First Sparks from Headlines, October 29, 2013

PM asks AL men to help police: যেন বিয়ে বাড়ির অনুষ্ঠান! What? Help plan a birthday party? (New Age)

Hartal violence kills 5: At 5 deaths a day, are death tolls with 3 + pre-hartal day violence at 25? Salute to our democracy! (The Daily Star)

Non-stop Dhaka blockade planned: মাইরালা রে! মাইরালা! Interesting how much losses we counted over the years for this thing which is called 'care taker'. Interim now I suppose. (The Daily Star)

China hails Hasina-Khaleda talks: Huh? Do you guys have translators that good? (BDNews24)

BNP slams govt for tele-talk telecast: Wonder who this'll tip the scale towards! Interesting.  (BDNews24)

Govt schools asked to install hoardings on govt’s success: My word! :S (New Age)

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Bribespot.com - Identifying Bribe Hotspots

I can see how people are going out of their minds wondering if they're ever getting out of this gutter of a system where things move slow unless you pay an illegal extorted 'fee' aka bribe. Sometimes its a matter of getting your rightful papers back from an officer you just handed them to. I blogged about a website that is used in India to track the occurrences and also to share ideas about how to fight bribes and corrupt officials - www.ipaidabribe.com. I once also saw a pin on Google Maps on our Dhaka BRTA (Ikuria) which was labelled "The most corrupt place in the world" or something along that lines. I imagine it served well to make the victim feel like he got a semblance of a payback.

Recently I found another such site from a post from Thailand, and it seems to have a more global coverage - Bribespot.com. On a world map you can see pins of where bribes were paid. Right now certain countries have localized iPhone and Android apps too that serve to create the pins. It can help identify the bribe 'hotspots' according to its statement under the website's 'How it Works > Does it Matter' section.

People are trying hard to overcome this plague that seems to be ailing societies. However its a greater challenge I feel for us where people can actually empathize with the bribe demanding officers and institutes, and the government can ignore media and whatever public sentiments exist and issue statements of denial.

Related:
The 'Corruption' Tag

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Use of a Government? Khay na pinde?

For a long time now, I've been theorizing that we've completely forgotten why we have a government. We've all gotten so used to paying our own way out of everything, that the 'government' is almost a group of entertainers who go on Sangsad TV and say the darnedest things. Accountability is a fairy tale creature, while Corruption is a way of life.

This freedom from responsibilities given to any Bangladesh government is too painfully clear at this stage of our lives in the backdrop of a few things - trials of war crimes/human rights violation of 1971, Awami League's indemnity due to being in power, the Shahbagh movement which is now called the 'Stage of Mass Awakening', and the violence we're witnessing across the country, especially outside Dhaka.

The way I, an ordinary working man and lunatic, see it, is that the war crimes trials would have taken massive planning to complete successfully. Especially, since if I am the party, then I've been lenient on criminals who work for me, and similarly, to war criminals who work for me, but I am happy to persecute the others. For success, in really wanting a successful rooting out of anti-liberation elements, I'd need to have either been fair to start with, or, planned way ahead using lots of intelligence gathering and precautions to avoid a violent situation, knowing very well that one particular opponent in the arena, have a knack for it just like me!

If I had security considerations, and knowing the violence-knacked-opponent, I also would not have allowed the Shahbagh to carry on, instead of using it to poke that violent beast and to put more ordinary people in harm's way.

BAL was never one to play down their 'party' identity even while holding the majority in parliament. Every hartal, we've seen their party members taking law into their own hands, right in front of the police. It is commonly alleged that the police is a force that was built largely using political leaning as a criteria. Even if it wasn't, they sure do let the BAL guys do what they want in front of them! In such times, when you hear the Queen mother ask us (the general people) to form 'defense committees' in every area, its everyone's guess that it would mean defense committeees comprising of these same BAL guys who have that knack. Whereas before,  I could say they were unlawful, now, its the Queen's calling!

The government has been given their rights by us the voters and taxpayers, and they usually have 'responsibilities' in most countries. Security in the wake of a 40 year late war crimes trial, combined with the criminals in question all being active in politics should've been of utmost importance. This should be counted in their tally of failures.

Note: The photo was the cover of a documentary titled My Architect, about Louis Isadore Kahn the architect. The film was created by his son.

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Interesting Times at Bangladesh - Crimes, and War Crimes

A roommate once cooked something, or recommended a movie, I forget, to which I replied:
"Interesting!"

She just gave me a smile that let me know that she knows I am being nice to avoid saying I didn't think it was good! When, I title this post as "Interesting Times" - it is totally in that context.

I was just reading an article titled Sweatshop Garments Drag All of Us Down, which starts off with a little story from 102 years ago in New York, USA:

The turning point in the United States was the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, when 146 garment workers — mostly women seamstresses — were burned to death when an exit gate was purposely locked.

The article describes the reaction that incident caused from a huge number of people that ultimately led to reforms in laws and ensuring better protection for workers. That is an important result that we should be learning from considering the fires that are continually claiming lives of workers here. The thing to realize, is that businesses will be businesses, with their eye on profits, and it falls on a government to make sure the rights of the general people which includes workers, are set and protected.

Issues like this are all around us now in Bangladesh, but its amazing that most of us are not aware of our rights and what we can expect from the government. Two highly revered economists a few weeks ago tried to tell us on a TV show that the 'growth' stats that the government throws in the face of its critics can take place very much in spite of them. My own feeling is that the government hasn't taken very many steps to ensure growth of new entrepreneurs and in fact, that they step in the way only to move aside for a price. In USA today, big businesses are very influential, but they also have a culture of startups and small businesses. Big businesses are after all, now taking their production off USA to countries where their cost of production will come down. Again, on this end, we are relying on a pressure created from abroad, rather than local, to ensure our workers have a safe and just workplace.

I am now writing this from home while a hartal is underway. Called by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, whose many "top" members are on trial for war crimes of 1971. But they have on their side a factor that helped ease them into mainstream Bangladesh, despite their past - religion. Religion, namely Islam, is the religion of the masses here and that remains the one thing that can create a visible reaction - unlike workers dying in factory fires, unlike students being tortured by police, unlike any other issue that should create a massive uproar. The YouTube ban is an example. Jamaat's religious base helped them get a big following across the country who upholds their religious identity more than their national or any other. That resulted in them being invited into alliances time and again when the elections came and numbers mattered. They are also known to command a good financial hold.

Just like religion trumps most social issues we should've cared about, the war crimes trial is in a similar way clouding our already clouded consciences from other things happening around us. War crimes included murder, rape, and destruction. Each of those are still carrying on in this independent country of ours. Whereas to me it seems like the last ticket the ruling government holds over this country's people for a second term in office is this war crimes trial, its also a maneuver in the overall game to foil the chances for their arch nemesis, BNP. Meanwhile, the ruling party cadres are instructed openly to take to the streets on hartal days to protect the 'people', whereas just weeks ago a young boy named Biswajit was brutally stabbed to death by these people-protectors on suspicion of being a Jamaat-e-Islami! There were heart wrenching photos of that in the papers, and accounts of how he begged for his life, and tried to make them aware that he was hindu. The irony is almost forgotten. Even the police stand by while these party people go on showing their weapons - batons, guns or swords. Either the people don't know how to speak up against these things, or these events don't register in the heads of people as being serious enough for any thought for a significant amount of time. Right now, we just naively sit home and hope for justice from the war crimes.

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Recycle. Politics. The "Lorem Ipsum" of a Parliament

In publishing and designing websites, there is a paragraph of Latin that designers use to demonstrate a space where text should go, and how much. That paragraph could be:

Lorem Ipsum dolor sit amet mi id ligula amet morbi tellus sollicitudin dolor pellentesque. Morbi accumsan lacinia velit metus morbi ipsum sit sollicitudin consectetur. Ullamcorper viverra sollicitudin sit mauris posuere auctor praesent id lorem. Tortor elit facilisis sit ligula tellus ac sollicitudin facilisis sollicitudin.

There are supportive sites on the Internet where you could generate this amount of text depending on the space on your website or page you want to fill.

While watching our parliament session last night (and of course watching them in general), I wonder if they get trained in their own little academies on how to fill the time given to them to answer questions, with meaningless Latin. Of course Latin is not meaningless to those who understand, and I am not sure who is meant to be the audience for these politicians when they start with their filler speeches!

Last night, a question was put for the home ministry, an apt question considering the recent display of the audacity and the ineffectiveness of the police force. The question was not so well stated, due to what I think is the attempt (of all in parliament) to be theatrical. Since the home minister was not present (?), the second-in-command was asked to answer. That is what inspired this post.

The filler speech could be broken down to two things, and they have 2 or 3 minutes usually to fill:

1. - Draw attention to the failures of the past regime with lots of emotional appeals, hand gestures, pauses - things that will put many stage actors to shame. This works too, since our two major parties almost without fail have cyclically come to power and have found it enough time to take whatever it is they need to survive the years they are to be out of power
2. - Speak highly of the dreams, goals and steps taken by the founding father of the party.

I was happy when the law & order question was asked, since, I and many citizens believe that the home minister should have stepped down or been fired for her inadequacies. Even on the evening this question was posed, there was a report in all the morning papers of a policeman beating a judge outside a courthouse somewhere.

While the fillers were being delivered, I felt like laughing out loud (LOL) like the lunatic I am, and I did to some extent. I could not believe the answer I was getting! Then he also pointed out that they increased their salaries and so and so forth.

We have managed to really turn our heads from what is the root of a problem and just throw money around as if the problem was that they didn't have enough toys or enough to eat. He mentioned they bought pick up trucks too. An editorial was also published which asked if we need to spend even more money on them to get them to do their jobs! A lot of people say they have a tough job. I don't disagree, but I think, so does a farmer, a rickshawala, a thela-gariwala (men who transport heavy goods on pull carts) and so many other people who live on less than them. Who will rise up and put us in perspective? Thanks for asking the question at least MP Fazlul Azim. Don't know what kind of a person you really are, but thanks for the question last night indeed.

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This is is all too much even for the Lunatic! Gawd!

From our "Real World":

মেয়ের শ্লীলতাহানি, মা-বাবাকে লাঠিপেটা - আদালত চত্বরে পুলিশি নিষ্ঠুরতা
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2012-05-30/news/261852
(Girl sexually assaulted, Mother and Father clubbed - Police cruelty in the Court area)

Excerpts:
দিনভর হেনস্তা শেষে আইন ও সালিশ কেন্দ্রের নির্বাহী পরিচালক সুলতানা কামালের হস্তক্ষেপে রাত পৌনে ১০টায় তিনজনকেই ছেড়ে দেয় পুলিশ।

The girl narrates: ‘পুলিশের একজন কর্মকর্তা আমার বাবার মোটরসাইকেল বন্ধ করে চাবি নিয়ে নেন। এ সময় আমি ও মা এর প্রতিবাদ করলে পুলিশ বলে, এই মোটরসাইকেলটি চোরাই। বাবার বিরুদ্ধে নাকি ডাকাতির মামলা আছে। একজন পুলিশ তখন বাবার শার্টের কলার ধরে টানতে থাকলে মোটরসাইকেল কাত হয়ে আমরা পড়ে যাই। এরপর পুলিশ বাবাকে মারতে মারতে মা-সহ আমাকে পুলিশ ক্লাবের ভেতরে নিয়ে যায়। সেখানে বাবাকে একটি কক্ষে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়। আমাকে ও আমার মাকে পৃথক কক্ষে রাখা হয়। একপর্যায়ে দুজন পুলিশ সদস্য আমাকে জড়িয়ে ধরেন। এঁদের একজন জামান (পোশাকের নামফলক অনুযায়ী) আমার সঙ্গে চরম অশালীন আচরণ করেন। আমার গালে-গলায় চুমু দেন। মোটা ও কালোমতো এক পুলিশ সদস্য গলা থেকে চেইন খুলে নেন। আমি প্রতিবাদ করলে গালে চড় মারেন। এতে আমার কানের দুল চামড়া কেটে ভেতরে ঢুকে যায়। তখন আমি চিৎকার করে মাকে ডাকতে থাকি। চিৎকার শুনে মা-ও চিৎকার করতে থাকেন। একপর্যায়ে পুলিশেরই কয়েকজন কর্মকর্তা এসে আমাদের উদ্ধার করেন।’ 

The mother says: 'বাবু নামের বংশাল থানা-পুলিশের একজন তথ্যদাতার (ইনফরমার) সঙ্গে তাঁর স্বামীর পুরোনো বিরোধ ছিল। দীর্ঘদিন পর আদালত চত্বরে তাঁর স্বামীকে দেখে ওই বাবু পুলিশ লেলিয়ে দেয় তাঁদের বিরুদ্ধে।' 

And the Police: 'পুলিশের লালবাগ বিভাগের উপকমিশনার হারুন অর রশীদ মেয়েটির এই অভিযোগকে ‘সাজানো নাটক’ বলে দাবি করেন। তিনি বলেন, মেয়েটির বাবা বংশাল থানার একটি ডাকাতি মামলার সন্দেহভাজন আসামি।'

The reporter narrates: 'ওসি সালাহউদ্দীন বলেন, ‘তোমার বাবার বিরুদ্ধে তো কোনো মামলা হয়নি।’ মেয়েটি বলেন, ‘না, আমি একা যাব না। সাংবাদিকদের নিয়ে যাব।’ এ সময় উপস্থিত সাংবাদিক ও আইনজীবীরাও মেয়েটির পক্ষ নিলে ওসি বলেন, ‘এই ধর সব কটাকে; গাড়িতে তোল, মার।’'

‘তোরা জেএমবি, দাঁড়া মজা দেখাচ্ছি’
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2012-05-30/news/261853
("You guys are JMB*, I'll show you the price for meddling!")

Excerpts:
দিনভর হেনস্তা, নির্যাতনের পর গতকাল মঙ্গলবার রাত সাড়ে নয়টায় আইনজীবীদের হস্তক্ষেপে কোতোয়ালি থানা থেকে ছাড়া পান রাশেদুল ইসলাম ও আটক আরেক আইনজীবী সাখাওয়াত হোসেন। ঢাকা জজ আদালতের জ্যেষ্ঠ আইনজীবী কাজী ফজলুল রশিদ তাঁর জিম্মায় এই দুজনকে ছাড়িয়ে নেন। এ সময় মহানগর দায়রা জজ আদালতের সহকারী সরকারি কৌঁসুলি (এপিপি) সাহাবউদ্দিন, বেলায়েত হোসেন ও মোস্তফা কামালসহ ১০ জন আইনজীবী উপস্থিত ছিলেন।

The Policeman says: 'গাড়িতে তোলার সময় সামান্য মারধর হতে পারে। কিন্তু থানায় আনার পর মারার প্রশ্নই ওঠে না। আর আপনাকে কে বলেছে এসব কথা? আর ওই ছেলে রাশেদুল পুলিশ ক্লাবের সামনে আমার সঙ্গে জঘন্য ব্যবহার করেছে। আমাকে তুই-তোকারি করেছে। আর সে তো আইনজীবী নয় বরং সে আইনের এক পার্টে ফেল করছে।'

The victim says: ‘যে পুলিশ আমাকে পেটাল, তাকে দিয়েই যদি তদন্ত কমিটি হয়, সেই তদন্তে কখনোই সত্য বেরিয়ে আসবে না।’(He uses 'jodi' [if], but as the report states, the assaulting police is part of the investigation team!)

জাতীয় বাজেট - পুলিশের বরাদ্দ কি বাড়ানো উচিত?
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2012-05-30/news/261725
(National Budget - Should we increase funding for the Police)

This is from the Editorial. The police are in the news far too frequently near the end of May. Written by a law educator, he urges the government to consider more funds for more training for the policemen, to increase their 'humanity' and to change the perception that people have of them.

Important point: প্রশ্ন হচ্ছে, এসবের জন্য পুলিশ কতটা দায়ী, আর নীতিনির্ধারকেরা কতটা দায়ী? বাংলাদেশ প্রতিষ্ঠার পর এ পর্যন্ত যাঁরা রাষ্ট্রক্ষমতায় ছিলেন, তাঁরা কি কখনো পুলিশের সংস্কার চেয়েছেন বা পুলিশের সংস্কারে কোনো উদ্যোগ নিয়েছেন? বর্তমান সরকারের একটি উদ্যোগের কথা বলি। বছর খানেক বা তারও কিছু সময় আগে বর্তমান সরকার থানা পর্যায়ে ওসিদের স্থলে বিসিএস উত্তীর্ণ এএসপিদের স্থাপন করতে চেয়েছিল। থানা পর্যায়ে সেবার মান বাড়ানোর জন্যই সরকার এমন একটি উদ্যোগ নিতে চেয়েছিল। কিন্তু কোন অজানা কারণে বা কোন গোষ্ঠীর চাপের জন্য সরকার এটা করতে পারেনি, তা আমরা জানি না।

Some references to a TIB** study: মাসের শতকরা ৪০.৭ ভাগ সময় আইনশৃঙ্খলা পরিস্থিতি রক্ষার জন্য ব্যয় করে। এর মধ্যে হরতালসহ রাজনৈতিক দলগুলোর পাল্টাপাল্টি কর্মসূচিজাত নানা পরিস্থিতি মোকাবিলা রয়েছে। ভিআইপিদের নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করার জন্য পুলিশকে ব্যয় করতে হয় মাসের শতকরা ৩২.৭ ভাগ সময়।

The Lunatic concludes:  The minister Tuku said it best - stay away from the police! Now men, women, if you won't listen to your ministers, I can't help you! So, stay home, and hope you don't get killed. Queen Mother, Muhit "Rubbish" Maal, and many other ministers already said that the digital Bangladesh will save us from Corruption, so stay home, order your groceries online, and you have plenty of poor people around to take out the trash and other menial things. Since the poorer bunch are probably not reading this, nothing here for them. But don't teach them to read and internet, so that they start staying home too! That would be stupid! ha ha.

* and ** - Requires Google Search.

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Newsmakers in the News: Police or Criminals, Neither Like This Lot!

After a satisfactory bout of beating up protesting teachers, it was time to get their itchy hands on a few photojournalists. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the glorious story of Democracy as never seen before. Even the German president said so, and many showered certificates and other praises on our Queen Mother for it. You have a minute to win it, and if you don't you are poor, and then maybe prone to going to protests, or maybe photographing them as part of your job (day, or part-time).

So, now the journalists are going to protest, protesting the police. Where do you go from here pals? Did you think about that?! Now that criminals attack your house and chop you up and leave you bleeding, now who are you going to turn to!?

"দায়ী ব্যক্তিদের দৃষ্টান্তমূলক শাস্তি হো - সাংবাদিক পেটানো পুলিশ" says one news, meanwhile, fresh off the grill is this one: "Criminals attack bdnews24.com journos" (be careful, the photo of bloody office floors can cause sick stomachs for some). Should've listened to Queen Mother when she said, "Don't be so prolific! I'll turn off the electricity!", but you never listen! You never listen!

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POLICE: Fundamentally Lacking

What they can do in broad daylight
probably surpasses anything
you might expect to see in other countries

I think TIB (Transparency International - Bangladesh) once conducted a public survey on what was perceived as the most corrupt public office. The people, not surprisingly, gave the top prize to the two which are responsible to provide justice to the masses - the courts, and law enforcers.

If you follow some of the links above, you'll see that they both cried "foul" at the survey, and loudly protested this marring with falsehood of their angelic characters.

Meanwhile, some brave journalists have shown reports even way back then of the corruption of the police force. Even the news of the Police HQ opening up for everyone to come to file cases contained an important fact - that the public was having a hard time getting regional police stations to make simple general diaries:

থানায় সাধারণ মানুষের ভোগান্তি দূর করতে ঢাকা মহানগর পুলিশের (ডিএমপি) সদর দপ্তরে সাধারণ ডায়েরি (জিডি) গ্রহণে বিশেষ সেল খোলা হচ্ছে। তবে আগের মতো সংশ্লিষ্ট থানায় গিয়ে জিডি করার ব্যবস্থাও চালু থাকছে।

... এ বিষয়ে জানতে চাইলে ডিএমপির কমিশনার বেনজীর আহমেদ প্রথম আলোকে বলেন, ‘অনেক সময় থানায় জিডি করতে গেলে নানা ধরনের ভোগান্তির শিকার হতে হয়। কখনো কখনো পুলিশের বিরুদ্ধে টাকা নেওয়ার অভিযোগ আসে। এসব বন্ধ করতে শিগগিরই ডিএমপির সদর দপ্তরে জিডি গ্রহণে ওয়ান স্টপ সার্ভিস চালু হচ্ছে।’
(March, 2012)

One TV report showed how a police officer was in shady operations with confiscated drugs in either Gazipur or Ashulia. And now, its back again on today's news: থানায় ফেনসিডিল ব্যবসা!

We've all also seen how they've stood back during hartals/strikes while the student wing of BAL played vigilante against the opposition.

Another report even more disturbing, since it tells about the state of our humanity and not just the police: Cops 'discipline' orphan kids

There are plenty that we received through the news and there are plenty of stories we as citizens can tell from our own experiences, and the only answer we seem to be getting is a denial. That is to say that we are all liars, and to look away from the fact that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system, something deep rooted that needs to be taken care of immediately to ensure that a country's citizens don't fear and loathe the very people entrusted with their safety! What the DMP commissioner admits above, doesn't make sense of the solution he is offering. Again, a lack of focus on the what is really wrong. We need a system that trains people to serve the public, instead of a system which ensures they can turn the public away, or worse, play them for a quick buck! (I wonder who had the idea to change the color of their uniform and put the slogan: "ও পুলিশ, বন্ধু আমার" (~o police, my friend)! I bet they had many meetings to get that far. If someone could just let them know, it was a waste of time and money!)

Related:
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Citizen Help Request
DMP's Feats
Guerilla Street Art (The police-mime photo manipulation is from here)

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Need to Know? Or Not?

On and off I read newspapers. Blah blah blah...., I tend to find my looney head oppose the habit after some time.

But what of the times, when something you know happened doesn't reach the news? What exactly is happening there? Who decides people should know about it, or not know about it?

Human rights, was that part of achieving MDGs? I hear we have jumped leaps and bounds in getting to our MDGs - statistics are being built right now to make sure we do. But anway, yes, who decides? I know rock music, especially those who growl and screech are not very mainstream - meaning not liked by a majority. So, minorities of youth, are the ones listening there, and when DJuice a brand thing of Grameen Phone, arranged a series of contests to find rock bands and award them a recording contract, it provided a much needed platform for the musicians living underground. The winner of the last contest, was a band called Powersurge, where Nahiyan was a guitar player. They didn't sing songs I usually listen to, but I could appreciate the energy and the power of their genre and their performance. So, anyway, one fine day Nahiyan gets arrested for stealing gold from a neighbor. Now I've seen news of young guys getting picked up and tortured before, and I've read news of stolen gold also. But in this case, neither seemed to make a stir! Two of the english papers put something out, other than that, zilch.

While trying to see whats there online throught Google, I find other instances where the news seems to have been selectively spread.

Labor rights activist Moshrefa Mishu

If our news dealers don't realize the power they hold, in keeping this country honest,  then there is not much left to write here. Its all quite useless.

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More Buses (and sure to continue)

An update from my last post on buses, which are affectionately also called "public transports"

A video ..

And also, fresh from yesterday's episode of 'life', a picture:

This, of course, came with the title -
"দুই মিনিবাসের পাল্লায় প্রাণ গেল দুই যুবকের"

Honestly, if we cannot hold the bus company owners liable for such incidents, we can continue expecting this kind of public service in years to come. When, riding speeding buses, commuters are happy to feel they're getting home or to work faster, but the injured commuters of the bus shown above, took part in beating the bus, which I imagine didn't have much of a well kept body anyway. And fellas, you were a little too late with the outrage don't you think?

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Out of the Box/Home Grown Solutions

"বাক্সে বাক্সে বন্দী বাক্স"
- অর্ণব-এর গান

I don't know what that song is actually referring to, but I remember we played it a lot when we actually put our years and years of life from Chittagong into boxes to move to Dhaka in July 2007.

Anyway, I am reminded of this song again, as I sit here and think of "Thinking out of the box". Where I am headed could be paralleled with HSBC's marketing campaigns where they claim to be "The World's Local Bank". Their ad campaigns showed two items or themes and they would both be the same thing, but in different contexts - the international, and the local.

Instead of prolonging further this introduction, let me get to the point: We need our own solutions to our problems! Think outside the box! Don't go for the obvious! Think about the local situation, the local mindset, the local environment, and costs before taking a decision. I am going to follow up these advisory statements with some ideas, which may very well be just the foolish rants of a lunatic who failed to read the "Don't Step on the Grass" sign.

Traffic Lights.
We spent a lot of effort, time, and money on putting up traffic lights all over town, and that was years and years ago, and we upgraded them in between also with some fancy stuff from Italy as I remember reading some years back. As it is now, there are traffic policemen on every road's end to contain the traffic. The red - light and orange go on and on and it doesn't really affect anything, since people are impatient and could care less for the law, and it actually takes a traffic policeman coming in front of the moving cars to stop them. 4 men at every crossroad (not uncommon these days to see traffic controllers at ends of alleyways inside residential and commercial areas either).

My big idea here is, instead of going with the rest of the world and the electronic traffic lights, why couldn't we have just put up those barriers that stop the cars in front of train lines?


Wonder how much costs we could have saved by putting these up, when there is already issues of sustainable power supply for this ever-expanding city of ours.

City Rail.
Having said that Dhaka is 'ever-expanding', if detailed you would notice its growing taller also as well as sideways. Sideway growth is to an extent good, but the fact remains that the number of businesses and apartments are growing tremendously inside the existing city limits and the roads are filling up with new cars every day. The situation is helped to some extent with lots of bus services around, but I would comment that they are almost 'inhuman' with their small seating spaces, and their mistreatment of passengers. Their sole goal to maximize profits, and they don't care how they do it, resulting in dangerously packed buses (sometimes very visibly leaning to one side), and dangerous driving to get places faster. So, them being there still takes up the road spaces and we are running low on road space. Hence the current declaration of projects to build expressways and overhead light rail trains to curb our congestion. Again, we are possibly looking at a few years' commitment, costs and not to mention, expanding travel ways don't necessarily take care of the growing city's increasing demand on utilities: power, gas and water.

We do however have rail tracks already running through the city, from Komlapur where the train station is to Uttora, and it runs through various key areas of the city - Moghbazar, Mohakhali, etc, ultimately stopping at somewhere in Uttora before finally heading out of the city. We could easily deploy some carriers and arrange the timings of the intercity carriers to accomodate them. Next, all we'd need are planned train stops, some kind of ticketing booth and waiting areas. I am no civil engineer or city planner, but seems to be, this could be worth looking into.

Bigger projects are however more lucrative, I suppose, for local leaders and international financial institutions, and we will always have that dilemma. Its pretty outside the box where ideas are just flowing and growing, but inside the box, the walls are high and slippery.
Get Pro Active Mrs. Government.

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Freedom King Burger Fries with Mustard and Mayo

Go watch a video?

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To serve and protect

"To Serve and Protect"

I think i heard that phrase in a movie. Something to do with the police. Well, that was just a movie! and where we are, the next in line in the scare list after criminals are the police.

Its a institutionalized symbol of the crude politics, and the corruption of our govt. Its an institution whose corrupt ways are most widely known. You can see them on the roadside, standing, on one foot, hands on their hips, licking their teeth behind their closed mouths, with their focusless gazes and their big tummies! If there is a bunch of them they will be sitting around having a chat.

Recently however you will see often some lean officers, with a beret and sunglasses, often resembling Stallone from the movie Cobra. So is there hope?

Zilch.

You go to make a GD, you will have to pay for their attention and time (And i wondered why people want to evade taxes). They are mostly ill mannered and ill-trained. So what can you say. Its become common knowledge about the sum of money required to enter the police force. It is common knowledge that despite the low salary scales of this job, it is LUCRATIVE!!!! It is common that a police man will take bribe! its like dark clouds and rain. Whether a drizzle or a storm.. it will rain. Gloomy, i know! :)

Extortion, is the latest in the 'services' offered by our uniformed protectors. With politicians on their backs to have them stop the opposition from protesting, the arrests of common people is rising. Suspicion is enough to arrest someone and the suspicion does not have to be stated or logical. Then maybe or maybe not, you will get a beating and then your family members can come and pay to take you back home.

Once a long time back a school girl on the way back home was the victim of a policeman. The headline of that story said all there is to be said about this:

"Rokkhok jokhon Bhokkhok"

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