e_Paper_Saturday, December 24, 2016

SECOND EDITION
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016 | Poush 10, 1423, Rabiul Awwal 23, 1438 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 236 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10
Urban poor under
govt health care
radar › 32
BSS
What NCC win means for AL › 2
Were the Dhaka
slum fires arson? › 5
Beware of Bangladesh › 24
EDITORIAL Improving public
transport is the answer › 20
Exiled from
forests,
Paraguay’s
Ache people
want land › 9

2
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
News
What NCC win means for AL
LEAD STORY
• Mohammad Abu Bakar
Siddique
After former Narayanganj mayor
Selina Hayat Ivy’s consecutive win
over a BNP-nominated candidate,
people are now discussing about
its possible impact on national politics
and the ruling Awami League’s
gains from the election.
Dhaka Tribune spoke to a number
of politicians, academics and
political observers on the matter.
Many said the election was
widely accepted as credible, free
and fair election, with largely no allegations
of electoral violence and
rigging; it means there can be free
and fair election even under the
political government if everything
works impartially.
Even though the Awami Leaguebacked
candidate has won by a big
margin, she had won the previous
election without party support because
of her personal image.
For the AL, the election was all
positive – it boosted the confidence
of the party leaders and supporters,
and proved that many people
appreciate the government’s activities.
Delwar Hossain, environment
secretary of AL central committee,
hopes that the NCC election will
bring qualitative change in the politics
in Narayanganj.
“It has been proved that a free
and fair election is possible under
the Sheikh Hasina-led government,”
he said.
Gobinda Chakraborty, professor
of Dhaka University’s political science
department, termed the election
a milestone.
He said: “Basically, people want
to vote, and it is not difficult to
hold a free and fair election when
good sense among the political parties
prevails.
“In this election, the Election
Commission has shown positive
efforts and the political parties
showed their good will.”
He said that since Ivy has a good
personal image, “in a sense, the
election was actually between Ivy
and others in Narayanganj. With
the consecutive victory, more glory
is added to her image.”
“So, I do not think that the election
reflects Awami League’s popularity,”
said Prof Gobinda.
He thinks there are two more
years to see how the Awami League
can reap from the win in Narayanganj.
“The biggest gain from the
Narayanganj election is that the
people have been assured that the
power to elect their representatives
is at the very hand of the people.”
Mohammad Mozahidul Islam, an
associate professor at Jahangirnagar
University, said the AL had won two
frontiers in Narayanganj election.
“Firstly, it has brought back the
Libyan plane hijack ends in surrender
• Associated Press, Malta
After hours of tense negotiations,
two Libyans who hijacked a plane
from Libya to Malta and threatened
to blow it up surrendered
peacefully Friday, allowing 118
passengers and crew to leave the
plane before walking out themselves
with the last of the crew.
The hijacked Airbus A320
flight, operated by Afriqiyah Airways,
was travelling from the
Libyan oasis city of Sabha to Tripoli
when it was diverted to Malta
mid-morning on Friday.
Malta state television TVM
said the two hijackers had hand
grenades and had threatened to
Narayanganj mayor-elect Selina Hayat Ivy offers Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a boat-shaped bouquet of flowers. Ivy went to
the Ganabhaban yesterday to visit Hasina following her victory in the city polls
BSS
This success will
ease pressure on the
government from the
international community
who stress holding
the polls under a nonpartisan
government
explode them. All flights to Malta
International Airport were immediately
diverted and emergency
teams including negotiators were
sent to the airport tarmac.
Malta's prime minister, Joseph
Muscat, announced that the hijacking
of the Libyan plane was over in
a tweet at 3:44 pm local time. They
have "surrendered," been "searched
and taken in custody," he tweeted.
The hijackers, after negotiations,
allowed the plane's doors to
open at 1:44 pm and a staircase was
moved over to let freed passengers
begin disembarking in groups.
In a series of tweets, Muscat
said 65 people were allowed to
leave, then another 44, including
confidence among supporters that
they still can win. Amid political
chaos and violence, many of their
activists lost confidence in the party.
There had been arguments that
Awami League candidates cannot
win if a free and fair election is
held,” he said.
Secondly, Mozahidul said, the
AL has shown the world through
the NCC election that fair election
is possible under this government.
“This success will ease pressure on
the government from the international
community who stress holding
the polls under a non-partisan
government.”
On the other hand, the results
show that any person who has
mass appeal can represent and lead
without using muscle power, he
said. •
some crew, then the hijackers and
the final crew members. All were
seen leaving the aircraft without
hand luggage. The company said
on its Facebook page that 118 people,
including 7 crew members,
were on board the hijacked plane.
Ali Milad, the pilot, told Libya
Channel TV network that initially
the hijackers had asked him to
head to Rome. He identified the
two hijackers as Moussa Shaha and
Ahmed Ali, Libyans who other officials
said were in their twenties.
The pilot said the men were
seeking political asylum in Europe
and wanted to set up a political
party called "the New Fateh."
Fateh is a reference to former Libyan
dictator Moammar Gadhafi,
who led Fateh revolution after his
coup in 1969.
After many of the hostages
left the plane Friday afternoon,
someone, apparently a hijacker,
waved the old green Libyan flag
from the plane's doorway.
Libya, a sprawling oil-rich North
African country, has been split between
rival parliaments and governments,
each backed by a loose
array of militias and tribes, Gadhafi
was ousted and killed in 2011.
Earlier this month, militias answering
to the UN-brokered government
seized the Islamic State
group's last stronghold in the Libyan
city of Sirte. •
Ivy dedicates
victory to
Bangabandhu,
Hasina
• Tanveer Hossain, Narayanganj
Selina Hayat Ivy has dedicated her
third consecutive election victory
to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
After being declared the winner
of the Narayanganj mayor contest
against BNP’s Shakhawat Hossain
Khan on Thursday night, Ivy celebrated
the victory with a massive
crowd of supporters in front of her
home in the city’s Deobhog area.
The atmosphere at Ivy’s camp
was jubilant in the evening as results
from centre after centre arrived
with news of her victory.
Around 10:15pm, her victory almost
ensured, Ivy descended among
her supporters, who showered flowers
on her. Awami League activists
also celebrated in front of the
Narayanganj Club and at the party’s
city office at Second Railgate area.
“Just as people have voted for
me beyond their political views
and loyalties, so too do I seek to
collaborate with everyone, not just
Awami League, to complete my unfinished
work,” Ivy said in front of
the crowd. •
AL rejects BNP
allegations
• Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique
Ruling Awami league leaders have
rejected the BNP allegations that
the Narayanganj city election result
was manipulated.
BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul
Kabir Rizvi yesterday demanded
a judicial investigation into the
allegations of vote count manipulation
raised by their candidate
Shakhawat Hossain Khan.
Awami League General Secretary
Obaidul Quader dismissed
the allegations as absurd and false,
terming the NCC elections a model
for the future.
Quader added that the elections
served as proof of the Election
Commission’s capability to hold
free and fair polls.
He said the victory was owed
to the successes of Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina and the popularity
of Awami League’s candidate Selina
Hayat Ivy.
The party’s Publicity and Publication
Affairs Secretary Hasan
Mahmud said that BNP had been
positive about the election all the
day, and only started making criticisms
after they sensed defeat.
At a press briefing, Commerce
Minister Tofail Ahmed called on
BNP to participate unconditionally
in the upcoming general elections
in 2019. •

News 3
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
BNP: NCC polls was a good learning experience
BNP demands judicial investigation into NCC polls results
DT
• Manik Miazee
Narayanganj City Corporation
(NCC) election has been a good
learning experience, something
the party can carry over to the national
election, said BNP leaders
yesterday.
The party leaders also alleged
that there might have been some
irregularities during the polls and
demanded a judicial inquiry into
the results of the election.
“It is very important to look into
what our candidate is saying. That
is why the BNP is demanding a judicial
probe into voting, counting
and results of this election,” said
Rizvi, the party’s senior joint secretary
general.
“They created an atmosphere of
fairness and declared Selina Hayat
Ivy the winner,” BNP leader Ruhul
Kabir Rizvi told reporters at the
party’s Nayapaltan headquarters
yesterday.
“We accept the result if it truly is
a reflection of the people’s will. But
we cannot just brush aside what
our candidate has alleged about
vote rigging.”
Shakhawat then alleged anomalies
in the counting of votes
even though he said the election
was“relatively fair.”
This is Ivy’s second term the
city’s mayor but the first as Awami
League’s candidate.
On the other hand, another BNP
central leader and main coordinator
of NCC polls Goyeshwar Roy
said he did not reject the results of
the polls.
This is the first time BNP has not
rejected the result of an election.
Goyeshwar said: “We should
try to understand figure out why
our candidate did not win, we will
talk with our agents and grassroots
workers.”
Former president and Bikalpahdhara
Bangladesh chief AQM Badrudduza
Chowdhury said Ivy won
because she won the people's mandate
not because of AL's support.
Gonoshasthaya Kendra chief
Zafrullah Chowdhury surmised the
result of the election as Ivy's being
a stronger candidate than the one
put forward by BNP.
Goyeshwar also said:“We will
gather experience from taking part
in the NCC polls and move forward
towards the national election in
2019.” •
‘Subtle manipulations
took place’
Environment Ministry, Bangladesh Bird Club and Prokriti O Jibon organise a stuffed bird exhibition on the occasion of 50
years of bird census at National Botanical Garden in Dhaka yesterday
RAJIB DHAR
Ivy meets Shakhawat, vows to work together
• Tanveer Hossain,
Narayanganj
However unlikely as it may sound,
the re-elected Narayanganj City
Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat
Ivy met her rival Shakhawat Hossain
Khan at his residence yesterday
morning where both vowed to
work together.
Given the country’s political environment,
such a scenario is seldom
seen. If viewed positively, this
exchange of greetings between rivals
may start a new era of Bangladeshi
politics, making stakeholders
hopeful of a progressive political
environment.
The promise to visit was made
beforehand, as both candidates prior
to the polls said they would visit
each other at their respective homes
regardless of the election’s outcome.
Keeping her promise, the victorious
Awami League city unit
President Ivy went to visit BNP’s
lawyer-turned-politician Shakhawat
around 11am at his residence
in Narayanganj city’s Khanpur Kazipara
area with a packet of sweets.
Shakhawat personally received
Ivy at the door and the two then
exchanged greetings and had brief
discussions about the polls.
During the meet, Shakhawat
congratulated Ivy and said: “If you
ever ask for any help regarding the
development of Narayanganj, I
would be glad to help.”
Talking to reporters present
during the visit, Ivy said: “I have
kept my word. I said I would visit
him [Shakhawat] regardless of the
outcome. Moreover, I have been
in good terms with him for a long
time as he fought for many of my
activists as a lawyer.
“We both will work in the movement
against drugs as well as for the
sake of the people of Narayanganj. I
want to work with everyone and he
[Shakhawat] would not be left out.
“I want to create a peaceful political
environment in Narayanganj.”
This is not the first time that Ivy
has visited an opponent after winning
an election.
In 2003, Ivy made a courtesy
call on BNP candidate Nurul Islam
Sarder at his residence after defeating
him in the then Narayangaj municipality
election.
However, she did not extend the
same courtesy to Shamim Osman,
her opponent in the first mayoral
election to Narayanganj City Corporation
in 2011, which she won as
an independent candidate.
Ruling Awami League-backed
candidate Ivy defeated BNP candidate
Shakhawat by 79,567 votes in
one of the most peaceful and incident-free
elections Bangladesh has
ever experienced on Thursday. Ivy
also bagged 1,930 votes from her rival’s
neighbourhood.
The final count at the 174 polling
centres stood at 175,661 votes for Ivy
• Tanveer Hossain,
Narayanganj
BNP’s defeated mayor candidate
Shakhawat Hossain Khan has alleged
vote count manipulations in
the Narayanganj city polls.
Speaking to reporters Thursday
night as the last of the counts were
coming in showing his opponent
Selina Hayat Ivy in a solid 70,000-
vote lead, Shakhawat said he had
been defeated due to subtle manipulations.
“I have information that subtle
manipulations took place,” he told
the press.
Narayanganj City Corporation
elections were held without a single
incident of violence, a nearly
unprecedented case in Bangladesh.
Neither of the candidates had
and 96,044 votes for Shakhawat.
Although many had feared violence
because of the “Shamim Osman
factor,” the NCC elections only
saw one attempted fake vote casting
and three people being fined for
minor breach of code of conduct.
When announcing the unofficial
results on Thursday, Returning Officer
Md Nuruzzaman Talukder said
that the voter turnout was 62.33%
raised any allegations of vote rigging
during the entire day.
“I will give you details after looking
at the official results from the
Election Commission,” Shakhawat
told reporters at the BNP election
media cell on Shayesta Khan Road.
“But I have received information
of rigging. In some centres,
1,000 votes were cast but Boat
[Ivy’s symbol] got 800 votes and I
got 500,” he claimed.
“I had raised questions about
level-playing field from the beginning.
This vote has proved that
the Election Commission is being
run under the government’s directives,”
Shakhawat said.
In the final count, voter turnout
in the city polls was 62.33% and
Ivy had a lead of 26.88% over
Shakhawat. •
at 174 polling centres combined.
Two election monitoring NGOs –
Democracywatch and Brotee – expressed
their satisfaction over the
polls.
The two main mayoral candidates
from the BNP and the Awami
League, election observers and the
Election Commission also said they
were satisfied by how the election
was conducted. •

4
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
London high
commission
announces
benefits for FFs
• Tribune Desk
Bangladesh High Commission in
London has announced that it will
bear all costs of coffins for the freedom
fighters living in the UK.
“Freedom fighters are our pride.
We will make all necessary arrangements
to send home bodies
of the freedom fighters living in the
UK,” High Commissioner Md Nazmul
Quaunine told journalists at a
London event on Thursday.
“From now on, we will also
evaluate students who perform
well in GCSE in Bangla and O Level
exams. Moreover, an official will be
appointed at the high commission
to look into education issues,” he
added.
Nazmul said that he had taken
various steps to engage the Bangladeshi
community living in the UK
after joining office on October 28. •
News
Dr Mashiur Rahman, PM’s adviser for economic affairs, with the participants of International Conference for Biomedical
Students and Young Doctors at the MIST in Dhaka yesterday
ISPR
Int’l biomedical summit begins at MIST
• Tribune Desk
A two-day international conference
titled “Bangladesh International
Conference for Biomedical Students
and Young Doctors (BICoBS), 2016”
was inaugurated at Military Institute
of Science and Technology (MIST) in
Dhaka yesterday.
The conference was jointly organised
by the department of biomedical
engineering of the MIST and
Asian Medical Students Association
(AMSA), said an ISPR press release.
Dr Mashiur Rahman, the prime
minister’s adviser for economic affairs,
inaugurated the conference as
chief guest.
The main aim of the conference is
to connect medical professionals and
biomedical engineers to ensure better
health for Bangladeshi citizens,
said the press statement.
Maj Gen Md Abul Khair, commandant,
high officials of both
MIST and Bangladesh Army, renowned
scientists, senior physicians,
young doctors and students
were present at the inaugural ceremony
of the conference. •
MP Habibe
Millat elected
vice-president
of BDRCS
• Tribune Desk
Lawmaker Dr
Mohammad
Habibe Millat
was elected
as vice-president
of
Bangladesh
Red Crescent
Society
(BDRCS) uncontested yesterday.
Dr Mohammad Habibe Millat,
MP of Sirajganj constituency-2,
who was working as vice-president
of the society earlier, was elected
as vice-president for 2017-2019 sessions,
said a press release.
He will take charge officially after
the Annual General Meeting (AGM)
of the society on December 31.
Habibe Millat was joined BDRCS
in 2009 as a managing board
member. •

News 5
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
Were the Dhaka slum fires arson?
DT
• Abu Hayat Mahmud
Residents of Korail and Sattola
slums are convinced that the fires
that took place in their areas earlier
this month within a week of each
other were not accidents.
Although there is no evidence to
suggest that this is true and the Fire
Service has said it found no signs
of arson, the slum dwellers and organisations
working within those
communities are not convinced.
They point to the past incidents
of fire in these slums, as well as
fires in several of Dhaka’s slums
that were eventually demolished.
This, coupled with the knowledge
that the government plans to acquire
and build on these properties,
has left the residents in a state
of constant fear.
Not only locals but members of
Community Based Organisations
(CBOs), civil society members and
other politicians have come up
with the same allegations.
This correspondent visited the
Sattola slum where a fire burned
down several shanties on December
12 and spoke to locals who
claimed there was a conspiracy
afoot against them.
One local named Ajmol said:
“Some vested interests instructed
evicted youngsters from the slum
to set fire to the Brac School. During
the tenure of the previous government
such conspiracy also had
created aim to evict the poor community,
but they failed.
“Fire has been set seven times in
Sattola slum before.”
He claimed the fire was set suddenly
in a vast area of the northwest
part of Brac School.
Sattola slum central CBO Chairperson
Selina Begum alleged that
the fire at the slum was planned.
“A few culprits in the slum area
are always ready to do anything for
their personal gains,” she said.
The government planned to establish
a hospital in the place of Sattola
slum, Selina said. She said she
believed that the fire and other incidents
of harassment were attempts
to evict the dwellers of the slum.
“Already the mayor of Dhaka
North City Corporation Mayor Annisul
Huq has discussed with us how
to rehabilitate us to another place,”
the CBO leader said.
Khondkar Rebeka Sun-Yat, executive
director of Coalition for the
Urban Poor (CUP), claimed the authorities
concerned and their associates
have a history of resorting to
such illegal and inhumane tactics
to evict the slums.
Korail slum residents try to put out a fire that burned through the night
The government does not want us to live
here. It has plans to establish an ICT park;
they recently banned boats in Gulshan Lake
and blocked all the connecting roads to the
slum; repeated attempts have been made to
evict the slum dwellers since 2012
Pointing to the previous government’s
failure in rehabilitating the
residents of Bhashantek and BNP
slums, Rebeka said: “The government
gave the construction job
to a developer company to build
apartments for the rehabilitation
of Bhashantek slum people. That
company hired criminals to evict
the residents of the slum.”
In reply to a query, she said:
“Such criminal activities – setting
fire, threatening by goons and
forceful eviction – are common
practices in our country.”
She argued the government
agencies and the developers always
try for how to reduce the number
for slum people before rehabilitation
for achieved extra profit.
“At the time of eviction of
Bhashantek slum and BNP slum,
hired goons had raped teenage
girls and women in those places,”
she claimed.
Rebeka further said that no government
had taken the steps to
investigate the crimes carried out
during these evictions.
“Already a developer company
has signed a deal for constructions
of the Mohakhali ICT village. I am
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
requesting Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina to pay attention to this issue.
Otherwise the fate of the Korail
and Sattola slum residents might
be the same as those of Bhashantek
and BNP slums,” she said.
After the Korail fire, which took
place on December 4, similar allegations
were raised against the government
and ruling party along with
several BNP and Jatiya Party men.
The perpetrators allegedly included
some “opportunistic leaders”
of the ruling Awami League
and its associate bodies for the
devastating fire that razed over 500
shanties affecting around 1,000
families on December 4 – the second
fire incident in nine months.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune,
a community-based organisation
leader in the slum said these political
leaders “have always been acting
against the interests of the slum people
to free the land in hopes of getting
flats in the rehabilitation project
proposed by the government.”
The leader, who sought to remain
unnamed, said: “Every slum
Residents of Sattala slum look on at the devestation caused by a fire overnight
leader here is related to the top
three political parties, one way or
another. A syndicate comprising
of these people collects extortion
money from the tenants here. They
have made a lot of fortune in cash
and properties, through this. Their
main agenda is to get the slum people
to leave the place.
“I have no doubt that the government
will acquire the land very
soon.”
During a visit to the slum, this
correspondent spoke to at least a
dozen people of the slum echoing
the CBO leader. Some named Md
Idris Khan, a leader of the local
Awami League and Korail bazar
committee.
Idris owned 24 tin-shed rooms
in Boubazar area in the Korail slum,
had all of his establishments burnt
to ashes during the fire.
When contacted, the man denied
his involvement but said he too believed
that the fire was an arson.
“The government does not want
us to live here. It has plans to establish
an ICT park; they recently
banned boats in Gulshan Lake and
blocked all the connecting roads to
the slum; repeated attempts have
been made to evict the slum dwellers
since 2012,” he said.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune,
Fire Service and Civil Defence Deputy
Director Showkat Hassan dismissed
the allegations of arson.
“Had there been any conspiracy
or plot, the fire would have originated
from multiple points,” he
remarked.
A previous fire in Korail in
March destroyed over 50 shanties
and injured several people.
Before this there were major
fires in Korail in 2010 and 2004. •
RAJIB DHAR
TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY
Dhaka 28 16 Chittagong 26 20 Rajshahi 27 16 Rangpur 26 16 Khulna 28 15 Barisal 28 17 Sylhet 27 15
Cox’s Bazar 26 17
LIGHT RAIN LIKELY
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24
DHAKA
TODAY
TOMORROW
SUN SETS 5:18PM
SUN RISES 6:39AM
YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW
29.5ºC
11.4ºC
Rangpur
Jessore
Source: Accuweather/UNB
PRAYER
TIMES
Fajr: 6:00am | Zohr: 1:15pm
Asr: 4:00pm | Magrib: 5:27pm
Esha: 7:30pm
Source: Islamic Foundation

6
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
News
Newfound gas deposit goes ignored
• Asaduzzaman, Satkhira
The residents of Dargahpur village
in Satkhira have been concerned
and elated over a fire that has been
burning for 17 days.
On December 6, work was going
on in building a new road in Dargahpur.
Although Bangladesh has
large gas deposits, it did surprise
the locals when the gas vent was
discovered in Satkhira.
Dargahpur Union Chairman
Sheikh Miyaraj Ali says: “We dug
a hole in the ground to gauge the
sand layer. We lowered a measuring
pipe into the hole which shot
back up with a loud pop.
“We were initially frightened,
but after careful examination we
concluded it was gas. Some people
lit matches over the hole and found
it catching fire,” he continues.
The discovery of gas drew many
curious people to the village.
Both the upazila and district administrations
sent representatives
to the site.
Chairman Miyaraj says different
gas vents have popped up over an
acre of land. He says they people
are delighted that a pocket of natural
resource has been found right
underneath their feet. But they are
also concerned the administration
has not acted on it yet.
He says the locals believe if the
gas deposit is developed by authorities
concerned, the locals will also
benefit along with the nation.
Administration responds
When inquired, Satkhira Deputy
Commissioner Abul Kashem Mohiuddin
says the local UNO has been
asked to submit a report on the gas
find. He says Petrobangla will use
their technical expertise to assess
the gas deposit and make the final
call.
Bangladesh has some of the
largest gas deposits in Asia, with
expert assessments saying there
are many gas pockets that are yet
to be tapped.
The major gas fields in Bangladesh
are currently operated by
international fuel giant Chevron,
who exclusively sells to Petrobangla,
the government-owned fuel
company. •
Eight die in road
accidents
• Tribune Desk
At least eight people
were killed in separate
road accident in Comilla,
Bagerhat and Jhenaidah
yesterday.
At least five people
were killed in separate
road accidents on the Dhaka-Chittagong
Highway in
Dayapur under Sadar Dakkhin
upazila and Comilla
district’s cantonment area
yesterday.
Four people were killed
when a bus hit a pick-up
van on the highway at
Dayapur around 7:30am,
reports UNB.
The deceased were identified
as Sumon Das, 32, a
van driver of Moulvibazar
district, helper Iqbal Hossain,
20, Mansur, 18, and
Aynal Miah, 23, of Nabiganj
in Habiganj district.
A bus hit a pick-up van
from behind and killed its
four passengers instantly,
said Mahbubur Rahman,
officer-in-charge of Moinamoti
Highway police station.
Being informed police
recovered the bodies and
sent those to the district
hospital morgue for autopsy.
In another incident, a
truck run over a pedestrian
named Ajgar Ali, 20, at
kitchen market area in
Comilla Cantonment in
the morning, the OC also
said.
In Jhenaidah, a motorcyclist
was killed as a lorry hit
him from behind in front of
Srilaksmi cinema hall in the
morning. Identity of the deceased
could not be known
immediately.
In Bagerhat, two Jubo
League men were killed in
a road accident at Mongla.
Sovon Hossain, 24, and,
Saikat, 23, died on the spot
when their motorcycle hit
a tree losing control over
steering.
Rony, another Jubo
League activist, was also
injured in the accident. •
Ashulia
factories sue
200 more
workers
• Nadim Hossain, Savar
Two RMG factories in Jamgora,
Ashulia have filed two separate
cases with Ashulia police station
against more than 200 of their
workers.
Authorities of The Rose Dresses
Ltd and NRN Knitting and Garments
Ltd accused more than 200
workers in the cases, only 30 of the
accused were mentioned by their
names.
The cases were filed on the allegation
of vandalising factory property
and breach of discipline.
A total of seven cases have been
filed accusing more than 1,000
people including opposition leaders,
worker leaders and upazila
chairman since the beginning of
the latest wave of unrest in the garment
factories at Ashulia.
A tense situation has been prevailing
in Ashulia industrial area
for the last few days over workers’
demonstration.
Workers are demanind implementation
of democratic labour
laws in factories, banning clauses
3(A) of 27, 13(A) of the Labour
Act, ensure factory safety, ensure
workers’ safety, increase bonus,
increase transport allowance, increase
daily lunch allowance, stop
lay-offs and ensure residential and
transport opportunity for workers.
In the wake of the protest, the
BGMEA closed 55 ready-made garments
factories in Savar’s Ashulia
area in accordance with 13 (1) provision
of Bangladesh Labour Law,
2006.
On Monday, Home Minister
Asaduzzaman Khan warned that
the government would mark people
who are conspiring to undermine
the garments sector.
Forty more factories were closed
down in the same area this earlier
week due to the ongoing demonstration.
•
Woman hacked to death by
husband in Pirojpur
• Arif Mostafa, Pirojpur
A woman has been hacked to
death allegedly by her husband
at Masimpur in Pirojpur
district town on Thursday
night.
The deceased was Asma
Begum, 26 and the accused is
Rezaul Islam, 32 of Tala upazila
in Satkhira district.
Rezaul managed to escape
the scene right after the
incident.
Pirojpur Sadar Thana Officer-in-Charge
Masumur Rahman
Biswas told Dhaka Tribune
correspondent that Rezaul
and Asma along with nine
others were living in a rented
house owned by Rupa Begum
in the area for eight months.
Masumur also said they all
were labours by profession.
Rupa said: “One of the
tenants named Alamgir
informed me about the
incident in the morning. So
I rushed into the house from
the back-door and saw Asma’s
dead body.”
Masumur said: “Police have
been interrogating Rezaul’s
housemates.
“Besides, the machete,
which has been used for murder,
has also been seized.”
Further details will be given
after the autopsy, he added. •

News 7
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
Security tightened ahead of Christmas
to foil subversive activities
• Kamrul Hasan and
FM Mizanur Rahaman
Security measures have been
beefed up from today in Dhaka and
elsewhere in the country to ensure
peaceful celebration of the Christmas,
an annual festival of Christian
community commemorating the
birth of Jesus Christ.
Additional Deputy Commissioner,
Dhaka Metropolitan Police,
Media Md Yusuf Ali said law enforcers,
including police and Rapid
Action Battalion (RAB), had been
deployed at churches, its adjacent
areas and other Christian majority
places across the country.
Police and RAB officials also said
members of law enforcement agencies
remained alert at different hotels,
including Sonargaon, Ruposhi
Bangla, Dhaka Radisson and Dhaka
Westin where parties featuring carols,
games and dance performances
marking Christmas, the biggest
religious festival of the Christians,
will be held.
On Wednesday, Dhaka Metropolitan
Police (DMP) prohibited the
carrying of all types of explosives
and explosion of firecrackers during
Christmas Day.
“The ban will come into effect
from Saturday [today] evening to
Sunday midnight in order to protect
the sanctity of the day and a
peaceful celebration,” DMP Commissioner
Md Asaduzzaman Miah
said in a press release.
Carrying and playing explosive,
harmful and reprehensible products
such as fireworks and crackers
are prohibited in DMP area from
Saturday 6pm till Sunday 12am
following the DMP ordinance (Ordinance
no-III/76), section 28, the
release added.
Meanwhile, special security
measures have been taken across
the port city particularly at all the
churches to avert any kind of untoward
or subversive activities during
the Christmas, the biggest festival
for Christian community.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune Chittagong
Metropolitan Police (CMP)’s
Additional Commissioner (crime
and operation) Debdas Bhattacharia
said: “Police and intelligence personnel
put on high alert ahead of the
holy programme while additional
police forces have been deployed at
the each church in the city to avert
any kind of untoward situation”.
“Along with uniformed police,
Hundreds of candidates of staff recruitment test take position in front of main entrance of Rajshahi University after Awami
League and Chhatra League men barred them from entering the campus yesterday morning
AZAHAR UDDIN
Ruling party men stop RU
recruitment test
• Abdullah Al Dulal, Rajshahi
Leaders and activists of the ruling
party Awami League and Bangladesh
Chhatra League (BCL) yesterday
forced Rajshahi University
(RU) authorities to stop staff-recruitment
examination, demanding
relaxation of 30-year age limit
and fair recruitment process.
Campus sources said a group of
Awami League activists, led by Rajshahi
City unit General Secretary
Dablu Sarkar, locked the three entrances
of the university and prevented
examinees from entering
the campus.
Moreover, BCL activists, led by
RU unit President Golam Kibriya
and its General Secretary Faisal
Ahmed Runu, laid siege to the
Fourth Science Building around
8am, where the examinations were
scheduled to be held.
Witness said BCL men locked
the examination halls till afternoon,
carried out attacks on the
candidates, and snatched their admit
cards as well as drove out job
seekers from halls.
Awami League leaders also asked
the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor
Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan and the
director of the university’s Information
Communication Centre to stop
examination of recruitment.
Dablu Sarkar said: “University
authorities are trying to recruit Jamaat
and Shibir activists instead of
qualified candidates.”
Pro–VC Professor Chowdhury Sarwar
Jahan, said: “We tried to recruit
the best candidates through examinations,
but Awami League leaders
and activists foiled the examination
procedures. We will declare a fresh
date for the recruitment test soon.”
However, Faisal Ahmed Runu,
denied the allegation and said: ‘We
did not attack anybody, we just
asked examinees to leave the examination
hall.’
A tensed situations has been
prevailing on RU campus over the
last few days after the university
authorities declared schedule of
the requirement, as ruling party
students’ front is against the requirement
process.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Awami
League leaders and activists
stopped the viva-voce of a recruitment
test for RU School.
They claimed that the university
authorities were going to appoint
BNP-Jamaat men. •
plainclothes police and detective
personnel have also been working
in the field level in the city to find
out if there is any threat of subversive
activities”, added the CMP additional
commissioner.
The additional commissioner
said police had already issued
a number of directions in each
church asking to tighten their own
security system while check post
will be put near the area of the
churches.
Sources at different churches
said each of churches has own security
arrangements and visitors
entry will be restricted during the
holy programme.
To celebrate the Christmas, different
hotels and restaurants of the
city have chalked out different programmes,
said the sources. •
DT
Councillor
caught while
stealing bike
• Bijoy Roy Khoka, Kishoreganj
A councillor of Kishoreganj municipality
was caught red-handed while
he was stealing a motorbike from
municipality premises yesterday.
Drained Ashraful Islam Shamim,
is the councillor of ward 5 under
Kishoreganj municipality. He
is also the co-convener of district
Jubo Dal, youth front of the BNP.
Quoting witnesses Officer-in-
Charge of Kishoreganj Model police
station Mosharaf Hossain said:
“Locals caught Shamim red-handed
while he was trying to flee from
municipality area with a stolen motorbike.”
“Later, locals handed over him
to Sub-inspector Abul Kalam Azad
giving him a good beat.”
Locals said Shamim was known
in the area for his rowdy character. •
Mujib-Faysal panel
sweeps in Chittagong
BMA polls
• Anwar Hussain, Chittagong
Dr Mujibul Haque Khan and Dr Faysal
Iqbal Chowdhury were elected
president and general secretary respectively
in the Chittagong chapter
of Bangladesh Medical Association
(BMA).
The elections to the Chittagong
chapter of the BMA were held at
the city’s Dr Khastagir Girls’ High
School on Thursday without any
untoward incident.
As many as 3,400 physicians out
of total 4,442 physicians exercised
their franchise to elect a 23-member
committee.
Dr Alauddin Mazumder, convener
of the BMA elections to the
port city unit declared the result of
the polls at 1am yesterday.
Two panels of physicians of
pro-Awami League doctors’ forum
Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad
(Swachip) took part in the port city
unit of the BMA polls.
Dr Mujibul Haque Khan and
Dr Faysal Iqbal Chowdhury led
one panel while Dr Nasir Uddin
Mahmud and Dr ANM Minhazur
led the other panel.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP)-backed Doctors’ Association
of Bangladesh (DAB) and
Jammat-e-Islami-backed National
Doctors’ Forum (NDF) boycotted
the elections, accusing the election
commission of bias.
Dr Mujibul Haque Khan polled
2,119 votes while his nearest contestant
Dr Nasir Uddin Mahmud
polled 1,127 votes. Dr Faysal Iqbal
Chowdhury polled 2,268 votes
while his nearest contestant polled
Dr ANM Minhazur polled 959 votes.
Chittagong City Corporation
(CCC) Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin
extended his support to Dr Mujibul-Dr
Faysal panel.
On the other hand, former city
mayor and Chittagong city AL president
ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury
sided with Dr Nasir-Dr Minhazur
panel. •

DT
8
World
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
SOUTH ASIA
Afghan police search MP’s
house after attack
Afghan police and security officials
combed through the wreckage of a
MP’s house in Kabul on Thursday
after an attack by Taliban gunmen
in which at least seven people
were killed. The attack underlined
the fragile security situation in Kabul
which has seen a series of kidnappings,
suicide bombings and
other insurgent attacks on targets
connected to the Western-backed
government. REUTERS
INDIA
‘Note ban is economic
looting by Modi govt’
Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi waxed poetic again Friday
to explain that demonetisation
is economic looting cloaked in a
pious garb. “If this were actually
an anti-corruption move, my party
would be totally in favour of it,
but it isn’t anti-corruption, it is
economic looting”, Rahul said at a
rally in Almora. TOI
CHINA
Chinese media alarmed at
Trump trade adviser
Chinese state media on Friday
expressed alarm and warned of a
showdown with the US after Trump
named Peter Navarro, an economist
who has urged a hard line against
China, to head a new White House
National Trade Council. Chinese
Ministry of Commerce stressed
that China-US trade benefits both
sides, warning Washington’s new
administration against moves that
may hurt ties. REUTERS
ASIA PACIFIC
Taiwan president to visit
Central America
Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen,
is to visit Guatemala next month
amid US-China tensions spurred by
US president-elect Donald’s Trump
speaking by telephone with the
Asian leader and threatening to
snub Beijing’s “One China” policy.
Guatemala’s foreign ministry confirmed
the visit, to take place January
11-12, just a week before Trump
takes office on January 20. AFP
MIDDLE EAST
Egypt, Trump agreed in
call on UN Israel vote delay
Egypt agreed to postpone a UN Security
Council resolution against Israeli
settlements when US President-elect
Donald Trump called President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the presidency
said Friday. Egypt had requested
on Thursday that its resolution
demanding Israel halt settlements
be postponed after Israel launched a
frantic lobbying effort. AFP
After Berlin attack, Germans
shaken but stoic
• AFP, Berlin
BERLIN SUSPECT
Anis Amri
Aged 24
1.78 m, 75 kg
Tunisian
Salafist
Used 6 aliases
Before 2015
Lived illegally in Italy for 3 years
July 2015
Arrived in Germany
June 2016
Application for asylum refused
Not expelled, no passport
Nov 2016
Investigated by German
anti-terrorism police
Dec 2016
Shot dead by Italian police
Asia on Christmas alert as police foil two bomb plots
• Reuters, Jakarta/Bangkok
Security forces across Asia were
on alert on Friday ahead of the
Christmas and New Year holidays,
as police in Australia and Indonesia
said they had foiled bomb plots
and Malaysian security forces arrested
suspected militants.
Australian police said they had
prevented attacks on prominent
sites in Melbourne on Christmas
Day that authorities described
as “an imminent terrorist event”
inspired by IS terrorists. The announcement
came after an attack
in Berlin in which a Tunisian suspect
smashed through a Christmas
market in a truck on Monday,
killing 12 people.
In Indonesia, where IS’s first
attack in South-east Asia killed
four people in Jakarta in January,
at least 14 people were being interrogated
over suspected suicide
bomb plots targeting the presidential
palace in Jakarta and another
undisclosed location, police
said. Anti-terrorism police killed
three suspects in a gunfight on
Wednesday on the outskirts of the
capital, Jakarta.
Moderate Indonesian Muslim
groups were helping authorities secure
Christmas celebrations amid
heightened religious tension after
the Christian governor of Jakarta,
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, went
on trial on a charge of blasphemy
against Islam, which he denies.
The Berlin attack may have rattled
nerves but, mindful of their own
dark history, Germans are resisting
calls for a security overhaul
and reject any talk of being at war,
setting the country apart from
other jihadist-hit nations.
The attack, claimed by the IS,
horrified Germany, which had until
now escaped the type of jihadist
carnage seen in neighbouring
France and Belgium. But while
the shock and grief are the same,
there are no cries for a state of
emergency and there is no question
of flooding the streets with
armed soldiers.
Chancellor Angela Merkel herself
on Thursday said she was
“very proud of how calmly most
people reacted to the situation”.
Experts attribute the sang-froid
in part to Germany’s past as an instigator
of two world wars, making
its citizens today deeply suspicious
of any kind of heavy-handed
security response.
Klaus Bouillon, the interior
minister of Saarland state, found
Indonesian police prepare to leave on motorcycles after attending a security briefing at the National Monument before
deployment during the Christmas and New Year holidays in Jakarta on December 22
REUTERS
Hardline group Islamic Defenders
Front swept into shopping
centres in the city of Surabaya, in
East Java, last week to make sure
Muslim staff were not forced by
employers to wear Santa hats or
other Christmas gear.
Warnings, patrols
Police in Muslim-majority Malaysia,
where IS claimed responsibility
for a grenade attack on a bar on
the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in
June, said this week they had arrested
seven people for suspected
out as much when in the immediate
aftermath of the Berlin attack
he said Germany was “in a
state of war”, sparking outrage
that forced him to backtrack on
the comments. “Terrorists are evil
criminals, but the country is not at
war,” the Sueddeutsche Zeitung’s
co-editor in chief Kurt Kister hit
back in an editorial.
Christian Tuschhoff, an expert
on international terrorism at Berlin’s
Free University, said Germans are
particularly sensitive to the word.
links to the militant group. Police
will monitor transport hubs, entertainment
centres and tourist spots.
The US embassy in India
warned this week of an increased
threat to places frequented by foreigners,
and cited media reports
indicating IS’s desire to launch attacks
in the country.
Mostly Buddhist Thailand plans
to have more than 100,000 police
on patrol until mid-January, police
said, adding it was an increase from
last year, without giving details.
Thai deputy national police
Balance
While German authorities came
under fire for letting the prime suspect
in the Berlin attack, a known
jihadist who was supposed to have
been deported, slip through the
net, there has been no major clamour
for a security revamp.
Before the truck rampage, the
government had already moved to
strengthen security in response to
earlier, smaller IS attacks, including
by tightening asylum laws.
Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday
also approved a wider use of CCTV
and more body-cams for federal
police officers.
Here too officials have to walk
a fine line between security needs
and the much-cherished right to
privacy, in a country still haunted
by the surveillance carried out by
the Nazis and the communist-era
Stasi secret police.
But there is no question of
armed soldiers patrolling the
streets to reassure nervous citizens,
as has happened in France,
and in Belgium after the Brussels
airport and metro suicide bombings
in March.
For now, Germans seem content
with their country’s balance between
having freedom and feeling
safe. On the streets of the German
capital, where the reopening of
the Christmas market on Thursday
marked a defiant return to normal
life, locals were equally stoic. •
spokesman Kissana Phathancharoen
said no intelligence pointed to
a possible attack but “we will not
let our guard down”.
Multi-ethnic Singapore, a major
commercial, banking and travel
hub that is home to many Western
expatriates, will deploy police
at tourist and shopping areas. Police
said bags may be checked.
A spokesman for the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore
said its churches had trained some
members to watch out for people
looking suspicious. •

World
Exiled from forests, Paraguay’s
Ache people want land
• AFP, Puerto Barra, Paraguay
Forced from their ancestral forests
by the arrival of big agriculture in
eastern Paraguay, the Ache people
gave up the hunter-gatherer lifestyle
that had sustained them for
centuries. Now they have taken
up farming themselves, and they
want their old land back.
The Ache’s homeland was remade
in the 1970s by the mass
arrival of industrial farmers from
neighbouring Brazil. A territory of
fertile land and abundant rivers,
the tropical region provided the
lush backdrop for the 1986 Academy
Award-winning film “The
Mission”.
Drawn by these natural riches,
the Brazilian settlers set up huge
farms, clearing forests to make
way for agriculture. The changes
were devastating for the Ache,
who had managed to preserve
their way of life despite centuries
of clashes with white colonizers
from Spain and Portugal.
The animals they once hunted
An Ache Guayaki indigenous woman carries her son on her back as she takes
part in a march in Puerto Barra, Paraguay on November 10
AFP
for food became scarce as their
habitat was destroyed. That ultimately
forced the Ache, who
risked dying out completely, to
abandon the forest. They were
among the last indigenous people
in Paraguay to give up hunting
and gathering and adopt a sedentary
lifestyle.
Now, what they lack is land-
once abundant and free, suddenly
scarce and expensive.
‘Survival at stake’
In a country whose indigenous
peoples often live in poverty, the
Ache are admired for finding success
as farmers, a remarkable transition
in a very short time. Some
50 Ache families live in Puerto
Barra, a scattering of wooden
houses set amid the rich ochre soil
and lush green of their fields. In
addition to cash crops, they run
small cattle ranches, fish farms
and beekeeping yards.
The indigenous leaders say
they are not asking much- several
thousand hectares to expand.
But the region’s politics, economy
and culture are dominated by the
Braziguayans.
Local radio stations broadcast
in Brazilian Portuguese. In Santa
Rita, a town of 40,000 people
founded by Brazilian immigrants,
the main road is lined with farm
equipment stores catering to
Braziguayan clients.
The Ache complain their demands
to the government have so
far fallen on deaf ears. In a rural
region where the state has little
presence, the Paraguayan government
needs to finally intervene,
said Bjarne Fostervold, an American
missionary who is married to
an Ache woman and has adopted
their cause. •
Aleppo faces vast destruction left by 4-year-war
• Tribune International Desk
After more than four years of brutal
street fighting and punishing
aerial bombardments, the staggering
extent of destruction in Aleppo
begins to emerge- Tens of thousands
of homes and apartments
are uninhabitable, most factories
have been looted or destroyed
and some ancient landmarks have
been reduced to rubble.
Reconstruction would likely
take years and cost tens of billions
of dollars, experts say. Some of
Aleppo's centuries-old cultural
heritage may have been lost for
good. And healing the wounds in
a city once split between a wealthier,
pro-government west and a
poorer, pro-rebel east could take
even greater effort.
Damage assessments emerged
as the Syrian government announced
Thursday that it had assumed
full control of the city- a significant
victory in a nearly six-year
battle with an armed opposition
trying to unseat President Bashar
Al Assad. In recent months, rebels
rapidly lost ground in the city as
Assad and military allies Russia
and Iran stepped up attacks.
Located at the crossroads of
ancient trade routes, Aleppo was
Syria's biggest city before the war,
with more than 3 million residents
and a world-famous cuisine. It
served as the country's industrial
hub, home to factories producing
In this Saturday, December 3, file photo, destroyed houses are seen in the east Aleppo, Syria
textiles, plastics and pharmaceuticals.
Its ancient centre, recognized
as a World Heritage site,
drew large numbers of tourists.
Today, Aleppo "resembles
those cities that were stricken during
World War II," said Maamoun
Abdul-Karim, head of the government's
museums and archaeology
department. The scale of devastation
has already evoked comparisons
with cities like Grozny and
Dresden.
But the destruction isn't spread
evenly.
Areas once held by the opposition
suffered severe damage after
AP
being bombarded for months by
Syrian and Russian warplanes.
Some eastern neighbourhoods
look like they have been hit by an
earthquake.
UN satellite images identified
more than 33,500 damaged residential
buildings in the city, with
the most recent photos taken in
mid-September, according to a
map published this week. A majority
of the buildings would have
been multi-unit apartment blocks
common in Aleppo, said Olivier
Vandamme, an official at the UN
agency that provided the map.
60% of the homes and apartments
in Aleppo are still inhabitable,
including those with partial
damage. Reconstruction would
cost between $35bn and $40bn,
he said.
Some 250,000 people could potentially
return to the devastated
east, once home to 1.5m, and find
shelter there by bricking up holes
in walls and replacing shattered
windows with plastic sheets.
Aleppo's industrial base was largely
wiped out, including by looting,
the consultant said. Before the
war, close to 5,000 small and midsized
enterprises had industrial
licenses in Aleppo, he said. •
9
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
USA
Putin: US Democrats
sore losers
DT
Vladimir Putin praised US President-elect
Donald Trump on Friday,
saying he had his finger on the
pulse of US society, and launched a
scathing attack on the Democrats,
saying they had forgotten the
meaning of their own name and
were sore losers. Speaking at his
annual news conference in Moscow,
Putin said that only Russia
had believed that Trump would
become the next president of the
US, but that did not mean the
Democrats had the right to blame
him for their defeat. REUTERS
THE AMERICAS
Mexican president pledges
to rebuild fireworks market
President Enrique Pena Nieto
pledged on Thursday to help
rebuild a fireworks market where
explosions killed at least 35 people
and reopen it next year. Investigators
have still not announced the
cause of the tragedy, which was
the third explosion at the market
since 2005 and cast a pall over
Mexico’s Christmas season. AP
UK
British Airways cabin crew
call off Christmas strike
British Airways cabin crew have
called off a planned Christmas
strike, trade union Unite said on
Thursday. Unite said the decision
was made after it received a
revised offer from British Airways.
The offer will be put to a ballot of
its members. The planned cabin
crew strike on Boxing Day has also
been suspended, Unite general
secretary Len McCluskey said in a
statement. REUTERS
EUROPE
Mediterranean death toll
record 5,000 in 2016
A record 5,000 migrants are
believed to have drowned in the
Mediterranean Sea this year, following
two shipwrecks on Thursday
in which some 100 people,
mainly West Africans, were feared
dead, aid agencies said on Friday.
Two overcrowded inflatable
dinghies capsized in the Strait of
Sicily after leaving Libya for Italy,
the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee
agency UNHCR said. REUTERS
AFRICA
Hutu militia kills 13 in
restive Congo
13 members of the ethnic Nande
community were killed Thursday
in an attack on a village by Hutu
militiamen in the troubled east
of Congo, authorities said. The
bloodshed happened in the village
of Bwalanda, 80km north of the
provincial capital of Goma. AFP

10
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Russia
7,290
(7,500 in 2015)
US
7,000
(7,260)
World
Tensions rise as Trump vows nuclear arsenal expansion
• Tribune International Desk
America must massively boost
its nuclear capability until the
“world comes to its senses,” President-elect
Donald Trump said
Thursday, hours after a similar vow
by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Trump made the statement on
Twitter, without providing details or
context, a day after meeting a group
of Pentagon top brass, and shortly
after Putin called for Russia to reinforce
its own nuclear capabilities.
“The US must greatly strengthen
and expand its nuclear capability
until such time as the world
comes to its senses regarding
nukes,” Trump tweeted.
The open talk of ramping up
nuclear capabilities, reminiscent
of Cold War pledges, marks a jarring
departure from the stance
of President Barack Obama, who
in a famous speech in Prague in
2009 called for the elimination of
nuclear weapons. In 2010, Obama
and Russia’s then president Dmitry
Medvedev signed the so-called
New START treaty that calls for a
significant reduction in the nuclear
arsenals of both countries.
Trump’s remark came after Putin
declared, “we need to strengthen
the military potential of strategic
nuclear forces,” while boasting
GLOBAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS STOCKPILE
The latest assessment from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
about the Russian army’s performance
in its Syria campaign. Russia’s
focus should be on “missile
complexes that can reliably penetrate
any existing and prospective
missile defence systems,” the
Kremlin strongman added.
A top Trump advisor tried to
soften the impact of the tweet, saying
the incoming president was not
trying to change long-standing US
positions on a global security issue.
“What he’s saying is he wants us to
be ready to defend ourselves and
he’s not making new policy,” Kellyanne
Conway, who on Thursday
was tapped as White House counsellor,
said in an interview with
MSNBC.
“I think all the president-elect is
saying is that we have to be able to
keep ourselves safe and secure and
when others stop building their
nuclear weapons, then we’ll feel
more secure in that regard,” she
explained, but sidestepped a question
on whether Trump was referring
to a specific actor posing new
risks of proliferation.
On Wednesday Trump met with
France
300
(300)
China
260
(250)
Britain
215
(225)
Pakistan
110-130
(100-120)
India
100-120
(90-110)
Israel
80
(80)
North
Korea
10
(6-8)
a group of Pentagon brass including
Vice Admiral James Syring, who
heads the Missile Defence Agency.
US currently has an estimated
arsenal of about 7,000 nuclear
warheads, second only to Russia,
which has a few hundred more.
Russia sees nothing unusual
Russian President Vladimir Putin
on Friday said there was “nothing
unusual” about US President-elect
Donald Trump’s call to boost US’s
nuclear capability.
“As concerns the new president-elect
of the US Mr Trump,
there is nothing new here. During
his election campaign he spoke
about the necessity of strengthening
the nuclear component of the US, to
strengthen the armed forces. There
is nothing unusual here,” Putin said
at his annual press conference.
China closely following Trump
comments
China said Friday that countries
with the largest nuclear arsenals
should take the lead in disarmament,
after President-elect Donald
Trump and Russian President
Vladimir Putin said they wanted to
strengthen their nations’ nuclear
capabilities.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying told reporters at a
regular briefing Beijing is “paying
close attention” to what nuclear
weapons policy Trump’s administration
will follow. Hua said that
China advocates a ban on and destruction
of nuclear weapons.
“The countries that have the
largest nuclear arsenals should
bear special responsibility for nuclear
disarmament, take a lead in
drastically and tangibly cutting the
number of nuclear weapons so as
to create conditions for the eventual
full and thorough nuclear disarmament,”
Hua said. •

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12
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Heritage
The string of beads
Revelling in history from the smallest of objects
• Tim Steel
I
readily recall my first visit to
Wari Bateshwar. Accompanied
by the excellent Professor
Sufi Rahman and his friend,
a geologist, we walked from our
vehicle across rice fields that were
obviously part of the very wide
and evident moat to the gap in the
mud rampart.
It was impossible to tell the
period of moat and rampart
through which we passed, onto
open farm land, although they
bore a remarkable resemblance to
Iron Age encampments in the UK.
We were greeted by kids
bearing their latest surface finds, a
bead or two, amongst them; finds
encouraged by the professor in his
work of community engagement,
such as I had rarely experienced in
the UK. I wondered if, introduced
to such tangible evidence of
heritage from such an early age,
their obvious engagement and
interest could endure.
Such involvement, and the finds
were perhaps unsurprising on
an already widely acknowledged
archaeological site, carefully
managed under the “community
archaeology” philosophy I came to
admire at various archaeological
sites I subsequently visited in
Bangladesh.
But it was, I suppose, the
bracelet proudly shown me, later
in the visit, by the wife of a local
farmer, comprising of beads,
readily identified to me as dating
probably from the late centuries
BCE, that truly stirred my
imagination. They comprised, for
the most part, agates, but also an
identifiable amethyst and jade.
What jeweller, I wondered,
crafted these beads of semiprecious
stones? Who were the
women, perhaps even the men,
for whom the wearing of the beads
represented such a show of status
and wealth?
At that point, I could not imagine.
But, above all, who were the
craftsmen, and women, perhaps,
who cut them so finely?
Subsequent travels in
Bangladesh revealed to me such
a huge array of buildings from
late centuries BCE onward, and
evidence of other craft skills
such as sculpture, that I became
entirely enraptured by the
evidence of history, heritage, and
culture; it would be fair to say I fell
completely in love.
Since then, taking advantage
of the massive library of the world
wide web, I have never ceased to
research, and write, of that history
and heritage, and the culture that
evolved from it.
Jahangirnagar University, I
was told, had “tens of thousands”
of such beads from the site, and
other sites around Bangladesh.
Nothing could have convinced
me, more surely, not only of the
very rich history of Bangladesh
that already intrigued me, but also
seeing the beads proudly worn by
a local woman, of the flesh and
blood of that history.
In the years since, I have
researched and written hundreds
of thousands of words about the
amazing peoples of these lands,
and, certainly weekly, developed
ever newer insights into the
nation’s history as yet mostly
untold.
Academic writers, of course,
are usually tasked with evidence
and with references for “peer
group” revue. Sadly, Bangladesh,
as a nation, seems lacking in
much speculative history, the
foundations of such study, as
western nations enjoyed for
centuries.
Who has never unwrapped a
seasonal gift, and found within
the wrapping the key to something
Such treasures as the string of beads in the possession of a farmer’s wife
at Wari Bateshwar; coins of the Sultanate -- not the gold, but the heritage
-- the entirety of the tangible history and heritage of Bangladesh, are but
pieces of evidence in an exciting story of who we are, where we come
from, and how that past continues to influence our today
that can bring excitement and
pleasure for a lifetime?
For some, these days
it is the laptop, the tablet,
the smart phone, that first

Heritage
13
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
How often, over the
years, I have held
in the palm of my
hand an enormous
diversity of small
objects, and sought
for the what, why,
when, where, who,
how; it has led me,
almost like the
fabled time machine,
through many
periods, places, and
peoples
opens to a youth a world of
information, communication, and
entertainment.
Such a pity, perhaps, that it often
appears to be the minutiae of the
life, loves, and passions of those
who strive for fortunes through
fame that seems to engross so many
of those young people today, rather
than seeking to explore their own,
incredible, world leading, past,
which can offer such potential for a
richer present.
An unparalleled heritage to
bequeath their own descendants.
“Too much information,” is a
phrase, too, that describes the
limitation of the use of intelligence
and insight, to follow clues, to
speculate, discover, and confirm
realities.
Often, however, it requires
only the self to wrap and gift that
incredible past to the present.
My own lifelong fascination with
history, and the doors it opens
to understanding both heritage
and a true cultural appreciation,
commenced, unforgettably, at
a tender age, long pre-teen, in a
remote, rural corner of Berkshire,
the original Berkshire, in Britain,
called Silchester.
Was that, I wonder, my first
“moment of Zen?” Certainly it
has produced, since, in my life,
multitudinous such episodes of
reflection, far from confined to,
although certainly highlighted by,
such as the famous “Rock Garden”
in Kyoto, Japan, that opened whole
new thought, many of which
found expression in Bangladesh, as
such as Paharpur, Mainamati, and
Jahagadal.
How often, over the years, I
have held in the palm of my hand
an enormous diversity of small
objects, and sought for the what,
why, when, where, who, how; it has
led me, almost like the fabled time
machine, through many periods,
places, and peoples.
At the time of my childhood,
the BBC -- in those days more a
part of real life than now -- carried
a children’s program, How things
began, dramatising history and
prehistory in short, apparent eye
witness accounts. Such a challenge
to the young imagination.
Perhaps I never grew up
because, of course, I no longer
need the BBC to inspire me to take
advantage of the extraordinary
online opportunities to research
around such objects. And, of
course, not only objects ... whole
towns, cities, nations, even
peoples.
On the day of which I write, as
a family we walked past a small,
ancient church. Revelling, on the
way, in the name, Julius Caesar, on
one grave stone, through a gap in
what seemed a massive stone-built
wall, comprising, in large part,
chunks of flint stones, which were
common enough in the geology of
the area.
A stony track led across fields of
stubble from recent harvest and,
to my delight, almost buried in the
soil, I found a piece of glazed pot.
It was red in colour, with dry mud
clinging to it. A piece of flower pot,
I thought, familiar from the family
greenhouse, one that adjoined the
end of our family home.
A greenhouse which, I already
understood, had been the coach
house of the fine, late Victorian
mansion that housed the new
“Secondary Modern” school, as
legislated for in our 1944 Education
Act, of which my father had
become the founding father.
As any child might, I rushed
to show my mother this treasure
of domesticity. She took it, and
told me that the last person to
handle this fragment of pot --
which she identified as Samian
ware, explaining it as a piece of a
very valuable family treasure of
domestic pottery in Roman times --
was almost certainly someone who
lived nearly two thousand years
before.
Comparing it to her Coalport tea
service inherited from her parents,
she assured me that the bowl of
which this was a fragment had,
certainly, been treasured then, as
much as her mother’s Coalport was
by us.
Years later, travelling through
North Bengal, my interest,
bordering on obsession, in the
heritage and culture of Bangladesh,
was similarly piqued. We were
driving on a road across those very
flat flood plains, and noticed a hill
beside the road. We stopped, to
climb the hill, and found the soil
rich in terracotta fragments, and
shards of pottery.
I picked a piece of the nearly
complete base of a pot. It was
already clear that the hill covered
an unrecorded site of yet another
Buddhist Vihara. The piece of
pottery was subsequently identified
as 7th century in origin.
Such pieces can be the beginning
of the myriad threads that lead any
of us, not merely, as in Bangladesh,
to ancestors, and the stories that
eventuate in the present day,
but even as I have found threads
that weave into my own, and my
nation’s history. A history that,
even today, is memorialised in
mansions and palaces, often
financed by the peoples of
Bangladesh.
Such treasures as the string
of beads in the possession of a
farmer’s wife at Wari Bateshwar;
coins of the Sultanate -- not the
gold, but the heritage -- the entirety
of the tangible history and heritage
of Bangladesh, are but pieces of
evidence in an exciting story of
who we are, where we come from,
and how that past continues to
influence our today, as it will our
futures, all of us.
Today, my own garden, beneath
a 19th century “lazy bed,” a method
of cultivation lies an unexplained
bed of flat stones; nearby, a large
piece of flint stone, not native to
the area, and what is probably part
of a stone axe three thousand years
old, offers clues to those who lived
on this piece of land, long ago. The
people who once were in a line of
human society that will, hopefully,
survive long after I am gone.
I wonder what my activities have
contributed to my children’s and
my grandchildren’s generations,
and beyond?
A heritage that continues, at
least in Britain, to literally enrich
the present and almost certainly,
future generations. The world of
the wealthier, better educated
peoples, continue to beat a path to
Britain to share in the exploration
of a past.
A past, in fact, a little richer, and
certainly less lengthy, than that
which Bangladesh has to offer to
its people, today, and potentially,
to millions of those who, like me,
continue to search the past to
enrich the present, and revel in it. •
Tim Steel is a communications, marketing
and tourism consultant.

14
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Climate Change
A peek into the first national
conference on urban resilience
How can we create sustainable and resilient cities in Bangladesh?
• Shaila Mahmud
The National Geographic
in one of its issues
speculated about twothird
of the world’s
population will live in urban areas
by 2030.
And in Bangladesh, while
more than 30% of the population
currently lives in urban areas, this
is expected to increase to 50% by
2050.
Unfortunately, as Dr Saleemul
Huq, director of the International
Centre of Climate Change and
Development at the Independent
University, Bangladesh, explains:
“This population growth and
rapid urbanisation, which tend to
follow an unplanned pattern, will
make Bangladesh an even more
disaster prone country.”
Alarming, since according
to the 2016 Global Climate Risk
Index, Bangladesh is already
one of the six most affected
countries in the world. This leads
us to the question of how to help
our cities “bounce back” after
disasters strike; how to restore the
availability of clean water, food,
electricity, transportation and
communication, granted these
necessities are not always a given
at present.
To answer this question, the
International Centre for Climate
Change and Development and
the Asian Cities Climate Change
Resilience Network hosted the first
ever annual conference on Urban
Resilience from December 17 to 19.
The objective: To take forward
and implement Sustainable
Development Goal 11 (SDG), which
is to say foster sustainable cities
and communities in Bangladesh.
Over 500 representatives from
the national government, NGOs,
INGOs, academicia, and other
types of institutions convened
under one roof at the Spectra
Convention Centre to discuss
urban resilience in Bangladesh.
Here I will present some
important ideas that came out of
the conference:
Engaging Local Residents
According to Dr Saleemul Huq,
“Mainstreaming both urbanisation
and climate change into the
next set of national plans should
COURTESY: MADISON CORNEY
be a priority for the future
development of Bangladesh.
“But even more important than
the technical mainstreaming into
planning is the need to be much
better at involving people and
citizens from different walks of life
in the planning process and the
implementation of those plans.”
Professor Dr Kazi Maruful
Islam, department of Development
Studies, University of Dhaka,
Dhaka, agrees and recommends
the creation of democratic
decision making structure within
City Corporations and Union
councils (also called, Pourashavas)
to better engage local citizens.
Learning to look at slums
differently
More and more poor migrants are
moving from rural Bangladesh
to urban Bangladesh. Dhaka,
in particular, is receiving more
people than it can accommodate,
leading to an increase of slum
dwellers.
As Professor Md Shahidul
Ameen, Architecture Department,
BUET, Dhaka points out, after all
these years, the boundary lines
of Dhaka city still vary on maps
from RAJUK to City Corporation,
making it is hard to determine the
exact number of people living in
slums.
Yet he estimates there used
to be 2.75 lakh slum dwellers in
Dhaka in 1974 and around 11 lakh
in 2014.
But as the professor stresses,
simply eradicating the slums will
not solve the issue because ruralurban
migration will continue.
Instead, he explains, there needs
to be change in society’s outlook
towards the poor.
Only this will ensure that
the poor live in a sustainable
environment, capable of meeting
their basic needs.
Need for universal healthcare
coverage
Access to adequate healthcare
and proper medical treatment
has always been an issue for the
poorest in Dhaka: Either they have
to forgo treatment, or decide to
But even more important than the technical mainstreaming into
planning is the need to be much better at involving people and
citizens from different walks of life in the planning process and the
implementation of those plans
spend a fortune. This is why Dr
Muhammod Abdus Sabur, Public
Health professional and consultant
at the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, emphasised
universal health coverage as one
way to help the poor access the
healthcare they need.
Since everyone, from the
poorest to the richest, needs
affordable healthcare, a plan for
universal coverage will be key
to supporting the poorest in a
way that does not leave them
financially burdened.
Comprehensive approach
If we want to build resilience
in cities, we have to combine
disaster risk reduction, decreasing
greenhouse gas emissions, and
adapting to climate change
through adaptation technologies
under one umbrella.
Additionally, Terry Cannon,
Institute of Development Studies,
University of Sussex, Sussex,
recommends that, “assessments of
both physical and socio-economic
vulnerabilities of the urban poor
are early activities needed to
develop the city resilience plan.”
Gender-balanced city resilience
planning
While Bangladesh is known as one
of the few countries with a female
leader, it often fails to include
women in policymaking and key
decisions.
Women make up about half the
urban population in Bangladesh.
As such, it is important to consider
their safety and concerns when
creating a resilient city.
Mainstreaming and financing
sustainable urbanisation
Bangladesh urgently needs an
inclusive development plan,
which establishes links between
the local and national in order to
ensure proper implementation of
the seventh Five Year Plan of the
Government of Bangladesh.
The country, due to lack
of financial incentives and
opportunities for sustainable
urbanization, is failing to build
resilience in its urban areas
through its economy.
Hence, the “institutionalisation
of resilience into existing
development planning and
financing mechanisms along
with risk inclusive budgeting
practices will all play a significant
role in achieving sustainability,”
explained Mamunur Rashid,
Climate Change Specialist, United
Nations Development Program.
The first urban resilience
wrapped up for this year with high
hopes.
The over 500 participants were
ready to address the existing
challenges preventing the creation
of sustainable and resilient cities
in Bangladesh. •
Shaila Mahmud is a research officer at
the International Centre on Climate
Change and Development at the
Independent University, Bangladesh.
This page has been developed in
collaboration with the International
Centre for Climate Change and Development
(ICCCAD) at Independent
University, Bangladesh (IUB) and
its partners, Bangladesh Centre for
Advanced Studies (BCAS) and International
Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED). This page
represents the views and experiences
of the authors and does not necessarily
reflect the views of Dhaka Tribune
or ICCCAD or its partners.

colour it
Kids
15
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
drawing from reader
Sent in by
Sharmin Akter Shova

16
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Kids
The
Chamber of
Presents
Chapter 15 of the Magical Christmas
Ring
• Nusaiba Zyen
My eyes froze. The golden lights
had made everything look
bright. I saw a huge sack that
was tied with a very thick rope. I
tried to untie it but I had a deep
cut on my hands. It was burning
a lot. I quickly got the medicine
box out and applied medicine
for the wounds. Then, I put
bandages on them. After that,
I looked for something sharp.
The room was quite small. I saw
find you,” replied Claire. “They
can’t wait for you anymore.
They are planning to call the
police!” I gasped and said,
“Put Dad on the phone.” Claire
gave it to Dad and he asked,
“Catherine! Is it you? Where are
you?!” “Dad,” I said, “Can I tell
you something?” “Yes, You are
more than welcome,” replied
Dad. I told him everything
about what had happened and
where I went and where I am.
“Tell Mum about this,” I said,
I had felt so happy to get the presents
back. Then just at that moment, the
walkie-talkie started to ring. I unzipped
the backpack and grabbed the walkietalkie
Photo: Bigstock
a knife beside a wooden chair. I
took it and tried to cut the thick
rope with it. It was very tricky.
After about a few minutes, the
rope got cut and I saw a number
of dull-coloured presents inside.
I quickly searched for the sack
I had inside. And it was there,
fortunately.
I took the huge sack and
tied it around my left waist.
I had felt so happy to get the
presents back. Then just at
that moment, the walkie-talkie
started to ring. I unzipped the
backpack and grabbed the
walkie-talkie. “Hello,” I said.
“Catherine, Mum and Dad are
feeling very restless. They want
to know where you actually
are. They have also looked for
you everywhere but they can’t
“Bye Dad.” Then I disconnected
the call.
I observed the little room.
There were a number of
presents lying around in dull
colours. I picked them all up
and put them inside the huge
sack. The room had many little
wooden tables. At last when I
knew that my job was done, I
peeked under from the door
and saw that there were a
few girls standing. Then I saw
them walking away in rage and
disappointment, thinking about
a plan. I unlocked the door and
opened it slowly as it creaked a
little bit. Then something else
came to my mind. What if there
were more presents in other
rooms? •

Kids
17
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
diy
pet tips
Chirp, Chirp…
Ever think of the tiny birds who find no water
to drink during flights? Well, here’s your
chance to help the little birdies out!
Follow some simple steps to create your
own bird feeder and watch your feathered
friends flock to you.
What you need:
• 2 small/medium sized terracotta pots (not
too heavy)
• A piece of cloth
• Superglue
• Two 6-inch, ruler-length, pieces of wood
• Paint
• Scissors
How to get it done:
First, take a small bowl and paint it. Use
terracotta saucers or shallow bowls so that
you can paint easily. You can get these very
cheap from any roadside vendor. Be careful
to only paint the outside of the pot and not
the inside. You will be putting water in it
later! Let the paint dry. This should take
20-30 minutes tops. Just put it out in your
veranda. Once dry, cut two, very long, thin
strips of cloth with a pair of scissors and
arrange them in a cross. Then place your
bowl on the intersection of the cross and
paste the two strips of cloth diagonally with
superglue. (Superglue can be dangerous, get
an adult to help you here).
Now, paint the other bowl and let it dry.
Place the dried bowl above the first one and
use more glue to stick the sides of the bowl
to the four strips. Space the two bowls at
least 8 to 10 inches apart. Tie the four ends
of cloth strips upward and let the glue dry.
Tie them in a way that there are still enough
cloth strips left on top. Don’t tie up the top
completely. You will need the bits of cloth
to tie to a hanger. Finally, glue one piece of
wood beneath each wood to create a bird
perch and hang your bird feeder up. Fill one
bowl with water and the other with grains.
Make your feeder colourful to attract more
birds.•
Squeaky clean Fido
Dogs are hyper creatures;
they run around the
neighbourhood way too
often and by the time they
return home, they are
covered in dirt from head
to paw.
Since your parents
wouldn’t allow you to keep
a stinky pup, here are a few
things you can do to turn
that around and it all starts
with cleaning your precious
pet.
Location
All cleaning must be done in
the bathroom. Let’s face it,
if you started giving Fido a
bath in the living room, you
and your pet both risk facing
the wrath of angry parents.
Tools
You will need towels,
shampoo, hairbrush, and
an extra untouched towel.
Never mix any of these tools
with your own.
Brushing
Before splashing a bucket
of water on your dog, brush
through his coat thoroughly
to find out if he’s got fleas
or not. If he does, then try
using an anti-flea shampoo.
Bathing
This will be a breeze
because unlike cats, dogs
are enthusiastic about
baths. Wet his coat with
water, apply shampoo and
massage his head, face,
body and of course, the
legs.
Wrap it up
Once you’re done, rinse off
the foam with water and dry
him up using a towel.•
Photo: Bigstock
animal
facts
do you
know?
Bionic Hand
Animals
Small but deadly
Inland Taipan’s are mostly found in the regions of Central to Eastern Australia. They
have a very interesting way of adapting to the environment around them. They change
their skin colour during seasonal changes.
Each bite contains 110mg of venom, which is enough to kill 100 people or 250,000
mice! This venom takes only 45 minutes on an average to kill an adult human.
These snakes are 50 times more venomous than the average cobras.
Surprisingly, they do not attack unless they are provoked.•
Just think of all the things
you could not do, if you did
not have your hands or even
one hand. The simplest of
tasks would be most difficult
and some tasks would be
impossible. When people
have lost their hands or legs
in accidents, scientists have
provided simple artificial limbs
for them. These have been no
more than a false hand or foot
or in the old days, just a stump.
Today, scientists are developing
what is called a bionic or cyber
hand. The new hand will be
able to work with the help of
a microchip, and users will be
able to move the fingers and
even feel things. •

18
SATURDAY,DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Kids
book
review
The Thing about Luck
toy
Up and down
game
review
The story
The story is about a Japanese-American
girl named Summer who is used to
the life of a migrant worker. She has
a brother who is hinted to be autistic.
When at the age of 12, her parents
suddenly have to leave for Japan,
Summer accompanies her grandparents
to the harvesting trek. Here, she learns
how to get along with her elders, how
to establish relationships and the story
takes you through her highs and lows
during this transitional period of her life.
Any Good?
The story sheds light on the trials and
tribulations of the farming world and
while not action packed, Summer’s
conversational narrations, and her
humour and warmth are sure to win you
over.
Parental Advisory
There is some talk of death but in a
positive way, more grateful than morbid.
All in all, a safe and fun read! •
Available since 500 BC,
the Yo-Yo is by far one of
the oldest toys around.
The modern Yo-Yo was
discovered when a
manufacturing company
was setup in California in
1928 by Duncan. Made out
of plastic and available
in plenty of eye-catching
colours, it definitely has its
mark on a child and even
on some adults.
Popularity of the Yo-Yo
went off the charts in the
late 70s and 80s, when a
lot of research went on
to make the Yo-Yo more
interesting.
Made of two discs and
connected in the middle
with an axle and a loop
of string connected to
the centre axle. It simply
works by winding up the
string, putting a finger in
the loop at the end of the
string and then throwing
the Yo-Yo as hard as you
can. It will unwind and
then wind itself back on
to your hand. It might not
have much going on about
it but it is available in
plenty of colours to make
your child drool over it.
Available at all toy
stores starting from Tk50 •
Not your usual geometry
music
Hit music
A game that’s monstrously hard but equally
just as fun, Super Hexagon requires a lot of
skill, but gives you satisfaction for every
extra second you survive. In the game,
you’re a tiny little triangle surviving the
maze of hypnotic, geometric shapes that
close into the middle of the screen. The
vibrant, funky colors and the retro music
give a very arcade-like feeling to the game.
Super Hexagon practically has a heartbeat of
it’s own as the entire game screen beats to
the rhythm of the thumping music.
There are three unlocked modes: hard,
harder, hardest, and chances are, your first
few attempts will leave you dead in five
seconds. But the difficulty of the game
practically invites you back. It’s devious,
brilliant, and exciting! The skillfully
designed game will have you addicted in no
time.
Warning: Super Hexagon is not for the
fainthearted. Available for download on
smart-phones. •
This week’s instrument is the
Xylophone. It is a member of
the percussion family, which
means this pretty thing is a
cousin of the drums. It is one of
those fancy foreign cousins too,
because while other percussion
instruments make crashing
noises, the Xylophone produces
a pitch when struck. Xylophones
have been around since 2, 000
BC. They were probably being
used in Asia first, and then
quickly spread to Africa, and
arrived in Europe in the 19th
century. To make a sound on the
xylophone the player must strike
a bar with a mallet. When the
xylophonist strikes a bar with
a hard mallet, the xylophone
produces a bright and sharp
sound. When the xylophonist
strikes a bar with a soft mallet, a
more muted sound is produced.•

Biz Info
19
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
| celebration |
IBA commemorates 50 years of legacy
The Institute of Business
Administration (IBA), University
of Dhaka, the country’s foremost
educational institute for business,
celebrated its Golden Jubilee
at a grand commemoration on
December 22, 2016, remembering
its long history of 50 years.
Present at the celebrations were
Obaidul Quader, MP, minister,
Ministry of Road Transport &
Bridges, Government of the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh as
the chief guest, who inaugurated
the program. Also present were
Professor Dr Nasreen Ahmad, pro
vice chancellor – academic and
professor Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman,
pro vice chancellor –
Administration of University of
Dhaka as special guests.
Nazmul Hasan Papon, MP,
president, IBA Alumni Association
(IBAAA) and Professor Dr A K M
Saiful Majid, director, IBA were
also present. Professor Dr A A M
S Arefin Siddique, honorable vice
chancellor, University of Dhaka
presided over the ceremony.
Following recitations from
holy books, Professor Dr A K M
Saiful Majid welcomed all the
guests and presented a video
documentary about the history
and legacy of the institution. This
was followed by speeches from Dr
Md Akhtaruzzaman, Dr Nasreen
Ahmad, Obaidul Quader, MP,
and Dr A A M S Arefin Siddique.
The program was wrapped up by
Nazmul Hasan Papon, MP, with a
vote of thanks.
Dr A K M Saiful Majid, Director,
IBA welcomed the guests,
commenting, “It is humbling to
welcome such esteemed guests to
such a grand event – celebrating
50 years of excellence in business
education in the country. IBA
started in 1966, in collaboration
with Indiana University,
Bloomington, USA to promote
business education in the country,
becoming the pioneer institute to
offer an MBA degree in Bangladesh.
Over time, to cater to growing
demands, the institute introduced
BBA, EMBA, MPhil, DBA, PhD
and Management Development
Programs. Today we know that
alumni of our proud institute have
grounded themselves in top-tier
positions in the business world and
demonstrated dominance their
fields.”
Nazmul Hasan Papon, MP,
added in his vote of thanks, “I
am delighted to be in your midst
today – on the joyous occasion of
IBA’s Golden Jubilee. I’m proud to
be a part of this premier business
institute of national importance,
having completed 50 years at
the heart of University of Dhaka.
Throughout its history, IBA has
held a significant responsibility
towards the continuous
development and augmentation
of business management skills
in Bangladesh, and I believe
the initiatives the institute has
undertaken demonstrates how
dedicated they are to this goal.”•
| holidays |
A fairytale Christmas at Dhaka Regency
Inspired by the magic of the
upcoming festive season, Dhaka
Regency presents “Once Upon
a Christmas,” a jovial fairy tale
extravaganza to celebrate the
most joyous time of the year.
To start this great occasion
of Christmas Eve, the hotel’s
Grandiose restaurant is offering
a variety of festive treats for
dinner on December 24 and 25.
On Christmas day, the restaurant
offers a special Christmas buffet
lunch. The hotel’s most popular
rooftop garden restaurant,
Grill on the Skyline, offers a
lavish dinner menu for both the
evenings of December 24 and
25. Guests will enjoy the menu
designed by our experienced
chefs, along with the extravagant
ambiance under the open winter
sky.
A “Christmas Kids’ Party”
will be organised at Grill On
The Skyline from 11:30am to
12:30pm, which will be telecast
by SA Television at 3:30pm on
the same day. The kids will
rejoice at the fun corner with
extensive gaming arrangements
such as, a photo shoot with
Santa, riding the mini train,
jumping on bouncy castle and
playing all around the rooftop
area. After all these activities,
Regency’s chefs will offer buffet
snacks, which will include
favourites such as burgers,
fries, cakes, chotpoti, candy
floss and so on. The program
with Santa will start with a
cake cutting ceremony by the
kids and Santa, along with the
hotel management. There will
be a musical performance by
prominent singers, along with a
cultural performance. •
| event |
Asian University of Bangladesh
celebrates Victory Day
A discussion was held as a part of Victory Day celebrations at Asian
University of Bangladesh on December 16 where the founder and vice
chancellor of the university, Professor Dr Abul Hasan Muhammad Sadek
was present as the chief guest. Special guests at the event included Dr
Muhammad Jafar Sadeq, chairman, board of trustees and the treasurer,
Adv Abul Kalam Azad. •

DT
20
Editorial
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
TODAY
America’s
conservatism
goes European
populist
The populism espoused by the
Trumpian Republican Party is not
socialism per se, but it does have some
overlapping with economic approaches
often favoured by European socialists
PAGE 21
Inclusion,
not exclusion
NASHIRUL ISLAM
Let’s not be afraid of hijras or avoid
them. Let us embrace them and include
them in our society, instead
PAGE 22
Improving public transport
is the answer
What’s so special
about Chittagong?
Chittagong is a 2000-year-old city. It
was an Arab port, a Portuguese pirate
stronghold, an Arrakanese stakeout,
before finally being co-opted by the
British during the first Partitition
PAGE 23
Be heard
Write to Dhaka Tribune
FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath,
Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207
Send us your Op-Ed articles:
opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com
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https://www.facebook.com/
DhakaTribune.
The views expressed in opinion
articles are those of the authors
alone and they are not the
official view of Dhaka Tribune
or its publisher.
Commuting in the city can be a nightmarish experience for women,
especially those who rely on public transport.
A recent study reveals that a whopping 84% of women have experienced
sexual harassment in the process of using public transport in Bangladesh.
Why can we not make the city safer for women to move around it?
No society can call itself developed unless and until it creates a safe environment
for women to move around on their own, and, unfortunately, Bangladesh is failing
in this regard.
The solution is to fix up our public transport system.
A good first step would be to make improvements to our bus services, as buses
are where most incidences of harassment take place. Then the authorities must
enforce stringent regulations.
Women-only buses can give women the option of commuting with a feeling
of safety. However, it is not enough that these provisions are made, they must be
enforced.
Increasing the number of buses would reduce the pressure on each individual
bus, thereby reducing the crowding that causes assaulters to take advantage.
Many perpetrators of sexual assault or harassment on public transport take
advantage of the shabby conditions and overcrowding -- the problem would be
alleviated if there was better regulation.
Finally, violators must be dealt with. Too often, people who assault or harass
others get away with it. The culture of impunity must end.
In developed nations of the world, women travel on buses and trains at all hours
of the day and night with significantly more freedom and less fear than they do in
Bangladesh.
That is because there is proper infrastructure, monitoring, and a wellfunctioning
legal system that takes assault and harassment claims seriously.
Aiming for that kind of higher standard in our public transportation is not just a
noble goal, it is a matter of the greatest urgency.
Women-only buses can
give women the option of
commuting with a feeling
of safety. However, it is
not enough that these
provisions are made, they
must be enforced

America’s conservatism
goes European populist
Opinion 21
With this new Republican era, is socialism making a comeback in the US?
DT
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
What does a Trump presidency hold for the future?
• Esam Sohail
One of the most frequent
and insistent criticisms
thrown at President
Obama’s way by his
Republican detractors has been
that he desired to bring “European
style socialism” into the pristine
precincts of the American body
politic.
Like a throwback to an
earlier era when the selfappointed
arbiters of American
exceptionalism perceived a Soviet
Communist conspiracy under
every bed, the Obama era featured
a similar refrain of fear and
loathing about “socialism” being
imported surreptitiously in nice
looking packages from Europe.
With the results of the 2016
presidential elections finalised, the
irony couldn’t be more stunning:
Indeed, a very European style
political coalition has arrived on
American shores, but it has come
bearing the mantle of the Donald
Trump-led Republican Party.
That this new party, or at least
its putative leaders, has shown
not only a willingness but a
REUTERS
preference for tremendous levels
of government involvement in the
domestic economy and foreign
trade could very well gladden
the hearts of many an ENAtrained
French central planning
bureaucrat.
The populism espoused by the
Trumpian Republican Party is not
socialism per se, but it does have
some overlapping with economic
approaches often favoured by
European socialists.
While populism generally died
out as a cogent political ideology
in the United States after its
heyday in the 1890-1920 era, it has
had a luckier run on the eastern
side of the Atlantic.
The fusion of ethno-nationalist
rhetoric, paternalistic economic
prescriptions, and paeans (rather
than fealty) to social traditionalism
undergird the populism that swept
Europe in the 1930s, spiked in
certain parts of Germany, Ireland,
and Greece in the 1960s, and
has come back with a vengeance
across the continent in the
aftermath of 2008 global financial
crisis.
Conversely, in the United
States, the distaste of the two
major parties for certain cardinal
elements of European style
populism had kept the latter
firmly at bay, despite occasional
insurgencies by fringe players like
Henry Wallace in the 1940s on
the left, and Pat Buchanan in the
1990s on the right.
The elections of 2016 changed
all that, even if temporarily. The
party considered the guardian of
the exceptional style of American
political conservatism -- at least
since the end of the Second World
War -- is now led by an individual
who seemingly stands at odds
with most of the foundational
principles of that creed.
In opposing free trade, social
entitlement reform, strong
posture vis-à-vis Russia, while
encouraging nostalgia for the
imagined halcyon days of the
1950s, the new national leadership
The populism espoused by the Trumpian Republican Party is not
socialism per se, but it does have some overlapping with economic
approaches often favoured by European socialists
of the new Republican Party has
signaled a sharp departure from
the erstwhile “three legged stool”
concept of American political
conservatism which, until now,
has been represented by the
Republicans.
Fiscal conservatism, national
security based on robust
international leadership across
multiple dimensions, and
individual moral rectitude have
often been held up as the three
legs of the modern American
conservative “stool.”
In the election of Mr Trump, it
appears that each of those three
legs has been shaken with a vigour
not seen with such simultaneous
outburst before.
If the Trumpian vision of
conservatism has its way, its
vehicle, the Republican Party, may
very well resemble a very different
four-legged table with increased
public spending, wariness of
global leadership in favour of a
partnership with Russia, ethnonationalist
nostalgia, and heavyhanded
government intervention
in the economy representing each
leg respectively.
In other words, the marriage
of populism and socialism to
launch a very different version of
political conservatism than has
been known for three generations
in America?
It is hard to tell. On one hand,
most of the Republican political
class, its donor base, and its
scholarly caste has lined up behind
Mr Trump as a matter of simple
party loyalty rather than a sudden
change of long held principles.
At the same time, however,
it defies evidence to assume
that Donald Trump became the
Republican President in 2016
by some fluke: Au contraire, his
rhetoric of populism and increased
government involvement in
economic course-setting had
tremendous resonance. Mr
Trump’s own streak of pragmatism
could very well tell a story of a
presidency that none of us have
imagined yet.
What we do know for sure is
this: Populism -- what a former
US presidential candidate once
called “the socialism of the right
wing” has arrived in America with
a pomp and splendour that was
unimaginable a mere few months
ago.
And in doing so, it has
transformed the conservative
political movement in the United
States almost overnight. The only
question that remains is this: Will
this transformation be permanent,
or will the movement go back to its
philosophical roots once the era of
Donald Trump has passed? •
Esam Sohail is an educational research
analyst and college lecturer of social
sciences. He writes from Kansas, USA.

22
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Opinion
Inclusion, not exclusion
Social stigma makes way for the everyday harassment caused by hijras
We have recognised them, but when will we accept the third gender?
Let’s not be afraid of hijras or avoid them. Let us embrace them and
include them in our society, instead. It is not going to be easy, but a smile
or a friendly conversation with them can make a big difference and may
compel hijras to change their aggressive mindset too
• Nitol Dewan
Since my residence is in
Mirpur, I often encounter
hijras at either Bijoy Sarani
or Agargaon on my way
home in the evening. For some
reason, I get terrified at the sight
of them. Hence, I keep a Tk10 note
ready every time I see them, in
case they ask for money from me.
They usually don’t harass girls,
but still I stay prepared. Maybe it’s
due to the stories that I sometimes
hear from my male friends or
cousins who have been harassed
by hijras.
During a recent official field
trip to Faridpur, I spotted a few of
them at Paturia ferry port. Some
of them were getting on the buses
and harassing male passengers,
when they were refused money.
It was not pleasant to hear them
shout out derogatory terms in
the worst possible ways in front
of many passengers, including
children who were looking at
them and probably thinking “who
are they and why are they doing
this?.”
All these led me to thinking
-- can we as a society not do
anything for them so that they do
not end up on the streets harassing
others for money? Then, I saw the
news in a daily newspaper which
stated how two hijras pushed a
man off a bus in the capital, and
then another bus ran over his legs.
I agree that the accused should
be punished but what got me
thinking is why has this kind of
harassment reached such a level.
In 2013, the government
recognised hijras as the “third
gender,” which earned them the
right to education and rights
related to public service. The
government has also initiated
monthly allowances for those
enrolled in primary, secondary,
higher secondary, and graduate
level.
Moreover, old and disabled
hijras are being provided with a
monthly allowance too. Later on,
the government also declared that
hijras will be appointed as traffic
police in the capital, which is yet
to happen.
All these initiatives suggest
that the government is trying
to integrate hijras into the
mainstream society, and for that
they deserve a round of applause,
even though these are baby steps.
I really admire the government
for giving hijras such positive
recognition.
However, the question is
whether the initiatives taken by
the government are enough. Are
they serving the purpose they
were intended for? Unfortunately,
the answer is no.
An article published in Dhaka
Tribune on February 28, 2016,
revealed that the government
provides Tk300, Tk450, Tk600,
and Tk1,000 among hijra students
at the primary, secondary, higher
secondary, and graduate levels,
respectively, on a monthly basis.
First of all, this amount is not
enough to pursue education.
Moreover, the education
environment is not supportive of
them.
The truth is hijras are not
accepted as equal by the
Bangladeshi society, despite
being recognised as citizens.
Most people loathe them for their
peculiar disposition in the public
and so bear an attitude of hatred
coupled with fear.
In return, hijras take advantage
of this fear and get involved in
illegal ways of earning money for
their living, upon their realisation
of being viewed as outsiders. The
main gap between the average
person and hijras in the society
is created at their birth, when an
infant with physical abnormalities
is born within a family.
What usually has been
happening in this country is that
these babies are ignored in their
own families. If a hijra community
nearby gets to know about such a
baby, they rush to take the baby
away -- to much of the parents’
relief.
This is how we create the gap
within our society. From the
very beginning, we treat hijras as
BIGSTOCK
outsiders and they grow up with
mental trauma and depression.
Now, how do you expect these illtreated
people to behave like the
average person on the streets?
Just like you and me, they
also dream of having a life filled
with love and happiness shared
with friends and family. But do
they have the scope to make that
happen? No. They struggle to
survive on a daily basis, which
compels them to forcefully take
money from people on the streets.
All these would not have
happened if we, as parents, family,
and friends accepted them as
they are and encouraged them to
pursue their dreams.
I strongly believe that our
society would have been better
off with their contribution to
the society, if they were given a
chance with basic human rights.
Is it ever possible? Yes. Let’s
not put all responsibilities on our
government. They are doing their
part. It is us who needs to change
our attitudes.
We are so ingrained with social
stereotypes that we often fail to
realise how our actions are badly
affecting a certain section of the
society, which is, in a way, bad for
all.
Let’s not be afraid of hijras or
avoid them. Let us embrace them
and include them in our society,
instead.
It is not going to be easy, but a
smile or a friendly conversation
with them can make a big
difference and may compel hijras
to change their aggressive mindset
too. •
Nitol Dewan works in the development
sector.

Opinion
23
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
What’s so special about Chittagong?
Our port city is in desperate need of development
LARGER
THAN LIFE
• Ekram Kabir
If you ask someone from
Chittagong what’s so special
about about their city, he
or she will most certainly
reply with: “There’s no end to the
potential of Chittagong.”
Chittagonians will tell you
that their birthplace is one of
the hundred top sea ports in the
world; it has one of the most
advantageous regional locations; if
you construct a deep sea port, the
benefits would pour in; it has huge
river connectivity; great place for
small, light, medium, and heavy
industries; it has tourism facilities,
both utilised and otherwise; it
could produce huge power and
energy; and no other region in the
country perhaps matches with
Chittagong in terms of education,
culture, language, and heritage.
Chittagong is a 2000-yearold
city. It was an Arab port, a
Portuguese pirate stronghold,
an Arrakanese stakeout, before
finally being co-opted by the
British during the first Partitition
of Bengal in 1905. Chittagong
had a port even before the city of
Mumbai.
Even if you’re not a
Chittagong’s potential remains untapped
BIGSTOCK
Chittagong is a 2000-year-old city. It was an Arab port, a Portuguese
pirate stronghold, an Arrakanese stakeout, before finally being co-opted
by the British during the first Partitition of Bengal in 1905. Unfortunately,
Chittagong’s potentials have been grossly ignored by all the people in
position in the history of Bangladesh’s development
Chittagonian and are watching the
city from afar, you’re also bound to
agree with all this. Unfortunately,
Chittagong’s potential has been
historically grossly ignored
when it comes to Bangladesh’s
development.
I remember when Chittagong
had at least 10 ministers during
the BNP regime, yet they (the
Chittagonians with power) had
contributed little to take this
economic hub to the next level.
The present regime also has a
few Chittagonian stalwarts, and
we still see very little efforts from
them to convince the government
to focus on strengthening the state
of affairs.
Chittagong, like always, is
still in a sorry condition. Despite
contributing to the national GDP,
the situation in Chittagong is on
the wane every day.
Chaotic public transport,
traffic anarchy due to narrow and
dilapidated roads, and scarcity in
water and electricity supply have
given the city a rather medieval
look.
Imagine an investor making his
way from Chittagong airport to
the main city. What would be his
experience?
When you’re entering the city
from the airport, you’d see long
queues of cargo lorries parked
on the street. It shows that the
city doesn’t have a depot for
these vehicles. It took more than
40 years to start improving the
condition of Dhaka-Chittagong
trunk road.
But according to a report in an
English daily, Chittagong generates
40% of the country’s industrial
output, 80% of its international
trade, and 50% of its governmental
revenue. The stock market in
Chittagong had more than 700
listed companies with a market
capitalisation of $32 billion in June
2015.
There was a time when
the country’s oldest and
largest corporations had their
headquarters in Chittagong.
Unilever, Reckitt, and many others
used to operate from the city.
We don’t know why they moved
to Dhaka, but informed sources
say that they left Chittagong as
the resources of running their
operation from the port city ran
out.
Among many attractive
places, simply look at Patenga
where thousands flock every
day. Our governments have been
telling us since the 90s that the
infrastructure of Patenga would
improve, but no one has done
anything about it.
Chittagong has two other
beautiful beaches, Parki and
Kattali. The condition of these
beaches have been neglected over
the years. These are occupied by
unplanned structures destroying
the beauty.
If you just think of the livability
of Chittagong, you’d probably start
to lose your sleep. Most parts of
the city are waist-deep in water
and life becomes paralysed even
by average rainfall. The problem
of water-logging has worsened as
the measures against it are quite
inadequate and ill-planned.
The city authorities, in
the history of Chittagong in
independent Bangladesh, have
always promised a lot of things for
the city. But after being elected,
they have either forgotten the
promises or have taken insufficient
initiatives to rid the Chittagonians
of this perennial problem.
The Chittagonians think that
there’s a lack of planning and
willingness to develop the city.
They also think the people of
Chittagong are also responsible for
the poor condition of a city that
has all five elements such as plain
land, hills, rivers, beaches, and
forest.
Chittagong is one of the rare
cities in the world to harvour all
the good elements of nature in one
place. The people of Chittagong
have failed to probe into and
report the issues that are afflicting
the city to their government. No
one knows how long the city can
sustain all these afflictions. •
Ekram Kabir is a fiction writer.

DT
24
Sport
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
TOP STORIES
Kvitova determined
to play again
Twice Wimbledon champion Petra
Kvitova said yesterday she would
do everything she could to return
to tennis after suffering a hand
injury in a knife attack that will
keep her out of the sport for at
least six months. PAGE 25
Chelsea confirm
Oscar move to China
Brazilian international midfielder
Oscar will join Chinese club
Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea,
the English Premier League club
said on its website yesterday. No
financial details of the transfer
were released. PAGE 26
‘Rooney has role to
play for England’
Wayne Rooney still has an
important role to play in manager
Gareth Southgate’s England squad,
former national manager Roy
Hodgson has said after the striker’s
leadership was recently called into
question. PAGE 27
Bangladesh cricketers arrived in Christchurch yesterday on the eve of their first ODI against New Zealand, scheduled to be held this Monday. The Tigers, who sat for
a team meeting yesterday, are expected to practise today from 10am-1pm local time
BCB
Beware of Bangladesh
Brathwaite T20
heroics light up year
Kohli, Root, Steve Smith and
Williamson all enhanced their
reputations in 2016 but, aided
by the screams of commentator
Bishop to “remember the name”,
the year will forever belong to
Carlos Brathwaite. PAGE 28
• Cricket New Zealand
No longer the whipping boys of
world cricket, these tricky Tigers
arrive on our shores as a team on
the rise with plenty of stars.
A drawn Test series and a narrow
ODI series loss to England
recently has many fans excited
about what Bangladesh could
throw at our Black Caps in all
three formats this summer.....so
here’s who and what to watch out
for over the coming month.
Mehedi Hasan Miraz
Possibly the hottest prospect
in world cricket right now. The
19-year-old announced himself to
the world in his debut Test series
against England at home where
his off breaks claimed 19 wickets
across the two games. He was
named man of the series and so
arrives to New Zealand with plenty
of anticipation over what he
can bring to the other two formats
when he gets his chance.
Mustafizur Rahman
The 25-year-old left arm pace
bowler burst onto the international
scene at the World T20 and
backed that up by helping bowl
the Hyderabad Sun Risers to the
2016 IPL title. Kept Trent Boult off
the field for much of that tournament
and for good reason as he
was considered the bowler of the
tournament, finishing as the fifth
highest wicket taker and with the
best economy rate of the top contenders.
Has some wicked variations
in his repertoire and is sure
to pose plenty questions of the
Black Caps batsmen this summer.
Mominul Haque
The numbers speak for themselves.....a
Test batting average of
51.66 and four centuries to his name
already - including two against New
Zealand on the tourists last trip
down under in 2013. The kid can
play and will be a key cog in the
Bangladesh batting line-up.
Shakib al Hasan
The greatest Bangladesh cricketer
to date. The experienced all
rounder has been consistently
ranked as a top all rounder in
world cricket over the three formats
and is the class in the visitors
line up. Loves a big occasion and
will be at the forefront of Bangladesh’s
fight for a first victory on
New Zealand soil. •

Sport 25
DT
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
Shirin Akter (L) celebrates after winning the women’s 100-metre event in the National Athletics Championship at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday while Shariful Islam crosses the finish line to win the
men’s 200m title
MD MANIK
Kvitova determined to play
again after knife attack
• Reuters, Prague
Twice Wimbledon champion Petra
Kvitova said yesterday she would
do everything she could to return
to tennis after suffering a hand injury
in a knife attack that will keep
her out of the sport for at least six
months.
Kvitova was wounded on Tuesday
when she fought off an intruder
at her home in the Czech Republic,
damaging all the fingers on her
left playing hand.
The world number 11 addressed
the media directly for the first
time yesterday after an operation
to repair the tendons in her hand
and was determined to get back to
playing.
“I have no choice but to look
ahead, and not back, to see how
everything will develop,” she told
a news conference at which she
could be seen smiling and laughing
at moments.
“It does not really matter to me
how long it will take (to play again),
whether it is three months, six
months, a year or however long.
But certainly I want to return one
day and I will do everything possible
to do so.”
Kvitova said she had been able
to move her fingers in a session
with doctors on Thursday, which
she called “the greatest Christmas
present”.
News of the attack on Kvitova
this week shocked the tennis
world. The hard-hitting 26-yearold
rose to world number two in
2011 when she won the first of her
two Wimbledon singles titles.
She had been a virtual fixture
in the top 10 before slipping
somewhat this season. However,
she showed improved form in recent
months, winning the Wuhan
Open title in October and the season-ending
WTA Elite trophy in
November.
Tennis player Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic reacts during a press conference in Prague yesterday
Media have reported the intruder
into her apartment had posed as
a boiler inspector to get in.
Police are still searching
for her attacker. The attack has
been described as a random act
with Kvitova not specifically
targeted. •
REUTERS
Rangpur, Rajshahi
win big in NCL
• Tribune Report
Rangpur and Rajshahi registered
victories in their respective games
to bring an end to the fourth round
of the ongoing 18th National Cricket
League yesterday.
Rangpur v Chittagong, Sylhet
Chittagong resumed their second innings
with 149 runs on the board and
six wickets intact. Yasir Ali Chowdhury
top-scored with 58 while Pinak
Ghosh (45), Mohammad Saifuddin
(43) and Iftekhar Sajjad (43) but
Chittagong set only a 30-run target
after being dismissed for 297. Rangpur
reached the target in 5.2 overs.
Rajshahi v Sylhet, Bogra
With nine wickets in hand, Sylhet
needed another 302 runs to chase
down their target on the fourth and
final day. The task was made impossible
by the Rajshahi bowlers as they
restricted Sylhet to 178 runs to register
a 151-run win. Left-arm spinners
Sanjamul Islam and Saqlain
Sajib bagged three wickets.•
18TH NCL, RD 4, DAY 4
RAJSHAHI 204 & 344 beat SYLHET
219 & 178 in 61 overs (Sanjamul 3/15,
Saqlain 3/45) by 151 runs
RANGPUR 450 & 33/0 in 5.2
overs (Saymon 18*, Liton 12*) beat
CHITTAGONG 182 (f/o) & 297 in
99.3 overs (Yasir 58, Ariful 4/34) by 10
wickets

DT
26
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
Sport
Napoli snatch dramatic draw with last-gasp penalty
POINTS TABLE
Teams P W D L GD Pts
Juventus 17 14 0 3 22 42
Roma 18 12 2 4 21 38
Napoli 18 10 5 3 19 35
Lazio 18 10 4 4 11 34
Milan 17 10 3 4 7 33
Atalanta 18 10 2 6 6 32
SERIE A
Cagliari 4-3 Sassuolo
Sau 14, Borriello 62, Adjapong 30,
Farias 73, 76 Pellegrini 33,
Acerbi 58-P
Fiorentina 3-3 Napoli
Bernardeschi 52, 69, Insigne 25,
Zarate 82 Mertens 68,
Gabbiadini 90+4 – P
Palermo 1-1 Pescara
Quaison 33
Biraghi 90+3-P
Roma 3-1 Chievo
El Shaarawy 45+1, De Guzman 37
Dzeko 52, Perotti 90+3-P
Sampdoria 0-0 Udinese
Torino 1-0 Genoa
Belotti 49
Napoli’s Belgian
forward Dries
Mertens scores
to give his side
the lead against
Fiorentina
during their
Serie A match
at Artemio
Franchi Stadium
in Fiorentina on
Thursday
AFP
• Reuters, Milan
Napoli substitute Manolo Gabbiadini
converted a penalty with the
last kick of the game to salvage a
3-3 draw at Fiorentina who were
inspired by a superb display from
Federico Bernardeschi.
Bernardeschi scored two goals
and provided the third for Mauro
Zarate as Fiorentina twice came
from behind to lead 3-2 in a game
which produced stunning goals,
mistakes, drama and controversy.
In other games, second-placed
AS Roma came from behind to beat
Chievo 3-1 and Cagliari fought back
from 3-1 down for a 4-3 win over
Sassuolo, who played the second
half with 10 men.
Roma’s win took them onto 38
points, four behind leaders Juventus.
Napoli are third with 35, one
ahead of Lazio.
Lorenzo Insigne gave Napoli a
deserved lead when he beat Ciprian
Tatarusanu with a vicious dipping
shot from long range in the
25th minute.
Bernardeschi levelled seven
minutes after the re-start with
a free kick which went through
the middle of the Napoli wall and
caught Pepe Reina offguard.
Napoli went back in front when
Fiorentina defender Nenad Tomovic
failed to control a straightforward
pass and let in Dries Mertens
who scored his eighth league goal
in three games with a clinical finish
in the 68th minute.
One minute later, Bernardeschi
collected the ball in midfield and
unleashed a wicked long-range
left-foot shot which bounced once
and went in off the post.
The 22-year-old was in inspired
form and chipped a delightful ball
over the top of the Napoli defence
into the path of Mauro Zarate, who
side-footed the ball past Reina with
nine minutes left.
Fiorentina were on the point
of celebrating a famous win until
Carlos Salcedo clumsily tripped
Mertens and Gabbiadini calmly
slotted his spot kick into the bottom
corner.
Roma suffered a fright when
Jonathan de Guzman headed Chievo
in front in Rome but Stephen El
Shaarawy curled home a free kick
to level in first-half stoppage time
to calm their nerves. In the second
half, Edin Dzeko tapped in his 13th
goal of the season and substitute
Diego Perotti converted a penalty
to ground Chievo.
Injury-ravaged Sassuolo’s topsy-turvy
season took another twist
at Cagliari. Lorenzo Pellegrini put
them 2-1 ahead in the 32nd minute
but was sent off almost immediately
afterwards for a shocking
two-footed challenge. Nevertheless,
Francesco Acerbi increased
Sassuolo’s lead from a penalty just
before the hour.
Things quickly began to go
wrong, however, as Marco Borriello
pulled one back, Diego Farias equalised
with a deflected shot and then
grabbed the winner for the Sardinians,
with their last three goals all
coming inside 14 minutes.•
Chelsea confirm Oscar
move to Shanghai SIPG
• Reuters
Brazilian international midfielder
Oscar will join Chinese
club Shanghai SIPG from
Chelsea, the English Premier
League club said on its website
yesterday.
Although no financial details
of the transfer were released,
media reports suggested
Shanghai paid 60 million
euros ($62.63 million) to lure
Oscar to the 16-team league.
“Chelsea Football Club and
Shanghai SIPG have agreed
terms for the permanent
transfer of Oscar,” Chelsea
said in a statement.
The 25-year-old Oscar, who
scored 38 goals in 203 appearances
for Chelsea, lifted the
Premier League, League Cup
and Europa League during his
four-and-a-half-year spell at
the club.
Oscar will link up with former
Chelsea manager Andre
Villas-Boas at Shanghai. •

Hodgson feels Rooney still
has role to play for England
Sport 27
DT
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
• Reuters
Wayne Rooney still has an
important role to play in
manager Gareth Southgate’s
England squad, former national
manager Roy Hodgson
has said after the striker’s
leadership was recently
called into question.
The 31-year-old captain
made a public apology after
he was photographed socialising
and looking worse for
wear at the England team
hotel in the early hours of
the morning while on international
duty last month.
“The question these days
for the coach is: is his role
as one of the squad with his
experience, knowledge, the
fact he’s a good guy and gets
on with everybody, or is his
role as one of the (starting)
XI?” Hodgson told British
newspaper the Times.
“That is up to the coach
to decide. I don’t know that
you become a bad leader,
a bad captain, because you
get caught having a drink,
because someone snapped
you.”
Hodgson, who resigned
as England manager following
their humiliating Euro
2016 exit to Iceland earlier
this year, is one of the bookmakers’
favourites to fill
the vacant manager’s job at
Crystal Palace, who sacked
Alan Pardew on Thursday.
However, the 69-year-old
will bide his time before taking
up his next managerial
assignment.
“I’m not thrusting myself
forward for every job that
comes up, I’m leading a fairly
low-key life. I quite like
the idea of still coaching,” he
added.
“If you ask me what I put
on my passport, football
manager or football coach? I
would put football coach.
“I’ve missed the day-today
routine after four years
with England. I’m a better
coach now, towards the end
of my career, than I was
when I started.” •
Former England manager Roy Hodgson and striker Wayne Rooney
INTERNET
Wenger urges
EPL to be wary
of China
• Reuters
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
has warned the Premier League
not to underestimate the enormous
spending power of Chinese
football after the Asian country secured
another high-profile signing
yesterday.
Wenger joins Chelsea counterpart
Antonio Conte in expressing
concern that a growing number of
players could be lured to the Far
East by the riches on offer in the
Chinese Super League.
The Frenchman raised the issue
on the same day Chelsea midfielder
Oscar was set to become the
world’s highest-paid player, earning
a reported $490,760 per week,
after he agreed to join Shanghai
SIPG in the 16-team competition. •
Mourinho admits its
Chelsea’s title to lose
• Reuters
Chelsea’s ability to grind out victories will make it
very difficult for anyone to catch them in the Premier
League, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho
has said.
United, unbeaten in their last eight league games
since being thrashed 4-0 at Stamford Bridge, are sixth
with 30 points after 17 matches. They are 13 points
behind leaders Chelsea, who are six clear of second-placed
Liverpool.
“You have to be honest and say that is very difficult.
It’s not just the difference in points, it’s also the Chelsea
philosophy of playing,” he told British media about
his side’s title chances.
“They score one goal and they win. They defend a
lot. They defend well.....They don’t care what people
say, what people think. They just want to win. And,
because of that, I don’t see them losing many points.”
United have narrowed the gap to fourth-placed
Arsenal to four points thanks to three straight wins,
and Mourinho was reluctant to predict where his side
might finish. •
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DT
28
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
Sport
BRATHWAITE T20 HEROICS LIGHT UP YEAR OF MASTER BATSMEN
• Reuters, New Delhi
The prolific Virat Kohli, Joe Root,
Steve Smith and Kane Williamson
all enhanced their burgeoning reputations
in 2016 but, aided by the
screams of commentator Ian Bishop
to “remember the name”, the
year will forever belong to Carlos
Brathwaite.
Cricket has been in decline in
the West Indies for a long time but
if ever there was to be a shot in the
arm then their extraordinary victory
over England in the World Twenty20
final was it.
Needing 27 from the last two
overs with six wickets down, the
West Indies were up against it and
their hopes appeared to be finished
when they entered the final over
still needing 19.
Brathwaite however, proceeded
to smash four successive sixes
off seamer Ben Stokes’s first four
balls to complete a truly incredible
victory in front of a disbelieving
crowd at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens
Stadium.
The victory came hours after
the West Indies had claimed the
women’s title at the same venue
and less than two months after
their under-19 World Cup victory
in Bangladesh.
The rise and rise of T20 cricket
remains a matter of contention
within the game but with even
India failing to muster any sort of
crowds for their home Test series,
there is no arguing with how the
fans are voting with their feet.
They still worship Kohli however,
and he showed his ability to perform
in all formats of the game in
a bumper year in which he scored
three Test double centuries.
Kohli is one of a new generation
of players who have moved to the
forefront of the sport by adding the
creative and aggressive style developed
in T20 into longer forms of
the game.
England’s Root is establishing
himself as a player of rare class and
has enjoyed his most productive
year in Test cricket.
Smith’s 1,154 runs is the second
highest in one-dayers this year, behind
only compatriot David Warner,
while the Australian captain became
the sixth quickest to 16 Test
West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite bursts out in joy after winning the 2016 World Twenty20 final against England in Kolkata in April this year
centuries last week.
New Zealand’s Williamson has
played fewer matches than the other
three dominant batsmen but has
still done enough to be among the
top five both in Test and one-day
rankings.
Kohli welcomes discussion
about the comparative merit of
the four musketeers but says Australian
Warner, who scored seven
ODI centuries this year, should be
among them.
“I’ve seen people enjoying the
debate and they mention it to me
as well,” Kohli said.
“You feel good that you are in a
bunch of batsmen who are taking
world cricket forward.”
“There’s equal amount of respect
between all of us, David included.
I think it’s a healthy competition
which people love to talk
about and it should go on for a few
years.”
Kohli’s form has been key to
India’s rise to number one in Test
rankings, following series victories
in West Indies and home wins over
New Zealand and England.
Arch-rivals Pakistan briefly enjoyed
the top Test ranking for the
first time before Misbah-ul-Haq’s
men surrendered the tag to India.
Bangladesh registered their first
ever Test victory against England
in Dhaka to claim a 1-1 share of a
memorable series.
In a year when most top teams
won at home and struggled abroad,
South Africa bucked the trend with
a 2-1 win in Australia.
That series included a day-night
match in Adelaide and day-night
Tests were also played in Dubai and
Brisbane as cricket continues to
embrace innovations to maintain
the sport’s global appeal. •
INTERNET
Bangladesh players celebrate after winning the second Test match against England in Mirpur in October this year
MD MANIK
The Fantastic Four – England’s captain-in-waiting Joe Root, New Zealand skipper
Kane Williamson, India captain Virat Kohli and Australia skipper Steve Smith. Kohli
though thinks Australia’s Dave Warner should be included in the category

Downtime
29
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
CROSSWORD
CODE-CRACKER
ACROSS
1 Peer of lowest titular rank (5)
6 Self (3)
7 Banishment (5)
10 Cosy retreats (5)
12 Tide attaining least height
(4)
13 Saturn’s largest satellite (5)
15 Slippery fishes (4)
16 Favourite (3)
18 And not (3)
20 Duelling sword (4)
22 Revises and corrects (5)
23 Amphibian (4)
25 Badger-like carnivore (5)
27 Bird of prey (5)
28 Solution resulting from
leaching (3)
29 Rate of progress (5)
DOWN
1 Kind (6)
2 Mature (3)
3 Duty list (6)
4 Settled cosily (7)
5 Drink (3)
8 Tavern (3)
9 Comfort (4)
11 Neckwear (3)
14 Aims at something great
(7)
16 Pounding implement (6)
17 Worked hard (6)
19 Wicked giant (4)
21 Greek letter (3)
22 Encourage (3)
24 Tree (3)
26 Regard (3)
How to solve: Each number in our
CODE-CRACKER grid represents a
different letter of the alphabet. For
example, today 1 represents P so fill P
every time the figure 1 appears.
You have two letters in the control
grid to start you off. Enter them in the
appropriate squares in the main grid, then
use your knowledge of words to work out
which letters go in the missing squares.
Some letters of the alphabet may not be
used.
As you get the letters, fill in the other
squares with the same number in the
main grid, and the control grid. Check
off the list of alphabetical letters as you
identify them.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
CALVIN AND HOBBES
SUDOKU
How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the
numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must
contain all nine digits with no number repeating.
PEANUTS
YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS
CODE-CRACKER
CROSSWORD
DILBERT
SUDOKU

30
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
Showtime
A love story for
the memories
• Mosabber Rahman
La La Land is the best movie
released in Dhaka this year. This
is filmmaker Damien Chazelle’s
latest film after making a brilliant
debut with Whiplash (2014).
He also co-wrote this year’s
best thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane,
directed by another newcomer
Dan Trachtenberg. At 31, Chazelle
is among Hollywood’s brightest
new talents and La La Land, aka
Hollywoodland, Los Angeles, is a
movie about the movies, which
in a way represents our collective
memories. There is nothing
more tragic than to be forgotten
forever by those whom we can
never forget. Life without good
memories is just unbearable.
La La Land is ultimately the
story of rejection couched in a
sappy Hollywood musical with
bright primary colours: blue (the
damsel in distress) and red (the
rebellious dude), and a million
shades of yellow (the forces of
nature). It is the story of two starcrossed
lovers – Mia and Sebastian.
The story is a cliché of clichés:
they meet, they fight and they fall
in love. Mia is a part-time waitress
at a restaurant on the lot of a
Hollywood Studio, and an aspiring
actress (full-time) going from
one failed audition to another.
Sebastian is out of work. He is
passionate and difficult. He wants
to be a classical jazz musician and
We all loved
Emma Stone and
Ryan Gosling in
Crazy, Stupid,
Love (2011) and
that makes them
perfect for this film
about Hollywood
nostalgia
does not care about what anybody
says. Both Mia and Sebastian
need each other at that particular
point in their lives to complement
each other and help each other.
Sebastian loves jazz and Mia hates
jazz. Sebastian explains that jazz
is about conflict and compromise,
the sax player may try to hijack the
music, but the mighty trumpet has
its own ideas. How will the mighty
trumpet of life test their love as
they chase their arts?
We all loved Emma Stone and
Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love
(2011) and that makes them perfect
for this film about Hollywood
nostalgia. Like true stars, they play
themselves, and as actor-singerdancer,
they pose a ‘triple threat’
- just like Fred Astaire & Ginger
Rogers in their musicals.
Interestingly, Mia does not work
at the MGM Studios lot, which
is associated with Technicolor
musicals, such as Singing in the
Rain (1952); she works at the
Warner Bros. Studios lot, which
is associated with more realistic
films, such as Casablanca (1943).
This is the fundamental artistic
choice made by the filmmaker. La
La Land is a serious docu-drama
in the guise of a lush melodrama.
The words of the songs are not
nonsensical like the musicals
of the 40’s and 50’s. The words
have deeper meaning in the story
structure and should be taken
literally.
The camera informs the
audience about distinguishing
reality from make-belief. The
camera makes exaggerated
motions - 360-degree rotation,
quick pan and fast track - to
transport us into the land of
dreams, but once we are there, it
calms down like a migratory bird
on the bank of a distant shore.
However, there is no fancy editing,
no quick cutting. There is a few
montage sequences to evoke
the classic musicals. The film is
segmented by the seasons, starting
from winter and then da capo. But
that is no gimmick; it is a stylistic
choice.
The production design is
merged intelligently with the
storytelling. Throughout the
film, blue is associated with
Mia’s hopelessness and red with
Sebastian’s passion. As they fall
in love, the dominant colour in
one scene becomes the secondary
colour in another scene. As
Sebastian plays his tune on the
piano (“Mia and Sebastian’s
Theme”) we see a blue lens flare
announcing Mia’s presence. Mia
changes her bag from beige to red
after meeting Sebastian. Sebastian
signs a contract of doom on a red
table, which becomes a red-signal
for his dreams.
The film opens with a huge
traffic jam – everybody is on their
way to make it big in Hollywood.
Ironically, blocking each other’s
way, making it more difficult for
each other. They all have dreams.
The great tragedy of life is that
after our dreams are fulfilled,
we finally realise we have been
chasing meaningless dreams.
Instead of being irritated by the
traffic jam, everybody starts
singing the first number of La
La Land, “Another Day of Sun”.
The tone of the film is set. The
audience is warned. What you see
is not really what’s happening in
the real world. They are so naïve
that they do not understand most
of their dreams will be crushed.
There is only one Humphrey
Bogart, only one Ingrid Bergman
and only one Louis Armstrong. We
get the answer in the final song,
“The Fools Who Dream”. It is the
polar opposite of the first song,
sung by a disillusioned, sadder and
sober dreamer. It reminds us that
‘the entertainers’ are important
too. As the working men and
woman return home every day
pulverised by their day’s tasks, it
is these dreamers that put them all
back together and prepare them
for work the next day. And the
‘failed dreamers’ are important
too, it is these people who later
become the patrons of the art and
keep it alive.
Chazelle’s primary collaborator,
who deserves at least half the
credit for the impact of the film, is
composer Justin Hurwitz who has
really done his homework. He has
digested the works of Irving Berlin
and Jerome Kern. He has imbibed
the work of Michel Legrand
who composed the two French
musicals, Jean-Luc Godard’s
A Woman Is a Woman (1961)
and Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas
of Cherbourg (1964), the latter
particularly is a major influence for
La La Land. Not only does Hurwitz
invent great tunes, he clothes
them with hundreds of musical
colours, going through an infinite
permutations and combinations.
One theme modulates to another,
pianissimo changes to fortissimo,
the tempo changes, the meter
syncopates. He is a master in
orchestration. The way he uses
different leitmotifs to conjure
up the final sequence of the film
(“Epilogue”) raises La La Land
from just another derivative film
to a valid work of art. •

Showtime
Kalavati Devi to inaugurate Manipuri
Theater’s Drama Festival
31
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
WHAT TO WATCH
DT
• Showtime Desk
A five day long Drama Festival
organised by Manipuri Theater
will be inaugurated by a recipient
of the prestigious Padma Shri
award of India and legendary
Manipuri dance-guru Kalavati
Devi. The minister of cultural
affairs, Asaduzzaman Noor, will
be the chief guest at the opening
ceremony, to be held on Saturday,
December 24 at 5pm in the
National Theatre, Shegunbagicha.
On the occasion of the
inauguration, there will be a
performance by Dhrumel, which
is a dance project by Shadhona
and Manipuri Theater. An AV
on the 20 years of their journey
will also be showcased at the
program. There will be another
production on the same day at
7pm titled Leima inspired by
Lorca’s Yerma.
In order to celebrate the
completion of 20 years of the
troupe, Manipuri Theater has
prepared five of their own
productions. This festival will
run at the three auditoriums
of the National Theatre in
Shegunbagicha till December
28. The slogan of the festival is
“Onge Ronge Kothay Chonde
Jaago.”
On the second day of the
festival on December 25, there
will be staging of Ingal Adharer
Pala. On December 26, members
will perform in a staging of Shree
Krishna Kirton, a production
of Debotar Grash on December
27 and finally, on the last day
(December 28), the play Kohe
Birangona will be staged.
Apart from the plays, there will
be a seminar on drama-language
and as well as dance shows every
evenings.
Tickets will be available in
special packages as well as in
regular prices. To book your
tickets call 01710672062. •
Kangana: ‘I am glad that we
are heading towards 2017’
• Showtime Desk
There aren’t too many things
in which Kangana Ranaut does
not ace. From her uninhibited,
feminism-laden comments
to phenomenal on-screen
performances, Ranaut has her
way with every single thing
including her impeccable
sartorial choices. Recently, she
stole the show again with her
look with a maroon-white saree
and beautifully choreographed
traditional look. Kangana
Ranaut donned a traditional
Manipuri outfit paired with huge
jhumkis while in attendance for
her childhood friend Bondina
Elangbam’s book launch.
The way she handled 2016,
someone could hardly do that
without almost no back-up in
the fraternity. And now, she is
happy that the year is drawing to
an end. For the most part of the
year, her scandalous fight with
Hrithik Roshan dominated news
outlets, something that left her
stressed.
Talking to indianexpress.com,
Kangana said, “2016 was a roller
coaster year for me. It was quite
a year. It was very overwhelming
on many levels and very testing
on others. But I am just so happy
it’s over, trust me. This is one
year I was just waiting for it to
get over because like I said, it
was so testing on the personal
level and on the professional
level. I had to, along with the
mess that I was in, also go
through the strongest character
of my life, which was Julia’s
character in Rangoon. So on
every level, it was very testing.
I am glad that we are heading
towards 2017 now.” •
Source: Santa Banta
Predators
Star Movies 7:20pm
A group of elite warriors
parachute into an unfamiliar
jungle and are hunted by
members of a merciless alien
race.
Cast: Adrien Brody, Laurence
Fishburne, Topher Grace
In the Heart of the Sea
HBO 9:30pm
A recounting of a New England
whaling ship’s sinking by
a giant whale in 1820, an
experience that later inspired
the great novel Moby-Dick.
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian
Murphy, Brendan Gleeson
Sherlock Holmes
WB 9:00pm
Detective Sherlock Holmes
and his stalwart partner
Watson engage in a battle of
wits and brawn with a nemesis
whose plot is a threat to all of
England.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jude
Law, Rachel McAdams
Black Hawk Down
Zee Studio 6:45pm
123 elite US soldiers drop into
Somalia to capture two top
lieutenants of a renegade
warlord and find themselves
in a desperate battle with a
large force of heavily-armed
Somalis.
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ewan
McGregor, Tom Sizemore
Fast and Furious 6
Movies Now 9:30pm
Hobbs has Dominic and Brian
reassemble their crew to take
down a team of mercenaries:
Dominic unexpectedly gets
convoluted also facing his
presumed deceased girlfriend,
Letty.
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker,
Dwayne Johnson •

32
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2016
DT
TENSIONS RISE AS TRUMP VOWS
NUCLEAR ARSENAL EXPANSION PAGE 10
Back Page
THE STRING OF
BEADS PAGE 12
A LOVE STORY FOR
THE MEMORIES PAGE 30
Urban poor under govt health care radar
• Kamrul Hasan
Rapid urbanisation and internal
migration have led to a significant
growth of urban poor population in
Bangladesh, but their accessibility
to basic necessities have not.
Among the fundamental necessities
of life, health care remains
illusive to the country’s urban
poor. Privatised health care is beyond
their economic reach, and
they have little to no knowledge of
where to go and avail themselves
of the public health care service,
according to experts.
This lack of awareness leads
them to getting medication – without
prescription – for their ailments
from the drug stores, which can get
away with doing so due to the lack
of a monitoring system.
The situation is quite severe:
drug stores are the first access
point to health care for more than
70% of Bangladesh’s urban poor
population, according to a 2014
study by the ICDDRB.
The study, titled “Mapping the
urban health care landscape,” was
conducted in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Sylhet,
Narayanganj and Khulna.
It gets even worse as there are
very few drug stores which have
registered pharmacists, said Sohana
Shafique, deputy project coordinator
(health system and population)
at the ICDDRB.
“In the majority of the drug
stores, drug sellers supply medicines
to customers without informing
them about the possible side effects
of those medicines,” she told
the Dhaka Tribune.
“People living in the rural areas
are in a much better situation
when it comes to health care,” said
AMM Nasir Uddin, senior fellow
at Dhaka-based think tank Power
and Participation Research. “The
health care system in rural Bangladesh
is very systematic and wellknown.
People know that when
they get sick, they should first go
to the community clinic, and when
they need more specialised help,
they should go to the union health
complex.”
Then there are upazila-level and
district-level health care facilities.
“If all those institutions fail to alleviate
their illness, they get referred
to hospitals like Dhaka Medical
College Hospital,” he added.
“But in urban areas, the impoverished
population do not know
that a public health care system
exists there where they can get the
medical attention they need.”
DRUG STORES IN URBAN AREAS
City corporations
No of drug
stores
Nasir blamed the lack of government
initiative to get the urban
poor under public health care system.
“These facilities are mainly under
the jurisdiction of city corporations
and municipalities. Their priorities
lie with other development
projects, so health care and the development
of medical facilities in
accordance with the population’s
needs gets little attention,” he said.
Because they do not have access
to professional diagnosis, the urban
poor often get wrong medications
and sometimes succumb to diseases
that could be easily treated.
“Especially in the cases of noncommunicable
diseases like heart
disease, their treatment – which
requires hospital visits – often gets
delayed and costs them much more
money than necessary,” said Brig
(retd) Abdul Malik, founder of National
Heart Foundation.
‘The existing health care system is
enough’
However, Malik believes that the
urban poor can be served with the
existing public health care services
in the cities. “They only need to
No of private
medical practices
Drug stores with
doctors
Dhaka North 2,955 1,130 1,938
Dhaka South 2,188 649 1,520
Narayanganj 922 314 125
Rajshahi 531 294 40
Khulna 823 619 72
Sylhet 596 151 168
Source: ICCDRB
know that such facilities exist,” he
said.
“It is mandatory on the government’s
part to establish coordination
among different elements of
the public health care facilities in
urban areas and ensure their maximum
utilisation. The government
should promote public facilities
more and encourage people to go
to public hospitals,” he added.
However, AKM Saiedur Rahman,
line director (hospital) at the
Directorate General of Health Services,
thinks the government has
done enough to ensure that public
medical services are accessible to
the poor.
“We have produced several advertisements
to let people know
about the health care services that
the government offers. The information
is available on the internet
as well. If they still do not want to
come to us, what can we do?” he
told the Dhaka Tribune.
Drug stores vastly unsupervised
As of 2015, there are registered
119,217 drug stores – also commonly
known as pharmacies – in
the country, 11,834 of which are in
RAJIB DHAR
Dhaka city alone, according to the
Directorate General of Drug Adminsitration
(DGDA).
There are around 30,000 more
drug stores around the country
which are running illegally, according
to the DGDA.
Health care experts believe that
the number could be well over
100,000.
In order to sell medicinal drugs,
a proprietor needs to acquire a
drug licence and establish a drug
store, said DGDA Superintendent
ATM Golam Kibria Khan.
“We conduct drives regularly to
evict unlicensed drug stores,” he
said.
Officials at the DGDA said the
existing drug stores are more than
enough to supply medicines to the
entire country, which is why the
medicinal drug authority stopped
issuing drug licences in December
last year.
Instead, the DGDA are working
on establishing “model pharmacies”
– drug stores that have at least
300 sq-ft of area and pharmacists
who have proper knowledge of the
medicines being supplied to customers.
“We do not need a hundred drug
stores in a locality where 10 model
pharmacies can do the job,” Kibria
said. “If this concept is implemented
properly, supervising them will
become easier for us and people
will have access to quality medicines.”
DGDA sources said 19 drug
stores in Dhaka had already applied
to be upgraded to model pharmacy
status, Lazz Pharma and Tajreen
Pharma among them. •
Berlin attack
suspect killed in
Italy shootout
• AFP, Milan
Italian police on Friday shot dead
the prime suspect in the Berlin
Christmas market attack, ending a
frantic four-day hunt for Europe's
most-wanted man.
Tunisian Anis Amri, 24, is believed
to have hijacked a truck and
used it to mow down holiday revellers
at the market on Monday, killing
12 and wounding dozens more.
The Islamic State terrorist group
has claimed responsibility and
released a video Friday in which
Amri is shown pledging allegiance
to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Police said Amri had initially
tried to pass himself off as being
from southern Italy and had shouted
"bastard police" in Italian before
opening fire. German authorities
are investigating whether Amri was
part of a "network" with accomplices
still at large.
Amri's death came as German
police arrested two brothers on
suspicion of planning to attack a
shopping mall, while authorities
in both Australia and Indonesia reported
that Christmas terror plots
had been foiled.
Open borders
Amri's port of entry to Europe was
Italy, arriving on a migrant boat in
2011, and spending four years in
prison there afterwards.
Convicted for starting a fire in
a refugee centre, he served out his
sentence until 2015, then made his
way to Germany, taking advantage
of continental Europe's Schengen
system of open borders, as he did
on his return to Italy this week.
Milan police chief Antonio De
Iesu said Amri had arrived in Italy
from Germany via France. He had
no telephone on him and only a
few hundred euros.
German police said they found
his finger prints in the truck, next
to the body of its registered Polish
driver, who was killed with a gunshot
to the head. A 100,000-euro
reward had been offered for information
leading to Amri's arrest. •
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