18-10-2022

TUESDAy, OCTOBER 18, 2022
4
Sheikh Russel lovingly recalled by countrymen
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Healthy habits for
health and fitness
M
any
people are in the habit of gulping down
medicines regularly. The taking of medicine for
them might be akin to the mentality of some
people who seem to appreciate wearing glasses out of a
feeling that the same improves their appearance
intellectually or they look more dignified. People on
medicines in this country, at least in some cases, cannot
even think perhaps that they can probably stay well or get
on without medicine. For some of them, taking of
medicine might even appear like a status symbol. They
enjoy talking to friends and neighbours about the number
of medicines they take, their experiences with doctors and
so on. In fact, they tend to make a hobby out of
discussing bad health or health related distresses.
Surely such people are missing the greatest of all human
blessing which is to be in a state of good physical and
mental health. With the body and mind in good health
and fitness, human enjoy to the fullest and deepest life
around them . The relish that a healthy person gets from
eating cannot be enjoyed by a constipated one or one who
suffers from gastric disorders. The mental uplift that a
healthy person gets from looking at a bunch of flowers is
not similarly felt by a person in bad health.
And we do not almost always need medicines for health
and fitness. People who exercise regularly or walk can
automatically ward off diseases like high blood pressure
or regulate other diseases like diabetes, gastritis, etc.
Physical activity, mental disciplining, etc. can add so
much to the health and fitness-mental and physical-for
most of us. Unfortunately, this plain truth is still not well
understood perhaps in our society and the outcomes are
resources wasted on medical care and the joys of living
lost.
The best ones in the realm of medicine also agree on the
concept of the mind-body connection. They maintain
that many diseases have an origin in the mind. Untreated,
the physical symptoms from such illnesses such as many
allergies, show up. But once these mental problems are
effectively treated, the physical manifestations of the
same disappear. Thus, there is a point in keeping the
mind well. Such well-being of the mind can be achieved
through mental training and exercises.
In this respect people's perception regarding being
'smart' plays a critical role. For example, nowadays 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.
Furthermore, with the sharing of information and ideas
across countries our concept of 'beauty' has also got a new
westernized dimension. People especially women are
being portrayed and represented in media as beautiful if
they are slim and slender in general. Therefore, social and
cultural influences coupled with peer pressure affects the
minds of the young people to become thin, slim, skinny
and beautiful. Consequently, young people (mostly
women) starve without considering the possible grave
consequences of indiscriminate starvation. Thus, people
are suffering either from under nutrition (anorexia) or
over nutrition (obesity).
Being inconsiderate about how to get the proper
vitamins and nutrition people do not find a middle
ground between the two extremes. Besides, as people do
not realize and ignore or even overlook the health
implications that over or under eating can cause for a
person, many people suffer from severe health problems
during older age such as: heart disease, diabetes and high
blood pressure, obesity and fatigue, mal-nutrition and
anorexia.
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 and adolescents 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 young people with every passing day suffer 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 alarming as
young people are being short of regularity and time
maintenance; thus work efficiency is also getting
decreased. Besides, health consequences are also grave as
more and more people has started to suffer from eye
problem (computer vision syndrome) due to over
exposure to radiation as they spend hours before the
screen of the computer. Furthermore, disconnection
between body time and working hours can result in
restlessness, sleep disruption, and shorter sleep duration
which may lead to heart attack, suicide and accidents.
Albeit the aggravating situation posed by the changing
lifestyle of the people in the form of increasing rate of
chronic diseases we find little concentrated efforts to
address the threatening situation.As chronic diseases
have emerged major health hazards for the people of
Bangladesh, massive information, education and
communication campaign should be driven forward to
make mass people aware of the possible grave outcomes
of continuing negative lifestyles that have become regular
for many people.
Bangabandhu's
youngest son,
Sheikh Russel, was
born in Dhaka on 18
October 1964. At the
time of his death,
Russel was a student
of Class Four at
Dhaka University
Laboratory School.
According to articles written by those
close to the family, including Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina herself, Russel
did not get much of his father due to the
latter's political activities that sent him to
jail again and again. His house tutor says
that "the kid had sympathy for the poor.
He used to give away gifts as donations.
Whenever he found any poor being
cheated, Russel would take him to his
father and complain." Russel had strong
determination of mind. In the house tutor
Gitali's words: "Once he failed to pass in
mathematics in the half-yearly
examinations. So Sheikh Rehana
snubbed him. But when I told him that I
would take the poison, he promptly told
me to wait until next time [final exams]."
"And he did it. Showing the result card,
Russel told me not to take poison. 'I've
succeeded', he said."
On 15 August 1975, Russel pleaded to
the coup leaders that he be taken to his
mother, not knowing she had already
been killed. "The killers, in a mecabre
moment made him walk past the bodies
of his close ones. Finally, when he
confronted his mother's body sprawled in
the lobby, he burst into tears.
"Take me to Hasu Apa (Sheikh
Hasina)," he said. But Sheikh Hasina and
her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, were
abroad at that time,
"His mind comprised a soulful blend of
merit and thoughtfulness," said Sheikh
Russel's teacher Gitali Dasgupta, recalling
her memories with the youngest son of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Once I taught something to Russel, he
learned it for life, "she said at a webinar
organized by the web team of Awami
League.
Reflecting on Sheikh Russel, Novelist
Selina Hossain said, "I consider him as
the child symbolizing the dream of
freedom. Since his childhood, he had
patriotism inherited from his family."
Actor and Sampriti Bangladesh
Convener Pijush Bandyopadhyay, "When
the child Russel wanted to go to his
mother, the killers brought him to his
mother and killed him. It is not an instant
decision. It was all well-planned. They
knew it very well that the blood of
Bangabandhu and Bangamata ran
through his body and so he "shouldn't be
spared".
October 16 marks 60 years since
the Cuban missile crisis - the
13-day standoff between the
United States and the Soviet Union
widely regarded as the closest we ever
came to global nuclear war. On this
anniversary, as we veer terrifyingly
close to the brink of Armageddon once
again, we should look to that crisis to
guide us in resolving our present one.
On October 7, US President Joe
Biden warned that in the Ukraine war,
"for the first time since the Cuban
missile crisis, we have a direct threat
to the use of nuclear weapons." The
warning is well founded.
Top Kremlin ally Ramzan Kadyrov,
head of the Chechen Republic,
recently wrote that Russia should
consider "the use of low-yield nuclear
weapons." Russian TV and military
blogs echo such suggestions. And
Russian President Vladimir Putin has
stressed that he is willing to use "all
means" in the conflict.
It's impossible to know whether
Putin is willing to follow through on
his threat. Harvard Kennedy School
professor Matthew Bunn pegs the
chances at about 10-20%. But we do
know how to reduce the risk of
catastrophe. The Cuban missile crisis
proved that even in the face of
potential nuclear devastation, deescalation
is possible and diplomacy
can prevail.
Experts and scholars have relitigated
the crisis for decades. But in recent
years, archives and memoirs have
clarified the picture of what happened
during those 13 days starting on
October 16, 1962.
The tale is clearly articulated in
Gambling with Armageddon, a 2020
book by Pulitzer-winning historian
Martin J Sherwin that The New York
Women Affairs Secretary of Bangladesh
Awami League central committee Meher
Afroz Chumki, MP, said, "We don't know
what Russel would have become growing
up. But we know that his family lived only
in service of people. Therefore, we can
understand how much the children of this
family could contribute had they
remained alive."
Prof Nasreen Ahmad, Pro-Vice-
Chancellor (Academic) of Dhaka
University, said, "The day Sheikh Russel
was born, I had the same feeling like
Sheikh Rehana that my baby brother was
born. When I think of Russel, August 15
flashes through my mind.
"That was a diabolical moment. We
were close enough, heard the ratting
sound of firing. Just imagine what went
through the mind of that kin. How could
they pierce his heart with bullets? How
could they be so void of any feeling?
Didn't their hands tremble? Didn't their
heart shudder? The only prayer I have on
this day, 'Wherever he is, let him be in
peace."
The 1975 coup leaders led by executed
colonel Faruq Rahman and fugitive
Coloner Rahid, among others, did not
spare Bangabandhu's most loving child,
TARApADA ACHARjEE
10-year-old Sheikh Russel. They also
killed little Arift Serniabat and Sukanto
Abdullah, kin of Bangabandhu, possibly
because they were male heirs of the
Sheikh family and future leaders.
Russel wanted to live very much and
had possibly thought he would survive if
he could go abroad to his sisters.
But, instead of having a little mercy of
pity on a child begging for his life, they
Sheikh Russel's merciless killing resonate another
sad reality about the vulnerability and insecurity of
our children. 50 years on, hundred of our children
have become victims of murder, rape, physical and
mental torture and in recent times the intensity of
torture on our children has become despicable.
Times declared "should become the
definitive account" of the event. The
book offers urgently relevant lessons,
both about the circumstances that can
bring humanity to the edge of
annihilation and how we can step back
from that brink.
One chilling reminder of how crises
are sometimes averted was offered by
the late US secretary of state Dean
Acheson in 1969. Reviewing Thirteen
Days, Robert F Kennedy's posthumous
memoir, Acheson, who advised thenpresident
John F Kennedy during the
Cuba crisis, strikingly contended that
nuclear war was averted thanks to
"plain dumb luck."
Sure enough, it has since come to
light that a nuclear missile came close
to being fired not once but twice - once
by the US 498th Tactical Missile
Group on Okinawa, Japan, and once
by a Soviet submarine in Cuban
waters. In both instances, the
resistance of a single individual
derailed a launch.
Of course, the world cannot rely on
luck alone to prevent nuclear disaster.
In 1962, according to political scientist
Graham Allison, JFK put the odds of
nuclear war "between one in three and
even." If Kennedy's assessment was
accurate, then after just a few more
shot him. He was the last person to be
killed on that dark night, the most
shameful chapter in the country's history.
Sheikh Kamal, the eldest son, was the first
man to be shot dead.
Muhitul Islam, personal assistant to
Bangabandhu, in his deposition to a court
in the Banglabandhu Murder case, said
that some army men consoled Russel
saying that he was being taken to his
mother.
Dr M A Wazed Miah, the prime
minister's late scientist husband, gave a
description of Russel's killing in his book,
'Some happenings surrounding
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and
Bangladesh.
He wrote "Amidst the killing spree,
Russel ran downstairs and sought refuge
in the Staff Room of the President
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL
comparable confrontations, "the
likelihood of nuclear war would
approach certainty."
Humanity cannot afford to spin the
cylinder again in this game of Russian
roulette; we must unload the gun. Our
only path forward is de-escalation.
And de-escalation, as Sherwin makes
clear, begins with dialogue.
During the Cuban missile crisis,
During the Cuban missile crisis, people such as
General Curtis LeMay argued that negotiation was
tantamount to appeasement. But level-headed
discussion is essential to avoiding certain doom. To
sacrifice it in the name of jingoistic posturing is not
just absurd; it's potentially apocalyptic.
people such as General Curtis LeMay
argued that negotiation was
tantamount to appeasement. But
level-headed discussion is essential to
avoiding certain doom. To sacrifice it
in the name of jingoistic posturing is
not just absurd; it's potentially
apocalyptic.
As the late Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev recalled, "The biggest
tragedy, as [my military advisers] saw
it, was not that our country might be
devastated and everything lost, but
that the Chinese or the Albanians
might accuse us of appeasement or
weakness.… What good would it have
done me in the last hour of my life to
know that though our great nation and
the United States were in complete
ruins, the national honor of the Soviet
Union was intact?"
Today, as the world faces the threat
of obliteration once more, figures of all
(Bangabandhu). Abdur Rahman Roma,
who had been taking care of Russel for
long, held the child's hand at that
moment. After some time, one solidier
took Russel away saying he would be sent
out of this house. Russel cried and begged
to spare his life for the sake of Allah. A
sentry couldn't stand this heart-touching
begging anymore and hid him in the
sentry box at the main gate of the house.
But after about half an hour, an army
Major saw Russel and took him upstairs
and killed him in cold blood with a
revolver."
For whatever reason Sheikh Russel was
murdered, his assassination also testifies
the unimaginable brutality of a few beasts
disguised as army officers at that time
who were hell-bent to wipe-out our
Father of the Nation and his family from
earth. The sinister attempt to do so, had
miserably failed. On the contrary, Sheikh
Russel, with his childish charm and
innocent looks, appears to be ever
glowing under various banners of youth
and sports establishments in today's
Bangladesh. The killers could not wipe
out the bloodline of our Father of the
Nation.
Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh
Hasina is now the fourth time Prime
Minister of Bangladesh-who has not only
leading the country as a 'Role Model' of
development but also pledged to
implement the unfinished task of her
father to build `Sonar Bangla'. We
remember Sheikh Russel with much
affection placing him close to our hearts.
Sheikh Russel's merciless killing resonate
another sad reality about the vulnerability
and insecurity of our children. 50 years on,
hundred of our children have become
victims of murder, rape, physical and
mental torture and in recent times the
intensity of torture on our children has
become despicable. Over the past five
decades Russsel has become the iconic
symbol of every single oppressed child of
Bangladesh. He not only claims justice for
his murder, rather he has become the silent
voice demanding rights and justice for our
children. Otherwise Russel is the tale of a
child's powerful legacy demanding rights
and justice.
Let us build a safe and secured society
for our children to remove the scar of the
brutal murder of Sheikh Russel. Let us
take a solemn pledge to love and protect
our children's right to live.
Sheikh Russel-we badly miss you on this
day. May The Almighty bless you in heaven
beside your parents and brothers.
The writer is columnist Tax Advisor,
General Secretary,
Sadhu Nag Mahasay Ashram,
Narayanganj.
Cuban missile crisis of 60 years ago still with us today
stripes are calling for dialogue to
prevent doomsday. A small but
growing list of progressive members of
the US Congress (along with several
peace advocacy organizations) are
increasingly focused on how best to
promote de-escalation and dialogue,
inspired by a truth that Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky has
himself maintained: This war "will
only definitively end through
diplomacy."
Pope Francis issued an
unprecedented statement calling for
global leaders "to do everything
possible to bring an end to the war."
Even former US secretary of state
Henry Kissinger has reiterated the
importance of dialogue. As he recently
argued, "This has nothing to do with
whether one likes Putin or not…. We
are dealing, when nuclear weapons
become introduced, with a historic
alteration in the world system. And a
dialogue between Russia and the West
is important."
We cannot waver from the
conviction that nuclear weapons must
never be used again under any
circumstances.We would be wise at
this grave moment to recall the lessons
of history - encapsulated in Sherwin's
work - and repeat, loudly and often,
the November 1985 declaration of US
president Ronald Reagan and Russian
president Mikhail Gorbachev, restated
as recently as January by the leaders of
the five nuclear-weapons states: "A
nuclear war cannot be won and must
never be fought."
Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editorial
director and publisher of the Nation
and is president of the American
Committee for US-Russia Accord
(ACURA)