Cyclone Nargis on the way: Bangladesh needs to worry

Any cyclone is a bad news, especially for the countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal. Because of the shape of the bay any tropical weather system tend to push towards the pointed peak, where Bangladesh lies. Tropical Cyclone Nargis is gathering strength and momentum somewhere over west central Bay and adjoining southwest Bay, some 1000 km away from Bangladesh.(Image credit: Weather Underground -click here for update) Although the prediction on April...

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New talent from Sylhet

Meet the latest singing star of Bangladesh.. none other than the British Ambassador to the count...

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Tagore memorabilia stolen

Earlier this year we heard that the stolen Nobel medal of Rabindranath Tagore may be smuggled in Bangladesh. The latest is that more memorabilia of Tagore were stolen from the Tagore Memorial Museum in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district. Due to lack of resources the Department of Archaeology is unable to protect and display many other items at the museum.Both Indian and Bangladeshi authorities should take measures to protect Tagore's memo...

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Armenian Genocide

April 24 was the Armenia Genocide Memorial Day. 93 years ago approximately 1.5 million Armenians were brutally killed in Ottoman Turkey in this first genocide of the twentieth century.From a post in Global Voices by Onnik Krikorian we note the ever present hatred of Aremnians against Turks:Every year on 24 April, a date marking the roundup of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in what is now Istanbul, Armenians commemorate the massacres and deportations worldwide. In Yerevan, this is particularly the case with hundreds of thousands marching...

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Showing allegiance?

Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury wrote an article on the Government's angry response to Mr. James F. Moriarty's remark that Bangladesh needs to lift the state of emergency."Why the present government in Bangladesh was angry on Mr. Moriarty´s comments? Because he emphasized on lifting state of emergency? Because he spoke in favor of reinstating democracy? Because he spoke in favor of human rights?"While I agree to the point that state of emergency should be lifted, I completely support the reaction of the Bangladesh Government. It has the right...

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Renewable energy in Bangladesh

The power crisis is acute as frequent power outages hamper the livelihoods. Big power stations are much capital intensive and time consuming to build. So Bangladeshis are not getting bailed out of the situation anytime soon. From this Newsweek article you can see how grass-roots movement are generating power in local towns and basements and being independent of the energy industries:In the late 1990s, the town of Freiamt in Germany's Black Forest...

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At last

Breaking News: BDNews24 reports Ordinances ban war criminals from local polls:The cabinet Thursday approved three ordinances that prescribe a series of provisions, including a ban on convicted war criminals from taking part in the local government polls.The ordinances listed 20 crimes that disqualify the guilty to contest the polls.A person who lost Bangladeshi citizenship or was declared insane by any court, or suffered at least two years in jail for criminal offenses or was a bank loan defaulter would be barred from the pol...

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Blame the neighbor for the dirty lawn

Bangladesh has been fighting fighting a tiring battle against the Avian bird Flu disease for more than a year. But like many things India has been blaming Bangladesh for spreading the disease. They even claim that the virus came to India by "winds blowing from Bangladesh'. FLA_MEDIC from USA tells that this is almost impossible.He even criticizes India's blame game:The West Bengal government, however, ignored early reports of bird deaths back in December, and failed to act swiftly enough to contain the virus. The virus reportedly spread, virtually...

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Corruption and accountability

Some crimes cannot be hidden and the tables can turn. Koko, Selim, Tarique and Babar are disgraces to the nation. Hope their trial and judgment will be a warning for the other corrupt persons like th...

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Facebook chat option

Facebook is getting better and better. It has now a nifty chat option with listed friends. I feel like scrapping other messengers that I u...

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Extra-Judicial

No wonder another news was muffled in the Bangladeshi media which took the British Bangladeshis by storm. They were disgusted and annoyed to hear that Barrister Rizwan Hussain was detained by the Zia International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh on the charges of trespassing while he claims he was merely helping an elderly. And things took to a dramatic turn when he was handed over to plain cloth joint forces staffs and he was beaten mercilessly and...

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Al Jazeera: 101 East - Bangladeshis seeking justice of Pakistani genocide

Part 1:Part 2:Related:* Bangladesh's long wait for justice* 1971 Bangladesh Genocide Arch...

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Today's Links

* Acid Attacks on Rise in South Asia: Disputes lead to crimes against women that too often go unpunished* Rat infestation hits Bangladesh* It is the ordinary citizens of Bangladesh who need a voice* Bangladesh is paying a cruel price for the west's excesses* Ethiopian Painters campaign to end early marriage practice* A different type of sex * Farakka Once more* The Crushing Burden of Microcre...

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Bangla Bangers

2nd Episode (part 1)2nd Episode (part 2)2nd Episode (part 3)2nd Episode (part 4)2nd Episode (part 5)2nd Episode (part 6)2nd Episode (part 7)2nd Episode (part 8)Via A...

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The crisis is global and the culprit is the stupid energy policy among other factors

The international media are at it again. A light of a world wide famine beaconing, which is a favorite topic for any media professional. You will see picture galleries full of hungry people fighting for food, skinny children waiting for help makes any journalistic work easy. ABC News terms the recent food riots around the world as an apocalyptic warning predicting hundreds of thousands of starving people in Asia and Africa. The World Bank announces...

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Living space

The world population is approximately 6.5 billion (6,500,000,000) now and is likely to surpass 9 billion by 2050.Traveling in vast barely populated countrysides in Europe seem to amaze me, coming from a populous country like Bangladesh. When I describe Bangladesh to a person who has no idea about the country, I say that the major difference you will find that its buzzing with people. If you go to a countryside you will see farmers at work, women...

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Bangladesh 1971

"They had risked all to hold on to this moment in history. The scarred negatives, hidden from the military, wrapped in old cloth, buried underground, also bore the wounds of war. These photographers were the only soldiers who preserved tangible memories, a contested memory that politicians fight over, in their battle for supremacy. These faded images, war weary, bloodied in battle, provide the only record of what was witnessed. Nearly four decades later, they speak."- Renowned Photo Journalist Shahidul Alam spells out these words to introduce us...

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French Manhattan

Panorama view of the La Defence District on the edge of Paris.Photo: MagicMongolWriting from an highrise apartment (level 20) in Paris's La Defence district. From here you can get even a view of the Eiffel Tower which has magnificent lighting in the night. This is predominantly a commercial place with many offices around. Today is Monday morning and you can see black (suited) ants (employees) crawling into the buildings from up. I am quite obsessed...

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Bangladesh: Hidden Hunger

First published in Global Voices:Unheard Voices Blog quotes UNDP which hit the panic button for Bangladesh last month:Skyrocketing oil prices have driven up the cost of food worldwide, but their impact has been particularly dire in Bangladesh, where almost half of the 145 million people live on less than one dollar a day.For those who do not know, the staple food of Bangladesh is rice and the price of this commodity has almost doubled than what it...

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Panic alarm

At first there were reports that a Bangladeshi plane was hijacked and made an emergency landing in Thailand. But later it was revealed that it was an apple pealing passenger with a fruit knife which has caused all this. The fellow passengers did not have any idea what was going ...

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Quotes for today

"We neither want to go back to pre-1/11 days nor want to be in the present situation. We do not want to live under the state of emergency day after day where we are not able to speak." - Sultana Kamal"Services of Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed have been extended by one year for public interest at the directive of President Iajuddin Ahmed" -ISPR Press release"The present government will have to shoulder the responsibility for the undemocratic situation it has created in the country by altering the democratic system" -Justice Habibur Rahman.Source:...

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YouTube video of the day

For a comic reli...

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Bangladesh's garment industry is now matured

This week's cover story in the The Daily Star weekend Magazine is on the state of the garment industry in Bangladesh. It is the biggest contributor to the country's foreign exchange- around 76 percent- and employs around 2.2 million people, 80 percent of them women. The export figure of Ready Made Garments (RMG) reached US$ 9.2 billion in 2007 and there are predictions of it rising to US$ 12 billion or more in the next two years.The report talks about the how the working conditions got better and safety regulations are now place. Of course it is...

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Biased propaganda against Bangladesh

Recently two articles were published by Sunita Paul who calls herself as a South Asian Expert which are no less then paid biased propaganda. There are some truth in it but they are being manipulated to tarnish specific groups image relieving others and I will show you how. In Asia Tribune she write a "Bangladesh next Afghanistan" style article where she claims the nine month liberation war of Bangladesh "is the To my knowledge, it is the shortest ever war of independence in the world history for any nation to get independence". Well she should...

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Human rights situation in Bangladesh

From the New Age tallying in the first quarter of 2008 by the human rights organization Odhikar:* India's Border Security Force killed 21 unarmed Bangladeshis. 12 Bangladeshis were reportedly injured in firing by the Indian guards.* Extra judicial killings went on in the quarter when 16 persons were reportedly killed in custody or in 'crossfire'.* Under the state of emergency, repression on journalists continued. Seventeen such incidents were reported. Five journalists were injured and eight more were threatened. Pressure on journalists remains...

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Which nation is more Anti-Islamic?

World Economic Forum recently held a meeting with over 30 leaders of business, politics, religion, media and civil society in London to discuss a new report by the World Economic Forum entitled “Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue”. From a chart it is evident...

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Kissinger's 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide

On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, "National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests." The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth...

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The kiasu behavior of some Bangladeshis

"If you think Singaporeans are kiasu, then I think BGLs are being kiasu-in-action." - read the re...

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Zimbabwe election

It looks like the Zimbabwe government parties could not even get enough vote after rigging election. People are really fed up with them. Zimbabwe opposition claimed victory but there is a deafening silence in the election commission which is not releasing resul...

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Is Any body Listening?

The above is is the title of a brilliant website of Drishtipat which addresses climate change issues in the context of South Asia especially Bangladesh. According to Drishtipat:The threat of 1/3 of Bangladesh getting wiped away and creating 125 million climate refugees are very real. As expatriate Bangladeshis, it is our collective responsibility, to highlight the injustice of the whole issue where Bangladesh will pay the price of Western excesses that is destroying our planet.Please bookmark: Is Any Body Listeni...

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