Can we really afford this luxury of long holidays?

Bangladesh has topped the list in corruption, I am sure it will top the list amongst nations with most holidays. As it is, the overall national productivity is on a continuous downward swing, and these superimposed holidays are only adding to the problem.

Except for the poor, who live hand to mouth, no one else is at work. The scourge of holidays becomes acute particularly during the two Eid festivals. Virtually everything comes to a standstill.

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It is sad that this has now become a permanent feature of our culture. When I was a child, my father used to tell me: "Son, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Go out and play for a while." I guess all that has changed now, instead the entire nation has decided to be on holiday at all times. I am not against holidays and celebrations, but certainly against excesses be it holidays or anything else. The holiday cycle is indeed turning our nation into a nation of inertia and non-performers.

Added to this, often on their own, people decide to abstain from work over and above the prescribed holidays, and surprisingly enough their supervisors simply ignore this, and the perpetrators continue with such unauthorised absences. Ironically, the media publishes photographs of empty rooms due to absence of staff in various government offices, even beyond the authorised leave of absence over declared holidays. Thereafter, it is business as usual, everything is forgotten and forgiven.

The holiday culture in Bangladesh has affected our entire society in a variety of ways. Come Eid, for days you have no access to day-to-day essential consumables since the shops and vendors too are on "leave." All kinds of groceries become scarce and often simply not available. At times you have problems in getting medicines for the sick. Doctors are away from their duties, particularly in public hospitals, often causing unprecedented miseries for the sick requiring hospitalisation. The streets remain unclean with municipal services virtually coming to a standstill. Extended holidaying also means additional expenditure for people. This leads to all kinds of personal borrowings. On the other hand, unlike the prevailing culture in many developing and developed nations, there is no provision for extra or compensatory work here in Bangladesh for any added or extended closed days. .

Bangladesh is one country which can least afford this kind of luxury. Can you imagine that come Eid or any other extended declared holidays the entire nation is without a daily newspaper. This is simply appalling. How can a country in the modern day world exist without a daily for days? Surely the owners, given the will, can make arrangements for publications to come out in reduced size, instead of a 12 or 20-page regular size it could be of 6 or 8 pages Our print media is often vocal as to how its rights are being violated on a regular basis, but has it ever occurred to the editors and the publishers of newspapers, as to how they are violating people's right to information by closing down the publications.

Whenever confronted with such an extended holiday season, I continue to pray that my telephone should not go out of order, since no one will come to my rescue and repair it. I pray that there is no electrical problem in the house, since there will be none to attend to the problem. I pray that I do not fall sick and there is no occasion requiring me to be taken to a hospital on an emergency basis, since my driver has gone on leave and shall not return to work in the coming seven to ten days. He is entitled to four days of leave but has left us by saying that nothing less than seven days would do for him, and that he might be delayed further by a day or even more.

One also wonders as to the overall effect on the state of our security during these long holidays. Security in today's context of continued bomb blasts should be dealt with on a high priority basis. I am almost certain that many of our important government buildings and installations are also likely to suffer from a laxity during these episodes of long and extended holidays. As a matter of fact, some aspects of our security, on the contrary, should be ramped up over the normal level, and we need to have more manpower available on top of its present strength, which by all counts is inadequate.

On a different, note on grounds of morality it is also wrong for our lawmakers to encourage and sponsor such a long stretch of holidays, particularly when over 70 percent of the country's population live in an endemic state of poverty and are left out from the fortunate few. Besides there is no denying the fact that our work culture is already in a pitiable state.

The new week-end days recently introduced by the Ruling Coalition are already having a negative impact on our trade and economy. This month following the Eid holidays we are stuck in the trap of a possible two weeks of closure of all business and public enterprises.

It is thus high time that the administration gave some serious thought to this aspect of public holidays and the two-day weekly holidays. The plea of cutting down on the routine management costs, including cost of fuel for operating the transport pool, appears to be unfounded. Frankly, I am of the conviction that this growing culture of extended holiday is not only having a negative impact on the nation's commerce, economy and trade, but also on the moral and ethical aspects of our work culture.