The week in re(ar)view

In this country of ours the value of everything goes up. Even old cars cost more than when they were new and these are not even classics. There is though one constant where things go down and that is the value of life.

A bloody mess
We know of someone who recently needed blood urgently. No, it wasn't for concocting any witchcraft brew but for a medical reason. Now the blood is 'O' positive which is quite common. Except that when the said person needed it he ended up calling up all family members and soon the hospital was crowded with about 40 relatives. All this despite the fact that blood was readily available at the hospital.

You can't really blame them for being worried about the quality. On 31 August 50 bags of blood were found at an unauthorized private blood bank by the mobile court. This took place in a house in Hosni Dalan. The blood was stored in a normal refrigerator that had no constant temperature required for proper preservation. Even the reagents needed for identifying the blood group was also expired. And here's the topper: fake test results were slapped onto the bags.

This bloody collection was provided by professional blood givers. Drug addicts commonly fall into this category. So what comes next? Do we import blood as well from foreign nations? Will the blood be branded by Calvin Klein and Gucci?

Explosive situation
On September 1 a taxi cab blows up, yet again. This takes place in a Mirpur CNG filling station where the taxi was in queue for, well, filling up its tank. Photo caption mentioned 4 people sustaining injuries while report mentioned 2 people. It also burned down another taxi that was waiting in line. And that too the report was small enough to be missed except for the picture.

Apparently no one really cares that CNG tanks keep blowing up like this. The news report contained no mention of any sort of investigation into the cause of this explosion. There was no follow up on the story either this time or every other time. Value of human life must be at an all time low.

CNG might be cheap but it is carried in a manner that is dangerous. Apparently the margin of error on safety set by relevant authorities must be pretty high. It is likely that the exploding cylinders are not exploding frequently enough to warrant a proper investigation and better safety measures.

By Gokhra and Mood Dude

RS Mailbx

RS Mailbox
The one stop junction for our readers' love hate, frustrations and of course, financial donations. Send all your articles as well to the following address risingstars @thedailystar .net

I just gone through your article 'Get cracking with BILLIARD'. Please accept my sincere thanks for this article, which I am sure, will encourage the younger generation to take this sports seriously. For your information, BILLIARDS is a parent game, from which games like English Billiards, Snooker, Pool and Carom came. You will be happy to know that these games are not only just entertainment but also considered as sports. These games are being played in ASIAN GAMES since 1998 and will be a competitive event in the forthcoming 15TH ASIAN GAMES 2006 scheduled to be held in Qatar in first half of December 2006. You will also be happy to know that Bangladesh Billiards & Snooker Federation has already decided to send a 5 member team to participate in Snooker and Pool events.

You can get more information on billiards sports by visiting the websites (1) ww.bbsfbd.com & (2) www.acbs-cuesports.com
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information.
Syed Mahboob
Secretary General Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports
9555160, 9552964 (880-2) 9558937, 9897046(880) 01713006800

Pluto's rights
In response to "Pluto's Rights" by Tausif Salim, I'd like to state that I too was upset at the decision. However, I'd like to put my 2 cents in. I feel that the decision was justified as Pluto's demotion to "Dwarf Planet" was not based on size alone. Firstly, new rules by the IAU state that to be qualified as a planet, a celestial body must circle the sun and be in charge of its own orbit. Pluto's orbit is irregular like that of a comet/Kuiper Belt object (elliptical) and is influenced

strongly by Neptune. Lastly, its 'moon' Charon is half its size so astronomers find it difficult to judge who circles who (it's rather like the Alpha Centauri star system); they might just be a dual planetary system. If Pluto is to be a planet, the asteroid Ceres and bodies Charon and Xena get pulled into the bargain. This is highly confusing (Ceres & Charon are too small; Ceres is not 'round' enough and has an elliptical orbit; Charon orbits Pluto), hence leading to the decision over Pluto.
Best Wishes,
Alaka Halder

RS is lost
It seems RS is losing many of its core elements day by day. I can't remember when I last saw Niloy's Sites Unseen. It's been over three weeks since I've seen the poems column. And in the last two issues, the same "And now you realize" was published. Was this an error or did RS run out of stories? I don't know. The last issue of RS was boring in my opinion. And after a week long wait this kind of foul job is unacceptable. I hope RS will be back in it's old form in no time.
Rush,NDC.

RS is found again
I must say recent issues of RS have been a vast improvement over the last couple of years. I love it that so much humour is put in because RS about a year ago used to be a rather dour reading material. Especially liked last weeks cover story on billiard. It is a very popular sport here but it gets very little coverage. Also interesting was the 24 August article on the Jamuna Resort. Please highlight more places like these that people can go to.
RS is starting to focus on the young people's issue once again and that's great news. One more thing: the colour pages look fantastic so can't the rest of RS be made to look like that?
Amitabh Siddiqui

Terrorised
It is indeed sad to see teenagers being recruited to carry out terrorism. But that does not mean we have to support the western powers. It is our duty to support the countries that are victims of the "wars". People blow themselves up even though in Islam, it is not permissible to commit suicide. But we have to look at the cause for the suicide bombings. People who carry out suicide bombings are desperate and they do not get any help from other countries. They have been physically and mentally tortured by their enemies. Suicide is not the right form of revenge, but people attempt it as a last resort. We should condemn terrorism but also look at the true cause for terrorism and try to understand what is going on.
Zarif Iftekhar Rasul

1 Hridoyer Kotha OST. Various Artists The mixed album featuring Sound Tracks from the movie as well as Habib's compositions for the bangle film
industry.
2 Kotodeen Dekhini Tomay Shafeen Ahmed Shafeen Ahmed's First Solo Album featuring Original tracks and old bangle tracks.
3 Faisha Gesi Hyder Husyn One of the most Popular albums now and still going strong for a while. A must buy.
4 Shondha Tara Kumar Biswajeet/ Tapan Chawdhury The album with two top vocals featuring Bangla adhunik gaan.
5 Poison Green Poison Green The debut album of the popular underground metal band features popular original tracks from the band
6 Mila Fele Asha Mila's debut solo album going strong with her musical talent and charm.
7 64m 53s Arbovirus Talented Underground band Arbovirus hits the audience with their great rock compositions and artistic lyrics.
8 Oniket Prantor Artcell Artcell's second album Oniket Prantor had been one of the most anticipated albums of Bangladesh.
9 Bappa/ Fahmida Ek Mutho Gaan The romantic-pop solo and duet compositions of the great artists, Bappa and Fahmida.
10 Lampur Aloo Dj Rahat feat. Tun Tun Baul A Folk/Fusion album, strong with great folk lyrics. Remix done by Dj Rahat.

Courtesy of tunesbd.com

Teen diaries

Dear Diary,
Okay, this is something that I wouldn't ever like to admit to anyone, but I'm really glad Sadia's in our basketball team. She's so great, her aim is perfect, although she's not nearly as good as the others in defense. As captain, I can't help feel a bit proud of her. Yeah well, all's good as long she doesn't get better than me, so whatever! You know what, I really think we might win the all school tournament this time. Imagine that!
Oh, have I told you about this girl called Sarah in our team? She's just one of the sideliners, God knows why! It would take a bulldozer to move that girl fast enough to score! But anyways, in every practice, she gets told off for her 'health' by coach, and then all the other girls just laugh at her and make all these absolutely insulting comments, which personally I think makes sense, but must be really hard to handle. Yesterday, I walked in on her in the girl's room where she was sitting in a corner and crying like a baby all alone. I actually felt sorry for the poor girl…I mean, imagine being the butt of every fat joke ever made in school. Apparently Sadia thought the same way and we both decided we should help her out during practice. So today, we teamed up with her during practice, and the transformation in that girl was amazing! I guess confidence does the job, you know what I mean? She didn't score even once, but she blocked all of our best scorers from scoring a lot of times! Amazing defender; I talked to coach about it, and he completely agreed with me. This girl's got to be in the team.
The tournament's in a few weeks, and Lami's designing our uniforms. Afrida's going to cover it for the school newspaper, and they've both agreed to do something special for Sarah, just to boost her confidence in any possible way. You know, I've never felt this good about myself ever in my entire life. I helped somebody feel good about herself- it feels so great! I'm confident this time the cup's ours. We're going to win, you'll see.
Prianka

By Fahmina Rahman