After the devastating blow of cyclone Sidr, which has claimed about 5000 lives (unofficial figures) and damages were in billions of dollars, Bangladesh received good responses from world communities. Many nations pledged millions of dollars of donations to overcome this loss. But after two months only a portion of the donations reached Bangladesh.Pakistan and India had sent rice as aid among other things. This could be an welcome gift to the hundreds of thousands of Sidr victims as the price of rice soared in the country due to inflation. However...
January 30, 2008
Arifur Rahman is yet to be freed
I reported earlier via Shadakalo blog that Arif was quietly released 2 months ago, and newspapers were asked not to report on it. But seems it was not true. Today a confirmation came from a group mail that he is still in a cell with one another person but seems in good spirits. Lawyers are moving the case and a decision is expected next month. Let's hope that he is freed soon.Background:* Bangladesh: yet another Muhammad cartoon controversy* Attack...
January 28, 2008
Bangladesh: Bloggers discussing cinema, politics, health, photography and history
(First published in Global Voices Online)The Bangladeshi film industry nicknamed Dhallywood used to produce decent films for the Bangladeshi society. But with the competition of superior quality pictures from Hollywood and Bollywood, which conquered Bangladesh market and the people with the help of cheap bootleg VCD/DVDs, Dhallywood was in trouble in the last decade. Keeping the strict censorship rule in a predominantly Muslim society in mind,...
January 27, 2008
Today's Links
* Think Different – Buy a Bigger Envelope!* What is "Asia" and what is "Commons" anyway?* Free Market NGOs in Bangladesh* It was a Tk. 30m "donation" * Social Capital – Thoughts from Traffic in Dhaka.* Ending the downward spiral in Bangladesh.* Bangladesh in Global Competitiveness Repo...
January 26, 2008
Bolivian Voices featured by BBC
Voces Bolivianas, one of the first five recipients of a Rising Voices citizen media outreach award, was featured yesterday on the BBC program, The World. In the four minute feature Ruxandra Guidi interviews project facilitator Mario Duran and Voces Bolivianas participant and Aymara translator, Dora Romero.Listen to the program: Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA Via Rising Voic...
January 25, 2008
Xenophobia or not that is the question
I wrote earlier about how Roland Koch, the governor of the western state of Hesse in Germany stirred an uproar with his anti-immigrant rhetorics possibly as an election strategy. The Spiegel Online International recently did a soul searching on "Germany's homegrown intolerance". Spiegel Online editor David Crossland, who was born in Bonn to English parents argued, "rather than rail against 'criminal young foreigners,' the country ought to be doing more to welcome its minorities".He cited the racial discriminations he faced for speaking in English...
Today's Links
* 935 False Statements that Led a Nation to War* Ignorance Behind Veil Uproar: Ridley* How China brought down the Berlin Wall* Davos 2008: Bill Gates' Creative Capitalism and Muhammad Yunus' Social Busin...
January 22, 2008
Social Media Outreach: Non-Profits are the Key
(First Published in Rising Voices)We often talk about extending the global conversation to every corner of the world with the use of social media tools. The means to do this are manifold and depend upon the support and implementation of local institutions. The main impediment to this cause is the lack of awareness of the freely available tools available to enter the global conversation and the absence of basic communication infrastructure in the...
Today's Links
* Good intentions create child prostitution.* Monsoon Letters: Bangladeshi writers writing, translating, transcreating in English. Biographies, bibliographies, critical reviews.* How social is the world according to Facebook?* Israeli atrocity on Gaza civilians.* ACTION ALERT: Holocaust in Ga...
January 21, 2008
January 18, 2008
The Green Children
The Green Children is a young band of musicians inspired by Professor Muhammad Yunus. After visiting Bangladesh and India to learn more about microcredit, The Green Children were incredibly inspired by the borrowers they met with. From its website:Milla Sunde and Tom Bevan established The Green Children Foundation to support microcredit, education and healthcare. Last year, The Green Children shot a music video in Bangladesh to celebrate the work...
January 17, 2008
World's best selling consumer product
It is none other than Nokia 1100, which was ubiquitous in Bangladesh until recently as the later models appeared. Via Ga...
Techguide
* Technology in 2008.* PC Magazine's 100 favorite blogs* Helpful online tools for free* How nonprofits can use Twitter: to listen!* Are you using Web 2.0 tools in your jobs?* Top ten rules for limiting legal risk* Training a new generation of citizen journalists around the World.* Traditional media ready to elevate the conversation online — with moderation* 5 places to watch movies online legally — and f...
The State of private Health Service in Bangladesh
Russoe shares an email showing the shocking service people get from a private clinic in Dhaka Bangladesh. Earlier this month its negligence caused death of a chi...
Brahmaputra by Shahidul Alam
"We take you on this journey, across the millenium, across three nations, through Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. From the icy trickle in the glaciers. Along Pei in China, where the river narrows into a rapid-filled gorge reaching phenomenal depths and amazing cascades. Through the crystal clear waters in Arunachal Pradesh. Across the lush deltaic plains of verdant Bangladesh. We take you sailing along the Brahmaputra."Via the travel Photograp...
Should blogs be regulated?
Watch a lively debate about the blogging community and its influence on the people of India. Barkha Dutt, one of India's most prominent journalists hosted the talk show called "We The People". In India there are about 400,000 blogs and 40,000 active blogge...
January 10, 2008
Today's Links
* Bangladesh: robbers tunnel to bank locker* Bangladesh to build 2,000 new cyclone centers this year.* 'Wombs for rent' grows in India* Top ten Pakistan Blogs* Evolution of an artist* Vote free or die* 2008 US Presidential election: complete Coverage* Late Victorian holocausts : The Indian fami...
Tata Nano: The world's cheapest car
Image Courtesy: Paul Tan. For more artist impressions click here.Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata today unveiled the world's cheapest car in New Delhi which can sit up to four people. The price is 100,000.00 INR i.e. 2,554.28 USD at today's currency rate. Rediff News:The car will have a 624-cc petrol engine generating 33 bhp of power. It will sport a 30-litre fuel tank and 4-speed manual gearshift. The car will come with air conditioning, but will...
January 08, 2008
Internet in danger in Bangladesh
The Daily Star reports:Internet service providers, IT experts and businessmen say the government is responsible for frequent cuts in the country's optical fiber submarine cable and for the consequent constraints in moving business forward. Sources said a number of BTTB officials pocketed large amount of money in the name of fibre-optic cable maintenance. They said the officials withdraw allocated budget before doing any maintenance work.BTTB loses revenue of $70,000 per hour with every disruption. The BTTB invested $35.1 million for the submarine...
Breaking News: Advisors resign in Bangladesh
Prothom Alo and BDNews24 reports that four advisors of the Bangladesh Caretaker Government have resigned. Among them are Law adviser Mainul Hosein, health adviser ASM Matiur Rahman, power and food adviser Tapan Chowdhury and industry adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury. (Retuers confirms)Mainul and Tapan told newsmen that they tendered their resignation from the Council of Advisors, as the government desired.The new advisors will be sworn in in Bangabhaban today.There is a rumor that this is the first step for the national qualition government. Also...
January 07, 2008
Today's Links
* Bangladesh 'facing rice crisis'* Dhaka Nawab Family (Official Web Site)* The Indian government is using its decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) from Bangladesh to push Tatas’ case for $3b investment plan in Bangladesh. * Bloggers weigh the Iowa caucus results.* Undiscovered destinations: Bangladesh* A purple future* Bangladesh not recovered from Cyclone S...
January 06, 2008
January 05, 2008
Weltanschauung (worldview)
An incident at a Munich train station sparked much uproar in Germany recently. Roland Koch, the governor of the western state of Hesse told that Germany has too many "criminal young foreigners" and that immigrants must accept the country's Christian culture. According to Spiegel Online:"Koch was responding to the brutal assault on a 76-year-old German man by two young men, one Greek and one Turkish, in Munich on December 20. The pensioner had asked them to stop smoking on a subway train, where smoking is prohibited.The incident was filmed on security...
January 04, 2008
The feast of cricket continues: Bangladesh vs. New Zealand, India vs. Australia, West Indies vs. South Africa
While I was busy last month I missed most of the games of the interesting three series being held in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.Now I am back in action in following the series between Bangladesh vs. New Zealand, India vs. Australia, West Indies vs. South AfricaIn Dunedin, Bangladesh is displaying a poor show in the first test against New Zealand. They did not do the homework as they seem to have no idea how to play the short balls except ducking down. The new coach Jamie Siddons said he will work on this after the tour and before the...
January 03, 2008
The Musée Guimet affair -part deux
Last week I reported about the bloggers reactions on the controversies surrounding the exhibition of the masterpieces of Ganges in Musée Guimet of France from the collections of the Bangladesh museums. The apprehensions of the art lovers who were protesting the unclear processes of sending the artifacts including their fear of loss, theft, replication, even accident (on the way) came true as on Dec 22, one of the 13 crates in the 2nd shipment of...
Today's Links
* Lost in Living: Rising price of essentials is robbing people of Bangladesh of their real income.* The dark side of micro-credit.* The failure of India’s Bangladesh policy.* Is Bangladesh's Emergency different?* Melanocytes are why Africa is poor.* A Plan to Kill Everyone.* The outsourcing of newspapers has beg...
January 02, 2008
Blog on stage
We have seen instances of writings from blogs have become best selling books. But I think this is the first time I read about dramatization of a blog and that is in India. Known Turf reports:I have been to see Baghdad Burning (in Hindi) at the National School of Drama last weekend and it was (to my knowledge) the first time in this country that someone put together a dramatic production on stage, based on the text of a blog.Baghdad Burning is a fine blog that treads a wonderful line between experiential journalism, write-it-as-I-see-it posts and...
January 01, 2008
Pictures of the day
Today was the last day of the remaining Christmas markets in Berlin.And it snowed heavily tod...
Education with zero creativity
'Life in Eskaton' describes the experience as a substitute teacher of seventh grade in an international school in Dhaka, Bangladesh."To enhance quality, the administration has aped the syllabus followed at more successful schools, where standards are higher. The children here lack the grammar and reading skills to respond and are bamboozled into memorizing answers.The only way to make it easier for them is to set factual questions, which seems more like a weak history lesson to me. My students are privileged to receive an English education but...
Law without common sense
Eamon points to a weird customs law in Bangladesh. If anyone sends a gift to a receiver in Bangladesh then the customs will charge 100% upon the value of the package.In comparison:"most of the countries gift packages are free from government tax within $100 i.e. if the value of the gift exceeds $100 only then you have to pay some tax to the government and the tax is around 5-10% upon the value."No wonder why people resort to corruption and bribery. These weird laws are impediments to abolish corruption in the country. Why a person has to pay 100%...
Welcome 2008
I wish everybody a happy and prosperous New Year (2008). Let the celebrations begin.The year 2007 was full of happenings. Here is a highlight of events:* Key events of 2007.* 2007: A Global Assessment of the Confrontation.* Top Ten US news stories of 2007.* Top Ten crime stories* Looking Back: A Very Google 2007* Looking Back: The Year in Web 2.0 Best of 2007:* Top Web Apps & Sites of 2007.* Best of 2007 from Tree Huggers* The Most Memorable...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Swopon 
