Star Diary

Corruption inside the Airport

The other day I had gone to the airport to bid farewell to my older brother who was going to Kuwait to work. While passing by the immigration, he was suddenly stopped and asked to pay a hundred takas. Though they had no right to demand for money, they were doing this with everyone, especially with those passengers who had no experience in dealing with airport corruption. This is a matter of great regret for our nation indeed. It was heart wrenching to see the passengers, including my brother, bowing down to their wishes, only because they wanted to cross immigration.
Mohammed Fazlul Karim (Tutul)
Sitakundo
Chittagong

Risking life

The other day I was returning home from British Council, Sat Masjid Road by bus. The driver was in his mid twenties and seemed quite reckless while driving. He kept moving the bus like a serpent so that it could be squeezed between other big vehicles amid the intense gridlock. But all the passersby seemed even more reckless as they hurried to cross the busy road ahead of the crazy running buses, being well aware of the danger. The bus was, at one point, stuck in the Gulistan area, but made frequent moves. People kept jaywalking no matter how risky it was. Suddenly, seeing the coast clear, the driver pulled the bus so abruptly that one pedestrian barely managed to escape a heavy blow by only inches! What I could only do, was to close my eyes in horror. I wondered whether we, the apparently conscious people, could be really more conscious while risking our lives only for the sake of crossing the road, before blaming other people and agents.
Anurata Prabha Hridi
Dhaka

Does Poverty Excuse Everything?

I was shopping in New Market last week when a female beggar came up to me and said her husband had passed away and his body was lying on a footpath nearby and she needed some money to bury him. I felt terrible of course and decided I wanted to help. Before I could reach for my wallet however, the shopkeeper I was haggling with asked her where exactly she left the body and said one of the boys working for him would go with her to verify if what she was saying was true and if it was, he would bear the entire cost of the funeral because it is a sin to leave a dead body lying around. The woman appeared to be frightened by this and insisted that it was not necessary for someone to come along, and without waiting for me to give her any money, she ran off before any more questions could be asked. The whole incident made me wonder about how we often excuse people for behaving the way they do, (stealing, lying etc) because they are poor, but is poverty really an excuse for such heinous lies and to prey on well-meaning people?
NJ, Uttara , Dhaka

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