Dragonfly

Image by Rezwan

March 31, 2008

Benelux Tour

I finished a speedy tour of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg and two cities in Germany, Koblenz and Trier. Will write more about it later. Here are some photos uploaded in my facebook accou...

March 30, 2008

A review of Geert Wilder's Fitna

Dutch politician Geert Wilders film, "Fitna" (meaning Discord in Arabic) features violent imagery of terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid intertwined with Koranic texts. It interprets that Islam equates violence. Mezba does a review of "Fitna" which is a great read. He writes after watching the film:"Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP who has made an anti-Islam film, argues that he has the right, under Freedom of Speech, to say what he wants. And what exactly is he saying? He wants the Quran to be banned because it is a "hate speech". So here is...

Sending wrong signals

Bangladesh traditionally depends on India to import rice when there is a shortage in local production due to a bad harvest. This year the culprit was the cyclone Sidr and the floods. There was also a huge unofficial trade channel between the porous borders the scope of which is now limited because of the barbed wire border fencing by India. The smuggled goods evaded government duties and kept the price low.The price of rice has soared in the past six months with an increase of upto 60%. This is probably the reality that Bangladesh is facing. India...

March 26, 2008

A tribute to the victims of the Bangladesh 1971 genocide

If you are wondering why I was not blogging last couple of month as frequently as before, I confess now I was engaged in a mammoth project.It all started after the much discussed denial - Jamaat-e-Islami's leader Ali Ahsan Muzahid's statement that "Jamaat did not work against the Liberation War in 1971 and there are no war criminals in the country." Soon other apologists joined the procession of denials terming the war of liberation as a civil war....

March 25, 2008

Bhutan -the happiest democratic nation?

Bhutan national emblemBhutan once was found to be the happiest nation on the earth. The humble and peaceful landlocked nation on the hills of Himalayas have long preserved their culture and national identity through regulation of foreign influence and tourism by the monarch.It is becoming a democracy for the first time as the general elections were held there yesterday.More he...

March 23, 2008

Cyber journalism in Bangladesh

BDNews24 does a report on cyber journalism in Bangladesh. Although the report is informative, it fails to portray the Bangladeshi Blogosphere. Its sad that the mainstream media fails to highlight all the good work that are being done by the Bangladeshi blogge...

Bangla Town in Toronto

Bangladeshis are migrating in Canada in growing numbers. The Star.com of Canada writes about emerging Bangla Town in Toronto:Ground-level storefronts like Miah's – bustling grocery stores, movie rental shops, the Desh Pharmacy and businesses offering help with taxes – may be the public face of Little Bangladesh, a stretch of Danforth between Dawes Rd. and Victoria Park Ave., just south of Crescent Town.The first wave of Bangladeshis arrived as refugees after the 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan, followed by a trickle of skilled immigrants in...

Chinese oppression in Tibet, what you can do

Vijay Sappani says:We can not turn a blind eye to the atrocities against Humanity, oppression of human rights because of the cheap ‘Made in China’ products.Start looking at better alternatives of ‘Made in Taiwan, Made in Thailand, Made in Bangladesh, Made in India, Made in Turkey, Made in Malaysia over the Bloodied Made in China products and maybe we will see Tibet in a better light.Tr...

Taslima Nasreen is under treatment in Sweden

Taslima Nasreen arrived quietly in Sweden and is under going treatment in a clinic. Sweden Sify News reports:Taslima Nasreen Taslima is being held virtually incommunicado by the Swedish authorities, under the care of the Swedish Pen Club.Maria Modig, vice-chairperson of the Svenska Pen says about Taslima's plans and official formalities:"Taslima is a Swedish citizen and has been so for more than a decade now. She is a Swede and has come home."Meanwhile Indian press terms Taslima's episode as a national shame for Ind...

March 21, 2008

Today's Links

* Bangladesh: Facing the rice crisis* NGO Swindling: Tk 2.2 million seized from house in Natore* A twelve-minute film about the Koran* The International Audit of Bangladesh* From Taslima to Tibet, India proves chic...

March 20, 2008

Taming foreign diplomats

At last The Bangladesh Government criticized the "renewed perceptible tendency" by some foreign diplomats to interfere in Bangladesh's internal affairs.Recently US Charge d'Affaires Geeta Pasi's meetings with political parties ahead of year-end general elections and Indian high commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty's comments on the delay in rice shipments from India sparked protests among many. However according to BDNEWS24 :Law adviser AF Hassan Ariff has said that speaking of the country's internal political matters by foreigners during their...

Court orders release of Arifur Rahman

BDNews24 reports:A Dhaka magistrate asked authorities Thursday to free Arifur Rahman, a former cartoonist of Bangla-language daily Prothom Alo who faces charges of 'hurting religious sentiment'. The magistrate, however, did not specify any timeframe for his release.The latest court order came approximately two months after the High Court declared Arif's detention illegal. Background:* Bangladesh: yet another Muhammad cartoon controversy* Attack against freedom of speech: Bangladesh cartoon controversy update* Cartoonist arrested over harmless play...

IMF does mashup

The International Monetary Fund has a data mapper mashup. This is very interesti...

Photographer of the year 2007

From the official Blog of Bangladeshi photographers the photographer of the Year 2007 Photography Contest grand prize winner is Bir Azam. Check out his work in Flic...

RAB loses it again

From Canada Free Press:Kidnapped from his own office, which had been stormed by members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at 7 p.m. Dhaka time last night, anti-Jihadist Muslim journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was questioned for hours.When RAB stormed the offices of Choudhury’s newspaper, Weekly Blitz, they ordered his employees out and interrogated Choudhury, seizing his telephones and not allowing him any communication, friends or legal counsel.“After more than an hour and a half on the scene, RAB claimed to find a controlled...

March 19, 2008

YouTube video of the day

Obama on race and politi...

A news without cliché possible?

Evgeny Morozov, is a technology journalist from Belarus (I met in Istanbul last month) who writes for The Economist and other international publications. He has launched a new site called Kill the Cliché, which analyzes the international news stories published by half a dozen prominent newspapers in America and identifies terms and phrases that get overused by journalists. He says:The premise is simple: given the destitute state of affairs in American media, it may be a good idea to purge it of cliches…According to the data compiled, the all time...

Bangladesh: another crisis looming?

The price of rice, the staple food of Bangladeshis keeps on going up. If one is paid the minimum wage that is about 2000 Taka a month, he/she will be able to buy a kg rice a day with nothing to spare. So how one is going to survive? WFP says poorer households are the hardest hit who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food. And this may cause political and social unrest in Bangladesh soon.Meanwhile Chairman of the Regulatory Reforms Commission and ex adviser of the care taker Government Akbar Ali Khan slammed the Government for furnishing...

Taslima Nasreen decides to quit India

Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi author living in exile in India has had enough in that country. She was first driven out of Kolkata in September 2007 because of a movement by Islamic extremists and communist sympathizers demanding expulsion of Taslima from India. The Intelligence Bureau kept her in a 'safe house' within a National Security Guards complex in Delhi.But this recluse had taken toll on her. India's External Affairs Minister...

March 18, 2008

John Pilger on Moudud.. biased propaganda?

Renowned investigative journalist, documentary film maker and writer John Pilger writes a piece on Bangladeshi politician Moudud titles "The prisoner of Dhaka" which was published in The Guardian. There is no doubt that he was framed with an absurd charge, possession of Alcohol, but there are dozens of more legitimate cases that can be brought against him. But he was portrayed as a saint by Pilger and this is what Bangladeshis say about him: Asif Saleh writes in Drishtipat:Moudud Ahmed, is one singular politician who has the distinguished record...

At last....

After 14 losses Bangladesh cricket team finally wins a match...against Ireland. Captain Ashraful says:"It's always important to win matches no matter against whom."I think he was indicating to ICC "send more below Test status team to play to get my records straigh...

Fighting Rickshaw ban

Kathryn Hummel writes in Pop Matters:Bangladesh’s endangered rickshaws and wallahs serve as brightly colored, moving works of art, and as constant, mobile displays of human nature – often at its best.In 1998 the data showed that Rickshaws took up 38% of road space while transporting 54% of passengers in Dhaka . The private cars on the other hand, took up 34% of road space while only transporting 9% of the populationSo who would dream of waging war...

US Ambassador and her pet dogs

Rahnuma Ahmed analyzes the reason behind ex-US ambassador to Bangladesh Ms. Patricia Butenis's (now US ambassador in Iraq) return to Bangladesh. Newspaper reports say she is on a private visit to fetch her dogs left behind and to visit her old workplace. But she might have met Pakistan's ex-president Wasim Sajjad’s in Dhaka. She might have been here to hold meetings with the opposition party leaders of Bangladesh or secret meetings with top military and civilian officials. She had even gone to the UNDP-organised ‘Celebrating the Halfway Mark of...

March 17, 2008

Bangladesh: the next economic hub

The Japan Times publishes an insight into the manufacturing industry of Bangladesh. Surely Bangladesh's female workforce powers this silent revoluti...

Communist party in Bangladesh: failing to deliver

The communist party in Bangladesh has turned 60 last week. But it failed to achieve any change in the country, let alone popular support. After the end of cold war (esp dismantling of Soviet Union) it got disarrayed. Even the leaders live a bourgeois life n...

From the Bangladeshi Blogosphere: Poverty, Homosexuality and Travel

In this week's roundup we will highlight some of the discussions happening in the Bangladeshi Blogosphere on the issues of Poverty, LGBT and Travel . Poverty:Bangladesh is a developing country and the main problem of this country is overpopulation. It has one of the highest population density among the worlds big countries. Although the reduction in the growth of population to 1.7 percent (3% in the '70s) is a miracle its vast rural population with their simple style of living are dropping its per capita income average to make it a poor country....

Blocked

Blocked walkways in Dhaka - caught in the camera of Ershad Ahm...

March 16, 2008

First Online Free Expression Day Observed

Reporters Without Borders held the first Online Free Expression Day on March 12, 2008 protesting the internet censorship across the world. Rebecca MacKinnon has more on th...

March 15, 2008

A peek into child prostitution in Bangladesh

The Independent publishes a detailed investigation by Johann Hari on the sex trafficking of Bangladeshi homeless children to India.While the report is shocking I should commend Comic Relief, a aid organization set up by comedians in UK, which uses comedy and laughter to raise money and change lives. Check their website to learn about their great works.It funds a lot of NGOs in Bangladesh to fight for those street children quoted in above report including Aparajeyo (Undefeated), Dhaka Ahsania Mission, CSKS etc.Here is a thank you note from Comic...

House cleaning required

The Doha Debates is a public forum for dialogue and freedom of speech based in Qatar held each month. The debates are Modeled on the Oxford Union debates and presented by the internationally renowned broadcaster Tim Sebastian. A motion is presented to the 350-strong audience and two speakers argue on behalf of the motion and two speak against it.Earlier this month I watched in BBC a debate titled "This House believes that Muslims are failing to combat extremism". It was a lively debate with speakers like Ed Husain, the ex Islamic fundamentalist....

March 14, 2008

World Clock

Check this out to be reminded about the crude realities of the wor...

Today's Links

* The battle for Wikipedia's soul.* 12 surprisingly controversial Wikipedia pages.* Bangladesh: Jobless rural poor rush to the cities* Bangladesh: Country Report on Human Rights Practices by US Department of State* The prisoner of Dhaka.* Justice to Disabled People: Myth or Reality? * China beats India in modern art…because Indians are too fr...

The devil can say what he wants - in the name of religion

On the International women's day (March 8) The chief adviser of the caretaker (interim) government of Bangladesh Fakhruddin Ahmed had announced the National Women Development Policy 2008. From the New Age the text of his speech:‘To achieve the goal of women’s economic empowerment, there should be enactment of necessary laws covering important aspects like health, education, training, vocational training, information, opportunity for income, property, debt, technology and equal rights and establishment of the right to have control over moveable...

Video of the day

Trailer of the documentary "Two Million Minutes". Two million minutes is how much time a student has after completing this eighth grade to prepare for college."How students spends the time during their high school effects their entire economic future. And by extension a country's economic future depends on how its students collectively spends those valuable minutes."Via Evg...

March 13, 2008

The Salah uddin Shoaib Choudhury Saga - Another PR Disaster for Bangladesh Government

We got more information on the Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury's farcical trial. On September 18, 2006 a controversial judge had ordered him to stand trial for sedition, a capital offense. He is a free man but this saga is being dragged on and on.Salah Uddin writes about his latest hearing where the hearing was postponed to a later date because no witness was present:"When I came out of the court, I was asked by a local reporter as to why the witnesses are not coming while the government is not dropping the charge. My reply was, the government wants...

March 11, 2008

Picture of the day

A house in the compound of the Russian colony Alexandrowka in Potsdam. It is a small enclave of Russian architecture (including an Orthodox chapel) built in 1825 for a group of Russian immigrants. Since 1999 the colony has been a UNESCO world heritage si...

Poverty in Bangladesh

Poverty in Bangladesh in the eyes of an expat Ashley Wheaton:Living in a country like Bangladesh constantly forces me to redraw the lines around my mental conception of poverty. A factory worker seems hard done by until you meet the construction worker. The construction worker earns your sympathy until you see the child collecting trash. The child is then outdone by a disabled beggar... When I was not immersed in this reality it was easy to treat them all as poor, to condemn all of the conditions they faced as equally bad. But in reality the poverty...

March 05, 2008

Today's Links

* The perception game: Am I a journalist or blogger?* New technologies, citizen journalism changing Pakistan’s media.* Green economics and new thinking.* Who needs a caliphate?* The man who tracked Cambodia's war crimes.* Imagining Bangladesh * Moeen as Bangladesh's Musharraf * Sony’s got a lock on the Bangladesh mark...

Gaza Bleeds: and the children are the hardest hits

Another incursion by the Israeli army in Gaza took toll of a one month old Palestinian baby amongst other 30 deaths. Gaza_massacre_feb2008 ,uploaded by sabbahblogThe above video was taken off by YouTube as "inappropriate content" Children are the hardest hits in this conflict and one can imagine how is it for them to live under distress. No wonder you can imagine what makes a "suicide bomber". Via Black Looks we read a Palestinian women’s story "Raising Yusuf amongst the bombs":"We celebrated Yousuf’s fourth birthday today. We ate cake. And we...

March 04, 2008

2008 US presidential election results

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election EarlyTake it with a pinch of salt. Guten Appet...

Dhaka, the second dirtiest city in the world

The way Dhaka city is being developed you know this was coming since long time. Every development, every growth is concentrated on this Mega city, which is the capital of Bangladesh.Forbes Magazine lists Dhaka as the second dirtiest city in the world. The main culprit is lead-poisoned air. Traffic congestion in the capital continues to worsen with vehicles emitting fatal amounts of air pollutants daily, including lead.The unplanned growth of city,...

Escape from death

(Image credit: AP)Hurricane "Emma" caused millions of euros in damage across Europe over the last weekend and caused the deaths of at least 13 people. The above images are of a Lufthansa Airbus 320 with 137 passengers, which suffered a near crash last Saturday afternoon. It was about to land in Hamburg airport when a sudden gust of wind from Hurricane 'Emma' lifted the right side of the airliner, making the left wing barely miss the ground at a speed...

March 03, 2008

Another PR disaster for all accomplishes

There is a saying that "If your only tool is hammer, all your problems look like nails." Probably thats what is happening in the case of Bangladesh. When Human Rights Watch published the reports of accounts of torture of Tasneem Khalil, you could see that this was a too bigger blunder to bury with intimidation.Today IHT published an Oped by Tasneem Khalil which also strikes a blow to the forces behind:I am tempted to remind foreign governments that the abuses happening in Bangladesh in the name of "reform" and "anti-corruption" are possible thanks...

March 02, 2008

YouTube video of the day

Obama... Obama...You can change the wo...