Digital Bangladesh And Good Governance

The world is becoming a Digital Planet. Almost every state is running to become a knowledge based society by 2021. Digital society focuses on a technology based society where information must be available to all classes of people. It is obviously a forward thinking one especially for a poverty ridden and developing country like Bangladesh. Each and every sector of a society should be interconnected through ICT. Connecting people and ensuring good governance is core prerequisite to digital Bangladesh. Good governance includes different indicators like accountability of the government, transparency of the government, effective parliament, effective democratic system, freedom of print and mass media, independence of the judiciary, rule of law, and access to information etc. Effective implementation of the above indicators can be possible when society gets adaptation with ICT. Information should be exposed to mass people that can only ensure true communication. Connecting people depends on open access of information.

Bangladesh is resounding with the target of achieving digital Bangladesh. It is truly our dream to see digital Bangladesh by the year 2021. To me education is the top most requirement of digital Bangladesh. In Bangladesh education rate is definitely low than other developed countries. Our government has taken different policies in order to provide light of education to every sphere of people in our society. English literacy rate is comparatively poorer that certainly deserves top priority to see our country digitalised.

Only few people of our country know how to use computer and the Internet. Our country is a rural based one. High digital distance exists between rural and urban areas. Internet facility is merely seen in some organisations in urban areas. Digital Bangladesh must ensure Internet facility to all organisations in our society so that people could do their daily activities like banking, shopping, paying income tax, electricity bill, water bill, paper bill etc via internet. Everyday activities need to be digitalised and technology driven. If people wants to know any information relating to any sector they just need computer and Internet. So, all information needs to be available on web-page. Thus good governance and e-governance can be ensured which is compulsory to achieve the millennium development goal.

Digitalisation with telecommunication sector must deserve appreciation as they are helping our country to adapt. Mobile phones are getting cheaper and easily accessible for mass people. In rural areas farmers can acquire agricultural information through mobile phones. Doctors used to prescribe patients through mobile phones. Banglalink and GP are providing these technologies driven facility to our people.

Information and communication technological sectors must be given most priority otherwise we won’t be able to attain our cherished ‘Digital Bangladesh’.

A very first step for ‘Digital Bangladesh’ would be to spread the ICT education trough out the country. We must build a Digital Bangladesh and establish a knowledge based society. Lets work for this achievement. Lets build Digital Bangladesh. Are You Ready?

Let Eid strengthen fraternity

For a Muslim, Eid is a day of thanksgiving. On the day of Eid, fasting is forbidden since this day marks the end of the month-long fast. In the morning of Eid, Muslims are encouraged to enjoy a sweet snack such as dates. Other practices on this special day include bathing and adorning oneself in new or one’s best clothes. Muslims celebrate Eid by expressing thanks to Allah by means of distributing alms among the poor and needy and offering special prayers. On this day, gifts are also given to children and loved ones. Eid ul-Fitr is the first of two holidays in Islam, second holiday is called Eid ul-Adha and falls on the 10th day of Thul Hijjah, which is the 12th month and occurs during the Hajj.

Muslims are also encouraged on this day to forgive and forget any differences or past animosities that may have occured with others during the year.

BANGLADESHIS like Muslims elsewhere in the globe would be celebrating the joyous occasion of the holy Eid-ul-Fitr on Friday or Saturday depending on the sighting of the moon. Traditionally, wearing of attractive dress, eating sumptuously and engaging in fun and frolics, are considered as spending well the time of Eid. But it is a sad reality that Eid's happiness still remains largely out of the reach of the vast majority of the poor who comprise about half of the population. They also do attempt to eat well and provide some recreation to their families by mobilising their meagre resources at the time of Eid. But a great many of them remain deprived of even the minimum of self-satisfaction on Eid day due to their abject poverty.

Thus, Eid as a religious festival would come as a happy occasion for all only if Islam's cardinal teaching to build a caring and sharing society by maximising of social welfare activities is adhered to. The mandatory Islamic religious charity, Zakat, is paid scantily and disproportionately compared to the real wealth by the rich in many cases. This needs to change through conscious policies on the part of citizens, the government, religious groups and others who should build a vigorous campaign exhorting well-off people to give Zakat adequately in proportion to the wealth held by them.

If this can be accomplished, then only it would be possible to have a vast Zakat fund running into many billions of Taka annually and the resources from it can be spent on welfare of the poor. Therefore, the real challenge for all in Bangladesh is to establish Islam - as it should be - so that every Eid can be a truly happy occasion for the greatest number of people.

Beyond the month of Ramzan

Every year Ramzan appears with the message of self-constraint, self-analysis, self-control and spiritual communion and also with the news of Eid-ul-Fitr which means a day of exchanging greetings, visiting relatives and friends and neighbors and having scrumptious dishes to strengthen the friendly and social ties and bodings. Really its an excellent way and ritual of Islam to make the followers socialise themselves and earn the ability to reshape and restart their lives with new vigour, promise and strength according to the teachings of Islam. The religious and God-fearing persons really observe fast to have Divine blessings and reshape their lives after month-long fasting which helps remove the sins, mistakes and faults committed by humans every moment.

A group of businessmen take this month as a great opportunity to earn fortune cheating the customers of this contrary . We see, no other item goes without price spiral at the advent of Ramadan every year. Local products transported to the cities from rural areas see exorbitant rate. On duty law enforcers and the cronies of muscle men collect tolls at higher rate during the month of Ramadan than they do all other months of the year. Political mastans extract more money from vendors to multinational companies as 'chanda' in this holy month. Fares of all kinds of transports increase at the closing days of Ramandan and with the advent of Eid. Questions arise in inquisitive and honest mind how these people take the teaching, meaning and significance of Ramadan and Eid. When these evil phenomena prevail more vehemently in the society than another eleven months of the year, the sensuous people fail to identify the relation between the touch of spirituality which is supposed to be gained through fasting and their more active role in earning worldly gains.

On the contrary, Political parties start their campaign and activities in the name of sumptuous and delicious ' Iftar Party' where rich items of food are served and they try to explain and relate the jobs they do with the teachings of Islam. Conscious people try to illustrate this effort as hoodwinking the people using religion. The higher middle class and rich people continue arranging 'Iftar party' in their homes. Religious are start 'milad mahfil' and enjoy delicious items of food visiting the affluent section of the society. Overall food consumption increases during this month though we want to explain it as the month of controlling all kinds of desires- both physical and mental.

No sooner than one or two days of Ramzan pass the banner of various sizes, colours and slogans of different sorts to allure the customers for Eid shopping. One cannot but get astonished to learn that many people buy their Eid dresses before Eid and within one week of Eid. Then again, they buy before Eid just to visit different markets. Here also I don't get any smell of spirituality, just self-created customs and social norms. The gorgeous shops of the sophisticated market of the city become flooded with Indian 'saries' and 'panjabis'. The price of these dresses goes beyond the imagination of lakhs of people like me who just cannot find any reason to buy those madly costly costumes. One or two lakh taka sari and similar for panjabis. How strange is the conscience of these people being the citizens of a poor country like Bangladesh which is plagued by poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, natural calamities, frequent load-shedding, mosquito menace, severe traffic congestion and human rights violation at every sphere of life, in this poor land where the processions of 'fakirs and unfed people' crowd around the expensive private cars of the rich people at all the interceptions and crossings of this seemingly sumptuous city. This is a city, which hosts several hundred slums and shanties. This is a city where flood of flooded people migrate with the hope of earning their bread making this city uninhabitable for the posh people. Being a citizen of this country and seeing everything in their own eyes how they can so severely misuse the money? They must remember the downtrodden and deprived people of the land have share with their wealth. Keeping them unfed and half clad, they in no way can afford to misuse the money by buying so madly expensive costumes just for 'Eid' day. What kind of self-control and sympathy they have learnt from their physical fasting? Observing fasting and Eid will be meaningful and true when these people will be able to distribute those money for those who hardly can save their 'shame' by wearing clothes, who cannot send their children to school for want of money.

Eid Bonanza on small screen, for the small screen-lovers, Eid comes with the promise of unlimited entertainment. All the television channels of the country are offering a number of special programmes. Selected programmes from the first three day’s schedule of different channels are given here.

Rush of people flood the markets decorated with various colorful lights even the country experiences frequent load shedding. What's the relation between fasting and pouring in the markets for buying very colourful and costly dresses? Very contrasting pictures indeed! It seems just social and traditional custom, no religious teaching is attached with it. Yes, buying one dress or two may be taken as usual, but several sets of dresses through the competition how much costly dress one can buy from each other raises questions. Religion holds a very good message through fasting and Eid ul-fitr, which many people fail to grasp. Spiritual communion, training to control one's lust for worldly things and physical soundness can be gained through real fasting. Ending the fast with Eid entails a social value to tie all the neigbours and relatives into one bond of friendship. It's a wonderful occasion once a year to further develop and renew the teachings of fraternity and friendship among the neighbours and relatives. But we the humans have developed some traditions, which hardly have any links with the real sprit of Ramadan and Eid.

USA President Barack Obama Says To Address New Economic Ideas Next Week.

USA President Barack Obama will outline new measures next week to boost the U. S. economy after August data Friday showed again that jobs - the central issue in November elections - were being created too slowly.



Obama, speaking to reporters in the White House Rose Garden, greeted a better-than-expected August employment report that showed thousands of new private sector jobs were created as "positive news.

"But he said the numbers were not good enough and more needed to be done to address U. S. economic woes."

The White House is under pressure to show tangible resultsin lifting growth and hiring before congressional elections in November, when Obama's Democrats face punishment from votersanxious about near double-digit unemployment.

"I will be addressing a broader package of ideas nextweek," Obama said. "We are confident that we are moving in theright direction. But we want to keep this recovery movingstronger and accelerate the job growth that is needed sodesperately all across the country."

On Monday, the president highlighted a number of possible options including extending middle class tax cuts, investing in clean energy, spending more on infrastructure, and delivering more tax cuts to businesses to encourage hiring.

The White House declined to give more specifics about theme asures and a spokeswoman said final decisions had not been made.

"We need to take further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest," Obama said.

"In the weeks ahead, I'll be discussing some of these ideas in more detail."

"Obama will have ample opportunity to flesh out those thoughts next week. He is planning to travel to Milwaukee on Monday, the Labor Day holiday, and will visit Cleveland on Wednesday. He will also hold a White House news conference on Friday, September 10.

The August employment report earlier showed a bigger-than-expected rise of 67,000 in private payrolls, while unemploymentinched up a tenth of a percentage point to 9.6 percent.

Overall, U. S. non farm payrolls fell 54,000 as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 114,000.


"Jobs are being created. They're just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced,"Obama said.



"We're going to have to continue to work with Republicans and Democrats to come up with ideas that can further accelerate that job growth. I'm confident that we can do that."