Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Valerie Taylor left her homeland and settled in Bangladesh to set up CRP, an institution to help the poor and disabled people. As time passed, the CRP seems to have become too big to be managed by her alone, requiring the help of the likes of Shafi Sami. However, it seems that Sami has made himself the centre of controversy and suspicion by assuming several mutually conflicting roles within the CRP. Based on this, I think the CRP should replace Sami immediately. In any institution of CRP’s nature, the bean counters are easier to find than its heart and souls like Valerie Taylor.
   Shabbir A Bashar
   Vancouver, USA
   

Captain Bashar cannot be faulted; he is determined to collect credit for lost matches but no one accuses him of taking risks when opportunity arrives (like it did in the first Test against India). Besides, the captain is awfully generous to his guests (he cannot let them down, can he?).
   He won the toss but opted to send his team to field. Did he want to make sure his team to follow on and face the spin maestro like Kumble on a cracked fourth day pitch? If he knows what he is doing then some of the cricket lovers like us know it too well.
   As for record (if one can call it that), the captain failed in all departments and did so with remarkable consistency. He scattered his field when he needed to be aggressive and take wickets; he batted like an absent-minded onlooker holding his bat aloft like a club. To entertain the crowd he even stood in the middle as if to make sure his catch was taken (match with England in the World Cup Super Eight), and then recovered his wits when the catch was dropped (much to his disappointment, perhaps). But that was too late. You cannot fault him for the dropped catch because he made up the loss by being run out. That should go down in the record as the ‘captain’s innings’. Jokers should stay in the circus and not in cricket. But the captain is unique and one of a kind. The Board is mesmerised, the coach is to say goodbye. Congratulations! Captain can share his glory with his coach and the Board, but not with his team mates.
   Clueless in Mirpur, the captain is also failing in the second Test but will not fail to find excuses after the looming defeat. The coach will leave the sinking ship but what will the Board do? The viewing public is not amused.
   Husain
   Dhaka

Hegemony is the dominance of one group over other groups, with or without the threat of force, to the extent that, for instance, the dominant party can dictate the terms of trade to its advantage; more broadly, cultural perspectives become skewed to favour the dominant group. The cultural control that hegemony asserts affects commonplace patterns of thought: hegemony controls the way new ideas are rejected or become naturalised in a process that subtly alters notions of common sense in a given society.
   Hegemony results in the empowerment of certain cultural beliefs, values, and practices to the submersion and partial exclusion of others. Hegemony influences the perspective of mainstream history, as history is written by the victors for a congruent readership.
   History has it that hegemony has been played since time immemorial; we may recall the dominance of Persian, Roman, Mongol, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German, Chinese, Russian, French, British empires, amongst others.
   These days, hegemony is played through the international system by big powers such as the United States of America, China, Russia, India and European Union.
   When we take a look at the history of mankind we can see that there has never been peace among nations, and it is becoming increasingly elusive.
   Ivan Simic
   Belgrade, Serbia

Both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas have been elected by the Palestinian people, then why are they slaughtering each other? Only two months ago, they signed an agreement ending the earlier factional fighting and formed a government of national unity. But instead of bringing unity, the Fatah and the Hamas have resumed their infighting in which they are killing each other without any restraint.
   Latest bloodletting started when Hamas gunmen raided the house of an important Fatah leader, killing his guards. In the ensuing fighting, both Hamas and Fatah gunmen have been attacking each other in the Gaza Strip while blaming Israel for their own brutality toward each other. Fighting continued even after rival Palestinian factions renewed a pledge on May 14 to stop killing. But gunmen loyal to the Hamas and the Fatah continue to battle each other. With the casualty toll mounting, Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh resigned, accusing leaders on both sides for fomenting the violence. As one Palestnian scholar told the BBC that the Hamas and the Fatah refuse to accept each other as partners and share power.
   People of Gaza found the latest violence more ominous than the previous rounds, saying it signalled to the total animosity between the two Palestinian factions and their desire to destroy each other in the name of the Palestinian people. Both claim that they are elected by the Palestinian people and must have total power. They fail to realise that Hitler was also elected by the German people before he started to destroy his opponents. ‘Now they are starting off from where they left off,’ said Jamal Abu Shabaan, a Gaza resident to the Associated Press. ‘If they get to each other’s throats, they won’t let go this time.’
   At the centre of the new Palestinian infighting is a dispute over who controls the security forces. A majority of 80,000 security officers in the West Bank and Gaza are loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, while the Hamas set up its own 6,000-strong militia last year. These two heavily-armed groups are determined to destroy each other. Renewed violence between them will continue to cast a dark shadow if they cannot find a way to live together.
   As such, this may be the time for the violent factions to rethink about the methods they are using to fight each other and Israel. Only by eschewing violence, they can make any progress toward peace and stability. They may look to Mahatma Gandhi who gained India’s independence non-violently. When Gandhi launched his anti-colonial movement against the British rule in India, he rejected out of hand any violence in the name of anti-colonialism. When some militants in his movement attacked a police station, he called off his non-violent movement. Only after being assured that there would be no recourse to violence, Gandhi resumed his struggle.
   Although Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist who thought he was too soft on what he considered as the Muslim enemy, he gained India’s independence without taking a single British life. Gandhi had shown the world a way to fight oppression without having to kill. The same applies to violent groups like the Hamas and the Fatah, which can achieve their goals through non-violent political actions. The only way the Hamas and the Fatah can stop killing each other is by renouncing violence in the name of politics. The Hamas, which champions suicide bombing of Israeli women and children, must realise that their wanton violence will only provoke Isreal to strike back. And their violence against the Fatah means that the Palestinians will always be slaughtering each other and no agreement will hold for long. Only by giving up violence in the name of politics, the Hamas and the Fatah can ensure that their political differences will not be an excuse for mutual bloodletting.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Iris Street, Ottawa, Canada