DEVELOPMENT OF DHAKA

It has almost become 37 years since we got our independence. Thirty seven years is a lot of time. We could have made this nation a prosperous one by this time if only we had strong visionary charismatic leaders. We lacked charismatic leadership. None of our leaders worked for the betterment of this nation. They were greedy, dishonest, rude and hungry for power. These so called politicians did nothing to improve the economy of the country. Rather, our country suffered a lot for their misguided rulings. The poor became poorer. Sufferings of ordinary citizens have risen to an alarming rate. The rate of unemployment is increasing day by day for which the crime rates increased dramatically. Moral and ethical values among the people are almost at its negative stage. Now all these are national issues, far bigger issues. If we only look at Dhaka, the capital city, nothing has developed. Dhaka has become a haven for miscreants, picketers, thieves, robbers and drug addicts. All these are happening due to increase in unemployment. The protector of Dhaka city, i.e. the Mayor has failed miserably to make this city into an ideal secured city. Of course, the blame should go to all the past mayors of Dhaka. None of the mayors had long term visions of making the capital city into an ideal modern city. Rather these mayors, backed up by their ruling parties, were involved in doing unplanned and short term projects. The citizens of Dhaka city are suffering from some major problems, which include: 1) traffic jams, 2) shortage of water supply, 3) lack of security 4) Unplanned construction of roads and buildings 5) Power failure. The citizens ask today what all our previous mayors did throughout all these years? Didn’t they ever see the sufferings of the Dhaka citizens? Were they intentionally ignorant about these facts? We know that every year sufficient amount of budget is allocated for the development of Dhaka city but the funds have never been properly utilized. If we only study the budget for the current fiscal year then what we see will startle anyone. Here’s a brief description of the budget:

1) For the development of Dhaka city, the budget of Tk, 1,401.88 crore was allocated. What sort of development did we see in Dhaka? Instead of solving traffic jams, water shortages, proper urban planning, reducing crimes, and supplying sufficient electricity what roles did our mayors play with the allocations of these money?

2) The salary expenditure of Dhaka City corporation workers were Tk. 97.50 crore. What kinds of facilities did the citizens of Dhaka get from Dhaka city corporation?

3) We are losing all kinds of playgrounds one by one. These are grabbed illegally by miscreants. But the fact is Tk 20 crore was allocated in the budget to maintain and develop playgrounds, but where did all the money go?

4) It is really comical that budget for the maintenance of gymnasium under Dhaka city corporation was Tk. 27 crore. We know all these gymnasiums are still in shambles so where did the money go? Could not this money be utilized for development of Dhaka?


5) Ironically only Tk 4.14 was allocated for the development of the environment projects.

6) Loans from foreign aides and government banks were Tk 619.43 crore. What happened to the development of Dhaka?

Failure of Police/RAB

A man, who wants to hide his identity for security reasons, was once caught by police. He was taken to the police station and for particular reason he was beaten by the police.
There was no allegation against him. Even before he could realize the police attacked him all of a sudden. He told that he, is not the only one who the victim, there are others too.
This was his real story. He was walking down the streets one evening when a gang of three men approached him and wanted all his belongings.
When he refused to give them they started beating him. He fought back and in the meantime the police arrived.
Without hearing the real incident they told him to get up to the pick up van.
He is not the only one who suffers from police atrocities.
These incidents continue to happen all the time, everywhere.
Police capture innocent people and make them suffer and harass while the criminals continue to roam around in front of the law enforcers. The law enforcers have horribly failed to give protection to the citizens. They are corrupted and almost most of them have links with criminals.

Torturing of police and RAB are a daily news. Something must be done to change the attitudes of the law enforcers so that they become protector of the people rather than sufferers.

Highjacking, Pick Pocketing, Kidnappings and Abduction

We feel sorry when we see the young people are misguided and follow wrong paths. We cannot blame them solely for this. Our society has become like this. High jacking, pick pocketing, kidnappings and abduction have risen so high that it has become a major concern for us. Not only in the capital city of Dhaka that these incidents happen, these are present all around the country. Government has failed miserably to control the law and order situation of the country. The situation of law and order is far far dangerous in the capital than any other cities. Whether it is early in the morning or late at night, no one is free to move freely. Anytime you might get into trouble by the high jackers. The law enforcers are inactive and helpless. Even if they capture the criminals, the criminals get freed when the pay bribes to police. Rather, innocent people are the real sufferers both to these criminals and to the police officers. It is heard that police officers get shares from the criminals. Whatever kidnappers or high jackers could take in a day, the police officers get half of it. We are in need of honest law enforcing agencies where people will be the protector of the citizens. We also need to change our existing laws of the country.
Besides blaming these miscreants we also have to find out why they are easily inclined towards these acts. The abnormal high rise in price of basic commodities is a major reason. The lack of religious and moral values is also another reason and of course the lack of jobs is one of the main reasons behind these peoples coming to this dark world.
Our young generation must always remember the quote made by John F. Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country.” By believing in this statement, only then we can build a prosperous Bangladesh.

Lack of Drainage facility in Dhaka city

For over the last couple of days, it has been raining cats and dogs in the capital city Dhaka. The incessant rain flooded the entire city. The city dwellers suffered a lot. It is nothing new to them. They are used to it. But will they keep on suffering like this all the time? Will they continue to be misguided by the promises given to them by our so called politicians? Time has come for a change. Time has come for building a new Dhaka. Time has come for making a better Dhaka. Only because of lack of vision Dhaka has become one of the messiest cities on Planet. Even a little amount of rain floods the entire city as because there is no proper drainage facility. This creates insurmountable problems to the citizens of Dhaka.

Just take the case of Mr. Enayet. He lives in Rampura. He is 43 years old and is a bank officer. His office is in Motijheel and everyday he has to go to his office by rickshaw. But in rainy days it is quite impossible to find rickshaws. Those who are willing to go ask high prices. Seeing no other options, Mr. Enayet is bound to take rickshaw at high prices. This is not only the case with Mr. Enayet, like him most of the citizens suffer from this consequence. This has been happening for over the years that whenever rain water floods the streets, the rickshaw fairs go up at an alarming high.

The citizens ask today, what was the role of all the previous mayors for over the years? What were they doing? Where were they? Why the development of Dhaka city has not been come into effect yet? Who should be blamed for this? How long the people of the citizens of Dhaka have to suffer like this?



For all these years no one came up with concrete plans of making an effective drainage system all around Dhaka city. Dhaka WASA has failed miserably to bring the entire city under a proper drainage system. Every year during rainy season when the precipitation rate is 150mm to 170mm for 6 hours it becomes difficult to extract this much of water with present drainage system, because it is possible to extract if the precipitation rate is only 40mm to 50mm for 6 hours.

Another main reason for blockage of water is both legally and illegally filling up water bodies for building constructions. Without any barriers, anyone at anytime pile up soils on rivers and lakes for construction of buildings. This has caused serious water blockage around the city and for this, water do not wash away smoothly whenever it rains. This is a major concern today. Our city has developed in unplanned ways.

A report shows by Dhaka WASA that Dhaka city extracts around 56 crore litres of water annually. Out of this, 23 crore litres are rain waters and 33 crore litres are daily water that the citizens consume. In order to properly extract this water, a drainage system of 260 sq km. is needed. But the present drainage system is only of 150sq km. For the rest 110 sq km. no such implementations have been taken yet.

A proper master plan for a proper drainage facility for Dhaka city is needed at the moment. It should not be a short term project. It definitely has to be a long term project otherwise the citizens of this city will continue to suffer.

Power back to the common people of Bangladesh (proposed)

Corruption is not something new to our ears. It has been rooted in our history ever since the country was constitutionalised. Of course there are many causes - poverty, lack of employment, lack of law enforcement. But the biggest of them all is the lack of education (only 35% literacy).
This causes a big problem, not only because the uneducated majority is unable to achieve much significant but also because they are unable to recognise, choose and elect good leaders to get them out of this predicament.

As election campaigns go, it is one big marketing hype in Bangladesh. And the product for sale? Not the policies and promises of a better future. Instead politicians sell themselves as the ultimate solution to all problems. The saddest fact is that the public buy it. Why do they buy it? Because there is not alternative on offer – one politician is just like the other, offering much the same things, so the public can only hope they have chosen the best from the worst when they put the marks on the ballot papers.
And once those bad leaders have been elected and installed into office, the public once again fail to keep the politicians on their toes.
There is a very good reason for this however. Because of high illiteracy in the country, most voters do not actually know what a party stands for, let alone the policies they have proposed.

In most countries legal and civic advice is freely and widely available and the public are much more clued up about the governments pledges and obligations. Not in Bangladesh it seems. The logic behind it is obvious: if the population cannot read, they cannot understand and hence there is not need to make the information available. And it is this weakness of the population the government exploits time and again to swindle public money while failing to deliver on obligations.

The purpose of this project is to tackle the problem of public stupor by creating an awareness program, which teaches the public

1) What the parties stand for
2) Central and local party policies
3) Pledges parties made before election
4) General legal rights
5) Highlight bureaucratic malpractices
6) Constitutional rights
7) What central and local governments are obliged to do
8) Highlight the failings for government bodies
9) Other general issues

The projects will be orchestrated in several steps as listed below:

Identifying the problems

We already know the general problems that exist all across Bangladesh. However each issue may be problematic to a varying degree depending on the region. This is why a survey of the area must be carried out in order to identify the problems faced by local residents and business so that the information we give out is relative to the issues the general populous of the region face.

One of the many ways we can do this is though video documentation, not only for the information it provides, but it can also serve as a marketing tool for the project.
Other methods can be excercised at the discretion of the members.

Seek out the necessary information regarding the problems

Well-established barristers in the Bangladesh and in the international arena back the project. They will provide all necessary information regarding the problems for administration.

Creating a self-sustained project

With any project its crucial to keep the motivation going. And anyone trying to organise a voluntary project knows too well that motivation is an extremely hard task and the members need constant re-buffing. Monetary incentive is extremely important in this case as it can offer an effective substitute for the “good will” people tend to loose throughout the course of execution. I call this “money will” as people “will” do things if the money is there for the taking.
I am not suggesting that money is the only motivator as indeed its essential the recruitment is done among those who feel strongly about making a change to the nation. But the “money will” is easier to do than constant motivation.

Although the project is a relatively low-cost undertaking, it will have to sustain its members in order to keep the momentum going. This is very important for any project as loss of momentum eventually grounds the project to a halt.

A suggested method of raising funding is through sponsorship from the beneficiaries of our work. Such beneficiaries include general and specialised legal firms. Other funding can be sought through direct advertising on our marketing material. The last option, reluctantly suggested is taking donations. Image is very important; so an organisation that takes donation may not cast itself as strong as we’d like it to. However the option need not be ruled out altogether.

Execution

The program will be organised with the co-operation of the student population to build a network of cells, distributing information to the local population.

Members will be recruited in different parts of the country, covering the most populated parts. Sub-divisions may be formed in larger areas in order to make the management easier.

Seminars will be organised to inform small groups of people (usually less than 20) in communal places such as bazaars, mosques and villages.
Invitations for the seminars will be posted for the attention of the audience prior to the seminars, as it will allow interested parties to make arrangements to attend.

The scurge of the illegal drugs industry in Dhaka city

Milton was a University student. He was 21 years old and he was extremely a talented student. When he was in school he never stood second in his class. But unfortunately he is not a good student anymore. After he got admitted into the University, he began to take drugs by his friends influence. He could not come to classes regularly and began to fail in his courses. His education not only deteriorated but his behavior changed rapidly. He often used to quarrel with other friends and in several occasions he used to get involved in severe fighting. His attitude so drastically changed that he had to drop out from the University. Later on he became involved in student politics and was killed by his opponent goons.
Here is another story. A boy of a wealthy family became drug addict. He used to take money from his parents by telling them that these are his University fees. He used to spend that money on drugs. One day his parents realized that their son is rudely behaving with them when they refused to lend him more money. They finally realized that their son sold off the only personal computer which his father had bought for him. They took their son to the store where the computer was sold and finally they came to know that their son is a drug addict. Just imagine how the parents felt at that point in time that they work day and night, they put all the efforts in their works so that their sons or daughters could have a good healthy life. But instead the drugs play the role of the killer and destroy these parents hearts.
A report shows that in several schools and colleges, boys with age from 14—18, get involved in drugs. They are often drowse in the class. In one such incident a boy was sleeping inside the class when his teacher told him whether he was wake last night. He was unable to reply. But another boy told the teacher that the boy takes drugs. Upon hearing the truth, the teacher scolded the boy and sent him out of the class. That’s it! The teacher’s role was over.
The above mentioned stories are only a fraction of the incidents that are happening in our society everyday due to the availability of drugs which has increased all over the country at an alarming rate. Previously, in Dhaka, drugs used to be found in some selected spots but now-a-days these are now being found in residential houses. Due to availability of cell phones and e-mails, the drugs are smuggled not from place to place but from house to house. Even the law-enforcers are involved sometimes with the distribution of drugs. They help drug dealers to find suitable ways to distribute drugs. There are numerous night clubs in Dhaka and Chittagong and in all these night clubs, young people take drugs openly but yet police force do not show any steps in capturing them despite the fact that they know very well about the existence of drugs in those places. Many innocent young students are getting involved in drugs for which the rates of crimes are increasing day by day. Everyday, in several parts of the country, drug addicted people get caught. Sometimes they get caught red handed with drugs like phensidyl, marijuana, heroine, pathidrine, yaba and so much other things. It is ironic that these drugs used enter the boundaries of Bangladesh by smuggling through the borders of India but now these drugs are being produced here by some miscreants. These are people who, by the name of illegal business, are ruining the lives of the young people. The future of the young generation is crumbling down. They see no light at the end of the tunnel. Our politicians, the civil society, our so called some business people and finally our guardians are solely to be blamed for these happenings. Our guardians have horribly failed to develop religious beliefs among the young people for which they are inclined towards taking drugs.
The law enforcers have failed to perform their duty in efficient ways. Sometimes, even they also play roles in helping the drug dealers to get away with punishment. Against this, they take bribes. This way the drug dealers really do not care about the laws anymore and day after day their network only gets stronger and stronger. As long as we fail to capture the drug dealers then there is no point of arresting the drug addicted people. We must capture those who are responsible for distributing these illegal drugs.
It is a difficult job to perform because drug dealers have strong connections with their God fathers and these God fathers have got strong connections with renowned politicians of the country. This is why they never get caught. It is time for a change. It is time to start from the beginning.

Warning signs of an environmental catastrophe for South Bangladeshis

The small island of Maldives in the Indian Ocean is slowly descending into the depths of the ocean as the polar icecaps melt and sea level rises. The Maldivan government is said to be looking to purchase land to relocate its nearly 400’000 strong populous before the tiny island is completely submerged by the waters of the Indian Ocean. Why is this important for us? with the onset of global warming, we could face the same dilemma as the Maldivans.

Scientists predict the sea level to rise by 60cm (over half a meter) before the end of the current century. Bangladesh will be especially affected, as it’s already a low-lying country with a larger than average population to support and food supply being constantly low.

Bangladesh has already seen catastrophic effects of global warming in places like Bala Island, one of the largest in the south of the country, affecting hundreds on lives.
In the last ten to fifteen years, the island was reduced by over 50% due to coastal and river erosion, a natural process that has been accelerated hugely by the melting of the glaciers up in the Himalayan Mountains, hundreds of miles away from the affected areas.
Despite desperate efforts by the people of the island to defend against the erosion, the river currents and sea continues to erode at the fringes, making thousands homeless and landless.

While other nation across the world are starting to take preventative measures, the agenda seems to have been overlooked in Bangladesh, with very few intellectuals and government officials and planners discussing the issue.

It is now a fact that in years to come, the world will see increasing number of environmental refugees fleeing from the rising sea levels and volatile weather conditions. In the case of Bangladesh, the population is likely to disperse into India and other surrounding nations.

And of course we must not overlook the elements that come with mass migration such as ethnic discrimination and war, as we already see in the many parts of the world such as the Middle East and Africa.

There is however scopes for developing a major new industry to reclaim this lost land from the sea and reinforce affected and unaffected areas, coastlines as well as create new lands in the south.
This method of land reclamation/creation has already worked in places such as Dubai, where the artificial island “Palm Island” was created entirely from coarse sand, scooped out of the ocean floor. The same method of land reclamation can hugely benefit Bangladesh if considered and create thousands of much needed jobs, especially for the people in the south.

Current.tv sent it reporter Adam Yamaguchi to investigate the affects global warming has had on Bangladesh.
You can view the full report by clicking on this link


Footnote

When such environmental migrations occur, the nations of the world will have to re-assess its territorial rights and be more welcoming. Either that or we may be looking at the next world war as a means of survival and retaining sovereignty.

We need a new economic order

When the former Soviet Union broke down after 1990, many thought that this would surely be the end of communism and the people would see a communist-free world.

The strong believers of capitalism thought that it is their turn to make sure the entire world believe in the ideology of capitalism. Now what a turnaround we are witnessing!

The financial meltdown in the US and Europe has raised a question whether capitalism really is the best solution towards prosperity of any society.

A report showed that some Europeans have started rethinking whether they could overcome this present financial turmoil through capitalism and this is why the people of Eastern Germany, once a communist region, began thinking about the disadvantages they had to bear after they got reunited with their West counterpart in 1989.

A recent survey found 52 percent of eastern Germans believe the free market economy is 'unsuitable' and 43 percent say they want socialism rather than capitalism. This is why people have started reading Karl Marx's book 'Das Kapital'.

The book is in very high demand and is now read by bankers and managers who try to understand what socialism is all about.

As we are witnessing downfall of some big financial institutions from the wealthiest capitalist nations on the planet, we ask today, is capitalism really perfect? Who would have thought that US economy would be in total chaos today? Who would have thought that the financial turmoil would lead up to unemployment and job cuts in the capitalist nations? Who would have really thought that a non-NATO state Russia would bail out a developed country and NATO member Iceland with 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) shore up its teetering financial system?

Now we can say, are we going to see dominance of communism over capitalism? For all these years, capitalist nations have ruthlessly dominated communist ideologies. Nations with communist ideologies were blocked from all types of financial and commercial aides. For the socialist states like Russia, “It is now the pay-back time!”

The Kremlin thinks that now is the time to buy assets cheaply, using the current financial crisis to emerge as a powerful global economic player. Following the Russian-Georgian war, the West is scared that the Kremlin will use its cash not just for economic purposes, but as an aggressive foreign policy tool as well.

Russian private and state-owned companies have already invested abroad extensively, often buying stakes in large foreign companies. Overall, the top 25 Russian companies hold $59 billion in foreign assets and are the third-largest investors in emerging economies, following Hong Kong and Brazil. Even though the financial crisis has wiped out the Russian stock market, some of the best-run companies have endured a softer blow than their Western counterparts.

The leaders of the free world should come to realise what is best for their economy. The leaders of leading capitalist nations like USA and nations of Western Europe must have thought that no matter how volatile the economy becomes, they would surely survive. The present financial meltdown has proved them wrong.

It is true that the citizens of the world witnessed both forms of socio-economic structure, capitalism and socialism, and in one sense it is true that these economic structures have either failed them miserably or they may have given them success over periods of time but at one certain stage they faltered for sure, which is the case with capitalism right now.

Can't the world think of a better system that stabilises economy and serve definitely not only the purposes of the wealthiest but also those of the people of all classes?

For this, renowned Muslim scholars all around the globe should come up and take advantage of the present global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles. The world leaders should understand by now that the collapse of the capitalist system based on usury is nothing but a weak economic system. The Western system has collapsed. It is true that Islamic system will not only benefit us economically but it will also benefit us spiritually.

This is the time to re-think!

We need to thrive globally

In this world of globalisation, the survivability of a nation is only possible if the commerce of that nation thrives well in other countries. A nation cannot expect to grow economically if it only thinks of its local market alone. A nation like Bangladesh, for instance, must never think that the economy of the nation will grow if only it has a strong domestic economic system. Our economy is thriving but in order to thrive beyond one's own imagination we must move on and thrive strongly in other nations.

Except for a few industries like ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals, food and others, most of our local companies think about the local market alone. In today's world, it is like committing suicide.

A company or an organisation will only flourish if it launches its strategies into other markets. For example, we have various real estate companies but all these market their products locally for the local people. They can easily expand their business by entering other countries and pursue the same kind of business.

Africa is developing and so are the other nations of South America. They can go to these places and invest in the real estate sector by constructing apartments and hotels. The same principle applies to other industries like toiletries and food companies.

We must not think of making profit by doing business locally. Profit should also be made from doing business in foreign countries as well. We do not have to go far, if we just look at our neighboring country India then we can get a clear glimpse of their business strategies.

Companies like Tata or Aditya Birla Group are not just sitting in their own backyard and making profits. They ask for more by stepping into foreign soils in order to dominate foreign markets as well. How many companies in Bangladesh are like Tata or Aditya Birla?

Even if we talk about the media and entertainment industry, we are far behind India. Subhash Chandra, the chairman of Zee Telefilms and Essel Group, knows how to attract foreign viewers. Most of the Hindi television serials are sub-titled in English so that foreign viewers can understand the story in the drama. Why can't our television channels do the same thing in order to attract foreign viewers? This would surely solidify our culture abroad.

It is time that our Ministry of Commerce steps forward in implementing laudatory efforts in helping the local industries go abroad for business expansion.

What happened to our constitutional rights

The Bangladesh constitution is a very detailed document, which outlines the fundamental beliefs, principals and values of the republic.
There is not much that the constitution does not cover. In fact, it is so comprehensive that you’d soon get bored of reading it.

Here is subsection 15 of the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY, Part II of the constitution

Provision of basic necessities.

It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to attain, through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people, with a view to securing to its citizens

· The provision of the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care;

· The right to work, that is the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable wage having regard to the quantity and quality of work;

· The right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure; and

· The right to social security, that is to say to public assistance in cases of undeserved want arising from unemployment, illness or disablement, or suffered by widows or orphans or in old age, or in other such cases.


As you may be able to sense, it is truly is a comprehensive document. But my reservation is not with the quality of the document. It is with the effort of our leaders to enforce all that stated in this, relatively small-sized document.

For example if you observed the last part of this subsection, you could easily see that the politicians are making a mockery of our constitution.
If you care to read the rest of the constitution, many more deviations from constitution can be found.

To read the constitioution, please visit the website of the government: www.bangladesh.gov.bd and click on the constitution link.