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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
letters@thedailystar.net
Need for an Irish consulate in Dhaka
A good number of Bangladeshis are now living in the Republic of Ireland, mostly engaged in small business or higher studies. Some have already acquired Irish nationality through prolonged stay there. The family members of these Bangladeshis have to visit Ireland occasionally to meet their next of kins, but as Ireland does not have a resident mission in Bangladesh, Bangladeshis, willing to visit Ireland have to travel all the way to New Delhi for procurement of Irish visa from Irish embassy there. This involves procurement of Indian visa and the hassle and extra expenditure for journey and stay in Indian capital. Please note that no postal or courier service is available for sending passport to any other country from Bangladesh.
I would request the government of Bangladesh to immediately urge the Irish authorities to open a consular office in Dhaka to mitigate the suffering of intending visitors from Bangladesh to Ireland. As an interim measure, they may be requested to at least arrange for a passport collection and delivery centre here, so that Bangladeshis are not required to visit Delhi at great trouble and expense to get Irish visa.
Afroze Chowdhury
Baridhara, Dhaka
Can Bangladesh afford democracy?
Even after 42 years of achieving independence, I feel that Bangladesh is still struggling to lay the foundation stone of democracy. Theoretically we know much about democracy but practically it is absent in Bangladesh! My question is, can Bangladesh afford to take so much economic stress for democracy tests? Common people are already facing economic hardship and are fearful of the future.
Professor M Zahidul Haque
Dean, Faculty of Agriculture
SAU, Dhaka
What I didn't say
The Reading Circle (TRC) met on 9th November 2013 at Neo Mendes' Omni Bookshop to celebrate Alice Munro's receiving the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature. As a member of TRC, I too was asked to say a few words on that occasion. While appreciating the fact that the event was covered by your newspaper, I would like to mention that most of the quotations at the event that were attributed to me were not mine at all. But what I found particularly embarrassing was regarding the following sentence: 'Ameneh added that her (Alice Munro's) writing was certainly of a high standard.'
I don't have the temerity to judge the writing of a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and didn't. Ameneh Ispahani On e-mail
Comments on news report, "PM alone knows about next step," published on November 14, 2013
Shahin Huq
The truth is: all laws of our country are meaningless now. What PM Sheikh Hasina says is law. How preposterous is it that they remain ministers even after tendering their resignation letters! The whole country is totally in the dark about what is going to happen.
Spiderman
If only one person knows the next step of a nation then it's not democracy. It's a total autocratic rule.
Saleh Tanveer
Her whims have become the law of the land!
MH Khan
This is the core problem of both AL and BNP. They are run by dictators. There is no democracy in the operation/management of these two political parties. But they act like custodians of democracy.
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"Power plant won't harm Sundarbans"
(November 14, 2013)
Nasirullah Mridha, USA
We need more power plants but not at the expense of Sundarbans. Why don't they relocate this project to some other place where it will be less harmful to environment?
Alekanda
If PM Hasina has a magic wand, she will be able to avoid the environmental disasters in Rampal project. Please, PM, don't try to fool us, we have common sense and we know the facts.
SM
Did she ever visit any coal-fired power plants? How about spending 48 hours at an Indian coal-fired power plant to check it out? She is ruining the future of Bangladesh by allowing Indian control in our power generation. The rental power schemes are at least run by Bangladeshis and not unaccountable like Indian firms.