26-10-2022

WeDneSDay, ocToBer 26, 2022
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Wednesday, october 26, 2022
Health threat
from diabetes
The World Diabetes Day is observed in
Bangladesh regularly or anually. This
year's Day was observed on Wednesday.
Different programmes were carried out on
the occasion such as discussion meetings,
seminars, rallies, etc. But the observance of
days such as these are more rituals. The
same do not have so much of enduring
impact at the field level where so much
should be done to build barriers against this
most disease.
Diabetes does not kill quickly. Therefore,
people feel complacent to be proactive to
stop it from finding a foothold in one's body
or to treat it with great earnestness. But both
attitude can be fatal in the medium and
longer term. First of all unregulated diabetes
can reduce human vitality, curb their contribution
to working hours. Ultimately,
patients with the affliction may turn out to
be a liability in the medical, physical and
economic sense for their families and society
as a whole. Thus, the best course is to prevent
diabetes from finding a berth in the
body and if it is already entrenched then to
keep it under firm control.
But it is worryingly noted that the number
of sufferers from diabetes have soared in
Bangladesh in recent years. It was reported
on Wednesday that there are some 8 million
identified sufferers from diabetes in
Bangladesh.
However, the real number of total sufferers
could be greater in the background of the
disease not getting detected in so many
cases. Besides cases of juvenile diabetes is
also spreading fast, something unthinkable
even a decade ago. Indeed, diabetes appears
to be the single biggest health threat in
Bangladesh nowadays. People with diabetes
are seen to be increasing faster in number
in Bangladesh compared to other major diseases.
A country like Bangladesh with its modest
national health budget and meager resources
available at individual and family levels,
needs to concentrate more on the preventive
sides of diabetes so that people do not
acquire this serious health problem in the
first place and to train up the ones who get
the disease to keep it under control. If this is
done, then the expenditure of resources on
diabetes related illnesses can be reasonable
and diabetic patients can continue to lead
useful and productive lives.
Diabetes prevention involve eating more
healthfully, becoming more physically active
and losing a few extra pounds - and it's never
too late to start. Making a few simple
changes in lifestyle now may help one to
avoid the serious health complications of
diabetes down the road, such as nerve, kidney
and heart damage.
The first rule to prevent and control diabetes
is regular physical activity. Exercise
can help one to lose weight, lower blood
sugar and to boost sensitivity to insulin
which helps to keep blood sugar within a
normal range. Research shows that aerobic
exercise can help control diabetes, but the
greatest benefit comes from a fitness programme
that includes both aerobic exercises
and exercising with weights.
Foods high in fiber include fruits, vegetables,
beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Regular consumption of these can help to
ward off diabetes in the first place or to control
the same if already developed.
Diabetes related information in
Bangladesh require regular and focused dissemination
in the mass media more so to
create greater awareness as diabetes is posing
as a serious and spreading health concern
in the country. As it is, such publicities
are only intermittent when the media needs
to campaign on a daily basis to alert people
about the disease.
A new era of paramilitary supremacy in Iraq
The actual occupant of the post,
Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, is a
nobody with zero parliamentary
support who is entirely beholden to those who
placed him in power. There are excellent
reasons why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
brought Baghdad to a halt in August over Al-
Sudani's candidacy.
In 2010, when Al-Maliki was prime
minister, he appointed Al-Sudani minister of
human rights - at a time when there were no
human rights to administer. During this black
phase of Iraq's history, Al-Maliki co-opted
militia forces such as Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq, the
Mukhtar Army and the Imam Ali Brigades to
embark on bloody sectarian purges and to
assassinate journalists, activists and political
opponents. Al-Maliki weaponized the
judiciary against his enemies and purged
Sunni fighters who had risked their lives
combating terrorist groups.
As chairman of the commission for de-
Baathification, Al-Sudani assisted Al-Maliki
in purging hundreds of Sunnis and political
rivals from administrative roles. The Iraqi
Commission of Integrity estimated that $500
billion was corruptly siphoned off from the
Iraqi budget during Al-Maliki's tenure, much
of which went toward funding paramilitary
violence.
Such were the industrial-scale crimes
against human rights and interfaith
coexistence on Al-Maliki and Al-Sudani's
watch that, in 2014, Iraq disintegrated
altogether and much of the country became a
playground for the twin plagues of Daesh and
Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi militias, which took
crimes against humanity to entirely new
levels of horror and cruelty.
As prime minister, Al-Sudani (a longstanding
member of Al-Maliki's Dawa party)
will be solely accountable to Al-Maliki and his
paramilitary Hashd allies who brought Iraq
back to the brink of civil war in their dogged
Adashboard at Cape Canaveral in Florida,
USA, shows the liftoff of a rocket carrying
South Africa's first homemade
nanosatellites on January 13, 2022. (Cape
Peninsula University of Technology/Twitter)
FILE - A dashboard at Cape Canaveral in
Florida, USA, shows the liftoff of a rocket
carrying South Africa's first homemade
nanosatellites on January 13, 2022. (Cape
Peninsula University of Technology/Twitter)
What will Africa look like by 2050? Will the
present tale of missed opportunities persist? Or
will the continent become a superpower
securing a pole position in the new race to reach
new frontiers of technology and of our
imagination? Will, it, for instance, become a
leading space-faring continent?
Today's forecasts paint a dire picture of the
continent's future. Conflict. Poverty.
Unemployment. The plagues of yesterday
creep into tomorrow. On the face of it, there
appears to be little reason to expect a miracle -
a sudden awakening that could herald the rapid
transformation that Singapore and South
efforts to secure his candidacy.
A large part of the blame for this disaster for
Iraqi democracy lies at the door of Muqtada
Al-Sadr, who until recently had the single
largest bloc in parliament. Had Al-Sadr
possessed a degree of patience and political
acumen, he could have overcome the Hashd's
blocking efforts and reached an
understanding with the Kurds, Sunnis and
independents to form a government. Instead,
he threw the mother of all political tantrums,
pulled his supporters out of parliament and
allowed the Hashd to acquire most of the
seats he vacated.
It initially seemed as if Al-Sadr possessed a
winning strategy, as he flooded the Green
Zone with his supporters in a bid to block Al-
Sudani's candidature and force early
elections. However, he then staged one of the
most humiliating climbdowns in modern
political history after Tehran coerced Al-
Sadr's theological superior, Ayatollah Kadhim
Al-Haeri, into withdrawing his support.
With both Al-Sudani and Rashid such weak
and malleable figures, it is clear who is
intended to govern Iraq next.
We should not discount the extreme levels
of bad blood between Al-Maliki and the
Sadrists, which at times has escalated into
assassinations and bloodletting among each
other's foot soldiers. In July, a recording was
leaked in which Al-Maliki, among other
insults, denounced Al-Sadr as "a hateful
Zionist." Temporarily reduced to enraged
BarIa aLaMUDDIn
impotence, Al-Sadr is probably biding his
time so that his next move inflicts maximum
damage on an Al-Maliki-brokered
administration.
Blame for this debacle also lies with the
Kurdish and Sunni political factions. They
know very well that Al-Maliki and the Hashd
have hostile anti-democratic ambitions for
Iraq, but they have allowed themselves to be
divided and bought off cheaply at the cost of
Iraq's sovereignty. While the Kurdistan
Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan jostle over trivial appointments,
they risk losing Iraq altogether.
as prime minister, al-Sudani (a long-standing member
of al-Maliki's Dawa party) will be solely accountable to
al-Maliki and his paramilitary Hashd allies who brought
Iraq back to the brink of civil war in their dogged efforts
to secure his candidacy.
Korea, for instance, have gone through in the
past six decades.
Yet this pessimistic narrative has obvious
consequences. It scares investors. It
demotivates African expatriates who might
otherwise have considered returning home.
Most critically, it robs African youth of a chance
to dream of a better life right here on the
continent. All of this perpetuates a vicious cycle
where a presumption of future failures denies
Africa the opportunities and resources it needs
to truly deliver on the potential of its 1.2 billion
people - in turn reinforcing prejudices about
the continent.
In my new book, From Africa to Mars, I
counter this negative narrative. From Africa to
Mars tells the story of a technologically
advanced African continent that takes on a
seemingly impossible challenge: flying to Mars
within a decade. However, myriad challenges
arise causing the world to wonder: "Will they
make it on time?"
I sent an early version of the manuscript to a
friend based in the United Kingdom. When he
MoMo BerTranD
Former President Barham Salih was widely
seen as a trusted pair of hands. His successor,
Abdul Latif Rashid - an independent Kurd
whose main claim to fame is having once been
water resources minister - will struggle to
emerge from Salih's shadow. With both Al-
Sudani and Rashid such weak and malleable
figures, it is clear who is intended to govern
Iraq next. However, Al-Sudani is already
struggling to put together a Cabinet, amid
reports of fierce rivalry between Hashd
faction leaders over who gets to benefit from
key posts.
With the Hashd hemorrhaging popular
support over the past year, Tehran worries
about the future electability of its Iraqi
puppets. Hence, plotting is certainly already
afoot for how the next elections can be
undermined - either by preventing them
occurring at all or by seeking to dominate the
read through it, he noted that it felt somewhat
utopic. I asked him whether Iron Man or
Wonder Woman felt utopic too. He said no.
"It's Westerners. Flying cars. Lasers.
Interstellar travel. They can do all that," he said,
pausing and cocking his head before adding,
"Would you ever get on a rocket built by an
African?"
He probably meant it as a joke but his query
showed just how much the cancer of
stereotypes has metastasised. We live in a
world where tales of African genius are not just
missing, they are discouraged and
subconsciously banned.
A few years ago, I was working on a
communications campaign in Burkina Faso.
Our goal? To encourage youth in the capital,
Ouagadougou, to train for STEM careers. I
crafted a series of illustrated posters on the
outcomes of science and engineering studies.
In one poster, a child started as an electrician
and ended up as a space engineer. When I
shared the poster with colleagues, one sent a
reply that left me utterly shocked.
aftermath.
The worst fears for Iraq are being realized
and matters are set to deteriorate as militias
seek to reinforce their already unwieldy
presence at every level of this administration
in order to exact control and extract every last
corrupt dinar of public money. Outgoing
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi had
acted as a vital bulwark against Hashd
preeminence. Over the coming weeks, watch
these militias make a bonfire of his legacy.
Yet, at this moment of apparent victory,
these Hashd militias are looking nervously
over their shoulders. To the east of Iraq, for
the past five weeks a nationwide uprising has
been gaining momentum. Tens of thousands
of brave Iranian girls and women are burning
their hijabs and calling for the downfall of the
hated ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard
commanders who control the Hashd.
The Iraqi Hashd and all Iran's other client
militias are living on borrowed time. Maybe
not this year, but sometime soon, enough
courageous Iranians will take to the streets to
erase their hated tyrant regime once and for
all. At that moment, the Hashd, Hezbollah
and the Houthis should ensure that their bags
are packed and plane tickets purchased;
because once their Iranian masters have been
vanquished, nobody will be there to protect
them from public wrath for the damage they
have wreaked upon their respective
homelands' sovereignty, stability and identity.
Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning
journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East
and the UK. She is editor of the Media
Services Syndicate and has interviewed
numerous heads of state.
Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning
journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media
Services Syndicate and has interviewed
numerous heads of state.
People thought Corbyn and I would crash the pound;
The real risk was Truss and her fanatics
We knew the markets would react
sharply to us and were prepared
for that. These free-market
zealots had no plan at all
London's Evening Standard newspaper,
with the headline "Pound hits all-time low
in backlash at Kwasi tax cuts" on display
outside the Bank of England
Watching the events since the
introduction of the "Not a Budget", I have
sat with my head in my hands. You could
almost weep for the lasting consequences
of this show of arrogance, ideological
obstinacy and incompetence. People's
homes, pensions and the public services
they rely upon are all now at serious risk.
It's hard to comprehend just how badly
they misjudged the situation and how little
they prepared for taking over the highest
offices of state.
In his brilliant book The Great Crash,
1929, the economist JK Galbraith advises
that to avoid a crash in the future you
should put in place a vast range of
institutional protections, but that the most
important protection is memory.
My first Labour party conference was in
1976 in Blackpool, when the Labour
chancellor, Denis Healey, burst into
conference amid boos and cheers to
announce the acceptance of an IMF loan to
prop up the government after a run on
sterling. The conditions of the loan were
interest rate hikes, cuts in public spending
and wage controls. The effect was to see
support for the Callaghan Labour
government drain away, over the next
three years, heralding the Thatcher era.
That experience was burned into my
psyche. So, when I became shadow
chancellor, I made it clear that I would
plan for every option - including a run on
the pound - if we were elected. At the time
I was accused of making a serious faux pas,
but I wanted the markets to know that we
had a serious plan for our economy
whatever was thrown at us.
Although I thought there would be some
initial turbulence in the markets, I didn't
believe that there would be a run. I toured
the City intensively to gauge what the true
reaction to the election of the Labour party
would be. Meeting numerous asset
managers and financial advisers, I
explained that there were many things in
our programme that they may not like,
including some renationalisations and tax
rises on the wealthiest, for instance; but
they were going to happen and there was
so much more on investment that would
give them real investment opportunities.
The response I got was that although
they definitely didn't like some of our
JoHn McDonneLL
policies, as long as there was certainty and
predictability they could live with it. They
could price in our policies into their
calculations and we would be able to
establish a working relationship. As long
as there were no major surprises, they
could understand our sense of general
direction and would not sabotage our
programme.
I had a team of advisers from the City
and with experience of working with me to
plan our steps into government and our
ongoing relationship with the market. We
received a weekly briefing from a
respected investment consultancy in the
How ironic that it should be a duo of free-market fanatics, Liz
Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, who would end up causing a run on the
pound. The 40-year neoliberal experiment has failed, and the
reaction from the markets to the last desperate attempt to save it by
Truss and Kwarteng has demonstrated that investors know it too.
City.
I also regularly met Mark Carney at the
Bank of England to brief him on our
programme and get feedback. We had a
very constructive and open working
relationship and I listened carefully to his
views. Before the elections I met with Tom
Scholar, the Treasury permanent
secretary, and his team to prepare for our
first budget and to commission the
necessary report from the Office for
Budget Responsibility. I found Scholar to
be a first-rate professional, very much in
the mould of Maurice Stonefrost, who I
worked with and served my
apprenticeship with at the Greater London
council.
How ironic that it should be a duo of freemarket
fanatics, Liz Truss and Kwasi
Kwarteng, who would end up causing a run
on the pound. The 40-year neoliberal
experiment has failed, and the reaction from
the markets to the last desperate attempt to
save it by Truss and Kwarteng has
demonstrated that investors know it too.
Unless wiser heads in the Tory party
prevail and there is a dramatic change of
course or change of personnel at the top of
this government, we face the prospect of
possibly two years of staggering from one
crisis to another with a relentless
deterioration in our economy, and the
potential for deep societal division leading
to outbreaks of large-scale protest,
perhaps even degenerating into riot.
People may not have agreed with my
aims or with Labour's programme at the
time, but I did not want anyone to be able
to accuse us of lack of preparation or
incompetence. My team and I were
genuinely ready for government.
You'll forgive me, I hope, for considering
what could have been.
John McDonnell has been the
Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington
since 1997. He was shadow
chancellor from 2015 to 2020
Will Africa send the first human to Mars?
She remarked that it was impossible for a
child in Burkina Faso to become a space
engineer. I informed her that the West African
nation was already building its first satellite,
Burkina Sat-1. Hence, there was no reason why
a Burkinabe child couldn't join the country's
nascent space programme.
Indeed, Africa's space sector is reaching new
heights. In January 2022, South Africa made
history by launching three nanosatellites that
were the first to be wholly designed and
produced on the African continent. Cocoa
farmers in Ghana will soon be able to receive
agricultural advice thanks to the SAT4Farming
initiative, a programme that leverages satellite
imagery to monitor environmental conditions
in the country. Angola's second
telecommunications satellite, Angosat-2,
launched last week.
Momo Bertrand has extensive working
experience in the United States, Europe, and
Africa. He currently serves as a Young
Professional (YP) at the World Bank.