Letters
A
Valentine's Day of Hatred
I was shocked to see the news about the bomb blasts at Dhaka
University at a Valentine's Day gathering. Recently, it
is a risk to attend any public gathering, not only political,
but also, if not especially, cultural ones. Ramna, Udichi,
the recent blasts at different jatras and the most recent
Valentine's Day fiasco at DU all confirm this fear. People
don't necessarily have to accept Valentine's Day and other
such occasions as a part of our culture, but that doesn't
mean that they won't let them take place at all. We've been
suffering from the intolerance of our political parties
for years; now it seems that religious and cultural intolerance
is on the rise. It is even more sad when students, innocent
youths, have to suffer due to the narrow-mindedness and
hateful nature of others.
Samina Alam
Dhaka University
On
the Last Cover Story
I have read with much interest your article entitled "Reading
in Translation". The article contains much valuable
information. I should like to add that, in 1992, the Bangla
Academy published my translation of a book of poetry by
the Middle Ages Turkish poet Yunus Emre (he is a contemporary
of Jalauddin Rumi). He wrote nearly 750 years ago and I
had the great privilege to be the first Bangali to translate
his work. The occasion was the celebration by UNESCO of
Yunus Emre Love Year. The most remarkable aspect of Emre's
poetry was that, during his time and the region from which
he came, writers and poets used Persian and Rumi was no
exception although he lived in Konya, the heart of Anatolia
and Turks and Iranians both claim him as their poet. As
for Emre, he wrote in Anatolian Turkish and it is not possible
to find Persian in his poems. For your kind information,
I have translated the earliest book of Andre Malraux. La
Tentation de l'Occidentr (The temptation of the West) from
French into Bangla. The magnificient role of Malraux during
our Glorious War of Liberation is well known and the Government
of Bangladesh in 1973 under the leadership of Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman honoured Malraux on the free soil
of Bangladesh.
Arshad-uz Zaman
On
Spitting
In "Long Live the Spittoon" (SWM, Feb 18), Azfar
Aziz has hit on a very pet peeve of mine. Why do people
spit? The streets are spotted with still-glistening loogies.
His playful suggestion that spittoons be legislated has
a recent precedent not so far away: disgusted by the rusty
stains everywhere, the city of Port Moresby in Papua New
Guinea this month enacted a bylaw requiring betel chewers
to use spittoons installed on the street-sides. I hope for
the day when throat- and sinus-clearing noises and spitting
become as publicly unacceptable as breaking wind.
Sid Tupper
Baridhara, Dhaka
Stop
Hartals
It is beyond comprehension to think how a Hartal can be
a solution for all the opposition parties, especially when
they have unrelenting problems. Days of continuous hartals
are being called by the opposition for almost any possible
reason they get. A country such as Bangladesh, in which
there are normally many holidays, will definitely fail to
carry out even its normal operations if, in addition to
these holidays, unnecessary hartals continue. We call our
country a democratic one, but do our respected opposition
parties care about our opinions and rights and do they even
care for the development of our country? The answer is "no",
because they have forgotten the existence of their country.
Why do we bother electing them? And why do we call our country
democratic when the whole country is protesting to stop
the hartals while these so-called country-lovers continue
their indisciplined activities. As a simple citizen of such
a 'helpless' country, I would request the opposition parties
to stop imposing hartals and settle their matters in the
parliament like most civilised democratic countries around
the world. Stop using hartals as the weapon of choice because
they can never be a solution to problems. Rather, they serve
as a means of destruction to put the country at stake by
crippling it permanently from all sides.
Naome Syed,
Mohammadpur
21st
February
All of us agree that 21st February is a day of pride as
well as a day of mourning . I think this day should be observed
by showing respect to those that gave their lives for the
sake of our mother tongue. However, for the last few years,
I have observed that today's youth consider this day to
be like any other. University and college going women see
it as an opportunity to dress up and wear pretty ornaments
to match. Some university students paint the Bangla alphabet
on their faces, necks and hand but they go through the whole
day with a cheerful frame of mind. Unfortunately, many youngsters
and teenagers look up to college and university students
and follow their example, thereby showing similar disrespect
for this day. The whole meaning and importance of the Language
Movement is diminishing. Do these people ever think about
the achievement of the martyrs and feel for them from their
hearts.
Farhana Deeba
Department of Marketing
Dhaka University
Love
and Fundamentalism
It's insane! A bomb blast on a friendly harmless Valentines
Day programme at TSC. On a day of celebrating love, we had
to associate ourselves with the frantic act of fundamentalism
that turned a cordial environment into a devastated nightmare
in the span of about a minute -- injured people and students
were crying out in agony, blood, glasses, sandals and dying
flowers scattered all over the place. A stage of love soon
turned into a nightmare of hatred, inhumanity. Love, the
most beautiful, blessed feelings of earth could not survive
the dissent of some mentally sick people! However, its more
tormenting to see the two leading student groups accusing
each other and making it a political agenda instead of protesting
the crime. Can't love be protected from such political issues?
Has love evaporated completely? If it exists, irrespective
of political differentiation, we should all unite in order
to voice our opinions against such insane fanaticism. We
should be united and learn to move past our political differences,
before it's too late and we have nothing left.
S.Reza
D.U.
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