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To the Editor...
Letters will only be considered if they carry the writer s full name, address and telephone number (if any). The Identity of the writers will be protected. Letters must be limited to 300 words. All letters will be subject to editmg.
Primary education in poor shape
1 have done a survey on both govt and private primary schools on die basis of total quality and performance of the schools. My survey has the synopsis on the findings derived from schools Private primary schools are going ahead, whereas govt, primary schools are lagging behind silently. While talking to the govt, schools' senior teachers. I came to learn dial the huge number of students was a problem that they could not manage Most of the govt, schools have an unmanageable ratio of teacher-student. For instance- in Kurmitola govt, primary school located at Khilkhet. the teacher-student ratio is 1:86. So. here this ratio depicts the real picture. As a result, students' overall quality as well as performance goes down Apart from these reasons, there are other problems like late allocation of textbooks, mistakes in textbooks, poor educational background of teachers, reluctance of teachers to motivate students, and last of all guardians' indifferent supervision over their children etc. On the other hand, private primary schools' senior teachers mentioned that their students were doing very well.
It is known to us that govt, wants to increase the literacy rate by enhancing the rate of enrolment in primary schools. However, a mere increase in the number of students going to school is not enough, the quality of education is an important aspect of the whole scheme dial must not be overlooked by the education authorities. Better conditions must be created in government schools which are now in bad shape owing to various reasons.
Hasnat, AIUB Banani, Dhaka
Iran's stand
Re article: "The Iranian missile test." by Prof. Abdullah A. Dewan, professor of economics at Michigan Eastern University (July 17).
In the context of recent Iranian missile test, it may be germane to ask: Why did Iranian President Ahmadinejad threaten, as he did recendy, to wipe out Israel from the face of the earth?
Iran and Israel don't share a common border and chances of war between them are negligible at most. As such, the answer is that Iran's sabre-ratding is directed as much against its own people as against Israel. Iranian scholar Mehrzad Boroujerdi. director of Middle Eastern Studies at Syracuse University in New York, recendy wrote: "There is an amazing mismatch between what the government preaches and what goes on in the privacy of people's homes that is mind-boggling." This has been going on ever since the Shia mullahs cap tured power in Iran.
It is clear that Iranian mullahs believe literally in 19th century German Gen. Ciauschwitz who said: "War is only politics by others means." With Iranians suffering from high unemployment (as much as 30% of Iranians are unemployed) despite the windfall gains due to high oil prices, the mullahs need perpetual tension and threat of war to diven public attention from their inept economic management and silence the dissidents as enemies of Islam.
Shiite mullahs also know that having an atomic bomb will infinitely bolster their position to further intimidate Iranian dissidents. The bomb and anti-Israel rhetoric will help mobilise the people behind the mullahs. But for
how long will the Iranians allow them to continue to do so?
Mahmood Flahi
Iris Street. Ottawa, Canada
BSF atrocities
In light of recent BSF intrusion into Bangladesh and killing of BDR personnel. I have to draw a parallel to what China is accused of doing in Tibet. It seems like the bigger powers in our region have no shame and no regard for international laws. I would suggest that the CTG take this case along with numerous other such cases to International Court of Justice and pursue this case until it brings some justice. We should not take the injustice sitting down in our chairs doing nothing
In the meantime, our borders should be heavily protected. No matter how big the opponent is, justice prevails in the long run. Mustafa Sadeq
Doha, Qatar
Morning walkers in trouble
Thousands of people visit Dhanmondi Lake every morning. Among them some take exercise in groups or individually, some play different games but most of them walk along the lakeside path. But it is a matter of regret that when the people do their walking, the sweepers start cleaning the place. Many people tried in the past to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the matter but nothing has been done so far.
So, I again urge the authorities to look into the matter.
Harun-or-Rashid Sobhanbag, Dhaka
Corruption in medical sector
Unbridled corruption, shameless nepotism and rampant politicisation of administration totally destroyed the medical system in the country during the previous “golden era" of the infamous jote regime. Professionals with blessings from the DAB and/or BMA were unduly awarded 'abnormal' promotions. Medical officers became 'Professors' and 'Directors' overnight Routing all norms and regulations. Surprisingly, most of them have managed to 'manage' so far. It is a known fact- that BMA leaders minted crores through appointments and transfers. Doctors of the ruling party manipulated admission in the medical colleges, post graduate institutes, subsequent graduation and post graduation, appointments and transfers, study tours. Hajj and employment in the govt, /private institutes.
The result has been serious deterioration in the quality of medical service over the last few years. No attempt has been made so far to probe into these widespread allegations. It is expected that the government would seriously look into these allegations.
S Ahmed
Gulshan, Dhaka
Reporton dialogue
If I remember correctly, the team of Election Commissioners met the President and handed over a well bounded red cover report to him. They said this was the report based on the EC's discussions with the political parties. We have not seen the contents of this report in the media. My question is: whether all political parties have been supplied with a draft copy report for their verification, as to what they have discussed, and what has been printed in the report. If not, why?
They are supposed to get a draft and respond with their comments.
I only hope that the EC will clarify the above queries and make us feel confident that the EC is really "independent" and not controversial and the nation can trust them with the task of proceeding with the entire election process.
A reader On e-mail
Failing states?
The US Congressional committee has published a list of failing states. Bangladesh has been put in the tail of a dirty dozen. In the inglorious list of 12, eight countries are from Africa and the rest four from Asia. Seven of such countries have a Muslim majority and three are from Saarc region.
Eminent personalities and think tanks have already raised question on the veracity of the list. Inclusion of Bangladesh will definitely be protested by the government and other organisations.
Our people will not like to see their dear motherland bracketed with countries maned by civil war and other conflicts. But the underlying fact remains that our failings have blurred our image abroad.
Fifteen crore people of this country are patriots. Only four decades back, three million people sacrificed their lives and many other suffered a lot to liberate this country. We are not ready to see our country being included in such a list even by mistake. Our politicians and government functionaries concerned should realise the sentiment of the general people. Otherwise, they may find them-
selves in the darkest corner of history.
M.SanaulHuq Uttara, Dhaka
Mockery of humanity?
I am replying to a letter that was published in The Daily Star on July 21. entitled "Mockery of Humanity!", written by Rafiqul Islam of Chittagong. In the letter, Mr. Islam talks about CNN’s coverage of the recovery of an Iraqi boy, named Youssif, from burns he acquired in January of 2007 when masked men doused him in gasoline. Mr. Islam contends that CNN's coverage of a single act of kindness by the "American authorities" is an "imperialistic hoax". He goes on to say that CNN's recurrent coverage of isolated acts of humanity raise questions as to whether American "media are the mere tools of the ever burgeoning imperialism".
There are a couple of facts that Mr. Islam got wrong in his letter. Although I understand his frustration and anger at the unauthorised and unwarranted war in Iraq, I do feel one must not distort facts in order to promote one's agenda. Youssif s care is being provided by Children's Burn Foundation (http://www.childburn.org), a non-profit organisation based out of California, and is being funded by private citizens who were moved by his story when it first aired on CNN. "American authorities" or the American government were not and are not involved in care giving.
I also wanted to point out that
95% of American media are privately owned and, hence, viewership or subscriber-ship is their bottom line. Each news media has a certain audience that they target and provide news and opinions that this target audience wants to hear or read. Now, I am not affiliated with CNN or claim to have any knowledge as to why CNN provided such extensive-coverage-of Youssif story, but whatever the reason was, I can assure you it was not part of any imperialistic agenda of the Bush administration. 1 suspect CNN followed the old journalistic adage: if the story bleeds, then it leads. And Youssif s story certainly did bleed.
In my opinion, the overwhelmingly generous response of the American people to Youssif story when it was first aired on CNN goes to show the deep regret that the American people feel on giving the authority to President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Living in US, I do know that the majority of American people feel a great responsibility to ensure that Iraq becomes a functioning society.
1 must point out that Mr. Islam left out a whole aspect of this story, which does not get covered enough in the media. Youssif s burns were caused by fellow Iraqis and put the spotlight on the deep hatred and divisions that exist amongst the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Rather than trying to reconcile the two groups, the neighbouring countries have added fuel to the fire through providing money and arms to various extremist parties in the two groups. Muslims around the world seem to be more concerned about protesting the illegal war purported by the imperialistic
government of America, rather than calling for an end to the heinous acts of violence committed by their Muslim brethren on one another.
Arbab Hassan New York City USA
Overcoming disability
Disability is not a burden, ip the modern age of technology and science, because if physically challenged people get ICT training. they will move ahead. The purpose of ICT is accessibility to information technologies for persons with disabilities and to face the challenge of the modern world as participants to all activities.
Azmal Hosen Mamun
Assistant Coordinator (Resource & Documentation Section) Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS)
BPKS Complex, Uttara, Dhaka
Erratic power supply
A couple of days ago. I was having online conversation with one of my friends in Sweden and he told me, "Does it really take 37 years to solve the problem of power crisis?" All I could tell him is that due to inefficient governance we always lag behind. We never had someone who could aggressively work for the betterment of the country. Today, even after 37 years of independence, when we look at our nation all we can see is that all kinds of infrastructures are faffing apart.
We have now severe problems with water, security, gas and electricity. Many experts once said that Bangladesh was floating on gas. And now the country is thinking of importing it!
It is being predicted that there will be even more power shortage in near future because there is shortage of gas and coal to generate electricity and it is too difficult for a developing country like us to import diesel at high prices to generate power.
Has any government taken any worthwhile steps to reduce power failure?
Minhaj Ahmed
Uttara, Dhaka
Stop population boom
It is time for Bangladesh to take a strong decision to stop the population growth. The government and citizens should come forward and take this decision to stop population growth for at least the next five years. A law should be enacted to ensure no more new births in the next five years. What is our present population? 140/150 million? Our space is very limited. The land is not growing, resources arc not growing but hungry mouths are growing geometrically, not adding anything to our GDP
All concerned should think and cross check this subject. Stop this boom.
Mohammad Nazakat Ali Pallabi
Mirpur, Dhaka
Endangered "Tigers" Both the Team Bangladesh and the Royal Bengal Tigers arc endangered.
Team Bangladesh is leaving Dhaka on 10 of August for Canada where they will be playing a T20 series against Canada, Pakistan & the West Indies and from Canada they will be going to Australia for a 03 GDI series starting from August 31 The 1 st task of the cricketers will be to play as a team, perform and win a T20 match against Pakistan or the West Indies.
What we have seen in the recent past is that the Pakistan cricket team is too strong for Bangladesh in any competition. But again I will not be surprised to see Bangladesh pull an upset in the triangular tournament as the game is a 20 over match and it could swing either way as none of the cricketing nation is yet to master this format. This is abrandnewconceptandno team has yet shown consistency in the micro version.
Whenever the team is out of the country for more than 03 weeks, they fail to focus on the game. I feel that after the team's participation in theT20 event, they should come back home, take rest for a few days and go for the tough series against Australia.
The big question will be how the team plays on the bouncy tracks against the mighty Aussies? If they can play the full quota of 50 overs one will have to admit Bangladesh cricket is heading in the right direction. But looking at the records it is unlikely that they will be able to do so. Then where do we stand? Our cricketers are not capable of playing 300 balls on a regular basis at home or in the batting friendly subcontinent pitches. Sending them to Australia is like sending a battalion of soldiers with sticks to a war zone to fight against an army equipped with guns & cannons.
The results of the T20 and the Aussie series are already known to us and like the other tournaments these two series will again be another one sided affair. So the pundits need to answer, is there
any reason that we should send the senior team to Australia, England or South Africa at all? Since the Australian schedule has been fixed by ICC as part of the FTP., I guess there is nothing much tire BCB can do at this moment but what they can do for the future is request ICC to reschedule the future tour programme (FTP) for Bangladesh seniors in all formats of the game and replace it with the A teams' itinerary instead.
For the improvement of cricket we should concentrate more and more on the school & Junior levels and make sure that the playing conditions, especially the pitch is even. For the evenness of the pitch we can make our young cricketers play on the artificial turf where the bounce, pace, cuts and turns are even and the young players can play the ball according to its merit The artificial turf is in use in countries like Australia. South Africa, New Zealand & England where the juniors play regularly on these turfs, instead of the traditional clay pitch which are difficult to maintain, especially in a country like ours where the playing conditions are tough and the playgrounds are limited. The number of four and five day matches need to be reintroduced at all levels so that the batsman gets enough time and develops the habit of occupying the crease.
Once this habit develops, it will be much easier for our players to play international matches as they will know at the back of their minds which ball to play and which one to leave. The longer version is the ultimate solution for developing techniques. It is simply like the classical music, if one knows the sargam of the music one can sing any song at any place irrespective of the instrument. So getting the basics right is the first priority for saving the tigers of the future. If this can be done, the future will be brighter for both the players and the millions of fans of Bangladesh cricket
Sohel Ahmed
Dhanmondi, Dhaka