My Father

My Father Atul Bernard Rozario was born in an extended family that consisted of four sons and four daughters, at Choto Satanipara village, Kaliganj of Gazipur district. He is the seventh in order among the children of Polin Augustine Rozario, a farmer and well-known singer of Thakurer Geet (Ballad of St. Anthony).

Following footsteps of his father, he learned farming well, but also completed education upto matriculation. For a brief period in early 1980s, he was involved in clothes trade in capital Dhaka and married in late 1982. Then, he worked in Kuwait for about four years, but decided to return home forever after being seriously ill. He tried his luck in a number of jobs for years but quit for various reasons. After giving up on jobs, he devoted his attention on farming on a small amount of ancestral land he got from his late father. He randomly got into businesses of raw clothes (Than), and then into coconut, green banana, jackfruits etc. In 2001, he got a low-paid job as a caretaker of an NGO, which he continued for about seven years. In the long years between farming and NGO work, my father was cheated and denied well-deserved jobs in several places that saddened him forever. On personal and family front he was deprived of due support that could help him prosper in life.

Except for clothes trade in Dhaka and Kuwait job, my father didn't have a steady and good income. So, the family mostly struggled for survival amid poverty. He lost the first child, a daughter, within months of her birth. He fathered three sons, and for most part he couldn't afford their well-being including education due to poverty and low income. His inability to earn a better income, run the family well and negligence caused frustration, arrogance and inferiority complex in him for a long time. He ended up becoming an introvert and tried to hide pain within himself. Thus, his relationship with sons was a bit complex and formal.

Despite his shortcomings in prospering financially, my father is known for his legendary honesty, hardworking spirit and religiosity. He has always taken great pride in those virtues and dislikes dishonesty and cheating. He has been a great fan of classic movies and music, and once he had a large collection audio cassettes of Bengali and Hindi classical songs.

Today, my father is proud to see all three of his sons have become established in life after getting higher education. They became journalist, teacher and accountant in their professional arena. The family has bid farewell to poverty and life is relatively better and secure. He is happy that his lifelong struggle has paid off. May God grant him good health and mind to lead a happy life longer.

On Father's Day, I pray so that my father and all fathers in world be happy, proud and honored for their contributions in the family, the society,  the state and the world.

Happy Father's Day!

Children's dreams nipped in the bud

No caption needed, the picture tells it all. (Photo: GMB Akash)

Internationally acclaimed Bangladeshi photographer GMB Akash posted an image on Facebook on June 10 that showed an approximately 10-year-old girl, dressed in school uniform, riding an auto rickshaw with her father at a traffic signal in Dhaka. Standing nearby, a boy of her age was trying to sell popcorn to her.

The caption read: “At the age where he should play and study, he is earning to fill his stomach! No one deserves this childhood!”

Thousands expressed their shock at this sad reality, while dozens blamed the boy's parents and failed social and state systems for failing to ensure his proper upbringing.

The scene is shocking and heart-rending but it is a familiar picture in poorer and developing nations around the world. Millions of children continue to lose their childhood, potential and dreams every year.

Some 153 million children aged 5-17, or almost one out of 10, are engaged in child labor across the globe, including 73 million in hazardous jobs, according to the United Nations.

South Asia, which accounts for one third of the world’s poor, is home to 17 million child laborers and 50 million children are out of school, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported.

Poverty: The road not taken

An elderly trash collector at work in the upmarket Gulshan area of Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in this 2014 photo. An unfair socioeconomic system is blamed for increasing the rich-poor divide in the world. (Photo by Rock Ronald Rozario/ucanews)

Across the globe today, it is common for men to spend their days and nights worrying if they will have enough money to take care of their families and see their children educated.

The anxiety is well founded when we have a look at the global scenario of wealth and poverty as the world today marks International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

According to the United Nations, more than 700 million — or 10 percent —  of the world's population still live in extreme poverty and struggle to get by on a daily income of less than US$1.90, the global poverty line.

More than 100 feared dead in Bangladesh ferry accident

Relatives mourn a victim of ferry accident in Bangladesh (Photo: Shahadat Hossain)

At least 125 people were missing and presumed dead Tuesday after an overloaded ferry with more than 200 passengers capsized on Monday while crossing a river in central Bangladesh.

The ferry MV Pinak-6 sank in the Padma River in Munshiganj district, about 44 kms from Dhaka.

Rescuers managed to save about 100 people following the sinking in rough waters and strong currents.

Only two bodies were recovered as of Tuesday morning.

Local media reported the ferry was carrying 250 passengers but officials at Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) could not confirm the figure as ferry operators in Bangladesh rarely keep passenger lists.

“The ferry was allowed 85 people but was carrying at least three times that number,” said Abdus Salam, administrative director at Fire Service and Civil Defense department.

“It tilted over and sank as it reached middle of the river when strong currents hit and panicking people started moving from one side to the other,” he said.

Rescuers failed to locate the position of the sunken ferry until Tuesday morning due to bad weather.

Thousands of anxious relatives gathered on the riverbank soon after the accident. Aminul Islam, 32 said his elder brother Hafizul and his family were on the doomed ferry.

Bangladesh Church 'needs more support'

 

Father Andrew Small, OMI with a child in Sylhet of Bangladesh

The Catholic Church in Bangladesh needs more prayers and support from the Universal Church to carry out its missionary activities, according to Father Andrew Small, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. 

Fr Small, a confrere from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, was speaking yesterday at the end of a week-long tour of the country. Fr Small’s tour included visiting parishes and tea estate villages in the newly erected Sylhet diocese in northeastern Bangladesh. 

He also made a courtesy call on most of the local bishops at the Apostolic Nunciature in Dhaka, visited the country’s only Holy Spirit National Major Seminary and saw a remote mission center in Shimulia in Gazipur district. 

Appointed last year Fr Small praised the local Church saying it is making a significant difference in the lives of the poor and powerless in spite of the limited resources and influence at its disposal. 

“I was surprised to see the extreme poverty here, it was not known to me,” he said. “The world and the Church need to know this story,” he observed, adding: “People have lot of love and respect and joy with the little support they have from us, but they need to have more of our prayers and support.” 

He said the world needs to learn more from the Church in Bangladesh about how it has found a very good way to coexist in a Muslim majority country. 

Oblate Bishop Bejoy D’Cruze of Sylhet said Fr Andrew’s visit has brought renewed hope for the local Church. 

“The Church has lot to do for the poor and needy but lacks resources. Poor Catholics have strong faith amid numerous challenges they face every day and they do need more support from us,” he said.

END

Original Article:

Church 'needs more support'