3rd Bangla blog day

Blogging has revolutionized the life and politics of Bengalis around the globe in general and in Bangladesh in particular. During the last BNP-Jamaat regime when media licenses were handed out to the business elites in power and when militancy started rearing its ugly head, and after 1/11 when the magic phantom of minus 2 formula was being raised on online media, blogging became the only medium of communication amongst global Bangladeshis. When Shaikh Hasina was stopped from coming back to Bangladesh by the military supported 1/11 government, blogs were the ones to revolt against the undemocratic decision.

Since then bloggers have been actively combating information terrorism. This A-team of first-generation blog freedom fighters rejuvenated the spirit of 1971 and demanded war criminals’ trials. Although, the Awami League-led grand alliance is at present trying them but it is the bloggers who are minutely monitoring the proceedings to ensure closure.

Corporate online media are also inspiring young bloggers to develop netizen journalism, because bloggers now have the power to break news. Mainstream TV channels don’t have the kind of outreach which the blog network has. Daily Prothom Alo, bdnews24.com, the editor.net andbanglnews24.com are all flying the kites of citizen journalism with moderated blogs.

Muktomona gave the first invitation to freedom and liberal thoughts in the Bengali blogosphere. Somewhereinblog.net came next, with a bigger platform. Subsequently, the A-team, after facing virtual abuse, created platforms like Sachalayatan, amarblog, nagorikblog and unmochonblog that emerged with the spirit of secular and free thoughts. This very A-team is now fighting a second liberation war against groups of fanatic bloggers who are trying to make our history controversial with their distortion of facts in places like somewherein. The same fanatics have now created sonablog where they continue their support of war criminals and infuse religious intolerance amongst the youth. That’s why muktomona is highly criticized by such Muslim and Hindi bigots whose sole aim is to maintain social & political divisions in order to further their religion trade.

Bangla bloggers also enjoy freedom through venues like facebook: a kind of timeout cigar balcony. By signing Rousseau’s social contract individuals entered the spider net of institutions, giving ivory society the contract to write the history of our world. But blogs and social networking sites are attempts at breaking away from the spider nets; a counter hegemony of Tim Berners-Lee who is the inventor of the World Wide Web. Now, freedom is just clicks away, an emancipated world away from the subjugation of institution. In due time, blogs will become un-moderated. Unless bloggers achieve self censorship and a sense of proportion, corporate and/or voluntary blogs will not allow for un-moderated freedom. The process has, however, started taking baby steps. Gradually, bloggers are reflecting maturity and authenticity in their reports, analysis and socio-cultural discourse. The day when blog journalists will break news and produce exclusive multi-media electronic blogs, we may even not need television anymore.

In Bangladesh everyone wants to flaunt some authority, so has happened in the blogosphere. Somewherein unilaterally decided to hold Bangla Blog Day in the month of December. But as February marks the month of language martyrs with 21st February having earned the glory of being the International Mother Language Day and the prestigious Dhaka Ekushe Book Fair also takes place in this same month, voluntary bloggers have quite logically chosen the 1st of February as their Bangla Blog Day. Amarblog has taken the lead to rejoin the Bangla speaking netizens around the world by offering un-moderated freedom. Luckily enough, amarblog has succeeded in maintaining a secular, artistic and tolerant atmosphere where any Bengali can speak out and speak up. So, join amarblog: let’s write and let’s fly an un-moderated kite.

Kyoto Protocol fails, international convention on climate change got stuck on the table due to lack of consensus among all parties, a legally binding document on such convention failed all the way from Copenhagen to Durban, which reminds us that consensus is hard to make in the present world divided much on economic interest. More and more emerging polluters are joining age-old polluters in terms of carbon emission to raise their economy and to become enlisted as top ranked developed nations. Emitters – colonial, imperial and booming altogether racing against time to make money. The race goes on despite recession, widespread unemployment, occupy Wall Street, smoky china and oil spill all over the coast line. Financial greed is so apparent and unstoppable , thus, it may seem insurmountable to reach consensus on climate treaty; but the climate justice movement has unprecedented momentum due to its very appeal to convince mass people across the glove because the real-time disasters are felt by ordinary people because life and livelihoods of billions of ordinary people is on the edge because ordinary people are the mass citizens elsewhere in the world who are left vulnerable so as abandoned in the face of catastrophe.

Curbing global emission is not achievable at the moment or at near future as promised. Adaptation fund probably would be disappointing for affected nations one way or the other. Fund channeling through multilateral agencies and banks could end up imposing policy conditions, the same old game, or could transform vulnerable people to a more desperate defaulter of loan. Least developed countries had been found deliberately ignorant about local needs and wants, which is a common phenomenon and because of that local communities stay underdeveloped. Faster disbursement of adaptation fund from central government to local community is the hardest hurdle unless there is a political will and until they are enlightened.

As it always happens in the human history, vulnerable communities, the children of men, on the ground along with their women and children are supposed to live in knee-deep water with despair for food and shelter. Climate justice movement accelerating outside the ‘plenary session’ and far away from the convention center, irrespective of the outcome of treaties, ratification status, translation into national legislation and so on, telling us stories of the affected people irrespective of caste, color, religion, race etc. and pursue us to build consensus among the billions of ordinary people to become resilient in the face of climate adversaries. A band of humanitarian activists transferring adaptation knowledge and techniques into communities beside enhancing local and indigenous practices. The show must go on and the ‘humane’ movement gets momentum from and within humanity because it has reason to uphold human dignity because the movement does not want to let you down as ordinary people in the face of climate adversaries.
Photo credit: Deccan Chronicle

We came to know from a report of bdnews24.com that the government has published a special supplement on Bangladesh in the British daily The Times.

It is a very good initiative though it costs a sum of $150,000 or Tk 12.5 million.

Foreign ministry external publicity wing director general Shameem Ahsan emphasizes:

This is part of an ongoing effort for image-building of the nation abroad. The private sector has been highlighted in the supplement. There is an article on the NGO BRAC.

The publication contains interviews of the finance, foreign, industries and tourism ministers and that of the central bank governor.

Here is the soft copy of the Supplement.

76111726-Bangladesh-Accomplishment-Beyond-Expectation-–-The-Times-Supplementary-Online

River Titas, which is the source of livelihood for many people, is now endangered. In Ashuganj town of the Brahmanbaria District of Bangladesh a long diversion road has been hurriedly built through the Titas river and its tributaries and canals obstructing its flow in many parts. Local media reports that it was done to facilitate transhipment of Indian goods on heavy vehicles as the existing roads and bridges are damaged and cannot bear the load of these huge carriers. The netizens are outraged by the developments.

A road through Titas river. Image courtesy Sharat Chowdhury

Here is a picture of the same place taken on 2008.

Mahfuzur Rahman Manik reports [bn]:

সম্প্রতি সামাজিক যোগাযোগের ওয়েবসাইটগুলোয় (ব্লগ, ফেসবুক) একটা ভিডিওর ব্যাপক ছড়াছড়ি। তেমন কিছু নয়, একুশে টিভিতে প্রচারিত সংবাদের ভিডিও। ‘ট্রানজিট’ নিয়ে প্রচারিত তিন পর্বের এক পর্ব। সেখানে উঠে এসেছে আখাউড়া ও ব্রাহ্মণবাড়িয়ার সংযোগস্থলে তিতাস নদী দ্বিখণ্ডিত হওয়ার করুণ কাহিনী। ভারতকে ট্রানজিট সুবিধা দেয়ার নামে তিতাসের মাঝখানে রাস্তা বানিয়ে কীভাবে তাকে মেরে ফেলা হচ্ছে তার প্রমাণ ভিডিওটি। যারা কখনো তিতাস দেখেননি কিংবা নদী বরাবর কীভাবে রাস্তা বানানো হলো তা দেখার কৌতূহল থেকেও অনেক ইন্টারনেট ব্যবহারকারী এতে ঢুঁ মেরেছেন।

Recently the social networking sites (Blog, Facebook) are flooded with a video. Nothing extra-ordinary, but a a news report on Ekushey TV. Its the first episode of the three part fetaure on “transit”. the video is the proof how a road was built dividing Titas river and killing it in the name of providing transit facility. Many internet users are watching this video, especially those who have never seen Titas or those, who are simply interested to see how a road can be built dividing a river.

একুশে টেলিভিশন প্রচারিত সংবাদটি বলছে, তিতাস নদীর ওপর বাঁধ দেয়ায় চারপাশের লাখ লাখ হেক্টর জমিতে ফসল উত্পাদনের ওপর বিশাল প্রভাব পড়ছে। এ নদীর ওপর নির্ভর করে যারা জীবিকা নির্বাহ করেন, তাদের জীবনে এসেছে অনিশ্চয়তা। বিশেষ করে জেলেদের অবস্থা খারাপ। সেখানকার মানুষ ঘরে ফসল তুলতে পারেন না। হাজার হাজার হেক্টর জমি তলিয়ে গেছে পানিতে। পরিবেশ বিপর্যয় তো রয়েছেই।

The Ekushey TV report divulges that the cultivation in the surrounding thousands of hectares of land has already been effected. Those who depends on this river for their livelihood face an uncertain future. Especially the fate of the fishermen are doomed. Thousands of hectares of cultivated fields have been submerged and many crops are damaged. The environmental damage is enormous.

Blogger Kallol Mostafa went to the site and reported [bn]:

ভারতের ত্রিপুরার পালাটানায় ৭২৬ মেগাওয়াট ক্ষমতার একটি বিদ্যুৎ প্রকল্পের প্রয়োজনীয় ভারী যন্ত্রপাতি ৯৬টি ওভার ডাইমেন্সনাল কার্গো’র (ওডিসি) মাধ্যমে পরিবহনের জন্য ৩০ নভেম্বর ২০১০ এ ভারত ও বাংলাদেশের মধ্যে একটি সমঝোতা স্মারক স্বাক্ষরিত হয়। [..] আশুগঞ্জ বন্দর আর আশুগঞ্জ থেকে আখাউড়া সড়ক পথ ওডিসি পরিবহনের অনুপযুক্ত হওয়ায় বন্দর উন্নয়ন, ৪৯ কিমি রাস্তা মেরামত ও ১৮ মিটার পর্যন্ত প্রশস্ত করার জন্য ভারত এককালীন ২৫.৫০ কোটি টাকা প্রদান করবে বলে ঠিক হয়। [..] এই রাস্তায় তিতাস নদী ও বিভিন্ন খালের উপর যেসব ব্রীজ ও কালভার্ট রয়েছে সেগুলো এত ভারী কার্গোর ভার বহনের সক্ষম নয়। তাই রাস্তা মেরামত ও প্রশস্ত করণের পাশাপাশি ভারতের আসাম বেঙ্গল কেরিয়ার বা এবিসি ইন্ডিয়াকে দ্বায়িত্ব দেয়া হলো ব্রীজ ও কালভার্টগুলোর পাশ দিয়ে “বিকল্প রাস্তা” তৈরী করার।

A memorandum of understanding was signed on November 30, 2011 to provide transit facility to 96 over-dimensional cargoes (ODCs) which will carry heavy machinery for a 726 Megawatt power plant in Trpura, India. [..] It was decided that India will pay 255 million Bangladeshi Taka to upgrade 49 kms of road by making them 18 meter wide. However, the bridges and culverts on these roads are not able to carry the heavy loads of these ODCs. So besides up-gradation of the road, the Asam Bengal Carrier (ABC) company was awarded a contract to build alternative roads besides those bridges and culverts.

A makeshift road near the culvert on a canal of Titas river. Image by Niloy Das. Courtesy Dinmojur Blog

The whole article has been shared many times in social networks. Kallol also shares [bn] his frustrations and anger:

দুনিয়ার আর কোন দেশের শাসক শ্রেণী এইভাবে নিজ দেশের নদী-খালের মাঝখান দিয়ে বাধ নির্মাণ করে আরেক দেশের মালামাল পরিবহনের ব্যবস্থা করেছে বলে আমাদের জানা নাই।

I am not aware of any other country who has diverted its rivers and canals with dams and built roads through them to facilitate transit of goods of a neighboring country.

Some bloggers took an initiative to carry out a visit to the site. A Facebook event [bn] was created.

Kowshik provided [bn] the scope of the visit:

আমাদের রাজনীতি নেই, আমরা রাজনীতি বুঝি না – কিন্তু সব গেলো সব গেলো বলে আহাজারি করতে পারি! সেই আহাজারীর মাত্রা আরেকটু বাড়াতে আগামী ৩০শে ডিসেম্বর তিতাসের খণ্ডিত বুকে গিয়ে জানতে চাই সেখানকার মানুষদের কি মতামত!

We have no political intention, we don’t understand politics but we can cry for our loss. To extend that cry to another level we want to go to the divided Titas and ask for local people’s opinions.

Kowshik also shared frequent updates [bn] of the bloggers’ initiatives.

Here is a three part videocast showing interviews of bloggers and locals:

(Part 1: Featuring Ali Asif Galib [bn])

(Part 2: Featuring Sharat Chowdhury [bn])

(Part 3: Featuring Ali Mahmed [bn])

Blogger Sharat Chowdhury shares his experience [bn] of actually being there:

আমরা দেখি নদীর বুক চিড়ে রাস্তা বানানো হয়েছে। ট্রানজিটের রাস্তা। আমাদের নতজানুতার পথ। এই পথ দেখে আমাদের কষ্ট হয়, ঘৃণা হয়, অবিশ্বাস গাঢ় হয় সরকারের বিবেচনা বোধ আর সদিচ্ছার প্রতি।

We see that roads have been built dividing the river. The roads for transit, the road to our submissiveness. Our heart aches seeing this road, we loath. Our mistrust on the government deepens.

Sharat adds:

এই মুহুর্তে প্রতিবাদ প্রতিরোধ ছাড়া আর কোন পথ নেই। ব্লগাররা কাজ করতে পারেন স্থানীয় অপনিয়ন লিডার হিসেবে। কেবল রাজধানী-কেন্দ্রীক আন্দোলনের বদলে আমরা এমনও দেখতে পারি যে ব্রাম্মণবাড়ীয়া, আশুগঞ্জের ব্লগাররা প্রতিবাদ জানিয়েছেন স্থানীয় প্রশাসনকে। অবহিত করেছেন স্থানীয় মানুষদের। সংগঠিত করেছেন। এটা আমাদের করতেই হবে।

Now we have no options except protesting the road constructions. Not only the capital centric protests, we would like to see that the local bloggers are protesting to the local government. We would like to see them organize locals and making them aware. We have to do it.

Also published in Global Voices Online.

Now stop India

The over-enthusiastic body language of our political leaders in front of New Delhi bureaucrats compromises the position of accompanying Bangladeshi diplomats. Let me give an example. When westernized political advisor Gowhar Rizvi makes Indian foreign secretary his ‘buddy’, the South Asian rural bureaucrat of New Delhi questions the point of calling up his Bangladeshi counterpart Mizarul Kayes. Instead, he calls up Gowhar da, and Mizarul remains in the dark about consequent diplomatic proceedings.

Another curious case is that of our Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, who is trying to be a frequent world traveler like Ibn-e-Batuta, and the entire ministry is kept busy typing up her travel itineraries and arranging air tickets. Dipu Moni is intelligent and skilled but she perhaps doesn’t know how to play chess. So, India has assessed Gowhar and Dipu Moni to be same old simple Bengalis, and not as complicated as Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal.

Whenever a non-Bengali Indian encounters a Bangladeshi, they spend the first ten minutes in assessing the education and intellectual level of that person. Indian non-Bengalis also do the same thing with Indian Bengalis, because at the back of its mind New Delhi is aware of the infinitive creativity and soul-bondage between Dhaka- Kolkata Bengalis. So using the Mamata unpredictability card, Delhi south block bureaucrats are actively trying to create chasms between Dhaka and Kolkata.

Indian foreign secretary calls up Pakistani foreign secretary whenever necessary or urgent. The bureaucrats of both these countries have consistently worked towards developing bilateral ties. Hindi and Urdu languages so similar when spoken that senior diplomats start their conversation and negotiation in English but quickly switch over to Hindi and Urdu. Deep inside both India and Pakistan hope for good relations. Also, their nuclear status convinces them to respect each other. Washington, too, wants them to maintain good ties so that it can keep China in stress by using India and use Pakistan to further the peace process with the Taliban. That’s why Bangladesh stands nowhere in Indian foreign ministry’s preference list. There is only USA and Pakistan.

Rural South Asian diplomatic grapevine has it that Delhi bureaucrats make fun of West Bengal just as Islamabad bureaucrats make fun of Baluchistan. But, for an indefinable heart ache, they can’t say much about Bangladesh. In the readymade garments sector Bangladesh has defeated both India and Pakistan, in achieving the United Nation’s millennium development goals Bangladesh is also in a better position than both of them, and is now among the top investment destinations of the world. Bangladesh’s tourism sector is quite unexplored but at least Delhi and Islamabad are well-versed with the best of the sea beaches and mangrove forests offered by Bangladesh. If Dhaka can materialize the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ program, we will also snatch away Indian monopoly in the Information Technology outsourcing sector. Recently, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen praised Bangladesh as a role model on the social index, ahead of India and Pakistan, and since that announcement all’s gone quite on the western front.

Now, Bangladesh career diplomats should be given a free hand to polish their skills. Indian foreign secretary will have to call up Bangladesh foreign secretary and not the foreign advisor. In rural South Asia every individual is genetically wired to be status conscious, so even Hasina should offer only a measured smile to a measured Manmohan Singh in order to tackle Delhi dadagiri. If you look at the photographs of Bangobandhu and Indra Gandhi you will see the required degree of diplomatic smile: friends not masters. This should be a part of our diplomatic training, especially in this rural South Asia where Barack Obama’s de-classed smile is quite useless. In interactions with Delhi the simple Bengali smiles of Sheikh Hasina, Gowhar Rizvi and Dipu Moni have, indeed, cost us a lot.

Having said that, whatever water or trade facilities Bangladesh got from India came via Sheikh Hasina’s smile diplomacy. Khaleda Zia has with a serious face only written four letters to Delhi while her water resource advisor merely follows her around like a funny paper tiger. That means whatever Ganges water we got or the freedom that Bangladeshis living in the Indian corridors recently received are a net result of Sheikh Hasina’s diplomacy. In lieu of that Hasina has offered trans-shipment to India. Khaleda Zia, who is now shedding crocodile tears on the Tipai Mukh dam issue, conveniently forgot to talk about the Tista river water dispute when she visited Delhi as a prime minister. On her way back when journalists asked her about the Tista issue she smiled and said she had forgotten to raise it with her Indian counterpart.

Being trapped in partisan politics we have not been able to utilize our talents in negotiations with India. We have failed to use the diplomatic talent of Debo Priyo Bhattachariya, Shahriar Kabir, Suronjit Sen Gupta and Shafiq Rehman. Gowhar is definitely good as a US lobbyist but his western neo-liberal behavior holds no water in rural Delhi where doctrines of Chanakya and go-getter Koutilya are in vogue. Once during a bilateral meeting, Indian diplomats found themselves stunned by Debo Priyo Bhattacharyya’s arguments. Shahriar Kabir is so familiar with the anti-dam activist leaders of India that he doesn’t need a joint review commission to find out facts about the Tipai dam issue. Suronjit Sen Gupta is himself a Koutilya but with wisdom, and the most complicated intellectual of Bangladesh Shafiq Rehman can be just like a pinch of salt on the face of an Indian leech.

Outwardly Gowhar Rizvi and Dipu Moni can continue with their smile diplomacy but for on- table negotiations with India we must utilize the above mentioned Bengali intellectuals. Bangladesh doesn’t have a nuclear bomb to counteract the demon desires of India, but we do have the strength of intelligence. We once became united against the hegemony of Pakistan, fought and achieved freedom and ensured our right to food. It’s now time to unite again to wrest back our right to water. This is another freedom struggle, not of arms but of unity and intelligence. The hammer of unity amongst 160 million people can demolish Tipai Mukh dam. India will have to understand that it needs the help of Bangladesh to combat separatist movement in its Seven Sister states. And such help cannot be one way. If you give water, we will help you. If not, there’s no transit for you.

Pakistan’s occupying army killed 3 million Bangladeshis during the genocide of 1971. We are now facing another genocide. We cannot afford to lose any time. We must win this water war against India before our death toll reaches the same number. In the black & white photographs of 1971, we see the cruelty of Pakistan army. In the colored photographs of 2011 we see Bangladeshis dying of arsenic poisoning, dead bodies floating in flood-swept marshes, drought-dead peasants, hungry faces of monga, and the dead body of Falani hanging from the barbed wire along the Indian border: all signs of a demon’s thirst for water. India is systematic cleansing out our resources through blatant human rights violations. But we need to remember that we are not as weak or vulnerable as we were in 1971. We must control our political itching and unite against these abuses. Our leaders need to be firm in diplomatic negotiations with New Delhi: that is the great expectation of an ordinary Bangladeshi.

The anti-liberation forces are mushrooming again in Bangladesh

Today we are going to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our victory day. It does not matter how much aspiration, hope, expectation of the citizens of the country has been fulfilled in the last 40 years rather its important how much we are successful in reshaping our beloved nation in our own architectural design.

Did we succeed in the war criminal trial? Spirit of the liberation war flares up in three important dates. 16, 21 and 26! People become more patriotic in these three dates. But we wanted a Bangladesh where every people will bring the spirit our heroic history in their minds.

It is very tough to keep the sovereignty than to achieve it. History may repeat itself as a farce. Duty is ours to bring the actual history in front of the new generation. People should learn about the traitors and the political parties who patronized them after 1971.There is a deep conspiracy in turning Bangladesh into a country of fundamentalism, a country of militants, a country of terrorism and hooliganism.

In Bangladesh,the suppressed people went in favor of Bangladesh Awami League, but Rajakars who lost power and money in our liberation war stood iron steel behind Jamat and then BNP. If we analyze the financial and genealogical history of the people who were involved in BNP, Jamat and other culprit parties who lost power, money and status in 1971 joined the anti-liberation spirit under the banner of BNP.

If we analyze from the grass root level to the top level of BNP leaders we find a deep correlation between their predecessors who used to belong to either the Pakistan Muslim League or Jamat-E-Islami before 1971. They got a very long breath of time to re-connect themselves with their Pakistani mentors in the west for about 25 years when the Pakistani bureaucracy , army, ISI and the Pakistani businessmen and the Pakistani political leaders tried to create an environment which is conducive to Pakistan and neglected our spirit of liberation.

Their money,power, muscle all work together to weaken our education system and to influence a new generation who grew up after 71 and were adults kept on thinking in the line they were taught by the leaders of BNP and Jamat; where Pakistani leaders, businessmen,army and intellectuals remain behind the scene to play this game. Their ultimate target was and is to create Bangladesh psyche in the Pakistani model. So that they can create pressure on India from the east and the west.

Now, a group of the growing children of Bangladesh are made to think that Pakistan was our savior and Bangabandhu was a traitor. They pictured him like this. The picture was well sold through modern marketing technology and was well-eaten to the brim of their stomach. So Pakistan conquered the neurons of the first generation of Bangladesh. Now there is a lot of misunderstanding about the rule and the misrule during 72 to 75, which is a negligible period of time to a nation’s life is being highlighted by the anti-generation factors.Thus it has become super difficult to turn around the neurons of the new generation whose neurons are pro-Pakistani.

The anti-liberation culprits are mushrooming again in Bangladesh. They are planning to turn Bangladesh into another Pakistan. Let’s take the oath to erase them right here right now!

DCC

However, this proposal is being highly refuted by the civil societies and other experts of the country as they think it will create a deep complication. The main opposition party is also showing their apprehension to this issue as they are taking it as a blue print by the ruling party to keep the opposition party away from the scene. As the local government system of Bangladesh is problematic, the local government experts have been critical of the government’s decision as they pointed out that reforming the whole system can deliver here not by splitting the Dhaka City Corporation. Moreover the proposal is not economically viable which has been pointed out by the economists of the country. Conducting any kind of social cost benefit analysis we may get the clear picture that this will hamper the heritage, customs and creeds, cultural, social and political scenario of the city. This division will create a contrast in economic transactions, geographical distinction and many others communal idiosyncrasy.

The present government has taken a devastating decision of dividing the DCC into two. There is a lot of things to think about the city corporation but the government put this into a hap hazardous situation. We can find out our loop holes of the local government administrative system very easily. If we take the experiences of India and her different local government institutions we can simply get some good lessons to ease up our administration. Minimizing the corruption and introducing on-line system will reduce the administrative and compliance cost of the city corporation and will enhance its power to provide civic services to the city dwellers. Taking a sudden decision of splitting it without doing any kind of cost benefit analysis and public pole may make the equation even more complex.

Sharmila Bose: The return of Goebbels

But now, with the Awami League government determined to bring closure to the families affected by the horrific crimes of ’71, war criminals associated with Jamaat have resorted to hiring western lobbyists to fight their case, not in courts, rather by trying to influence globalgame-changers. There is documented evidence of the Jamaat investing huge amounts of money to run concerted campaigns against the trials in Dhaka: the campaign includes co-opting western media through indirect means and hence we see a stream of articles even in respected western newspapers and magazines questioning the neutrality of the trial courts. This is nothing but an attempt to destroy the credibility of both the Awami league government and the tribunal.

Ironically, even a few human right organizations are expressing concern about the fairness of these trials when the war crimes are clearly documented in Jamaat’s own partisan newspapers of 1971.

Not sure of the impact of their media on slaught, western lobbyists also turned to hiring an academician with enough worth (!) to turn the trials into a controversy. In Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, Sarmila Bose has tried to undermine the genocide of 1971. With a sugarcoat of academic research she has distorted the history of the Liberation War of Bangladesh, not realizing that events that took place 40 years ago merely register as having happened yesterday on the timeline of world’s history. Witnesses of that genocide are still alive. Bose’s arguments resound those of Khaleda Zia & her followers who are desperately trying to rewrite the history of ‘71 just to achieve political edge over Awami League.

Almost 34 years after the Liberation War,Ms Bose visited Bangladesh to gather evidence against the genocide and in favour of her argument. She saw what see wanted to see, learnt what she wanted to learn. Bose carries the genetic influence of Netaji Subhash Bose who joined Hitler to fight back the British Raj. I have yet to ascertain who Ms Bose is trying to fight by joining the anti-trial campaign. In 1971, she was only twelve, too young to cash in on the political wisdom which she now propagates. But better late than never, as she has now made her interviews of the 30 Pakistan army officers, involved in the 1971 carnage, as the basis of her book. Those interviews must have been quite something as they were apparently enough to convince Ms Bose that the Liberation War was just a Civil War and that the Biharis were the main victims of Bengali nationalism.

Let’s recap ’71. The Awami League led by Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won the general elections of 1970 and according to the constitution he was supposed to form a government as prime minister. But Zulfikar Ali Bhutto couldn’t accept defeat and was not ready to hand overpower to anyone else. President Yahya Khan sided with Bhutto by delaying the process of power-transfer. Mujib in good faith took part in the negotiation process and continued his non-violent movement for the acceptance of his six-point demand.

During his historical address of March 7,1971, Mujib had urged the Pakistani military junta to show respect to the will of majority voters and requested the people of Bangladesh to get ready for freedom struggle in case the election mandate was violated.

Yahya Khan discontinued the dialogue process with Mujib and left Dhaka on the evening of March 25, 1971. By midnight his army, under the command of General Tikka Khan, launched Bengali genocide. That led Mujib to declare Independence on March 26, 1971, just before his arrest.

Mujib’s followers formed an interim government on April 17 to fight back the occupying forces of Yahya Khan, and soon the freedom struggle turned into War of Independence. The fight between a civilian Bangladesh interim government and the entire army of Pakistan was in no way just a civil war, a reality which Ms Bose has failed to identify.Bangladesh lost almost 3 million people and almost 2 to 4 lakhs of women were brutally raped and tortured by the Pakistan Army and its native collaborators.

Ms Bose has tried to create another controversy by challenging the number of death and rape victims, just like Nazi-sympathetic researchers dispute the number of Jews killed in Holocaust. There is no area of Bangladesh that did not face the brutality of Pakistani Army and its Bangladeshi collaborators. If Ms Bose was sincere she would have stayed in Bangladesh long enough to seek the truth and not just be satisfied with the accounts of the selected few she chose as her research sample.

How could she not realize that Bangladesh itself is a mass graveyard as almost every family lost their beloved ones in 1971? Her field research is heavily biased because the 30 war criminals she interviewed in Pakistan would obviously never confess to their crimes. So instead she has highlighted the killing of pro-Yahia Biharis while overlooking the massacre of Bengali Muslims and Hindus.

Ms Bose has tried to distort history under the disguise of academic neutrality. Her biased research sampling in fact is a beacon of some hidden agenda clearly favouring the war criminals of ‘71.

Lobbyists have organized book readings of Dead Reckoning (The return of Goebbels) at reputed western universities to buy recognition for Ms Bose’s em-bedded version of history. Influential dailies are raving about her book and sugar-daddy columnists are patting her back, conveniently forgetting that this is no longer an era of government controls over media and/or censored journalism. Truth is now just a click away. Ms Bose needs to keep herself more updated in this age of internet, when social media is enough to unleash every truth distorted by interest groups. She should also be ashamed of her colonial hangover and Goebbels syndrome.

The people of Bangladesh have neither forgotten their relatives killed in 1971, nor are they ignorant of the fact that justice has been denied to them for so long because of the machinations of the pro-Jamaat cult. That’s why they voted Awami League into power in 2008; to get justice and closure.

If Ms Bose continues to take her 15 minutes of fame seriously, she might end up making a fool of herself and in the process lose her credibility. She reminds me of a blind woman trying to understand what an elephant looks like….

V for Ivy

After a massive palpitation over the nerve of Bangladeshi people, Dr Selina Hayat Ivy , a Soviet graduate, physician conquered the Throne of Narayanganj City Corporation.

Apprehension, fear, anxiety, game and gamble of ruling party have went into vain when people of Narayanganj selected their leaders for the true development of their city.

From the very beginning this election drew everyone’s attentions as Bangladesh Awamileague supported a person upon whom a bunch of question marks were hanging. The city dwellers were highly convinced to select a person by whom there aspiration and expectation may get a shape. People casted their votes against hooliganism, against extortion and against a deep rooted trepidation. The tussle was won to declare the victory of general voters. The war was won to declare the victory against a basket of nightmares.

The Narayanganj City Corporation election was undoubtedly an acid test for both Election Commission and the government of Bangladesh. If anything off-putting were happened this would worth a lot to pay for the present government. The three major candidates of this election were highly dedicated to come first in this election.

But at the eleventh hour Bangladesh Nationalist party paused election. Thank God that they could understand their short comings on the homework before the vote.

And I would thank to Bangladesh Army to decline the offer to be deployed. CEC in a press conference said openly, “We sent a letter to the army headquarters on October16, asking them to be present during the NCC poll. Till Friday, we received noresponse from the army. (Source The Independent, 29th October)

So the thing is EC wanted to deploy army but army denied. Now the question comes, why? I think Bangladesh Army let this election a test ground to all the institutions and political parties to play as per their calibers. They did not interfere in this election as they want remain far from being blamed in a petite city corporation election.

The most farce in this election was BNP supported candidate Toimur played a blame game against the EC. He continuously blamed the EC as a acquiescent part of the government and the election would be flawed. Being a ceremonial nominated candidate Mr. Toimur should have to be more calculative.

Some news papers are trying to show this election as a twin setback for AL. But my opinion is different and we should be more accurate in analyzing the scenario and the position taken by AL. The support of the ruling party was to balance the imbalance and to survive the party to do something bigger. However, the people won in this election and their hope may get materialized through an extra-ordinary woman. Let’s cheers for Ivy!

Fundamentally anyone would support or sympathize with them. Their anger is towards the architects of the financial meltdown of 2008-Wall Street. These average hard working middle class people were hurt when they saw their livelihoods evaporated and Wall Street bonuses and CEO retirement parachutes getting elevated to newer highs. But people understood, may be the bailouts were necessary. But this movement is purely from the frustration of what has happened since then. The out and out oppose of any tax increase on the rich from the right has angered and hurt many. Seventy five percent people including Republicans believe the rich should pay their fair shares. How you would measure the “fair share” that’s up for debate, but if one side in the discussion is not even willing to talk about it, then it’s pretty obvious to fail. The protestors almost reminded me of the London Student’s movement where students threw eggs on Prince Charles’s car. The issue is again education expense and student loans. I can tell you from personal experience; it almost seems like a curse to graduate from college with student loans. The entire generation would drown in debt before entering the labor market. The incentives of becoming innovator with 100K student loan is lot less now, then becoming a Wall Street executive. Obama hit the point with student loan reforms but that reform is still on paper. As long as there aren’t real reforms in application this sort of protests will continue for a while.

The education and poverty rate in Hispanic and Latino community is far gloomy then the overall picture. With ethnic diversified pocket population increasing day by day-poverty will force more of these children out of school and on the streets. The unemployment rate is 9.1% yet majority of the companies would tell you they can’t find enough skilled workers. The lack of skilled worker is not just because kids are all on Facebook or bored, they just can’t afford to get the help from school. Siemens is now working directly with community colleges to setup vocational programs to train up people. Yet many pundits don’t get the anger of these “average Joes” on Wall Street.

The idea that “it’s hard to live on two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in many part of the country” is also a farce. According to the US Census Bureau the average household income in United States has dropped in last ten years. The official poverty rate is 15.1% in 2010, in number 46.2 million people- largest number in the 52 years of poverty estimate calculations. In times like this whom do you think is finding it harder?

It’s not like they are jealous of the rich, they all want the big mansions and madzaraddi cars. It’s not that. The nurses, firefighters, elementary school teachers, college graduates they are all frustrated because they have lost their voice in this political chaos. They know they were not bound for Beverly Hill or Manhattan lifestyle, that’s why they watch all the reality shows and celebrity gossips. They just want the security to live a life of dignity and the assurance of wellbeing of their children. The president says, “Wall Street has to pay their fair share”, but how? In 2008 people thought the answer to that “how” was by voting for Barack, now I think they are bleeding too fast and words won’t heal.

In some way, they do have resemblance with the Tea Party. Out of the political system they came in large numbers with some good points in the beginning, but lost focus very quickly by galvanizing their movement with party politics agenda. In the beginning Tea Party pointed out that Washington and Wall Street are too intermingled. And then somehow all of that channeled anger and energy went towards Washington and now towards White House.

This “Occupy Wall Street” movement has the potential to hit the right boards only if they can keep focus and rationalize their frustration. For one, it’s not a 1% versus 99% fight. Taxing the top 1% “only” or taxing them heavily is not the solution, but when Warren Buffet points out that his secretary pays more tax then him that don’t make any sense either. This is high time we look at the deficit problem seriously. Like the Tea Party is holding their extreme view of doing anything and everything to make sure of spending cuts, I think it’s time something extreme on the other spectrum will bring some balance to the issue. Again, mixing the movement with Democrat party politics might not be the answer, but at this point they are the only legitimate political voice this movement has.