Our Right to Information Ordinance (2008)

From the Daily Star I learn today that the government is taking views from the public about the proposed Right to Information Ordinance (2008). The Ministry of Information has a website, and they are supposed to provide the information there about the ordinance, and other things, and the Daily Star has published a list of emails where people can send in their opinions:
www.moisecretary@yahoo.com
addsecmoi@yahoo.com
isadmn_moi@yahoo.com
jsdev_moi@yahoo.com (jsdev = javascript developer?!?#$!@)
jsbmoi@yahoo.com
The site works on IE, and on my firefox (iceweasel) I saw
<%@ Language=JavaScript %>
But all you firefox weasels, you can still ‘view source’ and get the info if you really want to know what the govt. is upto. To save some trouble, here are the links:
http://www.moi.gov.bd/moimenu.htm - Links relating to MOI. Here you will find a link to the ordinance. Its in a .doc format, and in Bangla, which I couldn’t open to view.
http://www.moi.gov.bd/left_menu.htm - Various Links (includes BTV, BD Betar, FDC etc.)
http://www.moi.gov.bd/Footer.htm - Will reveal who is responsible for the atrocity of a website.
http://www.moi.gov.bd/telephone.html - Their 'Contact Us' page, very elaborate with even the home addresses of their members! Not too smart.

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Corruption: Overrated

Underrated: Lame Bureaucracy (or a very Lame Work Culture)

"Why do it today, when there is tomorrow?"

"I must send an official letter to my boss, who will send a letter to his boss, and then his, and then the approval must come down the proper channels before I can give you your birth certificate"

"Its procedure"

"Please have a seat while I talk to my cousins on the phone about the birthday party last night"

"Lets have many meetings and not really do anything"

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Women's Day

(Photo Credit: Istela Imam)

It maddens me when I meet some people in my country who by default undermines a woman's ability to do a certain job. It is unwarranted. So, when my father and I were waiting for my mother and sister to get registered as voters, we met someone like that. As it happened, male operators were taking care of the male voter wannabes (unsuitable? probably), and female operators were taking care of the female wannabe voters. As it also happened, my father and I were done in a jiffy, and had to wait quite a long time for my mom and sister to come out. I asked a male guard there why it was taking so long, and it was then when he made his remark about women. I told him he was wrong, and that there was no reason that it should take so long, just because the operators there were women. I thought I had made my point. Then again, I didn't know that our wait was to be a lot longer still.

I asked them when they were finally done "what took so long?". So, as it happened the operators were slower and did take longer! That made me realize, that a woman's ability is still not a question here. I think society's treatment of women also play a large role here. If girls grow up in an environment where nothing is expected of them, they will not grow to explore their potential, or be aware of it. The 'default undermining' is our society's view of women, and that largely affects the outcome of the women workforce. Its not uncommon to find women with engineering or medicine or other educational qualifications just doing nothing afterwards. The expectations sometimes are that they will be educated but not needed to work. The demand/supply of arranged marriages play a strong role in this situation, or simply rather loose hypocritical viewpoint of the educated parents.

Whatever, it may be, I know there are women out there who are offering so much to this society and the world at large, and I hope the future 'woman' chooses the right role model and gets to see that there is much they can do.

Lastly, a few links:
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Is Islam Really Stuck in the 12th Century on Women's Rights?

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