Ghughu bird, politics and the powerfool

IN Bangla there is a proverb: Ghughu Dekhechho, Faad Dekhoni, which means "you may have seen a ghughu bird, but you have not seen the trap laid for it." In a nutshell, it imparts the warning, look or do carefully before you do something foolish. The latest round of fabricating ghughu parable has been started by the electricity godfathers who reside behind barbed wire in Ashuganj.
When electricity snapped at the national power grid on December 15, the bagha, bagha engineers lost no time in carrying out their investigation and reaching the conclusion. Thy found the carcass of a ghughu bird in the vicinity and like Hercule Poirot exclaimed: "Voila! There is the culprit! Now, show it to the world and then go home to take a nap." Tweet, tweet, boom!
Dear me! If it is true then it means that our national power grid and those tiger, tiger engineers are completely at the mercy of little birds! Incredible? Not so. Everything is possible in Golden Bengal my dear readers. Everything is possible indeed. Doesn't the comical story remind you of those little birds in Hanna & Barbara cartoons that go about inflicting havoc on their adversaries with their tiny naughtiness? Long live our professional responsibility. Long live our sense of propriety.
It is needless to mention that the electricity sector needs complete overhauling, like the bad engine of a car. But what we are doing at the moment is patchwork, as and when needed, on an ad-hoc basis, like they do in Dholaikhal. But we need a long-term plan for improving the entire electricity sector so that it becomes efficient enough to meet the need of the future consumers. We cannot be oblivious of the fact that uninterrupted electricity is the prerequisite for achieving the development targets.

...of politicians after the 1/11 Sidr
Politicians looked devastated after the Sidr of their own creation struck them on January 11. The cyclone, unexpected as it was, uprooted their homes, flats, villas, pillows (filled with currency notes), and more importantly their cozy little dens of corruption. They were basking in the sun thinking they were safe in their well-fortified den of corruption against any political storm. But, by Jove, they were not prepared for any Sidr!
Today, after about a year and after playing many sets of badminton in the prison compounds they remain as tricky, as cocky and as one-eyed as before. They have seriously begun to believe that people's collective memory has sufficiently waned by now so they would not talk about their corruption anymore. Hence, Sleepy Salwar and Hannas and Mannas are now trying to divert public attention from the core issue and hooting in unison for election.
Bravo, brothers, bravo. You have never condemned or expelled a single corrupt person from the party, you have never publicly apologised for the misrule, but you are prompt enough to ask for elections! What good the election would do if unworthy and corrupt to the marrow people come to power once again? Have you had your character washed in the waters of River Jordan? Have you been pardoned by the people? No. Never. The corrupt lot remains as loathed today as they were yesterday. It is only because of ten percent of the people like you that ninety percent of the people have to go around with the seal of "corrupt country" on their backs.

…of the powerfools in history
We know absolute power corrupts absolutely. But absolute power also turns some people into "powerfools," as they invariably forget the past and fail to perceive the future in their blind surge ahead in total darkness, like Don Quixote. History is replete with the sad tales of such "powerfools," and we have selected the life of Goebbles to throw some light on the subject.
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers.
Goebbels came into contact with the Nazi Party in 1923 during the French occupation of the Ruhr and became a member in 1924. By 1928 he had risen in the party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.
After the Nazis seized power in 1933, he was appointed propaganda minister. Following his appointment, his attacks on German Jews became ever fiercer, and culminated in the Kristallnacht in 1938, the first open and unrestrained pogrom unleashed by the Nazis. During the Second World War, he increased his power and influence through shifting alliances with other Nazi leaders. By late 1943, the war had turned into a disaster for the Axis powers, but this only spurred Goebbels to intensify the propaganda by urging the Germans to accept the idea of total war and mobilisation. Goebbels remained with Hitler in Berlin to the very end, and following the Führer's suicide he was the second person to serve as the Third Reich's Chancellor -- albeit for one day. In his final hours Goebbels allowed his wife, Magda, to kill their six young children. Shortly after, Goebbels and his wife both committed suicide.
Even in modern times we see tiny, hitherto nondescript men turning into unstoppable megalomaniacs, or "powerfools," when given absolute power. As long as they are in power they forget their antecedents and go about weilding power like crazy. They forget they will have to go and live amongst the people oneday when they will be stripped of their power. Once done, sudddenly they will look even tinier than before. And mind you, when they fall, they take the whole bunch along with them. But alas! Who cares!

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.