Kissinger's comment
Moinul Chowdhury (Letter January 18) is the latest of many to misunderstand Henry Kissinger's awful comment about Bangladesh, which is a great deal worse than 'bottomless basket'. That conveys the notion of some nation or person having endless needs and, actually, if Kissinger had meant that, he would probably have used the more likely English expression 'a bucket with a hole in the bottom'. No, he said that Bangladesh was a 'basket-case' - and the real meaning of that is much more insulting.
In the lunatic asylums of England long ago, they did not understand mental illness, nor had at their disposal the numerous drugs and therapies that are available today. The managers could be at their wit's end to know how to restrain and care for the inmates. Those who were violent were chained or tied up or put in straitjackets. As for those who were passively helpless and hopeless, they were just put into a basket in a foetal position and tied in so they could do minimum harm to others, or themselves. Thus these 'basket cases' mad and incapable of helping themselves - wasted away their brief existence.
It is a horrible picture but we have to face the fact that some Bangladeshis also see their country, much as they may love it, as a hopeless case and try by hook or by crook (or by good jobs and expensive marriages) to get a visa to live somewhere else. Surely the coming general election and how the winning party behave after it - will be a test case for many as to whether they will give up on their country or stay on.
I am sure I am not the only one of your readers, sir, who lives and works here, fighting like a tiger to make Bangladesh a place in which young and promising people DO want to live. Surely it is up to every individual in Bangladesh to brush aside in anger the cruel verdicts of the past and by his and her conduct, show the world that the citizens of this country, far from being helpless and hopeless cases, are capable of the discipline and national pride necessary for free and fair elections - and that their leaders are capable of honourable behaviour - so that this country can stand tall in the company of other democracies.
Basket case? What an outrageous judgment on a nation that won its independence in amazing circumstances and surely knows that the price of true freedom involves continuing sacrifice!
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