'How perfect we are!

Chintito

Many well-to-do influential men (and women) of our society by dint of inheritance, not necessarily engaged in direct politics, are so well fed (not essentially food) and simultaneously so half read that the downtrodden (including the intelligentsia) wish they would drop dead. If only wishes were horses…

Some of them have developed so far out a tummy, allegorically speaking, that while not even a two-year old would consider it a cushion, although they consider a chair a long-term cushion, they gloat in the glory of no longer being able to see their toes in standing-up position, which is their position even when they are asleep, such is their main vain disdain. But they prevail. And then they begin to talk nonsense.

But let's not go any deeper into elements that have caused us much torment. And perhaps will. It is nauseating.
Turning to another thread, it is the norm of a politician if only to save his skin and that of his beloved neta/netri to strike the mallet on the opposition's head and to blame some entity as responsible for all woes of the country and the state. It apparently worked once, it no longer does.

At other times, it is the turn of the politicians to take the stick and they are blamed for everything from traffic jam to rise in the water level. It apparently worked once, it no longer does.

The problem is people take the cue from there on. Blame the other guy or the thingy. For instance: I woke up late because the batteries in the alarm clock ran down. I could not spell correctly in the application form because I thought it was not that important. And so on and so forth. FAQ: Should you not have changed the batteries even after the red warning indicator kept on blinking for the past week? Should you not have practised spelling more seriously, seeing that it was your name you were writing?

Things have as yet not gone that far that the MP under whose elaka a particular river has swollen, or in whose constituency the scorching begoon had bloomed is blamed for all the misfortunes. But we are game to point the finger at someone, usually at the weakest cub in the pack.

As a nation the Bangalee never ever sees a problematic situation as his creation, albeit unavoidably or unintentionally. It is always someone else.

From the point of the individual it is the government, a claim that immediately exonerates all and sundry because no particular officer feels accountable. If he does, depending on his rank, he can always pass the buck to his subordinate. No one has ever dared to blame a superior. If one does not have a subordinate, he is usually sacked or asked to resign.

That is why we never see many meaningful resignations, because no one feels that he is responsible even if he is. One must at this point commend the advisers of the CTG who did so. The feeling of owning a fault simply does not run in our veins.

From the corporate point of view it is always the other organisation. WASA sees fault in BRTC, RAJUK thinks it is the Biman, DESA holds BIWTC responsible, DCC wants to question Chittagong University. I tell you it is pretty wild out there.

In the case of the government it is not so much as passing the blame than almost threatening a group for all it failures. When the JMB was unearthed, it was the creation of the media. When there is rise in price of essentials, it is the fault of the sudhi samaj; for educating the public or what? When there is a flood, there is a hasty denial from the government machinery that there is none, as if it would be their fault if truly there was one.

Politics, not acted out by politicians alone, plays a very dubious role in absolving one of his liabilities, because in this country one can so easily draw sympathy by claiming that he has been victimised, even if there be not an iota of truth in the assertion.

Accepting responsibility in most cases solves half the problem. We should not include the Forest Eating Man and such other criminals in such generalisations. But, by and large, if accountability is ensured then one is conscious about his duties and obligations, and he can then try to carry them out to the best of his ability. That's all that is expected, to do my duty to God and my country.

Motto: If I fail it is because I have failed.

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