Israel Shells UN Aid Compound

NEWS: Israeli forces shelled areas deep inside Gaza City on Thursday, hitting the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and wounding at least three people among the hundreds taking shelter in the compound.

Israel says its a mistake. But probably they took The Onion piece seriously:

The U.N. Headquarters in New York has flags from all over the world and enough uranium to wipe Israel off the map.

UN and Israel were not having good relations anyway after the white phosphorous shell claims.

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Mobile phones as a development tool

Grameen's phone lady concept is a decade old and now the mobile phones have become so affordable to the mass that the phone ladies are almost dead by now. Except mobile internet telecenters is there anything remarkable happening in Bangladesh using mobile technology?

In the developing world, especially in Africa more and more innovations are coming up to use the potentials of the cellphone networks. Mobile phones are now providing banking services to the poor, text messaging are being used for advocacy and communication. More and more citizen journalists are using mobile phones as a media to record and send videos, photos and text from remote areas.

The United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation has published a report titled :"Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use" (click to download pdf -1MB).

This report examines innovative uses of mobile technology by groups working to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The report identifies emerging trends in "mobile activism" through 11 case studies, and highlights the results of a global survey of NGO usage of mobile technology.

Also check their first report "Mobile Phone Banking and Low-Income Customers Evidence from South Africa" (click to download pdf).

I wish NGOs in Bangladesh would learn from these studies to use the potential of the mobile phone growth in the country.

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ARMED FORCES FOR PEACEKEEPING

"In Peace or in War, We are everywhere for our Country" - a slogan of Bangladesh Army.

Bangladesh has a very positive record in international peacekeeping and is a leading provider of troops. So far Bangladesh Army has deployed 44,674 soldiers in different UNPSO programs. You can find the detailed chart here.

During a recent visit, US Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed Bangladesh to take part in humanitarian efforts in post-war Iraq. "This is a matter for Bangladesh government to decide. It's not a demand from the United States," Powell told in a joint press conference with his Bangladesh counterpart M Morshed Khan.

However Bangladesh govt.'s view is that it will participate in any peace keeping effort in Iraq under the banner of UN. No wonder it will think twice before deploying troops to Iraq considering the domestic & international pressures against that.

Bangladesh supports the US & international efforts on war on terrorism.

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