Diethylene glycol (DEG) is a sweetner and a solvent which has been involved in numerous cases of poisonings, both by accidental and deliberate introduction of the compound into medicines, food products and toothpaste. The earliest example of mass poisoning was the 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide antibiotic incident in the USA. 107 people died after they ingested sulfanilamide dissolved in diethylene glycol. This episode was the impetus for the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which guides the global industry standard till today.
In Bangladesh context the reason for DEG poisoning is reckless profiteering and greed. When producing bulk paracetamol syrup, there is a need for a solvent that tastes good, is harmless and dissolves the active ingredient of paracetamol very well. The recommended solvent to make paracetamol syrup is propylene Glycol which costs around Tk 1600 per unit while DEG costs only tk 200.00 per unit. When a pharmaceutical industry requires thousands of units of solvents each year, the cost saving ( tk 1400.00 per unit) becomes quite substantial.
In recent years, deaths from medicines adulterated with diethylene glycol have been reported from South Africa, India, Nigeria, Argentina, Haiti, and Panama. In Haiti in 1996, 85 children died due to glycerine contaminated with diethylene glycol in a paracetamol syrup produced by a Haitian company, which did not use standard quality assurance procedures to verify the purity of the glycerine. Haitian government, in close collaboration with US government, Center for Disease Control ( CDC) conducted a protracted but thorough investigation and identified the point of production chain where paracetamol syrup was contaminated by DEG and what was the source of thoe DEG. When Panama has a similar incidence with much smaller fatality, their health department immediately recalled all the consumer products, traced the source back to China and created huge global hue and cry to force Chinese government take stern punitive and regulatory steps.
Read more…
rumi, July 27th 2009 |
Tags: Children, Healthcare
Posted in Bangladesh, Human Rights
By Udisa Emon
যাহা বলিব সত্য বলিব, মিথ্যা বলিয়া কাহাকেও বিভ্রান্ত করিব না।
১. রামকৃষ্ণ মাঝি- ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ইতিহাস বিভাগের শিক্ষার্থী ছিলেন। বাপ-দাদার মুখে যে সোনার বাঙলার গল্প শুনেছিলেন সেটা পূরণ করতে পড়া ছেড়ে গ্রামে ফিরে যান। উদ্দেশ্য কৃষকদের সাথে কাঁধে কাঁধ লাগিয়ে কাজে নামবেন, দেশ গড়ার কাজ। সংগঠন খুললেন। নাম দিয়েন নয়া বাঙলা। সিডরের তোড়ে যখন সব ভেসে-উড়ে গেলো তখন আবারো সবাই মিলে উঠে দাঁড়ানোর কাজ শুরু করলেন। একটা ট্রাকটর কিনলেন ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের বন্ধুদের সাথে মিলিয়ে যেটা কিনা কৃষকদের কমমূল্যে ভাড়া দেয়া হবে।
২. আনিস রায়হান- খুলনা প্রকৌশল বিশ্ববিধ্যালয়ের শিক্ষার্থী ছিলেন। ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের বন্যার্ত সহযোগিতা কেন্দ্রে এসে কাজ করেছেন কয়েকবার। দেশের মানুষের কথা ভাবেন। পাল্টে দিতে চার এই ভোগবাদী সমাজের চিত্র। যেখানে সবাই এক কাতারে দাঁড়িয়ে ভাবতে শিখবেন এমন দেশের স্বপ্নে বিভোর থাকেন। গড়ে তোলেন সংগঠন লাল পদক্ষেপ’।
দুজনের স্বপ্ন এক দেখে কৃষকদের মাঝে কাজের জন্য রামকৃষ্ণের সাথে মিলিত হন। দুজনে একসাথে কাজ করার সিদ্ধান্তে এল দুটি পৃথক সংগঠন লাল পদক্ষেপ’ আর ‘নয়া বাংলা’ এক হয়ে সংগঠনের নাম হয় নয়া বাংলার লাল পদক্ষেপ।
৩. মনিকা হালদার-মোড়েল গঞ্জের ব্র্যাক স্কুলের দিদিমনি। দেশের মানুষকে শিক্ষকত করে তুলতে, অধিকার সচেতন করে তুলতে চেয়েছেন। রামকৃষ্ণের সাথে যোগাযোগ ঘটায় সব কাজে একসাথে চলার সিদ্ধান্তে আসেন। কিন্তু সমাজ মানবে কেনো। মনিকার স্বামী অনেক আগেই তাকে আর তার ১২বছরের মেয়েকে ছেড়ে ভারতে পাড়ি জমিয়েছে। সেহেতু এমন নারীকে সমাজ ছাড় দিবে কেনো? সেই মানুষগুলোকে একদিন সাথে টানতে পারবেন এই স্বপ্ন দেখে এগিয়ে নিতে থাকেন কাজ।
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Asif, July 26th 2009 |
Posted in Human Rights, Judiciary
On 5 July, 17 people under the banner of an organisation called Lamppost gathered in front of the Indian High Commission to protest the Tipaimukh dam. Evidently, a scuffle with the police ensued, and two people were arrested.
Let’s see how our media covered the news. At least one of the reports below is outright false. Maybe all of them are. The truth doesn’t seem to be something that exists in today’s Bangladesh.
(More at Mukti)
jyoti, July 26th 2009 |
Posted in Journalism
AL took a small step towards consolidating democracy in Bangladesh this week. By holding its council meeting at the time it proposed, AL is affirming its commitment (even if tentatively) to political reforms that will make another 1/11 impossible. And the party should be congratulated for this. BNP also deserves kudos for sending a delegate (earlier this year, BNP was the first losing side in a democratic election to attend the cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony). It’s easy to see the glass as permamently empty in Bangladesh, with a lot of ‘ha hutash / gelo gelo’ at everything. But these are small signs – greenshoots — of improvement that should be acknowledged.
(Update: Jamaat should also be commended for holding a successful council).
By holding the council meeting now, AL leader has achieved two short-term tactical advantage over her rivals. But by doing it in the manner she did, she has also postponed tough decisions that could one day backfire. And she is yet to take one specific tough decision that will ultimately make or break her government. How she handles that decision will also determine whether our democracy can make the giant leap.
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tiktiki, July 25th 2009 |
Posted in Awami League, BNP, Democracy, Politics
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) 2008 Human Rights Report now translated into Bangla.
Following 2008 chapters are written by Drishtipat members:
1. Migrant Workers- Hana Shams Ahmed [Bangla | English]
2. Linguistic Minority- Annu Jalais [Bangla | English]
3. Religious Minority- Naeem Mohaiemen [Bangla | English]
Download other 2008 chapters
Download 2007 report
Ethnic Minority- Naeem Mohaiemen
Download 2006 report
Religious Minority- Naeem Mohaiemen
naeem, July 24th 2009 |
Posted in Ethnic Minority, Human Rights, Migrant workers, Religious minority
In a 2007 survey of how Bangladesh was viewed by the American foreign policy establishment, fellow Drishtipat Writer Tazreena Sajjad described a failed state thus.
In layman’s terms, they are generally categorised by what they do not, or cannot, do. Failing and failed states do not control their territory or their borders, creating the scope for groups to move in and out without hindrance. Such states also do not control many areas, which can be under control of rebels and warlords, and do not provide basic services (health, nutrition, infrastructure, public services). Finally, they cannot fulfill international treaty obligations, and agreements of international concern. The most extreme examples are, of course, places like Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Haiti and, increasingly, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Every year, the US based Foreign Policy magazine publishes an index of failed or failing states — details here. The index is a sum of 12 specific factors. A country can receive up to 10 points for each factor, with a higher score meaning a worse (ie failing) outcome. There may be serious methodological issues with trying to quantify something that is essentially qualitative. And one has to be very cautious about using an index that consistently ranks North Korea as a less failing state than Pakistan when we won’t find many Pakistanis willing to have Kim Il Jong running their country (this point is explained better here).
These methodological issues notwithstanding, the index is relevant for two reasons. Firstly, it is a high profile index that US foreign policy apparatchiks pay attention to. And when all is said and done, we still live in a world where if the American establishment is concerned that a particular country is ‘trouble’, it is likely that the country will find itself in trouble eventually. And second, we should still go through the index to see whether the findings reflect our ground realities.
For example, in 2008, Bangladesh scored higher than Haiti — a country used by Ms Sajjad as an ‘extreme example’ of a failed state. That is, after 18 months under an experiment that was supposed to improve our republic, Bangladesh was more of a failed state than Haiti — this unfortunate result didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who rejected that experiment from a very early stage.
(More at Mukti)
jyoti, July 19th 2009 |
Posted in Foreign Matters, Foreign Media, Politics
A week ago, in my first post on Tipaimukh, I made two points. First, as a downstream country, the dam will affect Bangladesh. Second, India has clear obligations to Bangladesh — legal, political, and moral obligations — on this issue that it is not meeting. I concluded that post with this:
India itself is downstream from rivers originating in China, and is vulnerable to the same practice that it is inflicting on us. India can be reminded of this politely, but firmly. And if the bilateral effort doesn’t go far, this must be raised at multilateral fora.
In this post I make two more points.
- Our political parties, on balance, are doing well on this issue.
- As concerned citizens, there is a lot we can do.
(More at Mukti)
jyoti, July 15th 2009 |
Tags: Tipaimukh
Posted in Environment, India
Syed Abul Moqsud
A prothom alo piece Translated by Tacit for UV
The histories of nations are similar to the mountainous streams of the Tipaimukh region. They never flow in a straight line. The history of the Bengali people of the Gangetic plain also show many such twists and turns.
India and Pakistan emerged as nations at the same time from the same womb. The new states were delivered in an environment of communalism. Pakistan, in theory and practice, was a communal Muslim state. Thus the rivalry with Hindu-ruled and Hindu-majority India, even though India and Pakistan shared a common history and a common heritage. No matter the government-level relations, the people of erstwhile East Pakistan had a normal, if not special, relationship with India. Neither the Muslim nor the Hindu communities are totally non-communal; yet there was a mutual empathy for each other’s sorrows. I remember the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. We were playing a friendly game of football in a remote village of Manikganj. The fastest way to disseminate information then was through the radio. While we getting ready to play, someone came and informed us that Nehru had passed away. We immediately decided not to commence with the match.
Read more…
Asif, July 14th 2009 |
Tags: Tipaimukh
Posted in Environment, India
“It is therefore not surprising that many in India are opposed to the Tipaimukh dam. Protests from local, indigenous people and the state governments of Manipur and Mizoram did hold up the project for a long time. It is true that by providing various monetary benefits and by offering free electricity, etc., the North East Electricity Production Company (NEEPCO), the current Tipaimukh implementing agency, has been able to pacify the state governments. However, many in India, particularly the indigenous people of the area, continue to oppose Tipaimukh dam project precisely because of the many reasons cited above” Read more…
khujeci_tomai, July 14th 2009 |
Tags: Tipaimukh
Posted in Environment, India
Ganotantry Party President and labor rights leader, Nurul Islam, and his son Islam Tamohar died in a suspicious fire days before the election in December 2008. Shortly afterwards, political leaders and activists rallied to demand a thorough investigation and call for justice. However, eight months on, the circumstances behind the suspicious deaths remain unresolved, political support is waning and there are indications that the case will be closed.
