‘The library culture has not developed in our country’

One of the leading poets of the country, the director of National Book Center of Bangladesh and a revered freedom fighter, Rafiq Azad talks to Mushfique Wadud about modern poetry and the role of libraries in developing a reading habit among people

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

It is sometimes said by critiques that since independence, the country did not find enough notable poets. Being a leading poet in the country, how do you asses the contemporary poets?

I have a different opinion about the poets and poetry of present time. I think poetry develops very silently. In every decade, there must be five or six leading poets. I do not think this decade is any different.

We cannot fulfill the demand because of illegal lines’

Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) talks to Mushfique Wadud about the authority’s plans in resolving the ongoing water crisis

photo by Prito Reza

There is a crisis for water every year during this season. Unfortunately, the situation is apparently worsening as time goes on. What do you think are the reasons behind the crisis?

The shortage of water does not trouble the legal subscribers. WASA has enough supply of water to meet the existing legal demand. Unfortunately, there are a good number of illegal connection holders around the Dhaka city. Because of them, we cannot fulfill the demand.

There are mainly two reasons as to why the crisis for water becomes acute in this season. Firstly, the level of underground water is down and secondly, because of constant load shedding, the pumps do not work. As a result, the water supply of a certain area just collapses. Normally, we have a demand of 205 crore litre but we produce 190 or 195 crore litre.

Our manpower export market is in deep trouble

‘Our manpower export market
is in deep trouble’

President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Ghulam Mustafa tells Mushfique Wadud how the labour market is prone to be adversely hit this year because of global recession and that it is high time to reform the Bangladesh missions and embassies

photo by Prito Reza

On February 23, BAIRA expressed the view that the current global recession might cut the outflow of Bangladeshi workers almost by half by the end of 2009. But earlier media reports suggested that global recession won’t have an impact on Middle-Eastern countries and therefore it would not affect our manpower export market. What is your take on this?

From BAIRA, we apprehended such after considering the present situation. In fact Malaysia and Singapore have stopped giving visa to migrant workers.

Read more at http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/13/mar13/xtra_inner5.html