I think most Bangladeshi's are either Awami Leaguer's or BNP'ers (Mr Alam) and so look upon the success or failure of the present government coalition from their own ideological imperatives. This is natural. Personally, I support none of the established political parties, and am utterly disillusioned with the corrupt and shubidabadhi nature of Bangla politics. The current law & order and economic situation is about the same as during the Awami League's tenure, unfortunately, there has been no marked improvement. It's a shame that Bangla political discourse so often degenerates into 'my party is better than yours' tirades.....that does not help ordinary Bangali's, which should be the aim of Bangla politics.

I. Ahmad,  rinek33@hotmail.com, England

Of drugs and youths Today, the problem of drug abuse among the youth has assumed a greater significance and heightened concern in various socio-cultural and economic strata. Though no accurate figures are available to measure the actual extent of the problem, drug addicts reporting to counseling in the country points out that the problem has spread among various age groups, and much among youths aged 16 to 25 years. The age group in which a youth is, signifies the transformation of an adolescent to a young person, which usually is accompanied with the trials and tribulations of a 'child' in becoming a 'grown-up'. A bundle of exuberant but undirected energy, he derives pleasure in taking risks and experimenting with new things. He craves to taste the 'forbidden fruits' in his quest for attaining recognition and status amongst his peers. Such a behaviour often brings him in open or concealed conflict with his parents and 'parent figures' which leads to the much discussed 'conflict of generations' and 'generation gap'. The situation has been further complicated due to the fast paced social transformation brought in the society by rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and rural-urban migration. It has eroded the traditional, informal, social control mechanisms and has even brought in changes in the structure of the family, from joint to nuclear, or at best an extended family. The 'media explosion' has shrunken the world, especially for the youth, and they are now more aware of things around. This has also raised their level of aspiration and ambition. With materialism, consumerism and individualism gaining ascendancy, modern youth is drifting away from his traditional roots and finds it difficult to cope with ever increasing social pressures. Further, the increasing economic pressures compel more and more parents to take full time employment leaving a child, more so a youth, alone in the house or in the company of friends. With no adequate programmes available to keep them busy, they become easy prey to anti-social activities including drug-abuse. There may be various reasons for a youth to take to drug abuse, from just curiosity and a tendency to experiment with. It may be an expression of his revolt against established authority, a way of gaining recognition in his group or he may just not be able to say 'NO', when offered. Therefore awareness creation or preventive education programme for youth is an imperative. In build up immunity amongst them, would promote self-respect and determination, provide experiences which encourage self-respect and sense of dignity, enhances personal and social skill which are necessary for functioning in a rapidly transforming society and provide for professional skills. What is more important is that the leisure time activities of both student and non-student youth are so organised that they provide for healthy recreation and constructive work habits. As is evident, a youth feels more at home within his age-group. Therefore, to reach them, it is but natural to take the help of more active groups among them. In Bangladesh, a strong emphasis has been placed on awareness building against drug-abuse among youth as they are considered to be the most precious asset for human resource development. Financial and technical assistance is provided by the government and NGO's to help them undertake activities such as socio cultural programmes. Experience has shown such programmes have a salutary impact, if backed by a good follow-up programme. It has also been realised that youth power can be harnessed not only from preventing youths from the malady of addiction but also by improving the environment they live in. One such example is the "Rainy Day" concert organised by Prothom Alo to observe the International Day against Drug Abuse and Trafficking. Some 15000 youths saying 'No to drugs' vowed to launch a nationwide movement against drug. I take my hats off to Anusheh who had the gut to narrate her once drug addicted life. Anusheh, you can be a good ambassador to help the drug addicts return to their original track. Such activities/programmes help to identify addicts in their own peer groups. Dare devils as the youth are, they prove to be an asset in reaching rather inaccessible areas of the community, such as, pockets of addiction. Many a time, due to their connection with traffickers, pushers and pedlars, it becomes difficult to impress upon addicts to leave their habit. It is here that the youths, voluntary organisations have not only been able to create awareness but also have been able to muster support for combating trafficking, pushing and peddling drug. No youth programme can be successful if not given adequate support, encouragement and recognition by the society itself. It is hopped that more MNC's will involve with motivational programmes against drug abuse by the youth. Congrats to Prothom Alo for coming forward to organise the concert for a noble cause -- after all youths are the next generation of a nation and no nation wants to have a generation derailed because of drug addiction. In conclusion I wish to say that no drug addicts should be looked down upon, they need care, compassion and counseling, so that they can turn over a new leaf in their life like Anusheh. In this regard the adage is worth quoting -- "every sinner has a future, just as a saint has a past".

Billy I Ahmed,  thewritingtable@yahoo.com, Bangladesh

THE MEGA CITY CALLED DHAKA The population of Dhaka has crossed well over 1 crore. The city has innumerable problems and all governments who ruled and now ruling Bangladesh is facing a gigantic task to manage Dhaka in terms of crime, transportation, pollution, gas, water and electricity supply etc. People from all walks of life are complaining and countercomplaining but progress is very slow for obvious reason of resource constraint. I want to raise a problem here of Dhaka which no government planner has taken seriously so far. The entry points of Dhaka city is so limited that going out from and coming in into Dhaka is a very frustrating experience. Dhaka has only four entry points: Katchpur bridge, Tongi Bridge, Ashulia bridge and Gabtali bridge. God for bid if for some reason these bridges collapse then Dhaka can only be connected by air or boat. What happens at the time of Eid or in any other occasions when there is mass movements of people in and out of Dhaka? My humble suggestion to the government is that there should be minimum double bridges in all entry points so that traffic can be stream lined only in and only out through separate bridges. Now easily a parallel bridge can be constructed in Gabtali at the back of the bus terminal and all buses and trucks can use that. There will never be a traffic jam at Gabtali. It is really ridiculous that we have only one bridge to cross if we want to go to Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Narshingdhi and all other places across Shitalakha. The old road from Jatrabari to previous ferryghat at Shitalakha should be widened and a bridge should be provided so that all transport going to Narshingdhi, Brahmonbaria and Sylhet can go through that bridge leaving Chittagong road over Katchpur less congested. Can our concerned people start thinking in this line and we have a better connected Dhaka after 5 or 10 years at least. * The writer is former director of human resources, Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel

Azam Choudhury,  achou@lennybd.com, Bangladesh

My great fear that no body is listening! The war with Iraq continues. And so the destruction and killing: Can we Find Unity in our Humanity? The feeling is quite surreal. It is like being carried inexorably against your will. It elicits a sense of powerlessness. I search to find the words to utter a protest. They do not come easily. That is what I am experiencing as I watch them rush headlong toward war. My dis-ease does not arise from a favorable view of Iraq. I am not unaware of the criminal behavior of Saddam Hussein. So I have to state that none of the arguments being put forth today to hype this all but inevitable war are to me compelling. Those arguments, as rehearsed daily in the western newspapers, TV talk shows, magazines and radio are as follows: 1. Iraq harbors terrorists. But so do Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It is also a fact that Germany, Great Britain and the United States have been home to terrorists groups. 2. Saddam has murdered his own people. While murdering one's own citizens is tragic, it is not unknown in history. Russia has done it in Chechnya, China has done it in Tiananmen Square, Germany has done it against the Jews, and in the United States, this tactic has been used against Native and African-Americans. 3. Saddam has chemical and biological weapons and is seeking a nuclear capability. But many nations of the world, including the United States, have chemical and biological weapons. Russia, Great Britain, Pakistan, India, France, and China all have atomic weapons and North Korea is said to be near that breakthrough, while Iran has missiles on the assembly line. 4. Saddam is evil. But so are or were Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Idi Amin in Uganda, Caeusescu in Rumania, Milosovic in Yugloslavia and Pinochet in Chile. It is, I believe, because this case for war against Iraq is so weak, that there has been a vigorous attempt at the highest levels of US government to link Saddam with the terrorists of 9/11. But, such a linkage has been denied in every intelligence briefing to Congress, a fact noted by the bipartisan chair and vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But, then the war hawks shout, 'did not the citizens of Iraq cheer the September 11 attack upon the United States with parades of chanting people in the streets?' Yes, but so did many people in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Pakistan. America is not universally popular. So what is the real source of this visceral hatred of Iraq that today has created this eagerness for war? I wish I had a clear answer. I do not. All I can do is speculate. You, my readers, must take these comments and questions for what they are - mere speculations. So ask yourselves, 'could any one of these possibilities be factors in that combustible mix that is fueling our nation's passion to go to war?' Dismiss them all if you wish, but allow them to be raised. Are the US motivated by the frustration of their unfinished and apparently unwon war against terrorism? The US was attacked brutally on September 11th. Despite a massive military effort to defend the terrorists, more than a year has passed and not even Afghanistan can be said to be secure or stable. Neither Osama Bin Laden nor the former head of the Taliban Government has been captured or confirmed as dead. Most of the hunted Al Qaeda operatives, central to the devastation of September 11, simply disappeared into the mountains of Afghanistan. They continue to engage in hit-and-run guerrilla attacks, in which a building is blown up here and a bus there. These attacks, like the Tet Offensive of Viet Nam, remind us that this enemy has neither been destroyed nor rendered harmless. Is it possible, that compared to these secretive and illusive terrorists, Iraq represents a visible enemy that US could crush militarily? Would that ease our haunting sense that the terrorists do not fight in a way that we understand? A successful conventional war might repair the damage psyches the US have sustained at the hands of the terrorists. Is that a possibility? Are there political reasons of US for this war? This has been suggested by foreign leaders and recently by Vermont's Senator Jeffords, that body's sole official from the Independent Party in the United States. It is a fearful possibility. Yet there are some political realities that cannot be denied. The economy is in a shambles. The stock market is at a five-year low. Fortunes and retirement accounts across America have been lost. It really doesn't matter what caused this economic depression, the party in power inevitably gets blamed for it. The midterm elections here in the U.S. are about a month away. Just a few weeks ago the driving agenda for these elections was the state of this economy and the factors, including corporate corruption, that have fed its collapse. A powerful motive exists for shifting the political debate from these domestic maladies to a foreign threat. It rouses patriotic feelings and diverts the latent hostility to an outside enemy. People rally around the commander-in-chief in a time of peril. The payoff is the control of both houses of Congress. No political party is above trying to set the debate for its own political gain. Of course that will be angrily denied and impugning the patriotism of those who pose this issue is the classic defense. Does the defeat of Iraq serve America's interests by making Middle Eastern oil available to the oil thirsty Western world? Iraq has huge oil reserves. If Saddam were defeated, a friendly government in Baghdad that owed its allegiance to US military might, would surely be cooperative. Never again would America be held hostage to Middle Eastern oil. Democracy, once installed in Iraq, so this argument goes, might then have a ripple effect all over that region. Is there at least a germ of truth in this intriguing possibility? Is there some unfinished family business here? The first Bush administration was a one-term presidency. Among the perceived shortcomings of that administration was the failure to finish the task in Iraq. The first President Bush left Saddam in power when his nation was on the ropes and his army in retreat. Does the son of this president feel a compelling need to write a new ending to this piece of history? I do not know, I simply wonder. I raise these questions as one who is grateful for America. But by America, I mean the dreams that are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the ideals found in the Constitution and even the hopes expressed in the Gettysburg address. These are the things that have made America a beacon of hope to oppressed people everywhere. Yet these are also the very things that I see being tarnished when President Bush Jr. the nation's leaders speak of preemptive strikes. These dreams, ideals and hopes are bent out of shape by the suggestion that it is our right, in violation of international law, to remove from power any government US do not approve. They are ripped as under by us willingness to use their enormous military might to impose our will on a nation that does not pose a clear threat to our national existence. I believe that American power carries with it a responsibility to set an example of freedom. It gives us the ability to hold before the world a vision of liberty and justice available to all people. What message does the world hear from America’s rumblings of war? By ignoring inconvenient world opinion in order to rush into war, are we not in danger of becoming a nation more loathed than respected in the court of world opinion? Is that what the American dream has become? Human beings have always had deep tribal needs. To preserve their particular tribe or nation, human beings have throughout history done dreadful things to one another. These evil deeds are both noticed and long remembered. That is what feeds the current hatred in such places as Ireland and Northern Ireland, Pakistan and India, Israel and the Middle East. If power is used to impose US nation's will on another with little regard for their common humanity, the seeds of an enduring bitterness will be sown and the people of that nation and its secret admirers will find a way to strike back someday, even if it comes generations or even centuries later. Terrorism is one of those ways. A free nation, no matter how powerful, cannot finally defend itself against those who are willing to die in order to inflict pain on the ones they think of as their enemies. Americans may well conquer the world with their power only to discover that they have become vulnerable to decades of terrorist acts which will suck the very life out of the freedom that made America possible. If America do not find some unity in their humanity, then the tribal claims of competing nations will finally destroy civilization itself. The very dream that America personifies compels me to cry out against this relentless war frenzy that appears destined to end only in an armed conflict. I want to shout No! No! No! to the path that we now seem to be walking. My great fear is that nobody is listening.

Billy I Ahmed,  thewritingtable@yahoo.com, Bangladesh