Durga puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, concluded on Thursday through ceremonial immersion of images of goddess Durga after five days of worship and festivities.
The Hindu devotees celebrated Bijoya Dashami in the morning in over 22,000 puja mandaps across the country. Of the total, 165 mandops were set up in the capital alone.
In the evening, the devotees bade solemn farewell to the mother Durga and her children Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartic and Ganesh through the immersion of their images in river waters while inviting her to return to them next autumn.
The Hindus observed the concluding day as Bijoya and exchanged Bijoya greetings before joining the final pageantry, which came in close succession to the Eid festival of the Muslims.
The day was a public holiday.
It is believed by the devotees that goddess Durga descended on earth by riding palanquin (palki) and departed on elephant back. According to Hindu mythology it symbolises that the country will harvest abundant crops this year.
In the capital, thousands of men, women and children joined the traditional idol-immersion procession brought out from near Dhakeswari National Temple with 100 trucks carrying images of Durga at 5:10pm. The procession drew to a close at Waizghat after parading through main streets of the city.
Later, the images were laid under the Buriganga waters in tears.
Special security measures were taken as members of different law-enforcement agencies escorted the procession until the immersion of the images.
Advocate Tapash Paul, general secretary of Mahanagar Sarbajaneen Puja Committee, said images of goddess Durga from around 30 mandaps were gathered at Dhakeswari Temple for the Bijoya march.
Hindu revelers, many painting their forehead in red, sang and danced in circles to the rhythm of bands while marching along the route.
Durga Puja is the worship of ‘Shakti’ or divine power embodied in Devi Durga. It symbolises the battle between good and evil.
On the occasion, the president Iajuddin Ahmed and his wife Anwara Begum hosted a reception to the Hindus at Bangabhaban. The state-run and private television channels and radios aired special programmes while newspapers published supplements on the great religious festival.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Financial crisis may increase mental health woes: WHO
The global financial crisis is likely to cause increased mental health problems and even suicides as people struggle to cope with poverty and unemployment, the World Health Organisation warned on Thursday.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already affected by mental problems such as depression and bi-polar disorders and the current market meltdown could exacerbate feelings of despair among people vulnerable to such illnesses.
The United Nations agency said the impact could be especially marked for those living in low and middle income countries where access to treatment is often limited.
‘We should not be surprised or underestimate the turbulence and likely consequences of the current financial crisis. As it is we are seeing a huge gap in taking care of people in great need,’ the WHO director general, Margaret Chan, told a meeting of mental health experts.
Poverty and its associated stresses including violence, social exclusion and ‘constant insecurity’ are linked to the onset of mental disorders, she said.
‘It should not come as a surprise that we continue to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders,’ Chan warned.
Chan denounced the ‘abysmal lack of care’ for some mental health patients, especially in low and middle income countries, home to three out of four sufferers. Governments must make mental health a vital part of primary health care, she said.
Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO’s mental health and substance abuse department, said mental health disorders affect one in four people at some point in their lives.
Mental and neurological disorders are often chronic and disabling, he said. Nearly 1 million people commit suicide worldwide every year, a large proportion of them young adults.
Asked about the financial crisis, Saraceno told Reuters: ‘Poverty can be the consequence of such events — the debts, despair and sense of loss that may reach middle and lower classes. Even the poor can be affected by this crisis.’
‘There is a clear evidence that suicide is linked to financial disasters. I am not talking about the millionaire jumping out of the window but about poor people,’ he said.
The global crisis could be expected to affect the ‘stability of communities and families,’ according to Saraceno.
The WHO launched a programme on Thursday — the annual World Mental Health Day — aimed at increasing funding and services for the mentally ill over the next six years.
More than 75 per cent of people suffering from mental disorders in the developing world receive no treatment or care, and many are stigmatised and subject to neglect and abuse, according to the agency.
Globally, the WHO said most countries spend less than 2 per cent of their national health budget on mental health.
‘I am convinced that even in middle income countries reached by the economic crisis, it (the financial crisis) means less money and access to treatment,’ Saraceno said.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already affected by mental problems such as depression and bi-polar disorders and the current market meltdown could exacerbate feelings of despair among people vulnerable to such illnesses.
The United Nations agency said the impact could be especially marked for those living in low and middle income countries where access to treatment is often limited.
‘We should not be surprised or underestimate the turbulence and likely consequences of the current financial crisis. As it is we are seeing a huge gap in taking care of people in great need,’ the WHO director general, Margaret Chan, told a meeting of mental health experts.
Poverty and its associated stresses including violence, social exclusion and ‘constant insecurity’ are linked to the onset of mental disorders, she said.
‘It should not come as a surprise that we continue to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders,’ Chan warned.
Chan denounced the ‘abysmal lack of care’ for some mental health patients, especially in low and middle income countries, home to three out of four sufferers. Governments must make mental health a vital part of primary health care, she said.
Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO’s mental health and substance abuse department, said mental health disorders affect one in four people at some point in their lives.
Mental and neurological disorders are often chronic and disabling, he said. Nearly 1 million people commit suicide worldwide every year, a large proportion of them young adults.
Asked about the financial crisis, Saraceno told Reuters: ‘Poverty can be the consequence of such events — the debts, despair and sense of loss that may reach middle and lower classes. Even the poor can be affected by this crisis.’
‘There is a clear evidence that suicide is linked to financial disasters. I am not talking about the millionaire jumping out of the window but about poor people,’ he said.
The global crisis could be expected to affect the ‘stability of communities and families,’ according to Saraceno.
The WHO launched a programme on Thursday — the annual World Mental Health Day — aimed at increasing funding and services for the mentally ill over the next six years.
More than 75 per cent of people suffering from mental disorders in the developing world receive no treatment or care, and many are stigmatised and subject to neglect and abuse, according to the agency.
Globally, the WHO said most countries spend less than 2 per cent of their national health budget on mental health.
‘I am convinced that even in middle income countries reached by the economic crisis, it (the financial crisis) means less money and access to treatment,’ Saraceno said.
Le Clezio wins Nobel for literature
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Stockholm
 |
French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, whose early work in the 1960s was acclaimed for its wordplay and imagery and who later delved into childhood themes, won the 2008 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday.
The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the prestigious 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize, praised Le Clezio for his adventurous novels, essays and children’s literature.
The award marked the first time a French writer has won the Nobel literature prize since 2000, when it was won by Chinese writer Gao Xingjian, a political refugee who had settled in France and become a French citizen. French-born writer Claude Simon also won it in 1985.
The academy said in its statement that Le Clezio was an ‘author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation.’
Born in April 1940, his first novel, Le proces-verbal, was published in 1963.
‘As a young writer in the aftermath of existentialism and the nouveau roman, he was a conjurer who tried to lift words above the degenerate state of everyday speech and to restore to them the power to invoke an essential reality,’ the academy said.
‘The emphasis in Le Clezio’s work has increasingly moved in the direction of an exploration of the world of childhood and of his own family history,’ the academy wrote.
The run-up to this year’s prize has been embroiled in controversy after the permanent secretary of the award committee said last week the United States was too insular and did not participate in the ‘big dialogue’ of literature.
Horace Engdahl of the Swedish Academy touched off a storm of angry responses from writers and critics in the United States with his comments, which were made to a news agency.
The last time an American won the prize was in 1993 when it went to novelist Toni Morrison.
Nice-born Le Clezio moved to Nigeria with his family at an early age. He wrote his first works — ‘Un long voyage’ and ‘Oradi Noir’ — during the month-long journey.
Engdahl, speaking at the news conference to announce the laureate, said:
‘His works have a cosmopolitan character. Frenchman, yes, but more so a traveller, a citizen of the world, a nomad.’
All but one of the prizes were established in the will of 19th century dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel and have been handed out since 1901. The economics award was established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.
Bomb in Pak police HQ, 20 killed as jets hit militants
A suicide bomber attacked police headquarters in Islamabad, warplanes killed 20 Islamist fighters in the northwest, and children died in a roadside blast on Thursday as Pakistan’s war with militants intensified.
Officials reported at least eight wounded but no fatalities in the attack on the police complex housing an anti-terrorist squad on the outskirts of the capital.
‘I am at the site of the blast. I have seen several people wounded, eight or nine,’ police official Khalid Mehmood told Reuters.
Police chief Asghar Raza Gardazi said the attacker entered the police building carrying two baskets of sweets and presented one of them to a policeman.
‘The moment he gave basket to the policeman, an explosion took place.’ He said three policemen were wounded.
‘There was no loss of life, with the Grace of God.’
The blast ripped the corner walls off a three-storey building in the complex.
The explosion occurred as Pakistan’s newly appointed intelligence chief briefed lawmakers on the internal security threat for a second day in a special, closed joint-session of parliament.
The bomber struck a target in a high security zone, though the city has been on high alert in the wake of a suicide truck bomb that killed 55 people and destroyed the Marriott hotel on September 20.
Few policemen were in the barracks in the headquarters at the time because they were on duty guarding the parliament.
A military official said jet fighters carried out two airstrikes on a hideout and a training facility used by fighters loyal to militant commander Mullah Fazlullah, who emerged at the head of a revolt in the northwest valley of Swat late last year.
‘Twenty militants, including important commanders were killed but Fazlullah escaped. He was present there,’ the official said.
In the neighbouring region of Dir, lodged in the remote mountains bordering Afghanistan, a roadside bomb struck a police van carrying suspected criminals.
The remote-controlled bomb killed at least 11 people, including four children, four policemen and three prisoners, according to Sher Bahadur, a district administrator.
He said 10 people were wounded. Television news channels said many of them were children aboard a school bus.
Officials reported at least eight wounded but no fatalities in the attack on the police complex housing an anti-terrorist squad on the outskirts of the capital.
‘I am at the site of the blast. I have seen several people wounded, eight or nine,’ police official Khalid Mehmood told Reuters.
Police chief Asghar Raza Gardazi said the attacker entered the police building carrying two baskets of sweets and presented one of them to a policeman.
‘The moment he gave basket to the policeman, an explosion took place.’ He said three policemen were wounded.
‘There was no loss of life, with the Grace of God.’
The blast ripped the corner walls off a three-storey building in the complex.
The explosion occurred as Pakistan’s newly appointed intelligence chief briefed lawmakers on the internal security threat for a second day in a special, closed joint-session of parliament.
The bomber struck a target in a high security zone, though the city has been on high alert in the wake of a suicide truck bomb that killed 55 people and destroyed the Marriott hotel on September 20.
Few policemen were in the barracks in the headquarters at the time because they were on duty guarding the parliament.
A military official said jet fighters carried out two airstrikes on a hideout and a training facility used by fighters loyal to militant commander Mullah Fazlullah, who emerged at the head of a revolt in the northwest valley of Swat late last year.
‘Twenty militants, including important commanders were killed but Fazlullah escaped. He was present there,’ the official said.
In the neighbouring region of Dir, lodged in the remote mountains bordering Afghanistan, a roadside bomb struck a police van carrying suspected criminals.
The remote-controlled bomb killed at least 11 people, including four children, four policemen and three prisoners, according to Sher Bahadur, a district administrator.
He said 10 people were wounded. Television news channels said many of them were children aboard a school bus.
Prices of major fuels may fall by 9 and 5-9pc
The government is likely to decrease the price of diesel and kerosene by around 9 per cent and of octane and petrol by around 5-6 per cent this month, said sources in the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.
‘We are planning to reduce the price of diesel and kerosene by around 9 per cent. The existing price of diesel and kerosene is around Tk 55 per litre, so we may decrease price of these major fuels by around Tk 5 per litre,’ said a highly placed source in the division.
He, however, said that the decrease in prices of octane and petrol, mostly used by the affluent section of society, would be lower than that of diesel and kerosene. ‘Octane and petrol prices might be reduced by around 5-8 per cent,’ he said. The existing price of octane is Tk 90 and petrol Tk 87 per litre.
The government increased the price of diesel and kerosene to Tk 55 from Tk 40 per litre and octane to Tk 90 from Tk 67 and petrol to Tk 87 from Tk 65 on July 1.
The source said that the chief adviser wanted to reduce the fuel prices anytime this month.
However the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, told New Age on Friday that they were still trying to decide by how much the prices should be reduced.
When he was asked whether they would reduce the prices by 5 to 10 per cent, Tamim said, ‘Maybe, but we are yet to decide by how much the prices can be reduced. The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is working on the issue. We will know soon.’
Tamim said that while reducing the fuel prices they would consider much subsidy could be given to diesel and kerosene, which are mostly used by the transport and agricultural sectors and the rural people.
He said that although fuel prices had come down in the international market, the BPC continued to incur losses in selling diesel and kerosene. On the other hand, it is making profit in selling octane and petrol, but it sells only around 2 lakh tonnes of octane and petrol against around 24-26 lakh tonnes of diesel and kerosene.
‘The BPC is at present importing refined diesel at a rate of around $100 per barrel. If the refined diesel’s price had come down to $92 per barrel and if the price in local market had remained Tk 55, the BPC would have arrived at a break-even position,’ Tamim said.
‘We, however, will not wait for diesel price to come down to $92. We will continue to subsidise diesel and kerosene,’ he said.
Tamim said that when the prices of fuels were increased in July in the local market, the price of crude oil was around $141 and of refined oil $180 per barrel in the international market.
‘We are planning to reduce the price of diesel and kerosene by around 9 per cent. The existing price of diesel and kerosene is around Tk 55 per litre, so we may decrease price of these major fuels by around Tk 5 per litre,’ said a highly placed source in the division.
He, however, said that the decrease in prices of octane and petrol, mostly used by the affluent section of society, would be lower than that of diesel and kerosene. ‘Octane and petrol prices might be reduced by around 5-8 per cent,’ he said. The existing price of octane is Tk 90 and petrol Tk 87 per litre.
The government increased the price of diesel and kerosene to Tk 55 from Tk 40 per litre and octane to Tk 90 from Tk 67 and petrol to Tk 87 from Tk 65 on July 1.
The source said that the chief adviser wanted to reduce the fuel prices anytime this month.
However the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, told New Age on Friday that they were still trying to decide by how much the prices should be reduced.
When he was asked whether they would reduce the prices by 5 to 10 per cent, Tamim said, ‘Maybe, but we are yet to decide by how much the prices can be reduced. The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is working on the issue. We will know soon.’
Tamim said that while reducing the fuel prices they would consider much subsidy could be given to diesel and kerosene, which are mostly used by the transport and agricultural sectors and the rural people.
He said that although fuel prices had come down in the international market, the BPC continued to incur losses in selling diesel and kerosene. On the other hand, it is making profit in selling octane and petrol, but it sells only around 2 lakh tonnes of octane and petrol against around 24-26 lakh tonnes of diesel and kerosene.
‘The BPC is at present importing refined diesel at a rate of around $100 per barrel. If the refined diesel’s price had come down to $92 per barrel and if the price in local market had remained Tk 55, the BPC would have arrived at a break-even position,’ Tamim said.
‘We, however, will not wait for diesel price to come down to $92. We will continue to subsidise diesel and kerosene,’ he said.
Tamim said that when the prices of fuels were increased in July in the local market, the price of crude oil was around $141 and of refined oil $180 per barrel in the international market.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
