It is very good to learn that the parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings censored the desire of the communication minister to buy a ‘latest luxury’ vehicle at the expense of public money and inquired about the tender floated in flagrant violation of existing rules and regulation. It is more encouraging that the issue was raised by a young ruling lawmaker, hopefully out of good intention and not personal bickering.
   It seems that the communication ministry is a place for innovation. The communication minister of the erstwhile BNP regime suddenly became greener than the green activist and banished all the diesel driven tempos outside Dhaka city and replaced them with CNG run tempos to save the environment of Dhaka. It was later unearthed that it was the minister himself and a certain Bhaban people benefited more than the Dhaka city and the general commuters were the one who were taken for a ride, because they had to pay double or more to get a ride in a CNG run vehicle.
   The present communication minister seems to be keeping the tradition. Recently, he introduced a system that allows only one private bus service operator to operate in a route. He believes that it will enable better service while common sense warns it will promote monopoly and the commuters will be the hostage of bus service operator’s whimsical fares.
   We are also hearing about the elevated expressway, underground train, etc. just like the BNP time. Hope those will be implemented this time.
   Saif
   Dhaka

By taking out the pirates and rescuing the hostages, the United States and France demonstrated a useful and practical way to deal with acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean. For a variety of reasons, none of them good, most maritime powers are reluctant to use force to protect their citizens and the sea lanes from Somali pirates.
   The solution often aired is to put a working government in Somalia to take charge of the country. But this will take years if not decades and by that time piracy will become a billion dollar industry akin to drug trade and it will be impossible for any single African government to stop it. With the huge money at stake, any fledgling Somali government will be vulnerable to corruption in the same way countries like Afghanistan and Mexico are facing in dealing with drug business.
   One measure will be that all major maritime nations — the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, China, Japan, India — join their navies together and impose a blockade of Somalia except for authorised ships. Various maritime powers should be allocated certain portions of the coastal waters and should be empowered to stop all boats from entering or leaving Somalia. Aggressive patrolling by navies of the world might put a brake, if not stop, to the activities of Somali pirates who are now having a free hand.
   In fighting piracy, the US President Barack Obama can learn from his illustrious predecessor, President Thomas Jefferson. In early 19th century, Jefferson faced the threat of Barbary pirates working out of North African states of Algiers, Tripoli, Tunisia and Morocco. Pirates were regularly seizing merchants ships and holding crews for ransom. Before him, President John Adams thought it would be more economical to pay them ransom than going to war in such distant places. The odds of American success were poor. As John Adams wrote in a letter to Jefferson who was urging for military action: ‘We ought not to fight them [the pirates] at all unless we determine to fight them forever... This thought, I fear, is too rugged for our people to bear.’
   When he became president in 1801, Thomas Jefferson argued differently: ‘When peace becomes more than losing than war, we may prefer the latter.’ He despatched his fleet to the North African shores and engaged the pirates. Jefferson’s war against piracy continued through his presidency to his successor, James Madison. It finally ended with a great US naval victory in 1815 when legendary American naval commander, Stephen Decatur, dictated Algiers pirate chiefs of their formal repudiation of piracy ‘at the mouths of our cannons,’ as Decatur put it. Since then the US never again paid ransom to the Barbary pirates.
   President Barack Obama needs to declare a Jeffersonian war of his own against Somali piracy.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada

I think it is time we gave warnings to Hasina’s ministers too. They created a very unpleasant and shameful environment by issuing ridiculous warnings against the people in a supposedly democratic state.
   They should have very carefully studied the underlying issues that are causing agitations and expression of dissatisfaction. The people of the country cannot be intimidated by their warnings. In fact, they are the servants of the people and they were elected to serve the nation. Their job is not to create headlines and news sensation on daily newspapers on daily basis. But so far, they created more headlines than delivering creative works. They are wasting valuable time of their tenure and the time is running out very fast.
   The power mismanagement has exceeded the limit of tolerance. No step has so far been taken on water preservation and management. There should have been guidelines, steps and actions on preservation and utilisation of surface water, ground water, and water bodies. Excessive and uncontrolled use of underground water, misuse and improper use of surface water and dire negligence in preserving water bodies are pushing the country, its population and the environment towards a disastrous state.
   It will be better if Hasina’s ministers concentrated on delivering their designated jobs instead of issuing warnings to the people. Those warnings will keep on coming back to them as boomerangs to warn them.
   MH Khan
   Via e-mail