The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. M. S. Haq

I am in receipt (I mean yesterday - 14th day of November 2008) of a copy of Choyon - a tri-monthly magazine (July-September 2008 issue) edited by Poet Lily Haq. I am not sure about the spelling of her name, though. The publisher of magazine was Sudipto Printers. It now appears to me a critical mass of the magazine has apparently been created by products (essay, short stories, poems) of a number of promising literary personalities of Bangladesh - besides, the country's existing literary personalities such as Mrs. Mokbula Manjur (correct spelling?), Dr. Ashraf Siddique (correct spelling?) and the editor herself.

The focus of above products was multi-disciplinary in nature and scope - ranging from gender biases and inadequacies associated with the country's social, as well as criminal justice system; to eid reunions and sweet reminiscences; to attempts towards capturing one's own past in pursuits of taking a pause from the moving reality (Dr. Jahan Ara), to interactive virtual discussions, to love and emotion, to nature, and to other things perceived or sensed or felt or internalized otherwise by contemporary human systems (used in a medical sense) of relevant contributors - relative, however, to time, space and other variables. The bottom line is: a good effort towards creating an interface between self and surroundings in the search of happiness and welfare - both finite and infinite, per se.

Interesting though, a part of the magazine deals with inter alia pieces of news reflecting on activities pertaining to distribution of happiness among all stakeholders of Choyon and Lily Haq foundation (including inter alia poor Bangladeshis) - - via assisting for example, the stakeholders, who are poor, in their effort towards improving the quality of life and towards liberating themselves from clutches of poverty.

The activities of Choyon literature club and Lily Haq foundation - at present, in a limited way, though - focusing on for example: sustainable livelihoods, helping the poor to acquire fungible assets, educational assistance to poor children, health care assistance to the poor, and distribution of winter cloths to the poor bear testimony to the good work. The bottom line is: literature in anti-poverty action.

The examples of Choyon and others in creating, sustaining and promoting choices for Bangladeshi poor and other disadvantaged people tend to suggest, among other things, there is - at least at this point in time - no apparent shortage of anti-poverty windows in Bangladesh. But one of the present day challenges, in that respect, is: how best and quickest Bangladesh, friends of Bangladesh (including inter alia the US, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the EU), neighbors of Bangladesh (including inter alia India, Pakistan, Myanmar) and others (including inter alia the World Bank, the UN, the SAARC) could create enabling environments for say, local anti-poverty entities - both existing and evolving - in pursuits of enhancing anti-poverty interplays between and among them and mainstreaming resultant gains in for example, national and sub-regional anti-poverty programs and outcomes for ensuring a continually incremental and sustainable impact on life and living of poor people of Bangladesh and the world at large. It should be noted here - in the present era of reintegrating universe (used in a deeper sense) the world is getting smaller; things are getting nearer or closer or both to each other; and challenges, as well as opportunities for survival, living and continuity in the universe are, in a sense, attaining nano dimensions in qualitative, quantitative and other terms; to mention a few.

The world of engineering and technology has already started responding to, among other things, nano challenges - the quantum computers are on its way, robotics is expanding its domain, the demand for precision mechanics is growing, and so on and so forth.

But in an increasingly changing universe, the development in areas of theories and practices pertaining to human development and anti-poverty activities is not inter alia encouraging. The gap between technological developments and the development of poor people is, in many respects, growing - enhancing, at present, risks and vulnerabilities of world people particularly, the poor to distribution related disparity, deprivation, loss of entitlement, and disease, of various nature and types.

The present day anti-poverty opportunities lie in inter alia giving - at the soonest and in a result-oriented manner - a more prominent anti-poverty face - than the existing one - to engineering and technology in pertinent areas.