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To the Editor...
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Toxic milk powder
As a result of a report on a number of brands of powdered milk tendered by a Dhaka University laboratory, the government has asked the public to avoid those brands and to use liquid local cow's milk. However, some other laboratories did not find their samples of the various brands to be tainted with melamine. Some 50,000 children in China are reported to have fallen sick, with many deaths, as a result of consuming melamine-laced powdered milk. To date, not a single documented case of such poisoning has been reported in Bangladesh. It would appear that further testing is called for in order to establish fully whether brands which we have trusted and used for decades could be implicated in such a criminal practice as adulteration.
In the meantime, after glancing at The Daily Star's front-page photograph of cow's milk being brought to market, I wonder whether using milk transported in such unhygienic manner is any safer.
There has also been a report of condensed filled milk in Thailand being found to contain melamine.
Filled milk means milk where the dairy fat is substituted by palm oil, and all the Bangladesh brands of condensed milk in tins are prepared with palm oil in place of dairy fat It would be prudent for the government to test all the locally-produced brands of condensed milk for melamine, and to insist that manufacturers label these products to show that they contain palm oil, known to be hazardous for cardio-vascular patients, in order for consumers to decide whether to use these prod-
SyedHamdeAli
TheNaivab Palace
Bogra
Next government and youth
So, it's election time. Some party will win the majority seats in parliament and form the next government. But what are our politicians and leaders planning to do for the youth? This is a very relevant question for the country as a whole.
There are many more issues left untouched for years. The next govt, should resolve at least some of them.
Tahsln Hyder
Dhaka
Education system
The letter from AS Islam, retired professor of Botany of Dhaka University, illustrates yet another reason why a 'unified system of education' could be a disaster. Thank you, Sir, for exposing the awfulness of at least one of the 'approved textbooks' in your subject and chillingus to the marrow at the prospect of ndt'drily die pupils ‘ in one type of school but all Bangladeshi pupils being exposed to the ghastly mistakes, the outdatedness and the sheer boredom of SOME badly written, illustrated and printed school text-
What goes on in the present UN-unified system guarantees that, if there are awful textbooks, some schools at least, can choose different ones and the free circulation of a wide variety of books may, with any luck, guarantee that the worst ones sink to the bottom and be abandoned, despite the huge profits that they can make for those who keep trying to raise them from the dead.
Of course, we must all respect the noble intentions of the many nice people who claim that abolishing the present freedom to have Bengali-medium, English-medium and Madrassah education, will usher in a society free from 'discrimination, corruption and fanaticism' - and, let me add, snobbery, hostility and prejudice -and all those other evils that we want to see the back of, in our schools and world.
However, remember the saying, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions ' How can changing the words on a school notice-board and re- jigging systems destroy these evils? Children leam to look down their noses at others not from the SYSTEM under which they are being educated but by the PEOPLE they come into contact with parents, teachers, friends and whether such people encourage them to think well or poorly of other children in other schools or of any people who are different from them.
I have to say that, from my experience in the UK and here, it is possible with hard work, to create a good moral 'climate' in all sorts of schools run according to all sorts of systems. The evils that we all want to protect children from are forces that do not lend themselves to reform by those who like tinkering with the machinery!
They will just dig in and stay there, whatever 'unified system' is imposed. Many are the nation in the last few decades that I have seen try to impose a 'unified system' , for the best of intentions, only to discover, the hard way, that, despite enormous cost and disruption, the longed-for improvements in behaviour and attitude have failed to materialise. (Avoiding snobbery - and inverted snobbery -within schools or between schools is extremely difficult to get rid of.) Uniformity of education does not
guarantee quality of education. It is moral and ethical training that is needed to teach tolerance, respect and honesty and it is very hard work, in every sort of school, in every country.
Instead of re-jigging systems a process which will only exhaust and frustrate teachers, pupils and parents and waste an incredible amount of money and time - it is surely better to concentrate on developing moral education across all the systems - and include parents in the process - so that good parents and good teachers will extend their influence so that more and more of our beloved children can develop as happy and good citizens with educational and social skills and enlightened moral attitudes that will enable them to serve the nation without fear or favour.
Angela Robinson
Rev Mrs AMV Robinson MA Dip Ed (Oxon.)
Headmistress, Girls'Section Bangladesh International Tutorial
Basic democracy
Basic democracy may be suitable for the people of Bangladesh.
A layered democratic approach is required. Constituencies of all sizes should be formed with the smallest constituency electing members to the next level and so forth. Every area will elect their representative for their government machinery, by voting in the next level of governing body, whose official will be called the elected village government member.
Then every village government member will vote for their district level government mechanism, winners will be elected as district government members. Then all district government members will elect a head of the state.
There should be three levels of voting. First level is grassroots , which can be called village voting. The second level of democracy is the district level. The third and final level voting is the state level, which elects the head of the country. At all levels of voting, everyone is both a voter and a potential candidate.
In all these voting levels, no one can offer himself as a candidate or demand that the public vote for him, in other words, campaigning wo.uld be ^trictly prohibited. Fqr example, 'no one can say "I would like to be a village government member or district government member or state government member, vote for me." Instead, power will be one hundred percent in the hands of the people.
We may experiment with such a system as western democracy has failed in our context.
Md. Mozzammel Haque On e-mail
Poor education
In our education system, there is the culture of rote learning from primary to university level. Examination system is also based on rote learning and friendly to rote learner.
This culture does not develop students' cognitive capacity, thinking ability and creativity. This also may be the reason for ineffectiveness of the education system. With a few exceptions, teachers are selected on the basis of academic results and, consequently, they also encourage rote learning.
We have to find out ways to
break this vicious cycle. This system is the legacy of the colonial education system which was designed to make only clerks.
Pradyut Kumar Saha Department of Development Studies
University of Dhaka
Temporary relief
Laskar's write-up on the subject in your October 6 issue Is only a very temporary phenomenon. Dhaka power demand fell as many left the city for Eid holidays, and offices and other establishments were closed. Despite this, it was a phenomenon only for the greater Dhaka area and no more.
We went on a trip to a village in Munshiganj on 4 October, leaving Dhaka at around midday. The village is located down south about 20 miles after crossing the Buriganga Bridge ahead of Jurain.
However I had to curtail the trip, as after 6:00pm, load shedding started promptly! Locals told us that this would continue for two hours if not more, and was a routine-- come Ramadan or Eid! This phenomenon of darkness after 8:00pm has been a regular feature since the beginning of summer; and they were doubtful if it would be relaxed in winter! In any case they were not optimistic!
After recrossing the Buriganga Bridge, it was all lighted up with bright, big billboards using up a lot of power! Why cannot we eliminate this power waste on lights for advertising, when the basic need for house lighting has to be shut off by load shedding?
This is the paradox of poor thinking of our powers that be, who encourage power for useless luxury, while curtailing necessary power for studies in the suburbs of Dhaka!
SA Mansoor Dhaka
Bangladesh internal waters
In international Law of the Sea, the most important line in the concept of maritime boundary is the BASE LINEofa country.
The area in landward direction within the base line (which is normally thelowest tidemark on-afirm and established coastline) is known as 'internal waters' of a country and any area on the seaward side is then marked off as 'territorial waters' (up to 12 miles for intervention to stop crime, smuggling etc); and then for economic zone (up to 200 miles, decided by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in 1985 in favour of Iceland because it was heavily dependant for its survival on the Atlantic cod fish, following the so called 'cod-war' between Britain and Iceland).
Later a limit of up to 350 miles from the base line was internationally accepted for exploration of sea bed minerals.
So the most important boundary in the law of the sea is the base line or 'internal waters line' of a country and it is often confused with 'territorial waters' by laymen who are ignorant of legal terms. Bangladesh must register the limits of its internal waters with UN authorities as soon as possible, as only from such an established base line, the territorial waters, eco-
nomic zone and continental shelf zones can be negotiated or calculated. To my knowledge, this has not been done yet because Bangladesh does not have a firm and rocky coastline like most other countries with clear and continuous high or low water mark.
Bangladesh has many islands in the Bay of Bengal and new islands are being continually formed and old ones being eroded.
So Bangladesh (for its survival like Iceland) is in a unique position to approach ICJ for special consideration for accepting its base line and its internal waters.
As evidence of such claims and consideration, passage of inland water vessels through various islands in the Bay of Bengal from ports in Chittagong to ports in Khulna and other districts can be seen to be regulated by Inland
Water Navigation Legislations from time immemorial, denoting that these areas clearly form Bangladesh internal waters. So a base line needs to be drawn towards the seaside of such navigational paths and then from such an accepted 'base-line' will come the 12-mile territorial waters line, and then the 200-mile economic zone line, and finally the 350-mile continental shelf line etc.
So it is the base line of Bangladesh, defining its internal waters and getting international agreement or judgment to it, which is all important
I would therefore request the Bangladesh authorities to proclaim clearly and without delay such a base line, and register it with the UN repository with evidence as to what are the limits of its internal waters. Also submit copies of such proclamations to all foreign governments through its embassies abroad to take note of, especially maritime nations.
The other boundaries can then be negotiated from this base line with neighbours, or cases of disagreements submitted to ICJ for decision.
Like Iceland, Bangladesh an industrially weak and poor country without much resources, merits special international consideration to define its 'internal waters line'or'base line'for survival.
Without having such an accepted base line, any negotiations are premature, like putting carts before a horse.
Engineer Shafi Ahmed London, UK
Traffic rules mauled
Please do not make a news item with a big picture (on the 1st page) just to fill up the space. I did not get any in depth message out of your mega picture of traffic on the street (DS 6th Oct.), for complaints and their replies were already there in your staff correspondent's coverage. If you wanted you could print only the street picture with the hackney carriage in the almost empty Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, just as that.
My message to your correspondent is: please take note that streets in most places are usually empty or less crowded during pre and post holidays. And there is nothing uncommon. And whenever there is
no rush of traffic, presence of traffic police is scanty for valid reasons. There is nothing much to grumble about!
I want you to write on genuine things viz. haphazard parking, allowing business on footpaths and even on main roads (come on to Eskaton-Bangla Motor area and see displaying and repairing of motor bikes and installation of glass & motor parts); building of overbridges (not suitable for school children, their parents, elderly passers-by and handicapped road users) instead of 'under-ground'/sub-ways comfortable for all and very convenient during inclement weather; installation of auto-signal lights spending hundreds of thousands of taka but not following them; creating unnecessary jams for unlimited time in the name ofVIP roads (come to Bangla Motor and watch 'the VIPs' using the road during the whole day(!)'. You can also see, at times, misuse of police patrol numbering over dozens, including some senior officials stopping people from crossing the roads, instead of using the overbridge.
(Privately spealong, the proposal was to build an 'underground subway' at Bangla Motor, but maybe for 'unknown reasons' it was abandoned and at last the overbridge was built.) A F Rahman
On e-mail
What is going on?
A meeting between Hossain Zillur and Khaleda Zia should not be taken lightly. Hossain Zillur is not a politician, though.
Certain foreign missions are very active and the role played by external donor agencies & NGOs is not insignificant. We have never seen such level of freedom enjoyed by UN, World Bank. IMF and ADB resident mission heads.
No major education policy change has taken place, but we have seen how jute mills were shut down. A major change in our health policy is in its final stage, a policy for privatisation of national reserve of natural gas and electrical power grid is underway ; a free-hand IPP (Independent Power Producer) policy has been finalised.
Are we informed?
Sheikh Monirul Islam Khartoum