DT e-Paper, Saturday, October 15, 2016

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22 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 DT Long-Form The mess in the attic We cannot afford to ignore the humanities. This is the concluding part of yesterday’s long-form • Shehzad M Arifeen The problem starts early. In school, children who do well in math or science are called “bright,” while those who are good at geography or history have good “general knowledge” (note the adjective). And while “general knowledge” is useful and fun when it comes to quiz contests and debate tournaments, and is important to be “well-rounded,” it is certainly not to be taken too seriously. A child who spends her time studying chemistry is “studious,” one who spends her time studying philosophy or poetry “reads a lot” (which after a certain age turns inevitably into “bookish”), and should eventually grow out of it (she can keep it as a “hobby” though). All of this creates an environment where the vast majority of those children who one lone case, anthropology. You can study a thousand different kinds of engineering, major in anything that can be labelled as a department in a corporation, but if you want to study humanity and society, if you are interested in our species’ history or the wonders of human culture -- these are your only options. And sure, most universities require all students to take a few social science and humanities courses as “general education” requirements, but these are woefully inadequate -- partly because they are normally treated as just a few more boxes to tick. Without any meaningful structure to help piece together what can only be called an avalanche of information that attacks us every day, these students are left with an understanding of society with all the nuance of a Transformers Our education system fails to provide a structure of critique BIGSTOCK We have to take a long, hard, and collective look at what exactly we mean by education, what it is that we hope our schools and universities will achieve, and ask ourselves: Are we content with producing sophisticated calculators and managers, or do we want our calculators and managers to be sophisticated human beings too? might have made wonderful contributions to some field end up studying something they don’t even remotely enjoy. What is worse, because this is so pervasive, most of us never even know it -- we don’t even realise that we might actually be able to enjoy what we study. Things don’t really get better -- definitely not for those who decide to study in one of the local private universities (and yes, there are people who choose this, and don’t just end up there because they didn’t get into a public institution or weren’t allowed/couldn’t afford/ didn’t want to go abroad). Higher learning What is there to study in these places anyway? Until very recently, anyone who wanted to study the humanities or the social sciences (except law) would basically have to choose between English or economics (and the problems with the latter deserves an entire article -- another day). Today, we can see some journalism, media studies, and in movie. They are assaulted by war, poverty, hunger, disease, murder, rape, abuse, slavery, financial crises, corporations more powerful than nation-states, ecological destruction, the threat of nuclear annihilation or irreversible climate change. With even the most simplistic and general of introductions to centuries of progressive, radical and emancipatory philosophy, literature, social, economic, political, historical, and cultural theory from all over the world, these students might have ended up as activists, writers, or aspiring academics. What are the options? Without even an awareness of such possibilities, however, what are young people disillusioned by modernity supposed to do? How does one frame their critique of modern civilisation without such rich and powerful systems of critique available to them? Isn’t moralising the only other option? Isn’t it easiest to chalk it all up to human greed and sinfulness? And if someone comes along who can integrate this latent emotive discontent into a broader cosmic narrative of human fallibility and sin, based on a belief system that already dominates in one form or another, why shouldn’t young people gravitate towards this false prophet? Having failed to provide them the means to understand, how dare we despair and rage at what they have had to resort to? An uncle who lives in New York commented, in the context of the systematic killing spree leading up to the attack on Holey Artisan, that Bangladeshis should stop “making such a fuss” and focus on “building things,” because our country is not “open-minded enough” (how on earth does a country become open-minded? By building better trains?). Like the comment I started this article with, this is a regrettably common sentiment under different disguises. This is why STEM subjects are treated the way they are. This is why someone who doesn’t enjoy math is expected to just “suck it up,” at least until their first year in university (if not longer), but it is perfectly acceptable to not enjoy history, not study it at all after school, and complain loudly if made to. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we can build and calculate our way out of anything. But if there is anything we can learn from the convergence of catastrophes we have seen this year (and there is a lot), it is that this is simply not true. There comes a time when a better way to distribute electricity isn’t what we need. There are problems that linear algebra cannot solve. How many must suffer and die before we recognise that whatever we can make, we can easily unmake? That a single idea can mobilise people into destroying the work of a thousand engineers? That the only way to fight a bad idea is with a better idea? Ironically, I am writing this at a time when writing about the importance of education has become thoroughly passé -- the post-Gulshan attack narrative has become distinctly a-educational (if not anti-educational); something to the effect of “we used to think that they brainwashed the uneducated -- now we know that education doesn’t matter.” On the contrary, it seems to me that education matters even more now. Most importantly, we have to take a long, hard, and collective look at what exactly we mean by education, what it is that we hope our schools and universities will achieve, and ask ourselves: Are we content with producing sophisticated calculators and managers, or do we want our calculators and managers to be sophisticated human beings too? Understanding human beings None of this implies, of course, that the knowledge of science, technology, and mathematics is any less important. What I am merely trying to suggest is that perhaps, if we had devoted a bit more of our time and resources to understanding how human beings work, we would be a little less intent on hurting each other. We are often told that we need to study so much math and science because they are so “important” for the modern world. And I will freely admit that knowing arithmetic might be more useful, given the choice, than the history of Imperial Japan or the subtleties of post-structuralism. But we don’t stop there. We seem to think that understanding calculus really is more important than understanding humanity. If this is how highly we think of ourselves, our history, politics, and culture, why are we surprised at how easily we are led to the slaughterhouse? • Shehzad M Arifeen is a lecturer of economics at a leading private university in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This article was fitsr published on ergodotorg. wordpress.com.
Opinion 23 It’s a TV channel jungle out there Let’s go for quality over quantity DT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 LARGER THAN LIFE • Ekram Kabir Recently, I became a part of a television report and it was broadcast during their afternoon bulletin. In the evening, one of my friends told me that he watched my clip on TV. I intentionally asked him: “Which TV?” He replied: “I don’t know; don’t remember; in one of the TV channels. How can I remember the name of the channel when there’s a jungle out there?” I wasn’t surprised by his statement, which I’ve heard several times from many other people. So, here’s the question: “Are the audience failing to remember the names of the TV channels they’re watching?” The answer, however, should be given by the experts. I can only highlight a few factors that are commonly discussed by the people around me. If the audience, such as my friend, is taken into consideration, there’s certainly a concern for the TV channels, and its work and existence. If we run a survey, the true picture of the TV channels is likely to be unearthed as to how they exist at the top of people’s minds. The number of TV channels now stands at, perhaps, more than 23. As a homogenous audience, do we need that many channels to watch? The Bangladeshi audience is having quite a lot of trouble to remember the names of TV channels for a particular reason. Are any of the channels offering anything to remember? Both in terms of news and program, most broadcast almost similar content. One cannot say that a news channel is offering its content in such a way that the people would remember it. Yes, some are known for their political inclination and some are known for their talk-shows, but still one cannot say that a program on a TV channel is quite unique, and the audience remembers it and looks forward to watch it. Let’s think about quality over quantity Some are, of course, trying understand the audience’s mind and how to make a difference. For example, a program channel is usually known for its morning musical sessions. Then again, the music programs don’t have much of a variety; after a while, watching the same faces becomes monotonous. Some channels have news analysis shows on which the journalists come and talk about the news. Is there anything new in those programs? The journalists would always, unsurprisingly, be able to talk about news and events. So why don’t the channels invite people from other professions to analyse the news? That would be more interesting to watch. People say that there are very few good watchable programs on Bangladeshi channels. One of the exceptions have done very well with a show on agriculture, but then again this particular program is a legacy of what the anchor used to do on the state-owned channel, BTV. There’s very little research done for creating interesting programs. A news TV channel wanted to produce good programs, but The Bangladeshi audience is having quite a lot of trouble to remember the names of TV channels for a particular reason. Are any of the channels offering anything to remember? Both in terms of news and program, most broadcast almost similar content instead has become famous for a foreign historical drama serial. I’ve watched a channel in India named “Care World TV” specialised on healthcare. It provides 24/7 news and programs on health. They have quite a number of talk-shows, which are also on health issues. I thought it was a fantastic idea for focusing on people’s health and beauty. Why don’t we do something like that? We could focus on sports, we could make a children’s TV channel, we could create a channel only for education, and we could have an entertainment channel. Why do we have to remain confined to news and talk shows? There’s of course one channel that has been making a difference in the field of music, kudos to them. Finally, we need to have a business model in terms of initiating a TV station. I have my doubts on whether our entrepreneurs have any business model in mind, as to hop onto the television business. Business-wise, it’s a small market and the only source of revenue is TV commercials and, sometimes, SMS service. The amount of TVC budget of the business houses would not increase with the increase of the number of TV channels. And that budget would also come down due to the digital revolution. We need to consider the market before we launch a product. The time has come to think about quality over quantity. • Ekram Kabir is a fiction writer. BIGSTOCK
Page 1 and 2: SECOND EDITION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
Page 3 and 4: News 3 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 D
Page 5 and 6: News 5 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 H
Page 7 and 8: News 7 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 D
Page 9 and 10: World Terrified residents flee Rakh
Page 11 and 12: Why it matters: Homegrown extremism
Page 13 and 14: Heritage 13 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2
Page 15 and 16: Learn English 15 SATURDAY, OCTOBER
Page 17 and 18: Dhaka Lit Fest 17 SATURDAY, OCTOBER
Page 19 and 20: Biz Info 19 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2
Page 21: Opinion 21 The times they are a-cha
Page 25 and 26: BCB XI, England two-dayer called of
Page 27 and 28: Sport 27 DT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2
Page 29 and 30: Downtime 29 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2
Page 31 and 32: Showtime 31 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2

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