The TIME magazine dated November 9, 2009 had a short featured article under Postcard: Kolkata, written by Nilanjana Bhowmick. The bi-line says ‘The fight for Mother Teresa’s remains.’
   Mother Teresa is synonymous to India or in the context of the slums of Kolkata. At the eve of her upcoming centenary of birth in August 2010, Albania has demanded that her body be exhumed and flown back to Albania to be buried next to her mother and sister at the Albanian capital, Tirana. Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berigha made this demand to the government of India. It is predicted that Albania will most probably campaign with more intensity to claim her remains before her upcoming birthday. Since this official request there has been protests going on and the nuns of Mothers Teresa’s order are wondering why would Albania demand this, since Mother had little connection with that country. Fearing that Macedonia may also make such an unreasonable request, West Bengal’s million member state forum has called for a mass protest, according to the Time magazine. The foreign ministry of India has issued a statement saying, ‘Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and she is resting in her own country, her own land.’ Her own Missionaries of Charities has described such a request as ‘absurd.’
   Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to her ethnic Albanian parents who went there from Macedonia. She was born in Skopje, Albania which is now part of Macedonia on August 26, 1910. Mother Teresa left Albania at age 18 when she felt there was a higher calling for her to go and to help the others in a distant part of the world. Upon arriving in Kolkata she joined the sisters of Loretto convent and taught there. That school was primarily for the privileged children of Kolkata. She later roamed through the streets of Kolkata and was very saddened by the plight of the ‘untouchables’, poor and the hungry. She decided to leave the convent to help the poor. She later founded the Missionaries of Charity, her order. Form then on the poor and the needy in Kolkata had mother Teresa who relentlessly tried to help by taking care of them. Mother Teresa is a symbol of grace, who helped others to overcome struggle and tragedy and taught them how to replace it with promise and dignity. To her each life was precious. Given an opportunity one can overcome all sorrows and difficulty and can fulfil their lives with hope. To her life was an adventure, and through her non-stop work to improve the quality of a human life she worked unfailingly until the very end of her life. She died at 87.
   Mother Teresa doesn’t only belong to Kolkata; she belongs to the world where there is suffering and injustice against the poor, the helpless and the sick. She got much recognition while she was alive or in death. She got another cover by the Time magazine where the cover on December 29, 1975 says ‘A Living Saint.’ She was a Nobel laureate who died in Kolkata on September 5th 1997. She donated the money that was awarded to her when she received the Nobel peace prize to the destitute of Kolkata. In her own words, ‘By blood I am Albanian. By citizenship I am Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world.’
   Since the news of Albania’s request was made public talks are moving in all directions. Internet message boards are filling up fast. People all over the world are outraged mostly. Some are saying that Albania is trying to exploit Mother Teresa’s status and popularity and her sainthood for tourism to flourish. It is nothing but pure exploitation.
   It is ironic that Mother Teresa who fought to eradicate poverty, disease and human suffering by roaming the streets of Kolkata will have to be disturbed in death. Even such a talk is insulting to what she stood for. She at night went looking for the poor, the hungry and the sick and took them with her and gave them food, shelter and endless love. She tried to restore their faith in human dignity. We should all join in protest that her remains should stay untouched and her remains should not be disturbed.
   Zeenat Khan
   USA

When I look at my beloved country, I feel very frustrated. And I guess this is common with most of the citizens who want to live in peace and stay away from the quagmire of politics. Our politics is becoming pointless day by day and failing to address the main issue — development of the country and the people. We have observed and will observe more false promises by our leaders. I doubt whether most of them really feel or try to achieve what they have promised to the people before they got elected.
   Bangladesh is a small country with a huge cabinet and this huge cabinet is run by taxpayers’ money. Why do we have so many political parties? And why can’t they come to a consensus on at least one point — development of the nation?
   What is really frustrating is that these political parties are more vocal about their own needs than about people’s welfare. I haven’t seen them protesting the price hikes of different commodities, increasing price of fuel, closure of jute and other industries, etc., with as much vigour as they protest the ‘torture and oppression’ on them by the ruling party. So how can we say our politics is constructive and will one day turn our country into a developed nation?
   Mohammad Rahman
   On e-mail

These days residential areas are losing their basic dignity. Some people of no taste of sophistication are invading the serenity and solemnity of the nesting ambience by installing their offices in residential areas. More appalling is the fact that these people are establishing schools in these areas that are truly based on moneymaking approach. The trouble that these institutions pose to the residential areas is manifold. The roads of these areas remain jam-packed almost always and people find it really difficult to make free moves.
   It is observed that some vehicles ply around these areas frequently that increase the hazards. As a result, accidents often take place. Roads get blocked to create havoc in the lives of the inhabitants. We become hostage to this phenomenon at every turn of our life, which is entirely uncalled for. Residents of CDA residential area of Agrabad, Chittagong, are undergoing all these hazards that need to be addressed and looked into by the authorities concerned.
   This phenomenon is a pervasive one in the cities in the country. Dhanmondi area bears testimony to the point.
   One wonders if there is no specific law for the residential areas. If laws are there the question arises as to how and why they are violated.
   Let people live in a congenial atmosphere of living ambience.
   Rafiqul Islam Rime
   Agrabad, Chittagong

Every day people are killed in road accidents. Apparently, nobody is taking notice of the problem. And it looks as if the authorities concerned have turned a blind eye to this problem. But a little attention from them can save a lot of lives. As a common citizen, I would like to suggest some measures to check road accidents:
   • Introduce stricter laws to prevent road accidents and implement them.
   • Stop corruption at BRTA, especially when it comes to issuing licences.
   • Provide training to all road users, including truck drivers, rickshaw pullers, etc.
   • Set up speed cameras on the road to stop speeding.
   • Test fitness of all vehicles every year and give them a certificate, which can be stuck on the windscreen.
   • Ban rickshaws or cycles on the highways.
   • Remove all markets from all highways and build bypass roads where highways go through upazilla towns.
   • Do not allow parking or loading and unloading at unauthorised places, especially on the highways.
   • Increase the number of highway police and provide them with modern equipment.
   • Extend and improve the railway service so that pressure becomes less on the roads.
   Mainul Huda Quadery
   West Bakalia, Chittagong

Due to price hike and consequent devaluation of the local monetary units both in the international and as well as national markets, it was obligatory for the government to raise the salary levels of different categories of manpower engaged in working for the government. But reviewing the past revisions it appears that it has rather been a tradition to keep the difference between the lowest category and the highest category of employees almost ten times in every revision so far made.
   If we consider the basic needs for living, we do not find any discrimination. For example, there is no special low price (one tenth) for rice or medicine or transport fare for low grade employee. Sickness equally affects us all or possibly more aggressively the lower grade (because of their poor nutrition and disease resistance or ignorance). So, how should we justify to expect them spend less on these basic necessities of life? If we cannot do that, how do we expect them to survive or alternatively look for other means to get some extra money by asking for bribes, for example or by any other means?
   So, unless there is any provision for ration at a very subsidised rate and free guaranteed medical facilities, this proposed payscale is really unjustified.
   SA Miah
   Quebec, Canada
   

I congratulate Mahmood Elahi for his scholarly Feedback ‘Democracy’ (11 November). There is no doubt that the sub-concept of ‘majority’ buried within the concept of ‘Democracy’ for choosing the rulers is a big detraction from the merits of democracy, and very often causes arrogant and tyrannical rule by parties and party leaders. Sometimes it also hinders a fight against ‘population explosion’ as the ‘rich’, or ‘poor’ or various other groups try to increase their share of the
   population for a greater influence.
   The wily Athenians found a checking mechanism in the Athens Council and Elahi rightly advocates such a Council for Bangladesh. I have also in the past advocated such a Council in the form of an Upper House of Parliament as it is the modern equivalent of Athens Council in most democracies for checks and balances on draconian legislation and behaviour by any ruling party. It also has the advantage that elderly and experienced politicians can be retired with honour in such a house for the benefit of the whole nation.
   Engineer Shafi Ahmed
   London, UK

In early 1998 when I just started to use Internet (I mean e-mails), Bill Gates headed Microsoft at the peak of its commercial powers. The world’s most excellent software giant claimed a 90 per cent market share in all desk and laptop PCs and it was difficult to imagine anything that could upset, much less evoke alarm in, the king of software. However, when asked what challenge he most feared, Bill Gates reportedly responded, ‘I fear someone in a garage who is devising something completely new.’
   Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, were that very pair. Based in a Menlo Park, California garage, these two software engineers were preparing to launch a product that would change the way the world used the Internet.
   Now we see the meteoric rise of Google from its humble beginnings through its multibillion-dollar profits. Internet is a modern technological innovation. It had heralded the decline of traditional media like the print journalism, music CDs, etc in the West, and beginning to show us that we’re not also risk-averse to it. It has changed the revenue stream, i.e., advertising sales in the West, and the ways in which Google serves as a flash point for many of the successes and controversies surrounding the digital age. Google’s uncommon rise is perhaps fitting for the most un-common of companies. The free amenities offered to Google employees are certainly unusual. Meals, massages, dry cleaning, and all-day transportation to and from work are provided to Google staff at no cost. Volleyball courts, grass fields, and employees pedalling around on company bicycles make the GooglePlex in Mountain View, California, look more like a university campus than the headquarters of a firm that boasted 2008 revenues of $21.796 billion. Google even allocates 20 percent of employees’ time for projects and activities of their own choosing. Google News, the popular news aggregator, is the product of one software engineer’s mandated free time. Incessant innovation has made Google the best search engine in the world and is a product of the company’s unofficial ethos ‘to shoot for the moon, not the tops of trees.’
   Google’s casual workplace culture and free services, such as, GMail, Google Earth, etc have created a public brand that meshes neatly with Brin and Page’s ‘Don’t be evil’ corporate slogan. Hundreds of millions of users like me trust the Google logo and many of its accompanying products. Though the founding duo dismisses the prospect that Google would ever betray user privacy for strictly commercial, and presumably selfish, ends, it is a cause of alarm for us because we see how email and internet contents are used to breach user privacy. By now, we know that Google archives significant stores of data on its users’ online behaviours to better target advertising with the ultimate goal of increasing revenues. Copyright concerns and privacy rights are just two of the controversies surrounding Google’s use of online content and users’ information.
   There are certainly the threats, both internal and external, that will challenge Google’s founders, executives, shareholders, users, and competitors in the future. We have witnessed the rise and decline of countless Internet and software start-ups. So, many people like me proceed with an analyst’s discretion when determining the effects of Google as a product, a publicly traded company, and a corporate brand. Although I acknowledge the robust success of Google, I like to point out that the company is far from invincible. It only takes a few geniuses in a garage to prove that.
   Sirajul Islam
   Shyamoli, Dhaka

The ultimatum came just four days after five British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by one renegade Afghan police trainee. ‘I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption.’ Very harsh and terse indictment of the Hamid Karzal led Afghan government by very frustrated Gordon Brown. But then Karzai is the creation of the US and UK led coalition.
   Karzai’s big and bold mentors could rightfully exercise their prerogative of hurling harsh indictment at their errant disciple. But how rightly? If the head of Afghan government had been installed by the Western mentors fully legitimate and mandated leader of his people why on earth Karzai needs the protection of close to a hundred thousand troops and largesse to be plundered between the ‘civilian contractors’ and few Afghan ‘officials’ and their cronies?
   Left alone, Afghanistan could have messed or mended around to do its own thing and not be such a ‘liability’ for Britain. British troops could have remained out of harm’s way and not having to make sacrifices. Afghanistan could be for Afghans to make what they were capable of.
   Above all, the harsh and angry words by the British prime minister seem to me to be very much out of tune with the unequivocal claims by Britain that the mission Afghanistan is to protect Afghans from Taliban attacks and provide security to the Afghans.
   By indicting Karzai government Brown is putting the onus of protecting the British troops upon Karzai, yet threatening to not quit Afghanistan. The problem is: how plausible is Brown’s assertion that British troops are fighting and dying to protect Britain from attack by Taliban? How many Britons buy that argument by their PM who is not only angry but also frustrated — twin dangers for a great leader.
   Husain
   Dhaka