Monitor: Stories from around the world

Dhaka Courier

Bangladesh

A GREAT section of people in rural areas have faith in fakirs (mendicant ascetics) and their abilities to cure the seemingly incurable. Still people go on believing in "fakir power" and spend money on them. The illiterate and God-fearing poor people are more superstitious. Even some rich people blindly follow the fakirs whose number is unrecorded in Bangladesh. But the fakirs still in rural areas find their profession more rewarding. Surprisingly, even successful politicians and businessmen visit the fakirs, consult them and take their advice before taking any major decision. The desperate young men and women also often seek the advice of these fakirs in matters of their love affairs.

The Bermuda

Sun

EVER WONDER why local grocery stores and supermarkets have the audacity to offer for sale products that are past their "sell by" date? The short answer is - because they can. In fact, under current law, the products don't even have to be labelled at all. Bermudians have been left out of the protection afforded by food labelling laws as exist in the United States, Canada and Europe. But, with a new consumer protection law in the offing, that may soon change.