Urban Launchpad Working On The First Bus Map of Dhaka

Image by Masuk Ahmed, courtesy Urban Launchpad Dhaka is one of the world’s most densely populated, poorly designed, noisy, poorly administered and difficult to live in cities in the world. But on the brighter side it is also one of the cheapest cities to live. Only a small portion of the population of Dhaka has private transport. The public transport is available for the masses but not that efficient with virtually no workable map of the...

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Hacking as a communication tool

Umm I didn't get it. Bangladeshi hacker defaces Punjab Assembly website to protest a Pakistani hacker's attack on some Bangladeshi sites. The site was restored and was hacked again by the Pakistani hacker to send a message to Bangladeshi hackers to not to mess with Pakistani websites. Since when hacking became a communication to...

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Bangladesh: A remarkable improvement

Here is a great documentary report on the Economist on the surprising progress on social issues by Bangladesh despite poverty. The video was shot by GMB Akash, one of the best photographers of Bangladesh. ...

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'Industrial Scale’ Hunting of Migratory Amur Falcons in Nagaland, India

Every year thousands of migratory Amur falcons (Falco amurensis) are hunted by locals in the Indian State of Nagaland during their passage through that region. The massacre was first documented on November 1, 2012, by Shashank Dalvi and Ramki Sreenivasan on the Indian online campaign site 'Conservation India' where they wrote that "a mind-boggling 120,000 to 140,000 birds are being slaughtered in Nagaland every year during their passage through...

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Factory Fire In Bangladesh Questions Exploitation Of Workers

Bangladesh has more 4,000 ready-made clothes factories of different sizes, which are earning more than three-quarters of the countries export revenue. The world’s third-largest garments export industry employs more than 3 million workers, 90% of whom are women. Over two decades these garments factories contributed to changing the role of poor Bangladeshi women who mostly used to work as housemaids. Although the cost of labor is low Vikas Bajaj...

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Protests In Phulbari Against Open Pit Coal Mining Project

In Phulbari, 350 kilometers northwest of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, local communities have come together to raise their voices against the proposed Phulbari open pit coal mining project. On November 23, 2012 the authorities had imposed Section 144 banning gatherings of more than four people indefinitely in effort to stop the demonstrations. Thousands of people took to the streets defying the ban and today is the second day[bn]...

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Making a Difference

On September 15 I was in Cox's Bazar to attend the International Coastal Cleanup Day event arranged by Kewkaradong Bangladesh. I have written in details about it which has been published in the 9th edition of TRINO, Bangladesh's top adventure magazine. You can read it here (Page 15-21): Open publication - Free publishing - More roger payne Please click here if the above doesn't work. I have taken a number of pictures during that trip. You can find them here and here...

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Live Blogging US Elctions

As per CNN exit polls the contest seems to be neck-a neck. People are getting frustrated in the slow pace of election results. Please click on this link or this link for the latest standings. CNN: 21 moments that defined the campaign and America BREAKING: Tweets around #Election2012 just surpassed 11 million for the day. — Twitter Government (@gov) November 7, 2012 Twitter hit 20 million tweets on US election today, making it the most tweeted...

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