Letters
Milestone for Bangladesh Cricket
At first, I would like to congratulate the Bangladesh Cricket Team for their great achievement. It was our expectation that Bangladesh would do well in cricket and they have fulfilled expectations in the West Indies and Zimbabwe series. Before that, we the supporters were disappointed by their bad performance in the T20 World Cup. Now people have been congratulating the team for their great performance and also their great achievement. Every single player did his job in these two series so that we have gott two great victories against West Indies and Zimbabwe. In these two series Bangladesh achieved many remarkable records such as first ODI and Test series victory in a foreign country. Tamim Iqbal managed the record of the highest individual ODI score by a Bangladeshi, Shakib hit a century in a few balls etc. Bangladesh team earned these two victories dedication and hard work. Now the challenge is to maintain this standard. Victorious captain Shakib al Hasan said that “we need to put this win behind us and look forward”. Therefore, we hope that Bangladesh cricketers will play like tigers and keep the victories coming.
Mohammad Jamal Uddin
Dept of English
International Islamic University
Chittagong
Vertical Expansion of Dhaka City
We all know very well that ours is a small country with a very, very big population. Just as a middle class man thinks twice before spending his limited income, we also should have thought many times before making extravagant use of our precious land area. But things never did happen that way. We have been more than squanderers as far as our planning and use of this limited land mass is concerned. The capital city has actually very limited area for habitation. But for mysterious reasons, even now plots are being allotted to well to do people disregarding what is going to happen in 7/8 years. We are afraid that after ten years at best, the amount of cultivable land will shrink to an alarmingly small area, jeopardising our already vulnerable food security. Many of our leaders often go abroad for various purposes; but they do not seem to have ever observed what our neighbours are doing. Think about, Singapore or Malaysia. They have built up apartment blocks for accommodating maximum number of families in minimum area, at the same time providing every civic facility for them.
Taking into consideration the imminent crisis of arable land within a very short time, our town planners should desist from plot allotment; rather the concerned authorities should build up apartment blocks with maximum possible civic facilities (and this will be far less complicated for the administration to manage) keeping an eye not only on the well off section of the society, but on the middle income group also. With the same purpose, the present government colonies at Azimpur, Motijheel, Kanthalbagan, Eskaton etc should be expanded vertically 15/16 storey to best economise the most precious land of the city. We desperately need this to happen. But can we expect the people in power to be judicious and farsighted enough?
M.Shawkat Ali
Uttara, Dhaka
Shortage of Classrooms at DU
Dhaka university, although popularly known as ''The Oxford of the East'' is now beset with numerous annoying problems like residential crisis, practice of nasty politics, lack of research centers etc. Undoubtedly, the students are to face untold sufferings for the above problems. But to add insult to injury, the shortage of classrooms has become almost a daily problem in this largest university of Bangladesh. Because the students versus classrooms ratio is not at all favourable. Besides, the admission of around five thousand new students every year adds a new dimension to the sufferings to the older students. Very often the teachers cannot take some scheduled classes owing to the insufficiency of classrooms. It is a very common phenomenon in Arts faculty. Certainly, it is one of the major hindrances on the way to higher education and students are the worst victims of it. So, I call on the DU authorities to take pragmatic steps to solve this vexing problem.
Shahadat Hussein
Dhaka University
The Role of Diplomats
Bangladesh being a third world country, foreign nations always try to influence our state matters. As we need financial and technical help from the developed countries to run our development works and to build infrastructure, it is imperative to work with them for the sake of our development. But it unfortunate that some foreign diplomats take advantage of this and meddle in our internal affairs. It is alleged that representatives of some foreign countries formed a group and brought about 1/11 -- the introduction of the military backed caretaker government. Here we have to remember that Western nations have attempted regime change in many parts of the world. The Danish ambassador has admitted to the media that they wanted a change of the situation in Bangladesh and they had wanted the emergency rule to be promulgated.
Although we want friendly relations with our development partners, we should not allow diplomats to violate diplomatic norms and dictate to our politicians. Here, our political leaders should also have a sense of pride and self respect. If it is seen that our politicians go to diplomats' door to take prescriptions for politics then it is shameful for the nation. It is better if foreign diplomats do their business and not try to meddle in our politics, as we do not meddle in theirs. Our leaders should try to solve internal problems through discussion among the political parties.
Zonaed Emran
Dept. of Political Science
University of Dhaka
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