SWM's Wishlist
for the year
2004

From the SWM Desk

• Newspapers should ban the term "gay girls" when referring to prostitutes
• Men with long hennaed beards wearing tupis should refrain from ogling at young women
• Taslima Nasrin should stop subjecting the world to her crass publicity stunts and go back to serious writing.
• There should be portable toilets on the streets so that men can refrain from relieving themselves on the streets
• Pedestrians should remember that it is not just enough to look both ways before crossing the street; they must also stop for oncoming traffic
• Drivers should accept that it is customary for them to drive on only one side of the road, instead of trying to manipulate both sides in a zig-zag fashion
• People should stop founding new NGO's every month
• People should stop electing criminals for Parliament
• Sheikh Hasina should stay in the country more rather than attending obscure foreign conferences
• People at conferences should not sleep while the speaker is giving a lecture
• When at a conference or any formal public gathering, a person should realise that it is just etiquette to silence their phone instead of picking it up and talking as loudly as possible
• George Bush should stop declaring war on any Muslim country that suits him
• Instead he should take off his cowboy boots and hat and grow a beard so that he too, finds himself in the shoes of a "devout" Muslim man
• Aerosol and other mosquito repellent products should be manufactured according to our mutant mosquitos that have now become immune to everything
• People should refrain from hacking and spitting on other peoples' shoes
• Saddam lookalikes should shave off their beards and face reality
• Kazi Gias should stop painting and take up cosmetology
• City mayor Khoka should stop meddling with road dividers
• Rickshaw-wallahs and CNG drivers should stop suffering from the misconception that they are superior in size and not attempt to take over jeeps and trucks.
• Truck drivers and Bus drivers should be made to actually pass the driver's license test
• Traffic rules should be understood more carefully: Green means GO, Red means STOP
• Sectarian violence should be openly denounced by the government and society
• Load shedding and water shortages should not be tolerated as a normal occurrence
• Acid throwing, rape, domestic abuse and other acts of violence against women should be socially condemned instead of being accepted as one of the vices of society
• Young girls should not feel threatened walking home from school
• Single women should not be asked why they are not married by people who have no business knowing in the first place
• The American media should stop pretending they are 'free and objective'
• The British should get rid of the monarchy; it's too expensive
• A road should not be paved and destroyed according to which Minister's house is on it and how powerful he is
• SWM should have better quality paper
• Religious intolerance should not be condoned
• Regardless of religion, people should be allowed practice their religion in peace, without resistance
• Students attending university should realise that they are there for education, and not to make political statements
• Dhaka University should pay more attention to the safety of their students and renovate old, crumbling buildings
• Students should not be able to harass and threaten their professors
• Professors, teachers and/or tutors should not be allowed to get into relationships with their students