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| Volume 11 |Issue 10| March 09, 2012 | |
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Star Diary Pure Water Last month, when I went to my father-in-law's house with my six-month-old baby, I experienced something worrying. I took bottles of mineral water with me because I knew about the presence of arsenic contamination in the tube-well used in the house. One of my nieces on noticing that I did not allow my child to drink from any other source of water, advised me to boil the water from the tube-well and feed her. She seemed to be under the impression that arsenic went away if the water was boiled. As I tried to explain to her that it infact did not go away, I got to know that everyone in the house was under the same impression. Even more disturbing was the fact that everyone in the area did the same. It is quite surprising that even now people are still misinformed about arsenic and the process of purifying the arsenic contaminated water. I think it is the duty of all responsible citizens and the government to spread awareness all over the country, especially in the affected areas. Such an effort was in existence when arsenic was first discovered. However, it died down by time. This should not be the case until our waters are arsenic free. Mousumi Islam Addicted Drivers
A few days ago while returning home from Dhaka University, I noticed something that bothers me even today. A taxi driver was smoking hemp, which is illegal, by his taxi in the roadside. It horrifies me to think that he drives around in that intoxicated state, which is very risky for the passenger(s). However, such drivers are there across the country. They do not think how valuable a son is to his mother, a father to his family, a husband to his wife and vice-versa. Study shows that a large number of the drivers smoke marijuana or hemp with cigarettes. There has to be a way of stopping this trend. Can't we expect a society where at least our drivers will leave the dangerous habit of smoking hemp? I wish somehow it could be ensured that while at work people would completely refrain from any type of intoxication. Maybe if there was a way of conducting drug tests on a regular basis to keep people in check, it would be easier to control the abuse of drugs. Md Abir Hossain Who are our Doctors for? We all know that patients go to consult doctors to get treatment and it is a general belief about doctors that they are available to help us during emergency medical conditions almost whenever the need arises. However this fact is becoming a myth nowadays for doctors are no longer that noble in their intensions. The other night, I took my friend who was suffering from severe back pain to consult a doctor at a local hospital. The pain had occurred quite suddenly hence it was not possible to make a prior appointment with a doctor and apparently it became so intolerable that he could not even sit in the waiting room. I requested the guard-in-charge of the chamber many times to give us an urgent appointment but in vain. Then I asked him to let me talk to the doctor but was denied the chance to do so. He said that he would be rebuked for allowing me to talk to the doctor and that nobody would be allowed without prior appointment. In the meantime the condition of my friend was deteriorating a lot. So we went to a private hospital and took emergency treatment of a doctor. The situation that night reminded me of a joke. Once, very late at night, a man who was bitten by a dog went to consult a doctor. The doctor asked him, ''Don't you know that I don't attend to patients at this hour?'' Then the patient replied, ''Sir, I know but the dog doesn't know about your working hours hence bit me at such an odd hour.'' If this is the case, then who do we go to in times of medical need? It is not always possible to go to private hospitals as they are very expensive. Ramij Ahamd
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