Weekend 132

Khagrachari revisited 6

Nafees Bin Zafar 18

FRIDAY DECEMBER 6 2013

vol 1 Issu e 32

Frederick Sanger 27

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CONTENTS 1 Editor’s Note 2 This Week in Pictures 4 Bottled Up 5 Whose Line Is It Anyway?

We will, we will rock you A Weekly Pro ducti o n o f

10 Post-Riposte Combined admission test

DhakaTribune Vo lume 1, Issu e 3 2 DECEMB ER 6, 2 0 13

11 Top 10 Picnic spots

Editor Zafar Sobhan Magazine Editor Faruq Hasan

12 Realpolitik Street protests 6 Pick of the Week Khagrachari revisited

Weekend Tribune Team Sumaiya Shams Faisal Mahmud Yusuf Banna Joseph Allchin Shah Nahian Phil Humphreys Adil Sakhawat Rohini Alamgir

17 Everyday Economist WTO Ninth Ministerial Conference 20 Legal Eagle 21 Crime File Murder in the household 22 Tough Love

Art Direction/Photography Syed Latif Hossain

23 WT | Leisure 24 Interview Mushtaque R Chowdhury

Colour Specialist Shekhar Mondal Kazi Syras Al Mahmood

25 The Way Dhaka Was Pari Bibir Mazaar

Cartoon Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy Rio Shuvo Contributors Syed Samiul Basher Murtada H Bulbul Jennifer Ashraf Dina Sobhan Ibtisam Ahmed Sabrina Fatma Ahmed Design Mohammad Mahbub Alam Production Masum Billah Advertising Shahidan Khurshed Circulation Wahid Murad Email: weekend@dhakatribune.com Web: www.dhakatribune.com Cover Winter morning by Syed Latif Hossain

13 Photo Story Swineherd

26 Culture Vulture Bengal Classical Music Festival 2013 27 Obituary Frederick Sanger 18 Feature Nafees Bin Zafar

28 Last Word

EDITOR’S NOTE

Frolic with a picnic Y

ou can’t have a Bangali winter unless you’ve been to at least one wedding … or a picnic! A winter picnic has the essential ingredients to gladden the Dhakaites: good food, bonhomie with family and friends, and just enough outdoorsy activities to get us a bit out of our comfort zones. Till about a few years ago, finding a decent picnic ground had been a problem. But as the WT team explains, picnic business is booming.

Our Top 10 this week lists the best picnic grounds in and around Dhaka. We hope the list becomes a reference for you this winter.

Elsewhere, Phil Humphreys revisits the Khagrachari stadium where, 25 years ago, a historic peace treaty was signed, Joseph Allchin compares Thai politics with our culture of oborodhs in Realpolitik, our Legal Eagle Jennifer Ashraf is back with more legal counsel for our readers, and Sabrina Fatma Ahmad, our guest columnist for this week, introduces “KFC Kids” as a legitimate addition to the Dhakaite vernacular in our Last Word.

Go on, have a picnic this weekend, and laze around with your copy of the Weekend Tribune. n

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THIS WEEK

INTERNATIONAL

In this November 24 photo, Mount Sinabung spews volcanic ash into the air as seen from Ujung, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Authorities raised the alert status for one of the country’s most active volcanoes to the highest level, after the mountain repeatedly sent hot clouds of gas down its slope following a series of eruptions recently

AP/Binsar Bakkara

This November 30 photo shows remains of a Mozambique Airlines plane that crashed in the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia. The plane ,carrying 33 people, crashed, killing all on board, as officials said

AP/Nampa, Olavi Haikera

Indian school children hold placards and red ribbons, the universal symbol of awareness and support for those living with HIV, on the eve of World AIDS Day in Patiala, India on November 30

AP/Prabhjot Gill

An anti-government protester blows a giant whistle to a riot police officer outside the headquarters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s ruling Pheu Thai Party in Bangkok, Thailand on November 29. The protesters staged a rally in a bid to topple Yingluck outside the party headquarters, where hundreds of riot police stood guard to prevent them from entering

AP/Sakchai Lalit

About 1,000 protesters block off the Ukrainian government’s main headquarters on December 2, protesting its decision to suspend moves to deepen integration with Europe and to revive economic ties with Russia

Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

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NATIONAL

A policeman, though injured after being hit with a crude bomb, grab hold of the activist who threw the bomb during the second day of the countrywide blockade in Sutrapur. November 27

Dhaka Tribune

Picketers set a motor cycle ablaze on Barisal-Patuakhali road during the blockade called by the 18-party alliance demanding cancellation of the announced election schedule on November 28

Focus Bangla

In this photo taken on November 26, deadly injured Anowara Begum, 50, is undergoing treatment at DMCH as a crude bomb, hurled by blockade supporters, hit on her head in the city’s Khilgaon area

Mahmud Hossain Opu

First designer of Bangladesh National Flag, Shib Narayan, addresses a protest rally, which was organised to protest the ongoing political unrest, in the capital’s Shahbagh on December 3

Rajib Dhar/Dhaka Tribune

Hindus from Bogra sadar upazila bring out a procession on December 3, protesting an attack on the minority people at the upazila’s Gandagram

Dhaka Tribune

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BOTTLED UP

letters to the editor

LETTER

of the week Cover conundrum T

he WT has some of the best weekend covers in the market. I specially love the cartoons and the sketches that depict various stories within the magazine. However, sometimes the covers are a bit too abstract for me, leaving me confused as to what they signify. Would it be possible for you to use captions in those cases, just to help us “slow� readers out a bit more? n

Talha Azad Mirupur, Dhaka

Metro milestone

What a fantastic cover story by Faisal Mahmud on a future metro rail system for Dhaka. I really believe that a functioning metro project is the only way out of the horrible traffic situation of the city. I just hope that the current political chaos does not hinder the progress of such an important alternative to the current transportation options we have.

Sabrina Mahmud Uttara, Dhaka

Raucous Rangpur

I have been keenly following your Crime Files from Rangpur. As someone who has lived all his life in a big city, I always had an idyllic image of what rustic Bangladesh stood for. Unfortunately, the series of crime reports from the north-west have shook me up and made me realise that Dhaka does not have a monopoly on lawlessness.

Thanks for the rude awakening.

Minhaz Abedin, Rampura, Dhaka

Colourful cartoons

Thanks for adding colour back to the cartoon page. What are cartoons without colour? Could you also condense a few more strips into the page? That way, I could really start my weekends with a laugh.

Farah Ruma, Siddwesari, Dhaka

Send us your feedback at: weekend@dhakatribune.com

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WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?

We will, we will rock you LRB will rock the Indian president’s house in New Delhi next week, along with three other famous South Asian bands at the request of the Indian president.

About time! Indian pop music has been rocking our living rooms for decades at the request of 160 million Bangladeshis.

Ayub Bachchu

Mr Mango

India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were once one nation. Political boundaries have divided us, but music has united us in our hearts.

Till days, LRB rocked Finally one of our top bands gets to perform in India. It was needed for India to know how rich and efficient our bands are while doing music and it was done through the visit.

Bilal Maqsood member of band Strings

Tareq Ahmed guitarist

Rio Shuvo/Dhaka Tribune

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PICK OF THE WEEK

Khagrachari revisited

Peace in our time?

Phil Humphreys witnesses Hasina’s fleeting return to the scene of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord ceremony

Phil Humphreys is a British former journalist who worked as a management adviser to an NGO in Rangpur, before joining the Dhaka Tribune as a consultant

I

t was a moment of triumph for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government.

On a glorious winter’s day and before the packed galleries of Khagrachari Stadium, she released white pigeons and floated balloons carrying the message “Long Live Peace,” as tribal and Bengali artists danced and sang together in celebration of a new dawn for the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).

“We want no more bloodshed, we want peace sustained in the Hill Tracts and peaceful co-existence of its people,” she said. “We want to forget the past and look forward to a bright new future.”

Last month, the prime minister returned to Khagrachari for the first time since that day in February 1998, when she had observed the formal end of a 25year campaign for autonomy waged by the tribal Shanti Bahini guerrillas.

Her stage this time was the same; the large concrete bowl of the town’s football stadium which, despite eleventh-hour efforts to apply a lick of paint, had fallen into a sorry state of disrepair. Crumbling round the edges, it perhaps mirrored the condition of the peace treaty enacted within its walls to so much fanfare 15 years ago.

With one eye on the upcoming

election - the Prime Minister used her November 11 speech to boldly reel off her current government’s achievements for the region, which include a new university in Rangamati, solar power and electricity to all households, and improved communication systems. A partisan crowd of 50,000 Awami League supporters roared their approval. But beyond the stadium walls, the people tell a different story.

The 12 recognised indigenous groups of the CHT are collectively known as the Jumma. The three largest are the Chakma, the Marma,

Photos: Phil Humphreys

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and the Tripura. While each tribe can be identified by cultural and linguistic differences, they are bound together

by Buddhism. Across the three hill districts of Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban, however, the native population is now in a minority.

Depending on who you speak to, they are also losing land at a faster rate than the government is returning it to them. Despite the heady promises of Hasina’s 1998 speech, the tourist sector remains woefully underdeveloped, territorial disputes persist, and sporadic violence is still the norm rather than the exception.

On November 11 2013, the prime minister landed at Khagrachari Region Helipad around 2pm. She was escorted in a convoy to the stadium, where she observed a tribal dance performance, unveiled the foundation stones for ten projects, and delivered a speech all inside two hours. By 5pm she was already flying back to Dhaka. On her first visit to the district since the 1998 peace accord ceremony, she stayed for barely three hours

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Land disputes unresolved

The treaty signed on December 2, 1997 by the political platform of the Jumma people - Parbattya Chhattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) - and the Bangladesh government called on the rebels to lay down their arms, in exchange for 50,000tk each and the return of land. Initially, 739 insurgents took up the amnesty offer, and they surrendered their weapons at the Khagrachari Stadium ceremony held two months later. It has not been a titfor-tat process, however. While praising the rebels for having “set the example” during her return speech last month, the prime minister conceded also that 22 of the 77 sections of the peace accord are still to be implemented.

PCJSS Chariman Santu Larma told journalists on the 16th anniversary of the signing ceremony earlier this week that although indigenous people had been appointed to some important posts including state minister for CHT affairs and chairman of the CHT Development Board, the government was not “sincere or interested” in enacting the accord. “The progress remains the same like before,” he said. “Another government is about to expire but no effective steps have been taken towards full implementation”.

“The biggest problem of the indigenous people who come to me for legal advice is the occupation of their traditional land by settler Bengalis,” an executive member of the Asian Indigenous Lawyers Network, based in Khagrachari, tells Weekend Tribune.

“My clients have no registrations,

no documents, no papers; it is just a traditional system. But in the court process you first need the land report by the police, but they are also Bengalis so they give the report on behalf of Bengalis. It is very racial.”

Local NGO Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha (TUS) says indigenous people for generations were using their traditional knowledge and land tenure system, which did not call for paperwork to be submitted to the authorities (see boxed text, right). TUS says: “When the standard level of awareness of the indigenous people concerning formal registration was achieved in the early 1980s, the registration process was paused.” It has yet to restart; the NGO puts the current landless figure among the tribal population at around 75%.

“It is a big problem in the CHT contract because the land commission is still not implemented,” says the lawyer, who is also a member of the Adivasi Facilitative Group (AFG), “The prime minister said that 70% of the land transfers have been fulfilled but the local people know this is not true.”

In her speech, Sheikh Hasina acknowledged “some problems and disputes over land” and pledged to fully implement the provisions of the peace treaty, if re-elected. She said the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act 2013 will be executed “after its necessary amendment”, but deep political divisions remain. In June, leaders of ten parties said the draft version differed from the text agreed at several inter-ministerial meetings,

while ruling 14-party alliance lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon said the amending bill states that grabbed land would be “outside the jurisdiction of the Land Commission”. As a result, he estimated that only 35% of landrelated disputes in the region can be solved this way.

CHT Land Commission Secretary Abdul Hamid said this week they had received approximately 5,000 land dispute cases, of which “around 3,000” were at the final stage. These figures were immediately disputed by the Secretary General of CHT Jumma Refugee Welfare Association, Santusito Chakma Bakul, who said the number of cases would be “10 times higher” if internally displaced people had been considered.

“Not a single percent (of land) has been transferred,” a district pastor tells Weekend Tribune, on condition of anonymity. He says the government wants to fulfil the peace accord but the Bengali people protest as they know they will have to leave the area. “So when the government takes steps to fulfil the contract, the settlers make many problems and cause collisions with the indigenous people.

It is a political problem for the current government,” he says.

Not that a change in government in January would help the indigenous people; BNP leader Khaleda Zia and her right-wing allies did not even recognise the treaty when it was signed in 1997, and they enforced a hartal on the day of the 1998 stadium ceremony.

TraditionalVs mainstream governance system The CHT region is divided into three circles named Chakma, Mong and Bomang, and each is headed by a chief who is considered as a Raja. The Circle Chief appoints a Headman to oversee each grass-roots unit (mouza), and each mouza is sub-divided into smaller units called Para or Adam at the individual village level. Each village is placed under a Karbari appointed by the Headman.

The CHT Regulations Act 1900 made the Headman responsible for collecting taxes in their mouza and empowered them to dispense justice in their Raja Courts, in accordance with the customary laws and traditions of the Hill people. Because the laws are not written down, disputes are resolved by an individual interpretation.

The lawyer says this whole system is under threat: “In CHT there is the traditional system and there is the local mainstream government system such as a magistrate court and district judge, which are staffed

by Bengali people. Recently the legislative body said ‘We don’t care about traditional Circles, Headmen and Karbari; we will just process cases our legal way in the CHT context, the same as for outsiders and the mainstream. We don’t want to follow the 1900 manual’.”

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PICK OF THE WEEK Hill Tracts still tensed

There were forces within the indigenous communities, also, that protested the negotiated settlement.

Several groups of Jumma people - Pahari Chattra Parishad (PCP or Hill Students Council), Pahari Gano Parishad (PGP or Hill Peoples Council), and Hill Women Federation (HWF) argued that the accord failed to fulfil their main demands for full autonomy, the restoration of traditional land rights, the demilitarisation of the hill districts, and the withdrawal of Bengali settlers.

The United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) is a separatist movement formed in December 1998 by disgruntled former PJCSS leaders who felt the political party had betrayed the Jumma people by signing the peace accord. This week, UPDF Press Secretary Niron Chakma described it as a “mockery” and said the hill people “are not getting anything that may create hope among them”. The group’s

khagrachari revisited

student wing, the PCP, enforced a daylong road blockade during the prime minister’s recent visit.

“The problem is terrorism,” an official at the Awami League office in Khagrachari tells Weekend Tribune.

“All the time the UPDF have big arms in their hands, paid for through money collection, killings, and kidnappings.

The day before our leader’s visit, our workers were distributing leaflets, and the UPDF told them ‘Go away’. They have a violent mind. They have no respect for Bangladesh government and they don’t accept Bangladeshis or the prime minister coming here”.

The PCJSS have demanded that the government ban the UPDF for their “terrorist activities” in the hill districts.

“The Chakma are crazy people,” says a senior figure of the district special branch of police. “The peace accord is working, but they do not maintain the law. They are doing what they like.”

Historical Hill Tracts Early Period Very little is known about the region’s history prior to the advent of British colonial rule. It is generally assumed that the present-day Hill District was settled by “nomads” transmigrating from one area to another. The Chakmas became the largest and most dominant indigenous group at least as early as the sixteenth century.

Early contacts with the British 1757 The British East India company becomes the virtual rulers of Bengal after the battle of Plassey, but limits its role to tax collection. The Chakmas exert the greatest influence and their kings exercise almost total control over indigenous society.

1760 Three districts of Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong are ceded to the British in a secret treaty.

1777-1787 War breaks out between the British and the Chakma.

1829 Statement by (the British) Commissioner of Chittagong says “The hill tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are not British subjects... and we have no rights to interfere with their internal arrangements”.

British Rule (1860-1947) 1860 Act XXII constitutes the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a separate district.

1882 CHT sub-divided into three separate circles: Chakma, Mong and Bohmong.

1900 British crown enacts the CHT Regulation Act (popularly known as the CHT Manual), recognising the Chiefs and the traditional institutions in the administrative system 1935 Government of India Act designates the district as a “Totally Excluded Area”, formally recognising the region.

PCP graffiti in Khagrachari reads: ‘Chittagong Hill Tracts - full autonomy’

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Pakistan Period (1947-1971) 1947 Indian sub-continent partitioned with the CHT included in Pakistan, even though 97% nonMuslim.

1960 A hydro-electric dam constructed at Kaptai submerges 40% of all cultivable CHT lands under water and displaces one-third of the total population from their ancestral homes.

1964 Pakistan government revokes the special status of the CHT, removing all legal or constitutional safeguards.

Bangladesh Period (1971-present) 16 December 1971 Bangladesh wins independence but the new constitution fails to address the concerns of the CHT peoples.

February 1972 A delegation led by M N Larma, the sitting MP from the region, meets Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to push for CHT autonomy, retention of the CHT Regulation 1900, recognition of the three Circle Chiefs and aan on the influx of non-indigenous ethnic communities.

March 1972 Larma founds the PCJSS as a regional political party, to which a military wing – Shanti Bahini – is later added.

August 15, 1975 Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassinated in a military coup; Larma goes underground to wage an insurgency against the Bangladesh government.

December 2, 1997 Peace Accord signed between the PCJSS and the Government of Bangladesh.

February 10, 1998 Weapons handover ceremony at Khagrachari Stadium November 11, 2013 Hasina returns to Khagrachari

Source: International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission

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Military overload

The 80,000-strong 24th Infantry Division of the Bangladesh Army is charged with maintaining security in the CHT. In the build up to the first prime ministerial visit in 15 years, the regular army were supplemented in and around Khagrachari town by NSI, Rab and the border security force (BDR).

But while Article D.17 in the peace accord commits the military to scaling back its substantial presence to six permanent cantonments (camps) - one at each of the three district headquarters plus Alikadam, Ruma and Dighinala - the number of military personnel has not diminished significantly since 1997.

“In Chittagong town area there is only one big cantonment, but here there are many,” says the pastor, “In one kilometre in CHT you will find two camps, this is only to control the indigenous people.”

The 250km-long Korean Demilitarised Zone is, paradoxically, the most heavily militarised border in the world, but nobody lives there. In

Jammu and Kashmir, a reported one million troops are stationed either side of the Line of Control (LOC), but the population there is over 12 million.

In the Hill District of Bangladesh, by contrast, there is a military person for every six Jumma civilians, making this the most militarised region per capita on earth.

The government in Dhaka maintains that it cannot close the camps until security can be guaranteed for all local people. “That is secretly for the Bengali people,” says the pastor. “Where the Bengali people and the indigenous people have a problem, and they clash, the military will support the Bengali people.”

PCJSS Press Secretary Mongal Kumar Chakma also claims the army continues to interfere in the functions of the civil administration including law and order, while in June the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission called upon the security forces “to discharge their duties with the highest level of integrity and impartiality”.

Its statement cited several incidents of alleged persecution, including the

eviction of 40 Tripura families after a reported attack by around 200 settlers in Gomati Bazar.

Peace in our time?

Perhaps what the return visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Khagrachari last month highlighted more than anything else, is that 15 years after a number of rebels laid down their weapons, the underlying cause of the tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts remains unresolved.

“If the government is sincere about the indigenous people, nothing is impossible,” says the pastor, “(But) the prime minister is sincere only by mouth. She says ‘We want to give you this and that’ but practically in her work, we don’t see the evidence. We do not believe that the prime minister can fulfil the peace treaty because in the last five years (of the current government) we have not seen any success.”

Sheikh Hasina will be hoping for more time to prove the doubters wrong. n

“We want selfdetermination and we want the 1997 peace accord treaty implemented in CHT. Everything for us is in this treaty, so we pray that one day it will be fulfilled” Khagrachari district pastor

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POST-RIPOSTE

Combined Admission Tests

Will they work?

National universities are slowly integrating a uniform admissions criterion for students across the same district. But will it work? The WT team debates changes being made across Sylhet

Sure, it will

Faisal Mahmud

C

ombined admission tests work. Proof: the admission test for our 15 government medical colleges.

Candidates who pass the test are placed in the colleges based on their place on the merit list. If medical admission tests can be successful, then why not the “others”?

The combined admission test is being conducted among the universities that have similar curriculum and disciplines.

It is not like that the admission test is conducted between an engineering university and a liberal arts university, because then it would create problems for both the admission seekers and the university authorities. But if the admission test is conducted between two science and technology universities with over 70% similarities in the disciplines that both offer, then there shouldn’t be any problem. This is what Prof Zafar Iqbal and his wife Prof Yasmeen Haque thought and advocated, because Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) and Jessore Science and Technology University (JSTU) are quite similar and offer the same disciplines.

Combined admission test would save a lot of time and money for both the admission seekers and the university authorities. More importantly, it would save the admission seekers the trouble of going through different admission tests. n

Cartoons: Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

It’s not feasible Sumaiya Shams

T

he idea of having an integrated admission test for two universities, however “similar” they may be, is absurd. Every university has it’s own unique academic system. SUST is one of the well-known universities in the country, whereas JSTU has been functional for only five years. It’s obvious that JSTU is going to need more time to gain the reputation that SUST alreay has.

Combined admission test may save a lot of time and money for the university authorities, but what about the students who fail the test?

If the universities have their own admission tests, students will have more options – if they fail the test in one university, they can always apply to another, where they may succeed in getting in. If there is a combined test, and they fail, they will have to wait for a whole year to try again. That’s wasting a lot of time and money.

The way Prof Zafar Iqbal and Prof Yasmeen Haque acted to get their point across was surprising. One would think that such revered professors would act more responsibly, rather than resign just because their “demands” weren’t met.

They should have considered the fact that the combined admission test would limit the students’ choices. n

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TOP 10

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Picnic Spots

Time for pic-a-nic!

Winter is here, which means it’s picnic time. Just a few kilometres away from the capital city, there are beautiful picnic spots that offer a getaway from all the hustle and bustle of urban life. Faisal Mahmud talks about 10 most beautiful picnic spots, chosen by our readers. To participate in future polls, please visit www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

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Located at Gazaria, Munshiganj, Meghna Village Holiday Resort offers lush green garden with large lake inside. The Meghna Bridge is just one kilometre from the resort.

Contact no-01817104126

A warm welcome awaits you in the spacious cottages of Deepali Resort. The 13-acre getaway destination is one-hour drive away from Tongi. It has a lovely garden for lazy breakfasts, barbeques and wood fires, as well as a swimming pool, outdoor field for sports, kid’s sports ride, fishing and boating, six restrooms and one VVIP room.

Contact no-01717374904

Meghna Village

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Chhuti Resort

Chhuti Resort at Joydebpur is one of the few picnic spots that are eco resorts. It’s located at Sukundi village, in Gazipur sadar, just 3km away from the famous Bhawal Rajbari. The resort is famous for its large collection of birds.

Contact no-01777125192

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Pushpadam Picnic Spot

Pushpadam is currently one of the most attractive private resorts situated along the Mymensingh road, where movie shootings, picnics and private family gatherings take place. It has a wonderful flower garden, and a grand restaurant that offers Indian, Chinese, Bangali and Oriental cuisine.

Contact no-01711643054

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Deepali Resort

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Royal Resort, Tangail

The Royal Resort is the first heritage resort and the only one of its kind in Bangladesh.

This beautiful heritage resort is located in Dhanbari, Tangail, 150km from Dhaka.

Tourists can visit the tribal area, rubber and pineapple plantations, national park, magnificent Madhupur forest, and the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge.

Contact-01768737214

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Just 15km away from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Aronnobash is a secured area surrounded by a wall and fence, where you can spend time with your family surrounded by greenery. The place is designed in such a way that it takes you to your childhood.

Contact no-01711477468

Apart from the beautiful location and facilities, Nuhash Polli in Gazipur has the grave of Humayun Ahmed. This resort, however, is not open to all.

Contact no-01713402869

Aronnobash

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Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis

Nuhash Polli

Bhawal National Park

Bhawal National Park is located beside the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway. It is 40km north from Dhaka city. With an area of 2,322 acres, it’s surrounded by forests, especially by coppice sal forest, and wildlife. Protected under the Wildlife Act 1974, this park offers an excellent picnic spot in the winter, and is very popular among the picnic goers.

Contact-01717218315

Mohammadi Garden

Mohammadi Garden is situated 5km north of Kalampur bus stand in Dhamrai, Dhaka. With an area of approx 12 acres, it has fishing and boating facilities, two fields for outdoor sports and a special kids zone.

Contact no-01856699910

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CG Fishing Resort

CG Fishing Resort is located only one kilometre north of Bara Nagar bus stand, Kaliganj, Gazipur. It has two swimming pools, fishing and boating facilities in the pond, good catering services and huge car parking area. It’s also offering discounts this winter.

Contact no-01717374904

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12 Joseph Allchin is a senior reporter at Dhaka Tribune.

Follow him on twitter: @J_Allchin

REALPOLITIK

Street Protests

Through the looking class

Joseph Allchin compares recent political unrest in Thailand and Bangladesh

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Photos: Wikimedia

rom serene Asian mega hub to jolting protests that rock television news: Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is suddenly awash with angry protests throwing rocks around and confronting police.

Compare this with our own proverbial hartals and it all sounds very familiar.

However, the contrasts must be noted because they are stark, indeed.

In Thailand the ruling Pheu Thai party, ruled by Yingluck Shinawatra wanted to pass an amnesty bill in parliament that would pardon, among others, her brother, the one-time prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Again, so far so Bangladeshi. However, in Thailand, the protesters call themselves the “Yellow Shirts,” from here on referred to as the Yellows. The colour yellow signifies the monarchy, and by extension traditional, conservative Thai “values.”

The Amnesty bill passed through Thailand’s lower house but failed in the non-democratically elected upper house: the senate. But still the Yellows stayed. They wanted Yingluck out of office.

They targeted key government ministries, occupying them and preventing the business of government

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from continuing. The crucial difference between here and there: the Yellows are classically from the urban elite.

The Yellows’ opponents are the Reds. The Reds have voted the now exiled Mr Thaksin in again and again.

This leads the Yellows to admit that their current bid to oust Ms Thaksin from power is undemocratic – but according to one well to do Bangkokian on Facebook, “they don’t know what they’re voting for.”

The implication here is that poor people are too uneducated to vote.

Why and for what purpose do the Reds keep voting a Thaksin into power?

The answer is simple. Mr Thaksin, the current PM’s brother, promised much and bizarrely actually delivered it. So rural, poor Red Thais have voted for a 7% reduction in the numbers living in poverty in the largest – and poorest – province, Isaan, in five years (according to the WHO). They have voted for universal healthcare, which in one stroke meant that all Thais could receive a heart bypass surgery from the state for the nominal sum of $1 (30Baht) or roughly Tk80, for instance.

So, the Yellow-Red conflict is about class. If you think about the perennial protests in Bangladesh, do ministries ever get occupied? Do ministers go around with added security? The last time I checked it was rickshaw wallahs, commuters, bystanders and regular VOTERS who were bearing the brunt of our, in theory, plebiscite based protests.

Why? Surely, if you really wanted to express righteous rage, you would, like the Yellows or their Red counterparts

(who took to the streets in 2010) go for the jugular, and occupy a ministry?

You would go for the top instead of throwing cocktails around a market or on the road, right?

T

hailand also used to be like this. Prior to Thaksin, all parties promised much and never delivered.

All parties represented something centred very much on a small, Gulshanesque Bangkok elite. Then something strange happened. Thaksin, despite very many evident flaws, actually did something that he was voted in to do. This understandably proved very attractive, though it also proved so threatening to elites who resented and feared an empowered rural class, and resented the state helping the poor.

So much so that Thaksin, like many Thai PMs in the past, was removed in a military coup on September 19, 2006.

The official reasons were, as so often is the case in Thailand, dressed up in vague charges of insulting Thailand’s royal family.

In Bangladesh by contrast,

The answer is that, in Bangladesh, the Yellows won a long time ago and so now it’s just a matter of choosing which shade of yellow you want

the military and the elite don’t support any one party, because all parties support their class aims and aspirations. Both parties offer you four years of relatively corrupt governance and slash and burn attempts in order to fight the other. Political violence doesn’t target elites or ministries, because, unlike in Thailand or many other countries, it’s not driven by people. There’s no meaning to politics, that’s why academics and BNP politicians alike will tell you (off record, of course) that they need Jamaat. The BNP need Jamaat because so few of their people would risk their lives and put their bodies on the line for an idea (caretaker government) that Khaleda herself did not favour in 1996.

The Awami League, meanwhile, needs Jamaat because they need a fantasy bad guy to protect people from. They need conflict and martyrs to keep you and your opponents discussing any and all the invented narratives they choose to bicker about to save power from being vested on to the voters.

The question then is what would it take for someone to break the cycle?

What would it take for someone to have both the will and the power (Thaksin needed a lot of muscle) to actually do something? Nobody in Thailand expected that in 2001, when Thailand elected a policeman turned businessman, that anything would change. It did and the road has been tough, the changer in question is and was no saint, but something changed: people realised that voting can actually get you something, sometimes. n

PHOTO STORY

13

SWINEHERD

A nomadic life A PHOTO STORY BY

I

n the traditional Indian caste system, the Dalit caste is considered lowest, untouchable, having the fewest advantages. Socially its members have been considered profane by upper castes.

Approximately 4.5 million Dalit live in Bangladesh.

65 percent are illiterate and very poor. They still make their living within their hereditary professions, of which swineherding is one.

In Bangladesh, swineherds lead an unusual,

MURTADA H BULBUL

gypsy-like existence. Their families live in a particular place while the men go out with their herds to various places for feeding, constantly moving, living in tents of bamboo, plastic, and paper. They usually stay three to four days in a given place, sometimes up to a week, depending on the availability of food for their pigs. n

W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, DE C E MB E R 6, 20 1 3

14

PHOTO STORY SWINEHERD

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, DE C E M B E R 6 , 201 3

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W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, DE C E MB E R 6, 20 1 3

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PHOTO STORY SWINEHERD

Murtada H Bulbul is a freelance photographer with bachelor’s degree from Pathshala.

His subjects are the people who are the victims of social, economic and political discriminations.

‘Swineherd: the salaried gypsy with a domestic mind’ took 2nd place at the Alexia Foundation Student Awards 2010.

Bulbul currently lives in Dhaka.

Murtada can be contacted at bulbul321@gmail. com

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, DE C E M B E R 6 , 201 3

EVERYDAY ECONOMIST

17

WTO Ninth Ministerial Conference

Bali or bust?

This week, the 159 member nations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been meeting in Indonesia to discuss the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.

Phil Humphreys explains why we should all take notice

The origins of international trade

For as long as the human race has been cultivating saleable produce, it has wanted to trade. Among the earliest recognised ‘routes’ that facilitated the mass exchange of goods and cultures were the Silk Roads, established during the 1st century BC as China sought a pathway to India and the Western world. The Romans, also, traded spices, perfumes, and silk along the corridor.

Inevitably, the steady expansion of global trade over the next two millennia was met with the raising of armies, the escalation of conflicts, and the need for negotiated agreements to protect national or tribal interests.

Trade, therefore, is inextricably linked to inter- and trans-national relations, and was freer across the Western world by the beginning of the 19th century than it was in Europe in 1970. But then came the destruction of the Great War followed by the earthquake of the Great Depression, causing a protectionist wave to wash over the world economy.

Establishing common rules

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, as the defeated Axis nations were agreeing war reparations under the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, another deal was emerging to better regulate global trade and to help improve international co-operation.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) refereed the rules of commerce until it was consumed by the formation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on January 1, 1995.

The WTO was founded and exists by negotiation; the organisation itself admits that in the WTO system, accords are “painstakingly” constructed. This is because WTO rules require deals to be agreed unanimously by the 159 members before they can be sent to national parliaments for ratification.

Developing outnumber developed countries in the WTO by about four to one. With no weighting and each member receiving a single vote, the collective interest of the developing bloc should be proportionately served. However, there is little room for formal voting as the developed nations - led by the so-called ‘Quad’ of the US, EU, Canada and Japan drive forward negotiations to form a consensus behind the scenes. In this way, everything (or nothing) is agreed before the ministers even arrive to shake hands and smile at the annual get together.

The Doha Round

The Bali meeting this week was

Phil Humphreys is a British former journalist who worked as a management adviser to an NGO in Rangpur, before joining the Dhaka Tribune as a consultant

International trade timeline c.100BC Chinese establish the Silk Roads 27BC–476AD Roman Empire 1200 to 1360 Genghis Khan begins Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent billed as the last chance to revive the “Doha Round” of talks, estimated by fledgling WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo to be worth a trillion dollars. Launched at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in the Qatari capital in November 2001, the ‘Doha Development Agenda’ (DDA) set out 20 objectives for global trade liberalisation but talks ground to a halt over deep-seated disagreements on the twin issues of tariffs and subsidies cuts. The original deadline of 1 January 2005 to complete the round proved unrealistic and a revised date of December 2006 was also missed.

Eventually, the Doha talks were put on hold and only now - five ministerial conferences after the DDA was launched - has the negotiating table been re-set.

“We are too close to success to accept failure but it is all or nothing now,” said Azevêdo, the Brazilian who was elected to succeed Pascal Lamy and breathe fresh life into the talks in May. He warned ministers through a Wall Street Journal article last week that more than just Doha, the whole role of the WTO and the multilateral trading system in global economic governance was at stake in Bali. The reforms under consideration included new rules for streamlining customs procedures by reducing unnecessary paperwork, fees and procedures.

These are only extracts of the overall Doha package, pulled out in the hope that their agreement could then lend momentum for a broader deal to be reached. It was thought

that no member could find fault with the sentiment of the proposals to streamline customs procedures.

But this is the WTO. Nothing is as straightforward as it should be.

The rise of regionalism

The Doha impasse has led many WTO members to shift their focus to bloc deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the US-EU accord, and separate country-to-country arrangements like the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) finally signed by Bangladesh and the US last week, after almost a decade of negotiations.

The legally non-binding contract is intended to promote bilateral trade while cautioning against protectionist policies. Bangladesh already has such accords with 42 countries, and negotiations are ongoing with eight others. The US, meanwhile, has contracts with over 90 countries.

Bilateral trade deals are nothing new. As a reaction to the colonialist spirit of mercantilism which prevailed in 17th and 18th century Europe, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty was signed in 1860 to reduce French import duties on British goods to a maximum of 25%, in exchange for free entry of all French products into Britain, except wine. This taxing of the grape went against the grain of the liberal ideals advanced by the English economist Adam Smith in his seminal 1776 book, “The Wealth of Nations”. Smith advocated the removal of trade restrictions and the specialisation by each country in

whatever they were best resourced to make. In France, this means wine.

In densely-populated Bangladesh, it translates to labour-intensive industries like readymade garments.

After signing the Ticfa agreement, Dhaka and Washington were due to revisit the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which the US suspended for Bangladesh in June over the issue of workers’ rights following the outcry over the Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion factory tragedies.

The US Congress created the GSP programme in the Trade Act of 1974 to help 127 developing countries expand their economies by allowing certain goods to be imported duty-free. Of course, by throwing open it ports, the US has done nothing to adversely impact on its own manufacturing sector; it still exports more than any other country in the world.

Roberto Azevêdo wants to see all such transactions regulated by a common framework under the WTO, rather than presiding over a slide towards regionalism and the protectionist policies of self-interest.

The fear if significant progress has not been made at Bali this week, however, is a collective loss of faith in the capacity of the WTO to deliver agreements acceptable to all its 159 members, where national interests are often conflicted. In this respect, the organisation may have become too unwieldy. As membership has snowballed to the point where nothing can move, it has fallen victim to its earlier successes. n

1600s Russians re-establish land trade route between Europe and China as ‘Great Siberian Road’ 1651 English Navigation Act 1776 Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations 1860 Anglo-French Trade Agreement 1890 Mckinley Tariff Act 1914-1918 World War I 1929 Wall Street Crash 1939-1945 World War II January 1, 1948 GATT effective January 1, 1995 WTO effective November, 2001 Doha Development Agenda agreed December 3-6, 2013 Bali hosts WTO’s Ninth Ministerial Conference

W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, DE C E MB E R 6, 20 1 3

18

FEATURE

Nafees Bin Zafar

His own virtual world Faisal Mahmud gets animated over the first Bangladeshi Oscar winner Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis

I

f someone logs on to www.nafees. net, he or she would find it hard to believe that this is the personal website of someone who has won an Academy Award. Yes, Nafees Bin Zafar is a very down-to-earth person, but with a superior mind.

“I can read and write code. That about sums it up,” says Nafees, who became the first Bangladeshi to win an Oscar when he was presented with the Scientific and Technical Academy Award in 2008.

Nafees is a master of programming language. His specialty lies in computer graphics and he is currently working as a principle engineer in the

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, DE C E M B E R 6 , 201 3 Nafees at IUB

world famous Dreamworks Animation studio.

“The place where I work has a condition that every new movie from our production house should give its viewers something new. It’s the world of animation and here we - the engineers - are the creators. So yes, I have the liberty to create a threeeyed cute monster,” Nafees told the Weekend Tribune at the sidelines of a seminar organised by the department of computer science and technology at the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB).

“But that’s not the ‘new thing’ that our production house wants. Rather,

it wants software with which you can create believable animation creatures with realistic body movements. I love writing that software,” he said.

The first Bangladeshi Oscar Winner

Nafees won his Oscar for creating the digital fluid simulation technique in the blockbuster movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean, At World’s End’.

“Simulating the physics of water has always been tricky, and the software sometimes has to use dodgy mechanics to make it feel real. That movie has lots of water bodies and I had to make those real with all the

natural effects and reflections. I just did that,” said Nafees at the seminar in IUB which he titled ‘Animation 101’.

“For Pirates of the Caribbean me and my two other colleagues Doug Roble and Ryo Sakaguchi worked on simulating the digital environment for having fluid effect like that we have in the real ocean. One of the big effects in the movie was that famous ‘end of the world waterfall’ scene.

Computationally that was a real challenge,” he said.

Nafees said the director of the movie also wanted to have a waterfall effect which cannot be possible in the real world, but which would look

Kakoli Prodhan

19

About the man n

n

n

Nafees Bin Zafar was born in 1977 in Dhaka. He is the only child of Zafar Bin Bashar and Nafisa. They left Bangladesh in 1989 to go to Charleston, South Carolina, and are currently inhabitants of Long Island Nafees graduated from college in Charleston in software engineering His credits includes blockbusters like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean, At World’s End’ and ‘How to train your Dragon’ Wikimedia

aesthetically good. “Creating that extra thing is very empowering and fun. Like for example, different parts of that ocean in the movie have different gravity. You can’t really do that in the real world, but we can and that’s why we do things virtually,” he said.

Before creating things with computers, the movie production house needed to build real models.

“When you create a model, like a real model of a waterfall, you need to pour hundreds of gallons of water in it to make it a real waterfall in the camera. This has many problems. First, water on a small scale doesn’t look the same as water on a big scale. So the model can never look like the real deal. Secondly, you need to spend a lot of money and manpower to create that model and you need to dispose that amount of water. This is a huge production nightmare,” said Nafees.

That is where Nafees got his motivation to create fake water so that the production house does not have to work with real water. “The very first fluid effect I worked on was in the movie Peter Pan. It was in 2003. There was a scene where a giant alligator goes down into a river. I created that alligator, the river and the splash effect of that alligator going down to the water. It saved our production house the hassle of training an alligator to do so in a life-size model,” he said.

Working in the big world of Hollywood

Nafees started on Hollywood movies in 2000 after graduating in computer science and engineering from Charleston School of Engineering in South Carolina. He first started working for a company called Digital Domain, a live action studio.

“Back in the day it used to be live action. Previously when you want to do something in the movie, you have to create the model of it. And then you just need to add a little computer graphics in it”, he said.

“But that situation has radically changed in the last few years. Now practically anything can be done and

created with computer graphics. We, the engineers are constantly designing and writing new software to make things possible in the virtual world,” he said.

Nafees said computer graphics is all about mathematics. “With sets of equation you can create anything in the virtual world. These equations might look dry but with the right hand and an able mind, the equations can do wonders,” he said.

He said the best thing about computer-generated simulation is that one can work in intricate detail just by working on a computer. “We model things down. Because you can’t really know where the camera will roll, so we just build everything in the virtual world, so that nothing is being missed out,” he said.

Giving the example of the blockbuster animation film ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, Nafees said there is just one line in the script when Hiccup (a character in the movie) is riding on a dragon.

“That’s just a line in the movie.

But we had to translate that simple line onto the screen with details. Like what does he (hiccup) ride over? Some water, we got to have it. What’s in the background? Some rocks, we got to

“Making movies is all about bringing together the most artistic of skills with a tremendous amount of innovation. So at the very first phase you need to have a story. Then computer graphics come in.” have them as well. These kind of things we need to fill in between a simple script and what you get in the final picture,” he said.

“When you are making cartoons, you have to have believable elements in your movie. It has to be filled out.

The world cannot stay empty. Consider a simple kitchen in an animation film; it must have simple everyday things like bowls, a sack of potatoes and so on. Those things are very realistic in context. And we create all those things as realistic as possible by writing codes,” said Nafees.

His specialties…

Nafees said that his specialties lie in writing software that has realistic fluid effects. “For creating water or fire effect you have to use computational fluid dynamics. In virtual world, if you want something on fire, you just need to develop the maths for creating the fire. These are the equations developed

in 1940, known as ‘Stokes equation’.

This is a beautiful tool to work on producing a complex effect,” he said.

“But now I am focusing more on computational projects which can be called ‘digital mayhem’. That is breaking or destroying things virtually,” he said.

Nafees said different things break apart in different fashions. Talking about his working experience in the movie 2012, Nafees said the script had a line: ‘Then California sinks into the ocean’. “The director told the engineers that he wanted that scene to be the most amazing ever. He instructed us to create a five-minute scene, all with the use of computer graphics. We took up the challenge,” he said.

Referring to the 1998 movie ‘Dante’s Peak’, Nafees said a small town was devoured by a volcano and that was a mayhem scene which the director had to create by building models. That was really expensive and dangerous for the stuntman.

“But in 2012, a larger mayhem scene is created successfully, all with the help of computer graphics,” he said.

Nafees said that he has written his own software called ‘Drop’ to break and destroy massive structures virtually. “I am working to add new elements to this software.”

He said working with computer graphics is not all about writing software with the use of mathematics.

Movie business is not that simple. He said without having an aesthetic sense you cannot translate a simple line in the scripts to something amazing on the screen.

“It’s all about the final image where life interacts with materials. That’s where the artistic sense comes, that’s where lifeless equation materialises into something believable, something real.” n

W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, DE C E MB E R 6, 20 1 3

20 Jennifer Ashraf is a barrister and solicitor of England and Wales. She is currently Senior Partner at Legacy Legal Corporate.

When she is not solving complicated legal problems, Jennifer is usually found travelling to exotic locations sampling the indigenous cuisine

LEGAL EAGLE 1

I am an important government official.

Recently, after an interview with a leading daily, I found out that I have been seriously misquoted by a newspaper and have earned the ire of my colleagues and supervisor. I called up the editor of the newspaper, but they are sticking to their report. I don’t have any “proof” to back up my claim, but I want to take some kind of legal action against the paper. What can I do?

Got a problem?

Write to Jennifer at weekend@ dhakatribune.com

Jennifer Ashraf Dear Reader In the current political climate, this is not unusual and probably the worst thing that can happen to someone in your position. Since the practical solution did not work out, it’s time for you to explore your legal options.

You have a legal cause of action against the newspaper under tort for “defamation” or, to be more specific, “libel.” What is defamation and libel you ask? The Penal Code describes defamation as an “imputation” about a person or a person’s character which is intended, or is believed, to cause harm to the person regarding whom

the statement or imputation is being made. In printed or published (i.e. permanent) form, which is the case here, this amounts to libel. The onus of responsibility on your part here is to prove that you were indeed misquoted, and this has affected and harmed your reputation with your colleagues and supervisor, as mentioned above.

To establish libel, three main principles will have to be satisfied: the fact that the quotation was false, the fact that it exists in permanent (published) form and that it was defamatory and has consequently caused you harm. All three seem to be ticked off here and it therefore appears

Rio Shuvo/Dhaka Tribune

My kid went to a fast food store yesterday and was handed a very hot cup of coffee in a paper cup.

Needless to say, he was badly burnt. Can I take some sort of legal action against the restaurant? All I got was a sorry from them! Surely they must have some liability here!

2

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, DE C E M B E R 6 , 201 3

Dear Reader, Your dilemma reminds me of the first intriguing case I came across, when I first started studying law: the milestone case of Donoghue v Stevenson. I’m going to recount it, briefly, as it strongly relates to your situation. As history goes, sometime in the year 1928, Mrs Donoghue was happily enjoying a bottled drink with her friend, when she discovered the remains of a decomposed snail within

the bottle (food for thought: next time check bottled drinks thoroughly before consuming). Needless to say, Mrs Donoghue proceeded to sue Stevenson, the manufacturer of the drink. The court, unsurprisingly, found in her favour and stated that the manufacturer owed the consumer a “duty of care,” thereby establishing the famous “neighbour principle.”

So how does the case of Donoghue and Stevenson, close to a century ago, affect you and your son in these

that you have a good claim. However, your claim will not succeed if the newspaper manages to successfully prove that the quote printed was fair and accurate, or that they had your consent to quote you thus, or that it was done in good faith or for the public good. It appears from your dilemma that good faith and public good will not apply here. Since the newspaper is sticking to their report and you don’t have any proof of being misquoted, the next step is to ask the newspaper to prove that they have not misquoted you. Memories can be tricky and it always helps to verify your position before heading into a legal battle. n

modern times? In this instance, the fast food store replaces Stevenson, the drink manufacturer. The fast food store owes a duty of care to those who enter its premises. A duty of care is a legal obligation requiring a particular standard of conduct. Ensuring that food is served in the proper manner to avoid possible injury to the customer falls within this particular standard.

You stated that your son burnt himself because of hot coffee, but you were evasive about how and why. Was it because the coffee leaking through the paper cup? Or because the server at the restaurant was careless and spilled the coffee while handing your son the cup? Regardless of either reason, you will have a cause of action against the restaurant for breach of their duty of care obligations and negligence.

However, what you can achieve following your pursuance of a legal claim is another segment. This scenario falls under the law of tort, which aims to restore the victim to his or her former condition. Here the court will need to know exactly how badly your son was burnt, how badly/ permanently it will affect him for the rest of his life and how much his medical expenses amount to. If successful, you will be able to reclaim the medical expenses you have already incurred and any future estimation of medical expenses (to a reasonable standard). However, I advise you to reconsider carefully in this regard before launching into a legal battle against the restaurant, as it is likely that your legal costs will easily exceed your damages from the restaurant, if the injury suffered is not considered to be very serious by the Court. n

CRIME FILE

21

Murder in the household

Who killed the housemaid?

Adil Sakhawat and Mohammad Jamil Khan investigate a suspicious death in Shewrapara

Crime timeline

Profile

Rita Begum was from Khalpara village, Dharmapasa upazilla, Sunamganj district. She got divorced two years back. She had a child who was under her relatives’ care. She got employed in the house of the additional superintendent of police (ASP) four months ago. Her father Abul Hossain died before her birth and her mother Sajeda Akhter left her when she was still a child, at which point she was under the care of her only maternal aunt, Putul.

Witness “I was working in the under construction building beside the crime scene. After seeing a woman fall from that building, I just came down and gathered people to help her, but she had already died.”

Akkas Uddin, a construction worker “The officer’s wife tortured her from time to time. I want justice. The police should arrest the officer’s wife. Rita sometimes told me how much her employer tortured her verbally and physically.”

Hosna Begum, a housemaid

Lead investigator

S

umi Akter Rita, 20, worked as a housemaid in the house of an additional superintended of police (ASP) located at 911/1 of East Shewrapara. She was allegedly pushed off the rooftop of the eight-storey building by her employer, Sonia Akter Munni (26) on November 18. She died instantly. After the incident, the police collected the body of the victim from the road but no blood stains were found on the street at that time. After the police reached the spot, the local people staged a protest and demanded the arrest of the employer of the victim.

Chanchal Kamal

First police on site

“It took the police a long time to get hold of the body and pick up the alleged killer, because a protest had broken out after Rita’s body was found. Hundreds of outraged housemaids and local residents staged a demonstration for around five hours in the area during which they fought with the police and vandalised a police van. The police had to use several rounds of tear gas canisters to tame the angry mob. The situation came under control after police picked up Munni and assured the crowd that she would be brought to justice.”

“We are waiting for the victim’s family members to file a case. If they delay, then the police will file a case on their behalf based on the autopsy report.

The investigation is ongoing and if anyone is found guilty, then actions will be taken against them.”

Kamal Hossain, assistant commissioner of police, Pallabi division “We have yet to get the autopsy report in hand. After we get it, we will take further action. We have arrested Munni as a suspect and will send her to court under Section 54 of Criminal Procedure Act.” Kazi Wazed Ali, officer in- charge, Kafrul police station

“There were injury marks on different parts of her body.”

“It is quite impossible to push a woman off the rooftop in broad daylight, so we are unsure how the incident happened around 8:00am on that day. However, we found some blood stains inside flat number D7.”

A sub-inspector, Kafrul police station, requesting anonymity

An official, Kafrul police station, requesting anonymity

Kazi Wazed Ali, officer in- charge, Kafrul police station

Adil Sakhawat and Mohammad Jamil Khan report on crime for Dhaka Tribune. Any information can be sent to weekend@ dhakatribune.com

Forensics team “We have already submitted the forensics report to the investigation agency. But I cannot disclose anything now because the investigation is ongoing.”

Dr Kamrul Hassan, assistant professor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital

Prime suspect “Rita committed suicide by jumping through the ventilator of a toilet in my house on the top floor of the eight-storey building. Rita copied another domestic staff member who recently committed suicide in a similar manner at a nearby building. Rita told me several times in the past that she wanted to kill herself. I have never tortured or misbehaved with Rita.”

Sonia Akter Munni, victim’s employer

Victim’s family “Rita grew up under my supervision.

Since we are poor, I helped her to find work as a housemaid at different houses, but she always left within three or four days. I finally placed her at Munni’s house. Before the incident, I talked with Rita and she told me that she was very happy there and would come to our village in December, but she did not keep her word. We don’t want to lodge any case since Rita was so far away from me, and I worried that if I filed a case, what if she never came back? We are very poor indeed and we would not want to get involved in any kind of cases.”

Putul, Rita’s maternal aunt n

July

Rita gets employed at the house of the ASP

November 18

8am Rita is allegedly pushed from the eighth floor of the building 8:30am The police reach the spot 8:45am Local people stage protests against the employer and demand her arrest 9:30am Locals obstruct police attempts to take the body 12pm Locals fight with police and vandalise a police van 12:30pm Police hurl tear gas to control the angry mob 1:30pm The police arrest Munni and take the body 8pm The police send the body to DMCH for autopsy

November 19

11am The police send the arrestee to the court and she is then sentenced to jail

November 20

The Forensics Department of DMCH forms a threeperson committee to conduct the autopsy

November 24

Victim’s aunt collects the body from DMCH

November 25

Rita is buried in Pagla, Sunamganj

December 2

The Forensics committee sends the autopsy report to the police

W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, DE C E MB E R 6, 20 1 3

22 Dina Sobhan is a freelance writer and cautions readers not to take her “advice” here too seriously!

Got a problem? Write to Dina at weekend@ dhakatribune.com

TOUGH LOVE 1

My child has special needs, and so constantly gets bullied at school. As a parent, I feel helpless. One day, one of the bullies started teasing my kid right in front of me, and I slapped him, hard. Imagine my surprise when I got called to the principal’s office to be strongly rebuked. And to top it off, my kid got suspended for a week! Surely I did the right thing, didn’t I? What should I do now?

DINA SOBHAN There is such a thing as decorum. As such, one might feel like doing a great number of things, many of which would be not only be justified but heartily cheered. However, we are not permitted to do them for a number of reasons: legality, impropriety, sanitary, etc. As a parent with a particularly vulnerable child such as yours, you would naturally feel compelled to protect and defend him when necessary, but you cannot go around hitting children, especially other

peoples’ children. Imagine if an adult hit your child; you would understandably be much more enraged than you were when watching him getting bullied by a peer. In Bangladesh, your actions merely led to being rebuked by the principal.

In other nations, it would have resulted in a lawsuit. While it might seem harsh for your son to have been punished, the school has to demonstrate to the other students and parents that this sort of behaviour is neither acceptable nor

condoned. But more to the point, your son should be in a special needs school where he will be surrounded by children like him, and will be better understood and appreciated. As long as he is in a ‘regular’ school, he will encounter bullying and taunting from children, who can be very cruel to those that are different. Seeing as you might have future impulse control issues, I suggest you get started on this immediately. n

2

I am a huge Star Trek fan and I have saved up enough to attend a Star Trek convention being held in San Francisco. The problem is I’ll have to lie both to my wife and my boss about this trip. There is no way they’ll understand why I would “waste” my time and resources on something like this. But I hate lying to those close to me.

Should I just tell them the truth about my passion and face the consequences?

Your boss does not need to know, nor is it relevant that he does. If you have leave coming, you’re entitled to take it when you choose and do whatever you wish during that time, even if it seems like a “waste of time and resources.” It will be little difficult to win over your wife, however, but I imagine she will accept it if you are passionate enough to sell it convincingly. Either way, you can hardly go to San Francisco and leave her at home. A lie of that magnitude would be found out eventually. And chances are she’ll think you’re having an affair or something ten times worse than the truth. Take her with you to the convention and, if you’re really lucky, maybe she’ll convert into a Trekkie herself. On a sidenote, you need to be more open about your oddities and eccentricities; learn to embrace them.

Living with a secret of this calibre is akin to living in the closet. Yes, people will judge you and think you’re weird, but so what? You have enough friends - about 40 million of them, according to Wikipedia. n

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

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23

WT LEISURE

Across 1 4 6 7

Pine fruit hoax in sack (7) Orange County pouts about sea creature (7) Hormone makes Luis crazy in hotel (7) Send in beer, one of twelve (7)

Down 1 2 3 5

State has LA fiord relocated (7) South African hill climbing tables (5) Church supports chaotic sense of being (7) Navigate up to edge (5)

Solution and clues for last week’s crossword

Across 1 4 6 7

Squirm uncomfortably about a blue blood (7) Milk product spoiled after endless tantric exercise (7) Keys, to begin with (7) Probe unravels Northern Ireland query (7)

Down 1 Local election perhaps? Something to make a song and dance about (7) 2 Villain lament surrounding own goal (5) 3 Stays if moved around to please (7) 5 Female organs, but Eric has them too (5)

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24

INTERVIEW

Mushtaque RW Chowdhury

Seeking health transition in Bangladesh The WT is proud to reprint this interview by Richard Lane, originally published in The Lancet

BIOBOX

2009 Associate Director, the Rockefeller Foundation.

2004 Dean of BRAC University’s James P Grant School of Public Health in Bangladesh.

Director of the recently established Centre for Health Systems Studies (CheSS) at the BRAC School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2002 Visiting Professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University in New York.

2000 Deputy Executive Director of BRAC. 1989 Short Course in Medical Anthropology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. 1986 PhD, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. (Thesis theme: Evaluation of a large nation-wide health education programme).

1977 Founding Director of BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division (RED).

1979 MSc in Demography, London School of Economics and Political Science.

1976 BA Hons in Statistics, university of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Lancet is one of the most prestigious and oldest medical journals in the world.

It has recently printed an interview on Mr. A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury, Vice Chairperson of BRAC on their website. It is a rare achievement for a Bangladeshi national to be profiled by The Lancet like this and this achievement only highlights Chowdhury’s contribution in the public health sector of Bangladesh.

Mushtaque R Chowdhury, principal author of a Lancet Bangladesh Series paper, is only too aware of how far his country has come since its creation amid the horror of a bloody civil war 42 years ago. “Overall, there has been a shift from the priority of managing infectious diseases to where we are now, and a focus on public health programmes to mitigate the effects of natural disasters and the burgeoning of non-communicable diseases, especially in the country’s urban areas,” he says.

Chowdhury talks earnestly of the need to overhaul Bangladesh’s health system as a key first step in reducing inequality in the provision of health services. “The sad reality in my country is the iniquitous health system,” he says. “The quality of both public and private health services is often poor.

It is not uncommon to hear accounts of people being given inappropriate treatment, such as antibiotics for diarrhoea, at great financial cost to the patient.”

The “call to action” in this Lancet Series proposes that universal health coverage (UHC) should be the ultimate goal for Bangladesh.

Chowdhury is convinced that this is the way forward for his country. “It took Thailand 28 years, but the results have been extraordinary, and are a model for other countries in Asia.

Though it will take a long time for Bangladesh to get there, it is essential that the government acts decisively to get the path to UHC underway,” he urges. An important step on this path, Chowdhury believes, is the need for the government to separate purchaser from provider function in Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health. “At the moment both functions are in one office, and what the health system needs is a separate purchasing body to create the necessary accountability.

The National Health Security Office

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is being proposed to fund and insure a future health system in a way that can one day lead the country towards UHC,” he says.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a huge part in delivering health services in Bangladesh, chief among them the largest, BRAC (formerly called the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), of which Chowdhury is currently both NonExecutive Vice-Chair and interim Chief Executive Officer. Created just after independence to provide relief to millions of citizens displaced by the civil war, today BRAC has a central role in providing health, education, and microfinance services to help alleviate poverty. It has a presence in most villages in the country, employs more than 120 000 people, and has trained 105 000 community health workers. “From the health perspective, one of the highlights has been the role of community health workers in the jointly led government—BRAC DOTS

programme for tuberculosis, and in the scale-up of distribution of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) across the country in the past two decades,” he says. Chowdhury adds that “without doubt BRAC will continue to have a role alongside the government on the road to UHC”.

I

n 2004, Chowdhury helped co-found BRAC University’s James P Grant School of Public Health, and as its Dean for 5 years he was instrumental in creating its Masters in Public Health programme. “Students study living conditions in rural homes and the slums of our country’s urban areas, and will therefore make a practical contribution to ongoing public health strategy,” he says.

Outside of Bangladesh, Chowdhury has considerable experience of the wider Asian health context, having previously worked for the Rockefeller Foundation as Senior Adviser in crossborder disease surveillance

projects in the Mekong countries of southeast Asia. And he’s been involved with seminal global health initiatives, notably the UN Millennium Project’s Taskforce for Child and Maternal Health, where, Chowdhury says, “the priority was scaling up, not technical knowledge.” A legacy of his time at the taskforce was to take the work of BRAC into countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He also contributed to the GAVI Alliance “where I hope my knowledge of the need for equity in health helped emphasise equity as a key dimension in global vaccination programmes,” he says.

Born in Kolkata, in West Bengal, India, in 1950, Chowdhury was brought up in Sylhet in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). His first degree from the University of Dhaka was in statistics, followed by postgraduate studies in demography at the London School of Economics in 1979. “Demography was a very relevant area for me to study at that time”, he recalls, “as a main challenge confronting Bangladesh at that time was its population explosion.”

On returning home, he headed up evaluation of BRAC’s nationwide ORT programme, later gained a PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before becoming a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies. In 2004, he became the first Bangladeshi to be offered a professorial position at an Ivy League university, at Columbia University.

But it is the work of BRAC— to alleviate poverty and improve human development—that drives Chowdhury’s future ambitions. “I love to be able to try and improve life for the poorer people of Bangladesh, and, from its international outreach, to people battling poverty in other parts of the world,” he says. “My guiding light has been Sir Fazle Abed, the pioneering founder of BRAC. He gave up a highly lucrative job in the oil industry and devoted his life to BRAC and to the development of the population of Bangladesh. If I can do a fraction of what he did, then hopefully I can help steer Bangladesh to an increasingly healthy future.” n

THE WAY DHAKA WAS

25

Pari Bibir Mazaar Pari Bibir Mazaar, 1948

Bangladesh Old Photo Archive

Today

Chanchal Kamal

My first date was near Pari Bibir Mazaar.

Both my husband and I lived in Lalbagh. We were both students and had little money. We would walk around the Mazaar (even in the mid 80s, no one was allowed to go into the Mazaar itself), nervously glancing at each other, grasping for words, but never really

saying anything. May be Pari Bibi and her husband, the Mughal emperor Muhammad Azam, took long walks together just like we once did? One wonders.

Selina Kamal, Doctor, Lalmatia

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26

CULTURE VULTURE

Bengal Classical Musical Festival 2013

The sound of music

Yusuf Banna revisits the mesmerising evenings of the biggest music fest in the country Yusuf Banna is a staff writer at Weekend Tribune. He would be happier if he could be a poet. He also dreams of being a painter and is envious of those who are

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets Amid fiery blockades, Dhaka’s streets resemble those described by T.S. Eliot in his famous poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Among all the uncertainties and disturbances, the four-day Bengal Classical Music Festival (BCMF), the second of its kind, allowed Dhakaites to let their hair down and relax.

Performers 1st day 6pm-5am

Ayan Sengupta Sitar Vidushi Kaushiki Chakrabarty Vocal Pandit Tejen Majumdar Sarod Pandit Rajan Mishra and Pandit Sajan Mishra Vocal

2nd day 5:30pm-5am

Vidushi Bombay Jayashree Carnatic vocal Pandit Purbayan Chatterjee Sitar Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty Vocal

3rd day 5:30pm-5am

Kumar Mardur Vocal Pandit Uday Bhawalkar Vocal Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri Tabla Vidushi Padma Talwalkar Vocal

4th day 6pm-5am

Tamanna Rahman Manipuri dance Suchisree Ray Vocal Rahul Sharma Santoor Pandit Baha’uddin Dagar Rudra Veena

The acoustic team

In tabla Pandit Samar Saha, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, Pandit Shubhankar Banerjee, Pandit Abhijeet Banerjee, Ashoke Mukherjee, Sanjoy Adhikari, Satyajit Talwalkar, Sandip Ghosh In harmonium Pandit Jyoti Goho, Rupashree Bhattacharya, Gourab Chatterjee In sarangi Allarakha Kalavant, Sarwar Husain In pakhawaj Pandit Bhawani Shankar, Pratap Awad

A magical experience

Held at the Army Stadium from November 28 to December 1, the festival, hosted by the Bengal Foundation, featured the legends of classical music in the Indian subcontinent. The festival set off with a beautiful Kathak number by Vishal Krishna – the Kathak prodigy. Then the festival was formally inaugurated by the much-awaited performance of Vidushi Girija Devi, the living legend of thumri. She started with “Raga Jogkauns” and continued with popular thumri “Aao Piya Morey.” The tabla quartet by Bangladeshi artistes Goutam Sarker, Iftekhar Alam Pradhan, Swarup Hossain and Md Zakir Hossain was beautiful as well. Vidushi Alarmel Valli’s extravagant Bharatnatyam performances, Saket Sahu soothing music on violin, and Bangladeshi artiste Asit Dey’s performance were the highlights of the second night, which ended with a beautiful sitar performance by Ustad Rais Khan.

The third nignt was the peak of the stunning experience. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma played “Raga Jhinjhoti” on santoor, painting the aesthetics of Bengal, and then he played “Raga Mishra Kaushik Dhwani.” Bangladeshi artiste Reenat Fauzia performed “Raga Karnataki.” Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, the wizard of the flute, closed the evening with Raga Lalit and a Bangladeshi kirtan, which earned him a standing ovation. The main focus of the fourth, and last, evening was Ustad Rashid Khan and Begum Parveen Sultana. Ustad Rashid Khan started with “Raga Malkosh” and ended with a comparatively new raga called “Sohini Bahar.” Begum Parveen Sultana performed “Raga Gujri,” and wrapped up the festival with a song from the movie “Kudrat.”

An amazing audience

Despite the ongoing political turmoil, the number of people that turned up was very impressive: 23,000 people

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Titbits

1. The festival was dedicated to Gyantaposh Abdur Razzaq, Pandit Barin Majumdar, Bulbul Chakrabarty and Pandit Ravi Shankar 2. 93,000 people attended 3. 150 Bengal employees worked for three months for the event 4. A memoir of Abdur Razzak was published and unveiled on the first day 5. On the last day, two cocktail blasts were heard outside the stadium

on average attended the event every night, going to show that we as a people do appreciate classical music.

A huge part of the crowd was young; even with limited knowledge about the ragas and gharanas, they seemed enthralled by the hypnotic spell cast by the maestros.

The artistes were very pleased with the audience as well. Vidushi Girija Devi said: “It felt good to be here again.” Vidushi Alarmel Valli also praised the Dhaka audience.

Other attractions

The festival had other attributes, too.

Apart from the massive stage at the centre of the stadium, there were rows of Prothoma and Bengal Foundation bookstalls. A cavalcade of food stalls was there for the audience as well.

There were about eight screens set up in different corners, so that everyone could watch the show. There was a slide show of the history and evolution of different ragas and gharanas at the entrance. The media centre was set beside the stage to coordinate the journalists.

The festival ended with a oneminute silence for the burn victims of the ongoing sporadic clashes. n

Photos: Dhaka Tribune

OBITUARY

27

Frederick Sanger

Just a chap who messed about in a lab

Ibtisam Ahmed is a student of history and politics. He lives in a fantasy and writes about reality

Ibtisam Ahmed remembers the two-time Nobel Prize-winning chemist who genetically restructure the world

I

n its long and often controversial history, the Nobel Prize has rarely been awarded twice to the same recipient. Only four individuals have managed to achieve this rare feat and only two of them have won in the same category. 1958 and 1980 Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Frederick Sanger helped revolutionise his field of expertise over a long and illustrious career before he passed away on November 19 at the age of 95.

Sanger was born on August 1918 in Rendcomb, a small village in England, the second of three children to Frederick Sanger Sr. and Cicely Sanger (nee Crewdson). The family, having recently converted to Quakerism,

led him to become involved in many pacifist causes including the Peace Pledge Union and the Cambridge Scientists’ Anti-War Group. It was his work with the latter organisation that introduced him to his future wife, Joan Howe, whom he married soon after graduating. Sanger’s pacifism was so pronounced, he was granted unconditional exemption from enlisting during the outbreak of World War II. As the War raged on in Europe, many scientific minds in England became focused on producing more effective military means, such as the development of weaponry or the invention of code-breaking machines.

A sequential existence 1918 Born on the 13th of August 1932 Joins the Bryanston School in Dorset, sparking an early interest in Chemistry 1936 Admitted to the University of Cambridge to pursue an undergraduate degree in Natural Science 1940 Graduates, marries and soon after begins his PhD research, being awarded the doctorate three years later.

1955 After working on protein sequencing for the past five years, successfully proves that every protein has a unique sequence.

1958 Awarded his first Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1962 Becomes head of the Protein

moved to Warwickshire in the English Midlands five years later. They were considerably wealthy, allowing them to hire a governess who oversaw the children’s education. Sanger entered formal schooling at the age of nine and, after being moved to the recentlyestablished Bryanston School at the age of 14, he began to pursue an interest in scientific experiments.

Sanger went on to study Natural Sciences at St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge. Both his parents died of cancer during his first two years of undergraduate study, but despite personal hardships, he did well with his studies, excelling in chemistry. His Quaker upbringing

Chemistry division and embarks on a series of experiments to sequence RNA and DNA. 1963 Awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire 1977 Perfects the “Sanger method” of DNA sequencing.

1980 Awarded his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1983 Retires from academic and scientific life.

1986 Becomes a member of the Order of Merit 1993 Inaugurates the Sanger Centre 2007 His journals and research are catalogued and preserved by the British Biochemistry Society as a testament to their importance.

2013 Passes away.

Sanger, however, continued to work at Cambridge’s biochemistry department, determined to avoid becoming involved with the conflict. In the early 1950s, he made his first breakthrough by determining the complete amino acid sequence of the two polypeptide chains of bovine insulin. In doing so, he proved that proteins have a defined chemical composition. He continued in this work and verified that every protein had a unique code, earning him his first Nobel Prize.

In 1962, Sanger moved his offices to the newly-opened Laboratory of Molecular Biology and became head of the protein chemistry division. With his new research team, he began his

attempts to successfully sequence RNA but he was beaten to it by Robert Holley of Cornell University in the USA. Nonetheless, Sanger’s group determined their first RNA sequence in 1967. He then moved on to attempting to sequence DNA, which required a radically different approach. After years of research, he perfected the “Sanger method” for sequencing molecules in 1977, which allowed long chains of DNA to be applied and sequenced rapidly. This breakthrough earned him his second Nobel Prize, which he shared with colleague Walter Gilbert and with Peter Berg (for a different breakthrough).

In 1983, Sanger retired and moved to an idyllic home on the outskirts of Cambridge. In 1992, he consented to the formation of the Sanger Centre (now the Sanger Institute) by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. A year later, he was present at its official inauguration

which then had a staff of less than 50 people. The group would go on to revolutionise the sequencing of the human genome and currently has over 900 members.

Despite his strong religious upbringing, Sanger professed to be agnostic in his later years though he refused to give up on the possibility of spiritual existence entirely. He declined the offer of a knighthood as he considered the honour far too grand for him. Nonetheless, he accepted the Order of Merit in 1986, an elite group that can only have 24 living members at any time. He continued to live the rest of his years with extreme humility, insisting that he was “just a chap who messed about in a lab” and was “academically not brilliant,” before passing away peacefully in Addenbrooke’s Hospital. n

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28 Sabrina Fatma Ahmad is a part-time writer, a full-time editor and a parent to many. She dreams of the good old days ...

LAST WORD Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

The kids aren’t alright Parenting is hard, but in Bangladesh, it is downright lamentable

I

f you’ve lived in Dhaka for even a couple of years, you’re bound to have encountered one or more of the following scenarios.

Scene 1

Midweek, and as you clock out from work, you get the munchies for something salty and cholesterol-rich, so you head to the nearest FC place for a quick bite. No sooner do you enter, than you are confronted by a gaggle of screaming, overweight children running amok, red faces and bare feet, followed by at least one harassedlooking maid, not much older than the kids she is minding. You wonder where the parents of these little beasts are, but it’s hard to pin-point, as the tables are taken up by adults determined to avoid eye-contact because for the blessed hour or so that they are at this FC place, they can hang up their parent hats and relax.

Scene 2:

Overheard conversation mothers of young kids

between

Bhabi 1: Oh Bhabiiii….my little Puttush is sooo smart! She’s memorised the lyrics of all the latest Bollywood ‘item numbers’! She can do the whole Ishq Kameena dance! And she’s only seven!

She’s totally addicted to these movies.

Bhabi 2: My Gollu Mollu too! He’s only

Our kids are fatter, lazier and dumber than ever before; let’s not pull punches here two, but he can already operate my iPad and his Baba’s iPhone. Even I don’t know how to do all those app-tapp type things! I’m going to have to get him his own tablet soon.

Scene 3

You’re at a typical large Bangladeshi wedding. The hall is full of people, the

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bride and groom on the stage, beset by photographers. Steaming plates of biriyani are being transported to the various tables as the guests in all their finery make small talk.

At some point, the parents of the bridal couple announce that it’s time for the munazat. A hush falls over the venue, as heads are bowed in prayer.

As if on cue, the silence is shattered by the ear-splitting shrieks of someone’s toddler. Deadly glares pierce the embarrassed childminder who tries everything from jiggling the kid in her arms to pleading for quiet in a pained whisper. All this does is encourage the child to scream even louder. Adele herself could probably not achieve this kind of lungpower as the wailer, redfaced from effort, throws everything into a screaming crescendo. The other guests fidget irritably through the prayer, concentration blown to kingdom come.

There are more, but you probably get an idea. There’s something seriously wrong with our children.

Over the last few decades, the parks and playgrounds in Dhaka have disappeared, as have bookstores, all replaced by shiny malls and fast-food joints. Games of cricket in the alleyway between neighbours have been replaced with tabs and smartphone apps, home-cooked meals with fried chicken, pizza and cola, and books with their 3D movie adaptations.

We’re forcing artery-clogging, sodium rich and sugary poison into their systems, even as we starve them of much-needed nutrients. We’ve replaced real sports and games with video games, bed-time stories with Bollywood. Instead of study-time with parents, they get bounced around from tutor to tutor, before coming home, too exhausted to think. We’ve crippled their imaginations with apps and toys that do all their thinking for them. We’ve replaced quality family time with stuff, human interactions with social networking (yes, kids as young as 11 are seen to have Facebook accounts). Somewhere along the line, we’ve horribly failed our children.

Yes, maybe this is a generalisation, and yes, even if it was not, it’s true that parenting is not an easy job, particularly in urban Bangladesh today, which demands more women in the workplace but doesn’t give working mothers the necessary support system, and doesn’t even have a blueprint to consider the father’s role in all of this. This is precisely why we need to rethink this South Asian obsession with babies.

Pretty much every young person,

A lot has been said about our society, which, even today, maintains that a person’s biggest goal in life is to settle down and start a family man or woman, is groomed with the intention of ultimately maintaining a family, be it learning domestic skills to please the hubby and feed the kids, or getting a fancy degree and landing a well-paying job to snag a pretty bride. Even before the ink dries on the marriage certificate, ‘well meaning’ relatives start coming out of the woodwork, asking when the stork will come knocking on the door.

Here’s one thing very few of us stop to consider: not everyone is cut out to be a parent. Parenting is a lifetime commitment, comprising serious responsibilities and enormous sacrifices. Not everyone has the temperament, emotional maturity or even financial stability to manage such an undertaking. There are challenges enough living life in this country, keeping oneself on track, without bringing another life into the equation.

Kudos to all those parents, and there are still plenty, who rise against the odds, and make the sacrifices in order to get it right. The truth remains, though, that there are plenty more who are completely clueless, and the ones that pay the price are the kids. n