Impudence
I
am writing about Faisal Hassan of Poltan. Last Friday
(9/05/03) he wrote a letter about undisciplined CNG
drivers. He wrote that the CNG driver he had taken
asked for Tk. 5 more than the actual fare. Well this
is standard procedure that occurs often in our unfriendly
Dhaka city. The CNG drivers claim that this is unavoidable
for them because they have to return to their original
destination which costs them that extra Tk. 5. The
other day, I was also charged an extra Tk. 6 coming
from Old Dhaka to Mohammadpur. Apparently, this is
an unofficial law and even the police will not be
able to help you.
Azmi-Sayeed
Mohammadpur
Chemical-Biological
Weapons' Walk to Syria
The
excuse Bush gave in order to invade Iraq was that
he wanted to find Biological-Chemical Weapons. He
also wanted to prove to the world that Iraq and Saddam
Hussein is capable of a global mass destruction campaign.
However, one month has passed since Saddam's regime
toppled, and Bush has not found any such weapons.
Now Bush is saying that the weapons of mass destruction
have gone to Syria. In other words it is time to show
his power to the Syrian government and its people.
The talented Bush and his talented detectives did
not reckon that the weapons could be crossed over
to the Syrian border! Bush & Co. did not realise
prior to their invasion, that these weapons would
walk and flee away to Syria! So before starting another
war, can Mr. Bush give us a guarantee that these weapons
will not run away to yet another country?
Md. Zakir Mursaleen
University of Dhaka
On
Chronic Power Crisis
It
was mentioned in the 5th and 6th pages of the article
titled “A Chronic Power Crisis” that “
most of the power plants are old and they are not
even maintained properly.” It is true that a large
number of power plants are old, but it is not true
that they are not maintained properly. In fact engineers
and technicians of PDB have been working hard to keep
the old units operative despite many odds. More over,
a number of power generating units are even have been
repaired and overhauled by the local PDB engineers,
technicians and experts. In the same article it was
also mentioned that DESA is a PDB subsidiary which
is not correct. In fact DESA is a separate organisation.
It only buys electricity from PDB.
There is no deficit from PDB's part in supplying electricity
to DESA. PDB provides electricity to DESA as much
as they can take. In the later article titled “Poorly
Maintained Age-old system” it was reported that “there
should be no crisis in Dhaka as PDB is providing the
required amount Dhaka needs.”
ASM Bazlul Haque
Directorate of Public Relations,
Power Development Board.
Thanks
To the UN
Being
a fervent reader of SWM, I would like to extend my
thanks and congratulations to Mahfuz Anam for his
article titled, “We Need the UN As Never Before” on
the role of the UN on the Iraq War. Although the U.S.
and its counterpart, the UK jointly invaded Iraq,
defying the UN, the UN continued to be active in its
disapproving stance. I agree with Anam's valuable
words because although it is obvious that the UN is
led by the US, it has shown courage in speaking out
against the position of the US, thus echoing what
many other people in the world would like to voice.
Many people like me, before reading Anam's article,
believed that the UN was nothing but a handmade doll
of the US that is compelled to do everything according
to what the US believes. I thank the UN for taking
a position against the US; for going its own way.
Jahid
Chittagong University
