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     Volume 4 Issue 26 | December 24, 2004 |


   Letters
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   Slice of Life
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   Dhaka Diary
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Dhaka Diary

Dhaka Pollution on Film
A few days ago, I was going by Noyabazar in Old Dhaka where I saw some foreigners standing by the side of the road. One of them was recording with a video camera in the middle of the road, which was crowded and dirty with an overflowing dustbin at the side of the street. The man with the camera was filming the filth from the dustbin and was also capturing the noisy ambience. He was also trying to capture our shabby vehicles and the venomous smoke coming out of them. I went over to the group and asked them about their activities. One of them informed me that they had come from Latin America and were working for a prominent TV channel. They were making a documentary about the ever-increasing pollution in our country and also how people actually live in this filth. I thought it was a good idea, especially if they would give the Dhaka City Corporation a chance to have a look at it after the release!

Rifat Sagor Notre Dame College


Chill out while you Fly-over
I was passing through the newly constructed fly-over in Mohakhali when I noticed a crowd there, forcing vehicles to move to a side of the street instead of occupying the entire road. Traffic as usual was at a snail's pace. As I passed the crowd, I saw that an ice-cream vendor and a coke vendor had parked their merchandise by the road and were catering to the people's whims. People you say, on the fly-over? Yes, there were about fifty people standing idly here and there, taking in the scene from the fly-over. It seems that this new structure has opened a floodgate for all those people who have been to most parts of the city and were in dire need of somewhere 'new' to go. Even the sight of Singer's factory seemed a panoramic view for some people. I felt really bad seeing all these people, hungry for new places to go to.

IHK Gulshan 2


Private Clinic Scam
My grandmother was admitted into a private hospital last week with stomach complications. The room itself cost over 2000 taka, and of course there were the separate doctor's fee, bills, etc. The sad thing is that, in the middle of the night, when she really needed a doctor, there were none to be found. My grandmother's attendants, (who seem to be needed at every hospital to clean the bed, the room and even give medicine to the patients), and even the nurses, had to bang on the door of the doctor's room for several minutes before a sleepy-eyed on-call doctor very reluctantly opened the door. Compared to the doctor who almost operated on her, saying it was an emergency case when it was not (as we later found out), he was almost an angel. I know public hospitals like DMCH are in much worse condition, but then, what is in good condition in this country and who can we really trust, if not the very people in whose care we put our well-being and our lives?

KAT Gulshan 2

 

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