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Brazen example of society’s cruelty

The death of Kazi once again exposed the cruelty and hollowness of our society. Family members provide greater attention to any handicapped member for his survival. Our farmers are the handicapped section of the society. They need extra care from the enlightened section of the society. Moreover, they feed us. But what treatment do we give them? The enlightened or so-called elite treat them like slaves.

Nazrul Islam
KAZI Abul Hashem had embraced a natural death but in an unnatural manner. He died without getting any medical care at a hospital, which is one of the premier and largest public hospitals in Bangladesh. Every human being is mortal but everybody wants to see that he or she gets proper medical care and treatment before his departure from this world.
Kazi Abul Hashem and his relatives also wanted it. That is why
they brought him from the remote Brahmanhata village of Koshba upazila in Brahmanbaria up to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital braving all the ordeals. They brought him with a hope that he would get the best treatment from the best doctors of our country. But what did he get?
The two siblings (one brother and another sister) of Kazi moved to and fro for six hours along with him from one department to another, from one floor to another from one doctor to another, sometimes carrying the seriously ill Kazi on their own shoulders, to have him get a check-up by a doctor. They were moving, crying, and requesting; they became tired and exhausted. But not a single doctor, not a nurse, not a ward boy paid heed to their anxiety and tears.
There are about 300 doctors in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, about a hundred officials, and several hundred staffs. Not one noticed the ailing Kazi, his helpless brother and sister in the hospital
power. So, he must di^.withovt care at a place where he had a right to expect it. The doctors who did not bother to give the slightest attention to him might be the sons of similar farmers, or their grandfathers were farmers, or at least their great grandfathers were farmers. By letting Kazi die without medical attention, they kill one of their forefathers.
1 could not hold my tears back reading the heart-rending description of the incident in The Daily Star on July 10. Kazi might be my father, brother, or any other close
corridor — it is totally absurd. Actually, the problem was that Kazi was a farmer. He came from a Koshba village clad in a lungi. The outfits of his brother and sister were also similar. They are the members of a marginal group - - the farmer. Who cares about a farmer — uneducated, money-less, and powerless one? The world revolves around the sun, Bangladesh spins around money and power.
Kazi had neither money nor
relation. I am a member of a similar peasant family. Reading the news, I particularly got concerned about my peasant father who needs to visit hospital frequently. Who knows, he is also likely to be treated like Kazi.
I am sure had I been gone to the hospital, 1 would not have been treated like Kazi, because, my outfit is like that of an urban elite. A host of relatives and friends, some might be influential like journalists or bureaucrats, would have accompanied me. The doctors would have been able to identify me and my attendants observing their outfits and ways of talking. I am sure they would not have dared to show negligence to me or anyone like me that they did in the case of Kazi. They did so in case of Kazi because Kazi does not have the power to appease, intimidate, or
coerce. They did it to Kazi as none will take his side or talk about his plight.
More interestingly, when The Daily Star approached the hospital director, he expressed his ignorance about such incident. He even insisted that this type of an incident is unlikely to happen at the emergency unit. It is not the ignorance of the director. How could he
be able to know what happens in and around the hospital.
Aall directors or office bosses across Bangladesh go to the offices by air-conditioned cars in the morning and enter into their air-conditioned rooms. They remain busy with variety of works connected with money and power. The most important tasks they perform are meeting, sitting, and eating.
Where is the time for the director to visit the hospital wards or corridors, and inquire about the patients? Who bothers to visit the nasty and dirty wards of the hospital amidst sultry heat?
Now, who died? This is the perti-nentand million-dollar question. A poor farmer of a remote village! So tnany poor farmers die now and then without any reason. They die in a variety of ways. Law enforcers kill them when they go to collect fertiliser or demand uninterrupted electricity supply for irrigating their lands, landlords kill them when a dispute arises, moneylenders indirectly kill them by extracting exorbitant interest from them, traders exploit them when they go to markets, and government officials and employees realise bribe from them when they go to them to have a task done.
The death of Kazi once again exposed the cruelty and hollowness of our society. Family members provide greater attention to any handicapped member for his survival. Our farmers are the handicapped section of the society. They need extra care from the enlightened section of the society. Moreover, they feed us. But what treatment do we give them? The enlightened or so-called elite treat them like slaves.
This is a peculiar country. Here
the servants become masters and taxpayers become slaves. Again that is done by enacting laws. The way our bureaucrats/technocrats behave with members of the public, it seems that they are the paymasters and the people are their servants. Our big bosses can't do their work under electric fans. They neecfair-conditioned rboms^When4-the temperature outside the room is 35 degrees Celsius or more, our bureaucrats go to office wearing woolen suits to sit in a chill room having 10 degree Celsius or below temperature.
The government and AntiCorruption Commission have waged a holy war(?) to stamp out corruption and maladies from the country and society. But how could a country be rectified when the every artery and vain of the society is infected with polluted blood. Many dream of a bright prospect of this country. But I can't be an optimist. A few months back, I was reading the ordeal of a woman in a vernacular daily. Failing to get justice, the poor women of Gopalganj district demanded the Allah to destroy this country and people. Did we ever think what it means when a person craves such a curse for a nation?
Nazrul Islam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.