Benelux Tour

I finished a speedy tour of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg and two cities in Germany, Koblenz and Trier. Will write more about it later. Here are some photos uploaded in my facebook account.

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A review of Geert Wilder's Fitna

Dutch politician Geert Wilders film, "Fitna" (meaning Discord in Arabic) features violent imagery of terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid intertwined with Koranic texts. It interprets that Islam equates violence.

Mezba does a review of "Fitna" which is a great read. He writes after watching the film:

"Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP who has made an anti-Islam film, argues that he has the right, under Freedom of Speech, to say what he wants. And what exactly is he saying? He wants the Quran to be banned because it is a "hate speech". So here is a man using Freedom of Speech to argue that another speech - the Quran - should be banned. His much talked about film, Fitna, is equally circular in logic.
...
Honestly, a high school student could have produced a better Islam-critical animation. That the verses and their "controversial" meanings (when taken out of context) has been explained numerous times is immaterial. The "movie" is amateurish.

In fact, the only good thing about Fitna is the recitation of the said verses of the Quran. The qari who recited those verses had a melodious voice.

Geert Wilders must have hoped Muslims would see his movie and renounce the Quran. In fact it made me laugh at his childish movie and then search Youtube for more melodious Quran recitations."

Worldwide protests by Muslims are expected and there will be more politics - counter politics with it. But really there is a lot of difference between criticizing without hurting religious feelings and of amateurish poking in beehive to become famous and people should show their reaction accordingly.

Update: Another review "Fitna for whom?" (Thanks Hicham)

I really feel sorrow for him because he didn’t spent his time, effort and money to understand us and just followed the wave!

Update II: British-based Liveleak.com had pulled down the video. However the Fitna video is available in YouTube.

Update III: Review: Geert Wilders Fitna Farce by Ali Eteraz- a great read.

Update IV: A Muslim responds in Spiegel Online: "I am not a least bit offended"

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Sending wrong signals

Bangladesh traditionally depends on India to import rice when there is a shortage in local production due to a bad harvest. This year the culprit was the cyclone Sidr and the floods. There was also a huge unofficial trade channel between the porous borders the scope of which is now limited because of the barbed wire border fencing by India. The smuggled goods evaded government duties and kept the price low.

The price of rice has soared in the past six months with an increase of upto 60%. This is probably the reality that Bangladesh is facing. India said it had a bad year too and are reluctant to export according to demand. After much drama the export price of the pledged government level exports were fixed at $430 per tonne.

And the final blow was Indian governments decision to hike rice export price at non governmental level to $1000 from $650. This is a ridiculous price as the international prices are much lower than that.

This will send a wrong signal to the market which will prompt stockists and brokers cashing in. Although the Bangladesh government says that it awaits bumper boro harvest in April when the prices will settle. But I doubt prices will not come down anytime soon because there are always a group of traders who exploits the uncertainties.

I think its time Bangladesh should look to import from other neighboring countries like Burma, Thailand or Vietnam. The dependency on one country will have many unwanted consequences. The poor people are the hardest hit as their staple food is rice. They are already mocking some senior government officials suggestion that people should start eating potato more instead of rice.

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A tribute to the victims of the Bangladesh 1971 genocide

If you are wondering why I was not blogging last couple of month as frequently as before, I confess now I was engaged in a mammoth project.

It all started after the much discussed denial - Jamaat-e-Islami's leader Ali Ahsan Muzahid's statement that "Jamaat did not work against the Liberation War in 1971 and there are no war criminals in the country." Soon other apologists joined the procession of denials terming the war of liberation as a civil war. Even scholars like Sharmila Bose tried to deny a lot of thing with faulty research.

Some fellow bloggers notably Mashuqur Rahman and Tasneem Khalil stressed that we need a proper archive to tackle these issues. Since I was reading and compiling a list of all available content on liberation war since long, I came forward to gather contents for an archive. I started work in December 2007 and it was a learning experience for me to study and revisit our glorious history of liberation.

I have listed in this archive the International newspaper clippings, events, documentations, audio, video, images, media reports and eyewitness accounts of the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh all with workable links to judge the truth for yourself. I have compiled views of Pakistanis, Indians, US Government with articles, documents and provided many rare known facts. I am not an historian nor I am here to distort the history. But I hope this archive will help the seekers of truth. For an example you can refute Jamaat's statement from the facts in this page (in Bangla) alone.

As I wrote in the about section of the Bangladesh Genocide Archive:

"The plot is so huge that no one person can tell the story. Many books were written, video footage was taken and words are passed from generation to generation. But due to lack of information in one place and platform many truth were distorted. The struggle for Bangladesh’s liberation and the efforts of the Pakistani army to cull the resistance resulted in one of the worst genocide in the World history. This was interpreted in many different ways. To many Bengalis it was a struggle for liberation, to many Pakistanis a armed rebel to be quashed, to the US govt. Pakistan’s internal affair. However it was in the US the peace loving people arranged the first ever aid concert for the people of Bangladesh.

Politicians tried to bank on these in the past and will be doing this in the future. The new generation is baffled as text books were rewritten to instill superiority of the visionaries of the political governments over rivals. People are forgetting that it was a mass effort and prompting to disrespect the catalysts and the father of nation, who was the inspiration.

That is why this site is born."

Actually its a repository of all the information available online listed in one place. From here you will be able to navigate to the original contents in their original locations. I will try to include all valid viewpoints with authenticated sources and let the readers/viewers be the judge.

I personally thank to all these individuals and organizations who have done excellent job over the years but people barely know about their excellent efforts. In different sections of the archive I have listed and collated from their commendable works in one place and linked them accordingly so that people can go to those sites and see the amazing work they have done.

I also thank Mashuqur Rahman, and MMR Jalal for their contents we proudly present here. If MMR Jalal was a website himself no other sites would be required. Ehab did an excellent work on site architect and design (more features coming). Also thanking here fellow bloggers Sushanta, Tasneem, Nazzina, Tanoy, Zafa, Shada Kalo, Rubel, Faiyaz and seniors like Saleem Samad and Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury for their support and encouragement. One disclaimer here is that this is purely a personal effort and I will keep this from any political or organizational alignment.

Let this be a tribute to the victims of the Bangladesh 1971 genocide and all those who fought for the country.

If you haven't bookmarked it yet here is the site: Bangladesh Genocide Archive

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Bhutan -the happiest democratic nation?

Bhutan national emblem

Bhutan once was found to be the happiest nation on the earth. The humble and peaceful landlocked nation on the hills of Himalayas have long preserved their culture and national identity through regulation of foreign influence and tourism by the monarch.

It is becoming a democracy for the first time as the general elections were held there yesterday.

More here.

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Cyber journalism in Bangladesh

BDNews24 does a report on cyber journalism in Bangladesh. Although the report is informative, it fails to portray the Bangladeshi Blogosphere. Its sad that the mainstream media fails to highlight all the good work that are being done by the Bangladeshi bloggers.

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Bangla Town in Toronto

Bangladeshis are migrating in Canada in growing numbers. The Star.com of Canada writes about emerging Bangla Town in Toronto:

Ground-level storefronts like Miah's – bustling grocery stores, movie rental shops, the Desh Pharmacy and businesses offering help with taxes – may be the public face of Little Bangladesh, a stretch of Danforth between Dawes Rd. and Victoria Park Ave., just south of Crescent Town.

The first wave of Bangladeshis arrived as refugees after the 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan, followed by a trickle of skilled immigrants in the 1990s. Those who have had a Western education are more likely to have arrived recently.

A Bengali in To writes about more Bangladesh news in Toronto.

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