QUOTES FOR THE DAY
Let them hate, so long as they fear.
- Accius
A word after a word after a word is power.
- Margaret Atwood 1939-, Canadian Novelist, Poet, Critic
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
- Adlai E. Stevenson 1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politicia...
February 29, 2004
The fundamentalists strikes a blow to the free speech in Bangladesh
Humayun Azad, a professor of Dhaka University and a prominent writer (published 50 novels, poems, essays) was attacked by knife and seriously wounded on 27th of February night. He is fighting for his life and his family is getting death threats. Read more here. It is believed that Humayun Azad's recently published satirical book 'Pak Sar Zamin Saad Baad' caused anger among the fundamentalist party activists in the country. The book focuses mainly on the psyche of an Islamic militant who wants to eliminate all opposition to his beliefs and establish...
February 28, 2004
SAUDI ANTI-SEMITISM AND DOUBLE STANDARD
Recently a Saudi Arabian Tourism Web site, promoting a new program to encourage more foreign visitors, lists four groups not entitled to tourist visas: * An Israeli passport holder or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp. * Those who don't abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviors.* Those under the influence of alcohol will not be permitted into the Kingdom. &* Jewish Peopleand important instructions include:*If a woman is arriving in the Kingdom alone, the sponsor or her husband must receive her at...
February 26, 2004
POLITICAL TURBULENCE IN BANGLADESH
Mr. Mollah Mohammad Shaheen sums up the situation:The political landscape in Bangladesh is turbulent now. The AL, the main opposition party, has decided to resort to street agitation to unseat the government. The government has completed only half its tenure. Actually, the BNP-led alliance suffers from superiority complex due to its majority and the AL suffers from inferiority complex due to its poll debacle. But a strong opposition is the mainstay of functional parliamentary democracy. The country lacks it at present.There is a lot to say about...
Initiative to end extreme poverty
The Seattle Initiative for Global Development is an alliance of business and civic leaders of United States whose goal is eliminating extreme global poverty. They have identified that the necessary elements in eliminating extreme poverty are: political will and increased resources, a long-term commitment, a multilateral approach and a coherent policy strategy. Their policy paper outlines the critical need for U.S. leadership in the following areas: Investing in People: Promoting Development Through Healthy, Educated People and Economic Opportunity....
February 25, 2004
And finally, the Everest
Dalchhut, an adventure magazine arranged a countrywide competition to chose the team comprising of 3 students of Dhaka University, who will go on an expedition to Mount Everest. They will go to the Base camp-1 of the Everest in May after a mountaineering course at Uttar Kashi in India. The expedition is sponsored by Mountain Dew, a soft Drink of the beverage company, Pepsi. If they reach the mountain peak they will be the first ones to raise Bangladesh's flag there. Their team emerged as champions from 100 teams competed across the count...
How low can reality TV go?
Steve Johnson of Chicago Tribune reports:Asked for the most outrageous show idea he turned down, Endemol USA President David Goldberg said, " 'Bangladesh Roulette,' which was filling a stadium in Bangladesh with 100,000 people and one person being chosen to come down and put a gun to their head, and if they survive, they win a million dollars." Goldberg is not joking. A person really came up with this idea to him. He did not buy the show. But the question is how low can reality TV ...
February 22, 2004
TRACKBACK IN HALOSCAN
Haloscan introduced trackback features for free! Don't forget to incorporate this feature if you are using Haloscan. Its easy to install but I am trying to figure out how to use it. This should allow other bloggers to show the connection of my post with their related posts and vice ver...
February 21, 2004
QUOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY
A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language. - Gaston Bachelard 1884-1962, French Scientist, Philosopher, Literary Theorist Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than one's mother's womb. - Italo Calvino 1923-1985, Cuban Writer, Essayist, Journalist To have another language is to possess a second soul. - Charlemagne 742-814, King of the Franks, Emperor of the West Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their...
February 19, 2004
Same-sex marriage
Judging from the pros and cons (?) of same-sex marriage can you hear a revolution coming up in the western society?I doubt whether it will make an impact like living-together or cohabitation. Although these experiments are not trouble free they follow the procreation rules of nature. To sum up, my opinion is that homosexuality is not natural. The accumulation of wealth in the western society and no children of homosexuals to inherit them will cause an unbalance someday. And threats like Aids will increase among the gay-lesbian societies. Nature...
February 18, 2004
Valentine the infidel
The times of Oman reports:Saudi Arabia's religious police arrested more than 200 workers from Bangladesh and Myanmar as they celebrated St Valentine's Day outside the holy city of Makkah, where the traditional event for lovers is banned by fatwa.The kingdom's grand mufti and highest religious authority, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, condemned the party-goers. "What these workers did in a holy place by celebrating and singing and drinking alcohol is a very grave sin," he told the daily. "Committing a sin in a holy place is doubly sinful. Valentine's...
February 16, 2004
Is the recent image of Islam based on false notions?
The Charlotte Observer has published a review on the book "FOLLOWING MUHAMMAD: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World" written by Carl W. Ernst. There is a widespread belief that the greatest security threat to the United States is a possible confrontation between the West and Islam.Ernst believes that almost all Americans lack a clear understanding of the religion that claims more than a billion adherents. He writes that many Americans are bound to a false notion of Islam as a backward, women-oppressing, fanatical, and fundamentalist religion...
ON KILLING OF 5 BANGLADESHI WORKERS IN SAUDI ARABIA
I picked this up from a Malaysian blog "Eric Mudasi's World View". Daily Times of Pakistan claims that:
reportedly an angry member of the Saudi royal family sprayed bullets on a number of foreign workers at a place 300 kilometres from Riyadh on February 4 when they were resting at a combination of picnic spots and agricultural farms. The firing left six people, five Bangladeshis and a Sudanese, dead. Later the killer burnt their bodies. The Saudi police rushed to the spot and arrested a man...
February 15, 2004
February 14, 2004
ON VALENTINE'S DAY
We love ourselves more than anybody else. Those who like what we like, are our friends. They can participate in a prolonged discussion with us. Then we have a consensus. We love them too. Because they are like us not like the others. We do not want to listen to other thoughts, other religions, other views. They may dilute us, make us leftist, soft. We believe in nationalism. We want to make this world a civil place. We need to ensure everybody's freedom whether they want it or not. We want to make sure that our precious lives would be secure from...
February 12, 2004
WHAT CAUSES RAPE?
Alas a blog! posts an anotomy of rape culture. Although it is in the context of US, the problem is universal. The findings are:* The overwhelming majority of rapists are male.* The Myth of Masculinity - Masculinity is defined by power-over. The man who is overpowered by others is less then a man; the man who has power over others is a man among men. Once boys become teens, masculinity is additionally defined by the absolutely crucial task of getting laid. * Low regard for women- women aren't respected as equals, by and large. Many rapists don't...
February 11, 2004
LETTER FROM SYDNEY
A friend writes to me on his expat life in Sydney:
....materialistic life is unable to turn out much more than the better. Existence like mouse � just move toward from hole to procure foods and get back again � the difference we make, we gotta find for the forthcoming, a budget estimated all over the life cycle.
Indeed, no difference between life of Sydney and Bangladesh unless style of life- Somewhere you�re gonna pull your Ford wheel and somewhere carts wheel- At the eve of your juvenile stage it had been said ahh!! We...
February 10, 2004
A 450 Seat Parliament - ploy of ruling coalition to win the next election
After spending a pleasantly unproductive two and a half years of parliamentary life in December 2003 BNP leadership announced out of the blue to go ahead for 450-member parliament including 50 nominated women members.
M. Shafiullah, who is a former Ambassador writes in The Daily Star:
BNP needs to accommodate all aspirants in 300 plus seats to turn tide lest the deprived and the dejected join other parties. To ensure much-promised 20 years in power, BNP needs to further...
THE DIGGING SAGA CONTINUES
If you have experience of living in Dhaka, then you know how common it is to see the newly paved road being dug out to install some utility lines. These dug out roads then wait for an indefinite period until the next round of repair adding much to the misery of city dwellers. After many sufferings and hue and cry the much awaited repair happens. Then again some other utility service provider is ready to dig out. It is really painful to see so much waste of resources in a poor country like Bangladesh.The Daily Star tries to find out in this article...
February 09, 2004
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
We are for aiding our allies by sharing some of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We are helping 107 We spent $146 billion. With that money, we bought a 2-million-dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place...
AID WITH CONDITIONS
Receiving aid can sometime be discomforting when it comes with some conditions. Most NGOs and other projects with foreign aid active in Bangladesh are using latest model SUVs and full furnished offices. I have heard that the AID comes with the condition that all materials purchased would be from the originating countries. E.g. ignoring that clause, if an NGO choose to buy a Tk. 1 million Maruti SUV (including duties) instead of Tk. 5 Million Range Rover SUV (including duties) at market price then that would have saved Tk. 4 Million and would buy...
REUSE OF PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES
There is a huge controversy in Bangladesh regarding reuse of Plastic Water Bottles which is widely popular these days. The Daily Star has published an article claiming that there should be a statutory warning against reuse of this bottle.
Their concern is that several sources has confirmed:
The plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethylhydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must...
BANGLADESH STAYS OUT OF BIMSTEC FREE TRADE TREATY
The group of economic cooperation consisting of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand (BIMSTEC) has recently signed a free trade agreement between six countries. The group has included Nepal and Bhutan and Bangladesh decided to stay out of the treaty. The reason behind Bangladesh's dithering is that it insisted on including a clause that would compensate Dhaka for the losses it is likely to suffer because of lower import duties on manufacturing. Sources said Bangladesh's tactics did not go down well with the other countries, particularly...
PROS & CONS OF ELECTRONIC VOTING
Worldchanging discusses about the pro and cons about electronic voting and the importance of homogeneous ballot paper designs. While some people argue that a paper audit trail is impossible for electronic voting machines, The Scientific American outlines this concept for a future machine:"Electronic ballot boxes would be equipped with a glass screen and a printer. Each vote would be printed out on paper and the result dropped behind the glass screen for the voter to review before choosing to cast or void it. Such a system, [Mercuri] says, would...
February 07, 2004
WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US
Our good friend Laura had faced some struggles. She prayed to God for solace but she felt that God is million miles away and asked this question in her post:
Lately I've been thinking that the notion of God 'having a plan' is purely ludicrous. I know there is God's will , but does he really have a plan? Could it be that Love isn't about anybody's agenda, even God's?
I have received one email from another friend which goes like this:
Before rushing helter skelter to find God, let us start the search, by looking within...
February 05, 2004
THE HAJJ STAMPEDE INCIDENT -SOME QUESTIONS
8 Bangladeshis were among the 244 pilgrims who were trampled to death during the stoning of the devil ceremony of Hajj on 1st of February. When questioned about the safety measures that were in place, Iyad bin Amin Madani, the Saudi minister for the Hajj, replied: "I assure you that all preparations are always made, but we don't always know God's intentions." Glenn Reynolds quotes an American Muslim who performed Hajj recently:The Saudis couldn�t even organize the hajj safely. Each day, as I performed the rituals of the hajj, I was part of massed...
February 04, 2004
Australians prefer to work overseas
According to this article in "The Age", some new generation Australians have these to say about their country:
"I love a sunburnt country, but I'd really rather live and work elsewhere."
"Our child will be exposed to an array of experiences; Australia is not going to be able to provide more for my child."
According to figures from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, the number of Australians moving overseas on a permanent or long-term basis has grown steadily from 74,000...
REGIME CHANGE IN BANGLADESH
Don't be shocked or worried seeing the title, however I feel many might be having this thought considering Bangladesh's political uncertainties and deteriorating law-and-order situations.A regime has changed in Bangladesh cricket when Khaled Mahmud (Sujan) has been replaced by Habibul Basar (Suman) for the upcoming Zimbabwe Tour. There have been much fuss in the sports arena regarding Mahmud's stripping of captaincy from the test side and his declaration of retirement. But the drama did not end there as he has been requested not to as he will remain...
February 01, 2004
QUOTES OF THE DAY
In olden times, sacrifices were made at the altar, a practice which is still very much practiced. - Helen Rowland 1875-1950, American JournalistSacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.- Henri Frederic Amiel 1821-1881, Swiss Philosopher, Poet, Critic The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say -- or their beliefs -- or sex. - John Osborne 1929-, British Playwright...
SACRIFICE OR WASTE?
Tomorrow is Eid-ul-Azha, one of the two biggest religious festivals of Muslims. For Muslims all over the world, the celebration is mainly slaughtering sacrificial animals on this day after the Eid Prayer. Some 3800 years ago, on this day, Prophet Ibrahim (A) offered to sacrifice his beloved son Prophet Ismail for the satisfaction of Almighty Allah. But in spite of his willingness, Ismail was spared by Allah and a ram was sacrificed instead. That's how the ritual began.The sacrifice of animals is symbolic. Hazrat Ibrahim's sacrifice conveys something...
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