Feature

We all knew chaos would be just around the corner as the New Year began, and alas our predictions were true. Another Oborodh, so what else is new? People are protesting for a new government to lead our nation. My question is how do we select the right party to take us to a brighter future when they themselves are ruining what we have today?

Saddam Hussein was executed a few days back because he was charged with crimes against humanity. But isn't that what's going on here? Protests against opposition parties or police have taken lives of hundreds of innocent civilians already. Isn't that a crime against humanity? How do you tell the family members of a person who was blown away or shot, while he/she was performing his/her daily tasks? Why don't we ever take action against these men? They are nothing but murderers only using protests for democracy as their defense.

Bangladesh has already been in the charts for all the wrong kinds of things over the many years. If we persist with the attitude we have now, sadly we will continue on the tracks that we have been running along for years to come. We have hardly managed to portray ourselves as a beautiful nation. Some people may say that the changes around the city for example the beautification projects all round the city shows we are a beautiful nation. I say they are so wrong! A beautiful nation doesn't necessarily mean pretty objects here and there. It means peace, justice and unity, which we lack quite badly. A statement was even made that the country will shut down if elections take place. Is that justifiable? We are already slacking behind in run with other nations and now we are going to shut down?!?! It's all so insane I don't know whether to laugh or cry…

The country, police and its people are so busy with the elections God only knows what the current situation is concerning other crimes. I can only imagine the horror. Rape, murder, theft we'll only know once these elections are over, or we many never even find out. This is the perfect opportunity for criminals to take advantage of the country's situation, and they probably are.

Honestly speaking I don't see any silver lining as we continue all this lunacy. However, someone has to run the Government right? And we know all the political parties and what they have been doing for us so far. The elections are ahead, and whichever political party wins will be in charge of our government.

An Ex-vice president of USA, Hubert Humphrey once said "The moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." Only time will reveal if we made the right choice.

Teaching -a noble profession

Aditi Sen

A teacher is said to be "the mechanic of building a country". A child's brain is as soft as clay. Whatever is written on it, becomes stiffer as they grow older. Even they can catch any point faster than a mature human being. So it is the duty of the teachers to nurture them carefully, to teach them in such a way that they can apply their knowledge for the development of the country in future.

Teachers are the ideals of the students. The students spend most part of a day in their academic institute and try to learn what their teachers say. So the teachers should be honest to their profession. Besides this, students should also be loyal to them. They must respect their teachers.

Though teaching is no doubt a noble profession, but the fact is that this job is not given proper respect in our country. Teachers, especially in primary schools suffer with a low salary. More money than their salary is spent for the pets of the upper class society! Even the fourth class government employees get more salary in addition to festival bonus than the poor unfortunate primary school teachers. This horrible situation must be changed and for this the govt. should initiate necessary steps.

Teaching profession is being used to make money nowadays. Many teachers prefer to teach students in their so-called coaching centers, rather than in the class. But all students cannot afford to go to coaching centers and as a result the environment of academic institutions is really hampered.

Keeping all these points in mind, the method of teaching must be improved along with the salary of the teachers. In this way, we will be able to gift our nation a brighter future.

8th (final) semester,'01 batch, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka.