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Thursday, November 15, 2007

[vinnomot] Please help people of Bangladesh

Mega storm SIDR brought death of hundreds may be thousands of people, loss of crops and property. Challenged to disabled crippled our life but we have to move forward and put our effort to challenge and start fresh.
 
Our people have won this war many times before and I am sure our people will show their courage one more time.
 
All of us should make every effort to help our people in everyway we can. Humanity cries, human being need to come forward and meet the challenge.
 
Our gratitude to almighty creator for his mercy on our people and thanks to Dr. Fakhruddin’s governments for their timely effort to handle calamity of mega cyclone SIDR.
 
So far, the news coming out from far interior, the loss of life was much less considering the mega storm our people faced in last 24 hours. However, the loss of property and crops are in high magnitude. We faced SIDR now we have to face the aftermath of this mega cyclone and bring the hope and prosperity back again into our peoples life.
 
May our creator bless them with mercy those who returned to their creator and award them Jannah. May Allah the almighty give patience and peace to their bereaved family.
 
Sincerely
Shamim Chowdhury


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[ALOCHONA] Please help people of Bangladesh

Mega storm SIDR brought death of hundreds may be thousands of people, loss of crops and property. Challenged to disabled crippled our life but we have to move forward and put our effort to challenge and start fresh.
 
Our people have won this war many times before and I am sure our people will show their courage one more time.
 
All of us should make every effort to help our people in everyway we can. Humanity cries, human being need to come forward and meet the challenge.
 
Our gratitude to almighty creator for his mercy on our people and thanks to Dr. Fakhruddin’s governments for their timely effort to handle calamity of mega cyclone SIDR.
 
So far, the news coming out from far interior, the loss of life was much less considering the mega storm our people faced in last 24 hours. However, the loss of property and crops are in high magnitude. We faced SIDR now we have to face the aftermath of this mega cyclone and bring the hope and prosperity back again into our peoples life.
 
May our creator bless them with mercy those who returned to their creator and award them Jannah. May Allah the almighty give patience and peace to their bereaved family.
 
Sincerely
Shamim Chowdhury


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[vinnomot] Vinnomot released special issue on Nandigram violece that rocked India

 
 Issue contains lot of valuable interview and documentary--it is a open issue--we will keep on adding your feedback.
 
We have provided both side of the story---
 
Biplab
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[vinnomot] Please help people of Bangladesh

Our gratitude to almighty creator for his mercy on our people and thanks Dr. Fakhruddin’s governments for their timely effort to handle calamity of mega cyclone SIDR.
 
So far, the news coming out from far interior, the loss of life was minimum considering the mega storm our people faced in last 24 hours.
 
May Allah bless them with mercy those who returned to their creator and award them Jannah. May Allah the almighty give patience and peace to their bereaved family.
 
All of us should make every effort to help our people in everyway we can. Humanity cries, human being need to come forward and meet the challenge.
 
Sincerely
Shamim Chowdhury


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[vinnomot] Re: [khabor.com] Read this news in Saudi Arabia to understand what Sharia law will do to a woman

Be it in India, Bangladesh, Saudia Arab or else where; the incident such as one happened in KSA is a gross violations of human rights and even minimum level of civility. I don't understand why Mr Ahmed is so keen on using political rhetoric before condemning such a barbaric act.
 
Let sense prevail everywhere in everyone. 
 
Regards,
J.A.

Anis Ahmed <anis01@earthlink.net> wrote:

Dear All:
 
Definitely human rights are violated in Saudi Arabia, but overall crimes including murders, homicides, rapes, thefts, robberies, etc. are far less than any other developed nations or even insignificant than India today. Ordinary people’s life in Saudi Arabia is safer than the citizens of any other democratic and rich countries. Although many sentences were increased in reviews or in appeals from trial judgments in western and democratic countries in recent years, but as being sensible human persons we should not encourage the increase of punishments or sentences in any country (including in Saudi Arabia) if the “minimum sentence” can meet the purposes of “justices”.
 
Perhaps, Dr. Biplop Pal prefers to support “un-natural” activities within his human society (such as, “Man marries dog in India” with “traditional Hindu ceremony”) than “shocking” sentences of other nation(s) even if those sentences are applied for “justice” and deter crimes. Also, Dr. Pal has failed to notice that the “State of Bihar” in India is known as one of the most horrifying, lawless and notorious territory in this world now. He is not shocked at all for the crimes that are causing murders, homicides, robberies, extortions, rapes, theft in every single minute in Bihar, India today.
Thanks,
 
Anis Ahmed
North Potomac, Maryland
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Biplab Pal
Sent: Nov 15, 2007 1:42 PM
To: vinnomot@yahoogroups.com, banglarnari@yahoogroups.com, khabor@yahoogroups.com
Cc: editor@satrong.org, editor@shodalap.com, Jahed Ahmed , charbak_bd@yahoo.com
Subject: [khabor.com] Read this news in Saudi Arabia to understand what Sharia law will do to a woman

[Every human being must protest against such verdict--Saudi Arab is responsible for spreading such religious extremism and atrocity against woman-are they human being?-Biplab]


Saudi Arabia: Gang-rape victim gets 200 lashes


November 15, 2007 23:37 IST
Last Updated: November 15, 2007 23:40 IST









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In a shocking verdict, a Saudi Court has ordered a gang rape victim to undergo 200 lashes and six months in prison for "being in the car of an unrelated male" when the crime was committed.
The 19-year-old victim was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes by judges from the Qatif General Court, but the case was referred back to an Appeals Court after her lawyer had urged a harsher punishment for assaulters, the Arab News reported.
In its verdict, the court, which punished the victim for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape", also suspended her lawyer.
The seven rapists, whose previous sentences ranged from 10 months to five years in prison, also had their prison terms increased to between two and nine years. The verdict came in as a shock to everybody.
A source at the Qatif General Court said the judges had informed the rape victim that the reason behind doubling her punishment was "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media", the report added.
Saudi Arabia enforces a strict Islamic doctrine known as Wahhabism and forbids unrelated men and women from associating with each other, bans women from driving and forces them to cover head-to-toe in public.



"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do
everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
-Edward Everett Hale
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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[vinnomot] Re: [khabor.com] Awami leauge must be banned to save the nation

Ramzan,

 

I think, doing "L....." work for many years in Kuwait, you have become m….!

 

So, go to Hemayetpur, Pabna (mental Hospital)!

 

This is the most appropriate place for the people like you.

 

 

 

 

 


 
On 11/16/07, mohiuddin@netzero.net < mohiuddin@netzero.net> wrote:



---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Awami league in cool mind, have killed 48 Jamath- e- Islami workers including 6 in paltan, during the last day of power handing over ceremony by BNP-Jamath led government in October, 2006.

Awami league have troche fired the buses packed with passengers and have burned 11 passengers alive.

All above serious crime against humanity in Bangladesh history have done by the Awami league under direct instruction of Sheikh Hasina, so she must face the legal action including her supporter those who justify this killing.

So Awami league must be banned for its destructive political activities.

Mohammed Ramjan Ali Bhuiyan

Kuwait



Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last. Get it now!




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[ALOCHONA] Bangladesh Govt. needs to refix the price of medicines to avert the medicines crises in Bangladesh

To CTG,
 
Bangladesh Govt might need to remove the fixed prices or re-fix the price for the few of the medicines as the cost of imported raw materials has been risen.  If we keep the old fixed price in place,  pharmaceuticals manufacturers might stop the production which will create a shortage of medicines in the markets.  97% of local medicines are manufactured by the Bangladesh Pharmaceutical companies and CTG needs to think twice to avert the unwanted situation in Bangladesh.
 
I hope that CTG and Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Companies will take the right and helpful decision regarding this issue.
 
Best wishes,
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu), USA 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
High Raw Material Prices
Demand re-fixation of controlled drug prices

Soaring prices of medicine raw materials in the international market now take toll on the local drugs production, according to industry insiders.

A leading medicine manufacturer has already suspended production of Vitamin C, while other pharmaceutical companies are faced with difficulties in making some very commonly used drugs.

Vitamin C, a very commonly used medicine, is now hardly found in the market as the surge in prices of the ingredients have forced the local major manufacturer of the item to halt its production.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the market leader in producing Vitamin C under the brand name of Cvit, has stopped importing of raw materials for the last one and a half months.

Presently, the price of per kilogram raw material for Vitamin C in the international markets is around $ 16, which was $9 three to four months ago.

"If we manufacture Vitamin C with the existing raw material prices, we have to count at least Tk 35 to Tk 40 as loss per packet, which contains 200 pieces of tablets," said Muhammadul Haque, marketing director of Square Pharmaceuticals, talking to The Daily Star.

The manufacturers cannot increase the price of Vitamin C, as it belongs to the list of controlled drugs, prices of which are fixed by the government.

Meanwhile, the top drug manufacturers are also facing serious difficulties in producing Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid, as the raw materials for these items have increased two to threefold in the international market.

A recent survey of some retail shops in the city reveals selling of such drugs at exorbitant prices.

When asked, the retailers have shifted the blame on short supply from the wholesalers.

However, the manufacturers said the supply position is good.

Bangladesh Oushad Shilpa Samity President Shafiuzzaman said, "Selling of any essential medicine at a price higher than the rate fixed by the government is a punishable offense and punitive measures must be taken against the persons responsible for manipulation in medicine prices."

He said production of the medicines have not yet halted on a drastic rise in prices of raw materials of those items in the international market.

He, however, admitted to the suspension of production of Vitamin C.

The chief of the apex trade body for the medicine manufacturers demanded of the government to immediately re-fix the prices of at least seven or eight items including Vitamin C, Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid.

Industry sources opined that drug pricing review should be a yearly routine work and it should be done on the basis of inflation and change in exchange rate. They also pointed to the fact that the price of the controlled category drugs has not been reviewed since 1994.

Prices of pharmaceuticals are hardly controlled anywhere in the world except Bangladesh and India, they claimed.

Because of inflation, devaluation of taka and overall cost escalation, the prices of almost all medicines have increased manifold in the country.

Any irrational control of prices would not only cause the manufacturers a massive loss but also to the government, and more importantly, to the poor patients, the sources said.
__._,_.___

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[vinnomot] Bangladesh Govt. needs to refix the price of medicines to avert the medicines crises in Bangladesh

To CTG,
 
Bangladesh Govt might need to remove the fixed prices or re-fix the price for the few of the medicines as the cost of imported raw materials has been risen.  If we keep the old fixed price in place,  pharmaceuticals manufacturers might stop the production which will create a shortage of medicines in the markets.  97% of local medicines are manufactured by the Bangladesh Pharmaceutical companies and CTG needs to think twice to avert the unwanted situation in Bangladesh.
 
I hope that CTG and Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Companies will take the right and helpful decision regarding this issue.
 
Best wishes,
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu), USA 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
High Raw Material Prices
Demand re-fixation of controlled drug prices

Soaring prices of medicine raw materials in the international market now take toll on the local drugs production, according to industry insiders.

A leading medicine manufacturer has already suspended production of Vitamin C, while other pharmaceutical companies are faced with difficulties in making some very commonly used drugs.

Vitamin C, a very commonly used medicine, is now hardly found in the market as the surge in prices of the ingredients have forced the local major manufacturer of the item to halt its production.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the market leader in producing Vitamin C under the brand name of Cvit, has stopped importing of raw materials for the last one and a half months.

Presently, the price of per kilogram raw material for Vitamin C in the international markets is around $ 16, which was $9 three to four months ago.

"If we manufacture Vitamin C with the existing raw material prices, we have to count at least Tk 35 to Tk 40 as loss per packet, which contains 200 pieces of tablets," said Muhammadul Haque, marketing director of Square Pharmaceuticals, talking to The Daily Star.

The manufacturers cannot increase the price of Vitamin C, as it belongs to the list of controlled drugs, prices of which are fixed by the government.

Meanwhile, the top drug manufacturers are also facing serious difficulties in producing Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid, as the raw materials for these items have increased two to threefold in the international market.

A recent survey of some retail shops in the city reveals selling of such drugs at exorbitant prices.

When asked, the retailers have shifted the blame on short supply from the wholesalers.

However, the manufacturers said the supply position is good.

Bangladesh Oushad Shilpa Samity President Shafiuzzaman said, "Selling of any essential medicine at a price higher than the rate fixed by the government is a punishable offense and punitive measures must be taken against the persons responsible for manipulation in medicine prices."

He said production of the medicines have not yet halted on a drastic rise in prices of raw materials of those items in the international market.

He, however, admitted to the suspension of production of Vitamin C.

The chief of the apex trade body for the medicine manufacturers demanded of the government to immediately re-fix the prices of at least seven or eight items including Vitamin C, Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid.

Industry sources opined that drug pricing review should be a yearly routine work and it should be done on the basis of inflation and change in exchange rate. They also pointed to the fact that the price of the controlled category drugs has not been reviewed since 1994.

Prices of pharmaceuticals are hardly controlled anywhere in the world except Bangladesh and India, they claimed.

Because of inflation, devaluation of taka and overall cost escalation, the prices of almost all medicines have increased manifold in the country.

Any irrational control of prices would not only cause the manufacturers a massive loss but also to the government, and more importantly, to the poor patients, the sources said.
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[ALOCHONA] Chief adviser wrongly reads ground realities

 
We are extremely disappointed with the latest comment of the chief adviser to the military-driven interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, that he feels the common people are not facing any problems as a result of the continuation of the current state of emergency. It is absolutely unacceptable that a head of government could even suggest that the continuation of a state of emergency – and thereby the continuation of the automatic suspension of people's fundamental rights – does not cause problems for the 'common people.' Such a comment proves once again that this government, like all unelected and apolitical regimes, is neither aware of the realities on the ground nor has the necessary contact with the general masses.
   We have tried to impress upon the government time and again that the suspension of the people's fundamental rights runs counter to its stated aims of positively transforming the nature of politics and strengthening democracy. Democracy requires the perpetual political participation of the people, within certain legal boundaries of course, for them to be able to demand and fight for their rights and aspirations. Suspending the people's right to think, speak and express freely or their right to assemble and protest is, therefore, extremely problematic, regardless of what the chief adviser might have us believe.
   The continuation of a state of emergency is, however, conducive to the spread of fear in society, which we feel this government has managed to do rather successfully. Even though maintaining law and order and ensuring stability is the responsibility of any government, the current government, through the adoption of the draconian emergency power rules that have made usually bailable cases non-bailable, seems to have attempted to frighten the public into compliance. Such is the pervasive sense of fear that the government's unsolicited intervention in politics, its failure to rein in the prices of essential items or its inability to sort out the fertiliser crisis, for example, has gone largely un-protested by the people. It is also not surprising that the economy is suffering during this emergency period with investment levels dwindling and inflation going through the roof. We have pointed out countless times before that emergency discourages investment, as it indicates to potential investors locally and overseas that an abnormal and unstable situation is prevailing in the country. The lack of investment today can only mean that fewer jobs will be created in the future, which will affect the common people that the chief adviser has referred to.

   While we can go on and on about the negative impacts of emergency on society – economic, political and cultural – we cannot find any good reason for persisting with such an arrangement any longer. If a state of emergency was indeed necessary in January to avoid a bloody confrontation between the two warring political alliances and to bring back political stability, it has been achieved long ago. It is high time that the government lifted emergency and returned to the people their democratic and political rights so that the country can move forward in its struggle to bring qualitative change in the nature of politics and to give democracy proper footing. If the military-driven government and its chief adviser really believe emergency rule does not cause problems for common people and cannot appreciate the need for the immediate lifting of the state of emergency, we, unfortunately, cannot but feel that our democracy is no longer safe in their hands.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sobhan Allah-  Only Allah flawless 
           Alhamdulillah - All praise to be of Allah 
                   Allah hu Akbar - Allah, the Greatest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Would Be Mahathir of BD
------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this CTG is better than Ershad  in case of political party reform?????????????????


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[vinnomot] Chief adviser wrongly reads ground realities

 
We are extremely disappointed with the latest comment of the chief adviser to the military-driven interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, that he feels the common people are not facing any problems as a result of the continuation of the current state of emergency. It is absolutely unacceptable that a head of government could even suggest that the continuation of a state of emergency – and thereby the continuation of the automatic suspension of people's fundamental rights – does not cause problems for the 'common people.' Such a comment proves once again that this government, like all unelected and apolitical regimes, is neither aware of the realities on the ground nor has the necessary contact with the general masses.
   We have tried to impress upon the government time and again that the suspension of the people's fundamental rights runs counter to its stated aims of positively transforming the nature of politics and strengthening democracy. Democracy requires the perpetual political participation of the people, within certain legal boundaries of course, for them to be able to demand and fight for their rights and aspirations. Suspending the people's right to think, speak and express freely or their right to assemble and protest is, therefore, extremely problematic, regardless of what the chief adviser might have us believe.
   The continuation of a state of emergency is, however, conducive to the spread of fear in society, which we feel this government has managed to do rather successfully. Even though maintaining law and order and ensuring stability is the responsibility of any government, the current government, through the adoption of the draconian emergency power rules that have made usually bailable cases non-bailable, seems to have attempted to frighten the public into compliance. Such is the pervasive sense of fear that the government's unsolicited intervention in politics, its failure to rein in the prices of essential items or its inability to sort out the fertiliser crisis, for example, has gone largely un-protested by the people. It is also not surprising that the economy is suffering during this emergency period with investment levels dwindling and inflation going through the roof. We have pointed out countless times before that emergency discourages investment, as it indicates to potential investors locally and overseas that an abnormal and unstable situation is prevailing in the country. The lack of investment today can only mean that fewer jobs will be created in the future, which will affect the common people that the chief adviser has referred to.

   While we can go on and on about the negative impacts of emergency on society – economic, political and cultural – we cannot find any good reason for persisting with such an arrangement any longer. If a state of emergency was indeed necessary in January to avoid a bloody confrontation between the two warring political alliances and to bring back political stability, it has been achieved long ago. It is high time that the government lifted emergency and returned to the people their democratic and political rights so that the country can move forward in its struggle to bring qualitative change in the nature of politics and to give democracy proper footing. If the military-driven government and its chief adviser really believe emergency rule does not cause problems for common people and cannot appreciate the need for the immediate lifting of the state of emergency, we, unfortunately, cannot but feel that our democracy is no longer safe in their hands.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sobhan Allah-  Only Allah flawless 
           Alhamdulillah - All praise to be of Allah 
                   Allah hu Akbar - Allah, the Greatest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Would Be Mahathir of BD
------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this CTG is better than Ershad  in case of political party reform?????????????????


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[vinnomot] Bangladesh Govt. needs to refix the price of medicines to avert the medicines crises in Bangladesh

To CTG,
 
Bangladesh Govt might need to remove the fixed prices or re-fix the price for the few of the medicines as the cost of imported raw materials has been risen.  If we keep the old fixed price in place,  pharmaceuticals manufacturers might stop the production which will create a shortage of medicines in the markets.  97% of local medicines are manufactured by the Bangladesh Pharmaceutical companies and CTG needs to think twice to avert the unwanted situation in Bangladesh.
 
I hope that CTG and Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Companies will take the right and helpful decision regarding this issue.
 
Best wishes,
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu), USA 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
High Raw Material Prices
Demand re-fixation of controlled drug prices

Soaring prices of medicine raw materials in the international market now take toll on the local drugs production, according to industry insiders.

A leading medicine manufacturer has already suspended production of Vitamin C, while other pharmaceutical companies are faced with difficulties in making some very commonly used drugs.

Vitamin C, a very commonly used medicine, is now hardly found in the market as the surge in prices of the ingredients have forced the local major manufacturer of the item to halt its production.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the market leader in producing Vitamin C under the brand name of Cvit, has stopped importing of raw materials for the last one and a half months.

Presently, the price of per kilogram raw material for Vitamin C in the international markets is around $ 16, which was $9 three to four months ago.

"If we manufacture Vitamin C with the existing raw material prices, we have to count at least Tk 35 to Tk 40 as loss per packet, which contains 200 pieces of tablets," said Muhammadul Haque, marketing director of Square Pharmaceuticals, talking to The Daily Star.

The manufacturers cannot increase the price of Vitamin C, as it belongs to the list of controlled drugs, prices of which are fixed by the government.

Meanwhile, the top drug manufacturers are also facing serious difficulties in producing Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid, as the raw materials for these items have increased two to threefold in the international market.

A recent survey of some retail shops in the city reveals selling of such drugs at exorbitant prices.

When asked, the retailers have shifted the blame on short supply from the wholesalers.

However, the manufacturers said the supply position is good.

Bangladesh Oushad Shilpa Samity President Shafiuzzaman said, "Selling of any essential medicine at a price higher than the rate fixed by the government is a punishable offense and punitive measures must be taken against the persons responsible for manipulation in medicine prices."

He said production of the medicines have not yet halted on a drastic rise in prices of raw materials of those items in the international market.

He, however, admitted to the suspension of production of Vitamin C.

The chief of the apex trade body for the medicine manufacturers demanded of the government to immediately re-fix the prices of at least seven or eight items including Vitamin C, Paracetamol BP, Folic Acid, Amoxicilin and Entacid.

Industry sources opined that drug pricing review should be a yearly routine work and it should be done on the basis of inflation and change in exchange rate. They also pointed to the fact that the price of the controlled category drugs has not been reviewed since 1994.

Prices of pharmaceuticals are hardly controlled anywhere in the world except Bangladesh and India, they claimed.

Because of inflation, devaluation of taka and overall cost escalation, the prices of almost all medicines have increased manifold in the country.

Any irrational control of prices would not only cause the manufacturers a massive loss but also to the government, and more importantly, to the poor patients, the sources said.
__._,_.___

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[ALOCHONA] The Bengal Gaze - Expatriates in Dhaka Living in a Po-Co World

 

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/columns/article/50845/living-in-a-po-co-world

Expatriates in Dhaka

The Bengal Gaze: Living in a Po-Co World

[13 November 2007]

Kathryn Hummel.

 

Expats in post-colonial Dhaka have their hearts in the right places, if their generosity at fund-raising events is anything to go by, although the end result is haphazard, like a game of 'Pin the Conscience on the Public Servant' that has been played their tipsy spouses.by Kathryn Hummel.

 

A native of Adelaide, South Australia and a self-described hack, Kathryn Hummel's fiction and non-fiction has previously appeared in publications as diverse as Bread and Wine (advocating the ordination of women to the priesthood), Meanjin (one of Australia's top literary journals), and the Spiny Babbler Anthology (available out of Kathmandu).

 

It would be nice to think of a region I'll call 'expatriate Dhaka' as unified by an endless circle of popcorn. That's right, popcorn.  A bideshi (foreigner) from the south of the city stuck in a traffic jam buys a bag of popcorn from a child wallah, then gives it to another child begging for food in the north. I would like automatically to say that the reverse always happens, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

Most of those living in the north of the city, in Gulshan, Banani or Baridhara, seem reluctant to stray from their enclave. Not only do the non-migratory habits of these stagnant northerners put the kybosh on the harmonious image of hundreds of packets of popcorn changing hands across Dhaka's streets, they represent the regressive dangers of living in a post-colonial world. The alien corn should not expect the field it sprouts in to adapt to its growth, but the bad, mad-dogs-and-Englishmen seed is never buried far beneath the expatriate community, and in Dhaka, the expatriate community is thickest in the north.

 

The north and south of expat Dhaka are defined first by facility, then personality. The north is known for its superior ice-cream parlours and restaurants that serve edible non-Bangla cuisine. It is a neighbourhood full of embassies and high commissions and the requisite appendages, like expatriate clubs that mix a south Asian version of the Cosmopolitan and throw colour-coded parties to add vibrancy to the otherwise indistinguishable weeks.

 

Because of its high density expatriate population, the north has schools that seem to be transplanted from American teen flicks and grog shops that need passports and passbooks to access. There are also a smattering of international fast food restaurants and brand stores replete with assistants who speak charmingly accented English, and autodidactic rickshawallahs who articulate ditto while charging all bideshi the same inflated rate.

 

A bucolic element to the luxury flats is provided by the homeless who, apart from edging the man-made lakes with their picturesque tin shacks, rear goats, cows and children that roam the streets unregistered. Apart from the bag snatchers who target bideshi when they're at their most vulnerable (club-hopping under the influence), there is an air of ease and privilege in the north, mingling with the pollution and the clamour of the streets. Exclusive ease and privilege, that is, belonging exclusively to the bideshi and wealthy deshi (locals) who have made the north their own by super-imposing the West.

 

I've visited the north of Dhaka often enough to appreciate its good points. I once spent a weekend house-sitting in a well-appointed flat in Gulshan 2, with a pet dog, solid furniture, air conditioning, hot water, and countless vine-twined balconies with views of a quiet lake. As proof that true friendship cares naught for geography, several of my friends live right in the heartland of the north, so many pleasant memories of them have Gulshan or Banani as a backdrop. In northern situ is also one particular hotel I call my 'Tiffany's' because its quiet grandeur and restraint dispels for a time the rawness of the world outside, and the tofu salad it serves up for lunch has never caused internal horrors, either. Yet although a retreat is often welcome, I would not like to live my life in Tiffany's.

 

The south of Dhaka, an aristocratic area back in the day, is composed of Mohammadpur, Lalmatia and Dhanmondi and the surrounding tangle of university grounds and old city. Functional, featureless apartment buildings still find themselves neighbours to once-white mansions decaying behind overgrown gardens. The south is known for its museums and art galleries that swiftly turn out local exhibitions, events that always find a new aspect of the life and work of Tagore to focus on, and its students, who are found everywhere but are in larger numbers around Dhanmondi lake and, surprisingly, on campus. The south is home to Dhaka's gaol where prisoners languish in Dickensian conditions, to a small but steady cluster of junkies, to random knife-wielders and one elusive gentleman who amuses himself in the early morning by terrorising bideshi women with a shiny meat cleaver, and the usual crowd of creepy or cheating wallahs whose dealings poison the name of their nobly toiling bhais (brothers).

 

For those who go beyond facility and even personality, there is an undercurrent of competition between the north and south of Dhaka (as for the east and west, I have no idea). In epic tradition, such rivalry is caused by bad blood, envy, avarice—any of the seven deadly sins you can name, really. In post-colonial (po-co) Dhaka, it's more likely to be the product of idle minds, something else invented to vary the program of chit-chat at the embassy clubs, and nothing to take too seriously.

 

If northerners scoff at the culturally submerged self-consciousness of the south or the iffy nightlife that has made me rename (partly in defence) Dhanmondi 'Dodgemondi' or 'The Dodge', it won't be trumped by what is the most pleasant aspect of living here—we're removed from what my friend Jo calls 'Bideshipur', or at least by contrast. Residents of Mohammadpur live at such a grassroots level and have such a heightened cultural experience as to make us in the Dodge look positively bourgeois and our arses as lily white and pampered as any of those expats in the north.

 

And what expatriates they are, these po-co men and women. In the early 1930s Roald Dahl recognised he was travelling to Africa with a robustly barmy but dying generation of true colonials, and treasured them for their eccentricities and linguistic anomalies. Sometimes I wonder if the zoo isn't the best place for the middle-aged expats I meet in Dhaka, although for slightly different reasons. Most of them act and look quite normal. They do drink gin, but interspersed with beer, and avoid the safari suit and topee in favour of the florid floral shirt. Most of them have their hearts in the right places, if their generosity at fund-raising events is anything to go by, although the end result is somewhat haphazard, like a game of 'Pin the Conscience on the Public Servant', played by their tipsy spouses.

 

The younger po-cos are either confident and goofy and generous, or confident and cool and far from congenial. This junior breed live off fat salaries and tend to deride the earnest lifestyles of others who (like Australian volunteers) don't treat development like any other job and don't live within their means in the flashiest way possible. They strictly confine their social group (unlike Australian volunteers) to those whose confidence they can nourish and feed off. They may denounce the north for its very post-colonial colonialism, but they make their homes there anyway, because that's where the liquor flows freely and where their self-worth can remain unshaken.

 

It's difficult to be a bideshi in Bangladesh and not be conscious of it. Those in the north are more vulnerable to enclave-induced blindness, however, because there are enough Western diversions to help you forget the reality of Dhaka and enough people willing to let you. The common deshi reverence for anything Western can make idols of the younger expats. I saw a group of them after I hadn't been in Bangladesh for a while, and was struck by the resemblance of these young untouchables to the Charlie's Angels. As they strode through the rapidly-parting crowd with sunglasses lowered, a toss to their hair and a shimmer to their white teeth, I could swear I could hear one say, "Look at us. We're young, entitled and beautiful," and even if they weren't they'd still believe it.

 

Older expatriates I know believe that having a local maid or driver, and occasionally asking how they are, keeps them 'in touch' with 'the real people'. Others can't fathom that wireless internet exists in this country, think that any knowledge of Bangladeshi trivia is superfluous, demand that Nando's (famous for peri-peri chicken) open a branch closer to their home, and select their dinner from the same menu at the same embassy club each evening. They inhabit a world where man is still His Excellency and woman is His Excellency's Wife, who seeks the same worthy refuge sought by society ladies for generations: philanthropy, where panels are composed of other (self-described) spouses with names like Winki and who permanently reside in one of Dhaka's four luxury hotels.

 

Post-colonial Dhaka still seems defined by a fragment of the White Man's Burden, a duty which drove white people to virgin lands to show innocent savages where their centuries-old traditions were going wrong. After all, it's still 'us' who are aiding 'them' and there's no escaping that dichotomy in a hurry. Until our friend globalisation develops developing countries into developed ones, or whatever the wicked future has in store, expatriates half- and full-hearted can only attempt retain their balance; realise the value of the culture they live in yet not blindly accept every facet of it. Challenge, improvement, and ultimately development are impossible without understanding.

 

But is there hope for the most po-co, least P.C expat? Generalisations about other people and their lives are never profound and are often cruel. To a rough, smelly, shorn-haired Aussie volunteer who is coming nowhere near to making a difference in the field of sustainable development, however, they are ever so much fun to invent, and like those who characterise the north and south of Dhaka as the duelling houses of Montague and Capulet, we all need our diversions.

 

What a dramatic twist to realise that too much diversion can be unsafe. Living in a po-co world can make you sociable, confident, and generous, but can also leave you susceptible to severe reality shock, ignorance, or, worse still, floating away in your own little bubble, never to be seen again, scattering use, conscience, and character as you go.

 

A native of Adelaide, South Australia and a self-described hack, Kathryn Hummel's fiction and non-fiction has previously appeared in publications as diverse as Bread and Wine (advocating the ordination of women to the priesthood), Meanjin (one of Australia's top literary journals), and the Spiny Babbler Anthology (available out of Kathmandu). Kathryn's previous PopMatters offerings consist of her Travels in Little America columns, written to give outsiders an inside view of Australia; she now writes The Bengal Gaze as an outsider in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the hope of becoming less of one. Kathryn is also the author of a film/gender studies manuscript entitled Deliciously in Between: Gender Transgression and Conservatism in Celluloid Gay Best Friendship. Expressions of interest from curious publishers are always welcome!

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