Dhaka is bursting and getting out of control, judging from the reports (DS Dec 26 and earlier) on the REHAB housing Fair, where the crowd has not diminished even after doubling the entrance ticket. The land prices in the greater Dhaka zone have sky-rocketed, and the wetlands and water surfaces are being filled up indiscriminately, thanks to the patronisation of the culture of corruption (we are world's No 1 for the last four years!).

The main complaint is that the divisional and district headquarters have not been geared up to provide one-stop public services. The ghost of the preceding autocratic presidential regimes is still haunting the democratically-elected popular peoples' governments.

The inflation in the political market has risen to absurd levels. The crash will have to come soon, and it is unavoidable, as the foundation of "political science" is shaky. The stupor in political leadership is akin to nesha of the drug addicts-"there is nothing wrong so long my world looks rosy".

We are facing several demons simultaneously: bad politics; corrupt practices; and terrorism in many aspects of public and private lives. What the major political parties are doing? Chasing each other! The civil service is supposed to mother the public affairs, but it is now catering to private and party affairs. When housekeepers cannot keep house, the nation is going to suffer. Leaking politics, leaking bureaucracy, or leaking morals (and pockets)?

For centuries, centralisation acted as an anchor in native concept in the untrained and undisciplined human interface. Practising the right models of democracy has also taken many centuries, but in the affluent nations it is displayed as a decoy for colonisation, in its various forms and dimensions, visible and invisible.

Empires came and evaporated, and now Western Economics is facing a crash, with the international Dollar in deep trouble (the inevitable cumulative effect). The latter cannot come out of the trap, as the Americans cannot come out of Iraq. It is the beginning of the end. It is not the clash. but the crash of the flag-bearing civilisation (one third of the global population, at the expense of the other two third). The compound interest would be extracted in the coming decades, if not the current century, and the next.

The narrow-minded regimes in the third world have to look ahead at the danger signals ahead. The awareness campaign has not even been drafted! The road is uneven, and the focus is on the next step ahead. Can't raise the gaze to discern the horizon, for employing foresight and judgement.

The concept of unity does not sell today; inside a society (the overtones of political culture), and outside, in international affairs (pre-emptive strikes). Where is the starting point? Re-invent monopoly?