The New Nation - Internet Edition

Promoting uniform education

WHAT the Chief Adviser (CA) drew attention to at a conference on education on Sunday, merits the urgent attention of policy planners in the realm of education. The CA observed that the country would have to overcome segmentation and division in the education system at secondary and primary levels that create a divided society. He recommended a set of core knowledge and competencies to be acquired by 'all' students along with choices for additional or complementary education. In other words, he advocated for a uniform basic education so that pupils in the different branches, are all required to be well versed in certain subjects that would pave the way to their becoming human resources for the benefit of the country.

There are three categories of schools in the country - the Bengali medium schools, the English medium ones and the madrashahs. Most of the Bengali medium schools are considered poorly run as guardians too keen to provide high quality education to their children. This leads to the scramble among them to put their children in English medium schools. But most of these schools are also not up to the mark. Madrashah education puts emphasis on religious studies with inadequate importance given to science and other subjects. Besides, the quality of teaching at the madrashah level is also considered rather poor.

The English medium schools tend to generate elitist behaviour among pupils. They are often found unfamiliar with conditions in their own country but more knowledgeable about other countries. The Bengali medium schools show a relative lack of emphasis on English and the quality of teaching in most of those is not up to the mark. The madrashah pass-outs are mainly employed as prayer leaders. The emphasis is less on creating resourceful persons to undertake diverse economic activities. Thus, the deficiencies in the three systems of education need to be addressed by achieving some sort of harmony among them.

Diabetic patients on increase

ABOUT 5.6 per cent of adults besides a large number of children in Bangladesh are suffering from diabetes and the number of diabetic patients is increasing 'alarmingly' with over 20,000 new patients each year. A news report quoting the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB) mentions various causes for increase in the prevalence of diabetes attributed to unbalanced food habit, lack of physical exercise, regular intake of energy-dense fast food and soft drinks. The yearly average of the new patients was done on the basis of the data available with the association since the year 2000-2001 when the number recorded was 17,045 till the year 2005-2006 with 22,559.

Diabetes is prevalent among not only the urban people, but also the rural masses. At present 11.2 per cent people in the capital who are over 20 years of age have diabetes. A survey has shown 4.2 per cent people living in the rural areas are affected by diabetes. The proportion of diabetes victims in urban areas was 4 and 6.9 per cent in 1992 and 1996 respectively, while it was 4.3 per cent in the rural areas in 1996.

According to DAB, 96 per cent of the diabetic patients suffer from 'late-onset diabetes' characterised by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. The disease is strongly genetic in origin but lifestyle factors such as excess weight, inactivity, high blood pressure and poor diet are major risk factors for its development. The diabetic patients have to be cautious to avoid complications, which can cause serious disabilities such as blindness, kidney failure requiring dialysis, amputation or even death. The BIRDEM (Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorder), founded by the renowned physician Professor Dr.Mohammad Ibrahim, provides medical treatment and counseling in not only Bangladesh but also the region.

University is not a place for politics

Prof. M Zahidul Haque

NOWHERE in the definition of a 'University' one would find the word 'Politics' or the provision of practising politics in the university. The word 'University' is derived from the Latin 'universitas magistrorum et scholarium' means 'community of teachers and scholars'. Scholar means an 'Academic', that is , a person who works as a researcher (usually teacher) at a university. In the United States of America, the term 'Academic' is synonymous with that of the job title 'Professor'. A university is a place for learning, not politics.

Unfortunately in our country, most of the public university teachers are in one way or another associated with or involved in politics. To speak frankly, there would hardly be a teacher whose name is not associated/listed with a political party or group.

Immediately before the present regime, Vice Chancellors in public universities were being appointed on the basis of their adhesion and contributions to the ruling political party. As a result, after getting appointed, a VC had to fulfil many just and unjust demands of his political bosses, teachers and students as well!

Of course it is a fact that the present Caretaker Government is trying its best to free campuses from politics and appointing neutral/less political Professors as VCs of the public universities. But the problem is with the VCs appointed by the last political govt. who are still holding the post. Earlier they had to fulfil the demands of his party members but now of the other one's even unjust demands for remaining in the post! What happend to our university,i.e. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University(SAU) in the morning of March 02,2008? Everything was as usual. I attended a meeting of the departmental Chairmen in the Dean's room concerning students' application for shifting of the exam date scheduled to begin from March 03. The SAU VC went to attend an academic program in the Chief Advisor's office. But sometime in between 10 to 11 am a news was spreaded in the campus that a Professor on LPR has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of SAU. So far so good. VC will be appointed by the authority, the new one will join while the outgoing one will leave. The post of a VC is highly respectable and the person who is holding this position deserves due respect and honour from his colleagues and students. If the outgoing VC had done any irregularity, there is authority to take proper action. But as the news entered into the campus, group of teachers and students started celebrations by demonstrating dominance. Group students brought band party and began beating drum breaking academic atmosphere. A huge number of flowers were bought to welcome the newly appointed VC who was reportedly coming from the Ministry of Education with the order.

But as ill luck would have it, the Ministry officials didn't act favourably because the rule does not permit them to issue the order in favour of a Professor who had already gone to LPR two months back!

No,I am not saying or I wouldn't be that much presumptuous to say that the Professor under reference is inefficient or incapable of becoming the VC. In reality, once in 2001 soon after the then BAI was declared SAU, he was also appointed VC by the then political govt. However, due to bad luck, the then Caretaker Govt. cancelled his appointment as it was not done fulfilling the requirement of the 'Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Act 2001' Incidentally, the Professor who was supposed to be the new VC of SAU is from my department. As currently I am the Chairman of the department, some of my colleagues become restless and was asking me to get ready with flowers to welcome the new VC. Then I asked the Section Officer to request one of my senior colleagues to do the needful. Accordingly he directed the SO to arrange to re-print the previous 'Manpattra'. The SO informed me that our departmental computer was used to produce/print that 'letter of felicitation' which is yet to be presented!

During these periods, a number of my students from different places/districts called me on my cell phone asking what was the fact? One student seriously opposed the act of harassing the VC who was still the VC of SAU.(In fact, the SAU received the MOE's order by fax on March 02 at 8:45 pm)

Meanwhile one student of mine sent me a SMS which rather disappointed me. Here I would like to reproduce the text still saved on my cell :

"Dear sir, it's my pleasure 2 u 4 helping Prof.(name withheld) 2 join as vice chancellor of SAU, through which our long cherished demand 've fulfilled. (name withheld), Ex-student, SAU."

Perhaps now is the appropriate time the Government should initiate a dialogue with national political leaders,academics and others to explore the prospect and possibility of banning politics on the campus, if not for ever but atleast for a few years in the greater interest of the nation.

[Professor M Zahidul Haque is the Chairman, Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka]

This is war, not therapy

Marina Hyde

ON THE one hand, it was nice to see Prince Harry in a British army uniform, as opposed to one of Hitler's. It's a little bit like Pokemon, really. I'm hoping he'll give us a highly collectible Hutu warrior snap soon.

Gotta catch 'em all! On the other, is there anyone over Pokemon-playing age who believes it was really worth it? The sheer number of man-hours and money lavished on allowing one young man to experience job satisfaction is mind-boggling. It has to be the most fatuous use of Ministry of Defence resources since Geoff Hoon.

According to the executive director of the Society of Editors, who helped establish the controversial media blackout, it was not designed to mislead readers and viewers but to ultimately give them "a deeper insight into a new side of Prince Harry". But how completely intriguing. And yet, is he basically still a fairly dim, fairly affable chap, you might ask? It would appear so. But he's being fairly dim and fairly affable in Afghanistan. Or rather, he was until the news broke, at which point a detailed, prearranged plan to get him out - how many logistical brains are wasted on this nonsense? - was mobilised. So at least we have an exit strategy for Prince Harry, if not for the actual war.

Anyway, he was spirited out on a special flight, and is now back on what we must call civvie street. For their part, the ministry are frightfully upset about the fact that it has all come out. Colour us crushed. In fact, I haven't felt this choked up since Cherie Blair cried because her son was off to university and people were being mean about the £500,000 worth of property she'd bought to help him settle in.

And so to the deep new insights. "Nine times out of ten someone stumbles upon you when you're having a shit," Harry explains in one interview. "They don't bat an eyelid because it's normal out here." "It's very nice to be a sort of normal person for once," is his verdict in another interview. "I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get." "William sent me a letter," he reveals in a third interview, "saying how proud he reckons that she [Princess Diana] would be."

Reading this makes you realise that the whole thing is as much about the emotional neediness of millions of civilians as it is about his. They need him to trot out the obligatory line about our much-missed queen of hearts; he needs to defecate in a hole he's dug himself and josh about Terry Taliban to feel "normal". You can't help feeling the arrangement tends towards the dysfunctional. Can we please just get back to shooting anyone who gets near the oil pipeline?

Instead, the past few days have seen the war in Afghanistan recast as some Truman Show-style illusion, constructed to convince its star that he is normal. But he's not normal; he's Prince Harry. And it's a war, not his therapist.

Harry should not be in the army in the first place. It is admirable that he wanted to be, just as it is equally admirable when any other young person volunteers. But really, save yourself the bother of even debating whether it is morally correct or brave of Harry to want to see action, because only one thing matters - his presence puts other soldiers around him in greater danger than they would otherwise be.

He freely admits this at various stages in the reams of interviews he has granted, so one might regard his insistence on still going as somewhat self-indulgent. Even had the news blackout held, the knowledge that Prince Harry has been deployed will be sufficient to heighten the future threat to British troops, as the possibility that "the bullet magnet" (as he is nicknamed) could be in theatre raises the stakes. After all, if this little episode has shown us anything, it's that royal lives count more than off-brand ones.

Added to that, Harry's presence is evidently such a complete performance to manage that it cannot be judged a prudent use of resources - unless, of course, you think that sexing up the war is a good use of the MoD budget. Those on the ground might disagree. Two weeks ago, the assistant coroner for Oxfordshire concluded that a British soldier had been killed "not by the terrorists but by the lack of basic equipment". Andrew Walker went on to declare that "to send soldiers into a combat zone without basic equipment is unforgivable, inexcusable and a breach of trust between the soldiers and those who govern them."

A personal preference would have been for this newspaper to have told the MoD that it didn't fancy being part of their suspicious stunt, given that the Guardian is not given to clearing pages for the kind of cringe-making "access" offered in return. A hunch says a couple of other titles could have ended up agreeing, at which point the idea might have been deemed unsustainable. The money saved on facilitating it all could then have been spent on something genuinely morale-boosting for the troops. Adequate body armour always makes a lovely gift.

It would of course have been beastly for Harry to have had his hopes of seeing action dashed, but perhaps he could have seen that as a life lesson in itself, given that coping with disappointment is something that "normal" people do every day.

As for the future, one thing is clear. In the interests of national sanity, all royals should be wrapped in cotton wool - probably literally - and kept safe at all costs. Just think of the 10 years and counting of the witless, tedious, and expensive effluence we have endured about Princess Di's sudden death. Consider the billions of man-hours spent a-hurtin' and a-grievin' and a-yakkin' about it all, then imagine what kicking off another cycle of that could do to our fragile economy. We would be the new Afghanistan inside a decade, which somehow feels like it might defeat the purpose of Harry's mission.

(Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist)

Look before you leap

Paul Kennedy

ABOUT a century ago, in the years before the First World War, the dynamic service head of the Royal Navy, Admiral "Jackie" Fisher, was enthusing about a recent underwater vessel, the submarine, and pushing for its large-scale development and production.

Forgetting his equally fervent enthusiasm for battleships a few years earlier, Fisher now preferred this much smaller wonder weapon. Above all, it would check the efforts of the Kaiser's High Seas Fleet to become dominant in the North Sea. Fear of the submarine, enthused Fisher, would keep the German ironclads firmly in their harbours, out of concern for likely destruction by these unseen predators. Britannia would still rule the waves.

One of Fisher's correspondents, Sir Arthur Balfour, a wise old owl who had been a prime minister with a deep interest in defense matters, was less impressed. In his view, Britain's focus should have been less upon what the Royal Navy's submarines could do off German harbours than what German subs could do off British ports and to the Empire's worldwide security. This weapon might be a nifty addition to the country's armoury, but what if it gave an even greater advantage to rival navies?

Balfour turned out to prescient. As we know from history, the U-boat did indeed prove to be the single greatest threat to the British and allied sea lanes, on two occasions (1917 and 1943) causing concern that the Allies were going to lose the Battle of the Atlantic.

I was reminded of this debate between Fisher and Balfour when my eye caught a LiveScience.com report about the US military entitled "Navy Tests Incredible Sci-Fi Weapon." Without knowing its contents, I started to groan.

The product in question is a high-velocity electromagnetic railgun. It shoots a solid metal "slug" at seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) to a distance of more than 230 miles. There would be no explosion as the shell entered the enemy's side and went out the other - just devastation. Rogue states, beware.

The US Navy's justification for this new slug-weapon is pure Jackie Fisher: "I never ever want to see a sailor or Marine in a fair fight. I always want them to have the advantage," said the chief of naval operations, Admiral Gary Roughead. "We should never lose sight of always looking for the next big thing, always looking to make our capability better, more effective than what anyone else can put on the battlefield."

But there's the rub. What if, perchance, the United States is announcing a new weapon that somebody else can also put on the battlefield? Right now, the US Navy possesses two weapons-systems that are unique to the service, two systems that other powers would find difficult to match (at least for a decade or more, perhaps for most of the century).

The first of these are the gigantic nuclear-powered aircraft carriers like the Nimitz. They are unique not just because of their sheer size and number of aircraft they carry, but because their construction requires a fantastic array of high-tech and exact-science sub-subsystems. It would probably take a rising world power about 25 years to fashion such an industrial-logistical supply chain, by which time the US would have moved on.

The second weapons-system consists of the navy's fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines, and of ballistic missile submarines, which again demand an extraordinary array of subsidiary industries and technologies to make them function. Now, the navies of China, Russia, Iran, India and other countries that wish to escape from American maritime dominance - not to contest for mastery of the seas, but at least to be secure in their own waters - know this.

Each of them may have plans for a fleet aircraft carrier for a generation to come, but right now they are concentrating on what are known as "asymmetrical weapons" in order to curb America's global reach. These range from ultra-quiet, anti-detectable diesel submarines to coastal-based, sea-skimming missiles that fly under the radar screens of offshore fleets. Already, the Pentagon is very nervous.

If what I have written above is true - even roughly true, since so much of this high-tech weapons development world is kept from civilian eyes - then the Pentagon might do well to think a little more before it plunges ahead with this new video-game superslug. To be sure, if America has it and the other guys don't, one can imagine all sorts of advantages accruing to the US armed services in regional conflicts to come. An "incredible sci-fi weapon" located on a platform in the Gulf could really intimidate Iranian military commanders; nobody wants one of those things bursting through the hangar door, or the 15-foot cement walls of a nuclear facility.

But, as the old saying goes, sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander. What if this new wonder weapon initially benefits the United States but can be swiftly taken up by others?

China, India, Iran and Russia each contain vast numbers of scientists and engineers, research institutes, sophisticated defense staffs and large capital resources. Unless there are features to this electromagnetic railgun and its all-metal slug that I have missed, it isn't too hard to imagine that it could be tested and produced by other defense establishments in fairly short order - certainly in a lot quicker time than it would take to create a fleet of nuclear-powered fleet aircraft carriers.

Now, just suppose that those four countries, or perhaps others, developed or purchased their own railguns, each with a 230-mile range, and a slug that could go through one side of an aircraft carrier and out the other. That would really cramp America's option in future confrontations.

Right now, the United States is enjoying a very special moment in world-historical affairs. The Bush administration's policies may have made it highly unpopular in many parts of the world, and America's relative economic heft is nowhere as great as it was 50 years ago, but in terms of sheer military power, the United States is unequalled, not just in relation to other countries like China and Russia but in all of history.

(Paul Kennedy is professor of history and the director of International Security Studies at Yale University. He is currently writing a history of the Second World War. Distributed by Tribune Media Services)