Cut foreign trips and attend to the shivering poor
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
In spite of assurances by the government (through its various spokespersons) and the appeals by those who care about it, poor people in the country continue to suffer due to the cold wave. It is being reported in the media almost daily. People are no longer amused by the rhetoric and ridiculous promises and claims of the ruling party members.
The BNP has not been in power for three years now and so has no power to influence the government, specially this government. The responsibility of taking care of these problems, like cold and hunger, rests with the government and the state machinery. The images of children sleeping in the open without warm clothes, to see old people huddling together near a fire because they have no place to go that has a roof is not what we would like to see.
Ordinary and conscientious citizens who are aware of the matter are doing their part and helping those miserable people with whatever they have at hand, be it money or clothes. But at a time like this, what do we see? Dozens of official and unofficial foreign trips with a laughable number of people in the entourage where less than one fifth would have been more than enough. And who is paying for these trips? The US, the UN, our next door neighbours? It is being paid for by the state, which means us. The money would surely have been better spent in providing warm clothes to those who need it the most.
Sufia Khatun
Comilla
The BNP has not been in power for three years now and so has no power to influence the government, specially this government. The responsibility of taking care of these problems, like cold and hunger, rests with the government and the state machinery. The images of children sleeping in the open without warm clothes, to see old people huddling together near a fire because they have no place to go that has a roof is not what we would like to see.
Ordinary and conscientious citizens who are aware of the matter are doing their part and helping those miserable people with whatever they have at hand, be it money or clothes. But at a time like this, what do we see? Dozens of official and unofficial foreign trips with a laughable number of people in the entourage where less than one fifth would have been more than enough. And who is paying for these trips? The US, the UN, our next door neighbours? It is being paid for by the state, which means us. The money would surely have been better spent in providing warm clothes to those who need it the most.
Sufia Khatun
Comilla