17-07-2019

EDITORIAL WEdnESdAY
JUlY 17, 2019
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Addressing vital health
and nutrition issues
It has been found that 58 per cent new born babies in
Bangladesh are underweight as the mothers suffer from
poor calorie intakes during the child bearing period. The
malnutrition of mothers and children do not end there. It
continues after birth with the result that neither the mother
or the children--the future citizens of the country-- quite grow
up into healthy adults . Such young adults are not to be considered
as possessing enough vitality to contribute gainfully
to the workforce of the country.
The workforce is ready to perform at optimum level when
its members are physically free from handicaps and mentally
enjoy a similar state. But unfortunately, too many in the
workforce in Bangladesh fall short on both counts and certainly
this does not augur well for its economy . According to
one estimate, monetary loss to the economy due to malnutrition
could reach up to billions of US dollars for Bangladesh
in the next 10 years.
Therefore, attention to nutrition issues and programmes to
improve the nutritional picture assume critical importance
and these ought to be essentially looked at from the perspective
of setting the stage for economic growth and development
and nothing short.
It is ironical that at a time when Bangladesh has been experiencing
bumper harvests for consecutive years, so many
mothers should be undernourished to give birth to emaciated
children or 25 per cent of the population are consuming
less than 1800 calories per day and 15 per cent less than 2160
calories per day. The problem, thus, lies not in production of
food but in food availability for the poor at prices they can
afford.
Addressing of the malnutrition issue would clearly require
improving the purchasing power of about 40 per cent of the
poor and very poor in the population who are malnourished
because they do not have the resources to buy adequate food.
The above picture of malnutrition in the country should
underline the importance of greater activity in this sphere.
But government is yet to put into implementation any
appropriate plan of action in this vital area of concern.
Government should have a plan going to selectively contribute
to nutrition of specially vulnerable groups such as
children. Through the publicly run health networks and publicities
in the mass media it can be tried to disseminate information
to the poor that they can get ample nutrition from
consuming cheap but inexpensive food regularly such as
from seasonal vegetables and locally available fruits. Vitamin
supplements can be distributed free of costs or at nominal
prices through the public health networks among the poor
and the ultra poor. In publicly run schools at junior level, it
may be planned to provide at least one nutritionally rich
meal to the young ones . This would also likely help in preventing
drop outs from schools.
Other ways and means may also be thought out and implemented
to make an impact on the nutrition scene. The costs
of the above measures would not be so prohibitive that government
would not be able to introduce and run them sustainably.
There are also other aspects to the nutrition issues in our
country. For example, the World Health Organization
(WHO) report estimated sometime ago that 44 percent of all
deaths annually in Bangladesh are linked to chronic diseases.
The increasing trend of chronic diseases have been regarded
as a result of changing lifestyles related to food intake, less
physical activity and growing tobacco use and air pollution.
The forces of globalization over the last few decades have
not only made our markets and economies more interdependent
but also virtually linked with people all over the world
through easy modes of cultural exchange, such as: internet,
movies, tourism, education, etc. All these process all together
changed people's perception, attitude and behaviour while
the open markets cater to our new type of needs in the form
of importing and selling variety of western products like
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), pizza, burger, sugary and
fizzy drinks, etc.
Besides, local brands of fast-foods are also being popularized
through rigorous marketing, promotion and advertising.
The growth and popularization of fast foods are causing
abundant intake of risky foods with little nutrition value. In
this respect people's perception regarding being 'smart' plays
a critical role for example: now-a-days a person is regarded
smart if he/ she chooses burger over home made foods. These
junk foods cause people not to eat a proper balanced diet;
instead people consume large amounts of fat and calories.
Another impact of globalization is the proliferation of computers,
televisions, video games and other various forms of
electronic entertainment which is making people devoid of
physical activity. Advancement of technology means less
physical work is needed and electronic means of entertainment
lead children, adolescents an even adults to spending
more and more of their time in front of the TV, computers
and playing video games rather than involving in activities
demanding more physical engagement. Consequently, more
and more children, adolescents and adults are suffering obesity
and other forms of chronic diseases.
Further, sleeping late in the night has become a regular feature
for the young generation of the country. This has become
a practice as people remain busy with Internet and social networking
sites, movies, video games, etc. The consequences of
this tendency are taking a grave toll in health causing different
types of sicknesses related to lack of sleep.
As chronic diseases have emerged as major health hazards
for the people of Bangladesh, massive information, education
and communication campaign should be carried out to make
mass people aware of the possible grave outcomes of continuing
the lifestyles that they are adopting in place of the far
healthier lifestyles of the past.
T
Why India resists mediating between Iran and US
he confrontation brewing between
Iran and the US in the Persian Gulf
poses a threat to global energy markets.
If it should boil over, which of the
chief players stands to lose the most?
Actually, neither of them. That unenviable
role would fall to India, which imports up
to two-thirds of its crude oil from the Gulf
region.
And yet New Delhi has been conspicuously
silent. Although it has dispatched
naval vessels and revived contingency
plans drawn up during the first Gulf War
of 1990-91, there have been almost no
diplomatic efforts to mediate in the dispute.
Meanwhile, tensions between the
US and Iran cast an ever-lengthening
shadow over the Gulf region's energy
exports.
American stealth bombers, marine
transport ships, a carrier strike group and
additional surface-to-air missile batteries
are roaming the region, while Iran has
threatened to close off the Strait of
Hormuz. So far, six oil tankers and Saudi
oil pipelines have been targeted in mine
and drone attacks. Iran's recent breach of
caps on uranium enrichment, which were
agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal, risks
raising tensions even further.
India's economic growth and energy
supplies are acutely dependent on stability
in the Gulf. In 2018, India imported
84% of its total stock of crude oil, almost
two-thirds of it from the region. US sanctions
have now cut off oil flow from two of
India's largest suppliers, Iran and
Venezuela. Although Saudi oil giant
Aramco has reportedly offered to increase
oil sales to India by up to 200,000 barrels
per day, that is still far short of the
479,000 barrels per day that would normally
have come from Iran. Emergency
Conflict and insecurity have created
staggering socioeconomic consequences
in the Middle East and
North Africa (Mena) region. According to
Unicef, there are about 71 million people in
need of humanitarian assistance across
the Mena region, including 35 million children.
In addition, 37,000 people are
forced to flee their homes every day due to
conflict and persecution.
Challenges and dilemmas arise in implementation
of humanitarian action. While
governmental and non-governmental
organisations share the responsibility of
delivering timely and equitable humanitarian
action, the scale and chronic nature
of crises in the region have aggravated
ground realities to the extent where simple
things are proving to be the difference
between life and death.
Ask any disadvantaged local youth of a
community that hosts refugees about their
issues and she or he will reiterate that
while they are sympathetic to the refugee
cause, they have their concerns too: Will
they turn out to be a burden we cannot
afford to bear in the long run?
Similar feelings and concerns are
expressed wherever there are issues created
by the influx of displaced people. To
address this, we need to better understand
the needs and aspirations of the hosts in
reserves are another problem: India has
less than 10 days' supply to cover contingencies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
has vowed to address the concerns. He
dispatched two navy ships, the Chennai
and the Sunayna, in June to reassure
Indian vessels traversing the Gulf. And
India has dusted off plans devised almost
30 years ago that enabled it to carry out
the largest evacuation in history, airlifting
170,000 Indian nationals who had managed
to escape from Kuwait to Amman
overland, a feat wonderfully captured in
the 2016 film Airlift.
India, therefore, has a direct strategic
interest in deploying its diplomatic
resources to ease the tensions, and thanks
to its cordial relations with the US, Iran
and the Arab Gulf states, it is in a favorable
position to do so. The newly appointed
foreign minister, Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar, appears to have the ideal credentials
to navigate the complexities; he
understands both the US - where he
served as India's ambassador from 2013-
15 - and nuclear diplomacy, the subject of
his doctorate.
So why, in spite of overwhelming selfinterest
and even necessity, has Indian
diplomacy been so completely absent?
HASAn AlHASAn
There are several reasons. At the regional
level, Indian policymakers recognize
the Gulf's entrenched security dilemma,
where deep mistrust produces cycles of
escalation that are often difficult to interrupt.
That mistrust, no doubt exacerbated
by America's unpredictable behavior and
Iran's reliably subversive activities, undermines
any would-be mediator's chance of
success. This was amply demonstrated by
the attack on a Japanese-operated oil
tanker in June, which took place just after
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
wrapped up a two-day mediation effort in
Prime Minister narendra Modi has vowed to address the concerns.
He dispatched two navy ships, the Chennai and the Sunayna, in
June to reassure Indian vessels traversing the Gulf. And India has
dusted off plans devised almost 30 years ago that enabled it to carry
out the largest evacuation in history, airlifting 170,000 Indian
nationals who had managed to escape from Kuwait to Amman
overland, a feat wonderfully captured in the 2016 film Airlift.
order to formulate viable solutions that
serve both the hosts as well as the refugees.
While government and non-government
actors attempt to address these challenges,
the high variability of needs compounded
with existing structural problems in service
delivery as well as limited resources
remain ongoing challenges. One of the
main challenges today is to redefine the
image of refugees, from recipients of financial
aid to people with rights who, if properly
empowered and supported, can find
sustainable solutions beneficial to themselves
and the country they reside in. This
follows the fact that before becoming displaced
and labelled as refugees, they were
productive citizens in their home country,
and contributed to their economy and
society in various fields. They can continue
to do so even as displaced refugees.
Tehran. Navigating the Saudi-Iranian
rivalry is a delicate balancing act for India,
and despite Prime Minister Modi's
dynamism and emphasis on relations
with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi
Arabia over the past five years, India's
position remains too circumspect for it to
wade single-handedly into the diplomatic
minefield of US-Iran relations. The attack
on Japanese interests after Abe's mediation
attempt is likely further to dissuade
New Delhi from taking on such a role in
the Gulf.
Quite aside from the somber reality of
events in the Gulf, India's relations with
the US have dipped to a historic low point.
Proactive youth volunteers have created
several applications to help refugees learn
the local language of the host countries, in
addition to advice and tips on how to deal
with challenges and obstacles
With this in mind, host countries can
seek to promote increased social cohesion
and employability among their youth with
Youth volunteering is an effective and efficient mechanism to
alleviate some of the increasing and unmet needs of both
refugees and their host communities. Volunteering can put
youth from the host community at the centre of development
and empower them to become agents of change, by enabling
them to identify and find solutions to the most pressing problems
afflicting them and their own communities.
volunteering opportunities in the most
vulnerable communities hosting refugees;
and soft skills training as well as psychosocial
awareness and community-building
activities. Youth volunteering is an effective
and efficient mechanism to alleviate
some of the increasing and unmet needs of
both refugees and their host communities.
Volunteering can put youth from the host
community at the centre of development
and empower them to become agents of
change, by enabling them to identify and
As part of President Donald Trump's
"maximum pressure" campaign on
Tehran, US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo announced on April 22 that the
US would end waivers on oil imports from
Iran, tightening the noose on India's energy
imports. On May 31, Trump also
revoked India's preferential trade status
under the General System of Preferences,
in effect raising duties on Indian exports
to the US. In June, India retaliated by
imposing additional tariffs on US exports,
only days ahead of the Group of Twenty
summit in Japan.
With US-India relations currently ill at
ease, the prospect of India taking a prominent
diplomatic role in the Gulf becomes
fraught with complications.
Finally, the Indian foreign service
remains notoriously under-resourced,
both by comparison with India's international
peers and relative to its global
ambitions, which include aspiring to a
permanent seat on the UN Security
Council. According to a 2016 parliamentary
report, India's diplomatic corps is
smaller than those of the UK, France or
Japan. An undernourished bureaucracy is
just one more pressing challenge that
India's new foreign minister must deal
with before venturing into Gulf affairs.
On the face of it, India has every reason
to throw its diplomatic weight behind
resolving the US-Iran problem; after all,
the country's energy security and, by
extension its economic growth depend on
stability in the Gulf. But when history
shows that failure is very much an option,
reverting to the traditional position of
lying low may be the wisest course.
Source : Asia times
Iran’s shadow warrior who sows chaos and discord in Iraq
Preachers of hate are unethical but
smart. Deceit requires brains and
minimum wit. But not all preachers
of hate were created equal. Some are street
smart and talkative, often making arguments
that reveal their shallowness. To
make up for their inadequate intellect, they
outmuscle their rivals, lead militias, and
spew hate that they copy from their superiors.
Such hate preachers become guns for
hire, even if they insist on wearing traditional
garments and pretending that they are
pious and knowledgeable clerics.
The Iraqi Qais Al-Khazali, a cleric who is
also the leader of one of Iraq's most notorious
militias, is one such hate spewer who
pretends to be a cleric, when in fact his claim
to fame is working as the operative of one of
the many Iranian clandestine networks that
sow war and discord in Arab countries.
Aged 29, this graduate of geology accompanied
Muqtada Al-Sadr - who had inherited
the mantle of his father and one of Iraq's
foremost Shiite clerics Mohammed Sadeq
Al-Sadr - to a meeting with Iranian operatives.
They were promised arms and training,
if they would take on US troops in Iraq,
according to declassified US investigations
with Al-Khazali. A few battles and months
later, Al-Sadr realized that he had little reason
to undermine a burgeoning sovereign
Iraqi state. Al-Sadr disbanded his militia,
the Mahdi Army, and transformed his
organization into a political movement.
Politics is rarely the strong suit of people
with modest intellectual skills and, without
a militia, Al-Khazali might have lost his
prominence. However, he did not lose his
connection to his Iranian handlers, who
HUSSAIn AbdUl-HUSSAIn
sponsored his defection from Al-Sadr to set
up a splinter group, the Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq
(AAH) militia. Al-Khazali's miltia played a
central role in Iran's two-pronged war in
Iraq: One against US troops, the other
against Iraqi Sunnis. Iran connected Al-
Khazali to Musa Daduq, an operative from
the Lebanese militia Hezbollah who helped
to engineer a few of the most atrocious kidnappings
and killings of US soldiers.
Washington estimates that Tehran is
responsible for the killing of 1,000 out of the
4,000 troops it lost in the Iraq War. With
US assistance, Iraqi government forces captured
Al-Khazali in 2007 and jailed him for
three years, when he was released in a prisoner
exchange for a kidnapped British contractor.
Like Saddam, Al-Khazali's propaganda
is one of cult worship, with news
about him participating in various activities
and giving opinions about everything, opinions
that are usually posted on his Twitter
account, too.
Since then, Al-Khazali has been one of
Iran's most loyal militiamen in Iraq, so
much so that he not only joined the Popular
Politics is rarely the strong suit of people with modest intellectual
skills and, without a militia, Al-Khazali might have lost his
prominence. However, he did not lose his connection to his
Iranian handlers, who sponsored his defection from Al-Sadr to
set up a splinter group, the Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq (AAH) militia. Al-
Khazali's miltia played a central role in Iran's two-pronged war
in Iraq: One against US troops, the other against Iraqi Sunnis.
Militia Units (PMU), but also opened shop
in Syria. Al-Khazali even appeared in
Lebanon, checking out the border with
Israel, in a flagrant offense against Lebanese
sovereignty. But who's keeping count in
Lebanon anyway?
With Daesh almost annihilated, Al-
Khazali has been left with little fighting and
lots of time. He comes up with unsubstantiated
accusations against Iraqi Sunnis,
accusing towns such as Tarmiyah, to the
north of Baghdad, of being a hotbed for
Daesh fighters, calling for a military campaign
against the predominantly Sunni
town. Al-Khazali has also been developing
his brand. He has taken as his spiritual
guide Kazem Al-Haeri, a firebrand Iraqi
cleric who lives in Qom, in Iran.
"US President (Donald Trump) gives
the countries of the Sheikhs of the Gulf a
choice between funding his wars… and
the demise of their governments," Al-
Haeri said in a statement. "This is the
result of throwing themselves into the
arms of the global arrogant powers after
their loss of popular support," Haeri
How our youth can support refugees
MArIAM Al HAMMAdI
added, claiming - without any substantiation
- that Arab governments do not enjoy
the popular support. "We also call on the
Iraqi government not to be dragged into
the lap of global arrogance in its economic,
security and military contracts," Al-
Haeri argued, in a clear sign that the Iraqi
cleric in Qom was unhappy with
Baghdad's warming relations with Gulf
capitals.
In addition to toeing his mentor's and
Iran's line about the "downtrodden" and
about "global arrogance," Al-Khazali
echoes the official Iranian rhetoric,
depicting an imaginary alliance between
America, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, as the
source of all evil in the region. At a conference
in Tehran last year, Al-Khazali said
that the Iraqi victory over Daesh was a victory
over America, Saudi Arabia and
Israel. That America offered extensive air
cover and military advice on the ground
in the battle against Daesh does not seem
to register with Al-Khazali, or his audience.
Hate speech, after all, is impossible
without some spin and a ton of deceit.
On his militia's website, Al-Khazali's publicity
seems to copy that of the late Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein. Al-Khazali calls
himself Al-Sheikh Al-Amin, a play on words
with Amin meaning both trustworthy and
secretary general. Like Saddam, Al-
Khazali's propaganda is one of cult worship,
with news about him participating in various
activities and giving opinions about
everything, opinions that are usually posted
on his Twitter account, too.
Source : Arab news
find solutions to the most pressing problems
afflicting them and their own communities.
The youth hosts can help defuse tensions
by inducting the refugee youth into the volunteer
group and work towards shared
goals, thus building more cohesive societies
through citizenship development.
Volunteering is also believed to improve
the employability of participating host
youth, by enabling them to participate in
unpaid work. The role of youth gains
importance also from the fact that they are
the ones who come up with new ideas
using the latest technologies and communication
tools to create new programmes
and initiatives that aim to ease the burden
on refugees and help them regain a sense
of normality.
For example, one youth group in Brazil
suggested converting buses into food
trucks used by refugees to make and sell
dishes from their home cuisine to the local
community of the host country. This
opened a cultural window for the local
community to be introduced a new culture,
as well as gave refugees a sense of
accomplishment and motivation to lead a
normal and active life in their new environment.
Source : Gulf news