EBangladesh » Zafa Noor

Children Park – a type of real social business (example of MOON PARK & MOON HOUSE)

Lt Col Md Shahadat Hossain (Retd) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:10:13 +0000

Children Park – a type of real social business

(example of MOON PARK & MOON HOUSE)

This was also published in The News Today 09 Dec 2010 and other blogs

http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=14376&date=2010-12-09

http://www.bdcomcn.com/English-Articles/children-park-a-type-of-real-social-business-of-moon-park-a-moon-house.html

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidRecord=343086

Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, of Bangladesh while addressing the prize giving ceremony of a painting competition at Dhaka Osmani Smriti Auditorium on October 18, 2010, has directed the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to recover all the children’s parks in the capital. The prime minister, according to UNB Dhaka, vowed to establish a safe and prosperous Bangladesh for every child.

Yes, there is no doubt that concerned authorities would try their best to recover all government children parks, no matter how successful they would be to maintain and keep the campaign according to given directives from the highest executive of the government. But I, like many others, am little wondered as to how much those local influential illegal occupants have gone regarding places like Children parks too. There is no need to emphasize the requirement of children parks for the over all development of a total Children. Considering their importance’s, government did their parts and hopefully would continue doing the best in this regard always. But we being the brothers and sisters, parents and relatives, teachers and lovers of every child also got to think and do exactly in the same way as our Prime Minister thought and gave directives.

Because the government can not establish more and more children parks all of a sudden, and because we all also have the morale and social responsibilities too for all the children, so, we got to also do some thing, either individually or being in a group. We may think of taking following measures to ensure so that more and more children get the facilities of Children parks:

1. Authorities of schools and other educational institutions may consider establishing children parks at their own premises, no matter how small or big those could be. They should also ensure the proper maintenances of all existing children parks.

2. Those who, specially at rural area, can effort to make few items of children park at their own premises may also make such facilities available for their own and local children. There are few such items directly related to physical exercises which don’t need lot of space, cost or electricity. Besides, such can be made with collective efforts too. Some one may also think of making the same at their roof top at city location too. The idea is so that every child gets the minimum facilities of Children Park.

3. Many rich people of our society already have hundreds and thousands of “Farm Houses” (bagan bari in bengali pronunciation) of their own. Those are indeed their spare houses out side the city areas mostly for their personal leisure and pleasure. Of course I am not trying to say any thing against their farm houses, however, would like to humbly suggest so that they could also think of making those, whole or part of those, in to some thing like children park for the local children and thus allow local children to play there either free of cost or with little ticket money. We always talk about social responsibilities and social businesses. Arranging such facilities for the children could be one of the best social responsibilities. Again the concepts of social businesses often emphasized by our Noble Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus are known to the whole world and also widely discussed. So, from that point of view too, some token ticket money may also be charged from incoming children, however, the ticket fee got to be within affordable limit of those rural parents too.

Frankly speaking, I won’t suggest any of above if I won’t believe on those totally. I use to always think in the past about these children park facilities for our rural poor children. That is the reason I tried to establish two such children park at my own according to my personal interest, planning, limited economic capabilities and efforts. Spending my pension money, I have established one Children park named Moon Park at village PIRUJALI in General Area Hotapara, Gazipur. The area is near writer Humayun Ahmed’s Nuhash Polli and really green and comfortable in all seasons.

Well, for this case, I tried to establish and experiences by myself first and then now trying to suggest some thing for others too. It is said in the religion also that you try to do the same first before you suggest the same to others. When ever, I heard or read about the social businesses expressed by noble laureate Dr. Yunus, tried to think and identify as to how many types of social businesses could there be, specially for a country like Bangladesh? I also tried to think always as to what maximum social benefits can be offered with what minimum charges from different types of social businesses. Well, there can be many different types, but, for me, I have desired to do some thing related to children’s health, enjoyment, excitement, mental growth, physical exercise etc, and so thought of establishing one children park for them as part of so-well-discussed social business.

Now at this stage, being little encouraged by the noble directives of honorable prime minister of Bangladesh, I have only one aim of mentioning this as an example and that is, so that others who are interested may also establish such children parks at different parts of our country. Besides, those who are already having their Farm Houses (bagan bari) may also become interested as well as feel responsible to tern their those farm houses, part or whole, into children park for the local rural children and allow them to play either free of charge or with little token ticket money.

“Moon Park” is a small eco friendly green garden which is also used for picnic or outing spot for those city people who may afford to rent it and be interested to enjoy the green nature as part of their rest and refreshment. However, the focus is always given to the local children’s playing and that is why the word “park” is associated with it’s name. Any one may be wondered to know that a local child may visit and play at Moon Park with only taka ten ($ US 10 cents only) per person. The Moon Park was inaugurated on 14 April 2010 (pohela boishak) through arrangement of boishakhi mela (local fair organized on the bengali new year) where all the incoming children along with their parents, friends and relatives were allowed to go inside and play with free of charge. Surprisingly the total presence on that very single day crossed the figure 2500 (almost 100% children of that general area) which really proved in my mind that, yes, our children really need such facilities. I also felt very comfortable inside for being able to make one such park for our rural children. The smiling faces of our rural deprived children are still in my memories, pictures of which can also be shared by readers from below web link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113734232071731875096/MoonPark#

“Moon House” is also another such place, same eco friendly garden with children park facilities where children can not only play but also see life birds and fishes. No matter how many facilities children are enjoying inside but only taka 30 ($ US 40 cents only) is charged per person. It is designed to be a real safe house for the playing of children and that is why the word “house” is associated with it’s name.

It may be mention that the eco friendly green gardens of both Moon Park and Moon House are also attracting foreigners and as such contributing to the tourism in Bangladesh too. Hope the scope of tourism in this sector would also increase in future.

I hope both Moon Park and Moon House would be able to contribute for children’s playing in the long run as part of social businesses in real sense. I also hope that many other persons having similar feelings like me would also try to do some thing better for our children which are so necessary for their total development. Children would carry us forward, they are our future hopes and so we must do our best to do best for them.

For those who may be interested to know about Moon House and Moon Park for their picnic or outing purposes may also brows below web link:

http://www.moonhousemoonpark.com/

email: moonhouse.moonpark@gmail.com,

Rangs Building: A tragedy

E-Bangladesh — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 04:15:33 +0000

Latest: The Daily Star reports, “Rescue operation at Rangs Bhaban, which had resumed yesterday five days into the cave-in of the building, was stopped on safety grounds 10 minutes after the operation had started.”

[Photo/Banglar Chokh: Still waiting for a "rescue operation," dead bodies decompose.]

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

A horrible tragedy claimed the lives of four demolition crew in the Rangs Bhaban Building stranding at least ten others under piles of rubble Saturday night. The 22-storey building was being demolished by RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) that had neither the expertise nor the equipment necessary to manage a demolition project so massive. The result was inevitable. Several floors of Rangs caved in and crushed the sleeping workers in several floors. Yes, you read it right, there were demolition crew, exhausted from working for long hours and asleep, under tons of concrete that was lurking on them to crush the unsuspecting sleepers any moment.

How on earth was that possible! What kind of site engineer or project manager would allow any off-duty personnel to even go anywhere near the demolition area.

The demolition zone should have been restricted to only the crew on duty and fully equipped with personal protective gear

Deadly SIDR on the way

E-Bangladesh — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:43:30 +0000

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

According to storm watch report, the tropical cyclone Sidr is currently headed for Bangladesh. It is currently (7 PM East, November 13, 2007) running 115 knot max winds, which qualifies as borderline category 4 (Saffir-Simpson scale) and is expected to strengthen slightly in the next day or so.

Tropical Cyclone blog posted the following characteristics of Sidr:

Warning: 07 at 2100 GMT
Approximate position: 13.7N 89.5E
Approximate location: 540 miles South of Calcutta, India
Movement: North at 7 knots
Maximum sustained winds: 115 knots
Maximum gusts: 140 knots
Threatened landmasses: Bangladesh, India

Storm pundit Chris Mooney commented:

Sidr developed in the open ocean near the Andaman Islands, and has all the time it needs to reach peak intensity without obstruction. This is a scary, scary hurricane. Let

One Arifur Rahman and his fight against corruption

Tasneem Khalil — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:36:37 +0000

Banner: Sourov.

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

It has been two weeks since Arifur Rahman’s cartoon “Naam” was published which prompted the Bangladesh police to take him to jail and lock him up without pressing any formal charges or allowing him any legal representation in his defense. Arif was picked up from his Uttara residence under Section 54 of Code of Criminal Procedure for drawing the very harmless cartoon that portrayed a widely used naming convention for Bangali Muslim men. The cartoon did not insult the prophet in any way, nor was it Arif’s intention, because his own first name is Mohammed (newspaper reports addressed him as Md. Arifur Rahman).

This young (early 20s) talented cartoonist has earned accolades for targeting corruption with his creative genius. Only a month before his arrest he was awarded with a crest and Taka 10,000 cash in a cartoon contest against corruption arranged by Daily Star, attended by ACC chief Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury among others.

Arif

Mayhem in Burma (Myanmar)

Tasneem Khalil — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:25:29 +0000

Video: Al Jazeera English via You Tube.

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

9 people were killed today (September 27, 2007) in Burma (Myanmar), by the country’s military force. For last few days, freedom-loving people took to the streets, protesting against the oppressive military regime that has ruled Burma for the last two decades. The soldiers under instruction of the Junta used batons, rifle butts and riot shields to beat the protesters, including monks and journalists. When that was not enough to stop the protests, the troops fired automatic weapons on the crowd.

The protest began initially against a fuel price hike (on August 19) that accelerated and became a voice of the people when the monks joined the demonstration and launched a pro-democracy movement. Military forces raided many monastries and beat up many Buddhist monks severely, arrested hundreds of them and at one point fired automatic weapons on the thousands of angry protesters chanting, “Give us freedom.” There are blood stains on the stairs of the sacred institutions and on the streets. The monks are highly revered in Myanmar.

Witnesses and a Western diplomat told the Associated Press (AP) that dozens of men were arrested and severely beaten after soldiers fired into one crowd of protesters. Troops in at least four locations fired into crowds after several thousand protesters ignored an order from security forces to disband.

While the riot broke out on the streets of Myanmar’s major cities, people around the world worried about the safety of Aung Sung Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s symbol of hope — the daughter of Burma’s assassinated independence hero — who has been under house arrest ever since the military rulers took power. In 1988 Suu Kyi co-founded the National League for Democracy that won elections by a landslide in 1990.

[Photo/National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma: September 23. Riot police stand guard between Aung Sung Suu Kyi and monks.]

The military regime never allowed her to lead her people, rather kept her under house arrest for the last 12 years in various capacity. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused. Highly influenced by Gandhi, Suu Kyi has always insisted on non-violence as the way to “freedom from fear,” and won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991.

Her most notable quote is

“Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those subject to it.”

Suu Kyi was not even allowed to pick up her Nobel Prize in 1991. UN urged the regime to set her free since her house-arrest was against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) but it was ignored. UN envoys have not been allowed to enter the country since 1994, and her house arrest continued to be extended. The government of Myanmar imprisoned Suu Kyi under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial. Sounds eerily familiar to some of the “special powers” being practiced by the government in Bangladesh, doesn’t it?

The international community has somehow woken up to this crisis, even though the country has been under military dictatorship for the last 45 years. Among those killed Thursday was Kenji Nagai, a journalist for Japanese video news agency APF News. That quickly prompted Japan’s foreign minister state that “..international community cannot allow peaceful protesters to be killed and injured.”

China, after years of refusal to use its regional influence on Myanmar’s still refused to impose sanctions against the country but agreed to condemn the recent crackdown and urge the country’s military rulers to allow in a UN envoy.

European Union diplomats agreed to consider imposing more economic sanctions on Myanmar. US called on Myanmar’s military leaders to open a dialogue with the protesters. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said “

IOJ goes to the Election Commission

Zafa Noor — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:11:30 +0000

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

The Election Commission in Bangladesh is apparently in good company, discussing “reforms” with ultra-right Islamist parties while plots are being designed to dismantle their mainstream, pro-democracy, secular counterparts.

Islami Oikko Jote (IOJ) was the first in line to be invited by the Election Commissioners (ECs) to discuss various aspects of election reform (including the reforms within political parties). The EC must be going from least to most important of the parties, considering that the IOJ won only 2 seats (out of 300) during 2001 parliamentary election.

Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini, the current chairman of IOJ was among the 10 people that met with the ECs on Wednesday, September 12. Amini later told BBC that he was turned off by the rule that one-third of the party committee seats should be filled by women members at all levels. He said it was not possible to allot 33% of the committee seats to women, considering the social and cultural reality of Bangladesh. IOJ opposed the proposal of using transparent ballot box for the polling, and proposed to increase the election expenses and reduce the party registration fees and made several other suggestions to EC.

What are the implications of sending an IOJ member to the parliament to represent a constituent? Their mandate pretty much revolves around fatwa, shariah, islamization of Bangladesh etc. Not that there is anything wrong in preaching one

Fakhruddin Ahmed addressed the nation

Zafa Noor — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:14:35 +0000

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

The regular evening news in Bangladesh on September 9 was interrupted to carry live the speech delivered Chief Advisor (CA) of the Caretaker Government (CTG) of Bangladesh Fakhruddin Ahmed. Dr. Ahmed addressed the nation and revealed some very important decisions made by the CTG. Note that there was no prior announcement of this speech. The program was broadcast by Bangladesh Television (BTV) and simultaneously transmitted by other private channels.

I have to say the style and delivery of a speech by a head of the government had never been better or more eloquent. The well orchestrated speech clearly indicated that lots of thought had been put into preparing the speech, and there has been a deliberate effort made to address some of the allegations of torture and intimidation alleged by international human rights groups and journalists .

I am going to highlight a few of the issues the CA mentioned in his speech. The most anticipated one is obviously the lifting of ban on indoor politics. Before the foot soldiers of the political parties get too excited with their agenda, they should know there have been some restrictions imposed on the indoor politics (thence the term relaxed ban on indoor politics) :

a political party may hold meetings of its forums to discuss only its organizational reforms and the Election Commission’s (EC) proposal for electoral reforms
a political party may hold the meetings at its central office, hotels, restaurants, auditoriums, and residences of its members, but it will have to inform the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in advance about the meetings.
a political party may hold the meetings only in the capital as the ban on indoor politics remains in the rest of the country
according to the notification, which was issued amending a provision of the Emergency Power Rules, a maximum of 50 leaders may meet at a time. If the number of attendees at a meeting is to exceed 50, the party will have to take prior permission from the home ministry
a political party may also hold its council to bring reforms to itself with prior permission from the home ministry.
those who will violate the restrictions will be punished with prison terms of two years to five years and fines.

It is conceivable that after eight months of gag order the political leaders are fully charged to launch their election campaigns and come up with party platforms. But who will lead these campaigns? The top leaders of the two major parties are sitting in special jails, without any possibility of obtaining bail any time soon, leaving their parties in serious rifts. Many of the former political front runners are either detained awaiting formal charges, or absconding justice or charged with petty crimes such as “keeping alcoholic beverages in their home without proper liquor license”. So it played according to the CTG’s plan of political purging in Bangladesh very well.

In his speech, Dr. Ahmed also mentioned that reform proposals of the Election Commission that already received nods from Civil Society and professional groups will soon be discussed with the political parties (or what is left of them) beginning as early as September 12. Considering how little objections we have seen from the civil society group over the last eight months on CTG

Presidential Vacuum, Constitutional Crisis and the Chief Justice

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:48:19 +0000

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

a la Pakistan?

Tasneem Khalil — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:56:44 +0000

Photo: General Moeen Uddin Ahmed.

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

A day after the most controversial adviser of current government Mainul Hosein claimed the current government was a “national government backed by the army,” General Moeen Uddin Ahmed decided to put the chip back in its place by the following statement:

“I don’t think so. Government is here and it’s a caretaker government