E-Bangladesh

Part -I: Aresenic mitigation or commercial ventures

Photo: Arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh.

Latifa Begum of Alipur, Faridpur is counting her final days lying on the floor of Faridpur Sadar Hospital. She comes from a very poor family. Her husband died years ago, and her eldest son sells newspapers to barely survive in these difficult days.

Sulekha of Vashan Char, Faridpur died of internal cancer because she used to drink arsenic polluted water. Her mother started to narrate what happened but she had to stop, took her sari to wipe out her tears and continued:

When Sulekha came back from the hospital her whole skin became infected and began to rot. She could hardly breathe. She implored me, ‘Mummy, what evil have I done? I have not done anything wrong. And yet I must suffer and die. Mummy, please tell me, how long shall I suffer?’

“O My love has gone to a far country,
If God would only give me wings
I would fly thither.
I would go to that golden land, flying.
We are simple women.”

The story of Sulekha repeats all over the country. In most cases the cause of the suffering and the death is unknown. Even Sulekha did not know. If one drinks arsenic contaminated water death does not come within a short time. Instead people accept suffering and death as fate. You cannot just say to them, “don’t drink this water.” You have to educate them and provide alternatives.

Those who already died are from Aliabad, Kuzurdia and many other areas. And many more are waiting for their miserable days to end without knowing the reasons. The contamination of wells with arsenic is one of the greatest environmental disasters being faced today and must rank as one of the worst in recent times. Few policy makers like politicians and bureaucrats live in the affected villages to experience these sufferings and nobody cares about the people dying.

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Part-I: Posted Earlier.

Part -II: Its a catastrophe waiting.

The Daily Ittefaq published an article on July 26, 2008 that 80 million people of Bangladesh have high risk of arsenic poisoning. Specialists from Dhaka Medical College, Mitford Hospital, and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University reported a rapid increase in different cancers, liver cirrhosis, kidney, skin patients due to arsenic poisoning. If this continues a catastrophe of deaths will augment day by day. Dr. M. N. Huda of Mitford Hospitals said that arsenic patients from Kachua, Motaleb of Chadpur, Daundkandi of Commilla and Mushiganj are reported to be in increasing numbers day by day.

SOS-ARSENIC is reporting about this problem for the last decade.

Long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking-water causes increased risks of cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney. It also leads to other skin-related problems such hyperkeratosis and changes in pigmentation. Consumption of arsenic also leads to disturbance of the cardiovascular and nervous system functions and eventually leads to death. (WHO report, Smith et. al, Sept. 8, 2000) (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs210/en/index.html)

Smith predicted a big increase over the coming years in the number of cases of disease caused by arsenic. These ranged from skin lesions to cancers of the bladder, kidney, lung and skin to cardiovascular problems. Bangladesh is grappling with the largest mass poisoning of a population in history because groundwater used for drinking has been contaminated with arsenic.

Photo: Matabber of Purbogangabarti, Faridpur and 10 members of the family died because of drinking arsenic contaminated water above 800 µg/l (80 times higher than WHO standard) for decades.

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Part -I: Aresenic mitigation or commercial ventures

Photo: Arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh.

Latifa Begum of Alipur, Faridpur is counting her final days lying on the floor of Faridpur Sadar Hospital. She comes from a very poor family. Her husband died years ago, and her eldest son sells newspapers to barely survive in these difficult days.

Sulekha of Vashan Char, Faridpur died of internal cancer because she used to drink arsenic polluted water. Her mother started to narrate what happened but she had to stop, took her sari to wipe out her tears and continued:

When Sulekha came back from the hospital her whole skin became infected and began to rot. She could hardly breathe. She implored me, ‘Mummy, what evil have I done? I have not done anything wrong. And yet I must suffer and die. Mummy, please tell me, how long shall I suffer?’

“O My love has gone to a far country,
If God would only give me wings
I would fly thither.
I would go to that golden land, flying.
We are simple women.”

The story of Sulekha repeats all over the country. In most cases the cause of the suffering and the death is unknown. Even Sulekha did not know. If one drinks arsenic contaminated water death does not come within a short time. Instead people accept suffering and death as fate. You cannot just say to them, “don’t drink this water.” You have to educate them and provide alternatives.

Those who already died are from Aliabad, Kuzurdia and many other areas. And many more are waiting for their miserable days to end without knowing the reasons. The contamination of wells with arsenic is one of the greatest environmental disasters being faced today and must rank as one of the worst in recent times. Few policy makers like politicians and bureaucrats live in the affected villages to experience these sufferings and nobody cares about the people dying.

Read the rest of this entry »

The news is very eye-catching and commensurate in terms of ‘positive Bangladesh’: recently the ministry of Industry has sent a proposal to the cabinet division for the decision to reopen three state-owned mills. The National Coordination Committee (NCC) to combat serious crimes has recommended positively on the proposal. But the outcome is not so simple, as we see that NCC recommended to handover North Bengal Paper Mills, one of these three mills to the Bangladesh army for proper maintenances and productivity!

The Daily Star, one of the critical corporate media of Bangladesh reports on 13 July, 2008[]:

According to an industry ministry proposal sent to cabinet division early this month, the NCC recommended: “In order to make the mill productive, it is necessary to hand over the mill to an organisation that is disciplined and neutral. Therefore, it will be rational to handover the mill to the Army for its revival.”

Nice Recommendation! But it is not clear why they did not make the same recommendation for the other two mills when the NCC feels that productivity comes from only ‘the disciplined and neutral organisation’ like ‘Bangladesh Army’.

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Nava Thakuria
Guest Writer
E-Bangladesh

Almost a year ago, a middle-aged Bhutanese woman trader in the Indian border town of Phuentsholing sounded an ominous note for Bhutanese democracy. “We have heard about the polls on the Indian side,” she told this correspondent. “Sometimes, unexpected incidents also come out with the elections. We do not want those here in Bhutan. After all, we are a peace-loving nation.”

In Bhutan, she added, “Today we have no strikes. Everything is on schedule. But there is lots of news about bandhs (strikes) in India that even take innocent lives. I am even scared of thinking such incidents will follow democracy in our kingdom.”

No incidents have been reported so far but multiparty democracy survived when two members of the opposition, drubbed so thoroughly in elections in late March that they won only two seats, last week decided not to resign in shame and will instead form a loyal opposition – against 45 members of the royalist party. Indeed, on the same day as the two fledgling lawmakers agreed to join the parliament, a knot of protesters gathered in the capitol of Thimpu to demand that the king bring back the absolute monarchy.

It has to be frustrating for the abdicating king, Jigme Khesar Namgye Wangchuk, who has been trying for more than two years to make his isolated kingdom into a democracy. Weaning his subjects away from the kingship, however, is not easy in a country whose relationship to its royalty stretches back through at least four generations of absolute monarchy, and to generations beyond count of previous dynasties as well.

Certainly, if this were a laboratory for democracy, Jigme supplied some of the very best equipment. He told a stunned nation in December 2005 that he would leave the throne in favor of his eldest son, the crown prince. Parties were carefully prepared, with the royalist Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party accepting a design of three flying birds as its poll symbol, while the People’s Democratic Party used a white horse.

Using some of the world’s best technology, including electronic voting machines imported from India, and running through two mock polls beforehand to educate Bhutan’s isolated citizens on how to vote, the country held a first round of elections for the upper house of parliament in December and January.

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[Zulfikar Ali, USA]

I just came across a news article in DNINDIA which forced me to write something. Here is the excerpt  that I want to quote.

“The general is here to get the Indian political establishment to advise Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party not to take part in the national elections scheduled for later this year.”

It is a good thing when two neighboring countries military chiefs visits and discusses national security but it gets controversial when an army Chief visits a certain nation to lobby against two ex-prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina and Khaleda Zia. As an unelected government official, it is unconstitutional for an Army chief to visit foreign nations and discuss internal politics. He doesn’t have people’s mandate to host such a dialog.

This is a just recent example of how Bangladesh government is running under the shadow of military dictator. We must have election in Bangladesh as soon as possible and give people back their basic human rights. And General Moeen must stop interfering in the national politics while serving as a Chief of Army Staff. Otherwise Bangladesh Army will get controversial because of one man’s wish to be a King illegally.

Update 2/27/2008

This article by Bhaskar Roy interestingly encourages General Moeen U’s activities and actually calls him the “leader of his country“. Article ends with,

“There is a lot to be done in the Indo-Bangladesh relations. It is for Dhaka to grab the opportunity. Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed should return from India as an encouraged leader of his country.”

I don’t recall General Moeen U Ahmed being elected in any election to be called “leader of his country”. He is a military personal and a government servant. I am ok calling him “Leader of Bangladesh Army” for his current position, but not “Leader of the country”. India, as being the largest democracy in the world, should not encourage military dictatorship in the region for its own shake. What’s your thought on this?

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Zulfikar Ali  [http://www.bangladeshpolitics.org]  is one of the young analysts of the politics of Bangladesh living in USA. He uses to write as a Guest Blogger for E-Bangladesh. 

[Robin Milford, Bangladesh.]

My memories of December 16 go back to 1990. It was the time when HM Ershad had just stepped down and the first caretaker government, led by Justice Shahbuddin Ahmed, was in charge. The people of Bangladesh were beaming with new hopes, the hope for a democracy, the hope for a society devoid of any injustice and inequality forever, the same hopes that drove our liberation struggle but were not realized after we earned our freedom. The level of optimism was simply stupendous, enough to stir the minds of millions of school going children like myself.

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[Photo/Banglar Chokh: Waiting for relief.]

[Abu Jar M Akkas, Bangladesh. Back from Sidr-devastated Patuakhali.]

Future looks bleak for about a thousand and a half cyclone survivors in two Mirzaganj villages of Patuakhali, at an aerial distance of about 153 KM from Dhaka, as short-term aid activities, which could ensure them a bare living for now, would hardly hand them a means to earn their living in coming days.

There are many who were partially affected by Sidr that struck the coast on November 15, yet there are many others who lost all they had — homesteads, family members and a meager living.

The villagers of Charkhali and Golkhali are now left with a dream of better days only if they are given the support they need to start farming and that too not before November, when they were supposed to harvest their aman crops which were washed away or damaged by the cyclone, as the paddy fields now lie waste.

Most of them also need to leave behind the trauma, still evident in the face of many, they had gone through on the night of November 15.

Forty-five-year-old Rizia Begum, who lives on the road passing by the villages at Subidkhali that became cratered for a stretch of about five to 10 feet every 20 feet, Friday said her house was damaged when tidal surges, whipped up by the cyclone to a height of six to eight feet, rushed in at about 10:30 PM.

All her family members clung to a floating auto-rickshaw that got stuck between the damaged house structure and an electric pole for about 10 minutes the surge lasted. When water flushed out, they found themselves half-naked. The strong current took their clothes off. And they had to search for about four hours to find a boy of the family who is one year and a half old about a quarter kilometer away.

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