Good Bye Germany

It has been an interesting experience living in Europe for the last three years. In less than 12 hours we will be moving on. Next stop Jakarta, Indonesia; where my new home will be for the next couple of years. New country, new challenges. I can't wait to share my experiences.

The summary of the last three years is that I enjoyed this study break, spent more time with my daughter (which was not possible during my last full time job), blogged more and ventured into the world of working online and I used the time to travel a lot. Europe gives you the opportunity of visa less borders (saving you time and hassle), quick and inexpensive travel through highways or train and of course budget airlines. In last three years I went to London six times for my study. I visited many countries in Europe except the Scandinavian ones.

I actually remained as a perpetual visitor in Berlin. Being based in Berlin (because of my family) I studied in UK and worked online, so my contact with the Germans were minimal. My internship in German Bundestag for two months and my attempt to get enrolled in the Humboldt University were the other highlights of my stay in Berlin.

I drove about 50000km in last three years and my longest was Berlin to Paris (1100km) in 14 hours. Another record was crossing four countries in a day - Koblenz -Luxembourg -through Belgium- Maastricht-Berlin. Europe's great highways made that possible.

Berlin, is one of the most livable cities in Europe. Its green, its inexpensive comparing to other capitals in Europe and its really a great city to explore and taste its different flavors; from historical buildings to modern architecture, from ghettos in Kreuzberg to mansions in Schwanenwerder, I can go on and on. Perhaps I will write a book someday.

Bangladesh: Through The Eyes Of Expatriates

There is a vibrant expatriate community in Bangladesh and many of them work as volunteers or are employed in numerous non-government organizations. Some of them are also blogging and are sharing their experiences and these are generally true and more authentic than what is reported by the international media about Bangladesh. These views are extremely useful for those who are coming to visit Bangladesh and for Bangladeshis too. In the first post of this series I will highlight some of these expat bloggers and what they are talking about.

Nikkibomb at Amar Bangla Na travels to the Chittagong Hill Tracts and writes:

The Chittagong Hill Tracts are unrelentingly green. Everywhere you look, it's that lush color that Bangladeshis love to wear.

Estelle Visagie was also in the Hill tracts in Rangamati where she found three lady Buddhist monks and was given a Chakma name.

Sara, who is studying and researching under a Fulbright scholarship posts plenty of pictures and her experiences of mingling with the Bangladeshis.

Nature in Bangladesh; Durgapur, Netrokona, By Ariful Haque Bhuiyan (http://www.flickr.com/photos/arifbd111/3401682813/), used under a Creative Commons license

Amy Moyer escaped from the frantic life of the capital and writes:

We ended the trip with a visit to the village where Jamdani cloth is hand woven. Jamdani is incredibly fine, light weight muslin that is a specialty of Bangladesh. Legend has it that a Jamdani sari, comprising approximately 13 yards of fabric, can be folded into the size of a matchbox. The people were so friendly and eager to let us try our hand at the weaving process. It was priceless and ironically they didn't take Visa.

Meandering Memos visits a handicrafts project in Narayanganj, near Dhaka where 26000 women are employed and writes:

Sari printing – I had no idea all the designs were all hand-stamped! What time-intensive work. The dyes they use are all from natural products.

Jacob and Sanna's blog praises the contemporary Bengali band ‘Bangla':

This band is different — they tastefully blend quality Western guitar & bass rhythms with a drum and folk tunes modified by their lead singer Anusheh's amazing voice.

Valerie at from Spa-Ha to Bangla is in the country for two months to visit her husband. She spends a day as a real house wife in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka and notices:

This was one of my cheapest days I’ve spent anywhere, ever. The total cost of spa treatments was 600 taka, less than $10. We generously overpay both driver and housekeeper to the point of being told we’re fools, and they earn $4.30 and $7 a day respectively. Tennis court time is $1/hour. Food costs are so minimal that it’s silly to even add up the cents.

Sonargaon, old capital of Bengal. Image by Flickr user Shubho Salateen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/shubho/242268273/) used under a creative commons license

Bernie Allen at Life and Work in Dhaka city visited Sonargaon, one of the oldest one time capitals of Bengal. She writes:

The Folklore Museum, that I was here to visit, houses artifacts from every cultural trait of the country, and its grounds are truly beautiful.

She was also out on the Buriganga River, which runs beside Dhaka. She finds that the river is threatened by pollution and “is only marginally less crowded and hectic than the busy city streets themselves!”

Heather at A Bangladesh Adventure posts some pictures of different vehicles in Dhaka city.

And last but not the least Caroline at Burkhas, Bibles and Bangladesh lists 20 things you may or may not have known about Bangladesh.

(Also published in Global Voices Online)

Followed By The Dead

The last email from Twitter irked me a bit:

Hi, Rezwan.
Dead Grandmother (YourDeadGranny) is now following your updates on Twitter.

A little information about Dead Grandmother:

146 followers
9 updates
following 1041 people

I know I should not freak out. A Bangla blogger at Sachalayatan was also annoyed by an invitation in Facebook from the ex dictator (president) H. M. Ershad who is known for his attraction to women. Social Networking platforms are really becoming very interesting.

Ein Sommernachtstraum

Today I watched one adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the 'Schaubuehne Am Lehniner Platz' Theatre in Berlin. The name of the German version is Ein Sommernachtstraum.

Its a collaboration between Director Thomas Ostermeier and Choreographer Constanza Macras and the brochure boasted "its an evening about loss of identity and sex."



I must say I am amazed by the choreography and musical skills of the drama group. However in reality it was a mixture of Hard rock, opera, classical, improvised music, dance, acrobatics, choreography, strip tease, nudity, slangs, dialogues in multiple languages including Chinese, Italian, German, English and all in all it was hard to digest. Shakespeare was little present in the whole act, may be I got lost in translation.

Inequality

Image credit Used And Amused via Ultra Violet.

Google Chrome OS and the economics of Free

Everybody is now talking about the announcement of Google that the Google Chrome Operating System will be available for users for free. From the Official Google Blog:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.

Analysts are calculating Google's strength and asking questions like "will Google OS kill MS Windows?"

We need to understand how Google places itself on the forefronts of change and offers services for free which others can only offer commercially. Jeff Jarvis explains:

How does Google win? Its products are generally but not always better and cheaper (read: free) because Google’s real secret is that it understands the economics of the internet and competed aggressively not against technology and internet companies but instead it competed for advertisers, selling performance over scarcity. The more Google serves end users – and the more it learns about them – the more opportunities it has.

These are the economics of free as Chris Anderson writes in his book Free For Free:

Free is both a familiar concept and a deeply mysterious one. It is as powerful as it is misunderstood. The free that emerged over the past decade is different from the free that came before, but how and why are rarely explored. What more, today's Free is full of apparent contradiction: you can make money giving things away. There really is a free lunch. Sometimes you get more than you pay for.

There were broadly two camps of skeptics: those over thirty and those below. The older critics, who had grown up with twentieth-century Free, were rightly suspicious: Surely “free” is nothing of the sort-we all pay sooner or later. Not only is it not new, but it's the oldest marketing gimmick in the book. When you hear “free”, reach for your wallet.

The younger critics had a different response: “Duh!” this is the Google Generation, and they've grown up online simply assuming that everything digital is free. The fact that we are now creating a global economy around the price of zero seemed too self-evident to even note.

Read the book to understand how the Free dynamics work.

Gigaom says:

Today Google went wild and announced its plans to create the Chrome operating system, which it says will be designed to run on netbooks. But it’s really an attempt to keep Google relevant as an advertising powerhouse as consumers begin spending more time playing with web-connected apps than the web itself. It’s the search giant’s reaction to a wholesale change in computing driven by ubiquitous wireless access and mobility. The Chrome OS is another step in allowing Google to create what we’ve called the OS for advertising — an ad platform that extends across all devices and all screens.

Glimpses of 1996: Investors Beware

Today I saw a report of share market manipulation in Bangladesh. BD Thai, a local company producing aluminum panels incurred losses for four consecutive years till 2007. Its share price dropped as low as Tk 43 while the face value of the share is Tk 100.

Now, how to turn the price of Tk. 43 into Tk. 1200 (current market value)? Enter a foreign investment fund called GEM Global Yield Fund from USA, offering to pump in a huge amount into the company with a hopeless record and some market propaganda.

The Daily Star reports:

A deal was cut between the aluminium panel producer and the foreign investment fund under which the foreign firm snapped up a huge chunk of shares at a huge premium.

The market went crazy with the news. The company's shares worth Tk 43 soon started trading at a breakneck speed at astronomical prices, reaching as high as Tk 1,199 a share.

Within a month and a half, the foreign firm dumped all its shares on the bourses, and made even more astronomical profits. It repatriated $2 million from Bangladesh against its investment of $500,000. A super deal by any standard, for a month and a half.

GEM Global sold 272000 BD Thai Aluminium shares at Tk 909.51 each, totaling in more than Tk 247.3 million.

GEM Global is an investment firm of GEM Global Emerging Markets, having offices in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

GEM Global is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is billed as a centre for tax evasion. It has a tax rate of zero for corporation tax, income tax, and capital gains, drawing some of the world's biggest banks and hedge funds to its shores.

GEM Global have purchased shares of more companies of Bangladesh, namely Beximco Pharmaceuticals, and Aftab Automobiles. GEM Global seeks to acquire 16% stake of Beximco pharmaceuticals.

The Security Exchange Commission presently does not have any lock-in system for the foreign fund. "In the past, the lock-in system had been in place for all companies -- both foreign and local -- to avert short-term speculative trading, and flight of capital from the market."

The problem also lies with the investors in Bangladesh whom can be easily manipulated. A tip for them:

How to Recognize Stock Market Manipulation vs Normal Stock Market Movement?