The New Nation - Internet Edition

Strengthening ties with Myanmar

As part of efforts to expand bilateral trade and economic cooperation Bangladesh and Myanmar discussed the issue of early construction of a 23-kilometre road link inside Myanmar. The cost for the construction of the road has been estimated more than $20 million. Bangladesh has reportedly offered to bear the total cost of the construction. The proposed road would establish a direct trans-border communication between the two countries.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have a 270 kilometre long common border both on land and sea. Most of the border is in the inaccessible hilly region covered with dense forests. The countries have economic and cultural bonds rooted in the past. But the hard fact is that these countries do not have any good road connection. In spite of having common maritime border, the countries did not develop any formal sea communication system. Myanmar is the second country with which Bangladesh has a common border. So, the two countries must have established good land and sea communication systems.

Construction of the proposed road would bring the two countries closer. The present volume of trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar is just US$140 million. It is due to lack of good communication that the bilateral trade did not develop to the expected level. The two countries have expressed a common intention to increase the trade volume to US$500 million. The early construction of the road would help achieve the goal of increasing trade. The last elected government had initiated the process.

It would also accelerate people to people contact and strengthen the cultural bonds. This road link with Myanmar is expected to open a gateway for Bangladesh to the East and Southeast Asian countries. Considering the importance of the proposed road, Bangladesh and Myanmar should strive for the early completion of the proposed road connection.

For eradication of leprosy

LEPROSY has turned a chronic infectious disease in some areas in the northern zone of Bangladesh. Many people, including youngsters, are found suffering from this disease. The affected people even fail to keep contact with other members of their families. It is so due to the fact that leprosy is considered a highly infectious disease. Those suffering from this disease are unable to work and thereby fail to earn their living. They turn dependent on their families and philanthropists.

The disease is noted as a curable one and patients may be fully cured if proper treatment is made at the early stage. Unfortunately, the healthcare centres in Bangladesh have yet to take adequate steps for treatment of the disease. An initiative has been taken by executives of the Gaibandha-Joypurhat Leprosy Care Project for creating awareness about the disease. The conference room of the Civil Surgeon of Gaibandha was used for organising a forum. Healthcare professionals, health and family planning officials from forty upazilas in the region participated in the forum. The keynote paper on the subject was presented by the programme manager (Leprosy) of the Department of Health Services.

Participants at the forum interacted with healthcare professionals and underscored the need for creating awareness among the people. More awareness should be created among the members of families of patients suffering from leprosy. The fact that the disease is curable has to be made clear. The healthcare facilities for patients of leprosy have to be augmented. Due care should be taken for containing the spread of this disease.

Durga Puja: The great socio-religious event

Prem Ranjan Dev

DURGA Puja is the greatest socio-religious event of the Bengali Hindu. The concept of Durga as a Goddess symbolising 'Sakti' took a long time to evolve out of many ancient religious texts and traditions. The Skanda Purana says that the Goddess got her name after killing a demon called Durga, who had been harassing the Gods and had stolen the Vedes from them with a view to destroying religions. Then the Gods unitedly sought her intervention, the Goddess destroyed the demon and restored the Vedas. She also incorporated the Vedas into her own body to ensure that these were not stolen again. That is why Durga is also called Vedamoyee. She destroys all the evil forces represented by the six ripus: lust, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance and jealousy.

Durga is tranquil and turbulent, serene and fierce, soumya and rudra at the same time. However, what is generally worshipped in the Bengali Hindus is Durga as Mahishasuramardini, as the vanquisher of Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon. The conception of Durga as Mahishasuramardini took a definitive shape in the Markandeya and other Puranas, particularly the DeviMahatyam or the Chandi that forms part of the Markandeya Purana where the impartance of the Devi or the Supreme goddess is highlighted. Iconobgraaphically also, the image of Durga worshipped by the Bengali Hindus is that of Mahishasuramardini as described in the DeviMahatyam with ten arms, each with a weapon symbolising shakti. One of these weapons is a spear with which the Goddess pierces the chest of Mahishasura, causing the blood to spurt out. With her sons and daughters Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh-standing by her on both sides, she presents a picture of massive power that prevails over all that is evil.

Durga is the progenitor of the universal process in its entirety. She is the presiding principle of the cosmic manifestation and the source of ultimate goal of all perfection and attainment of all existence. She is essentially unique and one. Durga the divine mother and the emblem of shakti or cosmic energy is also the symbol of the Hindu female hierophany. The worship of Durga as mother is an important feature of Hindu religion. Durga also reflects the importance of what is called womanpower in modern-terminology. Durga is also the symbol of Prakriti, the primordial matter or substance, which provinces the basis for all that exists in the universe. Since she· fights all the forces of evil, the Goddess, as worshipped by the Bengali Hindus, has been invested with ten arms equipped with a wide range of weapons. However, in the different scriptures, the number of anrm varies from two to as many as thirty two, the latter number serving as a reminder of the vast sweep of her powers. The Markandeya Purana narrates all these powers in a series of shlokas of which an off-recited one reads "Ya Devi sarvabhuteshu Shaktirupena Sangsthita; Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyri Namo Namah (Repeated salutations to the goddess who is present in all living beings a 'Shakti').

Two different concepts of Durga are, in Vogue one of which is that of 'Mahishasuramardini'. The second concept is that of Durga as Uma, Gauri, Parvati, the daughter of the Himalayas, who, as the wife of Lord Shiva and the mother of Laxshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik, radiates the peaceful ambience of the divine mother rather than the bellicosity and destructiveness associated with Mahishasuramardini.

In this second sense, Durga Puja represents her home-coming from the Himalayan abode of her divine spouse Lord Shiva. It is the concept of Durga as Uma, Gauri or Parvati that great poet Kalidasa projected in his 'Kumarasambhaba'. In the evolution of this concept, the scriptures, literary works as well as, folklores have all made their respective contributions.

Sanatan Dharma is the most ancient and insightful among the Dharmas of the worlds, it is called Hinduism. Our Vedas, Sastra, Puranas and Gita have dealt with it extensively. This vedic Hinduism is an eternal and unfathomable ocean. Hidden beneath its surface are the pearls of wisdom and essence of life. Many sages and great men have traveled on the path of legacy of inspire and help mankind.

At a time when the impact of Hindu thought and spirituality is increasing globally and when scholars from many disciplines are discovering parallels between Hindu thinking and scientific thought, true spirit of Hinduism is very relevant to present time.

It has answers to problems of relationship between man and man, man and god, it brings man closer to man and creates love for all creation. Sanatan Dharma explains the way for attaining liberation according to each individual stage in life.

Hindu thoughts are democratic and social. There are a number of concepts is Sanatan Dharma which are rarely understood in true depth. According to historians, the conception of Durga as 'mother' might have evolved in amongst the Bengali Hindus under the influence of some cults from Assam, Meghalaya and Burma, where matriarchal traditions had strong roots. Alternatively, this tradition might have travelled to the areas where the Bangali Hindus live in major numbers along with the Dravidians, who came from Mohenjodaro and Harappa, where a similar custom was believed to have prevailed.

A somewhat identical practice was in vogue in Sumer. It is believed that the people of Sumer hailed from the eastern and north eastern regions of India and might have taken with them the custom of worshipping the 'mother'.

The Bangali Hindus, it is claimed, were good seafarers and traders in ancient times and used to travel to the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them were said to have colonised in Crete where they introduced the worship of Goddess.

Man is the maker of his destiny and he can exercise his free will, but at the same time he has taken upon himself the responsibility to ensure full participation in the entire cosmos and consequently between man and gods, man and nature, man and other living beings and finally between man and man. May our Durga Puja become fruitful.

Computer aided learning can improve quality of education

Md.Masum Billah

Post Primary basic And Continuing Education (PACE) Programme of Brac is involved in many aspects of quality improvement of secondary education. Poor preparation of teachers has been detected AS one of the reasons of quality decline in education in Bangladesh . Teachers need refreshers courses both in content and proper pedagogies for teaching. In addition, unlike the urban areas where families are comparatively well off encourage their children to study and stay in schools even after school hours to have extra teaching. But the students in rural areas do not attend schools regularly because classroom situation hardly attracts them. Teachers also find it difficult to retain the interest of the students in the large classes of 60 to 100 learners. This environment contributes to the rural schools' inability to retain students till the completion of their secondary education.

PACE has explored the difficult areas to identify methods to improve the teaching leaning scenario in the classrooms to enhance students' overall learning environment.It is seen that in many countries of the world IT is being used for improving the academic learning outcomes of children. Considering this fact, PACE started developing the Computer Aided Learning programme in 2004 to improve the teaching capacity of the teachers and to make the classes much more interesting, interactive and exciting for the students so that they become interested and want to stay in school more than their usual hours. The prime objective of the program is to develop interactive education software based on the national curriculum. Any sort of endevour needs piloting to assess whether and how a new thing can be guided further forward. So, PACE selected seven schools at Mirzapur Upazila to pilot to develop the software and see how it works and how far it makes the students interested and benefited. The programme started with Mathematics and later on English and Science were included in January 2006.

The broader objectives of the Computer Aided Learning ( CAL) go in the following way:

To move from the teacher centered classroom to a more interactive one

To make the class more interactive and engaging

To ensure conceptual clarity and better application

To increase teachers' understanding of the lessons

Self learning provision for both teachers and students and

To familiarize the rural students and teachers with the modern computer technology.

CAL materials will be used as a supplementary tool for Teacher Training which is another significant component of Brac Education Programme particularly in the secondary education.

Various questions, visual aids and relevant examples will guide the trainee teachers to facilitate the learning of the students and make the classroom more interactive, learner-centred and a comfortable one. The materials can be used for their own development. To make a class interactive and effective, the teachers need to ask various questions and use relevant examples. The CAL materials will help the teachers to learn these techniques.

CAL materials will function as a learning facilitation tool for classroom teaching. Teachers can use the materials to explain topics and to facilitate the learning points /skills that are coordinated with the textbooks.

To select the schools the following criteria were followed:

The Head Teacher was ready to cooperate with PACE in all respects to implement the materials of CAL.

The school would spare one classroom for holding CAL class

The school would take the responsibilities to protect all computer equipments given by PACE for conducting CAL class.

The school enjoys electric power supply The school was either for girls or majority students are girls. A gonokendra ( village library-another initiative of Brac) was attached to the school

The subject based teachers (mathematics and English) received PACE training in both first and second modules

Forty-one teachers of the seven piloting schools have already been trained so that they can use CAL materials comfortably in their classroom situation. The CAL training in all the three subjects (English, Science and Mathematics) is divided into two parts. Rural teachers usually do not have any access to computer operation. So, the first part of the CAL training is dedicated to introducing the teachers to the function of computer in three or four days.

Teacher's training is a significant part of the process of developing CAL materials. It is observed that the trainees who are practicing teachers provide useful feedback on developed lessons. Therefore, it is very important for the CAL materials developers to participate in the teacher training. The materials developers learn the drawbacks of the lessons. Their participation will enhance the quality of training as they introduce and explain the materials to the teachers better than any other skilled trainers. While developing the materials at the piloting stage, the developers and IT team targeted the lesson school term wise and developed materials accordingly. To collect feedback on lessons imparted to the teachers, two reflection formats were given to the teachers.

At the end of training the participants prepare the lesson plan on term wise. At the end of training, the participants prepare term wise lesson plan where they follow their own class routines. Two teachers from one school prepare their own schools lesson plan.Besides receiving 6-10 days training in CAL materials, the teachers also attended one or half day refreshers meeting.

The positive response of the students and schools tells us that Computer Aided Learning is getting ground. Really it is getting popularity among the rural students. This sort of leaning can be spread throughout rural Bangladesh. Both government and non-government levels this kind of learning calls for attention.

Suicide Bomber: a product of ideology or circumstances?

Adnan Gill

Pakistan is stuck in a vicious cycle where blood begets blood. For good 50 or so years Pakistanis belonging to same religions have lived in relatively peace and harmony. Then why, all of a sudden, they are turning on each other now? Till we could answer this question, all we'll be doing is treating the symptoms and not the disease.

By all accounts the Marriott bomber(s) used a mix of military explosives, including the RDX and incendiary materials (most probably chlorine trifluoride or aluminum oxide). It is next to impossible to procure such a humongous amount of exotic explosives, like the RDX from the black market, without raising red flags.

Therefore, it can be argued, that such a sophisticated attack cannot take place without the planning and support of some sort of professional organization. Hence, the potential sponsors of the attack could be narrowed down to either Pakistani intelligence agencies like the ISI, or some foreign spy agencies.

Neither Iran nor China could possibly gain any benefit from such attacks or by destabilizing law-and-order situation in Pakistan. At the same time, Afghan and Indian culpability cannot be ruled out. Both of them have clear motives, desires, and resources to destabilize Pakistan.

Throw the CIA in the poisonous mix, and you get a perfect recipe for the witches brew. CIA's bottomless resources, along with RAW's capacity to supply huge quantities of RDX, combined with Afghanistan's NDS' large pool of agents freely operating inside Pakistan, makes a team perfectly suited for the subversive activities inside Pakistan. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine how the ISI, which is said to have a soft spot for the militants, could have gained any benefit through such bombings which could jeopardize the image and existence of their alleged boys (so-called Taliban)?

Circumstances surrounding the Marriott bombing suggest, the bomber had a helping hand from some other Pakistani security agency, and the bomber was most probably a devout Muslim. Because, without inside support, such a huge amount of explosives couldn't have been smuggled into the heart of Islamabad, and only Muslims (baring few exceptions) willingly sacrifice their lives. But that doesn't mean the puppeteers have to be Muslims too.

Even a non-Muslim handler can easily pull the strings of a potential suicide bomber, without a hint to the bomber.

Which brings us to the question, what pushes a perfectly sane person to become a suicide bomber? If we could answer this question, we could possibly address most of circumstances that bread suicide bombers.

Once you take the suicide bomber out of the deadly chain that forms the bomber, it can exponentially reduce the lethality of terrorist bombings. Therefore, the need to study and learn the circumstances that mold suicide bombers cannot be overstressed.

If we could ponder over some of the following, we could be on our way to solve, at least some of the pieces of the puzzle:

1. Pakistan had been in existence for over 60 years. In it, same people of the same religion have lived in peace and harmony for good 50 or so years; so why all of a sudden they are turning on each other now?

2. Who is behind the suicide bombers? Is it only Mullahs running the assembly line that churns out the impressionable children for suicide missions?

Or are there other, yet unidentified, forces/players also exploiting the emotionally charged, thoroughly frustrated and deeply impoverished sections of population to further their objective?

3. What have we (supposedly moderate, liberal, educated, affluent and enlightened) done to pullout/help the susceptible population from falling into the hands of Mullahs who provide them free shelter, food, education and most importantly a promise of much better life after death?

4. Have we done anything to give the distressed a ray of hope? They tried the dictators, they tried the bureaucrats, they tried the feudal lords, and they tried the politicians; but everyone failed to address their woes. When, for a brief moment, they saw a glimmer of hope in an institution that was finally listening and doing something to address their grievances, it was snuffed out too by the establishment, which took down the superior judiciary.

5. What good could be expected in a society in which rich and powerful get their sins white washed with a single stroke of pen, but poor and innocent victims of unwonted state and foreign forces aggression are labeled as criminals and terrorists, or at minimum, a statistic of the 'collateral damage'?

When faced with despondency that exists in Pakistan today, how.