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Did we ever question what the police academies had been teaching their recruits? Did we ever try to know what training were they giving to the would-be law enforcers and public servants? I believe, we should know.
   Perhaps they teach them how to march, how to clean, load and fire rifles. Perhaps they also teach them a few sections and sub-sections of certain commonly used criminal laws. But that is not enough. It is just like enrolling some persons by measuring their weight and height and placing them on the street with batons and firearms.
   I believe comprehensive courses should be designed for the recruits and their in-service members to teach them about their constitutional position, people’s right and their role in the ever-changing society. Assistance can be sought from law and social science professionals and from different faculties of some renowned universities of Bangladesh in designing, preparing and delivering those courses. We should have modern training programmes to build a modern police force for a modern society.
   M Khan
   On e-mail

I am writing with reference to ‘Don’t blitz Iran’ by Brian Cloughley (April 19).
   Brian Cloughley may be right when he says that in the event of any American strike on Iran, ‘the price of oil would have gone to $100 a barrel, and rising. In the US $10 a gallon would be only a memory. In Europe, and especially the UK, governments would be forced to reduce their enormous taxes imposed on vehicle fuel, signalling a downward economic spiral. Russia and China would cope remarkably well, but almost all the developed world, and especially Japan, would suffer to the verge of catastrophe.’ But he tends to ignore the fact that such collapse of the US and the Japanese economies will bring an end to China’s own economic growth as China is heavily dependent on these two nations as markets and the main sources of foreign investment which are driving China’s phenomenal economic growth.
   Japan and the United States are China’s no 1 and 2 trading partners, with the EU as the close third. Together, Japan and the United States account for 50 per cent of China’s external trade, with the EU accounting for another 20 per cent. Any massive economic downturn in these countries will seriously undermine China’s economy which is growing at an astonishing rate of 10 per cent a year. The United States is the world’s largest importer of oil followed by China and Japan. If the oil prices abruptly rises due to any American strike against Iran, China will face a double whammy, its exports to the United States will fall sharply as the US consumers will have to seriously cut back their consumption of Chinese goods to pay for rising oil prices and China’s economy itself will be hit by the rising oil prices. The same applies to Japan and the Western Europe.
   However, the United States will be far less affected by rising oil prices compared to all other importing nations. Canada is the biggest supplier of oil to the United States. Canada’s vast oil reserves in the Aleberta oil sands are expensive to exploit and higher oil prices will make it eminently feasible to develop these oil reserves. In fact, oil at $100 a barrel may be a blessing in disguise for America as higher oil prices will help develop oil reserves next-door to America while China, Japan and the EU might face an economic downturn and China’s dream of becoming an economic superpower may vanish in thin air. Brian Cougley is wrong to put China and Russia in the same category. Russia, as a big exporter of oil, will be gaining while China, as the second biggest importer, will lose if prices rise dramatically.
   As such, China and the United States have a common interest to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapon and some form of economic sanction will be enough to stop Iran from going nuclear. A boycott of Iranian oil may be enough to stem Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran is heavily dependent on oil for its income and any boycott of oil will have serious implications on Iran’s impoverished masses who might rise in revolt if faced with further hardship.
   Although such a boycott will bring about a temporary increase in oil prices, it will also allow Canada to develop its vast oil reserves in Alberta and Canada will replace Iran as the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. And Canada will be the biggest winner if Iran is able to disrupt the Saudi oil supplies.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada