Humanity at stake

Humanity, in its quintessential form, can be defined as the feeling of being humane towards every people in society, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion. It is not only about showing sympathy and creating a sense of affection or compassion for them. The word "humanity" also encompasses the notion of helping every person in times of danger and bearing a helping hand to pull them out of every pit of obstacles along with the inborn qualities of benevolence and friendliness. Some may argue, however, that being humane is a recessive trait and is a completely biological term. Still had it not been for the environment in which wenow find ourselves, people today would be more human and less wild beast.

The present 21st century brings up the whole array of work and has created a busy life for us with time only for ourselves. Students rushing to go to schools or colleges, service-holders in search of a taxi to get to their destination and that is how the ongoing cycle of life takes its turn. The hectic schedules of life has made us robotic with no sense of generosity, helpfulness and all the other qualities which attributes a person to be a real human. The perpetual motion of life is continuing like a train running miles after miles at light speed and we, the commuters, are hurrying to get hold of that train and to keep up at the same pace.

Looking at this scene may not make us feel a sense of revulsion against the behaviour most of us always do with the beggars in the street, the man selling jhalmuris, the kid begging for alms, the rickshaw puller driving strenuously his rickshaw so that we can reach the place we wanted. It is natural that if I tell this to a friend of mine, she will neither be shocked nor have the torments of remorse. Her answer will most probably be "Hey! life goes on! Isn't it? Who cares about these guys, anyway?"-This is not the answer which we expect from students who will one day be the future leaders of our country.

The well-off people put their attention only upon themselves neglecting the poor, the illiterate and the less privileged. In our country child labour is prohibited but breaking this rule, often hazardously, children are being employed as domestic workers, day labourers, cleaners in restaurants and so on. These children deprived of education remain sunk in the grim world of ignorance where there is no light from where knowledge can be acquired. I guess very few have done something for them. It is a common picture outside schools where a child sells jhalmuri to a boy or girl of the same age. That school student does not pay any heed from whom he or she takes the packet of Jhalmuri and thus accepting this toddler's fate to be shaped in this unchangeable form where he cannot get education, nutritious food and good clothes. The same is the picture with beggars.

Very often if a beggar comes in our way, we avoid the beggar and request him or her to go away without looking at the beggar's condition. Nobody wants to take the profession of begging but these hand to mouth people out of hunger are forced to beg. Even some valiant freedom fighters have now followed the path of begging. Those who gifted us an independent country are now lying on the footpath and begging for money to have some morsels of food.

How many have looked into their watery eyes and thought that if we were in their position what will we do? Furthermore, repressions against woman and eve teasing are also an act of criminalism. War and riot poses a great threat to humanity. The human civilisation has been stained with the black dye of two world wars and there is the possibility that another one may break out in the future days. For example, the war between Iraq and America has left millions homeless and innumerable people killed. This war has brought no good results
except for mass killing and a lot of children as orphans. This is a utter violation of human rights but the organisations like Amnesty International have not done anything to save these people.

For how long will the plea for humanity be ricocheting off the boundaries which has created a separation between every human being ? The answer is uncertain. But I request, that please give a shoulder to support every people in distress. If we are all united together then and only then we can establish the rights of every human properly, eradicate every kind of segregation and nevertheless a humanitarian society would thus origin creating a bond of peace and eternal happiness.

By Shatabdi Biswas

Prothom-JDC Debating Festival 2008

Last Saturday,. The 13th of September 2008, the Prothom-Alo-JDEC debating fest finally came to an end, with a grand prize giving ceremony followed by an Iftaar Party. Among the renowned people who graced the occasion were Anisul Haque(Prothom Alo), Iftekharuz-zaman (Transparency International Bangladesh), and headmaster of St.Joseph Fr.Leo Piera.

Setting out a platform for exposure of both engliush and Bengali debating talents, under the theme of “revolution of logic: Making the world worth living”, St.Joseph High has reached new limits with this tournament.

With the participation of 70 different institutions, JDC kept its tradition of not only offering regular inter-school debates but also Public speaking and Mixed-up debates, the latter including debaters of different institutions to be chosen by lottery and placed in one team.

As the Bengali inter-school champions title was taken by JDC itself, leaving Notredame College as the runners up, the English inter-school championship was taken by Manarat Int'l School, and JDC was then left as Runners-up. Prozes were also handed to Ess-1 and Ess-2 for reaching the semi-finals and thus securing the 3rd and 4th positions in the inter-school championship.

On the other hand, Hasib Reza(manarat), Fria Ahmed(ESS), and Anam Hossain(Manarat) carried away the first three positions in public speaking. Mixed up debates were once again won by Faria Ahmed(ESS) and Anam Hossain(Manarat), and this category greatly increased co-operation and understanding between the different debating clubs.

All-in-all, the event was a grand success, and even after it ended, the few precious lines spoken by the chief guest rings in the minds of those present:

“The main reason for our aggravation is corruption. Debaters must take part in this war against corruption, and only by comprehending the value of debating can we ensure a corruption-free future for Bangladesh”.

By Faria Ahmed

In this discussion it was pointed out that illiteracy is a social problem. So the govt. cannot alone remove it from the country. All of the educated people should come forward and raise social movement to solve this problem. The participants emphasized on the importance of women literacy, adult literacy and health awareness. They also stressed on spontaneous voluntary service of students, teachers and other sincere people from different sectors for making a healthy society.

It was highly appreciated that ONNESHA is working to eradicate illiteracy from the grass-root level through 30 satellite schools at remote areas of Mymensingh. The programme ended with a movie show focusing on traditional education system and implementation of a new method. This year the slogan for the day is “Literacy is the best remedy.

Facebook helps out with easy photo uploads and event invitations but when Ramadan comes knocking at the door, to what extent does such an 'international' social networking site actually assist a Bangladeshi in organising their Eid shopping schedule? The saviour for our on-the-go generation shoppers would have to be this website I came across the other day; a site personally catered for our local audience aptly titled hottDhaka.com.

'Ramadan/Eid Specials' is a special section opened up by the first social networking site of Bangladesh for this holy season. As the name suggests, this link offers visitors the access to the latest deals available on the streets of Dhaka. If you want to find out about where to go to get that perfect haircut or just indulge in a shopping spree, hottDhaka is your perfect guide to make these vital choices.

Throughout the entire month of Ramadan, the site has been displaying the iftar menus of the popular hangouts in Dhaka. It's impossible to spend all your pocket-money on each and every one of these eating-out spots. But thanks to hottDhaka, one could find out where to get their money's worth from their dining experience with only the click of a mouse.

These features are part of the regular section called hotspots which highlight all the comprehensive information that you will need to know about the major locations in Dhaka. Users can also use the “I've Been” tool to note that you or your friends have been there and accordingly rate the place by giving it “hotts”.

Another nifty feature of the website is the availability of daily iftar and sehri timings. Instead of running numerous google searches for this information, Dhaka dwellers can now easily note down these much-needed reminders in one place. If you want to give your opinion about of all these features or just catch on the latest gossip just switch over to hottTalk section and start blogging.

The people behind HottDhaka.com plan to make the site the definitive guide to life in Dhaka by informing everyone about where to go and what to do. In November 2008, they will be launching another special feature called hottEvents where users can find out about the hottest and most-happening parties, concerts, sport events, etc.

The initiative taken up by the site for this Ramadan is indeed commendable as it goes to show that technology and globalisation can actually help promote our culture and not necessarily take the new generation away from it as conventions would suggest.

So have you done your shopping yet? Do you know where you want to go out with your friends this Eid? What are you waiting for? Log on to the net and chill out this festive season with hottDhaka.com

By Maimun Mustafa