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    Volume 10 |Issue 27 | July 15, 2011 |


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Letters

The Beauty of Photography

I enjoy Zahedul I Khan’s photography very much. The 'Golden Harvest' photo feature in last week's issue was exquisite. I saw similar scenery in my village during harvest season. I have a clear idea of what goes on with farmers during this season. Farmers get the golden harvest after much hard work. What was reflected on my mind by looking at these photos is the beauty of an agricultural country. The first photo plays the rhythmic tune of picking rice manually. The second one talks about the noisy bur relaxing benefits of technology. The third one shows the simplicity of village life. The fourth picture attracted me most. It sends the message that we are cultivating for our next generation and we should keep some seeds for their future alive through which they can continue to make a living. This circle of life is a tradition in Bangladesh. All the shots have got an extraordinary meaning. I would like to ask the readers who haven missed it to have a look in The Star magazine issue, which was published on July 1, 2011.

Shuvro Nirod
Dhaka


Photo: Zahedul I Khan


DU loses its past reputation

DU celebrated its 90th founding anniversary on July 1, 2011. DU was once known as the 'Oxford of the East'. But its past glory has been lost in recent years. According to the January 2011 edition of web metrics ranking of world universities, DU ranked 7707th amongst universities. Serious crisis of funding, lack of motivation and interest of students and teachers, low quality research works and publications, poor library and laboratory facilities and politicised teacher recruitment are responsible for the current situation. So funding crisis should be reduced. Teachers should inspire the students to pay attention on research work and create new knowledge. Politicised teacher recruitment must be stopped. After all, both government and the DU authorities should work together to improve the standard of the 'Oxford of the East'.

Sheikh Zahid
University of Dhaka


Skewed Globalisation

I was quite pleased to see last issue's One Off tackling the issue of globalisation. It is without a doubt that in today's world 'globalisation' is a westernised concept that basically means an imposition of cultural values, ideologies and lifestyles by advanced, western nations on poorer nations. This is what the writer has very politely tried to say. His reference to Ravi Sankar's attempt to internationalise the music of the east is certainly a good point. Actually when we talk about music, it is probably the most globalised thing in the world and many genres of music from the poor east have permeated into the west. It is moreover, not just India and Pakistan that have managed to globalise their music but Bangladesh too. Elements of Baul music have also been fused with western instruments to create amazing sounds that are universally accepted. The same can be said of cuisine. I totally agree with the writer of One Off that globalisation must be a two-way or rather many-way street. If we have accepted Americanisation as a way of globalisation we can only blame ourselves for that. We, the poorer compatriots of the world must start to nurture and then project all that we can offer to the world. If it is attractive enough, the world will accept it and make it their own.

Dilara Khan
Kolabagan, Dhaka


On Rumana

I really appreciate last week's piece on Rumana, a reported victim of domestic violence. Reading the newspapers has become an everyday hobby for us that accompanies our morning tea and spices up our amusement. We don't bother to look into these facts and even if we are concerned our hands are tied with fear of lack of justice.

It is indeed extremely painful as well as shameful for the government as well as for us that we let these criminals go unpunished. What we see on newspapers is how they imply their heinous barbarism on their innocent victims but we don't see that they are being caught and sent behind bars or they have been rightfully treated under the strong grip of law. In this way we are also indirectly instigating them to indulge in more horrific crimes because they not only figure out new ways of carrying out crimes but also have the assurance that they won't be punished.

I would urge the government to implement proper law enactment against these so-called social citizens who wear masks and dwell among us before another Rumana falls prey to another assaulter.

Engr Naome Syed
Mohammadpur, Dhaka


Photo: STAR FILE


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