The New Nation - Internet Edition

Level crossings and security

LEVEL crossings have virtually turned into death traps claiming a large number of lives every year. At least five persons were killed and one was seriously injured when a Dhaka-bound train rammed into a private car at a level crossing in Narsingdi district the other day. In another accident at Tejgaon crossing in the city a journalist lost his legs a few days back. These are just a few of many such accidents. Unauthorised and unmanned level crossings and negligence on the part of concerned agencies to take care of those are mainly responsible for the accidents. Land developers are found to make roads across railway tracks and such unauthorised level crossings increase risks of accidents. The level crossing in Narsingdi, the spot of the latest accident, is reported to have no guard to control traffic. Callousness and reckless driving of motor vehicle operators is no less responsible for the accidents. Just a bit of patience and caution on their part can help avoid such accidents.

With the fast pace of urbanisation and infrastructural development new level crossings are needed at different points across the country. While it is not desirable for individuals or organisations to construct roads across railway tracks without taking permission of and making arrangement with the latter, the railway authorities also should prevent such roads from being constructed. This is needed not only to protect railway property but also to ensure the safety of its traffic. The railway and the roads and highways departments must ensure planned construction of roads and where necessary flyovers or underpasses to cross rail tracks. None should be allowed to open unauthorised crossings. The railway authorities must also evict illegal shops and other establishments beside railway tracks. Unauthorised level crossings should either be closed or operated by taking full care of security of traffic passing through those.

Streamlining housing business

FOLLOWING mounting pressure from different quarters, the Real Estate and Housing

Association of Bangladesh (Rehab) is going to formulate 'a code of conduct' soon to streamline the management of private sector housing business, according to a press report. The Rehab initiative comes at a time when the government has almost finalised a law titled 'Real Estate Management Ordinance' to streamline the housing business dogged by fraud allegations. The executive committee of the association finalised the draft code of conduct at a recent meeting with the expectation of giving it immediate effect. Rehab had planned the code of conduct, as it could not punish its erring members in absence of proper guidelines.

As reported, any member of the association would lose membership if he

breached the code of conduct and the government should play its role in ensuring its implementation. The government should insert a provision into its proposed real estate management Ordinance to maintain checks and balance in the housing sector and make the inclusion of each developer in the association 'compulsory'. Now, out of over 560 developers, 361 are registered with Rehab. As reported the association can't take responsibility of the wrongdoings of those who are not its members.

At a recent meeting, urban development experts, academics, civil society

representatives, government officials as well as victims underscored the need for formulating a code of conduct for the real estate association so that the victims could lodge their complaints with the association in case of breaching charters signed between the developers and buyers. Allegations of land grabbing, breach of contract and failure in flat or plot handover are common against many of the real estate and housing companies. A number of buyers sought intervention of Rehab for long so that the contracts signed are honoured but in vain.

Healthy teacher-student relation benefits the learners

Abdur Rahim

The process of giving education was informally introduced in the ancient period, At one stage of the development of the civilization, the formal and institutional education was introduced. The great men of every religion would also teach their followers religious thoughts and values. The sum and substance is that the formal education goes on between teachers and students. To earn knowledge a child has to be a student under the supervision of teachers for a specific period, though according to our great prophet Hazrat Mohammad (SM) the process of earning knowledge goes on from the cradle to the grave.

The invaluable and selfless service of a teacher can make his students self confident and well behaved. A real teacher is the symbol of sincerity, honesty and selflessness. As he possesses these virtues, his students are attracted by these qualities. Thus they build up their characters by following the principles and ideals of the teacher. In this way, a spiritual tie is created between a teacher and a student.

The relation between a teacher and a student is undoubtedly holy and it lasts for ever. A real teacher becomes very jubilant at the success of his students and he becomes extremely sad at the failure of his students because he treats his students to be his own children. But now-a-days an evident distance is being observed in the relation between a teacher and a student. There are many reasons of it.

It is the age of information technology-Every thing is changing with the advent of modern science. It is influencing the students also. The attitudes, ideas, and notions of the students are changing. Different aspects of information technology and recreation attract them very much. They are influenced by computer, VCD, Mobile phones, MP-3, MP-4 and by satellite TV Channels. I don't deny the importance of them. But students' attention is being diverted from study to these things. Many students are fond of going to the Cyber Cafe instead of attending the class. Students (especially in urban areas) are being addicted to different satellite TV programmes and many students watch these programmes indiscriminately during the study time. In this way a distance is being created between a teacher and a student.

So all the educational institutions should be turned into the centre of co-curricular activities. Co-curricular activities can play a vital role to improve the relation between a teacher and a student. But most of the educational institutions donot arrange competitions on debates, recitation, songs extempore speech, telling stories etc. They only hold the sports day at the beginning of the year. This is why, schools do not become attractive to the students.

In most of the schools emphasis is given only on the academic activities. Co-curricular activities are extremely neglected. Consecutive classes create monotony in the minds of the students. For want of co-curricular activities students cannot come closer to the teachers. Consequently, student-student, teacher student and even teacher-teacher relationship does not develop in the truest sense. This tri-dimensional relation can be strengthened by arranging cultural and sports activities and arranging study tour, picnic and excursion along side academic activities.

Every student possesses some merits. Some may be good at music, some at recitation, some at drama and some at dance. Students with these merits should be found out and evaluated and recognized through competitions. Many teachers also bear these qualities. If competitions or functions are arranged, the teachers and students can discover one another. Then mutual respect and love between teacher and teacher, student and teacher and even student and student increase.

This year we arranged a picnic at Nandan Park. In the picnic our ex-Headmistress, present Headmistress and the assistant Headmistress sang several songs spontaneously. They and other teachers also participated in different game shows and had to answer different interesting questions of the students. So, the students got over-joyous at this and their enjoyment knew no bounds. For the first time the students discovered the teachers differently and we also discovered some students having extra ordinary qualities. So we should ensure such an environment where the students can take part in different activities spontaneously without any fear and hesitation.

An individual teacher can also make the class attractive through gesture, body movement and by telling jokes and interesting stories relevant to the topics. Class rooms of every school should be enriched with modern teaching materials. Students' inertia and shyness should be removed and they should be made confident by using praising words. In this way the relation between a teacher and a student can be improved.

An American in Russia

Henry A. Kissinger

Conventional wisdom treated Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration as president of the Russian Federation as a continuation of President Vladimir Putin's two terms of Kremlin dominance and assertive foreign policy.

A visit to Moscow with an opportunity to meet leading personalities of the political world, as well as representatives of various age groups in business and intellectual circles, convinced me that this judgment is oversimplified and premature.

For one thing, the emerging power structure in Moscow seems more complex than conventional wisdom holds. It was always doubtful why, if his primary objective was to retain power, Putin, at the height of a popularity that would have allowed him to amend the constitution to extend his term, would choose the complicated and uncertain route of becoming prime minister.

My impression is that a new phase of Russian politics is under way. The move of Putin's office from the Kremlin to the building housing the Russian government is symbolic. Medvedev has stated that he means to chair the National Security Council and to carry out the Russian constitution's provision that assigns the design and public face of Russian foreign policy to the president. The statement that the president designs foreign and security policy, and the prime minister implements parts of it, has become the mantra of Russian officials from Medvedev and Putin down. I encountered no Russian in or out of government who doubted that some kind of redistribution of power is taking place, although they were uncertain of its outcome.

Putin remains powerful and highly influential. He is seen by most Russians as the leader who overcame the humiliation and chaos of the 1990s when the Russian state, economy, ideology and empire collapsed; Russia's economic recovery depended on foreign assistance; and Russia's foreign policy was passive. It is likely that Putin has assigned to himself a watching brief over the performance of his successor; it is possible that he is keeping open the option of becoming a candidate in a future presidential election.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, the Russian election marks a transition from a phase of consolidation to a period of modernisation. The voluntary ceding of power by a ruler who was under no compulsion to do so is an unprecedented event in Russian history.

The growing complexity of the Russian economy has generated the need for predictable legal procedures, as already foreshadowed by Medvedev. The operation of the Russian government - at least initially - with two centres of power may, in retrospect, appear as the beginning of an evolution toward a form of checks and balances lacking heretofore.

The evolution into a Russian form of democracy is not foreordained, of course, and the motivations for it have not necessarily been produced by theoretical reflections on the nature of democracy. But neither was the democratic evolution in the West. After all, the Magna Carta was a document designed to guarantee the rights of the aristocracy, not of the people at large.

What are the implications for American foreign policy? During the next several months, Russia will be concerned with working out the practical means of the distinction between design and implementation of national security policy. The Bush administration and the presidential campaigns would be wise to give Russia some space to work out these arrangements by restraining public comment.

With respect to the long term, ever since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, a succession of American administrations has acted as if the creation of Russian democracy were a principal American task. Proponents of such policies assert that the transformation of Russian society is the precondition of a more harmonious international order.

They argue that if the current Russia is kept under pressure, it will eventually implode just as the Soviet Union did. The policy of assertive intrusion into what Russians consider their own sense of self runs the risk of thwarting both geopolitical as well as moral goals.

There are undoubtedly groups and individuals in Russia who look to America for accelerating a democratic evolution. But almost all observers agree that the vast majority of Russians consider America as presumptuous and determined to stunt Russia's recovery. Such an environment is more likely to encourage a nationalist and confrontational response than a democratic evolution.

It would be a pity if this mood persisted because, in many ways, we are witnessing one of the most promising periods in Russian history. Exposure to modern open societies and engagement with them is more prolonged and intense than in any previous period of Russian history - even in the face of unfortunate repressive measures. The longer this continues, the more impact it will have on Russia's political evolution.

The values of our society dictate an American commitment to a democratic evolution. But the pace of it will inevitably be Russian. We can affect it more by patience and historical understanding than by offended disengagement and public exhortations.

This is all the more important because geopolitical realities provide an unusual opportunity for strategic cooperation between the erstwhile Cold War adversaries. Between them, the US and Russia control 90 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons. Russia contains the largest landmass of any country, abutting Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Progress toward stability, with respect to nuclear weapons, in the Middle East and in Iran, requires - or is greatly facilitated by - Russian-American cooperation.

The imperialist foreign policy of czarist and Soviet Russia was facilitated by the weakness of nearly all countries at Russia's borders. This enabled Russia, in the course of a century and a half, to advance inexorably, almost like a natural force, from the Volga to the Elbe, along the shores of the Black Sea, into the Caucasus and the approaches to India. Russian momentum was aided by the autocratic nature of Kremlin rule, which enabled the czar and the Soviet rulers to conduct policy without significant restraint.

Those conditions have fundamentally altered. Russia's neighbours have overcome the weakness that tempted Russian adventures. The 2,500-mile frontier with China is a demographic challenge.

Across an equally long frontier, Russia has to deal with militant Islamism extending its reach into southern Russia. In the west lies Russia's western frontier, where Russia finds itself with the need to adjust to the loss of a history of empire, across frontiers behind which lie territories identified with Russian history for hundreds of years. But the Russian strategic reach has been limited by emerging realities, including the Nato membership of erstwhile Warsaw Pact states.

Though Russia's population is experiencing a surge in national pride, its leaders understand the risk of altering the new international order by Russia's traditional methods. They know Russia's Muslim population of 25 million contains a significant number of doubtful loyalty to the state. The health system is in need of overhaul; the infrastructure has to be rebuilt. Russia is obliged to concentrate on its domestic reform for the first time in history.

Confrontational rhetoric notwithstanding and a bullying style that developed during the period of imperialism, Russia's leaders are conscious of their strategic limitations. Indeed, I would characterise Russian policy under Putin as driven in a quest for a reliable strategic partner, with America being the preferred choice. Russian turbulent rhetoric in recent years reflects, in part, frustration by our seeming imperviousness to that quest.

Because of their nuclear preponderance, Russia and America have a special obligation to take the lead in global nuclear issues such as nuclear proliferation. There have been constructive initiatives, such as greater transparency and the linking of anti-ballistic missile defence systems of the two countries, noted in the communique issued by Presidents Bush and Putin in Sochi in April of this year. But the general statements have yet to be followed by a detailed exploration. Four questions need to be answered with respect to nuclear proliferation: Do Russia and the US agree on the nature of the challenge posed by the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran? Do they agree on the status of the Iranian nuclear program? Do they agree on the diplomacy to avert the danger? Do they agree on what measures to take if whatever diplomacy is finally adopted fails?

It is my impression that a considerable consensus is emerging between the US and Russia regarding the first two questions. With respect to the others, both sides must keep in mind that neither is able to overcome the challenge alone or at least only with greatly increased difficulty.

The movement of the Western security system from the Elbe River to the approaches to Moscow brings home Russia's decline in a way bound to generate a Russian emotion that will inhibit the solution of all other issues. It should be kept on the table without forcing the issue to determine the possibilities of making progress on other issues.

The Sochi declaration of Bush and Putin in April outlined a road map for an emerging strategic dialogue between the two sides. It remains for the new administrations in Russia and America to give it operational context.

Henry A Kissinger, a former US secretary of state, is considered the architect of US foreign policy during the Cold War

Opinion: Providing misinformation is not media courage

Dr. M.S. Haq

The Daily Star, at present, the leading English daily in Bangladesh, appears to suffer - in a sense, among other things, and relative to time, space and other variables - from a disease called media hypocrisy.

I sent a letter titled "Confusing" to four English dailies of Bangladesh including inter alia The Daily Star on 22nd day of June 2008, requesting the honourable editors to publish the letter in their respective dailies. One of the purposes of the letter was to draw the attention of wider public to certain confusing information pertaining to human health matters carried by the daily (I mean, The Daily Star) through an article on its health related page - Star health - on 21st day of June 2008. The letter drew its conclusion with the expectation - The Daily Star will not only strive for People's Right to Know (the front page slogan of the daily) but for People's right to know the right thing at the right time and cost through the foreseeable future.

At least a few of the initial reasons that had prompted me to sending the letter to the dailies in addition to The Daily Star were: one, the outcome of degree of seriousness with which I attended to and dissected those confusing information; and two, the outcome of my concerns over gravity of consequences that might arise out of and in the course of internalising or following through (or both) the pieces of advice based on those information by interested, as well as willing readers and others; all in the greater interest of public health, for example.

Two of the dailies namely The New Nation and The Bangladesh Observer have so far published the letter while the remaining others have not yet published it - one of them is The Daily Star. It will not be out of place to mention here, after the expiry of a reasonable period of waiting, I sent a reminder to The Daily Star in connection with that letter (I mean, the letter titled "Confusing") but there has been no response from them as of writing this letter - 3rd day of July 2008.

At this point in time, the motive behind the newspaper's silence with regard to above matters is not clear to me - the newspaper's silence could be intentional or otherwise. The decision to publish the letter could be within or beyond (or a combination of both) the control of The Daily Star. Factors that could influence or have influenced decision making in relevant areas include inter alia: the non receipt of letter by the daily - I have send though the reminder; space related problems; reputational costs - used in a negative sense; print media arrogance; print media prerogatives; and so on.

Taking into cognizance above and other related factors, a number of questions come into mind: how could The Daily Star afford to remain silent on above matters when it preaches virtually every day "People's Right to Know"? How could the daily afford to deprive the public of knowing the right thing at the right time and cost especially when it comes to things that are of significant public importance and interest? What a contradiction?

While I wish well to The Daily Star through the foreseeable future, it is expected the daily will make further genuine efforts - than those at present - towards liberating the newspaper fully and meaningfully and in a sustainable manner from the disease called media hypocrisy. Let us assist The Daily Star collectively in its effort towards materialising that in say, a timely fashion.

The last word: I will be failing in my duties if do not mention here the elements of media courage (used in a deeper sense), as well as responsibility demonstrated by The New Nation and The Bangladesh Observer when it comes to the publication of letter named - "Confusing". By the way: mainstreaming people's welfare in media transactions (print, electronic, others) has been one of the continuous and formidable challenges for all concerned. One more thing: the media should not feel shy to accept, as required and among other things, its deficiencies or shortcomings in a constructive, result-oriented and lesson-driven manner.