A father’s biological connection to a child is a confidential truth. But a mother’s right to her child is an open reality. Being an emotional person all along my life, I viewed my relationship with my two children as more than affection. When my daughter was a few days’ old I saw my wife suckling her baby and that was always a very interesting sight for me. As my daughter gradually grew up she became more attached to me and my wife enjoyed that deep relationship and felt reassured that my indulgence towards ‘Sanyas’ will evaporate one day altogether. As a traditional Bengali father, I wished my kids to be highly educated and successful in material and philosophical life. My attachment with them anchored me in life and pushed me to seek financial success for their safety and wellbeing. A man’s attachment to his sense of pride as an individual gets a serious boost when he becomes a father. A father does everything to support and enhance that pride. He takes risks, goes through turmoil and toil to bring happiness to his kids. Dedicated children recognise these momentous tasks and sacrifices of their father and follow his foot steps in their own lives.
   Another important aspect of a good fatherhood is to guide and respect his kids. I have given total freedom to my children to choose their way of life with honest and pragmatic advice. I prod them to succeed but in the meantime steered them to the right direction. In the Western society, I always took care that a healthy balance is maintained between the oriental and occidental values. They must not be regimented mentally or psychologically. I gave them total religious freedom and always insisted that personal goodness must get priority over religion. I hope and am confident that they heeded my advice. I told them that religion could be a stepping stone but should not be a resting place. When my daughter wanted to marry a Christian boy I happily accepted her choice and my wife and I gave her total and unconditional support.
   Being born and raised in a religious but secular family, my daughter was confident that she will not face any resistance. Later on she told me jokingly that ‘Baba, if I get a second birth I wish to be your daughter again’. My son told me that he feels proud of his father. On Father’s Day, I felt proud too.
   Akbar Hussain
   Canada

Odhikar’s observation highlighted a valid concern. The subject under scrutiny is the judicial independence. What the judiciary did in one day in Hasina’s case, could have done it long ago independently. But it never did it. Where does the independence of the judiciary stand? An illegal government is making its own emergency rules and bringing each and everything under the EPR. And again on its own will it is breaking its own rules. Surprisingly, there is no institution in the country to point that out. The judiciary is helpless and at the will of the powerful ones. Is that because of the long habit of slavery? May be. Or may be, it is now under another chain of command.
   Another thing which is disturbing is the practice of duality. Is it necessary that we will have to live a deceiving dual life? Why cannot we call a spade a spade? I do not believe that it has anything to do with diplomacy of intelligence. This sort of cunning, which is actually a self-deceiving practice, is an exhibition of the lowest grade of intelligence, a mean one. Why cannot we say that whatever we are doing are for the creation of a congenial environment for a peaceful handover of power to an elected government? Unless they have some dirty tricks in their minds, why is it necessary to create so many excuses and lies to cover-up a plain truth?
   MH Khan
   On e-mail

Aminul Islam’s front page report on the subject could have been more critical rather than consolatory to the failure of the caretaker government.
   The fact remains that since the caretaker government has taken over the reins of power, power supplies have declined, while the frequency and duration of power outage have gone up despite all their tall promises to improve the situation. Possibly, the claim of increased generation by 600MW is only a claim as the continuously increasing power outage shows. The installation of rental power plants in 120 days from day government’s permission is received is simply impossible if the plant is not already in Bangladesh when the permission is issued. Even if the plant is air freighted to Bangladesh, a 180-day period may just be do-able, given all support and help by all concerned. Given this situation, it is astonishing why the CG is not taking any steps to set up coal-fired power plants.
   A citizen
   Dhaka

Industrial activities are a major source of air, water and land pollution, leading to illness and loss of lives all over the world. The World Health Organisation estimates that outdoor air pollution alone accounts for around 2 per cent of all heart and lung diseases, about 5 per cent of all lung cancers, and about 1 per cent of all chest infections.
   World sales in chemical products have multiplied nine times since 1970, increasing from 171 billion dollars to 1500 billions in 1998. Among the most polluting products are heavy metals — for example, mercury inside batteries, lead in gasoline — and pollutants made from oil (plastic…). Spreading into water, air, and land, heavy metals contaminate the entire food chain, including humans. In Europe and in the USA, the rates of testicle cancers have tripled over the last 50 years and breast cancer today hits 1 woman in 8, compared to 1 in 20 in 1960. Despite these facts, humans produce about 1000 new chemical substances every year that add to the 70,000 chemical molecules already available on the market. Although consistent progress in filtering and reprocessing has been made to stop the direct discharging of sewage into rivers or particulate into the atmosphere, industrial pollution still accumulates in estuaries or in the air. Traces of DDT — a very powerful and toxic insecticide that blocks respiratory organs — have even been found in the fat of Antarctic penguins. Moreover, industrial pollutions also last longer periods of time. What must be done with the existing 200,000 tons of nuclear waste and with the 5 per cent that will remain dangerous over periods of thousands of years?
   Sifat MunimTanin
   Maulana Bhashani Science & Technology University Tangail