Building on achievements of 2016

So, it is time to say good-bye to the year 2016 and welcome the year 2017. Time is fleeting but the concept of mahakal as propounded by oriental saints carries far deeper meaning than aeon. It is not what eternity really means but there are some elements hidden in it. So, when a year disappears in the womb of mahakal, it does not even make a ripple. It is like the stream of consciousness that remains dormant only to have a chance of lifetime once. Like human life a year can be highly eventful with its many positives and negatives and still at the end of the day, nay, year, it cannot be revisited or recreated.

Well, then, people have the liberty to savour the gifts of a year or feel repellent against many of the unhappy or embarrassing tidings. Those who are blessed to have made the most of the offers feel contended but those who had the misfortune of suffering the worst want to forget the year and look forward to bettering their records next time. Individuals and a people or the entire human race have their own angles for understandable reasons to view the year that has just taken leave of them.

How does the year 2016 figure in individual memory cannot be known unless one shares one's own story. Even a community living in a corner of the planet may have gone unaccounted for unless something dreadful or beautiful happens to them. But a nation or a people cannot go unnoticed whatever little it has to its credit. So far Bangladesh is concerned, it fared well in the year 2016. The majority of its positive achievements have made it proud and the rest of the world has wondered what really has been the real alchemy behind changing it so spectacularly.

The country has made some determined strides in the direction of socio-economic progress. But still there are dissatisfactions in some areas where society is yet to close the gap between the rich and the poor. Its quality of education has been questioned by many quarters. Governance leaves much to be desired and corruption has been refusing to leave the scene despite an upward revision of pay-scale for government employees.

The country has a long way to go before it puts its acts together in order to have a living standard modestly matching with the promises made at the time of its liberation. Sure enough, it has been facing newer challenges but at the same time its enormous potential too is waiting for exploration and exploitation. The year 2016 has made the nation confident that if it is serious it can achieve successes against all odds.

Clearly the list of negatives is long but longer is the list of successes too. Now the task is to devote most of its energy to making its human resources resourceful. In that task the best weapon is education. The current system of education has proved inadequate in dealing with the problems and seizing opportunities. So much work remains to be done in this area. This is necessary because people individually and collectively as a nation need to walk tall on the surface of this planet. They have earned quite some respect from those who once looked askance. That is how a nation emerges from the shadow of uncertainty and charts a course of its own. If it can maintain the pace or better even accelerate it, time will come when it will earn more laurels. Let the year 2017 have a propitious beginning for this nation. If this nation rises up to the occasion, the Bangalees have every reason to have a special place in the comity of nations.