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Friday, November 13, 2009

[mukto-mona] Vijay Prashad: Can the Major Speak?



 
 
 

What Swirls Around Fort Hood

Can the Major Speak?

By VIJAY PRASHAD
Words have ensnarled the rampage at Fort Hood. Nothing more needs to be said. Thirteen dead, and thirty-one injured. What sets this massacre apart from the bombing at Oklahoma City (with 168 dead) and Columbine High (with 12 dead), is that the assailant here is a Muslim at a time when the United States is at war in two Muslim-majority countries (Iraq and Afghanistan). Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as well as Eric Harris and Dylan Kiebold were all white. Their acts brought forth revulsion, but not condemnation of Christianity; that would have been ridiculous.
All these acts have indeed once more refreshed the necessary, but repetitive, debates over gun control and mental health care for war veterans. It is fitting to remember that the father of Columbine victim Daniel Mauser (age 15), Tom Mauser is a leading gun-control advocate. Traction has not come his way, as it has not for many of those parents and loved ones of those who were killed by assault rifles that do not belong where they find themselves (such as in places like Guns Galore, in Killeen, Texas, home to Fort Hood, and where Major Nidal Malik Hasan bought his FN Herstal tactical pistol, a standard issue gun used by NATO troops in Afghanistan).
Fort Hood, like other bases that send young people to ghastly wars, has seen a spate of suicides (ten in 2009, and seventy-six since 2003) and cases of violence against women (up by 75% since 2001). Post-traumatic stress disorder has become a routine problem. Multiple deployments don't help. Nor does recalcitrance to admit to mental illness as a real injury, as much as a physical one.
All this is on the table. Including the failure by the military to identify serious problems in the well-being of Major Hasan. He was obviously not suited to the military, and should have been discharged rather than be shunted from Walter Reed to Ft. Hood. Large bureaucracies are like this: rather than take action, the envelope is pushed down the counter. This envelope contained a letter bomb.
Major Hasan's own reasons for action will probably never be known. He has acted. The action has provoked analysis. Some of the ideas are useful, and hopefully productive, others are toxic. The deployment of the idea of "political correctness" and the shifting of the burden of explanation to Hasan's religion is a convenient way to avoid all else. Muslim Americans anticipated the backlash immediately (one might remember CBS's Connie Chung right after the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, "According to a government source, it has Middle East terrorism written all over it." It turned out to be an Iraq War veteran and his friend; that's the closest the attack came to the Middle East).
All the requisite Muslim American organizations hastily put together press releases to condemn Major Hasan's attack, even before the smell of cordite left the processing center where he went on his rampage. This was mete. After all, it was important to make the point against the kind of assumptions that would float out of the slime of FOX and its various friends. As it turned out, it didn't stop anything. Nor could President Obama's plea to keep religion out of it. Nor could General George Casey, who told CNN, that the backlash against Muslims and Muslim American soldiers "would be a shame as great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well." The Army has been particular about diversity (for more on this see George Baca's forthcoming book from Rutgers, Conjuring Crisis: Racism and the struggle for civil rights in a southern military town). This is why it joined the amicus brief against the end to affirmative action at the University of Michigan (Grutter v. Bollinger). The text is instructive: "[the case's] outcome could affect the diversity of our [N]ation's officer corps, and in turn, the military's ability to fulfill its missions." When asked about this support, Lt. General Becton told NPR, that diversity was a "combat multiplier. It brings about unit cohesiveness." The brief was signed by all the senior officers, each one battle-tested. Nothing pious here.
But here comes the easy bile. Published, no less, than by Forbes. The author, Tunku Vardarajan, is a professor at the well-named Stern School of Business, but also a luminary in the various financial pages (a contributing editor at the Financial Times and a regular at Forbes). His essay on the Fort Hood massacre is called "Going Muslim" (November 9). You can close your eyes and imagine what he argues. It does not require much sophistication.
Vardarajan thinks that Muslims are an entity apart. They cannot integrate. Indeed, theirs is a "fake integration." Fine, most of the "hundreds of thousands of Muslims in our midst," he writes, might not want to kill others, but "there are a few (perhaps many more than a few) who are so radicalized that they would kill their fellow Americans." The bulk of Muslims are not so radicalized, but, to Varadarajan, they are still irreducible ("Muslims are the most difficult 'incomers' in the ongoing integration challenge"). They are Muslims first and last. Consider this: "Muslims may be more extreme because their religion is founded on bellicose conquest, a contempt for infidels and an obligation for piety that is more extensive than in other schemes." Any Muslim, then, is a danger. It is nonsense, plagiarized from the paranoid notebooks kept by Daniel Pipes. I bet Vardarajan has not read the Quran, or listened to the Taqwacore bands or had an intense discussion with The Muslim Guy (Arslan Iftikhar).
Vardarajan used to write for the Wall Street Journal. In 2005, its editorial page described American Muslims as "role models both as Americans and as Muslims" ("Stars, Stripes, Crescent," August 24, 2005). The impetus for that statement was the imputed danger of Muslims in Europe (the so-called idea of Eurabia, the Fifth Column of Muslims). The WSJ decided that on balance Muslim Americans were ideal citizens, well-educated, professionals, with a voting pattern balanced between the two major parties, and, importantly for the paper, with a plurality in favor of a lower tax rate. Nothing of this kind comes out in Vardarajan's essay, which is far closer to the kind of reaction from Rush Limbaugh and Joe Lieberman (Calling Joe Biden, whose best line so far was used against Guiliani, that he can't say a sentence without a noun, a verb and 9/11).
If Muslims can be reduced to their religion, and if their religion is indeed extremist, then the pabulum of political correctness, Vardarajan believes, should go. "President Obama," he writes, "was as craven as a community college diversity vice-president when he said that no one should jump to conclusions." It "flies in the face of common sense" to be considerate to Muslims, who might "go Muslim" at any moment. Racial profiling is therefore good; it is not far to the internment camps.
Fort Hood Three
Not far from the gates of Fort Hood sits the Under the Hood Café. Run by Codepink member Cynthia Thomas whose husband has been on three tours of Iraq, the Café provides a safe place for veterans to come talk frankly about the things that the culture of the military forbids, such as how to deal with trauma and the loneliness of the post-battlefield condition. The Café recalls an earlier time, when Fort Hood was home to a coffeehouse, Oleo Strut (named for an aircraft shock absorber), which was the base of anti-war activity. In those days of the draft for the Vietnam War, the soldiers had a much clearer sense of disgruntlement and did not labor under the immense ideological feint of the war on terror. Everyone was familiar with the notion that Vietnam was not threat to the United States, and that the conflict in South-East Asia was absurd. That is not so clear these days.
In 1966, three soldiers refused to go to Vietnam. Pfc. James Johnson, Pvt. Dennis Mora and Pvt. David Samas joined together to form the Fort Hood Three. They were court-martialed and sentenced to two and a half years in Leavenworth Penitentiary. When they came of out jail, all three went to work in the Du Bois' clubs, affiliated to the Communist Party. In their Statement (June 30, 1966), the three pointed out that they refused to fight in the "immoral, illegal and unjust" war, which was being fought against an enemy that "had the moral and physical support of most of the peasantry who were fighting for their independence." They rejected the imputation of racism ("We were told that you couldn't tell [the Vietnamese rebels] apart - that they looked like any other skinny peasant").
The war was aimless. "No one used the word 'winning' anymore," they wrote, "because in Vietnam it has no meaning. Our officers just talk about five and ten more years of war with at least one half million of our boys thrown into the grinder. We have been told that many times we may face a Vietnamese woman or child and that we will have to kill them. We will never go there - to do that."
Substitute Afghanistan for Vietnam, and things are updated.
Major Hasan was obviously strained in many ways. He needed counseling. But he also needed to be part of a public discussion about the futility of these wars. There is not much of that on offer. He rather fell into discussion with a cleric in Virginia who was equally bilious, the mirror image of the war planners. There is too much blood in these conversations. There is insufficient courage to talk about peace and justice.
Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu

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RE: [ALOCHONA] Pardon AL style



real exciting news!!




Presidential pardon for Shahadab is abuse of power, say citizens 
Khadimul Islam

People of different professions and eminent citizens of the country termed the reported waiving of the sentence of 18 years' imprisonment of an absconder convicted in four corruption cases as naked abuse of power and contradiction of the government's commitment to curb corruption.
   According to reliable reports President Zillur Rahman has waived the sentence of 18 years of imprisonment and financial penalties amounting to about Tk 1.6 crore against Shahadab Akbar, son of deputy leader of the Parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, who is also a presidium member of the Awami League and an intimate of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
   Shahadab was convicted and sentenced in four corruption cases under different Sections of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act in 2008 during the interim government's rule. He was sentenced when he was absconding and he is still a fugitive.
   Citizens alleged that the President had 'abused' power and was guilty of 'political nepotism' as Sajeda is very close to him.
   Eminent citizens said it was a decision made purely on political considerations.




http://www.newagebd.com/2009/nov/14/front.html#6






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[mukto-mona] Is Obama failing?



Is President Obama failing? This question is being asked by many of his supporters who enthusiastically endorsed him as the first black president of the United States. He is being considered as weak and at times vacillating. The American public and the world never experienced nor ever conceived a colored president in the White House. This is a new experience with a little reserved excitement. President Obama must recognize this to put himself in the picture. The Americans are accustomed to see their country in al lead position when America roars the world listens. This is not happening anymore and some of  his domestic and foreign policies are bordering to appeasement. The office of US president is traditionally considered as a citadel power for the entire world. This historical perception is vanishing gradually which many Americans are not ready to accept. A too visible president who dashed to Oslo for an unsuccessful pleading for the Olympics is too radical. Americans does not want a common mans president. President Obama despite being very intelligent has failed to grasp this reality which is making many of his supporters utterly disappointed. His repeated pleading with the Muslim world for understanding is making many people nervous due his family links with Islam. Now the administration has decided that the 9/11 terror suspects would be tried in New York as common criminals which has touched the nerves of the Americans. They want a military trial for these hated people and definitely not on the soil of New York where the carnage happened. I would say this will be a blunder if that really happens. The right wing lobby is trying hard to discredit this president and this will give them a powerful chance to convince the Americans that Obama is not reading their mind.

 

Akbar Hussain

Canada

 



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[mukto-mona] Please watch a new video



Dear Friends,
 
On Sept 15, 2007 I was talking with Voice of America Bangla Radio about my 314-page book of poetry, Nakhatra O Manusher Prochhad, on the universe and life in it. Many of my English speaking friends asked me to make an English version of the interview. Well, it took me a while to do that. Now, I am happy to present a video version of it with English subtitle. Please click on the following link and enjoy it. I hope it might answer a few questions about the book.
 
 
 
Thank you.
 
 
Hassanal Abdullah


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[mukto-mona] Soft drinks are not so soft for health!



Pls find out more in the following article:

http://www.rtnn.net./health.php

Mujib




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[mukto-mona] One more extra judicial killing of an Indian dalit by the Border Security Force and acquiescence of police [1 Attachment]

[Attachment(s) from Kirity Roy included below]



To

The Chairman

National Commission for Scheduled Caste

5th Block, 11th Floor,

Lok Nayak Bhaban

New Delhi-110003                                                                                13 November 2009                                        

 

Respected Sir, 

 

We conducted a fact finding upon information received that the victim Prashanta Mondal (deceased), District-Murshidabad  was gunned down by the involved BSF personnel attached with Out-Post no.1 under DMC BSF BOP Camp, Lalgola Police Station, Murshidabad. The incident took place on 17/8/2009 at about 4 am. The victim was reportedly apprehended by the perpetrator BSF jawans, taken into custody, subjected to severe physical assault, three rounds were pumped down on his body and lastly his body was left to remain on the spot for hours until brought to police station on the next day. This inhuman act is itself proof of criminal intention that the bullets were pumped down on the body of the victim with definite intention to eliminate him instead of handing over him to police on existence of any allegation of crime committed by him.

 

One complaint of encounter over the incident was lodged at local Lalgola Police Station by BSF vide Lalgola Police Station Case no: 468/2009 dated 17/8/2009 under sections 147/149/186/307/353 of Indian Penal Code.

 

The family of the victim tried to lodge one complaint against the perpetrator BSF personnel at local Lalgola Police Station but the police refused to take any complaint and the same police station still refuses to accept the receipt of any complaint from the victim's family though such complaint was sent by registered post on 8/9/2009 and which was received by the police on 9/9/2009.

 

The right to life of the victim has been grossly violated by the perpetrator BSF jawans and the police of Lalgola Police Station. Our attached fact finding report gives details of this incident.  

 

Hence we seek your urgent intervention regarding this matter in the following manner:-  

  • The allegations of the killing by the Border Security Force (B.S.F.) of a minor boy must be investigated by an independent body, neither by BSF nor Lalgola police station. 
  • The criminal case under section 302/34 of Indian Penal Code for murder should be initiated against the accused BSF jawans at local Lalgola police station and must be investigated impartially in absence of any undue interference and influence by the accused persons and the accused must be arrested forthwith.
  • A judicial magistrate enquiry should be held under section 176(1-A) of Criminal Procedure Code without further delay; the deceased died while in BSF custody.
  • Action must be taken in compliance of the guidelines issued by NHRC in case of encounter death as the perpetrator BSF alleged that the victim was killed in an encounter.
  • The victim's family members must be given adequate compensation and protection.  

 

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely 

 

         

 

Kirity Roy

Secretary of Masum &

National Convenor of PACTI

 

 

Name of victim: - Prashanta Mondal (deceased) son of Mr. Subol Mondal, Caste-Schedule Caste, address-village: Bairbona, Police Station – Lalgola, District- Murshidabad, West Bengal, India.

 

Name of perpetrators: - (1) Border Security Force personnel attached with Out-Point no.1 under DMC BSF BOP Camp, Lalgola Police Station, District- Murshidabad, West Bengal; (2) The Officer-in-Charge of Lalgola Police Station, District-Murshidabad. 

 

Place of incident: - Near Out Post no.1 under BSF Camp of DMC BSF BOP under Lalgola Police Station, District- Murshidabad

 

Date and time of incident: - On 17/8/2009 at about 4 am.

 

Case Details:-

 

It reveled from our fact finding that on 16/8/2009 Mr. Prashanta Mondal completed his dinner and went to bed at 10 pm. On 17/08/2009 at around 2 am two persons from Naldahari village named Mr. Sharful Shiekh son of Mr. Septaj Shiekh, and Sepataj's father Mr. Giyajuddin Shiekh called Mr. Prashanta Mondal and took him out of his house; which was unknown to his family members. Next morning till 8 am he did not return, which made his family members worried. They started searching for him at every possible place.

 

On 17/8/2009 at about 10 am Mr. Subol Mondal and his wife Ms. Nandrani Mondal came to know that their son Mr. Prashanta Mondal was shot dead last night near outpost no 1 by some BSF personnel attached with DMC BSF BOP Camp, Battalion no. 105, Police Station-Lalgola. They also came to know from local people that his body was brought at Lalgola Police Station in a tractor. Mr. Subol Mondal, his wife Ms. Nandrani Mondal and some other family members along with some villagers went to Lalgola Police Station. There they saw that the body of the victim was lying on a trolley of the tractor.  

 

The family of the victim Mr. Prashanta Mondal came in contact with local villagers and they disclosed that there was one eye witness of the incident namely Mr. Ismail Seikh residing at Uttar Latibar Para, Dhagapara under Lalgola Police Station who was present at the place of incident at the time of the incident when the victim was caught by the involved BSF personnel on suspicion of being a smuggler. At that time he was present on the spot but hide himself in a nearby jute field in order to save his life. He reportedly saw from there that BSF personnel was beating the victim Mr. Prashanta Mondal brutally with sticks and butts of their guns and tied his eyes with a 'Gamchha' (a cloth used as towel by villagers). After that they forced him to stand few distance away and then BSF personnel fired three rounds from their guns aiming at the victim and the bullets hit on his body i.e. one hit on his forehead, one on his chest and one on his thigh. He instantly fell down on the ground.  Then the BSF persons hide his body inside the bunch of raw jute sensing him as dead.

 

The villager also disclosed that said Mr. Ismail Seikh was also caught by the BSF personnel from the place of incident and he was mercilessly assaulted by the perpetrator BSF personnel. Then he was brought to DMC BSF BOP Camp and later in the morning on 17/8/2009 he was sent to Lalgola Police Station.

 

The family members of the victim also came to know from the villagers that on 17/8/2009 in the morning one tractor reached at the place of incident and the driver of the tractor found the body of the victim while he was loading jute on his tractor. At that some BSF personnel were also present there. They asked him to take the body to Lalgola Police Station by his tractor and they reached at the police station at around 11 a.m. on 17/8/2009 with the body of the victim. 

 

The family members noticed that there were several marks of bullet injuries on his body- one on his forehead, one on his chest and one on his thigh. Two of the bullets entered into the thigh and the chest went out through the other side perforating the body and one bullet exited from near left ear area on the head.  Lalgola Police Station started an Unnatural Death Case in the matter of the death of the victim vide (Unnatural Death) U.D. Case no. 10/2009 dated 17/8/2009 and the body of the victim was sent to Lalbagh Sub Divisional Hospital for post mortem examination (P.M. no. 191 dated 17/8/2009)

 

On 17/9/2009 our fact finding team went to Lalgola Police Station and talked with Mr. Dulal Biswas, the Officer-in-Charge of the said police station. He told our team that on 17/8/2009 Mr. P. Rudro, Company Commandant of Company-E of DMC BSF BOP, Battalion-105 BSF filed a written complaint over the incident of BSF firing. In the complaint the incident of firing was justified reiterating that firing was done in self defence upon being attacked by smugglers. In pursuance to the said complaint the police initiated a case vide Lalgola Police Station Case no: 468/2009 dated 17/8/2009 under sections 147/149/186/307/353of Indian Penal Code.

 

Our fact finding team came to know that the police refused to take any complaint of the family members of the victim against BSF. On 8/9/2009 the family members of the victim then send the complaint to the police of Lalgola Police Station by registered post with A/D.

 

Mr. Dulal Biswas also told that no complaint has been launched by the victim's family against BSF till date. He also told that if victim's family would come to lodge any complaint in future then he would surely take step. Then our fact finding team informed him that on 8/9/2009 victim's father Mr. Subol Mondal sent a written complaint addressing the Officer-in-Charge of Lalgola Police Station by registered post with A/D.  Mr. Dulal Biswas denied of getting any such complaint from the victim's family and he said that they cannot initiate any case upon a complaint sent to them through post.

 

On 22/10/2009 at around 1 pm our fact finding team again asked Mr. Mahadeb Roy, Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police of Lalgola Police Station, over phone whether any case against the BSF personnel has been initiated or not. He told that till date he has not received any complaint against the BSF personnel from victim's family. But the postal acknowledgement receipt of the complaint letter sent to Lalgola Police Station clearly shows that the letter was received on 9/9/2009.

   

 



--
Kirity Roy
Secretary
Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha
(MASUM)
&
National Convenor (PACTI)
Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity
26 Guitendal Lane
Howrah 711101
West Bengal INDIA
Mobile: 09903099699
Tele Fax : +91-33-2640 4118
Phone: +91-33-2640 4520
e. mail : kirityroy@gmail.com
Web: www.masum.org.in

Attachment(s) from Kirity Roy

1 of 1 File(s)


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[ALOCHONA] Dhaka University Alumni Re-Union



Day-Long Alumni Mahamilon (Grand-Mega Re-union)
On the occasion of 60th FOUNDATION YEAR of

Dhaka University Alumni Association

Date: 16 JANUARY (SATURDAY)-2010 Time: 8 A.M. to 9 P.M.
Venue : DHAKA UNIVERSITY PLAY GROUND (In front of DMC)
Last Date of Registration Extended up to 22 November 2009

Time: From 12 am to 7 pm everyday & Friday between 4 pm to

7 pm at "Alumni Floor", Senate Bhabon, Dhaka University

Registration Fees: TK. 600 (Single), TK. 1000 (with spouse) TK. 300 for Driver, Children Not Allowed. Ailing or old or otherwise incapacitated Life Members can Register one adult aid. Eligible to participate: Certificate holders of any discipline from Dhaka University and Affiliated Medical Colleges including erstwhile Home Economics College only. The alumni who are graduated from other affiliated colleges can also become a life member if his/her spouse is graduated from Dhaka University directly and already a life member . Only life members can participate at the function.

Day-long joyful occasion includes among others fellowship, sharing reminiscence of university life, lunch, tea with snacks besides three cultural functions during morning, afternoon & evening.

Reminder: All Life Members are requested to update their mailing address including other particulars by Logging on duaa website [alumni.univdhaka.edu] or inform on email ruaduaa@gmail.com


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[ALOCHONA] India: Women Farmers Stand Against Climate Change



A group of women in India have demonstrated that despite the existing gender inequity and their low economic status, they can become a powerful resource to tackle climate change and reduce the emissions that cause it.

In India, the most vulnerable populations to climate change — impoverished communities and women — are being affected first, and the most. For example, Oxfam India's blog comments about the devastating impact of drought on farmers, and the direct effect on women and children.

In the last 12 years, almost 50 farmers committed suicide every year, one tenth of them being women farmers. (…) Increasing number of farmers started migrating to cities in search of food. And the situation became shocking when trafficking in women and children proliferated in the district.

Gender as a Factor of Vulnerability to Climate Change

It is estimated that women produce over 50% of all food grown worldwide. In India, more than 84% of women are involved in agricultural activities, and as a result they become the greatest victims of climate change's impact. In addition, gender inequality makes them disproportionately vulnerable to environmental alterations. Blogger Pricilla Stuckey, PhD points out on the blog This Lively Earth that women are unequally affected by climate change:

Discrimination against women also plays an enormous role in how women experience the effects of climate change. In India, for example, where women have seen their crop yields cut in half and the quality of grain diminish because of climate changes, women's health is impaired from the double whammy of inferior crops and inequality.

Farmer Sita Debi is an example of this. "When there is no rain, we women have to work really hard in the fields to try and grow crops. Our nutrition also suffers because we are the last to eat at the family table. A lot of us are anemic as a result," she says in the video filmed and posted on the blog Find Your Feet. Other women farmers appear in the video explaining how badly climate change is affecting their lives.

When Women Fight Back

Indian women don't just sit around waiting to be hit by climate change. They, also, fight back. As shown in the second half of the video, women are developing innovative ways to adapt and help prevent global warming.

As reported in this Inter Press Service article:

Agriculture accounts for at least 20 percent of Indian greenhouse gas emissions, mainly methane emission from paddy fields and cattle and nitrous oxides from fertilisers. According to the 2007 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), India's rainfall pattern will be changing disproportionately, with intense rain occurring over fewer days, leading directly to confusion in the agricultural scenario.

Another example of women taking proactive steps to combat climate change is taking place in the village of Bidakanne, where women are growing crops such as linseed, green and chick peas, wheat and other legumes in between the rows of sunflowers, all without water and chemical inputs, such as pesticides.

This type of agricultural activity is especially beneficial to the dalit or broken women, who make up the lowest rung of India's caste system. Through this system, women in the approximately 75 villages in the Medak district can now form associations to sell their crops, as well as gather surplus produce for poorer members. In addition, to using practices to reduce emissions and harmful pollutants, this type of activity also helps reduce poverty.

The leadership and effort of these Indian women has not gone unnoticed within the online community. Shiba Prosad Bhattacharyya comments on the site India Together

Thank you for your column that these women have been profiled here make a case for them being a role model to the world. (…)Food is a human right & not a corporate commodity for speculation.Mother nature does not operate on a boardroom profit.Corporate profit will mearly lead to more food crisis. Through you I am conveying my highest regards to these women leaders who have demonstrated no negative effects on the environment, public health & farming families that food production can be profitable, sustainable and feed all of us.

ENGR SALAM, LGED, KUSHTIA ZILLA PARISHAD

                                                                                                               




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[mukto-mona] Pharmaceutical sector is to save life, not to kill [1 Attachment]

[Attachment(s) from Ripan Biswas included below]

Dear Editor,
 
Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write ups.
 
This is an article titled "Pharmaceutical sector is to save life, not to kill". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.
 
Thanks
 
Have a nice time
 
With Best Regards
 
Ripan Kumar Biswas
New York, U.S.A
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Pharmaceutical sector is to save life, not to kill

 

Ripan Kumar Biswas

Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com

 

Like doctors, teachers, or soldiers, people who are involved in pharmaceutical profession or business, serve with honor, distinction, courage, and responsibility as they simply don't produce goods for sale or works of art for enjoyment, but work to heal, guide, or protect persons in a life crisis.

 

As pharmaceutical profession or business has always been considered as noble profession, professionals or companies in this field have a duty to uphold an ethical relationship with the marketplace. There is a duty of care to the health and safety of all. They are responsible to ensure the healthcare profession is informed of the benefits of the drug along with the safety and the side effects to assist a healthcare profession as the correct information and choices to prescribe medication to the patients. They have the fundamental responsibility, within their specialties, to be experts in both the science and the art of health care, up-to-date in knowledge, experienced, of good judgment, and skilled in procedures.

 

While pharmaceutical companies are working as life savior in a life crisis moment and are under greater moral obligation than any other company, some manufacturers of adulterated paracetamol syrups in Bangladesh cared a little about safe drugs but a lot about making money rather concentrating on their responsibilities to help those who were suffering and dying in the country.

 

It's always life first and the primary duty of medicine is to save life. Thanks to an English daily newspaper for bringing up a report that reveals over 2,000 children were killed by toxic paracetamol between 1980 and 1992 in the country.

 

Although government was reluctant to take any legal action against them, but under public pressure and on the basis of the government laboratory tests along with two separate tests in two different US laboratories, three Pharmaceutical companies-- Adflame Pharmaceutical Ltd, Polychem Laboratories Ltd, and BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd were charged for manufacturing adulterated and substandard' drugs, which caused the deaths of around two thousand children from fatal kidney disease. Criminal complaints were filed against them with Dhaka Drug Court on December 19, 1992.

 

Earlier a chemical analysis conducted by the government's own drug testing laboratory under direct supervision of an expert consultant from the World Health Organisation (WHO) proved that paracetamol syrups manufactured by above companies including Rex Pharmaceutical, and City Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd contained a lethal chemical diethylene glycol, which according to Prof Mohammed Hanif, kidney specialist of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, was the main molecule behind the death of hundreds of children dying from kidney failures in 1982.

 

But the alleged defendants subverted their criminal offense, obtained bail, and even were strong enough to divert the legal proceedings by managing stay order from the High Court since the case has been filed against them while according to Law Commission Chairman Justice Abdur Rashid, it is not normal for cases to be delayed for such a long time. In return, victims' families only received death certificate, not justice that could prevent similar fatality like the one we received recently in July, 2009--the deaths of at least 25 children for having toxic paracetamol manufactured by the Rid Pharmaceutical.

 

True, it is unfortunate and as well as shameful both for the country's judiciary system and for the nation that those responsible for dealing with those cases, and those who were in power did not take any initiative in the last 15 years.

 

While the crime was so severe and enough tests were conducted by both local and foreign specialists and the result repeatedly proved positive for diethylene glycol, but no actions were taken against such misdemeanors. However, the persons including Prof Mohammed Hanif, who were appealing respective authorities, legal systems, and the media to take emergency and necessary steps to save lives of hundreds of children, were treated badly, threatened, and in addition, received blame on their shoulder that they were trying to destroy the reputation of the Bangladesh pharmaceutical sector.

 

There is nothing precious or important than life. Everything else is secondary. Medicine encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. After a medicine is created, it is tested over and over in many different ways. This allows scientists to make sure the medicine is safe for people to take and that it can fight or prevent a specific illness.

 

Beginning in the 1950s, when a few multinationals and local entrepreneurs set up manufacturing facilities in the then East Pakistan, now around 239 registered pharmaceutical companies are producing world-class products that are acceptable in the global market as quality product and the prices of the products are also competitive both in local and foreign markets. It is one of the most developed hi-tech sectors which are contributing in the country's economy.

 

According to a June 2009 Business Monitor International (BMI) report, Bangladesh has a domestic pharmaceuticals market worth BDT 59,330.7 million (US$ 858 million) in 2008. Over 95% of Bangladesh 's own pharmaceutical needs are met by domestic firms, which number around 230. The export value of pharmaceuticals is growing at a reasonable rate every year and exports increased from $8.2 million in 2004 to $28.3 million in 2007 and current figure is at around $40 million. It exports drugs to around 72 countries of the world.

 

We all know the classical Golden Rule: Treat others the way you'd wish to be treated. But experiencing the dangerous practices within the country's pharmaceutical sector, some drug manufacturers seem to adhere to a different version: the Gold-in Rule: Do whatever is necessary to bring in the maximum gold, without getting caught. But our greatest gratitude goes to those pharmaceutical companies, which are saving millions of lives everyday across the globe and contributing in the country's economy as well as earning reputation.

 

Corruption is systematic; extortion is common and endemic in Bangladesh . Bribery, forgery, nepotism, tax evasion through collaboration with tax collectors, graft in government purchases, wrong auditing, false bidding etc are some of the most critical of contemporary problems in the country. While people want Bangladesh to be a country, free from corruption, establishes and enforces law and justice system that guarantees a healthy and secure life of everyone, but the clutches of corruption are always close to those places where lives are directly involved.

 

"Justice delayed is justice denied" is a very common adage in the judicial system in Bangladesh and some strongest people can manipulate judicial system in their favor whenever they need. And there is none to understand that life is important rather than anything. Pharmaceutical and biotech firms and their medicinal products should be examined, monitored regularly, and should be in strict rules and regulations for long-term safety as they are to save lives not to kill.

 

 

Friday, November 13, 2009, New York

Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York

 


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