Just today, the Bengalees in Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal state are set to burst into celebration of Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year. Dhaka in the previous month witnessed massive preparations to celebrate the day. Buying spree in the shopping malls and various programmes in the media outlets indicate the enthusiasm for Pahela Baishakh. It has turned into the biggest festival in this delta over the years. Bangladesh, the only independent country of Bangla-speaking people, has become a major focal point of it.
Carelessly or carefully, we have fixed our eyes on the Baishakh celebration. We often try, as a natural tendency, to ignore or forget the bad news that travel to us when we are in a festive mood. Sorrows are not desired to anyone. And third persons cannot make sensitive the people who can successfully separate themselves from the painful happenings around them.
Will the youths who lost their money in the share market relish very well the Baishakh festivity around them? They are yet to digest the just-released probe report on the share market scam. Can the Pahela Baishakh crowd keep their eyes away while crossing Shahbagh intersection where toddler Akash was tied with a rope as his grandma went to seek alms? The photograph of Akash appeared on daily sun page only last week.
On this Pehala Baishakh, will a college student in Sylhet or Rangpur not remember for a moment the case of Lemon of Jhalakati? Lemon is fighting a trauma after losing his leg for no crime of himself but for arrogant shooting by the Rapid Action Battalion men. Or, how can the inhabitants in the frontier villages be assured that India’s Border Security Force will not kill them like birds, even during Pahela Baishakh festival?
The celebration of Bangla New Year by Bhadra Santans (children of the society’s gentlemen) bears some peculiar practices, though based on tradition. Eating of Panta Bhat (soaked rice) is one such practice. I saw my university friend Madhu regretting that the men who wore Korta or Punjabi dress worth more than Tk 1,000 (as of the early 1990s) did do mockery with the poor who had to take Panta Bhat during the summer days.
Our memory of listening to recitation of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “The Year 1400” during Baishakh celebration at Ramna Batomul 18 years ago is still fresh. But its message — to convey the greetings of the Spring of that generation to this one — remains unclear to us. They are not many who show humility during the festivity. In 2005, my wife Subrina and myself met a minor accident in Katabon area while coming back home from Baishakh celebration on the Dhaka University campus. It was not the well-dressed gentlemen but the poor boys and girls who helped us to get ice as the first aid.
However, the youngsters, who only love festivity, cannot be blamed for not thinking about altruism in time of celebration. We, the grown-up people, have failed to properly teach them or inject values that encourage them to feel for others. Most of our guardians do not ask them what they learnt from this year’s Pahela Baishakh. Most of these boys and girls have no idea about who could not celebrate Pahela Baishakh and Eid for want of money or how many of them even starve everyday.
This kind of celebration also provides opportunity for our policymakers and leaders to hide some failures and misdeeds as the media, too, employ all efforts to capture the reports of mainly Baishakh. Once, General Ershad used the festivity with Union Parishad elections to divert public attention from the opposition’s demonstration to unseat his government in 1987-88. Even a statesman of Indira Gandhi’s stature chose the big occasion of our great liberation war of 1971 to underplay the killing of a lot of Bengalees in West Bengal who joined left movement.
I used to wake up early in the morning, on the Eid days in my childhood, to see preparation of foods by my mother. The morning breeze carried to us the wailing of a mother, in our neighbourhood. I asked my mother why she was crying on the day of joy. Mom tried to explain that the woman had lost her young son a couple of years ago and that the Eid festival reminded the absence of her loving son. The story touched my childhood heart, making me repentant throughout the day. Should we not share some of our joys and affluence with the helpless people so that we all can celebrate the festivals together? Power conservation and generation ideas Bangladesh is suffering from acute shortage of electric power. Depending on how you look at it our power shortage, in any case, is well over 2000 MW today. It is increasing at the rate of over 10 percent, on a year to year basis. Unfortunately we also lack sufficient geological fuel resources. Except for our limited untapped underground coal and the rapidly declining natural gas resources, we have no other option. We are in a quandary with fossil fuel while power demand is increasing day by day. Given this unfortunate scenario, we should seriously go for utilising practically all possible applications of renewable resources for generating electricity.
In the days ahead, when traditional fossil fuel conservation and pollution-free environment has to be enforced, new and proven methods of harnessing renewable sources of energy (wind, water and sunlight) have to be rapidly exploited.
Alongside this, wherever fossil fuel is being used, tried and tested ways and means are to be adopted to get the most out of the fuel through increasing energy efficiency. In the following paragraphs, a few of these developments are highlighted. Those mentioned in the paragraphs A, B, C and D are in a developmental and trial stage; while the others, mentioned in paragraphs E and F have already been exploited as sources of power.
A. Power from car exhaust
BMW, a reputed European car maker, has already developed the technology for recovering car exhaust heat through electric semi-conductors to increase overall fuel efficiency of vehicles. Electricity so recovered provides all the electrical needs of the car like window operation, internal and external lighting, and direction finding. All these essential ancillary uses will reduce the car's fuel consumption by minimum 5 percent. Such cars from BMW should be on the road soon. The same principle may be applied to recover electric power from all hot exhaust gases released to the atmosphere by large public building, offices and factories. The potential heat from these hot gases can be converted to useful electric power, which is totally pollution free.
B. Wind power
In Europe large manoeuvrable sails located on the open deck, has been tried out in sea-going tankers and bulk carriers. It is providing motive power for an experimental ship now sailing regularly. The experimental cargo ship MV "Beluga Sky Sail" now in operation utilises wind power directly to reduce fuel consumption by 20 to 30 percent for ship propulsion, with less engine power needed! This development is bound to revolutionise ship's power plants in the days to come.
C. Compressed air
A zero emission, pollution-free car has been developed in France, using compressed air as the source of motive power. The car's plug-in compressor refills the compressed air tanks instead of regular fuel (petrol or diesel) tanks from household electric mains at night when electric power demand is at the minimum. The tank full of compressed air can drive the car in urban areas during day time. The car can reach speeds of over 60 miles per hour. It is soon expected to be in the market in France and subsequently, through joint venture, it may go in production in India.
D. Fuel calls
Hydrogen-based fuel cells will be the power source of tomorrow's vehicles. Still under experimental development, it could be a reality before this century has reached the year 2025. Advances in fuel-cell development now underway will usher in the era of "hydrogen" economy, providing virtually a reusable and clean source of electric power through an electro-chemical conversion process.
E. High efficiency coal burning power plant
Integrating gasification of coal with combined cycle plant operation, power plants can reach 50 percent thermal efficiency as against around 35 percent possible. Coal is converted into gas under pressure with air to provide producer gas. This is burnt-in gas operates turbines to generate electric power. Hot exhaust gases from the turbine goes through heat-recovery boiler generating steam, which is converted to electric power in a steam turbine. The gas and steam turbine combination generates maximum electric power per ton of coal used. Four such combined gas and steam turbine power plants are in operation in Europe, and more such plants are coming up.
F. U238 based safe nuclear power plant
Using around 91 percent U238 and 9 percent U235, embedded in ceramic balls, which make it a radiation safe nuclear fuel. It is used to provide power from nuclear reaction in small reactor (called pebble bed reactor). This nuclear reaction is totally safe, and the risk of contamination and radiation release eliminated. The fuel encased in ceramic (pebbles) can be safely transported and used! No containment and safety zones around these power plants are needed.
South Africa has a number of such safe power plants based on "Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactors" already under construction while two or three pilot plants are in service. A few such small power plants are running in US universities as a part of its educational programme as well as providing power to the campus. China also has some small power plants in operation. A large 400MW power plant is now being constructed. It is expected to be on stream by 2012.
The six processes described above are the future of electric power generation! By 2025 or earlier most of the developed countries are likely to have such power plants running replacing the conventional ones. Should we not make a start with at least one Dual Turbine coal-based power plant? It is a challenge for us to exploit these efficient processes for power generation in Bangladesh. We should step by step do away with our under performing and very low-efficiency conventional power plants. This will help us tremendously in conserving our limited underground coal and the declining natural gas resources. Hail Bangabda 1418 The Pahela Baishakh celebration has certain features which are unique. The focus of this new year’s celebration is not night club but the ceremonial annual concourse of the urban elite and the rural masses. According to tradition, the first day of the Bangabda is rung in not in the darkness of midnight but amid the crimson glow of the new sunrise. This is an occasion which seems to unite the classes and celebrate the invaluable contributions of the farmers, small traders, and rural artisans. This annual intercourse and intercommunication is still of a symbolic and ritualistic nature but its spirit is very positive and egalitarian. That is what gives a special meaning to the Noboborsho. It is further remarkable that the festive attire that the women, men and children don on Noboborsho, the sari, panjabi or loose tunic, photua or short tunic, are colourful all right but these are studiedly low-priced and usually purchased from small shops – far removed, in terms of pricing, from the social irony contained in the phrase ‘Eid shopping’.
Another unique feature of the Bangabda is Bangabda itself. Calendars are devised to mark the coronation of some king, or some great one’s birth or some earthshaking event. For the first time a calendar was framed in the interest of the tillers and toilers of the land and with due regard for the religious sensitivity of all religious communities.
Liberation of the country from Pakistani rule released the suppressed energies and also held out some political, economic and cultural promises. While political and economic promises have not yet been fulfilled and establishment of Sonar Bangla is still elusive, the cultural promise has been redeemed almost in full measure. Observance of the Pahela Baishakh is a tradition of Bengal hundreds of years old but the scale on which it is being observed at present is a gift of the country’s liberation. Like the Ekushey programme, Pahela Baishakh is becoming a national event which, as stated above, runs across the economic classes and the urban-rural divide. When the new Noboborsho sun rises, we look both forward and backward. We look forward because the haalkhata opens, not only in trade but also in life. We want to put paid to the failures and follies of the past year and begin with new hopes. And we also look backward trying to become aware of our economic and cultural legacy. Poor healthcare facilities in CHT People in the CHT are not getting the much needed health services due to shortage of doctors and medical staff in the government-run hospitals. Only 182 doctors are working for over 2.5 million people in the region, though there are 422 posts of doctors in the government hospitals in the CHT. If statistics are to be relied on, the hospitals are functioning with less than 50 percent of the doctors required to offer healthcare to the patients.
The situation is not much better in other rural health complexes and public hospitals in the cities. The issue has been addressed by the Prime Minister herself as more and more people, mostly poor, are being deprived of healthcare. The prime minister asked the doctors to show a modicum of professional commitment while serving the poor people. We cannot agree more. The hospitals are run with taxpayers’ money and the doctors got their medical education from the medical colleges run by the government, which again means that their educational expenses were borne to a great extent by the taxpayers. So, the Prime Minister was not asking for too much when she advised the doctors to serve the people.
The question is whether the poor state of health services in the CHT point to the whole region being neglected by the decision makers. The question arises because the CHT people have as much right to have access to reasonably good healthcare as the people all over the country. Our leaders seldom forget to mention that in a democratic country the people will enjoy equal rights in every field, but in practice fail to do much for the less privileged segments of society.
The director of the health department has admitted that healthcare facilities in most of the CHT hospitals are not up to the mark. He has also cited a reason for this underperformance of the hospitals. Obviously, it is no secret that doctors are unwilling to go to the upazilas as working in the CHT might not be an alluring proposition. But that cannot justify leaving the posts of doctors vacant for an indefinite period of time. The health authorities have to make sure that doctors go to the CHT and perform their duties according to service rules. People cannot suffer only because the health authorities do not yet know how to send doctors to the CHT and make them work. quote of the day Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. – Helen Keller (1880–1968), American author and political activist.
Apology: All the newspapers of Bangladesh haven't published today. Because yesterday was holiday due to 1st day of Bangla New Year 1418.
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