The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tipaimukh Dam to kill the Meghna

ACCORDING to media reports, the central government of India has cleared the way for the construction of the Tipaimukh dam across the river Borak in the State of Monipur. This is a hydroelectric project with the objective of generating 1500 megawatt electricity and flood control over an area of 2039 square kilometres. An integral part of the greater Borak-Meghna river system which flows through Bangladesh before falling into the Boy of Bengal.

Bangladesh is going to suffer the most as a result of the dam which will block water flow during the dry season and release flood water during the wet months. The downstream region will be adversely affected. The Bangladesh part of the river basin is very much likely to dry up for lack of flow during the lean months. During the monsoon operators will open wide the gates of the dam to let the excess water roll down causing havoc to life and property of the people. It will bring a drastic ecological change and seriously effect flora and fauna of the Meghna basin in Bangladesh. The Indian part of the Borak basin will also suffer adverse ecological impact.

This unilateral decision to hold back the natural flow of water not only goes against the principle of good neighbourliness. It also violates the principle of sustainable and equitable utilisation of transboundary watercourses. Intervention in the flow of a river presupposes environmental impact assessment over the whole basin from the origin of the river down to its outfall.. But nothing of the sort has been done in this case. It is hoped that good sense will prevail and the big neighbour will realise the importance of keeping the river alive by ensuring its ecological flow with a view to benefiting from its services.

US 'dangerously vulnerable'

ACCORDING to a study as reported in the US media, the United States remains 'dangerously vulnerable' to chemical, biological and nuclear attacks seven years after 9/11. A House Democrats' report, on the other hand, blamed the Bush administration saying it has 'missed' one opportunity after another to improve the nation's security. The recent political rupture between Russia and the United States only makes matters worse, said former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton who helped lead the 9/11 Commission and now chairs the independent group's latest study. The report produced by the bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America' concludes- 'The threat of a new major terrorist attack on the United States is still very real' as efforts to reduce access to nuclear technology and bomb-making materials have slowed.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, had harsher criticism of the Bush administration's efforts. Their report, written by the staff of the House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees, found rather little progress across the board on national security initiatives. 'The Bush administration has not delivered on a myriad of critical homeland and national security mandates', the Democrats' report states adding the administration has just failed to act in so many ways. The report describes the 'failure' of international cooperation to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

Many countries continue to ignore a United Nations mandate to prevent the spread of weapons; the ability of many countries to monitor potential bio-terrorism is essentially non-existent', and dangerous chemical weapons stockpiles remain in some countries as the report mentioned. Russia has been a significant player in US efforts to secure nuclear weapons and to eliminate inventories of chemical weapons in the former Soviet region and that cooperation could be jeopardised as the two countries face off over the Russian troops' march into Georgia and concerns about a US missile defence base in Poland.

Breastfeeding best solution to counter melamine-tainted milk

Raiatun Tehrin Tune

Panic of contaminated powder milk has gripped Rahela, a Bangladeshi mother of a two-year-old boy. But, she is not the only one; many women like her are worried since media came up seriously on the melamine-tainted hazardous imported baby food.

In fact, with every passing day, the fear of toxic milk consumption is mounting across the country. Melamine, a poisonous substance generally used in the manufacture of plastic, has been found to be added to milk, forcing dairy products and some confectioneries off the shelves in many countries.

According to a physician, it will be difficult for mothers to change the food habits of their babies who have become used to powdered milk. Even then babies younger than six months should not be given powdered milk. They should be provided breast- feeding up to six months and after that cow milk and other supplementary domestic foods could be an option.

Babies older than six months should be given khichuri, eggs, noodles and other soft food items. However, the import of contaminated milk has already been suspended following directive of the Ministry of Industries and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

China, epicenter of the contamination, has banned 22 brands of its powdered milk. Traces of melamine have been found in the Chinese baby formula Yashili-2 that was earlier found available in Bangladesh markets. The government is also taking steps to take stern action against those who are importing unregulated milk powder that pose a threat to public health.

Director General of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) M Azmal Hossain said the presence of harmful melamine has been found; the amount of melamine present in the milk formula is 72.77 milligram per kg of milk.

The government warned people against eight brands of imported milk after Dhaka University testing lab confirmed milks with toxic melamine contamination. Dano milk powder produced in Holland, Red Cow and Diploma produced in Australia, Antene produced in New Zealand, Yashili and Sweet Baby produced in China contain alarming level of toxic melamine, which is extremely hazardous for human health.

People are asked not to consume milk power of eight brands which were tested by the Dhaka University Chemistry Department laboratory. Order has been made to go for further tests of five out of eight contaminated milk powder in the laboratories of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Atomic Energy Commission.

A meeting of an inter-agency task force at the commerce ministry made the decisions, according to an official handout. Relevant agencies have also been asked to take legal action against the companies marketing powdered milk without registration and inform the task force convener about the matter.

Here comes the vital importance of a well-informed mother. A healthy and educated mother is a blessing for the family, society and the country. From pregnancy to the phase of delivery and from birth up to two years of a child's age are very important stages. So, proper planning and correct feeding by a mother to her baby are prerequisites for getting a healthy future generation.

A mother should be well aware of the great importance of breastfeeding. The world Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that a baby must be fed only breast milk up to six months of age known as "exclusive breast feeding". The first feed should be offered as soon as the baby is keen to suck immediate after the birth and mother is well enough to suckle. There is no need to feed plain glucose, water or honey.

Nutrition during the first three years are both crucial for lifelong health and well-being. In infancy, nothing is more precious than breastfeeding; yet barely one in three infants is entirely breastfed during the first four months of life.

Mother's milk is highly nutritious, and containing anti- infective and anti- allergic elements, so it is the best choice.

The benefits of breastfeeding are many. It is a proven fact that when babies are exclusively breastfed he has less chance of diarrhoea, infection, growth abnormality, nutritional disorder, and indigestion than the artificially fed babies.

Mother's milk contains abundant number of immunological substances that balances nutritional requirement of the baby. Again it gives protection from various diseases, and baby gets faster ability to fight disease.

It also benefits the mother. In a breast feeding mother the hormone called Oxytocin helps to stop bleeding after delivery. Frequency of feeding delays the resumption of menstruation. What is more, breastfeeding protects against another pregnancy and lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Again we should not forget that the emotional bond is higher between mother and the child through beast feeding.

If we think about the economic aspect, mother's milk is natural and can be produced even after her limited calorie intake. Hence all classes of people can afford it, and the breastfed baby grows up as a healthy person.

Breastfeeding is the ideal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Virtually all mothers can breastfeed, provided they have accurate information, and the support of their family and the health care system.

Colostrum, the yellowish sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by WHO as the first food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after the birth. Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to six months of age.

(Source: BSS/Unicef Feature)

A Third Palestinian intifada in the making

Ramzy Baroud

At a recent conference I was repeatedly asked about the prospects for a third Palestinian uprising, or Intifada. The question, although seemingly uncomplicated, is both loaded and important, and cannot be answered in a mere two minutes or less.

A 'third Intifada' would imply that the second has already ended. But has it? Or did it simply lose momentum, sense of focus and direction, or were its energies squandered - as a popular uprising - on factional disputes and internal division?

Some of its initial leaders are no longer involved, and a cohesive uprising cannot exist if too many of its players have switched sides, changed roles, or are absent altogether. To approach this subject more practically, the first Intifada in 1987 must be thoroughly scrutinized.

Palestinian collective revolts are not a singular response to singular problems caused by outsiders, for example the British mandate, Zionist colonial designs, Israeli occupation, and so on. What is often missed are the internal factors which anger the Palestinian masses, such as their leadership's failures, divisions, u-turns, corruption, nepotism, and so on.

The 1987 uprising was consistent with this model, although it certainly inspired a paradigm shift. On one hand, it was a collective cry for justice and an earnest attempt at ending an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land occupied in 1967. But it also represented the instinctive desire to reclaim the Palestinian struggle, which had for long been managed from abroad: Jordan, Lebanon, then, more or less, Tunisia.

There was a permeating awareness among Palestinians in the occupied territories that their plight had turned into power struggles between various factions based in various Arab capitals, and that their disputes were hardly ideological, but more pertinent to issues of control, money and status.

The first uprising quickly formulated its own ideas, mechanisms and symbols, all reflecting the unity of purpose among Palestinians. In fact the overt emphasis on "national unity" in the Intifada's symbols and slogans was a clear sign of Palestinian denunciation of disunity and factionalism.

Although the Israeli response to the first Intifada was lethal, it hardly compares to the more violent response to the second uprising of 2000.

The Israeli government wanted to crush the revolt before it developed a rhythm and turned into a long-term, popular commitment. Israel also operated with the erroneous assumption that the uprising was manufactured by the late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader, Yasser Arafat, to extract political concessions.

The fact is both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) - assembled following the 1993 Oslo Accords as an alternative to the all encompassing PLO - were caught by complete surprise when Palestinians took to the streets in defiance, not just against the Israeli occupation, but also the wavering attitudes and rampant corruption that pervaded their own leadership.

If we must accept that the second Intifada is over, or was ended by the infighting between Fatah and Hamas, then an examination of its outcomes is necessary. Although the second Intifada has not brought an end to the Israeli occupation, it certainly has made a serious impact on the political institutions in Palestine. It has given rise to another leadership, that of Hamas, and forced a major rethink within the once leading movement, Fatah.

The second uprising greatly undermined the PA, and therefore the Oslo accords that brought it into existence, highlighting the need for alternative - and truly representative - political institutions, such as a revived version of the PLO.

Indeed, every major Palestinian revolt in the past has resulted in new, unpredictable realities, and despite all attempts, the status quo that defined the pre-revolt periods is often negligible afterwards.

New faces, names, priorities, slogans and symbols are often introduced to the mix, although still defined by an everlasting desire for justice, meaningful peace and freedom.

Israel's methods for subduing Palestinians and crushing uprisings have also produced new realities, thresholds and relationships.

Methods such as huge walls, new settlements and weapons of mass suppression often complicate the already painful existence of Palestinians living under occupation and result in more revolts.

The first Intifada brought the struggle home, and introduced local leaderships, who competed with the old guard on all fronts, including the right of articulating Palestinian demands and aspirations.

The second Intifada saw the Oslo accord and its adjoining 'culture of peace' as a worthless process that failed to improve the dreadful reality on the ground - although it did manage to empower a specific class of Palestinians financially as well as politically.

Now Palestinians find themselves in a transition that has an uncertain outcome. There are more questions than answers: where will the Fatah-Hamas clash lead?

Will Fatah carry on while maintaining its current structure? For how long? Will Palestinians continue to adhere to the once uncontested demand for a two-state solution? And how credible is that formula under the current circumstances, where a clear cut separation is complicated if not totally unfeasible? How will the geopolitical split between the West Bank and Gaza play out in coming years?

Palestinian uprisings are often a collective response to hard questions. The chances are the next Intifada - as surely there will always be one as long as the occupation continues - will find again a popular rejection of the ills which have afflicted the Palestinian cause, It would once again reassert the relevance, if not the leading role of the Palestinian people as the real owners of their fate, and guards of their own struggle.

Beware of non-violence; it's dangerous!

Jonathan Power

The non-violent tactics of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are pushing at an open door. Even the Pentagon has begun to look at their value in situations of conflict and political impasse.

In the news today is the essentially non-violent struggle of the opposition in Zimbabwe to push aside the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe. Despite all the provocations of the police and the army the opposition (unlike in Kenya) has turned the other cheek and in doing so won over almost 100 per cent of the foreign opinion that counts. Exiled Iranian opposition activists are studying and training in the techniques of non-violent conflict, emulating the success of the recent movements for change in the Ukraine and Serbia.

One shouldn't be surprised by this turn of events. The twentieth century is rightly described as the bloodiest century of mankind. But it was also the most creative in terms of alternatives to violence - not only Martin Luther King and Gandhi (with the anti-British Pathans joining his movement, an ?historical development somehow overlooked today by the NATO armies in Afghanistan), but also the work of Chief Albert Lithuli and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa, Archbishop Helder Camara in Brazil and Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta in East Timor. There were the 1950s marches against nuclear weapons that helped persuade President John Kennedy to push for the Test Ban Treaty, and later the massive protests against the Vietnam War.

There is no way one can put a precise finger on it. But there has been a sea change in Western society's attitude to war. Despite the headlines there are fewer wars now than ever before in history. The number of wars conducted between the democracies since the end of World War Two is zero. The industrialized, richer, democratic nations have mostly abandoned armed conflict as a way of conducting their relations with other countries. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the only exceptions. There is only a small constituency in the West that supports a strike against Iran.

Even in the poorer countries where warfare is more rife, war is waged by a remarkably small group- mainly criminals, bullies and warlords, often easily defeated by UN-type military intervention, combined with outside political pressure, except in rare cases like Afghanistan where the Pathans have a deep and almost unique inbred culture of resistance. In only the US and Russia is military intervention a constant topic of conversation and serious ongoing preparedness.

Take a close look at Holland, Sweden and Switzerland if one doubts how war-making cultures can change. At the end of the eighteenth century Holland and Sweden each had armies larger than those of Britain or Austria and far larger than Prussia. Holland was one of the great seafaring, imperialistic countries of the world. But for the last two and a half centuries Holland has been utterly non-warlike. During the period 1415 to 1809 the Scandinavian countries were almost permanently at war. But since Sweden's defeat by Russia in 1809 they have more or less withdrawn from violent conflict. Likewise Switzerland, which in 1500 was a feared warrior nation.

If the militaristic atmosphere of past ages is beginning to change one shouldn't be surprised at the greater role that non-violent campaigns have played over the last sixty years. And they tend to be successful, too.

A recent study by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, reported in Harvard's quarterly "International Security", finds that large-scale non-violent campaigns of civilian resistance have achieved success 53 per cent of the time. In contrast terrorist campaigns achieved their objectives only 7 per cent of the time.

Success comes from many factors, not least persistence. But it also comes from an enhanced domestic and international legitimacy and alienation of the target regime, as happened in the Ukraine three years ago. Second, public opinion at home repulsed by violent movements finds a non-violent movement increasingly appealing. Repression by heavily armed police and army helps turn public opinion against the regime.

This happened in the Philippines, where violent opposition had failed. But when two millions rallied peacefully to oust dictator Ferdinand Marcos the Reagan administration pushed for him to step down.

One can point to numerous situations where non-violence could be usefully be made to work today. But no situation is riper for it than the Israel-Palestine dispute. If the Palestinians could drop their guns and stones and organise an effective non-violent movement they would find a million Israelis supporting them.

Warfare, as John Mueller has written, was once regarded as "natural, inevitable, honourable, thrilling, manly, invigorating, necessary, glorious, progressive and desirable." It could well be that this era is approaching its close and non-violent resistance is becoming the main tool of radical, even revolutionary, change.