BANGLADESHI BLOGS - an updateHere is another updated list of Bangladeshi Blogs:* The 3rd world view-Bangladesh* Mac's Blog -Bangladesh* The color of rain -UK* Close your eyes & try to see- Bangladesh* Bongo Vongo -UK* MoodLogic -Bangladesh* Inspirations and creative thoughts - Singapore* Dak Bangla Intelligence Scan - Bangladesh* Bring your own Shisha - UK* A sneak peek into Yawar's mind - Malaysia* Imtiaz's WeBlog - Bangladesh* Lungis.com - Modern Lungis for modern deshi man -USA* LiveJournal Bangladesh Community Blogs -Mostly USA* Anthology...

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COMFORTABLY NUMB? I have this guilty feeling being lucky among the people who are not affected in the recent flood. I am able to do nothing except donating money to the flood relief initiatives taken by the youths in all parts of the Dhaka city. They are singing in the streets and collecting donations. Many college and University students have established small camps where breads and oral saline are being prepared for the flood affected people. But the real challenge is to go to the flooded region and distribute the same. I am aware of the government's...

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FLOOD UPDATE The most happening thing in Bangladesh at the moment is of course flood. I believe the world media has covered that well. But what does it mean for the people of a large portion of the country affected by the flood waters? Many of the effected people have migrated to other places. The slum dwellers are the worse hit. Those who could not find a recluse are praying for the water to recede and waiting for their misery to end. The flooding in urban areas has completely destroyed the sewerage system making the environment stench with contaminated...

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QUOTES OF THE DAY * When a tree falls in the forest, does it call for help? NO. When a friend falls into an addiction, will they ask for help? NO. Help thy ones you hold close to your heart." - Dr. Anita Hoe * The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden. - Phillips Brooks 1835-1893, American Minister, Poet * When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching. - Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton...

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WATER WATER EVERYWHERE This year the flood is turning to be fatal like 1998. The lower parts of Dhaka City is submerged in floodwater. The streets of the commercial area Motijheel is covered with 6" - 1 feet of water. Although I am blessed not being effected with Flood water, not in home as well as in workplace, I am really numb with the plight of those effected. I did not expect that the flood will be this much devastating. The main problems of this type of flood is that it destroys the water and sewerage system. The water supplies gets contaminated...

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MINOR INFRACTIONS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES According to the Reporters sans Frontiers more journalists were physically attacked or threatened with death in Bangladesh than in any other country in 2003. Their report "internet under surveillance 2004", it claims that the internet in Bangladesh suffered the same fate as other medias. The intelligence services intercept e-mail as routinely as they tap phones. The report also tells of a disturbing amendment proposed by the government to: ...give the authorities access to personal customer data held by ISPs...

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TOWARDS MORE FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE ICT MODELS The Bangladesh Hajj online information website has proved to be a successful initiative taken by the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA) of Bangladesh. During this years hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, it has tracked more than 40,000 hajis using technologies as OMR & Barcode providing loads of informations online. The website's implementation cost of about Tk 20 million was borne by MORA from its own resources. But the operational expenses of maintaining the website are now covered through...

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LINKS OF THE DAY * Jeff Jarvis provides a starter list of Blogs to the US media guys. * This is for those who love spicy food. * Lance's famous two-wheeler offers a bike's-eye view from the Tour de France. * NEWSFEED is for bloggers, news junkies... * Blogging as self-education... * It's "weblog" not "web log" says Kottk...

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COPA AMERICA 2004 Another Brazil - Argentina Final is scheduled in Lima on 25th of July, 2004. Argentina reached the final after 11 years with style thrashing Colombia 3-0. Brazil edged past Uruguay in a Penalty shootout. This is like a India-Pakistan cricket final or a Germany-Netherlands Football meet. The tension of the fans are mounting sky-high. This time I think Argentina has a better Chance to win the c...

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CLICK HERE FOR THE RECENT POSTS DHAKA HOTTIES The latest internet craze in Dhaka is an online competition for the hottest male and female in Dhaka. Go get a look in the site www.dhakahotties.com for the details. They also have a cool offer: "Any girl living in Bangladesh who signs up with a picture will receive a Dhaka Hotties T-Shirt". Here is a review of the initiative where Omar, a co-founder says "Dhaka Hotties serves as a platform for the voice of the young people". Let youth rock. Hat Tip: Mich...

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BANGLADESH'S IMAGE PROBLEM Bangladesh is doing better than most less developed countries. But the image of Bangladesh as seen by outsiders is really not good because of the confrontal nature of Bangladesh politics. The backbiting and negative propaganda between the political parties are actually undermining the achievements. The ruling parties think that the opposition, who were in the previous tenure had ruined the country with wrong decisions and corruption. They think that they have lifted the image of the country immensely with their good...

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LOST IN TRANSLATION   Watched the movie yesterday. It was an unconventional drama with a touch of comedy. The writer/director Sofia Coppola won an Oscar for the category "Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen".  It is a story of a friendship between two dislocated married persons -A mid-aged American movie star and an young lady both staying at the same hotel in Tokyo. The both were suffering from loneliness and burdens of married life, where responsibilities overshadow personal feelings. The friendship does not involve sex,...

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LEAVE THE KIDS ALONE   It seems imposing government ideology in textbooks of schoolchildren is not only Bangladesh's problem. According to this report:   In the past five years, Indian schoolchildren of all faiths have learned quite a bit about the culture of the Hindu majority. The Communist Party of India, coalition partner of the ruling Congress Party called for yet another rewrite of Indian history, so that the schoolchildren can learn India's many cultures instead of focusing on the religion of the majority. Can't...

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CAUSE OF THE RECENT FLOOD NASA images show the cause of recent flood in India, Bangladesh & Nepal is due to excessive rainfa...

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ANCIENT MEDIEVAL STUPIDITY   Syed Kamran Mirza writes this controversial article "Killing by beheading is Islamic!" and tries read out the mindset of the Islamic terrorists, al-Qaeda jihadists, Osama-bin-laden, and so called Wahabi followers. He concludes: "Time has arrived now to identify and intervening the real cause of this ancient medieval stupidity. Real problem is with the ancient teachings of Islam (read Qur�an) which are outdated and no longer fitting the today�s civilized world. Nothing can change this precarious...

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FLOODS IN BANGLADESH I am sure everyone is aware of the flash flood in Bangladesh's north-eastern region because of the media publicity. Our achievements are seldom propagated this fast by the western media. Now I would like to state here what floods mean for Bangladesh. Floods are a recurring phenomenon in the country. Each year in Bangladesh about 26,000 sq km, 18% of the country is flooded. During severe floods, the affected area may exceed 55% of the total area of the country. Millions of people take refuge in the drier parts of the country...

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SLAVERY IN 21ST CENTURY This should have brought into light much earlier. At last Human Rights Watch publishes a 135 page report "Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia", which depicts how many of the immigrant workers are abused and treated as slaves. Non-Saudis make up 35 percent of Saudi Arabia's labor force. An estimated 1.5 million workers are from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and almost 900,000 each from Egypt, the Philippines and Sudan. There are an estimated 500,000 Indonesians and 350,000 from Sri Lanka,...

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DON'T BEAT YOUR WIFE! Once again another wife-beating incident took place in Dhaka, where an Imam let his muezzin beat his wife because she refused to give him permission to marry again. The drama continued when she was admitted to hospital and the Imam & Muezzin were sued by her father. The Imam, an activist of ruling coalition member Jamaat-e-Islami then sent some persons to threaten her. When a local TV channel went there for covering the story, they were driven away. Wife beating is not endorsed in Islam although some opportunist clerics...

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TODAYS POEM MY DEPENDENCE -by Rabindranath Tagore I like to be dependent, and so for ever with warmth and care of my mother my father, to love, kiss and embrace wear life happily in all their grace. I like to be dependent, and so for ever on my kith and kin, for they all shower harsh and warm advices, complaints full wondering, true and info giants. I like to be dependent, and so for ever for my friends, chat and want me near with domestic, family and romantic tips colleagues as well, guide me work at risks. I like to be dependent,...

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LYRICS TIME MONEY Money, get away. Get a good job with good pay and you're okay. Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash. New car, caviar, four star daydream, Think I'll buy me a football team. Money, it's a hit. Don't give me that do goody good bullshit. Money, it's a crime. Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie. Money, so they say Is the root of all evil today. EMPTY SPACES What shall we use To fill the empty spaces Where we used to talk? How shall I fill The final places? How should I complete the...

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Pluralism in Islam

I have been battered with one thought for the last couple of days. It all started since the Friday sermon I attended in a Mosque. The Imam's topic for this week was "Non-Muslims cannot be a friend of Muslim, so refrain from them". He was building his logics regarding this citing numerous examples from Quran and elsewhere, which did not contain those specific words. He tried to make everybody believe that every non-Muslim is Kafir and were born to hurt and undermine the Muslims, so Muslims should develop anger and hatred for them. Avoid them and...

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LIFESTYLE "A Bangladeshi takes no offence at having what he has served at dinner verbally torn to shreds. In his mind he has shown hospitality and his guest is simply being honest." - according to Helen Rowe. I would like to add here that there are some people who have a tendency to complain at everything, so its their nature to speak out their opinion and they seldom do it to undermine the host. Thats why the host is least bothered. And those who knows etiquette, try not to comment on the food, even knowing that the host would not have mind...

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Perils of a cough syrup aggrevated by smuggling Phensidyl is a codeine based popular cough syrup, which the kids like me were used to be prescribed in late 70s. Some discovered that if the whole bottle is consumed then it acts like a narcotic. In the early 80s, it was banned in Bangladesh under the new drug policy. But consumption of Phensidyl increased day-by-day since it became a contraband item. When Bangladeshi companies stopped producing it, Indian companies picked up the production adding sedative drugs to meet the demand through smuggling....

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Which came first? The fallacious arguments:

The controversy regarding the first proclaimer of independence of Bangladesh lingers on as the BNP government (led by Khaleda Zia, the wife of late president Ziaur Rahman) reprinted the history of the Liberation war with an amendment. The new one states that he is the first proclaimer of independence which was not clearly stated in the earlier version. The proclamation issue is rather controversial as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in his famous speech on March 7, 1971 declared sovereignty from Pakistan and declared that if he could not give any formal...

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QUOTES OF THE DAY * Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated." - Confucius BC 551-479, Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher * "Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist * "I have always observed that to succeed in the world a person must seem simple, yet wise." - Charles De Montesquieu 1689-1755, French Jurist, Political Philosophe...

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CLASS DIVISION ..And if you thought that class division is primarily a feature of the South Asian countries, read this....

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BE HAPPY The five simple rules to be happy: 1. Free your heart from hatred. 2. Free your mind from worries. 3. Live simply. 4. Give more. 5. Expect less Source: The Eyeran...

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The SMS revolution and Bangladesh Bangladesh has probably the lowest teledensity in the world as there are only about 2.3 telephones per 100 people. Almost 60% of the total telephone lines are provided by 4 Private cellphone operators (3 GSM & 1 CDMA). After the proliferation of cellphones, the world has seen a revolution in personal communication - The SMS (Short Message Service). Because of its low cost thanks to the wide network of the cellphone (across the borders) providers, it has become a popular way to communicate. Even in neighboring...

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Apostasy in Islam Arafat (without Yasser!) writes an interesting piece on this issue. He analyzed Rushdie and found: 'Where there is no belief, there is no blasphemy.' -from The Satanic Verses. Rushdie says: I am not a Muslim. I do not accept the charge of apostasy, because I have never in my adult life affirmed any belief, and what one has not affirmed one cannot be said to have apostasized from. The Islam I know states clearly that 'there can be no coercion in matters of religion.' Arafat concludes: Isn't that exactly what so many of...

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The relevance of understanding Islam Here is an interesting article which portrays the difference of understanding of Islam among Arab & non-Arab Muslims. * Islamic culture and customs of the people are different among both. * Many Arab Muslims consider Arab culture as Islamic culture. Many of the non-Arab Muslims argue that Arab culture is rooted in the land of Arabia and does not reflect Islamic culture. * Arab nationalism is based on Arab race and non-Arabs are not included. * People of non-Arab Muslim countries are willing to elect...

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Earthquake prone Dhaka Dhaka is fast becoming a megacity of humans and bricks. Unofficial sources say almost 13 million people now live in Dhaka city (which has by now encroached more barren land from surroundings and expanded). Housing industry is a big industry here and every day numerous houses are being built. According to this article, Dhaka region is prone to earthquake as it is on a seismic fault. It would only need a big earthquake (above 8.0) to destroy millions life as Dhaka city will in be rubles of concrete, metal and dust. So...

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Quote of the day

* "It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk."- Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956, German Dramatist, Poet * "I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."- Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA * "Quality is everyone's responsibility."- W. Edwards Deming 1900-1993, American Management Consultant Who Helped Turn Japan's Economy ...

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Much ado about bread Although a traditional breakfast of the Bangladeshis contain Roti/Chapati or Parata, urban people are habituated with breads (Pauruti) from bakeries. There are many alarming news like this about the quality of the bakeries products and the authorities inactivity to do something about it. Everybody is aware of it. That's why many try to find the best quality of breads in the market. In recent times I have purchased breads from different sources and brands to find out what quality is best and affordable. I was surprised with...

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Islami Banking in Bangladesh

There are almost 50 banks operating in Bangladesh (about 20 are government owned), out of which 6 or 7 (all private) are running on Islami Banking principles. There is a rising trend of low profile private banks to cash on the public sentiments of the Muslim majority country by opening a few additional branches which is said to be run on Islamic principles. But it has been reported that these banks do not adhere to the proper Islami banking model and is really a mask of traditional banking system. Some of them aim to attract certain investment...

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EURO 2004 update This years Euro champions league has produced some flare and surprises. As you can see from my voting template in the side bar, which I put before the games started, all of the predicted teams are out from the championship race. This is amazing as well as very welcoming. It proves that the difference between top teams and the rest of the teams are decreasing. Even team like Greece with no prior achievement are in the semi-finals. Last night I have watched the Portugal-Netherlands first semi-final and was disheartened by the...

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