Bangladesh blogger reports that First Solution, a London based finance company has been accused of unethical business standards by a wide section of the British Bangladeshi Community. It cashed on the half a million strong British Bangladeshi community, who relied on it for sending money home or credit solutions.Accusations and speculations against this company suggest, it may have encountered huge-losses in speculative currency trading.Hope the accused company does not turn out to be the last solution for many.Update: Its official. The New Nation...
June 30, 2007
Nuclear dreams
In an interesting development Bangladesh's caretaker government has acknowledged that it wants to build a nuclear power plant to tackle its electricity shortages. There is already an offer from South Korea to finance 60% of the project and The International Atomic Energy Commission, the global nuclear watchdog has approved it (report). Blogger Shahzaman Mazumder says no to the move because it will be dangerous for Bangladesh for two main reasons: 1. Problems in disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste.2. Bangladesh is the most densely populated...
Yellow Journalism: The state of Bangladeshi News papers
Ragib Hasan reports that Bangla Newspaper "The Daily Dinkal" photoshoped a picture to show that a huge crowd gathered at Ziaur Rahman's (BNP's founder and late President of Bangladesh) shrine. Please note the circles in the picture he posted which clearly shows the forgery. Here is the original article which boasts that millions of people did pay homage to him on that d...
June 29, 2007
How blogs can be used...
Zo people (Burma) or Zou people (India) are an indigenous tribe of Tibeto-Burman race living mainly in parts of Burma, India, Bangladesh and the world. In Bangladesh they are known as Lushai.Zo Aw, a monthly magazine from Guwahati, Assam, India has been trying to promote news the voices of the Zo people since the early 1980s. Now Zo Aw publications have a blog and are urging to start using blogs to make it a toll for integration of the Zo people. Here is the blogger Carey Suante's views:"One of the main problems of integration of Zo people is the...
Bangladesh: rediscovering cultural roots, facing challenges and acknowledging successes
"How effectively a society is able to cope with the challenges it faces depend largely on its culture." Shahzaman Mazumder tries to find the cultural roots of Bangladesh and provides a good analysis on the Bangladeshis:"Mostly fishermen, weavers, potters, and small farmers inhibited the territory that is today called Bangladesh, an extremely fertile delta. The many rivers and even more tributaries, marshes, and canals isolated communities and never allowed large indigenous political organization.This isolation among apparently nearby communities...
June 27, 2007
Sri Lanka vs. Bangladesh Live cricket Links
Check out this live sopcast link. This is one test I decided not to foll...
June 25, 2007
Today's Links
* Bangla’s musical conquest in Germany.* Drunken driving, unlicensed gun and Joy.* World’s longest beach hidden in Bangladesh.* Muslim face of the US Marines.* It’s true! Four Asians land in jail for cannibali...
Bangladesh hearts USA
I think in 2005 I wrote about Bangladesh Post office (govt. owned) booths in rural areas offering services to customers (who want to emigrate to USA) to help applying online for DV Lottery. One can imagine that it may be a government ploy to tackle the overpopulation in the country.Hermie, a Dutch expatriate in Dhaka points to another instance:Two days before our travel, we were told, that from that day onwards, we would have to e-register through a special website. There was no choice: from today, the website was accessible and thus, e-registration...
June 24, 2007
Wasted investment opportunities
According to the Bangkok post Thai Airways unilaterally scrapped a 10 year long agreement to manage the Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong. The reasons cited were delays in handing over the management due to "protests from Biman Bangladeshi Airlines employees and opposition from Bangladeshi politicians".It remains to be seen who benefited from the cancellation. Ps: Interestingly an identical article appeared in Salah Uddin Shoaib Chowdhury's Weely Blitz. I am wondering whether this was done with consent or simply a copyright violati...
Where time stands still
I am back from the small village KleinArl in Salzburg state of Austria after a long holiday. The retreat was superb as it was a lovely place. It was a treat for the eyes- the picture perfect houses in a height of about 1000 meter above sea level and some were even clinging on hill slopes. It is primarily a ski-attraction and a Winter holiday heaven.Probably its a bit boring now for many because of limited activities in Summer. The empty hotels and...
June 17, 2007
June 16, 2007
Natural disaster and the responsibilities of bloggers
Last Monday rain-triggered mudslides buried dozens of hillside shanty homes in Chittagong killing at least 134 people. This is just another piece of tragic news that we read everyday. As a blogger how do you respond to it? Arild Klokkerhaug is an entrepreneur, blogger and the man behind the largest Bangla blogging platform "Bandh Bhanger Awaaj". Once again he led from the front to show how the blog community could mobilize in a tragic situation...
Picture of the day
Ryanair ad: "Nein zum Lufthansa Kerosinzuschlag" (No to Lufthansa kerosene surcharge) - trying to get attention of German custome...
June 14, 2007
London allures
I hope you have noticed the lack of post in my blog recently. I had an exam yesterday in London and I hate exams for the amount of pressure it creates on a person.I am writing from my friend's place near Bethnal Green in Tower hamlets, which is also known as Banglatown. The next street is the famous Brick Lane. You feel so much at home here (photos coming soon). Its normal here that your friend comes down to the street to greet you in his Lungi. London's financial hub is Liverpool street and it is located about 10-15 minutes walk from Banglatown....
June 08, 2007
Quote of the day
"Bangladesh is one of the richest lands, rich on cheerfulness." - Anusheh Anadil, lead singer of Bangla band in the Deine Stimmen Gegen Armut Concert in Rostock."Anusheh has a strong foothold on classical music having trained in Indian raga music from a very young age. Anusheh also writes her own lyrics and found a lot that she could relate to in the traditional spiritual folk songs of Bengal.It was the content which first attracted her, and naturally...
Bangla (Band) @ Stimmen Gegen Armut 07.06.2007 in Rostock
Ami Takdhum Takdhum bajai Bangladesher DholMore videos of Bangla band (lead Anusheh) from a GIG in Ind...
Verboten
The Abendzeitung had an interesting article last month (15.May.2007) describing all the minor misdemeanors that are "verboten" (forbidden) under local Munich law. As foreigners here we often joke about how the Germans love their rules and regulations. From the tone of this article it seems that even the Germans themselves get surprised at how many petty laws they've instigated. Here are some examples of the more interesting regulations, together with the fines you have to pay if caught breaking them:*Spitting chewing gum onto the street - €10 for...
June 07, 2007
World Bank's versatile expertise
Now they are helping find "stolen assets" of Bangladesh. They just can't stop poking their nose in the developing countri...
June 06, 2007
Globalization
From English Russia Blog:"Remains of Bangladesh Air Forces helicopters are towed around Russian city St. Petersburg and nobody seem to care."See the pi...
June 05, 2007
Netherlands in a day
Goethe once said that traveling is like gambling. Because if you expect less, you receive, more or less than what you hoped for and you win. I did not know what to expect when I planned the one day trip to the Netherlands. We had some relatives from Bangladesh who were keen to visit a neighboring country. I promised them that I will take them to the land of the flowers. But they were just a month late for the tulip season. Still they had Netherlands...
June 03, 2007
The true faces of corruption
If one wonder why corruption persists in Bangladesh (or any other country) they need to look at the traits of human beings. In a social system where the might and rich are right and have less accountability they want either less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.Bangladesh is rattling with the recent discoveries of corruptions. If you want to have an idea then read about the Forest King, whom BBC named as cash hoard. This man's wife was changing models of cars many times a year and yet his mother lived in poverty in his village.Arrested...
June 02, 2007
Himal South Asian features Bangladesh's current situation
Himal South Asian is Southasia’s first and only regional magazine published and distributed by The Southasia Trust, Lalitpur, Nepal. According to Himal its May issue was censored by authorities in Bangladesh."The issue has been allowed to be distributed only after the pages containing the editorial 'Khaki Politics in Dhaka' and the article 'The Dhaka Regime's Messy Surgery' were removed."Those who do not know about the screening system of the authorities,...
Today's Links
* Phantom of the opera.* Conversation with photo-journalist Shahidul Alam.* Bangladesh: Photography students receive death threats.* Bangladesh: Will Hasina throw in the towel?* Former Bangladeshi PM held for possession of alcohol.* Some parting comments of Whatmore on Bangladesh cricket & Banglade...
June 01, 2007
Towards a meaningful and representative global conversation
Global Voices recently announced its new outreach project 'Rising Voices'.This project will try to fix the imbalance in the so called global conversation:"..certain regions of the world and certain demographics within those regions have benefited from the boom in citizen media more than others. Most bloggers and podcasters still tend to be middle or upper-middle class. Most have a college-level education. Most live in large cities. And of the 70...
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