i.e. whether reforms initiated by this government would be continued by the elected government. In real sense there was no dialogue. A groundwork has been done to submit a perceived government idea or agenda for the actual dialogue to be held reportedly during first half of May 2008; even the government could not give a definite time table and the politicians or political parties would then be blamed for any failure of the uncertain dialogue. We have observed a game plan during the last 16 months.
I hope that the political parties have also taken their secretarial notes. It would be a smart move on their part to submit their rfotes1 to
the CA, so that a one sided picture is not presented by the five advisers. There is already a notion that it was a monolog and not a dialogue. Simultaneously, I would urge them to publish their secretarial note jointly through the media for public consumption. This step might bring transparency to the whole system ofpre-dialogue.
A reader
On e-mail
Parking at restaurant
A quite posh restaurant on Gulshan Avenue directs its customers to park their cars at their own risk. Is that a sensible direction? First of all, the restaurant doesn't have any parking space for anyone. Then, it holds live music and musical soirees for attracting more customers.
Isn't that funny? You don't have a space for 'one' car but you want more customers?
Ekram Kabir
Dhaka
Reform?
It is really shameful to see once again the picture of people being hired to be shown as supporters. What's the difference between this
act and buying voters at the time of anyelection?
We expected a little better from this faction of the BNP but they failed us.
Marghub Mawla One-mail
NWDP and SBA's comments
I'm writing this letter to refute the misleading views expressed by Mr. Ahsan in this article, Bengali women, equal rights and obscuration' published in this paper on April 23. Mr. Ahsan has blamed die government for sending the draft women development policy to the ulema community for comments, and at the same time criticized the ulema without verifying whether they have done their job properly. Is it not desirable to make it sure that nothing in the policy is contradicting the provisions in the religion? In a veiled language. Mr. Ahsan has also held the religious clerics responsible for the backwardness of our women folk. His utterance that 'the ulema committee echoed primitive sentiments' is simply outrageous.
The rights prodded by Islam to
the women are clearly recorded in the Holy Quran and Hadith. No one is allowed to tamper with the same. Does Mr. Ahsan want a WDP even if it Infringes on the basic tenets of our religious beliefs?
Attracted by the rights and dignity of women bestowed on women by Islam, a large number of women in Europe and North America embrace this religion every year, but our intellectuals are unable to behold the benevolence of Islam, because they have strayed away from the religion and their visions are blurred by the overwhelming western civilization. It is noticed that our elite do not miss any opportunity to belittle and ridicule anything that is connected with Islam. Our society runs according to the whims of the elite, not according to the wishes of the Mullahs.
The women of our country are progressing well, though slowly. There is no need to be oversensitive about their rights when more than ninety percent people of the country are deprived of their basic human rights. Development of woman can be ensured without a policy that violates the religious ■provi.sinrfs" on this subject.’ The
intellectuals have the choice whether to believe in and practise religion or not, but they don’t have any right to hurt the feelings of the believers by making derogatory comments about others. The wellbeing of the Muslims depends on observance of their religion, not on blind imitation of the western ways.
Dr. Mamunur Rashid
Old DOHS, Banan i
Dhaka
Memories of
Faujdarhat
I read Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed's article on the 50th anniversary of Faujdarhat (then East Pakistan) Cadet College. You mentioned my father, Mr. ON Bishop, one of the first teachers and also a housemaster. We have many happy memories of our family's time there from early 1959 to 1960, when my brothers and I were children. My father (now in his 80s) always say how keen and enthusiastic the boys were - model students in fact!
Extra-curricular activities such as camping and field trips were mentioned in the article. I remember our family going along just for the day to accompany the staff and
boys on a couple of these trips. My father is a keen botanist, and used to get the boys to help him look for interesting plant specimens in the hills- once they found a cycad and proudly brought back one of the giant cycad cones. He was also an amateur filmmaker at the time, and still has some old cine films of the Cadet College. A lot of dignitaries visited the College in its early days, and I remember the boys would often line the driveways and form a guard of honour for their arrival and departure. Sometimes we younger staff children would try and emulate them, and also jump up and down waving home-made flags! We made many good friends amongst the staff at the time, and Mrs Islam in particular used to give lovely picnic parties for the staff children.
It is good to return to Bangladesh and hear that Faujdarhat Cadet College is so highly regarded after all this time, and that it has produced so many distinguished alumni.
Deirdre Murray Gulshan2
Dhaka