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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 editing.
Matia Chowdhury's interview
It is very easy to demand noble things from others. Mrs. Matia Chowdhury said in that interview (October 16) that she wants a free, fair and credible election in an environment free from fear, apprehension and criminal activities. I totally agree with Begum Matia Chowdhury and that is precisely why the next general election MUST be held under the supervision of the caretaker administration, with a relaxed state of emergency. All previous records show that during AL/BNP rules elections were rigged, voters were intimidated and even denied entry. People didn't feel safe to go to polling stations during the AL/BNP rules.
AzadMiah, Oldham
UK
Tortured maids
My focus in this letter is not on the occasional news headlines on torture of household assistants. What I refer to is the silent unseen tortures (physical & verbal) of poor victims who come to the cities. I was taken aback by a particular incident a few months back when I found a dignified and respected lady physically abusing her support staff over trifling matters. It was even shocking for me as I knew she was one of those who even worked for the humanitarian missions and often identified for her philanthropic contributions to society. Surely, I was prompted by this incident to write but I understand the level of mass torture going on throughout the socio demographical classes of urban life.
I would urge the readers to raise their voice in favour of introducing an effective complaints procedure against the 'masters' that would allow torture survivors to make complaints to independent agencies confidentially and without fear, harassment or the need for bribes and ensure that such complaints are investigated promptly and impartially.
Zaiami Bodrudduza
Uttara, Dhaka
"Baul" statues
The statues of several "hauls" or traditional Bengali singers were demolished from their building place, in front of the main entrance to Zia International Airport. The government has also decided not to go ahead with their construction. I applaud the government's decision aimed at preserving calm.
Some people associated with the cultural field say it was an attack on the freedom to undertake cultural activities. I would say none prevents them from doing so.
Jayeed Naseeree The Aga Khan School Dhaka
Conscience
Why the Creator has given human beings the status of His supreme creation?
Because He has blessed the human beings with conscience to demarcate between right and wrong.
But very unfortunately most people wouldn't like to apply their conscience while expressing themselves and before going to perform any action. What a pity!
One should not keep one's conscience circuit inactive but always keep it activated!
Professor M Zahidul Haque Chairman
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Dhaka
Misinformation
Myth appears to creep into all your reports and it is now spiralling upward to your editorials as well.
Let this be recorded that there are historically no known ‘images', photographs or statues in existence of our venerated sage anywhere in the world, and a lithograph going about (and often seen in posters/T-shirts and even newspapers) is not that of our Shaiji!
Indeed if at all- it is a representative of bauls--any baul for the matter.
Yours is probably the only newspaper that continues to write that a figurative representative of Fakir Lalon Shah was among five sculptures demolished by bigots last Wednesday opposite the Dhaka Airport. It is far from the truth, and most disturbingly lends credence to the bigots' claims that there was an attempt to raise an 'idol' of Shaiji misinformation of devastating consequence!
Maqsoodul Haque, Dhaka
FBCCI
FBCCI, the apex body of country's business people, recently declared that they would put forward some suggestions for economic development of the country.
Undoubtedly, this is a good initiative by the FBCCI, but their suggestions should have come much earlier for ensuring more effectiveness.
If various organisations give their suggestions with a priority list for the betterment of the country well before the election, it will be easier for the political parties to set about the task of rebuilding the nation.
SaifTinku
Baridhara, Dhaka
Communal violence
Undoubtedly everybody wants to live in peace. Nobody wants to live amidst violence. But sometimes due to our misunderstandings such violence escalates.
You already know that in India's Orissa state violence had spread following the August 23 murder of a popular Hindu leader by unknown gunmen. Consequently, several Christians were killed and many had to leave their homes and move to safer places in nearby churches or in forests. The agitated people demolished several churches. But I think before unleashing the violence they (those agitated people) should have given it a thought that no problem can be solved through violence.
Rasel Raymond dio
St. Xavier Intermedia! Seminary Bharikasor, Mymensingh
Right to life
Contrary to the world's political pundits' notions, the most important issue facing humanity in the upcoming US election is the fundamental "right to life" of every human being.
It is here that Sen. Barack Obama's core beliefs and record fundamentally disagree with the nation's founding principles that cue enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and which states that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Obama is governed by the Marxist belief that "the end justifies the means." As a result, he vigorously supports the systematic murder of innocent children through abortion and embryonic stem cell research, as if such people were a sub-class of human beings. In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, he supported infanticide by vetoing the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which would have protected babies who were accidentally born alive during attempts to abort them. An estimated 1.3 million innocent children are murdered each year in the U.S. through the Obama adopted policy of abortion. Without the right to life no other human right makes sense.
Obama also fully supports contraceptives and homosexuality which thwarts the natural generation of life and which is the antithesis of the family. Obama is a false prophet who preaches "change" and "hope" while pursuing a culture of death. Though the slogan "change" is usually invoked to signify something positive, in this case it hides a different agenda - one which is very dangerous for America and the world.
I'.iul Kokosld
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada
Financial crisis
In British newspapers of October 14 it is revealed that bonuses in the city of London financial institutions last year (2007) amounted to £17 billion pounds. You can quite easily multiply this by ten for such institutions in the USA, continental Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. So £170 billion pounds were siphoned off by the fat cats over just one year by a conservative estimate. If this had gone on for the last ten years, £1.7 trillion pounds have been creamed off which is about the same amount now required to be paid off by the ordinary taxpayer of each country to stave off a complete meltdown of the western style capitalist system.
This bakshish culture of bonuses, tips, gratuities etc for supposedly good work must stop. The normal pay must reflect a standard measure of expected good work without any other incentive, failing which there must be penalties such as demotion or dismissal.
Such bonus culture is part and parcel of a culture of corruption hidden by euphemism. The corruption in Bangladesh is indeed chicken feed in comparison.
Engineer Shafi Ahmed
London, UK
Boat race in
Gopalganj
I really appreciate and welcome Channel-i's initiative to cover the traditional boat race of Gopalganj. This boat race is a heritage of that area but unfortunately we, the youngsters of today's Bangladesh, do not know about all these traditions as there is a lack of interest and focus in our culture and heritage. This responsibility goes to our television channels also as there is a common trend of blending western flavour or Indian style in various programmes.
We love to follow others but sometimes if we focus on ourselves, we can get enriched.
They have performed this duty by bringing to light this event. There are many such ceremonies in our villages which can be covered.
This initiative not only attracts people within the country but also the tourists all over the world. If we could facilitate such traditional events, then this type of boat race can be organised nationally.
Sometimes we forget our own rich culture!
ShamanaYasmin
One-mail
Nuke culture
Talk shows on diverse issues hosted by Mr. Hamid Mir and Mr. Kamran Khan on GEO TV in the recent times -1 mean, up to and includingyester-day, 14tli day of October 2008 - are, in an average sense and as appropriate - found to be well focused on Pakistan's competing priorities; competitive in terms of time, space, and outcome related potentials; civil at inter-human levels; well researched; well presented; and antidote seekers when it comes to fighting diseases of in-country and ex-country origins at political, nonpolitical and other levels. Well done!
It is expected GEO TV will - from now onwards - be able to deal with the big picture of matters to be discussed in its future discussion programmes in a more balanced, more unbiased, more reliable, more neutral, fairer, more open, more objective, more substantive, more innovative, more realistic, and more user-friendly, as well as resultfriendly fashion than that at present - as far as humanly and otherwise practicable, though.
It is also expected future discussions on the GEO will be instrumental in inter alia liberating further people's mindset from tunnel visions when it comes to say, dissecting the country's present problems and proffering solutions to those problems in the context of an increasingly interdependent and continually usable-opportunity scarce universe.
The last word: Pakistan, at present a nuclear armed country, should be able to demonstrate before world people - through for example, various programmes of GEO TV, PTV, Radio Pakistan and other facilities (print, electronic, etc.) - levels of maturity, sense and sensibility, sophistication, competitiveness and foresightedness (in pertinent areas) that would, at least to an acceptable extent and on continuous basis, be compatible (used in a positive sense) with those of other nuclear armed countries in the universe.
The protection, preservation and promotion of the country's nuclear status would require, among other things and as appropriate, a meaningful cultivation of competitive nuke culture - used in a wider sense at local and other levels. Let us hope for the best.
Dr. M.S. Haq
On e-mail
Election and foreigners
Thanks to Mr S. Mahmood, a senior journalist, for his very appropriate analysis regarding the role of foreign envoys in dealing with the internal affairs of Bangladesh, especially the crucial general election.
I think we are tired of their advice which is contradictory to our national views and goes against the principle of democracy. We are not talking of any physical barriers which can easily be removed if the normal and general laws of the land are applied with honesty and neutrality.
The other contentious issue is presence of foreign observers to observe our election. Here gain, Mr. Mahmood has very correctly analysed the need for a credible election. The people of Bangladesh will determine that, not any foreign observers or any local observers.
Areader
On e-mail
Women as objects
Women are frequently objectified in the media. Media often objectifies women, portrays women as physical objects that can be looked at— and fail to portray women as subjective beings with thoughts, histories, and emotions. In reality, human beings are both objects as subjects, as they are physical collections of molecules as well as individuals. To objectify someone, then, is to reduce someone exclusively to the level of object.
Men are sometimes objectified as well--and this is not a good thing- but the objectification of women is far more common. When we see an image of a woman who is presented passively, and who demonstrates no other attributes aside from her physical or sexual being, that's objectification.
Sexualised images of women in music videos, pinup posters of sexualised models are very common. The issue of objectification isn't just about individual women's decisions. It's about the impact of this kind of representation on society. That is, a woman may choose to 'rriddelfor’ Playboy- but once her image is in the magazine, the issue isn't just her choice anymore.
It's about how that representation of women affects the world. We live in a world filled with the objectification of women, and this objectification contributes to social problems. These problems include sexual violence and other forms of violence against women. When women are portrayed as objects without subjectivity, it may be easier for some to justify violence against them. If a woman is just a thing to be looked at, her feelings and concerns might seem less important.
The enormous pressure that young girls and women feel to live up to an unrealistic image is fuelled by images that suggest the importance of being a beautiful object. Women in advertisements are also represented as sexual objects used for the sole purpose of giving men pleasure.
The sexualisation arid objectification of women in the media appear to teach girls that as women, all they have to offer is their body and face and that they should expend all their effort on physical appearance.
I think this type of objectification should be stopped immediately.
Jewel Rana
MS Student, Dept, of Biotechnology Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh
Low literacy rate
Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed expressed his concern in a meeting held in September about the low rate of literacy. Actually the literacy rate of our country is lower than many other countries in the world. But every problem has a solution. We know that our threefourth border areas are surrounded by land.
There are BDR camps in the border areas. It is known that they are well educated and well trained in many operations. 1 think if the BDR takes the initiative, the literacy rate will increase rapidly in those areas. The government may provide the funds through the ministry of education.
I think it will help reduce illiteracy in our country.
Noor Jahan Shimu
Dept, of Business Administration Shahjalal University of Science & Technology
Sylhet
Whycan'twedo anything?
We got a chance to visit New Delhi during our visit to India. I would like to mention here that New Delhi is almost connected from one end to the other by metro rail (Surface as well as underground). The total system is well maintained and people are commuting as per their needs.
My point is, if a huge country like India can afford to set up metro rail, what is the problem with us?
We are really fed up with what is being said by government high ups. How long will we have to look at others' development?
Mohammad Nazakat Ali
Pallabi Extension
Dhaka
Reducing traffic congestion
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is a small and unplanned city crammed with a prodigious number of people. The excessive number of people requires an excessive number of transports. The traffic congestion resulting from excessive number of vehicles; especially private cars , illegal parking, occupation of roads and pavements by hawkers, unwillingness of reckless drivers to abide by traffic rules and so on has been a nagging and Intractable problem in everyday life of city dwellers. The sufferings and miseries of the commuters passengers and travellers resulting from suffocating traffic stalemates have gone beyond tolerable limits. Besides, traffic congestion is causing immense loss of valuable working hours of the people. So, the government should immediately come forward with pragmatic and substantive solutions to address the nagging problem. The govern-
ment should ask the authorities concerned to be strict and unflagging enough to make the people and vehicle-drivers abide by the traffic rules, to stop illegal parking, to stop picking up passengers here and there, to stop unfit vehicles from plying, to resist trucks from entering into the city before 9:00pm, to restrict and. if needed, ban the movement of rickshaws on the roads where buses are available to smoothen the traffic movements. Exemplary punishment along with substantial fines should be meted out to those who flout and recklessly break traffic rules. The government should impose a significant amount of tax on private car imports and on road permits. The number of double-decker buses that can accommodate many passengers at a time and local buses should be increased tcu reduce the magnitude of the problem. The people should be encouraged to walk small distance instead of riding rickshaws on the way where buses regularly ply. More consciousness about traffic rules should be raised among the people. The government should also ask the school authorities to make arrangements and to run school-vans and school-buses for the safe transportation of the schoolchildren and to assure the guardians of their safe transportation and to stop them from waiting on the roads for their children with cars causing serious tailback.
The government should relocate the garments factories and some other less important mills and factories to the outskirts of Dhaka and can set up underground railway communication networks to permanently remove the problem. Alamin Al Azad Department of Public Administration
Zahurul Haque Hall University of Dhaka