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BANGLADESH JOINS TARN
Dhaka likely to propose alternative Asian Highway route
Sadeq Khan
A virtual campaign of disinformation, prejudicial opinion-peddling and persuasion is going on over the refusal of Bangladesh to join the Asian Highway Network in its current formation. Bangladesh has recently signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TARN) after completion of due process.
Bangladesh was always willing and has been continuing from before the process of technical conciliation for the Intergovernmental Agreement of TARN, as it fulfils the criteria of capital to capital connectivity and shortest possible distance of communication. Bangladesh, on the other hand, has legitimate reservations about the Asian Highway Network, which avoids capital to capital connectivity and traverses a longer route in its main artery from Myanmar through Northeast India into Bangladesh, crossing over to India against to connect the capital of Bangladesh with the Indian capital.
There is also the matter of insurgency in the Indian Northeast endangering connectivity in real terms. Bangladesh therefore remains bent on the capital to capital Highway connectivity principle in the Myanmar section of Asian Highway Network plan, which bears real potential for safe trading network and the shortest route to Northwest China. Bangladesh is also apprehensive about rendering the current arterial route plan of the AHN effectively to simply a corridor through Bangladesh for domestic trade, transportation and trouble from Indian bust parts to its troubled north eastern arm.
The case of TARN is very different. Bangladesh has signed the inter-governmental agreement to join the proposed 80,900-kilometer regional railway network, originating from the Pacific seaboard of Asia and ending up on the doorstep of Europe, on November 9, 2007. The ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ismat Jahan, signed the agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network, on behalf of the government, at the United Nations headquarters.
Bangladesh's signing came a year after the draft agreement was endorsed by 18 other states of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific at its ministerial conference on transport in Busan, South Korea, in 2006. Later last year, the UN-backed agreement was signed by 10 countries in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The railway network covers 28 countries, including a stretch of 22,600 km in South Asia, Iran and Turkey in the southern corridor. As decided in an expert group meeting in Dhaka in 1999, the southern corridor commences from Kunming in China and Bangkok in Thailand and ends in Kapikule in Bulgaria.
Bangladesh government has been completing the procedural and technical requirements for the Asian Railway Network. But the previous representative government could not join the Busan ministerial as its tenure expired on October 27, 2006. No representative from Bangladesh attended the Busan conference that brought the five-decade-old initiative to create a railway version of the Silk Route, the ancient regional trade route, a step closer to completion. Dhaka would still need to sign bilateral agreements to make the TAR network operable. Eight countries under the TAR network are yet to sign the agreement, due to "procedural" and "technical" matters, rather than disagreement about the project.
The cross-border network also identifies Bangladesh as a transit route between China and India, the world's fastest growing economies. Also dubbed the "Iron Silk Road" after the ancient trade route. It would link capitals, ports and industrial hubs across the 28 Asian countries all the way to Europe.
In 1960 the initial plan aimed at a continuous 14,000-kilometre rail link between Singapore and Turkey, via South-East Asia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Iran. Now the projected network will be stretched to some 81,000 kilometers and will act as a vital artery in providing regional connection as well as a link with Europe.
After signing of the agreement, a government hand-out said. 'This agreement will enable Bangladesh to expand its rail communications to other Asian countries, and subsequently to Europe.' With Bangladesh's signing the agreement, the number of signatories has risen to 20. India signed the agreement in May this year.
The TAR enters Bangladesh from three directions from the Indian state of West Bengal and exits through a single gateway in the east at Gundhum, Myanmar.
The routes go through industrial centres in the north and south-west of the country, run through the capital's outskirts of Joydevpur and into Chittagong.
The first entry point is at Gede, India and the route goes through Darshana, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevepur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. The second entry point is at Singabad, India and goes through Rajshahi, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevpur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. The third entry point is through Radhikapur, India and goes through Dinajpur, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevpur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. Much of the railway network already exists, although some significant gaps remain to be built or rebuilt. Continent-wide technical problems include switching between different-gauge tracks, where to stop, cumbersome immigration procedures, unsafe ferries and inadequate border-crossing facilities for travellers and merchants.
A study by the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which oversees the TAR, has found four corridors for the overall project. The Northern Corridor will link Europe and the Pacific from Germany to Japan, the Southern Corridor will stretch from Europe to South-East Asia, a South-East Asian Corridor, and a North-South Corridor would link northern Europe with the Persian Gulf.
ESCAP chief Kim Hak-Su states on the TAR website that the project is one of the ways to shift the massive amount of minerals between large Asian markets to fuel their booming economies, especially between Japan, China, South-East Asia, India, and the Middle-East. It would also assist the Asia's 12 landlocked countries.
Asia has top 20 container seaports but has fewer than 100 "dry ports", inland container depots. Europe, by contrast, has 200 and the United States 370.
Bangladesh needs to set up a rail-track from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar to connect the country with the proposed railway network. The project to this end remained shelved due to fund constraint. Now the project proposal involving, around Tk 1,390 crore for laying a 130 kilometre rail tract from Dohazari in Chittagong to Cox's Bazar, sent to the Planning Commission in May 2002, is under active process.
Feverish propaganda is now going on, after the signing of TAR, that Bangladesh is missing a large window of opportunity by withholding its signature from the Asian Highway Network (AHN) Agreement. Its long-held concerns that amongst other the super-highway would act as an Indian transit corridor since both entry and exit points fall in the neighbouring country are being pooh-poohed.
Dhaka is holding out hope of an alternative AHN route, which would follow India-Bangladesh-Myanmar entry and exit point plan, similar to TAR route. Bangladesh government, therefore, passed up the opportunity to join the AHN within the deadline of December 2005.
Instead, Bangladesh approached six member countries to change the proposed route a few months before the deadline expired. The AHN members declined to act on the ground that the Bangladesh proposal came too late.
According to the AHN agreement articles 10 (2), 11 and 14, only countries signing the agreement are eligible to propose a change in the route plan.
Against this backdrop, Bangladesh cannot propose amendment to the proposed route unless it becomes a signatory to the agreement. It can, however, do so through a third party.
It is now being advocated by the "corridor" friendly lobby that as the parliament is currently suspended, a presidential ordinance would make it possible to sign an accession to the AHN form at the UN, to be followed by its ratification. In reply to such odd advocacy, Communications Adviser MA Matin has stated that the 25-kilometre Bangladesh-Myanmar link road expected to be completed by 2010 would serve to strengthen Dhaka's case for the alternative route.
The "corridor" promoters, however, now insist that the 25-kilometre road may help bilateral trade and is not worthy of plans for extending it to AHN due to uncertainty surrounding the funding for the project. But Yangon agreed to discuss the issue during bilateral talks in April and July.
The present AHN road network of 1,804 kilometres through Bangladesh, under the AH-1 route, proposes one entry point through Tamabil in Sylhet and two exit points through Banglabandh in Panchagarh and Benapole in Jessore.
According to Article 15 (3) of the Agreement, Bangladesh is not obliged to act as a corridor for India or other countries in the AHN. The pro-corridor lobby says Dhaka's proposal to follow an alternative Myanmar-Bangladesh-India route, requires directly concerned countries - Bangladesh and Myanmar - to jointly propose a route amendment, which is to be backed by a third AHN signatory, according to AHN rules.
Do such rules really matter? Will they not be amended under cognizance of reality, once the alternative shorter and safer route starts functioning? Whatever priority may be assigned to Route 1 or Route 2 by plan and projection, it is safety and saving of distance that will matter to the ultimate users of any preferred route by international trade. Experience so far does not promise much for Bangladesh in real trade prospects along the Tamabil route bilaterally or internationally. The alternative route Bangladesh proposed holds a much larger promise in terms of shorter connectivity to both China and the ASEAN hub through Thailand.
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Country braces for Sidr strike
Special Correspondent
Bagerhat and Khulna are likely to be the areas worst affected by the severe cyclonic storm that was poised to lash at the coastal belt and offshore islands by 8:00pm Thursday.
At 5:15pm, the storm was sweeping over Dublar Char with a wind velocity of up to 120km per hour. The water level was rising and high tides were battering the shore of the Bay of Bengal islet.
The impending calamity named Sidr reminds one of December 12 holocaust in 1970, when more than five lakh people died in one of the worst cyclonic storms in the world.
Met officials apprehend Sidr will wreak the worst havoc in Khulna region.
Residents of the remote islands in the bay reached over cell phone at 5:30pm reported of gusty and squally winds of 80 to 100kmph.
The main force of Sidr with a wind speed of 200-220kmph is likely to strike the Khulna-Barisal coast by 8:00pm.
The district and local administrations have taken all precautionary measures to face the calamity, including shifting the residents of the vulnerable areas to cyclone shelters.
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HAFIZ LACKS MANOEUVRING CAPACITY
BNP reformists win this round with outside help
Shamsuddin Ahmed
BNP reformist group has won the second round, but not without the backing of the administration. Saifur Rahman and Hafizuddin Ahmed along with their followers on Wednesday entered the party's central office at Naya Paltan in the city that was closed since the emergency declared on January 11.
Earlier, Election Commission recognising the group as the mainstream of BNP invited Hafizuddin to the dialogue on electoral reforms on November 22 leaving the followers of detained party chairperson Khaleda Zia in the lurch.
This will certainly give a moral boost to Saifur Rahman. About a dozen former MPs of the party and Dhaka city BNP president Sadeq Hossain Khoka and secretary Abdus Salam joined him at the party office. Even Gayeshawr Roy, a staunch supporter of Khaleda was seen. Few other MPs were also in Naya Paltan area. But they all discreetly maintained a distance from the reformists.
Khaleda Zia appointed secretary general Khandkar Delwar Hossain is virtually inactive in the hospital. His son was taken into custody on criminal charge. Her adviser Brig Gen (rtd) Hannan Shah, a loud voice against the reformists, has been thrown behind the bars. Delwar apprehends he will go the same way if he comes out of the hospital. Office secretary Rizvi, virtually unknown in politics, remains the lone but ineffective voice in favour of Khaleda Zia.
Understandably Saifur Rahman has invited the former MPs of the party not facing any charge or trial to rally round him. He is learnt to have assured them that he would see that no case is filed against them and the lucrative bait of party nomination for the next election. Indications are available that the fence sitters are likely to join him soon. They are watching the situation carefully and are indeed inclined to take part in the election with the hope of returning to power.
However, the main strength of BNP, the youth wing Jubo Dal and student wing Jatiya Chhatra Dal (JCD), are apparently behind Khaleda Zia. A group of Jubo Dal activists present in front of party central office demonstrated their anger against the reformists. They shouted slogans against Saifur Rahman and Hafizuddin Ahmed branding them as traitors. Stick wielding police dispersed them. Kuddus Khan, organising secretary of Mohammadpur thana Jubo Dal was arrested from among the demonstrators.
It is no doubt that the strength of Jubo Dal and JCD was based on Hawa Bhaban. They grew up and gained enormous strength with all kinds of favours and facilities distributed by the administration at the behest of Hawa Bhaban. Students and youths in the name of JCD and Jubo Dal had been involved in 'tender-business' and extortion under the umbrella of local MPs. Many of the better known leaders and activists of both the fronts are now either thrown into jail or hiding apprehending arrest.
"But they are active behind the scene and continue supporting Khaleda Zia with the hope of regaining their muscle power," said a reformist leader. But it is apparent that this is no longer possible. They are to mend their ways and start afresh under the new leadership of the party.
Insiders of the reformist group said Hafizuddin is failing to prove his mettle as acting secretary general. With his background of serving in the army, he is straightforward but has little manoeuvring capability, which is essential for political leadership. Within the short period of his assumption of the key post of the party he has apparently lost sympathy of some newsmen covering the BNP activities. "Selection of Hafiz was for the strategic reason. It is Bhuiyan who is functioning behind the scene," said a front ranking leader.
Informed sources said reforms in BNP is likely to be complete by January or February next when the impending cases against Khaleda Zia will be decided.
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WORST CRISIS SINCE 1971?
Pakistan: What went wrong? What's next?
M. Shahidul Islam
Faced with another 'tryst with destiny', Pakistan must realise that it is in the throes of turning into a failed state. This was predictable, however.
After returning to the country last month, Benazir Bhutto did not shy away from saying, "We'll fight terrorism with international help." At one point, she reportedly said something more ominous: "Foreign troops will be allowed to fight terrorism inside Pakistan."
The former prime minister may have pleased her Western patrons by saying that but her comments were viewed by many Pakistanis as unpatriotic.
With the mediation of the US, Bhutto earlier struck a deal with General Pervez Musharraf's government to have her pending corruption charges withdrawn, to have the constitution amended to allow a prime minister to serve for the third terms, and to become a prime minister under Musharraf's presidency. As she returned to Pakistan from exile, the entire scheme began to disintegrate with events taking a different course.
Consigned to house arrest for the second time, Bhutto now says she will not serve under Musharraf and will not participate in the ensuing elections, unless Musharraf resigns first-not only as the army chief but as the president as well. She also wants the emergency lifted.
This latest demand has put her Western mentors on a tight spot, the message from Bhutto being, 'either you back me, or Musharraf'. Jolted by this sudden turn of events, senior US diplomat John Negroponte has decided to visit Islamabad later this week to press President Musharraf to concede to Bhutto's demands. That may prove suicidal for the general and his military colleagues.
Why things have come to such a pass? According to analysts, part of the blame can be attributed to the judiciary. The Supreme Court of Pakistan earlier conceded to pressure to set aside the pending corruption charges against Bhutto and her husband. The latest crisis also emanated from a Supreme Court decision on September 28 allowing Musharraf to run for re-election as the president in the October 6 election and rule the country for another five years. The six-to-three decision of the court stunned the legal community as it overturned three legal challenges filed by opposition parties and set a dangerous precedent by allowing a serving army chief to contest the polls.
The decision of the court was not only incongruous with the constitution and judicial precedents it also contained razor-sharp splinters of trouble waiting to fly around. Contrast this decision with another one of the same court by which it had reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in July following his sacking by the president in March.
The imbalanced behaviour of the judiciary portended of something unpromising to occur and proved the court had caved in to pressures from powerful quarters, purportedly due to the shift in the internal political dynamics caused by the intrusion of Benazir Bhutto into the equation with US backing.
The imposition of the emergency, too, stemmed from another impending judicial and constitutional crisis, which Musharraf tried to pre-empt. Sources say Musharraf had authentic information that the Supreme Court was poised to make a ruling by November 15 that would have declared his October 6 re-election unconstitutional. This led Musharraf to declare a state of emergency on November 3, suspend the constitution, sack and arrest the senior judges of the Supreme Court (including the chief justice), and clamp down on the independent media outlets.
Be that whatever, the US seems to have been caught off-guard by the latest turn of events. Under intense pressure, and for the first time since the imposition of emergency rules, Musharraf declared on November 11 that he would hold the general elections by January 9 but did not mention a timetable for lifting the emergency. Hours earlier, Musharraf had amended laws to give sweeping powers to military courts to try civilians for stoking treasonous activities and unrest. The measure was construed by observers as a martial law a nouveau and the military was seen to be back into the driving seat, due, at least partly, to the recent over-politicking by the judiciary.
Never since the crisis of 1971, which resulted in Pakistan losing its Eastern half, has Pakistan faced a crisis of this magnitude. Like the military ruler General Yahya Khan, General Musharraf is now faced with the most intractable choices. His grip on power hanging by a thread, the territorial integrity of Pakistan, too, is once again threatened by a mercurial mix of religiosity, power struggle, and an ever-growing fear of external military intervention.
What then are the choices before the Musharraf regime? However sincerely he and his colleagues may try to put the nation back into some sort of democratic governance, an election under the emergency rule will be treated by observers as a mockery of democracy, especially when thousands of lawyers, human rights activists, and political leaders are under detention or on the run. And, there are draconian restrictions in existence on venting opinion and holding rallies.
But the feisty commando soldier has no choice but to go ahead with the elections. The parliament will be dissolved soon and the exact date of the polls will be announced. Musharraf will meanwhile be declared elected as the president by the newly-appointed Supreme Court judges, who have replaced the sacked ones. There is no indication that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be allowed to return to the country, although Bhutto may finally agree to contest the polls, if the US finds it difficult to dislodge Musharraf by other means.
The post-election scenario is what will matter the most. It will decide whether Musharraf can steer the nation back into some semblance of stability. If Musharraf gives in to pressures from Washington and other Western capitals and forms an alliance with Bhutto, the Islamists will constitute the most potent opposition. Their vote banks are likely to inflate further this time; provided they decide to contest the polls and the polls are conducted fairly. The Islamists already govern the entire North West Frontier Province and command substantial support in other provinces.
That is why a Musharraf-Bhutto squad in power means more insurgency and further fear of Islamisation. Even if Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party wins a majority in the new parliament, which seems unlikely, the Constitution of Pakistan allows Musharraf to sack the government any time with the military's backing. Musharraf reiterated on November 11, "Even if I'm not in uniform, this army will be with me." He promised to quit the military only when the Supreme Court approves his re-election as the president.
Historically, Pakistan's armed forces have shown unity in adverse times. This time in particular, they are aware of the menace of disunity due to the country's sworn enemies' penchant for pouncing upon its 80 or so nuclear devices that are keeping an unstable regional balance of terror intact. It is the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation that counterbalances threats of Israeli and Indian nuclear aggression.
If Musharraf chooses to form an alliance with the Islamists, provided they can bag sizeable votes in the ensuing elections, there could be some respite in the Islamists' ongoing war against the regime. That will, however, make the external patrons of the country too perturbed to continue with their alliance with Pakistan and pouring in massive aids that has reached more than $10 billion since Musharraf decided to go with the USA following US invasion of Afghanistan in September 2001.
That being the reality, Pakistan this time must decide, and decide faster than it did in 1971. Time is running out to determine whether the threats posed by the Islamists constitute a political or military problem. If it is treated as a military problem, the military has miserably failed in the past to win bouts with the Islamists in battles. A sustainable political solution could be to share power with the Islamists, or to form a government of national consensus with the military's backing, if possible.
Recently, the Islamists took control of the picturesque Swat valley and have launched attacks in front of the president's secretariat in Islamabad and at the residence of an incumbent minister. Their tentacles have spread rapidly deep into the mainstream of Pakistani population and armed forces. "Pakistani military is not willing to fight its own citizens. That's why they surrender in droves to the Islamic fighters," wrote a commentator.
If the military is unwilling to battle its own citizens, the problem has to be solved politically. Sharing power with the Islamists is one of the realistic political solutions that possess some potential for success and survival. Although the West may not like such a prescription, the alternatives are much too hazardous for Musharraf or any regime that replaces him.
Since taking over power in 1999 by staging a coup, Musharraf has juggled adroitly between diverse internal and external forces to cling on to power. His greatest mistake was not to quit the military earlier and become a civilian president. The gamble has gone too far and the West and many Pakistanis now want him to quit the scene and be replaced by either Bhutto or another pliant general from the army.
The days ahead will prove whether the tough commando warrior can still apply his martial skills in the political battlefield and save the day, although he has left little room to manoeuvre and things seem to have gone irretrievably wrong. Each rising sun will beacon a set of new challenges not only for Musharraf but for all Pakistanis. Global and regional leaders must try hard to save Pakistan at any cost to preserve regional and global peace.
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POLICE INVESTIGATION
Efficiency test sans change in mindset will prove futile
Special Correspondent
The efficiency test of police sub-inspectors aimed at improving the quality of investigation of criminal cases is unlikely to achieve the objective. The crux of the problem is low salary but high standard of living of the police officers. Most of them are used to manipulating investigation reports under influence of both money and political parties in power, resulting in punishment of many innocent people.
More than a thousand sub-inspectors grudgingly appeared for the written test early last week. They claim they have been doing the job for quite some years and thus already have gained considerable experience. Some of them are worried about their success in the test and retention of their lucrative investigation power.
What is more important is bringing about a radical change in the heart and mind of the sub-inspectors, raising their salary, and changing their lifestyle. A bright young sub-inspector of Sutrapur Police Station frankly told this correspondent that he spends his entire salary of Tk 6,500 for house rent. He maintains a motorbike and a five-member family which lives a cozy life and spends a substantial amount of money for the education of his two children.
The government is fully aware of the situation. The police administration came under discussion at a parliamentary standing committee during the immediate-past BNP-led government. The meeting sources had told this correspondent that the police chief frankly admitted at the meeting that he was presiding over a corrupt force baring a few members.
Of late, some police stations have been raised to the status of 'model' police station, claiming that they will set examples in providing service to the people and be free of bribe, extortion, and repression. In no time, Narsingdi Model Police Station, to cite an example, was accused of beating to death a young man allegedly for failing to adequately grease the palms of the police officers. That prompted an angry demonstration of the people. The situation was brought under control by suspending the officer-in-charge and four sub-inspectors of the station and forming a judicial committee to probe into the incident.
Nevertheless, the situation has witnessed a lot of changes. Newspapers run reports every day of suspension of police inspectors, sub-inspectors and constables for negligence of duty and corruption. The exact figure of police personnel suspended and dismissed is not immediately available but it may have reached a four-digit one since the present interim government came to power. The police administration is apparently determined to clean the force to make it friendly and helpful to the people. Extortion of bribe and harassment of the innocent by the police are age-old affairs. They cannot be totally eliminated overnight. Even 50 per cent reduction in corruption in the police should be considered a big achievement.
All said and done, the efforts to improve the quality of police investigation of criminal cases will be incomplete without vigilance on the part of the magistrates. Magistrates should be ready and prudent enough to find out the flaws and biases in the investigation reports submitted by police officers. Police investigators should be careful enough that no innocent person is punished as a result of their reports. Equally, the magistrates should see that no one is tried on the basis of flawed or biased police reports. Now that the magistrates are not accountable to the executive, they can dismiss the police and prosecution reports deemed biased. That will make the sub-inspectors more careful.
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Prosperity makes Malaysians indifferent to politics
Mohammad A. Sattar in Kuala Lumpur
The people of Malaysia have lost interest in politics. The amazing economic advancement and busy lifestyle have kept them conveniently away from getting involved in petty politics or, for that matter, politics at any level.
Ever since the departure of Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, the government and politics have virtually lost their glamour. The people appear to believe that whatever has happened to their country over the last 30 years has been good and beneficial to them.
There has been a protest march in the capital against a government policy only a few days back. But it was devoid of any significant public engagement. The people seemed to be absolutely ignorant of the issue. Their reluctance to politics is conspicuous.
Last week a local office of the tax department received the 'Broom Award' for its failure to achieve its tax assessment target. A blown-up picture in the front page of an English daily showing an official taking the broom from a senior official illustrates the tough stance of the government in taking individuals and institutions to task for under-performance.
A Malay friend of mine wanted to know whether it could happen in Bangladesh. I told him it might not be possible in my country as we have always been 'under-performers'. And the government awarding the 'broom' to any individual in our country would carry an entirely different meaning.
Our government has a long way to go before it can even think of becoming something like its Malaysian counterpart.
Most of the politics we hear of in this country is of macro level. Dialogues, and gossips, on economic programmes abound here, but nothing much about politics.
The economic prosperity has taken this nation by storm. The pace of development which still goes on is something to see and learn from. What Mahathir and his immediate predecessor had instilled in the veins of Malaysians and how they had managed to leap forward can only be realised when you come and see for yourself. And, the people also have achieved remarkable psychological progress, which is imperative for development of any society.
From what I have gathered from my interactions with government officials and private-sector leaders, it seems they are willing to sacrifice a few rights for the greater interests of the country. Democracy and freedoms of press and speech are secondary to them as long as the country prospers and people are happy in the real sense of the term.
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AL GORE'S CLIMATE FILM
UK court finds 9 errors with 1 on Bangladesh
Moinuddin Naser in New York
A British judge has ruled that Al Gore's Oscar-winning film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, contains nine errors, including one regarding Bangladesh.
High Court Judge Michael Burton, deciding a lawsuit that questioned the film's suitability for showing in British classrooms, said Wednesday that the movie built a powerful case that global warming was caused by humans and that urgent means were needed to counter it.
In this connection the Washington Post has recently run a story. According to the report, the judge said Gore made nine statements in the film that were not supported by current mainstream scientific consensus. Teachers, Burton concluded, could show the film but must alert students to what he termed errors.
The judge said, for instance, Gore's script implied that Greenland or West Antarctica might melt in the near future, creating a sea-level rise of up to 20 feet that would cause devastation in an area stretching from San Francisco to the Netherlands to Bangladesh. The judge called this "distinctly alarmist" and said the consensus view was that, if indeed Greenland melted, it would release this amount of water "but only after, and over, millennia."
Burton also mentioned that Gore contended that the inhabitants of the low-lying Pacific atolls had to evacuate to New Zealand because of global warming and adjudged, "But there is no evidence of any such evacuation."
Another error, according to the judge, is that Gore says, "A new scientific study shows that for the first time they are finding polar bears that have actually drowned swimming long distances up to 60 miles to find ice." Burton said perhaps in the future polar bears would drown "by regression of pack-ice" but the only study found on drowned polar bears attributed four deaths to a storm.
The ruling comes amid speculations that Gore will win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his work on global warming.
Kalee Kreider, a spokesman for Gore, said the former US vice president was "gratified that the courts verified that the central argument of An Inconvenient Truth is supported by the scientific community." She said "of the thousands and thousands of facts presented in the film, the judge apparently took issue with a handful."
Kreider also said Gore believes the film will educate a generation of young people about the climate crisis and the "debate has shifted from 'Is the problem real?' to 'What can be done about it?'"
Burton's ruling said there was "now common ground that it is not simply a science film-although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion-but that it is a political film, albeit of course not party political." He maintained that Gore's errors "arise in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of his political thesis."
Global warming has been a particularly big issue in Britain, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wanted to make his country a world leader in limiting carbon emissions.
Earlier this year, British education officials began distributing DVDs of Gore's film to state schools as part of a package designed to educate three million secondary school students on climate change.
The lawsuit was brought by Stewart Dimmock, a local school official who has two sons in state schools, in an attempt to block the programme of the education department. He claimed the film was inaccurate, politically biased, and a sentimental mush and therefore unsuitable for schools.
Dimmock, who belongs to the tiny New Party, told reporters he was elated at the ruling. He said the guidance and the context that teachers now must give along with the film meant students would not be "indoctrinated with this political spin". But he said he was disappointed the film was not banned outright from schools.
A spokesman for the Department of Children, Schools and Families said the agency was delighted that students could continue to see Gore's film. It has noted that the judge did not disagree with the film's main point-that man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are causing serious climate consequences.
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GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Bertrand Russell
K. Z. Islam
No intellectual in history offered advice to humanity over so long a period as Bertrand Russell, third Earl Russell (1872-1970). He was born in the year General Ulysses S. Grant was re-elected to the US Presidency and he died on the eve of Watergate. All this time he put forth a steady stream of counsel, exhortation, information and warnings on an astonishing variety of subjects. One bibliography (almost certainly incomplete) lists sixty-eight books. The first, German Social Democracy, was published in 1896, when Queen Victoria still had five years to live; his posthumous Essays in Analysis (1973) came out the year Nixon resigned. In between he published works on geometry, philosophy, mathematics, justice, social reconstruction, political ideas, mysticism, logic, Bolshevism, China, the brain, industry, the ABC of atoms (this was in 1923; thirty-six years later came a book on nuclear warfare), science, relativity, education, scepticism, marriage, happiness, morals, idleness, religion, international affairs, history, power, truth, knowledge, authority, citizenship, ethics, biography, atheism, wisdom, the future, disarmament, peace, war crimes and other topics. To these should be added a huge output of newspaper and magazine articles embracing every conceivable theme, not excluding The Use of Lipstick, The Manners of Tourists, Choosing Cigars and Wife-Beating.
The science of numbers, than which nothing is more remote from people, was the first and greatest passion of his life. With the help of an army of crammers he got a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1893 was listed as Seventh Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos. There followed a Trinity Fellowship and, in due course, the draft of the great work he wrote with Alfred North Whitehead, Principia Mathematica, completed on the last day of the nineteenth century. He wrote: 'I like mathematics because it is not human.
In the mid-1950s, Russell decided that nuclear weapons were intrinsically evil and should not be used in any circumstances. On 23 November 1957 he published in the New Statesman 'An Open Letter to Eisenhower and Khrushchev', putting his case. Next month, going through the paper's incoming letters box, he was astonished to find a huge translated screed, with a covering letter in Russian signed by Nikita Khrushchev. This was the Soviet leader's personal reply to Russell. But the letter, when published, created an immense sensation. In due course a more reluctant reply came from the American side, not indeed from the President himself but from his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. Russell was delighted by so distinguished a response. His vanity, another weakness, was tickled and his judgment, never his strongest point, upset. The Khrushchev letter, which broadly sympathised with his position, not only drove him into a posture of extreme anti-Americanism but also stimulated him into making the abolition of nuclear weapons the centre of his life.
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Country grapples with arsenic water contamination
Abdur Rahman Khan
The arsenic contamination of water in the country has posed a serious public health hazard with significant adverse impacts on people's life and livelihood. It has caused an additional burden on the rural water supply management, demanding water treatment and quality surveillance.
According to the most recent estimates, about 30 million people are exposed to arsenic poisoning from drinking tube-well water with a contamination level exceeding 50 parts per million (ppm) and 49 million more to contamination level exceeding 10ppm.
In early 90s, detection of the first cases of arsenicosis in some areas of the country prompted researchers to quickly verify that many of Bangladesh's aquifers are contaminated with arsenic not only above the WHO guidelines level (10ppm) but also above Bangladesh's national standard (50ppm).
Considering the situation, the government with assistance from various donors conducted a national screening programme that revealed an alarming picture. Of the total 4.95 million tube-wells in operation in 270 upazilas, 3.5 million were found safe while the rest, 29.12 per cent, were found contaminated by arsenic.
The screening programme was conducted in 5,782 villages. Of them, the water of all the tube-wells in 2,327 villages was found to be contaminated with arsenic. Later, tube-wells in 6,213 more villages were identified, in which the contamination was more than 80 per cent. In the arsenic contamination chart, Chandpur, Munshiganj, Brahmanbaria, Gopalganj, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Barisal, Comilla, Madaripur, and Bagerhat are the top 10 districts. The highest level of 93 per cent contamination was detected in Chandpur, followed by 82.38 per cent in Munshiganj.
According to the British Geological Survey, south-eastern Bangladesh, where Matlab upazila is located, is the part of the country with the most pronounced arsenic contamination of tube-well water. It was why the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) in 2001 initiated a research into the health effects of arsenic water contamination in Matlab with funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), WHO and United Sates Agency for International Development (USAID).
The findings of this demographic study show that more than half of the population in a rural area of Bangladesh has been drinking arsenic-contaminated water for many years. Hence, public health biomedical interventions for early diagnosis and treatment of arsenic-induced skin lesions were felt necessary to make inroads into this massive public-health problem in Bangladesh.
To deal with the arsenic health hazards, the health and family welfare ministry undertook a programme to identify the patients, detect the source of water that caused the poisoning, train the medical manpower to manage the cases, and raise awareness among the people about the contamination.
A manager of the programme told Holiday that they had detected 38,412 arsenicosis patients in 230 upazilas till last financial year. "We have also conducted screening in 10 more upazilas this year and are now imparting training to the health and medical manpower concerned at district and upazila levels," he said, adding that they would launch a massive awareness campaign by using television and other media channels.
The Directorate of Health Services through its programme suggests the affected people first to stop using the water of any suspected source and go for an alternate and safer source. The local health and medical personnel distribute vitamin-rich tablets and also suggest the patients to eat more vegetables to get cured soon.
Meanwhile, a rural piped water supply system is being implemented in selected districts under the World Bank-funded Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project. The bank provided 50 per cent of the project fund as a grant, the community contributed 12 per cent and the rest is being invested by the sponsor. The sponsor will operate the system for 10 to 12 years and then it will be handed over to the community representatives.
The system consists of an overhead tank of 60 cubic metre capacity, connected with about 12,000 metres of pipe network to supply an estimated daily production of 400 cubic metre water from one production well.
The Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) has conceived a new project styled Bangladesh Water Supply Programme with a World Bank grant to the tune of $40 million. The project, now under implementation, will be concluded in 2009.
The project has taken off with lot of activities on board, with a target of implementing 300 rural piped water schemes, expansion and renovation of the water supply systems at five pourasabhas, and installation of 2,000 safe water sources at 200 villages, DPHE officials said.
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