Home  -  Back Issues  -  The Team  -  Contact Us
     Volume 10 |Issue 46 | December 09, 2011 |


   Inside

 Letters
 Voicebox
 Environment
 Cover Story
 In Retrospect
 Perspective
 Current Affairs
 Musings
 Perceptions
 One Off
 Profile
 City
 Writing the Wrong
 Impressions
 Endeavour
 Health
 Book Review
 Cartoon
 Star Diary
 Reflections
 Postscript

   SWM Home


Letters

A Vicious Cycle

We have achieved only political freedom since 1971 but economic independence is yet to be achieved. Many years have passed since our liberation, but we have made little progress and our people still go hungry. Even now, 30 percent of our people live below the poverty line. What is the use of having political freedom? Our politicians are power hungry and care for nothing else. They ignore the sufferings of the common people and live like kings and queens in our poverty ridden nation. With each new election, the government changes, but our problems remain the same. Now, despite the protests of the civil society, the government has decided to divide Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). A democratic government should not ignore public opinion this way. We strongly urge the government to reconsider their decision.

Nur Islam
Carmichael College, Rangpur


Our Future

Photo: Amirul Rajiv

I would like to thank The Star for publishing the article on the condition on orphanages all over our country. The article was both descriptive and extremely informative. It said, a huge number of children are living in our orphanages. These children are members of our current generation and our hope for the future. Given the proper care and guidance, these children will one day help us build a better country and lead us toward economic growth and progress. Unfortunately, our authorities fail to recognise their potential and they are left neglected, uneducated and dependent. Eventually, these are the children who will grow up to be criminals for the lack of a better way to survive. It is extremely heartbreaking to look at the pictures of innocent children and know that they have no future. Perhaps it is time to think about them and come up with a way to save their lives from being destroyed.

Porimol Debnath
Dhaka


Unexpected Allies

The article “The Subdued Voices of Pakistan,” published on December 2, 2011, brought tears to my eyes. So many of our people lost their lives, so many women were raped, so many children murdered but all these sacrifices still go unacknowledged by the Pakistani government. While it is wonderful to know that many members of their current generation sympathise with our loss and suffering, it angers me that school children are taught an inaccurate version of our history and partition from Pakistan. Books that were published denying the genocide and the refusal of the Pakistani government to apologise for the war crimes till today is outrageous. I do hope that we can work toward achieving the goals narrated in the article and receive recognition, an official apology, help with the war crimes tribunal and appropriate compensation for our nation. Thank you for writing about this and I eagerly wait for your issue on December 16.

Hassan Javed
Rajshahi


A Shoulder to Cry On

I have been reading the Write to Mita column for many years and am a huge fan. I find it interesting, that over the years, the pattern of problems have changed. Either that, or people are becoming bolder and expressing themselves more freely. In the past, most of the problems used to be about teen troubles, a sixteen year old in love with her twenty year old neighbour and so on. Nowadays, I am reading about everything from homosexuality to transexuality to extramarital affairs, abusive relationships and drug problems. It is really quite amusing to see how our society has changed and how these issues have somehow become the norm. Kudos to Mita for handling some of the most outrageous problems I've ever heard about with patience, tact and respect. Some of these writers can easily outrage any reader, but Mita has still extended a helping hand. I just wanted to say, keep up the good work and I will be writing to you soon with some outrageous problems of my own!

R K Hassan
Uttara, Dhaka


Make-Over Required!

In the last issue (December 2, 2011), there was a letter on the look of The Star and how it can be improved, and I could not agree more. I have been thinking the same thing for a while and I am really happy someone has finally addressed it, at the risk of sounding rude. The magazine has really taken on a shabby appearance and can do with better quality paper, which would make the photographs and content far more appealing to the readers. Many people I know including myself consider The Star to be one of the best English magazines in the country, so I really believe it is an injustice to the writers as well as the readers to lower the quality of the ink, and the paper. I do hope some improvement is made in the future.

Rajan Kabir, Dhaka


The Toll Booth Season

I found the article published on December 2, 2011 on the cost of a modern day wedding to be quite informative. I especially liked the table indicating the separate expenditures involved in these weddings. However, I think the article could have been written in a more interesting way. The topic is such that it could have been written in humorous and lighter tone, like the title suggested. It would have also been interesting to have a bit more information on how much weddings used to cost in the past and how some of the new trends have started. The photographs were nice but it would have been nice to see some more photos of decorated halls and such. I think the idea was a good one but it could have been better.

Amirah Hussain
Dhanmondi, Dhaka

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2011