What are we babbling about, brothers?
FROM parliament to poultry farms, from TV shows to TB hospitals, we are doing a lot of talking. We are God's chosen gabbers. That is why talking is our greatest pastime. All day long we talk about who is talking about who and what.
We quote politicians, we quote economists, we quote businessmen, we quote bureaucrats, we quote retired generals and we even quote mastans in this nonstop and untiring show of babbling. (Suggestion to NBR: Introduce "Tax on the Tongue." We shall cease to talk. TV talk shows will be replaced by something informative and entertaining. I can bet.)
So, we talk about everyone and everything, but we hardly talk about people or things that actually need to be talked about. For example, about people who do not have the opportunity to earn money -- black or white; about people who need to be arrested for grabbing riverbanks; about schools that need qualified teachers; about campuses that need to be purged of criminalised teachers and students; about corrupt health practitioners, or for that matter, about those millions who, right at this moment, are living in waist-deep water in some parts of the country. Flood waters will soon reach up to their neck, but we shall remain engrossed in our analysis of why Jamiruddin Sircar and Delwar Hossain did not appear before the parliamentary committee to explain why they "took" money and "furniture" from the Sangshad.
Today, let us discuss floods. Flooding of vast areas every year is a common phenomenon in this country. In this era of satellite technology, we even come to know about the possibilities of early floods but do not care to take any preemptive measures to help those millions out there.
We do not take measures to create "genuine" embankments or dams early on so that the extra water could be channeled to the nearby rivers. Every year we wait for the floodwaters to come and inundate poor people's homesteads and then we go with relief materials. We ensure that TV cameras reach before us, so that we can pose for the photo-shoot. The media has strong appetite for such photos.
In seminars, we talk about all sorts of "Human Rights" but not about the right of the flood stricken citizens of this country. We never say in loud voice that they have the right not to be inundated by flood waters every year. Why should they live amidst water for days and months when there are ways to handle floods?
We throw tantrums when our cars get stranded in clogged rainwater in the city for a couple of hours. And yet we fail to perceive the suffering of the people in the rural areas during the floods! We think of introducing underground railway spending billions of dollars, but cannot fix some vulnerable spots through which flood waters enter our land. Very funny, indeed.
Come to think of it. Why has flood control never been given the topmost priority by any government in Bangladesh? Look at what the Dutch did decades ago to protect their people from recurring floods! Look at the Netherlands today and look at our country! In the rural areas people survive with animal instinct in floodwaters. They have no other way but to hang on like cliffhangers. If they had a choice they would not have wanted to be inundated by floods every year.
They do not "enjoy" wading through chest-deep water to collect relief materials given by the shahibs or those Paleolithic political jokers. Actually the very act of throwing biscuits or orsaline packets from the safety of a boat at those desperate people wading in filthy water is but crude, obscene and immoral. We, the so-called shahibs, should hide our faces in shame. Therefore, from here on, please do not say "our people's resilience" anymore to mean "our collective failure."
You know something? We love to become mukhora in exploring India's "dubious design" with Tipaimukh, but never talk about the dubiously designed culverts, bridges, embankments and dams "built" by the previous "political" governments of this country, which got washed away in no time. The result is today's flooding and inundation. Where are those netas who built those dams and culverts that got washed away so soon?
Do they read newspapers and watch the TV and see how their "voters" are suffering like animals? Will they wade through chest-deep water to share their plight? No way. You will find them in the private clubs sipping whiskey in the evenings. Many of them even shamelessly come to the talk shows and give us sermons on various subjects! They are still talking about how the government is out to take political revenge on Jamiruddin Sircar and Delwar Hossain! Audaciously wasteful, aren't they? Well, you and I cannot stop their tongues. They are blessed with the "gift of the gab," as the saying goes.
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