12-04-2021

moNDAy, APrIl 12, 2021
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, April 12, 2021
Corona spike and
policy implementation
Afresh and what now appears to be a more deadlier
spike in the cases of Covid-19 cases is noted. Experts
including our top medical advisers as well as even the
PM's personal doctor have all been screaming for all to hear
that Bangladesh faces very possibly the worst scenario in
relation to upswing in Corona cases sooner than later. But the
response to it all is worryingly very little or none at all.
It was publicized through the media that police was getting
ready to strictly enforce the laws against observing violation of
the observance of safety measures against Corona such as
compulsorily wearing masks in public places or face fining
and other penalties in cases of not doing so. Super spreader
events such as fairs, waz mehfils, processions, funeral
marches, etc. were to be either banned or severely regulated.
But in reality all of these bangs ultimately proved to be mere
whimpers. For police were seen merely distributing free
masks to people on roads and telling them in gentle voice to
wear them. No fining or paying of other penalties for
violation as if people in this country have become so well
inclined all on a sudden to do what is best for them without
someone warning them that actual coercion would be
applied for non compliance. Thus, the stage was set for the
most carefree attitude of people when the corona threat is
spreading too fast and too dangerously. This unconcern and
most easy going attitude is very shocking to say the least.
The people need to be exhorted, advised and discouraged
not to give up on the new normal habits they developed
during the height of the pandemic last year. It should be
firmly printed in the mass psyche that people must continue
with the habit of wearing masks, remaining indoors as much
as possible, washing hands frequently and observing social
distancing even after taking the vaccine. Government must go
for stricter enforcement activities to these ends. Clearly,
police and others have become mysteriously unaware or
lackadaisical about enforcement activities after being seen
relatively more serious during certain times last year.
Our policy makers must become dead serious
'immediately' to formulate short term, mid term and longer
term policies against the Corona threat to be applied without
a pause and admitting no exceptions. It is imperative to
rethink opening of the vulnerable sectors too abruptly or
widely. The resorts, hotels and motels of prime tourism
venues of the country reportedly are overflowing with people
these days. Such crowding can be a fertile source of social
transmission of the disease. We think it is high time to restrict
once again the visiting of people in such great number to the
tourist and recreation spots.
The tourism and recreation related business need to be
ordered not to admit any more than half of their capacities
and to observe preventive measures stringently. Law
enforcement authorities should be required to monitor
compliance with this order or not. Such restrictions need to be
imposed and monitored immediately and unfailingly in all
assemblages such as mosques, religious events, fairs, etc. We
believe that the restriction must also be imposed on how
many people will be allowed every day in the Ekushey Book
Fair and similar places of public gathering. Maintaining of
social distancing and other preventive activities rigorously
must be made mandatory.
The celebration of the two Eids are nearing that would
involve huge number of people travelling to and from various
destinations before and after the Eid holidays. The
authorities ought to realize that such events work like super
spreaders. Our leadership from the highest level need to take
decisions well in advance and implement them to discourage
people in the greatest number from travelling during the two
upcoming Eids.
Cooperation of the employers may be sought by the
government to motivate their employees not to go to village
homes. A bearable monetary incentive can be paid to this end
both by the government and private employers. Such steps
will need to be accompanied by dissemination of publicities
such as saving of money, avoidance of physical hardships, etc.
by not making such travels for at least this year in the greater
interest of the nation.
Reportedly, a new variant of Covid-19 from UK has been
detected in Bangladesh. This variant is 70 per cent more
dangerous in causing deaths and increasing social
transmissions compared to the older variants found both in
Bangladesh and UK. Understandably, many other countries
stopped incoming and outgoing flights to UK after detection
of this new variant whereas we are continuing these flights
with enthusiasm, it seems.
Attention from the highest level to this matter is extremely
important. If we fail to suspend such flights immediately, at
least it should be absolutely ensured that those who arrive
from UK will be unfailingly required to go through
quarantine, testing, tracing and other measures.
However, it came as a bit of a relief when the authorities
declared a string of measures only two days ago, some 18 in
number, as guidelines to be observed by all sections of people.
The same are mainly what things have been suggested above
in this write-up. Such guidelines are fine but will have little
practical value if not truly and fully implemented. We fear
about their non compliance by people as we have been
witnessing alarmingly for the last couple of months.
Only law enforcers can put some real bite in these
measures by applying them rigorously, very extensively and
regularly starting immediately. We can only hope for this to
happen. But the conduct of the law enforcers have not been
hopeful so far. So, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in
the eating to mean that something can only be judged to be
good or bad after it has been tried or used.
Erdogan insulted the EU long before "SofaGate"
There has been widespread uproar at
what was seen as misogynistic and
insulting treatment meted out by
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
to European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen.
At a meeting in Ankara last week, hosted
by Erdogan for von der Leyen and
European Council President Charles
Michel, the European Commission chief
was left without a chair. She was visibly
taken aback when the two men sat on the
only two chairs available, relegating her to
an adjacent sofa. Video footage of the
incident has elicited thousands of anti-
Erdogan comments on social media,
where it has been dubbed "SofaGate."
No woman, let alone the European
Commission's first female president,
should be on the receiving end of such
thoughtless, shameful and disgraceful
behavior.
Turkey's defense? Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu argued that the seating
arrangements had been discussed and
agreed with the EU ambassador in Ankara
- who, like von der Leyen, is German.
Nevertheless, the incident is a symptom of
a deeply rooted disrespect for women
within the Turkish establishment,
regardless of whether the foreign
minister's claims are true.
Coming soon: China's space war against the US
If a war between China and the United
States erupted today, an American
victory would not be assured. US
Navy Admiral John Aquilino recently
testified before Congress that American
forces deployed to the Indo-Pacific are
overmatched by their Chinese rivals.
Any conflict between the United States
and China would likely begin at sea and in
the skies over the Indo-Pacific region.
Thus the US Navy, Air Force, and Marine
Corps would form the tip of America's
spear in the region.
These US military forces (and their
allies) would require untrammeled access
to satellites in order to defend against
Chinese aggression.
For the US Navy to defend either the
South or East China Sea effectively or to
assist Taiwan, in the event that China
attempted to invade the besieged
democratic island-nation, American
warships would need to coordinate and
communicate with one another and their
combatant commands across the Mobile
User Objective System (MUOS) satellite
constellation in geosynchronous orbit.
Nearly 70% of the US Army's weapons
rely on satellites to function. Therefore,
another critical set of satellites China
might target is the Wideband Global
Satcom (WGS) constellation.
The ubiquitous Global Positioning
System (GPS) constellation of satellites is
essential for the movement and
deployment of US forces, especially in a
large area of operation like the Indo-
Pacific. Even America's vaunted nuclear
command, control and communications
BrANDoN J WEICHErT
Unstoppable Youths of Russia & Bangladesh Exchanged Ideas Virtually
What's better than a virtual
knowledge-sharing project to
utilize your time during this
pandemic? To share knowledge, a group
of 12 students from St. Petersburg and
Dhaka took part in a virtual exchange
project jointly hosted by Peter the Great
St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
(SPbPU) and Daffodil International
University (DIU) to expand the idea
towards better education and establish
better relations between the two
countries Russia and Bangladesh.
So, how did all this start? Ms. Inga
Lutskaya, who is getting her master's
degree in Foreign Language Teaching
Theory and Intercultural Communication
at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic
University, wanted to organize an
international idea exchange program,
and acquaint Russian students with
different cultures. So she discussed the
idea with her friend from Bangladesh,
Syed Raihan-Ul-Islam who is Senior
Assistant Director of International
Affairs, DIU. Initially, both of them
agreed about the plan to work on a Virtual
Knowledge-sharing project. The plan
reached a concrete shape with the
involvement of Dr. Ehatasham Ul Hoque
Eiten, Lecturer, Dept. of English, DIU.
They planned the program, selected and
motivated students from both countries
to take part in the event. Dr. Eiten and
Ms. Inga supervised students' activities in
every session where Mr. Raihan
coordinated the overall program and
helped with all sorts of organizing support
to bring this project into reality.
Russia-Bangladesh Virtual Exchange
Project-2021 was held from March 21st
Frankly, what has shocked me is that
anyone was shocked in the first place.
With all due respect to feminists and
human rights activist in Brussels and
across Europe, what did you expect from
the Erdogan regime?
The discourtesy toward von der Lyen
came less than a month after Erdogan
pulled Turkey out of a key European
convention aimed at combating violence
against women - a convention signed, of
all ironies, in Istanbul, and which Turkey
was the first to ratify in 2012. If that
withdrawal wasn't a hint of what to
expect, what would be?
For his part, Italian Prime Minister
Mario Draghi was livid at the
"mistreatment" of von der Leyen, and
went so far as to call Erdogan a dictator.
"With these dictators, let's call them what
they are..." he said. "I absolutely do not
agree with Erdogan's behavior toward
(NC3) satellites could be destroyed in
geosynchronous orbit, nullifying
America's nuclear deterrent.
Denying the Americans access to these
vital satellite constellations would be key
for any plan by Beijing to invade Taiwan
or to capture the South or East China Sea.
A "Space Pearl Harbor" would
temporarily blind and confuse the
otherwise potent US military. This
temporary blinding of US forces would
create a unique window of opportunity for
China in which the People's Liberation
Army (PLA) could defeat a confused
American military.
And while the US military has plans also
to attack China's satellite constellations,
should such a space war ever erupt, the
fact is that Beijing's forces are nowhere
near as dependent on satellites as
America's forces are - not yet.
Plus, America's space warfare plans
leave the all-important initiative to China;
American forces would wait to be attacked
in space before responding in-kind. This
gives Beijing the advantage by allowing
the PLA escalation dominance in a space
war - which would translate to China's
advantage on land, at sea, in the air, and
ZArIN TASNIm KHAN roDElA
to April 4th. We had three virtual
meetings on Sundays and the duration of
each meeting lasted around 2 hours. In
the first meeting, we had our ice-breaking
session with a cross-cultural
conversation. Then our supervisors
summarized the rules of this project and
we were divided into three groups
randomly. These three groups were later
sent to three separate breakout rooms for
discussion and to do idea accumulation.
The discussion was upon, "How
Bangladesh and Russia might help each
other to learn better considering the
strongest points of both countries." All
the groups came up with some initial
ideas and the fun part was that one point
was common among all the groups; that
is about food. The first session felt like a
food carnival presented by Russia and
Bangladesh. We also discussed some
common superstitions. Amazingly, even
though Russia and Bangladesh are
situated far from each other, we still had a
lot in common. One thing we all thought
that we might not get along with the
differences in our languages but
surprisingly we communicated well and
had lots of fun. We were given some tasks
to complete before the next session.
The second session was all about
FAISAl J. ABBAS
President von der Leyen … I think it was
not appropriate behavior and I was very
sorry for the humiliation von der Leyen
had to suffer."
My issue with the Italian prime
minister's statement is, has he only just
discovered that the Erdogan regime has
transformed Turkey into a dictatorship?
Was the arrest or suspension of nearly
45,000 military officials, judges, civil
According to the Turkish justice ministry, a total of 128,872 investigations
were launched in the past six years over "insulting the president,"
of which 27,717 led to criminal prosecutions, and 9,556 to
sentences of imprisonment. In this period, 903 young people
between the ages of 12 and 17 were put on trial on the same "charge."
servants and school teachers in 2016 not
enough of an indicator?
The discourtesy toward von der Lyen
came less than a month after Erdogan
pulled out of a European convention
aimed at combating violence against
women. If that wasn't a hint of what to
expect, what would be?
According to the Turkish justice
ministry, a total of 128,872 investigations
were launched in the past six years over
"insulting the president," of which 27,717
within cyberspace, at least for a short
time.
With US forces defending Taiwan or
elsewhere blinded, Washington might be
reticent to send even more American units
into harm's way. While the US does have
competent regional allies, they too would
be negatively affected by a Chinese-led
"Space Pearl Harbor."
It's unlikely that America's regional
allies would be more galvanized into
fighting a Chinese invasion force without
reliable American support than they
would be if the US military was in optimal
fighting form. Western dithering in the
President Joe Biden's administration must demand a larger budget for the
fledgling Space Force and must insist upon a doctrine of satellite defense coupled
with total space dominance, so as to deter China or any other foe from
enacting a Space Pearl Harbor. After all, it is easier to preserve America's
satellite capabilities in peacetime than it is to try to restore them in war.
face of Chinese aggression will lead to
their defeat.
Further, China's leadership knows it
does not need to defeat the United States
and its allies totally in a war. Beijing's war
planners assume that they simply need to
delay US military power from intervening
against their forces long enough for
China's military to achieve most of their
strategic objectives (say, capturing
Taiwan).
Once fully enmeshed in their target,
with few American and allied forces able
or willing to respond, China's leaders
brainstorming and cultivating our ideas.
Then we were asked to choose one final
idea among those initial three ideas and
to explain how this will help both
countries. We also needed to think about
why this collaboration might be an
obstacle considering both countries' weak
sides. We were given a week to make a
presentation on the given topic. It is to
mention that our mentors helped us a lot
by providing us with every kind of help we
required.
Then the final day arrived; in the third
session, we all were prepared with our
presentation slides and speeches.
Then the final day arrived; in the third session, we all were prepared with
our presentation slides and speeches. Everyone was excited and nervous
at the same time. There were two judges from both the Universities, Nina
V. Popova, Professor, Graduate School of Applied linguistics, Interpreting
& Translation, SPbPU, and Dr. liza Sharmin, Head, Dept. of English, DIU.
Everyone was excited and nervous at the
same time. There were two judges from
both the Universities, Nina V. Popova,
Professor, Graduate School of Applied
Linguistics, Interpreting & Translation,
SPbPU, and Dr. Liza Sharmin, Head,
Dept. of English, DIU. They observed all
the presentations and gave constructive
feedback. After the presentation, the
judges shared their critical reviews on the
presented ideas and gave suggestions for
the projects' future development.
The three projects covered the area of
Research, Technology, Science Projects,
Cultural Experience, Food, Heritage &
Tourism. Group-1 presented the idea on
led to criminal prosecutions, and 9,556 to
sentences of imprisonment. In this
period, 903 young people between the
ages of 12 and 17 were put on trial on the
same "charge."
As for suggestions that what happened
with von der Lyen was "insulting to
Europe" - I wonder if critics have noticed
Turkey's continued intimidation of
Cyprus and Greece in the eastern
Mediterranean.
Only on Saturday, Ankara accused
Athens of supporting terrorist cells -
another irony of ironies. This comes
from a country that is often accused of
harbouring, patronising and using
extremists of all stripes, ready to use in
theaters of war from Libya to Somalia
and Syria to Iraq.
Then there is Erdogan's tactic of
resorting to blackmail, which he has
honed almost to perfection. Every time
Europe vows to bring him to heel for
another indiscretion, whether it is
illegally campaigning for votes among
Turkish expatriates in Germany or
encroaching on Greek territorial waters
in the hunt for oil and gas deposits.
Source : Arab News
believe that their decadent American
rivals would be unwilling to commit the
resources needed to restore the status
quo.
In this very possible scenario, Beijing
hopes that Washington would seek a
negotiated settlement that creates a new
regional paradigm wherein China, not the
United States, is the dominant player.
And China's leaders would use their
crippling defeat of US military forces in
the Indo-Pacific as the leverage they'd
need to achieve this political objective.
The Middle Kingdom would therefore be
restored, and the Americans would be
kept permanently over the horizon,
forever on the defensive.
President Joe Biden's administration
must demand a larger budget for the
fledgling Space Force and must insist
upon a doctrine of satellite defense
coupled with total space dominance, so as
to deter China or any other foe from
enacting a Space Pearl Harbor. After all, it
is easier to preserve America's satellite
capabilities in peacetime than it is to try to
restore them in war.
If the United States continues to leave
itself vulnerable to attack in the ultimate
strategic high ground of space, an
aggressive and innovative foe like China
could exploit such weaknesses in a
moment of geopolitical crisis. At that
point, China's military could beat the US
military.
Brandon J Weichert is the author of Winning
Space: How America Remains a Superpower.
He is a geopolitical analyst who manages The
Weichert Report: World News Done Right.
"Organizing Science Projects with Great
Cultural Experiences", Group-2
presented on "Potential of Russia-
Bangladesh Collaboration on Research
and Technology", and Group-3 presented
on "To Create a Guidebook". These are
the final ideas we came up with, though
these don't coincide completely with our
initial ideas.
All of us believe that Bangladesh and
Russia might help each other by using
science projects and exchanging cultures
to learn better considering the strongest
points of both countries. Thus, we shared
our ideas accordingly. This exchange of
ideas was possible only by doing online
meetings. The authors of this article are
from Group-1 and Group-2. We were so
excited and impressed by the projects we
took part in and tried to find out every
possible way of developing cultural
exchange via these projects and make
these even more beneficial and
interesting. Group-2 gave practical ideas
on presently ongoing projects in Russia.
The projects could be dedicated to narrow
science specialties such as Nuclear Power,
Textile Engineering, Pharmaceuticals,
and Genetical Engineering. This will help
create new hopes for the engineering
industry. Where Group-1 talked about
making large groups for science
projects and can research on the fields
they like. Students from elementary to
University can take part in it. This will
work for creating new inventions and
exchanging culture among countries.
Trying to keep the project a little
different.
The writer is student of DIU, Bangladesh