Diplomats and traffic
Shabbir A Bashar, PhD has taken Mr Mahboob Elahi, of Ottawa, Canada and myself to task for criticizing him on his so-called “unwarranted” accusation that foreign diplomats and international NGOs stationed in Dhaka possess the majority of Gas Guzzling Monstrosities (GGMs), drive them at our expense and cause most of the gridlock on Dhaka's streets by flaunting our traffic laws.
Mr Bashar bemoans that relevant parts of his letter were edited out, but does he not understand that it is the prerogative of the Letters Editor, who may sometimes have cold feet as well as having to excise long letters?
But why should he misquote my own printed lines in his rebuttal? What I had written was (“Good Heavens what could have prompted Mr Bashar to make such a statement that) most of the stretched out, 4-5 lakh gas guzzling monstrosities that have flooded and blocked Dhaka's narrow pot-holed streets and lanes, belong to the diplomatic community and that the Bangladeshi taxpayer pays for the fuel.” Mr Bashar, however, dropped the first part within brackets and quoted the rest, thereby giving exactly the opposite meaning to my assertions.
Secondly, my letter clearly refers to Bangladeshi girls working in diplomatic, international or corporate institutions who mostly travel by GGMs compared to the many foreign female staff who can be seen walking or bicycling to work. But in his letter, Mr Bashar dragged in the female employees of the RMG sector, who are mere chattels of the garment owners, a major source of GGMs, purchased at the cost of the exploited labour of over two million women workers, who far from even affording a rickshaw, are sometimes made to walk bare-foot!!.
Sorry to say, but Mr Bashar seems to know little about the present reality of Bangladesh. Is he not aware that diplomatic personnel's protection is our responsibility as they have now become the favourite targets for muggers, robbers etc.
However, Eid Mubarak to him and thanks for letting us know there is a Vancouver in the USA also.
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