Celebrating diversity: Increasing awareness through tourism

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

World Tourism Day is observed every year with a new theme for styling people's awareness round the globe in contributing to tourism development for business and humanity. While last year the theme was Tourism: Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change, this year's theme is Tourism - Celebrating Diversity. Ghana, one of the Organization's first member states and a key player in UNWTO's Sustainable Tourism for Elimination of Poverty (ST-EP) programme, is the official host country of World Tourism Day this year.
   Taleb Rifai, UNWTO's Secretary-General, stresses tourism's potential as a reliable job creator and provider of economic tools to the society. "There is increasing awareness of tourism's role as a productive activity and its undisputed potential to generate employment, government income and other benefits whether directly or through induced effects in the economy. Tourism is a global industry and as such has a responsibility to make positive contributions world wide."
   This year's theme focuses on the world's cultural wealth and the important role sustainable tourism plays in revitalizing local traditions and making them flourish as they cross other cultures. A huge mixture of local customs co-exist all over the world, be they languages, religions, architecture, food, politics or natural environments. This different environment has allowed the travel and tourism industry to boom and become the largest single export industry and a leading force in the service sector.
   Every region of the world is distinct and thus has something both to offer and gain through travel and tourism, particularly less developed nations. It is the responsibility of industry stakeholders to harness these opportunities whilst facing the long term challenges engendered by travel and tourism.
   Bangladesh can be a focal point in the perspective of world tourism day theme 2009. Centuries back Bernier, the French traveller aptly wrote in the seventeenth century, that Bangladesh "has a hundred gates open for entrance but not one for departure." The present day discussion on celebrating diversity- was sensed and comprehended hundreds years ago. It was and is unique for its multicultural coexistence.
   Bangladeshi folklore gives an honest insight into the country's social and ethnic background as well as peoples' habits and beliefs. Our folklore also depicts much about the denizens of the past such as their ideologies, customs and views on home or social affairs. Diverse ethnic groups that have resided in the land throughout the preceding periods have largely influenced Bangladesh's folklore.
   A wide-ranging diversity can therefore be clearly seen in the folklore of Bangladesh. Folk arts and crafts, traditions and customs can be classified as local, regional or national attractions.
   'Tourism - Celebrating Diversity' highlights this varied environment which is at the very centre of tourism. Diversity has indeed been the motor behind travel and tourism for centuries. It is our responsibility to promote the sustainable development of the industry whilst conserving the unique facets present on the globe.
   The tourism industry represents one of the main sectors in the global economy, often referred to as the world's largest single industry. Harnessing the opportunities and dealing with the challenges of the largest ongoing migration of people in history is of utmost importance, and is particularly significant for developing countries.
   The Secretariat's tourism activities provide bridges and links between various thematic programmes to ultimately facilitate the implementation of the Convention. These programmes, such as island biodiversity, marine and coastal biodiversity, forests, and invasive species, are crucial to a complementary approach to tourism issues.

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Civic group denounces deal on gas block

Special Correspondent

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port organized a demonostration near Petrobangla headquarters in Dhaka on September 24 demanding that the government scrap its decision to award three offshore blocks to international oil companies allowing gas export.
   They warned of tougher programmes like hartal and siege if the government signs production sharing contracts with the IOCs.   The committee has planned a national convention on energy resources on October 16.
   The citizens' group has been systematically campaigning against the successive governments' attempts at contracting foreign companies to explore coal and gas through deals which it finds uneven, shady and against national interests.
   On September 24 Several hundred leaders and activists of the citizens' group gathered in front of Sonargoan Hotel, some 100 metres away from Petrobangla headquarters at Karwan Bazar, as police put barricades to keep protesters at bay.  During their two-hour stay, they waved black flags, held banners and chanted slogans against the government's move to award gas blocks to IOCs.
   At a rally later, committee leaders blasted the government for its 'mulish approach' toward contracting out the gas blocks to foreign companies and for 'misleading' the people by propagating that gas block deals are necessary to safeguard the country's interests.
   The committee announced that they would hold conferences at divisional headquarters from October 3 to 13 ahead of its planned national convention on October 16 in Dhaka.

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Mohiuddin Babar

On the day of Eid ul Fitr when people in Dhaka were in high stream of celebrating the festival, there was a sudden pause. Not really felt by many, a tremor of 6.4 magnitude shook several parts of Dhaka and other regions of the country. By measure of geo-science, this magnitude was quite notable and it was a dire blessing that no damage was reported. However, the earth shake spilled enough of panic amongst the city dwellers a big segment of who were at that time miles away celebrating the Eid in their villages.
   Bangladesh has always been subjected to different vagaries of nature, namely flood and cyclones. It has faced some of the worst floods and cyclones in recorded history. In fact, floods and cyclones have been so normal that people have developed enough resilience to these natural disasters. The disaster preparedness mechanism has also been developed well and has drawn a good deal of appreciation from the world community as well. Noticeably, death toll from such disasters as floods and cyclones have been on the downward curve over the years due to improved precautionary measures like effective fore-warning, better communication, moving people to cyclone shelters, widespread logistics support for rushing in relief materials and medical supplies etc.
   People in Bangladesh have not been familiar with earthquakes as in other countries like China, Pakistan, Japan, Iran etc. One may recollect the nearest massive earthquake that took place in Assam over hundred years ago. However, according to geologists, the Dawki fault on the northern edge of the country is well known and there are fears of it being active. In that equation, the susceptibility of Bangladesh falling prey to a major earth jolt has growing merit. The incidents of several tremors across the country over the years are a good testimony to this apprehension.
   In the wake of increasing frequencies of tremors, lot of discussions are taking place with regard to assumed damages to life and property, mostly in urban areas like Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. Analysts have warned that colossal damages would take place in these places if there be an earthquake of magnitude seven in the Richter scale. True to their fears, the agglomeration of habitat in these places have grown indiscriminately and never in the context of any earthquake resistance. Media have vividly portrayed the vulnerability of tens of thousands of structures in the capital Dhaka as well as in other cities in the country.
   Unlike the nature's vagaries like floods, storms and droughts, there is no way to forecast an earthquake. As such, there can be no preventive measure to face the onslaught of an earthquake. Nevertheless, there can be and should be damage control mechanism to reduce the impact of losses in terms of life and property. These call for adequate training to civil defence organizations like fire brigade, hospitals, scouts etc. as well as to ensure construction of concrete structures as per required codes. Unfortunately, there are serious gaps in these areas and therefore, the fears of the analysts and experts of the possibilities of causing catastrophic damages in case of strong earthquakes appear justified. The tremors jerking our terrain in the recent period should be a wake up call for the authorities. Any delayed response could simply stretch our fate to yet another spin of natural disaster.
   babar.mohiuddin@gmail.com

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Nurul Islam

It has been reported that Law minister Shafique Ahmed said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had asked for precise details about the Rohingya refugees from the northern Arakan state of Myanmar so the matter could be included in the upcoming talks between Washington and Yangon.
   A top UN agency has sought details from Bangladesh about Myanmar's Rohingya refugees who took shelter in the country to evade persecution in the military ruled neighbouring nation.
   United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked Dhaka to provide precise details about Myanmar's Rohingya refugees to be included in the 'upcoming Washington- Yangon talks' as an agenda.
   The UNHCR representative Saber Azam sought the details as he met law minister Shafique Ahmed."The UNHCR has sought a 'correct statistics' for Rohingya refugees so that the issue can be included in the negotiations between United States and Myanmar, preparations for which are under way," Ahmed said after the meeting.
   It seems to be a good sign towards attaining permanent solution to the issue of Rohingya refugee influx into Bangladesh provided our government is able to play a vital role in solving the issue. It is needful to do so because Bangladesh is being affected economically and environmentally due to continued refugee influx from Myanmar. From 1978 the refugee influx into Bangladesh started and has not stopped so far, though some refugees have repatriated through negotiations with Myanmar's military junta.
   The Rohingyas who repatriated were not given guarantee either by the UN or Junta about their respectable return to their native place, Arakan. There was no Rohingya legal Political Organization to represent and deal with Rohingya issues internationally. It is well-known that the citizenship of the Rohingyas was rejected with intent by introducing Citizenship Act 1982 by Myanmar's military dictatorship. They were deprived of enjoying their fundamental rights and were compelled to leave their ancestral land Arakan by imposing restrictions on free movement within Arakan and travelling to the capital Yangon. In Arakan two major ethnic groups, the Rakhine and the Rohingya live, but as per the divide and rule policy of Junta, the Rakhines are free from above restrictions due to religious discrimination. Previously those who were repatriated to Arakan became again victims of Junta's persecution.
   Obviously, Bangladesh should deal with the Rohingya issue carefully in order to reach a permanent solution to refugee influx into Bangladesh territories. Bangladesh government should take stern measures to convince UN and USA to include Rohingya refugees' return with UN guarantee as one of the agenda in the talks between US and Myanmar. As whole Myanmar is a resourceful country and is about five times bigger than Bangladesh, and Myanmar's population is about four times lower than Bangladesh. So, if the Myanmar people can enjoy the fruits of democracy in future, none need to leave their country for livelihood.

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Five-kg tumour removed from poor woman's body

Holiday Report

Dr Zafar Ullah Chowdhury and his team at the Ganoshasthya Kendra Hospital have successfully removed a 5-kg tumour from the body of a poor woman hailing from Fulchari charland.
   Sobha Rani, in her 40s, developed the tumour following an infection caused by non-steriled needles. It developed as a Condo Sarcoma on her hip and she was getting weaker due to anaemia.
   Ganasasthya Medical Team engaged in providing medicare services among the poor people in the remote charlands of the Jamuna, had detected the patient and brought her to Savar Peoples' Community Medical College Hospital on September 19. She underwent surgical operation on September 21 and is now recovering in post-operative care.

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Foreign Ministry's reaction to the Holiday's article

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent the Holiday a rejoinder to the article headlined Poorly drafted note verbale: Dhaka is yet to remark on Indian submission written by Moinuddin Naser published in Holiday of 21 August, 2009.
   The rejoinder refers to some factual errors and inappropriately used legal and technical terms pertaining to the Law of the Sea. The article said: "Bangladesh has disputed the Myanmar's submission claiming its continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal (maritime boundary) to the United Nations Commission on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The ministry's version is: The submission of any State is made to the Commission on Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), not to the UNCLOS, as mentioned in the report, and such submission relates to a coastal State's right to 'outer continental shelf' or 'extended continental shelf' (ECS), not to 'continental shelf'. The reference to 'maritime boundary' in parenthesis indicates that two technically distinct terms of maritime boundary and outer limits of continental shelf have been confused.
   It further notes that the diplomatic note submitted by Bangladesh to the UN Secretariat on 23 July 2009 was in response to Myanmar's submission to the CLCS for its outer continental shelf, which has nothing to do with maritime boundary per se."
   The rejoinder's remark on the date of submission of observation/protest is gratuitous because it is a plain statement of fact without any veiled connotation.
   It further notes: "The note verbale handed over to the Myanmar authorities on 30 June 2009 concerns Bangladesh's response to Myanmar's straight baseline declared in 1977 and amended on 5 December 2008 which is very much a bilateral issue. The June 30, 2009 Note should not under any circumstances be confused with the one issued on July 23, 2009 to the UN Secretariat on Myanmar's ECS submission."
   "The article started with qualifiers "poorly drafted" ("not well prepared") in reference to the Note Verbale without any indication as to which note verbale it exactly referred to. As explained in the previous para, the two notes dealt with two separate issues because of which it cannot be viewed that Bangladesh's Note of 23 July 2009 was issued late. As regards the quality it may be noted that both the Notes were prepared with utmost care and issued after necessary legal and scientific vetting by both local and internationally recognized experts. The article has also not made any specific observation as to exactly on what ground it deems the Note to be "poorly drafted", the rejoinder adds.
   "The article wrote of "confused attitude of Bangladesh representative at the June 25 meeting of the Commission" To set the record right, in fact, this was a meeting of the State Parties to the UNCLOS 1982 rather than that of the Commission. In the State Party meeting, the Bangladesh delegation expressed its concern over the current workload of the CLCS. It underscored the practical need to bring down the lead time for hearing and disposal of coastal State's submissions on respective outer continental shelves. In the meeting of the UNCLOS State Parties, Bangladesh intervened in line with its national interests and official position,'' it concludes.
   
   Our Correspondent's reply
   Our correspondent stands by his report. He quotes the multilingual online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, which explains the continental shelf thus:
   "The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during interglacial period such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas (known as shelf seas) and gulfs. The continental rise is below the slope, but landward of the abyssal plains. Its gradient is intermediate between the slope and the shelf, on the order of 0.5-1°. Extending as far as 500 km from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. Sediment cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope, called the continental rise.
   "Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the term 'continental shelf' was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs. See the Territorial waters page for more details.
   "Territorial water, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below.
   "The term "territorial waters" is also sometimes used informally to describe any area of water over which a state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and potentially the continental shelf."
   Here one can say that the Bay of Bengal is a shallow sea and the above definition is close to the continental shelf as it was stated in the report. So as per the Foreign Ministry rejoinder if the report would state "maritime sovereignty" instead of claim over maritime boundary that would be more appropriate. The continental shelf claim would ultimately lead to the dispute over maritime boundary as well as newly formed land in the sea like Talpatti and other parts near to the south-eastern side of Bangladesh coastal area.
   The rejoinder regarding the confused attitude is very much appreciated as the report just quoted what the Bangladesh representative stated in the meeting.

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