THE BEST OF BANGLADESH -part 1We are quick to point fingers at all that puts Bangladesh on the map as a developing nation –poverty, floods, traffic jams etc. It’s time we appreciated the many perks it has to offer. – Samai Haider, Ice TodayThe lifestyle magazine 'Ice Today' brings out a feature called the best of Bangladesh in their October issue. This is a must read for those who are interested in all the positive sides of Bangladesh.Here is a list of the Ice Today picks of the Bangladesh bests.* Bay of Bengal – Best Whale spotting* Guide Tours...
October 30, 2005
WHAT DO THEY WANT?Yesterday I was shocked to hear the news about the Delhi bomb blasts (news and roundups in Desipundit & Gatewaypundit blogs) in crowded places. All three explosions were triggered within minutes of one another, indicating the precise planning by the perpetrators. Atleast 59 people died and scores of others injured. How could they do this to the inncocent civilians who were shopping for the Diwali and Eid festivals. An obscure...
A PEEK INTO THE BANGLADESH BLOGOSPHERE(crossposted in the Global Voices Online)Bangladesh in the eyes of the foreigners:Kirstel terms Ashulia, 40 kilometres from Dhaka centre as 'one of the nicest and most romantic places nearby Dhaka'. Robin Mead of ‘Bangladesh backchat’ posts some beautiful pictures of the largest shopping mall in Bangladesh -The Bashundhara City Shopping Complex in Dhaka. Jo of Bideshi Blonde feats Banglish.Bangladeshi life and aspirations:Bangladeshi rock star cum blogger Maqsood aka Mac writes an essay called ‘Bengali music:...
MONGA BLUESIt is very sad that yet another year Monga (a famine like condition) is taking its toll on hundreds and thousands of Bangladeshis in the northern region. Everybody know that in Bangladesh, whoever comes to power, look after the interest of the rich and ignore the poor. In the national budget, there are special allocations for tackling Monga, but till today Tk. 500 million lies unutilized due to bureaucracy. Because of rampant corruption a large portion of these relief would go to the touts and the hungry will remain without food. And...
October 27, 2005
THE SERPENT HISSESThe Bangladesh security forces are caught up in the three way strangle-hold. Firstly, they are very busy catching the extremists, who were behind the August 17 bombings. Secondly they have the duty to keep the law and order situation well in the busy month before the Eid festival. Thirdly the SAARC summit is impending within a fortnight.So far more than 500 extremists have been captured and more are already caught in the web, only to be put behind bars. But in recent time the govt. has instructed the security forces (police/RAB)...
October 26, 2005
TATA BYE BYEMore bad news. India's Tata Group's proposed $2.5 billion investment in four ventures in Bangladesh may be prolonged. Some are predicting that there is a serious chance of the deal being cancelled. Nitin blames the status quo on the Khaleda Zia government’s reflexive antagonism towards India. He comments that "hauling a mighty Indian company through the coals may boost certain egos in Dhaka, but they dent international confidence in a country that sorely needs investment and aid". He adds further:"Cocking a snook at India at every given...
October 25, 2005
KILL OR CUREAn interesting BBC documentary film "Kill or Cure" on Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is being aired. If you haven't seen it here are the future airing times on BBC World TV:Tuesday (October 25, 2005) - GMT 16:30 (BST +6)Wednesday (October 26, 2005) - GMT 1:30 & 7:30 (BST +6)The documentary is based on the work of Microbiologists Dr. Richard Adegbola of Gambia and Prof. Samir K Saha of Banglade...
October 23, 2005
October 22, 2005
ROAD TO EASTBangladesh had long sought a land port with India for Bangladesh’s land exports to Nepal, Bhutan and northeastern Indian region. When the Banglabandha port in Panchagarh, the extreme North of Bangladesh was opened last year, people had high hopes.It is a 61 km corridor between Bangladesh & Nepal & 68 km corridor between Bangladesh & Bhutan. Bangladesh immediately opened an immigration office but India is yet to set up one at their end despite repeated requests from Nepal and Bangladesh.The government of Nepal made a deal...
THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH RE-RELEASEDVia Unheard Voices, "the original Concert for Bangladesh and associated merchandising raised $15m, which was distributed through UNICEF, the United Nations' Children’s Fund."I had wrote about this concert in details earlier.The great news is: "On October 24, Warner Music is releasing the double DVD and CD 'The Concert For Bangladesh – George Harrison & friends'. The package includes the original 99 minutes...
October 20, 2005
October 19, 2005
BANGLADESHI BLOGS - another updateHere is another updated list of Bangladeshi Blogs after trimming dead links (arranged in no particular order):* The 3rd world view-Bangladesh* Unheard Voices - A Drishtipat Group Blog Initiative -USA* 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*...
MOST CORRUPT NATION - ANOTHER DISCLAIMERIt's not a surprise anymore as for the fifth year in a row Bangladesh has achieved the lowest position in Transparency International (TI)'s corruption perception index (CPI). The government has as usual refuted the report saying:"The level of corruption had come down, but progress was not so visible because of a media campaign and deliberate rumours." Two years ago I was apprehensive about the methodology and the context of generalization in the report. But as the same result is happening again and again...
October 18, 2005
QUOTE OF THE DAY The definition of nostalgia by Milan Kundera:"The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return... What in English is called "homesickness." Or in German: Heimweh. In Dutch: heimwee. But this reduces that great notion to just its spatial element. One of the oldest European languages, Icelandic (like English) makes a distinction between two terms: söknuður: nostalgia in its general sense; and heimprá; longing for the homeland... In that etymological...
OIC's ROLEAn editorial in the Pakistan Times slates OIC for being nonchalant in rendering help and assistance to overcome the consequences of the recent Pakistan earthquake. All the organization has done so far is to offer a $100,000 token emergency assistance. Whereas UN played a significant role. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Libya, Egypt and many more Muslim States (apart from a number of non-Muslim countries in the East and West—with America atop) are sending medical missions,...
October 17, 2005
72 VIRGINSTime for a good laugh. Saudi blogger Alhamedi discusses the controversial myth of 72 virgins waiting for each Muslim male in heaven. Some excerpts:...just before one of the 2003 attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia, an attacker who was in contact with his superiors was heard on the mobile phone counting down the seconds to the 'beautiful maidens.' His last words were: 'One second to the 'beautiful maidens.' He then blew himself up.It's not in the Quran, it's in a Hadith somewhere. A Hadith is a reported saying of Mohammad,...
October 16, 2005
SOUTH ASIAN BLOG ROUNDUPBangladesh:- Rifat of ‘Close your eyes and try to see’ discusses premarital sex in the context of Bangladesh.- Shappir of ‘Bring your own Shisha’ recollects the story of Joseph/Yusuf/Yosef, the prophet of three religions to uphold the virtue of forgiveness.- Razib of ‘Me, myself and Bangladesh’ links to a report that designers from Bangladesh are using khadi for designing bridal sarees and suits. What more they are fast becoming popular in India.- Sadiq tells about the golden rules of various religions in his blog “Inspirations...
October 15, 2005
QUOTE OF THE DAY "You know, we bloggers are always writing about principles, about freedom of speech, about standing up for what we believe in, for the truth. It’s very easy to write all that. But here I’m being tested on those principles in real life. If I don’t stand by those principles now, I will lose all respect for myself."- Indian Blogger Gaurav Sabnis, on his decision to quit his job from IBM over IIPM controve...
HER NAME IS BANGLADESHKarishma Huda writes a wonderful piece on Bangladesh. Below is a truncated version:I call Bangladesh a woman. Media perceptions, which often shape our own perceptions and realities, call Bangladesh a tragic woman. As a child she was violently raped by colonization, and as an adult brutally battered through war. She was able to secure her own independence and freedom, only to be subjected to one violent relationship after another - one with hunger, one with famine, one with natural disasters, one with political corruptness,...
October 11, 2005
WE APOLOGIZE TO YOU DEEPALIVia unheard voices I found this touching piece of writing by Sumanta Aslam in the Daily Prothom Alo. For the non-Bengali readers below is a truncated translation.One tiny NewsIt was decided Deepali would eat lunch and her little brother dinner. But that day the little one suffered from extra hunger. Being unable to wait till night he ate his sister's lunch. However, Deepali is used to the situation and carried on without food till the evening. But soon she was defeated by hunger. She ended all the hunger and thirst by...
October 10, 2005
TODAY'S LINKS* David Frost joins Al-Jazeera TV.* The new look of Auto-Rickshaw.* What impacts will South Asia earthquake have on war on terrorism?* Angela Merkel set to take over as the first woman German leader.* "The list" of Islamic terror attacks across the world since September 11th, 2001.* Singapore jails two bloggers for racist posts attacking the city-state's mostly-Muslim ethnic Malay community.* Neo-racism in the ...
October 09, 2005
WHEN THE EARTH SHAKESA major earthquake rocked Pakistan, North India & Afghanistan at 03:50 UTC on 8 October 2005. The epicentre was in the Pir Panjal Mountains near the town of Muzaffarabad. The main quake and subsequent 20 aftershocks jolted major cities of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted southern and central Bangladesh on Saturday, whipping up high waves in the Bay of Bengal (source) However no causualties reported till now. The report adds:The tremor lasted about 20 seconds,...
BRANDING BANGLADESHBangladesh has long been branded by the international media as a nation cursed with natural disasters and political turmoil. The recent activities of the extremists and the failure of the political parties to unite against these threats have earned Bangladesh ill repute. But this needs to change for the betterment of a prospective nation. You need to give the people hope and increase their morale so that they can get overcome all the obstacles.According to a news report in the Financial Express (via Asif), the government has...
October 08, 2005
TODAY'S LINKS* A Bangladeshi student shows the way.* The Muslimreviewer.com is an Internet resource committed to confronting online extremism. This website will help you identify extremist websites and provide info about what you can do to remove them.* Formula for Coca Cola leaked online.* Ten-Minute Guide To Deploying VoIP.* The World’s first free 1 TeraByte email servi...
DURGA PUJA IN BANGLADESHDurga Puja is the most important religious festival of the Bengali Hindus (West Bengal in India & Bangladesh). It is the worship of the goddess Durga. The actual period of the worship varies from the nine preceding days Navaratri (N. India) to the five days (Bengal / Orissa).Although Bangladesh is a Muslim majority state, there are a considerable number (About 20 million) of Hindus in the country. The remarkable thing is that this year's Puja (October 9-13) has coincided with the Muslim holy month Ramadan so the festivity...
SOUTH ASIAN BLOG ROUNDUP(Crossposted in the Global Voices Online.)Bangladesh:- Subhan shares some typical & unique Bangladeshi styles from personal observations in a post called “You know you are Bangladeshi when*@#!!”- Arafat of ‘Anthology’ analyses a news about “the first Muslim gay marriage in Pakistan” in the light of a previous discussion of the subject which reveals:"In sharp contrast to Christianity, which considers homosexuality to be a pathological character defect and homosexuals to be abnormal, perverted individuals, Islamic jurisprudence...
October 05, 2005
A PEEK INTO THE FUTUREWhile searching for the roots of hindu rage against the Muslims, Pakistani blogger Haroon Moghul comes across an website called hindutva. This site describes the perspective of a certain subset of virulently Islamophobic, fascist Hindu nationalism. Just to give a flavour of the hatred against the Muslims, in an analysis of the latest global happenings, Robin MacArthur of New Jersey predicts the following:Shape of things to come in Iraq (and the world over)• US launches an air blitz of Iran followed by a land invasion and sets...
October 04, 2005
A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR POLICE DEPT.The Bangladesh police & their elite force RAB have shown great performance in arresting over 500 suspects of the August 17 bombings. Their latest cap includes arresting Mufti Hannan, trained and fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan and a kingpin of the Islamic militants in Bangladesh. Hannan was the prime suspect of the assassination attempt of Sheikh Hasina in July 2000. It took 5 years to track him down. The question is why? Is the police force incompetent or corrupt? Not always. They are just helpless...
MEANING OF LIFESadiq, the most humble blogger I know, raises a couple of ultimate questions which are widely discussed in philosophical, religious and other aspects. Check out the interesting thoughts left by many. My responses were:1. What is the meaning of life?From the solar systems to our internal organisms all have been created (by God) in order to serve different purposes. It is for us to harmonize with this order.So why do we need a meaning?"Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are...
QUOTE OF THE DAY "For the first time in 33 years, Jews and Muslims will mark the start of their most sacred seasons on the same day this week. Rosh Hashana -- the Jewish New Year that begins the 10-day period known as the Days of Awe -- and the monthlong Islamic fast of Ramadan fall on Tuesday.What's more, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a relatively minor Christian holiday mostly commemorated by Roman Catholics, also will be celebrated that day. (source)All of a sudden on the same day most Jews, Muslims, and some Catholics will be hungry during...
October 03, 2005
TREADLE PUMPThis is pretty amazing: Treadle pumps were first introduced into Bangladesh in the early eighties and, since then, over a million have been sold there. They are now making their mark in Africa. Countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Niger have adopted the idea, changed the design slightly to suit local conditions and begun marketing the pump with great success. The pumps cost between $ 50 and $ 120 depending on the country. (source)The treadle pump is cost effective; it cost US$ 20 in Bangladesh and generates US$ 100 or more...
QUOTE OF THE DAY "It's very difficult being a moderate Muslim these days. The vast majority of Muslims are moderate, wouldn't hurt a fly, want to do nothing more than live in peace, earn a living, bring up their families. Yet they constantly have to apologize for their religion because the whole Islamic PR effort is being driven by the crazies.I used to feel sorry for the Christians in Northern Ireland, because they had terrorists killing in their name. But that’s all over. And the chilling fact is that these days, wherever there is any trouble...
October 02, 2005
DATASHAK: SUSPECTED AS WEEDDatashak (Amaranth) are the herbaceous plants of the genus Amaranthus, family Amaranthaceae, native to the India, Bangladesh and Indo-Chinese region (source). The tender leaves are fried and stems are generally cooked with fish or other vegetables. The leaves and stems are rich in vitamin A and C, calcium and iron.It finally become known to many in USA thanks to the federal agents, who raided a Muslim (deobondi) campground in Moodus, CT Friday morning, seizing specimens and seeds from what they believe is datashak. According...
QUOTE OF THE DAY "NGOs don't really exist for the sake of helping the people that they mention in their mission statements. They exist because there is all this funding coming from abroad for development work and stuff, and they need someone to coordinate things on this end, and thus jobs are born, so they pretty much just exist because there are people who want the jobs that are created by the funding. In other words, they don't exist because people have an actual genuine desire to help."- Ilyeana, an US expat volunteering for an NGO in Bangl...
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