Changing the frame of mind
Friday, 24 April 2009
Mahmudur Rahman
About a year ago a leading Bangla national daily celebrated its anniversary with a powerful message-"Change things, change yourselves" (Bodley dao, bodley jao). It was backed up by a short but spirited campaign that picked on examples of every-day life where the opionated individual makes profound statements only to undo it all with his or her actions.
It all stems from the simple fact of life that governments are there to rule but it is for the individuals of the state to do their bit if society itself has to improve. The well thought-out campaigns focused on three specific examples. One was about spitting betel leaf juice inspite of a wall-sign requesting that this not be done, one was about giving up space for women or elders in buses and the third was about not encouraging child labour, especially in hazardous work. Needless to say the protagonists who talked tall were all guilty of not walking the talk. There are countless more incidents that one could come up with but the essence of it all is that the individual in society does need to change his or her frame of mind.
Let's for a moment concentrate on two issues top-most in the minds of the general public-electricity and water. Let's take the attention of immediate and overnight implementation of election pledges and such for a while. The brutal reality is that the power situation is unlikely to improve in the near future due to the simple fact that power generation cannot be ensured overnight. The options are either to import electricity at a cost, keep a tight leash on 'system loss' -- the polite version of electricity theft and-here is the individual's role-thrift in consumption.
Those living in the cities probably do not know the woes of power shortage in the rural and semi-urban areas. People there do not have air-coolers or multiple televisions or such and are usually content with normal electric bulbs and such. Yet they are sadly deprived. Even in the cities, the basic requirements of life in terms of electrical appliances can hardly be used. On the flip side of it, we have the blazing lights of various colours and dimension brazenly lighting up the evenings at times quite unnecessarily so. Somehow austerity does not seem to be in anyone's minds. Do we really need neon signs and illumination at weddings and national occasions? It is the same austerity that could perhaps allow a child, preparing for his or her exams to study or a farmer to run their pumps for irrigation. Has the coin dropped that the concept of load shedding is just a forced way of getting us to practice thrift? Probably not.
For years, there have been muted campaigns about not keeping gas-burners on at home unnecessarily. Yet, it appears that we are won't to waste gas just because we need a few extra match-sticks. When it comes to water it gets worse. Where a mug of water suffices a purpose, the tap must be run incessantly. And the domestic aides really take the cake. They are the ones who complain the loudest about electricity and water but when they come to work their wastage would have one think that the crisis is specifically targeted at them and not at their place of work.
It now appears the government is cracking on in the first two of the three options suggested earlier in this piece. The third is up to us-the people and the electorate. And perhaps the media could do a great service to the nation by hitting on our roles as the private citizen. Now more than ever we really must follow through on bodley dao, bodley jao. (The writer is a former Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs of British American Tobacco Bangladesh and former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He can be reached at mahmudrahman@gmail.com)
About a year ago a leading Bangla national daily celebrated its anniversary with a powerful message-"Change things, change yourselves" (Bodley dao, bodley jao). It was backed up by a short but spirited campaign that picked on examples of every-day life where the opionated individual makes profound statements only to undo it all with his or her actions.
It all stems from the simple fact of life that governments are there to rule but it is for the individuals of the state to do their bit if society itself has to improve. The well thought-out campaigns focused on three specific examples. One was about spitting betel leaf juice inspite of a wall-sign requesting that this not be done, one was about giving up space for women or elders in buses and the third was about not encouraging child labour, especially in hazardous work. Needless to say the protagonists who talked tall were all guilty of not walking the talk. There are countless more incidents that one could come up with but the essence of it all is that the individual in society does need to change his or her frame of mind.
Let's for a moment concentrate on two issues top-most in the minds of the general public-electricity and water. Let's take the attention of immediate and overnight implementation of election pledges and such for a while. The brutal reality is that the power situation is unlikely to improve in the near future due to the simple fact that power generation cannot be ensured overnight. The options are either to import electricity at a cost, keep a tight leash on 'system loss' -- the polite version of electricity theft and-here is the individual's role-thrift in consumption.
Those living in the cities probably do not know the woes of power shortage in the rural and semi-urban areas. People there do not have air-coolers or multiple televisions or such and are usually content with normal electric bulbs and such. Yet they are sadly deprived. Even in the cities, the basic requirements of life in terms of electrical appliances can hardly be used. On the flip side of it, we have the blazing lights of various colours and dimension brazenly lighting up the evenings at times quite unnecessarily so. Somehow austerity does not seem to be in anyone's minds. Do we really need neon signs and illumination at weddings and national occasions? It is the same austerity that could perhaps allow a child, preparing for his or her exams to study or a farmer to run their pumps for irrigation. Has the coin dropped that the concept of load shedding is just a forced way of getting us to practice thrift? Probably not.
For years, there have been muted campaigns about not keeping gas-burners on at home unnecessarily. Yet, it appears that we are won't to waste gas just because we need a few extra match-sticks. When it comes to water it gets worse. Where a mug of water suffices a purpose, the tap must be run incessantly. And the domestic aides really take the cake. They are the ones who complain the loudest about electricity and water but when they come to work their wastage would have one think that the crisis is specifically targeted at them and not at their place of work.
It now appears the government is cracking on in the first two of the three options suggested earlier in this piece. The third is up to us-the people and the electorate. And perhaps the media could do a great service to the nation by hitting on our roles as the private citizen. Now more than ever we really must follow through on bodley dao, bodley jao. (The writer is a former Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs of British American Tobacco Bangladesh and former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He can be reached at mahmudrahman@gmail.com)