*Is Bangladesh's December election cancelled? * How to engineer elections: A quick guide * Bangladesh prepares new voter list. * Run VOIP in your house and get arrested.* 7 Reasons why Bangladesh should never allow transit to India.* Bangladesh says 4 civilians killed in border clash* BSF jawan killed in exchange of fire* Bangladesh proposes legalisation of cattle trade along border.* Book Review: 'The Peacekeeper' by Shabbir Ah...
July 25, 2008
Obama in Berlin - Speech and video
Barack Obama was here in Berlin speaking to a massive audience in front of Siegessäule (victory column).He talked about future foreign policy of America, arms control and unity with Europe in fights against terrorism. His speech was populist I should say touching all the recent problems in the world; he also mentioned Bangladesh once. Some excerpts:Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from...
July 24, 2008
Terrorism, freedom fight, murder, confession and heroism - its all Middle Eastern politics
Samir Kuntar - Photo courtesy Lisa Goldman"Last week, Israel exchanged Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah fighers for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, two reserve soldiers who were abducted after being mortally wounded during a cross-border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War on July 12, 2006.Kuntar was convicted in 1979 of dragging 4 year-old Einat Haran and her father, Danny, from their Nahariya apartment to a nearby beach, where...
July 23, 2008
On border clashes
The border clashes between India and Bangladesh continued. It seems a tension is deliberately being brewed. This time according to Indian media Bangladesh Rifles (BDR)has gunned down a Indian Border Security Force (BSF) member and injured a farmer. However report from Bangladesh side is yet to emerge.It is interesting to note that the news quoted this:Two Bomb Damage Repair (BDR) personnel were killed on the Indo-Bangla border in Murshidabad District last week. (ANI)You can judge the quality of report yourself- it invented the term Bomb Damage...
Assassination and accomplices
Khalid Shahinshah, the chief security officer of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and a key suspect in BB’s murder was assassinated in Karachi.Khalid Shahinshah, who was hired by Bhutto on the recommendation of her security advisor Rahman Malik, has been on the run ever since footage emerged of the strange gestures he had made while standing on the dais next to Bhutto while she addressed an election rally.Shahinshah was standing on Bhutto’s left during her speech and ran a finger across his throat which implied slitting the throat. Security...
July 22, 2008
Radovan Karadžić arrested
Goethe once said that "every offense is avenged on earth". This became true as the main person behind the Serbrenica Massacre against 8000 Bosnian Muslims Radovan Karadžić was arrested today in Serbia. served by picapp.com After being indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica he disappeared in 1996. Mr Karadzic denied the charges against him and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the UN tribunal....
July 20, 2008
This is insane!
Just a month ago I blogged that a typical dinner in Zimbabwe can cost you more than a billion Zimbabwean dollars.Now Zimbabwe introduces a $100 billion Zimbabwean dollars note. BBC reports:The official annual inflation rate has exceeded 2,200,000%. Independent economists believe the real rate is many times higher. Zimbabwe's meltdown has left at least 80% of the population in poverty, facing mass shortages of basic goods.Zimbabwe residents say the latest note is already worthless, and does not even cover their daily lunch. "Nowadays, for my expenses...
July 19, 2008
Cattle Kill again (or BSF)
I have said it before that the illegal border trades and the involvement of the border security forces in the smuggling are the key causes for the India-Bangladesh border strifes. We have seen trigger happy Indian border security forces (BSF) killing one Bangladeshi every five days on the charge of trespassing Indian borders. Yesterday the BSF intruders into Bangladeshi soil maintained their legacy by killing two Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) jawans. The Daily Star reports:BDR officials said BSF guards opened fired on their personnel when they challenged...
July 18, 2008
Today's Links
* Indians 'kill Bangladesh guards' * The tamasha that is SAARC - Who really cares and benefits?* Bangladesh has one of highest trade barriers: World Bank* Bangladesh attorney general quits. * A Refined Pakistan Model in Bangladesh?* U.N. hails Bangladesh's anti-graft dri...
YouTube Video of the day
Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban (architect Louis Kahn)-From "My Architect-A Son's Journ...
July 16, 2008
Bangla blogging platform banned in Bangladesh?
Since 15th of July many readers/bloggers of the Bangla blogging platform Sachalayatan (around 300 bloggers and 500 readers per day) are complaining that they cannot access it from Bangladesh. However they could access it via proxy. BDNews24.com reported it today (translated summary):There was a complaint that a Bangla Blog named Sachalayatan has been blocked in Bangladesh. Arup Kamal, One of the founders of the blog told BDNews24.com from Malaysia...
July 15, 2008
World's oldest blogger is no more
A 108-year-old Australian woman named Olive Riley has died two weeks after posting the last post in her blog. Details in Salon.(Via Anthony Loewenste...
An US military base in Bangladesh?
A secret meeting was held in Bangladesh between the US and Bangladesh authorities to discuss US Marine Corps assistance to Bangladesh in surveying and managing its borders with India. The goal is being shown as identifying routes of movement of terrorists and religious extremists. But in fact there is a deeper context. According to The Bangladesh Today:The proposal for such a joint survey of borders with foreign military forces was violently opposed by intelligence agencies and the Armed Forces Division (AFD). Nonetheless, AFD has already received...
Why is America pleading with Bangladesh?
What would it take to make the mighty lone superpower come crawling on hands and knees to tiny Bangladesh? The Republican Riot has the answ...
July 14, 2008
Electoral reforms in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh cabinet approved the Representation of the People Ordinance 2008 (replacing earlier version made in 1972) which has these salient features:The Daily Star has details.In text all these sounds promising. But it remains to be seen how these are applied. Hope this will change Bangladesh politics for good.Update: The reactions of the political parties via an ordinary citizen:AL acting President Zillur Rahman said that they do not accept...
July 11, 2008
Today's Links
* Bangladesh makes Internet use free for primary schools.* Bringing Bangladesh into the Internet age.* Bribe-takers found in Bangladesh's anti-corruption body.* India, Bangladesh pay too much for state workers: study* BANGLADESH: Arsenic detector saving lives.* Bangladesh ex-PM offers olive branch to rivals.* Terrorists in Bangladesh?* Bangladesh: Government is silent on Al Qaida presen...
The largest Non-profit (NGO) in the world
Did you know which is the largest Non-profit organization (NGO) in the world? Its BRAC of Bangladesh. An ordinary citizen has detai...
July 10, 2008
Technology business rules in the developing countries
Katy Bacon at the official Google.org blog writes about the mobile phone revolution in Africa:It is the story of Safaricom, the most successful telecom company on the continent. Safaricom started trading publicly on the Nairobi stock exchange in June and catalyzed the largest IPO on the continent ever. More than $800 million was raised from Kenyans from all walks of life, resulting in an over-subscription of stock of more than 400%. Mobile is growing faster in Africa than in any other part of the world. While levels of internet penetration...
Citizen Journalism and blogging scene in Asia
A presentation was made recently at “Asia Regional Forum for Media Development: Creating a Democratic Media Culture in in Asia” organized by the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) with Sri Lanka in Focus.Some of the lessons learnt:* If you work in Journalism, you work for an online news organization whether you want to or not. * News is a conversation* Blogs represent the most open public communications platform for the political disclosure*...
Celebrity Blogging
Controversial Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav is a celebrity blogger in mypopkorn.com. (Via Watblog)I wonder when Bangladeshi politicians will learn from him. It would be fun to read some Delwarnama or Suronjeetgat...
July 08, 2008
She sang in Bangla to create a sensation all over the world
Palbasha Siddique (17), a Bangladeshi student of Minneapolis' Southwest High School was contacted by the makers of the video "Dancing 2008" aka "Where the hell is Matt?" to sing for it. She sang a Bangla song titled Praan (life) and her angelic voice made the video an internet success. Harding dances in a recording session with Siddique: Photo credit Palbasha Siddique via MinnpostMinnpost reports:The video was downloaded to the web on Saturday, June...
July 07, 2008
July 06, 2008
Hitler in today's Germany
During my stay in Germany I have visited in many museums, memorials and a concentration camp, one thing is missing in these deliberately is the prominent display of Hitler's image. I haven't seen any statue or portrait anywhere. Hitler's real bunker was discovered years ago but it has not been converted to any museum for public display.What I have heard that there are two concerns. One is that the Germans have a sort of collective guilt for what he did during the second world war (including the holocaust) and the other one is that he is also revered...
July 05, 2008
Picture of the day
"The system of communism has failed in every senses. However it will be very hard to get rid of communists, for there is nobody as dangerous as the usurper of a failed system, who abandons the system but guards his loot and the power position." - written in a monument in front of the Hungarian Parliam...
July 04, 2008
Dot sub and the Multilingual Web
dotSUB is a browser based tool which lets you subtitle any video into and from any language in a collaborative way to let them be understood globally. From its about page:The goal was to create a tool that was as simple to use as the Google search bar, with no downloads, that could engage the power, methodologies and thinking of open source, wikipedia, social networking, creative commons and web2.0 user involvement to substantially remove language...
July 03, 2008
Looking back at the GV Summit '08
It has been a fascinating 7 days in Budapest meeting more than a hundred bloggers and more activists, Gurus, techies and journalists from all over the world. Words cannot describe the moments I had with these wonderful people. So I will highlight here what others had to say about it.Mialy Andriamananjara from Madagascar described it as United Nations of Bloggers:I met some amazing people at the summit. Everybody had this international mindset, spoke...
July 02, 2008
Embassy warning
A German Football fan reacts:We find it really good that you warn your citizens who are currently in Germany before the football game between Germany and Turkey and that you tell them to stay away from areas where fans could maybe celebrate the game. That way, we can all avoid having to explain fellow Americans that football is not the game with the strange pille (pills) where some boring Weicheier (extra sensitive morons) are dressed in complete Schutzanzügen (protection dress) and run against each other for two seconds just to stop again and...
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