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There is very, very good news for the non-ballottee aspirant Hajis this year. The government has instructed the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation to hire ships for the 50,000 pilgrims to Mecca. Hajj pilgrims in the last twenty years were being systematically made lazy in the name of modernity, by availing air travel which was faster and more convenient for the prominently aged travellers. This year they may be seasick but they can travel at half the cost and experience the thrill of voyaging the oceans for weeks. The media being the killjoy they are consider this step as the government’s failure to arrange air transportation and the virtual decimation of the national flag carrier Biman through blatant corruption of its management. But we the citizens know a good thing when we see one. The ruling four party alliance, with a major Islamic party sharing power within it, is, in its benign and religious way, reintroducing us to the authentic experience our forefather pilgrims had when they sailed from Bombay, with the fear of death and the name of God on their lips. If things continue as they are, eventually the government will be able to provide us with the absolute authentic pilgrimage, as it existed in the time of the Prophet. Then our pilgrims can take a land route and cross through Afghanistan on camelback, a truly Arabian mode of transportation.
   The absolutely hostile press informs us that the minister for religious affairs was not aware of the government’s policy to rent ships. It is reported no official summary was sent from the religious affairs ministry. The shipping ministry has taken the initiative. The ever fault finding media must have been under the presumption that a pilgrimage is only a religious affair; therefore it should be the business of the ministry concerned. Due to their partisan approach the media fail to understand the commercial perspective. Therefore, who better to deal with the issue than our shipping minister? Have the media forgotten how our national pride was salvaged on nautical matters vis-à-vis the Danish propaganda? I wonder when our media will learn not to be ignorant!
   Talking about ignorance, the authorities must be congratulated for the impeccable management and pro-people sensitivity they are demonstrating to host the forthcoming SAARC summit. The citizens of Dhaka, 15 million strong, are the most irresponsible, ignorant lot that may exist on the planet. Defecating on the footpaths of Dhaka (insufficient public lavatories is no excuse), aimlessly loitering in the streets, riding rickshaws when sensible people ride cars preferably with riders, and making an absolute nuisance of themselves as if they owned the country, warranted stern measures to restrict their movement during the august presence of visiting kings, presidents and prime ministers in our painstakingly face-lifted capital of Bangladesh. The prime ministers, presidents and especially the king would be delighted to see the measure of discipline demonstrated in arranging the summit. The king might even import some of the technical know-how for the benefit of his people. The media, irrepressible as they are, inform us that some people are complaining about the strict measures as an infringement of their democratic rights and Dhaka may resemble a ghost town. Let the media be reminded that they are jealous at the cleanliness that Dhaka has achieved and be assured that it will again be as dirty as it always is for their satisfaction, once the honourable guests leave. As for democratic rights, let the media and the people who believe in the media, be informed that the people of this country have given the party in power an unprecedented majority, and the majority will is being expressed by whatever the government does. Is not this democracy in action? To publish a picture of a waiting family on the curbs of the national highway, a family denied the right to enter the premises of a public airport to greet a foreign wage-earning family member and to imply that this summit is being hosted by the money earned by the unfortunate member, whose family is being severely inconvenienced is journalistic irresponsibility – a media trick that a wise, democratically elected government prudently has always ignored and will continue ignoring.
   The authorities inform us that around 30,000 security personnel and a few dogs will be on duty in Dhaka. This heightened security implies that additional law and order preserving manpower must have been drawn from other areas of the country. Naturally no country keeps so much additional manpower in reserve and out of active duty. So what happens to the law and order preservation of localities other than Dhaka? Well, there is good news also on this front. A recent news report published in a prominent Bangla daily informs us that a dacoit named Hukku was apprehended with a bullet wound, while he was robbing a house. The dacoit was admitted to a hospital. Seven of his accomplices, who had previously managed to elude the police, made a courtesy visit to the hospital and in the process were arrested. With dacoits with this level of intelligence operating, we can safely assume that the rest of the country will be fine despite the lack of security personnel in the vicinity. Who knows? The law and order situation might even improve! Well, this is Bangladesh and anything is possible. You find the entire Hajj aspiring community in a limbo due to the paucity of airplanes, while the minister for civil aviation enjoys a chartered ride on the national carrier for his own minor Hajj. To consider the people of Bangladesh fools is a prerogative of our ruling party; to treat God also as a fool is utter shamelessness. And, as my mother always warned, never ever cross swords with anyone devoid of shame. You never know how low they can stoop to preserve their self-interest.
   Twenty-seven years ago, I came from a small university town to study at the premier university of the country. I got an education, a job, married, started a family and gradually settled down, and like millions of others like me, started calling Dhaka home. I belonged to Dhaka and Dhaka belonged to me. On the eve of this SAARC summit, I find my freedom curtailed, my right of movement unnecessarily restricted. I feel insulted and I have doubts whether I belong in Dhaka or Dhaka belongs to me.

Watching the French riots with a mixture of trepidation and schadenfreude, Europe’s rulers have arrived at two conclusions. One is that the violence is a peculiarly French affair, the product of colour blind republicanism and bungling by an out-of-touch elite. The other is it will not happen here. Both conclusions are questionable.
   ‘The conditions in France are different from the ones we have here - we don’t have giant apartment blocks,’ said Germany’s foreign affairs adviser Wolfgang Schäuble. Appearing to blame French police tactics, Tony Blair said Britain was different, too. When opposition leader Romano Prodi suggested Italy could be next, he was accused of being alarmist.
   But problems of discrimination, youth unemployment - half of the detained French rioters are under 18 - racial prejudice, religious intolerance, and xenophobia induced by fear of terrorism and globalisation are entrenched in most European countries, said Aurore Wanlin of the Centre for European Reform. And they have potential to cause more explosions.
   ‘There is a debate in every society about how to integrate minorities and migrants, especially unskilled workers at times of economic difficulty,’ Ms Wanlin said. ‘But they don’t agree what to do so this debate is usually very quiet. There is a lack of visibility about the problem - until there’s a crunch like in France and suddenly it cannot be avoided. So you cannot say it will not happen somewhere else. It will, although probably in a different form.’
   Undercurrents of antipathy are discernible across Europe. The Netherlands was traumatised by last November’s murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh. The killing crystallised fears about international terrorism and national identity in a country where 20% of the population is of foreign descent. It also led to attacks on mosques.
   Like the Nordic countries, Germany prides itself on its integrationist approach to its 2.5 million-strong Turkish minority. But joblessness in immigrant communities is double the national average and youth unemployment affects one in three. Tensions were also apparent during a spate of ‘honour killings’ that shocked Berlin earlier this year.
   Spain, with one million Muslims, is struggling to repel illegal migrants from North Africa, a problem also faced by Italy. After what he termed ‘the recent tragic events at Spain’s borders with Morocco’, José Luis Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, bravely proposed a ‘Euro-African ministerial conference on immigration’. At least Mr Zapatero is trying to build bridges. Marcello Pera, speaker of the Italian senate and devout Catholic, complained about ‘mongrel’ Europe. It is not a big jump from there to the incendiary comments of France’s Nicolas Sarkozy about ‘riff-raff’.
   Europe’s failure to agree on how to deal with its principal minorities, or even how to address them, extends to the EU itself, Ms Wanlin said. ‘The EC has been trying to develop guidelines on integration but the issues are so sensitive that it has been difficult to find common ground.’
   And while Europe’s governments fumble, the rise of far-right political parties represented another trend that could trigger trouble, she said. ‘The advance of the extreme right is an expression of a degree of racism in Europe but more deeply ... social malaise - fear of anything foreign.’
   We print this article courtesy The Guardian

While men and women strive for a better life under intense competition in society, the chore war rages at home. Working couples point the finger at each other when it comes to doing the housework. The garbage waits to be given out, the clutter has to be got rid of and who is to do the laundry? The husband works for an airlines and often ends up with night duties. The wife, a banker, comes home in the evening. Back from office, the husband and the wife both are too tired to do the pending housework. Fuel seems to be added to the fire when it comes to the question of cooking. Most important of all, who is to help the children with the homework?
   An individual should thank his or her stars when he or she has an equitable partner. Working couples who have managed to balance office and home and can do the house chores peacefully, each managing his or her chalked out routine, can be labelled as ‘super couples’. However, here the warning bell rings. When it comes to balancing home and office and doing well at both, there are only few couples who face no problems when it comes to the gender gap with housework.
   Shafiq and his wife Mina work for a multinational company. They have a beautiful house in the heart of the capital and have two lovely children. Life seems to be just perfect for them till they return home in the evening. Cooking, cleaning and parenting, all seem to loom ahead, insurmountable and challenging. They have failed to find any trustworthy servants either. Exhausted after the day’s office loads, they drag through the evening chores. The wife may be the paragon of domestic competence, but how much can she handle alone? The husband must share the household chores. The wrangling starts here and the peace and happiness of the home seem to evaporate. Weekends come with pending things to be done. There is much to do and too little time at hand and here again there come the arguments about the housework.
   Studies show that couples find it easier to maintain a neat home before having children. But the bickering starts after the kids enter the household. With kids at home it also means more clutter to clear, loads of laundry to attend to and more meals to be prepared. It is often the mom who bears most of the burden. Even if there are servants, it is the mom who is in overall charge to see that things do get done. Housework gender gap is the common cause of friction among couples today. Most of couples say that they resent having to do more than their partner.
   Although men have stepped into the home scene and are extending their hands with housework, studies show that women spend twice as much time as working men on household chores. Troubles start when this gender gap is not confined to a few words of reproach or some hard feelings. At times things get worse and couples fall apart with the stress of managing the home and the office. Various factors are held responsible for men not doing as much as expected at home. Cultural expectation for the role of working men at home often is the silent factor that keeps men at arm’s length. In some homes where the working men happen to be bringing in the major share of the bread, they often tend to think of household work as the wife’s share because she is the one who is earning less. In Bangladesh the home has been very much a woman’s place all this time. Men have been used to remaining aloof from involvement in domestic chores. A man who did follow the wife even a few steps with house-keeping was degraded and labelled as ‘womanly’ and it was considered a horrible insult. Recently that attitude has shown signs of change and educated people have learned to share the household chores. This is more true of working couples. The men start shyly with parenting, like the first steps of a child learning to walk. And when they find that helping out the wife does bring peace at home they start putting forth more steps and get more involved with the household issues.
   In the gender war for housework, it has been observed that educated men pitch in and take up an active role in the housework. Men who are highly educated tend to put their wives on an equal footing with housework and play a balanced role. It has also been seen that men who had moved early from home and had to fend for themselves tend to help out at home. Another reason why men show resistance to housework may have its roots in their childhood. From an early age men are preoccupied with power and status: the boy plays with action figures while the girl plays with dolls. Men assert their independence by refusing to do something they have been asked to do. While they may also look after their father as a role idol they may also acknowledge that their wives are doing a lot more than their mothers did.
   When it comes to men doing more of housework one often thinks of the working couples only. What about the stay-at-home mom? Does the broom stop in her hands because she is the one who spends more time at home? Does she not deserve help from the life partner who has vowed to be by her side in good times and bad? Even for the stay-at-home mom, having two small kids around the house is not at all that easy. The beds are forever rumpled, things are always upside down and the toilet training must go on. Who is to answer the endless ‘Why’ of the small children? Even that requires patience. Besides, everyone seems to agree that kids these days are hyper active and the house is like a stage on which they perform their endless dramas. At the end of the day, the mom with all the housework and the parenting is ready to drop dead. The father can step in and help with the difficult times. The father who gives some of his time to his children is bonding with the children and working towards stronger family ties.
   The chore war comes with sufficient reasons for concern. According to a study by Chole E. Bird, published in March 1999 in the issue of Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, women who do twice as much housework as their spouses have greater anxiety, depression and worry. The least depressed people in Bird’s study, both and male and female, were those who split household duties down the middle. On the other hand, John Gottman, a psychologist who deals with relationships, points out that men who do more housework have better sex lives and are happier in marriages. Gottman also suggests that men who do housework frequently have kids who do better socially and academically. If greater involvement of men with housework can achieve a brighter picture for the home and the family, why not shake up the daily routine and be a partner with housework? There is also the suggestion to allow children, when they are old enough, to help out the parents with home-keeping.
   While we urge our womenfolk to step outside the home and stand by their men, we may also add a few lines, in bold letters, about how the men too are to step in and lend a hand to the women. Let us forget about the stereotyped roles of men at home. The home is the pivot around which society revolves. Men and women can make the sweet home even sweeter by standing side by side while the housework gets done. A home is, after all, where the heart is. Love and understanding can inevitably resolve the chore war and bring peace at home.