Tiger seeks forgiveness

Maswood Alam Khan

Golfers say golfing is a great sport. But to me, as I am not conversant with it, golf seems more like a game than a sport, a kind of a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness or, more candidly speaking, an expensive way of playing marbles.
   But on February 19 I got the impression that there was a big difference between playing golf and playing marbles as I watched, round-eyed, the breaking news in BBC on what reporters termed a break in Tiger Woods' three-month hiatus.
   BBC, a reputed news medium, along with most of the television channels did broadcast the 13-minute family conference live as their lead breaking news. I don't think any other celebrity could evoke so much interest for BBC to telecast live a private affair of the celebrity or for that matter private affair of a vicar or a prime minister, in spite of journalists, including those of BBC, not being allowed an entry into the conference room. Couldn't a press release or a public notice in Tiger's website serve the purpose?
   A marble player or a Kabadi player from Bangladesh, I hope, would one day reach a height to play and behave like Tiger Woods provided our sports gurus could present to the sports world these two sports with elegant wrappers to create brand image and attract world-class sponsors to adore a marble player's shoes or a Kabadi player's shorts with their brand insignia. Branding is what matters in today's sports, news, business or culture.
   However, presently the world-class sponsors, I don't think, will bother about upholding Ekka Dukka of Bangladesh as they are pretty busy focusing on the players who are already brand-imaged.
   
   $45m for putting his name
   Tiger Woods is currently worth more than $650 million. He earned $100 million alone last year. His list of endorsements reads: Accenture, American Express, TAG Heuer, Gillette, NetJets, and of course Nike. A few months back, Tiger was in Dubai to participate in a tournament and a commercial shooting for Gillette. A golf course named Tiger Woods-Dubai was designed for the tournament. The golf star was reported to have gotten anything up to $45 million for just putting his name on the project.
   Money really matters. So, like that of former US President Bill Clinton, private affairs of Woods too mattered in the priority list of BBC news items. Given the general people's penchant for hearing gossips about celebrities BBC knew people all over the world were shocked that their golf star had cheated on his wife by hobnobbing with a lady the way Americans were shocked after learning about their 42nd president's sexual affairs with one Monica Lewinsky.
   On November 27, 2009, Woods crashed his black Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and then a tree near his Florida home. Woods was a little injured by the collision impact. Later, he paid his $164 traffic ticket. To any bystander, it was apparently a mere accident or an outcome of an unmindful or drunken driving at best. Any normal driver would have escaped by saying "none of your business" to answer a "why did you hit?' question from a policeman or a journalist.
   Many believe no celebrity ever begged such a frank apology Woods supplicated so publicly confessing his follies, saying "I am truly sorry" a number of times and owing all who were shocked a special apology, an apology that sounded pretty abject. Golfers, especially his fans and sponsors, were not happy hearing his words of apology or his determination to follow the spirit of Buddhism; what they wanted most was when he'd be back to golf course. But Tiger wasn't forthcoming on this issue.
   Like many of Tiger's avid fans I believe the 14-time major winner was shocked and sincere in his asking for forgiveness when at different stages of his statement he said: "I was unfaithful, I had affairs and I cheated. What I did was unacceptable. For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me. I stopped living by the core values I was taught to believe in. I ran straight through the boundaries a married couple should live by. I ask you to find rooms in your hearts to one day believe in me again. I am the only person to blame. Whatever my wrongdoings, for the sake of my family, please leave my wife and kids alone".
   Like magic, apology has the power to repair harm, fix relationships, calm wounds and heal broken hearts. "I'm sorry": this easy phrase of two simple words can drain resentment, fear and anger and can wash away pain and bitterness heaped in the past. Apology is not just a social nicety. It is an important sacrament, a way of showing respect and empathy for the wronged person. While an apology cannot undo harmful past deeds events, if done timely, sincerely and effectively, it can undo the negative effects of those actions. Apology is vital to our mental and physical health. Research shows, an apology can affect blood pressure to decrease, heart rate to slow down and breathing to steady.
   Tiger Wood's request for public forgiveness may not be too implausible. Many other stars in the past had found themselves back in good graces with their fans and families after nightmares in their private and public life.
   One of our political leaders, pretty popular in spite of rumours about his moral follies and matrimonial frailties, is very straightforward in his public apologies for which many Bangladeshis still respect him. Because he is not a hypocrite with regard to his affairs outside his marital boundary. Love, to him, is above everything. Like Edward VIII, who reigned as King of England for only 325 days and chose to abdicate the throne in 1936 for the sake of his love for a commoner named Mrs. Simpson, our politician too perhaps wouldn't mind to abdicate.
   After months of denying before the congress and the media, the US President Bill Clinton confessed to having a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. Clinton went through many ordeals and was ultimately acquitted in an impeachment trial and managed to serve out the remainder of his term in good grace. He is now a prominent ambassador for the United States busy traveling to Haiti to lead relief efforts and his wife serving as US secretary of state trotting around the globe.
   We hope, a 34-year old golfer who so precisely hit balls into holes on golf courses with the fewest imaginable number of strokes Tiger Woods this time would be able to hit back volleys of assaults on his private life by his iron will and win back his family and fans.
   maswood@hotmail.com

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Special Correspondent

Life in the hill districts of Rangamati and Khagrachari is returning to normal after a series of violent incidents last month.
   Several persons were killed and more than a hundred houses burnt to ashes as ethnic violence flared up on February 19 in a Rangamati village that further spread to neighbouring Khagrachari district where arsons and attacks continued from February 23. Fresh arson was reported on Tuesday.
   However, 3,500 villagers, both from indigenous and Bengali groups, are still suffering following last week's violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, according to Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.
   The assessment was made by a team of the Red Cross and Red Crescent led by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) after visiting the affected areas.
   BDRCS in collaboration with the ICRC, has sent relief materials like cooking oil, lentils, salt, cooking utensils, jerry-cans, tarpaulins, blankets, hygiene kits and mosquito nets for immediate distribution among the affected people.
   Different organisations have, meanwhile, continued with relief distribution at Baghaihat-Gangarampur of Baghaichari in Rangamati.
   The district administration also distributed corrugated iron sheet for the construction of houses.
   Meanwhile, two young men identified as UPDF activists were shot dead allegedly by rivals of JSS at remote Boraitali of Jurachhari upazila on Tuesday afternoon.
   Police quoting the locals said Raju Chakma (22) and Jampeda Chakma (28) were going in an auto-rickshaw to upazila town at about 5-30pm. Activists of Jana Sanghati Samity (JSS) waylaid them at Boraitali opened indiscriminate fire leaving Raju and Jampeda dead on the spot.
   Indicating Jamaat-Shibir, State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku last week alleged that "anti-liberation forces "staged the incidents from Rajshahi University to the hilly region with a design to create political instability in the country. "I think they are trying to achieve their ends inciting disputes between hilly and plain-land peoples," he said.
   To keep the situation under control, members of the Army, Police and other security forces have increased patrol in the troubled area where many villagers were arrested and few hundred people, both tribesmen and settlers are absconding to avoid arrests.
   
   Case against 10,000
   Political activists of both the ethnic minorities and Bengali settlers said they were afraid of being arrested as the administration filed a case in connection with the February 23 violence against 60 people named and 8,000 to 10,000 unnamed people.
   Ethnic violence spread in the Khagrachari town on February 23 in which around 50 people were injured and 120 houses were burnt in the clashes that forced the authorities to roll out the army during a blockade programme of the United People's Democratic Front.
   The organisation enforced the blockade in protest against the killing and arson attacks on houses of ethnic minorities at Baghaihat of Baghaichari on February 19-20 in which two people were killed and more than 500 houses were burnt.
   The United people's Democratic Front (UPDF), representing the tribesmen fighting for regional autonomy and Fight for Equal Rights in CHT, representing mostly the settlers and the tribesmen accused each other for the recent violence in the hills.
   The UPDF said there would be no lasting peace in Chittagong Hill Tracts region without complete withdrawal of army and the Bengali settlers from the region.
   Meanwhile, different organizations of the tribesmen and the settlers staged demonstrations in Dhaka and submitted memorandum to the government demanding proper investigation into recent violence.
   The Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its statement last week questioned "the silence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who recently awarded Indira Gandhi Peace by the government of India, among others, for promoting peace by concluding the CHT peace accord."

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Pro-BNP candidate wins Dhaka
Bar presidency

Special Correspondent

Indicating a decline in the support for the ruling party, the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum backed by BNP-Jamaat won the posts of President, Cultural Secretary, Office Secre-tary and five other execu-tive posts in the Dhaka Bar Association elections, the biggest bar of the country. The elections were held on February 24-25.
   The pro-Awami League panel of Sammilata Ainjibi Samannaya Parishad, won seventeen seats including general secretary and treasurer.
   Advocate Sanaullah Mia of Ainjibi Forum (Blue panel) was elected President, while Advocates Md Najibullah Hero and Khandaker Md Golam Kivorya Jabayer of Sammilata Ainjibi Samannaya Parishad (White panel) were elected general secretary and treasurer respectively.
   Other candidates elected from white panel are: Abul Kalam Azad and Shaikh Md Nur Alam - Vice Presidents, Aminur Rahman Khan and Md Nazrul Islam Sarder assistant general secretary.
   Of the 15 executive committee members, 10 were elected from White Panel and the remaining five EC members from Blue Panel. Besides, Tabassum Rifat Tumpa was elected Cultural Secretary and Abdul Khaleque Milon Office Secretary from the Blue Panel. Bar Association members observed that the Dhaka Bar, having a pro-government majority among the members, failed to achieve the desired success "even after the interference from the Law Minister and the promotional package announced by the Prime Minister during her recent visit to the court compound."

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