Free Parking of Cars

Free parking increases the demand for cars,and more cars increase traffic congestion ,air pollution,and energy consumption in turn spurs the search for more local remedies,such as street widening,more freeways,and even higher parking requirements.Offstreet parking requirements quietly create citywide problems that are far worse than the local ones they are meant to solve.The list of problems caused by free and under-priced parking is long:Car dependency : Free parking encourages people to drive more rather than seeking alternatives.Discouragement of environmentally-friendly transport:People who own cars are less likely to walk short distances since there is no economic penalty for driving;the increased cars in the street making bus service slower.

Civil Service Losing its Image

             The present civil service Structure of the subcontinent is the legacy of the British colonial rules . Once the Civil Service was the most attractive and prestigious position.But the glory and image of the service has been deteriorating since the inception of Pakistan due to various reasons for losing the attraction of the service to the meritorious students is the low salary compared  to the fast growing private and multinational sectors.The salary structure has never been adjusted with the market.As such,the bright and  meritorious students are not getting onterested in joining the service.Another important reason is the lack of opportant thing is building career in the service.Promotion and other facilities are not ensured timely.The most important thing is faulty,non-transparent ,obsolete and lengthy recruitment system.Merit does not get priority in our recruitment system.More over,corruption , nepotism are common traits of the system.Policies are formulated and implemented by the civil servants.Negotiations on vital issues with the rest of the world are also conducted by the civil servants.Queations are raised regarding efficiency and required skill of our civil servants for the job.Our political leadership is also not in a position to take the lead rather they are more dependent on the civil service.People expect this goverrnment to make radical changes/reforms in  the civil service to make it more vibrant and efficient for the wellbeing of the nation.

If Japan Can,Why can't we

DURING the 1980s, American industry was struggling to keep pace with that of Japan. At that time Japan was gradually establishing itself as a manufacturing powerhouse. The spectacular rise of Japan’s economy started in fact only in the late 1950s. This was naturally a big surprise to the rest of the world. How come, the nation, which was devastated in the Second World War, could turn around so fast?
   American think tank was little bit worried as slowly but surely Japanese products were being hailed by the Americans. Lloyd Allen Dobyns, a famous reporter who was working with NBC Television at that time, tried to dig into the mystery of Japan’s success. He went to Japan to see things physically. What did he manage to find after extensive research? Surprise! Surprise! The seeds for Japan’s success as a manufacturer of ‘Quality Products’ were planted by none other than an American, William Edwards Deming! Deming’s contribution to Japan’s economic miracle went largely unnoticed in the USA and to the most of the world until a 1980 NBC feature called ‘If Japan can...Why can’t we?’ by Lloyd Allen was published.
   Dr WE Deming was born in 1900 in Sioux City, Iowa. He did his graduation in Electrical Engineering in 1921 from the University of Wyoming. Deming got his MS degree in 1925 from the University of Colorado and in 1928 he was awarded PhD by the famous Yale University. His glamorous career started as a mathematical physicist at the United States Department of Agriculture. Dr Deming worked as a statistical adviser for the United States Census Bureau during the World War II. He was a professor of statistics at New York University’s Graduate School of Business Administration for quite a long period of time – from 1946-1993. He taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business as well. Deming did also work as a consultant for private business.

All are not equal in Eid jamaat?

IT IS sad and revolting that Baitul Mokarram mosque is reserving special place for the president of the republic and other high state functionaries in Eid congregational prayers, as is evident from photographs of Eid jamaat released to the media during Eid every year. After the next Eid we may expect to watch in the media the same familiar scene. This is repugnant to the teachings of Islam. In Eid jamaat or any congregational prayers all are equal and no one has any precedence except the Imam and the muezzin. To accord any individual of wealth or power any special place in namaaz undermines the ideals of Islam. We hope all Muslims will protest.

Shishu Hospital holds int'l training

Dhaka Shishu Hospital, in collaboration with Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation, completed a two-week training course on ‘Rapid Neurodevelopmental Assessment’ in the Dhaka city on Sunday.
   Professionals from home and abroad took part in the training. The local team included child health physicians and developmental therapists from government-sponsored Shishu Bikash Kendras in Mymensingh, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and Rangpur Medical College Hospitals and the international team comprising eight medical consultants, education experts and statisticians from Bhutan, sponsored by UNICEF, Bhutan and a consultant in Developmental Paediatrics from Monash Univiersity, Melbourne, Australia.
   Twenty participants received certificates from Professor Naila Zaman Khan, Dhaka Shishu Hospital, and, National Co-ordinator, Establishment of Shishu Bikash Kendra in Government Medical College Hospitals Dr Ashrafy Ahmed, deputy programme manager, DGHS Dr Humaira Muslima, training director of the child development and neurology unit, Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Dr Shamim Ferdous, executive director of Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation.
   International participants, including Dr Kinzang P Tshering, head of Paediatrics, and Dr Chencho Dorji, head of psychiatry, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, National Referral Hospital, and Dr Kate Milner from Australia, appreciated the quality of training they had received.

'Victimless crimes' and health challenges

Victimless crimes are offences in which the parties involved do not consider themselves to be 'victims'. These crimes, also known as consensual crimes, are activities which do not physically harm a person or property, or to which was in fact consented, and is currently illegal if based on statutory laws. Usually, a crime has identifiable victim who suffers as a result of the criminal behaviour. Victimless crimes tend to have no complaining parties other than the law enforcers because the immediate participants in these crimes do not see themselves as victims, have no desire to complain, and would fear criminal liability if they did complain. Moreover, since such acts usually take place in private and do not directly victimise any third party, other citizens are unlikely to observe the acts or to have sufficient incentive to complain. Such crimes are more commonly committed by the youths and so tend to undermine the workforce of a nation.
   The offences included in the victimless crime category are: public drunkenness, sale of illicit drugs, vagrancy, various sexual acts usually involving consenting adults (fornication, adultery, bigamy, incest, sodomy, homosexuality, and prostitution), solitary sex, obscenity, pornography, drug offences, abortion, gambling, and juvenile status offences.
   It has been argued that there is no such thing as a victimless crime, because most so-called victimless crimes have victims, or at least potential victims. Some of the offences on the list of victimless crimes do have direct victims, such as citizens offended or harassed by public drunks or disorderly persons; the spouse of the adulterer, bigamist, or prostitution client; or the spouse, parent, or child of a drug addict. Refusal to recognise the potential forms of victimisation requires problematic distinction, for instance, between mental distress and physical harm. Moreover, in many cases it is quite reasonable to argue that one or more of the participants in a victimless crime is, or will in the future become a victim of serious harm, such as the sporadic heroin user who becomes addicted, or the young person who becomes a prostitute.
   In both developed and developing countries, victimless crimes are going on in different forms in different sections of the society. These crimes are not only within the purview of the criminologists or sociologists, but also of health workers. As these crimes lead to health hazards that are preventable and manageable if detected and appropriate action taken on time. These crimes need to be reduced, as these are the challenges to public health. To overcome the challenges, further medicalisation of 'victimless crimes' by different government and non-government bodies need to be considered. This medicalisation has to be country specific taking into consideration the global scenario. It is strongly believed that many diseases can be controlled if such crimes are minimised. Social scientists need to collaborate with health workers in conducting further evidence-based research, and social work on victimless crime to minimize public health problems.