Behind the innocent eyes

During our sixth grade, we would always come out of school and eat some foods like ice creams and cold drinks. They would be sold outside the campus. Every day, I would notice a small boy standing there and crying about his mother being very ill and that he needed to buy medicines for her. I ignored him for a few weeks but could not do it anymore. So on day, I went up to him and bought him an ice cream and gave him 100 taka to buy medicine for his mother. He was very happy and ran off. I felt very good and got on my car and headed towards home. Our car stood on a signal when I spotted the small boy in front of a shop. To my surprise, rather than buying medicines for his mother, he bought three packets of cigarettes. After buying them he came outside the shop and threw down the ice cream I bought him. Then, he took out a lighter and lighted one of the cigarettes and started smoking. I could not believe my eyes. He was barely twelve years old and he was smoking! Furthermore, citizens saw him but no one cared enough to try and stop him. Is this what poverty is doing to us!

Time or Life

Time or Life?

The other day I was going home from school like usual. We stood at a traffic signal near Banani when I noticed that another car, not following the red light, rushed past us. I looked away with a sigh noticing the wrong doings of the driver. Suddenly, I heard a loud screeching noise. I opened the window to see the car bumped into another jeep and rolled across the lane. Instantly, it caught fire and the windows broke shooting bits of glasses around. Within moments, people gathered around the car to see if there was anyone inside. Hurriedly, two men were taken to the hospital for their severe injuries while one woman was announced spot dead. These kinds of accidents are happening everyday in our lives. Maybe the driver was driving fast to reach some place in time. Even then, we should not try to save time where it can cost us our own lives. It’s high time that we start maintaining the traffic rules. After all, nothing is more important than your own life.  

My Precious Duster

My Precious Duster

During our fifth grade, we used to have a language teacher whom none of us could stand. Whenever she entered the class room, she would only bang the duster and shout. We even asked our supervisor to change the teacher. After her refusal, we decided to do something on our own. So one day, we took the duster and threw it out of the window. When she came to the class, she started looking for the duster. She asked us the whereabouts of her precious item and we all told her that we had no clue. Finally she called in the supervisor. She started screaming and claimed justice. At last she cooled down when the supervisor said that she will be given two new dusters. After her class was over, we all rejoiced to see the huge drama our action caused and planned to do the same with the new dusters. But the next time we went to do the same, um… let’s not talk about that… 

IPad rivals have better chance in Europe

London, Aug 9 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Would-be rivals to Apple's iPad have more of a chance in Europe than they do in the United States, but they need to cut prices fast to grasp the opportunity, IT research firm Forrester said on Tuesday. Apple's relatively small retail presence in Europe -- with 52 stores compared with 238 in the United States -- offers a chance to the likes of Samsung, Acer and Research in Motion, Forrester said. But their prices cannot yet compete with Apple, which has far larger scale in the tablet market and an efficient supply chain. Forrester said emerging challengers from China and Taiwan would likely step in soon with cheaper offerings. "There is this opportunity for iPad challengers, but the competition is very fragmented. Competing with Apple will require a different approach from what we've seen so far," said analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, the author of the Forrester report. Apple still has the tablet-computer market almost to itself after launching the iPad a year and a half ago. It has sold close to 30 million iPads, whose prices start at about $500. Forrester expects Apple to sell 80 percent of all consumer tablets in the United States and 70 percent in Europe this year. It expects 2011 worldwide tablet sales to reach 48 million units, with half of those sold in the United States, 30 percent in Europe, 15 percent in Asia and 5 percent in Latin America. Epps said local content and good retail outlets, along with lower prices, were essential to succeed against Apple. "A competitor to Apple would have to put together the right content, the right price and the right channel strategy. There isn't anyone that has all three," she said. Tablets are on sale in Europe from Acer, Archos, Asus, HP, Motorola, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Samsung and Toshiba. Dell has not launched its new, 10-inch Streak tabloid in Europe or North America yet but is concentrating on China, where it is number two behind Lenovo and distributes its products through 10,000 retail outlets. "Manufacturers, retailers and operators we spoke with all commented on the failure of the first 7-inch tablets that attempted to compete with the iPad," Forrester wrote. "The newer generation of iPad challengers, such as the 10-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Acer Iconia Tab, are getting better reception, but they're still at a disadvantage to Apple in terms of channel strategy." Forrester surveyed almost 14,000 online adult consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Britain, and also interviewed product strategists from manufacturers, telecommunications operators and retailers. Between 2 percent and 7 percent of the consumers surveyed, depending on the country, said they owned a tablet, and a further 10 percent to 14 percent said they were interested in buying one. Spain had the highest ownership and France the lowest, while Germans were most interested in buying a tablet. In Britain, where Apple has 30 of its European stores, ownership was relatively low at 3 percent. bdnews24.com/jr 1105h