My 11 point dissent

I returned from Bangladesh last week. I was updating myself with all the messages of the last month. I feel the flurry of emotion regarding Humayun Azad incident.
Friends, are we missing the forest while searching for the tree?
1. The day H Azad was attacked; two of my friends were mugged. Both of them dare not bring their car as they planned to spend the evening with me in boi mela. One of them is still in bed because he was temporarily blinded by rubbing of some chemical in the eye by the muggers. The taxi cab driver teamed up with the muggers, so he didn't want the victim to see the car number plate. Other friend was stopped near Shahbag, robbed on gun point. ___ two separate incidents, same day, involving two of four of us.
2. The infrastructure of this country, including all aspects, moral, legal, law enforcement, cultural--- are in shambles.
3. DU teachers are not taking classes in DU because some one assaulted Azad. They are enjoying all the benefits of DU, including housing, salary, but not doing the job they are supposed to do. At the same time they are not boycotting the classes they take in private universities. Who will be looser at the end? Why punish students for some one else's crime? Why use the students? Why push them to be used as a pawn in the game of power politics?
4. We, the liberals are hell-bent in punishing Jamat/shibir for this crime. Government on the other hand is confident that AL did it. Reminds me of Rashed khan Menon stab incident, same blame game! same CMH!
5. Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
6. We, romantic liberals make the loudest hue and cry for one Humayun Azad, but nobody notices when my whole country is being chopped mercilessly, all over her body, again and again.
7. I saw the same "student power" when police lathi-charged a group DU dorm girls. But alas!! Nobody comes to street when dozens of garment working girls burn alive each year while escaping inferno in their faulty designed factory.
8. Just yesterday I read in prothom_alo, 50 mothers are dying every day, while giving birth. Maternal mortality Rate is the most sensitive indicator of a nations well being. Despite all efforts, Bangladesh is still near the bottom of the list.
9. Our politicians are focused on power clinging or grabbing, liberals are focused on Humayun Azad and poor students are dancing on the streets when they are told to do so.
10. Continent Africa is getting deserted with the curse of this century, the AIDS epidemic. Bangladesh is silently inching closer to that curse. "With the number of injecting drug users (IDUs) more than doubling in 2002, Bangladesh is now just one percent short of becoming a country with HIV epidemic among IDUs,” http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/03/11/d40311060160.htm
11. I believe, not the Humayun Azad mancha, a more important mancha need to be built in DU campus, it could be AIDS mancha, it could me anti-terror/anti-corruption or even an anti-strike mancha.

My exchange with Andrew Miller of Cricinfo

Dear Mr Miller

When you write your roving reports from Dhaka, as a member of the media entourage, you represent your team as well as your nation.
No doubt, as you see it, Bangladesh is a poor dirty corrupt messy third world country.
What else you expect from an impoverished country, when all her wealth had been systematically looted during the two hundred years of British Raj.
However, the British civilization also gave a lot of things to that part of the world, they spread education, they tought humanity, humility, modesty to the ill educated majority of the then India.
Now when you visit Bangladesh, and keep on acting exactly the opposite what your forefathers tought us hundreds of years ago, it is shocking to us.
Things may be bad or dirty in Bangladesh, you don't have to write such stories with such vitreolic hate about those bad things in Bangladesh. You wrote about the fantasy kingdom. Did you have to? A history making test match is going to be started soon between the two countries. Lets make a good media gesture. Let me give you an example, rather than writing about the Fantasy KIngdom, you could write about Curzon Hall, named after the British Lord Curzon. This is a building in Dhaka university. You could write about this campus life, that represents Bangladesh youth who are playing and watching cricket. In your article about the fantasy kingdom, you guessed the hotel owner lied to you when he asserted about the Jaguar dealership. Do you know that just months ago, the BMW dealerships in Bangladesh were all sold out of their stock?
Sincerely,
Rumi Ahmed.



Andrew Miller wrote:

Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 03:11:58 +0100 (BST)
From: Andrew Miller
Subject: Re: Your reporting from Dhaka
To: Rumi

Dear Rumi
Thank you for your email. I'm sorry if you think that all I see in Bangladesh is dirt and squalor. Believe me, that is far from being the case. As many people have acknowledged in their feedback, I have been blown away by the warmth of my reception in this country, and have gone out of my way to put it across. Unfortunately, I am still a journalist, and as such I cannot sugar the pill - the fact remains that Bangladesh is a very poor country. My writings might seem like mockery, but really they are painting a picture for those people who have never been, and never will come, to the country.
Writing about fantasy kingdom was one of those things that happened because I happened to pass it. It was such an unusual place to find that I had to go and see it. I don't regret what I said, but perhaps it was easily misconstrued. I have since been rather more selective in my writings. Last week I went to see the house where Bangabandhu was assassinated, and my article was deemed good enough and sensitive enough for reproduction in a bengali-language newspaper.
As for going to see Lord Curzon's house. Nice idea, but surely that would lay me open to the (unfair) charge that I am only interested in researching my country's colonial past!
All the best
Andrew Miller

Breakaway Hindu Republic of Bangladesh, Beretil Lintner and Gaffer Chowdhury

The Bangladesh Hindu Boudhdho Christian Oikyo Porishad, USA chapter and probably HRCBM ( I am not sure) arranged a seminer today at the Midtwon Grand Ramada Plaza at New York, reports The Daily Ittefaq and daily Janakantha.
Bertil Linter of FEER was the key note speaker, while Columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury was the special guest.
Braving the inclement weather and sub-zero temperature, a significant number of expatriate Bangladeshis gathered outside the Ramada Plaza and protested the seminer as they deem it to be anti-Bangladesh in nature, reports Ittefaq.
As per Janakantha, some supporters of BNP gathered outside and gave extra weight to the seminer which was already overflowing with audience.
Bertil Lintner reportedly stated that nobody protested the content of his article, middle east funded hospitals in Coxs Bazar was making Bangladesh an al quida heaven, Bangladesh was a den of ISI activities and Bangladesh should pay for it and he was everwhelmed by the support/love/respect he recieved from people of Bangladesh as shown by the seminer. He also mentioned that Bangladeshi people are threatening to rape his wife and his daughter over email.
Abdul Gaffer Chowdhury declared that if he was healthier, he wouild have taken arms against this fundamentalist and cruel government.
A cross section of mainstream society attended the meet including a local congresswoman (Who apparently didn't make any speech), a famous poet ( Who protested Gaffar Chowdhury's call to arms), local humanist/secular organizations, local Jewish community leaders etc.
A notable organizer of this meeting was Mr Bidyut Sarker, who is a leading proponent creating a separate Hindu republic breaking a portion of Bangladesh. He raised that issue again in that seminer.
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Some Observations:
1. Bertil Lintner is supposed to be reporter only or a neutral journalist. Why he has to take a side in Bangladesh's foreign policy towards India and Pakistan?
2. Does Gaffer Chowdhury ( With his close relations to AL and Sheikh Hasina) understand the implication of attending such meeting and make such statements? Forget about Bangladesh, won't it make him a liability to Sheikh Hasina also?
3. What is Bertil Lintner upto with this hoopla? Why Bidyut Sarker is being patronized by This Bertil Lintner or Gaffer Chowdhury?
4. Grrand Ball room ar Midtown Ramada Plaza is supposedly an extremely costly venture. Oikyo Porishod and HRCBM has a good flow of fund, it seems.
5. With all the recent media campaign, memo to congress to stop importing Bangladesh garments and recent INS registration requirement for Bangladesh are certainly not positive developements for Bangladesh. In this background, How would this seminer help Bangladesh? Can Gaffer Chowdhury, Bertil Lintner or their sympathysers answer this?

Our Human Rights Activism

We have been reminded zillions of times, how many lives were lost during "operation Clean heart". Thank God, operation clean heart is, at least for this time being, ceased to function. At least there will no more death at the hand of Army. May be there will be deaths again at the hand of street terrorists with the help of police. Anyway, it doesn't matter, as long as they are not done by the army, it's OK.
Saleem Samad hopefully will be released soon. Freedom of speech will again be upheld. He will again be able to continue writing about the grave danger of "Talibanization" and ethnic cleansing in Bangladesh in tehelka dot com. For the sake of a meaningful free Bangladesh, let it be.
Muntassir, Saber and Shahriar all are out of jail finally. It's a victory of people's power, victory of human rights activism, victory of our secular humane power against this beastly fundamentalist Bangladesh government. Let activism enjoy complete freedom. Let Mr. Saber Chowdhury continue lobbying with European Union to pass resolutions condemning Bangladesh, to impose export restrictions on Bangladesh. Let our activism get strong and stronger, let us be united behind Shahriar Kabir to fulfill his declared vendetta to topple this Taliban supporting Government.
Priscilla is finally back to normal life. We are still concerned about the psychological strain Priscilla endured. Let our human rights funds be spend to help her recover from all the mental agony she suffered at the hand of this tyrant.
All god news everywhere!
Let this wave of good news get high and higher. Let this wave drown all the injustices in Bangladesh.
While, we, the triumphant non resident Bangladeshi activists celebrate these victories, hundreds, if not thousands of people die as a result of unbearable cold wave and depravity of winter attire.
We know how many souls perished by operation clean heart. But nobody of us in this cyber world, will be able to count the number of death caused by this combination of cold wave and lack of a blanket. Because nobody of us bothered to discuss this issue on this web. We are busy crying for zaiba Malik, priscilla raj; we are concerned at the conspiracy against the ex cricket board president-- we don't have the time to address this "cold" issue of cold wave deaths!
People are still dying. An eleven year old boy says to a journalist, "I better be dead, than suffer from this cold wave without a warm cloth".
http://www.prothom-alo.net/htmlnews/category.php?CategoryID=3&Date=2003-01-15
They are dying only because they can't afford a warm blanket to cover themselves up at night. They are dying because the winter is unusually harsh this year in Bangladesh. These poor people didn't anticipate this much.
They keep on dying . Nobody sends any " Urgent Action", may be they don't have friends that high up.
"It's not human rights issue" ;
" Cold Wave is from nature, we can't create petition at petition online condemning God",
" We can't deal with vast issue of poverty"----- Shy away all my human rights activist friends.
Temperature drops further down the thermometer. That eleven year old, who told " I better be dead, than suffer from this unbearable cold with out a blanket" -- finally faces his coveted better life. Death saves him away from this unbearable cold.

[A blanket costs only Five Dollars. If you can spare five dollars, one more blanket can be purchased. Your five dollar can save a life! Today's prothom-Alo article by Free lancer Kurratul Ain Tahmina
www.prothom-alo.net/htmlnews/category.php?CategoryID=3&Date=2003-01-15
details some contact addresses through whom you can help.
You can call
ASK 011 880 2 8315851, or other NGOs at
011 880 2 8115798, 011 880 2 9565343, 011880 2 8124092,
011 880 2 8322569, 011 880 18 243451, 011 880 2 9112325, 011 880 2 712 5156,
in Rajshahi 011 880 721 770660 ]

Forty Five Bodies

There are forty five dead bodies.

While we savor our ever intensifying patriotism over our keyboards in the heated (or chilled) environment of our bedroom,those forty-five dead bodies,already began to decompose, await post mortem.

We discuss humanism over the net.On this cyberworld, we confront Hindutva; we discover neo-Indian imperialism over Bangladesh.Those forty-five bodies, with vivid evidence of disease all over,each a text book of malnutrition,keep on rotting at the hot and humid mortuary floor of Gaibandha District Hospital.

We, on the pages of the web,resent US foreign policy,wage war against Islamism, fundamentalism.We discuss faulty global economic policies,we write up lengthy sophisticated articles on the current autocratic andreligio-fundamentalist state of Bangladesh.Those 45 bodies; children; men—young and old;women—mothers, grandmothers and to be moms;lie naked on the floor of the dark and haunted GaibandhaDistrict Hospital morgue.Now more rotten, infested with maggot, insects. Waiting for Post mortem.

We struggle die hard for the causes of rationalism,we are hell-bent to fight any infringement in freedomof speech,we spend hundreds of web hours to ensure press freedom. And the children of those fathers among the forty-five dead, cry day and night, now in hunger, not in grief anymore.

On this net we are ever vigilant against any blasphemy against our sacred independence and we rally to uphold the spirit of our war of independence.The typical North-Bengal village where those forty five came from, gets poor and poorer.

And, Finally Those forty-five rotten bodies get the post-mortem done.

Why?
Cause of death.

Cause of death????????????????????????????????

Cause of death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We needed post mortem to know the cause of death, Huh!

Will it show the real cause of those forty-five deaths?
Will post mortem reveal Poverty, The unforgiving curse?

We keep on humming on this net. From our suburban study-rooms, from our cubicle work stations.We remain the vanguard of everything noble about Bangladesh.

And yet another forty-five, the child, wife, husband of those already dead forty-five , desperate to relieve the hunger, runs into another stampede,the stampede to flee the curse called poverty.

The stampede grows bigger.

Press Freedom; US VS Bangladesh

Let's imagine.Two journalist, one from Bangladesh and the other,suppose, from Pakistan, slips into this country with avisa for visiting a friend or going to school etc.Then they move around this country in search ofcertain exceptions, some injustices. They take thefootage from some vandalized mosque, they interviewthe family member of some people whose members are inINS custody without access to anybody since 9/11 andthey interview people like like Pat Robertson andJerry Fallwell and edit it only containing the veryinflammatory comments against other religion. Theytook the picture of a Sikh in front of a downtownhaunted burnt down house with false bandages on hisarm and other parts of the body.In the meantime Bill O'Riely gets the scoop and letthe whole country know about their activities,different other right wing media gets the news andstart making big hue and cry.And Finally, these two journalists are confronted byINS agents at the US-Canadian border when they triedto leave this country by road with all the material,camera, video etc. What do you think the USauthorities, gripped in this post 9/11 paranoia woulddo? Let them leave uninterrupted, making the govt.vilnerable to right wing media backlash by O'riely etel? Or they would arrest them citing immigrationinfringements initially and later link them withAl-Quida and bring sedition charges against them ?And now think about Bangladesh government, alsogripped with paranoia of western media propagandaafter bad press by Bertill Lintner, Alex Peerry et el.It's the same knee-jerk reflex my friends, samereaction. Be it the icon of civilization, liberty,democracy-The USA or be it Bangladesh.
[ Still we need to protest the arrest of journalistsin Bangladesh, if it happens in US, it doesn't meanits OK to happen in Bangladesh.]