Potato and mushroom as staple food
This refers to General Moeen’s suggestions of consuming potato along with rice as a staple food. The suggestion is very timely, more so given the sky-rocketing price of rice and wheat. In this connection, I suggest to start farming mushroom as a staple food. Public opinion needs to be mobilised in favour of introducing mushroom in our daily diet. Today it is limited to some Chinese dishes being offered by Chinese restaurants in the city.
I suggest to General Moeen to introduce potatoes and mushroom in the regular diet in the armed forces, police, RAB, BDR and other auxiliary forces. Being disciplined services, it will be far easier for them to take the lead and show the way to the nation.
SA Mansoor
Dhaka
US and Afghanistan
With the US and NATO forces engaged in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, they should take a look why an earlier massive Soviet military intervention failed in that country.
When 80,000 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to stop the fanatical Mujahedins from toppling the pro-communist regime in Kabul, they were supremely confident and they had every reason to be so. The Soviet Union was a mighty superpower and the Soviet forces were backed up by tanks, helicopter gunship, and mechanised infantry divisions in full combat gear. The Soviet Union had also the strategic advantage as Afghanistan lies next door to Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and reinforcements could be brought in easily which the far-off United States doesn’t enjoy. The Soviet blitz was accompanied by massive aerial and artillery bombardments with infantry divisions mopping up the insurgents. Thousands of Afghan insurgents were killed and injured. Most Western observers thought that the insurgency would collapse before long.
But what followed was an asymmetrical warfare with Mujahedins carrying out hit-and-run attacks using Pakistan’s tribal areas as their staging posts. The only way the Soviet forces could stem such attacks was by taking out the insurgent bases in Pakistan. But Pakistan was an American ally and expanding war to Pakistan would have led to open confrontation with America which was already supplying the Mujahedins with lethal weapons. Another way to fight the insurgents was to equip and train the Afghan army to fight the insurgents themselves. But the Soviet commanders had little confidence in the Afghan army and made no attempt to equip and train it. As a result, the Soviet forces, after suffering heavy casualties, were forced to withdraw because they could not sustain any more heavy casualties, leaving an ill-equipped Afghan army which could not survive the Mujahedin onslaught.
The United States should not replicate the failed Soviet intervention in Afghanistan by taking up the combat against the Taliban.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Canada
Government and organised crime
A government is the organisation which is the governing authority of a political unit and the ruling power in a political society, and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority. Government has the authority to make laws, to arbitrate disputes, to issue administrative decisions, and a monopoly in authorising force. A state, depending on size, can have local, regional and national governments. There are many types of governments, such as monarchy, despotism, dictatorship, oligarchy, plutocracy, democracy, theocracy, and anarchy. A government, depending on type, can be headed by politicians, monarchs, dictators, group of people (families), wealthy class, and religious elite. History does not have the exact date of the formation of the first governments, though some records say governments were first formed 3000 years ago.
Organised crime or criminal organisations are groups or operations run by controversial individuals most commonly for the purpose of generating a financial profit and social power (influence). Organised crime, however defined, is characterised by a few basic characteristics including durability over time, diversified interests, hierarchical structure, capital accumulation, reinvestment, access to political protection and the use of violence to protect interests. The best known criminal organisations are: Cosa Nostra commonly known as Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Chinese Triads, the Colombian and the Mexican drug cartel, the Chechen Mafia, and young Mara Salvatrucha. History says that the first sign of organised crime was seen 3000 years ago.
It is important to make a distinction between organised crime (criminal organisations) and terrorist organisations, military organisations, political and paramilitary organisations such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, IRA and Irgun. In this connection, we should not forget the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, famous for the prosecution of the leadership of Nazi Germany. The best known was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in 1945. On this trial following were indicted as criminal organisations:
The Nationalsozialismus Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDP), the Nazi party - National Socialist German Workers Party.
The Schutzstaffel (SS), Protective Squadron – military organisation.
The Sicherheitsdienst (SD), Security Service – intelligence service of SS and NSDP.
The Gestapo, secret state police.
The Sturmabteilung (SA), Storm Division – paramilitary organisation.
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
This concept of criminal organisations was, and still continues to be controversial, and it was not used in International Human Rights Law since then.
Throughout history there has been constant struggle, but also connection between governments and organised crime. In addition, many world famous political and military leaders have been accused of running their countries like criminal organisations, for instance.
Crime and organised crime existed long before the formation of the first governments. Governments implemented laws because of the criminal activities that were visible in their society. We can say that crime is older than the first law and government.
Throughout history crime walked along governments, it was present in every known society, including dynasties, imperialism, colonialism, monarchism, communism, socialism, and modern democracy. In the contemporary world criminal organisations are still successful in their business. Some governments, on the other hand, cannot be distinguished from organised crime because of their inherent corruption and lawlessness in their activities.
Today, many governments, the United Nations and various law enforcement agencies are fighting criminal organisations and corruption, but as long as we have politicians and government official behaving like criminals and taking bribes, criminal organisations will continue to grow.
Ivan Simic
Belgrade, Serbi
