Fired imagination can work miracles
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
Known of late as tigers in the cricket world, also known as indolent and shirkers in the extreme, we, Bangladeshis, frankly speaking, sometimes behave exactly like chameleons. Surprisingly, some of our people, after the tragedies of Begunbari and Nimtali, seem to have been radically transformed from a boring stagnancy of passivity to an energetic state of activity. People's and professionals' outpourings of sympathy and empathy for the Nimtali fire victims have been so overwhelming that one who will now visit the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, especially its Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit, cannot believe that it is the same hospital and the same Burn Unit and the same hospital staff members he or she visited only a few weeks back.
One English daily newspaper published a front-page story with a headline: "Nimtali tragedy transforms burn unit of DMCH into delectably different".
Doctors and professionals in the DMCH have become hyperactive in their respective duties and responsibilities and nobody can find any flaw or negligence in the hospital administration. Doctors, nurses and all other professionals and staff members are working round the clock and without any rest. The patients in the Burn Unit are getting every service free of cost and free of hassles---a new situation in the hospital that was unimaginable before the tragedy struck the Nimtali inhabitants.
The spectacular unity among medical professionals and a flurry of excitement and activity inside the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, after a tragedy struck people at Nimtali, reminds us of the indomitable spirit of our people, after an occupation force perpetrated genocide on our soil, when the whole nation was united to achieve one single goal: our independence.
The secret behind such a sudden unity is a fire of different quality, a fire that stimulates unity among people for a common goal. On the 7th of March, 1971 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fired the imagination of more than 70 million Bangladeshi people to forge ahead with a determination to liberate the country. On the 30th of May 1981 the tragic death of Ziaur Rahman sparked a fire for the whole nation to forge ahead to implement what Zia had dreamt about a modern Bangladesh. Two tragic incidents in Dhaka city in quick succession have fired the imagination of people to forge ahead to do whatever they can to help the victims and to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
There are many tragedies happening in our neighbourhoods and around the world and some of the tragedies are much more pathetic than those that struck the inhabitants of Begunbari and Nimtali. But, those tragedies have been made not so visible or audible to us by our leaders or by our media people. How many of us, for instance, do know that more than 46 per cent of our children are malnourished and they are dying their slow deaths which are more agonising than quick deaths in a fire? There are issues more burning than those that are now alerting the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of DMCH. But, ironically, there we don't find leaders who care to fire the imagination of our people to forge ahead to douse the flames of those issues burning so perennially.
The writer can be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com
Known of late as tigers in the cricket world, also known as indolent and shirkers in the extreme, we, Bangladeshis, frankly speaking, sometimes behave exactly like chameleons. Surprisingly, some of our people, after the tragedies of Begunbari and Nimtali, seem to have been radically transformed from a boring stagnancy of passivity to an energetic state of activity. People's and professionals' outpourings of sympathy and empathy for the Nimtali fire victims have been so overwhelming that one who will now visit the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, especially its Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit, cannot believe that it is the same hospital and the same Burn Unit and the same hospital staff members he or she visited only a few weeks back.
One English daily newspaper published a front-page story with a headline: "Nimtali tragedy transforms burn unit of DMCH into delectably different".
Doctors and professionals in the DMCH have become hyperactive in their respective duties and responsibilities and nobody can find any flaw or negligence in the hospital administration. Doctors, nurses and all other professionals and staff members are working round the clock and without any rest. The patients in the Burn Unit are getting every service free of cost and free of hassles---a new situation in the hospital that was unimaginable before the tragedy struck the Nimtali inhabitants.
The spectacular unity among medical professionals and a flurry of excitement and activity inside the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, after a tragedy struck people at Nimtali, reminds us of the indomitable spirit of our people, after an occupation force perpetrated genocide on our soil, when the whole nation was united to achieve one single goal: our independence.
The secret behind such a sudden unity is a fire of different quality, a fire that stimulates unity among people for a common goal. On the 7th of March, 1971 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fired the imagination of more than 70 million Bangladeshi people to forge ahead with a determination to liberate the country. On the 30th of May 1981 the tragic death of Ziaur Rahman sparked a fire for the whole nation to forge ahead to implement what Zia had dreamt about a modern Bangladesh. Two tragic incidents in Dhaka city in quick succession have fired the imagination of people to forge ahead to do whatever they can to help the victims and to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
There are many tragedies happening in our neighbourhoods and around the world and some of the tragedies are much more pathetic than those that struck the inhabitants of Begunbari and Nimtali. But, those tragedies have been made not so visible or audible to us by our leaders or by our media people. How many of us, for instance, do know that more than 46 per cent of our children are malnourished and they are dying their slow deaths which are more agonising than quick deaths in a fire? There are issues more burning than those that are now alerting the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of DMCH. But, ironically, there we don't find leaders who care to fire the imagination of our people to forge ahead to douse the flames of those issues burning so perennially.
The writer can be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com