Letters
On Road Accidents
Whom will they blame?
In our country, it is common to blame the driver or the authorities whenever a road accident happens. About a year ago, there was a road accident in front of Titumir College in Mohakhali. A pedestrian got run over while crossing the road. As soon as the accident occurred, students vandalised more than 50 vehicles demanding an over bridge. They showed the cause if the authority became able to build the over bridge, claiming that if the authorities had built an overbridge, the accident would not have occurred. But, in spite of an overbridge having been built there, now the students hardly ever use it .The photo published in The Daily Star on May 18 shows how dangerously they cross the road. If another accident occurs, whom will they blame?
Md. Reduanul Hoque
Department of English
Government Titumir College
***
The disasters we face everyday are numerable. One of the main problems we face daily is road accidents. These are especially caused by the rough bus and truck drivers. The local buses on the roads are a popular transport of the Dhaka dwellers. They say that it is cheap and as there are many middle class and lower middle class people in Dhaka city, they prefer to travel by cheap local buses everyday. The local bus drivers often pick up passengers while the buses are running, without even bothering to stop and in most cases some of the passengers fall down and get hurt. Another issue which the local and counter bus drivers always do is that they race with each other, everyone wanting to get ahead and here too the sufferers are the passengers. The fare is another big problem for passengers. There are no fare charts and so the person who collects the fares charges as much as they want. These matters should be looked into by the authorities who should be working for the public good.
S. Amir Haque
IUB, Baridhara
On Food for Thought
This is in reference to Shyamal Ghosh's strange tirade against one of The Star's columns “Food for Thought”. Mr. Ghosh was hinting that the writer had deliberately misrepresented Kolkata by writing only negative things about the place, especially describing eccentric characters. I think perhaps Mr. Ghosh just didn't get the point. The article was written in a light vein and described some strange people that the writer had encountered. It was not a piece meant to describe Kolkata in general terms but just a funny anecdotal article meant to amuse the readers, definitely not to insult them. In fact, the writer has written many other articles describing the eccentricities of people from many different countries including Bangladesh so obviously there's no bias there! All I can say to Mr. Ghosh is lighten up, writers have a right to make fun of people, as long as it is clear that it is meant for amusement and not to denigrate a particular nation which this writer has definitely not done.
Maria S. Decosta
Bakshi Bazar
Of Hoisting Foreign Flags
As the football World Cup nears, football-loving fans are all preparing their favourite country's flag to hoist in order to depict their staunch support for their favourite teams participating in the imminent tournament. After every four years it is like every house is studded with various colourful flags from different countries. Many fans are planning to make gigantic flags to show their support for their favourite team, while many others are making provisions for back-up electricity supply as our quarter digital country is going through a power crisis. The point I want to make is that we enthusiastically exhibit our utmost support by hoisting our favourite teams' flags during World Cup season, but on our Independence Day and Victory Day we do not show the same enthusiasm. What is wrong with us! Why don't we ever hoist our own country's flag to exhibit our sheer patriotism?
Hasnat
American International University-Bangladesh
The Unending Woes
When will the woes of traffic jam end? Unfortunately, it is common for even the most well-thought out plans not to see the light of day in Bangladesh. Whatever plans were made, they all ended in smoke. Be it the drivers or the passers-by, everyone breaches the law. The drivers breach traffic signals (most of them are fuelled by the passengers), while jaywalking interrupts the smooth movement of vehicles. There are pavements, underpasses and footbridges; however, most of them are occupied by encroachers. Filth on the pavements forces the passers-by to walk on the busy roads. Reckless parking of buses is one of the major causes of traffic jams. Furthermore, random parking of private cars in the busy commercial areas spells trouble for the passengers. The solution we are looking for is within ourselves. We shouldn't instigate the bus driver to park the bus midway before the bus counter which poses a great problem for other vehicles on the road. It is we who are responsible for the jaywalking. Let us rectify ourselves first. But, we hope that the government will also address the traffic jam issue.
Rabiul Islam
Department of Economics
University of Dhaka
Bureaucratic Tangle and Unemployment
Bangladesh is a developing country with 150 million people living on a small land. The country has been experiencing acute unemployment problem. The government has to resolve this problem because it is mainly its responsibility to mitigate unemployment. However, instead of solving the problem, the government mechanism is making the situation worse. From the electronic media it is learnt that most government departments cannot run their daily activities due to a huge vacancy of government posts. These posts should be filled immediately in order for the government's various departments to function effectively but due to the bureaucratic tangle /tapism /strict formalities of the lengthy recruitment process, it has not been possible for the government to fill them up quickly. Moreover, political favouritism and manipulation have made the educated unemployment situation more vulnerable. The 28th BCS preliminary examination was held in 2008 but two and a half years later the final results have not yet been published. Each year, thousands of graduates are adding to the unemployment statistics. We hope the government will take an urgent decision regarding the matter and that educated candidates will be hired through a fair and transparent recruitment process.
Mohammad Zonaed Emran
Department Political Science
University of Dhaka
***
“The candidates must have at least 5-7 years experience in the relevant job.” This is the most familiar sentence for today's job seeker. It is obvious from all the job advertisements that at least five to eight years' job experience is required and that the age limit must not exceed 30. But it takes around 30 years to complete a Masters degree at public institutions due to session jam. How is it possible, then, to gather this experience within this age limit? Without working, how can a person gather experience? It is nothing but absurd. On the other hand, job seekers manage fake experience certificates when applying for jobs. Some even get them in this unethical manner. Every year, hundreds of students complete their Bachelors degrees but are unable to apply for jobs due to lack of experience. The authorities should take this problem into consideration. They can set up a system to train selected candidates in their relevant job sector. Otherwise these problems will create great frustration among the unemployed educated persons and we (the students) will have to suffer year after year.
Faruq Ahamed Milon
Department of English
DhakaCollege
Submission Guideline:
Letters to the Editor, Star Diary and Write to Mita, with the writer's name and address, should be within 200 words. All articles should be within 1,200 words. A cover letter is not necessary, but every write-up should include the writer's name, phone number and email address (if any). While The Star welcomes unsolicited articles and photographs, it cannot accept the responsibility of their loss or damage. The Star does not return unsolicited articles and photos. Response time for unsolicited write-ups ranges from three weeks to two months. All articles submitted are subject to editing for reasons of space and clarity.
All materials should be sent to: The Star magazine, 19 Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215, Fax: 880-2-8125155 or emailed to: <thestarmagazine@gmail.com>
It is recommended that those submitting work for the first time to The Star take a look at a sample copy beforehand. Our website is: http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine
Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2010
