I am appalled and have become indignant by learning that United States is mulling over the idea of attacking Iran for its disputed nuclear activities. Iran repeatedly said that its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes. And doesn’t Iran have the right to have nuclear weapons as many other countries possess it, including Israel?
   Recently, Iran tested long and medium range missiles. The US and Israel are making an uproar for this act, but when Israel showed its might by fighter planes swarming the sky, there was not a word to be heard from the Bush Administration. Israel could get away with anything, their share with Palestine shocked the world, the present government of America is not doing anything to mitigate the sufferings of the people of Palestine. I hope the next US president will be humane and find a peaceful solution to the crisis.
   Iran is not doing harm to anyone, so, why should it be attacked? It seems that to stop the whimpering of Israel, Bush administration will go to any length. We ask the US to be rational, not act unjustly, because injustice never pays, it acts like boomerang.
   Nur Jahan
   Chittagong

G8, composed of eight industrialised nations, recently met in Japan to discuss the world’s economic issues. But without the membership of the world’s most dynamic and fourth largest economy — China — in it, G8 is a lacklustre organisation. Moreover, the world’s largest economy — the United States — is now totally dependent on China for trade and credit.
   By the end of 2007, China achieved many important milestones: it knocked out Canada as the biggest exporter of goods to the United States; it knocked out the United States as Japan’s biggest trading partner; it knocked out the United States as the EU’s biggest trading partner and it surpassed Japan as Australia’s biggest trading partner. By the end of July 2007, China firmly eclipsed Canada as the number one exporter of goods to the United States. China exported US$321 billion worth of merchandise to the United States between Aug. 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007, while Canada shipped US$305 billion worth of goods. This shows that Canada’s much-touted trading relationship with Washington is growing less important — a development that should prod Canada to look for new markets.
   Also, the US trade with China is a one-sided affair. While China exported a staggering $321 billion to the US, the American exports to China were a paltry $65 billion, leaving a massive $256 billion trade surplus in China’s favour. Signs of American decline are clearly visible. While the Chinese economy has been growing at a rate of 11 per cent, the American economy has been growing at barely 2 per cent. While the US banking sector is facing a meltdown due to subprime mortgage crisis, Chinese banks are piling up large capital and China now has trillions of dollars as reserve. China is now bankrolling America’s budget deficits. As erstwhile Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton recently remarked: ‘We must borrow from China in order to buy oil from Saudi Arabia.’
   Chinese officials are now promoting a Chinese-style economic management that they suggest serves better developing countries. Pathetic performance of the American economy makes the suggestion cogent. The Chinese attitude is no doubt bolstered by the lame-duck status of the Bush administration, and by the fact the United States is widely seen as having squandered its political and economic leadership by its total ineptitudes in all matters. The United States is now seen as a leaderless nation facing deep financial and economic crises. Without China, G8 is not really an assembly of giants.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada

Apart from your insightful editorials and post-editorials contributed by Shameran Abed, Rahnuma Ahmed, Tamim Ahmed and Shamsher Chowdhury, I have started to like the feedbacks from one Rashed Ahmed. He seems to have a very good understanding about our foreign ministry, its expected role and the role so far played and should be played by some of our envoys.
   Though Shamsher Chowdhury should be credited for putting a spotlight on the activities of foreign envoys in Bangladesh, Rashed Ahmed has taken the radar on to our envoys in foreign missions too, which gives us a scope for soul-searching. I was not at all surprised when an economist-cum-politician (the readers are perhaps aware of this gentleman’s background and activities during the last Awami League & BNP regimes and vision to mainstream armed forces and inducing our ‘great professor’ to form a party) was appointed as our envoy to the UN offices at Geneva. Most of the readers are perhaps aware of his identified interest about the WTO (at least newspaper clippings and TV footages carry a lot of proofs). However till now, I have not seen any difference being made by this envoy of ours, apart from putting Dr Fakhruddin, Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf on the same stage in Davos, getting the BSS to cover his submission of credentials in Vatican (I didn’t know we have the BSS in Vatican or even a roaming correspondent in Europe) or some of the Dhaka newspapers to cover his observance of independence day in Geneva (Ahmed can tell this better, but I don’t get to see this being done by our other missions especially where there is a Bangladesh expatriate concentration like USA, UK and others) or a particular daily publishing his letter to an international newspaper. Though he has served only 6/7 months in his new assignment, he has already visited Bangladesh 2/3 times (once reportedly for pushing his candidature for a place on the council of advisers when there was a change of guards in the council).
   Rashed Ahmed should be able to tell us more about the activities of this particular envoy and enlighten us whether these are being done as per the protocol or norms suited for foreign ministry officials.
   Mamun Rashid
   Gulshan, Dhaka

I appreciate the letter on this subject which appeared in the Feedback section on July 13. Though it is quite comprehensive, may I add that most risky factor now is the gradually increasing number of rickshaws and other slow-moving vehicles freely plying side by side with inter-district transports in this ‘highway’? A serious study will show that this factor is the cause of most of the accidents.
   Haq
   Dhaka

We are extremely proud of our rich Bengali heritage and literature and the Language Movement of 1952 which gave us a unique global platform as a nation. But to compete globally, we need to have a much greater use of English in our ancient education system. I feel we are lagging far behind as a nation and need to address this problem urgently. It is not uncommon to see a graduate from Bangladesh not being able to speak a few words of English. Is this person illiterate? Definitely not. I feel he is being let down by the ‘education system’ very badly. Our ‘leaders’ would send their offspring to the UK or USA ‘to study’ while the rest of the unfortunate children are force-fed ‘Bengali language and culture’.
   We only need to look at our mighty neighbour India for inspiration. There are eight major religions, 22 official languages and 28 states in India. Hindi is the official language of only 10 states. So it is no wonder English found its way as a national educational medium and shaping up the country’s future at an unstoppable pace. When are we going to face up to the real world which has fast moved ahead?
   M M Rahman
   London, UK