The New Nation - Internet Edition

Deadly syringes and needles

REPORTS have appeared in newspapers that some merchants of death continue the business of collecting used syringes and needles at little or no price for repacking and reuse. A Dhaka daily reported, repacking and reuse of used syringes and needles was discovered by following the activities of street urchins who pick up such syringes with the needles from dustbins and other places-- where these are thrown --and then sell them for Taka 30 to 35 per kg to those who repack the stuff and market them without the users knowing what deadly things they use.

After collecting them in adequate numbers, the syringes and needles are wrapped in fresh packages so expertly that the deceit can be hardly detected. The used needles are successfully marketed and used at pathological labs and private clinics. Reputed hospitals and clinics probably take care not to buy such hazardous things. But most of the others -- and these are much more in number -- do not hesitate to use them out of a consideration that these are substantially cheaper than the new ones. Thus, syringes and needles used to draw infected blood of patients are reused on unsuspecting person who can be infected in turn.

Like the used syringes and needles, used bottles of so-called mineral water are collected from street urchins of some people who fill those with water in their backyards and declare same as products of reputed companies. Very tough steps are urgent against these growing threats to public health. The law enforcement bodies should be specially instructed to punish those who are marketing the deadly syringes and needles and fake bottled waters. Particularly all medical centres should be required by law to incinerate or properly dispose of their syringes and needles to prevent reuse.

Foreign direct investment falls

ACCORDING to Bangladesh Bank data published in the media, the foreign direct investment (FDI) recorded a fall by 11.11 per cent in 11 months of the last 2007-08 fiscal year as FDI dropped to US $ 648 million in the July-May period in the last fiscal year from US$729 million during the same period in the previous 2006-07 fiscal year. Foreign investors always monitor the internal situation and the investment climate in the country seriously before they come for investment. Under the existing circumstances when the business confidence of the local investors is 'low', none can expect that of a foreign investor to be otherwise.

Portfolio investment has also dropped by 10.81 per cent to US $66 million during the 11 months from US $74 million in the same period of the previous year. The foreign investors are as before reluctant to invest in the capital market. Inability to 'restore business confidence' before the national elections in December will widen the gap between the domestic production and the rising demand. The trade deficit rose to US$ 5 billion in the July-May period, which was US$ 3.2 billion in the same period of the previous year.

Import is growing alarmingly faster than the growth of the country's export and this may put pressure on the foreign exchange rate adversely. During the period, export earnings stood at US$12.5 billion against the import bills of US $17.5 billion. Bangladesh Bank data, however, revealed that the current account was positive standing at US$ 456 million due to robust remittance from the expatriates. The overall balance of payments in the 11 months period in the last fiscal year was a meagre US$ 105 million, which was US $ 1 billion in the same period in the previous fiscal year.

Death of Solzhenitsyn : A dazzling flame extinguished

Maswood Alam Khan

Not for a split of a second time freezes, not for a micro millimeter the Earth wobbles off its trajectory at the deaths of thousands of people everyday. But, at times news of death of a single luminary sends people the world over into fits of hallucination, grief, angst, pain and heartache that make them believe that the clock, as if, has stopped ticking, the earth stalled revolving, and the sun paused shining to mourn extinguishment of a blaze that glowed for ages to illuminate abodes of humanity.

Such has been the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Russia as were the deaths of Rabindranath Tagore of Bengal and de Gaulle the Great of France and as would be the death of Suchitra Sen, the heartthrob of millions of Bengali cine-goers.

Solzhenitsyn's bidding farewell to this world as he reached only 89 has numbed millions of readers (I am one of them) who discovered Soviet Union through his writings. Hailed as Russia's greatest living writer, the author of more than two dozen books in addition to commentaries, poems, plays and film scripts, such a stellar figure must not be allowed to bid us adieu before he reaches at least 100, if not more.

The sad news has evoked our memory of those engrossed moments when we used to delve into "August 1914", "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", or "The Gulag Archipelago"---to cite a few of many grand pieces authored by Solzhenitsyn, the reclusive icon of the Russian intelligentsia and the great chronicler of communist repression.

Most of his books were translated into English and greeted as best-sellers in the West. Since he was 9, he had written stories, poems and plays, though not before early 1960s during the tenure of Nikita Khrushchev when the Soviet Union was experiencing a short-lived period of liberalization Solzhenitsyn began to reveal his secret life as a writer.

In the later part of 1980s I read a monumental history of the 20th century Russia in "August 1914" that was translated by Willets into English. The historical narrative about Russia's defeat in the 'Battle of Masurian Lakes' blended with fictional snippets and anecdotes as depicted and articulated in the novel easily transports a reader right onto the battlefield where he can clearly hear the cannons bursting fires and soldiers stepping in a quick marches as vividly as in a real war.

If a novel translated into English could vivify so brilliantly a battle to an alien reader like me to visualize the scenes and sounds so vibrantly, I wonder what the novel in its original Russian version could do to a reader whose mother tongue is Russian!

V. I. Lenin was and still is revered by the Russians as a godly stature because he was the founder of the Soviet Union. It was perhaps only Solzhenitsyn who did not spare even Lenin from his caustic assailment. Communism, Solzhenitsyn asserted, with its malevolent and unyielding nature did in fact suffocate the Soviet Union turning the country into a cold and sterile nation.

He was neither hesitant to criticize the West where he spent 20 years of his exile life; he viewed the United States and the West in general as flaccid, morally weak, cravenly materialistic and suffering from "the spiritual impotence that comes from living a life of ease."

His masterwork "The Gulag Archipelago" was the loud banner displayed to the world to describe the brutal network of labor camps across the Soviet Union during Dictator Josef Stalin's frenzied industrialization drive during which time tens of millions of men, women and children perished. Frustrated by increased harassment of the Soviet regime to block his efforts to have his works published he had to smuggle his "The Gulag Archipelago" manuscripts out on microfilm that was published in Paris in 1973.

The soulful writer, Nobel laureate and the spiritual father of Russia's nationalist patriotic movement was nonetheless reunited in 1994 with his adored homeland after two decades of exile---only to be distressed once again by the damage done to his beloved land and people and by the way the pristine Russian character was disfigured under the heavy weight and harsh wraths of communism; he was as distraught as he was when he was denounced as a traitor, stripped of his citizenship and expelled from his home back in 1974.

Solzhenitsyn met Natalia Reshtovskaya during his salad days in college and married her in 1941. Pundits, who are researching on Solzhenitsyn's life and works, know it better why shortly before his release from prison---not after---he divorced Natalia in 1956! More mind-boggling to us is why Solzhenitsyn had remarried Natalia Reshtovskaya only after a year or two and again divorced her in 1973! By then he had fallen in love with another lady with the same first name 'Natalia' but a different surname 'Svetlova' with whom he had had three sons.

Perhaps to Solzhenitsyn 'divorce' was not a good idea; he probably tried his best to reconcile with Natalia Reshtovskaya and made an attempt to rediscover his first wife by remarrying her after the first divorce, but gave in to go for the second divorce after the retrial of their marriage for more than a decade utterly failed. Maybe, the first name 'Natalia' bore special significance or an extraordinary fragrance to Solzhenitsyn who attempted to find her Miss Right in both Natalia Reshtovskaya and Natalia Svetlova.

Solzhenitsyn could not imagine of divorcing his homeland though he had to endure tribulations after tribulations. After he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 Solzhenitsyn did not proceed for Stockholm to receive the prize; he feared he would not be allowed to return to his homeland if he went to the Swedish capital. Only after his expulsion---a forced divorce---he did go to Stockholm in 1974 to receive the prize.

Solzhenitsyn had to undergo ordeals after ordeals for a simple reason: his unalloyed patriotism. He volunteered for the military and was turned down; he was drafted to fight against the German advances during World War 11; he was appointed commander of a battery to fight on the front lines.

He was arrested for remarks he made in letters; he was convicted for anti-Soviet behavior and was sentenced to eight years in prison; he was condemned to exile in perpetuity; he spent a lot of time in different labor camps when more than once he was stricken with cancer---an experience that led him to write his novel "Cancer Ward".

Tributes have been pouring in for Alexander Solzhenitsyn who died last Sunday. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, described him as a man of unique destiny who spoke up about the inhumanity of Stalin's regime with a full voice, and about the people who lived through this but were not broken. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called him "one of Russia's greatest consciences of the 20th century" and said: "His refusal to compromise, his ideals and his long and eventful life make Alexander Solzhenitsyn a romantic figure, an heir of Dostoyevsky's." He said Solzhenitsyn "belongs to the pantheon of world literature."

Thousands of stars we find sparkling in the nocturnal sky are not all living stars; some are alive and many are dead. There is probability that the star which is now twinkling to our eyes was extinguished to death thousands of years back but still the star looks alive to us---the inhabitants of the planet Earth; because the powerful rays of light of the star that emitted eons ago went on traveling around the space for thousands of years next after the star's death.

One day our nearest star the 'Sun' will also be extinguished to death; but its light will go on traveling alive for living beings, if any, inhabiting in an Earth-like planet far away in the havens to sight the star "Sun" twinkling to their eyes!

Long after the memory of Solzhenitsyn---whose identity as a writer far surpasses his identity as a dissident---as a man would be faded, readers will continue to be astounded by his skill, his pithy, his succinct sentences, and most of all at his ability to create such vivid imagery in so few words.

In short, Solzhenitsyn may have been extinguished to death, but his aura as a genius will go on radiating around the earth and illuminating the aesthetic faculties of the posterity for the next thousands of years.

Notes from Islamabad

Dr.Abdul Ruff

Against the hopes that February 18 elections would usher in great leaps of change and greater stability for Pakistan , the country is still passing through trials and tribulations. If any specialist argues that domestic turmoil and external threats would boost national economy, people's welfare and stability of any country, they would still have enough opportunity to revise that opinion now. If that were the case, then, all African nations would have become developed nations by now.

Pakistan has been under distress for quite some time now shifting from one problem to another. West and many in the East argued that a democratic poll would turn around the scene in Pakistan . And poll did take place and new coalition governments were put in place both in Islamabad and provinces, but the people still feel defeated. And the continued turmoil has not improved the conditions of the country yet.

US forces have entered Pakistan and killed Muslims but Americans are still blaming Pakistan for not doing 'enough" for USA . In order to cover-up its genocide in Afghanistan and Pakistan, USA has very cleverly blamed Islamabad for the attack in Afghanistan on the embassy of India quite keen to woo the Neocons by joining the US-led forces in tracking both Afghans and Pakistanis. Even as pushing ahead nuclearism with India , the United States has said it will be shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan . For any thing bad happening in India it has become a sheer habit of Indian media and strategists to blame Pakistan and Bangladesh . And India media as their patriotic mission make people in general and Muslims in particular to abuse Pakistan and Bangladesh for their ill-fate in India .

However, it looks Pakistan still remains out of gear. One does not know what would have happened if the strong "soldier" President Musharraf had quit silently when the lawyers and their supporters of Pakistan 's political theater coerced him to do.

Amid regular clashes between Pakistani troops and pro-Taliban fighters or "militants" in the tribal regions bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan using rockets and automatic weapons, killing hundreds of Muslims on either side, anti-Musharraf political leaders in the country have at long last got ready with a plan, after three days of talks, to finally impeach the president Pervez Musharraf on August 11, setting a real confrontational stage leading to enormous chaos. Ruling coalition parties in Pakistan say they have agreed "in principle" to start impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf. Party leaders Asif Ali Zardari of PPP and Nawaz Sharif of PMLN made the announcement after three days of talks. The two leaders also promised to restore judges sacked under Musharraf's emergency rule once impeachment was successful. How to proceed on that issue had caused deep divisions between the two coalition parties since the elections.

An impeachment would take Pakistani politics into new territory, since no Pakistani leader has faced it before. The leaders say they will also move to have Musharraf face votes of confidence in the national and four provincial assemblies. There are, however, no other confirmed details about how an impeachment process might proceed. The question of whether or not to impeach Musharraf has threatened to divide the governing coalition. Impeachment would need a two-thirds majority in the upper and lower houses of the national assembly but getting those numbers might be difficult.

However, President Musharraf remains unimpressed by the announcement and has even offered his counsel to the leaders saying the Parliament can impeach him and they should go ahead with their plan. The president has previously said he would prefer to resign than face impeachment.

Musharraf's message is loud and clear to Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who derided Musharraf's economic policies, saying that he has worked to undermine the transition to democracy. He warned Musharraf not to dissolve parliament, saying: "If he does it, it will be his last verdict against the people." Sharif said: " Pakistan cannot afford to see democracy derailed; this is not the same Pakistan as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s. People will not accept it now." Zardari said: "We have good news for democracy. The coalition believes it is imperative to move for impeachment against General Musharraf."

Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He gave up control of the army last year and his allies were defeated in February's elections but he retains the power to dissolve parliament. Musharraf was elected president for a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary vote. Musharraf was discussing a course of action and had the options of dissolving parliament or imposing emergency rule again. The president is still thought to have heavy influence over the military and its reaction will remain crucial. Pakistan has been ruled by military leaders for more than half of its existence since Partition in 1947.

The PPP and PMLN coalition won the polls in February conducted Musharraf's government and formed governments both at the centre and in provinces while allied that supported the president were defeated in elections. The victorious parties have been demanding the resignation of Musharraf, but he has so far resisted pressure to quit. The lawyers' demonstrations exerted maximum possible pressure o the former General, but he stuck to his guns firmly.

Last year, he gave up control of the army, the country's most powerful institution, but he retains the power to dissolve parliament. How the military reacts to any efforts to oust him would be crucial in determining his fate. Musharraf has cancelled his trip to China , where he was due to attend the opening of the Olympic Games and he will be replaced by Prime Minister Yousef Gilani.

PPP senior vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said PPP is still maintaining contact with President Musharraf on back door channel. Pakistani nations is not satisfied over performance of PPP led government PPP is meant for the poor people and it will serve no purpose if the party holds closed-door meetings when the poor section of society is in miserable condition, he underlined. Nothing has been done in 100 days and only inflation has been fuelled, he regretted. Law and order situation is worst and kidnapping for ransom is at its peak, he alleged. Impeachment of president Musharraf was a constitutional issue, he said adding Asif Zardari had not decided to become president therefore, "I" could say nothing about supporting him or otherwise.

Attempts made by Musharraf to usher in an era of "democracy' have enboldened the oppostion to challenge his own authority. racy The strategy of PPP and PMLN will not be enough to dislodge President Musharraf but might weaken him ahead of any impeachment showdown. What is at stake is Pakistan 's security as well as people's welfare and this lingering crisis can further weaken the Pakistan as an Islamic nation.

There is no denying the fact that Pakistan is longing for a strong leadership, rather some charismatic leaders, to take Pakistan forward. The process of devaluing President Musharraf has not pushed forward any strong personality for Pakistanis to pin hopes on. The most significant issue is the leadership vacuum that pervades all segments of society. A manifestation of this void is the antics of the current coalition government, which over the past six months has struggled to define its purpose and chalk out a concrete program to confront these challenge. It is difficult to pin point just one section of Pakistan for the present stalemate. So, the politicians are not the only culprits. Military top brass, bureaucratic big-wigs, industrialists and civic leaders are just as guilty.

The position of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani does not promote any such strong personality for the purposes. Gilani has remained a care-taker premier, supporting the ruling coalition, also without rubbing shoulder with Musharraf openly. Nawz Sharif and Zardari, who are concerned mainly concerned about lawyers and judges and not seen about working for people welfare, have not come up to the expectations of the people who voted them to power.

World get the impression that Pakistani leaders are interested only in endless infighting. The end to the leadership crisis is dependent upon how quickly the people of Pakistan wake up from their slumber and make their leaders see reason and come out with measure to stop blood shed in Pakistan and political bickering.

Of late, there have been two sets of rumors reported in Pakistan media. One, Musharraf, unsatisfied with its performance, has been considering dismissing the PPP-led government in Islamabad . Two, rumor mills have begun spreading a fresh installment about replacement of present Gilani government by another to be led by Sharif. It is said Pakistani intelligence is working to build up a story to incriminate or at the very least, implicate Zardari in the court of public opinion.

The ouster of Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from power and the engineered return of Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif is a child of the establishment, promoted and sponsored by Gen. Zia himself. Many in Pakistan 's military and intelligence apparatus remain sympathetic to their former proxies as is Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif is well liked by Pakistan 's right and religious people. His return would likely mark the end to the Pakistan Army's push in the country's northwest. But military would resist his return to power. On Monday 23 June, 2008, a three-member bench of the Lahore High Court disqualified PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif from contesting the by-election while provisionally allowing his younger brother Mian Shahbaz Sharif to continue working as the Punjab chief minister. This has further complicated Sharif's onward political march to reach the level of the top most leader.

Unmindful of his weak position at home, Pakistan 's Prime Minister Gilani visited the White House last month for talks focusing on the effort to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Gilani has reportedly told President Bush to leave the "terrorism" problem inside the country to Pakistan itself and USA should not unnecessarily meddle with domestic affairs. "We must have more cooperation with each other and it's our job because we are fighting the war for ourselves," he called on the United States not to act "unilaterally" against Islamic "militants" in Pakistan . Gilani, whose new government has been facing intense US pressure to crack down on Pakistan-based "militants", but both refuse to consider addressing their genuine problems.

Gilani said the United States needs to be more patient and should not take unilateral actions in Pakistan . The Bush administration has decided to shift its resources from counter-terrorism programs to upgrading the country's F-16 fighter jets. In so-doing, the administration has had to reject criticism that Pakistan wants the planes to be upgraded as part of its military rivalry with neighboring India . The US claims the F-16s will enhance the ability to strike insurgents accurately. US should not violate Pakistani sovereignty.

Bush said he had received a "strong commitment" from Gilani that Pakistan would try "as best as possible" to prevent Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants from crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan , where they attack US and NATO troops. Bush called Pakistan a "strong ally" and said the United States "supports the sovereignty of Pakistan ." "It's tense in that we're working together" to fight terrorism.

US-led terror War in Islamic world has entered its seventh year and results are far from satisfactory, except that Muslims are systematically killed and their economies are crippled as per Neocons plans. USA has exploited Pakistan the maximum extent possible not by using Indian nuclearism flirting and musings, it wants to fix this Islamic nation to the ransom. By cleverly using Bin Laden as the "mastermind" behind the attacks and Taliban as their cohorts, America embarked upon the adventure to wipe out the root causes of terrorism. Now it seems USA entirely controls both Afghanistan and Pakistan and is keen to bring in India fully with its arms arsenal both in Afghanistan and Pakistan . This aimless war has no trend and target seems to be Islam and Muslims. After bring the economies of Afghanistan and Iraq , USA now thinks it has legitimacy to run Pakistani economy as well.

What the US forces are doing in the South Waziristan region? USA has fully used threat of terror as an excuse to destabilize Pakistan . USA has harmed Pakistan in worse ways than those of India which his ill-focused on its Muslim neighbors and is keen to destabilize them. US-led terror wars have only strengthened Indian hands to make its dream come true somehow. Bush and Gilani "acknowledged that terrorism and violent extremism pose a common threat to Pakistan , the United States , and the international community. Bush had also allocated increased aid to Pakistan . "The president offered 115 million dollars over two years in food aid and 42.5 million of that will be available over the next six to nine months

American interests are global and US believes in policy of pre-emption and collateral damage by obliterating its enemy. As long as Americans remain in the region pacifying these rogue elements, cessation of violence and putting a lid on extremist spill over into settled areas will remain illusive. Regional leaders help USA spread its poisonous tentacles all over the region and beyond.

America used Pakistan in 1989 and the myopic military regime complied with US dictates for their vested interests and today once again America is making us scapegoat thanks to spineless compliance of Musharraf regime to US demands.

Pakistan 's current unending troubles started the day Pakistan unconditionally decided to join hands with US as a frontline state against war on terror. This sorry state of affair is no different from last phase of cold war when we were left high and dry to deal with 3 million Afghan refugees.

Pakistan has witnessed years of turmoil and polarization which has reached a tumultuous climax today. Pakistan needs to re-examine the post 9/11 foreign policy. More they capitulate to US pressures more will be the militant violence and extremism. Though, there are no easy answers to menace of "terrorism and extremism" but it definitely is not an unsolvable puzzle. The root cause of Pakistan 's leadership predicament can be attributed to a single factor-namely the economic and political system inherited from the colonizers- and later modified by the US . In their eagerness to serve western powers-western solutions were relentlessly borrowed and applied to all walks of Pakistani life. The cut and paste mentality hasn't worked well.

The only salvation for Pakistan is for a new dynamic, truly Islamic leadership to take the reigns of power, dismantle the nation's corrupt systems, mismanagement and institutions and reverse Pakistan 's decline. It must possess an acute sensation of the problems of Pakistan and an ideological vision that reflects the beliefs and values of the people. It must raze all vestiges of western domination, monopoly and superiority symptoms. The West has already described this political trend as the movement to re-establish the Caliphate and hence it opposes and wants to keep "terrorism" alive to thwart any serious attempt at humane truthful rule to genuinely help the people to advance their legitimate aspirations.

Talking alone is no solution. Leaders every where know the art of addressing the public. But solutions are need of the hour in Islamabad . Pakistanis have to decide whether Muslims again want to be used as strategic tool in the hands of a superpower which is pursuing imperial and hegemonic designs in the region at the cost of Islamabad's national integration and stability. Pakistan should adopt solutions that are not disconnected from the problems of Pakistan and opposed to the beliefs and cultural values coveted by the people.