The New Nation - Internet Edition

A RECENT study on the situation of calorie intake of a section of the people in the country has given a bleak picture. A large section of the people are not able to meet their daily minimum calorie needs. The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) conducted the survey sponsored by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) since July 2007. According to media reports, the study reveals that the failure to have the required calorie intake is due to their inability to earn enough to meet thier basic needs. Though the media report mentioned of no specific figure, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2007, the percentage of absolute poverty in 1995-96 was 47.5 that dropped to 40.4 in 2005. On the other hand, the percentage of hard poor people in 1995-96 was 25.1 that came down to 19.5 in 2005.

BIDS assumed 2189 calorie intake per person per day as the minimum need for nutrition and found 1894 calorie as the actual intake yielding an average deficit of 295 calorie. This actual calorie intake is very close to that of the hard-core poverty line. According to the review, people whose average calorie intake is below 2122 calorie are considered living on the absolute poverty line and those taking below1805 calories on the hard-core poverty line.

Though the figures from the Economic Review showed a trend of decrease in the percentage of people living below the poverty line, this situation is likely to be seriously aggravated by the on-going inflation exacerbated by the consecutive floods that inundated the northern and central districts and the tropical super cyclone Sidr which devastated the coastal regions. The natural disasters caused loss of lives and property. The government and WFP-sponsored initiatives to feed the cyclone-hit people for a period of four to six months are expected to reduce the impending risks of severe malnutrition and calorie deficit in the affected areas. A medium and long term plan for rehabilitation can help reduce poverty. The flood-hit people suffered huge losses of their standing crops and also land and homesteads as a result of river bank erosion. On the other hand, the cyclone mowed down almost everything people had.

The affected people must be given all out assistance to overcome the crises. Partial solution is not going to bring any meaningful change in the poverty situation prevailing in the country. The overall growth of the economy, at least of the vital sectors, and equitable distribution of income can effectively improve the situation of the poor. Poverty alleviation presupposes employment of the poor in income generating jobs. The government, with assistance from donor countries, has adopted a massive programme for rehabilitation of the economy. It is hoped that successful implementation of the above programme will help improve the state of the poverty-stricken people.

ALL kinds of domestic repressions are noted in our society such as tortures of children who were unlucky to be engaged as domestic helps, cruelties against wives by husbands or their relatives for dowry-related reasons, wife beating on other grounds, and the like. Although acid throwing and eve teasing do not fall strictly under the descriptions of domestic violence, the same also mean inhuman behaviour against the tender female victims who are very vulnerable to these forms of attacks and torments.

Television news showed some time ago a very young girl who was horribly burnt from the throwing of acid on her by her husband in the very night of the wedding. It was also reported about a young girl of five or six years of age whom her employer had beaten black and blue and she had to be hospitalised to recover from her injuries and trauma. Cases of torturing the kids purposefully with hot irons and similar weapons by their over angered employers are on and off reported in the press. Newspapers focused some months ago on the tragedy of a young school girl coming from a poor family who committed suicide to find relief from the unending teasing of her by goons on the road sides. As she told her mother before she took her own life, she feared the gangs would abduct her and violate her and her poor parents could do nothing against it.

There are laws to punish the repressors of children and women and the provision for penalties in them have been made tougher for the expected deterrent effects. And yet, the number of barbaric assaults against weak and tender ones -- often in houses of apparently decent folk --seem not to have declined any. What can be the more effective ways of dealing with them? In many cases, law enforcement in these areas is found to be extremely poor. The victims of these incidents are usually poor and come from families which cannot be expected to have the money to take protection of the law. The administration is found to be soft on the perpetrators of such cruelties out of a consideration of the higher social positions of the offenders and their abilities to pay bribes. Thus, remedies involve paying serious attention to these issues from the hierarchy of the law enforcers. They need to be directed very sternly from the highest level to show the utmost duty of care in dealing with the affected ones in such incidents. Greater and regular publicity in the mass media against these abuses may also be of great help in bringing about positive changes in the hearts and minds of the potential offenders.

Dr Azzam Tamimi

Daily deadly attacks on Gaza, the resumption of incursions into West Bank towns and villages and the plan to build three hundred housing units in East Jerusalem is hardly what the Arabs who attended Annapolis conference expected to be its immediate results. The Israeli measures must have surprised even Palestinian Authority President, Mahmud Abbas, and his team mates who, at Annapolis, were all smiles. Anyone watching TV footage of the Annapolis receptions could not miss the opportunity to see members of the Palestinian team warmly hugging members of the Israeli team, while other Arab delegates watched from a distance. The smiles on the faces reflected a congratulatory mood and expressed optimism that some unprecedented breakthrough was in the pipeline.

The reality is that Annapolis has primarily been about two things; first, maintaining the sanctions against the Gaza Strip and increasing the pressure on Hamas; and second, re-launching the Road Map, which had long been dead and buried. It is no wonder that the suffering of the Palestinians under collective punishment in the Gaza Strip was not an issue worth mentioning at Annapolis.

Just over a year before leaving office, President George W Bush has had the opportunity to revive the Road Map, a project said to be aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. The project failed once before when Yassir Arafat was head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). At the time, Mahmud Abbas was his prime minister, imposed on him by the US Administration. Today, Abbas is the President and US-hand picked Salam Fayyad is his prime minister. Yet, there is little to suggest that the Road Map stands a better chance.

The Road Map stipulates that the Palestinian Authority must first crack down on the opponents of Israel in the Palestinian. For a while before going to Annapolis, the Ramallah Authority had been waging a campaign across the West Bank against individuals and institutions suspected of links to Hamas. Since his return from Annapolis, Ramallah's Prime Minister, Fayyad, enhanced his effort in this regard. His latest initiative has been the closure of scores of charities. His victims include Zakat committees, which are associated with local mosques, that have traditionally provided the public with services such as sponsoring orphans and poor families and collecting donations from the rich and distributing money, food and clothing to those who are in need.

The Palestinian public are aware that Fayyad's Government could do little without the support and protection accorded to him and his men by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. Activists from Hamas and the other factions, including Fatah itself, are being targeted by both Israel and the PNA in a concerted effort to remove any potential threat to Fayyda's authority. It is ironic that these same measures were tried before in Gaza in the mid 1990s as part of the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Less than ten years later, and as soon as the Palestinians had the freedom to elect their representatives, they voted for Hamas.

Upon learning of the success of Hamas in the January 2006 elections, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, formed two committees and commissioned them to deliberate the matter and submit their recommendations to him. He wanted them to advise him how best to deal with this 'nightmarish' development. One of the committees, headed by Major General (retd) Giora Eiland, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, concluded that a new reality had emerged and that it would be in the best interests of Israel to reach an understanding of some sort with Hamas whom the election proved was speaking for the majority of the Palestinians in the territories. Interestingly, General Eiland, together with an increasing number of Israeli politicians including Amir Peretz, has been urging Israel to negotiate with Hamas.

The other committee, which included in its membership current Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, and former Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Dan Haluz, concluded that Hamas could never be worked with and that the only option Olmert had was to empower Abbas so as to bring Hamas down.

Olmert opted for the second set of recommendations and came up with his three conditions that soon afterwards became the Quartet* conditions shutting the door on Hamas and rallying the international community with the support of his US backers to boycott the movement and punish the Palestinians for having voted for it. It was assumed that Hamas could not resist the sanctions for long because the people would rise against it and that eventually it would either accept the conditions or hand power back to Fatah. The US-Israeli campaign against Hamas backfired.

Few lessons seem to have been learned by those who devised the policy of sanctions. The current US-Israeli approach to dealing with the Palestinians, who since June have been living under two separate and feuding authorities, is based on the assumption that the sanctions are working and that Hamas is losing support. Polls conducted by local Palestinian groups, which are invariably funded by US agencies, point to the decline of Hamas's popularity among the Palestinians.

Policy makers in Washington are clearly guided, or misguided, by wishful thinking and misinformation. There is no evidence that Hamas's popularity has dwindled. To the contrary, it is evident that the current crisis is blamed more on Abbas than on Hamas. Additionally, while the economy is in bad shape in Gaza, the average Palestinian there feels safer than ever before. While Hamas cannot be blamed for shortages of food or fuel it is credited for the prevalence of security, something which most Gazans missed when Abbas's men were in charge up to the middle of June 2007. In contrast, while the economic situation is not as bad in the West Bank most of its inhabitants complain of the lack of personal and collective safety. Scores of Palestinians are arrested every day by Israel or the PNA while thugs acting with impunity continue to have a free hand in harassing people and abusing them. To add insult to injury, Fayyad's security agencies compete to close down charities and other civil society institutions provoking a sense of anger and frustration reminiscent of that experienced in the mid 1990s.

While the Fatah movement is increasingly in disarray, the Ramallah Government is seen by many Fatah loyalists as a bunch of outsiders. An increasing number of Fatah leaders have recently been more vocal in calling for its replacement. A statement released in Ramallah by Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has gone as far as describing Fayyad's administration as a puppet government of Israel and the US.

A recent debacle by the PNA representative at the UN, who is not a Fatah member, urging the General Assembly to adopt a resolution declaring Hamas "an outlawed militia" sent many Fatah supporters wondering who the man was speaking for. There can be nothing more tarnishing to Fatah's image than the fact that the project of 'reform the movement' is said to undertake under the supervision of Dennis Ross who is commissioned and funded by the US Congress and who has been visiting the West Bank frequently for this purpose.

One wonders whether the Americans and the Israelis are at all aware that post-Annapolis Abbas is, as a result, a much weaker man. Palestinians and Arabs alike feel the man wittingly or otherwise deceived them by pinning high hopes on Annapolis. Evidently, the Egyptians and the Saudis dealt him a painful blow when they agreed with the Hamas leadership to allow Gaza's pilgrims to travel to Makkah via the Rafah crossing, which was closed in the aftermath of Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June. His Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, had already made arrangements to transport the pilgrims via Israel to the West Bank and then via Jordan to Saudi Arabia in a bid to improve that he was in charge and that Hamas was irrelevant. His plot did not work.

Deluded by wishful thinking, the Israelis and the Americans have been wagering on the losing horse despite its futility. There is only one way out of the current predicament and that is to abandon the policy of turning the PNA into another Lahad entity and seek an understanding with Hamas. The movement should be talked to without preconditions. A number of issues need to be immediately addressed.

There is first the problem of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Exchanging Shalit for Palestinian prisoners, and there are nearly 12,000 of them in Israel's captivity, should set the scene for further undertakings. Secondly, the sanctions and the regime of collective punishments should come to an end.

This may be negotiated as part of a tahdi'ah, a period of calming, during which the firing of rockets from Gaza is stopped and so is the hunting of Palestinian activists in the West Bank. A series of measures should enable the two sides, in due course, to negotiate a long-term cease-fire that will end up with a total disengagement along the pre-June 1967 war armistice lines.

Hamas is here to stay and those interested in resolving the conflict have no option but to knock on its door.

(Dr Azzam Tamimi, Director, Institute of Islamic Political Thought, London)

Md. Masum Billah

TV talk show appears as a new but common phenomenon in our world of electronic media claiming credit and discredit, applause and criticism. It has already earned some popularity as well in the media world particularly to the conscious citizens of the country it presents a lively discussion on the issues which stir and affect the people currently.

Why TV talk show necessary?

Many people don't read newspapers minutely to grasp many important ideas, news and issues of home and abroad. Again, many cannot read several newspapers at a time to judge or comment on a burning issue. TV talk show reminds them of the burning topic. It refreshes the neglected, unread an untouched issues our newspapers contain. TV talk shows make these issues lively, interesting, familiar and popular claims its necessity in this age of globalization.

It reveals the thoughts and opinions of the intellectuals and experts about a burning issue. It is absolutely necessary as the youths don't know these intellectuals of the country. They know the latest models, actors and actresses who frequently appear on TV screen by dint of enhancing number of advertisements who are sponsored by various local and multinational companies.. It is peculiar enough that they youth keep themselves glued to television only to enjoy the entertaining programmes avoiding the educative contribution of the media world which means that the most important objective of media remains neglected to them. The educative purpose of the media the youths hardly utilize and try to understand. The youths must know the intellectuals and their direct comments and opinions regarding various issues.

When TV talk show goes on, they willingly or unwillingly watch it. Sometimes they like it, sometimes not but they have some impression about the issue and gradually they become accustomed to watching it and collect some food for thought. The conscious citizens of the country wait to learn the opinions of the intellectuals and experts. They feel a thirst for learning their comments which actually remains impossible for them to individually contact them. The TV talk show has opened the door to learn the comments and expertise of the guests and make them easily available to the audience.

Some Talk Shows sometimes show that the guests just go on discussing without any definite goal. They hardly give any solution of the problem they talk about. The authorities and the presenter should take this fact into account with a view to making it more effective, fruitful, interesting and really educative.

Some topics take insufficient time making the show disinteresting or incomplete. Whereas some issues seem not so important but take much time. Again, some faces appear on the scene that really remained related to the crime the show talks about. Necessarily, they cannot give any tangible solution to the problem and the show loses its appeal to the conscious audience. The initiators must take these facts into account. . In that case, a third party's role can play the vital part.

The English newspapers carry very valuable information regarding home and abroad issues but the number of readers of these newspapers proves very thin. Many valuable and important information regarding home and abroad issues get published in English newspapers which need to be reached to all sorts of readers but it does hardly happen.

Some topics get published in Bengali newspapers in the translated form. It is also done in a very meager scale as some translators just translate a limited number of topics from one or maximum two English newspapers whereas a vast number of rich articles remain neglected and unread by most readers either in English or in Bengali form. So, the initiators of the talk show must give serious thought to these matters and collect articles which appear in different English dailies and make them acquainted with the readers through the talk shows.

The writers' opinion must be released to vast number of readers and listeners. When the discussants talk directly and live which is shown live on the TV screen, it definitely draws much appeal from the public and audience. Talk shows can be a fruitful vehicle to carry and pass these messages of the writers. The important vehicle of information and opinion of writers find its place in different English newspapers. When they go unread and unnoticed by the readers and the people concerned, it hardly attaches any importance and the attempts of the writers go in vain.

Many articles of English newspapers carry the solutions to some crucial problems as these are contributed by many professional writers. So the authorities and the people concerned can take food for thought and ways of finding solutions consulting these articles.

But unfortunately many of the articles go unread and untouched by the readers. How many people read English newspapers? Yes, as matter of prestige some people and organizations keep one or two English newspapers but how many people read or even touch them?

TV talk shows can arrange discussions on the basis of different articles published in English dailies and weeklies which will help people know the treasures hidden in this print media. It is the talk of the time. And it is the necessity of the time.

Tarequl Islam Munna

Just as the conference in Bali on global warming wraps up with a middling agreement, consumers in the US and Europe are rushing to holiday stores, mostly unaware of how their Christmas consumerism affects global warming. The British independent think-tank, New Economics Foundation (NEF) has released a report highlighting the environmental cost of holiday shopping.

Many of the must-have presents this season are electronic gadgets, from Nintendo's super-popular Wii to digital photo frames to IPods. Such gifts come with great carbon costs. NEF reports that if one million digital photo frames are sold "their average CO2e emissions for a year would hit 11,000 tones - or the equivalent of over 14,000 one way flights from London to New York." While the conference in Bali focused much of its discussion on industrialized nations helping poorer nations adapt to global warming-since it is those nations that will be hit first and hardest-holiday shoppers in the West are in a frenzy over Nintendo's game system Wii. NEF estimates that "the CO2e emissions produced by each Wii games consol for example - just a single household electrical device - using its Wiiconnect24 stand-by facility, assuming a modest 14 hours playing per week, is over the course of a year greater than, or equal to, the annual carbon dioxide emissions per person in countries such as Burundi or Chad." The NEF report also highlights the significant carbon cost of purchasing items from China. "Things produced in China generally pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, because China's energy mix contains much more carbon. But even that excludes the carbon cost of shipping them halfway around the world." In 2006 China was the world's third top exporter, exporting 974 billion dollars worth of goods. It is also the world's second highest emitter of carbon. It may seem that with the housing crisis, credit crunch, and rising cost of energy shoppers in the US would be reining in their spending this year. Yet retail sales in the US rose 1.2 percent in November-double the amount most economists predicted, according to the Commerce Department. In its report, NEF offers some alternatives to holiday consumerism while still having a meaningful holiday. These include giving the gift of time rather than material items, playing secret Santa so only one gift is given, and reading a book, playing games, or going sledding instead of high-tech gifts. Other possibilities include donating to charity or various organisations as gifts. For the environmentally conscious a year's worth of carbon credits is a great gift or a donation to wildlife or conservation organisation.

NEF describes itself as an organisation that desires to "expose the problems with the international finance and economic systems and create appropriate remedies", ultimately creating "a new economy that serves people and the planet" by redefining "wealth and progress."

(The writer is Conservator, wildlife and environment, in taking positive environmental action around the world to conserve the nature and ecological balance on behalf of World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Correspondent, Today's magazine, NC, USA)