Is it possible to consider New York City without Hudson River that inspires changes in American history and culture, or London without Thames where the Romans settled over two millennia ago to create one of the most ancient societies in the history, or Paris without Seine as it has been an historic means of transportation and protection for the city of Paris as well as an inspiration for poets, writers, and painters for hundreds of years?
   Is it possible to recall the glorious history of Muslin fabric, jute fibers or the historic land marks such as Ahsan Manzil, Borokatra, ChotoKatra, Ruplal House, Lalbagh kella, or North Brook Hall of Dhaka city without the river Buriganga as Dhaka was founded about 400 years ago by the side of this river?
   Although the history of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, dates back to roughly 7th century, but the city didn’t become prominent until 17th century. When it flourished as a provincial capital of the Mughal Empire in 1610 A.D., Dhaka became a major key trade port and attracted merchants and travellers from far and near through ages from England, Holland, France, and other parts of the world. Dhaka with passage of time testifies different faces of history. The whole city grew up on the bank of the river Buriganga.
   But the heavily polluted from human sewage and industrial waste, the black and foul smelling waters of the once beautiful river are now an environmental disaster.
   Hundreds of years ago, the banks of the Buriganga were a prime location and the lifeline of Dhaka. The house-turned-museum of the Nawab (ruler) overlooks the river, which is the country’s main waterway for trading and ferry travel. It was once the main source of drinking water for Dhaka’s residents. The Buriganga and her mother river Dhaleswari connect Dhaka to the other rivers and through them with almost all the districts of Bangladesh. Sadarghat, a large quay on the river Buriganga, is the gateway to the capital city from the southern districts of the country.
   The Buriganga is of great economic importance to Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Historically, it has been always a hub for commercial activities. It has always been busy, vibrant, and full of life.
   The river is an important resource for people who depend on it, as well as a valuable asset for all humanity. But the level of environmental degradation it has been subjected to in recent years is astonishing. Much of Buriganga is now biologically dead. Because of rampant dumping of industrial and human waste, the river has become so polluted that the water has turned pitch black and has a glue-like consistency. Unfortunately, the river has become Dhaka’s main outlet of sewage waste. It is threatened by pollution and possession.
   According to World Bank study, four major rivers near Dhaka — the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Turag and Balu — receive 1.5 million cubic metres of waste water every day from 7,000 industrial units in surrounding areas and another 0.5 million cubic metres from other sources. More than 60,000 cubic metres of toxic waste (textile dying, printing, washing and pharmaceuticals) enter the Dhaka canals and river system every day. Nearly four million people directly suffer the consequence of its poor water quality. Industrial waste accounts for 60 percent of the total river pollution followed by municipal waste and improper handling of other pollutants.
   The river is the city’s most important natural asset/resource. The universal appeal of water for people makes the river a valuable economic development asset. The river is a tourism destinatio.n with related spin-off expenditures in the local economy. A clean river with accessible open space and recreation resources is a magnet for reinvestment such as housing, shopping, entertainment, etc. Property/real estate values along the river are higher than in other parts of the city. The river is a primary link in the regional green infrastructure network of interconnected open spaces.
   An ecologically healthy river is more visually appealing and usable for recreation. It is a habitat corridor. The river is a visual, historic, cultural, and recreational amenity. Civic spaces on the riverfront can be a focus of community activity and pride such as recreational activities and special events programming. The river is a linear recreational corridor for walking, cycling, boating. Relaxing on the riverbank people can easily forget the bustle and anxieties of city life for a while.
   Lawmakers irrespective of parties including speaker, ministers of concern ministries, business leaders, media personalities, and thousands of well wishers who were present at that programme, made strong commitments to take every measure necessary to stop illegal grabbing and pollution of the rivers flowing through the country including those around the capital.
   As no proper steps have yet been taken for saving this dying river, its now time to make those commitments into reality before it’s too late.
   Ripan Kumar Biswas
   New York, USA

A front page report published on June9 on the subject in a local daily, is a very sound and positive step taken by this government. They deserve congratulations for this wise and timely step.
   This line of funding that will provide 200 crore taka should set the ball rolling, ushering in power plants (usually small) round the country which could be off-grid now till we go for the ‘Smart Grid’ the next priority in the chain of containing power shortfall.
   Municipal solid waste, as a source of fuel for power generation in high temperature process has already taken off in Europe and the USA more than a quarter century ago. France has been a pioneer in this. Clever US businessmen backed by support of
   their government and the industry have not lagged behind.
   The first US bio-mass plant came on line way back in 1975. Since then it has expanded considerably. By mid-1990s more than one hundred waste-to electricity plants have come on stream. Subsequently by beginning of this century, it has come into the national grid as a contributing generation resource.
   The US government had wisely provided encouragement for renewable energy coming on commercial operation by providing production tax credit for it.
   Our government should also follow a similar tax incentive to enable rapid growth of renewable power generation on a commercial scale. This needs to be seriously considered by the government moving in the right direction in the energy sector. In USA, the result of this tax incentive has been to put the waste-to-electricity industry on a firm footing with a proven track record over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, operational efficiencies of such plants have increased considerably.
   All these examples are there before us. Our entrepreneurs should take up this pioneering challenge and go for this safe and profitable power generation option providing much needed power for Bangladesh.
   SA Mansoor
   Dhaka

State minister for home Tanjim came to the office with a little better profile than that of Babar. But he is catching up Babar very fast. Tanjim keeps on forgetting that he is a people’s representative. Empathy for co-workers is fine but he is defending his co-workers, the police and the RAB, just for the sake of defending. Whenever someone criticises police or RAB, Tanjim comes up to the front to protest that. This is bad.
   Tanjim is trying to redefine extrajudicial killing and custodial killing. After all, RAB killed its victims after picking up and tying their hands.
   However, Tanjim should know that as we strongly condemned the custodial killings of his father, Tajuddin, and Ashraf’s father Nazrul Islam, we condemn all killings in police and RAB custody in the guise of encounter, crossfire, etc. We condemn all state sponsored, party sponsored and militant sponsored killings. There must be an end to this killing spree and madness.
   MH Khan
   Via e-mail
   

The finance minister said the other day that the present government will introduce ‘National Service’ programme at upazilla level in the next fiscal year to train the HSC-passed unemployed youths and recruit them for a two-year term. The main focuses will be to address the increasing antisocial behaviour and poor attitudes among the youth, address the lack of economic opportunities for the youth and address the different deficiencies in education and training opportunities for the youth.
   The programmes must include the National Service Corps and the Youth Conservation Corps. Projects will include cleaning up the environment, planting trees, building parks, teaching, and establishing food banks, and more. Both new programmes must recruit people aged between 18-24 to commit to two years of service in exchange for a chance to improve their communities, build skills, and earn modest pay. The National Youth Corps will be intended to offer unemployed or underemployed skilled youth or college graduates a chance to contribute to education and community service programs.
   The Youth Conservation Corps/YCC will be intended to connect unskilled or less educated youth with service opportunities in the environment and infrastructure fields. The YCC will absorb a programme called ‘Out of School Youth Serving Towards Economic Resistance/OYSTER’, which will enable out-of-school youth to receive modest pay in exchange for doing environmental, government infrastructure and road maintenance jobs, etc. During these trying times, the Bangladeshi spirit and commitment to caring should prompt each of us to count our blessings and give back to those who are less fortunate.
   Our nation needs the youth all pulling in the same direction. Volunteering time, skill and resources are noble undertaking we should all take seriously. This is something so important for the future of our society, our country and our young people, we can’t afford not to make it work.
   Gopal Sengupta
   Canada

For the vast majority of Muslims around the globe, President Barack Obama’s recent lecture in Cairo marks a groundbreaking shift. Thoughtful Muslims welcomed Obama’s speech almost wholeheartedly. Events like this do not happen regularly in international relations. This is as big as Nixon’s visit to China. After eight years of talk about the ‘clash of civilisations,’ President Obama went to Cairo to make a point about our shared humanity.
   Muslims are energised, enthusiastic, but it is to see this enthusiasm in the Muslim world is somewhat premature or not. Obama’s doctrine consists of two opposing things, a sort of forceful idealism, and realism. It is symptomatic, for example, that Israel, the main player in the big game, was not reportedly informed in advance about the contents of the Cairo speech. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who watched the speech at his office with a group of his closest advisers, is reportedly said to have felt as if he had been ‘hit by a bus.’ The Israeli prime minister reportedly was particularly disappointed by the passage on Iran. The administration there was equally reportedly displeased over what the US president said about the Palestinian conflict. Obama mentioned the word Palestine several times and spoke of giving the Palestinians an independent state. Netanyahu’s advisers were upset that President Obama had drawn parallels between the suffering of the Jews and that of the Palestinians, something unimaginable for an American president to acknowledge so far.
   Netanyahu is now faced with a crucial decision. If he gives in to American demands, his coalition government will likely fall apart. But if he refuses to recognise the two-state solution, Israel could face international isolation and alienation from its protective power, the United States.
   A number of senior Israeli officials have already accused President Obama of ignoring an agreement his predecessor reached with Israel secretly, under which Bush agreed that new residential construction could proceed within the boundaries of existing settlements. The Obama administration is taking a different approach. When Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak visited Washington early last week to meet with Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones, President Obama appeared unexpectedly in the meeting, and spent 12 minutes in Jones’ office. The accounts of what transpired in those 12 minutes vary. The Israeli defence minister, after returning to Israel, mentioned an ‘ultimatum of sorts,’ which gives the Israeli government four to six weeks to come up with a decision on halting the construction of settlements and an independent Palestinian state.
   While President Obama’s Press Secretary Gibbs said there was no talk of an ultimatum, the president’s foreign policy adviser, McDonough confirmed the Israeli defence minister’s version. According to McDonough, the president had been ‘very clear’ in conversations with officials from the region. An Israel prepared to compromise is the ticket the US president needs to restructure the Middle East.
   If Obama has his way clear, a worldwide process of mutual engagement will now begin. The United States, in a show of goodwill, as it seemed, is doing its utmost to resolve the conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme. Martin Indyk, a committed Democrat who served as US Ambassador to Israel under President Bill Clinton reportedly advised Obama to pursue a policy of diplomacy based on conversation, a policy designed to prevent a military strike, partly by putting preparations for a strike into motion. It appears that Obama is trying to prove that he is capable of doing both, talking and acting, listening and striking. President Obama has raised expectations once again with his speech in Cairo. But he will have to produce results in the foreseeable future.
   The world is still in admiration of President Obama for being such a skilled orator and writer and thinker, but now he must avoid the consequence so that people cannot say he is only good at speaking. Robert Fisk wrote in The Independent: One could only remember Churchill’s observations: ‘Words are easy and many, while great deeds are difficult and rare.’ Let us hope President Obama comes out as a difficult and rare taskmaster.
   Sirajul Islam
   Shyamoli, Dhaka

The singing of the national anthem in madrassahs is long overdue. But the truth is no nation willingly separates its young citizens from such a young age driving them into different worlds which seldom coincide. It is our irresponsibility that has brought us to this situation. State managed seminaries, with broad consultation, can develop the religious men who will lead our congregations in prayer. But the vast majority of madrassah students should be sitting beside their fellow citizens in the classrooms of regular government schools. Many will argue about this but I have never met a successful man who studied at a madrassah and then sent his own son to a madrassah. We are tearing the soul of our country apart and we have been doing so for a long time.
   Ezajur Rahman
   Kuwait