The New Nation - Internet Edition

IT is reported in the press that around thirty-five NGOs have formed the Election Working Group for rendering support to official agencies for preparation of voter list and also for participation of voters in the upcoming election. Among others, retired Brigadier General M Sakhawat Hossain, one of the Election Commissioners, has pointed out that such NGOs have in the past plundered crores of taka on the plea of monitoring the election process. Members of those NGOs formally go to different areas with a view to projecting the importance of election and also encouraging voters to cast their votes as per schedule.

The objectives vis-a-vis preparation of correct voter list and the use thereof for holding fair election are quite desirable. Official agencies and the selected persons who go to residences of voters for preparation of voter list normally work dispassionately. They are found interviewing existing voters and the youngsters, who have atained the age limit after the last election and await their turn for enlistment in the upcoming voter list They also try to identify voters in the past list who have died over the years and exclude such names from the updated voter list Local persons selected from among teachers of schools, members of union parishads work as the monitor for the voter list

Experiences of the elderly people in different areas including urban centres and villages on the enlistment in the voter list are quite comprehensive. They were listed as voter for election held in the past decades. These people are found assisting officials and local people for preparation of correct voter list They wonder about the involvement of representatives of different NGOs for both preparation of updated voter-list and ultimate voting for election of Members of Parliament and local government agencies. These representatives usually take heavy amount of money from their source NGOs on the ground of enabling local people to enlist themselves in the voter lists and ultimately voting in the set election.

Some of these NGOs are found taking financial support from even foreign agencies and distinguished personalities for the intended goal of updating voter lists. Their agents going to different towns and villages use the same money for holding meetings of the local people and hosting set festivities. They are not required to prepare any financial statement on the use of such funds and money for presentation before the public. In the process, such agents virtually siphon off the major quantum of money for their personal gains. They are not at all accountable to the people of the area or even to the management of the NGO concerned.

In the process, set NGOs virtually plunder crores of Taka and use the same for their listed officials and agents. The related issues have been projected by members of the Election Commission on August 23, when enlistment of voters with photographs was initiated in the Savar municipal area. They have urged the Ward Commissioners and members of the civil society to monitor the use of fiscal resources, including the fund of the set NGOs. The prevailing practice of NGOs working for preparation of voter list and also for encouraging listed voters to cast their votes on time should be brought under effective control.

Dr. M. S. Haq

It appears from a print media report of today, 19 August 2007, Noble Laureate Prof. Dr. M. Yunus repeated again yesterday - at the sixth conference of South Asian Free Media Association - one of his 'recently' configured anti-poverty propositions which is associated with sending poverty to museum.

The message contained in above proposition would have been fine if it, for example, did not interfere improperly, unjustly and naively, in varying degrees though, with apparent present day truth, knowledge, information and understanding associated with poverty.

Poverty is, among other things, a one time fixed reality when it comes to one of its many faces and phases at a given time in the context of a particular living being or a group of living beings under certain circumstances. It is also a variable, as well as moving reality because it is not for example, immune from changes and transformations that have been taking place - in known, suspected and other ways - within and beyond its domain on a continuous basis through existing time continuum.

Ramifications of poverty related cause, effect and causality at individual, collective and other levels have so far, relative to time, space and other variables, found their critical paths (used in an operations management sense, per se) - through human and other systems that include inter alia their sub-atomic components (used in an equivalent sense of life sciences) and components beyond sub-atomic levels and through environmental domains, known, suspected or otherwise, that transact on a regular basis, positively or otherwise, with life, living and continuity - both within and beyond a given generation in the universe.

Interplays of poverty and living beings can, among other things, be examined and explained, either in part or in a near full manner or otherwise, in the context of several things. For example: the Newton's third law of motion, every action has an opposite and equal reaction; relevant principals of fluid mechanics; Einstein's theories of relativity, as applicable; pertinent laws of thermodynamics; relevant components of laws of conservation of mass and energy; behaviors of human immune systems in pertinent areas; transactional analysis of human behaviors in relevant areas; relevant mathematical formulas; pertinent principles of developmental economics and environmental economics; global commons related controversies; governance and public administration practices, as appropriate; pertinent human rights laws; political theories and theories of political economy as applicable; relevant theories of management; faith; and morality.

Poverty can, among other things, be created, imposed, reduced, promoted and regenerated by agencies internal and external to human beings, per se. It atacks people, with varying intensities, at different levels of their need (including inter alia a self actualization need) and want hierarchies, as applicable, and consequences of atacks can be life long or beyond in one form or another. People, on the other hand, have been atacking poverty at different levels of its cycle either consciously or otherwise (including inter alia, human immune system responses) on a continuous basis, per se. The botom line is: the atacks and the counter atacks go on; affecting, in varying degrees, inter-generational transfers at human and other levels and creating opportunities for persons concerned to run anti-poverty businesses on a "more for less" basis for the poor, among other things.

An analysis of say, present day people-poverty interplays, poverty-people interplays, and outcomes of those interplays, whether tangible or otherwise, would reveal, inter alia: people are entering into the poverty cycle; continuing their stay therein; coming out of the cycle; re-entering into the cycle; and infecting and re-infecting others in the process; all relative to time, space and other variables, though. It should be noted here: products of atacks and counter atacks do not necessarily result always in bad or semi bad things but in good things like, discoveries, inventions and innovations in relevant areas, whether pro-people or not

In light of maters discussed and not discussed so far in the article, it can now be said more specifically: the suggestion does not appear to represent the outcome of a time-sensitive, as well as comprehensive appreciation of poverty as a subject, an object, a realism, a substance (including inter alia in a virtual sense) and a goal, to mention a few; the suggestion appears to be, in many respects, a product of peripheral thinking and conceptualization and not a product of in-depth intellectual exploration and deeper scholarly work in relevant areas; it can be considered as a cheap motivational item or a politically spirited slogan or both but it could mislead people especially, when it comes to challenges and opportunities associated with efforts towards positioning and repositioning poverty in its truer perspectives, facilitating a more solid, more pragmatic and clearer understanding of world people (to whom it may concern) about poverty and about strategies for its reduction on the bases of currently known, as well as suspected parameters and perimeters of poverty; among other things. Kindly note the terms "truth", "true" and other relevant ones have been used in the article in a relative sense, for an instance. Nothing is absolute save and except God (those who believe in that).

Let me now share with the readers a few of my present day concerns about the suggestion of Noble Laureate Dr. M. Yunus:

One, despite developments and breakthroughs in the domain of knowledge and information on a daily basis virtually, world people have been suffering on a continuous basis (in varying degrees though) from say, knowledge and information related insufficiency, relative to time, space and other variables. They are increasingly becoming, in many respects and in pertinent areas, victims of knowledge and information related infections, as well as diseases due for example, to consumption of: a half of a knowledge or information or both; a quarter of a knowledge or information or both; cooked up or false knowledge or information or both; contaminated knowledge or information or both; knowledge or information or both that are inaccurate either in part or in full; and knowledge or information or both that do not represent apparent realities either moving or fixed, in part or in full or otherwise in relevant areas.

Against the backdrop of above developments and developments in other relevant areas, it is now being observed: an increasing application of knowledge and information with and without the help and assistance of relevant technologies plus other things to areas of life, living and continuity in the universe has, among other things and as appropriate, been instrumental in facilitating the use of knowledge and information as: a tool for cheating and misguiding people; a tool for justifying unfair and unjust practices in relevant areas; a tool for exploiting poor and hungry; a tool for promoting and sustaining terrorism; a tool for plagiarism and other malpractices in relevant knowledge areas; a tool for disrupting genuine and purposeful efforts towards promoting human freedom and liberty; and a tool for facilitating intellectual dishonesty.

I have avoided mentioning deliberately in the foregoing paragraph numerous good contributions of knowledge and information to areas of human welfare, for example. Instead, I presented therein only a number of soft sides of present day knowledge and information for the consumption of readers. One of the purposes for that is to trigger readers' interest in exploring and establishing: To what extend and how, soft sides of relevant knowledge and information have influenced and polluted the museum related suggestion of Prof. Yunus?

Two, contemporary transactions that have been taking place between and among say, knowledge and information users at various stages of human life cycle are not, in many respects and on an average sense, conducive to promoting and sustaining a free-mind approach to explore and understand knowledge and information in relevant areas. There can be several reasons for that For example: impacts of heavily subscribed societal traditions and practices - such as, wise persons cannot be wrong, bosses cannot be wrong and arrogance on the part of wise persons not to accept the truth even after it is revealed to them - on relevant human minds; the tendency to establish and promote apparently wrong or nearly wrong ideas in societies by powerful persons, whether consciously or otherwise as part of power games, per se; deliberate atempts of sponsors and supporters of powerful persons to transform their (I mean, powerful persons') emotional outbursts or uterances that may contain a half of a truth or a quarter of a truth into full truths, per se; apparent inabilities of human minds to recover on relevant occasions from influences of knowledge and understanding imposed by academicians and others due to their knowledge and understanding related inadequacies or unfair knowledge related practices on their part or their knowledge related inferiority or superiority complexes or non-fulfillment of their unfair expectations, expressed or not, from students and other clients, per se; and barriers of different types to express and exchange ideas due to say, liberty and freedom related constraints at local, national and other levels.

Further, a less than required availability, as well as use (as applicable) of true knowledge and information in pertinent areas at family levels, deficiencies associated with knowledge delivery at primary school levels, and inefficiencies, as well as ineffectiveness associated with atracting and harnessing learning opportunities from respective environments have, among other things, been instrumental in affecting knowledge related foundation building of children in the formative years, in varying degrees though - relative to time and space.

In light of above, if, for example, a child is given the understanding, poverty could be sent to museum, number of things, could happen. For example: she or he would be deprived of her or his right to know the truth about the mater unless she or he comes across the truth in pertinent areas as an outcome of her or his explorations in pertinent areas or otherwise at any future stage of the human development process (used in both medical and non-medical senses); he or she could join the crowd that believes in and promotes truths that are challengeable easily, unsustainable logically and unacceptable scientifically, per se; she or he could elect, in the subsequent part of life, to spend time, efforts and other resources for something that is not realizable. One might in that respect argue that a windfall from his or her contributions might facilitate a further advancement in anti-poverty work at any future time. It could be fine in some respects.

But people will then have to decide or determine or both for example: whether or not they will work towards a more realistic and achievable anti-poverty goal or a less realistic or unrealistic anti-poverty goal based on suggestions such as, "sending poverty to museum"? Whether or not they will commit their resources for running behind a mirage or for running behind something that that has an apparent potential for ensuring a maximum return from scarce resources? To what extent, pertinent ramifications of the suggestion could be instrumental in creating, sustaining and promoting a kind of lethargy and a lack of motivation in anti-poverty efforts over periods of time? To what extent, the suggestion will be instrumental in enhancing uncertainties associated with anti-poverty efforts? To what extent, the suggestion could be instrumental in promoting abstractions (used not in an apparent and wholesome positive sense) in the path towards the future of anti-poverty work? How would it affect knowledge and understanding in anti-poverty and related areas at intra and inter-generational levels, per se?

A brief analysis of concerns and points raised and discussed in the article so far would reveal, among other things and as applicable, Prof. Yunus's slogan is not immune, in varying degrees though, from knowledge, information and understanding related pollution, inflation, inflammation, corruption, misplaced political motivation, naïve realism, immaturity, and misinterpretations of pertinent laws of nature and religion.

The last word: the existence and continuance of say, human beings in the world is relative to time, space and other variables and such are their products, products of environment and other known things created by Almighty God - used in a widest sense of the meaning. The suggestion "sending poverty to museum" is no exception to that unless Almighty God decides other wise in that respect Under the circumstances, it will not be probably appropriate to say the suggestion offered by Noble Laureate Prof. Dr. M. Yunus to world people is apparently right at least at this point in time. Let us continue our fight against poverty in a more collective, purposeful, realistic and result-oriented manner.

Farish Noor

PERHAPS it says something about the human condition today that so many of us feel the need to belong to, as well as to own a part of, history. Living in the postmodern world of late industrial capitalism where more and more of us have become the denizens of a shapeless and homogenous urban landscape worldwide, the sweet nectar of nostalgia seems all too tempting and simply too easy to sample.

This fact was brought home to me recently during a public talk in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when a speaker from the audience spoke of her anxiety and need to preserve what she regarded as the grand history of her 'race' and 'nation'. Lamenting the idea that her child may end up one day as yet another statistic in the relentless march of global capital and consumer culture, she spoke about the need to emphasise her 'Chinese-ness' and to retain links to the past of Chinese civilisation; which, she added, was four thousand years old…

Yet such rhetoric is not new to me. How often have I encountered similar arguments among Muslims and Hindus all across Asia, who claim that they too belong to grand civilisations thousands of years old, and that they saw the need to preserve in them a space where this culture and civilisation could be kept alive? More often than not I was taken to the sites of great and maginificent mosques, temples, palaces and other architectural wonders to be shown how great the Chinese, Indian and Muslim civilisations were. And of course the greatness of Western civilisation is rammed down our throats on a daily basis thanks to the hegemonic impact of Western popular culture, which reminds us time and again of the greatness of the Greeks and Romans.

Now take a step back from this froth and sentiment and one will notice a glaring error hiding in the premises of these arguments. For a start, it would be nonsensical to state that any Chinese person today has or had anything to do with the cultural achievements of China in the past; any more than any Muslim, Hindu or Christian today has contributed an iota to the development of the civilisations they hold so dear.

It is interesting to note that we who live in the immediate present have no problems whatsoever taking credit for what was done by our ancestors hundreds of years ago, as if somehow the accumulated credit for human labour can be passed down from one generation to another like capital gaining interest in the bank. Odder still is the fact that this logic is seldom reversed, for Christians, Muslims and Hindus today would not want to take responsibility for the mistakes and outrages commited by their very same ancestors long ago.

Furthermore it is almost comical to note how this recourse to nostalgia often harps back on the achievements of singular individuals who may not have acted with the interests of others or posterity in mind. Muslim apologists talk about the greatness of Muslim sultans and emperors, oblivious to the fact that if they were living in the days of the great Muslim empires of the past they would probably be playing the lowly role of serfs and peasants, to be stepped on and exploited by the very same great sultans they so admire today. Likewise, apologists for China's great imperial past forget that the greatness of China was meant primarily for the emperor and the ruling elite, and not for the ordinary Chinese masses: Some may look to the Forbidden Palace in Peking as proof of China's past grandeur, but the Forbidden Palace was precisely that - an elite enclave that was forbidden to millions of ordinary Chinese. The same applies for the great temples, forts and castles of the Christian West and Hindu India. So why this love of great rulers and greatness in general?

Related to this is the other anomaly that I still cannot fathom. Living in this multi-culti age where the emphasis is on ethnic and racial differences rather than similarities, we seem drawn to our respective pasts that we are told are 'ours' by virtue of us being born as what we are. So Muslim youth are told to admire and revere Muslim history, Hindu youth are told to venerate the Hindu past, Chinese youth are told to be proud of their Chinese history, etc.

Does history own us to such an extent that we are trapped by the accidental and contingent factors of the past forever? Is a Muslim determined by the actions of his ancestors to the extent that he or she can only imagine a Muslim past, present and future? Or can he or she not valorise, admire and acknowledge the achievements of others as well? This question of course cuts across the ethnic-racial-religious divide and can be applied to all and sundry: Can't a Chinese admire things Hindu; can't a European admire things Chinese; and can't a Hindu admire things Christian, etc?

Much that passes as history today, we should remember, has been the result of radical contingencies put into order at the hands of official historians who have added a touch of determinism where there perhaps wasn't any. The grand histories of the so-called great civilisations read so neatly as grand narratives simply because the alternative voices that pointed to a plethora of other alternative endings have all but been wiped out This gives such grand narratives their consistency and standing as canonical texts. Yet this appearance of solidity before the ravages of time is illusory, and worse still turns history into mere propaganda: self-fulfilling prophesies of greatness once realised and which will be reactivated once again.

Can we ever escape the lure of such atractive nostalgia and accept the fact that each and everyone of us today is an orphaned child of the modern age, divorced from our ancestors who live in that foreign country called the past? The step can be taken, but not before we accept the fact that we are, all of us, residents of the present world whose own personal histories date back only to our births and no further.