Asia resources

POLICY FOR MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

2008-07-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

FAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATION
OF
BANGLADESH (FPAB)

POLICY FOR MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

(PRIMARY DRAFT)

DR. S. M. SHAMIM UL MOULA
CONSULTANT, FPAB

JUNE 2006

CHAPTER-I: BACKGROUND

1. INTRODUCTION

Providing a harassment-free workplace can benefit employee, team and organisational effectiveness by:
• Improving workplace morale, productivity and trust.
• Minimising financial and legal costs incurred when managing a complaint.
• Avoiding potential damage to the corporate brand as a result of negative media coverage.

The information provided here aims to assist FPAB to start thinking about:

• How FPAB could analyse its workplaces to identify any sex-based harassment issues for women.
• Suggested actions FPAB could take to address the sex-based harassment issues for women FPAB have identified.

Keeping in mind that women are not a homogenous group but reflect the diversity of the larger population. By recognising and valuing women’s differences (such as age, religion, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, disability, sexual orientation, etc) in the management of workplace issues, FPAB performance stands to benefit from the range of skills and experiences they are able to contribute.

Not all issues, actions and examples suggested here are relevant to FPAB as an organization. It is up to FPAB and its workers to decide what is appropriate and relevant for the organization of FPAB to consider when analyzing FPAB as a workplace to identify issues for women, and taking actions to address these.

1.1 ANALYZING FPAB AS WORKPLACE

To assist FPAB itself to analyze it as a workplace to identify sex-based harassment issues for women, FPAB management could:

• Revisit FPAB workforce profile to find where FPAB female employees are.

• Consult with FPAB employees.

• Examine the current situations, policies if any and practices that aim to promote a harassment-free workplace.

1.2 SITUATION ANALYSIS, IDENTIFYING SEXUAL HARASSMENT ISSUES AND NEED FOR POLICY

FPAB has to remember that their organisation is unique and may have unique issues. However, the following questions may be helpful when analysing FPAB as a workplace.
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1.2.1 WHETHER FPAB HAVE ANY SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICY:

? Do FPAB has a formal sex based harassment policy? Have you considered supplementing it with a broader anti-harassment policy? ? How well are complaints managed? How do FPAB knows (eg is feedback sought over whether the dispute resolution process has been effective)?
? Do FPAB have a formal complaints mechanism? ? Would FPAB policy and complaints procedures withstand the rigour of a review by an independent third party?
? Are there guarantees relating to privacy and confidentiality?

1.2.2 MONITORING THE LEVEL OF HARASSMENT:

? Does FPAB monitor the incidence of harassment in its workplace? ? Is FPAB confident that no sex based harassment occurs in your organisation? What evidence do FPAB have to support this?
? Have FPAB got mechanisms in place that would allow you to know whether complaints are being raised informally, without breaching confidentiality (eg a women’s network, informally with a manager, harassment contact officers)? ? Is information on sex-based harassment freely available, accessible and known to all staff?
? Does FPAB know who is raising the issues – Men? Women? Part-timers? Pregnant women? Women of a different cultural or linguistic background? ? Have staff views on whether sex-based harassment is an issue been sought?
? Have FPAB surveyed employees to see whether they feel free to raise issues without fear of victimisation or reprisal? ? Does FPAB have any ways, other than through formal complaints, of telling whether there are any issues in FPAB workplace? Such as:
? Does FPAB exit interview aim to identify whether people are leaving because of harassment issues?  Staff surveys
 Exit interviews
 Morale indexes
 Informal feedback mechanisms
 Independent audits
? Can FPAB identify what the precise nature of the issues are (eg sexual harassment or pregnancy discrimination)? ? What are these mechanisms telling FPAB? Are some women more vulnerable than others to harassment, eg, due to poor expressive skills, low official position or age?

2. PURPOSE, STATEMENT, COMMITMENT AND THE POLICY

• Every worker is entitled to employment free of any type of harassment including that of sexual. FPAB is committed to a harassment free workplace where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

or

Every worker is entitled to employment free of harassment including sexual harassment. FPAB is committed to ensuring a productive work environment where the dignity and worth of everyone is respected. Workplace harassment will not be tolerated and FPAB will take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment and stop it if it occurs.

• The purpose of this policy is to set forth Family Planning Association of Bangladesh’s (FPAB) commitment to maintain a workplace environment free from sexual harassment Through preparation and implementation of this policy within the organization, FPAB wants the best and optimal creative output from its workers by preventing sexual harassment in FPAB as a workplace and by protecting its worker from the undesirable consequences of any incidence or occurrence which amounts to be a sexual harassment. The FPAB’s workplace realizes its moral and legal obligations to ensure that all Employees and Field Functionaries are provided a bullying free environment to realize their goals and to function effectively at the workplace. Through this policy, very clear-cut statement about FPAB’s attitude to sexual harassment will be declared and guidelines will be given to for full management of any incidence that amounts to be a sexual harassment. Through this policy, the management and the workers as well as other necessary stakeholders will know their roles and rights in case of such incidences.

• This policy will also work as the instrument for awareness raising and acquirement of skills in the issue of sexual harassment, specially in the right based contexts proclaimed by the State of Bangladesh, UN agencies and different human and women rights organizations.

• FPAB affirms that its staff has a right to freedom from sex discrimination in the form of sexual harassment by any member of the FPAB and the related. In providing a work climate, which is positive and discrimination-free, staffs should be aware that sexual harassment in the workplace environment is unacceptable conduct and will result in disciplinary action.

• FPAB considers a position against sexual harassment to be thoroughly consistent with the overall mission of the organization and its longstanding commitment to traditional values as presented in community and country society. Sexual harassment transgresses human rights law and in addition, is a form of illegal discrimination that is abhorrent to the organization. Consequently, it is the obligation of each member of the organization community-staff, and workers to adhere to this anti-harassment policy.

• The ultimate goal of a sexual harassment policy is prevention. FPAB staffs on all levels must know and understand the organization’s position on sexual harassment. The executives, officers, departments, and offices are specifically responsible within their organizations for publicizing, and enforcing this policy.

3. DEFINITION OF HARASSMENT (INCLUDING SEXUAL):

This harassment policy extends to any objectionable conduct, comment or display by a person that:

i. is directed at a worker;

ii. is made on the basis of race, creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, physical size or weight, age, nationality, ancestry or place of origin; and

iii. constitutes a threat to the health or safety of the worker.

It also extends to sexual harassment, which is conduct, comment, gesture or contact of a sexual nature that is offensive, unsolicited or unwelcome.

Sexual harassment may include:

• a threat of reprisal for refusing to comply with a sexually orientated request. The threat could be expressed directly or implied,

• unwelcome remarks, jokes, innuendoes, propositions, or taunting about a person’s body, attire, sex or sexual orientation,

• displaying pornographic or sexually explicit pictures or materials,

• unwelcome physical contact,

• unwelcome invitations or requests, direct or indirect to engage in behavior of a sexual nature, and

• refusing to work with or have contact with workers on-the-job because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation, e.g., gay, lesbian.

Sexual harassment is defined as: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:

• Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or education;
• Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment or education-related decisions affecting such an individual, or;
• Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
• Any unwanted physical, verbal or visual sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other sexually oriented conduct which is offensive or objectionable to the recipients, including, but not limited to epithets, derogatory or suggestive comments, slurs or gestures and offensive posters, cartoon, pictures, or drawings on improper grounds. IPPF,s equal opportunities agreement (with MSF) includes the following definition of sexual harassment:
• “Leering, ridicule, suggestive remarks or verbal abuse, repeated or unwanted physical assault. The key factors are that it is unwanted or persistent or creates a stressful or intimidating environment.
• Sexual harassment does not refer to occasional compliments of a socially accepted nature. It refers to behavior that is not welcome, that is personally offensive, that debilitates morale, and that, therefore, interferes with work effectiveness.

3.1 THIS HARASSMENT POLICY DOES NOT EXTEND OR APPLY TO:

• day-to-day management or supervisory decisions involving work assignments, job assessment and evaluation, workplace inspections, implementation of appropriate dress codes, and disciplinary action. Harassment does not include these decisions as long as they are not based on one of the prohibited grounds,

• harassment that occurs outside of work. For example, harassment that occurs during a union meeting or while attending a social gathering of co-workers after work is not covered. However, harassment that occurs while attending a conference or training session at the request of the employer would be covered within this policy, physical contact necessary for the performance of the work using accepted industry standards,

• conduct which all parties agree is inoffensive or welcome, and

• conflict or disagreements in the workplace, where the conflict or disagreement is not based on one of the prohibited grounds. Harassment can exist even where there is no intention to harass or offend another. Everyone must take care to ensure his or her conduct or display is not offensive to another.
• An occasional compliment or remark;
• Personality differences between people;
• Good natured jokes and jesting where both parties find the conduct acceptable;
• Office romance and flirtation when both parties enter into a voluntary relationship;
• Normal exercise of supervisory responsibilities including discipline or counselling.
3.2 FIGURE: SEXUAL HARASSMENT

SEXUAL HARASSMENT
SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Un-welcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature

PLUS

or

CHAPTER-II: FPAB’S ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

FPAB wants its employees to have a work environment free of sexual harassment by management personnel, by any coworkers and by others with whom an employ must interact in the course of her/his work as a FPAB employee. Sexual harassment is specifically prohibited as unlawful and as a violation of FPAB's policy. FPAB will be responsible for preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, for taking immediate corrective action to stop sexual harassment in the workplace and for promptly investigating any allegation of work related sexual harassment.

FPAB and its managers and supervisors will take all complaints of harassment seriously.

1. FPAB IS COMMITTED TO IMPLEMENTING POLICY AND TO ENSURING IT IS EFFECTIVE IN:

• preventing and stopping all harassments including that of the sexual, and
• creating a productive and respectful workplace.

This commitment includes:

• Informing all persons in the workplace of their rights and obligations.
- A copy of the harassment policy will be provided to all workers.
- A copy of the harassment policy will be posted on the company bulletin board.
- The company’s policy statement on harassment will be posted n each work area in a location that is visible to all staff and the public.

• Training all persons in implementing this harassment policy.

- An information meeting will be held with all staff to explain and answer questions about the new policy in every level of the organization including those in the field levels.
- Supervisors will review the policy with new workers as part of their orientation.
- Persons designated to receive, investigate or resolve complaints will be trained in their roles and responsibilities under the policy.
- All FPAB Managers, Directors, officers and supervisors will be asked to set a good example and help foster a respectful workplace.
- A list of persons designated to receive complaints shall be posted on the company bulletin board.

• Assigning responsibility for implementing this policy.

- Consulting with the Executive Committee (EC) and worker representatives, FPAB will designate focal persons , who may receive harassment complaints and assist in facilitating their resolution.

- Consulting with the EC and worker representatives FPAB shall designate special persons, who will investigate harassment complaints.

- FPAB will designate the unit managers authorized to take corrective action in accordance with this policy.

• Protecting workers from reprisal or embarrassment for trying to stop or prevent harassment.

- Harassment complaints and investigations will be held in the strictest of confidence except where disclosure is necessary for the purposes of investigating the complaint, taking corrective action with respect to the complaint or as required by law.
- Action will be taken to prevent reprisal against persons who make a harassment complaint in good faith. This may mean informing complainants and alleged harassers of this commitment.

• Promptly taking the action necessary to stop and prevent harassment when it occurs or has occurred.

- Appropriate action will be taken against persons who are or were engaged or participated in harassment. This action should be sufficient to ensure the harassment stops and does not happen again.
- FPAB beneficiaries, stakeholders, contractors or other visitors to the workplace will be informed that certain conduct directed toward staff will not be tolerated or allowed to continue.

• The effectiveness of this policy will be reviewed in consultation with the Executive Committee of FPAB and worker representatives every 2 years.

2. SCOPE OF POLICY
In accordance with the IPPF and FPAB policies, FPAB’s workplace prohibits bullying on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status. In addition, the FPAB’s workplace prohibits bullying on the basis of senior /junior or sexual orientation.

Organization’s harassment policy applies to, and will be enforced against, perpetrators who are current staffs and/or employees for any incident during an employment period.

Sexual harassment in any situation is reprehensible. However, it is particularly damaging when it exploits the working dependence and trust between workers and managers or other FPAB employees, and it is especially inappropriate and hurtful in Bangladeshi socio-cultural contexts and in the cultural practices of a developmental community. When the authority and power inherent in any official FPAB relationship, whether overtly, implicitly, or through misinterpretation, is abused in this way, there is potentially great damage to the aggrieved individuals, to the person or persons complained of, and to the community service climate of the FPAB.

Sexual harassment is one form of sex bullying that is prohibited.

Any person who believes that he or she has been sexually harassed at the FPAB’s workplace may file either a formal or informal complaint in the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” as may be formed by any of the three members out of the five members of the “Management Sub-committee” formed by the “National Executive Committee” (NEC) of FPAB. Confidentiality will be maintained to the fullest extent permitted.

FPAB’s position is that sexual harassment is a form of misconduct that undermines the integrity of the employment relationship. All employees have the right to work in an environment free from all forms of discrimination and conduct which can be considered harassing, coercive, or disruptive, including sexual harassment. Anyone engaging in harassing conduct will be subject to discipline, ranging from a warning to termination.

• FPAB believes that the employees should be afforded the opportunity to work in an environment free of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a form of misconduct that undermines the employment relationship. No employee, either male or female, should be subjected verbally or physically to unsolicited and unwelcomed sexual overtures or conduct. Sexual harassment refers to behavior that is not welcome, that is personally offensive, and that debilitates morale and, therefore, interferes with work effectiveness. Behavior that amounts to sexual harassment may result in disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

FPAB will adopt its policy on sexual harassment based on; the definition of sexual harassment set forth by the state constitution of Bangladesh and by recognized national and international agencies related i.e. human rights organizations, women organizations or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) etc. The EEOC within FPAB can define sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
• submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an employer’s employment
• submission to or rejection of such conduct by an employer is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting you
• such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an employer’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

2.1 WRITTEN POLICY

Each employ will receive a copy of FPAB's sexual harassment policy when she/he begins working for FPAB. If at any time any employee would like another copy of that policy, then she/he may specific department concerned. If FPAB amend or modify its sexual harassment policy, each employee will receive an individual copy of the amended or modified policy.

3. COMPLAINS

If any employee experiences or witnesses sexual harassment in the workplace, she/he should report it immediately to concerned FPAB cell looking after the context. She/he may also report harassment to any other member of FPAB's management or ownership. All allegations of sexual harassment will be quickly investigated. To the extent possible, reporter’s confidentiality and that of any witnesses and the alleged harasser will be protected against unnecessary disclosure. When the investigation is completed, the employee will be informed of the outcome of that investigation. (Please see further in the Para no.------)

4. RETALIATION PROHIBITED

FPAB will permit no employment based retaliation against anyone who brings a complaint of sexual harassment or who speaks as a witness in the investigation of a complaint of sexual harassment.

5. PENALTIES

Sexual harassment will not be tolerated at FPAB. If an investigation of any allegation of sexual harassment shows that harassing behavior has taken place, the harasser will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

6. CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIPS

FPAB’s workplace policy requires that all Employees conduct themselves in a professional manner. With regard to consensual sexual or romantic relationships, it should be noted that when they occur between supervisor and supervisee, there is a concern that they may involve an abuse of power. Even when negative consequences to the participants do not result, such romantic liaisons potentially can create a conflict of interest or use of supervisory leverage to maintain or promote the relationship. Another area of potential trouble or liability involves perceptions of a “third-party” who may feel that the only way to succeed is to engage in a sexual liaison because they feel they have lost equality in terms of assignments, promotions, etc.

All Employees should recognize the possible negative consequences of sexual or romantic liaisons in the workplace and program operation areas.

7. ENSURING HARASSMENT-FREE ENVIRONMENT:

For sustained progress and prosperity of an organization through enabling each and every worker their optimal scope to do their best for the organization, a harassment free environment is to be ensured within the organization. For continued peaceful and productive working attitude enhancing best performance for the workers, maintenance of a supportive environment free from bullying and sexual harassment is of vital importance.

7.1 TO PROVIDE THIS ENVIRONMENT, THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN:

1. “Harassment prevention cells” in different strata of FPAB for ensuring sexual harassment free environment organized through endorsement of FPAB Senior Management Team (SMT) should inform all employees and field elements regardless their organizational position in the possible most participatory manner that bullying and sexual harassment is strictly prohibited.
2. The Sexual Harassment Policy should be emphasized by the Managers and Supervisors of different levels in their working meetings and should be explained by departmental chairs to staff, and classified and management service employees. Managers and Supervisors should discuss the issue in staff meetings. Workshop, special sessions pf meetings with resource persons with full participation of the workers should be arranged in different levels of the organization. The participant workers should be given appropriate scopes to ventilate their concerns in the issue freely in these meetings and if found relevant and useful, should be sent to SMT for incorporation in the enforced policy. Those who have questions, concerns, or feel victimized by bullying and sexual harassment should be referred to the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” immediately.
3. All the managers should be encouraged to invite the “harassment prevention cells” to talk to their staffs concerning this very important and sensitive issue.
4. Information regarding bullying and sexual harassment specifically for Staff and Field elements is contained within the employee code of conduct.

8. RECOGNIZING SEXUAL HARASSMENT:

1) Conduct: expressed in bullying sexual harassment:

Unwelcome sexual advances (either verbal or physical), requests for favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
• Submission to such conduct is either explicit or implicit term or condition of employment (e.g. promotion, raining, timekeeping or overtime assignments).
• Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for making employment decisions (e.g. promotion, termination).
• Such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s
• Work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

2) Verbal sexual harassment includes sexual innuendo, suggestive comments, insults, humor, and jokes about sex or gender-specific traits, sexual propositions, and threats.
3) Non —verbal harassment includes suggestive or insulting sounds, leering, whistling, and obscene gestures.
4) Physical sexual harassment includes touching, pinching, brushing the body, assault, and coerced sexual contact including, but not limited to it

It can also be added as follows:
• Unwelcome sexual advances
• Requests for sexual favors
• Other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
-Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or
condition of an individual's employment or participation in an organization sponsored program or activity;
-Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or
-Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's employment or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or organizational environment.

Although it is impossible to spell out completely all prohibited behavior, the following may
be of further help in considering what constitutes sexual harassment for staffs.

• Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature in which a staff intentionally uses the power inherent in the official relationship to threaten, coerce, or intimidate a person to accept such harassment or
• Risk reprisal in terms of a grade, evaluation, or recommendation.

FPAB further defines sexual harassment as any unwanted physical, verbal or visual sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other sexually oriented conduct which is offensive or objectionable to the recipient, including, but not limited to: epithets, derogatory or suggestive comments, slurs or gestures and offensive posters, cartoons, pictures, or drawings.

8.1 UNWELCOME CONDUCT OR HARASSMENTS:
Unwelcome sexual advances (either verbal or physical), requests for favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
• submission to such conduct is either an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment (e.g., promotion, training, timekeeping or overtime assignments)
• submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for making employment decisions (hiring, promotion, termination)
• the conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment

9. RISK FACTORS
• Differing values resulting in prejudices.
• Cultural norms that sanction behaviors and terms unacceptable in a professional setting.
• Unprofessional climate that allows negative comments, remarks, or jokes.
• Use of improper terminology.
• Crude and offensive behaviors such as sexual stories and jokes, attempts to discuss sexual matters or remarks on appearance and gestures.
• Unwanted sexual attention or attempts to establish a romantic relationship.
• Unwanted touching, attempts to stroke, fondle, or kiss.
• Sexual coercion bribes or rewards for sexual favors.
• Threats for not being sexually cooperative.

Reducing barriers in a command includes command support from the top down, training at all levels on proper behavior, and taking appropriate action when complaints are filed.

10. ISSUES NOT CONSIDERED AS SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
Sexual harassment does not refer to occasional compliments of a socially acceptable nature. It refers to behavior that is not welcome, that is personally offensive, that debilitates morale, and that, therefore, interferes with work effectiveness.

CHAPTER-III: FPAB GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. ACTION PLAN FOR EMPLOYERS:
• Developing policy
• Developing complaint procedure
• Identifying and consulting with Resources
• Developing and conducting Training Sessions

1. FPAB GUIDING PRINCIPLES AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENTS

UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT
• Appreciate that you and your organization FPAB can be held liable if your employees engage in sexual harassment
• Knowing that any unwelcome sexual activity tied to employment decisions or benefits is sexual harassment
• Recognizing that sexual harassment may include jokes, vulgar language, sexual innuendoes, pornographic pictures, sexual gestures, physical grabbing or pinching, and other unwelcome or offensive physical touching or contact
• Remembering that every sexual harassment charge is extremely serious
• Comprehending that employees who comply with unwelcome sexual advances can still be victims of sexual harassment
• Realizing that men as well as woman may be sexually harassed
• Understanding that employees may wait a while before lodging sexual harassment charges

COMMUNICATING THE POLICY
• Issuance of a strong policy from the Director General, FPAB against sexual harassment
• Providing a clear definition of sexual harassment using examples of inappropriate behavior
• Reviewing the policy with your employees on a regular basis
• Discussing the policy with all new employees
• Ensuring that third-party suppliers and customers are aware of your sexual harassment policy

ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES
• Appointing a senior official to oversee the implementation of the policy
• Training of FPAB supervisors and managers to recognize and prevent sexual harassment
• Outlining procedures to use in reporting sexual harassment
• Designating a personnel officer or other appropriate manager, rather than a direct supervisor, to receive sexual harassment complaints
• Providing alternative routes for filing complaints
• Keeping all sexual harassment charges confidential

ENFORCING POLICY
• Making sure employees who bring charges do not face retaliation
• Safeguarding the rights of the accused
• Investigating all sexual harassment charges quickly and thoroughly
• Maintaining accurate records of the investigation and the findings
• Taking immediate action when sexual harassment is discovered or suspected
• Disciplining appropriately any employee found to have engaged in sexual harassment
• Safeguarding FPAB employees from third-party work-related sexual harassment

2. ACTIONS TO ADDRESS SEXUAL HARASSMENT ISSUES FOR WOMEN

To comply with the Act, FPAB need to take actions to address the conditions of service issues for women FPAB identified. FPAB do not need to do everything all at once and can aim to achieve equal opportunity over time.

To be waived from reporting in following years, FPAB must demonstrate that FPAB have taken all reasonably practicable measures to address sex-based harassment issues for women it have identified. For example, issue may be a large pool of ongoing female casual staff who would prefer to have access to regular part-time work arrangements.

2.1 THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTIONS WILL HELP FPAB START THINKING ABOUT ACTIONS IT COULD TAKE TO ADDRESS ANY SEX-BASED HARASSMENT ISSUES IDENTIFIED:.
Keeping in mind that:
• Not all of these actions may be relevant to FPAB as an organisation. FPAB authority will need to decide whether they choose to do all, some, or none of the suggested actions, and whether FPAB wish to tailor suggested actions to suit the needs of FPB workplace.
• If your workplace analysis demonstrates your organisation has no issues for women in this employment matter, you would not need to take any actions.

2.1. 1 REVIEWING FPAB POLICY FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
• Ensuring FPAB, as an organisation abides by lawful workplace practices.
• Ensuring the DG FPAB and senior management endorse FPAB organisational policy. They will need to be role models for the behaviour they expect from staff.
• Considering linking FPAB policy to an organisational commitment affirming the value of diversity – that is, principles that respect all employees.
• Looking at supplementing FPAB sex-based harassment policy with a broader anti-harassment policy.
• Integrating FPAB policy with a code of conduct or code of practice that respects diversity and the rights of all employees. Have employees agree to this code of practice as part of their employment contract.
• Ensuring FPAB line managers to actively support evolving FPAB policy.
• Ensuring FPAB policy covers all types of issues (eg, harassment via inappropriate use of e-mail or Internet, letter, telephone etc.).
• Establishing complaints procedures.
• Ensuring that FPAB complaints procedures are transparent and easy to follow.
• Ensuring that FPAB complaints procedures are accessible and that all staff feel confident to use them.
• Ensuring the complaint process is objective, for both the complainant and the respondent.
• Communicating FPAB procedures to all the managers and staffs and the related personnel.
• Putting in place a network of harassment contact officers and ensuring that officers are trained in respect to diversity issues.

2.1.2 RESOLVING COMPLAINTS
• Dealing with all complaints promptly and confidentially.
• If harassment complaints are assessed to be other than sex-based, be prepared with a procedure for dealing with them.
• Providing training to staff that are dealing with complaint resolution. Ensuring that training encompasses issues related to managing diversity in the workplace.
• Insisting all staffs keep matters confidential, with resulting disciplinary action if they don’t.
• Ensuring that proven offenders are not simply transferred to another area or department.
• If proven offenders remain with FPAB, require them to undergo further training and counselling.
• Ensuring that all complaints, whether proven or false/misconceived, are managed well.
• Providing support to people who are involved in a complaint.
2.1.3 COMMUNICATING FPAB POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
• Ensuring that FPAB policy is accessible to all staff. (For example, make sure it is displayed in a physically accessible location for all employees and in alternate languages for employees who lack language fluency.)
• Educating new staff and new managers on the FPAB policy and complaint process on an ongoing basis. Conducting refresher training for all employees regularly.
• Educating FPAB managers and supervisors on how to manage their people more effectively.
• Ensuring that staffs are aware of the consequences of breaching the policy and of making false or misconceived complaints.
• Integrating harassment prevention training into mainstream management training. Ensuring that training encompasses diversity principles – that is, respect for all employees – and recognises potential vulnerabilities of some employees (for example, women who may experience cultural or linguistic barriers to reporting harassment.)
• Keeping a record/database of who has attended harassment training.
• Ensuring education campaigns promote better understanding of harassment so that staffs feel comfortable raising issues, and are aware of the consequences of making false or misconceived complaints.
• Linking results in this area to performance reviews and bonus allocations for managers.
• Effective monitoring outcomes of previous disputes to ensure that FPAB resolution has been successful.
• Putting strategies in place so that there are no ‘repeat performances’.
• Stay aware of where problems may arise (for example, the office picnic party /cultural events or field tours etc.) and taking preparation accordingly, such as a reminder notice or e-mail to all staff who will be attending about expectations of their behaviour at the party/event/tour.
• Ensuring managers actively support the policies in place.
• Promoting a workplace culture based on openness and trust, where behaviours that treat people with dignity and respect are valued.

3. PREDOMINANTLY MALE WORKPLACE ISSUES:

An equal opportunity program must deal with the specific needs and issues of FPAB as an organization. Such a program identifies and outlines the issues you are addressing and the initiatives FPAB, as an organization will put in place to achieve results.

3.1 SIGNIFICANT ISSUES FPAB MAY FACE WITH MAJORITY OF MALE EMPLOYEES:

• A lack of applications from female employees.
• A low proportion of women in management.
• A low proportion of women in non-traditional occupational categories eg. tour for male training, labouring, plant and machinery operators.
• Problems retaining female employees.

? Is the culture accepting of women? ? Does FPAB have an elected Executive Officer or Sexual Harassment contact officer on site?
? Does FPAB provide a sexual harassment free workplace? ? Has FPAB implemented and publicised a grievance handling mechanism?
? Have FPAB developed and publicised a sexual harassment policy and procedures? ? Have FPAB ensured that there are adequate grievance procedures, and that all management and supervisors were trained in handling grievances?
? Have FPAB removed gender bias in all policy manuals and increased the availability of female facilities at all work sites? ? Does FPAB monitor progress by using exit interviews and climate surveys to see whether sexual harassment is still an issue?
? Has FPAB held sexual harassment training sessions for all employees, backed up by a publicity campaign and further reminders at other training sessions?

4. WORKER’S DUTY

All workers, including managers and supervisors employed by FPAB shall:

• refrain from causing or participating in the harassment of another worker, and
• cooperate with any person investigating harassment complaints.

CHAPTER-IX: GUIDELINES FOR COMPLAINING

1. TYPES OF COMPLAINT:

This policy sets out three types of complaint procedures that may be used. They are procedures that apply where:
1. no alleged harasser is named, and an informal resolution is sought,
2. an alleged harasser is named, and an informal resolution or mediation is sought, or
3. an alleged harasser is named, and an investigation is required.

No alleged harasser named – informal resolution sought

Step 1
An individual reports an incident or concern to the supervisor or anyone designated to receive harassment complaints.

Step 2
The person receiving the complaint:
• reviews the complaint procedures with the complainant, and
• informs the unit manager of the complaint.

Step 3
The unit manager takes action appropriate and necessary to address the complaint. Such action may include:
• having staff meetings to discuss and review the policy, and
• providing workshops, videos or written information on the prevention of harassment.

The unit manager informs the complainant of the action that will be taken to address the complaint or concern.

Confidentiality

FPAB or anyone acting on behalf of the FPAB, should not disclose the complainant’s name or other identifying information to any person. In certain circumstances the complainant may agree to release identifying information in order to implement the harassment policy, the resolution process or the final resolution itself.

Alleged harasser named – informal resolution or mediation sought

Step 1

An individual reports an incident or concern to their supervisor or anyone designated to receive harassment complaints. The complaint should be recorded in writing in a form consistent with the harassment complaint form attached to this policy.

Where an informal resolution is sought, the complainant should indicate the type of resolution and resolution process s/he is seeking. Examples include: an apology, supervisory counseling, a facilitated meeting with alleged harasser, workshop or training sessions, and mediation.

Step 2

The person receiving the complaint:

• reviews the complaint procedures with the complainant,

• informs the unit manager of the complaint (where it is alleged that the unit manager is involved in the harassment, the person receiving the complaint refers the matter to another manager),

• meets privately with the alleged harasser to review the complaint, and

• determines whether there is agreement on a resolution or a resolution process.

Step 3

Where there is agreement on the resolution or resolution process to be used, the person receiving the complaint:
• informs the unit manager of the agreement, and
• facilitates the agreed upon resolution or resolution process (subject to the approval of the unit manager).

Step 4

The complainant is informed that s/he may move to the formal complaint procedure:
• if the complainant, the alleged harasser, or the unit manager do not agree to a resolution process, or
• if the resolution process does not resolve the matter to the complainant’s satisfaction.

Step 5

Where the complainant and alleged harasser agree to a resolution, the unit manager follows up with the complainant to ensure the agreed resolution was effective in stopping and preventing further harassment. Where the complainant indicates that the harassment has not ended, the unit manager counsels the complainant to pursue an alternate resolution process, including a formal investigation.

Confidentiality

FPAB, or anyone acting on behalf of the organization, should not disclose either the complainant’s or alleged harasser’s name or other identifying information to any person. In certain circumstances the complainant and alleged harasser may agree to release identifying information in order to implement the harassment policy, the resolution process or the final resolution itself.

Alleged harasser named – investigation required

Step 1

An individual reports an incident or concern to their supervisor or anyone designated to receive harassment complaints. The complaint should be in writing, be dated and contain the following information:

• the name and job title of the complainant and contact information
• the name and job title of the alleged harasser and available contact information
• a description of the conduct, display or events considered objectionable, including dates and location of events.
• the names and available contact information of any possible witnesses
• a description of the basis of the alleged harassment. (e.g., sex, age, ancestry, disability, physical size, marital status)
• the remedy sought.
• other information or material the complainant considers relevant
• the signature of the complainant

Step 2

The person receiving the complaint:

• reviews the complaint procedures with the complainant,
• provides a copy of the written complaint to the unit manager (where it is alleged the unit manager is directly involved in the harassment, the person receiving the complaint refers the matter to another manager),
• provides a copy of the written complaint to the alleged harasser, and
• reviews the complaint procedures with the alleged harasser.

Step 3

The person receiving the complaint, the unit manager, and ___ (e.g., human resource manager) review the complaint and determine:

• whether the conduct complained about falls within the harassment policy,
• whether there are resolution options, other than investigation, that are available and acceptable to the complainant and alleged harasser, and
• who will conduct the investigation where one is required.

Step 4

Where an investigation is required, the unit manager appoints an investigator or investigation team.

The investigator(s) will:

• be trained in conducting an investigation in accordance with this policy, and
• have no apparent bias or interest in the outcome of the investigation (alternatively, the investigator will be chosen from a list of investigators approved by FPAB EC with consultation of the workers representatives in a participatory manner).

Where the complainant or the alleged harasser objects to the appointment of an investigator, on the basis of bias or conflict of interest, the unit manager will appoint another investigator.

Step 5

The investigator(s) conducts an investigation in accordance with the following guidelines:

• The investigation commences and concludes as soon as reasonably possible.
• Witnesses are interviewed separately, and written witness statements are prepared.
• Witnesses are asked to review and sign their written statements.
• Witnesses are advised to keep the investigation and the identity of the complainant and alleged harasser in confidence, unless they are required to disclose them by law.
• The complainant and alleged harasser are entitled to be accompanied by legal or union counsel during the interview and investigation process.
• During the investigation process, both the complainant and the alleged harasser are entitled:
- be informed of all the allegations made against them, and
- allowed the opportunity to make a full answer and defense.

This does not mean that either party is entitled to see or receive copies of the complete statements. Both are entitled, however, to see or receive an adequate summary of the evidence to make a full answer and defense.

Step 6

Once the investigation is complete, the investigator(s) will prepare a written report setting out:

• a summary of the evidence,
• a description of any conflict in the evidence,
• the investigator’s conclusions on the facts and reasons for reaching that conclusion, and
• the recommended corrective action where harassment has been found to have occurred.

The investigator’s report will be delivered to the unit manager, the complainant and the alleged harasser. The report is marked as confidential and delivered with the notation that it should be kept in confidence unless disclosure is required by law or is necessary to implement corrective action or other legal remedies.

Step 7

The unit manager:

• takes corrective action that the unit manager considers appropriate and effective,
• informs the complainant and harasser of the corrective action. Where the corrective action is different from the action recommended in the investigator’s report, the unit manager should provide reasons for not taking the investigator’s recommended action,
• informs the complainant of his/her right to file a complaint with The EC FPAB.

Step 8

The unit manager, after the corrective action has been taken, follows up with the complainant to ensure that the corrective action was effective in stopping and preventing harassment. If the complainant indicates that harassment has not ended, or that s/he has suffered reprisal as a result of making the complaint, the unit manager should take additional or alternative corrective action to resolve the complaint. Further investigation may be necessary.

Disclosure of investigation documents

All documents and statements obtained during the course of the investigation, including the names and copies of witness statements, should not be disclosed to any person unless required by law.

Confidentiality

FPAB, or anyone acting on behalf of the organization, should not disclose the name of the complainant or the alleged harasser, as well as any information that may identify the complainant or alleged harasser. The disclosure of such information may be necessary, however, to conduct the investigation, implement corrective action, or pursue other legal remedies.

Taking action to stop and prevent harassment

In taking action to stop harassment and prevent its reoccurrence, FPAB will be guided by the following considerations and options.

Individual awareness and counseling

Individuals may not be aware of the effects of their behavior. In many cases, speaking to the person in private about the inappropriate behavior will be enough to resolve a situation.

In some instances, it may be most effective and less disruptive to working relationships if the complainant informs the offending individual that s/he finds certain conduct offensive. In other instances, it may be more effective for a supervisor to speak with the offending person. At other times, a meeting between the complainant and alleged harasser facilitated by the supervisor may be appropriate. Complainants should not be encouraged to confront the alleged harasser if:

• they are reluctant to do so,
• the alleged harassment is of a very serious nature, and/or
• the alleged harasser denies engaging in the conduct complained of.

Staff awareness and counseling

Standards of behavior change over the years. Some individuals or groups may not be aware that behavior, which was acceptable to their co-workers in the past, is not acceptable anymore. A staff awareness session may be helpful to correct problems based on lack of awareness. Relevant videos, lectures, and facilitated group discussions may increase awareness of behaviors that are unacceptable and the reasons for the changes.

Interim action

A unit manager may have grounds to believe that a complainant will be exposed to continued harassment or reprisal while waiting for the investigation or resolution process to occur. The unit manager must take immediate action to protect the worker from continued harassment or reprisal. Any interim action should respect the alleged harasser’s rights based on his/her employment contract (or collective bargaining agreement). Considering these rights, the unit manager’s action may include:

• cautioning the alleged harasser about the types of behavior or reprisals that will not be tolerated,
• removing the alleged harasser to another work unit,
• at the complainant’s request, removing the complainant to another work unit,
• suspending the alleged harasser with pay while waiting for a final determination, and/or
• suspending the alleged harasser without pay while waiting for a final determination.

Mediation

Mediation offers both parties the opportunity to develop an understanding of the problem and resolve the complaint before or during the formal investigation process. The mediator facilitates separate discussions or joint meetings between the complainant and the respondent, for the purpose of resolving the complaint.

Mediation may take place at any point in the resolution process as long as both parties agree to participate in mediation. Where the complainant and alleged harasser agree to participate in mediation, FPAB shall arrange for a person, who is trained and independent, to act as mediator.

Disciplinary action

Where it is determined that an employee has knowingly engaged or participated in the harassment of a co-worker, that employee will be disciplined. The discipline will be subject to the employee’s rights under his/her employment contract or collective bargaining agreement. The severity of the discipline will depend on the:

• seriousness of the alleged conduct:
- whether the conduct is an offence under the criminal code,
- whether the conduct is an offence under existing law in Bangladesh on sexual offence or Human Rights Code,
- the mental or physical injury caused to the complainant by the conduct,
- whether the harasser persisted in behavior that she/he knew or ought to have known was offensive to the complainant, and
- whether the harasser abused a position of authority.
• risk of the harasser continuing or engaging in similar harassment of the complainant or others in the future:
- whether the harasser acknowledges her/his conduct was unacceptable and makes a commitment to refrain participating in future harassment,
- whether the harasser has apologized to the complainant or taken action to repair any harm caused by his or her conduct,
- whether the harasser has agreed to participate in awareness sessions, training or other recommended counseling or treatment.

The discipline imposed on an employee, who was found to have engaged or participated in harassment in the workplace, may include reprimand, relocation, demotion, suspension and termination of employment.

Third party harassers

Customers (clients/patients), contractors or their workers, or other people invited to the workplace might engage or participate in the harassment of a FPAB employee. FPAB may have limited ability to investigate or control their conduct. However, FPAB shall take reasonably practicable action to stop or reduce the risk to its workers of being harassed by third parties. This action may include:

• posting the harassment policy statement in locations visible to third parties, and/or
• requiring certain contractors and their workers to accept and meet the terms of the harassment policy. This could include removing workers, who participated in harassment, from the workplace.

Where a client or customer has been asked to stop abusing or harassing a worker and does not, workers are authorized to:

• end telephone conversations,
• politely decline service, and/or
• ask the customer or client to leave the workplace.

Malicious complaints

It is uncommon for someone to make a false claim deliberately but it may happen. Where an investigation finds a complainant has knowingly made a false allegation, the complainant will be subject to discipline.

WE STRONGLY PROPOSE FOR FORMATION OF FPAB’S WORKPLACE “SEXUAL HARASSMENT PREVENTION CELLS”

2. COMPLAINT PROCEDURES FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT:

INFORMAL PROCEDURES:

Definition:

The process of gathering information to either establish a suspicion of bullying and sexual harassment or to attempt to resolve a disagreement without following a formal complaint procedure.

Who may file:

Staff and Field Functionaries, Employees, applicants for employment, and others, where appropriate.

Procedure:

1. The complainant completes the “Complaint of bullying and sexual harassment form” for its submission to the “sexual harassment prevention cells” advises the complainant of her/his rights to file with FPAB.
2. The “sexual harassment prevention cells” may notify the appropriate administrator, supervisors, or director that a complaint has been initiated.
3. The “sexual harassment prevention cells” contacts the individual/entity (respondent) accused of bullying and sexual harassment to discuss the alleged harmful act.
4. The “sexual harassment prevention cells” develops a proposed resolution, if appropriate within fifteen (15) calendar days of acceptance of the informal complaint. If appropriate, the complainant is advised that she/he may file a formal complaint.
5. The “sexual harassment prevention cells” may notify the appropriate administrator, supervisors, or director of the final status of the complaint.

FORMAL PROCEDURES:

Definition:

The process of investigating a case of alleged sexual harassment and making a determination as to whether or not sexual harassment occurred and, where appropriate, providing a resolution to the complaint.

a) Who may file:

• Staff members and
• Field Functionaries.

Applicable Board Rule:

Staff and Field Functionaries may appeal a decision to the different level Managers of FPAB (National, Branch or SWU levels) in a written format within two weeks of the determination.

Procedures:

1. The complainant completes the “Complaint of bullying and sexual harassment form”. The complaint must be filed within 15 days of the alleged harmful act.
2. The “sexual harassment prevention cells” acknowledges in writing the receipt of the formal complaint; the letter includes information on the complainant’s right to file with the FPAB offices. Copies of the letter are sent to the respondent, the appropriate administrator, supervisors, or director and the FPAB’s DG.
3. “Sexual harassment prevention cells” shall conduct a thorough investigation of the complaint by the instruction and in the knowledge of FPAB SMT.
4. Within thirty (30) calendar days of the receipt of the formal complaint, “sexual harassment prevention cells” shall inform the complainant and all persons who were copied in #2 above, of the final status and a resolution, where appropriate. The 30-day period may be extended for an additional 30 days with the approval of the FPAB DG. The letter of determination identifies the available appeal procedures for the complainant.

b) Who may file:

Classified and management service Employees, and applicants for employment.

Collective bargaining agreement, (Not relevant for applicants) procedures:

1. The complainant completes the “Complaint of bullying and sexual harassment form”. The complaint must be filed within 15 days of the alleged harmful act.
2. The ““sexual harassment prevention cells” acknowledges in writing the receipt of the formal complaint; the letter includes information on the complainant’s right to file with the FPAB NHQ or Branches. Copies of the letter are sent to respondent, the appropriate administrator, supervisors, or Director, the FPAB’s Managers (national or Branch or SWU level), and the Director of the Department of Human Resources.
3. “Sexual harassment prevention cell” conducts a thorough investigation of the complaint.
4. Within fifteen (15) calendar days of the receipt of the formal complaint, “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cell” informs the complainant and all persons copied in #2 above of the final status and a resolution, where appropriate. If an extension of the 15- day time period is required, “sexual harassment prevention cells” shall notify the complainant of the anticipated date of completion of the investigation. The letter of determination identifies the appeal procedures available to the complainant.
5. A classified employee has the right to file a grievance through the Association alleging sexual harassment without filing a Report of Bullying/Harassment with “sexual harassment prevention cells”. Such a grievance will be submitted within 30 days of the date the grievant or the Association knows, or by reasonable diligence, should have known of the alleged grievance, directly to the DG FPAB or her/his designee. The DG or her/his designee will respond within 15 calendar days after the receipt of the grievance. Assistance in the investigation of the alleged grievance may be provided by “sexual harassment prevention cells”and the Department of Human Resources.

3. DECISION BY THE “SEXUAL HARASSMENT ACTION COMMITTEE’S” AND APPEAL TO THE FPAB’S DIRECTOR GENERAL:

1. The “sexual harassment prevention cell (SHPC)’s” decision shall be made in the form of a written recommendation to the Director General, FPAB. It shall be based upon evidence presented at the hearing. The recommendation shall include a description of the complaint, the evidence the committee collected, and its conclusions and recommendations for disposition of the case. The recommendations shall be sent to the grievant, to the President, and to the supervisors, director, or administrator in charge of the unit out of which the grievance arose within sixty (60) days of receipt of the appeal to the committee.
2. The DG or his or her designee shall review the decision of the committee and the President shall deliver a written decision to the grievant, to the Grievance Committee, and to the supervisors, director, or administrator in charge of the unit out of which the grievance arose within thirty (30) days of receipt of the committee recommendation. Prior to issuing a decision, the DGFPAB or designee may interview any person concerning the grievance to supplement the record whether or not the person testified at the hearing, provided that the decision shall list each person so interviewed. In addition, the President or designee may review any document, provided that the decision shall identify any such documents that were not introduced at the committee hearing. The grievant shall be informed of any additional information obtained by the DG and given seven (7) days to respond. If the DG rejects or modifies the recommendations of the “sexual harassment prevention cells”, the reasons shall be for the interest of both the complaint and FPAB in the decision.
3. If the grievant chooses to appeal the decision of the supervisors, Director, or administrator directly to the Director, the DG shall proceed to review the matter and reach a decision provided that all persons interview and all documents reviewed must be identified in the decision. The DG shall issue a decision within thirty (30) days of receipt of the grievant appeal.

4. SANCTIONS:

FPAB employees:

FPAB employees regardless the positions found to have engaged in sexual harassment may be subjected to an oral or written warning or reprimand. Sanctions more severe than an oral or written warning or reprimand, such as removal from an assigned post and reassignment, suspension or termination shall be imposed.

5. OTHER OPTIONS AND CONTRACTS

Nothing in this policy prevents or discourages a worker from referring a harassment complaint to the cell of Executive Committee of FAPB under some adopted Acts and Safety Regulations designed to prevent such occurrences. A worker may also file a complaint with the any recognized Human Rights agencies under Human Rights Code and other Acts ratified by State of Bangladesh Government.

A worker retains the right to exercise any other legal avenues available.

CHAPTER-V: MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

1. CONTENTS:

• Equal employment opportunity to the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” guidelines on sexual harassment.
• Offices of the NHQ, Branches and Special Work Unit (SWU) - Sexual harassment.

Equal employment opportunity to the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells”:

2. GUIDELINES ON BULLYING AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT MANAGEMENT:

Sexual Harassment:

a.) Harassment on the basis of sex would be treated as a violation of FPAB’s core values. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:

1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or conditions of an individual’s employment,
2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or
3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
b.) In determining whether alleged conduct constitutes sexual harassment, the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” will look at the records as a whole and the totality of the circumstances, such as the nature of the sexual advances and the context in which the alleged incidents occurred. The determination of the legality of a particular action will be made from the facts on a case-by-case basis.

c.) Applying general principles, an employer, employment agency or supervisors (hereinafter collectively referred to as “employer”) is responsible for its acts and those of its agents and supervisory Employees with respect to sexual harassment regardless of whether the specific acts complained of were authorized or even forbidden by the employer and regardless of whether the employer knew or should have known of their occurrence. The “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” will examine the circumstances of the particular employment relationship and the job functions performed by the individual in determining whether an individual acts in either a supervisory or agency capacity.

d.) With respect to conduct between fellow Employees, an employer is responsible for acts of sexual harassment in the work place where the employer (or its agents or supervisory employees) knows or should have known of the conduct, unless it can be shown that it took immediate and appropriate corrective action.

e.) An employer may also be responsible for the acts of non- employees, with respect to sexual harassment of employees in the workplace, where the employer (or its agents or supervisory Employees) knows or should have known of the conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. In reviewing these cases, the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” will consider the extent of the employer’s control and any other ethical responsibility, which the employer may have with respect to the conduct of such non-employees. The principles involved here will be applied irrespective to age, sex, socio-economic status, superior /junior, home districts, religion or political orientation.

f.) Prevention is the best tool for the elimination of sexual harassment. An employer should take all steps necessary to prevent sexual harassment from occurring, such as affirmatively raising the subject, expressing strong disapproval, developing appropriate sanctions, informing Employees of their right to raise and how to raise the issue of bullying or sexual harassment to the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” , and developing methods to sensitize all concerned.

g.) Other Related Principles: Where employment opportunities or benefits are granted because of an individual’s submission to the employer’s sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, the employer may be held liable for unlawful sex bullying against other persons who were qualified for but denied that employment opportunity or benefit.

2.1 IT IS ORDERED THAT:
Offices of the NHQ, Branches and Special Work Unit (SWU) would do:
1. The Executive Department develop and disseminate personnel policy prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace;
2. FPAB management in different levels disseminate such policy to all employees;
3. The Executive Department develop training and educational programs for the purpose of assisting agencies to eliminate any sexual harassment in FPAB services;
4. FPAB Offices inform their Employees of the internal complaint process;
5. FPAB Offices inform their Employees that sexual harassment complaints will be received by the NHQ’s “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells”.
6. The NHQ’s “Sexual Harassment Prevention Cells” be available to counsel complainants on more appropriate procedures and remedies; and
7. This order takes effect immediately.

CHAPTER-VI: INSTRUMENTS FOR RESOLUTIONS

1. HARASSMENT INVESTIGATION GUIDELNES:

Getting the employee to describe the claim:
 Listen to the charge. Don't make comments like, “You're overreacting.”
 Acknowledge that bringing a harassment complaint is a difficult thing to do.
 Maintain a professional attitude.
 Gather the facts; don't be judgmental.
 Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how. Find out if the employee is afraid of retaliation. How does the employee want the problem resolved?
Conducting an investigation of the claim—general rules to follow:
 Investigate immediately. Delaying or extending an investigation can make witness testimony increasingly unreliable.
 Remember that the manner in which the investigation is handled can itself furnish grounds for a hostile environment claim, so carefully document every step.
 Treat all claims seriously—even those that seem frivolous—until you have reason to do otherwise.
 Keep the investigation confidential. Emphasize to those involved that your discussions are not to be shared with unconcerned parties. Warn of possible disciplinary action, if necessary.
 Limit the number of persons who have access to the information. Communicate strictly on a “need to know” basis.
 Ask questions so that information is not unnecessarily disclosed. For example, instead of asking, “Did you see Paul touch Joan?” ask “Have you seen anyone touch Joan at work in a way that made her uncomfortable?” Remember—the purpose of the investigation is to gather facts, not disseminate allegations.
 If there is more than one allegation, treat each separately.
 To avoid defamation liability, never broadcast the facts of a given situation or the results as an example to others or as a training tool.

Interviewing the complainant (Can be done when employee first reports charge):
 Get specific details.
 Find out whether there was a pattern of previous episodes or similar behavior toward another employee.
 Get the specific context in which the conduct occurred. Where? What time?
 Determine the effect of the conduct on the complainant. Was it economic, non-economic and/or psychological?
 Determine the time relationship between the occurrence of the conduct, its effect on the complainant, and the time when the complainant made the report.
 Prepare a detailed chronology.
 Analyze whether there might have been certain events that triggered the complaint, i.e., promotion, pay or transfer denial.
 Determine whether there were any possible motives on the part of the complainant.
 Find out what the complainant wants.
 Explain to the complainant that the charges are serious, that you will conduct a thorough investigation before reaching any conclusion, and that he or she will not be retaliated against for making the complaint.
 Don't make any statements about the accused employee’s character, job performance, or family life.
Interviewing the accused:
 Obtain a statement from the accused.
 Identify the relationship of the accused to the complainant.
 Was there any prior consensual relationship between the parties? How long have they known each other? Is there a history of group or individual socializing?
 If the individual was a supervisor, indicate the individual's job title, obtain a copy of the individual's job description, and determine the individual's specific duties at the time of the alleged harassment.
 Determine whether the accused directed, or had responsibility for the work of other employees or the complainant, had authority to recommend employment decisions affecting others or was responsible for the maintenance or administration of the records of others.
 You can expect the accused to deny the charges. Observe the reaction. Note whether there is surprise, anger, or disbelief. Describe the details of the allegation and note the areas of disagreement between the testimony of both parties. If the accused denies the allegations, probe further to determine with the accused the background, reasons, and motivation that could possibly trigger the complaint.
Interviewing witnesses:
 Obtain statements from any witnesses who support or deny any of the complainant's allegations. Be aware that witnesses are often reluctant to come forward out of fear of reprisal.
 Assure all witnesses that their cooperation is important, that their testimony is confidential and that they will not be retaliated against for testifying.
Resolving the complaint:
 Apologize for the incident occurring, if that is appropriate.
 When attempting to remedy the conduct, avoid requiring the claimant to work less desirable hours or in a less desirable location. If you offer to transfer the complainant, try to get the complainant's consent and make sure the transfer position is substantially similar to the complainant's prior position. This helps ensure that the complainant is not being illegally punished for reporting discrimination or harassment.
 Consider the severity, frequency and pervasiveness of the conduct when imposing discipline on the harasser. There are several disciplinary options available, including:
— oral and written warning
— reprimand
— suspension
— probation
— transfer
— demotion
— discharge
 When imposing discipline on the accused, any forms of discipline short of discharge should be accompanied by a warning that similar misconduct in the future may result in immediate discharge. If no discipline is imposed, document the reasons why.
 Provide remedial counseling and training on sexual harassment, if appropriate. Also take the opportunity to re-communicate your policy.
 Carefully and fully document the investigation, the discipline imposed, and any remedial steps taken.
 Conduct follow-up interviews with the parties to inform them of the company’s actions.

2. COMPLAINT FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT FORM: FPAB

Date:________________________________

Name (victim): ______________________________________ Signature________________

NHQ/Branch/SWU or Address:_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________ Tel: _____________

Position: ___________________________________________________________________

Name of the person or group the complaint against: _________________________________
Dept. or address:_____________________________________________________________
Date & time of bullying/sexual harassment:________________________________________
Place:______________________________________________________________________
Witnesses if any:_____________________________________________________________
Suspected causes of the bullying/sexual harassment:_________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
What happened?:_____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Type of complaint: (a) Informal  (b) Formal 
What would you like to see to happen (for you, for others) with respect to the alleged incident of harassment or bulleying?:____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Person (name and designation) accepting the complaint form:_________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Date:_______________________

Date due:____________________________ Date completed:_________________________

Fighting Diarrheal Diseases/Cholera in Bangladesh

2008-07-26T06:55:00.000-07:00

Fighting Diarrheal Diseases/Cholera in Bangladesh
-------------------------------------------------

Evaluation Oral Re-hydration Therapy Communication Campaign (ORTCC)
fighting the Cholera and other Diarrheal Diseases in Bangladesh

Evaluation of the largest Communication Campaign in the history of
Bangladesh

In the last decade, thousands of people, mainly children used to die
from diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh (approx. 300,000/year), as it
is one of the most densely populated countries (over 864 people/sq.
kilometer) in the world with yearly massive flood and poor sanita-
tion.

With the efforts from different concerned agencies, the situation has
now markedly improved. The people became increasingly conscious about
safe drinking and sanitary habits. The most remarkable achievement is
almost all of them now understand the effect of diarrheal disease and
the requirement of extra fluid to replenish the lack of fluid in the
body of a diarrhea patient. Although, mentioning "Cholera" is forbid-
den by the government health authorities, along with the shigellosis
it has been predicted as the common cause of diarrhea in Bangladesh.

We are still poor, but we have been able to constitute a nationwide
system, the CDD, which is capable of dealing with any emergency
situation regarding diarrheal diseases. One might be happy to know
that in last devastating flush flood in the south-western Bangladesh
(September-October, 2000, when I was engaged in the area as the Medi-
cal Officer of MSF-Holland), out of approx. 100,000 diarrheal pa-
tients, only a few were detected severely dehydrated and the number
of death was non-significant frustrating many international agencies
that came there to set up Diarrhea Treatment Centers (DTC) and to see
thousands of helpless people! Local doctors and paramedics - with ap-
plication of their locally evolved participatory methods - proved
highly effective and low-expensed.

I think all of you know that Bangladesh has the maximum number of
NGVDOs working in the grass root levels in various fields including
the health. In one stage, MSF-Holland was waiting loosely until the
flood water receded (instead of starting mobile OPDs to treat the
thousands distressed in emergency peak periods, even after proposed
by the local staffs repeatedly!) and preferred to chlorinate the
tube-wells with bleaching powder flown from Europe with the expatri-
ate in very high cost, who had almost no knowledge of indigenous
health seeking behaviours, no knowledge of trends of the local dis-
eases and almost totally failed to achieve and initiate the vital
participatory approach, which resulted in their total isolation from
the people in emergency in the field of disaster.

Another important thing - please do not confuse the well advertised
role of International Center for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangla-
desh. The latter one is only involved in a hospital in the capital
city of Dhaka and in two or three project sites. Its main role is the
research. But the great service for diarrhea for more than 120 mil-
lions of people have been almost solely planned and delivered by Con-
trol of Diarrheal Disease, Directorate of Health, Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh in collaboration with
mainly UNICEF.
(Synopsis from "Evaluation of Oral Re-hydration Therapy Communication
Campaign", the evaluation of the largest communication campaign in
Bangladesh conducted by Associates for Family Health Research (AFHR),
a reputed health and Family Planning research firm of Bangladesh. Dr.
Shamim ul Moula was the Principal Investigator and main author of the
study report. The study has been funded by UNICEF, BCO and Royal
Netherlands Government. The outcome of the study is now the basis of
Control of the Diarrheal Disease in Bangladesh).

* This synopsis exposed on the Internet is strictly for non-
commercial purpose and for the benefit of the diarrhoeal disease pa-
tients. I shall be happy if any quarter engaged in the public health
field will benefit from the experiences and findings.

--
National Control of Diarrhoeal Diseases (CDD) programme, Government
of Bangladesh and UNICEF, Bangladesh had been engaged in Oral Rehy-
dration Therapy Communication Campaign (ORTCC) to increase ORT use in
diarrhoeal diseases by the caretakers of children under five years of
age in the country. The campaign started in October 1996. CDD program
and UNICEF, BCO have initiated this study to evaluate the outcome of
the ORTCC to get a comprehensive feedback from the caretakers to spe-
cifically look into the degree of behavior change in diarrhoeal dis-
eases management imparted to them.

The fieldwork of the study has been conducted among the primary re-
spondents or caretakers (mothers mainly-over 16,000 in number),
Health Workers, Primary school teachers and Students as the secondary
respondents. For a qualitative assessment, in-depth interviews were
held with the program managers and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were
conducted with Health Workers (Health Assistants) and Primary School
Teachers.

Study Findings

From the caretaker interview
Knowledge and perception

* Caretakers' knowledge of all the three golden rules has substan-
tially increased to 46.4 percent in the evaluation from 4.9 percent
in that of the baseline for ORTCC. Knowledge about the rule 1 (give
extra fluids), rule 2 (continue normal feeding including breast milk)
and 3 (referral) were increased to 98.8, 58.9, and 79.3 percents in
the evaluation respectively from those of the 37.4, 12.3 and 56.7
percents respectively in the baseline of ORTCC.

* The most important disseminators of knowledge about the three
"golden rules" have been found as the Health Assistants (60.2%), TV
and Radio (52.7%), Government service outlets (29.2%), Village Doc-
tors (26.0%), NGO workers and their facilities (16.6%), MBBS doctors
(9.2%), and Pharmacy/Drug sellers (8.8%).

* Caretakers' knowledge on diarrhoeal drinks had been found in the
evaluation as ORS (packet saline) of 89.7 percent followed by Molas-
ses Salt Solution (LGS-labon gur sharbat) of 73.8 percent . Other im-
portant fluids for diarrhoea known by the caretakers in home remedy
of diarrhoeal diseases were Green Coconut water of 51.7 percent,
boiled rice water or "Bhater Mar" (49.6%), husked rice water or
"Chirar Pani" about 38.7 percent. Knowledge in plain water was found
to be 16.7 percent.

* The most important sources of knowledge of the fluids for the diar-
rhoeal diseases are the Health Assistants (59.0 percent) and Radio/TV
(50.9 percent nationally of which the urban's share is greater as
87.4 percent) as found in the evaluation. Government Hospitals and
other outlets have accounted for 27.8 percent and Village doctors for
24.4 percent as found in the evaluation. NGOs and their associates
contributed for only 16.9 percent in the issue. The MBBS doctors are
accounted for 8.8 percent as the sources.

* About 75.4 percent of the caretakers in evaluation informed of the
perception of giving extra fluids to the diarrhoea patients in con-
trast to that of the 37.4 percent in the baseline study for ORTCC.
About 12.4 percent caretakers had the knowledge of continuing normal
quantity fluid in the diarrhoeal episodes of their children as found
in the evaluation.

* In evaluation, nationally 67.8 percent of the caretakers have the
knowledge of practicing normal or grater quantities of food during
the diarrhoeal episodes of their children in contrast to 12.3 percent
normal feeding in the baseline study of ORTCC.

* Nationally, about 65.5 percent of the respondent caretakers have
been breast-feeding their children during the time of the study.

* Nationally, about 80.8 percent of the respondent caretakers have
the correct knowledge of breast-feeding their children during diar-
rhoeal episodes.

* Nationally in evaluation, about 85.1 percent of the respondents
have the knowledge of referral in frequent watery loose motion in
contrast to 62.6 percent in the baseline study for ORTCC. About 83.3
percent of the respondents in evaluation have the knowledge of refer-
ral in patient's conditions of not getting better.

* Repeated vomiting is accounted for 37.4 percent in evaluation in
contrast to 27.4 percent in baseline study for ORTCC. Almost all
other percentages regarding to the referral knowledge have increased.

* About 73.9 percent caretakers have got knowledge about correct
preparation of ORS (packet saline) found in evaluation in contrast to
that of about 38.3 percent in the baseline study of ORTCC.

* Nationally in evaluation, about 36.0 percent caretakers have the
knowledge of the adverse effects with in-appropriate volume of water
in ORS preparation.

* About 41.4 percent of the respondents know the ineffectiveness of
the ORS solution prepared with the volume of water less than 500 ml.
Among them, 18.1 percent respondents knew the correct most informa-
tion i.e. " intensity of the loose motion is increased ".

* Most important sources of the knowledge regarding the adverse ef-
fects with the lesser volume water in packet saline preparation are
the Health Assistants (44.8 percent), TV and Radio (43.5 percent),
Government hospitals and other service outlets (22.4 percent) as
found in the evaluation.

* Nationally in evaluation, 52.9 percent of the respondents have been
found knowledgeable of the correct preservation time of the prepared
ORS of 12 hours in contrast to 19.3 percent of the baseline for
ORTCC.

Prevalence
* Nationally, two week and 24 hours prevalence of diarrhoeal disease
has been found as 9.0 and 4.1 respectively in the evaluation.

Practice
* Nationally, about 57.0 percent of the caretakers had been treating
or consulting for the diarrhoeal episodes of their patients.

* Nationally, Village Doctors (42.5%), Drug Sellers (22.3%), Govern-
ment hospitals and other service outlets (16.6%) and Health Assis-
tants (15.8%) are the major groups found to contribute in treatment
and consultation for the diarrhoea patients as described by the care-
takers in evaluation.

* Nationally, NGOs contribution in the issue is 3.6 percent, among
which, 1.7 percent is accounted for the rural.

* Nationally, about 52.9 percent of the respondents used medications
in the diarrhoeal episodes of their patients.

* In evaluation, it has been revealed that 95.5 percent caretakers
reported frequent watery stool and 61.1 percent observed their pa-
tients as not getting better. About 42.6 percent caretakers reported
of fever, whereas 33.8 percent informed of insufficient ingestion of
food and fluid by the patients.

* In evaluation, 59.3 percent of the caretakers provided increased
quantity of fluids to their patient in diarrhoeal episodes. In the
urban, the trend is higher as 71.1 percent in contrast to 56.4 per-
cent in the in the rural in the evaluation study.

* Nationally, in evaluation, about 71.6 percent of the respondents
have been found to practice normal or higher amount of food including
breast milk in the diarrhoeal episodes of their children.

* In evaluation, nationally 25.9 percent caretakers attempted feeding
of their children in the diarrhoeal episodes 8 times or more in a
day, 17.2 percent did it 5 times a day, 16.5 percent and 15.4 percent
did it for 4 and 6 times respectively in a day. Nationally 0.3 per-
cent did not give any food to their children in diarrhoea whereas 0.8
percent and 3.2 percent of the respondents did it for one and two
times a day respectively.

* In evaluation, nationally 53.9 percent of the respondents used
packet saline (ORS) as the diarrhoeal fluid, which is the highest
amongst its kind. Other frequently used fluids are Molasses Salt So-
lution (Labon Gur or Chini Sharbat) of 46.1 percent, Plain water
(53.0%), boiled rice water or "Bhater Mar" (27.5%)), husked rice wa-
ter or "Chirar Pani" (24.7%) and Green coconut water (22.7%).

* Nationally, in evaluation, Health Assistants are accounted for 48.9
percent as the source of recommendations of diarrhoeal fluids fol-
lowed by Radio/TV (30.4%). Health Assistants are major in the rural
area (54.6%). Village Doctors have been revealed as an important
source for the fluid knowledge (25.7% nationally). Government hospi-
tals and other outlets accounted for 24.3 percent nationally. MBBS
doctors are accounted for 7.7 as the source nationally.

* NGO clinic/NGO workers have been accounted for 10.1 percent nation-
ally as the source of knowledge; it is 12.8 percent in the urban and
9.4 percent in the rural areas as described by the caretakers in
evaluation study.

* Nationally, 81.6 percent caretakers used brand saline of SMC (OR-
Saline). Other commercial brands used were only 4.1 percent. Govern-
ment brands accounted for 14.2 percent.

* On observation by the AFHR Field Investigators, nationally 87.0
percent of the caretakers have used entire contents of ORS packet
while preparing packet saline. About 89.7 percent respondent caretak-
ers nationally dissolved the entire ORS packet content in the water
with higher proportion in urban areas (94.5%).

* Nationally, 65.5 percent of the caretakers have been observed to
use appropriate volume of water for the preparation of ORS solution.

* Nationally, 58.9 percent of the caretakers have been observed pre-
paring ORS solution correctly.

N.B. Any question regarding the study will be welcomed. Other inter-
esting features of the study can be sent through afro-
nets@usa.healthnet.org if anybody is interested.

Please contact:
Dr. S. M. Shamim ul Moula

N.B. Any question regarding the study will be welcomed. Other inter-
esting features of the study can be sent to you directly if anybody
is interested.

2008-07-25T21:53:00.001-07:00

South Asia Faces Food Crisis Despite India's High Productivity

By Lea Terhune

This is the third in a series of articles examining the regional implications of a global food shortage.

Washington - Those most affected by the current global food crisis are the poor, particularly in developing countries, international agencies and independent experts agree, and a large number of people for whom steep food prices spell disaster live in South Asia.

Rice, an important staple, is in short supply. The United Nations reported in June that Nepal, which imports much of its rice, has 2.5 million people in immediate need of assistance and 3.9 million more whose welfare may be compromised by rising prices.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, people are protesting wheat prices so high that many cannot afford to buy flour to make bread. Bangladesh likewise is afflicted, its agriculture disrupted by frequent floods. In light of these problems, the U. S. government has asked countries implementing food export bans, including India, to lift them.

India, regional leader and emerging global economic powerhouse, fails to deliver sufficient food to several hundred million of its people despite its 8 percent annual growth in its economy.

Although India's success "has created enormous opportunities for accelerated human development," it has achieved only "modest progress in poverty reduction," according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2007/2008 report. One reason is a growing agricultural shortfall resulting from inefficiencies in policies and infrastructure, according to UNDP.

INDIA SEEKS TO REVITALIZE AGRICULTURAL

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for an agricultural revival akin to the "green revolution," a production surge made possible by high-yield crops and new farming methods introduced in the 1960s. The U.S.-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative, begun in 2005, emphasizes cooperation in agricultural education, research, and commercial cooperation with public and private sector participants and aims to revitalize farming.

In India, high food prices can turn quickly into political crises. "Exactly 10 years ago ... a ruling government lost elections because the price of onions was too high, which tells you how important the electoral concern over inflation is," the Peterson Institute's Arvind Subramanian told an April Global Economic Prospects meeting. Indian elections are due to be held early in 2009.

Even though food is available in India, and the harvest outlook for 2008 is good, spiraling inflation has caused the government to act, and some of its measures, like restricting certain food exports, have a negative effect both regionally and in the global market.

"While high prices are difficult on consumers they benefit producers and send signals for investment and increased area so the fact that India's prices are artificially low hurts producers in the long run. Therefore, we argue that India's export bans are very detrimental to rice and wheat farmers, especially considering the high cost of inputs," Oliver Flak, U.S. agricultural attach� in India, told America.gov.

EMPHASIS ON EFFICIENCY, SUSTAINABILITY

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project officer in India Daniel Miller added, "As the second-largest rice growing nation in the world, India can and should play an important role in alleviating the global food crisis. Improving productivity of Indian agriculture can help mitigate both Indian and global food shortages and pressures on food prices."

He said the "significant increases" in adoption of efficient, sustainable farming methods are making a difference in Indian agriculture, and there is "a new green revolution that is already happening."

"Everybody's rethinking now. Maybe we've been a little complacent about agriculture," USAID's Rob Bertram told America.gov. He is excited about technical collaboration projects that range from new techniques to using biotechnology to increase crop yields while keeping expenses down.

"It's a combination of things: reducing tillage, reducing the amount of labor involved on family farms. By reducing the tillage we actually make water use more efficient so that irrigation pumping isn't as great and there isn't as much load demand on the electric system.

"[W]e are helping to reduce the amount of water that farmers need to use to increase their productivity." He added, "When you increase the productivity of rice and wheat, you can also spark diversification into other higher value crops. Maize for livestock feed, oil seeds, vegetables, and we've got a lot of diversification going on."

Bertram says South Asian countries can share agricultural solutions, something the Rice-Wheat Consortium is doing in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The United States, too, has benefited from sustainable techniques, he said. "Our soil conservation situation has greatly improved over 20 years ago because of no-till farming. Soil erosion was a huge problem in the U.S. But it's much less now."

Global warming and recent natural disasters make adaptive measures even more critical.

USAID also facilitates delivery of emergency and long-term food aid, supplying the World Food Programme and other agencies in the field. Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal and Sri Lanka are 2008 regional recipients.

The United States is the world's largest donor. "The American people are generous people and they're compassionate," President Bush said when announcing new emergency funding to bolster world food security. "America will lead the fight against hunger for years to come." (See "World's Hungry Fed Through U.S. Government Programs ( http://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/June/20080625153722WCyeroC0.2581598.html?CP.rss=true ).")

See also:

. "Asians Especially Vulnerable to Food Shortages and High Prices ( http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2008/June/20080612100529esnamfuak0.578274.html?CP.rss=true )"; and

. "Food Crisis Threatens Economic Progress in Americas ( http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2008/June/200806171415181xeneerg0.5253412.html?CP.rss=true )."

Source: U.S. Department of State

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

To comment on this story, email to comment@newsblaze.com

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Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze, Daily News
Tags: Lea Terhune,global food,South Asia Faces Food Crisis
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Growing Food Crisis As Bio Fuel Subsidies Undermine Free Markets

2008-07-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

Growing Food Crisis As Bio Fuel Subsidies Undermine Free Markets

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only
by Martin Walker
Washington (UPI) Feb 27, 2008
The announcement by Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, that the globe's main provider of food aid may have to start rationing is not just bad news for countries like Afghanistan and Ethiopia that depend on its supplies.

It's grim news for everybody. The global economy is just about coping with the subprime crisis, the fall of the dollar and oil at $100 a barrel. But the inflationary surge in food prices could prove to be the final straw.

Wheat prices hit $24 a bushel this week in the futures markets, having been $3 a bushel four years go. That dwarfs the rise in oil prices.

This problem has been coming for some time, driven by three separate factors. The first is overall population increase. The second is that emergent economies like China and India are climbing up the prosperity chain and demanding more meat protein, which takes eight times as much land to produce as vegetable protein. The third is that short-sighted government subsidies for biofuels are eroding the amount of crops available for eating.

Sheeran says the immediate problems are rising food prices and a lack of funds for the U.N. body to buy food aid, while demand from poor countries is increasing. Her statement echoes earlier warnings from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization that the soaring cost of grains and cereals was becoming "a major global concern."

"In some of these developing countries, prices have gone up 80 percent for staple food," Sheeran said, adding her agency's budget was soaring by millions of dollars a week. "If food is twice as expensive, we can bring half as much in for the same price and the same contribution."

This problem is not going to be easily resolved because the world faces the double threat of a long-term trend of rising demand in conditions of tightly constrained supply. There are already limits to the availability of arable land and severe pressures on water supplies, and climate change seems to be exacerbating both. The world is heading into a perfect storm.

The price movements tell the story. Soybean prices in the United States have jumped from $5.72 in 2004 to $10.60 now. Wheat sold for $3.01 a bushel in 2004 and is now over $7.50, with prices for March delivery being quoted at $10.50 a bushel. Spring wheat prices were trading last week at $18.

Joseph Glauber, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief economist, noted last week that wheat prices had previously moved from $3 to $5 a bushel without major pain for consumers. "But now the wheat price has jumped to nearly $20 a bushel."

World grain reserves are at their lowest levels since records were first kept back in 1960, and the U.S. stockpile had not been this low since 1948.

This is already having important political effects around the world. Pakistan has reintroduced food ration cards, an unpopular and crisis-driven move that has contributed to the unpopularity of President Pervez Musharraf and helps explain his party's recent stinging electoral defeat.

Egypt has extended its own food rationing system, and the Indian government is straining to maintain its food price subsidy system as costs soar. China and Russia are imposing price controls, and Argentina and Vietnam are reducing supplies to the world market through rationing and higher export taxes.

"India has a deficit of oilseed, a deficit of many pulses and now a deficit of wheat -- all the major staples are now getting hit by the demand-supply gap," B.C. Khatua, chairman of the Forward Markets Commission, which regulates futures trading for food commodities, warned this week.

The market should adjust, spurring more planting and more production in response to higher prices. Last week's annual outlook conference of the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that U.S. farmers were cutting their plantings of cotton and sugar in order to take advantage of the higher prices for wheat, corn and soy. Wheat production is projected to soar 13 percent to 2.33 billion bushels as farmers expand planting for the grain by 6 percent.

But markets worldwide face severe constraints from government manipulation of prices. Sometimes, like the U.S. subsidies for biofuels, this is done with the best of intentions, to cut U.S. dependency on imported fossil fuels. But government action can have severe effects.

The European Union, for example, sharply restricts the use of new genetically modified crops, which many agricultural scientists see as the technological way forward. Genetically modified organisms can be tailored to grow on marginal land and survive drought, to need less fertilizer or to survive saltwater flooding.

William Doyle, head of the world's biggest fertilizer company, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, sounded the alarm last week by using the word "famine." With world grain stocks at their lowest since records were first kept, Doyle warned: "If you had any major upset where you didn't have a crop in a major growing agricultural region this year, I believe you'd see famine."

It was just such an upset that led to this week's jump in the wheat price to $24. Kazakhstan had announced a freeze in grain exports.

"We keep going to the cupboard without replacing and so there is enormous pressure on agriculture to have a record crop every year. We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with this very low inventory situation," Doyle added.

There are few easy choices. GMO crops remain controversial. And while one fast way to increase food production would be to increase the acreage under the plough in countries like Brazil, that would also mean further erosion of the rainforest and tougher environmental problems in the future. Food prices look set to keep on rising, and unless the World Food Program gets significant new funds the world's poor are set to get even hungrier.

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The biofuel hoax is causing a world food crisis!

2008-07-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

The biofuel hoax is causing a world food crisis!

As our politicians drill the human food supply for energy

by Christopher Calder On December 19th, 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law the "Energy Independence and Security Act" (summary pdf 107kb), which mandates that 36 billion gallons of biofuels be produced in the United States every year by 2022, a nearly fivefold increase over 2006 production levels. Ethanol (vodka minus H2O) and "biodiesel" (a.k.a. cooking oil) are made from food or inedible crops which displace normal agricultural activity. Biofuel crops include corn, soybeans, rapeseed (canola oil), sugarcane, palm trees (palm oil), and cassava, as well as experimental "second generation" crops such as switchgrass, jatropha, giant reed, hemp, and algae. [see picture of George W. Bush holding bottle of ethanol]

In 2007, 54% of the world's corn was grown in the United States, and an ever increasing percentage of that crop ended up in gas tanks instead of stomachs. The corn required to fill the 18.5 gallon gas tank of a Toyota Camry with ethanol could feed one human being for 270 days. Ethanol production took only about 6 to 7% of American corn in 1998, but has grown as a cancer on our food supply, taking somewhere between 30 to 38% by 2008. Readers should be warned that it is difficult to get honest figures on exactly how much US corn is currently being turned into ethanol, as Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer has effectively turned the USDA into a propaganda machine for the biofuel industry. President Bush's Katrina style mishandling of America's food supply is a disgrace, as any responsible president would appoint a Secretary of Agriculture concerned with food supply security, not with the profits of ethanol manufacturers.

The US is also diverting increasing amounts of soybean and rapeseed oil to biodiesel production, and world supplies of cooking oil are getting tight. Corn, soybeans, and rapeseed are the foundation of America's food supply because they feed our farm animals which give us dairy products, eggs, and meat. When the cost of animal feed is pushed up by biofuel production, the price American families pay for those food items also rise. [see corn price chart] Biofuels require massive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers to produce, and the price of fertilizer rose by more than 200% in 2007 alone. Nitrogen fertilizers are largely made from natural gas, which experienced little overall price gain in 2007, so the main driving force of fertilizer price hyperinflation is undeniably biofuel production. Biofuels are pushing up the cost of all foods that require fertilizers, including rice, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, and broccoli.

NEWS - Scientists warn of lack of vital phosphorus as biofuels raise demand

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, global food prices rose an incredible 40% in 2007, which qualifies as hyperinflation. The World Bank states that the cost of staple foods rose by 83% during the 3 year period from 2005 to 2008. The United Nations warns that 82 countries face food emergencies because cereal stocks are at an all-time low. Unfortunately, few consumers understand exactly why food prices have risen so dramatically, and even our most respected politicians do not comprehend the magnitude of the global food crisis which they themselves helped create.

WARNING - From Barack Obama's campaign website - "Obama will require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included in the fuel supply by 2022 and will increase that to at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030."

NEWS! - Obama links to ethanol industry exposed by NYT - Obama's ignores warnings from scientists and food advocates and "wants to shovel $150 billion over 10 years into biofuels."

Kay Bailey Hutchison proposes a sane energy plan that will actually produce new energy!

The United Nations states that its charity programs can no longer afford to feed the starving peoples of the world because of the high cost of staple foods created by biofuel production. Mr. Jean Ziegler, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, repeatedly denounced biofuels as "a crime against humanity," and warned that “This is an imminent massacre.” Ziegler explained that families in the United States and the European Union spend only about 10 to 20% of their budgets on food, but those in poor countries are forced to spend 60 to 90%, so “It’s a question of survival.” The new UN food envoy, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, has also called for U.S. and E.U. biofuel targets to be abandoned, and said the world food crisis is "a silent tsunami affecting 100 million people."

Food banks in the US are running low on supplies, and many families who use to contribute food are now in need of help themselves. When farmers plant more corn in order to cash in on high prices created by biofuel mandates, they reduce production of other crops such as wheat. The USDA stated that in May, 2008, US wheat supplies were lower than at any time since 1948, in part because 16% of US farmland formerly planted in wheat and soybeans was planted in corn for ethanol instead.

The increased cost of oil has pushed the price of all products higher, but biofuel production has amplified an expected food price rise by shrinking food supplies, thus turning a manageable cost problem into a global humanitarian disaster. Oil price increases have not shrunk the human food supply, but biofuel production has! The more biofuels we produce, the less food we have to eat because we grow biofuel crops using the same land, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and labor we use to grow food. As massive new biofuel mandates have only recently been signed into law, the world should be warned that the biofuel food price spiral has only just begun. [see Parallels - Biofuels and Mao's "Great Leap Forward"]

The ideology of biofuel production sounds wholesome superficially; a kind of green, health food store way of producing energy, and that is part of the reason biofuels have an almost cult-like following in our scientifically undereducated United States Congress. US biofuel plans are based on selfish political calculation and hype, without legitimate ecological or economic justification.

Ten reasons to oppose the Obama-Pelosi-Bush biofuel plan

1) Starvation - Globally, biofuel production will contribute to the early, avoidable deaths of at least between 10 and 20 million people in the year 2008 alone. With 100 million of the world's poorest put in jeopardy, the body count could climb much higher. The more we artificially push up grain prices by manufacturing biofuels, the more people we kill. 4 billion of earth's 6.66 billion human inhabitants live in poverty, yet our politicians wish to starve people to feed cars.

The poor of the Third World, the homeless, the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and all those living on low fixed incomes are the hardest hit by high food prices. News reports show people in Haiti resorting to eating mud because American biofuel mandates have made grains unaffordable. Most Americans do not realize that global food reserves are at historic lows, while proven global oil reserves are at historic highs. With biofuels you pay twice; once at the pump and then again at the supermarket, which effectively makes biofuel production a massive new tax on food.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) calculates that biofuels are responsible for at least 30% of grain price hikes. German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul put the figure at between 30 and 70%. A detailed analysis by Don Mitchell, an internationally respected economist at the World Bank, states that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%! US Congressman Jim McGovern admitted that "If there was a secret vote (on biofuels), there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing.”

2) Higher cost - Biofuels increase our federal budget deficit because they depend on large subsidies just to exist. Without federal and state subsidies and political mandates, there would be no significant free market demand for biofuels in the United States. Ethanol contains 33% less energy than gasoline, so it takes 15 gallons of pure ethanol to travel the same number of miles that could be traveled using just 10 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline. Our politicians have effectively mandated that we all get lower gas mileage at a time we are paying record high prices at the pump. Ethanol fuel blends increase engine maintenance costs and lower engine reliability, a particularly significant issue for light aircraft owners.

To calculate the true cost of biofuels you must add together all of their negatives; the high direct cost of producing the fuel itself, increased cost of food worldwide, loss of water used for irrigation, and increased damage done to the environment. Judged in total, biofuels are tremendously more expensive than using gasoline and diesel fuel made from oil. Economist Ronald Cooke estimated that just the production and food penalty costs of ethanol was close to $6.89 a gallon back in February, 2007, before recent spectacular corn price rises. By contrast, Shell Oil physicist Harold Vinegar believes that by the year 2015 oil can be extracted from shale for about $30 per barrel. Colorado alone has massive shale reserves reported to contain more oil potential than the entire Middle East did before the British began drilling in Iran in 1908.

Corn hit $6 a bushel on April 3, 2008, up 30% in only 3 months, and up 300% in two years. Corn then rose to over $7 a bushel on June 12th, 2008, due to Midwest flooding. Barack Obama claims we can gradually switch from corn to cellulosic ethanol and thus save food supplies, but three agricultural economists at Iowa State University state that ethanol made from cellulose will never be economically viable. Switchgrass, crop waste, and wood chip ethanol schemes are too expensive to help. [study pdf 180kb]

3) Environmental damage - Biofuel production harms the environment by eroding topsoil and encouraging the destruction of forests, which are desperately needed to soak up excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the major greenhouse gas that causes global warming, and the two great sponges of carbon dioxide are the oceans and the forests. The oceans are losing their ability to absorb CO2 as they are becoming increasingly acidic due to pollution, so if we also destroy our forests global warming will accelerate that much faster. Biofuel schemes speed up global warming because the entire biofuel production process, from beginning to end, releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while destroying native forests which naturally clean and rejuvenate the air we breathe.

Roland Clift, a senior science advisor to the British Government, stated that British plans to promote biofuels are a "scam." The demand for biofuels is causing forests to be burnt to make way for palm trees (palm oil) and similar crops. “We calculate that the land will need to grow biodiesel crops for 70 to 300 years to compensate for the CO2 emitted in forest destruction.” Biofuel production transports carbon into the atmosphere that was previously sequestered (trapped) in soils and native vegetation. In gaseous form these carbon based molecules, such as carbon dioxide and methane, act as a automobile windshield and hold in heat gained from solar radiation.

Biofuel advocates ignore the fact that when we pump up grain prices through biofuel production, we raise grain prices all over the world which gives other countries a strong financial incentive to burn down rainforests in order to plant more food. U.S. corn subsidies are currently driving the rapid destruction of the Amazon basin. The last thing we should be doing is encouraging nonessential agricultural activity, which vastly enlarges our heavy human footprint on earth and speeds desertification of the planet. Jatropha, the new biofuel crop being promoted in tropical countries, is effectively a giant toxic monster weed which will have a destructive impact on wildlife and biodiversity, and will be almost impossible to get rid of once planted, thus destroying the future farming potential of the land.

The highly respected journal SCIENCE published the Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change, which states that the production of biofuels from grains or switchgrass greatly increases the release of greenhouse gases and is far worse for the environment than using gasoline. The authors found that "Using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions from land use change, corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years. Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn lands, increase emissions by 50%." [Also see Biofuels: an unfolding disaster pdf 514kb]

Scientists point out that nitrogen fertilizers, which are made from natural gas, coal, and mined minerals, react with soil to unleash large amounts of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas estimated to be 296 times more effective at trapping the earth's heat than CO2. Farming contributes more to global warming each year than all land, sea, and air transportation combined, so growing vast amounts of biofuels crops will heat up the earth's atmosphere faster than if we only used imported oil. A recent study says corn ethanol biofuel production will cause a 10 to 34% increase in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers due to fertilizer run-off, thus increasing the size of the DEAD ZONE in the Gulf of Mexico. [study abstract]

4) Water shortages - Biofuel crop production causes water shortages because irrigation water is taken away from our shrinking supplies of safe drinking and agricultural water. There is not enough salt free water in the world to grow biofuel crops and still provide essential utility water for our homes and to grow sufficient food for humans to survive. It takes 9,000 gallons of water to produce just 1 gallon of biodiesel made from soybeans, so we obviously need to save our very limited supplies of ground water to grow food, not fuel. In California water is now so precious that some farmers want to sell water instead of food, and water rationing is being considered as officials fear a long term drought. Even without biofuel production, we are turning vast areas of land into desert every year through loss of topsoil due to farming for essential food.

5) It's a lie - The Obama-Pelosi-Bush "biofuel energy independence plan" is a scientific hoax and an economic fraud because all current US production methods use more energy to create biofuels than they yield in the form of biofuel itself. Biofuel advocates often distort energy efficiency calculations by leaving out essential energy inputs required to make fuel. The average American does not understand that when you pour nitrogen fertilizers on crops, you are literally pouring on fossil fuel energy. Nitrogen fertilizers are so full of chemical energy potential that they are used to make explosives, so when you grow biofuels only part of the plant's energy accumulation comes from sunlight, and the rest comes from the fossil energy we feed them. Rather than use natural gas to make fertilizer to grow biofuel crops, it would be much more efficient to alter our cars to run on natural gas directly.

"The following are the major energy inputs to industrial corn farming: nitrogen fertilizer (all fossil energy), phosphate, potash and lime (mostly fossil energy), herbicides and insecticides (all fossil energy), fossil fuels used = diesel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas (LG), electricity (almost all fossil energy), transportation (all fossil energy), corn seeds and irrigation (mostly fossil energy), infrastructure (mostly fossil energy), labor (mostly fossil energy). Corn produced at a large expense of fossil energy is then transformed, with even more fossil energy, into pure ethanol." - Tad W. Patzek, Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle. [833kb pdf]

Politicians hope that second and third generation biofuel crops will generate more energy than they take to produce, but those schemes have yet to be proven in the real world. Congress has decided to mandate science fiction now and prove their hypothesis later. Even proposed second and third generation biofuel plants do not eliminate the tremendous environmental damage that massive biofuel production creates.

Biofuel advocates falsely claim that ethanol is a "clean fuel" that will reduce air pollution. Ethanol blended fuels burn cleaner on a per gallon basis, but not on a miles traveled basis, because ethanol contains 33% less energy than gasoline. Ethanol blended fuels actually emit more CO2 per miles driven than ordinary gasoline in addition to emitting far more CO2 during their manufacture. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ethanol increases the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 4 to 7% over gasoline. Ethanol use will increase the number of premature deaths caused by toxic exhaust gases, with deaths counts currently estimated in the thousands. Despite all this bad news, biofuel fans and many television news anchors mindlessly repeat false claims that ethanol is "green" and "renewable." If we dramatically speed up global warming by producing ethanol, soon we won't be able to "renew" much of anything.

6) It's politics and greed - The biofuel hoax was created by domestic American politics and corporate greed. Both the Democratic and Republican parties want to get the "farm vote" in the politically strategic states of Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. Our leaders, and most significantly farm state Senator Barack Obama, have put political gain ahead of the world's starving poor, the elderly on fixed incomes, and the welfare of the American middle class. It should be noted that Tom Daschle, national co-chairman of Obama's campaign, serves on the boards of three large ethanol companies. Obama himself is often flown around the country at reduced rates on corporate jets owned by the giant corn-ethanol corporation, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).

Wealthy politicians can afford to pay the dramatically higher food bills that biofuel production creates, and they have decided to throw science to the wind and charge blindly into what will inevitably be branded as one of the most destructive political fiascoes of the 21st century. Ambitious young biofuel entrepreneurs and giant agricultural corporations smell the money to be made, and have lobbied our Congress in hopes of turning the farm belt into the Saudi Arabia of "renewable energy," even if the energy they supply comes at the cost of human starvation and accelerated environmental damage.

7) The outlook for biofuels is dismal - All present and future biofuels have the same problems. Biofuel crops are all too low in energy, too light in weight, and thus too bulky and expensive to transport to be of any real value. They all require vast amounts of sunlight to grow and take up too much land, water, and fertilizer resources to be economically beneficial. By contrast, coal has been successful as a valuable fuel because it is very heavy, high in energy content, and thus makes energy sense to transport. Coal already exists in the ground so you don't have to grow it, water it, or fertilize it. All biofuel schemes, planned or imagined, will never amount to a hill of beans (excuse the expression) because of the basic limitations of their solar based production process. A requirement for vast amounts of sunlight will always equal a requirement for vast amounts of land area to collect that sunlight, thus solar power schemes can never replace the massive concentrated energy reservoir of fossil fuels.

Growing switchgrass to produce ethanol from lignocellulose has most of the same drawbacks as making ethanol from corn. We will use land, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and labor to grow switchgrass that will be diverted from food production, with soaring food prices the result. If we grow switchgrass on land currently used to graze cattle, we will reduce beef and milk production. If we grow switchgrass on unused "marginal" prairie lands, we will soon turn those marginal lands into a new dust bowl, which they may turn into anyway due to global warming. Computer models for the progression of global warming show the America Midwest and Southwest getting hotter and dryer, with much of our farm and grazing land turning into desert. We know that biofuel production will actually speed up global warming, so why are we pinning so much hope on an environmental battle plan that any fool can see will blow up in our face over time? We won't be able to produce enough biofuels to run our cars or enough food to fill our bellies.

Switchgrass and other biofuel weeds will be grown by ordinary, profit motive driven farmers, not by environmentally trained scientists. Farmers will grow switchgrass on land that could be used to grow corn, wheat, or soybeans, and farmers will want to maximize yield, so they will use lots of fertilizer to increase output. The plans biofuel idealists are trying to sell the American public will never produce the kind of "green," food friendly energy source they promise. The next great scandal will be how to get rid of all the millions of acres of invasive, deep rooted biofuel weeds once society inevitably realizes that even growing "second generation" biofuel crops is a tragic mistake.

In practical terms, there is not enough usable land area to grow a sufficient quantity of biofuel plants to meet the world's energy demands. According to professors James Jordan and James Powell, "Allowing a net positive energy output of 30,000 British thermal units (Btu) per gallon, it would still take four gallons of ethanol from corn to equal one gallon of gasoline. The United States has 73 million acres of corn cropland. At 350 gallons per acre, the entire U.S. corn crop would make 25.5 billion gallons, equivalent to about 6.3 billion gallons of gasoline. The United States consumes 170 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually. Thus the entire U.S. corn crop would supply only 3.7% of our auto and truck transport demands. Using the entire 300 million acres of U.S. cropland for corn-based ethanol production would meet about 15% of the demand." (see The False Hope of Biofuels).

Growing algae to make biodiesel is being touted as a cure-all for all our biofuel problems, but we are still stuck with the fact that algae need solar energy to turn carbon dioxide into fuel. To make biodiesel, algae are used as organic solar panels which output oil instead of electricity. Researchers brag that algae can produce 15 times more fuel per acre of land than growing corn for ethanol, but that still means we would need an impossibly large number of acres (about 133 million acres) of concrete lined open-air algae ponds to meet our highway energy demands. Those schemes that grow algae in closed reactor vessels, without sunlight, necessitate the algae being fed sugars or starches as a source of chemical energy. The sugars or starches must then be made from corn, wheat, beets, or other crop, so you are simply trading ethanol potential to make oil instead of vodka. If we construct genetically engineered super-algae that are capable of out-competing native algae strains that contaminate open air algae ponds, the new gene-modified algae will be immediately carried to lakes, reservoirs, and oceans all over the world in the feathers of migrating birds, with unknown and possibly catastrophic results. [see Shell Oil's algae research]

Using "agricultural waste" to make biofuels has its own problems (see soil scientist report). Removing unused portions of plants that are normally plowed under increases the need for nitrogen fertilizers, which release the most potent greenhouse gas of all; nitrous oxide. Much of the residual crop biomass must be returned to the soil to maintain topsoil integrity, otherwise the rate of topsoil erosion will increase dramatically. If we mine our topsoil for energy, we will end up committing slow agricultural suicide like the Mayan Empire. Without topsoil, the world starves!

Using wood chips to make ethanol or biodiesel sounds like a good idea until you remember that we currently use wood chips to make fuel pellets for stoves, paper, particle board, and a thousand and one building products. Every part of the trees we cut down is used for something, including bark which is used for garden mulch. The idea of sending teams of manual laborers into forests to salvage underbrush for fuel would be prohibitively expensive. Our forests are already stressed just producing lumber without tasking them with producing liquid biofuels for automobiles. Such a scheme would inevitably drive up the price of everything made from wood, creating yet another resource crisis. Making fuel from true garbage, such as used cooking oil and winery waste, is fine. Those usable true waste resources are very limited, however, and not a major energy solution for a country that uses 8 billion barrels of crude oil every year.

8) Political instability - Dramatic food price inflation created by biofuel production is causing political instability around the globe, because food products are sold in a worldwide marketplace just like oil. There have already been mass protests and/or food riots in many countries, including Mexico, Haiti, Bolivia, Morocco, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Madagascar, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Hungary, and Italy. Some newspapers report that there have been food riots in 37 countries, and it is a full time job just keeping up with all the latest food riot news. In the United Kingdom, anger over biofuels has led to numerous street demonstrations by environmental groups. Food rationing has hit stores in the US for the first time since World War II. The great call of ordinary people around the world is for FOOD SUPPLY SECURITY, not for biofuels. Our governments are "sleepwalking into crisis" as most American television networks understate the destructive role of biofuels and often parrot pro-biofuel propaganda put out by farm state politicians and biofuel manufacturers.

9) Illegal immigration - Barack Obama imagines the United States growing and harvesting more than 60 million acres of corn and switchgrass to make ethanol, and the low paying agricultural jobs needed for this work will undoubtedly come from an expansion of illegal immigration. Unlike the smaller number of high paying skilled jobs required for nuclear energy, coal to diesel conversion, or shale to oil conversion, corn and switchgrass production is mainly a labor intensive, low paying endeavor which will be an unstoppable magnet for illegal immigrants. The more we starve the rest of the world, the more the rest of the world will want to come here.

10) It's a strategic national security disaster - In the years before biofuel production, the US had large food reserves kept in storage due to the excess bounty created by modern agricultural technology. Those days are long gone, and global food reserves are now at historic lows. In earth's history there have always been great natural disasters that periodically cause poor crop harvests, such as crop diseases, insect plagues, droughts, floods, impacts of asteroids and comets, and volcanic eruptions that throw up so much dust and noxious gas into the atmosphere that sunlight is reduced for a year or longer. The eruption of the island of Krakatau in 1883 produced a 1.2 degree Celsius global temperature decline that did not return to normal until 1888, and caused poor crop harvests around the world.

When America's giant Yellowstone volcano inevitably erupts again, there will be disastrous effects on agriculture in the Northern Hemisphere. By using agriculture to produce energy for both transportation and human caloric intake, we have eliminated our strategic cushion of food reserves. When global disaster strikes, starvation will set in quickly because of government biofuel mandates. If we use nonagricultural energy sources for producing fuel for transportation, we will not suffer the double systemic insult of food and fuel shortages. Large scale biofuel production, which depends on normal climactic conditions to grow crops, is a severe threat to our national security.

We go nuclear, or we go extinct!

British scientist James Lovelock, father of the living earth Gaia theory, has stated that nuclear power is the only way to have a large human population on planet earth without causing global warming and destroying the environment. Please read James Lovelock's public statement on nuclear energy, Nuclear power is the only green solution. Lovelock states that "We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilization is in imminent danger." Nuclear power is the only technology that can produce an extremely high volume of energy using just a tiny amount of land and at reasonable cost, all without emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases.

Every year the human race burns the equivalent of 400 years worth of total planetary vegetation in the condensed form of fossil fuels, so it is obviously impossible to replace all of that concentrated biomass energy by growing a relatively small volume of biofuel crops. The one and only energy source large enough to replace that massive fossilized energy reservoir is nuclear power. The mass of an atom is in its nucleus, not in its electrons, and as E=MC2 the nucleus is where the really BIG energy is stored. The tiny energy potential created by bonding and unbonding electrons through chemical reactions in the growth of vegetation must be amplified over centuries by the gradual process of fossilization in order to make it strong enough to power a heavily populated, industrialized planet.

We can slow global warming by creating an infrastructure based on nuclear energy, improved electric car battery technology, and the use of new technology to make superior quality, sulfur free gasoline and jet fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide. [see Green Freedom 1.8mb pdf] This new energy scheme is cheaper and more practical than using hydrogen as fuel, because it is completely compatible with current vehicles and our existing energy distribution infrastructure. Intense heat from lower cost, higher temperature helium cooled prismatic block and/or pebble bed reactors is used to break down carbon dioxide into its component parts, carbon monoxide and oxygen. The carbon monoxide can then be combined with water in a catalytic process to make either pure hydrogen gas or more easily transportable liquid synthetic fuels that can be burned in ordinary automobile engines. Initially, the viability of this scheme could be demonstrated by using electrolysis of water to produce the needed hydrogen gas, using electricity generated from lower temperature water cooled nuclear reactors.

Nuclear power currently produces only 19.4% of our nation's electricity, so we need to build more nuclear power plants now using mass production techniques if we want to slow global warming. Nuclear fuel can be reprocessed over and over again, because only a tiny portion of the nuclear material is actually used up during each fuel cycle. When you reprocess fuel there is very little high level waste that needs to be stored at the Yucca Mountain Repository because the "waste" is reused as fuel. If you consider current stockpiles of nuclear fuel leftover from weapons programs, the amount of uranium easily available in the earth's crust for mining, the use of abundant thorium as fuel, and the benefits of using breeder reactors for recycling, then the world has enough nuclear fuel to last for at least 10,000 years.

Current nuclear power plants efficiently output 93 times more energy than they consume over their lifespan, including the energy used in their construction and decommissioning, but even that impressive figure can be improved upon. The art of nuclear power plant design has the potential to advance by leaps and bounds, becoming more efficient, cheaper, and safer. [see Generation IV nuclear power plant concepts] Even beyond the latest fourth generation nuclear power plant designs, there are credible proposals to use nanotechnology to achieve the direct conversion of nuclear energy to electricity without the use of turbines, making nuclear power plants stable, essentially solid state devices that run cold and have few moving parts. These advanced design concepts include electronically controlled nuclear reflectors for ultra-light radiation shielding, which would reduce the size and cost of nuclear reactors to a tiny fraction of today's designs. These developments could eventually lead to a portable 1 gigawatt or larger reactor that could be constructed in a factory and shipped to site on a single truck. [See Nanomaterial turns radiation directly into electricity (more details)]

The fears Americans have about civilian nuclear power plants are largely unfounded. One lone disaster that occurred at an obsolete Ukrainian reactor is insufficient reason to be eternally afraid of all nuclear power plants across the board. The old Chernobyl reactor used a dangerous design that has never been used in the West, and which did not even have a containment vessel. The 1986 Chernobyl accident was caused by Soviet engineers conducting irresponsible experiments that were unrelated to normal civilian power production, and which would never be allowed in the West. The Chernobyl accident killed a total of 56 people, a great tragedy, but not a nation killing disaster.

Nuclear power plants in America have an excellent record for safety and pollution free operation. By contrast, the over 600 coal burning power plants which produce 49% of our nation's electricity unleash tremendous pollution. They emit acid rain creating sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, tons of toxic mercury, and an enormous skyward bound river of carbon dioxide gas which represents 10% of all CO2 emissions worldwide. Coal power plants also spew out thorium and uranium (see article), both radioactive metals which naturally accumulate in coal. Incredibly, the potential nuclear energy value of these trace metals far exceeds the energy value of the combustible carbon content of the coal itself. Coal power plants release microscopic particulate matter, which clogs the lungs and is attributed to causing approximately 24,000 premature deaths in the United States every year; 428 times the Chernobyl death toll!

Prismatic block and pebble bed reactors are inherently meltdown proof due to the basic laws of physics. If the reactor's cooling system should fail, the core temperature automatically lowers itself to safe levels without mechanical intervention. Building new, more efficient standardized nuclear power plants using mass production techniques for major structural and control components can make nuclear power a bargain. Just like manufacturing television sets, the more you build using the same proven design the cheaper they become. If we build enough standardized reactors, it is conceivable that we could cut the cost of nuclear power in half, which could mean an essentially endless supply of sulfur free synthetic gasoline that sells for $2.00 a gallon at the pump.

Other positive ideas to consider

Solar and wind power are positive developments, but they can only hope to satisfy perhaps 20% of our energy needs because they tap into natural energy sources that are far too diffuse and fluctuating to power an advanced, industrialized nation. How much solar and wind power can we generate on a still, windless night? Solar power advocates have suggested that we could satisfy 69% of United States electricity needs for the year 2050 by covering 34,000 square miles of our beautiful Southwestern desert with solar panels, thus turning much of our nation's "living desert" into a vast DEAD ZONE. Alternative energy sources currently produce only 2.4% of America's electricity, so even an increase to 20% would be a heroic undertaking. If we wished to make solar and wind power our prime energy sources, we would have to revert to a horse and buggy economy and intentionally kill off the majority of the earth's human population. William Tucker's article, Food Riots Made in the USA, explains in easy to understand terms why solar and wind power can never compete with nuclear energy.

To lower energy costs in the short term, we should begin drilling in the Alaska ANWR oil reserve, which will do far less environmental damage than plunging ahead with biofuel production. Drilling on the proposed 2,000 acres of ANWR's 19.6 million acres will have inconsequential impact on vegetation and wildlife. [see The costly symbolism of ANWR] The Bakken Oil Formation, which runs from North Dakota through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, holds billions of barrels of recoverable oil, which we can extract without driving up the cost of food. Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming have massive oil shale deposits that are suitable for extraction using newly developed "in-situ" (in ground and in place) oil recovery techniques. The United States has large oil deposits off both coasts that can be tapped if Congress starts taking the energy crisis seriously (Poll shows 74% support coastal drilling). Converting cars and trucks to run on cheaper natural gas can help reduce our dependence on oil products, and this can be accomplished comparatively quickly.

General Motors has made unsubstantiated claims that it has an economical way to make ethanol from garbage, including old tires. If true, then their new process does not need government subsidies because market forces alone will make it profitable. Building large numbers of nuclear power plants now is a good idea no matter what the future holds for transportation fuels, because we will always need more electricity for homes and industry. Phasing out old coal burning power plants should be a top priority, as they produce the most greenhouse gas and unleash the most pollutants.

The crime of the century that you can stop

The Obama-Pelosi-Bush biofuel scheme is a prescription for planetary suicide. It dramatically shrinks the human food supply while rapidly accelerating global warming and aggravating water shortages. As a politically concocted man made disaster, it is reminiscent of Chairman Mao Tse Tung's 1958 Five Year Plan, known as "The Great Leap Forward," in which China's agriculture based economy was forcefully shifted to greater industrial output at the expense of food production. Mao's well meaning ideas ended up killing millions through starvation.

If you do not want food prices to continue their wild inflationary spiral, write your political representatives and ask that all biofuel mandates and subsidies be ended. If we stop biofuels now, food prices will start declining instead of rising, your local food banks will become full again, and the United Nations and other charitable organizations will be able to meet their moral obligations to help feed the poor. We can then concentrate on the authentically productive energy sources, such as oil, oil shale, clean coal technology, and ultimately synthetic fuels made from carbon free nuclear energy. Those who continue to promote biofuels are on the wrong side of science, economics, morality, and history.

Christopher Calder email = calderhouse at yahoo.com my home page

Notice: Feel free to repost or publish The biofuel hoax is causing a world food crisis! You can contact your federal political representatives here. You can also digitally sign a petition to end all biofuel mandates, and a petition to drill for oil on American soil.

See: Shocking biofuel world food crisis news

See: Biofuelwatch

Christopher Calder is an advocate for world food supply security with no financial interest in any energy related business. This webpage was created on December 19th, 2007, and is being continuously updated and revised as events unfold.

Let DDT to return to save millions in the poverty ridden world, don't purchase luxary insectisides from vested multinational companies

2008-07-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

The case for DDT: A recent study by Drs. Roger Bate and Richard Tren, fellows of the Institute for Economic Research have concluded that there is no strong evidence for harmful effects of DDT on the environment or on human beings. After malaria was eradicated from the developed world, poorer nations were pressurized to stop using DDT by environmental groups and funding agencies. This was a severe blow to malaria eradication programs especially in Africa since DDT is cheap and very effective. Anopheles developed resistance to the pyrethroids used in the place of DDT, which led to a resurgence of malaria in the late 1990’s. The current feeling among experts is that though DDT should not be used for general purposes, its use in malaria eradication programs is vital. Further a long term plan to replace it with equally effective, safer alternatives should be made (eBMJ 26 June 2001).

Public health From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2008-07-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

Public health
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Public health is the study and practice of managing threats to the health of a community. The field pays special attention to the social context of disease and health, and focuses on improving health through society-wide measures like vaccinations, the fluoridation of drinking water, or through policies like seatbelt and non-smoking laws.

The goal of public health is to improve lives through the prevention and treatment of disease. The United Nations' World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." In 1920, C.E.A. Winslow defined public health as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals."

The public-health approach can be applied to a population of just a handful of people or to the whole human population. Public health is typically divided into epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental, social, behavioral, and occupational health are also important subfields.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Objectives
* 2 History of public health
o 2.1 Early public health interventions
o 2.2 Modern public health
* 3 Public health programs
* 4 Public Hygiene
* 5 Economics of public health
* 6 Research
o 6.1 Community based participatory research
* 7 Education and training
* 8 Academic Journals
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

[edit] Objectives

The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing its spread to others, such as during an outbreak of infectious disease or contamination of food or water supplies. Vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measures.

Most countries have their own government public health agencies, sometimes known as ministries of health, to respond to domestic health issues. In the United States, the frontline of public health initiatives are state and local health departments. The United States Public Health Service (PHS), led by the Surgeon General of the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta and a part of the PHS, are involved with several international health activities, in addition to their national duties.

There is a vast discrepancy in access to healthcare and public health intiatives between developed nations and developing nations. In the developing world, public health infrastructures are still forming. There may not be enough trained health workers or monetary resources to provide even a basic level of medical care and disease prevention. As a result, a large majority of disease and mortality in the developing world results from and contributes to extreme poverty. For example, many African governments spend less than USD$10 per person per year on healthcare, while, in the United States, the federal government spent approximately USD$4,500 per capita in 2000.

Many diseases are preventable through simple, non-medical methods. For example, research has shown that the simple act of hand washing can prevent many contagious diseases.[1]

Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries, through local health systems and through international non-governmental organizations, like the International Public Health Forum (IPHF)

The two major postgraduate professional degrees related to this field are the Master of Public Health (MPH) or the (much rarer) Doctor of Public Health (DrPH). Many public health researchers hold PhDs in their fields of speciality, while some public health programs confer the equivalent Doctor of Science degree instead. The United States medical residency specialty is General Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

[edit] History of public health

In some ways, public health is a modern concept, although it has roots in antiquity. From the beginnings of human civilization, it was recognized that polluted water and lack of proper waste disposal spread communicable diseases (theory of miasma). Early religions attempted to regulate behavior that specifically related to health, from types of food eaten, to regulating certain indulgent behaviors, such as drinking alcohol or sexual relations. The establishment of governments placed responsibility on leaders to develop public health policies and programs in order to gain some understanding of the causes of disease and thus ensure social stability prosperity, and maintain order.

[edit] Early public health interventions

By Roman times, it was well understood that proper diversion of human waste was a necessary tenet of public health in urban areas. The Chinese developed the practice of variolation following a smallpox epidemic around 1000 BC. An individual without the disease could gain some measure of immunity against it by inhaling the dried crusts that formed around lesions of infected individuals. Also, children were protected by inoculating a scratch on their forearms with the pus from a lesion. This practice was not documented in the West until the early-1700s, and was used on a very limited basis. The practice of vaccination did not become prevalent until the 1820s, following the work of Edward Jenner to treat smallpox.

During the 14th century Black Death in Europe, it was believed that removing bodies of the dead would further prevent the spread of the bacterial infection. This did little to stem the plague, however, which was most likely spread by rodent-borne fleas. Burning parts of cities resulted in much greater benefit, since it destroyed the rodent infestations. The development of quarantine in the medieval period helped mitigate the effects of other infectious diseases. However, according to Michel Foucault, the plague model of governmentality was later controverted by the cholera model. A Cholera pandemic devastated Europe between 1829 and 1851, and was first fought by the use of what Foucault called "social medicine", which focused on flux, circulation of air, location of cemeteries, etc. All those concerns, born of the miasma theory of disease, were mixed with urbanistic concerns for the management of populations, which Foucault designated as the concept of "biopower". The German conceptualized this in the Polizeiwissenschaft ("Science of police").

The science of epidemiology was founded by John Snow's identification of a polluted public water well as the source of an 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Dr. Snow believed in the germ theory of disease as opposed to the prevailing miasma theory. Although miasma theory correctly teaches that disease is a result of poor sanitation, it was based upon the prevailing theory of spontaneous generation. Germ theory developed slowly: despite Anton van Leeuwenhoek's observations of Microorganisms, (which are now known to cause many of the most common infectious diseases) in the year 1680, the modern era of public health did not begin until the 1880s, with Robert Koch's germ theory and Louis Pasteur's production of artificial vaccines.

Other public health interventions include latrinization, the building of sewers, the regular collection of garbage followed by incineration or disposal in a landfill, providing clean water and draining standing water to prevent the breeding of mosquitos.

[edit] Modern public health

As the prevalence of infectious diseases in the developed world decreased through the 20th century, public health began to put more focus on chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease. An emphasis on physical exercise was reintroduced.

In America, public health worker Dr. Sara Josephine Baker lowered the infant mortality rate using preventative methods. She established many programs to help the poor in New York City keep their infants healthy. Dr. Baker led teams of nurses into the crowded neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and taught mothers how to dress, feed, and bathe their babies. After World War I many states and countries followed her example in order to lower infant mortality rates.

During the 20th century, the dramatic increase in average life span is widely credited to public health achievements, such as vaccination programs and control of infectious diseases, effective safety policies such as motor-vehicle and occupational safety, improved family planning, fluoridation of drinking water, anti-smoking measures, and programs designed to decrease chronic disease.

Meanwhile, the developing world remained plagued by largely preventable infectious diseases, exacerbated by malnutrition and poverty. Front-page headlines continue to present society with public health issues on a daily basis: emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, making its way from China to Canada and the United States; prescription drug benefits under public programs such as Medicare; the increase of HIV-AIDS among young heterosexual women and its spread in South Africa; the increase of childhood obesity and the concomitant increase in type II diabetes among children; the impact of adolescent pregnancy; and the ongoing social, economic and health disasters related to the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2006. These are all ongoing public health challenges.

Since the 1980s, the growing field of population health has broadened the focus of public health from individual behaviors and risk factors to population-level issues such as inequality, poverty, and education. Modern public health is often concerned with addressing determinants of health across a population, rather than advocating for individual behaviour change. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these are known as "social determinants of health." A social gradient in health runs through society, with those that are poorest generally suffering the worst health. However even those in the middle classes will generally have worse health outcomes than those of a higher social stratum (WHO, 2003). The new public health seeks to address these health inequalities by advocating for population-based policies that improve the health of the whole population in an equitable fashion.

The burden of treating conditions caused by unemployment, poverty, unfit housing and environmental pollution have been calculated to account for between 16-22% of the clinical budget of the British National Health Service. [2]

UK Public health functions include:

* Health surveillance, monitoring and analysis
* Investigation of disease outbreaks, epidemics and risk to health
* Establishing, designing and managing health promotion and disease prevention programmes
* Enabling and empowering communities to promote health and reduce inequalities
* Creating and sustaining cross-Government and intersectoral partnerships to improve health and reduce inequalities
* Ensuring compliance with regulations and laws to protect and promote health
* Developing and maintaining a well-educated and trained, multi-disciplinary public health workforce
* Ensuring the effective performance of NHS services to meet goals in improving health, preventing disease and reducing inequalities
* Research, development, evaluation and innovation
* Quality assuring the public health function

[edit] Public health programs
This 1963 poster featured CDC’s national symbol of public health, the "Wellbee", encouraging the public to receive an oral polio vaccine.
This 1963 poster featured CDC’s national symbol of public health, the "Wellbee", encouraging the public to receive an oral polio vaccine.

Today, most governments recognize the importance of public health programs in reducing the incidence of disease, disability, and the effects of aging, although public health generally receives significantly less government funding compared with medicine. In recent years, public health programs providing vaccinations have made incredible strides in promoting health, including the eradication of smallpox, a disease that plagued humanity for thousands of years.

One of the most important public health issues facing the world currently is HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis, which claimed the lives of authors Franz Kafka and Charlotte Brontë, and composer Franz Schubert, among others, is also reemerging as a major concern due to the rise of HIV/AIDS-related infections and the development of tuberculin strains that are resistant to standard antibiotics.

Another major public health concern is diabetes. In 2006, according to the World Health Organization, at least 171 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that by the year 2030, this number will double.

A controversial aspect of public health is the control of smoking. Many nations have implemented major initiatives to cut smoking, such as increased taxation and bans on smoking in some or all public places. Proponents argue by presenting evidence that smoking is one of the major killers in all developed countries, and that therefore governments have a duty to reduce the death rate, both through limiting passive (second-hand) smoking and by providing fewer opportunities for smokers to smoke. Opponents say that this undermines individual freedom and personal responsibility (often using the phrase nanny state in the UK), and worry that the state may be emboldened to remove more and more choice in the name of better population health overall. However, proponents counter that inflicting disease on other people via passive smoking is not a human right, and in fact smokers are still free to smoke in their own homes.

[edit] Public Hygiene

Public hygiene includes public behaviors individuals can take to improve their personal health and wellness. Topics include public transportation, food preparation and public washroom use. These are steps individuals can take themselves. Examples would include avoiding crowded subways during the flu season, using gloves when touching the handrails and opening doors in public malls as well as going to clean restaurants.

[edit] Economics of public health

The application of economics to the realm of public health has been rising in importance since the 1980s. Economic studies can show, for example, where limited public resources might best be spent to save lives or cause the greatest increase in quality of life.

[edit] Research

Public health investigates sources of disease and descriptors of health through scientific methodology. This can lead to a public health solution to an epidemic, or a community based intervention for chronic diseases. Either way, research can provide the link between cause and effect for public health issues.

[edit] Community based participatory research

Main article: Community-based participatory research

In contrast to clinical, patient oriented, or literature review research, community based participatory research (CBPR) investigates community-based etiology, involves community leaders, and overall respects the forces under which the community and its participants preside toward promoting and sustaining public health matters. As described by the WK Kellogg Foundation Community Health Scholars Program, CBPR is a

"collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community, has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities."[1]

CBPR methods have been necessary for implementation of certain public health actions. This have been difficult to accomplish because communities in poorer, less well developed areas often distrust researchers and scientists from "outside."[2]

[edit] Education and training

Schools of public health offer a variety of degrees which generally fall into two categories: professional or academic.

Professional degrees are oriented towards practice in public health settings. The Master of Public Health (MPH), Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), and Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) are examples of degrees which are geared towards people who want careers as practitioners of public health in health departments, managed care organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, consulting firms, international agencies, state and federal agencies, among others.

Academic degrees are more oriented toward students wishing to seek a career in teaching at a college or university or conducting research at a university or other settings. Examples of academic degrees are the Master of Science (MS), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), and Doctor of Science (ScD).

The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) represents CEPH-accredited schools of public health in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. ASPH-member schools prepare people to become public health professionals. In addition to representing its member schools, ASPH provides: education and training for students and graduates of its member schools, a job search website PublicHealthJobs.net, funding opportunities, awards, Delta Omega (honorary society for graduate studies in public health), and publications such as Public Health Reports and the Friday Letter.

Distance learning has increasingly become an attractive option for working professionals or people whose other life commitments prevent them from traveling to a physical location for classes. ASPH lists distance learning programs from its member schools.

[edit] Academic Journals

* American Journal of Public Health
* Annual Review of Public Health, ISSN: 15452093 (electronic) 0163-7525 (paper), Annual Reviews
* Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, ISSN 1538–7135, Mary Ann Lieber
* Central Asia Health Review, New York based independent magazine
* International Journal of Prisoner Health, ISSN: 1744-9219 (electronic) 1744-9200 (paper), Taylor & Francis
* Journal of Health, Population and NutritionISSN: 1606 0997
* Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, ISSN: 1078-4659, Lippincott William & Wilkins
* Journal of Urban Health, ISSN: 1468-2869 (electronic) 1099-3460 (paper) , Springer
* Public Health Nutrition, ISSN: 1475-2727 (electronic) 1368-9800 (paper), Cambridge
* Public Health Reports , ISSN: 0033-3549
* Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, ISSN: 1651-1905 (electronic) 1403-4948 (paper), Informa Healthcare
* The European Journal of Public Health, ISSN: 1464-360X (electronic) 1101-1262 (paper), Oxford University Press
* The Journal of Infectious Diseases, ISSN: 0022-1899, The University of Chicago Press

[edit] See also

* Auxology
* Biological hazard
* Carl Rogers Darnall
* Central Asia Health Review
* Chief Medical Officer
* Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
* Community-led total sanitation
* Epidemiology
* Environmental health
* Environmental, Safety and Health Communication
* Food safety
* Globalization and disease
* Globalization and Health
* Health disparities
* Health economics
* Health Impact Assessment
* Health literacy
* Health reform
* Health policy analysis
* Health promotion
* Healthy diet
* Hygiene
* Infection control
* "Typhoid Mary" – an important case of the clash of individual rights and public health
* Maternal health
* Medical specialty
* Mental health
* National Health Federation
* Nutrition
* Occupational safety and health
* Patient safety
* Patient safety organization
* Pharmaceutical policy
* Pharmacovigilance
* Population health
* Preventive care

* Public health agencies
o European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
o Indian health ministry
o Public health laboratories
o Public Health - Seattle & King County
o Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
o Public Health - Center for Public Health Practice
o Center for Minority Health
o Public health by country
o Public health in the People's Republic of China
* Public health education
o Health education
o Bachelor of Science in Public Health
o Master of Public Health
o Doctor of Public Health
o European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET)
* Public health laboratory
* Public Health Genomics
* Public health informatics
* Public health law
* Public Health Software
o Epi Info
o OpenEpi
* Risk management
* Reproductive health
* Samuel Crumbine
* Sara Josephine Baker
* Sewer
* Social hygiene movement
* Social medicine
* Tropical disease
* Waterborne diseases
* Water management
* World Toilet Organization

[edit] References

1. ^ Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, in Seattle, Washington.
2. ^ SYED M. AHMED, BARBRA BECK, CHERYL A. MAURANA & GAIL NEWTON Overcoming Barriers to Effective Community-Based Participatory Research in US Medical Schools. Education for Health, Vol. 17, No. 2, July 2004, 141 – 151.

* WHO Definition of Health Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, 1946
* Control of Communicable Diseases Manual edited by James B. Chin, APHA, 2000
* Encyclopedia of public health edited by Lester Breslow, Macmillan Reference 2002
* The Solid Facts: Social Determinants of Health edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot, WHO, 2003
* CCC. (2006), Public Health Emergency Response Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Public Health Directors. Retrieved April10, 2006, from: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/planning/responseguide.asp
* Department of Homeland Security (2004) National Response Plan. Retrieved April 11, 2006, from http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf

[edit] External links
The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines.
Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links.

* Public Health and Safety at the Open Directory Project
* Public Health and Safety at the Yahoo! Directory
* Health Affairs
* World Health Organization
* Centers for Disease Control: Public Health Information Network
* Central Asia Health Review
* Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Organization representing heads of state public health agencies.
* National Association of County and City Health Officials The national organization representing local public health officials; based in Washington, DC.
* Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative
* Association of Schools of Public Health The organization representing CEPH accredited schools of public health
* What Is Public Health
* Public Health Agency of Canada
* UK Association of Public Health Observatories
* American Public Health Association APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world.
* International Public Health Forum (IPHF) International, nongovernmental organization bringing public health domain and development sector workers towards creating strong global synergy and shared best-practices.
* World Federation of Public Health Associations International, nongovernmental organization bringing health workers throughout the world together for professional exchange, collaboration, and action.
* Public Health Postgraduates Germany e.V.
* Public health database: free access ; documentation base ; documents in full text ; collections ; public health thesaurus ; Web sites directory ; diary of conferences ; multilingual glossary ; employment offers

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Abusing Iran prior to and after WW II

2008-07-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

Abusing Iran prior to and after WW II
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

May 14, 2008, 00:22

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In the din of anti-Iranian agit-prop, with the neocons waving their swords at Iran, oh icon of evil, I remember that oil-smudged page of history, the invasion of Iran by Great Britain and the Soviet Union, following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

Of course, the invasion of Iran from August 25 to September 17, 1941, was for one reason only, to lock up Iranian oil fields and insure supply lines to the Soviets as they battled Germany on the Eastern Front. By today�s standards, that seems like a noble effort.

Yet it�s another one of those easy to overlook violations of Iran, which was a neutral nation, even though Reza Shah Pahlavi had moved closer to Germany. Part of that resistance was that the British had already sunk their teeth in Iranian oil via the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which owned the Abadan Oil Refinery, conceivably a trophy for the oil-thirsty Germans. The refinery in fact knocked out 8 million tons of oil in 1940 and could make or break the Allied effort. Obviously, the Soviets shared the strategic lust for Iran�s oil, as well.

As it was, the German Army was cutting through the Soviet Union and the Allies were searching for a way to get sorely needed American Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviets. Both Allies leaned on the Shah and Iran, which only aggravated the situation, causing pro-German rallies in Tehran. Perhaps as further payback to the Brits, the Reza Shah would not kick out the abundance of German nationals living in Iran, while nixing use of the railway to the Allies. And so, this triggered the Allied invasion of Iran, less than five months before Pearl Harbor.

The British force rose up from the south and the Soviets descended from the north to make short order of the nine Iranian infantry divisions. Despite Reza Shah�s appeal to FDR to invoke the Atlantic Charter on behalf of his �pacific country,� Roosevelt reminded him of the obvious disaster to the world that Hitler�s brutal march for world domination presented. Roosevelt also assured the Shah that the British and Soviet governments had no designs on Iran�s independence or territorial integrity, which would turn out to be a half-truth.

The Soviets would go on later to back separatist states to the north. Still later, the US and UK would support the overthrow of the popular and democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, with the help of Kermit Roosevelt, the FDR's nephew, and the CIA. Flashing back to 1941, Brit forces pulled out of Tehran on October 17, after the Germans had been flushed out. Yet Iran was for all purposes split between Britain and the Soviet Union for the balance of the war.

The creation of the Persian Corridor

Through this new supply lifeline, deemed the Persian Corridor, open to the Soviet Union, some 5 million tons of war goods flowed. The British in the Middle East received their share of the booty as well. Forced to abdicate and exiled to South Africa, Reza Shah Pahlavi was replaced on the throne by his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The new Shah signed the tri-partite treaty of alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union in January 1942. It provided for nonmilitary assistance from Iran to the Allied war effort and stated that the Allies would leave Iran �not more than six months after the cessation of hostilities.�

In response, Iran went one step further and declared war on Germany in September 1943, qualifying for membership in the United Nations, a valuable quid pro quid for the new Shah. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, FDR, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bad old General Secretary Joe Stalin reaffirmed their commitment to Iran�s independence and territorial integrity and even extended economic help to Iran. After all, the young Shah had saved their derrieres with his mega gas station.

Yet at the end of the war, as Britain pulled out, the Soviet troops in northwestern Iran refused to go and backed revolts for short-lived, pro-Soviet separatist regimes in the northern provinces of Iranian Azerbaijan, the People�s Republic of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish People�s Republic in late 1945. Both were patently Soviet puppet states. Soviet troops did not get out of Iran completely until May 1946, and only after receiving a promise of oil concessions. After they were gone, the Soviet republics in the north were overthrown by Iranian fighters and the oil concessions were revoked. And Iran was left with a bitter taste its mouth for the Allies.

This was exacerbated, again, in 1953 by the overthrow of the duly elected Mohammed Mossadegh, who was thrown in jail for the rest of his life. This as the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his aristocratic band of thieves were brought back to shore up the lion�s share of its wealth. This left the lion�s share of the populous land-poor and impoverished. This led eventually to the Iranian Revolution in December 1979 and the deposing of the Shah, with the subsequent return of the Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in France.

From hostage crisis to Iran-Contra

Three decades of Iran being bandied about by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States finally exploded in our faces in the form of the Iran hostage crisis, in which 53 U.S. diplomats were held hostage for 444 days, from November 4, 1979 to January 20. 1981, after a group of students took over the American embassy in support of Iran's revolution.

The crisis reached a climax when the US military attempted a disastrous rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, resulting in an aborted mission and the deaths of eight American military men. The crisis ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19. 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president, Ronald Reagan, was sworn in.

In America, the unresolved hostage crisis was really the basis for President Jimmy Carter�s defeat in the November 1980 presidential election. The crisis� lack of resolution was brought about by presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and his vice presidential running mate, ex-CIA chief George H.W. Bush, who were conducting treasonous negotiations behind Carter�s back for release of the hostages soon after the election, offering them more money, weapons and spare parts than Carter had put on the table.

Of course, these monies and munitions we would later find out were obtained through the scandalous Iran-Contra affair. That is, the funding had been produced via an exchange of arms to the Nicaraguan (Counter-Revolutionary) Contras in exchange for drugs and cash, not quite a cricket way to win an election or resolve an international crisis.

The black operation was discovered only after an airlift of guns was downed over Nicaragua on October 5. 1986. The Iranian government confirmed an Iranian newspaper story with all the embarrassing details. Ten days after the story was first published, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national television from the Oval Office. In his speech on November 13, Reagan confirmed the transactions and stated the hard-to-swallow reasons for them.

"My purpose was . . . to send a signal that the United States was prepared to replace the animosity between [the U.S. and Iran] with a new relationship . . . At the same time we undertook this initiative, we made clear that Iran must oppose all forms of international terrorism as a condition of progress in our relationship. The most significant step which Iran could take, we indicated, would be to use its influence in Lebanon to secure the release of all hostages held there," Reagan said.

Salt was poured into the wounds of the scandal when Oliver North, who rode herd on the Contra op, destroyed or hid pertinent documents between November 21 and November 25, 1986, revealing their activities. During North's trial in 1989, his secretary, Fawn Hall, testified extensively about helping her boss to alter, shred, and remove official United States National Security Council (NSC) documents from the White House.

According to the New York Times, enough documents were put into a government shredder to choke it. North's thin explanation for destroying the documents was to protect the lives of individuals involved in Iran and Contra operations. North claimed that he gathered documents to prove that he had sufficient authority for his actions. What authority provided him the authority to usurp one nation�s revolution to support another nation�s, except the Republican imperative to win the election?

In fact, North took more than a dozen notebooks containing 2,617 pages of names, phone conversations, meetings, lists of action items, and details on operations, including highly classified information. It wasn't until years after the trial that North's notebooks were made public, and only after the National Security Archive and Public Citizen sued the Office of the Independent Council under the Freedom of Information Act.

The cherry on the cake: the Iran-Iraq War

And to top it all off, our sometimes friend Saddam Hussein, after his long run in the early 1970s heading up Iraq's nationalization of the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (which held a monopoly on the country's oil), became president in 1979. By 1980, with some encouragement from the Carter administration, Hussein exploited age-old hostilities between the two nations and declared war on Iran. After some initial setbacks, Iran fought back and gained control over the war, albeit with the US, Soviets, and Europeans lending aid to both sides. The war went on for eight bloody years, yielding one million Iraqi deaths and even more Iranian deaths. They couldn�t have done it without a little help from their friends, including the Reagan bunch.

Now, given this backstory, is it any wonder that Iran is suspicious of the West and particularly the United States? As we rant about their nuclear energy projects, even if they include arms development, tiny Israel has become one of the world�s largest nuclear powers, building its arsenal since its inception in 1948. And we worked as hard as Israel to keep it a secret.

Thus Iran has wakened one more time to defend itself, rejecting nuclear inspections unless Israel allows them. Read the AP story of May 5, 2008 for details.

So once again, interference in other nations� business, subterfuge, CIA meddling and blowback, have steered us gradually into havoc. The question is when will we learn to play it straight, Sam, with Iran and everyone else? Or is that not in the political playbook?
Jerry Mazza is a free-lance writer living in New York. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.

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Iran Leader Says U.S. Abusing U.N. Power

2008-07-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Iran Leader Says U.S. Abusing U.N. Power

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took aim at U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon on Tuesday, and accused Washington of abusing its power in the U.N. Security Council to punish others while protecting its own interests and allies.

He addressed the annual U.N. General Assembly hours after President Bush spoke to the same forum. But while Ahmadinejad harshly criticized the United States, Bush directed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the hard-line government.

In his speech, Bush pointed to the Iranian government's rejection of a Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face sanctions.

"The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons,"the U.S. leader said.

"Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions,"he said."Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program."

He also said he hoped to see"the day when you can live in freedom, and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace."

(Story continues below)

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Ahmadinejad insisted that his nation's nuclear activities are"transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye"of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. He also reiterated his nation's commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

But even though the two leaders were addressing the same forum, they skipped each other's speeches and managed to avoid direct contact during the ministerial meeting.

Ahmadinejad also accused the United States and Britain of using their veto power on the Security Council to further their own interests and he said it had become an"instrument of threat and coercion."

"If they have differences with a nation or state, they drag it to the Security Council,"and assign themselves the roles of"prosecutor, judge and executioner,"Ahmadinejad said."Is this a just order?"

The U.S. and Britain played central roles in helping craft a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in July that gave Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment and asked the IAEA to report on Tehran's compliance, dangling the threat of sanctions if Iran refused. Tehran made clear even before the deadline expired that it had no intention of suspending uranium enrichment.

The IAEA last week rejected a recent American report on Iran's nuclear capability, saying the Islamic republic has produced material only in small quantities that is far below the level that can be used in nuclear arms.

Ahmadinejad also criticized the Security Council for failing to call for an immediate cease-fire after war broke out between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A truce was only reached on Aug. 14 to end the 34-day conflict.

"The Security Council sat idly by for so many days, witnessing the cruel scenes of atrocities against the Lebanese ... Why?"asked Ahmadinejad, whose government is one of Hezbollah's main backers.

He said the answer is self-evident:"When the power behind the hostilities is itself a permanent member of the Security Council, how then can this council fulfill its responsibilities."

The United States and Britain refused to call for a cease-fire during the monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah, declaring it part of war on terror. Only after Israel's failure to defeat Hezbollah and the deaths of nearly 1,000 Lebanese civilians did Washington and London agree to push for a truce by the U.N. Security Council.

The Iranian leader had harsh words about U.S. efforts in Iraq, saying"the occupiers are incapable of establishing security in Iraq"and every day hundreds of people get killed"in cold blood."

Ahmadinejad claimed that numerous terrorists apprehended by the Iraqi government were"let loose under various pretexts by the occupiers."

Domestically, Ahmadinejad, who doesn't enjoy widespread popularity among his people, has been able to use America's uncompromising stand against Iran's nuclear program to his own benefit. Many Iranians, including those who are against the president's domestic policies, support him in his showdown with the United States on the nuclear issue.

In an interview with"NBC Nightly News,"Ahmadinejad was asked about Bush's appeal to the Iranian people.

"We have the same desire ... to be together for the cause of world peace,"he said through a translator.

"We think that the American people are like our people. They're good people, they support peace, equality and brotherhood,"he said.

He said his issue was with the U.S. administration.

"I explicitly say that I am against the policies chosen by the U.S. government to run the world because these policies are movingthe world toward war,"he said.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

USA Basketball

2008-07-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

USA Men's Senior National Team Quote(s) of the Day

...
USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team
July 22, 2008 • Las Vegas, Nevada
Check out today's photo gallery! (coming soon)

Coach KUSA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University
Guys who play in the NBA and all the games they play, nobody is going to be 100 percent. Are you concerned with any nagging injuries in Beijing?
These guys are never 100 percent. And you know what? Neither are the guys we’re playing against. They’re either in the NBA or they’re playing in the top league in Europe. So I think that equals out. For us to even talk about it I think it shows a little weakness on our part. Although we’re not making any excuses, if we’re always talking about injury or recovering from injury, ‘oh feel sorry for us.’ But that’s the way it is. A lot of people go to work sick and aching.

"It’s an honor to wear the USA across my chest, have a chance to compete for a gold medal, a chance to be in the Olympics. That’s something a lot of people don’t get to do. It’s a great experience for me, it’s a great experience for the rest of the guys, it’s something I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life."

~ Deron Williams

How’s Dwyane Wade looking?
Dwyane has been terrific. The stuff he and Tim Grover have done in coming back shows that he’s made an amazing commitment to being in top-flight shape and getting over his injury. He’s been the most pleasant surprise of our three days because you didn’t know what to expect because he was out the last portion of the season.

You said he might actually be healthier now than he was in 2006:
He wasn’t healthy when he played in ’06, but he can speak to that. But he looks great. It’s interesting you say that because I told the staff that he won an NBA championship in 2006, but he was beat up afterwards. I think he’s better (now). He looks better right now than when we played in the World Championships.

What should the fans expect against Canada on Friday night?
The fans should expect to see us playing real hard. It’s our first time for this entire 12 guys. It’s the first step on a journey, the first of five exhibition games. I haven’t seen Canada yet, but it’s not so much about who you’re playing. It’s about what you’re doing and I know our guys will be excited, really excited to play.

On LeBron James today:
Our focus wasn’t on LeBron today because he wasn’t ready to practice. We’re just cautiously giving him time to come back after his injury. But he’s doing well. He shot afterwards. He’s walking well and I would think that if the gold medal game was tomorrow, he’d play. But we’re not playing the gold medal game or a medal round game right now. We’d rather be cautious right now.

What kind of instructions, if any, have you given the players over any possible off-court issues that might come up in China?
They should speak on it however they want. Our country allows you to say whatever you want to say. The fact is, though, is that we look at the Olympics as sport and not a political forum. But that doesn’t mean our guys don’t have the right to speak about any issue. That’s what makes our country a pretty nice place to live in.

Chris BoshChris Bosh (Toronto Raptors)
Would you be able to live and play overseas?
I think I could. I’ve always wanted to travel the world and experience another culture. That would be pretty interesting. You might want to come home after it. But I’m sure these guys who go over and after they’re done they look back at it and had a lot of fun.

How tough was it not playing last year on the team?
When you sit on the sidelines and watch these guys play, all this talent in the room. First of all you feel like you’re missing out on getting better for your respective team. Then, it seems like a lot of fun. I like playing basketball and everything and to see how these guys hoop every day, push each other, make each other better, it’s great.

On not playing last summer:
I was very excited to come back and be a part of this. I waited my summer. Even thought I wanted to play, I tried to push myself but the doctors said it was wise to sit it out. I talked with Jerry (Colangelo) and coach K and I told them how badly I wanted to play.

We’ve heard about America not having too many big men anymore. What are your thoughts on that?
I don’t know where it’s coming from. If you look at our team we have big guys. If you match our big guys up with the big guys from Greece or Spain or Argentina, I think we match up pretty well.

Kobe Bryant said that he held an Olympic gold medal as a higher honor than an NBA title. Do you feel the same?
I kind of feel the same way. The Olympics have been going on for over a hundred years now so I think a gold medal is a little more prestigious than an NBA championship because it only comes once every four years.

What did you take away from the Olympic Ambassador Program?
A sense of pride that past Olympians have had, how other people see it and how important it is. Not only from a competition standpoint, but it’s the spirit of representing your country. That’s mainly what I got from it and that’s what I heard everyone mostly talk about afterwards.

Brandi Chastain brought her gold medal. Does that give you something to visualize when you’re thinking about your goal this summer?
Yeah. You have to visualize it before you get it. To be able to hold it, see what it looks like, how much it weighs … I wanted to bite it to see if it was real gold (laughs). But I think it’s real important and for her to share that with us is pretty awesome.

Kobe BryantKobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)
During the regular season you all are rivals, how do you make the switch to teammates?
It’s easy. There’s always a great deal of respect amongst each other when we face each other. There’s always that undercurrent in the game that we admire each other, respect one another. So when you come here you have the opportunity to learn from each other a little bit. We enjoy each other’s company.

Do you worry about playing time?
No, I’m not worried about it at all. They’re doing a great job, trying to put together the right combination of players and we all take this extremely seriously.

How much fun are you having playing with this group?
It’s fun because we’re all working hard. That’s where the enjoyment comes from, we’re communicating with one another. We understand that there are a lot of improvements to be made and that’s what makes the process more enjoyable, because you have something to strive for, something to work towards. That’s why it’s fun.

With the chemistry and team play you’ve developed, do you think the international teams are a little more fearful of you this summer?
No, I don’t. I think they’re sitting over there and saying ‘when push comes to shove we’re going to play more as a team than they are.’ I don’t think what they’re reading or what they’re seeing (about this team) is going to change their minds one bit.

What’s the difference in your defensive role on this team?
My role is different with this team because you don’t have to score 30-something points. You can really focus on the other team’s top scorer and make him have as difficult game as I possibly can.

LeBron JamesLeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Brandi Chastain spoke with the team yesterday and brought one of her gold medals. Did that help you guys visualize your goal a little bit more?
No, but it was more of a congratulations to her. For us, we don’t want to visualize or do anything like that, we just want to go out there and take it. That’s her medal. We want to be in the position where it’s our medal and we can show our gold to her. She has one and we’re going to try to get one. We’re going to do the best job we can to try to get one.

You sat out today, was it just precautionary?
Oh no, it wasn’t precautionary. If I could practice I would. The ankle’s not ready to go out there yet. As hard as we go out on the court, it’s not ready for it.

The other day Kobe Bryant said his ultimate goal in basketball would be a gold medal. Would you agree with that?
Right now, the only thing I can think about is a gold medal. It’s hard to assess. I think it’s equal. It’s the ultimate to be in the NBA and win an NBA championship. But being an Olympian, it’s the ultimate to win a gold medal. I’m both so I think one could be as rewarding as the other. I want them both.

Is it good to play with a group of guys like this?
Absolutely. To have the opportunity to play with these guys you dream about having on your team throughout the regular season. So it’s definitely something great.

Tayshaun PrinceTayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons)
On the Olympic Ambassador Program the USA team went through on July 22:
I thought it was a great experience to have the opportunity to have them speak to us about the Olympic experience. Obviously Brandi (Chastain, soccer) had the opportunity to win several gold medals. By her bringing one of her gold medals and letting everybody experience it. By seeing it and sharing her thoughts with us, I think it gave us the opportunity to put it in our minds, think about what the possibility would be if we could go out there and take care of business. Then the other speakers, they had the opportunity to talk to us and remind us that the whole world would be watching, go out there and give it your all. You’re representing everybody and they’re pulling for you. Those are nice things to hear when you have the opportunity to represent your country and go overseas and have the USA across your chest and to be able to represent the best you can.

Do you get more of a national feel when you hear from Olympians from other sports?
It represents more of a unity. What I mean by that is that whenever we can bring soccer players, track and field, swimming, whatever it may be, and we interact with one another, it gives us an opportunity to meet them and bring all the athletes together, all the great athletes in the world. It also gives us the chance to represent our country the best way we can in uniting together. Whether it’s Brandi (Chastain) coming, or another person, it gives us the opportunity to interact with one another and share our different experiences.

Are there any other sports you’d like to see at the Olympics?
I would love to see some track and field. That’s one of my favorites to watch, I’m not good at it but I like to watch. I like swimming and diving as well, those things. I think it’ll be a great atmosphere.

Deron WilliamsDeron Williams (Utah Jazz)
On being on the 2008 USA team:
It’s been great. It’s an honor to wear the USA across my chest, have a chance to compete for a gold medal, a chance to be in the Olympics. That’s something a lot of people don’t get to do. It’s a great experience for me, it’s a great experience for the rest of the guys, it’s something I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life.

What was the reaction from everyone yesterday when LeBron James sprained his ankle?
When he went down I don’t think anyone said anything in the gym. I saw the trainers get up and go over to him. He’s alright though, he’s out there shooting right now. So that’s pretty good.

What’s it like having your Jazz teammate Carlos Boozer on this team?
It’s been great. It’s good for us as teammates to have this time to work together and get to know each other even better not just on the court but off the court as well. It’s going to help us a lot.

Was Barack Obama a Muslim? by Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com December 24, 2007

2008-07-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

Was Barack Obama a Muslim?

by Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com
December 24, 2007

[FPM title: "Obama and Islam"]

"If I were a Muslim I would let you know," Barack Obama has said, and I believe him. In fact, he is a practicing Christian, a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is not now a Muslim.

But was he ever a Muslim or seen by others as a Muslim? More precisely, might Muslims consider him a murtadd (apostate), that is, a Muslim who converted to another religion and, therefore, someone whose blood may be shed?

Barack Obama at the Smoky Row Coffee Shop in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
The candidate for president of the United States has delivered two principal statements in reply. His campaign website carries a statement dated Nov. 12 with the headline, "Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim," followed by: "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." Then, on Dec. 22, in the unlikely setting of the Smoky Row Coffee Shop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, as he munched on pumpkin pie and drank tea with four locals, Obama provided more detail took on this topic than before. When asked to explain his Muslim heritage, he replied:

My father was from Kenya, and a lot of people in his village were Muslim. He didn't practice Islam. Truth is he wasn't very religious. He met my mother. My mother was a Christian from Kansas, and they married and then divorced. I was raised by my mother. So, I've always been a Christian. The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country. But I've never practiced Islam. … For a while, I lived in Indonesia because my mother was teaching there. And that's a Muslim country. And I went to school. But I didn't practice. But what I do think it does is it gives me insight into how these folks think, and part of how I think we can create a better relationship with the Middle East and that would help make us safer is if we can understand how they think about issues.

These statements raise two questions: What is Obama's true connection to Islam and what implications might this have for an Obama presidency?
Was Obama Ever a Muslim?

"I've always been a Christian," said Obama, focusing on his own personal lack of practice of Islam as a child to deny any connection to Islam. But Muslims do not see practice as key. For them, that he was born to a line of Muslim males makes him born a Muslim. Further, all children born with an Arabic name based on the H-S-N trilateral root (Hussein, Hassan, and others) can be assumed to be Muslim, so they will understand Obama's full name, Barack Hussein Obama, to proclaim him a born Muslim.

More: family and friends considered him as a child to be Muslim. In "Obama Debunks Claim About Islamic School," Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press wrote on January 24, 2007, that

Obama's mother, divorced from Obama's father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71. At first, Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisis, where documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his stepfather. The document required that each student choose one of five state-sanctioned religions when registering – Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant.

Asked about this, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs responded by indicating to Pickler that

he wasn't sure why the document had Obama listed as a Muslim. "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim."

Two months later, Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times (available online in a Baltimore Sun reprint) reported that the Obama campaign had retreated from that absolute statement and instead issued a more nuanced one: "Obama has never been a practicing Muslim." The Times looked into the matter further and learned more about his Indonesian interlude:

His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended. That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.

The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. "We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," said Zulfin Adi. … Obama's younger sister, Maya Soetoro, said in a statement released by the campaign that the family attended the mosque only "for big communal events," not every Friday.

Recalling Obama's time in Indonesia, the Times account contains quotes that Obama "went to the mosque," and that he "was Muslim."

Summarized, available evidence suggests Obama was born a Muslim to a non-practicing Muslim father and for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father. At some point, he converted to Christianity. It appears false to state, as Obama does, "I've always been a Christian" and "I've never practiced Islam." The campaign appears to be either ignorant or fabricating when it states that "Obama never prayed in a mosque."
Implications of Obama's Conversion

Obama's conversion to another faith, in short, makes him a murtadd.

That said, the punishment for childhood apostasy is less severe than for the adult version. As Robert Spencer points out, "according to Islamic law an apostate male is not to be put to death if he has not reached puberty (cf. ‘Umdat al-Salik o8.2; Hidayah vol. II p. 246). Some, however, hold that he should be imprisoned until he is of age and then ‘invited' to accept Islam, but officially the death penalty for youthful apostates is ruled out."

On the positive side, were Obama prominently charged with apostasy, that would uniquely raise the issue of a Muslim's right to change religion, taking a topic on the perpetual back-burner and placing it front and center, perhaps to the great future benefit of those Muslims who seek to declare themselves atheists or to convert to another religion.

But would Muslims seeing Obama as a murtadd significantly affect an Obama presidency? The only precedent to judge by is that of Carlos Saúl Menem, the president of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. The son of two Muslim Syrian immigrants and husband of another Syrian-Argentine, Zulema Fátima Yoma, Menem converted to Roman Catholicism. His wife said publicly that Menem left Islam for political reasons—because Argentinean law until 1994 required the president of the country to be a member of the Church. From a Muslim point of view, Menem's conversion is worse than Obama's, having been done as an adult. Nonetheless, Menem was not threatened or otherwise made to pay a price for his change of religion, even during his trips to majority-Muslim countries, Syria in particular.

It is one thing to be president of Argentina in the 1990s, however, and another to be president of the United States in 2009. One must assume that some Islamists would renounce him as a murtadd and would try to execute him. Given the protective bubble surrounding an American president, though, this threat presumably would not make much difference to his carrying out his duties.

More significantly, how would more mainstream Muslims respond to him, would they be angry at what they would consider his apostasy? That reaction is a real possibility, one that could undermine his initiatives toward the Muslim world.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jan. 7, 2008 update: For a follow-up to this article, please see "Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam." In it, I reply to a challenge to the above analysis from Media Matters for America. The article also spurred several hundred comments by readers.

Apr. 29, 2008 update: I provide a streamlined version of the above, with more evidence, at "Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood."

May 12, 2008 update: Edward N. Luttwak picks up on my theme above in his article today in the New York Times, "President Apostate?" Writes Luttwak: "As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother's Christian background is irrelevant." He concludes that Obama's election "would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad."

Comment: This goes further than I argued above, where I only suggest the "real possibility" that his religious background "could undermine his initiatives toward the Muslim world." Implied is the real possibility that it will not. It is much too early to know for sure.

All materials written by Daniel Pipes on this site ©1979-2008 Daniel Pipes. meqmef@aol.com

Barack Obama's family lift the lid on life with the US presidential candidate Exclusive by Anton Antonowicz, US Correspondent 10/07/2008

2008-07-23T05:33:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's family lift the lid on life with the US presidential candidate

Exclusive by Anton Antonowicz, US Correspondent 10/07/2008

Democratic candidate Barack Obama is not President of the United States yet, but his 10-year-old daughter already has plans for the White House.

In a revealing TV interview Obama's older daughter, Malia, speaks frankly about her life with a daddy who plans on becoming the most powerful man in the world.

When asked about moving to the White House, Malia said: "I enjoy decorating. So I get this whole new room to do whatever I want." Daddy gets the nation, Malia gets to wallpaper... It was one of many candid revelations after Obama agreed to a rare glimpse into his private life by letting television cameras interview his family for the first time.

NBC's Access Hollywood sat down with the girls and their parents last weekend for the Fourth of July holiday.

And after the weeks of grillings Obama has endured over Iraq and soaring fuel prices, this interview was about fashion and fun.

The Illinois senator - the Democratic nominee in this year's race to be the next American president - joined his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Malia and seven-year-old Sasha.

Until now, the youngsters have largely been kept out of the media spotlight. And yesterday Obama said he had had second thoughts about granting the TV interview and now wants to keep the girls out of the media glare again.

"It was an exception, it was Malia's birthday, we were in Montana and everybody was having a good time," he told the Good Morning America chat show later.

"I think we got carried away a little bit.

Generally what makes the girls so charming is the fact that they're not spending a lot of time worrying about TV cameras or politics and we want to keep it that way." In the three-part TV interview he said the girls helped him stay "cool". For cool, read "natural"

Malia told interviewer Maria Menounos: "My friend Sam, she came over and Daddy has never met Sam before.

"He was like, 'Hi!' and he shook her hand! I was like, 'Daddy! You really don't shake kids' hands that much. You shake adults' hands. And he's like, 'Then what do you do?' and I was like, 'You know, you just wave or say Hi.'"

Obama laughed: "She basically avoids me embarrassing her by giving these tips, especially when I'm around her friends."

The 46-year-old politician - who wore an open-necked blue shirt and brown suit trousers for the interview - also found himself the target of jibes about his dress sense.

"He's probably had those pants for about 10 years," Michelle said when asked about her husband's new status as a style icon.

He admitted: "I'm baffled by this whole thing because I hate to shop."

He also told how he keeps in touch with the family when he's on the campaign trial.

He said: "We call each other at least once a day. I'm usually the one on the road so I'm calling home. And we've got a computer that has a video feed."

"We save our conversation - if we have issues or things to discuss with the kids - we usually do that over the phone," Michelle added. "We've gotten used to being able to communicate pretty well over the phone."

He said: "Although Malia is much better at talking on the phone than Sasha.

Sasha gets bored talking to me. She says, 'OK, OK. Bye!'"

The couple - who married three years after meeting while she was working at a legal firm in Chicago - say they still make time for one another.

"We have our alone time," Michelle said.

"Our staff, they're good about making sure that we get space. And you know, now that the primary is over, Barack is home at least once a week and we really do family stuff.

We're going on bike rides, and going swimming and playing tennis."

Michelle, 44, said her husband of 15 years still knew how to sweep her off her feet. "What's the most recent romantic gesture you guys have done for each other?" NBC's Maria Menounos asked.

"Barack is very romantic," Michelle said. "You brought me flowers the other day."

"I did," he replied.

She continued: "We always go on dates. We always have date nights."

Asked what she had done for him romantically, she said: "I take care of his children! That is love." He said: "That is pretty romantic." And she added: "I think it's the little kisses, he likes to get attention, telling him I'm proud of him.

The kids like it when Mummy and Daddy hold hands and cuddle."

The family recorded the segment on Independence Day. "It's Malia's birthday," Michelle said. "What do we usually do for your birthday?"

"Birthday party," Malia cheered.

"We usually march in a July Fourth parade somewhere and then it's a birthday extravaganza," Michelle explained. "We incorporate a lot of fun. We have family with us now. We've got water pistols.

"The girls are having fun running around, so you know, we're usually doing picnics and fairs and ice-cream parlours and things that are fun for the kids, and obviously fun for us, and a lot more fun than listening to Daddy talk."

"They basically cut out when I start making speeches," Barack laughed.

"It's like, is he talking?" Michelle said as seven-year-old Sasha made a series of cheeky "blah blah blah" hand gestures.

She interrupts the interview to say: "Mummy, when are we getting ice cream?"

She added: "My daddy doesn't like sweets. He likes minty gum, not bubble gum."

"I'm not a real sweets guy. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to my gum," says this prospective leader of the Free World.

Wife Michelle points at him and jokes with a yawn: "Booooring."

SHOWTIME

The Obamas appeared on NBC's Access Hollywood show but Barack later said he intended keeping his daughters out of the limelight in future. He said: "It was an exception, it was Malia's birthday... we got carried away a little bit."

DAUGHTER MALIA, 10, ON THE WHITE HOUSE..

I love decorating..I get this whole new room to do whatever I want

WIFE MICHELLE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL..

The kids get bored with his speeches..we do fun things instead

MALIA ON KEEPING HER DAD 'COOL'

He shook hands with my friend..I said kids just wave or say hi

BARACK ON BEING A STYLE ICON..

That whole thing baffles me..I hate going shopping

Barack Obama has Women Troubles

2008-07-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2008
Barack Obama has Women Troubles
By Charlie Wolf
Barrack Obama has women troubles, and Hillary Clinton is far from alone as being a problem. Danger lurks much closer to home.

First there are the 13 million disaffected women who supported Hillary not for her agenda but for her gender. Fifteen times in her concession speech Hillary name-checked Barack Obama and fifteen times there were loud boos in the audience. Yes, many will back Obama, but Democrats, unlike Republicans, don't fall in line. In one poll 40 per cent of Clinton supporters said they will not support Obama; whether that turns into votes for McCain is another matter.

Then there is Hillary herself. In her swan song speech (is it?) she claimed she would "do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain," In their quiet chat together at Diane Feinstein's house in Washington last week, I can only imagine that Obama said that the best help she can give is to give no help at all. Obama can only hope that the Bill & Hill Show quietly retreats to the shadows only to appear -- briefly -- at the convention in late August. Obama doesn't need the distraction or the constant reminder that she is still about.

Then there is the problem of the vice presidency. Unless Hillary announces unequivocally that she has no intention to stand and will not accept an offer, this will hang like a pall and a question mark over the Obama campaign.

Her brigade of soul sisters will continue to push for her to the Obama camp either with her endorsement and connivance or not. The shards from those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling will start to fall on Obama and his campaign will suffer death from 18 million small cuts.

Obama does not have to wait until the nomination to name his pick for veep and the vetting committee he has set up will buy him some time but that still leaves a glimmer of unrequited hope for Hillary supporters. Yet another distraction from his core message.

Of course, Hillary may not want the post. She could figure that Obama will lose to McCain and this puts her in the position in 2012 to tell the party elders "see I told you so." Why be tainted as part of a losing ticket? Though she will on the surface give the appearance of helping the Obama campaign enough to secure her place in the party, it is in her interest not to help too much. Giving the appearance of being "open to the idea" of the vice-presidency keeps the dance and the guessing going and distracts from the main thrust of selling Obama and his ideas (of which we know not what they are) to the electorate. The distraction continues without her fingerprints on the gun.

And what if Obama should pick Hillary? That brings up a host of problems of their own. First there is the Clinton motivational factor on the GOP base -- if Republican John McCain can't rally his conservative base, the Clintons will.

Then there's the Michelle problem.

In her famous television interview with Martin Bashir, Diana the late Princess of Wales, referring to Camilla (now the Duchess of Cornwall) complained that there were "three of us in this marriage." Not only will Hillary not want to do a job she's in essence already done - the vice presidency may even be a step down for her after being Bill's co-president - but in Michelle Obama's eyes it's now her turn to be vice-president.

If Barrack Obama's throwback ideas to the Carter administration aren't scary enough, the thought of a Michelle Obama as part of the administration should really put the frighteners up.

Think back to Hillary Clinton's time in office dodging those bullets in Bosnia or securing peace in Northern Ireland. Imagine what Michelle can do as FLOTUS. Think about Cherie Blair Britain, where I live, and her time in Downing Street. Mrs. Blair, or Cherie Booth as she is known professionally, was happy enough as a barrister to take her own husband's government to court on human rights charges on a number of cases. The recent publication of her memoirs have been a unneeded distraction to Gordon Brown (notable fact: youngest son, Leo Blair, was conceived while she and Tony Blair were guests of the Queen at Balmoral. She was too embarrassed to take her contraception as Her Majesty's household staff unpack one's bags).

Michelle will take the art of interfering first spouse to a whole new unexplored level. This will be a lot more than just -- as Bill Clinton spoke of Hillary -- "two for the price of one."

Be it her only recently found pride in her country or moans about the price of ballet lessons or complaints about what "it [criticism of the odious preacher, Rev. Wright] is doing to my kids," Michelle is already famous for a strain of affluent victimhood; I can only feel for the White House staff who would have to suffer four years of her employ.

Add to this her leftist view of Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief, not just of the military but of the whole nation; the nanny state with her as the chief nanny. Think of this famous prediction from Michelle:

"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

Hmm, where in the US Constitution does it give him the power to do that? Michelle is Hillary, Cherie and Oprah on steroids

And yes, she will have the power.

Hell hath no fury... Somewhere in all of this there will be a woman scorned; be it Hillary, Hill's supporters or Michelle. It won't be a pretty sight.

London-based American talk show host, Charlie Wolf comments frequently on the US election on the BBC and Sky News.

The Arabs and Obama (collected from the web: today, on 23 July 2008, there is news that Obama has told that he would support Israel if elected)

2008-07-23T00:29:00.000-07:00

The Arabs and Obama (today, on 23 July 2008, there is news that Obama has told that he would support Israel if elected)

Hussein Shobokshi

Various reactions to Obama's nomination have begun appearing across the Arab world. A few days ago, I was discussing the topic with some Arab friends, and the myriad of opinions they expressed were as interesting as they were surprising.

Jalal, an Egyptian engineer in his late forties, asserted that one should not be optimistic about any changes Obama might implement if he is elected President, for they would be largely artificial. As a minority, Jalal argued, Obama has an inferiority complex that renders him too eager to prove himself to the Israeli lobby in the US.

Imad, a Palestinian accountant in his late thirties, had a different opinion. He represents the party of Arabs who support Obama for his well-known objection to the US invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, Obama has displayed strong support for indefinite military action in Afghanistan and has not objected to the frenzied Israeli policy of building settlements on occupied Palestinian land or to the Israeli aggression toward Lebanon in 2006, making him no different from the others.

Jassim, a Kuwaiti businessperson in his early fifties, concluded that Obama can only follow the agenda of American society and institutions and cannot depart appreciably from the aims and strategies prepared by a seasoned administration in possession of extraordinary capabilities. Consequently, he warned, one cannot expect radical changes should Obama be elected.

Hadi, a Tunisian doctor in his early forties, sees Obama as coming from an oppressed background. Obama, he says, has witnessed first-hand the negative image of the US in many countries around the world. Hadi believes that these experiences will compel Obama to focus on promoting respect for rights and duties and international treaties and covenants. He will work against injustice and oppression around the world by means of international treaties and diplomacy, rather than constraint and the use of humiliating force, argues Hadi.

Hadi expects that under Obama the Arab world will receive its fair share of such developments. Moreover, he anticipates the criminalization of all forms of discrimination and penalization of all forms of moral and material transgressions. Hadi believes Obama will prioritize contesting such offenses, which cause sedition, division and the spread of legalized class systems within societies and between states.

It seems that Arabs are unsure of how to regard Obama if he becomes president. They caution against excessive optimism due to a history of disappointments by US presidents of whom they were initially enthusiastic. At the same time, they cannot overlook the fact that Obama is a historic candidate who may fall closer in line with their values than previous candidates. Obama might better understand Arab grievances and show concern for the causes of the troubled Arab relations with the United States. It seems likely that Obama's arrival at the White House would usher a new chapter in US-Arab relations. The question remains: will he make it to the White House and make history? We are only a few months away from knowing, and the world, too, is waiting.

* Published in the London-based ASHARQ ALAWSAT on June 11, 2008.

A Report on ICDDRB Anomalies in recruitment, failings in research publications Analysis

2008-07-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

A Report on ICDDRB
Anomalies in recruitment, failings in research publications
Analysis , by Morshed Ali Khan , 24-July-2006
[Blog]

‘Within the last decade over 100 major research protocols were funded by ICDDR,B but not a single report on these researches was published or made public. Neither was the management able to show any breakthrough in combating diarrhoeal diseases.... It is the only institution in the country that has the legal mandate for movement of biological materials in and out of the country.’ Daily Star, the leading daily of Bangladesh published an investigative report on this. A rejoinder from the authority was also published later with a reply from Morshed Ali Khan, the reporter. Here is the report alongwith rejoinder and the reply.

The only international centre of its kind in developing countries, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) is fast losing its reputation due to alleged anomalies in management, recruitment and researches.

Within the last decade over 100 major research protocols were funded by ICDDR,B but not a single report on these researches was published or made public. Neither was the management able to show any breakthrough in combating diarrhoeal diseases.

Although ICDDR,B's two hospitals and its diagnostic facilities in Dhaka and at Matlab in Chandpur district are well reputed in the country, annually treating over 130,000 patients suffering from diarrhoeal diseases, its contribution towards researches and studies remains unknown, at least to Bangladesh.

With 'discriminative and anomalous' decisions made at the top level, ICDDR,B is now alleged to have become a one-man show with its executive director deciding over controversial recruitment and alleged unethical researches.

Resentment among ICDDR,B's Bangladeshi scientists, experts and employees run high with allegations of discrepancies in salaries and recruitment, and discrimination in fund allocations for research works of Bangladeshi scientists.

Although ICDDR,B is owned and largely funded by the Bangladesh government, since its inception no Bangladeshi has ever been considered for the post of its director. Currently 20 foreigners with top grade international salaries and facilities work for the centre.

The management of ICDDR,B however remains defiant to its ordinance when it comes to the payment of Bangladeshi workforce. Although the ordinance clearly states in section 14 (2) that salaries for non-international level positions should be comparable to the salaries paid by the United Nations organisations in the country, the Bangladeshi workforce of ICDDR,B does not even receive 50 percent of the UN salary structure.

"We cannot afford to pay the local staff as per the ordinance, we have to run the centre first," said David A Sack, executive director of ICDDR,B, who has been serving for seven years.

Sources alleged that the management overtly gives priority to foreign scientists over the local ones who submit proposals for research. They said Bangladeshi scientists are often subjected to long delays in processing their papers for funds.

"When a local scientist does his research work, he is paid from the fund available for the particular project, but a foreign scientist continues the same work with a top grade fixed salary, made available from a special fund," said a source.

With a fund of US $19 million in 2005, ICDDR,B, since its inception 28 years ago, has spent over $300 million to run the centre. The bulk of the fund is provided by the Government of Bangladesh with almost a million dollar in cash annually, and with assets and exemptions from taxes, duties and rates for the centre and its 2000 personnel. Other major donors are Switzerland, the Netherlands, UK, USA, Sweden, Canada and Japan.

Recently, two recruitment in ICDDR,B for the posts of director of human resources and the finance director, with top international tax free salaries (around US $8,000 a month) and facilities, created more resentments among its staff. The recruitment were carried out violating the charter under which ICDDR,B is supposed to run. Sources said prior to the appointments no advertisement was published in the mass media to ensure wide participation. Sources also said quite a few eyebrows were raised throughout the office when an external auditor of ICDDR,B, belonging to a foreign audit firm engaged in auditing the centre's finances, was given the position of the finance director of ICDDR,B with a top international salary. The auditor's independence and neutrality was instantly assumed to be compromised when he was offered the job during an external audit of the centre. The auditor immediately went back to his country of origin, resigned from the auditor's post and returned to join ICDDR,B as the head of its finance department.

The director of human resources, also a foreign national, was previously working for an international school in Dhaka as its head of 'after school extracurricular activities'. Allegedly she is a family friend of Professor Sack, and the position she was given requires a highly skilled person with relevant qualifications.

Professor David A Sack said he does not think the recruitment are in violation of any norm or 'a conflict of interest'.

"He was an external auditor and he knows the centre, and he totally disassociated himself from the other firm. He is very skilled, very qualified and he knows his job," said Sack.

ICDDR,B has a 16-member board of trustees where Bangladesh as the host is the only country represented by three members. By virtue of a decision made by the erstwhile president of the country, late Ziaur Rahman, the health secretary and the secretary to the Economic Relations Division become members of the board of trustees automatically. The Ministry of Health selects the third member, with relevant qualifications and expertise. The current Bangladeshi members are Secretary to the Ministry of Health AKM Zafar Ullah Khan, Secretary to the Economic Relations Division Mohammad Ismail Zabihullah and for the first time ever Secretary General of the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Dr AZM Zahid Hossain.

The trustees meet twice a year supposedly to take some of the vital decisions on recruitment, researches and important other issues. The chair of the board is Prof Terence H Hull from Australia while the member secretary is Prof David A Sack.

ICDDR,B sources said the role of the trustees during meetings remains 'totally insignificant', where all decisions made by Prof Sack are silently accepted and approved.

"Most of the members are very busy executives both in Bangladesh and abroad, who hardly have time to scrutinise facts and figures, so they trust the executive director working directly in the field," said a top-level source.

Sources said the silence of Bangladeshi board members is usually managed by hefty honorariums, foreign trips and lucrative consultancies. A former health secretary to the Ministry of Health was offered the post of an 'adviser', a completely new position, with a top international salary. He joined the post a day after his retirement, raising questions as to how sincerely he served Bangladesh's interest while in the office.

Despite repeated attempts over a period of several days, the secretary of health and the secretary general of BMA could not be reached.

But, Secretary to the Economic Relations Division Mohammad Ismail Zabihullah said Bangladeshi board members are never consulted before any recruitment.

"I have heard about some anomalies in the centre and we would like to convene an urgent meeting to discuss the issues," he said.

The ICDDR,B ordinance clearly says that the board of trustees must approve the appointments of all top level personnel in the centre. David A Sack however said he usually takes approvals of the members over the telephone.

The executive director denied the allegations saying, "I hope that is not true [that he runs a one-man show], these [members] are experienced people and we have a majority of people [members] coming from developing countries."

Over the last 28 years, the centre has conducted eight 'candidate vaccine trials' on lakhs of people at Matlab in Chandpur but mysteriously failed to produce a single report on the trials.

Officials who were serving at the time of 1985 vaccine trials on the people of Matlab alleged that the trials were run without the consent of the people on whom the experiment was conducted. Following the allegation of 'unethical research' the government then formed a task force to look into the matter. The report of the task force was never made public.

According to Sack, the cholera vaccine trial conducted in 1985 in Matlab was 'quite successful'. After 20 years, the same vaccine tried on the people of Matlab, has been patented by a Swedish company, and licensed and marketed in Europe, he said.

"It's too expensive to make it available in Bangladesh, but now WHO is making recommendations for use of the same vaccine in Bangladesh. We are working to develop a formulation which would be inexpensive for the people to use here, I am afraid that might take years," Sack said.

According to the ICDDR,B Ordinance 1978, the centre is to undertake and promote study, research and dissemination of knowledge in diarrhoeal diseases and directly related subjects with a view to developing improved methods of healthcare. The centre is to provide facilities for training to Bangladeshi and other nationals in collaboration with international institutions.

Although the executive director denied it, recently ICDDR,B in a clear violation of its charter, decided to hand over its training division to a top NGO, whose expertise in training personnel in the field of diarrhoeal diseases is not known.

"We are working with BRAC in their school of public health, the students of the school come to ICDDR,B for the second half of the school year for training, it is not true that we are handing our training division over to anyone," Sack claimed.

But the dean of BRAC's school of public health, also Deputy Executive Director A Mushtaque R Chowdhury told The Daily Star that talks are underway to hand over the international training division of ICDDR,B to BRAC.

"We have long experience in public health related work and we are preparing to take over the training division of ICDDR,B," Chowdhury said.

There are two distinct components of training -- diagnostic and clinical. For the former extensive laboratory work is necessary, and for the latter a well functioning hospital is needed. BRAC does not have either of the two. How can BRAC impart training is a question that experts familiar with ICDDR, B's work are asking.

ICDDR,B was set up by an ordinance in 1978, giving it immunity from local taxes, rates and duties. The ordinance offers a wide range of privileges for its foreign employees including exemption from income tax and privilege of duty free import of all personal and household items. The chairman, trustees, director, officers and employees of ICDDR,B are also immune from any legal proceedings with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity. It is the only institution in the country that has the legal mandate for movement of biological materials in and out of the country.

June 16, 2006

Rejoinder and the Reply

1. After living in Dhaka for nearly 13 of the last 29 years, I have deep regard for the people who work at the International Centre for Diarrhoel Diseases, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), its Board of Trustees, and the people who are helped by our hospital. I generally have high regard for the press of Bangladesh as well. Thus, I was extremely disappointed by the article by Mr Morshed Ali Khan in The Daily Star regarding the ICDDR,B (16 June, 2006). As Executive Director of the Centre, I can say that the allegations contained in this article were unfounded and untrue. One wonders how an esteemed newspaper like The Daily Star could print such an article without first checking its facts. That the article appeared during the first day of the semi- annual meeting of our international board of Trustees, and at a time the Board is planning to begin searching for the next Executive Director is a curious coincidence. In fact, the centre is a highly respected international research institute whose results are known throughout the world and whose efforts locally save the lives of thousands in Bangladesh each year.

2. An obvious error in article states that "within the last decade over 100 major research protocols were funded by ICDDR,B but not a single report on these researches was published or made public." This statement is obviously false given the thousands of scientific papers that have been published by scientists at the Centre. This could easily have been understood if the writer had taken the time to visit any medical library or even consulted the internet. The Daily Star regularly uses information from our quarterly bulletin in its newspaper, and several articles from The Daily Star have praised the work of the Centre. My office has an entire file containing many articles from The Daily Star reporting on the findings from the ICDDR,B. Even last week, two articles written by the Bangladeshi scientists at the Centre were published in two of the most prestigious international journals -- the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Each of these articles was accompanied by an editorial highlighting the importance of the findings. In addition, the Centre publicizes important new findings quickly through a quarterly bulletin for medical professionals (the Health and Science Bulletin) and to grass roots workers through newsletters (Shayasta Sanglap). In addition, dissemination seminars are held regularly including the ASCON and ASCODD conferences, and the scientists from ICDDR, B participate regularly in seminars and symposia in other institutions. Lack of publications and dissemination is hardly an issue.

3. These publications have an impact all over the world. The development of methods for treating diarrhoel diseases, including oral rehydration solution. Has saved the lives of over 40 million children all over the world during the last two decades. Other research efforts toward helping children pneumonia, reducing deaths in newborns, and mothers, and assisting the government in their family planning programmes are well known. These contributions were recognized by the first ever Gates Award for Global Health in 2001 and by the Independence Day Award in 2005.

4. The writer attempted to distort the work of the Centre to create the impressions that Bangladeshi scientists were somehow disadvantaged. In fact a majority of the scientists at ICDDR,B are from Bangladesh. They regularly develop projects and publish their results. As a result of their productivity and their contribution to health research, many of the Bangladeshi scientists have now been promoted to the international level.

5. The article also does a disservice to the more than 2000 staff members of the Centre both in Dhaka, Matlab, and other areas of Bangladesh who are literally working night and day to help the poor people of Bangladesh. Last year more then 110,000 patients sought care from our Dhaka Cholera Hospital, about 20,000 of whom had a life- threatening diarrhoel disease. The lives of these mothers, fathers and children were saved through the efforts of our hospital staff.

6. Recruitment of all staff at the Centre is totally fair and open. For staff at the highest international levels, the international Board of Trustees must approve these selections and they take this responsibility seriously. The board has an established and transparent process for the selection. As an international institution, the ICDDR,B attempts to recruit the best and brightest individuals from around the world -- including Bangladesh and including one of the Division Directors who is from Bangladesh. Recruitment for all local positions is also through a totally transparent process. We seek to find the women and men who are best qualified to fill the job.

7. Among the allegations, the writer says that the there have been no reports from 1985 cholera vaccine field trial in Matlab. In fact, more than 40 publications have been published in international journals. The vaccine was found to be totally safe and based on the experience in Matlab; it was later evaluated in other countries, most recently in Mozambique where its effectiveness was again reconfirmed. Due to the knowledge gained in Matlab and these other countries, the vaccine is now licensed in Europe and many countries and the World health Organization now recommends its use for persons who are vulnerable to cholera epidemics. One of the Centre's activities now is to develop a formulation of the vaccine to be practical and inexpensive so that it can be made available to people in this country who choose to take it. It is important to note that all studies at the ICDDR,B involving humans are approved by our Ethical Review Committee including the 1985 study. This committee is composed primarily of Bangladeshi people outside the Centre who also take their responsibility very seriously.

8. I especially object to the photo of the students who are shown working in the immunology laboratory of the Centre. At present, 27 M.Sc. students from different universities in Bangladesh are working diligently toward their degree, and they are using the facilities of the ICDDR, B to help them achieve this goal. The scientists at the ICDDR,B coordinate with faculty supervisors at these universities to facilitate the training experience of these students. The caption under the photo belittles the efforts of these students who are contributing to the scientific output from Bangladesh while at the same time, preparing for a future career in health research.

9. In summary, the article by Mr. Khan was most unfortunate. The fact that the Daily Star chose to print the article with so many obvious misstatements was doubly unfortunate. The ICDDR,B is the only such international health research institute in a developing country. Other international centres have headquarters in Geneva or New York, but we are proud to claim that the headquarters for this international centre is in Dhaka. Under the direction of a distinguished international Board of Trustees, we work for the people of Bangladesh in partnership with the ministry, provide opportunities for Bangladeshi health professionals, and build the knowledge for life saving solutions that benefit poor people all over the world.

The Reply:

We generally do not publish full text of such big rejoinders, especially when they fail to respond to points we have raised. We are doing so to show before the public how David A Sack's rejoinder avoids answering the main questions we have raised. We address his rejoinder in detail and provide our response below.

In paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 David A Sack details international publications of ICDDR,B's research works but fails to elaborate as to how Bangladeshi medical science and especially medical practitioners have benefited from those. His rejoinder mentions some international publications but does not mention how these research works were made available to Bangladeshi people or professionals. He refers to some The Daily Star articles that referred to ICDDR,B works or events but this cannot be taken as substitute for research publication that were made available internationally, but not, to our knowledge, nationally.

In paragraph 4 and 5 Sack says that majority of scientists in the centre are Bangladeshi and that they are not disadvantaged. He fails to answer our question about salary discrepancies of Bangladeshi staff in violation of the ICDDR,B Ordinance. There is also no response from Sack about Bangladeshi scientists receiving research grants from project fund only, while foreign scientists receiving the grants from a special fund. Instead, he tries to play on emotion by saying how thousands of Bangladeshi workers are working day and night. This is precisely our point. When Bangladeshis are working so hard, day and night, then why pay them a discriminatory salary?

In Paragraph 6, the Executive Director makes general comments about the openness in recruitment policy. In our report we made two specific allegations. Firstly, appointment of the Human Resources Director, who was head of after school extracurricular activities at an international school prior to joining the post. Secondly, we raised questions about the appointment of former auditor of the centre as a Finance Director. This is clearly a case of conflict of interest. Questions naturally arise when an auditor is offered a job in the same organisation whose financial propriety he is supposed to be investigating.

The Executive Director clearly avoids answering these two specific issues.

In Paragraph 7 he mentions about the cholera vaccine, experiment of which was conducted in Matlab, being available in Mozambique and many other countries. This is precisely the point we made in our article. The vaccine for which our people were experimented upon, is now licensed in Europe and sold in many other countries except ours. We did not even know about these experimental developments. Is it fair that Bangladeshi people should not benefit from a medicine, in the discovery of which we were experimented upon?

In conclusion we reiterate the fact that we made allegations or discrepancies in salaries, discrepancies in fund allocation for research, recruitment and management but Sack has failed to address any of the questions raised.

A Mushtaque Chowdhury's letter and reply

We also received a letter from A Mushtaque R Chowdhury, Dean of James P Grant School of Public Health, who denied having told The Daily Star correspondent that BRAC was planning to take over the International Training Division of the ICDDR,B. He said that he was misunderstood by the correspondent. The BRAC School of Public Health is a joint collaboration between BRAC and ICDDR,B. At the moment the BRAC school students spend half of the time at ICDDR,B utilising their facilities including the library, classrooms, laboratories, filed sites and more importantly the researchers most of whom also teach at the school.

Our reply: We are further investigating this point, and reserve our response at this point.

Terrence H Hull's letter and our reply

Terrence H Hull, the Chair Board of Trustees, ICDDR,B in a letter claims, "The Board is responsible for reviewing senior appointments made at ICDDR,B and can affirm that there are no anomalies in the appointment procedures or selections as asserted by our article. Those assertions contained neither evidence nor attribution to a source that could have possibly had any knowledge of the matter..."

Our reply: Like Sack, Terrence H Hull also gives a general reply and does not answer the point we raised about two specific senior level appointments, which should have been reviewed by the Board of Trustees. We specifically ask Hull, "did the Board review the appointment of the Human Resources Director? What qualified a former instructor of after school program of an international school to qualify for such a senior post? As for the director finance, doesn't the Chair of the Trustee Board find anything curious in the appointment of an auditor during an audit, as its finance director?"

Our readers would be well served and we may even stand corrected if the Chair of the Board of Trustees is so kind enough to let us know how the Board discharged responsibilities in appointing these two directors. For the sake of transparency and accountability, we will welcome any information by the Chair other than affirmation that "....that there are no anomalies in the appointment procedures or selections as asserted by our article."

Monitoring the disease trends, health care behavior and quality of care of an Adolescent Health Initiative (ARHI) by NGO in rural Bangladesh

2008-07-22T05:03:00.000-07:00

Brief description of your proposed Master thesis: Dr. S. M. Shamim ul Moula
Monitoring the disease trends, health care behavior and quality of care of an Adolescent Health Initiative (ARHI) by NGO in rural Bangladesh
A. Introduction:
“Solidarity”, a local NGO of Kurigram District, Bangladesh has been implementing a project titled “Adolescent Reproductive Health Initiative (ARHI)” sponsored by Save the Children Fund UK and EC/UNFPA since August 2000. “Solidarity” contracted Chiinamukul Bangladesh (-CB1, the partner of Terre Des Hommes, Lausanne, Switzerland, a leading NGO of northern Bangladesh with HQ in Kurigram, working mainly on Health and Nutrition intensively in the community and institutional levels since 1975) for clinical and technical components of the project mainly for service delivery as CB has been operating considerable number of institutional and satellite service delivery centers (clinics) equipped with manpower and logistics since deades.
As per the contract, CB has been engaged in the project for i) management of male and female adolescents suffering from reproductive diseases ii) relevant expert level counseling for reproductive health anomalies referred by ““Solidarity”” from the community where “Solidarity” has been working for mainly community mobilization and awareness development component for the mentioned project.

CB commissioned the service in its Kurigram Mother and Child Health Center (KMCHC) and maintained relevant records for each adolescent patient with monthly reporting to “Solidarity” in the context.
Ideas and traces about health care behavior of adolescents in reproductive disease, reproductive disease trends in adolescent in (northern) Bangladesh, monitoring the quality of the treatment offered in context of Bangladesh, evaluating the outcome and impact for the management with follow up elements (that contained in the CB operating component of the project of ARHI sponsored by Save The Children UK) can be a mater of interest for a researcher in Reproductive Health.
The outcomes with the lessons learnts of the mentioned research can contribute significantly in the future interventions (more specifically to the monitoring and evaluation components of those) to manage the adolescent reproductive ailments in Bangladesh

B. Research Question

i) Psycho-social: How, when and why the adolescents seek health care in Reproductive Diseases (RD) in the rural context of Bangladesh? What is their health care behavior? What is their idea about “forbidden” RD in their conservative society, where people usually hesitate or discouraged to speak about
“sexuality” or reproductive health care and that is much truer for the adolescents, as in general their “talk” in the issue regarded as a punishable offence! What are the major constraints to seek health care for adolescent RD in the community? Are they started to open themselves to have proper managements for their reproductive anomalies? Do they have enough knowledge in the issue? What is (are) their source of “sexual” or reproductive knowledge what they contain? What is their experience in the society after being exposed to the (CB) hospital for RD? What is their own perception of the endeavors made by the NGOs to open them, acknowledge them and aware them in the Adolescent Reproductive issue? Did that do any “good” to them? Are they satisfied with the management offered in CB clinics for RD and what are their expectations? What is their satisfaction level in CB management of their reproductive ailments? And many more..................

ii) Medico-social: What was/is the adolescent RD trends in (northern) Bangladesh? How it is dealt/managed in the community usually in the rural Bangladesh and what management CB offered for them for the particular disease? What is the quality of care of CB offered services in comparison to the standardized management for the particular RD? How was/is the quality of care in the community component by “Solidarity” for adolescent RD? What was the service providers’ satisfaction level by managing adolescents for their RD?
What is service providers’ perception about the adolescent service seekers for their offered services? Did the service seekers think that a considerable percentage of adolescent service seekers have some type of “psycho-somatic” problems rather than any typical disease? And many more…………

iii) Monitoring , evaluation and impact analysis:
Was there any baseline or follow-up prior to the intervention?
Was the quality of service to the adolescents for their RD by CB and “Solidarity” monitored? If yes, then how? Was it internal or external? What were the tools and mechanisms for that and how effective those were? Who were involved with that monitoring process? What was their quality for the task? Review and rate the methodology of the conducted monitoring if any. Analysis of the conducted monitoring procedures if any.
If no, then what was/is the impact of that on the intervention?
Compilation of the appropriate tools for monitoring for the CB/”Solidarity” project those could fit with the intervention.
Was there any evaluation for the project? What type, internal or external? Midterm or final?
If yes, what were the tools? ? Review and rate the methodology of the evaluation if any.
If no, how it could be designed? What methodology would be better and effective?
Impact analysis in the community and among the service seekers (adolescents) and service providers (CB and “Soliderity”).

C. General Objective
To have knowledge to design effective adolescent reproductive health interventions in Bangladesh (specially in rural context), to explore and generate most effective tools for essential monitoring and evaluation of such projects for expected successes.
To track the adolescent reproductive and general health care behavior in (this part of) Bangladesh to design appropriate intervention program in future to address adolescent reproductive health ailments. To assess the outcome of the awareness building program among the adolescents and its impact in the community for use in the future for designing successful project/intervention. To assess the effectiveness, success and constraints of an ARHI project in the community and evaluation and monitoring of particular cases in an ARHI project to see the quality of care offered in comparison to the standard practice in Bangladesh with tracking the follow up process. Also the adolescent Reproductive Disease trend will be monitored and assessed for future use in the program designing and service seekers and providers’ satisfaction in the context will be documented for same reason.

Specific Objective
i) To see the Adolescent Reproductive Disease trends in (the part) of Bangladesh
ii) To monitor and evaluate the quality of care made available for Adolescent Reproductive Disease or anomalies in the “Solidarity”/CB ARHI project
iii) To track the health care behavior of the adolescents for their Reproductive Health anomalies
iv) To document the service seekers and providers satisfactions for the offered services in the ARHI
v) Investigating monitoring and evaluation processes and associated tools.
v) To see the impact of the ARHI in the community and the outcome of the awareness building process by the project
D. Literature Review minimum 1/2 page at least 5 article related with your subject
(Apa, I could not manage it till date, can any body help?)

E. Research Methodology
i) Study Design
The study will consist of a number of sub studies and those will be conducted through a number of surveys as follows:
a) Monitoring cases of adolescent reproductive diseases in CB KMCHC:
Cases that are recorded in the CB Kurigram Mother and Child Care Center register will be tracked, analyzed for quality of care offered and for the understanding of disease trends.
b) Monitoring particular cases of adolescent reproductive diseases in CB KMCHC:
A number of cases from CB Kurigram Mother and Child Care Center register will be tracked and analyzed for quality of care offered including that of the diagnosis, prescription and other advises.
c) Tracking adolescent reproductive service seekers KAP and comparison with a “control group”:
At least 30 adolescent patients will be identified from CB Kurigram Mother and Child Care Center register and will be interviewed for their health seeking behavior. They will also be checked for their satisfaction in the care offered by CB and ““Solidarity”” and they will be investigated for their perception of social impact for their health care seeking for reproductive anomalies. They will be carefully screened for their own feelings in the issue of seeking health care for reproductive health by the adolescents (themselves) that are normally “forbidden” in the society. Careful examination of their conceptual changes will be investigated changes. Endeavor will be made for tracking their KAP level and to compare it with a “control group”.
d) Tracking the service providers’ satisfaction and “lessons learnt:
For this, a total number of 10 service providers will be interviewed. Among them, 5 from each of the 2 groups, namely clinical service providers and non-clinical service providers for their perception of the adolescent health anomalies and their attitudes, social impacts and their satisfaction in rendering the service to adolescents. Endeavor will also be made for track their “lesson learnt” for providing the reproductive health services to the adolescents.
e) Tracking the social impacts/reaction in the community for the adolescent reproductive health initiative:
For the component, a total of 10 social elite will be interviewed to track their response to ARHI.
f) Examining the records for exploring monitoring and evaluation elements if any:
Interviews with “Solidarity” and CB officials, reviewing data and documents available.
g) Observation: Observation/case study.

ii) Study Population
Number of adolescents served by the project
iii) Place of Study
Place of the study will be in the district of Kurigram, Bangladesh where NGO “Solidarity” and CB have been engaged in the EC/UNFPA sponsored Adolescent Reproductive Health Initiative (ARHI) through Save the Children Fund, UK.
iv) Sampling techniques for the surveys:
a) Monitoring cases of adolescent reproductive diseases in CB KMCHC:
All the cases recorded in CB Kurigram Mother and Child Care Center register will be taken as sample.
b) Monitoring particular cases of adolescent reproductive diseases in CB KMCHC:
Systematic Random Sampling technique will be adopted for drawing the samples from each disease category for analyzing for quality of care offered including that of the diagnosis, prescription and other advises.
c) Tracking adolescent reproductive service seekers KAP and comparison with a “control group”:
Systematic Random Sampling technique will be adopted for drawing at least 30 Samples from CB Kurigram Mother and Child Care Center register for interviewing for their health seeking behavior.
d) Tracking the service providers’ satisfaction and “lessons learnt/recommendations:
Purposive sampling technique will be adopted for to draw a total number of 10 samples among the service providers for interviewing. Among them, 5 from each of the 2 groups, namely clinical service providers
(CB) and non-clinical service providers (“Solidarity”).
e) Tracking the social impacts/reaction in the community for the adolescent reproductive health initiative:
For the component, purposive sampling technique will be adopted to draw a total sample of 10 among social elite for interviewing to track their response to ARHI.

v) Sample size:
In fact, this composite study contains a number of studies containing different number of samples as follows:

Study Sample category Proposed number for interviewing
Monitoring disease trends Adolescent reproductive patient All patients recorded in CB
Monitoring quality of care Adolescent reproductive patient 15 (5 patients in each respondent category for 3 diseases)
Service seekers KAP i) Adolescent reproductive patient in CB
ii) Adolescents of “control group” i) 30ii) 30
Service Providers’ perception/interview i) Clinicians of CB
ii) Non clinical service providers from “Solidarity” 10 (CB-5+”Solidarity”-5)
Perception of social elites on ARHI Local elites 10

vi) Analysis plan/presentation of findings

Survey data of the study will be analyzed keeping in view the need and direction of the study objectives. Analytical Strategies will be chosen in such a way so that all possible requirements needed to address each objective in an optimum position can be met.

Separate analyses will be carried out for all sub studies in the study. These analysis have been carried out with the help of uni-variate and bi-variate tables, and if necessary with graphic presentation.

F. Outcome of the research study:
Useful secondary data will be revealed for future use to design and implement similar project.
Useful monitoring and evaluation tools can be generated for use in future projects of similar nature.
Constraints/limitations for similar projects/interventions can be assessed.
Idea about cost, logistics and technical inputs for the similar projects can be perceived.
Expertise can be developed in similar project.
Future research questions can be drawn out.

G. Conclusion
As the study has been designed with effective knowledge of research, it has got the better scope for success. If it is successfully implemented, it will serve the purpose of the researcher yielding the different objective oriented outcomes for a noble academic purpose.
The study can reveal the utmost need for a appropriate monitoring and evaluation system for a (reproductive) health project for its final success and can unveil the problems those can be en countered in absence of such a appropriate M&E system.

PROJECT PTOPOSAL: PILOTING ON COMMUNITY BASED PARTICIPATORY DRUG DE-ADDICTION AND HIV HARM REDUCTION PROGRAM

2008-07-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

PILOTING ON COMMUNITY BASED PARTICIPATORY DRUG
DE-ADDICTION AND HIV HARM REDUCTION PROGRAM

CAPTER-1: INTRODUCTION

A. History:

As with other South Asian nations Bangladesh has a long history of illicit drug use, particularly of opium and cannabis. Before 1948, Bangladesh was a part of an undivided India and therefore much of its history mirrors eastern India, particularly Bengal. From the time of British colonisation until 1984 it was possible to purchase opium from government controlled vendors (Ray 1998). Cannabis has been widely used in Bangladesh society for many years and was often not perceived as a drug of abuse (Kabir 1998). In the late 1970s consumption of opium was strictly restricted and the scheme of compulsory registration identified about 1,600 chronic opium addicts (Spencer and Navaratnam 1981). Since 1987 production of cannabis has been banned and most is now smuggled across the Indian border (Hossain 2000). Until the mid 1980s the drugs of use, among the young, were cannabis, local wine and prescribed tablets (Mandrax and Prodrom). Heroin, generally called brown sugar, did not appear until the mid to late 1980s. It had low potency and became the drug of choice (Ray 1998) among the lower socio-economic sector and some students (Kabir 1998). In 1991, the majority of drug users in treatment indicated heroin as their drug of choice, followed by pethidine. At this time the level of education and affluence tended to influence drug-taking practices; 15% of the poor injected compared to 42% of the more affluent (Gibney 1999). At the same time as heroin addiction increased, a shortage in supplies emerged as a result of law enforcement activities. As a result drug users turned to the pharmaceutical buprenorphine from India (Habib 2000, Hossaine 2000). The emerging popularity of buprenorphine (commonly know as Tidegesic) stems from its cheapness, availability, longevity of effect and as a result of some pharmacies promoting the drug as a way of treating heroin addiction (Kabir 1998). By the mid 1990s individuals dependent on buprenorphine started to appear in treatment centres (Ray 1998).

B. Current situation:

Bangladesh is surrounded by one of the largest drug producing regions in the world. While it is not a significant producer of narcotics, opium cultivation near the Myanmar border, albeit small, has been detected in some districts. In 1999, 90 acres of poppy fields were destroyed by the army (Narcotics 2001, Henry 1999) and 28 kilograms of heroin and 2.3 metric tons of cannabis were seized. The drug Phensidyl (a cough syrup containing codeine) has become increasingly popular among drug users. In 2000, 140,000 bottles were seized by law enforcement officials (International 2000). Phensidyl is readily available and remains the most visible illicit drug: it requires no prescription and is easily accessed by many illegal traders in various parts of the country (Habib 2001).

In 1996, a Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA) of the drug use in three major cities (Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chittagong) was conducted; 1,750 participants were selected at random. The results of this survey reported the most commonly used drugs in descending order were cannabis, cough syrup (codeine based), sedatives and heroin. For those surveyed in treatment centres the most commonly used drugs in descending order were heroin, codeine, cough syrup, buprenorphine, cannabis and sedatives (Ray 1998). Among all the participants the life time use of selected drugs show cannabis at 25.8%; cough syrup at 11.3% with heroin and buprenorphine, 2.9% and 0.5% respectively (Ray 1998). However, a recent study in Dhaka showed buprenorphine as the most commonly used drug among users (70%) (Mallick and Gomes 2000). It is widely agreed among experts that there is increasing evidence of the widespread use and availability of illicit drugs (Ahmed 1999; Habib 2001; Ray 1998; Hossain and Ahmed 1999; Malibubur 1999).

In the northern part of the country, drug use, including injecting, has been reported in the cities of Coxes Bazar, Chittagong, Jessore, Khuna, Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj and drug use is common in several areas of the capital, Dhaka (Jenkins 1999a; Begg 1999). While drug use is mainly confined to the urban centres it has also been reported in several rural areas and villages (Ray 1998; Jenkins 1999a).

In 1998, a study was undertaken to assess the vulnerability of an estimated 200,000 street children (aged between 5- 14 years) living in the metropolitan area of Dhaka.

While the study found many of the children were the victims of exploitation, harassment and abuse (including sexual) it also found that some were addicted to injectable drugs and other substances. Awareness on HIV/AIDS issues was reported to be poor among this group (Milky 1999).

C. Drug taking practices and risk factors:

While the most popular routes for taking drugs is reported as ingesting or inhalation (Malibubur 1999) injecting does appear to be gaining popularity (Hossaine and Ahmed 1999). The injecting of drugs is believed to have commenced in 1990 (Hossaine 2000) and data recorded in treatment centres reports an increase in the rate of injecting from 6% in 1993 to 17% in 1995 (Ray 1998). The time frame from using different types of drugs before switching over to injectables ranges from six to fifteen years (Jenkins 1999a; Mallick and Gomes 2000). In 1996, a study in Rajshahi reported the injecting of sedatives as widespread (78%), followed by buprenorphine (21%) (Habib 2001). The behavioural surveillance study of 1998-99 showed that for those who injected, the drug of choice was buprenorphine which was frequently mixed in a cocktail of substances including diazepam, promethazine hydrochloride and chlorpheniramine. A recent study also reported that 29% of participants injected a cocktail of drugs (Hussaine, 2000; Mallick and Gomes 2000). Heroin was used by only 2% of participants, and was usually dissolved in lemon juice before injecting (Hussaine, 2000). One study shows that 90% of all injectors had once smoked heroin (Begg 1999).

Reports of drawing up blood in the syringe in order to dilute the drug and front or back loading (moving the drug from one syringe to another) occurs, even though in small numbers (<10%) (Jenkins 2001, Mallick and Gomes 2000). In 2000, a study in Dhaka reported the average number of injections per day was two and the sites of injecting varied; 26% injected into the vein, 56% into muscle and the rest (18%) used both the vein and the muscle (Mallick and Gomes 2000). Another earlier study reported that 59% always injected into the vein (Jenkins 1999b).

In the city of Rajshani most IDUs used the services of a professional injector in an adda: an adda is a place where IDUs gather to inject and where the drugs and the professional injector can be found. While the same practice is likely to occur in Dhaka it is not as common (Hussaine 2000; Jenkins 1999b) It has been suggested the professional injectors are able to maintain business through a good supply of drugs, connections to wholesalers and by providing the injecting services. In 1999, in Rajshani an estimated 50 adda injectors operated and there were an estimated 94 addas in the city. These facilities are often located in disused buildings and lane ways but some also operate in hotel rooms (Hossaine 2000). For a small additional cost, people can ask to be injected at their homes. In one study it was reported up to 90 persons a day used a single adda injector, often for multiple injections. Being an adda injector was not exclusively the domain of men as several women had also become involved (Jenkins 1999a).
Reports suggest an adda injector will use the same needle for 20-50 people and that it is not unusual for it to be used for 2-3 days. (SHEAS, 1996). Studies in the late 1990s reported widespread sharing of needles among all IDUs (60% - 90%) and that professional injectors did not sterilise their needles and syringes (Hossaine 2000; Begg 1999; Ashaful 1999). The sharing of injecting equipment has also been documented among street children (Gibney 1999). Among professional injectors it has been observed that a needle is only changed when it becomes blunt and glass syringes are rarely changed or discarded (Hossaine 2000). New needles add an expense that few poor IDUs can afford thus explaining the reasons for the widespread sharing (Jenkins 1999a) and why some people have been known to use syringes rejected by hospitals (SHEAS 1996). It costs an average of three Taka (US$0.05) to buy a disposable syringe and needle. There are regulations in place requiring a prescription to buy such equipment but this is often ignored. It is not difficult to find a needle and syringe in most parts of the country (P.S. Mallick personal communication 2001). Cleaning of needles by those who shared their needles is nearly always inadequate. Some methods included using cotton or paper to clean the needle or using distilled water (Mallick and Gomes 2000). Some IDUs used saliva to clean their needles believing this would destroy any poisons found in the blood (SHEAS 1996).

The establishment of needle and syringe programs (NSP) from May 1998 has shown some behavioural changes. Results from a recent study between two surveys show the overall sharing of needles in Dhaka appears to have been reduced from 93% to 75% of people ever sharing in the last week. In Rajshahi the reduction is from 96% to 55% (Jenkins 2001). The government recognises that NSP clearly impacts on the proportion of injections shared (Government of Bangladesh 2001).

D. Prevalence and profile:

The number of drug users has been estimated to be between 100,000 to 1.7 million (Ray 1998; Rhaman 2000; Narcotics 2001; WHO 2001). In the early 1990s it was estimated that there were 100,000 heroin users in the country but this figure is likely to have lessened as buprenorphine has become the favoured drug (Hossaine 2000). It has been estimated there could be 20,000 to 25,000 IDUs in the country (Hossaine 2000; Jenkins 1999a; Wodak 2001). In the capital Dhaka, reports suggest there are 7,650 injectors and at least 11,000 heroin users (Begg 1999). In northern Bangladesh there are an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 injectors, most of whom are found in the cities of Rajshahi and Chapainwabganj (Jenkins 1999b). However, these figures are disputed by others: a Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA) in 2000 found there was no more than 2,000 IDUs in Rajshahi and 1,000 IDUs in Chapainawabgonj (Mallick and Rabbani 2000).

The majority of drug users, and those who inject, are reported to be male with less than 2.5% females (Government of Bangladesh 2001; Hossaine 2000; Begg 1999). The number of female drug users could be greater but reaching out to this sector of the community is difficult when most are very hesitant to identify themselves as IDUs (Begg 1999). One outreach program in Dhaka has contact with about 40 female IDUs most of whom are also sex workers (Begg and Nizam 1999). In one southern city a survey found 14% of street female sex workers injected drugs and in the brothels 6% stated they were IDUs. Among male IDUs a high proportion paid for sex. A survey in various cities has shown that half to three-quarters of male injectors paid for sex and close to one in ten bought sex from men or transvestites; less than 25% used a condom the last time they paid for sex (MAP 2001).

In 1986, HIV was first detected in a foreign drug trafficker and in 1989 the first case of HIV in a citizen of Bangladesh was recorded (Gibney 1999; Hussaine 2000). While the HIV prevalence levels have remained relatively low there has been a sizeable increase since 1989 (Gibney 1999). As of December 2000 the total number of HIV/AIDS cases was 157 (127 males, 30 females). Between December 1999 and December 2000 the number of identified HIV infections was 31 cases, the highest number in a single year. A breakdown of the transmission route is not available but it is likely the majority are sexually acquired (Department of Virology 2001). In 1999 an estimated 7,500 adults and children lived with HIV infection (UNAIDS 2000) but in 2000 this increased to 13,000 (WHO 2001). It has been calculated that the annual number of AIDS cases was 1,100 in 2000 which will rise to 1,700 by 2005 (WHO 2001). A sero-surveillance of 1998-1999 reported that among IDUs coming into detoxification centres, 2.5% were found to be HIV positive and among the 880 surveyed the rate of needle and syringe sharing was about 90% (Hussaine 2000).

A follow up survey for the second national expanded HIV surveillance in mid 2000 reported that of the 418 participants from a central NSP, 6 people (1.4%) were found to be HIV positive (Government of Bangladesh 2001). The low levels of HIV infection in the two rounds of surveillance have yet to be fully explained considering widespread sharing of needles was still occurring. Studies have shown that Hepatitis C can be found in 25% of IDUs: this was associated with the sharing of needles and the longer duration of drug injecting (Shirin 2000). Surveys conducted on IDUs have shown a wide age range (15 to 70 years) with the average age being 30 to 35 years (Mallick and Gomes 2000; Hossaine 2000, Hussaine 2000). Many have poor education and unskilled occupations, a substantial number are married, and the majority had previously been to jail, mostly for drug offences (Begg 1999; Jenkin 1999b; Hussaine 2000; Habib 2000) A recent study found most family members were aware of the users drug using behaviour (Habib 2001). Use of commercial sex workers, particularly among the unmarried, was fairly common and the use of condoms was generally very low; condoms are rarely a consideration and are seen as mainly for family planning (SHEAS 1996; Jenkins 1999b; Malibubur 1999; Ashaful 1999; Hussaine 2000; Mallick and Gomes 2000). Many sex workers were aware of colleagues having sex with drug users without condoms (Gibney 1999). A 1997 study showed 21% of IDUs donated their blood and many did so as a way to raise money (Jenkins 1999a). This is clearly a problem when none of the blood banks test the blood for HIV (Begg, 1999).

E. Government responses to illicit drug problems:

In the Narcotics Control Act, 1990, there is provision for the establishment of narcotic addiction treatment centres and when it is deemed treatment is necessary the person is directed to a competent physician or a treatment centre (Ray 1998). However, detoxification and rehabilitation programs are scarce in the country and few drug users have the resources to attend them. As occurs in most countries of the world recidivism is high for those receiving treatment. A 1998-99 study showed 90% of the participants who had made attempts to stop drug use had failed (Hussaine, 2000). It has been suggested that the drug prohibition laws enacted under the Narcotics Act of 1990 are not an effective strategy for harm reduction (Habib 2000). The government does not view drug addiction as a high priority issue and it is seen as a self-created problem (Hossain and Ahmed 1999). If a person is found in possession of heroin, cocaine and coca derivatives, and the quantity does not exceed 25 grams, imprisonment will not be less than two years and not exceed 10 years. If the quantity exceeds 25 grams the penalty can be the death sentence or life imprisonment. For possession of pethidine, morphine or tetrahyrocannabinol, if the quantity does not exceed 10 grams, imprisonment will be no less than two years and no more than 10 years. If the quantity exceeds this amount the penalty is a death sentence or life imprisonment. There are various A class narcotics which is where buprenorphine is likely to be classified. Being in possession of this drug is also likely to incur a severe penalty. The penalty is an imprisonment of not less than two years and no more than 15 years: the possession amount is not specified (Rahman 1990). There is usually no provision for arrested drug users to be sent to drug treatment centre. The only option appears to be prison (P.S Mallick, personal communication 2001).
The Department of Narcotics Control has recently initiated a community level of coordination to streamline the activities of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to strengthen existing and future drug prevention activities in the country (Ahmed 2001). There are four government de-addiction centres in the country with a total of 55 beds (Ray 1998).

The traditional approach to treating drug users is in the psychiatric units of hospitals. The shortage of beds results in few being able to receive treatment. Other problems include physicians being discouraged from offering their services to treatment centres because they can lose their seniority if they are not properly released by the Ministry of Health and placed under the Department of Narcotic Control (Hossain and Ahmed 1999).

The two models of treatment are the ashram model, run by non-medical social activists, and the medical hospital model run by medical professionals. Most drug users are serviced by government health care facilities and at the Dhaka centre people stay for four weeks. There is only one program designed to cater for female drug users (Hossain and Ahmed 1999) Only one government- run detoxification centre exists in Dhaka, which has 40 beds and charges a nominal fee (Begg 1999). Many drug users have tried various ways to stop their drug use and a study shows 68% had been in prison at least once. However, even here drug injecting occurs (Jenkins 2001).

F. Government response to drug use and HIV:

The government is aware of the link between HIV/AIDS and drug use as has been shown in the two sero-surveillance surveys. It has been acknowledge NSP can play a role in reducing the amount of needle sharing and impact upon HIV transmission.

However, there are reports of IDUs being arrested for carrying syringes and needles even though no â€paraphernalia lawsâ€™ exist (Begg 1999; Hussaine 2000). Substitution therapy is currently not available. Information about HIV/AIDS which directly targets drug users is reported to be unavailable.

G. National AIDS policy:

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare produced a National HIV/AIDS Policy which received approval by the cabinet in 1998. In the policy there is a special focus on IDU and approval of harm reduction as a useful strategy. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs, whose focus includes narcotic laws, does not approve of harm reduction believing such a policy cannot supersede the law of the land. As a result of these contradictions serious threats from the Narcotics Department and police have emerged with this policy. In recent times the Narcotics Department has indicated they acknowledge the existence of NSP and at this stage have tended to ignore the operations of such programs.

H. Non-government responses to drug use and HIV:

In 1999, the SHAKTI project CARE-Bangladesh (NGO) operated seven drop in centres in Dhaka, which are open six hours per day, six days per week and offer needles and basic primary health care for drug users (Begg 1999). A NSP has been set up at a professional injector site in Rajshahi, reaching approximately 10-20% of the local IDUs. In 1999, SHAKTI was estimated to have access to 3,500 IDUs; peer educators distributed two new syringes and six needles every other day, per person at their drop in centres (Jenkins 2001). About 90,000 needles and syringes per month are exchanged at the DIC with a reported high return (>80%) (Wodak 2001). As there is no incinerator in Bangladesh, there has been no other option for NGOs but to burn collected needles and syringes at the drop in centres in the open air (Begg 1999). CARE-Bangladesh also has programs in Rajshahi and in early 2001 they set up a program in Chapai Nawabgonj which reaches 200 IDUs. In this latest project they have trained five adda educators who are current drug users. Their role is to educate other IDUs and professional drug injectors on STD/HIV issues and to exchange old needles and syringes for new ones (CARE-Bangladesh 2001). It has been reported there are nine NGOs focused on drug demand reduction with a total of 190 beds between them for in-patient treatment (Ray 1998).

Estimated number of drug users : 100,000 - 1.7 million
Estimated number of IDUs : 20,000 - 25,000
Drugs used : cannabis, cough syrup, buprenorphine, sedatives, heroin, codeine
Drugs injected : sedatives, buprenorphine, heroin, drug cocktails
Estimated number of HIV infection : 2.5% of IDUs in detoxification centres among IDUs are HIV +

J. Life, the proposing NGO:

Like-mindedness and the urge to achieve a common goal aided by knowledge, skill and experience is that has given birth to NGO life. It is an organization committed to all out development of the society and its approach to development is a people oriented one. Life believes in an integrated approach, which included both humans and materials aspects of development. For any development effort to be meaningful it must integrated both human material components of development organically. In other words, our scope of activity encompasses the whole gamut of development issues obtaining in Bangladesh.

Our motto is to build self-confidence and capabilities in human races by development critical consciousness in them or other words, humanize them. We do not believe in relief or loan as an end in itself. Hence we are for building adequate human infrastructure as a prerequisite for introducing material imputes within any community. For the task, empowerment of community and person is the most desired intervention by “Safe Life”. Also community based solution is the dream as that will be the utmost sustainable development of a community or the person. Participatory methodology of development is the most important technique in which “Safe life” believes. The primary beneficiaries of the “Safe Life” development approaches are the most vulnerable sections of the rural and urban population especially the landless poor, children and women groups. It is a national organizational its jurisdiction of activities spread all over the country.

Life is a non-profit, voluntary non-Government organization working for the uplift of the people in Bangladesh since decades. Life’s main objective is to uplift the social condition of the poorest of the poor living mostly in rural areas as well as in the urban centers of Bangladesh. As because poverty is responsible from the social and natural environment conditioning the lives of the people Life include in its activities and ambitions program for developing the natural and social environment around the people habits. Achieving household food security, to ensure fundamental rights for the population accepted and ratified by the UN and Bangladesh constitution, structural poverty alleviation, community actions to stop drug abuse, harm reduction of the drug abuse, detoxification and rehabilitation of the drug abusers, health and nutrition including the issues relating HIV/AIDS, environmental protection and regeneration, improvement in women's status, increasing people's participation in the public institution, increasing people's capacity to gain and exercise democratic and human rights etc. are among the important mottos of the NGO Life.

In recent years, along with other interventions, Life is working on the drug abusers to refrain them from abusing drugs through mainly community based participatory awareness raising, advocacy and other holistic approaches. However, from the experiences of Life it is now evident that only the awareness program is not sufficient to restrict the massive damage of the community and persons made by the drug abuse and the dimension of the drug related program has be widened by establishing drug abuse detoxification and rehabilitation centers to intervene the already addict population, to save their lives and to stop any more propagation of the addiction by them.

I. OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the program are as follows:

1. To establish a fellowship of recovering addicts living in a healthy atmosphere, helping fellow addicts and their families recover from addiction.
2. To disseminate knowledge of basic facts about drug abuse, addiction, the Twelve Steps Program of Narcotics Anonymous and the recovery process.
3. To provide an environment in which addicts review their lifestyle, develop healthy attitudes, demonstrate sobriety and form good habits in daily life and work.
4. To provide an environment in which addicts acquire sufficient skill training, education and other preparatory knowledge that will lead to constructive and gainful employment.
5. To enable recovering addicts to make a full and active positive contribution to family and society, living a happy drug free and crime free life, who are constructively and gainfully employed, motivating others to stay off drugs or to get off drugs. Special emphasis is on high-risk youngsters of the nearby slums.
6. To provide drug prevention, motivational and training assistance for young drug addicts and high-risk youngsters, especially those from poor and/or dysfunctional families.
7. To create awareness and educating the people about the ill effects of alcoholism and substance abuse on the individual, family and the society at large.
8. To evolve culture-specific models for the prevention of the alcoholism and substance and the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts.
9. To provide for the whole range of community based services for the identification, motivation, counseling, de-addiction, after care and rehabilitation of addicts.
10. To promote collective initiatives and self help endeavors among individuals and groups vulnerable to addiction are found at risk.
11. To establish appropriate linkage between Government interventions and voluntary efforts in the field of prohibition and substance abuse prevention.
12. To increase community participation and public co-operation in the reduction of demand for dependence-producing substances. Creating Awareness

J. Activities:

Life’s target group will be the poor and young addicts of the local area but people come for treatment from all over Bangladesh. Those who come to Life pay according to the family means; as a result many of those who come for assistance pay little or nothing. The activities of Life will cover all aspects of drug addiction treatment and after care rehabilitation for male addicts, including prevention and awareness activities. These activities can be grouped into the following main forms of service provision:

(i) Identification of addicts.
(ii) Awareness building
(iii) Motivational counseling
(iv) Preventive education
(v) Screening of abuses-addicts
(vi) Detoxification / De-addiction
(vii) Formation of Self Help Groups
(viii) Vocational rehabilitation
(ix) After care and re integration into the social main stream.

Program components:

I. Production and Dissemination of Educative and Publicity Material
a) Posters/Flash Cards/Flannel Charts/Flip Charts
b) Pamphlets/Brochures/Leaflets
c) Hoardings/Panels/Banners
d) Booklets/Periodicals etc.
II. Community Participation Programs

a) Corner meetings/Workshops/Conferences
b) Essay/Debate/Slogans/Drama/One Act Play Competitions
c) Pantomime Shows/Street Plays/Folk Media, etc.

III. Training Camps for Voluntary Workers

IV. Any Other Activity for Awareness building programme against drug/alcoholism
V. Residential Treatment/ Rehabilitation:
The principles of Narcotics Anonymous 12 Step Program form the basis of this program of treatment and rehabilitation/habilitation. The importance of structure, work production, exercise, prayer and relaxation is acknowledged and these are all essential elements in this holistic program.
VI. Awareness, Prevention, Demand and Harm Reduction:
This is comprised of:

i) A series of meetings that all Life residents participate in on a daily basis.
ii) The Children's Program that is focused on removing 'at-risk' children from potential drug abuse situations.
iii) An important educational service for addicts, their families and the general community.
iv) Aftercare and Halfway House with Skill Training and Income Generation: This incorporates a range of post rehabilitation meetings and also a strong support network (Life based) to assist with the continued recovery of the addict. Additionally the aftercare service provides participants with the option to obtain skill training and to contribute to the income generation of the program.

VII. Community Outreach Project: With the program, Life will operate community based participatory detoxification and de-addiction centers in the vulnerable most places of Bangladesh where no or less similar programs are available. In those areas, Life will contact and communicate with the local actors including Government, NGO and local elites. The community committees, local government members, local elites and cultural leaders will be involved in the establishment of the community detoxification and de-addiction centers (CDD), collection of the drug abusers and retaining them in the centers till detoxification, then to handover them to the their families for de-addiction processes and in need to transfer more resistant cases to the Life drug rehabilitation center in Dhaka for better management.

VIII. HIV/AIDS Awareness program:
The HIV/AIDS issues for drug addicts in Bangladesh are extremely pressing. The links between intravenous drug use, prostitution and unsafe sex are strong. Life is already in preliminary discussion with local NGOs regarding the possibility of collaborating on a project which targets this issue and the ever increasing 'at risk' population. This program will be existing as a cross cutting issue in all Life drug and substance abuse programs. The necessary components will be the screening, counseling and life skills for HIV/AIDS among the drug abusers and their families wherever necessary.

RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND DRUGS

Level Risk factors Protective factors

Community Availability of drugs Cultures of cooperation
Poverty Stability and connectedness
Transitions and mobility in schooling and community Good relationship with an adult outside the family
Low neighborhood attachments and community disorganization Opportunities for meaningful contribution
School Detachment from school and poor relationships in school A sense of belonging and ‘fitting in’
Positive achievements and evaluations at school
Academic failure, especially in middle years
Early and persistent antisocial behavior and bullying Having someone outside your family who believes in you
Low parental interest in education
Attendance at pre-school
Family History of problematic alcohol and drug use A sense of connectedness to family
Inappropriate family management Feeling loved and respected
Family contact Proactive problem solving and minimal conflict during infancy
Alcohol/drugs interfere with family
Maintenance of family rituals Warm relationship with at least one parent
Harsh/coercive or inconsistent parenting Absence of divorce during adolescence
Marital instability or conflict
Favorable parent attitudes towards risk-taking behaviors
A ‘good fit’ between parents and child
Individual/peer Constitutional factors: alienation, rebelliousness, hyperactivity, novelty seeking Temperament/activity level, social responsively, autonomy
Development of special talents, hobbies and zest for life
Seeing peers take drugs
Friends engaging in problem behavior Work success during adolescence
Favorable attitudes towards problem behavior High intelligence (not paired with sensitive temperament)
Early initiation of the problem behavior

Time Chart
Sl. # Activity MONTHS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1. Preparatory: i) Reviewing secondary literature ii) visiting similar facilities iii) consultation with resource persons/experts iv) communication with donor, Government and other stakeholders etc. v) Recruiting vi) Renting the premises vii) Arrangement of the logistics

2. Establishment and commencement of operation of drug
de-addiction center
Identification of addicts

Awareness building

Motivational counseling

Preventive education

Screening of abuses-addicts

Detoxification / De-addiction

Formation of Self Help Groups

Vocational rehabilitation

After care and re integration into the
social main stream.

3. Production and Dissemination of Educative and Publicity Material
a)Posters/FlashCards/Flannel Charts/Flip Charts

b) Pamphlets/Brochures/Leaflets

c) Hoardings/Panels/Banners

d) Booklets/Periodicals etc.

4. Community Participation Programs

a)Corner meetings/Workshops/Conferences

b) Essay/Debate/Slogans/Drama/One Act Play Competitions

c) Pantomime Shows/Street Plays/Folk Media, etc.

5. Training Camps for Voluntary Workers
6. Any Other Activity for Awareness building programme against drug/alcoholism
7. Residential Treatment/ Rehabilitation:
8. Awareness, Prevention, Demand and Harm Reduction
9. Community Outreach Project:
• operate community based participatory detoxification and de-addiction centers in the vulnerable most places of Bangladesh where no or less similar programs are available. In those areas,
• Life will contact and communicate with the local actors including Government, NGO and local elites.
• The community committees, local government members, local elites and cultural leaders will be involved in the establishment of the community detoxification and de-addiction centers (CDD),
• collection of the drug abusers and retaining them in the centers till detoxification,
• Handover them to the their families for de-addiction processes and
• Transfer more resistant cases to the Life drug rehabilitation center in Dhaka for better management.

CHAPTER-II: BUDGET
SECTION: 1. NORMS FOR SETTING UP OF DRUG AWARENESS AND COUNSELING CENTERS

(Expenditure in Tk..)

S.No Name of the Post No. of posts Monthly exp. Yearly exp Minimum qualifications
A. RECURRING EXPENDITURE (ESTT.)
1. Project In charge-cum
Senior Counselor 1 15000 180000 A masters in psychology or sociology with minimum experience of 3 years in Addiction counseling in a Drug De-addiction centre or a experiential counseling
(recovered addict) with 2 years of sobriety. Preference will be given to the persons who have acquired specific qualifications in the field of addiction counseling.

2. Accountant-cum-Clerk
(Part-time) 1 7000 84000 A graduate with experience of accounts work

3. Counselor/Community
Worker/Social Worker 2 10000 240000 A Masters in psychology or sociology with minimum experience of 2 years in Addiction counseling in a Drug De-addiction centre or a experiential counselor
(recovered addict) with 2 years of sobriety. Preference will be given to the persons who have acquired specific qualifications in the field of addiction counseling.

4. Sweeper/Peon 1 2500 30000

TOTAL A 34,500 414000

B. RECURRING EXPENDITURE (OTHER THAN ESTT.)

1 Rent 30000 360,000
2. Contingencies
(Water, electricity, telephone, stationery, etc.) 10000 120,000
3. Publicity 15000 180,000
4. Transport 10000 120,000
TOTAL B 65,000 780,000
TOTAL A AND B 15, 60,000

C. NON RECURRING EXPENDITURE

(Admissible once only during the setting up of the Centre)

Furniture, Almirah, Computer and accessories, Bedsheets etc. 250,000

A+B+C= BDT 1810000

SECTION: 2. NORMS FOR SETTING UP OF 50-BEDDED REHABILITATION-CUM-
TREATMENT CENTRES

S.No Name of the Post No. of posts Monthly exp. Yearly exp Minimum qualifications
A. RECURRING EXPENDITURE (ESTT.)
a. Administrative
1. Project Director 1 25000 300,000 A Medical Professional or masters in psychology or sociology minimum experience of 3-5 years in directing an De-addiction and rehabilitation centre Preference will be given to the persons who have acquired specific qualifications in the field of de-addiction and detoxification protocols

2. Accountant-cum-Clerk
(Part-time) 1 7000 84,000 A graduate with experience of accounts work

3. Sweeper/Chowkidar 2* 5000 60,000

b. Medical
1. Medical Officer 1 15000 180,000 M.B.B.S. or equivalent Degree recognized by the Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council, should have 2-3 years experience in management of drug addicts.

2. Counsellor / Social
Worker/Psychologist 7* 70000 840,000 A Masters in psychology or sociology with minimum experience of 2 years in Addiction counseling in a Drug De-addiction centre or a experiential counselor (recovered addict) with 2 years of sobriety. Preference will be given to the persons who have acquired specific qualifications in the field of addiction counseling.
Preference will be given to candidates with degree/diploma in Addiction counseling.

3. Yoga/faith based other
Therapist (Part-time) 1 6000 72000 Adequate experience in the discipline recognized

4. Nurse/Ward Boys etc. 5* 25000 300,000 Nurse: High School or equivalent with certificate in Nursing from a recognized institution.
Boy: VIII th Class Pass. Good health, mentally sound, good character preferably experienced in such centres.

TOTAL A 153000 1,836,000

B. RECURRING EXPENDITURE (OTHER THAN ESTT.)

1 Rent 40000 480,000
2. Medicines 25000 300,000
3. Transport 15000 180,000
4. Contingencies
(Water, stationery, electricity, telephone, etc.) 15000 180,000
TOTAL B 95,000 1,220,000

TOTAL A and B BDT 1836000 + 1220000 =3056000

C. NON RECURRING EXPENDITURE

(admissible once only during the setting up of the Centre)

60 beds, tables, sets of linens BDT 3,50,000
blankets, other office equipments etc.

A+B+C= BDT 3406000

SECTION: 3 NORMS FOR EXPENDITURE ON HOLDING OF DE-ADDICTION CAMPS FOR TREATMENT OF DRUG ADDICTS

(Intentions will be refer the resistant abusers to the main centre)

1. Number of Patients Not less than 25 and not more than 40

2. Duration of each camp 15 (fifteen) days

(Expenditure in Tk..)

Sl. No. Item In Rural Areas In Urban areas
1. Allowances for the staff 25000 15000
2. Medicines 10000 10000
3. Transport 8000 7000
4. Contingencies
(including rent, water, electricity, charges, hiring of beds and other essential equipments and expenses on follow-ups) 43000 42000
TOTAL 86000
74000

= BDT 75000

Total Budget:

1. SECTION 1+SECTION 2+SECTION 3= BDT 1810000+3406000+75000=

BDT 5291000 in 1 year =US $ equivalent 85000 (Approx.) ($@ BDT 62.00)

2. For 2 years, BDT 10582000= US $ equivalent 171000

ICDDR,B Develops A Performance Enhancing Drink For the US Military In Iraq (contents collected from web)

2008-07-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

ICDDR,B Develops A Performance Enhancing Drink For the US Military In Iraq
Investigative , by Mahmood Ali , 31-July-2006

[Blog]
The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), is the continuation of the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL), originally established in 1960 as a result of the military alliance between Pakistan and USA under the umbrella of the South Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). In this article Mahmood Ali documents the ICDDR,B’s collusion with the US Military in developing a performance enhancing drink for the US soldiers in Iraq. This is one more example of the ICDDR,B’s defiance to the guidelines of the charter under which it is obliged to function.

Introduction:
The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), is the continuation of the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL), originally established in 1960 as a result of the military alliance between Pakistan and USA under the umbrella of the South Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). Historically, diarrhoea is one of the most common medical conditions afflicting military personnel that greatly reduces their combat efficiency (1). It is with the objective to providing better health care for the American soldiers that the Centre was established almost half a century ago. In 1978 the Government of Bangladesh granted a charter to the ICDDR,B to operate as a research centre to work on diarrhoeal diseases “with special relevance to developing countries” (Ordinance No LI of 1978 Government of Bangladesh; 6th Dec 1978). The charter did not permit the ICDDR,B to work for foreign military forces. However the ICDDR,B has grossly violated the charter on a number of occasions by colluding with foreign military forces, details of which have been described elsewhere (2, 3). The present article documents the ICDDR,B’s collusion with the US Military in developing a performance enhancing drink for the US soldiers in Iraq. This is one more example of the ICDDR,B’s defiance to the guidelines of the charter under which it is obliged to function.

Dehydration – a major health problem for the U.S. Military in Iraq:
Dehydration arising out of excessive heat and diarrhoeal illness is a major health problem for the U.S. Military in Iraq resulting in tremendous costs both in terms of dollars and loss of active personnel. Frequently soldiers suffer from heat exhaustion and other heat-related illness in combat operations in Iraq where daytime temperatures can soar above 50 °C. As a consequence many of them have died since the conflict began in 2003 (the Gulf War II), according to iCasualties.org, a Web site that monitors combat deaths there (4). The US Military strategists took this matter into consideration in invading Iraq in March 2003, thus avoiding the hottest season. But the illegal invasion of Iraq by the US led coalition forces did not become a cakewalk. Instead it led them into a quagmire that has cost the US more than 2500 lives and several thousands more being injured. A recent study published by the US Military demonstrates that more than one-third of the US troops in Iraq are suffering from migrane headaches arising out of factors such as physical exhaustion, dehydration and exposure to extreme heat (5). These migranes have significantly impaired their combat efficiency. A US Army laboratory found that dehydration can cut performance by 8% even in temperate weather of 20 °C. (6). Efficiency can be reduced to 60%, if a soldier is dehydrated 2-3% on being exposed to extreme high temperatures rising above 50 °C. During battles, soldiers can sweat away 2 litres of water an hour, but the body can only absorb only 1.2 litres in the same time, regardless of how much is consumed (7). In addition, body armour and equipment, weighing up to 20 kg. can raise a soldier’s body temperature by five degrees. Steel M-16 rifles can heat up so much, they become literally too hot to handle. In the summer sun, the military fighting vehicles such as tanks turn into “virtual ovens” with inside temperatures surpassing 65 °C. Thus soldiers who fought first on foot and then climbed back inside tanks suffer most from serious heat-exhaustion. Excessive heat in Iraq has been described as “a serious morale-buster for troops leading to shortened tempers, aggressive behaviour and battlefield mistakes” (7). In brief, heat is a potential health hazard for the US led occupation troops in Iraq.

Diarrhoeal diseases constitute another major health problem for the US soldiers. During the Gulf War I of 1991, 57 % of the soldiers had at least one episode of diarrhoea, with 20 % temporarily unable to carry out their duties (8). The percentage of soldiers getting diarrhoea has increased during the Gulf War II (9). Thus 70% of the soldiers had reported at least one episode, and 56% had multiple episodes of diarrhoea with 43% reporting reduced efficiency in carrying out combat operations. Glucose-based oral rehydration salts (ORS), first successfully applied to treat diarrhoea by an Indian scientist in 1953, have been used to prevent or treat dehydration from diarrhoea (10).

ICDDR,B develops AQUIS for use by the U.S. Military:
Recently Phlo Corporation, a biotechnology company from the U.S., has supplied the US soldiers in Iraq an oral rehydration solution termed AQUIS. According to Phlo corporation, AQUIS was designed and developed for use by the U.S. Military by Dr. David Sack, the American Director of the ICDDR,B (11). AQUIS consists of carbohydrates and salts incorporated into liposomes, which are microscopic globules of lipids manufactured to enclose medications. AQUIS is claimed to provide higher level of absorption into the blood stream upon oral ingestion. The special forces of the U.S. Military in Iraq use the product (12).

An enthusiastic advocate of AQUIS wrote in an Internet discussion forum in 2004, “Imagine soldier never being burdened by the heat or dehydration. If a soldier is dehydrated 2-3%, he is at 60% efficiency. Even with the top warfare equipment in the world the soldier still must be able to perform. Think about a soldier at 90-95% efficiency he will be smarter, faster, and sharper, in all a product has turned a military into a force multiplier; thank God the USA will have it soon. AQUIS…does not have the salt taste and is extremely effective. The best scientists in the world created AQUIS. You can do all the research on us and will see that it's not made up any false claims. It will prevent all heat related injuries and is a force multiplier.” (13).

Who are those “best scientists” of the world that created AQUIS? The answer has been provided by Phlo Corporation on a number of occasions as it cites the name of Dr. David Sack and his team at the ICDDR,B as the top scientists behind AQUIS (11, 13).

After using AQUIS, Captain Van Taylor, a Platoon Commander of the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq stated, “Marines in C Company, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion used AQUIS during a long range patrol and found the product easy to use, tasty, and performance enhancing even in the hot summer sun. We worry about bullets, but dehydration can kill too. I have seen many heat casualties significantly over the years in the [Marine] Corps. AQUIS reduces these unnecessary casualties significantly.” (14). The mother of an AQUIS consuming American soldier in Iraq stated, “My son who is a Marine part of the first Fast Company…informed me that there is a product called AQUIS, a rehydration product designed for the US Military. He tried it in Baghdad when they protected the Republican Palace when Paul Bremer was there and loved it.” (15). Phlo Corporation has recruited a few former high ranking US Department of Defense officials with working experience in Iraq in order to “bring to the company extensive experience and knowledge of the infrastructure of the U.S. Military and other allied military establishments” (13). AQUIS is an expensive product. One day’s recommended regime can cost about 8 US Dollars (16).

ICDDR,B repeatedly flouts the charter:
This is not the only example that the ICDDR,B has flouted the charter and colluded with foreign military forces. The Government of Bangladesh does not recognize the State of Israel. Yet the Centre’s Director Dr. David Sack has been collaborating for decades with Swedish scientists Dr. Jan Holmgren and his wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm who have been carrying out research at the ICDDR,B on behalf of the Swedish and the Israeli Military (17, 18). Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm acts as a go-between the ICDDR,B and Israel. She had been collaborating with the Israel Defence Force for several years with a view to enhance combat efficiency for the Israeli soldiers so that they can slaughter the Palestinians and the Arabs more efficiently as they are doing now (18). She tests her biological products on Bangladeshis using them as experimental guinea pigs for eventual use by the military of countries such as Israel and USA (19). In 1985 the ICDDR, B tested on behalf of these two Swedish scientists a highly expensive oral cholera vaccine of short term protective efficacy on 90,000 women and children of Bangladesh for use by soldiers and tourists of rich nations (20). The vaccine that has brought huge financial gains to the Swedish scientists was sold to the US Military during the Gulf War I of 1991 (21).

The ICDDR,B is currently testing on Bangladeshis a Vibrio cholerae strain Peru-15, which has been developed by scientists of the U.S. Army using techniques of genetic engineering (22). AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc., a vaccine company from Massachusetts (USA), has been awarded the license to market Peru-15 for commercial purposes such as the development of a cholera vaccine entitled CholeraGrade TM (23). AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. maintains very close contact with the U.S. Department of Defence as it has been working on several Defence department’s projects aimed to provide better health care to the U.S. Army personnel. To develop CholeraGrade TM as a traveller’s vaccine to be used predominantly by soldiers has been one of the goals of AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. This has been mentioned by the company President Dr. Una Ryan, in her report to the U.S. House of Representative’s Biological Warfare Programs on October 23, 2001 (24). Thus the ICDDR,B’s research on Peru-15 demonstrates the use of Bangladeshis as experimental guinea pigs for a product to be used by the US Military.

The Government of Bangladesh did not recognize the apartheid regime of South Africa. The ICDDR,B’s total disrespect for the charter was further demonstrated when it was revealed in 1985 that the ICDDR,B had been colluding with the apartheid regime of South Africa thereby prolonging the sufferings of the black population (25).

The timing of the ICDDR,B’s research to develop AQUIS for the US Military coincided with the agenda of the present US government to take military control of the Gulf region, even under the pretext of lies. The blue print for a regime change in Iraq was drawn before 2001 and implemented soon after the present US government took control in 2001 (26). The ICDDR,B’s development of AQUIS was reported in September 2002, just half-a-year before the invasion of Iraq. Therefore it appears that the ICDDR,B was working to fulfill the need of the US Military by completing the task shortly before the invasion of Iraq.

One leading Bangladeshi newspaper has recently described the ICDDR,B “ to have become a one-man show with its executive director deciding over controversial recruitment and alleged unethical researches.” (27). Although the Centre has a 16-member board that meets twice a year, its Director David Sack decides almost everything unilaterally making the Trustee Board an object of symbolic importance (27). Yet the Centre collects millions and millions of dollars from tax-payers of various countries using the name of the diarrhoea suffering poor people of Bangladesh. It is a failed institution in tackling the diarrhoeal problem of Bangladesh (2, 3, 27). Instead, as documented in this article, the ICDDR,B’s American Director utilizes the Centre’s facilities and resources to help the US soldiers for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, an act the Government of Bangladesh hosting the Centre did not endorse.

References:
1. Cook GC (2001) Influence of diarrhoeal disease on military and naval campaigns. J. R. Soc. Med 94: 95-97.
2. Ali M. (2004) What is for the ICDDR,B?
(http://www.meghbarta.org/nws/nw_main_p02b.php?issueId=9§ionId=30&articleId=99)
3. Ali M (2005) ICDDR,B's procurement of the Independence Day Award - an insult to the martyrs in the War of Liberation of Bangladesh
(http://www.meghbarta.org/nws/nw_main_p01b.php?issueId=6§ionId=14&articleId=65)
4. http://icasualties.org/oif/
5. More Than One-Third of Iraq Troops Suffering Migraines (2006)
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_35215.html)
6. A water tale for all seasons (http://www.physorg.com/news6196.html).
7. Sanders E. Heat can be withering enemy. Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2004.
8. Hyams KC, Bourgeois AL, Merrell BR, Rozmajzl P, Escamilla J, Thornton SA, Wasserman GM, Burke A, Echeverria P, Green KY , et al. (1991). Diarrheal disease during Operation Desert Shield. N Engl J Med. 325:1423-8.
9. Sanders JW, Putnam SD, Riddle MS, Tribble DR, Jobanputra NK, Jones JJ, Scott DA, Frenck RW. (2004) The epidemiology of self-reported diarrhea in operations Iraqi freedom and enduring freedom. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 50:89-93.
10. Chatterjee HN (1953). Control of vomiting in cholera and oral replacement of fluid. Lancet. 265(6795):1063.
11. Phlo Corporation. Tests by Top Scientists at the ICDDR,B Demonstrate the Superiority of Phlo’s Oral Rehydration Solutions. Business Wire. June 4, 2003. 12. Phlo Corporation. Phlo Corporation Hires Former Defense Departments and Coalition Provisional Authority Officials. Primezone. May 18, 2004.
13. http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/478-1104.asp
14. Phlo Corporation: Phlo Announces That a Corporate Group Has Commenced Sales of AQUIS to the U.S. Coast Guard. October 26, 2004.
15. http://forums.military.com/
16. http://www.drinkaquis.net/
17. SAREC Report on Developmental Research in Sweden, (Editor: Cecilia Molander) R2: 1981, Stockholm, Sweden
18. Cohen D, Orr N, Haim M, Ashkenazi S, Robin G, Green MS, Ephros M, Sela T, Slepon R, Ashkenazi I, Taylor DN, Svennerholm AM, Eldad A, Shemer J. 2000. Safety and immunogenicity of two different lots of the oral, killed enterotoxigenic escherichia coli- cholera toxin B subunit vaccine in Israeli young adults. Infection and Immunity, 68:4492-7.
19. Qadri F, Wenneras C, Ahmed F, Asaduzzaman M, Saha D, Albert MJ, Sack RB, Svennerholm A. 2000. Safety and immunogenicity of an oral, inactivated enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli plus cholera toxin B subunit vaccine in Bangladeshi adults and children. Vaccine. 18:2704-12.
20. Clemens JD, Sack DA, Harris JR, Chakraborty J, Khan MR, Stanton BF, Kay BA, Khan MU, Yunus M, Atkinson W, Svennerholm A-M, Holmgren J. 1986. Field trial of oral cholera vaccines in Bangladesh. Lancet. 19;2(8499):124-7.
21. Finkelstein RA. 1995. Why do we not yet have a suitable vaccine against cholera? Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 371B:1633-40.
22. Kenner JR, Coster TS, Taylor DN, Trofa AF, Barrera-Oro M, Hyman T, Adams JM, Beattie DT, Killeen KP, Spriggs DR, et al. 1995. Peru-15, an improved live attenuated oral vaccine candidate for Vibrio cholerae O1. J Infect Dis. 172:1126-9.
23. Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. USA, Business Wire, January 20, 2004.
24. The U.S. Congress, Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Affairs, Hearing on Biological Warfare Defense Vaccine Research & Developmental Programs, 23 October 2001.
25. Turnbull PC, Lee JV, Miliotis MD, Still CS, Isaacson M, Ahmad QS. 1985. In vitro and in vivo cholera toxin production by classical and El Tor isolates of Vibrio cholerae. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 21:884-90.
26. Mackay N. Bush planned Iraq “regime change’ before becoming President. Sunday Herald, September 15, 2002.
27. M. A. Khan. Mismanagement mars ICDDRB's reputation. The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh), June 16, 2006

SITUATION OF THE MAOIST MOVEMENT IN BANGLADESH

2008-07-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

SITUATION OF THE MAOIST MOVEMENT IN BANGLADESH (Collected by the blogger from web)

- Pronab

PBSP (CC)

Bangladesh have a glorious heritage of Maoist movements. In the 60’s influenced by the historic struggle against Khrushchevite revisionism and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) in China led by comrade Mao Tse Tung, a Maoist movement took shape in Bangladesh too. Influence of the upraising of Naxalbari of India also rendered encouragement to it. Due to various weaknesses the movement built on the basis of the third stage of proletarian class ideology – Maoism (then it was called Mao Tse Tung Thought, MTT) was divided into different centers from the very beginning. Based on Mao Tse Tung Thought these organizations built armed struggles against imperialism, expansionism and their agents, the ruling classes of this country, according to their own line. Proletarian Party of East Bengal (Purbo Banglar Sharbohara Party, PBSP) established a base area in Peyara Bagan of Barisal district in 1971. Communist Party of East Bangal (ML) [CPEB (ML)] built a strong armed struggle in Atrai of Rajshahi district. Besides, in the early 70’s under the leadership of these organizations and Bangladesher Shammyabadi Dal (ML) [BSD (ML)] and EPCP (ML) various levels of armed struggles were raised in different parts of the country, which were crushed by the brutal suppression of the enemy in mid 70’s.

The long history of these organizations for almost three decades contains many ups and downs of struggle as well as many splits. It contains experiences both positive and negative. Now there are almost six or seven centers of Maoists are existing. In the years 98-99 PBSP splinted into three different centers – PBSP (CC), PBSP (MPK) and PBSP (MBRM). Though PBSP (CC) evaluated the other two organizations Maoist as a whole, non of them evaluated CC as Maoist. MBRM has evaluated CC and all other centers as revisionist. In this way they are engaged in antagonistic-sectarian struggle. MPK evaluated only MBRM as a Maoist center, but all others as revisionist or non-Maoist and only pro Mao.

CPEB splintered into two organizations in 2002. The name of these two organizations are – CPEB (ML) and CPEB (ML) (Red Flag). In July ‘03 CPEB (ML) got divided again and CPEB (ML) (PW) emerged. Each of these organizations has adopted Charu Majumder’s teachings as their party’s ideology and each center call all other centers of the country as revisionist or non-Maoist.

After the spilt, PBSP (CC) adopted “Political Report, 2001” containing a over all summation of 30-years of experience. It was adopted by the 2nd Expanded Meeting (EM) of the central committee in mid 2002. Based on this summation and according to the new line the twelfth session of the CC (mid 2003) has adopted a strategic plan for leap into people’s war. Thus CC is trying to develop a successful people’s war.

In the northern and southern parts of the country PBSP (CC) has significant armed struggles. They have notable and expanding activities in quite a few other districts including Dhaka, the capital. MBRM also maintains an important armed activity in northern and southern parts of the country.

In southwestern and northern parts of the country CPEB also has it’s activities. MPK and BSD have no armed activity. They maintain their limited activities within the confines of mass organizations in the cities. It is relevant to mention here that CPEB (ML) and MBRM have no mass organizations beside armed organization. They think, having such a line of mass organization is wrong and an obstacle to people’s war. They talk about mass struggle and organization only under the shadow and influence of armed struggle.

In Madaripur – Shariatpur area of the south and Chalanbil area of the north, CC has some significant armed activities. CPEB (ML) (Red Flag) also has good armed activities in greater Rajshahi-Pabna district. CPEB (ML) (PW) is quite active in western region. Before split CPEB (ML) captured twenty weapons from the government forces in Daulatpur of Khulna in 2003. Besides, they have killed quote a few policemen recently in Khulna area trough bomb attacks and by other means. MBRM has vast activities in Pubna – Sirajganj – Rajbari districts. In September 2002 they captured nine weapons by attacking Randhunibari police camp in Sirajganj.

Facing such a situation the state engaged into a country wide suppression campaign named “Operation Clean Heart” early 2003. It was commandeered principally by the military. The state is engaging in suppression campaigns quite often in the areas where revolutionary struggles exist. Another suppression campaign has been launched by the Combined forces in six northern districts since 24th of June ’03 and in five southwestern districts since 17.07.03. in Khulna divisional area military officers are commandeering this suppression and massive onslaught has been lunched with ten thousand soldiers and helicopters. Recently state has built up a paramilitary force named RAB (Rapid Action Battalion). This force along with police, in increasing engages in killing revolutionaries in custody and propagates these as “encounter”.

PBSP (CC) has been giving immense importance to the task of uniting all the Maoists divided into different centers under one center on the basis of an overall correct line. They have taken initiatives through continuous efforts to have discussions-struggles with different Maoist organizations. They are pursuing a continuous and patient effort to an end the antagonistic-sectarian struggle among the contending centers. Recently CPEB (ML) (Red Flag) also made an important development in their line towards shedding the antagonistic method of struggle. They have also joined CCOMPOSA.

Maoist parties of India both from within and outside of RIM rendered important assistance to these initiatives. Their assistance and specially the examples of unification of various different Maoist centers and efforts towards such unification in India played and will continue to play an important and positive influential role. PBSP (CC) appreciate on advancing this process

All in all Maoist movement in this country is going through a crucial juncture. Revolutionary armed struggles under the leadership of different Maoist centers have gained a new life. But in regard of People’s War, these armed struggles have serious ideological-political errors and military mistakes, which demands correct summation as soon as possible. At the same time Maoists are still divided into many different centers and that has line basis, which needs to be struggle, but will enough advancement is not visible. The role of the Maoists in the arena of mass struggle is also shining more brightly. But even in this regard and on the question of joint activities base on front-line most of the organizations could not come out from the past errors yet. Under this situation the state is bringing down heavier suppression. To face and defeat them it is urgent to correct the mistakes of the over all line. Maoist movement of this country will advance towards greater development by correcting the mistakes on the question of People’s War, Maoist unity and party building and front-line – that is the desire of all the revolutionaries and revolutionary minded people.

August, 04

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Farakka Barrage, the disastrous blow by Delhi to Bengal Delta

2008-07-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Water Problems of Bangladesh
Professor M. Maniruzzaman Miah
Former Vice-Chancellor, Dhaka University and Commissioner, ACC

Fifty Seven of our rivers, including 54 from India, enter the country from outside bringing in an estimated volume of 1010 BCM of water annually. An additional 340 BCM is available from local rainfall. Of this huge total an estimated 190 BCM is lost through evaporation and evapo-transpiration.

Eighty percent of the remaining huge total of 1160 BCM is concentrated during the five-month Monsoon period from June to October.

How much water do we need today and in about a quarter of a century (2025) from now? Demands on water is there mainly for irrigation, for domestic consumption and commercial and industrial activities, for forestry, for maintenance of water bodies and protection of biodiversity, besides non-consumptive demands for fish, navigation, dilution, and salinity control of coastal areas.

Demand for irrigation water is indeed great. Bangladesh, as is known, is heavily densely populated. In an area of 147570 sq. km its total population in 2001 was 133 m which leapt to 147 million by 2003 (The state of world population 2003) and this has a propensity to rise further. When will it reach a plateau is yet uncertain. On the other hand, an amount of 80-85 thousand hectares of land is being lost to agriculture every year. This is putting a heavy pressure on already scarce land suitable for agriculture, in turn intensity of cropping is increasing. This would mean an ever increasing demand on irrigation water.

No less important is the accessibility of the people to safe drinking water. The target 10 of Millennium Development Goals is to halve by 2015, the proportion of people without suitable access to safe drinking water. The MDG also enjoins on the states to achieve by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of slum dwellers, their demands, in particular, for sanitation, sewerage and the like.

The total water requirement today for domestic purposes is approximately 1.33 BCM a year.

All in all we need a quantity of 93881 MCM of water for the period from November to May (WARPO 2001)

Other Problems

It is not only the issue of supply and demand that is important. Our problems related to water are, in fact, multi-faceted. They comprise, in the main, floods, droughts, river erosion on the one hand and provision for such essential non-consumptive demands like maintenance of ecology, environment and bio-diversity on the other.

Floods do visit us regularly each year during the Monsoon. It is both a bane and a boon to us. When flood waters submerge more than a quarter of the country’s landmass it causes immense sufferings to the people, human lives and cattle wealth are lost, crops are damaged and infrastructure and important installations suffer large scale destruction. To give one example, the loss in monetary terms due to the floods of 1998 alone was to the tune of USD 3000 m (BWDB).

Floods however can be a boon also as they replenish the lost fertility of the soils, ward off ingress of saline water into the mainland, resuscitate the dying and derelict channels and river courses, and most important of all, the water bodies and wetlands thus help preserve the essential ecosystem and bio- diversity of the country. The need for preservation of eco-system and bio-diversity is very vital for us.

Bank erosion is yet another disaster that happens consequent upon floods. River-erosion makes at least 20000 families homeless every year. According to a World Disaster Report (2001) published by the IFRCS some 100000 people suffer and 9000 hectares of precious cultivable land are eroded. A majority of the affected people lose their hearth and home never to recover them again, and enter into a cycle of poverty from which they hardly can extricate themselves. It has been estimated that in 2000 alone (Bangladesh Disaster Report) the area and number of people affected were 219310 acres and 415870 respectively causing a financial loss on the order of USD 3286 m.

Drought is another water related disaster that we are facing with increasing intensity. From the quantity of water that is available during the Monsoon months both due to inflow from outside and that generated inside due to rainfall one may have the impression that we have “excess” water in the country. This notion of excess however is fraught with danger.

This is because there is a wide disparity between the wet Monsoon months and dry winter. Monsoon waters available from one year to the other also vary, besides the fact that within the same season the distribution is not uniform.

Variability in total rainfall and its distribution from the normal pattern are frequent indeed. As a general rule whenever that occurs it does affect agriculture, besides impacting on other aspects of our socio-economic life like fisheries, navigation, salinity incursion, wetland bio-diversity and the like. Loss of agricultural output apart, other ills that may be brought about in its wake seriously jeopardize the delicate food security balance.

Bangladesh experienced serious drought in 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1989 in recent years. Records also show that between November 1998 and April 1999 there was practically no rain over a period of 150 days at a stretch. Our calculation based on data collected from WARPO suggests that in the month of March, 2025 we will have a huge shortage of water to the tune of 6306 MCM.

As if that was not enough, now we hear about the Indian mega project of river linking. The essence of this project is that Himalayan rivers will be diverted from their present day course of flowing through Bangladesh and disgorging their waters into the Bay of Bengal to carry waters to the south of India instead. As our water courses are largely fed by the Indian rivers one can imagine what disastrous consequences it will lead to.

We have mentioned above that a major portion of waters in our rivers are contributed by inflow from upstream. This is true not only for the Monsoon but also for the dry months. More and more withdrawal by the upper riparian to meet the increasing demand on freshwater and absence of an all encompassing water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh are complicating matters for us. After a tortuous negotiation for over quarter of a century a deal was struck for sharing the Ganges water for a 5-year period from 1977. Then for 14 years again there was no agreement till a treaty on sharing the Ganges water was signed in December, 1996. We have no sharing arrangement with India in respect of other rivers.

We may mention here that water conflicts between riparian countries is nothing new. In fact, one of the important agreement reached at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was a consensus on principles of navigational use of the Rhine. USA and Mexico entered into sharing of the Rio Grande in 1908. The USA Supreme Court while adjudicating on water conflicts between states set certain principles some of which were later applied in other cases for resolving disputes between riparian countries elsewhere.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)
There has been an awareness among water experts that unless judicious use is made of a
finite resource like water there is bound to be a crisis. The UN conference on Environment and Development in its agenda 21 of Chapter 18 in Rio therefore emphasized the need for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). This principle has gradually become a practical tool for all water experts almost everywhere. The World Water Council, a UNESCO created body has adopted the Global Water Partnership (GWP) as its instrument for implementation of IWRM. The GWP itself works through a network of Regional Water Partnership, the Country Water Partnership and also local level partnership. The network functions through participation of all levels of water users.

Unnecessary jargon has however clouded the definition of IWRM. GWP uses it as a process that promotes the co-coordinated development and management of water, land and related recourses in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystem.

The essential elements of the concept of IWRM are:

1. That planning of water resources use should be for the entire basin, and not based on a single project with limited objectives;
2. That it should envisage development of all aspects of water of an entire basin;
3. That all relevant agencies of the government and all water users must be involved in the planning process;
4. That the goal should be use of water resources in a manner that is sustainable, taking into account environment protection, economic development and social well-being.

Our water-related problems have been outlined above. But being at the lowermost reaches of the big river basins we have no control over situation upstream. We only serve as the conduit of flood waters, sometimes leading to disastrous consequences. Yet, we believe that the problems of water of the Himalayan watershed however intractable they may appear can be solved satisfactorily applying the principles of IWRM regionally with all the co-basin countries of the region sitting under one umbrella. The pre-requisite for this however is neighbourly good will.

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Regional Cooperation for Sharing Trans-boundary River Water
Professor Dr. J. U. Ahmad, FRSC
President, International Farakka Committee Bangladesh
Former Vice Chancellor, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka.

Bangladesh is a land of rivers. The Padma (Ganges), Meghna, Jamuna (Brahmaputra), Karnaphuli, Surma, Teesta, Barak and innumerable large, medium and small rivers, tributaries and distributaries have criss-crossed the country. Out of 57 international rivers flowing through India and Bangladesh, 54 of them are originated in Himalayan region and other parts of India. The rainwater in Bangladesh accounts for only 7% of the total fresh water flow. Remaining 93% is coming from trans-boundary river sources fed by rain and ice-melting.

At the global scale, freshwater of lakes and rivers, which are the main sources for water consumed by the human societies, contain on an average about 90,000 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) of water, which is about 0.26 percent of total global freshwater reserves. The Himalayan region contains about 25% of the global fresh water.

India constructed a dam at Farakka on the upstream of the Ganges and started withdrawal of water on the basis of an ad-hoc agreement signed on 18 April, 1975. In this agreement Bangladesh gave consent for withdrawal of 11-16 thousand cusec water from April 21 to May 31, for a limited period of 41 days. In return India promised that rest of the water will flow through Bangladesh. But after the expiry of that 41 days periods, India, kept on withdrawing water in the lean period of 1975 and 1976. In April 1976, the flow of water at Hardinge point (dam the stream of the Ganges) came as low as 23 thousand cusec against 65 thousand cusec of the corresponding time of previous year.

India signed, a 5 year, water-sharing Treaty with Bangladesh on 5 Nov. 1977. The treaty had a Guarantee Clause for getting 80% of the flow during lean period and an Arbitration clause. After the expiry of the Treaty in 1982, India refused to renew/extend the time period.

Then On October 1982, a two-year mutual agreement, followed by another three years agreement (on Nov. 22, 1985) was signed between the two sides. But in these two agreements, the Guarantee and Arbitration clause of 1977 Treaty were withdrawn. After that on 12 December 1996, a 30-year Water Treaty was signed between India and Bangladesh. This Treaty was also devoid of the Guarantee and Arbitration clauses. After the 1996 Treaty, during the lean period, for the last few years, the flow of water at Hardinge bridge point comes down to 10 thousand cusec, even sometimes as low as 5 thousand cusec.

Adverse Impacts of Farakka Barrage
The main environmental problems already created due to withdrawal and diversion of water through Farakka Barage may be summarized as follows:

1. Due to continuous withdrawal of water through Farakka Barrage for the last 31 years a significant number of rivers in the Padma basin of Bangladesh has already turned into dead rivers. The Garai, a pre-Farakka mighty river now is almost dead. In pre-Farakka days, during rainy season, the maximum flow of water through the Garai used to be in the range of 142-328 thousand cusec, now it has become a memory of the past.

According to a report of Water Development Board, 17 rivers in Bangladesh are already dead. They are (i) Narsunda (Kishoreganj), (ii) Bhubenswar (Rajbari and Faridpur), (iii) Bibiyana and (iv)Shaka Barak (Habigonj), (v) Palang (Sariatpur), (vi) Burinadi (Comilla and Brahmanbaria), (vii) Harihar, (viii) Mukteswari (Jessore), (ix) Hamkura (Khulna), (x) Murichap (Satkhira), (xi) Bamni (Lakshmipur and Noakhali), (xii) Manos (Bogra), (xiii) Baral, (xiv) Chiknai (Natore and Pabna), (xv) Hisha (Kustia), (xvi) Musakhan (Rajbari and Naotre), (xvii) Bharirab (Kustia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Jhenidah, Jessore, Khulna and Bagerhat).

Many rivers are nearly dead. The rivers which can be classified as near-dead are (i) Karatoa (Panchagar, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Bogra and Sirajganj), (ii) Ichamati (Pabna, Manikganj, Dhaka and Munshiganj), (iii) Kaliganga (Kustia, Jhenidah, Magura, Narail, Pirojpur), (iv) Kumar (Kustia, Magura, Faridpur, Jhenidah, Madaripur) (v) Chitra (Narail, Chuadanga, Jhenaidah), (vi) Bhadra (Jessore and Khulna), (vii) Someshwari (Netrokona) and (viii) Nabaganga (Narail).

2. During the dry season when water is much needed in all areas of Bangladesh, in particular for the irrigation of 200 thousand hectres of land under the Ganges-Kobotak project, water becomes almost unavailable.

The Ganges-Kobatak (G.K.) is the largest irrigation project of Bangladesh. It supplies water from the Padma, (Ganga) to 3 takh acres of land. The project consists of 120 miles long main canal, 292 miles long branch canals and 62 miles long sub-branch canals. But scarcity of the Padma water has made the project ineffective. Agriculture in a vast area of Kushtia, Jessore and Faridpur regions comes to a standstill in dry season. Most of the 113 tributaries of the Pamda become dry or have scarce water from November - May.

The water sharing of the Teesta river, ended without any agreement although many meetings were held. The Teesta river near Teesta bridge looks like a part of a desert during dry season. A vast area of land once a grainery of Bangladesh has become desert, and a food-deficient area now.

3. When excessive rain in the upper Ganges basin and ice-melt water creates pressure on the barrage due to abnormal rise of water, India opens all the sluice gates. Then the sudden on rush of water causes flood in Bangladesh or increases the intensity of floods.

4. During the dry season (water-scarce period) the irrigation system based on shallow- tube wells suffers very adversely due to the considerable downward shift of the ground water tables (3-15 meter). On the average, every year the ground water tables are lowered by about 5 m which is recharged from rain water and normal flooding. It has been estimated that 80% ground water recharging comes from normal flooding. Water diversion through Farakka is hindering the recharging process. If the ground water tables continue to go down, after a few years no water will be available through shallow-tube wells. The production of IRRI, Boro Paddy (Dry Season irrigated crops) will be seriously hampered.

5. As a result of the diminished flow, the intrusion of sea water in the southern part of the country. particularly through the Rupsa river, on the bank of which is located one of the major industrial cities, Khulna, has become so pronounced that the salinity has gone up more than sixty times than the pre-Farakka times. The increase of salinity in such magnitude has significantly altered the ecology of the region.

6. As an adverse effect of the Farakka barrage many places of the Murshidabad District of the West Bengal has been suffering from serious water logging. A Report of the West Bengal Government published in 2001 stated that, the changed nature of water flow and the interference at the flow channel have increased the flood disaster. According to Indian Water Expert Mondal and Rudra, ‘Sometimes West Bengal are flooded although there are no significant rainfall in the region, this is undoubtedly due to Farakka Barrage.’

7. In post Farakka period the ground water in many places of West Bengal is registering very high arsenic content, since then the ground water of the district of Rajshahi, which is adjacent to Farakka is also showing high arsenic content.

8. The interrupted and diminished flow of the Ganges has also caused disturbances in the normal sediment transport. As a consequence, the Ganges flood-plain in Bangladesh is being deprived of the natural supply of the micro-nutrients. The amount of carbon transported through this river (more than 10 million Tons per years) will also be diminished, giving rise to less significant contribution to deep sea carbon burial, an important natural process, that particularly helps to off-set the greenhouse effect.

9. Desertification syndromes have already started in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh as a consequence of the withdrawal of water through the Farakka barrage.

By the adverse impacts so far created, on the environment and ecology of Bangladesh by Farakka Barrage, it is logical to term it ‘a undeclared environmental war against Bangladesh.’ But it is pertinent to note that very purpose for which this deathly dam was constructed is defeated. The Farakka Barrage is popularly known in Bangladesh as “Death Barrage.”

Inter-basin River Linking Project

India is now implementing a gigantic project, ‘Inter-basin River Linking Project’ to divert water from all the common rivers. This project has two components i.e (i) the Himalayan components and (ii) the Peninsular component. In the Himalayan component 14 link canals and in the Peninsular component 16 link canals, all together 30 link canals will be excavated within the frame work of the project.

India in its river interlinks project aims to connect 37 rivers by 30 link canals. The total length of these link canals would be approximately 12 thousand Kilometers. The breadth of the link canals have been proposed to be 50-100 m and the depth to be approx. 6 meters.

The main purposes of the project are:

(i) To connect the major two rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra by link canal. For this purpose, water will be transported through Teesta river to Farakka point. Link between Farakka and Subnarekha of Orissa and Mahandi will be established through link-canals. This part of the project will be executed in West Bengal and Assam.

(ii) In another sector of the project Mahandi, Godabari, Krishna Cauberi and Vaippar rivers will be linked. This part of the project will be executed in Orissa, Andhra Prodesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnatak States.

(iii) In the third sector of the project, many tributaries of the Ganges viz. Gandak, Ghagra, Sarda and Jamuna will be linked. Water from Jamuna will be transferred to very far Rajastan region through canals. By another link canal, the water of Sabarmoti river will first be joined with the above mentioned link and then diverted to southern region of India.
In this project not only link canals will be excavated, Dams, Barrages and reservoirs will also be constructed in different areas to store water and to divert water against the natural flow. In addition to that a number of hydroclectric power stations will be commissioned.

India is also executing another Dam construction at Tipaimukh on upstream of Barak river. Tipaimukh is 500 meters down stream of the confluence of Tuivari and Barak Rivers in the district of Churachandapur in the state of Manipur, near the Assam-Monipur boarders. The project has a plan to generate 1500 MW of power. Indian Prime Minister Dr. Monmohan Singh laid the foundation of the dam and it is expected to be completed by 2008. If this dam is completed and goes on operation, there would be serious adverse impacts on water flow in the Surma basin of Bangladesh.

The Indian Govt. has already completed the feasibility studies of most of the components of the project. India has already constructed Dam/Barrages at Tehri, Lakwar, Kishan, Vakra and Kool, Iddaki, Thil, Chamira, Srishilam, Sardar Sorobor and large reservoirs at Nagarjun Sagar, Rihand, Vakhara, Sardar Sorobor, Srishilam, Poukh, Bekhi, Hirakud, Gandi Sagar, Alamati and Upper Wen Ganga. The experts believe that India is gradually constructing these dams/ barrages and reservoirs as a part of its execution of inter basin river link project.

A report published, in the Dams, Rivers and peoples magazine published on January 2005 suggested that there are definite proof that India is executing the river basin link project. The report says that India has constituted a committee under the leadership of the Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry to discuss with different States and groups about the project and its implementation. The committee will identify the environmental and socio-economic problems associated with the project and suggest the Govt. about the remedial measures. The committee while formulating detailed project proposal will also evaluate about the proper utilization of the diverted water [The daily Prothom Alo, 25 February 2005].

The daily Star in an article on August 28, 2005 titled, ‘India’s river linking gains momentum’ wrote, ‘The process of the ambitious inter-linking of major river basins of India seems to have gained pace with the first step taken by the signing of memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Prodesh to link Ken and Betwa rivers [ Component 24, Peninsular component]. So there should not be any confusion about the execution of inter basin river link project by India.

From his Independence Day address in August 2002 to the recent speech at the Indian Science Congress in January 2004, the President of India reiterated his view that interlinking of rivers holds the future for the country.

Indian Former Union Water Resources Minister Priyaranjan Das Munsi has mentioned that, the State Governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh concerned with the Ken-Betwa link gave their consent to prepare the Detailed project Report (DPR) of the Interlinking of Rivers Programme. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two States will be signed in this regard, (UNB reports).

The Government of Madhya Pradesh also gave its consent to prepare the Detailed project report (DPR) of the Parbati-Kalisingh-Chambal link. Discussions are under way with Rajasthan for obtaining its consent for DPR. The Minister put emphasis on political will, mutual cooperation and thorough understanding of the issues to materialize the Inter-linking of Rivers Programme. He told members of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry that they had followed a policy of “consensus” on such issues.

India’s inter-basin river link project is a threat to the existence of Bangladesh

The upstream withdrawal of water through Farakka Barrage has already started desertification syndrome in Bangladesh, intrusion of salinity in the inland fresh water and created many serious environmental problems including the bio-diversity loss. In addition if India executes the inter basin river link project, then Bangladesh known all over the world as a land of rivers, fishes and rice and a beautifull green land will loose all its present identity. The main averse effects, which can be visualized at present, are as follows:

1. Bangladesh, a lower riparian country will be deprived of its legitimate share of water. As per the present plan of India if one-third or more of the water is withdrawn and diverted from the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Megna, Teesta, Darla, Doodkumar, Karatoa and Mahananda, all most all the rivers of Bangladesh will gradually turn into dead rivers. If most of the water is withdrawn, then Bangladesh will turn into a large desert in near future.

2. As the fresh water flow in rivers will decrease, the intrusion of saline water in ground and surface water would increase. Only due to withdrawal of water by Farakka for more than three decades salinity in inland water has increased many folds. A recent research by our group has revealed that the salinity of water of Bhairab river at Khalishpur, Khulna during monsoon in high tide is 4.6 ppm and in low tide is 3.3 ppm and during winter the salinity is 7.5 and 6.9 ppm respectively. The salinity increases almost twice in winter than monsoon. In Basundia of Jessore, the salinity of water of the same river during winter time is 6.1 and 5.9 ppm in high and low tide respectively. If the inter basin river link project is implemented, the flow of water in rivers will decrease, therefore the intrusion of salinity would increase gradually. As a consequence, the whole of Bangladesh would gradually be turned into a desert.

Due to increase in salinity the yield of paddy would be severly hampered and many varieties of fresh water fishes would extinct. Already the largest mangrove forest of the world, the Sunderban is being depleted. According to experts’ views the increase of salinity and decrease of fresh water flow are the major causes for depletion of the sundarban.

3. The ground water tables will gradually go down. At present in our country high yielding Aman and Boro paddy are being cultivated with the help of irrigation. The principal source of irrigation water is the shallow tube wells, about 70% of the irrigation water comes from them and the sources of remaining 25% are rivers. canals and other surface water sources. When the inter basin river link project will be completed, then no surface water would be available for irrigation in Bangladesh. As the country will have to depend solely on ground water for irrigation, the ground water tables will go down every year. For replenishment of ground water, rain contributes about 20% and river flow about 80%. If the river flow decreases and ultimately stops totally, the 80% of the replenishment process would also stop. When the groundwater level would go down by about 5 meter from the present level, all the shallow tube wells will become non-functional. The implementation of inter basin river link project will bring such situation within a span of less than 10 years.

4. The implementation of inter basin river link project by India will seriously affect the cultivation of all crops and vegetables including the principal crop paddy. According to Statistical year Book, 2000 the country in 1999-2000 produced 23.07 million tons of rice in about 26.46 million acres of land of which about 11.15m acres land was under irrigation. The high yielding varieties are cultivated in irrigated land. If the irrigation process totally stops due to non-availability of groundwater, the rice production will almost come to an end. It has been estimated that there would be a loss in rice production in the tune of 3500 crores Taka annually. The govt. will not be able to import such a huge amount of rice from other countries.

5. When the water tables will go down significantly then even water uplifting through tube wells will not be possible and water for drinking, domestic work and irrigation will become scarce.

6. As the ground water tables go down more and more, arsenic contaminated water will come up, the concentration of arsenic in ground water would increase and risk of arsenic poisoning throughout the country would also increase. Already the contamination of ground water by arsenic in many parts of the country has been reported. As a consequence a large portion of population, more than 40 million are in the risk of arsenic poisoning. The implementation of inter basin river link project would increase the risk in great extent.

7. The diminished water flow will decrease the navigation in inland rivers. Bangladesh had a total inland navigational route of about 24 thousands km in 1971. Due to upstream withdrawal of water, already the country lost about 15.600 km inland navigational route and another 3300 km has become risky for navigation. Presently Bangladesh has only about 6 thousand km inland navigational route [Bangladesh Water Board]. This will also decrease the process of sediment transportation, thereby the river-beds will be filled up and the water flow capacity and the gradients of the river-beds will decrease. Then during rainy season it will be difficult to transport huge amount of water to the Bay of Bengal, thus increasing the intensity and frequency of floods in Bangladesh.

8. Scarcity of fresh water will decrease the food and fish production. Bangladesh would turn into a desert instead of a green land. We have seen during our recent visit that, almost-desert like situation in around the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh.

9. The withdrawal of water by inter basin river link project means the obstruction of natural flow of water. Therefore due to some natural calamities like earthquakes and tremendous pressure of water on dams and barrages for excessive rainfall in the catchments area might cause breakage in dams and barrages. If it happens anytime, the sudden on rush of water from upstream will cause severe flood in Bangladesh and many parts of the country might be washed away.

10. India is planning to construct a dam at the upstream of the Brahmaputra at Dubri in Asam. The place is in the earthquake prone zone. After the construction of this dam, if a severe earthquake takes place, then there might be a catastrophic disaster like that of the Tsunami in Bangladesh.

India’s inter basin river link project is contrary to International laws

There are international protocols for sharing of common rivers flowing through more than one country. It is mandatory to supply the data of the flow of water through a river, its courses, the environment and ecology of the river bank and catchments area and bio-diversity of the country to the country or countries sharing the same river. But India is not supplying any information about its on-going inter basin river link project to Bangladesh.

The rivers included in the inter basin river link projects are all international or common rivers between India and Bangladesh. Therefore unilateral construction of any barrage of upstream, withdrawal of upstream water and change of river course are definitely in violation of the international laws.

The United Nations Convention on the law of the Non-navigational uses of international rivers was adopted by the UN General Assembly on May 21, 1977 vide resolution 51/229. The 37-articles water course convention with its 14 articles annexure give guidelines for the non-navigational uses of international water courses, as well as measures to protect, preserve and manage them.

The Helsinki Rules on the uses of the waters of International Rivers were adopted by the International Law Association at the 52nd Conference held in Helsinki in August 1966. The articles 4 and 5 of the treaty emphasizes that all the states of the river basin while using the water of a common river will consider the economic and social need of the other countries.

Therefore India’s inter basin river link project is a clear violation of these articles.
Article 21 of the Helsinki Rules makes it mandatory for a ‘State of the common river basin to inform the other States about its adopted steps on the use of water flow’

Chapter 2, C on ‘Danger to Human life states’, ‘if the activity or conduct causes pollution that endangers human life in another state, such activity or conduct would probably be deemed inconsistent with the principle of equitable sharing.’

A new dimension has been added to the regime of the international water courses law in 1997 by the International Court of Justice. The International Court of Justice on a controversy between Hungary and Slovakia on a bilateral treaty on the Danube River gave verdict that ‘Hungary had a basic right to an equitable and reasonable sharing of the resources of an international water course’ which was violated by Czuckoslovakia/Slovakia.

The 1997 UN watercourse convention was referred to a authority by the International Court of Justice despite its status not yet being in force.

The article 7(1) of the International watercourses convention adopted in UN is or follows “Each country while using water from an international river must take necessary measures so that the countries in the same river basin do not experience any major damage”

The inter basin river link project of India also clearly violates the above-mentioned article of UN convention. The upstream water diversion would not only cause many major damages to Bangladesh, rather the existence of the country would be at stake.

The Ganges is not a river of Indian in origin. It originates from the Gangotri Glacier of the Himalayas in Tibet- China and also passes through Nepal. Thus India has no legal right to exploit the Ganges water alone. India has also no legal rights to withdraw water from other trans-boundary rivers. In addition to that the loss of bio-diversity, the loss of habitation of aquatic animals and depletion of the Sunderban (declared as a global heritage of mankind by the UNESCO), the largest mangrove forest of the world, all these also violates the laws adopted in many international conventions.

Regional Cooperation for Sharing of Water

Although a large section of the catchment areas of the 57 common rivers falls within India, the catchment areas also include Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.

The Brahmaputra originates at the Chinese Tibetian region then after flowing 1600 km enters India where the length of the river is about 720 km and finally enters Bangladesh. With the tributaries, the total catchment area of the Brahmapurta basin is about 580 thousand square kilometer. The catchment area of the Ganges basin comprising three countries Nepal, India, and Bangladesh is about 1006 thousand square km.

India always insists that the water sharing agreement should be bilateral. But without the involvement of all the co-riperian countries, a meaningful sharing agreement is not possible. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between India and China on 14 January 2002 for provision of hydrological information namely rainfall, water level, discharge and other relevant information on Yaluzangdu/Brahmaputra river in respect of 3 stations, namely, Nugesha, Yangcun and Nuxia in flood season by China to India. The information will be furnished from 1st June to 15th October every year and will be useful for flood forecasting purposes in the North Eastern Region of India.

As a follow-up of the MOU, an Implementation Plan has also been singed between the implementing agency namely the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources of India and the Bureau of Hydrology & Water Resources, Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese side has transmitted data to India for the above mentioned 3 stations during the year 2002. The Chinese authorities is being persuaded for providing similar information by setting additional hydrological stations on Langquinzandlu (Sutlej) and Palongzangbu (Tributary of Yaluzangbu/ Brahamputra).

The Himalayan region contains about one-fourth of the world’s fresh water reserve. A just and equitable sharing of water by all countries of the basin would be beneficial for all people of the region. The involment of China, where the Brahmaputra is originated, cannot be ignored at all. The Chinese Premier. Wen Jiabao has reiterated the position of China for regional water sharing. In a joint communiqué during the State visit of the Chinese Prime Minister in Bagladesh on 7-8 April 2005, it was stated, ‘Bangladesh and China have agreed to protect and use the water resources of the common rivers of the basin on equal rights and justice and have also agreed for cooperation in the water resources sector” [BSS April 9, 2005]

For sharing the Mekong River water four nations of south-east Asia already reached mutual understanding. Different states have been sharing water of rivers like the Rhine, Danube, Congo, Nile, Amazon, Zambesi, Chad, Indus etc. No upstream country generally obstructs water to deprive a downstream counting. According to international laws all countries irrespective of their size, population, location, religion, language etc. are equal to one another. Even if a river originates in a particular country and then crosses border, that country cannot deprive others of its water.

The Mekong River Commission has been formed under the supervision of the United Nations for the rational sharing of water of the Mekong river basin amongst the countries - Campochia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Indus valley treaty signed between India and Pakistan under the supervision of the United Nations successfully ended the water dispute of the Indus river between India and Pakistan.

Therefore it is logical to say that a Regional River Commission formed under the supervision of United Nations would usher a new era of cooperation amongst the countries of the Ganges – Brahmaputra - Meghna basin, comprising Bangladesh, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.

There is an urgent need of scientific river training, dredging and effective management of water of the common rivers with the help of international agencies. This could possibly avert the impending danger of environmental disaster and human suffering associated with it. A Regional River Commission could also implement all these agenda.

International Farakka Committee over the years is trying to build national and international opinion and pursuing the agenda that the only solution to end the dispute of water sharing amongst the countries of the region is to formulate a regional water sharing agreement, comprising of all the countries of the river-basins under the supervision of the United Nation which would be able to protect Bangladesh from the impending great danger.

References

1. J U Ahmad, Upstream Water Diversion : A Disaster for Bangladesh, in Documentation on Upstream Water Diversion : A Disaster for Bangladesh IFC, Inc., NY , January, 2006.

2. J U Ahmad, Indian River-link Project, A Threat to the Existence of Bangladesh (book), IFC, Dhaka, March, 2005.

3. S S Ullah and J U Ahmad, Environmental Risks in Bangladesh, in W L Filho et al (edited). Communicating Environmental Risk (book), Centre for Environmental Studies. Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, 1994.

4. Statistical Year Book, 2002, Government of Bangladesh.

5. http://www.manipuronline.com/features/october...Roversy

6. http://www.indiatogether.com/2003/october/env.netlink

7. http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/feb/env-emsagree.htm

8. http://www.thedailystar.net/2008/0828

9. Dying Rivers Deludge Blow, The Daily Star, Dhaka, April 2, 2005.

10. R. Haque, Effect of Industrial Effluent on the mangrove ecosystem of the Sunderbans (Ph.D. thesis supervised by JU Ahmed), Jahangirnagar University, 2004.

11. J U Ahmad, Major Chemical Pollution Problems of Bangladesh. case studies, J Asia. Soc., Bangladesh Sci. 28 (2), 99-110, Dec. 2002.
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Upstream Water Diversion : A Disaster For Bangladesh

Dr. S. I. Khan
Former Environmental Planner, United Nations
Senior Vice President, IFC Bangladesh.

Surface water is carried into Bangladesh by 57 trans-boundary rivers out of which only 3 rivers come from Myanmar and the rest 54 rivers including the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna come through India.

Most of the tributaries of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra originate in China, Nepal and Bhutan. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra and Meghna carrying water from the upper catchments pass through Bangladesh before discharging into the Bay of Bengal.

Indian plan to divert Bangladesh water includes

* Diversion of Ganges water by Farakka Barrage
* Diversion of Meghna water by constructing a dam at Tipaimukh
* Diversion of trans-boundary rivers by dam/barrage
* Diversion of Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and their tributaries by Inter-basin River Linking Project.

India is the largest beneficiary of these river networks. In addition India receives 4,000 BCM of annual rainfall. Supported by tropical monsoon climate India is in a very comfortable position in terms of available surface water resource. Further more India has a huge groundwater reserve.

It is true that with increase of population water requirements of all countries of the world will increase. That does not mean that a upper riparian country will divert water from a common river thereby triggering an environmental catastrophe and devastation of a lower riparian country.

From research and studies even by Indian and American experts it has been found that construction of dams/barrages diverting and altering the natural river courses at a huge cost is counter productive. In Japan, United States and in many other countries thousands of dams have been decommissioned and efforts are being made to restore original river course.

Scientists are putting more and more emphasis on

* Scientific water harvesting
* Efficient water management
* Improved agricultural practice
* Minimizing water loss
* Desalinization project to supply domestic and industrial water.

As for example in Agricultural Practice India has the lowest rice production per unit area
Country Rice Production
(Tons per hectare)
China
India
Bangladesh
Japan 4.7
2.1
3.0
8.0

Moreover, if we look at the efficiency of irrigation water use it is found that India has the lowest efficiency in irrigation water use
Country Efficiency of Irrigation water use in %
China
India
Bangladesh
Japan 60
35
60
80

Sources of Bangladesh Water
Wet season:

Trans-boundary flow = 93%
Rainfall within Bangladesh = 7%
___________________________
100%

Dry Season:
Trans-boundary flow = 99%
Rainfall within Bangladesh = 1%
_____________________________
100%

From above it is clear that Bangladesh is fully dependent on trans-boundary river flow for its water requirement.

Rice Production:

Bangladesh now produces just enough food to feed its ever increasing population. Thanks to the introduction of high yielding variety of rice called IRRI rice during dry season. Season-wise rice production shows that out of total production of rice

Dry season Boro/IRRI constitutes = 80%
Wet season Aman constitutes = 20%
_________________________________
100%

Irrigation water for Boro/IRRI Rice:

The high yielding variety of rice during dry season cannot be grown without full irrigation water supply. This irrigation water comes from

Groundwater = 80%
Surface water = 20%
___________________
100%

Moreover, major portion of drinking water, household water, industrial water, etc comes from groundwater. As a result groundwater level goes down on the average by 15 feet every year. If it depletes below 26 feet groundwater cannot be lifted by shallow tube-well which is overwhelmingly used in Bangladesh.

But by the grace of our creator every year this depleted groundwater is recharged by

Inundation of low lying land by flood = 12 feet = 80%
Rainfall within Bangladesh = 3 feet = 20%
___________________________________________
15 feet = 100%
Aman Rice during wet season:
About 50% of agricultural land in Bangladesh in the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the
Meghna basins is naturally inundated by normal flooding and Aman rice is grown in these inundated land. If there is no normal flood in Bangladesh there will be no Aman paddy.
Necessity of River Water in Bangladesh:

* To push back saline water that enters inland during flow tide. Otherwise salinity intrusion will result in desertification.
* For recharging of groundwater for ensuring water supply for high yielding variety of IRRI rice, drinking, household use, industrial use, cultured fisheries, etc
* For production of Aman rice
* For maintaining natural fish habitats
* For sustaining vegetation, flora and fauna
* For protecting Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest
* For maintaining navigational routes
* For maintaining ecological balance
* For maintaining environment for sustainable economic grow and general welfare of the people
* For reducing concentration of arsenic in groundwater, etc.

Bangladesh needs more than 1400 BCM of surface water to meet the above requirements
Impact on Poverty Alleviation:

With the assistance from Donors and development partners the country and the people of Bangladesh has been trying hard to come above the vicious curse of poverty. Bangladesh has become self sufficient in food and income and employment opportunities have been going up towards self-reliance.

Diversion of water by India will destroy the water based economy of Bangladesh and plunge more than 80% or 120 million people into eternal poverty, hunger, malnutrition.

Adverse Impacts in India

* The proposed Link Canal connecting the Brahmaputra river with the Ganges through West Bengal will require 4,000 hectares of land which will be permanently lost.
This Link Canal will destroy famous tea gardens in Darjeeling and seriously restrict the movement of wild animals and human beings.
* Due to the construction of dam at Tipaimukh across Barak River in Monipur State of India thousands of hectares of forest land will go under water and thousands of people must be shifted to other locations thereby jeopardizing the culture and living style of local people.
* Hundreds of dams and barrages proposed under the inter basin river linking project will destroy natural environment, change the natural course of rivers and adversely affect the ecological balance.
* Thousands of kilometers of new canals will divide different parts of India thereby creating isolation of human settlements and activities.
* International Conventions/Cooperation:

Helsinki Convention, United Nations Convention and other international regulations prohibit diversion of water from common international rivers that will harm the interest of other riparian country/countries.

Showing respect to international conventions there are many international cooperation on sharing water of the common international rivers. For example
* Indus Basin Treaty between India and Pakistan
* Danube Regional Project between 11 countries in Europe
* Mekong River Commission for guaranteeing equal rights of Mekong river water between Laos, Kampuchea, Vietnam and Thailand. The main provision in Mekong River Commission is that no country will construct any dam in the Mekong river thereby changing the natural water regime. All these riparian countries will share water on equitable basis for agriculture, fisheries, hydroelectricity, domestic water supply etc.

Primary Approach:

* Formation of a Regional Water Commission with all riparian countries namely China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh under the supervision of United Nations and World Bank.
* With the help of friendly countries, international organizations and human rights groups to put pressure on India for abandoning counter productive, environmentally suicidal and economically destructive projects that in the long run will harm the country.
* India should be encouraged to go for less expensive, more productive and environment friendly projects e.g. scientific water harvesting of rain water, increasing efficiency of irrigation water use, improved on-farm water management, improved agricultural practice, use of high yielding variety of seeds, etc.
* India may go for desalinization of sea water for domestic, industrial and other uses.
* Option of using vast reserve of groundwater is always there for India.

Conclusion

* When India has so many other options, constructing dam/barrage and diverting Bangladesh water thereby by destroying the country and the people of Bangladesh can never be justified.
* United Nations should immediately intervene and persuade India in following international and United Nations Conventions.
* World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and other donors should be urged not to finance projects that violate International Convention and destroy the country and people of Bangladesh.
* Bangladesh should take initiative in forming a Regional Water Commission with all riparian countries under the auspices of United Nations and World Bank.
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diplomatic Missions of Bangladesh should take immediate steps in arousing world conscious against Indian plan of upstream water diversion that will destroy the country and the people of Bangladesh.
* Bangladesh should formally ask compensation from India for the damage caused to its economy and environment due to the construction of dams/barrages on the cross border rivers including Farakka Barrage.

Bangladesh should join environment conservation group, human rights group and nature sustaining groups in other riparian countries in the region and form a joint platform to launch United Movement against the disastrous diversion of natural flow of rivers that will destroy natural environment, force people to abandon their ancestral homes, destroy agriculture, destroy natural fish habitats and result in saline water intrusion thereby turning fertile lands into desert.
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The Ganges Gives Red Signals
M. K. Majumder
Editor, The New Nation, Dhaka and Adviser, IFC

Bangladesh’s share of Ganges flow fell short of the schedule set by the 1996 water treaty in the entire month of January and the first ten days of February, and made water experts worried about the country’s share during the next two months and a half of this dry season.

Responsible quarters have it that during the recent meeting of the Joint Expert Committee (JEC) the Bangladesh side informally sought to know from India the reasons behind the shortfall. It received hints that Ganges water might have been diverted at further upstream to address problem of water scarcity faced by some Indian states, highly placed sources said.

Figures released in Dhaka yesterday by the Joint Rivers Commission, Bangladesh, show that during the first ten days of January, Ganges water available at the Hardinge Bridge point was 54,415 cubic feet per second (cusecs) as against the indicative schedule of 67,516 cusecs for the period. The shortfall in Bangladesh’s share was thus nearly 13,000 cusecs.

Bangladesh’s share of water of the river continues to fall short of the indicative schedule mentioned in the agreement. In the second ten-day period the shortfall was nearly 9,000 cusecs. The deficit was about 5,500 cusecs during the last 11 day period of January and about 5,000 cusecs during the first ten days of the current month.

Since the signing of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty in December 1996, Bangladesh’ share was markedly less than the indicative schedule in the very first lean season that followed. The lowest ever share of 6,000 cusecs was recorded in the dry season of 1997. Deficiency in Bangladesh’s share was recorded also in 2001, but the figures were never released.

Responsible quarters told The New Nation that during the last 10-day period of March 2001 Bangladesh’s share of water averaged 19,898 cusecs as against the indicative schedule of 29,688 cusecs. On 24th of that month the flow had fallen to 15,200 cusecs. Again during the second 10-day period of April that year the Ganges flow to Bangladesh averaged 20,830 cusecs whereas the indicative schedule was 27,633 cusecs. The actual flow had come down to 15,302 cusecs and 15,040 cusecs on 14 and 15 April that year.

Similarly during the first ten days of May, 2001 the average flow was 27,039 cusecs as against the indicative schedule of 32,351 cusecs. The flow had come down to 18,794 cusecs on 5th May and 19,056 cusecs on the day before that year, according to the responsible quarters.

As per the terms of the treaty Ganges water is shared during the lean months from January to May. JRC, Bangladesh in a press release has said that the latest figures are based on joint monitoring of water available at the Hardinge Bridge point, located about 90 kilometres downstream of the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal (India).

Water experts in Bangladesh are of the view that actual release of water at Farakka point would be less than these figures because a river flowing downstream regenerates some flow from ground water coming from land areas on its two sides. The JRC, Bangladesh could have given an idea about the extent of water sharing if it was in a position to tell how much water was available at Farakka barrage.

This point came up for discussion between the two sides when in the first year of operation of the 1996 treaty Indian experts claimed that they released water as per the indicative schedule, but Bangladesh experts complained that water even at the Hardinge Bridge point measured well below that schedule. The two countries then appointed a joint committee to monitor water availability at Farakka and apportionment of share at that point. Report of the committee was never made public.

Water experts are worried also by the fact that the indicative schedule of share of water was worked out on the basis of the availability of water at Farakka thus giving Bangladesh no say over the utilisation of water at further upstream of the Ganges. Water sharing is thus dependent on factors like quantum of flow affected not only by ice-melt up in the Himalayas and rainfall, but also by water withdrawal on the Indian part of the basin.

As per the treaty the two countries are to have equal shares if the water available at Farakka is 70,000 cusecs or less. However, in case the availablity of water at Farakka is up to 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh’s share will remain fixed at 35,000 cusecs while India will get the balance of flow. In case the water available at Farakka is in excess of 75,000 cusecs, India will get 40,000 cusecs and Bangladesh the balance of flow.

The treaty put a condition that India and Bangladesh each should receive guaranteed 35,000 cusecs of water in alternative three 10-day periods from March 1 to May 10.

The water sharing arrangement under the treaty was to be reviewed by the two governments at five years’ interval or earlier, but so far no such review has taken place.

Against this backdrop even this treaty runs the risk of turning irrelevant in the near future if the gigantic plan taken up by India to inter-link Himalayan rivers to divert water to her southern states is implemented in 15 years from now.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in September last year, provided for the development and implementation of ‘national/regional strategies, plans and programmes with regard to integrated river basin, watershed and groundwater management…’ Bangladesh lies at the lower reaches of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna river basins, but is yet to be consulted by upper riparian India as she goes ahead with her US$ 110 billion plan to inter-link Himalayan rivers.

The WSSD Plan of Implementation also underlined the need for allocation of water ‘among competing uses is a way that gives priority to the satisfaction of basic human needs and balances the requirement of preserving or restoring ecosystems and their functions…’ Water experts in Bangladesh pose a question as to whether enough water would be left in the 53 common rivers for Bangladesh to share after India unilaterally implements its present plan to divert water of Himalayan rivers towards her southern states. “Are then the fresh water wetland ecosystems and the coastal and marine ecosystems of Bangladesh dependent on flows of these rivers destined to be doomed?” they ask.

Ref: 16 February 2003, The New Nation, Dhaka
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Regional River Commission is a Must
Sayed Tipu Sultan
SECRETARY GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL FARAKKA COMMITTEE, INC., NY

In 1976, the late great leader of the peasants and working class of Bangladesh, Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani drew the attention of the world to the disastrous plight of all living beings in the lower Ganges basin on account of upstream withdrawal of water in the sub-Himalayan drainage system. The issue of Farakka diversion of Ganges by India causing environmental damage to Bangladesh was brought before the UN General Assembly. Following a resolution in the UNGA, an interim agreement was reached in 1977 for sharing of natural flow of the Ganges to allow partial diversion at Farakka point, subject to a minimum guaranteed discharge for the lower riparian in the lean season and possible augmentation of the river flow at Farakka, as many diversions further upstream rendered the lean season discharge at Farakka point feebler. The agreement lapsed in 1982 and unilateral diversion of Ganges waters at Farakka continued with or without any provisional undeestanding reached between the two countries. The environmental damages to Bangladesh piled up over the years. Lives and livelihood of several crores or people and the flora and fauna of the Sunderban were gravely endangered. In 1993, the International Farakka Committee was formed, and the diaspara of Bangladesh joined the fratenity of the mother country to echo their cry of distress. In 1996, Bangladesh under duress settled for a 30 years agreement for Ganges water sharing with India, without any guarantee of minimum discharge to sustain the courses of the river downstream. the matter of augmentation of Ganges flows at Farakka point has also not been addressed. As a result, salinity spread and creeping desertification is taking hold of the lower Ganges basin in Bangladesh, and the Sunderban, the largest mangrove forest in the world which is part of world heritage is slowly dying.

A river-linking project by India to divert the other major Himalayan river Brahmaputra now threatens the ecology of entire Bangladesh, as Brahmaputra provides the lion’s share of surface water resources of Bangladesh. The third major river of Bangladesh, the Meghna is threatened by the construction of a dam at upstream Tipaimukh upstream over its feeder flows from the Barak. A dam at Gajaldoba in India has rendered the Teesta in Bangladesh dry in many parts already this season. In fact, all the fifty five common rivers, big or small, that enter Bangladesh from India are suffering from reckless upstream diversions. This brooks disaster not only for Bangladesh but also for the entire eastern sub-Himalayan river system. The cumulative effect of random structural interferences upstream severely blocking natural drainage to the Bay cannot but destabilize the entire eastern sub-Himalayan parts, and may precipitate catastrophic phenomena in the geo-tectonically active region. Several countries along the eastern Himalayas have stakes in the matter. The International Farakka Committee has therefore taken the initiative to hold international exchanges and learned deliberations on the issue. The international conference in Dhaka on August 9-10 is part of our international campaign for redress of random upstream diversions causing disaster for the people and for the ecological balance of Bangladesh. We intend also to draw attention to the vulnerability of the regional environmental stability. Apart from advocacy of the cause of those distressed by random river diversions, a purpose of our compaing is to persuade concerned countries to from a Regional River Commission particularly for the river Brahmaputra, for the resources of which China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh all these co-riparian countries depend. We propose that a Branmaputra River Commission be formed at governmental, non-governmental and expert levels, to benefit equitably all the co-riparian taking into account multilateral dimensions of the river’s resources, in the pattern of Danube River Commission or the Mekong River Authority.
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Sharing Rivers for Peace, Security and Development of South Asia by Applying the Framework Recommended by the World Commission on Dams

Prabin Man Singh
Wafed, Nepal

Continental South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan) is the most populated region in the world with about one sixth of the global population. The population is ever increasing at the rate of 1.5%. If it continues to increase in this rate, then by 2015 the total population of South Asia will reach over 1.8 billions . Demand of food for the existing and future population, unplanned urbanization and rapid industrialization are some of the biggest challenges these countries are facing. Despite these challenges, the region is bestowed with priceless water resources. Ganges, Bhramaputra and Indus are the major river basins in the region. Nepal, India and Bangladesh share Ganges river basin, whereas India and Bangladesh share Bhramaputra river basin, and likewise, Indus river basin is shared by India and Pakistan.

These rivers are life and blood of these countries. Bangladesh relies on water from Ganges and Bhramaputra for irrigation and drinking water. Nepal is dreaming to earn ‘hydrodollar’ by selling its immense hydroelectricity potential from many tributaries and sub-tributaries of Ganges. Pakistan also relies on Indus River for irrigation of its fertile North Eastern region. India with its more than one billion populations and rapid industrialization requires more water for irrigation and electrification than ever before.

Three bi-lateral treaties to share the major tributaries of Ganges – Koshi, Gandak and Mahakali (in India known as Sharada) – had been singed between the government of India and Nepal in 1954, 1956 and 1996 respectively. The Government of Bangladesh and India singed a Farakkah treaty on sharing of Ganges River in 1996. Similarly, the government of Pakistan and India singed the treaty to share Indus River in 1960.

However, benefit-sharing of these rivers has been unequal and over politicized. The benefit-sharing had not been done in accordance with the present and future water needs of each of the riparian countries. Each country has been trying to get the largest share leading to more controversies. The negotiation process has become a foul play with each other in the absence of basic framework for sharing these rivers for peace, security and regional cooperation. India being the most powerful country in the region with distinct political and geographical advantages has been in control of the negotiation process most of the time.

In another scenario, India’s Interlinking Rivers Project (ILRP) targets to interlink all international rivers flowing through Nepal to India. This is yet another example of such faulty process. India has neither consulted Nepal nor taken any approval of the co-riparian countries before undertaking such a mega project. The ILRP also plans to divert water from all major rivers flowing to Bangladesh without proper consultation and prior approval. In response to it, the Government of Bangladesh has already objected to this scheme for being too destructive for its survival and ecosystem. The Government of Nepal is yet to make any formal statement regarding this. The people and campaign groups and communities have been opposing the ILRP since 2003.

Often international rivers demarcate the boundaries between the co-countries such as Mahakali, Narayani and Mechi Rivers in case of India and Nepal. Over a period of time, the flows of these rivers have shifted laterally. With such shifts, the boundary line between the co-countries also changes. Land area previously in the right bank of the river has come to the left bank of the river and vice versa. Encroachment of disputed territory by another co-riparian country as in the case of Susta (Narayani river basin) and Mahakali river basin in Nepal are some examples of increasing conflicts. India and Pakistan had already fought four wars against each other since 1947 – the year of independence and separation. One of the main reasons behind these wars have been on the issue of Indus River water-sharing.

Despite the widest possibilities of sharing these rivers for peace, security and development in the region, no sincere efforts have been done so far. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as being the only inter-governmental body does not address such issues but only some regional economic and trade issues. No regional framework has been worked out on making the best use of these rivers for peace and prosperity in the region unlike the case of Mekong or other transboundary river basins in other parts of the world.

Water should be regarded as a source of co-operation through the resolution of existing conflicts. Disagreements about how our limited and common water resources should be used are not uncommon but proper solutions must be found through mutual understanding and negotiation that are socially, economically, politically and environmentally acceptable. This can only be achieved through the free, prior and informed participation of all the river basins-based stakeholders. The new global framework suggested by the World Commission on Dams in its report in 2000 for the best management of water and energy resources is certainly an approach to adopt. But it is very clear the denial of transboundary water-related problems and the failure in their resolutions will remain a major obstacle for regional cooperation, peace and prosperity of South Asia.

Name and address of author:
Prabin Man Singh
WAFED, GPO Box 2125
60 New Plaza Marga, Putalisadak
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel/fax: 4429741/4419610
E-mail: wafed@ntc.net.np, prabinsingh@gmail.com

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Simulation of Fluoride transport in Central-South Delhi, India-using Visual MODFLOW/MT3D
Sunil Kumar Srivastava1 ; AL. Ramanathan2 and K.J. Anandha Kumar3

1= IMS Engineering College, Department of Chemistry, Ghaziabad, India, 2=School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India-110067, 2= Central Ground Board, A2, W3, Curzon Road Barracks, KG Marg, New Delhi, India-110001

Abstract

Groundwater resource with are being increasingly threatened by the leaching of contaminants from uncontrolled landfill containing industrial and/ municipal waste. Further transport of these pollutant with flow of groundwater make to hazardous of people living around this area vulnerable to health hazard. Okhala/Indraprastha landfill is one of the major sources of groundwater pollution in South Delhi. Simulation of contaminant transport has been carried out for a small area ~ 298.17 km2, which is divided in 800 cells with 348 active cells. Triangular study area is surrounded by Arawali ridge on two sides and on one side by the Yamuna River (constant Head).

The transport of contaminant shows contaminants fluoride will reach to Safdarjang and Lodhi Garden within 634 days after its release from Indraprastha landfill, while it will completely contaminate Lodhi Garden, Mulchand, AIMS, Bardarpur, Prahlad pur, Nehru Place and Railway Colony and Khanpur, within 3520 days after its release in groundwater through Okhala and Indraprastha landfill. The trend and rate of contamination of groundwater shows, it will contaminate completely south-central Delhi within short period of its release in groundwater. In natural system the contaminant transport is also controlled by adsorption, dispersion and chemical reaction. The variations of saturation index of secondary minerals indicate that contamination of groundwater aquifer and transport is controlled by adsorption process in South-Central Delhi groundwater aquifer system. Geothite, Ferric hydride, Jarosite and Haematite all shows increase in saturation index (precipitation) with the distance indicate change in pH of groundwater and precipitation of heavy metals at surface of the minerals.

Correspondence Address- Groundwater Simulation lab, Lab No. 208A/209, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India-110067, E-mail-sunil16s@yahoo.co.in; sunil16sster@gmail.com
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The Proposed Tipaimukh Dam
Engr. Muhammad Hilaluddin.

Abstract
The proposed Tipaimukh Dam, a 162 meter high rock filled earthen dam on the Barak River is to be located downstream of the confluence of Barak and Tuivai Rivers near Tipaimukh in the Manipur State of India and about a hundred kilometers upstream from the nearest Amalshid border area in Sylhet of Bangladesh, with a declared aim to produce 1500 MW electric power by 2011.

Our deep concern is that the Prime Minister of India’s “2012 Power for All” Mission envisages to enslave the North Eastern region of India as the ‘future powerhouse of the nation’ and has led to a national ranking study listing of 168 hydropower projects in the Brahmaputra and Barak River Basins in the region, having a combined installed capacity of 63,000 MW.

We recognise that the undemocratic, anti-people, anti-environment and anti-life agenda of States, political lobbies, corporations and international financial institutions continue to lead to large dam construction specifically targeted on indigenous peoples’ and ethnic nationalities’ territories for which free, prior and informed consent has never been obtained.

Our consideration:

1. The primary condition required for setting up dam projects, such as the Tipaimukh Dam, is to involve the peoples who are at great risk to be adversely affected through a participatory, democratic, transparent and accountable debate, a meaningful consultation process wherein all section of the populace participate in deliberations according to the key advances made by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in elaborating its recommendations;

2. The WCD explicitly identified the demerits and shortcomings of large dams in terms of flood control, hydroelectric power generation, destructions to the environment and ecosystems in both upstream and downstream regions;

3. The absence of meaningful consultation with and the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples to be affected by the Tipaimukh Dam Project clearly contradicts the strategic priorities developed by the WCD;

4. The Tipaimukh Dam will permanently submerge an area of more than 300 km per square in the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, displacing the thousands of indigenous and tribal groups like Zeliangroups, Hmar and Mizo people, uprooting them from their age-old traditional occupations and cultural heritage; the massive submergence of about 70 villages and a portion of National Highway 53 and displacement will sure to cause serious consequences upon the affected peoples, depriving them from their ancestral inalienable rights to their land and forests without provision of viable alternative sources of livelihood, adversely affecting the socio-cultural devices of the entire population of the threatened areas and eventually resulting in a genocide;

5. The Tipaimukh Dam will impede the natural flow of many rivers of the Barak Basin and block fish migration; destroy upstream forests, habitats, lands and cultural heritage, require the relocation and resettlement of thousands of indigenous people and local communities;

6. Watersheds and river basins are the logical building blocks of water-heritage stewardship, planning and management and such an approach must incorporate the primacy of the interests of all rights-holders, as well as flora, fauna and ecosystems that exist within its boundary – from headstreams to river-mouths; in India, water-heritage management and planning for dams and other water-regulation structures are not prepared within the context of watershed-scale implications and outcomes;

7. The process of excluding people in the decision making process constitute a violation and contravention of international customary law and legally binding instruments and, most importantly, of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development and the draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights to the development and the draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

8. The Tipaimukh Dam Project was entirely developed and approved without ever informing the Government of Bangladesh or involving its people in any meaningful exercise to assess the downstream impacts of the dam, which is a clear and deliberate deviation from usual practices, as well as a gross violation of co-riparian rights of Bangladesh; India is deliberately avoiding consulting with Bangladesh as required by international conventions (such as the UN Convention of 1997) and the Ganges Treaty of 1996;

9. As Bangladesh and India share many rivers and water resources, the rivers or their tributaries flowing across the northern parts of India are mostly international rivers. The Barak River in Manipur State of India eventually turns into Meghna River in Bangladesh, the joys and sorrows that these common rivers mean for the peoples of all the co-riparian states are interwoven, inter-wined and naturally shared;

10. The ecological needs and economic future of Bangladesh are not a part of the planning process and dam’s design in the Eastern Himalayan Fragile, sedimentary rock and tectonic structure;

11. The Barak and its main distributaries rivers, the Surma and Kushiyara in the Meghna basin, member of one of the World’s most dynamic and diversified hydrologic tri-basin, known as the Ganga- Brahmaputra- Meghna (GBM) basin, of which the Meghna basin is the smallest but most unpredictable and chaotic in hydrological nature, which receives and carries all the surface waters originating in the Meghna basin to the Bay of Bengal through the upper and lower Meghna rivers;

12. Bangladesh is created from and exists today as a riverine ecosystem. The proposed Tipaimukh Dam will drastically and adversely alter river flow in the downstream region in hydrological, morphological, enological consequences of withdrawal of monsoon as well as dry season water flow from the Barak upon downstream region of the withdrawal point are feared to be catastrophic; any change in nature flow of water, sediment and nutrient carrying features of these rivers must have an obvious impact upon the ecology of the whole basin area.

13. The cumulative effects of the dam upon the whole northeastern part of Bangladesh directly, and upon the adjacent areas consequently, will be of colossal scale; the riverine livelihood of millions, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, biodiversity, economy and culture will be devastated; this will create another threatening and chronic sources of disaster, already formed in the northwestern part of the country due to the Farakka Barrage constructed in India in the early part of the seventies of the past century.

14. The usual practice of reserving water for hydroelectric power plant, such as the proposed Tipaimukh Dam, through filling the reservoirs during the months of May and June to keep it operational round the year will face unmanageable impediments in cases of excessive rainfall on upper riparian of the Meghna basin during the months of July and August while the project authorities will have no option but to open the gates of the high dam for the emergency releases, often causing unpredicted nightmarish flash flood at the downstream reach both within Indian territorial boundary and eastern part of Bangladesh hugely damaging crops and infrastructures; thus the downstream impacts by low and peak hour discharges from the dam will result in the ultimate annihilation of the civilisation in the Barak basin as we know it.
15. The construction of the proposed high dam in a very geologically sensitive zone above the long-recognised Taithu Fault line will only serve to provoke frequent and major earthquakes inviting a major tsunami-like disaster and endangering the lives, land and forest of both India and Bangladesh.
16. An impartial monitoring and effective compliance mechanism of the existing international agreements concerning the Ganges and Teesta Rivers is non-existent; nor has there been a truthful review of the legalities and implementation lapses of these agreements.

Our unanimous demand:

a ) The Government of India to immediately abandon the Tipaimukh Dam Project as proposed;

b) All riparian SAARC countries, People’s Republic of China and Myanmar (Burma) to work together to solve water-related disputes among all rights-holders in the context of pro-people and ecologically wise basin-based water-heritage management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin incorporating the recommending of the World Commission on Dams;

c) A thorough, comprehensive and impartial review of the implementation of the standing agreements concerning the sharing of international water between Bangladesh and India;

d) Co-riparian states in the South Asia region to promote and advocate for and adopt ecological approaches to all international rivers, which will attract support from the international community;

Our commitment:

a) A closely coordinated peoples’ campaign, spanning the Barak River Basin, against the proposed Tipaimukh Dam Project; and to pro-actively seek allies and support towards the success of the campaign;

b) A wide and accessible public dissemination, to the regional civil society and international community, of all relevant and critical information regarding the proposed Tipaimukh Dam and its impacts, and rights violations that have begun to be perpetrated upon the peoples and their natural heritage;

c) An independent and comprehensive investigation, looking at all the environmental, social and cultural aspects; to study the up-stream and downstream impacts of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam project;

d) Advocate for a South Asian Regional Riparian Union agreement within the framework of newly proposed disaster management and poverty alleviation set forth in the Dhaka Declaration of SAARC 2005;

e) To promote and actively increase people-to-people contacts and collaborations in the SAARC and adjacent countries to work together for peace, human rights, and equitable and appropriate development of the peoples, by the peoples and for the peoples.

United Bengal −Why Not (Blogger just put the opnions of many from web)

2008-07-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Source: http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.bangladesh/2006−02/msg00017.html

• From: "souptik"
• Date: 22 Feb 2006 06:15:37 −0800

On chance I came across a few articles that pained me and hence my decision to join this group

First of all I thank you all for keeping the concept of United Bengal still alive. But going by your mail I understand that there are serious misunderstandings. I am a student at the University of Texas at Arlington. Born and brought up in Kolkata , I have always learnt from
childhood that partition was wrong . Always believed that had Bose got
15 more days to free India by force then partition would not have happened at all. Even though I believe that faith is personal, it is perhaps worth pointing that Bose's top commanders were Muslims. West Bengal is the most liberal amongst all Indian states today as far as religion is concerned, not strange why BJP gets no foothold in the state. Last 30 yrs of communist rule have changed things even further.

Coming to US I came across people from East Bengal (Bangladesh) . Not only do we speak the same language but also have similar politeness, intellect and liberalism that signifies Bengal.Althogh I do admit the
fact that there are fundamentalists on both sides.
Inspite of all these similarities differences exist. If speaking Hindi
is what you differentiate a Bengali from East and West Bengal, a few facts need to be realised.
Hindus from Bengal were never in favour of the partition. My grandfather as an example came from Khulna ,was a freedom fighter and was externed from Presidency College Physics Department in 1911 for beating up a British professor along with Bose and was later jailed 11 times.After partition his children studied in Vastuhara Vidyalayas , branded as a refugee for his links to East Bengal, which he always sweared by.

Politically , in 1947 the Congress party at the time of partition was in the hands of Nehru, not any Bengali. Nehru detasted Bose and all
Bengalis for that reason. When partition took place Bengal even though
Bengalis have produced the best brains in every field of human activity
(two Noble prize winnners not to mentioned) were fooled by Jinnah.Together with Nehru , Lady Mountbatten and the entire West the story of Partition was scripted, else how come such a short time such
an extraordinary disicion could have been taken.
Next the question of Hindi.For the last 30 years because of Communist

United Bengal −Why Not 1

United Bengal −Why Not

Rule , industry in Bengal has died down .(Even though great credit can be given to them for land reforms and abolition of feudal systems)In that situation Bengalis known for their brains , but zero entapreneurship have been forced to leave Bengal for lack of jobs. We all know that there is a natural tendency of people to merge with the locals . The reason we try to adopt American accent in US and Biharis speak Bengali in Bangladesh. If you live in India you will realise how
a Bengali suffers today. The communist experimentation with Bengali (no
English upto 7th std − Matribhasae sikhadan) and heavily accented
Hindi. With all that you need to accept that people like Rani Mukherjee
, who swear by their Bengali origin today rule Bollywood.That just shows the talent Bengalis have .

My roommates in US are Bengalis from Bangladesh. We share the same nostalgia of Hilsa and listen to the same Bengali rock. We all belive
that what Bengal needs today is more business, entrapreneurs and investments. Economics can solve almost every political problem in the world. Bengal needs to get hold of the lastest technology wave opportunities like nanotechnology just like India did with IT (I am
just drawing an analogy to what Taiwan did with Harware , while we say India missed the hardware bus). Bengal having a rich culture we need to take our culture on a global stage just like the Punjabis from India
and Pakistan are doing. We need to make our region prosperous and unity will be driven by business needs and the pride we will share .Let us
keep our religion to personal faith.

Things are looking up today. A new world order have emerged. East and West Germany have united some time back. China and Tiwan getting united also looks possible. My South Korean friends tell me that they also
want to unite with North Korea. Investments in West Bengal are pouring. Non Resident Bengalis are coming back.

The world is looking at when and how Bengal Unites making a statement , that the "Bengali Spirit" , like the spirit of the Royal Bengal Tiger −
cannot be broken.

Souptik Mukherjee
University of Texas at Arlington souptikm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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