Birds — guests or hosts — are beauties of nature and essential for keeping balance in ecology.
   The significance of eco-tourism for both balanced ecology and sustainable development through poverty reduction is now well recognised in Bangladesh.
   Bangladesh is rich both in guest and local birds that play a significant part in balancing ecology. It has almost every kind of ecological conditions, except desert and high mountains. Birds are flying-guards of nature. Birds’ migration superbly demonstrates the complexity and the wonder of the web of life. Making it very responsive to the impacts of human activity, the evolution of individual migratory manoeuvres of different bird genera over the past thousands of years corresponds to a delicate balance of nature. This balance in nature is threatened to be disturbed with disastrous consequences by global warming. Global warming results from human intervention with the nature and is caused basically by the burning of oil and coal since the Industrial Revolution.
   Bangladesh welcomes a big number of guest birds from the central Asian states, Europe and India every year. The birds from the north are seen during the winter in different swamplands of Bangladesh, which are distributed almost throughout the country: Tanguar Haor, Jahangir Nagar University, Botanical Garden, Comilla Darma Shagar etc., are well known. After the winter, the guest birds go back to their native territories. Gifted with a remarkable geology, Bangladesh spans several of the world’s ecological regions and is spread over wide latitude. February is the high time of the arrival of the guest birds and by March they start flying back home. These periods may vary depending on weather conditions in Siberia and or in Bangladesh.
   As a host of the guest birds, it is our duty to make them contented in a non-violent environment. This is good to know that the ministry of environment and forest, a few NGOs and some bird lovers are actively working in the field.
   The experts opine that the migratory birds have ecological benefits as they prey on insects and weeds thus contributing towards the betterment of agriculture. The concerned authorities should keep a count of the guest birds: how many came in and how many fly back home.
   Mohammad Shahidul Islam
   Via e-mail

The authorities of Jagannath University had reportedly done all the official formalities for getting back their dormitories which are illegally occupied by a sinister clique of police-politicians-businessmen, but to no avail. Then the students peacefully demonstrated on the street just to be getting thrashed by the ‘law and order enforcement’ agencies. Unfortunately, one of the private TV channels reported it as a clash between student bodies to gain supremacy in halls, in which police had to intervene.
   The mushrooming of private TV channels and FM radio stations has indeed brought a revolution in the media world. Unfortunately, we seem to be getting cheap opportunist reporters more than responsible journalists.
   Saif
   Dhaka
   

Can one individual ensure democracy in a nation of 150 million? The reason I am asking this question, in fact I am asking myself, is because it is indeed very sad to see the direction in which the country is going after the elections of December 29. I was personally very encouraged by some of the steps the prime minister took, like holding her party from showing exuberance after winning such a stupendous victory. She has also named a cabinet where some of the ministers are so honest that they did not even have a decent place in Dhaka to stay.
   But then a few things are surely signs of a storm coming. First, the upazila election has shown very clearly that Sheikh Hasina has hold only over on those who surround her. Beyond her sphere of immediate contact, she has little power to influence and thus there was rampant stuffing of ballot boxes in the upazila elections where 40 per cent actually voted but officially the number was over 70 per cent; the additional 30 per cent-plus votes coming in stuffed votes going to the AL-backed nominees. Second, the way the student wing of the AL is going about capturing university halls and dormitories is clearly a sign that the AL students have not changed from their old ways of doing pretty much what they want when their party is in power. Third, the bureaucracy is again being politicised in the same way as before and promotions and postings made recently have been made purely out of political considerations. Finally, while the BNP has shown some flexibility with regards to attending the parliament, having attended the opening session, the attitude of the AL has hardly been accommodative. It is simply unbelievable that a party that has 233 seats in parliament does not have the heart to give the BNP one or two extra seats in the first row. I have no doubt that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman must be turning in his grave by this attitude of her daughter for that great man had an even greater heart and I have no doubt that he would have easily given the BNP two times the seat they have asked for.
   What is happening with governance is very interesting as it is intriguing. When one hears Sheikh Hasina on TV, she comes out as a model of compassion for her people and a passionate lover of democracy. But between what she projects and the ground reality, the gap is increasing as the examples given would clearly suggest. The question is whether she is aware of this? In fact, governance in these days is anything but democratic which is sad because the people voted with a lot of hope, freely and fairly. The way the prime minister is ignoring the senior members of her party, admonishing the new ministers and leaning towards unelected advisers is ominous.
   The ministers, inexperienced and largely ignorant about ministerial power, are beginning to amuse people and when ministers amuse, governance suffers. The commerce minister took the lead in this regard. His decision to disband the TCB was quickly turned down by the prime minister. His decision to walk to the traders, give them his cell number was stupidity at its best. Now he has come out with a statement in press stating Bangladesh is going to sign the deal on transit when the Indian FM visits town, little aware that this is a decision way over his head where diplomacy and sensitivity both should suggest no public utterance. The home minister is about to be orphaned and it seems certain that she is going to fulfil her pride that she has come from the street by going back there for she suits much better there. Ministerial responsibility needs different stuff. Even a minister with past experience and one who was expected to do better, i.e., the finance minister, is behaving like a novice. His statement on devaluation is a clear case in point.
   Sheikh Hasina and her party seemed invincible a month ago, having won that unbelievable victory on December 29. Too many chinks are becoming visible in her armour already. She seems to have lost control over the students although when they are acting like thugs, she has encouraged them by stating her belief in student politics! It looks like she has to prepare herself against her own party than worry about the BNP for she is snuffing out democratic process within her own party very much the way her father did when he had imposed Baksal. Someone needs to warn her that the consequences may not be very good.
   Rashed Ahmed
   Gulshan, Dhaka

In another one of those grandiose rhetorical flourishes, Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina opened the Ekushey Book Fair with the comments ‘Session jam is to be reduced and criminal activities stopped in educational institutions.’
   Well, then do it, madam prime minister! You have the power to dissolve your Chatra League and bring a bill to parliament to get rid of party-oriented student politics.
   BT
   USA

When Barack Obama became president of the United States, people around the world became euphoric because they were looking forward to find the change he will bring about — a welcome relief from Bush administration.
   But I am very surprised by India’s reaction to Obama’s presidency as noted in a local English daily. It said, ‘India wary of Obama’s South Asia’s focus’ and ‘India is keeping a wary eye on policy changes’. Former Indian ambassador to Washington, Naresh Chandra, said, ‘When it came to India former President GW Bush was exceptional. When any matter on India reached him, Bush overruled his team to address Indian concern. I don’t think we can expect that kind of personal commitment from Obama’.
   What a thing to say! It exposes the insensitive and selfish attitude of India. When everyone was happy to see the exit of Bush, India is lamenting for his exit. Bush has been termed as the worst president and his popularity is the lowest. People will remember him as a cruel person, who has no feeling for human beings. How could India praise him in such a way?
   Nur Jahan
   Chittagong

What I could glean from a booklet titled ‘Mosabbir Cancer Care Centre’ and the fourth edition of a newsletter published by Mosabbir Memorial Foundation the middle child had filled hundreds of souls with joys during 17 years of his life and caused thousands of hearts to bleed after cancer had snatched his soul away from this earth on 02 April 2003.
   Located at House 37/1, Road 3, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka (Tel: 967 6502, 966 9917, Email: mccc@dhaka.net WEB: www.mcccbd.org) Mosabbir Cancer Care Centre is now offering to out-patients multifarious services including counselling, information, referrals, consultation and day-care chemotherapy. The foundation’s ultimate goal is to set up a fully integrated cancer hospital with all its in-house facilities in
   phases.
   Known among his friends as Mosabbir and among his relations as Pritom, Mosabbir Hossain Khan was a middle child of his parents.
   Foysal, Mahedi, and Sajeed, three close friends of Mosabbir, in their emotion-soaked tribute to their deceased friend, wrote in the newsletter a poignant piece, which reads like a parable, on their lost friend. To his friends, Mosabbir was an ideal classmate of extraordinary qualities; he was both a mentor and a friend to his classmates, to his juniors as well as seniors.
   His charisma to win friends, his virtue of simplicity, his empathy for the weak and the helpless, his faith in God, his mastery in cricket, his thirst for knowledge, his flair for literature, and a plethora of his intrinsic merits roused in many of his peers both envy and admiration. His sudden death stunned his chums, shocked his admirers, traumatised his teachers, and dazed his beloved pet dog ‘Badshah’. His parents became dumb and deaf as they bade him adieu on his journey to the eternity.
   While studying his O-level in Dhaka, Mosabbir had to part with his friends as he had to move along with his parents to the United States to start a new life with alien neighbours. Surprisingly, he soon became friendly and affable with his new friends in his school and neighbourhood. His teachers were impressed at his masteries and dexterities.
   He outstood among the boys and girls of the Hillsboro High School in Nashville, in the State of Tennessee. His age fitted him to get enrolled in Class 10; but he doggedly persuaded his parents and teachers to get him admitted in Class 12. In no time he started scoring excellent grades in class tests.
   Mosabbir, probably by his hunch, could surmise that he had too little time to achieve too many big things. He was in a hurry. He burned midnight oil in quest of knowledge. He deemed sleep sheer wastage of time. He embarked on a race against the clock. He appeared in his final examination of his class. But Mosabbir heard the grave ticking of the clock saying: ‘the time is almost over’.
    The whole body of Mosabbir was riddled with cancer. In the teeth of severe pain he didn’t forget to say his prayers to God. Wave after wave of pent-up emotion and love from teachers and students of his school poured out. Relations, friends, teachers, and students prayed for his relief. Mosabbir had to be admitted in Vanderbilt University Hospital. Doctors and nurses of the famous hospital left no stone unturned to help Mosabbir cheat death. But death defeated Mosabbir.
   Long before Mosabbir fell sick his homebound teacher Miss Wilkinson assured his father that the boy would graduate stupendously, given his talent. One afternoon a dozen of school teachers, along with the principal of Hillsboro High School, arrived at the bedside of Mosabbir. By that time Mosabbir, after spending days and nights in coma, was declared clinically dead by the doctors and the hospital authority was about to unplug the life-supporting gadgets from his body and face.
   At that moment the principal of the High School declared that Mosabbir had graduated with the highest flyers and then handed the convocation gown and the cap to his grieving mother. Numb and speechless, Mosabbir’s mother was standing like a statue, tears rolling down her cheeks while Mosabbir’s father was beside her, also statue-like. In the silence, the hands of the clock crept slowly around and everybody was hearing the loud and grave ticking of the clock on the wall saying: ‘Mosabbir has left for heaven’.
   Lt. Col (Retd) Mudassir Hossain Khan, Bir Pratik, Mosabbir’s father, got the first ‘sword of honour’ of the first batch of Bangladesh Army. He is an absorber of multiplicative pains. Mudassir had to sweat blood to set up Mosabbir Memorial Foundation and its allied projects. Whatever has been achieved by this foundation would not have been possible at all if God did not plant a grain of pain inside the most sensitive region of his psyche. Fuelled by God-prescribed pain, Mudassir has now to cover the granule of his pain with some pain-relieving substance the way an oyster tries to relieve its pain from a tiny grain of sand seated deep inside the oyster’s flesh by coating the grain with nacre, which is known as mother of pearl.
   We hope Mosabbir Memorial Foundation and all the affiliated projects, coated as these are by ‘philanthropic nacre’, will sparkle with dazzling brilliance like striking, shimmering, multicoloured, and iridescent pearls.
   Health experts on the eve of World Cancer Day on January 04 said cancer nowadays kills more people in developing countries each year than AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. More than 12 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed worldwide in 2008, resulting in 7.6 million deaths. More than half of all new cases and around 60 per cent of the fatalities occurred in the developing countries, where poor medical infrastructure often means that cancer is a surefire death sentence.
   There are over one million registered cancer patients in Bangladesh with at least another 50 per cent more cases undiagnosed. There is only one government-operated cancer hospital, National Institute of Cancer Research & Hospital, in Mohakhali, Dhaka, which accommodates only 50 patients. In private sector, there are two other cancer treatment hospitals: Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital and Delta Oncology Centre.
   The nation expects Mosabbir Memorial Foundation will offer service to the poor cancer patients who cannot afford treatments abroad and will fulfil its goal to build a multi-disciplinary, integrated and comprehensive cancer care hospital the way Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB), established in 1956 by a small group of social workers led by Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, has now turned into a colossal complex known as Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) at Shahbag.
   Maswood Alam Khan
   Via e-mail