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              Volume 10 |Issue 37 | September 30, 2011 |


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Letters

Peace begins at Home

It was indeed heartening to see our Prime Minister, in her speech given at the United National general Assembly (UNGA), urge world leaders to mend their ways and bring about lasting world peace. But I, one of her ordinary subjects, could not but take her advice with a grain of bemusement. As far as peace is concerned, we, as a country, are as far away from peace as North Pole is from its southern counterpart. Would it not have been better if she had struck a basic, working relationship with Khaleda Zia, who whenever she gets the chance, gives one threat after the other to resort to un-peaceful political programmes such as hartals and road-blockades? Imagine how peaceful the country would have been without the goons belonging to the ruling party chasing each other with unsheathed knives and Chinese machetes? Or, so to speak, imagine our highways without the killer drivers, whom one of Sheikh Hasina's ministers wants to protect, and the PM acts as the beleaguered minister's guardian angel. Like charity, establishing a peaceful society always starts at home.

SM Hussain
Dhanmondi, Dhaka


Handicapped and Autistic Children

Children are the future of a country. A nation can be judged through its treatment of its children. Unfortunately we are living in such a state where violation of child rights is overlooked. Children from the poorer families are suffering from negligence. There the children are hardly taken care of and barely surviving. Many poor children are seen begging in the streets, and most have noticeable handicaps. The handicapped or autistic people are considered to be a burden to parents and their caregivers. An autistic child should be treated with extra care. But they are kept deprived of psychiatric care and a chance at a normal life. To them the world appears limited. Some of these children are extremely talented but their talents are being ignored. We need more schools for children from poor backgrounds as well as for children with special needs.

Ahsan Uddin Tohel
Department of English
SUST, Sylhet


Customer Service

This week's Star Diary titled “Ordeal at Customer Service,” published on September 23, 2011 really got my attention. Aarong has been around for as long as I can remember and has had poor customer service for as long as I can remember too. Just recently, I visited their store near Asad Gate, to buy an outfit for my daughter. I couldn't find her size so I asked the sales lady who was chatting with two other sales people. She looked irritated when I interrupted their chat and said very rudely, “I can't give you a different size, go look on the racks again.” I felt very insulted and asked her whether it was a part of her duties to assist me. She looked angry and walked away, as did the others. Humiliated, I left the store. I've been treated just as badly at the jewellery counter and have heard horror stories about customer service at the other branches from my friends and family. What I find sad is that Aarong is run by such respectable members of the society, and they can't even be bothered to train their sales people to behave properly with the customers. Their business is doing well despite this I suppose, but sooner or later, people will get tired of this attitude and turn to their competitors who definitely offer better service. I know that I won't be going back there again.

Farzana Nashid,
Dhanmondi, Dhaka


Frightening thought

Keeping pace with the fastest growing population, the number of multistoried buildings in Dhaka city are always on the increase. These skyscrapers are, of course, our pride and proof of our national and economic development. Each concrete block of these buildings indicates our passion and determination in building our future. But sometimes a sudden tremor or flood reminds us about disasters that may occur at any time causing irreparable loss to our lives and properties. The life and activity in this 400 year old city can be put to a stop with a single disaster such as an Earthquake. When we build, we don't think of such things and forget to maintain the building codes and standards, leaving ourselves vulnerable in case of a disaster. As we know, we are in an active earthquake zone. Moreover, the recent mild earthquakes in different parts of the country have increased our fears. We all are well aware about the devastation of the earthquake in Japan which happened a few months ago. To protect ourselves, we should follow an earthquake resistant building code so our buildings can absorb the impact. Mild earthquakes that happened in different parts of the country a few days ago should give us incentive to quicken the process. We can certainly minimise losses by following some precautionary steps. So, I would like to request the RAJUK as well as the government to ensure the law and regulation regarding building construction by proper monitoring.

Mahmudul Hasan Hemal
University of Chittagong

Photo: Zahedul I Khan

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