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     Volume 4 Issue 69 | October 28, 2005 |


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Letters

In response to Jiti's comment
I think it was a good step by Banglalink to honour women with their "ladies first" package. Anyway, my point is that Jiti has no right to blame men for talking too much. I quote her, "Men spend even more time on useless talking over the cell phone". If she really believes this, she should think about why men spend more time talking over the cell phone. Why does her father or her boyfriend (if any) talk more over the cell phone? They talk to her! Women talk too much -- it is an universal truth. I would just like to say that Jiti has no right to stereotype men as the bunch who talk too much.
Naimul Islam Moon Department of Environmental ScienceNorth South University

On "Material Kids"
I was reading SWM's cover story (October 14) on material kids who are the targets of businesses and who spend huge amounts of money thinking that it will put them in a better position among their friends (money culture). At the same time, I was thinking about the people in the northern part of the country who are starving. The other day, a shocking news was published which reported a mother who had killed her two children for being unable to give them food to eat. It is the responsibility of the parents to curb the influence of advertising on their children. Spending a lot of money on totally unnecessary things is not the way to show affection to your child when the rest of the country is starving. Some days ago I found a story on a little girl in the US who saved every penny of her lunch money to help poor children. She was able to influence her classmates to do the same and became a very popular child idol among the children of her country. We too can arouse sympathy in the hearts of our children for his or her won countrymen and can help them to be better citizens instead of letting them become scapegoats of modern marketing strategies which are outrageously detrimental for their future.
Samar Das, Department of English Shahjalal University

Shishu park, grabbed?
Gulshan Park was "grabbed" a while back and became Wonderland and nobody really wants to go there anymore due to the high entry price. This amazing idea has also caused parking and traffic problems on the already packed Gulshan Avenue. Gulshan has become a "green-free zone" and there is nowhere for kids to play thanks to this privatisation. We already have some high quality private theme parks to visit elsewhere in the city and it cannot compete with those so it is now redundant. Now it's the turn of Shishu Park. It is likely that, after going private, the currently reasonable 8 taka entry fee will be increased through a loophole for profit so that the people it was built for (middle class and lower income families) will not be able to visit it anymore. To protect the citizens, the government needs to include in the contract that the entry fee cannot be increased for the entire term of the lease and that any violation of this agreement should nullify the contract. They should also be careful that the contract is given to an experienced and respected developer who can keep the rides safe and supervised and not try to save money in their investment or simply do nothing and charge a higher entry. How can the government expect votes from the public if they keep taking away the few facilities we have and make them more expensive to benefit private businesses and perhaps themselves too? We need to prevent all our parks from exploitation. This is the people's property and not private property; it belongs to us. It has been re-named Shaheed Zia Shishu Park -- is this what he would have wanted for the people?
A. Khan
Gulshan

Love your own wives for a change!
Reading your letters on sex education in recent issues of SWM, I would like to talk about another sort of education that seems to be sorely needed in Bangladeshi society as well as in Bangladeshis living abroad. Someone needs to explain to married partners that charity begins at home and the vast amount of love that the husband feels he can give to wives of other people should first be doled out to his spouse. But of course, familiarity breeds contempt and somehow picking up the phone and asking one's wife what she is doing is so boring when the same can be done to a friend's wife and it immediately lightens up your day. The same goes for dinner parties and other get-togethers where complimenting a friend's wife is so much more pleasurable than paying attention to one's own wife who may have gone to a considerable effort to look nice for him. Somehow these tired husbands become fresh and naughty "friends" when it comes to a woman who he does not share his home with. These stupid men who are ruining marriages daily need to realise that a small amount of love and affection doled out to one's own wife will get them in return 10 times the effort they put in. Yet, for the sake of instant gratification, and just plain stupidness keeps them turned away from their wives and constantly looking elsewhere. Perhaps we could have some sort of propaganda that speaks of giving your own wife a lift instead of the other woman. Perhaps something similar to the ads that talk of family planning. Because when it comes to giving love, even educated rich Bangali men don't have a clue.
A Reader
On e-mail

Customs theft -- are we a nation of thieves?
Why is it, that whenever you have something delivered from abroad (and are prepared to pay the full duty on it) half of it arrives missing after briefly sitting in customs? I once had an item delivered around an Eid holiday and most of the bits needed to make this piece of equipment work were missing -- someone obviously thought that those pieces may be valuable and could be sold on the black market somewhere. My story is not uncommon. This is a warning to those that may get a delivery around a holiday, the freedom to roam around in the warehouse on a quiet day is too much for the employees and don't be surprised if you get 50% of what you were expecting. We seem to be a nation of thieves. Voted one of the most corrupt countries in the world on a consistent basis, we are a nation flooded by toxic food and we cannot even get a parcel without it being tempered with by an official. Also, there is nothing that can be done as those you are supposed to complain to are also part of the problem and are not interested in your woes. We can only vent our anger in our newspapers that are also being threatened with curtailment by the establishment.
N. Hoque
Dhanmondi


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