Image by Rezwan
This street in Bangladesh has a colorful world cup celebration
Remnants of Kiandra gold mine at New Chum Hill, #nsw #australia
Writing
- Jerome D'Costa
I want to write.
I will write.
I will definitely write.
But I can't write.
I just cannot write.
I cannot write at all.
Indonesia has plunged into darkness for Earth Hour with the National Monument, Yogja Monument, Pemuda Statute and Arjuna Wiwaha Waterfall among the major Indonesian icons flicking the switch for climate change. Famous musicians Nugie and Katon Bagaskara, the official Earth Hour Ambassadors for Indonesia, recorded a song for the global initiative titled Jika Bumi Bisa Bicara - literally meaning “If the Earth Could Talk”.
All traditional non-MRP passports must be withdrawn from circulation by 2015 - November 24, 2015 to be precise.
The government will set up 85 new passport offices and six visa cells at home and abroad for issuing Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) and Machine Readable Visas (MRVs) by April this year.
Of the proposed offices, 66 passport offices will set up at 66 Bangladesh missions in abroad, 19 in the district headquarters of the country and six visa cells will be established in the six divisional headquarters, sources in the home ministry said yesterday.
All the offices and the cells, which would be set up at home and abroad, will be controlled by the home ministry.
* The fee for emergency machine-readable passport (MRP) has been fixed at Tk 6,000 while Tk 3,000 will be charged for a normal MRP
* The fees for the MRP to be issued in foreign missions of the country will be different. Fee for an emergency MRP is $200 while $100 for normal ones in abroad.
* The 84-page new passport will be valid for five years.
* The department of immigration and passport (DIP) has decided to issue MRP from its 10 regional offices. The rest are yet to be ready.
* People can collect the forms free of cost from the 10 offices. It will also be available in the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) website: www.dip.gov.bd
* The present manual passport can also be renewed in the country and the foreign missions till March 31, 2011
* Fee for an emergency hand-written passport has been fixed at Tk 1000 while the amount will be Tk 500 for emergency renewal or endorsement of a passport. For duplicate emergency (hand-written) passport the government will charge Tk 1000. In abroad, fee for an emergency manual passport is fixed at $30 while emergency renewal or endorsement of a passport will charge $15. Duplicate emergency (hand-written) passport will cost $30.
* Those who have applied for hand-written passport will have to apply again for MRP if they are not provided the manual passport before April 1, 2010.
Mar 22nd 4:07 PM police at Drik. Demanding "Crossfire" show be stopped.
Mar 22nd 4:07 PMEarlier RAB media cell rang saying we needed special permission to show pictures related to RAB. Livestreaming at www.drik.tv
Shahidul Alam who set up the exhibition said," Police asked me whether I have permission for the exhibition. Crossfire for which police do not need permission, then why should I have permission for the exhibition?"
In 1972, the paramilitary group Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini came into force and had become infamous for its extrajudicial executions until it was absorbed into the army in 1975. Now, since the formation of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in March 2004, such killings are again on the rise and are being categorised under a new vocabulary of "crossfire," "extrajudicial killings," "encounters," etc.
"Crossfire" is an extrajudicial execution that is in flagrant violation of Bangladesh's constitution and the international human rights conventions of which the country is a party.
Although some people believe that extrajudicial killing of hardened criminals helps ease the problem of "terrorism," in reality, it encourages lawlessness and aggravates "state terrorism." In different countries across the world, people in power have created an impression that killing "terrorists" without bringing them to justice can help curb "terrorism," but such extrajudicial killings, in fact, can neither bring peace nor eradicate "terrorism."
Since the formation of the RAB, there has been a rising trend of "deaths in crossfire." The number of deaths in RAB custody is also alarming.
রেবের উদ্যোক্তা মওদুদ আহমদকে অস্ট্রেলীয় সাংবাদিক জন পিলজার ‘ভদ্র ও সাহসী’ মানুষ বলছিলেন বলে আমি খুব বিরক্ত হয়েছিলাম।
মওদুদের কথার পরতে পরতে ছিলো ন্যায় বিচার অগ্রাহ্য করার সুর।
“যদিও আপনারা টেকনিক্যালি একে বিচারবহির্ভূত বলতে পারেন। আমি কিন্তু বলবো না হত্যাকাণ্ড, বলবো বিচারবহির্ভূত মৃত্যু। মৃত্যু আর হত্যা কিন্তু এক জিনিস নয়… যাই -ই বলুন মানুষ কিন্তু খুশি।”
দুর্নীতিগ্রস্ত একটি পুলিশবাহিনী ও দুর্বল বিচার ব্যবস্থার অজুহাত দেখিয়ে আইনমন্ত্রী এরকম একটি বাহিনীকে ন্যায্যতা দেওয়ার চেষ্টা করেছেন।
Indonesia 19 mill (8% of population)The Bangladesh figure is surprising as the number of active internet users are about 1 million.But one has to count the millions of Bangladeshi diaspora in question. I recon the half of the users are from the diaspora.
Phillipines 10.5 mill (11.5% of population)
India 7 mill (.6% of pop)
Bangladesh 750000 (.5% of Pop)
Hurt Locker is neither adventurous nor cutting edge, and not much better aesthetically than a TV show like CSI. Ultimately it’s a really boring movie with bad dialogue that poorly fleshes out a series of tension and release sequences that draw on music video and video game aesthetics. It is full of cliches about poor American soldiers who cannot make sense of a chaotic environment not of their choosing as they enter the labyrinth of a surreal war landscape populated by an alien Other. Framed as an “American tragedy,” once again an invaded country becomes a purification drama for Hollywood’s liberal consciousness.
- Mediacology
Its time for the madness to begin!!
IPL is back in its 3rd season. Its bigger, better and now back in India. This year will be the true test of this carnival on whether it can sustain itself in this format.
When IPL started out, it was a unique concept in India. But in essence, it was trying to recreate the fanaticism found in football leagues across Europe.
Will all this be worth the Rs 1200 I will shell out for my ticket—-around the same price one would pay, once upton a time, to watch 5 days of Test cricket?
TV, Internet, Newspapers… Every medium is flooding with DLF IPL, a private event; that above all, explains the success of Indian Premier League. For a private event, entire media is fighting to give free of cost coverage! Strange, but Interesting!
- “Packaging of the Event” from day 1 as entertainment is the biggest strategic hit. Cricket just happens to be there!
- To keep it focussed in 20 overs and inviting International players, not only enhanced the entertainment value but also factored in the fastest growing segment of high income youth.
- Attracting the movie stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty along with highly placed industrialist as team owners, ensured ample media and public interest which further contributed to the success of the event.
Nothing other than the ODI and T20 World Cups, not even the Champions Trophy, has maintained the anticipation levels as high as the Modi juggernaut called the Indian Premier League (IPL). And if we may take the liberty, even the ODI World Cup has its interest dwindling since the last couple of editions, albeit ever so slightly.
But it’s not the time to ponder anything else; rather just grab a drink, dig into your couch and get immersed into the IPL. It’s that time in the cricketing calendar when all the soaps take a backseat and the desperate housewives either get remote-controlled or join the gang.
Yesterday at the digital media awards night I was part of a discussion with a couple of agency folks who updated me that Youtube was doing exceedingly well when it came to sponsorship monies. One of them stated that Youtube had garnered 20 crores worth of sponsorship for the entire IPL series with individual sponsorship amounts from some sponsors going upto 2 crores as well.
This makes youtube more expensive from a cost per reach perspective when you consider the number of viewers TV will reach vs the no of viewers youtube will reach in India. All in all most agency folks said that this was a big win for digital in India and a lesson for all of us in how to sell digital.
smokeysunny: The Official #IPL Community created by #ORKUT http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=99087253
seopatel: #IPL #MATCH #CRICKET #MUMBAI are in the latest top 10 trends on twitter. India really uses twitter.. do you?
gynelwazlib: The DY stadium looks so beautiful. Feel uncharacteristically proud right now. One of those chairs is my indirect contribution. #ipl
pradeepto: OMG! An #UFO!!! White floating Ufo sighted at DY Patil stadium. #Aliens with funky fluorescent head-wear walking around the ground! #ipl
cricscoreapplet: #cricket #ipl Bollywood beauty, the sizzling Deepika Padukone is on stage now, sending the crowd into a tizzy with her moves
raknair07: Like always..what a crappy opening ceremony ...how much more do i have to bear this :( #fail #IPL
pranav_marathe: THE LASER SHOW IN #IPL #OPENING #CEREMONY IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. DEEPIKA'S PERFORMANCE WAS GOOD.
vedantvarma: Am thrilled with the IPL bashing so far. Sheer bliss. :-) they deserve it #ipl
HubSpot released a new report that captures the state of the Twitterverse, opening a window that instantly transforms speculation into analysis and setting the stage for informed discourse and exploration. (Via Brian Solis)
- Twitter’s user growth peaked at 13% in March 2009 falling to just 3.5% in October 2009.
- The average user is following more people, followed by more people and posted more updates.
- Although user adoption is slowing, existing users appear more engaged.
- The average user is following a greater number of people and earning a greater reach through an increased number of followers. Existing users are also posting more content.
- Twitter is a rich network of opportunity to increase stature as measured through online social capital. Experienced users realize that the value of participatory media is powered by so much more than just simple tweets or conversations.
- Users are self-branding by presenting ourselves through bios, locations, and outbound profile links
- In July 2009, mainly the US, UK and Australian locations of Twitter users made it in the top 20. In Jan 2010 report we see many countries going up in the top twenty, notably, Brazil, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia and India.
- 82% of Twitter users maintain a network of less than 100 followers and 91% follow less than 100 people.
- Thursday and Friday are among the most active days on Twitter, with each accounting for 16% of total tweets. Furthermore, 10 – 11 p.m. is the busiest hour on Twitter, accounting for 4.8% of the tweets in an average day.
- In 2007, Twitter hosted 5,000 tweets per day. In 2008, the number climbed to 300,000 per day. In 2009, Twitter was publishing an astounding 2.5 million per day and over the course of the year, it soared to 35 million, up 1,400%.
- Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.
- Twitter is now serving more than one billion tweets per month – crossing over for the first time in December 2009.
- In the last three months, Twitter experienced month-to-month growth close to 17%.
"One can say that malls have replaced churches, community centres and brothels all together." - Sunday posts
A Dhaka-based Facebook stocks tipster with over 10,000 followers has been arrested on charges of illegally manipulating Bangladesh's overheated stock exchange, police said Thursday.However this news has some anomalies which even a reputed news agency like AFP did not verify. I think the journalist who reported do not use Facebook - so it is unknown to him that there is no facility in Facebook to earn money from group subscriptions (what was the basis of the 70 dollar fact - how the money was realized?). There is an option of a secret group by choosing individual members, but that group do not appear in the search engine - so there is no question of influencing thousands by it.
Mahbub Sarwar, 26, a prolific blogger who provided online stock tips through the popular social networking site, will be charged with market manipulation, Mohammad Sohel, spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion police force told AFP.
'His Facebook account has 3,000 members and he has a number of blogs... we believe around 10,000 or more people have been acting on his tips for the last few months,' Sohel said.
'His tips could trick thousands of people into buying certain shares on certain days,' he said, adding that Sarwar would also be charged with providing market advice without a license.
Regulators said they had been investigating Sarwar for months. Membership of his Facebook group costs up to 70 dollars a month and he would also charge for individual tips, police say.
He is also accused of running an unauthorised portfolio management services company - advising clients on which investments to make - for which he charged 20 percent of profits.
Its a personal blog created to educate the capital market investors of Bangladesh and to share the blogger's personal views on different issues. Is Mission is to develop an educated and learned investors community. (source)So in fact he is actually gathering stock exchange related news from online sources and sharing it with public. Now what has he done to deserve this arrest? How his tips could influence thousands of people with those 2nd hand data which is anyway available in the internet? If it is for his value added personal services - I have no comment. But why making Facebook and his blog the villain? He is just expanding his client base using social media (traditional brokers - take note).
Bangladesh's bourse, one of Asia's smallest, is vulnerable to manipulation and regulators have struggled to stop a slew of online scams, publicly warning investors in January of a rogue Facebook group providing bogus tips.So an alert was on. If the public still falls for alleged bogus tips (for money or free?) then who is to blame? There are other Facebook group like Dhaka Stock Exchange who are providing stock related tips (its a public group - you can join and participate). So why Mahbub Sarwar only?
