Azad:Advocate Of Individualism II

[April 28,2022 was Prof Humayun Azad's 75th birth anniversary.Reproduced below is a piece that I wrote on May 04,2021 as a tribute to him.]

Advocate of individualism in 56,000 square mile
Criticizes Bengali race and society in his style.
Frank writings never cease to rile
Reactionaries and make bigger his smile.

I first encountered the name "Humayun Azad" when I was in college. Our English Teacher Terence Pinero had thrown out a question to his pupils: "Who is your favorite contemporary writer?" Almost everyone told the names of two brothers who dominated the publishing industry at that time. Then he asked: "Do you want to know the name of my favorite contemporary writer?"

Without waiting for our reply, he said:" He shared the first name of your favorite writer, but has a different title. His name is Humayun Azad. I know many of you haven't heard of him. Do read Azad. No one in our time reads our society and people better than him."

Between the spare time my HSC exam and my admission to the University , I sent a long letter to Subarnarekha, a literary supplement brought out by Daily Ajker Kagoj, without knowing that he edited the supplement. The editor did not get back to me. An interview of him on that page also garnered my attention. I was no literary connoisseur, but his criticism of what is going on around him and the media attention invoked my interest on him.

Back in August 2011, I wrote a piece about him on https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com .

I had not read much of his works by the time I entered university. My orientation with his works began with "Chhappanna Hajar Barga Mile", followed by "Kabi Othoba Dandito Opurush". He was deeply moved by the criminalization of society, decay of values and rise of the Islamists.¹

One afternoon on the second floor of theater building while I was going to attend a class, I met this pleasant looking, plainly dressed professor who was ready to talk to anyone. While he was smoking I inquired about the subject that he was working on. He said, “There are some people who still believe the sun moves around the earth! I’m working on them!!”¹

This was our Azad Sir.

He was never shy to talk openly to a stranger. A rickshaw puller and a man from the upper rung of the society got same importance and reception from him. From head to toe, he was embodiment of an educated gentleman.

Humayun Azad, born in Bikrampur, now Munshiganj and son of a School teacher, was Bangladesh’s leading linguist, writer and a strong critic of the extremists. He did his schooling at Sir JC Bose Institution, set up at the premises of renowned scientist and inventor of radio Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose. His teachers were erudite and had an impeccable style of teaching, reflected in his brilliant result at the national level.

He was no half baked intellectual. He did his PhD in Linguistics at University of Edinburgh. His books on linguistics and Bengali grammar earned him a lot of respect. But campus politics delayed his due promotion and gun violence at campus embittered him about the learning atmosphere prevailed in 80's and 90's. In an essay titled "Jatike Ekhoni Sthir Korte Hobe: Amader Bishwabidyaloyer Dorker Achhe Ki Na?(Decide Now: Do We Really Need University?)" wrote back in 1991 after witnessing a gunbattle at Dhaka University: " From school to University, we would like to see books, blooming of knowledge. University is a grooming ground, not an arms depot. And only learners will stay here, there is no place for gunners. We have to decide now: Do we really need any school, college or university? If we do really need them, then they have to be run accordingly. Otherwise, we may destroy them and engage in our suitable savage acts."² He was however against banning student politics at campus.

He was apolitical. In an interview with Bolaka in 1999, he said:" I don't belong to any political party and never chant any slogan of any party. I do not follow any doctrine, nor do I think day and night how to spread a doctrine. I want profound creativity and ultimate freedom of an individual. I do not like a man being confined into a custom, doctrine or party."³

He was conspicuously outspoken and took great pride in his works, which he really deserved. This, however, made him very unpopular among his peers.

His sharp political commentary about what was going on around him and the growing radicalization in Bangladesh caused lots of anger among the radical establishment.

His work " Pak Sar Zamin Saad Baad which was later banned by the Government of Bangladesh, made the extremists furious and led a radical member of parliament, also an infamous war criminal, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, now sentenced to imprisonment for life for War Crimes, to raise the issue of introducing Blasphemy law in the parliament in 2004. Just a week later, while he was on his way back home from Ekushey Book Fair, a bunch of medieval thugs attacked him with kitchen tools. He survived the attack, but he was so traumatized by the incident that it ultimately caused his death in Munich, where he was doing a research on German Poet Heinrich Heine.¹

I willfully avoided highlighting some of the important issues that Azad Sir pondered and worked as we have been going through an awful time . In this time , such discussion may give rise to fresh bout of bitterness and hostile feelings among certain quarter.

It is a pity that I will never see this simple but brilliant man at the gate of New Market or at the lecture theatre of Dhaka University. Unlike his writings, his very appearance radiates joy and makes one more optimistic. He was one of the brilliant graduates his alma mater ever produced and the Bengalis should be proud of him and his works.

With his demise, Bangladesh lost a great linguist and writer of our time. He was born much ahead of his time and in a regressive society like our ones very few were ready to hear what he tried to say. I think, in future, at our difficult times we will have to recourse to his writings.

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Notes and References:

1.” A Man Ahead of His Time by Rezaul Hoque”.https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/a-man-ahead-of-his-time/

2.” Protikreashilotar Dirgho Chhayar Niche(Under The Long Shadow of Reactionary Forces)” by Humayun Azad.

3. “Ekush Amader Aghoshito Shadhinata Dibash(Twenty First February Is Our Undeclared Independence Day)”.Anthology of interviews of Humayun Azad.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(22 avril --- 29 avril)

Selon un reportage, gendarmerie maritime de Libye a secouru 600 migrant clandestin dont 500 Bangladais depuis un naufrage au large de côte libyenne le samedi. International Office For Migration les ont mis dans un lieu protégé en Libye.

Selon un reportage, la Banque Mondiale a prévenu que les prix de produits seraient élevés pour deux ans à cause de guerre de l’Ukraine.

Selon un reportage, administration de Chandpur a porté plainte contre un dirigeant du parti au pouvoir pour avoir emparé de terrain gouvernemental.

Governance And Aviation

Unfortunate events in aviation
Exposes poor governance situation?

Civil aviation in recent months has been subject of news items for its sloppy management. News of a collision between two aircrafts inside a hangar at Shahjalal International Airport on April 11 went viral two weeks ago. A Boeing 777 was parked inside a hangar.As another 737 was steered towards that hangar it hit the parked 777 and both sustained slight damages¹. Images of damaged aircrafts caused much worries. Luckily,engineers of Biman Bangladesh Airlines repaired the damaged aircrafts and put them into operation pretty quickly. One even carried passengers to Saudi Arabia².

Earlier in March, two scanners inside Shahjalal International Airport had remained out of operation for two weeks costing vegetable exporters loss of millions of Taka. In 2020-21,Bangladesh exported vegetables worth more than Tk 10 billion³.

There is more. On November 30,last year a plane of Biman Bangladesh Airlines hit and killed cows while it was taking off at Cox's Bazar International Airport⁴.

These are the stories of clumsy management inside the airport. Deteriorating management in civil aviation perhaps manifests in too many unfortunate incidents. Though I did not work to find any link between civil aviation and governance,I attempted to see whether governance has any impact on combat aircraft inventory.

Back in April 2019,I wrote “Combat Aircraft Loss And Governance” to see how governance situation influences loss of BAF aircrafts⁵. Sharing it again:

Recently I have come across a very interesting stat posted on the social media page of a defense lover group. It is about the crash record of Bangladesh Air Force since Bangladesh came into being. With one or two minor omissions it includes all the crash data of BAF. BAF suffered 90 aircrafts loss in 48 years.Suddenly the idea of finding the link between governance and crash record came to my mind. Common perception is that under "representative regime" , there would be better governance in every sector and they would run smoothly. There would be better maintenance of aircrafts, better storage facility and better training.

BAF lost 11 aircrafts in 2013-2018, a period many described as "hybrid regime".Having a closer look at the breakdown of crash incidents reveals that crashes under a "representative government" (27) surpasses that(19) under a "non-representative government".

But I hold the common perception and did a statistical analysis. Though the result is a bit contradictory, it is interesting. The 48 years of Bangladesh is divided into 9 distinct periods. Depending on the nature of the government, the regime is dubbed as "representative" or "not representative". The representative regime, which is assigned to value 1, is assumed to come to power through free and fair poll. I did not decide the type of regime , rather its recognition by local and international bodies decided its type.

Since there are too many regime changes in the 70s, I termed 1972-80 as one distinct period. Then I counted the crash incidents took place in that period. BAF's worst moment came in 1991 when tidal wave rendered 40 fighter jets and 4 helicopters useless.Aircraft loss due to war or natural disaster however was not taken into consideration. For this reason, I ignored the 1971 trainer crash and loss of BAF 44 aircrafts in 1991 cyclone.

To test my conviction that "representative regime" has lower crash record, I ran a Poisson regression. For that, I first tried to find out the total number of combat aircrafts at BAF's disposal at the end of the respective period and proportion of crashed aircrafts to the total number of aircrafts in that period, which I called "fraction" here. Since it is difficult to get the exact number of BAF inventory, I took assistance of Wikipedia to get an approximate number of aircrafts in 2018 and then scaled down the total to glean information for earlier periods.Another thing to note is that I also took into consideration the aircrafts of Army Aviation Group but discarded the ones operated by the Navy while counting the total. Proportion of crashed aircraft to total aircrafts will give a better reading because loss of 1 aircraft from a total of 2 means a loss of 50%. Similarly, a loss of 1 aircraft from 20 means a 5% loss. Absolute number of loss could lead to misleading information. That is why I rest my trust on proportion, "the fraction" in this case.

While running the regression I dropped the observation for 1986-90, because no crash took place during that period. And exposure does not count any zero.

I first ran the regression with exposure( ) and then without the exposure( ) but including the variable that would normalize exposure.

The first run says combat aircraft crash under "representative regime" is 1.185 times larger than that of "non-representative regime". However, since it falls within the 95%confidence interval, I cannot reject the hypothesis that "representative regime" has lower crash records. The second run, without exposure, yields similar results. It is still 1.185 times larger and I cannot rule out that crash record under "representative regime" is lower. Due to the results from regression, I cannot draw a definitive conclusion between BAF aircraft crash and governance.

Notes And References:

1 “Collision Between Two Biman Planes At Shahjalal International Airport “,UNB,April 11,2022. For more read at https://www.unb.com.bd/m/category/Bangladesh/collision-between-two-biman-planes-at-shahjalal-intl-airport/90970

2 “Biman's Boeing 777 Flies To Saudi After Collision In Dhaka Airport Hangar”,The Financial Express,April 15,2022. For more read at https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/bimans-boeing-777-flies-to-saudi-after-collision-in-dhaka-airport-hangar-1649991039

3 “Scanner Ochol : Noshto Hocchey Shobji'r Roptani Bazar(Scanner Out-Of-Work: Costing Loosing The Export Market)”,Abu Sayeem,News Bangla24.com,March27,2022. For more read at https://www.newsbangla24.com/news/185106/Scanner-obsolete-Vegetable-export-market-is-being-ruined

4 “Plane Hits Cows: Four Ansar Guards Suspended At Cox’s Bazar Airport”,UNB,December 01,2022. For more read at https://www.unb.com.bd/m/category/Bangladesh/plane-hits-cows-four-ansar-guards-suspended-at-coxs-bazar-airport/83351

5 “Combat Aircraft Loss And Governance”,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com,April 04,2019. For more read at https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/2019/04/combat-aircraft-loss-and-governance.html?m=1

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(15 avril --- 22 avril)

Selon un reportage, un Biélorusse est morte mystérieusement dans sa chambre à Green City,Pabna.

Selon un reportage, une explosion dans une usine de feu d’artifice a tué 2 personnes à Nandail,Mymensingh.

Selon un reportage,une cour bangladaise a ordonné d’arrêter opération d'un hôtel à St Martin.L’hôtel est opéré par Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Limited,une société publique.

Harvest Worry

Flash flood causes harvest worry,
Import must amid production glory.
High wages in haor land,
Asks for support grand.

United State Department Of Agriculture has recently cautioned that Bangladesh may have to import 10.5 million tons of rice, corn and wheat in spite of a record 2% increase in food production. The report particularly highlights that Bangladesh may face impediment in food import due to ongoing war in Ukraine as fertilizer and wheat import from Ukraine and Russia may be hampered¹.

The news has come at a moment when flash flood is causing damage to winter crop(Boro) grown in haor(back swamp turned into cultivable land in dry season).According to Water Development Board, there are 96 haors in the country and flash flood caused by early norwesters already inundated 10 haors. In Sunamganj,3000 hectares of haor land went under water. Luckily,large haors have remained unaffected. Initial estimate put the damage to winter crops somewhere around TK 500 million².

In Sunamganj,Department of Agricultural Extension fears further flash flood as heavy rain forecast in upstream India between April 15 and 17. This year 222,805 hectares of land came under Boro cultivation in Sunamganj and only 5000 hectares have so far been harvested. District officials have made urgent request to complete harvest before further inundation³.

All this effort is to save Boro crop. Why?Last year ,I penned this piece “Rice Stock Woe”. Sharing parts of it again:

Just a year ago Bangladesh was ranked third largest rice producing country in the world by an institution. There is indeed truth in it. This success is largely driven by Boro, which is our biggest crop.Currently Boro harvest is going on.Once it is done we will see slight improvement in government's storing of rice. In 2012, our total foodgrain production was 36.83 million tons of which Boro accounts 18.76 million tons. In 2019, total foodgrain production was 41.57 million tons of which Boro accounts for 19.62 million tons(Source: BER 2019). Boro's share in total food production is always more than 45%⁴.

So any disruption in Boro cultivation and harvest will compound govt’s food worries. Rising foodgrain prices have already pushed millions of people to awkward position. Coarse rice is being sold between TK48 and TK 50. Moreover, rural labor market registered a rise in wages. Laborer demand Tk 800-1000/day.In Harvest time, they charge TK 200 more. But many rural peasants hardly afford the rising cost of labor. So most of the Boro paddy lay in the field. They await mercy of the local administration and politicians. Earlier administration and politicians extended support to marginalized farmers to harvest Boro crop. This time this support is noticeably absent.

Wrapping up with some lines of my piece “Monsoon Rage”⁵,written back in July 2017:

“In their trying time, as the calamity unfolds with all its severity, they find none of their leaders by their side. They looked up and sought mercy of the supreme. Trust, loyalty, love, respect are not written in black and white clauses of a contract. They are tested and cemented as relationship grows. Any act that drives a wedge between people and politicians is tantamount to breach of trust. Peoples’ lost confidence in politicians augurs ill for the future of fragile democracy.”

Notes And References:

1 “Deshe Utpadon Barleo Amdani Korte Hobey Koti Ton Khadya(Despite Increase In Production, Bangladesh May Have To Import Food)”,Iftekhar Mahmud, Daily Prothom Alo(Page-01),April 09,2022.

2 “Haor E Dui Diner Modhey Arekti Dhole'r Shonka(Another Flash Flood Feared In Haor Within Two Days)”,Daily Prothom Alo(Page-03),April 09,2022.

3 “Haorey Dhan Katar Onorodhey Miking(Miking For Requesting Harvest In Haor)”,Daily Prothom Alo(Page-03),April 14,2022.

4 “Rice Stock Woe”,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com,April 28,2021. For more read at https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/2021/04/rice-stock-woe.html?m=1

5 “Monsoon Rage”, Rezaul Hoque,https://rezaulhoque.WordPress.com, July 16,2017 For more read at https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/monsoon-rage/

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(08 avril --- 15 avril)

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh a payé beaucoup pour donner deux vaccins à un ressortissant parmi les pays de Sud-Asie.

Selon un reportage, collision entre deux avions de Biman Bangladesh Airlines a causé dégâts à deux appareils.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement a fait appel aux agriculteurs de moissonner le riz hivernal qui avait été cultivé dans 222.805 hectares de terrain de haor(lac transformé champ de riz en hiver) à Sunamganj avant de deux grand orages.

Weak Passport Belies Success II

Weak passport remains the same
As Bangladeshis get the blame
In Canada for soaring house price.
Henley index lays bare the development lies.

Bangladeshi passport retains 103 rd position among 116 countries for 2021 in Henley Strong Passport Index. In 2020, it held the same position. Despite the improvement from 108 to 103 in recent years, Bangladeshi passport remains one of the weakest passport (9th) in the world¹. Meanwhile, corona, internal turbulence and war made many counties' score bad. So the improvement is not an improvement at all.In the meantime, US imposed sanctions on RAB and several security establishment officials for deterioration in law and order situation. This week Canada postponed its second home program, nationality through purchase of house, for two years as property prices soar up unprecedentedly because of foreign nationals' house buying spree in that country².

Back in October last year I penned “Weak Passport Belies Success “ to highlight Henley’s then ranking of Bangladesh³. Sharing it again:

The weakening of our passport has been going on for the last seven years. In 2013,our passport was ranked at 85 in Henley Passport Index(HPI). In 2017,the green passport was slides down by 10 places. In 2019,its rank worsened further to 99.In 2020, it was ranked 101st. Perhaps not all the countries are buying our success stories⁶.

Recently, European Union published a list of asylum seekers in EU where they entered illegally by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Bangladesh ranked second in the list.

This week Lafarge Holcim cement announced that it would sell its operations in Bangladesh.⁴

E-commerce debacle left a serious blot on reputation of the government. One after another e-commerce platform that follows multilevel marketing model failed to meet customers’ need and many simply swindled money. What could have been the success story of govt's digital economy turned out to be an embarrassing point for the government.

It has been reported that government might have avoided this incident had it been stricter to malpractices.

Meanwhile, remittances shows a downward spiral following a remarkable growth last year.

In September 2021-22,Bangladesh received remittances worth $1726.29 million whereas the sum was $2171.03 million in May this year⁵However, rising oil price could break the downward spiral as construction boom may resume in the Middle Eastern countries, riding on the high oil price.

Back in April this year,I wrote a piece titled “Falling Ranking,Fading Identity” in the wake of unrevised HPI. I would like to share some part of it again:

“Education is the area where we fall behind our neighbors. In Global Knowledge Index, Bangladesh held the lowest rank in South Asia. Its position was 112th among 138 countries.Even Pakistan and Nepal were placed ahead of us (Source: Daily Star, December 12 , 2020).

In Innovation Index, Bangladesh was far behind than its South Asian neighbors. Among the 131 economies, Bangladesh occupied 116th position. It perched on that position for three consecutive years (Source: The Financial Express, September 14, 2020).

In recent years, school drop out rate, number of child marriage have also increased. I cannot figure out how we can continue our achievements in economic and development sectors with such a sorry state in education and innovation.

What complicated the matter is the presence of three different streams of education. A greater section of the population are not at the same wavelength while reading a particular event or situation and are not behaving in the right way at a crucial occasion or circumstances.

Our 14 years of schooling is not as good as others. It is casting a shadow over our overseas development markets. In middle eastern countries where our nationals mostly took up the jobs of housemaid, drivers, agricultural workers etc , Bangladeshis find themselves in awkward situation for failing to communicate in a proper manner. It is affecting their livelihoods there. Many even fall victims to deception and cheating. In Kuwait a Bangladeshi MP in connivance with Kuwaiti officials ran a human trafficking network. Thousands of Bangladeshis were lured into their traps, losing millions of Taka and risking their lives. The issue remains a sore point in the relationship between two countries and engenders overseas employment of Bangladesh in Kuwait.

Reuters last year carried a report divulging dilapidated conditions of stranded Bangladeshis , victims of human trafficking, in Bosnian jungles.

Like those cheated Bangladeshis abroad, state of our health sector does not vouch safe for our economic success story. COVID-19 laid bare the anarchy going on in this sector. Fake screening program ran by some politically-blessed quarter alarmed us about quality of our health professionals. Poorly equipped hospitals and dearth of health professionals brought us foreign grant and support in thick and fast. To our dismay, we watched that oxygen system and 300 ventilators bought with foreign credit were locked in warehouses of Dhaka International Airport for ten months. They are meant to equip the public hospitals. Meanwhile, deteriorating condition at home led to ban flights towards countries from where most of our remittances come.

With great enthusiasm and effort, Bangladesh implements infrastructure and development projects, very few turn out to be beneficial in the end. However, same vigor and enthusiasm are not displayed while creating social institutions that aim to develop human resources at the grassroot level. Tribal nature of our politics , tendency to set a yeoman at every organization are widely seen as encumbrance to developing such institution. For the last three decades, a moribund growth has been being observed on institutions that work on youth, discrimination, literacy,digital divide, communal harmony,folklore,hygiene,rural-urban migration, inclusion of new technology, charity, music and culture. These institutions in the past played key roles in churning out quality nationals. It does not mean they have to depend on foreign fund for their operations. Community, individual and government should step in so that they can function without any trouble. COVID-19 bluntly laid it bare that our health system is not working and one fine morning we will discover, to our surprise, that our country becomes an unlivable prison. And HPI and QNI may coshare positions with other doomed countries.”⁶

Notes And References:

1” Bangladesh Ranks 103rd In Henley Passport Index2022”, Dhaka Tribune,April 04,2022. For more read at https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2022/01/12/bangladesh-ranks-103rd-in-henley-passport-index-2022

2 “Videshider Kacchey Bari Bikri Bondho Korechhey Justin Trudeau'r Saraker(Canada: Trudeau Govt Halts Sale Of House To Foreigners”,BBC Bangla,April 07,2022. For more read at https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-61028973

3 “Weak Passport Belies Success”,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com,October 09,2021. For more read at https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/2021/10/weak-passport-belies-success.html?m=1

4 “Bangladesh Theke Babsha Gutiye Nichhey Lafarge HolCim(Lafarge Winds Down Bangladesh Operations)”,Sylhet Today 24,October 06,2021.For more read at https://www.sylhettoday24.news/news/details/Sylhet/125786?fbclid=IwAR07pXwOgCNECDjcN9NLpKVipVlTk52NR6VUGwNlqmHyz6aVWlFr89rzGhk

5 Bangladesh Bank.

6 “Falling Ranking,Fading Identity “,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com.April 19,2021.For more read at https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/2021/04/falling-ranking-fading-identity.html?m=1

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(01 avril --- 08 avril)

Selon un reportage, Pour 2021 Henley Passport Index a placé Bangladesh dans la même place que Bangladesh tenait en 2020.

Selon un reportage, Canada a reporté le programme de nationalité par achat de maison canadienne pour deux ans.

Selon un reportage, OMS dans étude a trouvé que chaque année 250.000 personnes ont décédées à cause de air pollution.

Two Worrying Reports

Sluggish pace in development projects
Highlights pollution among concerning subjects.
Dhaka tops the cities very polluted
Causing its copybook severely blotted.

Two reports on air and sound did tremendous damage to Bangladesh reputation. Particularly at a moment when Bangladesh is witnessing infrastructure boom.

Swiss company IQAir found in its report that Bangladeshi air is most polluted (76.9 micrograms of nefarious particles per cubic meter) in the world.Harmful substances in the air of Bangladesh surpasse WHO set threshold ( 5 micrograms per cubic meter). Clearly a concern that requires serious attention. Dhaka is ranked second after Delhi among the most air-polluted cities¹.

However, Dhaka tops the list of most noisiest cities in the world.United Nations Environment Program in a report claims that, in 2021, it recorded 119 decibels noise intensity in Dhaka.Much higher than WHO standard(55 decibels for residential area and 70 decibels for traffic and business area)².

The rising pollution has a price.Dhaka is paying it heavily.More and more Dhaka dwellers fall victims of Dhaka's falling air quality. Directorate General Of Health Services (DGHS) that keeps a tab on outbreak of asthma,pneumonia, diarrhea etc has noticed a sharp rise in the number of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) patients in recent years. According to a Dhaka Tribune report,in 2015-16,there were 18,791 new patients of ARI. In 2018-19, the number rose to 20,446 new cases. And in 2019-20,it reached 111,737³.

Not only the air.Dhaka's water also gets polluted.Last month Dhaka has witnessed an unusual outbreak of diarrhea that has never been seen in 60 years. In ICDDRB hospital, more than 1000 patients admitted to hospital daily in the month of March. Earlier, on average 500 patients were admitted.In the Summer when temperature shoots to around 40° Celsius, aggravation of diarrhea is a common feature. ICDDRB doctors point to polluted water and roadside food taking behavior for the recent bout of diarrhea⁴.

The three crucial news reports may seem unrelated. Land,air and water of Dhaka get polluted because of the unplanned development works and urbanization.As more and more people flocked to the capital city that has flood proof embankment in search of opportunity, Dhaka is becoming unlivable and a nightmare. Pollution causes more patients,more spending on health expenditure, loss of working hours and less participation in economic activities. Since my childhood, I have been suffering from bronchitis. I have to spend minimum TK 160 on medication every month. Those suffer from kidney dysfunction have to spend more than TK 5000 on medication and treatments. Many of the ingredients to make medicine and medical services are subsidized. This gives an idea how national wealth and resources are taking a toll due to pollution.

Those doing the development works have little concern to public health and future generation. As Dhaka offers the best services of the country, parents thought it is the best place to groom their future generation. And many kids are growing up with dysfunctional lungs, hearing loss and other complications. Not all loss can be recuperated. Lost adolescence, youth cannot be brought back. Lack of sanitary precautions, unhealthy living and lack of foresight in conceiving development projects are contributing to undermine our own future.Pity that these words fall into deaf ears. I hope I maybe wrong.

Notes And References:

1 “Bangladesh Worst In The World In Terms Of Air Pollution: Report” ,bdnews24,March22,2022. For more read at https://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/environment/2033999

2 “Dhaka Is The Noisiest City In The World: Un Report”,bdnews24.com,March27,2022. For more read at https://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/environment/2036885

3“Respiratory And Infectious Diseases Soar In Bangladesh”,Kamrul Hasan,Dhaka Tribune,April 02,2020. For more read at https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/04/02/respiratory-and-infectious-diseases-soar-in-the-country

4“Diarrhea: Bangladesh E Jeshob Karone Ebar Onno Bochhorer Tulonae Agey Bhagey Ei Rogti Beshi Hocchey(Diarrhea: Reasons Behind Early Epidemic This Year)”,Shahnaz Parvin,BBC Bangla,April 01,2022. For more read at https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-60947460

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(25 mars --- 01 avril)

Selon un reportage, Dacca est placé en tête dans les villes où air est très polluée.

Selon un reportage, un ressortissant de Kazakhstan a été tué par coup de couteau par trois ressortissants de Biélorussie à quartier d’ouvrier de centrale nucléaire à Pabna.

Selon un reportage, une étude faite par bureau de statistique divulgue que catastrophe naturelle coûte TK 300 milliards en moyen chaque année.

Selon un reportage, D’après une ONG,une personne sur dix est tombée victime d’escroquerie dans transaction de portefeuille numérique.